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Imagine life without the internet or social media. How would this lifestyle affect society
as a whole? Social media has created an outlet for people all over the world to connect with other
people. The same goes for advertising. Social media advertising has exploded over the last
several years, and has even created revenue as high as eight billion dollars (Ganguly, Why
Social Media Advertising Is Set to Explode in the Next 3 Years). However, not all
advertisements that people see are necessarily good for society. The overall question that needs
to be asked is, is advertising on social media sites a good or a bad thing for society? When
comparing the two sides, there tend to be more positives to advertising on social media than
there are negatives. Social media has allowed for the expansion of advertising to occur
tremendously. Because of social media people are able to connect with others of all ages, and
businesses of all sizes can thrive. These overall factors show that advertising on social media has
more positive affects than negatives. Therefore, social media advertising is good for society. The
purpose of this paper is to show that no matter what negative advertisements are put on social
media, there are always positives that have greater influence on society.
Advertising can be represented through print or digital advertising. Print advertising is
done by putting an ad in either a magazine, newspaper, etc. that can be seen by the public, or the
designated audience. On the other hand digital advertising is completed by putting an ad on the
internet or social media. The same goals are completed by both print and digital advertising, but
the print method is slowly dying over time. Digital advertising in all forms is consuming most
advertisers time and is taking over the advertising world. The methods of digital advertising can
be seen all over the internet and predominantly on social media. Although there are some
dangers that can be seen when advertising on social media. When people think of dangers they
think about the ones that are present in everyday life, but online dangers are ones that sit behind

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computers, smart phones, tablets, etc. and use the internet to prey on innocent people or groups
of people. Some of the dangers that are present online include terrorist groups that have social
media profiles, stalkers that look on social media for their next victims, potential rapists that use
social media as a bouncing off point, and so many more.
Social media has provided advertisers all over the world the chance to interact and
connect with people from all different places. An online presence is something that is necessary
to survive for companies and small business. Without social media and the ability to advertise
on social media people from all over the world would be unable to reach out to customers and
potential clients. Social media sites such as Twitter have allowed people to connect with others
more than anyone thought possible. All social media sites have allowed people to share what is
on their mind, what they are doing, who they are spending their day with, etc. in a matter of
seconds. Evan Williams, one of the creators of Twitter, gave a Ted talk that revolved around the
idea that from the start Twitter has always been about connection and interaction with people that
are interested in other people. Sharing these moments as they are happening lets people feel
more connected and in touch, despite distance and real time (Ted Williams: The Voice of
Twitter Users). Twitter allows people to feel linked and coherent with the people they follow
and essentially want to know more about. All social media sites have really taken the concept of
global communication and interaction by the horns and ran with it. Newspapers, magazines,
billboards, etc. all begin conversation on important events days after they happen. Whereas
social media has the ability to trigger an explosion of connection within minutes of an event
taking place. Social media is the only platform that has the ability to create connections and
conversation before the public reads it in the daily newspaper. When a significant event takes
place, like a natural disaster, terrorist attack, government protest, people want to know what is

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going on as soon as it is happening. On February 4, 2011, people from all over Egypt gathered
in Cairos Tahrir Square for the Day of Departure of Hosni Mubarak (Mainwaring, Social
Media Empowers People). People all over the world patiently waited for any kind of
information about the circumstances that were taking place in Egypt. Events to this magnitude
have to be brought to the attention of people all over the world. News broadcasting may be able
to tell the story, but important details always get lost in translation to the public or pushed in the
background. Whereas social media gives real time updates from people who are at the scene of
all the commotion. Simon Mainwaring could not have advocated for the use of social media any
better than when he stated, These tools are accessible to everyone, available 24/7, infinitely
scalable, real time and free (Mainwaring, Social Media Empowers People).
The survival of a business depends on social media and advertising to people all over the
world. If a business does not have a social media presence, the rest of the world does not know
about them. New doors are opened for anyone who uses social media as their main outlet to
advertise. For example, more people will be aware of products a business sells, messages that
organizations are trying to spread get heard by more people, and the general public also gets a
better idea of what a company can offer them. Major industries, such as fashion and sports, use
social media as a way to connect with fans and potential consumers.
The ultimate audience is those whose understanding of designer fashion, luxury and
style has been shaped by the images of celebrities on the red carpet, the postings of
celebrities on Instagram, the website advertising of luxury brands, the hyperreality of the
Kardashians and the all-the-worlds-a-stage existence of Rihanna (Givhan, At
Balmain Those Arent Clothes Walking the Runway, Theyre a Social Media Mindset)

