It is no secret that social media and internet have proven to be one of the most beneficial tools to connect and inform people around the globe about current events and new products that have hit the market. Based on Asano’s article the average person spends at least 8 months on Instagram in their lifetime and 14 months on Snapchat. Social media allows for people to become “internet famous”, which means they have a mass following because of what they post. These people make money from various companies for simply their products in a few Instagram posts or tweets. For the person endorsing the product it is a fast and easy way to make money and for the companies who want the endorse it ends up being a cheap way to get their product out to even more consumers. Many companies want to know if these advertisements are beneficial for their company or if it just being put out on the world-wide web just to be ignored. Advertising on social media will surpass any other form of advertising because it is constantly evolving, reaches a larger audience, and allows for two- way communication between customers and companies. Not only are brands reaching to larger audiences, they can communicate directly with consumers and learn quicker about the feedback they have on certain products or campaigns. This type of communication between a company and a consumer creates a personal touch that most consumers find very appealing when choosing products.

Ever since the take-off Facebook in 2011, social media has become a part of people’s everyday lives and has become the center of a lot of our social interactions. Adults are a big part of the social media network and are becoming more prevalent as it evolves. Richard Miller’s statistics in “Consumer Use of the Internet and Web 2016-2017” demonstrates that adults typically spend an overwhelmingly larger portion of their time on email than any other tool on the internet. As social media evolves, companies must find ways to utilize it and attract loyal customers. Newman says in The New York Times that companies now advertise to gain followers rather than just advertising their products for people to buy. Giles Goodwin, president for product and technology at Flite, said, “Brands are building a great presence on social networks and are looking at ways of making it more accessible” (Newman 9). 

Many campaigns that brands have ran through the internet have been successful with participation, but it is difficult to tell if it influenced a consumer’s decisions or feelings about a certain brand. In Van Dyck’s book, “Advertising Transformed: The New Rules for the Digital Age”, he presents that the top two characteristics that attract loyal customers is 24/7 customer service and rewarding feedback or purchases from them. This survey does not say a strong social media presence is necessary to attract loyal consumers, but social media could be a tool that companies use to provide rewards or customer service. Since social media can provide more uses than just presenting advertisements, it is important that companies utilize the correct networks in a way that will allow them to present themselves in a personable way. Since social media is constantly evolving and updating, brands are also updating their profiles constantly to keep up and remain relevant. “While the share of non-buyers and light buyers in the typical customer base amounted to 80 to 90 per cent, this share only averaged 13 per cent in the Facebook fan base” (Van Dyck 9). This statistic represents how most of the follower’s companies have on social media websites are already loyal customers. Because these followers are customers they are more likely to communicate via social media with the brand to express any concerns they have about the product. Being able to communicate with a brand is a new and exciting thing for consumers. It makes such a big company seem personable enough to provide attention to every single customer that reaches out to them.

In a TED talk video, Gary Kovacs explained that while we are all on the internet we are constantly being tracked by websites for them to learn our most frequently visited sites, what we are most likely to search, and learn as much information as possible to learn what advertisements we are most likely going to respond to. The issue that Kovacs addresses is that many websites continue to track you after you have already left the webpage, which may be an invasion of privacy since you may have only given consent to be tracked while you are on the site. Being tracked does not affect just older age groups either, children are tracked as well. So many sites have people agree to this without them being fully aware of what they may be agreeing to. These tracking websites usually only do this to create an online experience made specifically for you and when a consumer has a platform made for them they are more likely to pay attention to the advertisements they see. This tracking could be compared to spying but mostly it is just the machines/websites learning what the user is most likely going to be using the site for and when there is a specialized experience generated just for that consumer they will probably have a better experience online and be more open to the advertisements presented to them. Although it may seem scary because it is compared to cyber stalking, this tracking is just put into place to allow internet users to have the easiest time searching and finding the materials they need to on each website. 

Since social media is becoming a more common and a bigger part of our lives there are not a lot of experiments that prove internet advertising are more successful than television advertisements or printed advertisements. Damian Ryan’s, “The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns in the World II”, provides case studies of different campaigns that took place on the internet and describes the strengths and weaknesses of each of those campaigns. One of the most important points that this book explains is “where digital fits into the overall pursuit of ‘value engineering’ for a business or a brand.” Value engineering is what makes consumers want to pay for a product or service and feel like it is worth buying and since digital advertising is relatively new it is essential to prove that it is an effective way to advertise that it can increase the ‘value’ of businesses’ products or services. Ryan demonstrates that posting something on the internet does not mean a large range of people will pay attention or see it. It takes a lot of strategic planning with deciding on the correct use of words and deciding the appropriate site to post on, which can be extremely difficult because there are more and more being made each day. Even though it is a constantly changing platform that takes a lot of time and effort to promote products on Ryan argues digital advertising can be a cheap and effective way to promote your business and that digital advertising can be altered for certain groups to attract business from other countries. 

