Facebook and Advertising

This post will take at look at how Facebook and advertising has integrated, and in particular how Facebook has come to be used for Film and Television advertising. 

As discussed in an earlier post, social media reaches an extremely large audience and Facebook is one of the more commonly used social media websites. In his book, The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising, Perry Marshall says;

'For 10 years, whenever people asked us about where to start marketing on the internet, we had a simple proven answer: Google...Then Facebook advertising broke the rules. Facebook provides a different and powerful new channel to reach customers'

It can be seen from the figures on this graphic that an advertisement on Facebook has the chance to be seen by a large quantity and range of people. 

While traditional advertising on Facebook will be of benefit to advertise films and TV shows,  it is more involved methods that prove more beneficial. Another extract from Perry Marshall's book illustrates the innovative advertising opportunities made available through Facebook;

'Welcome to socially developed advertising software. As Facebook designers support these features, we advertisers are hungry to suggest more- Instead of just letting me send an ad to users on their birthdays, how about you let me advertise to their friends and families 30 days before the birthday? The opportunities are endless.'

When it comes to the advertisement of a film, most films will have their own Facebook page created well in advance of its release. Methods will be taken for these pages to gather as many 'likes' as possible. Word-of-mouse can be utilised by encouraging those fans who have already 'liked' the page to invite friends to do so too. These Facebook pages can be used to share any photographs, whether they be of glimpses behind the scenes or of official posters and advertisement graphics. These images can generate a high number of 'likes' which will result in them reaching an even larger audience which in turn will result in the Facebook page gaining more fans and popularity. For example, if Andrew 'likes' and image posted onto the Facebook page of a film they are looking forward to seeing, then that image may appear on the timeline of friends of Andrew, and the image may capture their interest and prompt them to go and explore the films Facebook page. The same can be said of status updates with information about the film or release date, and of videos such as trailers or exclusive clips from the film. 

Sources and Further Reading
   Marshall Perry, Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising, 2011 Entrepreneur Press

  http://www.business2community.com/facebook/track-specific-advertising-goals-in-facebooks-ads-      manager-0454119#!GM0K0

  Infographic http://vyrec.com/5-tips-berniaga-melalui-fanpage-facebook/