This is an interesting view of the Facebook/Microsoft partnership and what might be announced on November 5th. While Microsoft partnership in Facebook gives MS a giant step forward in social networking, it also gives Facebook access to Microsoft’s ad network.

Only a week to wait!

(Via Mashable.)

I’m excited about all the new social networking ad network possibilities, and this article talks about a couple of the initial candidates. I was especially excited to see Videoegg – earlier this year I worked with someone from the company on a local political campaign – and was really impressed during our conversations and observations about the space.

I’m meeting with them early this week.

(Via AdWeek.)

Great story in the Internation Herald about the advertising challenges in the Social space (ie. What happened in the UK with Vodafone, Virgin Media, First Direct and others temporarily leaving Facebook).

I think these challenges are good, it’s like beta-testing for ad networks. This new culture is rich and growing. It’s going to take time to see what works, who gets control over ads and how new networks will be implemented. Really exciting.

(Via Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog.)

This came to me from my Twitter link to Scoble’s Link Blog. I’ve been following the Jason Calacanis posts (and he actually “friended” me on Facebook today – after I first “friended” him. It gets confusing.). I can understand how the “A-List” bloggers MUST get sick and tired of all the developers pinging them for facetime on their applications/services – there must be hundreds per day, most worth little time, looking for the one who might start the gold rush.

“For those who follow popular tech bloggers (and I expect most, if not all of you do, if you’re reading this blog), there have been two interesting posts within the last 48 hours few days or so.

One involves Jason Calacanis who has decided to declare Facebook Bankruptcy over how many people are pinging him via Facebook Apps, wherein he’s basically thrown up his hands and has given up. (Boo hoo, I’m too popular). The other involves Mike Arrington’s post over at TechCrunch where he details how there is a burgeoning business in trying to monetize Facebook applications — most noticeably (for me) through selling ad space *on* Facebook applications.”

(Via Scoble’s Link Blogand DeepJiveInterests).

What companies and agencies need to realize is that they need to be educated about Web 2.0 and it’s services/platforms/applications. I always read on forums and posts that the Facebook/MySpace/etc. people can’t be gotten hold of for their 5K programs. So figure it out. Use some of the Web 2.0 tools available and put something (widgets, rss feeds, podcasts) together. For 5K, you’re lost on MySpace, but you can get a lot more attention with a program with more focused approach and a broader outreach.

Social Network Ad Spending to Reach $2.5 Billion in 2011 : “”

A recent report from eMarketer notes the importance of social networks online, estimating their marketing to reach $2.5 billion between 2007 and 2011 in the U.S., a 180% increase from this year.

(Via Mashable.com.)