This document discusses social media advertising and its relationship with consumers. It provides an overview of the social media advertising industry and analyzes it using a PESTLE framework. Key points made include that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat are commonly used by businesses for advertising. The trends seen over the past five years include the rise of mobile payments/wallets in apps like WeChat in China and the growth of blogs/bloggers as marketing platforms. The conclusion recommends that businesses keep up with technological changes and be aware that social media sites may start charging for advertising.

1. The relationship between
consumers and social
media advertising
Name: Kayleigh Duffy, Catherine Smith
Student number: D00163876, D00171739
Word Count: 2,880
Date of submission: Tuesday 20th October 2015

2. Table of Contents
The relationship between consumers and social media advertising .................1
Brief background to topic and rationale for choosing this topic ....................3
Facebook and business advertising..............................................................3
Other social media sites for business advertising.......................................4
Overview of the industry.............................................................................6
Situational analysis...................................................................................6
Competitive structure of industry.............................................................8
Restrictions in the industry.......................................................................8
Economic factors associated with the industry..........................................9
Social aspects of the industry ...................................................................9
Trends in the Industry over the last five years............................................10
Conclusions and Recommendations ..........................................................11
Bibliography ................................................................................................12

3. Brief backgroundto topic and rationale for choosing this topic
We chose to do this topic because as young adults in the age of technology we have a great
interest in social media. By choosing this topic we are hoping to find out if there is any
connection between advertisements consumers see on social media websites and they’re
buying behaviour. As social media users we are constantly seeing more and more businesses
set up pages and advertise their products and services online. We want to find out if
consumers take action and buy these products they see online or even if they visit a particular
store because of an advert or business page shared on social media. Our focus is mainly on
students as a consumer as we feel that the younger generation are the main users of social
media today. With social media being such an affordable, easily accessible tool we can see
why many company’s opt to create social media pages on websites such as Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram. Advertising is usually an expensive part of marketing a product, and for
smaller businesses reaching a wide range of consumers may be virtually impossible.
However for both large and small businesses creating a social media account is often
inexpensive or free and can be seen globally. Ireland alone has a population of approximately
4,625,885 and according to Internet World Stats, 3,817,491 of these people are internet users.
That’s approximately 83% of the population with access to the internet and potential access
to a business’s social media advertisements. (Miniwatts Marketing Group) (Passport to Trade
2.0)
Facebookand business advertising
Our main focus on social media is Facebook, with more than 1.4 billion people using
Facebook, it has grown to be a social media giant, and we also feel it is the most used social
media website among students. (Statistics Brain Research Institute) Facebook is attractive to
businesses as they defiantly have the opportunity to reach potential customers all over the
world through Facebook. Students today are constantly online on Facebook on their phones
or tablets so they are always notified when they’re favourite brands, department stores or
restaurants are having a sale or what’s new on promotion.
Facebook have recently launched a ‘Facebook for Business’ site for businesses who are
willing to pay for advertising, this gives them the power to directly target their target

4. audience and reach people who are most likely to buy as a result of seeing a particular
advertisement. It also gives a business a chance to reach new customers and it’s a fast an
efficient way to interact with their existing customers in order to deal with any suggestions or
complaints that arise. (shih) Businesses are able to create pages on this site and have different
albums with pictures, post statuses regarding products or offers and also consumers can ‘like
share or comment’ under these to voice their opinion. This means that not only is Facebook a
brilliant way of promoting your product to the consumers and gaining more customers but it’s
also a platform from which a business can receive feedback from their customers. Feedback
is a huge factor in a business’s overall success as a business can tweak a product to make it
more consumer friendly based on the free information they can receive from their customers
on Facebook. (Facebook)
Other social media sites for business advertising
Twitter has become more prominent in the past 5 years in this particular industry. While a
business can upload pictures to this site they cannot be saved in separate albums. As well as
this, if a business wishes to ‘tweet’ something about their product the word count is more
limited then on Facebook. This isn’t necessarily a disadvantage however, which may be why
it’s still a popular choice in the social media advertising industry. Businesses can use Twitter
for short, effective messages regarding products targeted to busy customers who want to
receive quick, easy to read information rather than leisurely browsing through products.
Customers can also tweet the business back which means it’s also a good platform for
feedback. (Garst) Many technology based businesses use twitter if customers have questions
regarding a piece of technology they are having problems with so the businesses tech team
can tweet back and fix it. With over 1 million Irish tweets a day, Irish businesses have the
opportunity to reach a huge amount of Irish customers on a daily basis. (gillen)

