The importance of social media has drastically increased in this time period. The relevance of its products such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has developed immensely that people today live in the social media era. Such an increase in the usage of websites has created a new and significant way of marketing, bringing forth a large target audience of numerous social media users.

As stated in the article, people are interested in topics recommended by familiar users and not brands promoting themselves. This leads into the power of “beauty gurus” on YouTube mentioned in Stella Cho’s blog post. These girls who make weekly videos on makeup tutorials, product reviews or product recommendations greatly influence the consumers’ choices. Through their hundreds of thousands of views from their videos, they are able to promote such brands and products with a greater influence on the consumers’ decisions than some official advertisements. As an active user of social media myself, I can relate to the audience. Also being an enthusiastic viewer of fashion vlogs myself, I have to say these girls’ comments and reviews on products have affected my purchases as well. I would most often rely on their opinions, heavily depending on their knowledge of the quality and price of several products because in the end, would you rather believe a regular person like yourself or an official advertisement? Realizing the heavy impact of social media like these YouTube videos, companies have begun to partner with many of these sites and open up a new customer segment. With the social media industry growing, companies can find a new means of marketing and gaining revenue.

Sources:

Stella Cho’s Blog Post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/stellacho/2014/10/05/marketing-in-a-digital-age/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/twitter-conversation-more-important-than-blatant-advertising/article20898781/