Social Slideshow Ads

Advertisement is always evolving, now it is transforming to social slideshow ads. Although to a normal person, slideshow ads may seem like just another way of advertisement and there is no real difference, this form of advertisement is actually a lot more effective. To me personally, these kinds of advertisements are slightly more interesting because I always want to see what the next page holds so more time than not I slide it to see else there is. It also depends on what it being advertised, if it is something I'm not interested in at all then I just don't bother with the ad at all, but if it something I am semi interested in then the slideshow ad appeals me to the ad just a little bit more. These ads have also made a difference, wordstream.com states, "These ads also work! Take the sock company Stance for instance;comparing their static image ads to slideshow ads, they saw a decrease in cost per acquisition by 48%, a 2.42X increase in click-through-rate, and a 1.48 increase in return on ad spend." This makes a huge difference when talking about a big company such as stance and how much slideshow ads have actually helped. Overall companies should give out slideshow ads a try because it doesn't hurt to try.

A trend that his been getting a lot of publicity in the past couple months, and will continue to get even more in the next year is video advertising. Video advertising has become the new way to advertise, mostly because it is a better way to advertise. How many people are engaged and really interested when they see an ad, especially one that don't catch your attention. Now with video advertisements, companies get a much better chance to catch the consumer's attention and find a great way to sell them their product. Video advertising is a great tool because it allows you to do so much more with advertising then just put up a simple ad. Videos are here to stay, especially in advertisement. Videos appeal to people a lot more, so why wouldn't companies use videos to send a message to people and they are also more cost effective than print advertising. These videos can be seen literally everywhere, compared to print advertising where they can only be see on print. If you are home and are just in bed all day, companies can still get their advertisement to you because of the internet. It is not only a better way but overall more effective and efficient. Overall video advertisement brings in more attraction and is only beneficial, so if your company isn't already using it as a way to advertise then they are losing out.

Cross device marketing is another trend that can be very popular in the near future. Today it is common for people to use five or more devices to shop, go on social media, or perform other task online. Soon enough companies will find a way to tell that it is the same person who is using the smartphone that is also using a certain laptop and tablet at home. This can very well be in our near future and is being worked on as of right now. This can help marketing in more ways than imaginable. If data can be collected for a certain human being who is surfing the web at work as well as the data from home or on the go, then marketers will have more information than ever. This will be a huge step and can possibly be a trend for several years. Overall cross device marketing is possibly the most enticing way to market because of how much more knowledge producers will have.

This past summer we saw what could lead to the future of games and apps. Pokemon Go was a massive hit and although it has calmed down over the past few months, it showed that AR (augmented reality) games are something of the future and there definitely is a future in them. Now that companies see that this can be a success right now in the gaming community and possibly even more in the future, this is something we might see a lot more of in 2017. Along with VR (virtual reality) and AR games, consoles and headsets we could also end up with AR ads. There have been some AR ads in the past but not many where they have dominated to the market. This is what social media marketing might lead to in the future. AR advertising should be an interesting and possibly better way to connect with the consumers by connecting with them in ways that was impossible to do so before. There are endless possibilities that come with AR because even though they might not be there in the real world, anything can be seen in the virtual world. Overall I believe AR is a great way to market because of so many opportunities. Ideas to market to the targeted audience don't have to be simplified anymore and can now be literally out of this world when it comes to marketing to people.

Hashtags

Although hashtags have been around for a while now, they are still very popular. For people who don't know what hashtags are they are simply words followed by this (#). For example today people on twitter will say something like this (Thank you to all the troops who have served our country #veteransday). There are many purposes of this tool. For starters everyone who uses that hashtag with their tweet or message can be seen if you look up that hashtag. This is actually a very cool and useful tool because if you want to see everyone's opinions or comments on the topic all you have to do is search for the phrase and everyone who ever said something about it will pop out. Another purpose is to get a topic to trend. For instance if everyone tweets #mambaday which was a day to honor Kobe Bryant then #mambaday will be trending and everyone can see all the popular tweets about it. A lot of people used this when they were out honoring or celebrating Kobe's day. Lastly the most important way hashtags can be used for companies is to get whatever product or service they have popular with a cool hashtag in order to get people or their consumers/fans using the hashtag in order for it to get popular. This way it gets around to all of social media and everyone knows about it. Some hashtags can help companies out a lot while other hashtags could actually give companies a bad rep. Overall hashtags are a great tool for everyone but just make sure you know how to use them properly and to your advantage.

Last week in my Social Media Marketing class we had an assignment regarding buy buttons. Buy buttons are pretty much a shortcut on social media sites that allow you to skip all the little stuff and go directly to buying the item. These buy buttons were a trend in 2015. In 2016, not so much and are even failing in social media sites and apps. Buy buttons were turning social media into commercial media, and this is one of the big reasons why I believe they failed. If people wanted to go shopping then they would actually go shopping or surf the web on other websites. People go on social media for pleasure and to see what is going on in their lives or their friend's lives. This is where I believe social media such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter all made a bad decision, because I myself hate to see buy buttons promoting me to buy something when I am trying to keep updated on social media. Although I do believe buy buttons failed, I feel like they can be successful in certain situations and used limited, not being used everywhere harassing the users which in end make them ignore in all. It is a great strategy to increase revenue but at the same time it comes at a cost, which we have seen this past year with buy buttons falling out of the loop. Another problem that was encountered was the fact that most consumers are already use to going to Amazon for shopping. People are wondering what they really need Buy Buttons for and if they would really use them. Myself personally do not like using them either because I usually do not like my card information saved and rather take the extra minute to input my information in again then have it stolen and something be charged to my card. Overall I think buy buttons can excel in the right situations, but for the most part should be kept out of social media platforms such as twitter and instagram.

Snapchat is great for social media marketing, and it is here to stay in 2017. Before today I never really recognized Snapchat as a social media marketing tool, until I realized that...well they are. I myself follow many companies on this social media application. At first I only used Snapchat to talk to friends, then I started to follow celebrities and lastly companies started to use the it as well in order to deliver information about products, keep their fan base alert, and release updates. Snapchat is one of the fastest growing social media networks and has over 100 million active users every single day. So if you were thinking of marketing on any social media network, this would be it. In a way snapchat is all of social media put together, where you can take pictures of your activities, videos of live events (which many companies do) in order to get an insight of what goes on behind the scenes, or deliver private content to friends. Snapchat is easily my favorite and most used social media. There are several ways companies can use Snapchat in order to market. For example if I am Nike and I am in charge of their Snapchat I would provide live updates, insight to behind the scenes, hold contests in order to keep my fan base active and involved, and even partner with other companies in order to expand my fan base. There is so much to do on Snapchat that it would be crazy for companies not to be on it.