Perhaps it’s a matter of MySpace, and similar sites, owning up to who their audience is, what’s relevant to them and helping advertisers get real value for their buys. Of course, the market has a way of facilitating this.

I also agree that, with respect to social media, paid advertising is far less relevant than exploiting the tool as a user rather than an advertiser.

Beacon had the potential to be awesome.

Banner ads just aren’t the way to go in general imo (coming from a search / social guy). With social, you need to approach it in a completely new way. Like Steve said, engagement.

But in the big picture, the name of the game is engagement on these sites. Brands need to understand that there will be few situations that you can generate sales solely on a facebook or myspace campaign, but if done correctly, you can build a relationship with your audience. Two great examples of that are Target and Dunkin Donuts on facebook. Target has a dynamic presence that engages without being a hard sell and Dunkin has been one of the best at using the event feature. Their recent free iced coffee day had over 100,000 RSVP’s on facebook.