Social Media is currently sweeping the nation's attention by
a vast majority. Almost every company or individual uses some type of social
media on a regularly daily bases.
Whether it's for advertising or just simply for entertainment, it is still
being used. Social networks such as
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube
are dominating in the social media world. Youtube has over 1 billion unique
users every month. Facebook is used by 1
in every 13th person on the earth. Twitter has 232 million monthly users. While
Tumblr has 300 million viewers per month. Needless to say social media is has a
very large audience. Meaning that through social media companies can reach a
wide range of different target markets.
But what does this mean for advertisers?
Social media allows advertisers to successfully market their
product, service, or concern to the world. If everyone is using social media
then everyone, at some point, is going to be viewing an advertisment. Let's
look at twitter for example. Twitter has a rate of 11 new activated accounts
per second. That means that every second 11 more people are joining twitter. By
doing the math you can see how large those numbers add up making twitter a very
large audience for advertising. Budweiser took note of this opportunity as they
recently advertised their #FriendsAreWaiting promotional video against drinking
and driving. By using twitter they were able to grasp the attention of their
target audience hoping to bring awareness to the dangers of driving drunk.
Clorox brand also recently used twitter as their platform to bring awareness to
their Safe water project, which is a project that is sought to provide safe and
clean water in Peru. By using twitter they were able to reach people who were
concerned about the issues of unsafe water in Peru and also gain support from
people who support the cause of the Safe water project movement. These are just
a couple of ways that some companies are using twitter as their stepping ground
for advertising.
Now let's look at Facebook and Tumblr. Both social media
websites with very large participation and audiences. Facebook is unique in the
way that it's marketed towards all age groups from the Baby boomers to GenY's. Tumblr
is unique in the way that every user is able to make their own unique page and
create anything whether it's a poem or photo that describes their personality
or anything they believe in. However when it comes to advertising apparently
Tumblr is the place to go as it outpaced every other social media sites in
revenue per visit (with Facebook being the runner up). Tumblr visitors/ users
are more likely to feed into the advertisements displayed on the sites than any
other social media site users. Tumblr believes that its users have a generally
higher income than users of other social media sites. It is important that advertisers
pay close attention to the demographics of these social networks users so they
are able to target the right group in whom they are trying to advertise to.
Advertising on Youtube is similar to that of twitter.
Companies use promotional videos to grasp their target audiences attention. Have
you ever tried to watch a YouTube video and are forced to watch a 1 minute
commercial or advertisement? Sometimes
you can skip the add but other times it is inevitable. This is YouTube's main
way of advertising. It may seem like a burden and nuisance to their consumers,
but in the end it grasps the viewers attention and that is the main goal. Many
companies believe that YouTube is the best place to advertise when it comes to
social media because EVERYONE uses it. Even if you don't have a YouTube
account, whenever you want to watch a video or search a specific song, YouTube
is the place to go!
Advertising on social media in my opinion is very vital to a
company's success or at least, at the very least, getting out awareness of
their product or service. How do you feel about advertising on the social media
networks that you use? Do you find the ads annoying or maybe useful? Feel free
to share any thoughts, questions, or opinions!
Sources:
Good point, advertising is on social media now because it's the best way to reach the consumer. When they're relevant they are useful to the customer.
ReplyDeleteI found this topic to be very interesting seeing as my group has the topic of social media within this project. When doing research, I learned that a very large percentage of twitter accounts are fairly inactive. It really makes me wonder how that statistic impacts the effectiveness of these advertisements.
ReplyDeleteDoes inactive mean that they are not getting on Twitter, or just that they are not interacting with other users? I know that a lot of people who have a twitter do not tweet, but only use it as a way to get fast information and keep up with others. In that case, they would still see the advertisements while they are on the site or app.
DeleteIn all honesty, I'm not too sure. The article did not elaborate on that part. However in the context of what was said, I would assume that they meant the inactive users did not tweet, not necessarily did not log on at all.
DeleteI think social media advertising is an excellent way to reach a huge number of people. Do you know if YouTube has anyway of tracking which ads users skip and which ones they don't? I always try to watch the ones that interest me because I want YouTube to know what ads I am actually interested in but am not sure if they are even tracking that. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great question, I am not sure if YouTube tracks that information individually like based on IP addresses. But I am sure that they do keep track of all the ads that get skipped and are never watched all the way through. Thanks!
DeleteHow effective do you think the advertising is on Social Media? I think this brings up some good points and is a great idea. But, me personally if I see the ads I immediately "x" them out and never really look at them on Social Media. Do y'all think there is a better way to use social media for advertising or a way to make it more effective?
ReplyDeleteMaybe a better way to advertise in my mind is for companies to advertise is to have a short and sweet 5 second message before a video for instance "brought to you by coke" instead of a long drawn out ad. I find myself liking ads that take less of my time.
DeleteI agree with you in that social media is a great place for companies to market a product or service. And although I never seek out advertisements that could potentially interest me, many advertisements on websites like YouTube are very informative or entertaining. If I was a business owner, I would heavily invest money into social media marketing.
ReplyDelete