Facebook's 'like' button as an additional form of advertising

            In advertising today, the obvious change has been the eruption of Facebook and other social networks in order to communicate to consumers differently. After looking at Facebook in terms to an advertising medium, I have been specifically intrigued by the “like” button everywhere. Not only has Facebook changed the way companies have been advertising lately, but simply the “like” button has been another aspect of this advertising that has been looked over, in my opinion.

            Everywhere you go on the net, it seems as if the Facebook “like” button is everywhere. For products and services, or even on articles all over the WEB, the like button is there. Small companies and even DJ’s are including the “like” button on their pages. This is a form of advertising that lets consumers know that that these products or services, or this company is respected and trusted. Just as in viral communication from advertising, this is very similar. Viral communication, referring to the verbal communication or face-to-face communication of people speaking about a specific product, or commercial. The like button is way that consumers still communicate to others about this product, service, or company. I think the like button can be utilized to be very persuasive, however, I also think that sometimes it can NOT work in the favor of the company. When I go to a site that has a like button for a company and there are “0” or not many likes from people, I tend to not think very highly of that product, service, or company as a whole. In short, the “like” button on Facebook can be a great asset for advertising if utilized and communicated to consumers properly as for communicating to consumers the  importance of “liking” the product, service, or company as a whole; if they do, in fact, “like” whatever it is.

Facebook's orgiginal ideals changed for profits of advertising?

           

           After watching the movie The Social Network  I began to wonder some of the things the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was thinking when he created Facebook and if those thoughts are still views he has today? In the movie, during the beginning of the creation of Facebook, he argued with all of his partners that he did not want to monetize Facebook by making advertising an aspect of the medium. However, is that still true today?

            The movie suggested that the creator did not want any advertising on Facebook, but today, there is tons of advertising on Facebook, and that is one of the many reasons why the company is worth over $25 billion. As to the question, should Facebook include advertising, or how much is too much? I think Facebook does not have “too much” advertising, with just the bar on the right-hand side. However, I think they could gain enough profits from people being able to link their businesses from their businesses’ homepages, to their Facebook page, and charge them for home many hits occur in this fashion. Either way, it is not up to me, or anyone else to decide, obviously Facebook is a company that will do what they want, as the movie suggested, Mark Zuckerberg: “I am the CEO, bitch.”

Mobile media helping advertisers communicate to a multicultural society?

                      

            Last year in the spring semester,  I took a course called the “cultures of new media” and in that class we learned about the whole history of art and technology and how they have erupted to be used in the creations of these mediums we use today called “new media.” Within the class, we did talk about mobile media and how that has changed people ideals and everyday lives. In this specific section, I learned that more minorities use mobile media than the majority of people in the United States. Currently, I am wondering if advertisers will continue of this idea and try to advertise more on mobile handsets, but I will argue that they already have.

            I know with the Android market, the “free apps” come at the cost of having advertisers actually pop up on your mobile handset. This is my evidence that advertisers are forking over the costs of making these “free apps” available, in order to market to individuals. As mobile media continues to thrive, I also wonder if this type of pop up adds on mobile handsets has been successful.  . . or not. Minorities seems to use mobile media than others forms of media, and the other majority uses mobile media more everyday . . . one would think this should work.

Multiculturalist America changes advertiser's game plans

When the likes and views of people around the world changes, or more importantly, anyway people’s daily lives are changes with viewpoints, it is important to notice what those changes are. For advertisers, they have to gain the likes of consumers by communicating ideas and products that consumers around the world can identify with and respect as something that can represent themselves. Now, it is important to understand how the U.S. especially is becoming much more multicultural and assimilation is at-hand.

            According to Jack Neff of Advertising Age, he said in his article "How U.S. Assimilation is Changing Marketing Rules” that advertising is becoming even more complex because advertising can’t just advertise to certain “tribes” of groups, but everyone seems to assimilate to the U.S. and ideals are becoming more broad. Advertising, one would think, would like this idea, but they are actually have problems identifying with what these broad ideals are and how one can communicate an advertising campaign to gain the respect of everyone in multicultural America. This article also including a visual graph from the U.S. Census that states “foreign-born U.S. population” is declining. Basically, people are assimilating , and the fact that there are more marriages with people marrying individuals from other races and ethnic backgrounds is the evidence that these groups seen as separate are not as “separate” as they once were.

Future changes in China for companies in the next decade

            Advertising in China has been booming, as China has been recognized as the fastest growing economy in the world. However, China still has challenges, in order to continual change and win-over their consumers to help their economy continue to grow. With the eruption of so much different media we have today, including the newest social media and new media, advertising is becoming even more difficult.

            An article created by T.B. Song from Advertising Age called “Ten Trends Changing China Over the Next Ten Years” looked at the newest changes to China’s success in branding with advertising. These changes include: 1. Shifting mass communication to one-to-one communication with consumers/ 2. Changing the creation and distribution of branded entertainment/ 3. Converging online and offline marketing/ 4. Focusing on customer relationship management (CRM)/ 5. Creating campaigns that resonate with people/ 6. Minimizing turnover in companies and recruiting the best employees and retaining those employees/ 7. Building brands for the longer term, not the short term/ 8. Using several communication channels to communicate using many media platforms/ 9. Measuring the effectiveness of these communication channel approaches/ 10. Focusing on bigger picture items such as reducing pollution and recycling to be more “green.”

New Global Advertising from Budweiser

 As global advertising continues to grow and companies are seeing the need to advertise outside of their home countries, creativity is becoming a must and a universal campaign is also needed to entice consumers from all backgrounds and all areas of the world. Recently, companies, such as Budweiser, are now hiring global advertising companies to meet these needs in order to grow their companies. The hardest part has been finding a “global platform” in which the brand can “stand for one thing everywhere” (Mullman).

            An article in Advertising Age created by Jeremy Mullman looked at the global advertising for Budweiser and how they are trying to mere the success of Coca-Cola with their global advertising and success. As Budweiser’s slogan has been “The great American Lager” they are trying to create a universal one to be liked by people from all countries. Coke created a global slogan of “happiness” and Budweiser is now trying to learn from the best in order to pick their next advertising change which will resemble their brand at hand. Global advertising can be tricky, but as long as these companies stick to a universal idea understood by people of all differences, then they will be successful.