Social media and Facebook Advertising  TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………..Page 2INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….Page 3METHOD………………………………………………………………………………Page 4RESULTS/FINDINGS………………………………………………………………..Page 4DISCUSSION………………………………………………………………………….Page 6CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION…………………………………………Page 8REFERENCE LIST…………………………………………………………………..Page 9APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………Page 10Introduction Social media advertising, or social media targeting, are advertisements served to users on social media platforms. Social networks utilize user information to serve highly relevant advertisements based on interactions within a specific platform. Social media advertising works along a continuum and ever-evolving. The successes of a company on campaign advertisements rely entirely on the marketer’s ability to entice social network users to discuss and promote a product. With social media advertising, businesses can have consistent sales coming in from the first day that the website is live. This is why global social advertising spending doubled from $16 billion in 2014 to $31 billion in 2016 and is projected to increase another 26% in 2017 (BigCommerce, 2017).As Sarah E Needleman claimed that the popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have close to 5 million visitors daily and become a very important hub forMarketing (Scribd, 2011). Therefore, effective advertising is the key to success and the sustainable competitive advantage that all companies are looking for. There are a vast number of social media sites that could be used for advertising and as Cape Coders (2011) claimed Facebook is growing at a breakneck pace in numbers of users and profitability, with all the access for advertising on this social media. Thus, this report will examines Facebook – the universal social media network.For the purposes of this report, explore how the company can drive consistent sales for website through social media advertising look at some of the most popular social platforms, provide some advanced tactics for dialing in the marketing campaigns through social media.Method This research was conducted by questionnaire and investigated 10 peoples about habit of using social media and personal opinion about advertising on Facebook. A total of 10 questionnaires were designed on Google docs and sent through email.Results/Findings There was a 100% response to the survey. The results represented the global coverage of Facebook. With this advantage, advertisers have captured the psychology and consumer behavior of customers. From there, invest and map out advertising strategies to attract and promote the demand of buyers through Facebook.The result in Chart 1 shows the percentage of users of different social media. All ten participants of this survey have Facebook accounts. Instagram and Facebook messenger ranked second in popularity, equalling 90% and 90%. In constrast, only one in ten people use Viber.Chart 1. The number of users of social media accountsTable 1 showed five main reasons for using Facebook of people. The result of this primary research demonstrated that contacting with friend and online shopping are major reasons of using Facebook. In addition, 50% of participants use Facebook to update news or entertain themselves.Table 1. The reasons for using Facebook To stay in touch with friends10To stay updated on current events5To fill up spare time3To find entertaining content5To online shopping10Finally, table 2 proved the opinions of people about Facebook. Six out ten participants claimed that Facebook is a normal social network which help people contact with friends or read the daily news. On the other hand, 40% of participant maintained that Facebook is an advertising platform. They also believe that Facebook is an important tool for businesses to expand their markets and earn high profits.Table 2. Is Facebook a social networking site or advertising platform.Social network60%Advertising platform40%Discussion / Interpretation of Results Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide. These results are consistent with other studies. With more than 2 billion monthly users, Facebook hosts over a quarter of the world’s population, providing advertisers with an unparalleled opportunity to reach virtually anyone and everyone. According to the statistics of Portal, Facebook had 2.32 billion active users by the month of the fourth quarter of 2018. In the third quarter of 2012, the number of users had overcame one billion, making Facebook become the first social network ever to do so.Habits and purposes of Facebook’s users are making strong bonds between the customer and the company. From the results in table 1, the highest purposes of users are stay in touch with friends and also shopping online. About 1.55 billion people log onto Facebook monthly and 1.39 billion access via smart phone (Quora, 2018). Realizing that, the companies use Facebook as a tremendous way to increase exposure and traffic for business, create loyal customers, and generate leads and sales. When customer search something on Facebook, that habit will be recognized by the linking between advertiser and Facebook. Knowing the preferences of customers makes it easier for the companies to enhance product and plan online marketing campaigns in a much more effective way. Users consider it as a means of shopping