Social Media and the Evolution of Social Advertising Through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

OpenSIUC

Research Papers Graduate School

Winter 11-2-2015

Social Media and the Evolution of Social

Advertising #rough Facebook, Twi$er and

Instagram

Korey C. Love

Southern Illinois University Carbondale, korey[email protected]du

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Recommended Citation

Love, Korey C. "Social Media and the Evolution of Social Advertising 7rough Facebook, Twi8er and Instagram." (Winter 2015).

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL ADVERTISING THROUGH

FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

Korey C. Love

B.S., Southern Illinois University, 2014

A Research Paper

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Master of Science

Department of Mass Communication and Media Arts

in the Graduate School

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

December, 2015

RESEARCH PAPER APPROVAL

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL ADVERTISING THROUGH

FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM

Korey C. Love

A Research Paper Submitted in Partial

Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of

Master of Science

in the field of Media Management

Approved by:

Dr. Katherine Frith, Chair

Graduate School

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

October 29

, 2015

AN ABSTRACT OF THE RESEARCH PAPER OF

Korey C. Love, for the Masters of Science degree in MEDIA MANAGEMENT, presented

on OCTOBER 29

, 2015, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

TITLE: SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL ADVERTISING

THROUGH FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND INSTARGAM

MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Katherine Frith

Social media has quickly evolved into one of the most popular channels of

communication this generation has ever seen. This is why it is essential to map its progressive

journey from where it first started, to what it has become in today’s world. Advertising methods

were quickly integrated into social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so that

they could evolve into what they have today, and to provide million upon billions of connections

for companies and agencies to engage with their sought after consumers.

There are a plethora of advertising options offered on these three different social media

websites, which give the lone individual up to the Fortune 500 Company options to customize

their impression on the consumer. However some social media outlets stand apart from the rest

by the way of success and innovation. It is clear that the different websites have had various

effects on the consumer, some great and some bad. It was imperative that the effectiveness of

these social media websites and their advertising methods be tested in order to evaluate the

results on the consumer.

After researching the development of the three most popular social media sites

(Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) a focus group of three male and three female participants

between the ages of 20-24 was conducted in order to assess the three social media websites.

The participants were asked several questions focusing on social advertising through these

websites, as well as interacting with each other and providing key insights about their personal

social media usage. The focus group concluded that Instagram was the most innovative when it

came to integrating their advertisements directly into the timeline of the user. Facebook clearly

had the most forms of advertising, however participants were not pleased with the amount of

ads and had to use pop-up blocker in tandem with their application use. Twitter was said to be

user friendly. Recently though, more forms of aggressive ads have been added to Twitter’s

real-time user feeds. The participants made several predictions about future social media

trends and advertising, the most imminent being that Facebook would begin to model some of

their advertising methods after Instagram, a company they recently acquired in 2012. In

conclusion, Instagram was said to be the most visually stunning and inventive when it came to

advertising method and incorporation.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... i

LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... iv

CHAPTERS

CHAPTER 1 – Literature Review ......................................................................... 1

CHAPTER 2 – Twitter ........................................................................................... 9

CHAPTER 3 – Facebook.................................................................................... 12

CHAPTER 4 – Instagram ................................................................................... 18

CHAPTER 5 – Focus Group Results .................................................................. 21

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 24

APPENDICES

Appendix A – Focus Group Questions and Responses ..................................... 26

VITA ........................................................................................................................... 30

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE

Figure 1 ........................................................................................................................... 1

Figure 2 ........................................................................................................................... 1

Figure 3 ........................................................................................................................... 2

Figure 4 ........................................................................................................................... 3

Figure 5 ........................................................................................................................... 3

Figure 6 ........................................................................................................................... 5

Figure 7 ........................................................................................................................... 7

Figure 8 ........................................................................................................................... 9

Figure 9 ......................................................................................................................... 11

Figure 10 ....................................................................................................................... 12

Figure 11 ....................................................................................................................... 13

Figure 12 ....................................................................................................................... 14

Figure 13 ....................................................................................................................... 15

Figure 14 ....................................................................................................................... 16

Figure 15 ....................................................................................................................... 18

Figure 16 ....................................................................................................................... 19

Figure 17 ....................................................................................................................... 20

CHAPTER 1

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social media, two words that have come to dominate the generation at large in terms of

communication and technology. Almost every company has a social media sector nowadays, every teen,

college student, and even young adults have applications like Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook on their

phones, millions upon millions of people are turning to this “social media” to connect, chat, and share

ideas…but where did it all start? A company called Digital Trends tells us that it all started around 2001,

websites like “Classmates.com” (See Figure 1), “AsianAvenue.com” (See Figure 2) and

“BlackPlanet.com” that connected people that they thought wanted to be found.

