So every brand wants to jump on the social media bandwagon in order to connect with a new generation. There are arguments for and against the success of internet banner ads and social media would seem to be a more interactive way to connect with consumers.

The question I can’t answer is whether social media will wilt as quickly as it blossomed. The runaway success of Bebo in Ireland has fallen away in the past year. This can be seen in both a drop in Irish Users but also the loss of a dedicated sales force in Ireland. Facebook according to the last figures I read had 1.2m Irish users. This represents a phenomenal success story culminating in Facebook’s own declaration that it has begun to turn a profit.

There are rumours circulating that Facebook will begin to charge for their service. Personally I can’t see it being rolled out globally. There are however two ways that I feel they could generate revenue.

1: Charge for all commercial pages set up by companies and brands. If brands are generating revenue on a page that they set up on Facebook for free, it is not really fair.

2: Charge everyone for premium services that Facebook offer above basic profiles, uploading photos and sending messages.

I think its too early to say if social media will be a fad but one thing is for sure, someone will come along with a new social media platform to rival Facebook. I don’t see that new rival being Twitter. If you ask regular Twitterers, they wouldn’t class Twitter and Facebook in the same arena. The development of 3rd party platforms such as Tweetdeck mean Twitter have lost control of how users view Tweets. Twitter have made a big mistake in not retaining control of its own platform. It makes their attempts to monetize Twitter all the more difficult as they have no control how users view Tweets so banner ads are out. Maybe I’m wrong, we will see………