Advertising in social networking

35 per cent of Asian youth aged between eight and 24 used the Internet more than a year earlier and 25 per cent of them said 'they just couldn't live without the Internet'. A study, by OgilvyOne, found social networking and forums accounted for 10.2 per cent of all Internet visits by Singapore users.

Stanley Tay, GM of online marketing firm PurpleClick Media, says that there is an increase in enquiries by local firms about advertising via online media platforms, especially Facebook.

Typically, these companies were trying to reach out to younger consumers, who were likely to spend a significant amount of time on social media sites. Estimating that only one to 2 per cent of advertising spending is on digital platforms, Ken Mandel, vice-president and managing director of Yahoo! South-east Asia, "we do need to get those spends up to at least 10 per cent, which I'd say is the industry average."

The people who are currently using these social media will be our future leaders and future business decision makers, and it might be worthwhile to start investing in this audience base as early as possible.'