Use of Social Media as a marketing tool
[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]
Social Media synchronizing trends of markets
Introduction
Social Media is more like “Internet Hip” that is most trending in present time. An analysis of the past three decades infers that technology has played a critical role in marketing, leading to rapid growth of businesses. Social media is a media, designed to be disseminated through social interaction that is highly scalable and accessible in terms of publishing techniques. Social media makes use of web-based technologies, and internet to transform broadcast monologues into social media dialogues. The introduction of various tools and an increase in internet usage has brought a great revolution in marketing. (Dwivedi, et, al. 2015). It is important to note that the number of people who have been using internet has been increased up to 16 to 70 million. In the present time, there are about four billion people who are using social media as per the analysis of social media report. Social media is a prime tool to enhance marketing.
Discussion
In accordance with research, it has been asserted that six out of ten people are using social media for more than three hours and this number is growing with the passage of time taking into account the increased trend of using social media as a tool of promoting market. Early desktop publishing software was a modified form of typewriter of glory, taking into account the surge in the printing market in early 1980. Social media comprises of different categories such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram. Other major components of social media are blogs, and vlogs. There are several social networks that are performing the same task of global interaction. Microblogging is a network service that allows mobile users to use their cellular devices to stay in contact with global activities by staying in contact with other groups. Social bookmarking is another service that allows the user to organize, rate, store, search and share the material of webpages. It would not be wrong to say that social media is a diverse platform that is providing with several options to infer making.
Deviance of platform
It is a common observation that online marketing refers to a traditional practice of marketing department that involves online selling and buying. Today, the platform has shifted from a single source towards sources. In present time, customers have more control over their corporate relationships by using social media participation and active engagement. Side by side, the targets of markets have been shifted from selling to building a complete mindset, gathering information and announcing the upcoming products. Businesses are now using social media as a major tool that can increase engagement with customers and engagement. According to research, social media or digital marketing is now focusing on brand awareness and customer engagement by using hashtags and social site logos. (Dwivedi, et, al. 2015).
Social Media and Integrated Marketing
Marketing can be termed as a tool that uses certain forms to achieve organizational goals. In accordance with research on marketing in the modern era, it is asserted that the objectives of the firm are adequately achieved when all the elements of marketing are merged in the promotional mix. It includes, personal selling, advertising, public relations, sales promotion, and direct marketing, merging into "unified and csuiner oriented message”. It is significant to note that social media is playing a hybrid role in Integrated Market Communication. Social media is not only a platform of networking; in fact, it is also acting as a promotional tool. Social media has played a major role in the provision of information that can provide exclusivity and standardized approach side by side. It would not be wrong to say that social media tools have played a major role in the formulation of customer-centric model of brand communication. According to this model, brand, company, product of the customers is brought on the same platform of convenience.
Adopting Media Marketing
Social media has provided companies with another capability to reach a large number of customers by printing with similar product experience at a low cost. It is significant to note that social media marketing is more like an opportunity that provides customers to take advantage of the power of word of month. In accordance with the study conducted by Towson University, it has been highlighted that electronic Word Of Mouth is more prevalent in the decision of individual. According to a web traffic monitoring company, it is highlighted that 4 out of 10 most visited companies belong to social media and other 6 are general search engines. Facebook comprises of 350 million active users, among which 70 % are international and they are spending on average 55 minutes on social media. MySapce is another social media platform that has about 100 million active users. All these platforms are playing a major role in marketing. Technorati has more than 133 million indexed blogs and 77% of active users of the internet who read blogs. It is significant to note that social media marketing SMM was not assumed and planned to sell, if it was so, there was no ambition to infer direct selling, in fact, SMM is a tool to incorporate awareness regarding business, increase subscribers and create new business partnership with an aim to raise up the stance of marketing. (Krishnamurthy, et, al. 2019).
Social Networking in counting
Research has inferred that Facebook dominates the social media preferences of B2B marketers at 65% that are followed by Twitter at 10% and LinkedIn at 9%. Majority of B2B marketers considered LinkedIn as one of the most important social media used by their organization followed by twitter and facebook. It is significant to note that the statistical data is the information conveyed by 52% marketers in the United States and 42% in Australia, United Kingdom and Canada. It is assumed that more retailers are likely to adopt social selling students such as making use of user-generated content galleries and comments. An example of this business can be found in retailers such as TopShelf Style. It is interesting to note that TopShelf Style places an item for selling items on Instagram, customer who want to have it should comment sold with an email address. The process is completed by the generation of invoice that is sent to the shopper to precede transactions. It would not be wrong to say that companies use social networks to develop Customer Relationship Management not only for promoting sales but also for the advertisement of web banners and text advertisements. (Dwivedi, et, al. 2015).