5. Instagram which is owned by Facebook has also become popular with businesses. Instagram
focuses on the visual aspect of things. Businesses use Instagram to attract customers who
prefer to see the actual product their buying rather then reading detailed descriptions of it. If a
business creates an appealing poster or picture to post on the site it is a great way of catching
the consumer’s eye. (Garst)
Snapchat is a relatively new trend in the social media advertising industry. With Snapchat
businesses can take a photo or short video and send it directly the consumer’s phones or
tablets. However it’s quite limited as the ‘snap’ can only be viewed for 10 seconds and can
only be viewed once. This is almost a completely visual form of advertising as any words
attached are extremely limited. It can be an attractive way of advertising especially to the
younger generation as this app has become increasingly popular in the last year. One huge
advantage to using snapchat for a business advertisement is that you are able to see how
many times your picture or video was viewed if added it to the ‘my story’ section on your
businesses snapchat app. This can give businesses an idea of how many people are interested
in their product. (Garst)

6. Overview of the industry
Social media is huge in Ireland, with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google all having
their European headquarters based in Ireland we are well known for our social media usage.
(careers news)The social media industry is constantly changing and becoming more and more
advanced as people discover new ways of interacting with each other. Most large
organisations will use social media on a daily basis to interact with customers and market
their products and services. However not all companies use social media as a way of
advertising as some may find it confusing as to how exactly they can use social media to
promote themselves, while other companies just may not have the resources to do so.
Situational analysis
Upon conducting a situational analysis of the social media advertising industry we discovered
the following strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats:
Strengths: The social media industry has a lot in its favour, it is cost effective as creating
pages on most social media sites is relatively inexpensive or often completely free on
extremely popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Should a business choose
to create a page on one of these sites they can advertise their product to a worldwide audience
with no restrictions of opening hours or limited revenue. Social media advertising can often
do a large amount of the work itself, by simply posting your advertisement online the
consumer internet world will take over form there. Consumers tend to ‘like’ and ‘share’
advertisements they are interested in or know other people will be interested in and as this
circle of ‘liking and sharing’ posts continues the businesses advertisement is generating
hundreds of views, this is where the interest in the product or service advertised begins.
Weaknesses: As stated earlier over 80% of the world has internet access; however this means
that approximately 20% do not. (Miniwatts Marketing Group) This is a weakness in this
industry as it means there are limits to who can see you advertisement, depending on your
target market this could be a sizeable disadvantage. Another weakness is cultural or language
barriers. If a business chooses to create an advertisement in a particular language then
consumers who don’t speak that language won’t understand. Also companies need to be

7. careful as once something is shared on the internet it has the potential to go viral, if the
business is not careful this could have disastrous consequences.
Opportunities: The social media industry is continuously growing, more and more
opportunities and ideas are being created and designed each year. This gives companies a
various ways to promote and advertise themselves and their products or services. Firstly
internet connections are becoming stronger and more efficient as time goes by. This allows
connection worldwide to become more efficient and further progress with this technology
could be an opportunity for even more of the world to become connected, or for connection
to become even faster, better or less costly. As well as this, computers, laptops, mobile
phones and other pieces of technology used to connect to the internet are also always being
developed and invented. This is another huge opportunity in this industry as it always
develops new and better ways to access social media. Lastly, we often notice that businesses
social media pages hold competitions whereby they offer a certain product as a prize for
‘liking and sharing’ the businesses page. This is a sizeable opportunity as often their friends
also share it and so on which means more and more people will see their site. Often after only
giving away one product as a prize others become interested in that product or in the page
which results in generating more customers for the business.
Threats: Threats to this industry include unreliable internet connection which may be a
problem in certain parts of the world, this may mean potential customers aren’t going to see
some of your advertisements on days that their internet may be too slow or not working at all.
Also the cost of internet broadband in houses is an expense that most homes are unable to
afford, especially in recent years as our country experiences a recession; this can as a result
prohibit potential customers from viewing your advertisements online. Another threat is the
constantly changing popular social media sites, if a business does not choose the correct sites
to be on they could be associated with being an unpopular or backward business resulting in
loss of interest with consumers. (Lorette)