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The main audience of businesses these days are the people that spend their time stalking social
media pages and wishing they had millions of dollars to spend on products they do not truly
need. People have become so absorbed with what celebrities wear and what is deemed high
fashion that it does not matter how ugly a piece of clothing is, the consumer is still going to buy
it because their favorite movie star or model is wearing it. Not only does the fashion industry
rely on social media to sell their brand, but so does the sports world. At the start of the 2015
football season, Google launched a new way for advertisers to reach sports fans. Advertisements
are now being placed next to any football related video clips, scores, or other important news
stories related to football. Major advertisers are lining up to put their advertisements on social
media sites due to the millions of people that watch football or other sports everyday. Twitter
even created a program that allows advertisers to display ads that are related to the National
Football League. The opportunities that were seeing this year are really about wrapping brands
more tightly around the real-time conversation (Ember, Marketing to Sports Fans Online, with
Help from Google and Social Networks.). Since social media has brought on the aspect of real
time updates and notifications of sports scores, daily news, and other updates, advertisers are
beginning to take advantage of it. People check social media all the time, so advertisers are
going to pace their ads in places where people are going to see them, not in areas that never
receive any views. Social media is a free, real time way that advertisers can reach out to their
targeted audience and other potential customers all over the world. Without a platform as large
as social media, businesses of all sizes, organizations, etc. would not have the same connection
with the public as they do now.
Every generation brings something new to the table. The current generation has accepted
the world of social media and made it into something more than ever expected. Teens are

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constantly using their phones, and it has come to a point where it is weird not to see a cellphone
glued in the hands of a teenager; advertisers have taken full advantage of this. Social media is
like no-mans-land, everyone can use it for whatever they want, but not everyone on social media
is using the platform for the same reason. With so many different ages using social media
advertisers have to use several different methods to reach out to all of their consumers. For
example, advertisers are using videos or ads that have buy now buttons, they are also placing
them on different social media sites to grab the attention of a wide variety of people. Instead of
creating a single, broad-brush message that will run across television, radio, print and outdoor,
they are producing many variations on a theme, matching each to the subset of consumers they
judge most likely to respond to it (A Brand New Game). Businesses of all sizes and other
corporations are spending more time mastering their advertising skills, and not hoping that
someone will be thrilled by an ad they stumbled upon online. Another thing that advertisers have
to pay attention too is what social media sites are people actually using. Facebook may have
over a billion active users, but some teenagers rarely check their page (Kinder, Do Teens Still
Use Facebook?). Teenagers believe that they cannot truly express themselves or their opinions
because their family members are all using the social media site. People formulate their opinions
and morals during their teenage years, and nobody wants to be outed by their family based off of
something they posted on Facebook. Snapchat, however, is a social media site that allows teens
to connect with other teens and not their parents. In an interview with three teenagers, one of
them said that he uses Snapchat to share his story with his friends and not with his family. He
says his parents wouldn't like what he has in his story and he fears his sister would tattle
(Kinder Do Teens Still Use Facebook?). Advertisers need to keep all of this in mind when
thinking about who they want their audience to be. If they are looking to appeal to teenageers