and searching for product images from many brands, interacting with other customers through detailed comments and reviews. There is no other better and cheaper media than Facebook to inform the customers about the arrival or release of new products and services. Facebook creates a platform that allows for easier spread of new product and service arrivals to a targeted audience.For the companies, Facebook has become more than a social network. Table 2 shows that Facebook becomes a significant tool in human interaction, but also many people think Facebook is an advertising tool. According to statistics provided by The social Skinny, every 60 seconds on Facebook: 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. People use it to make friends, and all entertainment needs, but that is not how companies make money. The revenue is driven by advertising. Look at this figure, about 98% of revenue comes from advertising.Figure 1. Social media regulation questions (roundpeg, 2017)Advertising revenue on Facebook is exploding with growing 53% between 2015 and 2016. Advertising revenue in 2015 reached to $5.64 billion, while 2016 grew to $8.62 billion (Social report, 2018). Those numbers truly depict just how many marketers are making Facebook a bigger focus of their digital marketing, largely due in part to the effectiveness of the campaigns.Conclusion & Recommendation There is much that can be concluded from this research into the effectiveness of advertising on Facebook. From the models the research hypotheses have been built on, it is evident that we have managed to find the results. Facebook opens people to free lines of communication between genders across the world or across the street in a real time and blend marketing, opinions and suggestions and games perfectly for several minutes of relaxation away from the problems of the world.The adaptation of companies advertising on Facebook can prove to be very fruitful in the long term if the correct linkages are created.It is recommended that this study should be:Refined to a greater extent and extended. What separates Facebook from other ad platforms is its variety. The freedom brands have in terms of customization provides seemingly endless possibilities for creative, compelling ads. Therefore, adding more types of advertising on Facebook can help the company achieved easily by distributing the survey through the Facebook medium itself.ReferencesBigCommerce. (2017, August 10). Don’t get left behind – use this guide to cement your socail ad strategy and run with it [Facebook post]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/BigCommerce/posts/social-ad-spending-has-doubled-from-16-billion-in-2014-to-31-billion-in-2016-glo/10155509113374019/Course Hero. (2019). Moreover social media is a new marketing tool that. Retrieved from https://www.coursehero.com/file/p3j61bm/Moreover-social-media-is-a-new-marketing-tool-that-allows-you-to-get-to-know/Quora. (2018). Facebook marketing: Is it really helpful for the brand promotion?. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Facebook-marketing-Is-it-really-helpful-for-the-brand-promotionRoundpeg. (2017). Social media regulation questions [Image]. Retrieved from https://roundpeg.biz/2017/11/social-media-advertising-regulation-questions/Scribd. (2011). The effectiveness of advertising through the social media in Gauteng. Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/331828478/Naidoo-TSocial report. (2018). Important social media advertising stats you need to know. Retrieved from https://www.socialreport.com/insights/article/115003579783-Important-Social-Media-Advertising-Stats-You-Need-To-KnowThe Statistics Portal. (2019). Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 4th quarter 2018 (in millions). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/The social Skinny. (2012). 100 social media statistics for 2012. Retrieved from http://thesocialskinny.com/100-social-media-statistics-for-2012/AppendixWhat is your gender?What is your age?What social media accounts do you have?Which of the following social media websites do you currently use? (Check all that apply)In your opinion, what are the impact of Facebook on the advertising?Why do you use Facebook?Thinking about advertisements on Facebook, please rate the following statements?Is Facebook social networks or advertising platforms? Why??      Advertising platforms at the moment because the amount has been getting higher.?      Social networks because it enhance customer relationship management.?      Yes, it is. Because it is a useful method.?      Facebook is advertising platform because it allow posting product information.?      Facebook social networks.?      Because technology and social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and others have a huge influence on people nowadays.?      Advertising platforms, because most of the information on Facebook related to brands and images from advertising.?      Both. Because Facebook is a tool help people to connect with everyone in anywhere in the world, it also allow people advertizing their product to customers on Facebook.?      Advertising platforms.?      Facebook is a social network to individuals, but it could be used to do advertising by enterprises.?      Facebook is social networks, it has many functions. One of these is advertisement.When do you mostly visit your page?From which platform do you mostly access your social media accounts the most?