Many of us feel as though Facebook is a tool used to share unsolicited opinions on issues that make no sense, and prompt pointless conversations with people you haven’t seen in years or worse – haven’t even met. This is probably the reason why businesses are seeing advertising and marketing their brand on Facebook as a futile exercise. Or at least that’s what we thought till we read the stats.

More than 1.4 billion people use Facebook to connect with what matters to them, and more than 900 million visit the site every day. These different individuals have specific interests which translate into the pages they follow and links they share. What then makes Facebook the largest advertising platform in South Africa, and across the world? One word, targeting. With Facebook Adverts, you choose the type of people you want to reach and Facebook delivers your adverts to them. This makes your adverts more relevant for the people who see them, and brings real results.

The tools that Facebook uses within its targeting approach are things such as an individual’s location, age, gender, interests, online behaviour and they also use something called partner categories which allows them to reach Facebook users on different platforms and offline, without even being logged onto Facebook.

The other thing that makes Facebook such a large advertising platform is that it is super easy to create an advert which is really convenient for large –and small- organisations. Facebook Ads also make the audience feel as though brands are speaking directly to them and not just doing random ‘spray and pray’ with their adverts hoping for a good response.

Facebook is also accessible everywhere.you.go. which means the adverts placed on Facebook will reach the right audience –through targeting tools- and at any time of the day. Facebook Ads feature on your feed along with the stories of your friends and family, which makes the viewers more likely to see your ad and take action. Facebook Ads also has a nifty little tracking tool called the ‘Adverts Manager’, which actively updates you on how your Facebook Adverts perform and how your budget is spent. You can also visit the Facebook Adverts Manager to manage your adverts and check their performance, which makes it much easier to tell that one sceptical CEO of a brand who isn’t ‘seeing results quickly enough’, that the budget for Facebook advertising is actually worth it.

But hey, we’re just a digital marketing agency, what do we know right?

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I recently found myself casually scrolling down my Instagram feed and was fascinated by the amount of advertisements I saw. Yes, you read right, advertisements on Instagram. By this I don’t mean the obvious, ‘get your home teeth whitening device from our online store today’, but more like a range of celebrities who ‘use the product on a daily basis’. While I was doing my daily feed scroll, I grew more and more eager to buy something, no matter what it was, I was ready to buy it. The reason behind this motive, is the fact that the people I saw using these products (that I suddenly wanted to buy) made the product look so convincing – like something I really needed. I then had to stop myself, and this is when I came to the realisation that I had fallen into the trap of the influencer marketing strategy.

Influencer marketing has become the next best thing in advertising, and more and more companies are making use of this tool as the world shifts to social media. Influencer marketing is defined as ‘a type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive a brand’s message to a larger market’. Although we have all grown tired of the online banner ads and pop-ups, we seem to never notice how attracted we are to someone else – more especially social leaders – using a product and testifying about it on social media. Social media has evolved from a platform people use only to talk about themselves, to an instrument used to spread the word about products and services they use. We seem to be more open to hearing about another person’s experience with a product or service than we are towards seeing an advertisement. This is why companies now use people – like you and I – with a large social media following to advertise their products or services. Think of it as product placement, but on a celebrity’s (or an online personality’s) social media posts.

Instead of a company spending millions on an advertising campaign, the trend has now shifted towards hiring, inspiring or paying an influencer to get the word out there. This then begs the question: “Are we becoming a species of ‘Monkey see, Monkey do’”? Of course we are, and this isn’t something new. For the longest time, we have used the element of word-of-mouth to decide whether we want to buy a product or use a service. We make our decision based on how others feel about products or – more importantly – who is using it.

Let’s throw some numbers into the mix: 47% of online customers use ad block technology, meaning the best way to reach them is to provide content they want from people they trust (ion, 2016). The individuals that people tend to trust nowadays are people who have a large following and presence on social media and these days, that translates to the fact that the individual is actually worth listening to. In this day and age, the individuals with a large social media following are not necessarily celebrities, but are ‘normal’ people who just portray a life worth living. 92% of people trust recommendations from individuals (even if they don’t know them) over brands (ion, 2016). So this means that people would actually much rather hear about a brand from anyone but the brand itself. 74% of consumers use social media to make purchase decisions, many of which will be based on the general perception of other social media users towards the brand.

It’s safe to say that because consumers have started relying on other users for information on certain brands, influencer marketing is the new way to spread the word about a new product or service. So, for all companies reviewing their advertising spend and where to improve in future, be sure to keep in mind that consumers believe consumers.

Digital Grind sources, tracks and measures influencers and influencer marketing for specific brands. This is obviously in line with the brand, the region (or country) and the target audience, and is certainly key when evaluating a brand’s marketing mix.

Okay, so let’s get real. I feel like you should read this week’s post with the voice of your most annoying aunt, who always tells you the importance of washing the back of your ears, because this is an ‘I –and almost every other self-acclaimed digital marketing expert- told you so’ kinda post. So, remember when you read that thing about how digital marketing and social media is about to boom? Well, it just did. In case you’ve been under a rock or stuck in another time zone, an American company called Niantic has just developed a game called Pokémon Go, which is intended to catapult people into a major throwback to the early 2000’s. Just to give some perspective on this game, it’s a free, iOS and Android friendly game which places players in an augmented reality, where they use their phones to catch Pokémon in actual spaces around them. So don’t wonder when you see people randomly staring down at their phones, jaywalking through traffic at 8pm. Now, what does this epidemic mean for businesses? In a nutshell, if your business is not online by now, you’re not doing yourself or anyone else any justice.

Let me put this into perspective so you get the gist of this ‘lecture’. Pokémon Go has surpassed WhatsApp and Instagram in usage time, the dating app Tinder in app downloads and is rapidly creeping up to beat Twitter in daily users (marketingdive.com, 2016). How many people do you know, who are daily users of the above-mentioned apps? Perhaps everyone? This is where the current digital space is at, and there is no ignoring it. So ask yourself, if there are so many people on this new game, why isn’t my company on there too? Now if you still haven’t caught the point of this all, let me break it down for you. The game requires the geo-location from all gamers in order to help them catch Pokémon around their locations. So if this is the case, then it means that there is an opportunity for your company to target an audience based on their location. Niantic’s CEO has recently announced the introduction of “sponsored locations”, which means that companies will be allowed the paid opportunity to be featured prominently on the game’s virtual map, in the hope to drive customers inside their facilities (techcrunch.com, 2016). This is exactly where you should be right now. The other perk for companies is the beauty of data-mining. With such high volumes of daily users on the game, companies could track patterns and behaviours of potential customers, by virtue of their location.

Now, let’s conclude. With all this in mind, does it still make sense for companies to not have a digital presence? I hope your answer is no. Think about it, even if you think that your target market isn’t on Pokémon Go -which still baffles me because we have 30 year old business men on the game – the reality is, you’re missing out on a whole other market in the process of your ignorance. With that said, I’m sure you now wish you had started that LinkedIn account huh?