The power of Facebook is a challenge that simply cannot be ignored
Former Welsh Government Minister Leighton Andrews, now a Cardiff University Professor, has a new book out this week called Facebook, the Media and Democracy (Routledge). Here he explores Facebook’s role in society and looks at its benefits and problems.
IN early 2018 Facebook ran a series of adverts illustrating how small businesses around the UK had benefited from their association with Facebook, including Hiut Denim in Cardigan.
David and Clare Hieatt, who previously owned the clothing firm Howie’s, set up their business in 2012 to create high-quality denim jeans using the skills of former factory workers.
They marketed the company through Instagram and Facebook. They could not afford TV or press advertising.
Facebook was second in importance to their newsletter for their marketing. Without it, they would not have been so successful.
Hiut Denim also featured in a Facebook television advertisement, as did another company based in Wales, Recycle Scooters, run from
Cwmbach at the top of the Cynon Valley by Helen Walbey and her husband Stephen.
Helen told me: “We were trading for fourteen years and we had a Facebook Page pretty much from when we started, and we sold globally, through eBay predominantly.”
Facebook was used to promote the business. Helen said: “The Facebook analytics are very good if you know how to use them to enable you to target very specific people with very targeted promotions and advertising.”
The benefits offered by Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are real and utilised and experienced daily by users on a personal, civic, or commercial basis.
The Rhondda Tunnel Society, formed in 2014, campaigns to have the Victorian Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway Tunnel re-opened.
The society maintains a Facebook Group with over 4,000 members, and