Monetization of social networks

Each founder or owner of a social network sooner or later thinks about what benefits he can derive from its existence.
The benefits can be both direct and indirect. But the topic of direct benefit is interesting in itself - both to those who already have and to those who only create, and to those who are still just thinking. And even just participants.

In this article I want to describe the possibilities of monetization of various social networks known to me.
So, the main opportunities for monetization of a social network are:
1. Advertising
2. Paid services
3. Statistical information.

Let's take a closer look at each item.

Advertising.
Most of the sites on the network under advertising mean mostly display advertising - banners and notes in the news. But a social network is different from other sites in that it can classify its audience.
Recently, targeted advertising is gaining momentum. This is an advertisement aimed only at the target audience you need.
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Targeting is usually done
• based on the user's information about himself
• context sensitive
• taking into account geography.

Custom targeting.
Whatever your network (under development or already a popular portal), you can always ask yourself the question: what information, taking into account the subject matter of the portal, could network users leave about? And how exactly this information allows to classify them according to their needs?
Most often, user targeting is used in social networks, where one of the main goals of communications is the participant’s self-presentation (for example, dating sites, Odnoklassniki, Vkontakte, etc.).

Custom targeting is usually based on information that:
• The user left himself
• Which collected on the basis of his behavior on the site.

Contextual targeting.
Here, the target audience is selected depending on the context of its actions. Usually these are sections with various information that allow you to track exactly what interests the user at the moment.

You can also mention geographic targeting , but it is usually used in conjunction with contextual or custom one.

Paid services.
By studying the nature of the user's needs, which he satisfies in this social network, you can identify those for whom he is willing to pay.
I divided the needs into those that serve:
• for entertainment (eg compliments)
• for the organization of any activity (for example, additional search capabilities, access to information, communication with customers)
• to resolve presentation issues (for example, a business card site)
I note that in our realities, people are the easiest to part with money if it satisfies their business interest, and entertainment is still at the end of the list of priorities.

Statistical information.
Developed social network is a very valuable source of statistical information. But even if you are still at the beginning of your development, it makes sense to think about what statistical information may be of interest to various organizations. Here the sequence of actions is the same as when targeting advertising. The only difference is that you do not collect information in order to offer people something, but for various other purposes - research, etc.

Finally, my recommendation for analysts is that you don’t be in a hurry to create complex “tools” for statistics or advertising, just lay down the possibility of collecting such information and think about how you can attract potential users.

Sincerely, Bashinskaya Anna.