Today’s New York Times Digital Domain column describes the challenges and offers cautionary tales in using social media to promote brands:

When major brands place banner advertisements on the side of a member’s home page, they pay inexpensive prices, but the ads receive little attention. Seth Goldstein, co-founder of SocialMedia Networks, an online advertising company, wrote on his Facebook blog that a banner ad “is universally disregarded as irrelevant if it’s not ignored entirely.”

When advertisers invite members to come to pages dedicated to their products, they can attract visitors only by investing in expensive creative material or old-fashioned promotions like prize contests.

The Times report discusses in detail Procter & Gamble’s attempts to use Facebook to promote Tide, Crest Whitestrips, and other products.