Harriston+K+Final+Report

Harriston K

A Next Generation Connection Proximity Research Report
 * Proximity **

**Businesses And Social Networking**

//How Businesses are using Social Networking Sites to Connect to New Consumers//

By Kendra Harriston

Spring 2010

 **Table of Contents** Executive Summary Introduction: Affects of Social Media on Advertising Today How Gen-Y Males and Females use Facebook The Impact Of Facebook On A Small Photography Business Advertising Options on Facebook

** Executive Summary ** Since the beginning of online social networks, more and more people are staying connected to the internet more than ever. With this connectivity, it may block businesses from reaching a particular demographic, more specifically Generation-Y. This generation today can no longer be reached by traditional advertising methods such as newspapers, magazine ads, and radio commercials. Since Gen-Y typically congregates on the heavily popular social networking site Facebook this is the best place for businesses, small or large to start establishing a presence in order to advertise to the Gen-Y crowd.

**Introduction: Affects of Social Media on Advertising Today** With the internet being so accessible to Gen-Y, traditional advertising is just not going to work as well as it did ten years ago. Along with Facebook an overabundance of the social media sites have come about allowing more people with diverse interests to come together online. The ever expanding demographics that appear on these allow almost any type of business to find the right consumer(s) to appeal to. Also with advertising on social media sites, it would be considered advertising on a budget.

**How Gen-Y Males and Females use Facebook** Ever since Facebook launched back in February 2004, it has become one of the most popular social networking sites on the internet. There are currently 400 million active members on the site, and about 50% of those members access the site each day.

**Figure 1**. Breakdown of male and female members of Facebook by age group. Source: [|http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/01/04/december-data-on-facebook’s-us-growth-by-age-and-gender-beyond-100-million/]

 **Figure 2**. The grouping of Facebook members by age group Source: [|http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/01/04/december-data-on-facebook’s-us-growth-by-age-and-gender-beyond-100-million/]

In a focus group conducts with students from Towson University it was reported that majority of both males and females use the  site to keep in touch with their friends and family, view photos, and play games. Both genders also access the site through mobile devices, but were split on the idea of businesses on Facebook. The male participant thought that businesses on Facebook were "not really necessary," but on the other hand, the other male and three female participants said that businesses having a presence on the site was a good idea and "its smart because Facebook is so addicting [and] its sure to raise profit [for businesses].

**The Impact Of Facebook On A Small Photography Business** Even if a business does decide to go through with advertising on Facebook, there is always that slim chance that businesses may not garner any buzz from the site. That would be commonly true for small businesses, but that is not the case. In Minnesota there was a local photography business called "CM Photographics" that decide to try their hand at Facebook advertising. In the ad they placed on Facebook it said "Recent engaged? CM Photographics would love to be a part of your event. Mention this ad for $500 off!" along with a wedding photo that one of the photographers shot. CM Photographics' ad was able to accommodate the 24-30 year old female demographic. According to Facebook, //"Over 12 months, CM Photographics generated nearly $40,000 in revenue directly from a $600 advertising investment on Facebook. of the Facebook users who were directed to CM Photographics' website from the ads, 60% became qualified leads and actively expressed interest in more information."// Chris Meyer, who runs CM Photographics definitely agrees that Facebook advertising is quite successful and beneficial. "My business wouldn't be anywhere close to where it is today if it weren't for Facebook, and the ads campaign."

**Advertising Options on Facebook** On Facebook you have two types of advertising options: pages and ads. The "page" option is used to gain the attention of users. When users become a "fan" or "like" your page business can then see who is exactly affiliated with your group/company and allows businesses to send out messages and or notifications to these users about events, promotion, etc. For the ad approach, businesses can create keywords that will be used to target ads at particular users. For example, All Nippon Airways used keywords that were related to traveling to Japan and Japanese culture to target that specific audience that could be interested in the airline. Success through these pages and ads are figured out by the CTR, or Click Through Rate, as in how many people have clicks on the ads and or links to the page.

**Attachment 1: Social Media Revolution** This Youtube video posted by the user “Socialnomics09” back in July 2009 displays all the statistics for various social media sites-from how many users they have, the sites’ demographics, and how they have just annihilated traditional media. media type="youtube" key="sIFYPQjYhv8" height="385" width="640" Smith, Justin. (2010, January 4). December data on facebook's us growth by age and gender: beyond 100 million . Retrieved from [] Getting started with facebook for companies . (2009, April 7). Retrieved from [] 
 * References:**

Facebook advertising . (2010). Retrieved from [] Socialnomics09. (Artist). (2009). Social media revolution . [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8