Foreign Dogs, Local Ads
Just a quick swipe through my Instagram feed, two main types of photos stand out: my new puppy and my travel photos. I’ve never been one to post selfies, but if I see a killer view, it’s going on social media (to an extent – it’s so important to look beyond the camera lens!). True to form, Facebook gives me sidebar ads for Petsmart and cheap airlines. I realized that I am truly Facebook’s ideal user in terms of advertising because I click on those ads when they’re convincing enough. $10 off dog food? Massive holiday sales on flights? I’m clicking.
I like to use the location tags on Instagram when possible, especially with my nature photos. Because I’ve posted quite a few photos of France and Spain, I actually get ads in French and Spanish; whenever I’m watching NBC online, I get a NyQuil ad in Spanish. Big data all gets muddled together because it is hard to say whether this trilingual advertising method is strictly based off my photos on social media, but I’m sure that information is going somewhere. I would say it’s actually an effective form of advertising because when I’m watching something in English and hear French, my ears perk up and I’m aware of the change and therefore am paying attention to the ad.
My other photos are a mixture of my boyfriend, family, and friends. Facebook and Instagram like to combine all these factors when advertising to me. Mixing travel and my relationship, I get ads about romantic bed and breakfasts, though I’ve never been to one in my life. Mixing my dog and my friends, I get ads about bars in Raleigh that allow dogs (for those interested, Raleigh Brewing Company does!).
The ads to Instagram are relatively new with the “Sponsored” images starting to appear more frequently on news feeds. However, when I post to Instagram, it shares automatically to Facebook (in retrospect, I can’t believe I gave the rights to Facebook to see my Instagram and vice versa – that’s so much personal information). So even though I post primarily on Instagram, Facebook is aware of where I go, who I’m with (hello facial recognition feature on Facebook), and what I’m currently shopping for.
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I love that you mentioned the geotagging that we can do on Instagram and Facebook! I personally never “check in” on Facebook anywhere or allow the geotag to be turned on because I have this whole thing in my head where I don’t want everyone on the internet to know where I am and what I’m doing…. But, as this class has progressed, I have come to realize that having myself online pretty much ensures that someone always knows my business. So, yikes. Anyway, I never really thought about what ads might target you if you allow your location to be tagged in a photograph. Companies in France and Spain advertising to you because you’ve been there? To me this is both neat and a little terrifying.
Aw, cute puppy.
Anyways, as someone who doesn’t have one, I had no idea that Instagram can link up with Facebook. I also was aware of Facebook’s ads, but only now figured out that they’re based on the stuff we post related to our interests (or whatever Facebook thinks our interests are). On one hand, it’s still strange to consider that these websites are forming images of us based on our contributions, but on the other hand creepy targeted advertising can still lead to sweet deals on stuff. So it’s tricky to figure out if it’s worth it or not.
You brought up an interesting point in your post about cross-sharing information between social media sites by granting permissions for either to access the other. For example, I log into GroupMe (which I use regularly for group projects and whatnot) using Facebook. What kind of information does that give GroupMe about me, my interests, and my location? What kind of information does that give Facebook about my group projects and the other people with whom I’m working? It certainly makes for an easier log-in experience, but sometimes I wonder at what cost.
I have never thought about big data being linked back to an advertisement in a different language. That is a great connection you made with that example. And what a great way to draw attention to an ad by targeting those who have recently traveled to a foreign country. Definitely would get my attention!
I love that you click on Facebook ads! Sometimes they really are helpful and interesting. We talked about ethics briefly in class, but as I’ve been reading these blog posts something I thought about is the necessity for “shock-factor” ads. If Facebook can target ads in such a way that they are relevant and interesting to us as individuals than my thoughts are that they don’t necessarily have to be shocking for us to pay attention to them. What are your thoughts?
Thanks for contributing! Great Post!