Social Media Advertising

Internet Advertising: Social Networking First Name Last Name BUS 123 Introduction To Advertising Dr. First name and last name September 26, 2010 Internet Advertising Now more than ever, small businesses can promote themselves online by targeting customers and expanding their networks, often for little or no cost. Businesses can promote themselves through a variety of techniques such as targeting customers by demographics, contributing to online discussions and drawing attention to new services. Advertising in the 21st century has become very versatile because of various online social websites like Facebook and Twitter, along with other blog atmosphere websites like Pinterest and Craigslist. In the last decade, the explosion of technological advances has produced unprecedented events in the history of mankind. One of them is the Internet and its conversion into a new medium for marketing and the use of social communication in advertising. Inevitably, the internet has changed our lives. In  traditional media, newspapers, radio  and television  can cause information overload  and change the perception  of the audience (Janoschka, 2004). The  Internet is not  exempt from this  danger, but  has the potential to  do something different,  because  it can directly reach  the target audience  and interact with it. A function of memory is to forget, especially information that is not significant. The challenge of advertising is to make you remember the ads. The purpose is to sell. The good publicity convinces the viewer to buy the product. This requires creating an attractive brand image and strengthening it with each ad. Advertising employs both verbal and nonverbal elements that are composed to fill specific space and time formats determined by the sponsor. Advertising reaches people through a channel of communication referred to as a medium. Today, technology enables advertising to reach its’ target audience efficiently through the Internet. In the 1990’s, the Internet became a major part of American society and is the fastest growing type of advertising. Its more than just banner ads, it means large format interactive ads, search-engine marketing, creating special promo videos for web download and supporting TV ads with online sites. Communication among people all over the world is effortless, and information on almost any topic is just a few keystrokes away. As a public global platform open to all kinds of information, entertainment, and communication, one of which is online advertising, it has become the latest mass medium. † (Janoschka, 2004). Internet technology allows delivering the right message to the right person at the right time while helping advertisers to reach their audience. From  the moment the   surfer  enters  the web to search for information, pop ups appear allowing the audience to subscribe to  mailing lists that  will send  continuous  news, promotions, articles, etc. , depending on   their preferences. This allows the  seller  to better  reach its target  and maintain  continuous  communication  in the shortest  time possible. .Most online ads do not come to you as an individual, but by your interests in various subjects, your location or, in general, by your behavior during internet navigation. In most countries, it is possible to divide the audience by geographic area based on IP address, which facilitates advertising companies that offer products and services in those areas. Websites use demographic data to learn more their audience. When registering with a portal or website, you normally provide certain personal information such as your age, gender, hobbies, etc. With this information, websites offer relevant content and advertisements based on the information provided. Some companies specialize in a data collection process known as behavioral advertising which matches ads to the interests of users based on their surfing habits. As users browse, advertisers collect data on their online activity: sites visited, time spent on each ad shown, ads that were clicked, when and how often you click on the banners. Today, cookies are tools that allow advertisers to target advertising to specific audiences and segments. Compared  with traditional media  the cost of  internet advertising is  extremely low, and  because of its effectiveness  and its high potential for growth, it is  ideal  for small  and medium businesses that  do not have large  resources to invest  in other media. Then the questions  arise: how  to advertise  online? What is the  correct way  to? There is no  magic formula  that a media planner can you use but here are some suggestions. Due to the internet being global, the network gives the possibility to reach all audiences in the world. With internet advertising one must  include,  email,  search engine  registration, and banners which are  ads with  motion graphics which  are located in different  sites  of the network  as a gateway  input  to a website. Using email as a form of advertisement is easy and free. All that is required is to sign up for email with your internet  service provider  or a  free  mail  server  such as Yahoo  mail or Gmail and send emails to  the potential  customers with  offers  or information  on products. According to Arens, â€Å"Google is the most popular destination on the web reaching an astonishing 40 percent of all Web users each day† (pg 337). Search engines are only responsible for registering portal websites and their content and then delivery the results to the users who made requests for information. The following is an example of how a search engine works. A user uses the search engine  of their choice and  asks to find  companies  that export  tomatoes. The search engine will  send  in response  with a list of websites of companies  that fulfill  the request and  then the user can  enter  the different sites  to see  what they need and select the company that  meets  their requirements. The  banner system  is  one means  of internet advertising  that is more effective: You can choose  the categories  to be displayed and  include descriptive words  to detect  if the user is  looking for that particular product. The  banners  are similar to the  rotating  banner  but  the difference is that  the user can interact  with them. As in any  project,  internet advertising  should begin  by  making  a strategic plan. The result will be  better planning of  a website and  the ability to maintain  the user's attention  and customer loyalty. The presence of internet advertising will be an excellent complement to traditional media advertising and may end up becoming one of the priorities of advertisers. For now, more and more ads in the media show the direction taken by advertisers along with customer care and other services of interest. User forums, blogs  and  social networking  sites like Facebook and Twitter  are invaluable resources  for monitoring  companies' reputations  and interests of  consumers of services and  products. Facebook is the largest social network in the world with more than 500 million people connected to each other. Facebook has not surpassed Yahoo! o be the second most popular site on the web behind Google. Facebook's popularity has increased due to the ability to connect individuals without geographical barriers. The uniqueness of Facebook allows people to meet virtually to discuss and share their interests with each other (Arens, Schaefer, Weigold, 2011). There are 60 million status updates posted every day in over 65 languages. Facebook's audience is far superior to any other mass medium like TV channels, radio or press Facebook has revolutionized advertising not only by the size of its audience, but also by the engineering behind its operation. It allows an analytical and intelligent marketing to reach the precise target audience through market segmentation according to gender, age, geographic location, country, city and locality, educational level, likes, interests, product preferences, favorite activities, favorite programs and language. For example, it is now possible to know without extensive market research which countries have the largest number of youth between 18 and 35 years and who love rock music, football and a certain brand of beer. Having a presence in social media is a must have for most brands. Facebook created Pages for businesses to post information about their services or products. When using a search engine, your Facebook Page will be one of the main results of your search. Consumers have tremendous power and influence on a brand and trust recommendations of other consumers they don’t know. According to Barefoot, â€Å"Groups and applications gain popularity one friend of a friend of a friend at a time† (Barefoot, pg 174). The result is friends becoming fans or joining groups encouraging them to purchase a product or service that is being discussed or advertised. Twitter is still a very popular social media networking site, although adoption is declining. Compared to Facebook, Twitter has 50 million tweets created each day and the average Twitter account has an average of 300 followers. Social networking is important to marketers because it gives them the opportunity to show customers that they are listening to what they have to say about a brand or product and respond accordingly. The possibilities are endless. It is common for  organizations to provide direct consumer  messages  daily  on Twitter, maintain  a Facebook page, or depending  on your industry  also  a profile  on MySpace. Social networking has completely changed the way we communicate with each other. Everyone has a voice and an outlet to reach millions of people instantly with either Facebook or Twitter. The internet  is  an advertising medium  with a great future  because it is interactive  can be customized or  delivered to users  according to their  preferences. There is  immediate feedback  and can communicate  directly  with users  to resolve their doubts and  concerns and with  a global reach. The internet  brings  great potential  for use in  the field  of marketing, market research,  direct marketing,  sales promotion, trade mail and, of course,  advertising communication. As a society  we must be prepared  to confront and  take advantage of  the opportunities  this new technology  gives us. References Arens,W. , Schaefer, D. , & Weigold, M. (2012). Advertising. McGraw Hill Irwin. New York