Websites like YouTube and Facebook provide many opportunities for internet users, as well as marketers.
YouTube provides a place where users can upload videos and connect with people all over the world. All this user traffic makes YouTube an advertising goldmine. Until recently you were not able to locate advertising on YouTube. It is no coincidence that when Google purchased YouTube you started seeing more and more advertising. It only makes sense, Google is one of the largest advertisers in the world. Some say that Google is an advertising engine, not a search engine. Is it such a bad thing though? While watching poker on YouTube I am able to click the advertising on the side of the page where they will direct me to sites where I can purchase poker chips, or tables, or anything poker. It could be worse, I could be watching poker on YouTube and look over and see yoga ads. The advertising on YouTube is the new type of advertising; that is, it is not loud an intrusive. The advertising doesn’t pop out at you, nor does it effect the videos you are watching. It seems that Google has come up with a good way to advertise their links, for now.
As we all know Facebook is one of the fasting growing sites on the internet. Right now there are over 15 million users on Facebook (that number may go up before you finish reading this blog). Facebook was once like YouTube, young and pure, free of advertising. That has all changed, Facebook users have become increasingly aware of the ads that are taking up their space. It is not all bad though; Facebook is yet to intrude on users (I say ‘yet’ because it is bound to happen). Also the ads have some correlation with the user’s interests.
Advertising on these sites is not cheap; however, it allows marketers to reach an enormous amount of people. Facebook has over 15 million users and 35,000 videos are uploaded on YouTube every day. Both have huge market shares; even though marketers have to pay a high price for advertising it is well worth it. If marketers don’t act quickly they may lose their chance; advertising may become too intrusive, it may become more of a nuisance. It seems that day is soon approaching us.
