Week 13A Online Advertising - Analysis of the Marketplace

Online Advertising is a big step up compare to traditional advertising. And advertising on your social media site is even better. As Kerpen points out in “Likeable Social Media”, when you put an ad in an online magazine instead of a paper magazine, you can get lots of useful information, such as how many people actually clicked on your ad and how many of those clicks ended in a sale. When you advertise on your own social media site, you can collect even more data about your customers because they are usually your followers, so you already have data on them even before the sale, and the data from the sale adds to this information. All this data can help you create better-targeted, more successful ads. Also, when they like and follow your social media site, they passively introduce you to their friends and followers – potential new customers! I think creating well-designed advertising for your social media followers is the most effective way to promote your business. If you know what your followers need and like, you can convert them to customers by showing them how your product or service meets their needs and likings. But if you want to reach a vary large number of possible future customers, a traditional campaign may be the way to go. However, you still need to make sure that your target audience is reading the magazine or listening to the radio station that you are planning to use for your ad.

In my research I looked at some smaller businesses that sell Mexican jewelry and a few larger businesses selling different kinds of jewelry. The largest company I picked was Swarovski, which is an international business. I found quite different social media advertising strategies in these businesses. In general, I found that the bigger the business, the more advertising they have on their social media site. I also found that for most of these businesses, large and small, their main advertising platform is Facebook. If they use Instagram, they use it to showcase products with the help of pictures. And if they use Twitter, they use it to build better connections with their customers.

Mexican Silver Store has no advertising at all on its Facebook page – their posts are only about promoting their blog. Mexico Sterling Silver and Corazón have a few advertisements. But Mexico Sterling Silver hides their discount offers so well, I am not sure many people find it. For example, in their post “Do you know the story of cupid and the bees? https://mailchi.mp/…/do-you-know-the-story-of-cupid-and-the…”, only after clicking the link will you see that they offer a 10 to 20% discount on different items.

Silpada and Swarovski are very different. The majority of their posts on Facebook are sales posts, and the posts are very efficient in that a single click takes the user directly to their product page where the product can be purchased. They have a well-established and recognized style which communicates with their audience well. Swarovski, which I am sure has the biggest budget, promotes its jewelry with the help of celebrities, glamorous photos, and videos. However, I feel like Silpada is closer to its customers, and communicates with them in a more meaningful way. Also, when they use user-generated content in an advertisement, it feels more realistic to me than seeing a celebrity endorsement with a Swarovski.