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Hayli Keith
Mrs. DeBock
English 4 Honors
November 19
The Effect of Social Media on Advertising
Advertising is a perfect way to display a good or service on the market, but the question
that companies are always faced with is this: how is it possible to reach the widest audience
possible while still being able to intrigue the people? As technology progresses, researchers are
discovering new ways to cover a larger span of an audience through the act of advertising online.
Media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram now use data bases that take notes of the
things people like, share, and post to help create personalized ads to draw in viewers attention.
According to Tsukayama, advertising online is not only beneficial to the corporations but could
potentially benefit the social media outlet itself by generating more interest and activity. The
growth of social media has expanded the opportunity to advertise online, create more
personalized ads, and reach a wider audience; advertising online does not always turn out to be
as beneficial as originally planned.
Advertising agencies and industry professionals use ads that showcase user-generated
data and campaigns in order to draw in more of an interest with consumers, according to
Marchese. The term "user-generated advertising" is misleading because it downplays the review
and selection processes that advertisers control when user-generated content is featured in
advertising campaigns. The creative process is key to generating an appealing ad so by collecting

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insight from social media into what people are most interested in; businesses can construct the
most efficient advertisement possible. Not only can businesses benefit from gaining inside
information about what people prefer, but social media outlets can benefit by displaying more
personalized ads. This mutual relationship creates a situation where business leaders and
marketing strategists get an inside look into what people are most interested in while the social
media outlets themselves get to display the more personalized ads which makes the online users
more interested with the site or app. According to Simpson, it has been found that ads which hold
a higher emotional attachment in consumers' minds will generate more engagement on social
media; because humans instinctively react more to content that emotionally resonates with them
rather than just trending items. Not only does advertising online with the help of user-generated
data bases create more personalized ads but it also helps to interest more people and to create a
wider audience for marketing campaigns.
For each type of new social media outlet that is created, a new form of online advertising
is put into play. There are different types of ads for outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram. For example, in 2011 the Florida Rays advertised over Facebook to draw in attention
to their baseball games. According to Trigaux, the Rays social media managers gained extreme
popularity for the team by posting ad campaigns that used videos of fan memories of the 2008
Cinderella season that took the Rays from worst to first in the American League and into the
World Series. Statistics show that the value of the Rays increased five percent due to the upsurge
in the rate of awareness and spread of information through social media. Ciaran Norris, head of
social media at the WPP agency Mindshare, says: "Last year was definitely a tipping-point for
social media. Advertisers can now see it is not just for kids, it is not just for geeks - that was the
worry before. More clients are asking about what we can do in social media, what we can do that

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does not risk damaging the brand." According to Marchese, researchers believe the key to
making advertising work on Facebook, or any social media really, is to ensure it is "consistent
with users' expectations". This means not interrupting the user with too many conventional
banner advertisements at the top or side of the page. Annoying users would counteract the whole
purpose of trying to become personal and advertise online. Although advertising through social
media has become a beneficial tool to businesses, there are countless examples of social media
backfiring.
Social media has been embraced as an effective new way to reach consumers, but what
happens when behavior on social media is deemed antisocial? An incident with AFLAC occurred
when Gilbert Gottfried, the comedian who supplies the voice for the squawking duck character
in most AFLAC commercials, started to post jokes to his personal Twitter feed (@RealGilbert)
about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, his harsh remarks affected a market that accounts for
75 percent of Aflac's revenue. According to Elliott, Gilbert's comments about the crisis in Japan
lacked in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at AFLAC.
Another situation occurred when an employee of New Media Strategies, an agency handling the
Twitter account for the Chrysler brand that is aimed at consumers (@ChryslerAutos), posted a
comment there that read, ''I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one
here knows how to drive.'' Between ''to'' and ''drive'' there happened to be a vulgarity that
reflected negatively towards Chrysler; not only was the statement vulgar, but it could be taken
offensively. According to Spanier, the liberties that have been created by the internet and by
social media must be balanced against the idea that there is accountability and a responsibility of
being the person paid by someone to do a job. These situations are examples of where a
spokesperson for a company acts out by saying something vulgar and unappealing on social

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media, in which it then gets negatively turned around on the business. Although advertising is an
important aspect of marketing for businesses, they have to be careful when choosing who
represents their company. Representation is a large part of advertising and companies want to
make sure that they choose someone who is a favorable, well-known person as well as someone
who is respectable and politically correct. Anything negative that a representative of the
company does or says could reflect negatively on the company, and could potentially put a
damper on consumer loyalty to a specific brand or corporation. This is a crucial point is
marketing due to the fact that it shows how the relationship between advertising and social media
is not always a positive thing and could create impending backlash.
The growth of social media has expanded the opportunity to advertise online, create more
personalized ads, and reach a wider audience; advertising online does not always turn out to be
as beneficial as originally planned. Engineers work on products that compile and analyze data
from social networks to help companies glean more information about their customers.
Businesses could benefit by paying attention to trending items on social media; it could give
them an inside look into what people are truly interested in. The opportunity to focus more
closely on social media is an important tool; advertising over social media is a huge marketing
opportunity and could potentially become a more strategic way to gain consumers. By paying
more attention to what people really care about and creating more personalized ads, people will
be more interactive with ads through social media. As advertisements online become more
personable and interesting to users due to the use of user-generated data, companies have the
potential to reach a wider audience and increase their marketing base. While the expansion of
advertising online increases the amount of potential consumers, companies have to be cautious of
how they go about advertising. With the wrong representation, a company could receive negative

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backlash which could damage the name of the company and potentially ruin their reputation. The
expansion of social media has tremendously helped and increased companies availabilities to
advertise online, however, there are many aspects to consider before going fully virtual with their
ad campaigns.

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Works Cited
Elliott, Stuart. "When the Marketing Reach of Social Media Backfires." The New York Times 16
Mar. 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Marchese, Joe. "User-Generated Content Does Not Threaten Advertising." User-Generated
Content. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. At Issue. Rpt. from "The
Myth of 'User'-Generated Advertising." Online Spin. 2007. Opposing Viewpoints in
Context. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
Simpson, Kirsty. "New Strength for Old Media." The Sydney Morning Herald 13 July 2012.
Fairfax Media Publications. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Spanier, Gideon. "Brands Get Social with Facebook Generation; Advertising & Marketing." The
London Evening Standard 25 Jan. 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Trigaux, Robert. "Tweeting Rays Want to be Your Friend." St. Petersburg Times [St. Petersburg,
FL] 26 Mar. 2011: 4B. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Tsukayama, Hayley. "SocialCode Hires 15 Employees From Digg.com." Washington Post 10
May 2012. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.