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and young adults, an advertiser should know that maybe Facebook is not the best place to do it.
Whereas if a company were to put an ad in a Snapchat story, the younger generation would be
more likely to see it and act on it.
Social media displays so many options for a struggling business trying to make a name
for itself, or a well known corporation trying to display its new product to the world. Since so
many people are using the sites as a way of communication, sometimes not the right people are
using it for not the right reasons. Negative influences are present all over social media, but most
of the time they are used to educate the public in things that they need to know about. For
example when someone sees news about a deadly riot, or a terrorist attack, the media is not
trying to terrify people, it is trying to inform them. Groups of people use social media to form
communities, congregating around shared values, whether they are focused on a politician, cause
or brand, such as we see in Egypt (Mainwaring Social Media Empowers People). Without
social media there would be no place for people to speak their minds, and show the world exactly
what is going on. Through communication and the ability to see both sides of a viewpoint,
people on social media can use the online sites as jumping off points for creating change. At the
same time advertisers have the ability to also get in the conversation. Dialogues that go on
between governments and citizens, or between brands and their consumer communities, using
social media (Mainwaring Social Media Empowers People). Communication has always
been seen as key to relationship, and the same goes for a relationship between an advertiser and
the consumer. With good conversation between both parties ideas can flourish, products will
sell, and bonds between both sides get stronger. Through social media so much can be
accomplished. One of the new ways that people are using social media is for local or state
police, and the FBI to put out ads that contain information on wanted criminals. Not only are

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these agencies posting about wanted criminals, but they are also using social media sites to get
people involved in what the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have to offer. FBI agent
Celeste Danzi said, We need to reach out to all ages and get in contact with the public we
want them to know what were investigating and we want their help. In her statement it can be
seen that the FBI wants to get people involved and informed, and the only way to do that is by
connecting with people online. There is no other place where the FBI is going to find all
different demographics, and people of all ages that are interested in what the agency is doing.
They want the people's help, and the first step to doing that is gaining contact with the people.
No matter what people put on social media, one will always find a positive light through all the
hate and darkness. Social media sites are places where people are destined to communicate with
one another, and without this communication there would no longer ties between the consumer
and the advertiser. People should never overlook what possibilities social media has, and in this
day and age people cannot afford to overlook social media.
Research Methods and Data Collection:
The main objective for this research was to see whether or not social media is really good
idea for society. It can be seen that people always use social media, and that over time it has
developed into a prominent way of communication for society. The hypothesis that was detailed
through out the research was that, yes, social media advertising is in its own way a very
important thing to society. In more ways than one it can be seen that without social media
advertising, certain things in our society would not be alive today. Getting the opinion of the
consumer has been crucial to the research in ways that it has validated that social media is the
new platform for communication. The consumer opinion is what drove the research, and
ultimately caused the results that were shown.

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In order to reach the population that uses social media, a survey was posted on Facebook
and asked the people on the social media site to answer questions that asked their age, what sites
they use the most, whether or not they have ever used social media to advertise, etc. The age
range of the subjects went from thirteen to over seventy years old, and the goal of this survey
was to see if there were any correlations between age and certain social media sites. Another
goal was to see what the consumer believed were positives and negatives to social media.
Results and Data Analysis:
After looking through all of the responses to the survey it can be seen that there are more
positives to social media advertising than there are negatives. Therefore social media sites allow
for a more positive environment that is user friendly to people all over the world. The consumer
perspective was used to see whether or not they believe social media sites are a good and safe
place for advertisers to do their job. There were a large amount of responses to the question
asking in what ways can social media be used in a positive and negative way? (see Appendix A)
Another part of the research that was obvious based off of the survey was that people younger
than thirty years of age tended to use more than one social media site rather than only Facebook,
and people over thirty tended to only use Facebook the most (see Appendix B). This is
extremely useful data for someone that is trying to advertise to a certain population. For
example if someone is trying to sell a product to people in their teens and early twenties then
they should advertise in places other than Facebook, such as Instagram and Twitter. Whereas if
that same person wanted their audience to be people thirty and older, they should most definitely
use Facebook as their outlet of communication.
Discussion and Conclusion:

