Facebook as a Social Networking Website - Essay Example

To what extent advertisement in Facebook help companies to target their s? Table of Contents 1. Introduction………………………………………. 3 2. Objective and Research Question………………. 3 - 4 3. Discussion………………………………………… 4 - 6 4. Conclusion……………………………………….. 6 5. References……………………………………….. 7 What is facebook and how companies target their customers through advertising on it? Introduction Facebook is a social networking website which was launched in 2004. There are over one billion active users who use facebook. It has registration and one must register to become a member. Advertisements are a form of marketing approach through which once can convince a customer and persuade an audience to perform some action. Hence, facebook is an intermediary and a form of electronic advertisement that helps companies to advertise and target their customers in different ways and different strategies adapted. Research Question: What is facebook and how companies target their customers through advertising on it? Objective:- As people all over the world are surfing on internet, using facebook and enjoying its benefits, they are simultaneously establishing a base for information that consists of preferences, interests, demographics, social circles and much more. Based on the information provided above, facebook is one of its form which aims to provide an individual targeting for advertiser to an unparalleled degree. Social media further helps to provide another dimension to marketing; therefore this helps them in reaping the benefits from the recommendations of word of mouth. Internet is bringing a lot of improvement to marketing. It is understandable that sites like facebook costs money and one has to pay for it one way or the other. One way of paying for it is by subscription model. Not only this but some other ways of paying for the web services is one’s willingness to receive advertising. This is one of the greatest ways to enjoy the favorite shows around (Grow et al 2006; Welcome to Ecommerce Times 2012). On the contrary, if a person is watching a television, he rather has to pay in both ways. Firstly, he has to pay for the direct TV bill and then also watch commercials being played on television by the cable vendor. People would definitely not mind the exchange but they would rather appreciate if these irrelevant ads are avoided altogether. It is rather important that they should avoid wasting their resources, cost and time on production of irrelevant ads and instead should focus on work that is appreciated and consumers that might actually like the product. To be very honest, we still haven’t achieved what we should have. It is surprising that people still get dating ads on their facebook profiles even though they are married. There is no excuse for this as facebook knows well that specific user is married according to his profile description. Not only are this but there ads such as Zwinky which shows a ten year old girl interested in men which makes no sense to a married person. Therefore this explains that Facebook’s Ad space is still very helpful to the companies in targeting and helping advertise their product (Elliott 2010; Avery 1992). Discussion Facebook has come up with new ideas and advertising programs that are far better than the previous ones and have given a new meaning to what social media is and what it actually looks like. Facebook’s new programs include Social Ads, the controversial beacon and last but not the least, Facebook pages. For instance, such as Google’s Ad Words, Facebook’s social ads are very much similar. The only difference is that instead of bidding and identifying key words, one has to choose the areas of interest and demographics to target for their own Ad E.g. in Ad Words, one can bid on the amount per click that he has to pay by defining a maximum spend per day. Impressions can also be bought instead of clicks as it’s your own choice. The format of the ad allows thumbnail image, brief text blurb and text tile. One can also resume or pause any ad that he wants to, as basic performance reports are provided by facebook. Furthermore, beacon is one of the most controversial platforms of advertising on facebook. A bit of code that is accessible to every marketer and allows them to add their own web pages so that in particular actions, such as posting a blog, book buying and service subscription, the site would help in notifying the visitor’s Facebook profile. There are also some marketers that would just send and alert actions to the profiles that are existing on facebook and the user would not even know if he has chosen it. (Beasley 2002; Moskowitz 2006). An ordinary facebook user has an opportunity to change the Beacon settings in accordance to their requirements. The News feed page is changed in accordance to the requirement of the user himself. It also has the option of ‘always accept’ and ‘never accept’ when any site tries to transfer data to the profile itself. On the other hand this beacon ontrol system can be difficult as one may not know as to which website do they know much about and which they do not. Hence it often confuses the user and a general approval is sent without any prior intimation. As discussed earlier, Facebook has added a new feature called “Pages”. This helps a lot to the new entities in the market such as Newfangled so they can create their own pages. Just like you become someone’s friend on facebook, in the same manner you can also become a fan by joining a company page. As more people join the company, company starts gaining more fans and it affects the social networking of the individual involved. Every fan involved in the group would get the company name in the news feed and this would rather become a word of recommendation from the fan. One can also choose to target social actions for their campaigns if a Facebook Ad campaign is targeted. People fanning the page would see this Ad list in their news feed if this feature is enabled. Other ways of communicating with the fans for various companies could be Facebook messaging which is also a very reliable way to do (Who’s Buying what at super bowl 2012; Grow 2006). Conclusion Therefore business nowadays may refer to social media as a consumer generated media. A common way of explaining social media is to say that it is a blend of social interaction and technology for the co relation of value. Everything done on facebook is a part of advertisement. It is about making the world more social and increase awareness. Not only we as youngsters are socially very much involved but advertisers are social too. It provides companies with a chance to connect to various people around the world without which they might not have been able to, in any other mode of communication in such efficient way. However, Facebook is really enjoyed by everyone throughout the world and in every corner. It acts as a useful means of advertisement. There is a lot of potential for marketing which can presently be seen. These are one of the interesting days of all as interactions and models can be sorted out. Bibliography "Welcome to E-Commerce Times". Ecommercetimes.com. Data Retrieved on 30th November 2012 "Whos Buying What at Super Bowl 2007". Advertising Age. Data Retrieved on 30th November 2012 Altstiel, Tom, and Jean Grow (2006). Advertising Strategy: Creative Tactics From the Outside/In. CA: Sage Publication Inc.. Print. Avery, James (1992-08-00). "Student-Run Advertising Agency: A Showcase for Student Work.". Beasley, Ron (2002). Persuasive Signs: The Semiotics of Advertising. Berlin, Germany Elliott, Stuart (February 8, 2010). "Do-It-Yourself Super Ads". New York Times. Data Retrieved on 30th November 2012 Moskowitz, Robert (May 10, 2006). "Are Consumer-Generated Ads Here to Stay?". iMediaConnection. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Data Retrieved on 30th November 2012 Read More