IAB publishes social advertising best practices guidelines

The Interative Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published guidelines for best practice in social advertising, prefacing it with the statement,

Social media has overtaken email as the most popular consumer activity, according to a recent Nielsen study

If your department or agency is looking to use any of the online social channels that now exist, from Facebook to Youtube to Twitter, to reach your audiences, these guidelines are a must read.

To quote the guidelines,

This document outlines recommendations for these key social advertising topics and is intended for social networks, publishers, ad agencies, marketers, and service providers delivering social advertising. These best practices were developed via a thorough examination of the critical consumer, media and advertiser issues to help social media further realize its advertising potential.

They are available at the IAB website's social advertising section as a PDF download.

The IAB also provides definitions of social metrics for measuring social media sites, blogs, widgets and social media applications.