Marketers and advertisers are spending more on social networking sites, and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) is the “premier destination”, according to the “Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook” report by senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson of eMarketer Digital Intelligence.

Worldwide spending on social network advertising is projected to reach $2.2 billion ($1.2 billion in the U.S. alone) in 2010, and Facebook is expected to garner 25% of that spending, which is up from a 20% market share in 2009. In July, search engine marketing tools eMarketer had originally predicted that domestic advertising revenues would decline by 3% for 2009; now, they are expecting that 2009 revenues will have actually increased by 4% in 2009 and will increase another 7% in 2010. “Facebook’s current strong performance is propping up the entire business of paid social network advertising in the US,” writes Williamson. Facebook has surpassed former rival MySpace: Facebook ad revenue is expected to increase 21% from $435 million in 2009 to $605 million in 2010, while MySpace ad revenue is expected to decrease 21% from $490 million in 2009 to $385 million in 2010. Google’s four-year, $900 million, contract with MySpace is not expected to renew, and that will represent a significant loss for MySpace. Facebook’s numbers are also much higher than MySpace’s, with 350 million members against MySpace’s 200 million and a high of 132.1 million unique visitors against MySpace’s 117.6 million (per ComScore), and an Alexa traffic ranking of second in the world compared to MySpace’s ranking of twelfth, and of course these higher numbers are more attractive to advertisers.

“Facebook’s growth in the latter half of 2009 is the main driver of the change in the 2009 forecast,” Williamson explains. “In addition, the U.S. economy has shown signs of improvement in late 2009, along with cautious optimism about an online ad spending rebound in 2010.” So, how can you take advantage of the facebook phenomena?  USing search engine marketing tools you can follow your facebook audience and reach them even through API connections.  While the amount spent on advertising is staggering, it’s worth noting that most of these dollars do not go directly to the social networking sites. Williamson clarifiesthat “a significant portion of their spending will go toward building and maintaining a social network presence. Paid social network advertising will remain somewhat of an afterthought.”

Companies are more likely to sponsor contests or giveaways, promote their own fan pages, or develop sponsored applications than to buy direct advertising. “Concepts such as earned media, local social advertising, social search and social ad networks will be key themes next year,” writes Williamson, “Advertising will not be the primary focus, but it will serve to drive traffic and engagement with the larger social network presence.”

If you are considering Facebook advertising and marketing, you should really look into search engine marketing tools that will help you track your campaigns and your efforts and report back with traffic and statistics.  IF used right, social media can create a great ROI.