Phil Hawthorne's Blog

This week has been huge for social media networks Facebook, and Google+. With the battle lines now being clearly drawn, Facebook and Google are set to be at war for the best Social Network.

The evolution of the Social Network

Love them or hate them, but social networks are becomming more and more a part of everyday life. From seeing what your old high school buddies are doing,  tagging your close friends with you at the local bar, to tweeting questions to celebrities, TV Shows and Politicians.

This week has been an enormous week for the social media phenomenon. Google+, the answer to Facebook from Google (and the successor to Google’s Buzz) was released to the public. A timely release, with Facebook announcing major changes to its social network, on top of the new changes already rolled out this week. So let’s start it off by going through the three main social media networks today…

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I’ve always been pretty sus on advertising, and always take everything that’s offered with a grain of salt. After all, the purpose of advertising has one aim, to take the money out of my pocket, and put it into the advertisers.

Caption reads: Forget that ethics shit, let's make some money

In the past couple of years, in Australia at least, we’ve seen the introduction of multi-buy specials in our supermarkets. Buy in bulk, and save. Well at least that’s what we’re supposed to think. Everyday we’re bombarded with marketing and special promotions. From the latest specials at the supermarket, to the latest and greatest vehicle technology. But how dumb do companies really think we are?

One thing I’ve come to learn recently, is that information is power. And this is especially true for marketing and advertising. It’s amazing how in this digital age, how free we are to give out our personal interests, what we buy, where we go, all for free to advertisers.

I think a lot of people are naive, or plainly just don’t care. But perhaps if they knew how much a company or advertiser knows about you, they’d be scared. Facebook, something which almost anyone online now uses, is a massive marketing engine. People hear how much money Facebook is worth, but I honestly don’t think people make the connection as to why Facebook is worth so much. Most people would say it’s because everyone uses it. Others would say it’s because the people who created it are smart, and not everyone can create Facebook (true – but not the reason). The fact is Facebook is worth billions if not trillions of dollars because of the information and access to the people that use it (you and me), and the ability for advertisers to market to the people they exactly want to. (continue reading…)