How Much is Facebook Costing You?
The obvious answer is nothing, right? It’s free! Well not if a recent survey is to be believed.
Social or peer pressure has always been a factor that drives spending patterns, especially among teens and young adults. But there is a change taking place that might point to a hidden benefit for online marketers.
The Hidden Power of Social Media
It is not surprising that, according to the American Institute of CPA’s , some 67% of Americans have social media accounts. Of those, 48% visit their favorite site at least once per day. As I say, no surprise there.
But what they also found is that people are now admitting to making purchases, partly to post about them on social media. All just to compete with posts from their online peer group.
The CPA’s concluded that Social media has “vastly expanded the number of ‘neighbors’ people are trying to keep up with”. This has implications for people’s personal financial planning etc but it also got me thinking.
Are you Spending More because of your Facebook Friends?
Even adults seem to be wilting under this pressure. 21% admitted to making purchases for the impact that posting about them would have on their Social Media network.
And these are not necessarily small purchases.
14 % posted about something only because it was exclusive or expensive.
11% admit to taking a vacation or making a purchase after seeing a post from a friend.
Not only are you and your partner susceptible to this hidden pressure, but from the age of 13, our kids are on Facebook too. You can bet that some of the spending demands coming from that direction are Facebook-driven. A direct result of posts made by their peers showing off the latest cool thing extracted from another parent.
What does this Mean for Online Marketers?
CPA’s are concerned about what this means for people’s 401K’s, but I was more interested in what it means for online marketers.
So if there is a new and growing online peer pressure happening, (especially among the young). And people are posting about expensive items and making purchases just to Post about them, to the envy of their friends. Surely that means the power of properly constructed Facebook re-targeting campaigns just increased substantially.
If I see a friend’s post (effectively bragging) about what they bought or are about to buy, I am very likely to follow a link and check the product out.
That, of course, leads me to see well-targeted ads all over Facebook. Potentially, I too can make a competing purchase, and post about it, widening the net of future targeted customers for the online marketer.
I guess That Leaves Us with a Choice.
As a human, it is difficult to be completely immune to physiological pressures. The reality is that these trends will affect our choices, (and those of our family members), and will cost us money.
The question is, do we do nothing and pay the price, or do we take advantage of the trend? Running a smart re-targeting campaign could turn this potentially costly trend into a net gain.
Like my canine friend, I know the path I will choose.