Figure 1 Screen capture of Classmates.com

Figure 2 Screen capture of Asianave.com

These websites linked people to past classmates, people of the same race, and people with the

same interests, almost like dating sites today. Many websites like these are still successful, and have

almost 8 million online visitors per month. However, Social Media shifted into a different direction in 2002,

when Friendster was created by CEO Jonathan Abrams. Friendster, “used a degree of separation similar

to that of the now-defunct SixDegrees.com, refined it into a routine dubbed “The Circle of Friends,” and

promoted the idea that a rich online community can exist only between people who truly have common

bonds” (Digital Trends Staff, 2014). Quickly after Friendster started to lose momentum and experience

technological problems, LinkedIn hit the scene in 2003 as well as Myspace.

Figure 3 Screen capture of Friendster.com

LinkedIn, primarily a networking site devoted to the workplace and corporate job openings and

professional online presence, has over 297 million members to date, however Myspace had no such luck

with a quickly declining following that encountered problems with the music industry, Myspace now ceases

to exist. Obviously today’s social media giant remains the ever dominant Facebook, emerging in 2004 as

a Harvard exclusive website, it only took two years to open to the general public in 2006, and with millions

of dollars from prominent and famous investors, it had nowhere to go but up. But Facebook wasn’t built to

be just a fun, innovative, new social media platform, it was built to gain attention from advertisers and

investors alike. Facebook and Twitter alike boast an “open API that made it possible for third-party

developers to create applications that work within” (Digital Trends Staff, 2014) the two platforms. Google

quickly followed in the footsteps of these two giants and created their own website, Google+, which has

over 240 million users as of last summer, June 2014.

However, these companies started to hit road blocks when it came to mobile users. All social

media users started to access content on their mobile devices, and companies had to quickly integrate

their sites into the ever powerful medium. Two new social media platforms were created during this shift,

Instagram, a way to publically share photos, and Snapchat, a way to share private photos with the select

friends on your snap account.

Figure 4 iPhone screen view of Instagram

Figure 5 iPhone screen view of Snapchat

Both of these social media applications have huge success, Snapchat has had over 70 million

downloads according to Business Insider, and is growing faster than Twitter, and potentially might catch

up to the social media boom that is Instagram. Upon adjusting to the new mobile technology and their

social media applications, these successful companies also integrated themselves, enabling users to post

to several sites at the same time and share any information they would like between them simultaneously.

Besides integrating their companies to seamlessly work together, social media websites have

allowed advertisers to become ever present on their sites, for obvious profitable benefits and partnerships.

It all started in 2000 when Google launched Google AdWords and shortly thereafter Google Analytics.

There are several infographics published on the history of social advertising and its huge success story,

and these highlight many important moments in their advertising history, like the launch of brand pages on

Facebook that created the term “cost per fan”. Shortly thereafter, Twitter unveiled the Promoted Tweet,

that companies or individuals could create in order to promote themselves or their businesses. For

example this would include something like a picture of a new menu item from McDonalds, or a 15% off

coupon to a sale on Forever21.com. Twitter also announced their own analytics program in 2011 and

Facebook unveiled a “sponsored story” in their news feed that was also created by companies or

individuals and contained whatever information they wanted to provide to the consumer. Facebook went

public and released their IPO in 2012, as well as Twitter in 2013, both of which created huge opportunities

for millions of investors around the world. Shortly after both companies went public, Instagram introduced

sponsored posts in late 2013, and Facebook launched a new analytics program as well as creating auto

play videos that were inserted into users Newsfeeds (promoted by companies or individuals). Facebook’s

next move was to “alter sponsored stories to relate only to social and sharing context” (Bennett, 2014).

Lastly, Twitter became profitable in 2014 and shortly thereafter changed and update their analytics

platform. Twitter was up a record of 129% year to year and in 2014 made an alarming $277 million dollars

(Bennett, 2014). Facebook however has a little bit of an edge on Twitter, making $2.6 billion, up 67% from

2013 to 2014 (Bennett, 2014).

Figure 6 Infographic from Mashable, “Social Media Marketing By the Numbers.”