Social News
Social news is a platform of personalized news forum that deliver information through platforms of social media such as, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, taking into account a diverse stance of information from different sources. In addition to such platforms, third-party sources play a significant role in the announcement of “news”, including traditional stories such as from preferred bands, advertisers’ websites, and friends. It is significant to note that user interaction plays major roles, adhering to activities such as commenting, sharing voting and liking. It creates a better focused, personalized and targeted consumption of experience that can address the targeted audience.
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing involves blogs, websites, news and other social networks that can create awareness regarding a brand. It is important to note that the aim of viral marketing is to encourage people to share advertising messages and other content. Such advertisements appear in the form of flash games, text messages and video clips. The idea of viral marketing highlights the importance of "will to share" and "willed content". Marketers make use of Social Networking Potential in order to impart intensity to interest of users. (Krishnamurthy, et, al. 2019).
Catastrophic Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing can be an unplanned approach if there is a lack of planning. Side by side, lack of strong message can also tarnish the stance of plan. So, it is important to consider that social media is a global platform. A corporation should realize that there is a distinction between appropriate and inappropriate content. A plan should be crafted along with organizers that can address content and stance coverage.
Blogs
Blog gives the reader the ability to go through the content of their desire. It is a stance of interactive session, giving readers an option to give feedback and share their satisfaction and dissatisfactions. A common example of a blog is, “George colony blog" highlighting personal thoughts, reviews, and expectations. It is significant to note that different blogs compete with each other in terms of content and approach. Side by side, it is a great tool to offer business reviews. Social marketing can be implemented in an original stance taking an example of Nokia Conversations. It is a remarkable source to announce new software, services and, mobile phones. Nokia tries to engage readers in the conversation in order to get honest reviews. There are certain activities that official bloggers use such as photo content and videos. Adobe Inc is an also a great example of using social media as a marketing tool because the blog site is dedicated to inform the general public about latest updates and the make people aware of the upcoming products. Adobe XML News Aggregator is doing an efficient job to bring people in contact with the articles tutorials and codes of software. (Dwivedi, et, al. 2015).
Social Network
Another approach that highlights social media as a marketing tool is “social networks”. It is one of the fastest growing online social networks. It is more like an online community for the users of the internet, taking into account that it is different from other sites, where people share a common interest. For example, Flixster for movies, Spoccer for soccer players, etc. It involves designing an honest profile that can allow people to get in touch with each other. It is great support for small business and corporations, taking into account that it is a site of announcement, catching the suggestions of people and adhering to the future plans. (Krishnamurthy, et, al. 2019).
Conclusion
Although social media is playing a major role in marketing, still, there are certain aspects to consider because they are posing a serious threat to the increasing benefits. Parallel to advantages, there are certain threats as well. Negative reviews and misconceptions associated with products and website are posing a serious threat to the companies. There are certain threats associated with privacy and confidentiality as well. It would not be wrong to say, like other platforms, social media is also a spectrum with diversity, there are massive advantages and benefits, side by side there are serious threats. The usage of social media as a tool of marketing completely relies on the ability of the business to manage its privacy and other happenings, taking into account that cybersecurity should be given due importance because it is a platform of both revolution and destruction. However, certain major aspects to consider are, building trust in consumers, maintaining trust, involving consumers in decision making and then making efforts to synchronize balance with positivity.
References
Dwivedi, Y. K., Kapoor, K. K., & Chen, H. (2015). Social media marketing and advertising. The Marketing Review, 15(3), 289-309.
How Can Social Media be used as a Marketing Tool? | B2B Marketing. (2019). B2bmarketing.net. Retrieved 1 April 2019, from https://www.b2bmarketing.net/en-gb/resources/blog/how-can-social-media-be-used-marketing-tool
Krishnamurthy, R. (2019). Social Media as a Marketing Tool. In Application of Gaming in New Media Marketing (pp. 181-201). IGI Global.