8. Competitivestructure ofindustry
With social media in order to stay ahead of your competitors you need to monitor how they
use social media to promote themselves and their products and services. By monitoring
they’re social media activities you can learn what works best for them and likewise what
doesn’t work. A business must also be able to adapt to change quickly because technology
today is constantly improving and changing, and if another competitor’s site looks more
attractive or appealing then consumers will be more attracted to them and are most likely to
stay on a business site for longer if they find it appealing. (brianoconn) Another competitor is
the more traditional forms of advertisement such as television, posters and magazines. This
can be quite a strong form of competition as many people may prefer to take the more
traditional approach to choosing their products for purchase. (Okoe)
Restrictions inthe industry
Politically, social media advertising may have certain restrictions. Some countries authorities
have banned or blocked certain social media sites. For example Facebook is banned in
countries like China and Syria and twitter is banned in countries such as China and Mexico.
This can restrict business from reaching potential customers in certain countries. Certain laws
and regulations associated with social media advertising also apply which differ from country
to country; it may be hard for a business to abide by all of these laws and regulations
successfully. (youRavi)

9. Economic factors associatedwith the industry
Economically, social media advertising appears to be a brilliant way forward. It uses limited
resources with the only costs associated being if a business chooses to pick a site with a sign-
up fee or if they choose to hire experts to create their advertisements. The social media
industry is constantly generating revenue through businesses and advertising, resulting in
consumers purchasing as a result of these advertisements and in turn generating income back
into the Irish economy.
Social aspects ofthe industry
Socially, social media advertising is a widely acceptable form of advertisement as most of the
world population can easily access it. There is no restrictions regarding different time zones
or working hours as its accessible all day and night. It’s also acceptable with those who are
environmentally conscious as it does not use any natural resources to create a page on a social
networking site so it is definitely environmentally friendly. Technically, social media
advertising appears to be the way of the future. With constant changing and improving
technology it’s becoming easier and better all the time. Devices are becoming faster and more
efficient and collecting and giving feedback between consumers and the business is becoming
more possible. (Adams)

10. Trends in the Industry over the last five years
With technology constantly changing and growing nearly every day, keeping up to date with
this is one of the social media industry’s greatest challenges.
1. China is way ahead when it comes to social media and advertising. While 2015/2016
is the year Ireland master in app purchasing China are ahead of the game with their
app ‘WeChat’. WeChat is a text messaging and call app, similar to WhatsApp (which
is owned by Facebook) in Ireland, however WeChat offers businesses the option to
create an account within this messaging app. (Kantar Media) This means a business
can advertise and promote their products and services to consumers through this app.
This is hugely beneficial to businesses as consumers using this app also have an
option to pay for products they see advertised, which in turn saves time and the hassle
of setting up other means of payment such as PayPal in order to make a purchase
online. This is possible through the mobile wallet function feature of WeChat which
allows consumers to complete these online purchases as well as offline transactions,
such as paying for taxis. While there are cultural barriers to overcome before adapting
this level of social media advertising, Ireland’s biggest social media sites such as
Facebook are continuously researching these types of ideas. (Wikipedia)
2. Blogs have become increasingly popular over the last number of years. Also with the
younger generation if they like a blog or the person/business promoting themselves
they tend to following them on a daily basis. Irish blogs in particular have taken off
and become known nationwide. Bloggers use social media websites such as YouTube,
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote themselves and their products.
(Redsicker)

11. Conclusions and Recommendations
In conclusion, by conducting our secondary research we found that the social media
advertising industry is becoming increasingly popular. Businesses are able to reach their
target audience with simply the touch of a button. With technology constantly improving,
the future is social media advertising. This is why we feel that students in particular as
consumers are influenced by business advertisements on social media.
We recommend that businesses keep on track of the constantly changing technology world
and regularly update or create easy to use Apps for phones and tablets if they wish to stay
ahead of their competitors. Also businesses need to be aware that as the social media
industry grows and more and more businesses choose to use social media for advertising,
the potential for other social media sites to follow in Facebooks footsteps and charge for
advertising to make a profit is high, resulting in an extra expense for a business.

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