Every social media platform has changed and molded itself to easily integrate advertising into its

model, so that its advertisers could quickly and efficiently target their consumers. This makes for more

profits for the social media companies and in turn, attention for the advertisers. Every successful company

has an Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn account. Without these successful outlets

companies would not be able to take advantage of the enormous trend that is social media, and the

billions of dollars that can be made through these media outlets. Individuals can also profit from

advertising on these sites, and studies have been held showing their level of relevance. Christopher Null

of Net Work ended up conducting his own advertising tests, trying each site and seeing which outlets

would suit his needs best or be productive (Null, 2013). He concluded that LinkedIn ended up being the

most expensive, while Facebook seemed rather irrelevant and believed that users automatically had

grown accustomed to ignoring the ads and their placements all together. While “Twitter’s almost 1% click

through rate for my ads was twice that of Google AdWords” (Null, 2013). Another study done by Smart

Insights concludes that social media advertising and marketing has had a huge, lasting impression on all

that use it. The study concludes that, “Over half of the respondents have seen an increase in sales after

using social media after at least three years” (Colwyn, 2014). The study also concluded that “Over 95%

gained business exposure even with as little as six hours a week allocated within a year, to social media”

(Colwyn, 2014). This study also showed that businesses that did not see any potential growth or notice

any improvements after using social media advertising did not have the necessary tools to gauge or

measure their exposure, they were unaware as to how to see the benefits. Another key component to the

success of these companies, big and small, was that when utilizing social media advertising, their costs

were significantly lower when compared to using other traditional media outlets. There were also

improvements that the companies in this study were willing to make, “67% planned to increase YouTube

activity, 67% planned to increase their usage on Twitter, B2B marketers are more likely to increase on

LinkedIn (77% B2B and 54% of those working in B2C), and Instagram is on the increase” (Colwyn, 2014).

All companies surveyed showed that they wanted to increase some aspect of their Social Media

advertising/marketing because of the beneficial outcome of past advertising through this medium.

Facebook came out as the clear winner from this study, being the most actively used social media

site by over 90%, while the second closest site being advertised on was LinkedIn by about 20%.

Social media advertising appeals to a wide variety of companies because of the unique way they

can target consumers and reach their specific audiences. One study highlighted the specific ways that

companies can choose to target their consumers, they are interest targeting, behavioral/connection

targeting, custom targeting, and lookalike targeting (Ganguly, 2015). All of these different ways of reaching

customers “increase your ad’s relevance to your users and provide a level of personalization that is not

achievable on other advertising channels” (Ganguly, 2015). These different levels of consumer targeting

will be looked at in detail throughout this research.

Another reason social media marketing has become so popular so fast is because of the

increased use of mobile phones and applications throughout the United States and the world. As this

particular study points out, “Mobile users are already checking Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest

multiple times a day so advertising to them while they’re within those apps is the best way to reach them

without being disruptive” (Ganguly, 2015). This concept of “mobile dominance” has swept every up-and-

coming generation on the planet. Children are basically born with smart phones in their hands and taught

to use them by their parents (utilizing them as some sort of distraction). This has obviously had a major

impact on revenues made from social media advertising on mobile phones, “mobile advertising was on

course to compromise 68% of Facebook’s revenue and 84% of Twitter’s in 2014, and two-thirds of social

media advertising spend is forecasted to go towards mobile ads in 2018, creating a 9.1 billion dollar

market on mobile” (Ganguly, 2015). Below is an infographic from the “Business 2 Community” website

that often gives free tips to businesses regarding their social media advertising strategies. The below

infographic focuses on Facebook.

Figure 7 “17 Survival Tips for Facebook Marketing” from Business 2 Community.

Based on the findings of the literature review, there are several questions that will guide this

research study.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED:

1. Which social media websites or mobile applications have the most integrated form of

advertising?

2. How do the consumers respond to these forms of advertising?

3. How did Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook successfully evolve into the advertising platforms

they are today?

4. What are these social media platforms currently working on in order to innovate their

advertising methods and attract consumers?

5. What advice or key insights can the consumer provide to the social media outlets in order to

improve their advertising methods?