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The greater research audience for this topic would be anyone who wants to advertise on
social media, and based off of the data that was concluded from the survey it can be seen that
social media advertising overall can be a very positive thing. In terms of where people should
advertise if they want to connect with a certain age demographic, people looking to advertise to
the younger generation should use multiple social media outlets such as Instagram, Twitter, and
Snapchat. But if they want to reach an older demographic than they should most definitely use
Facebook as one of their main sources of communication. People who look at the research can
see that social media is an amazing outlet that connects them to people worldwide. They can
also see that age does matter in the world of advertising. No matter what people say things
change based off of who the dominating generation is. The possible limitations to this research
would be that people can see the research and data from the survey, but at the same time not
everyone will look into it. Also the original population for the project was everyone that uses
social media, and this causes a problem because not everyone in the world is going to see the
research. Based off of the research that was conducted the data that was collected is a good
jumping off point for more in depth research. An example of this would be if someone wanted to
look more into why certain age groups draft to certain social media sites, or what makes a social
media site more user friendly for advertising rather than others.
This paper shows that advertising on social media is not a waste of time. Businesses and
other people all over the world will ultimately get something positive out of the whole
experience, no matter how time consuming or what dangers present themselves. If social media
was never created there would be companies in the world that no one would ever hear about. We
are a society that relies on the internet more than ever, and without it many things would not be
the same. Businesses ranging in all different sizes need the internet to make a name for

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themselves. If social media was never created there would be companies in the world that no
one would ever hear about. No matter what dangers will always be present on social media, but
this is not breaking news for our society. People all over the world continue to look past the fact
and make their presence online for their own benefit. The world is more connected than ever
because of social media, and the advertising world would not be the same without it.

Works Cited:
A Brand New Game. The Economist. The Economist, 29 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Jan.
2016. <http://www.economist.com/news/business/21662543-people-spend-more-timesocial-media-advertisers-are-following-them-brand-new-game>.
Ember, Sydney. Marketing to Sports Fans Online, with Help from Google and Social
Networks. New York Times. New York Times, 7 Sept. 2015. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/business/media/marketing-to-sports-fans-onlinewith-help-from-google-and-social-networks.html?_r=0.>
Ganguly, Sonny. Why Social Media Advertising Is Set to Explode in the Next 3 Years.
Marketing Land. Marketing Land, 17 Mar. 2015. Web. Oct. 2015.
<http://marketingland.com/social-media-advertising-set-explode-next-3-years-121691>.

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Givhan, Robin. At Balmain Those Arent Clothes on the Runway, Theyre a Social
Media Moment. The Washington Post. Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2015. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
<http://tinyurl.com/jjsblkf>.
Kinder, Gabriel. Do Teens Still Use Facebook? CNN. CNN, 5 Oct. 2015. Web. 5 Oct.
2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/30/do-teens-still-use-facebook/index.html>.
Mainwaring, Simon. "Social Media Empower People." The Global Impact of Social
Media. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Current Controversies.
Rpt. from "Egypt, Malcolm Gladwell and Social Media as a Life or Death Proposition."
http://socialmediatoday.com. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.
Matthau, David. How the FBI Is Using Social Media to Solve Crimes. New Jersey
101.5. New Jersey 101.5, 22 July 2015. Web. 6 Dec. 2015. <http://nj1015.com/how-thefbi-is-using-social-media-to-solve-crimes/>.
Ted Williams: The Voices of Twitter Users. Ted. N.p., Feb. 2009. Web. 20 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.ted.com/talks/evan_williams_on_listening_to_twitter_users>.

Appendices:
Appendix A:
Responses from Respondents when asked in what ways could social media be used in a
positive/negative way?
Positive Ways

Negative Ways

Find role models

Bullying

Make ads for last animals

Set poor examples

Find deals/sales

Can exemplify bad stereotypes

Get news to others

Display inappropriate pictures

Inspire/empower people

Offend people/Show aggression towards others

Allow others to join movements

Allows people to say things that they would not in

person

Raise money

Sets bad standards

Promote community/support systems/common interests

Hate speech

Free Promoting

Unhealthy fads

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Connect with new people

Heated political debates

Display product(s)

Scams

Communicate instantly

Terrorists

Find missing children (Amber Alerts)

Leaks

Ability to educate self about hot topics and other issues

Blackmail

Clear misconception/ Learn the truth

Stalking
Promote underage drinking/substance abuse
Causes separation from society

Appendix B:
Which Ages Gravitate Towards Which Social Media Sites?
Age

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Snapchat

Other

Multiple

13-30
Years
Old

19

31+
Years
Old

17

12