The Extent of Facebook Users’ Interest in the Advertising Messages

,


Introduction
All companies aim to promote their products by posting information about them through advertising messages which are considered by marketers to be one of the most important and dependable ways to urge and convince customers to purchase products.
Disseminating advertising messages is done through adopting available communication means (traditional and modern) including the internet.Facebook is considered to be one of the modern means that has great popularity, as Facebook users are wide-spread in a vast geographic area in all countries, so marketers adopted advertising via Facebook as one of the modern advertising means to distribute messages regarding their products.
Facebook is one of the largest social networks on the internet, (Daniel 2008), it achieved remarkable growth as one of the world's leading social networking sites (SNSs).(Zuckerberg M. 2010).Facebook was launched by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4, 2004 as a Harvard sophomore.It was initially called "thefacebook.com",six years later; the site has become one of the biggest websites in the world, visited by 400 million people a month.(www.businessinsider.com)(Chris W. 2007) indicates that the site which was designed by Mark Zuckerberg enabled the students to exchange news, photos, opinions and information, the spread of the popularity of the site among the students of Harvard university was the result of Zuckerberg's publication of images of university students and asking visitors to vote on them, this attracted the students to visit the site to view the images..The success of the site encouraged Zuckerberg to develop it further and make it available to all who wished to use it in the United States and other countries around the world, (Eldon E.2008) points out that this move has produced a big leap in the number of the users of the site which reached more than 600 million users in 2008.Users post an overview of their personal lives, they communicate with their friends, form groups, exchange messages, images, ideas and information on politics, business and social life, and view advertising messages, celebrity news, and other news.
An additional contributing factor to the increase in the number of users was young people in developing countries perpetuating this site as a fundamental starting point to unify ideas and activities, cultural and political.This vertiginous success and growth is a result of it meeting the global demand for an integrative online social space.Its interface combines managing and maintaining social connections, moving and sharing socially salient information, and bringing together like-minded people in virtual groups.(Oliver R. 2010) (Carlson N. 2010) indicates that the founder of Facebook did not originally intend to utilize this site for the dissemination of advertisements and promotion of goods and services, but as a result to the wide spread of the site and its huge popularity, a lot of organizations and individuals adopted the site as a medium for advertising and a channel of distribution especially for digital products.Contributing to this tendency was the marketing convenience of Facebook groups with their specific characteristic as distinct cliques which could be specifically targeted by the marketers.
In this direction (Qing Yang and others 2011) say that identifying cliques with the same interest allow for more accurate recommendations and advertisements to target different users and maximize the benefits of advertiser, publisher and users.
Facebook was named as one of America's 20 most trusted companies on privacy issues by TRUSTe, an organization that rates companies' online privacy policies, though there was a privacy outcry in late 2009 when Facebook modified its privacy policy yet again (Global swap shops 2010).
(Amy et.al 2009) say that social network sites such as Facebook have changed the nature of public and private in the sense that much more information is available to individuals about their partner's relationships and interactions than they would have with other online or offline methods of communication.This lack of privacy in the traditional sense may expose individuals to more information about their partner than they would access otherwise.
According to (Lee et. al 2007) Facebook, by its very nature, provides easy access to friends' and partners' information, including changes to their profile, additions of new contacts (termed ''friends''), and messages posted on their page (on their virtual ''wall'').S

