Before the era of the smart phone, or even the era of the computer, advertising was meant to be strictly visual. It was ads in the paper, billboards, the occasional bench plastered with a celebrity’s face enjoying some sort of high-end product. As technology advanced, so did marketing and advertising. It was no longer just shoving an advertisement into the world by saying to the public, “Look! This is cool. Try it and love it because of this reason here”. The ads became complex in the sense that they were newly versatile and the ads became, most importantly, interactive.
Fast forward to the latest era of businesses joining Facebook and Twitter: social media has become king of the marketing world. Now, marketing cannot carry the weight of selling a product or brand by itself; engagement is also key, where the aspect of social media steps in, big time.
Marketers now face the challenge of addressing the 4P’s of marketing (product, price, place, promotion) while also keeping the message they want to get across short-and-sweet for the social media world. Marketing is no longer having an ad with a presumed appeal to a certain audience but instead, creating an environment of relevance and ability to respond between a company and its current customers and potential customers.
So here’s a breakdown of what making marketing interactive with social media is all about and why people choose to do it:
Facebook is an ever-changing online world where businesses and people can interact via posts, comments, pictures, likes, and private messages. Long story short, it is a website that has the potential to be an absolute dream for any company trying to get the brand of their product(s) out there. Creating a brand on Facebook can be tricky because so many posts flow in and out of news feeds by the seconds. Businesses and companies can pay Facebook to create a page and from there they utilize their new Facebook authenticity to post promotions and news on their current or up-and-coming products. What makes it interactive is there’s opportunity to “like” and “comment” on posts, giving the post more credibility within the news feed. Posts can also be shared which will give anyone the opportunity to spread the word of a company they really enjoy.
Twitter may be the social media site that keeps advertising the most to-the-point. With only 140 characters to work with, marketing on Twitter from companies and businesses is all about the pictures and the hashtags. Companies will often strive to create a specific persona on Twitter that can earn them “likes” (formerly known as “favorites”) and “retweets” so their tweets will appear on different news feeds. Attaining this persona can be tricky with such little space to work with, which is why creating alliances with other companies and loyal customers on Twitter is essential as well.
Marketing will continue to change and grow in many forms, social media being one of them. Interaction and responses from customers will only become more key in IMC.
-Parker Navarro, UNCW 2017
Images: npr.org, businessinsider.com
IMC Hawks Blog 
Social media has definitely made a new way in which a business can advertise. When I was younger, I remember making flyers for parents, family and friends to help or join the school activities. Now, with my little cousins, they’re being introduced to make those flyers via Facebook and Instagram to advertise such activities. It’s cool how with the touch of a button or finger, a person can share that post and another person will see it and hopefully share it and the word is spread. I wonder what will happen when my cousins are my age. Could this activity be promoted the same way? There could possibly be more methods available then. It’s crazy.