Social Media and Its Effects on Media Planning. How Advertisers Use Social Media

Strategic media planning has been greatly affected by the popularity and growth of social media. Advertisers use social media to market due to its effectiveness to reach a wide range of demographics. In the past, marketers relied on traditional media mediums such as television, radio, newspaper, outdoor advertisement and magazines. The introduction of online media has driven advertisers to jump on the opportunity to broadcast their message on what we know as social media. Social media has changed us; it has affected consumers as well as advertisers. It is vital to the advertising industry to understand how important and useful social media is. If they miss out on advertising through social media they are losing the opportunity to hit a large target audience. Therefore, Marketers understand the new concept of social media and follow the new trend seeking more efficiency, sales and profit. Traditional mass media is still useful and important in various marketing campaigns; nevertheless, the new media tools have given marketing campaigns a boost and a new way to be perceived. It is important to show the impact of social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and blogging and their effects on strategic media planning, as well as how marketers are using these new technologies to plan for their campaigns, reach new markets and generate more sales.

Social media is a means of communicating without face-to-face contact. "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content" (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010, p. 61). Next to blogs and mircoblogs (e.g. Twitter), and collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia); content communities (e.g. Youtube), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft), and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life) are all part of social media. There are millions of people dedicating the majority of their day to be a part of a social network.

In the time before social media, advertisers were still able to specify their target market through demographics, psychographics and geographics. However the ability to reach them relied on heavy advertising that hopefully turned into word of mouth. Traditional advertising such as commercials, print, and radio were used effectively. However commercials would eventually lose it time, print ads would fade away from the newspapers or magazines for a period of time, and only so much radio time would be bought. In those gaps where companies and products pulled their advertising to generate new campaigns and new ads, the intrusive image of their product would be out of the consumer's sight.

Social media however, allows consumers eyes to assemble specific target markets and constantly be focused on a fixed image. Word of mouth will never leave social media. If something is posted, it will always be around and be seen. Advertising through social media is an amazing method for advertisers to take advantage of due to how inexpensive it can be.

Media planning is necessary in order to properly advertise companies and products. Media planning is used to stay relevant to the company in relation to the target market and the product through advertising. This could be done through print, broadcast, outdoor, and digital advertising. The more relevant the platform, the more powerful the message is that is being seen by the target market.

With the enormous development of technology and the appearance of new tools of communication, marketers have found the way to reach emerging markets and achieve better performance in short times. "Media planning, the process of establishing the exact media vehicles to be used for advertising." (>>>)This has significantly affected the revolution in media and communication industries. Accordingly, the whole marketing process has been changed and new perspectives, strategies and execution plans have been made. Most companies have realized what happened and rushed to exploit the new media tools, (which are less expensive and more