For Users of Facebook
As one of the social networking sites on the Internet, Facebook Provides many uses for its customers such as: (Wolfram K. 2007) - (Wayne G. 2010) -(Chris W.2009)  Users can communicate with friends and other users through the exchange of private and public messages.
 Provides an important environment for minority language maintenance (Courtenay H. and Daniel C. 2010)  The exchange of pictures and Videos.
 News of friends' activities such as trips, getting a job, personal achievements, buying a car and other information. Updating personal information consistently whenever there is a change (students, graduate or unemployed, getting a job or the arrival of a newborn, etc…)  Receiving virtual gifts. Receiving and sending greeting cards on special occasions and religious events.
 Acceptance or rejection of access requests to the user's profile by giving the user the right to reject any party penetration. Enabling users to block images and information that they do not want to be seen by anyone other than their friends. Finding friends and especially those who are not communicating with them and those who no information about them is present through the personal information they offer. Joining interest groups such as an artist group or a group of football players and others.
 Provides the possibility of sending a message to one side and at the same time providing adequate protection to this message by hiding it from the rest of the members of the website.Facebook provides its users with the opportunity to receive information, news and political activities, as well as enabling them to circulate this information among them and form groups of shared political and ideological attitudes.This may in turn unite users in leading the popular revolutions as in Tunis and Egypt.Additionally, Facebook provides users with the ability to vote on subjects, political issues, the selection of candidates and the exchange of views and Music Videos as well as enabling users to address the media and send news and movie clips to be viewed by the audience. Facebook plays a major role in building social capital for the users of the website through the dissemination of personal information , talents, activities and disciplines and other information and notes, (Dutta S. and Matthern F. 2009) said that as a result of the economic recession numerous corporate managers joined social networks online to build social capital through the dissemination of personal information and their activities, experiences, the nature of the businesses they run, their staff and the future potential of their corporations which lead to potential of their corporations which lead to a significant shift in linking networks and occupation in these sites. (Nan L. 2010) indicates that individuals rely on social interactions and creating websites on the Internet to achieve gains relying on the information, Social credentials and accumulated social capital to accomplish a competitive advantage in the labor market. (Lampe et. al 2006) identified two related use functions of Facebook that people employ in online social information seeking:  Social searching: refers to the act of looking for specific information about offline acquaintances with the goal of knowing them better. While social browsing, on the other hand, is a less particular act of ''surfing'' general information about both friends and strangers that is made available on social-network sites.

For Marketers via Facebook
"Marketers have always used technology to advance their art, as the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century nears, it is already apparent that technological advances will continue to change how marketing is practiced" (M.Kalliny and others 2010).
Due to the expansion of markets, the constant increase in the distance between the manufacturer and the consumer, and the heightened competition, marketers were quick to adopt new wide-reaching communication means that would enable them to communicate with consumers all over the world in an effort to influence and convince them to purchase their products.Among these modern rapid-spread means of communication were Facebook, which marketers viewed as an important mean of communication in disseminating advertising messages as it allowed companies to create their own pages to promote their products, as Facebook users would visit these pages and comment on the products.This process works in two directions as viewing the advertising messages would eventually influence the views and attitudes of the individuals toward the advertised products, while users' comments would also enable marketers to identify their points of view regarding the products.(Dave M. 2010) points that users of social networks constantly visit companies' Facebook pages and look at their ads and products, which encourages companies to focus on their pages in posting advertising messages and launching advertising campaigns.
Thus, Facebook has become to represent an important connecting point for companies to disseminate their advertisement messages including companies with famous brands such as Lacoste, Adidas, Nike, coca cola and others which focused on Facebook in promoting their products on their Facebook pages and asking Facebook users to express their opinions about the product and the ad's message in terms of level and influence.Other companies like Blackberry, Electronic, and Puma have launched major advertising campaigns for their products via Facebook.
Aldredge Philip, marketing director of Brookshires indicates that the use of Facebook and Youtube to connect with customers with the dissemination of advertising messages through Videos to inform users about products plays a major role in promoting these products, increasing the amount of sales and gaining new customers (Jessica A. 2009).
According to (Sarah Smith), director of sales operations: Facebook is currently facing a stiff competition from other social networking sites, such as MySpace and Twitter as users of all social networking sites view advertising messages and learn their content.These websites focus on communication with friends and exchanging messages; therefore, companies should vie to stimulate the users of these websites and work to turn their attention to advertising messages, thus achieving a competitive advantage (Steven O. 2010).
Facebook increasing importance is evident by the marketers' dependence on it for data and information access, conducting marketing research that enables them to draw marketing plans and to identify target markets.

Research Questions
A key research question is the extent to which Facebook is important in publishing advertising messages about various products or companies to Facebook users, this question is investigated and restricted in five sub-questions, which are as the following:  Are the advertising messages published via Facebook met with great interest by Facebook users (the research sample)? Do the advertising messages via Facebook exhibit exciting and attractive characteristics? Do the advertising messages via Facebook motivate the individuals and urge them to buy?  Are the advertising messages via Facebook trustworthy and reliable?