6. Are there any future innovations that these social media platforms are working on currently?

CHAPTER 2

TWITTER

Twitter is famous for its interactive consumer base that is able to respond in real time to current

events happening all over the world. Twitter, known for its networking abilities, consumer responses and

reviews, celebrity interactions, company interactions, and real-time tweets has taken off in the last couple

of years compared to its humble beginnings. Twitter began as “another micro-blogging platform created by

programmers who worked at the podcasting company Odeo Inc. in San Francisco, California” (Johnson,

2013). The site was created by three different individuals, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.

Since its founding Twitter has evolved into a colossal social media and microblogging site, having millions

of users, and millions upon millions of app downloads to mobile users all over the Earth. “Twitter has over

200 million users with about 460,000 new accounts being created each day. There are more than 140

million tweets sent each day and while the company had only eight employees in 2008, they now have

more than 400 and they’re hiring” (Johnson, 2013).

Since its rise to fame Twitter has become one of the most popular social media outlets for

companies and individuals to advertise on. Companies like McDonald’s, The Home Depot, and the NFL all

advertise on Twitter to reach the millions of Twitter users that check their Twitter feeds every day.

Figure 8 Screen capture of an American Express advertisement on Twitter

Companies have an array of choices such as Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, and

Promoted Trends and can calculate their costs by different criteria, such as “Cost Per: Acquisition (the

campaign divided by the number of new customer acquisitions), Click (the campaign spend divided by the

total number of clicks), Install (the campaign spend divided by the number of app installs), and Lead (the

campaign spend divided by the number of leads)” (“Twitter Ads Glossary”, 2015). Twitter also has several

different options for companies to start an array of “Campaigns” which allows companies to tailor their

needs into Twitter specific options, such as “a Followers campaign, a Leads campaign, a Tweet

Engagement campaign, a Website Clicks or Conversions campaign, or an App Installs or App

Engagement campaign” (“Getting Started Checklist”, 2015). These different types of campaigns are

defined in detail on the Twitter Business website in order for companies to pick and choose which type of

advertisement best suits their needs and social media budget.

Twitter business also allows advertisers to choose various ways to target their audience of

consumers, the different options listed on their website are as follows: “Event targeting, Geo, Gender and

Language targeting, Installed App Category targeting, Interest App Category targeting, Interest and

Username targeting, and Keyword targeting” (Twitter Business, 2015). Each of these options has

instructions listed for the user to fully understand how their company can optimize every dollar spent on

their particular strategy and comes with in-depth examples and tutorials (an example is shown below).

Figure 9 Screen capture from Twitter Business using the “Event Calendar” function

Twitter allows for the most singular individual to a Fortune 500 company to advertise on their

website and has a wide variety of ad pricing for these different users.

When conducting my focus group on the different forms of social media sites, five of the six

individuals used Twitter and noticed daily advertisements from promoted individuals as well as larger

companies. Some of these companies included Nordstrom, Walmart, Burger King, and College Break.

However, only one of the six individuals in the Focus Group said that Twitter had the most advertisements

compared to the other forms of social media sites. It was noted by the other five participants that Twitter

had one of the “least obnoxious” (a term used by one of the focus group participants) forms of

advertisements on their websites when compared to other social media websites, demonstrating that

Twitter has been able to seamlessly add in different kinds of advertising to attract the targeted consumer.

CHAPTER 3

FACEBOOK

Facebook, originally called thefacebook.com, started as nothing more than a dating and ratings

website that owner Mark Zuckerberg stole from a few fellow Harvard students. Facebook (dropping the

“The”) then evolved into a hybrid of a college networking website and social networking site of sorts

exclusively for Harvard, then other college campuses, then became public to all users in 2006, if you were

at least thirteen years old. Below is a screenshot of the original Facebook profile page as of 2005.

Figure 10 Screen capture of the original website, ‘TheFacebook”

Facebook then started to add specific features to its website that attracted more users, such as

the News Feed feature, that displayed the activities of all of your “friends” in a single location. Very soon

after that, in 2009, Facebook added a real-time news feed, very similar to Twitter. Soon after 2009

Facebook started to add feature after feature, becoming more popular than any other Social Media site,

with over “1.44 billion monthly active users, which is a 13 percent increase year over year” (Noyes, 2015).

However, at the same time Facebook became popular with another market, advertising. With around 1.44

billion consumers accessing their site every month, it became an important tool for every business, large

and small, to reach their target audience. Below is an original slide from an advertising pitch given to

Facebook’s soon to be investors and future advertisers, the pitch was given in 2004 by Eduardo Saverin.

Figure 11 Original slide from Eduardo Saverin’s presentation to future advertisers.

