Social media websites
Social media websites are becoming more and more of every ones
lives, the majority of people have a social network site that they visit at
least once a day. There are many social media websites on the internet at the
moment, which companies like to make the most of, they have realised this. Therefore
they have placed there companies in the centre of it creating their companies
page or account to advertise their business. For example there are three main
social networking sites, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. They all provide a free
service for users to post information, photos, and videos, basically anything
they like, that will allow other people to see. From a Mintel source 97% of 1,525
aged 16+ have visited Facebook, 46% have visited Twitter and 29% have visited
Google+ before (Liao NA).
These figures show that Facebook is the most used and visited site out of them selected people with 3% of them never visiting the site, Twitter coming up in second and they finally Google+. Facebook is the most used sites with over a billion users according to Lee (2012) from BBC News, this is a great opportunity for companies to advertise their business if the is a potential of a billion people to see and to find out about their company.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19816709
These figures show that Facebook is the most used and visited site out of them selected people with 3% of them never visiting the site, Twitter coming up in second and they finally Google+. Facebook is the most used sites with over a billion users according to Lee (2012) from BBC News, this is a great opportunity for companies to advertise their business if the is a potential of a billion people to see and to find out about their company.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19816709
Companies that advertise
Social networking sites give anyone a chance to advertise
something. This could be from a singer advertising their voice, or a dancer trying
to advertise their moves anyone has the opportunity to advertise anything. Using
a networking site is an easy way for companies to advertise what they have for
free but still reaching a huge wide audience. Companies do reach a large
audience using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, for example
Coca Cola have 55,414,622 likes on Facebook and 639,040 followers on Twitter. Each
person that follows or likes that page will see Coca Cola’s advertisements that
they post on their networking sites hourly. This will therefore increase sales
and awareness of the product for no cost, this is a very cost effective way for
companies to advertise because the social media sites are free to use. Companies
that advertise with other methods will only meet certain target groups with
their advertisements but by using social media websites they will meet a much
larger audience, people will like or follow the certain companies to
find out information about them not necessarily just because they like the
product or service.
How companies advertise of social media websites
Many companies look at social media websites as a great
advertising method to use and that is wide a large range do. They can promote
offers, new upcoming products, new stores, and sales. They have a chance to
advertise anything by starting an account with a social network. From the
social media marketing book by Zarrella (2010) is describes a marketing method
used by Burger King on Facebook. Burger King opened a page and uploaded a
coupon for a free whopper but the user had to unfriend ten of their social
network connections to receive this offer.
This was one way to get rid of the other competition for burger king on
that social network site. All a company needs is one marketing method that
people will talk about and share, this is easy with social media sites because
users are able to share things they have watched or saw to other people on
their friends list that may have not seen it. This is a quick way to increase
awareness of that certain brand and item.
What benefits do companies receive from social networking
sites?
Companies are always trying to find the best cheapest option
of advertising, social networking sites are the best. They provide a free
online service to advertise their company with a large interacting audience,
leading users to follow, like or subscribe to their page resulting in them receiving
all the advertisements and offers that the company has to offer through that
certain site. Twitter is a newly risen site that companies can post information
on about their business to increase awareness. For an article in the guardian a
small company increased sales by £150,000 they said, "I'd never used it
before and it took me several months to see any results, but within 18 months I
had 1,000 followers and bookings were up, generating £150,000 of new
business."(Coleman, 2012). This shows that using the right site and
providing the users with enough information about the company it can increase
sales massively.
Increasing the amount or follows your page has the more people
will be aware of the certain company, for example large companies like McDonalds
have 809,600 followers on their page.
They will be able to spread awareness of
new upcoming products, information and anything they like to their twitter
followers, this will increase people’s awareness rapidly. Companies
can also use the social networking sites to receive feedback, other users are
able to speak out their opinion on the website or have the chance to say
anything they like to the company. This is a good chance for companies to
improve their businesses by listening and changing their company for the customers.
Why
and how companies use social networking to advertise
Companies use social networking sites because it is FREE and
that they can reach a large wide audience from one site. Most companies are on
one or another social networking site to promote their business. They can post
new information about their company like offers, new products, and new
marketing campaigns, the sites will supply users with unlimited time and space
to post anything they like at any time of the day. This is ideal for companies that
have a small marketing budget, they can be provided with feedback and ideas
from future or previous customers, which will enable them to improve and adapt
their business. If they provide the customers with what they want it will
result in a boost of sales for the company making the business more profitable.