Previous Researches
Previous researches have shown that there is behavioral, psychological, and environmental factors that affect using Facebook and in the same way the attitude toward the advertising messages on it.They have also examined the appeal and strengths of social media networks including Facebook as a medium for the dissemination of advertising messages, in addition to paying a great deal of attention to the practices of companies in marketing their products via Facebook and other social networks, while at the same time considering the influence that users of these site have in determining such practices.
(Amy et.al 2009) revealed that there is a relation between jealousy and time spent on Facebook and conclude that increased Facebook use significantly predicts Facebook related jealousy While (Junghyun, K. and Jong -Eun, R. 2011) demonstrated that the number of Facebook friends had a positive association with subjective well-being, additionally, there was a negative curvilinear (inverted U-shape curve) relationship between Facebook friends and perceived social support.(Orr, Emily S. et. al 2009) suggested that individual differences will help to determine which online communication tools appeal to and are used by different individuals and found that shyness was significantly positively correlated with the time spent on Facebook and having favorable attitudes toward the social networking site.Furthermore, shyness was significantly negatively correlated with the number of Facebook "Friends.'' In the same field (Hoy M. et. al 2010) reveal several gender differences in young adults' privacy beliefs, their reactions to behavioral advertising, personal information-sharing behaviors, and privacy protection behaviors on social networks.In addition, women engage in noticeably more proactive privacy protection behavior compared with a decade ago.(Kevin W. et. al 2010) said that recent research on Facebook can be loosely divided into three areas:  its uses and gratifications at both intrapersonal and interpersonal levels (Alberchtslund A. 2008), (Walther JB. et. al 2009)  its sociopolitical and psychosocial influences,  and the privacy implications of its form and function.
There are also factors that affect the customer's behavior toward the advertising message which influence organization policy as in the study of (Poynter, R .2008),who found that Social networks such as Facebook could prove a valuable adjunct to more rigorous market research techniques.
(Park, H. et.al 2011) suggest that a core strength of social networking sites such as Facebook is their broad appeal; organizations and businesses engage in conversations with consumers through unique interactive features, such as sharing videos and photos and commenting on posts.This further justifies users' characterization of advertisement messages via Facebook as appealing and exciting.
(Gil-Or, O. 2010) argues that the main advertising strength of social networks and Facebook in particular is the use of viral marketing and the word of mouth, as the relationship between members and especially friends increases the trustworthiness of the messages transferred among them.
Present study constitutes an addition to the findings of previous researches, which while covering various aspects, did not address the aspects of Facebook users' interest in advertising messages sent by companies to promote their products, in addition to the influence of these messages on the receivers and the extent to which they urge and encourage users to purchase said products.Consequently, present study represents, in addition to previous researches, a significant contribution to the field of advertising via social networking site and Facebook in particular.

Objective of the Study
This study aims to:  Determine the interest of Facebook users in the advertising messages posted on Facebook.


Determine the extent to which the content of the advertising messages is exciting for Facebook users.


Determine the ability of the advertising messages to motivate and urge Facebook users to buy.


Determine the extent to which Facebook users' trust the advertising messages.


Determine the extent to which Facebook users' believe in Facebook as a successful media for advertising messages.
5.2 Hypotheses  H1: Advertising messages via Facebook are met with a great interest by users of the website. H2: the content of the advertising messages via Facebook is characterized as exciting and appealing. H3: Advertising messages via Facebook motivate and urge to buy. H4: Trust in the reliability of the advertising messages posted via Facebook. H5: Facebook is viewed as a successful medium for promotion.

Data Source
The required primary data was collected through a self administrated questionnaire which was originally developed and employed for the purpose of the study.A pilot study was first conducted to improve the questionnaire's structure and content.To achieve this purpose 14 questionnaires were sent to academicians in marketing departments in different Jordanian universities and to experts in marketing to evaluate it and form the questionnaire in its final form to be ready to be posted on Facebook.
Several questions were revised based on the inputs from the academicians and experts, the comments were considered in the final version of the original 20 questions, 15 questions were then selected and used for the research.The questionnaire contains five dimensions; these dimensions were prepared to reflect the structure of the study and to fully answer the research questions.
These questionnaires had been distributed for the users of Facebook in both English and Arabic languages for a period of two month from 1 October to 1 December 2011.384 answers were received but only 320 questionnaires (83% of all cases) were valid for statistical analysis.

Analyzing Method
Several statistic techniques were used including frequency analysis, descriptive analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and T-test.The T-test was used to accept/reject the hypotheses through testing the average mean of single sample, based on the value of scale midpoint, the higher value the more favorable the attitude, and vice versa.A mid point value of 3 was chosen by adding the lower coded of the Likert scale(1) and the upper coded value (5) of the Likert scale and divided by 2. It should be noted that for analytical treatment, disagree and strongly disagree were regrouped into "no", and also strongly agree into "very much".

