In the good old days, waiters, waitresses and restaurant managers worked diligently to offer the best service in order to be given good tips from customers. Newly opened eateries would pay a lot of money for airtime on TV to promote new management and the like. However, these were the good old days. Now, social media is taking over the world of advertising. Managers, restaurant owners and staff working in the service sector offer customers top service not for higher tips but to gain "likes" on social media platforms, as more and more people turn to the internet as their guide to dining and shopping.

The advertising industry has seen a radical change due to advancements in consumer technology in the global market. Now, consumers have the ability to interact directly with managers and have the chance to provide feedback on the quality of service they receive, without the need for a middleman. This is the new age of advertising.

Traditional advertising primarily consisted of print and broadcast media. Print marketing is the oldest form of traditional marketing and dates to the ancient times of the Egyptian pharaohs. When it comes to print advertising, this form of marketing usually refers to advertising space in newspapers, magazines, newsletters and other types of printed materials intended for distribution. On the other hand, broadcast marketing includes television and radio advertisements which were first introduced with the invention of the radio.

It is time to face the music: We are living in a new era. The days of TV commercials, billboard and magazine ads have already become a thing of the past, replaced by the internet sensation. With the rapid development of the worldwide web and smartphones, consumers look everything up on their phones rather than reading circulars or billboards in their daily lives.

Said Ercan, the chairman of the International Social Media Association (USMED), drew attention to the importance of social media on consumer brand perception, saying the positive comments on social media and the advertising of brands on such social media platforms increase consumer trust for brand names. Ercan notes, "The advertising industry is one of the oldest professions in the world and it has inevitably changed due to the transformation of the digital age. For the first time in history, digital advertising has surpassed traditional advertising mediums, making it a sort of revolution," Ercan added.

For the last few years, the amount of money that major franchises have spent on traditional advertising has been on the decline. Now, major corporations can reach millions of people with a single Facebook post rather than spending millions of dollars on TV commercial airtime. Now, there is no need to go door-to-door, handing out flyers. All one needs to do is put an advertising banner on a webpage and they effective have the capacity to reach more people.

One of the prominent reasons why top brands prefer digital marketing is because this form of marketing more effectively targets the intended audience. Social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn offer flexible ad options that allow brands to differentiate by geographic location, demographics, interests and more.While mega corporations hope their customers will be in front of the TV or reading that specific newspaper or magazine when ads are run on traditional media mediums, digital marketing allows them to reach their audience on the go, wherever they are, whenever they are online. More importantly, when something is in digital form, it has a higher chance of going viral, which fosters positive consumer perception of the brand and has the potential to increase sales as well as the number of customers.

For example, consider the Twitter accounts of well-known brands. Newly trending brands are following users to potentially hire social media managers and use their official Twitter accounts to promote their brands, even with a sense of humor.

However, Said Ercan from the International Social Media Association said the advertisers were not happy with the new developments. "Digital marketing might lead to unfiltered, unqualified or not-so-smart ads. What worries advertisers is the fall of the profession of advertising. These are aesthetically-driven people and they are worried that people lacking the proper educational background are advertising online."