Advertising through social networking sites
Emergence of Internet has changed the way media is created and consumed. Traditionally media was created by media companies who created the content and were the content owners. The content owners use to ‘broadcast’ this media to the consumers of such content. With internet this equation has undergone a fundamental change, now anyone can create content and share it with others using platforms like Blogging, Social Networks, YouTube etc. There is a term that describes this phenomenon- USG or User Generated Content!
In today’s era the consumers of media themselves have become media creators and the best part is that once such content is created it is getting distributed on the internet through any of the previously mentioned platforms and other users/ consumers engage with this content by commenting, Re-Tweeting etc. The communication on the internet between content and consumers is becoming a 2-way dialogue instead of the earlier 1-way broadcast.
Gaining popularity of social networking has brought in another dimension to this rapidly changing landscape. People are getting more connected & communicative with their networks. Technology allows them to voice their opinions at literally the speed of thought. It is imperative for brands to very carefully manage their ‘image; in this new digital space. Online reputation management becomes an integral part of a well-planned Social Media Marketing exercise. This entire fast changing multi-dimensional communication system is broadly referred to as SOCIAL MEDIA. It opens new areas and throws new challenges in front of the advertisers; they can either leverage this or get left behind.
Impact of Social Networking Sites as Medium of Advertising
There are more than 200 million people using social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that social networks as an advertising platform are not useful. According to eMarketer, ad spending in the U.S. on social networks will be $1.17-billion this year, and only grow to $1.64-billion by 2013. In India also social media needs to go a long way in order to become an effective advertising vehicle.
The reason for social networks failed as advertising vehicles is probably due to the way people are using social networks. Mostly multi-tasking, multi-dimensional, fastmoving demographic uses the social networking sites like orkoot, Facebook, Myspace, etc. as an entertainment/communications tool and this audience pays little or no attention to advertising even if it’s innovative or viral.
Perhaps social network users are online so much and exposed to so much advertising that when they use social Networking, the last thing they want to do is engage with advertising. All they really want to do is use the service and communicate with friends. Just 4% of people have ever clicked on a banner ad on a social network, according to research by affiliate network LinkShare.
There are a number of factors affecting advertising effectiveness. One important factor among these besides Media there are a number of other factors as well that affect advertising effectiveness and next section of this chapter deals with this only.
