Social media giant Facebook
Introduction
Social media giant Facebook gathers a myriad of data on users that extends beyond the necessary information they readily provide, such as name, date of birth, and interests. Facebook uses over 100 different data points to classify a user’s interests and activities. This includes necessary information, but also more complicated information such as a user’s possessions, relationship status, and purchases on other websites. Using location tracking, Facebook is also able to gather data on users’ whereabouts, such as where they live, work, and frequent regularly. Facebook allows advertisers and marketers access to its users through targeted advertisements.
Analysis
Facebook generates a majority of its revenue by selling advertisers and marketers access to its users (Clement, 2020). Marketers and advertisers can then leverage on Facebook’s powerful targeting mechanisms to engineer content. Lee et al. (2018) note that content engineering has become increasingly crucial by enabling the development of advertisements that better engage with targeted audiences. Facebook provides access to diverse target demographics that advertisers and marketers can exploit to create and deliver advertising content and customized promotions. If advertisers, for example, are promoting a brand of motorcycle tires, Facebook can pick out users who own motorcycles. When this is combined with demographic and location data, businesses can advertise using a more personalized and targeted approach (Wiese et al., 2020).
In addition to establishing profiles of specific audiences, Facebook enables advertisers and marketers to package their advertisements and patterns in ways that increase engagement. Most advertisements on the platform are designed to resemble normal user content (Wiese et al., 2020). The inability of Facebook users to distinguish between ads and typical posts enables brands to engage with audiences organically. Businesses can also use Facebook to grow their social media following, and leverage on that following to publicize information on new products and campaigns (Lee et al., 2018).
Advertisers and marketers can also improve their efforts by understanding the factors that predict engagement. In their study, Sane & Wiese (2018) found influencing attitudes and subjective norms to be the most effective strategy for increasing user engagement with Facebook advertisements. Jung et al. (2016) state that findings identify peer influence as having the most impact on user attitudes and behaviors across all social networks. Lee et al. (2018) further find humor, emotional, and philanthropic content to resonate most with Facebook users. While Facebook is a valuable digital marketing tool, it has faced criticism for the way it handles user data and privacy.
Benefits
Facebook offers numerous advantages for digital marketing and advertising. The primary benefit is the ability to develop advertising campaigns for specific audiences. Fine-tuned targeted marketing allows for entrepreneurs to maximize their advertising initiatives. With over 2.4 billion active monthly users (Clement, 2020), Facebook provides businesses with maximum visibility and broad audience scope. Advertising on Facebook is relatively cheaper than other platforms, including Google (Dudharejia, 2017), enabling enterprises to make the most of their advertising budgets. Ninety-eight percent of Facebook users access the platform via mobile (Clement, 2020), giving companies access to this audience that interacts with the platform multiple times a day. Facebook offers metrics to evaluate marketing and advertising campaigns. Through likes, clicks, impressions, comments, and fans, businesses can gain insight into reach, audience reactions, conversions, and other social metrics (Turnbull & Jenkins, 2016). By providing these metrics in real-time, advertisers and marketers can adjust their campaigns as necessary.