Ben Smith of BuzzFeed sees Facebook as the new medium for political advertising.
“Facebook is on the cusp – and I suspect 2016 will be the year this becomes clear – of replacing television advertising as the place where American elections are fought and won,” Smith wrote. “The vast new network of some 185 million Americans opens the possibility, for instance, of a congressional candidate gaining traction without the expense of television, and of an inexpensive new viral populism. The way people share will shape the outcome of the presidential election.”
Facebook claims it had 43 million unique individuals engage in the political conversation during the 2014 mid-terms.
Smith said, “Now a powerful video may reach far more voters in a few hours than a multimillion-dollar ad buy; and it will reach them from trusted sources – their friends – not via suspect, one-way channels.”
Read The Facebook Explosion.