Test of Reliability
A reliability coefficient of (Cronbach's Alpha) 70% or higher is considered "acceptable" in most social science research situations.The result of this test in the current study is 82% as table 1 shows: Insert Table 1 here

The Characteristics of the Study Sample
The tables 2, 3, 4, and 5 describe the characteristics of the study sample according to the indicators of gender, age, scientific qualification, and job.

General Results
By using a descriptive analysis, it has been shown that the mean of all questions are over the hypothetical mean (3), except for the questions (10) and ( 11) which related to the hypothesis 3.As shown in table 6.
Insert Table 6 here

Testing Hypothesis
The first dimension (interest in the messages): The current research results for the first dimension (H1), table 7 show that the "advertising messages via Facebook facing a great interest by the users of this site".The analysis in the table (7) illustrates that the overall mean score of respondent, which measures this dimension (H1) as a whole is (3.62) which is above the scale midpoint (3) with the standard deviation showing small dispersion around this mean moreover.
These result were further validated by one sample t-test, which revealed that the over all mean difference for the dimension as a whole was statistically significant (N=0.00) at (Ns=0.05) with high t-value (t=19.95) this score is bigger than the tabular t (tabular t= 1, 965).As a result the hypothesis (H1) is accepted, which is "advertising messages via Facebook facing a great interest by the users of this site".
Insert Table 7 here The second dimension (the content of the posted messages): The current research results for the second dimension (H2), table 8 show that "the content of the advertising messages via facebook characterized by excitement and attraction".The analysis in the table (8) illustrates that the overall mean score of respondent, which measures this dimension (H2) as a whole is (3.56) which is above the scale midpoint (3) with the standard deviation showing small dispersion around this mean moreover.
These result were further validated by one sample t-test, which revealed that the over all mean difference for the dimension as a whole was statistically significant (N=0.00) at (Ns=0.05) with a high t-value (t=15.06)this score is bigger than the tabular t (tabular t= 1, 965).As a result the hypothesis (H2) is accepted, which is "the content of the advertising messages via facebook characterized by excitement and attraction".
Insert Table 8 here

The third dimension (the motivation and buying):
The current research results for the third dimension (H3), table 9 reveal that "advertising messages via facebook motivate and urge to buy".The analysis in the table (9) illustrates that the overall mean score of respondent, which measures this dimension (H3) as a whole is (3.17) which is above the scale midpoint (3) with the standard deviation showing small dispersion around this mean moreover.
These result were further validated by one sample t-test, which revealed that the over all mean difference for the dimension as a whole was statistically significant (N=0.00) at (Ns=0.05) with t-value (t=5.16) this score is bigger than the tabular t (tabular t= 1,965).As a result the hypothesis (H3) is accepted, which is "advertising messages via facebook motivate and urge to buy".
Insert Table 9 here

Fourth dimension (the reability):
The current research results for the fourth dimension (H4) table 10 show that the "trust in the reliability of the advertising messages posted via facebook".The analysis in the table (7) illustrates that the overall mean score of respondent, which measures this dimension (H4) as a whole is (3.65) which is above the scale midpoint (3) with the standard deviation showing small dispersion around this mean moreover.
These result were further validated by one sample t-test, which revealed that the over all mean difference for the dimension as a whole was statistically significant (N=0.00) at (Ns=0.05) with high t-value (t=14.56)this score is bigger than the tabular t (tabular t= 1, 965).As a result the hypothesis (H1) is accepted, which is "trust in the reliability of the advertising messages posted via facebook" Insert Table 10 here

Fifth dimension (believes in facebook site):
The current research results for the fifth dimension (H5) table 11 reveal that "the facebook site is considered as a successful media for promotion".The analysis in the table (11) illustrates that the overall mean score of respondent, which measures this dimension (H5) as a whole is (3.35) which is above the scale midpoint (3) with the standard deviation showing small dispersion around this mean moreover.
These result were further validated by one sample t-test, which revealed that the over all mean difference for the dimension as a whole was statistically significant (N=0.00) at (Ns=0.05) with t-value (t=8.27) this score is bigger than the tabular t (tabular t= 1,965).As a result the hypothesis (H5) is accepted, which is "the facebook site considered as a successful media for promotion" Insert Table 11 here

