jasminewing

Facebook is a way of interconnecting people around the world. However, the Facebook corporation has been more interested in making money than helping people connect with friends. Instead of traditional advertising on the television and newspapers, Facebook is a new and effective way for companies to market their brand. Even if people do not buy the products or services immediately, the brand is subconsciously put into the Facebook user’s mind. To add to this, Facebook has been using key words in a person’s Facebook status to link ads that relate to it. For example, if your status is changed to “Excited for my wedding,” a wedding planner ad could show up on the side of your page. Also, when your friends on Facebook click on the “like” button of a certain ad, it can migrate into your own news feed and this is called “earned media” since it is free. Facebook is being used to promote products and services by word of mouth, especially since your friends are the ones that you know and trust. They become the greatest advertisement solution for these companies.

Facebook has many interconnections as youth these days have around 500 friends on average. If you then consider all the friends these people have, you can reach a large market rapidly. This goes along with the article we read in Class 8 “Community Relations 2.0.” The article demonstrates the capacity of social media and how businesses have become aware of using it.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_40/b4197064860826.htm