SOCIAL MEDIA AND ADVERTISING

     I've decided since Facebook is, what I believe to be, one of the most popular social networking sites, that I would use it for this advertising evaluation experiment. I am an avid outdoor explorer, and one of my favorite brands is Patagonia. So I started my search for Patagonia's Facebook page.
     The first thing I notice when I view Patagonia's Facebook page, is that they use social networking for advertising. Instantly I see ads for sleeping bags. That's pretty much expected when you look at a brand's page. No big surprise.
     As I begin to explore this page, I notice there's videos posted on their timeline. Coincidentally, these videos are sponsored by Patagonia. None the less, these videos showcase what Patagonia is all about... outdoor exploration.
      Patagonia also uses social media to show appreciation to their customers. For example: there's a post asking customers of Patagonia sleeping bags to share their pictures of themselves in their sleeping bags. This also is a way of encouraging their followers to interact with them, while also advertising the sale of their product to people just like you and me.
     I believe that using a social media network is a genius idea for Patagonia or any brand. They aim to target anyone who has a love for the outdoors. Anything outdoors. Everything outdoors. I believe this is very effective for advertising. The fact that there's 1,007,995 people that like their page, and 994,200 people currently following status updates, speaks for itself. Every time someone "likes" the page, that persons friends see it in their news feed. If they are unaware of what Patagonia represents, they might look into it. If they are aware of what Patagonia is all about, they just might go check out their page and see what's going on in the outdoor adventure world. Every person that visits the page will see advertising for Patagonia products.
     Patagonia does a great job at using social media as part of their advertising campaign. With that being said, there are some improvements that I believe would better promote their products. I would recommend more contests to where followers could win Patagonia products. They aren't cheap, so it would be nice to be able to win a product to test out. Another suggestion I would make would be to have more videos on product reviews. Q&A's would also be very helpful. As a consumer, and not financially well endowed, I would like to see what other consumers think about specific Patagonia products. Nobody wants to spend a ton of money on a product just to get home and realize it was a complete waste.