While social media is a relatively new platform, social networks are not.
One of the earliest social networks was cave drawings, a critical
communication channel. The most common drawings were of animals,
hands, and hunting.4 Much later in history, people started to
communicate through more than just drawings, written language
became very important. For example, Martin Luther went viral in his
own way. He posted his issues with the Catholic Church and those in
charge on the doors of his cathedral where he preached. His followers
read his post, then liked it in their own way- agreeing and following
him, eventually forming a new religion, Lutheranism, and starting a
kind of revolution.5 Today, the platform of communication has changed,
but the fundamental idea has not.
Starting in 146 BC up until the 18th century, the town criers would run
from place to place and shout out the news of the day. They became
increasingly common as Great Britain colonized the New World. 6 In big
cities, newspapers started to gain popularity. The first newspapers
were printed in the 17th century. By 1870, over 5000 newspapers
existed in the United States alone.7 Today, a large majority of
newspapers are read online. The Internet has transformed how social
networks exist and are conducted.
Advertising in Social Networks
Advertising in social networks has always played an important role.
Farmers markets and town markets were where people would advertise
their latest crop and convince the shoppers to buy their corn over their
neighbors produce. Newspapers usually had ads in them, and these
ads are what supported the newspapers and kept them running. In the
1950s, Tupperware parties were all the rage. Originally, the product
was being sold in shops and department stores, but one woman had
the idea to market them directly to housewives and their friends. This
created the Tupperware party, where women would meet at one house,
have drinks and food, and a Tupperware representative would come
into their home to demonstrate, and sell their products.8 This same
idea is used in selling products, like Pampered Chef and Thirty One
Purses today.
Launch of Social Media Sites
In February of 2004, Facebook launched. The site was originally
created for college students at Harvard University. Soon, the website
was expanded to allow anyone to use it. By August of 2008, the site
had over 100 million users. But the early version of Facebook does not
look like it does today. The first ad was posted on Facebook in May of
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Marketing Psychology
An important aspect of this question is marketing psychology.
According to Lars Perner from University of Southern California,
studying consumers helps companies improve their marketing
strategies by understanding:
The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select
between
shopping or making
that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for
the consumer; and how marketers can adapt and
improve their
effectively
companies like Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart on social media
sites like Facebook really spent more money there, compared to those
who were not following the stores on social media.
Not surprisingly, the study found that fans of retailers, on
average, spent
striking
51% more at Target and 104% more at Best Buy. That would seem
to be a clear-cut, if modest, early validation of the social
advertising thesis.15
Research Question
Despite all of these data, there are that questions come up all the time
asking if advertising on social media really works. Does advertising on
social media benefit the companies? Are there any downfalls?
dont pertain to them. Over the years, social media sites have been
tracking and developing software that targets certain demographics in
order to show them different ads.
Research Method
For this investigation, I want to conduct small focus groups to study
how the general public perceives social media. I would like to interview
about 5 groups, each with around 5-7 people. One group will be
teenagers, between the ages of 14-17 that are still in high school.
Another group will college-aged adults, between the ages of 18-22. A
third group will be interview adults aged 25-35 who are working. A
fourth group will be individuals ages 40-50 who are working with
families, and the last group will be individuals ages 60 and up. I want
to have a diverse group of individuals, including male and female
participants. I would also like different ethnicities involved. Of course,
these participants need to be active social media users on Facebook,
Twitter, or Instagram.
Each session will last about an hour. I will have a list of questions
about social media and advertising, and I hope that the questions will
stimulate discussion between the group members. The questions I ask
need to use neutral language in order to not sway the group one-way
or the other. The first question I want to ask is How do you feel about
advertising on social media? I think that from here I will be able to tell
which way the group sways. I want to ask about annoying ads, lame
ads (per the Forbes article), and how effective they really think the
advertising is. If the group likes ads on Facebook, I want to find out why
they like them, which companies they like the best. For all the groups, I
want to see how they feel about the companies that talk back to their
commenters, like Taco Bell on Twitter or Target on Facebook.
Sample Questions
1)
2)
3)
4)
you/consumers?
5) Do you not buy from certain companies because of their
advertising? Why or why not?
Benefits to Focus Groups
There are a few benefits to using focus groups in this situation.
For one, an open chat about advertising on social media may elicit
other responses about other related topics. This would be great
because I want to gather a lot of information and a lot of feelings about
advertising on social media.
Another reason why focus groups are a good idea for this
research question is because the answers will be more personable,
which social media is. Social media sites are largely personal because
you can share information about yourself, along with pictures and
videos. Talking with a small group of people who might be able to
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relate to you is a good idea because it might open people up about the
topic.
Problems with Focus Groups
One problem that I may run into is the participants not
completely answering the questions. I know that a lot of people skip
over ads or just block them out when using the sites. This would be a
problem because then they would not have anything to tell me about
the topic. To avoid this problem, I might have to do different focus
groups of the same age range or multiple sessions with the same
people.
Another problem I might run in to is one person in the focus
group taking over or becoming the assumed leader. I want
everyones answers to be personable and not dictated by one or two
people. I also do not want people to feel like they have to agree with
the group. Disagreement is good. I want people from different
backgrounds in my groups so I get a wide range of people. If someone
finds the advertising on social media annoying, I want them to say so.
This is the same with the people who like social media and use it to
their advantage. I want the members to feel like they are in an open
environment where their opinions are valid and are benefitting the
research.
Conclusion
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Bibliography
Pew Research Center, Social Networking Fact Sheet, (2014)
Sonny Ganguly, Why Social Media Is Set To Explode In The Next 3
Years, Marketing Land (2015)
Robert Hof, You Know Whats Cool? 1 Million Advertisers On
Facebook, Forbes (2013)
Social Times, A Brief History of Social Advertising, (2013)
Social Times, The History of Social Networking Through The Ages,
(2014)
The Economist, How Luther Went Viral, (2011)
Tupperware Collection, The History of Tupperware Home Parties,
Laura Sampler, Heres the First Slide Deck The Facebook Used to Pitch
Ads in 2004, Business Insider (2012)
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