The New Form of Advertising

I am not even sure when social medias became the latest trend, but it has, and not only have social medias attracted younger generations, it has spread to adults, as well as businesses. One in particular that I automatically think of is Facebook. Facebook is an extremely well-known social media that companies are using as advertising tools. Oh, Twitter can also be included in that, because between Twitter and Facebook almost every company, corporation, restaurant, or store has a Facebook page or a Twitter page. It is somewhat disturbing.

I joined Facebook before coming to college as a way to meet new freshman that were attending Indiana University the same time as me. So what started as a social networking site to me, has turned into people asking me to become fans of their products or company. According to Direct Traffic Media, "The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are widening their net of influence to include promotions through new media sources like Twitter and Facebook as social networks become a more prominent advertising tool for businesses". The original idea of Facebook has completety shifted in the last couple of years since I started using the site. What started as being a social networking site has now become a promotional social site.

There is so much one can do on Twitter and Facebook that can promote a product or company, of course businesses are willing to adapt to the new and improved technology. Slowly less and less papers and magazines are being published because more stuff is being produced and updated online, no one has time to sit and read the paper. People are catching up on CNN.com while sitting on the bus going to class. As I've mentioned before, technology has really taken a turn, and I can only imagine what will become of these social medias. Businesses have every intention of making online promoting through social medias an important job, in fact, this might be the ideal position for a young college graduate who spent more time on Facebook or Twitter than they did studying for a test, well, assuming that is the case for some.

It will be very interesting to see the kind of advertising that comes through this social medias and how they were learn to advertise specifically to each individual. This was something we started discussing in class, the idea of specialization and to what extent will businesses use Facebook and Twitter as a way to map your likes and dislikes and use your "information" to cater advertisments special for each individual. Kind of scary to think about.