Mark W. Shaefer is a successful businessman that built his company while spending zero dollars on marketing. “I built my entire business without spending a dime on advertising or marketing in three and half years. All of my business has come from my blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn.” (Bell 34) By using the platforms that many individuals visit on a daily basis, free business exposure is created. “Social media is rapidly replacing traditional media as a source to which consumers turn for information about products and brands.” (Brison 309) Much like in the past, consumers want to learn about a product before purchasing it.
The use of social media marketing has become a standard way in which organizations advertise their products or services. Social media marketing allows consumers to have immediate access to other consumers reviews or to post a review about a product or service. There is engagement between the company and the consumer (Evans, Dave 2010). Social Media emerged in the late 1980’s when websites such as Prodigy, Compuserve and America Online. Prodigy was first of it’s kind and was known as a ”consumer online service”. Half of the page is devoted to advertising. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Hi5, Bebo and Orkut are all social media platforms that are utilized as platforms today.
It is interesting how social media today is influencing the marketing role of many companies and how it’s playing a big role in their success. The more the company advertises on social media, the
In this era of internet marketers, Social Media (blogs, social networks, content communities, wiki 's and podcasts), have largely changed the face of marketing and media. Social media relies on consumer generated content and hence doesn’t conform to the ideals of traditional media where content, both commercial and other, is ‘engineered’ to suit the need of a promoter or seller. (Fernando 2007). This hence is in direct contrast with the traditional promotional mix as consumer interaction and orientation is at an optimum. This medium, in the light of a business communication strategy, is highly conversational, collaborative and credible. This involves opinion makers, journalists, seasoned practitioners and the audience who interacts with one another on a regular basis. (Fernando 2007). This high level of interaction and involvement is devoid in the traditional media and the marketing field as well. Capon and Hulbert have observed that the modern consumer is different: demanding, individualistic, involved, independent, better informed and more critical (2000 cited Constantinides, E 2006). Social Media as a whole provides the
He watched some businesses struggle while others flourished and the only variable was the owner’s ability to market his products or services. Mike has the heart of a true marketer and nine years ago when he decided to attend a workshop on social media marketing he quickly knew that social media would be the way marketing would go in the future.
Social media has grown into one of the most useful digital marketing tools for business owners and corporations and is designed to feed us information at a fast-moving speed. There are many advantages to this development as well as disadvantages. Information is easily obtainable, instant and causes credibility issues. It is important to know and understand all the benefits and disadvantages before using social media because it can alter how a person may use it.
Social media is not new. Facebook has been around since 2004, YouTube since 2005, and Twitter in 2006. What is new is how social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are affecting the way businesses market their products and services. Never before in our history have consumers been able to communicate so effortlessly with each other and with the businesses they frequent. Never before have businesses been able to interact and react to customer feedback so quickly and efficiently. However, just because businesses have the ability to use social media for their marketing and advertising efforts, does not necessarily mean they should. This paper intends to
Social media plays an important role in how products and services are discovered researched, and information is shared. As a matter of fact 60% of consumers found information on products and services through searches on multiple online sources such as networking sites. Active users of social media are more likely to read product reviews online, and 3 out of 5 create their
Social Media: Social networks like all the online matter such as Youtube, Twitter and Facebook are so important that relevant companies should not defer their efforts to create the public image and enhance their both market and products’ effectiveness”
The way that individuals and businesses communicate and interact has radically changed. With the development of technology and the internet, people can connect almost instantaneously and with very little effort. Social media has come to play a huge part in the way that the world communicates with each other. In fact, a recent report shows that in a single month people spend over 25 hours on social networks (“The Digital Consumer”). With consumers committing that much time to social media sites, social networking has become an important aspect of everyday life for individuals—and businesses. Like most marketing activities, social media marketing poses some risk. However, it is advantageous for businesses to exploit this opportunity, and develop an effective and ethical marketing strategy that includes using social media as a marketing tool.
