What is Content? What is Advertisement?

The lines between social media content and ads is fine but defined. Content is spilled out to all platforms to get viewers’ attention. The subject varies significantly because it can be about anything and tends to be what people are passionate about. The goal of content is rhetoric. People want you to be on their side and they post their beliefs.  Ads are content on social media to bring awareness about a social event or business. These are paid for by companies and their goal is to get more views and awareness. While this is also meant to be rhetoric they pay to get you to see it. It is the difference between paid and earned content.

 

The two images above showed up in my feed. The difference is one has been shared by my friends. The Ohio Northern University video is an ad but it showed up on my feed because my friends viewed it. The Disney ad showed up because they paid for it. None of my friends shared it but it still showed up in my timeline.

This image is from my Instagram feed. It was only five posts in and the setup is the same except it clearly says sponsored.

One thing about ads is they are normally geared towards you based on what you view and what your followers view. Most of the time you will not mind getting the ad. If you are not sure if its and ad or content look to see who posting it. If anyone you are friends with/follow liked it or shared it. If not, it is most likely a paid ad. If your friends share it or like it that means it is earned media or content. Unfortunately, there is no way to fix this or get rid of them. All social media sites are having ads. The bright side is ads pay for the site to be active. Without them there would either be no site or you would have to pay to use it. Let’s be honest, who would really pay for a social media site?