P3 (a-c)

a) Advertising

Facebook

In order to advertise successfully on social media, companies must tie their products in with users’ social profiles. There are several ways to advertise on Facebook; companies can promote their pages, posts, users’ actions or the website/application itself, these ads are targeted to users based on location, demographic and profile information. Once the ad is created companies will set a budget and bid on the amount of times the ad will be clicked. A location is chosen, either a country, state, city or postcode, then an age (which can be a minimum to a maximum) and then a gender (“all” can also be chosen). Then a “Precise Interest” can be entered as well as a general one such as Business or Music. These ads appear in the sidebar on the website and as posts on the mobile application. 

Twitter

Direct advertising on Twitter is fairly similar to Facebook, first a country is picked along with a time zone, then a “campaign objective” is selected, these include “app installs” and “followers,” this is designed to help advertisers use a specific aspect of Twitter to target certain individuals. These advertisements will then appear on users’ timelines as suggested accounts or related topics, promoted hashtags will also be visible in the “trending” section. In terms of ‘Ad Targeting,’ Twitter help companies reach out to audiences in a 9 different target areas. These include; language, gender, interest, follower, device, behaviour, tailored audiences, keyword and geography. Using these features works just like Facebook, the third party tick boxes and enter information in relation to their product or service, for example selecting “technology” in interest, “ philanthropy” in behaviours and “London marathon” in keywords. The possibilities are endless, meaning this is an extremely effective way to address and reach out to a specific target audience.

Instagram

As Instagram is owned by Facebook, and stated on their website, “the same targeting options available for the ads you create on Facebook are available for Instagram ads.” They state that the targeting options required are “country, age and gender,” however all others are optional such as demographic and interests.

b) Viral Marketing

Evian “Baby&Me” 2013

In April 2013, 15 years after their first successful baby-related ad (“The Swimming Babies”) and 4 years after their second (“Roller Babies”) French mineral water brand, Evian, released yet another global sensation featuring dancing infants. This time, the advert had adults walk in front of windows and see themselves as babies in the reflection, the idea was to promote their product as making the buyer feel youthful and carefree like a child. As of 2016, the video currently has over 120 million views on YouTube and over 300,000 likes. This meant soaring figures in sales of Evian water; in 2013 alone there were over 7 million consumers in the United States with over 1,500 million Euros worth of water being sold in just one year. And it was not just the ad that got people talking, One month later, Evian also released a mobile application for iOS and Android called “evian baby&me app” developed by BETC Digital and B-Reel, which transformed an image of the user into an baby version of themselves. They also partnered up with photo booth operator “Photomaton” to turn the app into an interactive experience available in “Baby Booths” across Paris.

c) Product/Service Reviews

In 2015, one survey found that only 10% of UK did their christmas shopping  online, and another discovered that in 2016, one in ten people do their grocery shopping online. With a huge portion of the population choosing to shop online, social media and websites must provide a way for these consumers to discuss and find the top quality products suited best for them. For example take Amazon, the world’s largest online store, it pulled in over $500 million worth of net income in the first quarter of 2016 alone. In 2014 a survey found that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and 85% said they read up to 10 reviews for a particular product. Also 72% of online shoppers said that positive reviews make them trust a business more and with word-of-mouth being the most popular way to promote a business, these stats highlight the importance and value of a positive review. All online services that offer customer reviews work in pretty much the same way; the consumer gives a star rating and then, if they wish, a short, written review. This helps fellow potential buyers figure out if the product or service is the standard they are looking for and is worth the money. A basic review will display the number of stars, the name of the reviewer (which can also often determine the gender), the date it was written and the review complete with title.