Clever marketers already know about this benefit which is one of the reasons why they were the first ones to use social media. Research has shown that by creating social media strategies small businesses are creating new ways to connect with their customers. A recent survey revealed that the best benefits of social media marketing are producing more business publicity, increasing traffic, and increasing search engine rankings. All of these benefits are particularly imperative for small businesses with reduced capital as the owners frequently have many positions in the company and consequently have many requests. Social media can play a major part in helping small business owners save money and cost by forming a way to accomplish many assignments at the same time making sure that business operations are efficient and finances are taken care of. (Schaupp and Belanger 187). The most important economic factor in social media marketing is the time it takes to understand the benefits of all of the hard work. Nevertheless, advertising costs could possibly be decreased or removed by taking advantage of using social
Marketing is continuously changing and growing within the business field. Recently, social media is becoming one of the main marketing strategies used by companies, which is known as social media marketing. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and blogs are some of the platforms used in this area of marketing. These types of social media allow consumers to be updated by following their favorite companies. It is not a surprise companies are starting to regularly use this form of marketing due to the role social media has in today's society. Social media does, however, impact a company in a multitude of ways. There is much debate on whether companies should or should not use social media to market themselves. Even though there are some flaws
We cannot deny how big of an impact social media has on our lives now, not only on people but businesses too. It has opened a whole new door to the business world and given them a big opportunity to interact and attract a larger amount of customers. It’s given us a new and faster way of communication by exchanging pictures, stories, news, blogs, online discussions, etc. In exchange businesses have benefited by a long shot just by the click of a button. With the help of the Internet a company no longer is dependent on a particular customer base to survive because now it can reach out to a worldwide audience within seconds. It’s imaginable the countless business attributes of all social media to this day and still is growing. Social media
The marketing industry is an elaborate network that links companies to their consumers, primarily through written communication. The main objective of marketing is to identify trends and patterns in consumer behavior, and utilize the data to influence consumers to purchase more goods. From a macroenviroment standpoint, the general conditions of a market are heavily dependent on global environmental factors. The most significant factor that influences the markets today is technological advancements. Since the release of Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, and Myspace in the early 2000s, the number of people using social media has increased to over sixty-five percent. The ever-growing dependency on social media platforms, has given marketers the tremendous opportunity to further market potential consumers. Social media marketing is a specific form of marketing that focuses on producing ad content that social media users will post on their own networks. This particular marketing technique is effective because ads and content are created, based on what personal information users post on social media. Firms and organizations that advertise their brands on social media are more likely to increase their customer base and annual revenue. By doing so, companies are able to increase exposure of their brand and widen previous hidden, customer bases. As a marketer, the fine line between right and wrong is often blurred. The amount and
In today’s business world, social media is being discussed on a daily basis. This phenomenon has taken over the marketing and advertising industries and has changed the way they handle their efforts to attract customers. There is a big misunderstanding that social media are only popular networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media are “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” The rise of these online communities has given companies an opportunity to engage in conversations with their customers. This in
Businesses should research the different methods of utilizing information collected from online content before deciding which one would be the most effective in helping it reach its marketing goals. Further, in this case, we learned about the different approaches to online marketing strategies. Nowadays, more and more consumers are relying on social media to influence what products and services they purchase. Thus, there are companies that collect, analyze and compile this information for the potential value it may hold. In addition, we learn that utilizing online word‐of‐mouth or viral marketing methods are becoming a more effective way to reach consumers. Similarly, LinkedIn’s approach towards helping a client increase brand recognition and sales was by targeting online influencers. However, that approach might not be as effective as the CEO of Umbria believes it is (O’Brien & Markas, 2011). Influencer marketing is one of the ways that businesses are using to bring awareness to their brands. Be that as it may, there is a danger to selecting an influencer simply based upon how many followers they may have. For example, Kylie Jenner has over 100 million followers across all social media platforms. Nevertheless, despite her impressive numbers would she be the right influencer for a company like, LinkedIn? Probably not. Wherefore, a business must ensure that they have established brand recognition with the right influencer who can effectively turn the post into profits.