Facebook began generating revenue through advertising in 2004 (shortly after it was invented) by

the way of “flyers”. “Flyers are mostly purchased by students or small local businesses for $10-$40 dollars

per day who want to target an ad to a specific college campus” (Toner, 2013). All of these Flyers were

controlled by the owners of Facebook, and were only displayed along the side of the screen. The original

Flyers were “mostly used by Facebook members to advertise parties or other social events on campus”

(Toner, 2013). An example of one of these original flyers is shown below.

Figure 12 Original Facebook Flyer advertisement

Shortly after the Flyer concept became successful, Facebook created “Flyers Pro” where

“advertisers can set a max price for what they’re willing to spend” (Toner, 2013). They were then able to

reach their target audience based on key factors such as age, race, gender, location, location of

workplace, non-political and political views, and other necessary criteria. One of Facebook’s biggest

original advertising investors was Apple, who created an “Apple Group, which paid Facebook $1 per

month, per member” (Toner, 2013). This ended up generating “hundreds of thousands of dollars per

month” (Toner, 2013) for Facebook and began to generate more advertising interest from companies all

over the United States.

Facebook then started to create and introduce a “language and geographical based ad targeting”

(Toner, 2013) in order to catch the eye of even more advertisers (this began in 2009). The advertiser

could create and access their own advertisements for the very first time during this period. After these

monumental shifts in advertising, Facebook created its own mobile app in 2010, and created the ‘Like’

button for users everywhere. Shortly after this, “Facebook introduces sponsored stories for the desktop”

(Toner, 2013) which led to specific advertisements on the Facebook users News Feed, an example of this

is shown below. If the user proceeded to ‘Like’ a company’s Facebook page, than the sponsored story

would be fed into their News Feed (the ‘Like’ is required for this to happen).

Figure 13 Screen capture of a McDonald’s post on Facebook.com

After sponsored stories became popular with several hundred global companies like McDonald’s,

Taco Bell, Macy’s, Ben and Jerry’s etc.., Facebook began advertising through their mobile application in

2012. These advertisements “appeared within our News Feed so as not to interrupt our Facebook user

experience” (Toner, 2013). However, four of the six focus group participants stated that Facebook had the

most advertisements of any other social media site they would access. (An example of these Facebook

mobile application advertisements are shown below.)

Figure 14 A variety of Facebook advertisements shown through their mobile application

Facebook has over “1.25 billion mobile active users (Source: Facebook as of 4/22/15) an increase

of 24 percent year-over-year” (Noyes, 2015). Currently, mobile advertisements are “now making up 76

percent of its total ad revenue, or $2.9 billion dollars” (Kokalitcheva, 2015). Four of the six focus group

participants access Facebook from their mobile phones and average about two hours use of Facebook a

day through their mobile application of Facebook as well. Facebook was by far the most popular social

media site to access by way of mobile application, as seen in the focus group.

Following sponsored stories in 2012, Facebook created the “Social Graph: When a user friends

another user, Likes a page, comments on a photo, listens to music, or plays a game, a connection is

written to the Social Graph, which is then provided as data for advertisers” (Toner, 2013). Facebook then

created The Facebook Exchange, which allows “advertisers and agencies to use cookie-based targeting

to reach their audience on Facebook with more timely and relevant messages” (Toner, 2013) through real-

time bidding. Due to these innovative mobile advertising inventions, Facebook “mobile has climbed

steadily upward as a percentage of Facebook’s total ad revenue. It grew from 14% to 23% to 30% and

now made the biggest quarter over quarter jump to 41%” (Toner, 2013) as of 2013, and statistics are only

reaching higher and higher. Mobile advertisements are now Facebook’s number one revenue generator

as of 2015 and are only being predicted to improve as time continues, making the creation of the

Facebook mobile application the singular most important innovation generating revenue.

CHAPTER 4

INSTAGRAM

“Instagram is the number one photo-sharing social platform on the planet” (Ahmad, 2014).

Instagram, a mobile-friendly photo sharing application that has millions of global users, was founded by

Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom on October 6

, 2010. (Due to Instagram’s success, Facebook acquired

Instagram in 2012 for 1 billion dollars). Instagram is simple and user-friendly, offering very limited, easy to

use instructions. Instagram users have very limited choices when it comes to using Instagram, the user

can Like the photo, comment on the photo, or repost the photo, depending on if the user is their “friend” or

their profile is public or private. All photos appear in a timeline-like fashion, depending on when they were

shared or posted. The only content a user can post is a photo, and can apply one of the many Instagram

filters offered through the app, such as “Moon” or “Lark”.

