Facebook and Twitter may dominate the internet searches on Apple Macs, iPads and iPhones however experts doubt that the two social media networks will be able to convert users into money.
That is the warning from Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of marketing behemoth WPP, who claims the two will struggle to replicate their social success financially.
Sir Martin was commenting on the rumours that Facebook may have missed its revenue targets according to PrivCo, an American analyst firm, with the social media company delaying their stock market floatation until the new year.
Whilst falling short of claiming that social network sites were not as imperative as some would think, Sir Martin speaking at the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention last week believes that disrupting the basic premise of communication through complete integration could cause trouble for social network sites.
“I have some fundamental doubts about the ability to monetise social platforms. If you attempt to monetise it, it’s risky, there are question marks.” Sir Martin said.
“Facebook, Google+, Twitter … is a social interaction. We used to write letters to each other and now we correspond through Facebook and Twitter and other forms of communication. If you interrupt that with a message you may run into trouble,” he added.
Social networks could recoup some of the money from increasing the amount of brands who wanted to advertise with them however, they had to be careful about allowing brands to dominate the social media sites.
Likewise Facebook and Twitter’s credibility could be ruined if they are being seen to support a brand whose app is encouraged to be downloaded onto Apple iPads, Macs or iPhones.
