Advertising on Social Networks

Marketing has always been relying on traditional print and visual media for advertising their products and services. The basis of the mass media both in print as well as in visual form is to release one common advertisement to the entire mass in general. Such advertising is controlled by the marketers who have control over the release of the advertisement and the audience or the readers and viewers have very little control viewing or watching such advertisements. It is a very well known fact that most people do not enjoy the interruptions on the TV shows and the commercial breaks that beam advertisements.

The fact is that the audience does not have a say in the matter. The only choice people have and which they often exercise is to take a break, skip the commercial break and resume watching TV when their show starts back.

With the arrival of internet and social web, the concept of advertising online and through the social networks has taken a different turn.

In the beginning when marketers discovered that they could send emails and messages to the mass at fraction of cost, there began a boom with everyone sending unwanted messages to all the email IDs that they could get hold of. This has tapered off to a large extent due to the hit back from the recipients who find the messages irrelevant and an invasion into their privacy. With the next wave came the advertisements in the form of banners and sponsored links and displays on web pages. One can click on these banners and flashers and get directed to the relevant page of the Company.

Advertising on Social Network is a different ball game. The network consists of communities of people who are discussing, sharing and conversing with one another and building opinions in the process. Therefore the advertisers and marketers do not have control. The advertising on the social network functions like traditional channels as well as in the form of non-interruptive advertising. Advertisements that pop up on web pages, the banners work like traditional channels and are interruptive, whereas the new kind of advertising and marketing known as Embedded Marketing Application has introduced non-interruptive as well as interactive advertising.

The best example that one can see in terms of Embedded Marketing Application is the application called Product Pulse on Facebook. The application engages the audience with new products and services by inviting them to rate the product as per their opinion and invites them to join some of the easy to win contests too. This aspect makes a lot of sense for marketers as it gives a lot of information about the consumer behavior as well as the pulse of the consumer.

Understanding and viewing the social networks as well as business networks on the internet can give one an idea of what is the effective way of communicating with people on the networks and how to manage the expectations as well as to engage the customer from advertising and selling point of view.