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

Exercise 5

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.

What do marketers need to do to make advertising on social media sites acceptable to consumers?

Step 1 of 2

Social media advertising utilizes user information to serve a huge audience. It helps the marketer by yielding quick results in terms of sales volume with low efforts. Though the cost is high, but results are consistent and earn sales on a per post basis. Every marketer must consider investing a little of his or her fund on social media advertising to reach the goals.