Social media marketing is one of the most prominent forms of marketing that is out there today. Regardless of what form of social media you are on (i.e Facebook, Twitter,YouTube, Instagram, etc.), we are all subjected to some kind of marketing. Through different types of online traffic, almost all social media sites use their ways to create ads and displays that appeal to the viewer. These social media outlets reach out to almost every country in the world. They connect people from one country is another quite easily, and it is these outlets that allow marketers to reach consumers and producers in multiple countries and time zones. While people are continuously using devices such as cell-phones, tablets, and computers, advertisements are continuously being fed to them and most of the time consumers do not even realize that they are being advertised too.
Social media marketing is one of the world’s fastest ways for companies to share their brand. When marking for businesses began, it started as posters and fliers, but it has successfully grown into something much larger and much more significant. As the times are growing and changing, so should marketing. This brand of marketing has created a sense of customer service marketing. It causes many of the online viewers to feel as if they have first-hand experience in choosing their advertisements. Instead of consumers having to leave the comfort of their own homes and go and find what the are looking for, marketers gave consumers the advantage of having the advertisements and products come straight to them.
Advertising on social media also gives companies more opportunities to spread their brand. Not only do these companies have the ability to advertise through posts, blogs, and flash advertisements, they now also have video marketing and live video marketing at their disposal. Video marketing allows producers to show small videos on web-pages and as video ads that play during regular videos, most commonly used on Facebook Live and YouTube. It is very rare to watch a video on YouTube and not seem some type of advertisement. Many of the content creators on this video sites will say something along the lines of “today we are being sponsored by (insert company name here”. While this does not seem like marketing, it is. Getting famous social media content creators to support your brand is one of the best forms of advertising there is.
While many social media outlets require corporations to pay to have their brand advertised, the Facebook platform has placed a unique twist on this idea. For their fee, Facebook agrees to share information on their customers so that companies will have more to work with when trying to decide what to advertise and to whom. This platform shaped how other social media sites also displayed and decided on ads. This alone shows how marketing is continuing to grow and progress in its advancements. When thinking about the future of marketing on social media outlets, it is encouraging to realize that if marketing has come as far as it has so far, one can only imagine how much farther it will continue to go.
Advertising and marketing is a constantly changing business. As the world and its business outlets continue to grow and become more and more advanced, marketing also has to step up and grow as well. Technology is becoming a daily changing field, a field that allows brands and businesses to continue to support both marketers and themselves. Marketing has slowly transformed into a field that is not only a constant in day to day life, but it has become a complete necessity. Marketing has not only changed the world, it has also started to become the world, and social media marketing is just a stepping stone to the future.
