M: Business 3rd Edition by O. C. Ferrell, Geoffrey Hirt, Linda Ferrell

Exercise 3

To advertise on social media sites, or not to advertise? It depends on who you ask. Users of social media are increasingly coming upon advertisements on their pages, and some are unhappy about it. They feel that social media sites are a place to have fun, not to be subjected to yet more marketing. Marketers, on the other hand, love the added exposure they receive; with over 400 million Facebook users and 100 million Twitter users, these sites offer businesses access to many market segments at once. However, businesses soon learn that marketing their brands on social media sites is not so easy.

One challenge is frequent monitoring of Facebook and Twitter pages. Simply posting ads or creating Facebook fan pages is not enough. As consumers are frequently turning to these social media sites to post complaints or concerns, companies must be vigilant to respond. Additionally, although it contains several features to support company advertisements, Facebook cannot always enforce appropriate ad content. It counts on users to complain when inappropriate ads are posted. This can be a problem for both consumers, who might be exposed to ads they feel are inappropriate, and businesses, who could unintentionally alienate their target market. (Facebook is currently updating its rules and restrictions.)

Businesses must also face the fact that their social media marketing activities can still bomb. Fox found this out the hard way when it began broadcasting live Twitter overlays over reruns of Fringe and Glee. Viewers found the overlays intrusive and distracting. The campaign was a failure. Other companies have accounts on both Facebook and Twitter, but they simply haven’t done anything to make them exciting. These setbacks show that although social media offers exciting new marketing opportunities, campaigns must be carefully thought out and implemented to be successful.

Why do some marketers post what are considered by some as inappropriate advertisements?

Step 1 of 2

Social media marketing is something that everyone wants to jump on to make their brand presence on social networks. The simple reason for this is the available crowd on social media. However, sometimes social media marketers makes mistakes by posting inappropriate ads that can every affect the revenue system of an organization, be it a small business or a larger one.