Research findings from TNS- a global research firm reveal that 57% of the global users who engaged with social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter are not bothered to listen to what big brands have to say them through such networking platforms. I know it seems to be such a pessimistic view for most of us since we have become so sick about advertising with these social networking sites where we have come to a conclusion that our brands won’t survive if not doing so...Yes..I see it as a ‘might be’ view where we can neither point out a Yes or No. But before throwing any conclusions, I would like to present a few interesting outlines from the report. This research was conducted among 72 000 consumers in 60 countries. Both from the developed countries and developing countries, more than half of the respondents said that they never wanted to listen to the advertisements in the online social networking platforms.
So that, are we going to come to a conclusion that all the advertisements in the social networking platforms should be considered as digital wastes and they never give a good rate of ROI to their businesses. No...it is not about concluding either Good or Bad or Waste or Not. Now..let’s come to our discussion. Consumers show their unwillingness to listen to the messages in the social networking sites as they feel polluted. Everyone seems to advertise in social networking sites and every brand tries to convert messages to their target audiences. Hence, the ultimate result here is going to be that too many messages from too many brands and it becomes an irritating factor for the users to remember who actually said what. Hence, it is ultimately the noise that interferes the communication and no matter how much users are willing to what brands have to say them.
Moreover, advertisers have been reportedly complaining that Facebook Ads have a very low percentage of Click Through Rate (CTR). Yet, the positivism is that the advertisers only have to pay when they get clicks while they serve thousands of impressions free. Even though, they (advertisers) complain about the low rate of CTR, they should also look at the positive side where they serve millions if not at least a few thousands of impressions free, which rocks an opportunity for their Ads to gain a possibility of being seen by their target users.
Yet, another weakness that arises when advertising with social media platforms is that the standard or quality maintenance becomes questionable. Anyone (even the porn sites) can go to those sites and advertise if they have a smart budget. I feel it may question on the quality of an established brand that advertise in the same place where a cheaper brand does the same.
However, social media is still a valuable place not only to advertise but also to create a list networks for a business if the messages are converted to the right markets in a right way. I think brands must work on subconscious stimulations when they advertise in the social media networks. Subconscious stimulations are used in Tele-texting campaigns when big brands advertise themselves during big events such as World-cup and Olympic are telecasted where you would have noticed small symbols or messages or pictures in the corner your screen...yes, such advertising techniques are used to create long term effects by subconsciously positioning brands in consumers’ minds or subconsciously converting messages to them. The reason for using this short and sweet strategy is that no one will want to listen what the sponsors have to tell them ...people will be dying to know who is going to win...contrarily all advertisers will be dying to promote their brands at any cost. But for the audiences, they get too many messages from too many brands while they remain tension as they are focused on the event and not in the commercials. This is where a subconscious approach will work better, where we are expected to use Short and interesting messages with a proper identification of keywords that will attract our audiences. Yes, the same strategy should be used in social networking sites as well as we know our audiences will not bother to click and see what we have to say and yet the message can be converted to them in a clear way if it is simple and effective.
By
Mathangie
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