The Nielsen Company reports that time  spent on social network and blogging sites accounted for 17% of all time  spent on the Internet in August 2009, nearly triple the percentage of time spent  on the sector a year ago.

Year-over-year, estimated online advertising spend on the top social network  and blogging sites increased 119% to approximately $108 million in August 2009. The share of estimated spend  on these sites has also grown, increasing from a 7% share of total  online ad spend in August 2008 to a 15% share in August 2009.
Jon Gibs, Vice President, media and agency insights, Nielsen’s online division, said “… While video and text content remain central to the Web experience… the desire  of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving  the medium’s growth.
While several industries decreased their overall online ad spend year-over-year  in August, spending on the top social network sites increased across the board.  The Entertainment Industry led in growing its online ad dollars, increasing ad  spending on the top social network sites by 812% in August.

Gibs continues, “… the considerable increases we’ve seen in ad spending over the past  year suggest that… advertisers want to connect with core fan bases such as movie  studios, (and) are allocating more and more dollars to online communities like Facebook  and MySpace… ”
In August 2009, Facebook was the No. 1 social networking  site advertised on by 10 of the 13 industries when ranked by display ad impressions,  while Myspace.com led in the other three industries:

Warren Raisch Social Marketing Success Stories : October 9, 2009