I’m having a life changing experience running a few inexpensive ads for my book, The Affluent Artist, on Facebook. For like No money, over 100,000 people have at least seen the cover of my book on their Facebook page in the last three days. As I said to some friends of mine in the publishing industry, “Holy Crap!” It is hard to explain how different my little experiment tells me life is going to be going forward and if I were someone who depended upon traditional advertising to make my living or sell my product, I’d be VERY concerned about my ability to pay the bills from now on.
I have done extensive research and I am pretty sure there are like a Zillion people on Facebook at any one time. It is a fun, fairly safe spot to connect with the some of the rest of the world and in this day of nameless, faceless crowds of humanity, people crave some kind of a connection with fellow man, even if it is only digital. (Ok, so maybe I shared too much with that one). But here’s the thing about the ad’s on FB, they are off to the side and mostly only mention things that you’ve shown an interest in on your profile. (Have you even noticed them?) The coolest part is you can ban ads from your own site, like Nancy Pelosi probably gave a thumbs down to the NRA ad…
In my lifetime, I’ve witnessed the “commercialization” of everything from home entertainment to sporting events to the point where we don’t even pay attention to commercials anymore, we are totally desensitized to being interrupted by someone like Chris Berman screaming at us in our own living room; bragging about how much weight he lost by eating cardboard replicas of lasagna and apple dumplings. (Chris, still looks like you could lose a few more Baby, mix in a salad with that Nutri System, would ya?). Interruption is the key word, watching a ballgame, a movie or a soap opera; “we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors.”
Have you noticed how much the internet is kicking the ass of people who lived on advertising dollars? I mean, who reads a newspaper or watches network news anymore? Raise your hand if you DVR over commercials, hello? Right now, I’m listening to my favorite music on Pandora, no commercials and only my kind of music (Sister Hazel playing at the moment). And, on my Ipod, I only listen to MY songs, I don’t even need Pandora’s programming there.
Personalization of advertising is something you should be aware of because, in my humble opinion, it’s the future. The buggy whip companies went away after the introduction of the automobile, hat makers closed shop when the wavy haired John Kennedy was elected and advertising sales is evolving at speed faster than anyone in the business world could have possibly understood a few minutes ago. It’s worth paying attention to this one!
Rick
