Numerous people mentioned in their discussion posts the website Facebook.com. It seems this website has taken the world by storm.
“Over 1 million new users signed up every week, 200,000 daily, totaling over 50 million active users. Facebook received 40 billion page views a month. Long gone were the days of Facebook as a social network for college students. 11% of users are over the age of 35, and the fastest growing demographic is users over 30. Facebook has also seen huge growth internationally; 15% of the user base is in Canada. Facebook users’ passion, or addiction, to the site is unparalleled: more than half use the product every single day and users spend an average of 19 minutes a day on Facebook. Facebook is 6th most trafficked site in the US and top photo sharing site with 4.1 billion photos uploaded.”
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook
This website is a social-networking hot spot for individuals, companies, etc. looking to connect. Facebook recently signed a contract with Microsoft that will allow them to become the website’s search engine. “The deal fills a significant gap in Facebook’s service. When people are using the social network and have questions, they have to leave Facebook to go to a search engine. With the new search toolbar on the page, users can stay on Facebook while making their queries.” Although some out there are saying that Google is in a better position to take on this challenge, Microsoft is pushing forward. So while Facebook’s competing website uses Google for search/search Ads, it is hoping to break new boundaries using Microsoft instead. The problem that seems to keep coming up however, is the difficulty executives are facing in effectively advertising to people who really may only be using these sites for socializing. None the less, Facebook right now has over 50 million active users who are logging on to the website for a plethora of reasons. The way I see it, is it can’t hurt to have an advertisement shown on a site that is frequented so often. Eventually the advertisements shown will stand out to someone who is looking for something and a connection will be made. The only question I continue to think about is Facebook has overthrown Myspace…so who and what is going to overthrow Facebook? You know it’s coming.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/business/media/25adco.html
The second form of media that caught my interest is word of mouth advertising/networking. “In a world where blogs are as common as bumper stickers and YouTube has made viral videos as hot as Napster downloads were in their heyday…” advertisers are hoping to find their next hit from the bedroom of some kid.
“Meanwhile, inexpensive digital cameras, more-powerful computers, easy-to-use editing and publishing software and the proliferation of broadband makes it easy for anyone with a laptop and some imagination to express himself or herself in hitherto out-of-reach ways.”
There are even websites set up where people can enter video-Ads on their favorite and/or least favorite companies for review. While some in the Advertising industry think that user-made Ads will not make a large impact on the advertising world, others beg to differ. I happen to be one of those people who disagrees. The loyal consumers of the brands that are out there get to know the products they buy and use almost intimately. The products may be part of their everyday lives and if so, who would know how to get others to take notice of the product than the people who live, breathe, eat and sleep it. Luckily, because word of mouth advertising/networking has become so popular and great websites such as youtube exist, this media medium is still going strong.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-147510.html
