FACEBOOK FRENZY

FACEBOOK FRENZY

Facebook is a social networking site founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 which was originally aimed at university students now however it is used by masses of people all over the globe ranging from all ages, genders and classes. It provides the ability and opportunity to connect with anyone worldwide. As of March 2013 there were 1,100,000,000 Facebook users and 3.44 users added per second providing fresh meat for advertising companies to target. When joining Facebook you have to build a profile which involves giving your personal details such as age, gender, martial status, where you live etc. etc. smartly they also engage you to share your favourite music, TV series, sports, jobs and education. This all has an underlying reason its not just so your friends can check out what you like surely they know that already! It’s for direct efficient and effective advertising purposes. Its like taking candy from a baby. Most of us are probably guilty of not being fully aware of this when we first joined Facebook, I joined like 5 years ago and did not consider it. I started to realize that if I were searching for example clothes from Topshop online, boom the next time I went on Facebook on the right hand side would be links and advertisement about Topshop like latest deals and promotions. Or when I was booking a holiday, loads of holiday companies would appear on my news feed. The ads began to really bug me because even if I was just searching a random thing, it would appear on my Facebook. My friend told me about an Ad Blocker software that you can download which prevents any advertisements on any website that you access. I use ad block and love it!

However this is definitely a problem for Facebook as 92% of their revenue comes from advertisements, they have acknowledged that users are enabling this add on. In 2012 Sara Smith who was Facebook’s online sales operations manager reported that the cause of Facebook's low CTR (click transfer rate) has been ‘attributed to younger users enabling ad blocking software and their adeptness at ignoring advertising messages, as well as the site's primary purpose being social communication rather than content viewing’. So what does the future hold for Facebook? Is it still going to thrive on advertising or are they going to have to verge towards an alternative way of gaining revenue.

To begin with Facebook success was due to advertising as it provided potential advertisers with groups of people to target specifically due to the information users have provided. They were able to promote very successful advertising therefore had constant surge of revenue. However with users becoming aware of ad blocking software the success rate of advertising on Facebook is dropping. However companies and brands can develop ‘pages’ on Facebook in which users can ‘like’ allowing them to keep updated regularly with that particular company/brand e.g. Nike. This keeps advertising fresh as often these companies/brands release competitions online involving you to ‘like’ and share it on Facebook. Therefore spreading and building the companies awareness, although how long will this phenomenon last before users get fed up with advertising being splattered across their newsfeed. It has been released this week that Facebook are in the process of introducing a electronic savings and payment services in a bid to boost its appeal in emerging economies e.g. India and Africa. Check out this link http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2604159/Would-bank-Facebook-Social-network-rumoured-planning-electronic-money-services.html.

In my opinion Facebook is an intended social networking site that has turned into an advertising frenzy.