Since 2006 (or thereabouts) we have seen social media grow both in the business world and in the consumer world.
There is the impression that it is mainly kids and students that are making use of social media; networking sites, dating sites and all the variations in between. However the truth is that people of all ages are using social media - which from an advertising perspective is great.
What Is Social Media
Social media is a medium for person to person interaction.
Social media is web based (based on the internet) and is all based around people communicating, sharing and interacting. This could be a dating website (where people go to find girlfriends/boyfriends), networking websites (business related sites such as linkedin etc.), friend based sites (like friends reunited, facebook, beebo) file sharing sites (for sharing pictures or media) like flickr or business sites like twitter.
Why Social Media Has Grown
Social media really took off over the last 2-3 years with facebook and twitter - due to the massive volumes of people using these sites every hour, advertisers can get their adverts seem by millions every day (much more exposure that TV, banner advertising or radio).
True that social media started with students and children exploding the use, but since the very beginning, adults, businesses and industry have got on board and started to use it also realising the marketing potential it holds.
The Power Of Social Media
As mentioned, social media is a vehicle for advertising agencies to exploit. Businesses can appear to millions throughout the whole day every day (or just at set times).
Due to the information that users of social media submit, the websites can target advertising to certain metrics:
- Age of users
- Gender
- Location
- Based on their likes or dislikes
- Based on hobbies
- Based on information they submitted on the wall/tweets
This way advertisers can ensure that they are broadly targeting the right sort of users with their adverts and as such increase the chances of responses.
How Advertisers Use Social Media
The idea of reaching millions of potential users in a few minutes is an advertisers dream. Imagine if just 1% of the millions of users responded - Christmas comes early.
However advertisers need to remember why their audience is there. For facebook - it is to chat to friends, flirt or just update their status. For dating sites it is for flirting or dating. For twitter, it is for selling.
Selling should not really be the main objective with social media; but creating brand awareness it will be very effective. Getting your name out there and getting people used to your logo/website social media will prove very effective.