Incidentally, I’ve been invited to attend this and sit on a panel:

A Debate: Social Media Is Rampantly Monetizable vs. No, It Never Will Be
Even though banners and buttons inhabit social media just as they do older forms of online media, doesn’t mean that old methods of digital advertising are what will make social media as easily monetizable as online properties of old. While some believe that a flood of online advertising is a matter of finding social media advertising’s silver bullet, others believe that this most personal of online spaces will always make social media difficult to monetize. Online advertising experts hash it out.
Moderator: Jim Nail, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony
Steve Jang, CMO and EVP, Business Development, imeem
Seth Goldstein, CEO and Co-Founder, SocialMedia Networks
Brian Wieser, SVP, MAGNA Global
Jeremy Helfand, Chief Sales Officer, Classmates.com
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, Founder/CEO, WatchMojo.com

Happening June 23rd. I am trying to determine which side I’ll be taking. Yes, I’m kidding. If you want a hint, check out some related pieces:

- Connecting the Dots: Why Social Media Fails at Generating Revenue
- Why Social Media and Advertising = Fail
- Dark Cloud, Meet Social Media. Social Media, Meet Dark Cloud
- Social Media Hype Train Continues
- When Will Social Media Get It?
- Why Social Media and Beacon Are Doomed to Fail and What Facebook Should Do
- Social Media Growing Pains

Is it all negative?  Nope:

- Facebook, or MySpace’s, Multi-Billion Dollar Business?
- Are Affiliate Sales the Path to Facebook’s Billions?
- Memo to Facebook Sales Team