The Internet, also known as the “Cyber Media” or the “New Media” is one of the most powerful tools discovered by science – and is a blessing to mankind. It has the ability to compete with the other forms of media in terms of speed, space and simplicity. Internet possesses the unique characteristic of bringing the world news at our fingertips just with the help of a click. It provides us an ocean of information through the various search engines like the Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia etc. Last but not the least the Internet generates enormous revenue through several advertising endorsements.
The social networking sites in Internet (Orkut, Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, Youtube etc) play a significant role in marketing various goods and services. These social networking sites are an excellent pathway of connecting millions of people throughout the world. People are able to contact and interact with one another which generate greater awareness. Thus several advertising endorsements posted in these sites will attract the attention of consumers than the ads posted in other websites. A number of people come across ads posted in Orkut like matrimonial websites advertisements, car ads, etc.
Advertisements can be animated graphics, motion pictures or still images – their main aim is to grab customer attention, subsequently get them to buy your product or service so that you make money.
Like the other social networking sites, “Twitter” is another place with the help of which brand recognition can be built. Unlike other social media marketing (SMM), twitter is much simpler, easier, and faster. Moreover, twitter offers several advantages too.
Firstly, sending e-mails to people individually is time consuming. Instead of wasting time and energy doing that, one can just post all company alerts here. Customers are updated on the latest alerts as soon as they login to twitter – just at a glance.
Secondly sales can be increased by offering discounts on twitter. Customers can be motivated to join twitter by offering special discounts unique to twitter. It goes a long way in capturing the interest of people.
Thirdly, a sense of fraternity is created through the use of twitter. The customers should be made to feel special through the access to all kinds of information related to the company – so that they feel that they are part of the same family and a sense of oneness is promoted.
Fourthly, target customer of a definite product can be located and approached by knowing about themselves through their profiles on twitter.
Lastly, twitter is an essential tool for doing market research for any business. With the aid of “search function”, we can observe the feedback and opinions of customers.
Thus we see that Internet (especially the social networking sites like twitter) is emerging as shrewd advertising medium in the twenty-first century. Online advertisements have helped people to make their choice and selection of goods of miscellaneous uses. It is boosting consumerism among people and raising aspirations of the people and their standard of living. Internet has proven its persuasive power in influencing human behavior time and again through different advertising endorsements.
Internet marketing is not an easy task. You will have to strike a balance between providing things to your subscriber list and making a profit. If you give too much out for free, you will find it harder to make a sale. If you promote to your list too often, people will begin to see you as desperate to make a sale. Find that all-important balance and watch your profits soar.