Using Social Media For Business Promotion by Caitlin

Most businesses nowadays promote their business through social media. This is one of the biggest ways for them to market their business inexpensively.

Businesses make pages that match your interests on social media by putting certain tags on their page. For example they might put up "Clothing" and if you have on your page that you are into going shopping then this is a way for them to target your page to advertise on. 

When a business makes a page on social media to promote their business, it wont cost them anything as social media is free to use therefore they can put up pictures of their products, reviews, advertising things soon to come out, etc. 

When you set up a business page on a social media website such as Facebook, people are able to write reviews about products on that page. For example; if I bought a top from a company that advertised on Facebook and it was of poor quality then I can write on their Facebook review page about how rubbish it was. Although a lot of businesses have to review the comments before they go up on their page for everyone to see therefore if they feel like your review isn't good enough to be on their page then they can decline it and your review will automatically be deleted. 

Different social media websites may advertise companies in different ways. Examples of this may be that Instagram only shows photos of the products, Twitter gives short statements and/or links to their online website for selling products, Facebook gives a lot more detailed information on the product and the company itself. This meaning that you get to find out more about the company and what it has to offer before you decide to go onto their official website to buy their products. 

If you make a comment about certain things such as baby toys to a friend on Facebook then Facebook automatically puts up an advertisement relating to this topic that you have just spoken about. Usually if baby toys have been brought up on a post then an advert for Mothercare or ToysRUs or SmythsToys pops up in hope that you go onto the page and purchase something. 

Advertising on social media in my opinion is a fast and easy way to make a profit for your business but in a way I feel that it is not right as social media should be used for purposes such as keeping in touch with family and friends, sharing stories and finding out information on important topics. If people want to shop then it shouldn't be done on social media. 

Macmillan Cancer Support have advertised on Facebook but this is good advertising as they are doing it for a good reason. They are raising money to provide specialist health care, information and financial support to people whose lives have been affected by cancer. They advertise things such as events they have coming up, where to donate and general information about cancer. This in my opinion is good advertising

Other advertisements are pointless. Its such things like selling clothes, books, etc and this isn't the use for Facebook. You should be advertising things that make a difference to peoples lives, not their wardrobes. The top businesses that advertise things such as clothes and products online are businesses like Boohoo, Boots, Amazon and Wish.com. This isn't what we should be using Facebook for. We should be raising awareness, not shopping.

It can cost anywhere between £2.21 and £7.11 to advertise on Facebook and depending on how many views and clicks that advertisements gets it will cost more. There for if it is £7.11 per 1000 clicks and a month later it goes up to 4000 clicks then that will cost the average person £28.44 to advertise for just one month on Facebook. People don't want to see things such as clothes and products on their Facebook page because if they did then they would type into a search engine and do it themselves. They don't need to be encourage to spend money when they are being harmless and speaking to family and friends online. They need awareness of things that everyday people are going through such as Macmillan Cancer and such companies like this. 

Cost of Advertising
Facebook	£7.11 Per 1000 Clicks
Instagram	£3.74 Per 1000 Clicks
Twitter	£3.00 Per 1000 Clicks
Snapchat	£14.97 Per 1000 Clicks

This table above shows the difference in cost between the four main social media sites: Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The one that will cost least to advertise is Twitter at £3.00 per 100 clicks whereas Snapchat is the highest with £14.97 per 1000 clicks. 

Below you can see the difference in the layout of each ad. Some are big and bold and stand out such as Twitter and Instagram whereas Facebook is just a small ad at the side of the page which can easily be ignored. Each of the social media websites have very short sentences so that it can grab the attention of the reader and a picture that may look interesting about the website that they are advertising. A way in which each of them are different is that they have their own certain type which they advertise. For example; Instagram shows alot of foods, Twitter shows alot of toys, business opportunities and football and Facebook shows alot of clothing websites. They are all different in their own way but they at the end of the day they are doing the same thing, advertising.

(from left to right) Instagram, Twitter and Facebook