Social Media Revenue Projections

We've written at length about the dichotomy between social media's power to connect people and its relatively weak performance as a revenue-generating vehicle. Despite the anemic revenue numbers, according to BIA/Kelsey, social media will have quadrupled between 2010 and 2015. Last year, social media revenue came in at $2.1 billion. BIA/Kelsey projects that number to be $8.5 billion in 2015.

Display will be the top format, although things like Twitter's "promoted products" will start to have an impact. Another important note is that this projection includes forms of ad revenue, while other revenue-generating tactics, such as virtual goods and games are not a part of it.