Figure 15 The photo editing and uploading process through the Instagram mobile application.

The user can also post a location to the photo they upload, along with a caption to the photo as

well. Instagram users can also post videos as well as pictures, as long as they are under 30 seconds. The

same instructions and actions apply to the videos as they do to the pictures. Only three of the six focus

group participants use Instagram because of the fact that it is so photo heavy and friendly. If the user is

not interested in photo-heavy content, then Instagram would not be for them. However, five of the six

participants did acknowledge that Instagram is a newer form of social media, and the other three

participants that did not use Instagram currently, said they would be willing to try it in the future.

Due to Instagram’s immediate success, it began offering a place for advertisers and agencies to

reach their now, 400 million users quickly and efficiently. Instagram first announced their sponsored posts

in mid-2013, but according to the focus group three of the six participants did not start noticing these

advertisements until late 2014. Instagram offers three different Ad Formats for companies and agencies to

choose form, one being the Image Ad, the second being the Video Ad, and the last type being the

Carousel Ad. The image ad is just focused on a singular image promoted by the company, the video ad is

a short video (around 30 seconds) promoting the service or product, and the last type of ad, the carousel

ad, is a serious of pictures that the user can swipe through, offering up to four images. All three of these

ads have an option for a “Learn More” “call to action button that takes them to the website to learn more”

(Instagram Ad, 2015). Below is a screengrab from the Instagram Business webpage showcasing the

different types of Ad Formats available.

Figure 16 Three screen shots of the different advertisement variations offered on Instagram

All three of the Instagram users in the focus group agreed that Instagram has been the most

successful with integrating their sponsored advertising posts into their Picture Feeds. All three also agreed

that they mistake the ads (on a daily basis) for one of their friend’s original content, they also preferred

Instagram advertising to any other version of social media ads. Focus group participants chose the words

“edgy and cool” when describing Instagram and its advertising methods, they also predicted that

Instagram would come up with a more innovative way to advertise to the consumer without bombarding

the user with “aggressive and annoying ads” like other social media advertising.

Figure 17 Three different examples of Instagram advertisements

CHAPTER 5

FOCUS GROUP RESULTS

A focus group was conducted at the beginning of this research, after the initial Literature Review.

Six participants were found, three female and three male, all within the age range of 20-24 years and all

students of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. All six participants access social media

websites religiously, particularly Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, with an average of five hours of social

media usage a day. They concluded that they accessed social media websites between classes, in the

morning or evening when enjoying “down time”, or when attending certain events (posting pictures or

statuses during these events).

The focus group, which lasted roughly an hour and a half, was made up of key insight response

questions, a list of questions asked to the participants is listed in the appendices of this research paper.

Overall, the Focus Group participants were the most impressed with Instagram and its advertising

methods. They concluded that Instagram was able to seamlessly integrate the advertisements in such a

way that the user believed one of their Instagram friends posted the picture or video. Three of the six

participants noted that Facebook was the most advertisement heavy social media site, with a plethora of

video and promoted ads, promoted pictures and posts, banner ads, and pop-ups ads (depending on the

users security and privacy settings). Twitter and Instagram were both noted to have less ads then

Facebook, with Twitter being a close second to Instagram for user-friendly advertisements. The

participants generated a list of companies that caught their eye in a non-combative way on the various

social media websites- from the week of September 29

, 2015: Nordstrom, Walmart, Burger King,

Buzzfeed, CheezIts, College Break, The NFL, The Home Depot, The Voice, Applebee’s, Naked Juice, and

Kohl’s. These companies all constantly run advertisements on multiple social media platforms, including

the three most popular in this focus group: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Coincidently, the majority of

these advertisements were viewed on Instagram. Further proving that Instagram has come the closest to

engaging the consumer with its advertising clients in a less aggressive, more innovative way than the

other social media sites.

The focus group participants also provided a list of predictions and improvements based on their

personal Social Media experiences with Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The following are listed below

in sequential order.

1. Facebook should eliminate their banner advertisements and focus more on promoted posts

that are related to the user’s interests. Scrolling advertisements were suggested by multiple

participants.

2. Companies generally run the same advertisements on Twitter, users are tired of seeing the

same advertisements run on different days.

