Advertising online has grown over the years. In 2005, the Guardian had estimated that some people had seen up to 3500 advertisements per day. 12 years later, we can only assume that we have been exposed to further advertisements as platforms such as social media has grown significantly over the years.
What social media platforms are out there?
There are many social media platforms that are available to use including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. However, the number of active users vary for each platform which makes popularity an individual preference
Source: Chaffey, 2017
The graph shows that Facebook has the most active users worldwide. This is closely followed by Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger, which are based around creating conversations with one another. It also shows some less advertised applications such as QQ and WeChat. In the UK, they are not as popular as the more known apps which include Snapchat and Twitter (which rank lower in the graph)
Myself as a Consumer
You are and I am are consumers. We purchase goods and use services. However, do we actually consider what makes us do those things? Do we actual consider that we may be targeted in a segmented market which use Social Media?
From my own personal experiences, I have seen that advertising and marketing campaigns are particularly engaging when they are on Facebook. I have noticed that when I am scrolling through my Facebook home page, advertisements that contain videos are automatically played, resulting in me watching. I find that they are interesting and normally catch my attention.
I would also say that in addition to Facebook, Twitter can be exciting and different for advertising as it is normally re-tweeted by my friends rather than a random selection on my home page. This makes it more personal as the use of re-tweet can be powerful if you and your twitter friends have the same interests.
However, I do use other social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat and I do see many advertisements that appeal to me. Instagram do have a strategy of having advertisements on the home page which are in a form of a small video clip or a picture. When it is a picture,
The Future of Social Media Advertising
As Facebook has a significantly higher amount of active users compared to the rest of the platforms, it could be expected that Facebook will remain that way. The only change that could happen would have to be drastic enough to change the statistics hugely.
I also believe that it could be changed through generations. Generation Y users, who are born between 1980 and 2000 (The Telegraph, 2014) may start to use different social platforms to the older generation or people born after 2000.
There may be other applications that can be used to advertising which may be much more effective and popular in the future. However, I think for now we can safely say that Facebook is still number one!
Click here for an interesting journal about Mobile Social Media
Thanks for reading
Leila
References
Chaffey, D. (2017) Smart Insights. Global Social Media Statistics Summary 2017
The Guardian (2005). Shopper’s eye view of ads that pass us by.
The Telegraph (2014). Gen Z, Gen Y, baby boomers – a guide to the generations.
With over 600 million users by December 2016 (Instagram, 2017), it can be said that Instagram has become a successful social platform. However, just how well does this ‘free’ service provide a network for businesses to advertise?
Instagram can be used free of charge for a personal or business user to upload pictures as a way of expressing themselves; you do not need to pay Instagram for their services. Therefore, businesses could use Instagram by uploading a ‘selfie’ or images showing their merchandise. The user can gain followers and there is no limit to how many pictures can be uploaded per page. For businesses, they can use it to their advantage and use it as a way of free advertising.
As Social media has become popular and continues to grow, it is changing the business landscape and redefining how business communicate across their channels of distribution and with their customers (Rapp et al, 2013). I have seen over the years the shift in businesses communicating through social media to give out certain messages or to visually attract people to view their profile, content or products.
One way I have noticed the use of businesses promoting their page or certain products is by the use of the ‘re-post’. This is the business uploading an image to Instagram with a message stating something like ‘First 50 people to re-post wins a big giveaway’ or something similar. This engages with personal users, and for me, it is a way to attract new customers. In my experience, even if I did not know the business nor their products, I still participate because I want the free ‘giveaway’ or prize equivalent.
Here is my own personal experience from a ‘re-post’. I saw this on my friends instagram profile as she had re-posted. I re-posted this myself even though I was not familiar with the brand as it had an attractive prize. This may have been a strategy for the business to entice people like me, to re-post their picture, regardless of our interests.
Studies show that similar interests are shared between groups of friends (Telegraph, 2010). This could be a strategy that marketers have as they are aware of the number of users on Instagram and know how easy it is for friends to view each others profiles. This happened to me, with the re-post above so it shows just how effective an Instagram post can be.
Understandably, businesses, especially start-ups or small businesses need to build a reputation. This is crucial for a business enterprise risk management (Arnold, 2006). By businesses posting exciting content, it can allow them to gain followers and entice them to buy their products (if they sell products) or to just become familiar with the business.
How can businesses maximise the use of Instagram posting?
- Post regularly to engage other users
- Be creative
- Encourage users to re-post
- Upload particular posts that have worthy content
Social media marketing has been proven to have a high conversion rate along with 83% of all marketers actively pursue social media marketing initiatives. (Aberdeen, 2016) (Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics#Social%20Media). This shows just how successful it can be to use a social platform to attract customers.
With around 80 million pictures being uploaded to Instagram everyday(Instagram, 2017), businesses need to be smart with what they share on their page.
However, If a business does post ineffectively, this could damage the company and may even decrease their number of followers.
Reasons for posts being ineffective:
- Too frequent or infrequent
- Content not being relevant to the company or their followers
- Deemed inappropriate or offensive
- Boring content or feed
With Instagram having such a large network, businesses could ruin their marketing strategy if they decide to post unappealing content. I have followed businesses before where they no longer attracted my attention so I did not need to follow them anymore.
Ineffective posts could be on the rise for businesses if they feel under pressure to upload content because other companies are. They may want to be noticed on such a large social platform that they will not consider the content they post. This is something, in my opinion, that businesses need to examine as a marketing technique, as Instagram can be powerful, both negatively and positively.
One interesting link I found was expert opinion on Instagram marketing tips including the use of pictures and videos and the quality of the pictures. This may help conceal how Instagram can be very effective. Click here to read the article.
Click here to also read another interesting article on how to build Instagram followers.
Lessons Learnt:
- It is important to use social platforms for both small and large businesses as the amount of users are on the rise
- Social media can have both a positive and negative affect on your business depending how you use it
- There are concrete techniques to attract followers
Thanks for reading!
Leila
References
Arnold, M. (2006) CEO’s respect importance of reputation, Haymarket Media Inc: New York.
Rapp, A., Beitelspacher, L.S., Grewal, D. & Hughes, D.E. (2012) Understanding social media effects across seller, retailers, and consumer interactions, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol. 41, No. 5, p547-566.
