Google: Marketers must be educated about social networks

16th May 2008

The next steps for the development of advertising on social networks should involve educating marketing professionals, Google's co-founder has said.

According to Sergey Brin, users and advertisers need to learn and accept the processes involved with monetising user-generated online communities and forums.

Speaking at a Jerusalem conference to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel this week, Mr Brin acknowledged that the future of social networking marketing was by no means well defined, reports Reuters.

He reportedly said: "Things have been going well this year ... it's hard to predict where social networking will come out."

Mr Brin was dismissive of the notion that the relationship between advertising and social networking could make one single leap forward, maintaining that progression is likely to take time and come in stages.

Technological developments will need to be worked on, as will the appropriate business strategies, he said.

He was speaking after Google was named the top provider of search engine marketing in Britain by Efficient Frontier Europe.