Discussion
This study focuses on the extent of the individuals' interest in the posted messages via Facebook as they are considered to be one of the most effective advertising messages in the present time as a result for the wide spread use of Facebook and the largely increased number of the website users, which is encouraging various companies to use Facebook in publishing their advertising messages.
This study contains five dimensions covering all the aspect of this research, which are respectively: the interest in the advertising messages, the content of the advertising messages, motivation to buy, reliability, and the belief in Facebook.All hypotheses were validated, but it was noted that questions 10 (related to encouraging friends to buy products that are advertised in advertising messages via Facebook), and 11 (related to the motivation of advertising messages via Facebook to visit the companies' websites) in dimension 3, in addition to question 14 (related to the degree to which Facebook represents a successful medium for companies promotion) in dimension 5, have scored weak results due to the relative novelty of Facebook in the field of advertising as users of the website aren't totally accustomed to it as a popular promoting medium .
This study shows that there is interest in the advertising messages by the Facebook users, that the content of the advertising messages is viewed as both exciting and reliable by them, that these messages motivate them to buy, and that Facebook represents a successful medium for products promoting.
In general, the results of this study clearly refer to the importance of Facebook in promoting various products.
For this reason, marketers should dedicate more focus on this mean to better reach their target market.

Conclusions
For the purpose of data analysis, testing hypotheses, and reaching results, this study is divided into five dimensions as follows: -The first dimension focuses on testing the first hypothesis (H1: Advertising messages via Facebook are met with a great interest by users of the website), through analyzing data obtained from the answers of sample respondents to questions (1,2,3,4).Results of the statistical analysis have shown that (T= 19.94), which indicates the validity of the hypothesis in that respondents do show a great deal of interest in advertising messages posted via Facebook.
-The second dimension focuses on the second hypothesis (H2: the content of the advertising messages via Facebook is characterized as exciting and appealing), through analyzing data obtained from the answers of sample respondents to questions (5,6).Results of the statistical analysis have shown that (T= 15.06), which indicates the validity of the hypothesis in that respondents do find advertising messages on Facebook exciting and appealing.
-The third dimension focuses on the third hypothesis (H3: Advertising messages via Facebook motivate and urge to buy).This hypothesis was tested through analyzing data obtained from the answers to questions (7, 8, 9, 10, and 11).Data analysis have shown that (T= 5.16), which indicates the validity of the hypothesis, however, upon observing the results of every specific question, question (10) is found to have scored a value of (T= -1.19), which indicates that sample respondents do not tend to encourage their friends to buy products advertised via Facebook.The same applies to question (11) which scored a value of (T= -6.65), indicating that advertising messages via Facebook do not encourage sample respondents to visit the websites of the companies advertising their products via the website.
-The fourth dimension which focuses on testing the fourth hypothesis (H4: Trust in the reliability of the advertising messages posted via Facebook).This hypothesis was tested by analyzing data obtained from the answers of sample respondents to questions (12 and 13), and results have shown that (T= 14.56), which indicates the validity of the hypothesis in that respondents do view the information in advertising messages via Facebook as trustworthy and reliable.
-The fifth dimension which focuses on the fifth hypothesis (H5: Facebook is considered a successful medium for promotion).Testing this hypothesis was based on analyzing data obtained from the answers of sample respondents to questions (14 and 15).Statistical analysis have shown that (T= 8.27) which indicates the validity of the hypothesis in that sample respondents do find Facebook to be a successful medium for promotion.
The above dimensions show that sample respondents consider Facebook a successful medium for promotion; they show a great deal of interest in advertising messages posted on Facebook and find the advertising messages on the website to be exciting and appealing,, encouraging them to purchase the advertised products.

Future Research
Future researches should focus on how to develop Facebook to further facilitate promoting products in a way that enables marketers to reach individuals targeted by the advertising messages.

Table 7 .
One sample statistic and t-value (one sample t-test) of attitude statement regarding dimension 1

Table 8 .
One sample statistic and t-value (one sample t-test) of attitude statement regarding dimension 2

Table 9 .
One sample statistic and t-value (one sample t-test) of attitude statement regarding dimension 3

Table 10 .
One sample statistic and t-value (one sample t-test) of attitude statement regarding dimension 4

Table 11 .
One sample statistic and t-value (one sample t-test) of attitude statement regarding dimension 5