Social media websites should take advantage of their audience base and start making money out it, a market research company has claimed.

According to YouGov, 67 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds have at least 100 friends in their social network.

The company's head of media consulting David Lucas suggested: "The next challenge for these websites is to find a way to take advantage of this audience and make money from their product."

He claimed that appealing to advertisers is the obvious route, but said that a possible problem could be establishing what the social media consumers want.

A new YouGov social media tracking study could therefore help network sites and advertisers engage more with their audience.

By understanding what drives every individual to become a member of social media sites and to explore what kind of advertising they would be responsive to, the sites and advertisers could craft tailor-made campaigns, TMC Net reported.

This comes after social media site Where Are You Now? co-founder Jerome Touze claimed that such networks are the best medium for marketers and advertisers to reach "a mass critical audience".