3. Instagram will continue to innovative and create seamless advertising. No recommendations

were given for Instagram ads, all participants agreed that they were enjoyable and informative

in an interesting way.

4. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have all integrated the “hashtag” into their advertising

efforts, participants noted that it blurred the lines between social media sites and became

confusing to the point where they would avoid anything with a hashtag.

5. Participants want the option to “skip” the video advertisements on Twitter after a suggested

amount of seconds. Being forced to watch the entire 30-second ad was not considered user

friendly.

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

Throughout its existence, social media has become a tool that consumers all around the world

can access by simply pulling out their mobile phones, laptops, or tablets. It has connected billions of

people around the world with their friends, families, governments, neighborhoods, and local and global

businesses (upon much, much more). Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have provided outlets where the

user can go and connect with companies all over the world, large and small, and learn about their history,

products, services, or just about any other information they are looking for. In turn, Social Media has

provided an outlet for big business and local business to reach the smallest consumer, to the largest, all

over the globe in such unique and fascinating ways. Target markets can be found in the furthest corners

of the world, or right here in the companies back yard.

Answering the first and second research questions, Instagram by far has become the leader in

advertising innovation, according to the consumer and the focus group analyzed. Facebook however has

the most users and generates the most revenue, compared to Twitter and Instagram, further answering

the third research question about the success of the different social mediums. Facebook also provides the

most diverse options to agencies and companies wanting to advertise. To answer the fourth and fifth

research questions, Twitter is creating new ways for advertisers and agencies to reach their consumers,

providing detailed analytics and marketable strategies that will boost the company’s awareness and

possibly generate an increase in sales. Twitter is also a huge asset to the small local business, providing

options that can be tailored to even the smallest induvial. Creating a plan that communicates interest and

care to every business, exclusively from Twitter.

All three Social Media sites have risen from virtually the smallest platform of hundreds of users, to

hosting millions upon possible billions of users, and generating all types of content, from pictures to

videos, to posts and blogs from every corner of the globe. Without these three mediums it is possible that

personal and business connections would have never been created, and this fascinating tailored dynamic

between the business and the consumer would have never been stimulated.

24 
 
 
REFERENCES 
Dijck, J. (2013). The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford 
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At Last—The Full Story of How Facebook was Founded. (2010, March 5). Retrieved from 
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebook-was-founded-2010-3 on October 4th, 
2015. 
Do Social Media Ads Really Work? We put them to the Test! (2013, March 14). Retrieved from 
http://www.techhive.com/article/2030740/do-social-media-ads-really-work-we-put-them-
to-the-test-.html on September 21st, 2015. 
Mobile is Facebook’s Cash Cow. (2015, July 29). Retrieved from 
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from http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-
governance/social-media-marketing-effectiveness-2014/ on September 23rd, 2015. 
Timeline of Instagram from 2010 to Present [Infographic]. (2014, January 7). Retrieved from 
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The History of Social Networking. (2014, August 4).  Retrieved from 
http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/ on October 2nd, 
2015. 
The History of Social Networking through the Ages. (2014, June 26). Retrieved from 
http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-networking-ages/499633 on September 12th, 
2015. 

The History of Twitter. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.socialnomics.net/2013/01/23/the-

history-of-twitter/ on September 24

, 2015.

The History of Facebook Advertising [Slide Share]. (2013, September 26). Retrieved from

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/history-facebook-adtips-slideshare on October 4th,

2015.

The Top 20 Valuable Facebook Statistics- Updated October 2015. (2015, October). Retrieved

from https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/ on October 5

, 2015.

Twitter for Business. (2015). Retrieved from https://business.twitter.com/ on October 2nd, 2015.

Why Social Media Advertising is set to Explode in the Next 3 Years. (2015, March 17).

Retrieved from http://marketingland.com/social-media-advertising-set-explode-next-3-

years-121691 on September 24th, 2015.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

Focus Group Questions and Responses

*NOTE: All participant responses are recorded and summarized, direct quotes may be

included.

What are the different types of social media that you use from day to day?

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram: 4 of the 6 use Instagram, Twitter and

Facebook.

How much time do you spend a week on social media?

Participant 1: 3 hours, participant 2: 5 hours, participant 3: 8 hours, participant 4: 3

hours, participant 5: 6 hours, participant 6: 7 to 8 hours. Participants concluded that they used

social media mostly in the morning when waking up, downtime between classes or when

commuting to class, or catching up at night after a long day. Participants also said they are on

social media during some kind of event or extracurricular activity like a party on the weekend or

posting pictures from a tailgate before a school football game.

