The Shifting of Advertising

In our world, technology is growing and changing constantly. Simply consider what the first cellphone looked like, then compare it to today's smart phone.

The difference between the two is staggering almost. Mobile phones used to only be able to call people, and it did not even do that with absolute perfection all the time either. Now with our phones we can practically do anything electronic. We can't just call people, we can email, take photos, record videos, play games, watch movies, listen to music, and so many other things. The fact of the matter is our world has become the future that people used to talk about long ago, minus everyone owning a jet pack and living in space.

So what does that mean for advertising?

Because of the evolution of technology, advertising as a whole has evolved too. Advertising now has many more options to take when deciding how to sell themselves to viewers. A big option that is relatively free and extremely effective is the method of social media. Today mostly everyone has a smart phone, and usually if you have a smart phone you are hooked into some form of social media, be it Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and so forth. Point is social media is not just a main stream thing, it is a common house hold thing now. So through the usage of social media, companies can make their own pages and get people to view them. In turn since one person looks at it and likes the companies page or re-blogs it, more people look at the companies page and in turn do the same thing.

I think a big reason that social media is so effective for advertising is not just the fact that it is free and infectious, it is that when someone likes or re-blogs a company it basically looks like it got their stamp of approval. How often do we ignore a product because some total stranger is pitching it to us through the television or an email? Yet what if our friends tell us about that product and say that they like it and that it is an amazing thing to have and use? More than likely we will at least find the time to research or pick up the product to see if what our friends are saying is true or not.

If you think about it, the greatest technological evolution for advertisers would have to be the internet. Through it people can be reached readily through all their favorite sites and their emails. It is even greater for advertisers that society, for the most part, is hooked on the usage of the internet. Rarely do people go a day without using the internet, to do so would be almost impossible and extremely impractical in some cases. The internet while our greatest tool, is our biggest opening to being persuaded by advertisers.