Advertising Through Social Media

In today’s business world, social media is being discussed on a daily basis. This phenomenon has taken over the marketing and advertising industries and has changed the way they handle their efforts to attract customers. There is a big misunderstanding that social media are only popular networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media are “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” The rise of these online communities has given companies an opportunity to engage in conversations with their customers. This in turn has allowed them to better understand what people are looking for, and tailor both their products as well as their marketing efforts accordingly. One of the main advantages that social media has brought to businesses is the opportunity to advertise their products through this media. As a result, advertising through social media has proven to be more effective than that through traditional media outlets such as radio, television, magazines, newspapers etc. As stated by Stephen and Galak in their article The complimentary Roles of Traditional and Social Media in driving Marketing Performance, “Social media is a relatively new form of publicity, and yet the impact of more traditional forms of publicity on marketing outcomes has received disproportionately less attention…” (pg. #?). Although Social media is a relatively new way of advertising, companies are finding it to be more lucrative and successful in driving sales than any other media. In this paper I will examine (i) the financial impact that advertising through social media has on companies,(ii) the targeted demographics for this type of advertising and (iii) consumers’ response to this phenomenon, whether it is positive or negative.

Financial Impact of Advertising

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