What social media site has the most ads, through your experience?

Participant 1: Facebook, participant 2: LinkedIn, participant 3: Instagram and Facebook,

participant 4: Twitter, participant 5: Facebook, participant 6: Facebook or LinkedIn. Participants

thought concluded that Facebook had the most advertisements, they observed banners ads,

pop-ups ads, side ads, as well as promoted ads like posts and hashtags in the upper right hand

corner.

What sites do you usually have to watch ads on, and what are your responses to these

sorts of ads?

Twitter usually has a couple 30 second advertisements before regular posts or

promoted posts, YouTube also has advertisements before watching whatever desired content.

Facebook now has direct links to advertisements under any promoted post. Participants said

that they did not mind watching the 30 second advertisements as long as the content was

somehow related to what they were trying to watch. If participants were trying to watch a

promoted horror film trailer, they did not mind that a new trailer for another horror film was

before that. Participants also noted that Twitter ads were some of the “least obnoxious” ads

they had seen and that they didn’t mind watching them as long as the content was related.

Are there any social media sites that you specifically like their advertisements?

Participants favored Instagram saying that it was “edgy and cool” and that it looked as if

one of their actual friends has posted a picture. They said they were “very well integrated” into

their picture timelines. Instagram ads always look professionally done and seem almost

seamless, not noticeable to an everyday Instagram user. Most participants did not mind the

Instagram ads, said they became curious to the products and companies after seeing their ads.

Three of the six participants use Instagram regularly, the other participants said that they would

be open to using Instagram in the future.

What social media application do you use mostly on your phone?

Four of the six participants access Facebook on their mobile devices, and three of the

six said they use Instagram solely on their phones because it is not user-friendly on a desktop

computer. Therefor Facebook was the most popular application used by the focus group

members, also these four members said they only check their Facebook accounts on their

laptops about twice a week, versus six to seven times a day on their mobile phones. (All

participants have iPhones as well)

What are some companies that stand out to you on social media this week? (September

, 2015)

Nordstrom, Walmart, Various Sponsored Movies, Burger King, Buzzfeed, CheezIts,

College Break, The NFL, Verizon, The Home depot, The UFC, The Voice, Applebee’s, Naked

Juice, and Kohl’s. Twitter ads were generally the same in every users timeline, however

Instagram ads and Facebook ads were more targeted towards the participants Like’s on the

different medias.

Do you see any of the social media websites coming up with new ideas?

Participants thought that Instagram would keep churning out new ideas to attract the

consumer in a seamless and effortless way-through some kind of picture medium. Participants

also thought that Facebook would continue to bombard the user with different forms of

advertising (participants also think that Facebook is on the way out if improvements to the user

aren’t made). Participants knew that Instagram was acquired by Facebook, so they think that

Facebook will look to adopt some of Instagram’s advertising principals and appeal more to the

younger user sometime in the near future. Participants do not think that Twitter will change any

when it comes to advertising. Twitter has just added the 30 second must watch ad, and the

participants think that there are not many other ways that Twitter can integrate ads other than

the popular hashtag (promoted trends). Participants also noted that they turn to Twitter when

trying to access the news and breaking news, along with first-hand accounts.

What ways do you think that these social media sites could improve their advertising

methods? Specifically Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Participants think that Facebook could eliminate banner ads and focus more on

promoted posts that are related to content that they are already interested in. Participants also

noticed that they have been seeing many of the same Twitter advertisements throughout the

past weeks, Twitter needs to not allow too many of the same ads ran in the same day or week,

this leads to clutter said the participants. Participants do not like that Instagram, Twitter and

Facebook all use hashtags, it becomes confusing from time to time to know which social media

they are using. All participants that were Instagram users had no suggestions for Instagram,

they believed that they were already very seamless and integrated with their advertising, all of

the Instagram users in this focus group did not mind seeing an Instagram ad. Participants

described Instagram as “cutting edge”, and Facebook and Twitter as ”behind the times”.

VITA

Graduate School

Southern Illinois University

Korey C. Love

koreylove@siu.edu

Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Radio, Television and Digital Communication

Research Paper Title:

Social Media and the Evolution of Social Advertising through Facebook, Twitter, and

Instagram

Major Professor: Dr. Katherine Frith