Because it is a cheap way to promote products it appeals to a lot of companies, especially small businesses who need publicity and cannot afford weekly print ads or television commercials. Ryan writes, “you don’t have to have a massive budget to realize success.” This means small businesses now have a cheaper way to advertise and could most likely compete even more with large corporations. The biggest obstacle that small businesses face online is that they must be even more strategic with how they gain followers and get their posts read because they more likely to not have instant name recognition like large corporations do, therefore making them harder for customers to find. Large corporations will not suffer because of the opportunity social media allows for small businesses, but it will create a more level playing field between corporations and small businesses since they will both have an easy, cheap, and fast way to promote themselves. Even so, corporations have more funds that will allow them to make a bolder presence on the internet. 

“Social media advertising budgets have doubled worldwide over the past 2 years—going from $16 billion U.S. in 2014 to $31 billion in 2016” (LePage 9). This exponential increase of spending indicates that companies plan on investing a lot of time and effort into promoting themselves online and trying find the most efficient and effective way of doing that. Now that social media networks are the norm; they can make advertisers pay prior to allowing their ads on any of their networks. This has created a whole new job market and expensive for advertising agencies, but it is still cheaper advertising than television or print because nothing must be produced, edited, and then printed. All it requires is typing a few words or posting a picture. A new way companies are utilizing social media is by paying to use Snapchat filters that promote their brand or a product they want to promote. Snapchat’s Sponsored Selfie Filters, which could cost up to $750,000 per day, are forecasted to reach 16 million viewers daily” (LePage 3). This statistic shows how Snapchat has seen the value of their filter feature and know companies who have the means to pay for it will do so. Most companies would deem this cost worth it because reaches a large audience in a short amount of time which, is very beneficial and convenient for advertisers. However, not all brands would benefit from this type of advertising because if their products appeal to the adult population. Snapchat would not be a correct way to promote themselves because, most of the users of Snapchat are below 35 years old. Although the price of social media ads is rising, their value is increasing as well therefore, allowing for companies to spend more money while receiving the benefit of reaching audiences quickly and at a massive scale.

Television has been a part of almost everyone’s lives since the day they were born now that more and more generations come about. American society cherishes television and it is a part of most people’s everyday lives. Because of this people argue that social media will never surpass the use of television ads because it has been so consistent and showing more and more potential. Jason Lynch states, “The television industry has undergone seismic changes over the last five years. But one thing has remained constant: TV is still by far the most effective advertising medium.” I believe that Jason Lynch and his study is not inaccurate but it does not account for the fact that social media advertising is still new to so many companies and they are still figuring out the best ways to use each network to promote their brands. Television has been around for decades and it is easier to see how it positively effects brands because the way television ads are presented have undergone many years of reconstruction and learning how people respond to television ads, social media has not had the decades of experience that television has. Television will most likely remain a big part of our everyday lives and remain a huge focus for advertisers but social media provides so many functions that television simply does not. Social media allows for two- way communication between consumer and company, constant updating throughout the day, and a larger audience within any time of day. Also, Lynch does not consider that the money being spent towards social media ads is also being spent on studying rather or not those advertisements are effective. By studying the social media advertisements, they are already putting out there, companies can learn from what they have already done and change whatever in the campaign was unneeded. As social media becomes a bigger and bigger part of our everyday lives there will be more data collected that will allow companies to produce better and more effective advertisement campaigns.

Social media has become a more attractive platform for companies to promote themselves and their products because it is cheap and can reach millions of people in a short amount of time. “That nine seconds sits between advertisers and 150 million fresh-faced creative users, 93 percent of whom have shopped online within the last month” (LePage 9). American society has become obsessed with speed and the ability to provide quick information or quick responses attracts many consumers today. Social media is all about speed and the ability to share things fast with quick feedback. Because we are a society that wants things fast, social media advertising will be more effective than any other way of advertising. Television and printed advertisements have been a part of our everyday lives that we accepted decades ago and now it is the time we adopt social media advertising into our everyday activities. There is still a lot of learning to do on how the most effective ways to utilize social media to produce ad campaigns that change the way consumers view a product or a brand. Many brands have already tried to endorse their social media accounts rather than focusing on products and we will not see rather or not that strategy is effective until it is compared to other campaigns that take a different approach. Simon Mainwaring said “Concerned consumers are realizing that they can use social media to organize themselves around shared values to start effective movements. Social media gives them a sounding board to share ideas, as well as a means to punish irresponsible corporate behaviors.” Because of this idea, consumers find corporations that are on social media a lot more trustworthy because they can contact them directly and be corrected quickly if a mistake is made. Also, they can communicate any issues that their company may be having with the public as quickly as possible rather than having to wait a day or longer for a news story to come out with a statement. Overall, social media is the rising leader in advertisement for companies because of its many uses. With a society that feels the need to be connected all the time, social media gives companies a platform to connect to their customer’s 24/7 and with the increased budget companies are giving their marketers they will be able to tailor their campaigns to have audiences respond with loyalty and support.
