This blog will explore the effectiveness of social networks as a marketing tool.  Firstly by understanding how big advertising has become on social media among organisations, it will help to understand the faith and resources being put in to.  In other words, arguably the more popular it is among organisations then a presumption can be made about its effectiveness.

Advertising on social media has grown substantially in the past years and is expected to be worth $15 billion by 2018 (Adweek, 2014).  The most preferred networks are Facebook and is preferred by more than nine in ten marketers!

The image below shows percentage of how many of the 382 most known brands are on each social media site.(Statista, 2015)

The previous statistics show that it is a popular medium for organisations, therefore it can be presumed to be pretty effective, but why has social media become such a pivotal part of an organisation advertising strategy?   Social media is no longer the home of just the young, it had embedded itself in every corner of the web, an example is the usage of social media site; 72% of all internet users are on a social media site (Bullas, J. 2014). Further more there is an argument that individuals are turning into a new breed of customer, they are now more powerful, their wants and needs are becoming more sophisticated, and furthermore they are harder to retain, as such social media sites are becoming a more important medium to reach this new breed (Constantinides, E. 2014).

But why are social media sites important as an advertising tool?  There is an argument that it is where the people are, as previously mentioned 72% of all internet users are on social media sites, if you are wanting to advertise a product you want the biggest audience available to you (SocialHi5, 2014).  Furthermore the ability to segment the target audience gives a big advantage over other mediums, for example if you were to advertise on the television there is no guarantee that your targeted audience would see your product or service which is being offered.  A study conducted by Carmicheal, D (2012) showed that even if the CTR (click through rate) is small compared to the sites average, the advertising is still effective.  Furthermore according to (social media examiner) in 2014 92% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.

The following video highlights other important points as to why social media is important for advertising:

However conversley to the arguments for the effectiveness of advertising on social media there are limitations.  Temin, D. (2015), argues that audience are no longer paying attention to the adverts on the sites, they say that the users have become ‘de-sensitized or are determined to simply block the advertisement out of their viewing.  Further more they say that 4 out of 5 users have never bought a  product because of an ad (solely based on Facebook) (Temin, D. 2015).

There are arguments for and against the effectiveness of advertising on social media sites, however the volume of companies on the sites and given the vast amount of users it arguably is an invaluable medium through which to advertise.  However that being said there is no guarantee the campaign will be successful, users are to be shown to become more ‘de-sensitized’ to the adverts.  With the increasing presence of advertisements on social media sites how much longer can they provide an effective campaign strategy?

References

Adweek, (2014). Social Media Ad Spending: Statistics & Trends [INFOGRAPHIC]. [online] Available at: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-ad-spend-stats-trends/503712 [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Bullas, J. (2014). 22 Social Media Facts and Statistics You Should Know in 2014 – Jeffbullas’s Blog. [online] Jeffbullas’s Blog. Available at: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/01/17/20-social-media-facts-and-statistics-you-should-know-in-2014/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Carmicheal, D. (2012). How effective is social media advertising? A study of Facebook Social Advertisements. IEEE, pp.226-229.

Constantinides, E. 2014, “Foundations of Social Media Marketing”, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 148, pp. 40-57.

SocialHi5, (2014). Is Social Media Advertising Effective? – SocialHi5. [online] Available at: http://www.socialhi5.com/is-social-media-advertising-effective/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Statista, (2015). Global share of businesses using social media marketing 2014 | Statistic. [online] Available at: http://www.statista.com/statistics/188444/global-share-of-businesses-using-social-media-marketing/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].

Temin, D. (2015). Don’t Waste Money – Make Your Social Media Advertising Smarter, More Original, More Effective. [online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviatemin/2013/12/03/dont-waste-money-make-your-social-media-advertising-smarter-more-original-more-effective/ [Accessed 1 May 2015].