When it comes to putting a price on social media, what would you be willing to pay to stay connected with your friends on sites like Facebook or MySpace? If you don’t want to pay for any of it, what would you be willing to sacrifice to keep from paying for such a service?

What I’m referring to is a “freemium” business model, which (in layman’s terms) means offering a good or service for free at first but then having a better (or upgraded) version available for a premium later. A current example of this is Pandora, a hot spot for streaming music over the Internet. It’s offered free to users with the knowledge that it’s ad-supported and that certain limitations exist (for example, you can only skip a certain amount of songs each hour). If you purchase a subscription, you can bypass the ads and have more listening choices.

The question is: Would this business model work on a social network? Would people pay to socialize with others? eMarketer recently came out with a report, Social Network Content: Are Users Willing to Pay?, which dives deep into the psychology behind this business model and whether or not it would work for various social networks. (This report is also mentioned in an eMarketer article, Paid Social Network Opportunities—Alive and Well). Before I go into the short answer, I want to offer my two-cents worth, which a majority of people may not agree with.

I’m a fan of free. I think most people are. I also don’t mind ad-supported services…to a certain degree. But I also feel that paying for a service warrants getting something tangible in return, like music downloads or a service I can’t get elsewhere. But if a social network is to charge me for something intangible, such as communication with friends, family or coworkers, I might feel alienated because that is something I can get elsewhere (for example, cell phones, instant messaging, e-mails, text messages and old-fashioned conversation). But if the subscription is based on tangible benefits, then it might be worth it.

The short answer that eMarketer came up with (and I agree with) is that this could work for some social networks if the sites cater to specific niches rather than a broad, mainstream audience. What also helps is if the demographic being targeted is older and would be more likely to pay for such a service; however, there is still a possibility for sites like Facebook and Twitter. Although such networks won’t start charging for what they normally offer as basic services, they have said that a freemium-based model is not out of the question in the future.