The Importance of Using Social Media in Business - Research Paper Example

The Importance of Using Social Media in Business The use of social media in our society has increased greatly nowadays due to the implementation of innovative ideas and technological advancement. A while back when social media were a brand new tool of communication for the society, there were not so many participants interested in engaging their businesses with social media. The social media were considered to be a marketing strategy that could only be used by experts in the field of business. This view is still spread to some extent today. In contrast to this, social media is not being considered as a new way to do marketing but it has been integrated as a marketing strategy in the conduction of businesses today. This is to the extent that the use of social media in businesses today is being considered to be an evolution rather than a revolution. Although the traditional marketing strategies such as referrals, advertizing and public relations are still of importance in the running of businesses today, social media are being used by almost every business as a part of its marketing fabric. The use of social media is prevalent in major businesses to the extent the extent that its incorporation in the business is being considered at a strategic level in the decision making process. As observed from the statistics in online competitiveness, the use of social media has skyrocketed and the growth being recorded on a daily basis is exponential. The most popular of these social sites are facebook and twitter. These social networks have approximately 2.5 billion visits in a month. These social networks record growth rates that are of the charts. Twitter recorded a growth rate of over 600 percent in the year 2009. Facebook in this same year observed a growth of 210 percent. Making judgment from these statistics, the use of social media in businesses as a marketing strategy is more efficient as a result of the great reach of social media. Hence as a result conduction of business throughout the world has now been made possible due to the great masses that social media enables businesses to reach (Mandiberg, 2012, p 59). Through social media, businesses are able to establish and use social marketing as a tool to expand. Social marketing is one of the key factors for making a business successful in terms of sales by increasing the market range. For marketing to become a success in social media by the use of social marketing, businesses must set up hierarchies that prove effective in marketing the business. At the bottom of the hierarchy pyramid is blogging. It is a known fact that the internet has revolutionized the world. Using this view, it has been observed that blogging has seen to revolutionize the internet world. Blogs are online diaries, which help the business people reach their potential customers. Through blogs, businesspersons are able to air views to their customers and, using them as online dialogue, receive feedback. Through blogs, businesses are able to monitor the progress of their businesses and hence they are able to effectively market their business. From blogs, businesses are also able to make the necessary adjustments so as to achieve success through factors such as increased sales, which result in a higher profit margin in the business. Blogging comes as an aid in building customer loyalty. This is in the sense that a businessperson is able to keep his or her customers engaged with your business by keeping customers apprised with new products in the business and fluctuation of prices. New services in the business are also known to the customers through blogs due to their accessibility (Debono, 2012). Blogs are observed to increase the customer range in a business. Blogs increase the business reach in the sense that blogging about the products and services of a particular company provides increases in the company’s web presence. The company’s web presence is increased in a rate proportional to the search engines runs in the web to retrieve the company’s products. The organic search is a perfect method for customers to look for products hence increasing the number of customers. Otherwise, the business would have a limited customer range. In businesses, blogging is also seen to generate revenue. On developing the skills as a blogging expert, a business can increase its profitability through the selling of spaces in a blog. This is possible by setting up accounts whereby people, organizations, or other businesses can advertize on your blog sites hence increasing the profitability of the business. The amount of revenue generated from these blogging sites grows exponentially and this money comes in handy in strategies to expand the business. In addition to this, blogs are seen to add personality to a company or a business. This is due to the fact that blogs actually humanize a business by providing a venue for interaction between the business and its potential customers. Through blogs, bloggers relate with the customers on a personal level whereby customer struggles are brought to light and possible solutions are provided. This consequently gives businesses brand an identity (Pencak, 2010). Social media are free. Using social networks has no costs to be incurred. This is as opposed to using other means of marketing a business. Social networks have the largest following in almost all the corners in the world and this resource comes free of charge to business around the world. The mileage that social networks provides for businesses and companies around the world is unrivalled as opposed to traditional marketing strategies which are very limited in terms of range and are very expensive. The only costs incurred in using social media as a marketing strategy is the time and the labor in terms of the effort put in to market in the social networks. Hence, the range of market that social media provides is priceless and it is suitable for both small and big businesses (Gitomer, 2011, p 170). Through the use of social networks, business people are able to keep tabs on their competition. This is so because in these social networks and blogs, a person owning a business is able to monitor the success of related businesses and make the adjustments necessary to become a competitive business venture. Social media is also seen to promote competition whereby only those businesses, which provide quality services and products, are able to prosper. Hence, social media ensure that high quality products and services are provided by businesses, which totally meets customer requirements. Social media have been observed to promote business relationships. Social media through social networks have provided a venue whereby companies with mutual interests come together so as to help increase the productivity of the business. It is as a result of this social media that companies with mutual interests form partnerships that help promote the development of the businesses (Smith, Wollan & Zhou, 2011, p 295). As a result, social media have changed our lives whereby this kind of media impacts the society by promoting the growth of business through providing the largest market in the world – social networks. Therefore, social media can greatly assist both small and large scale businesses reach unforeseen potential customers and at the same time keep the current ones. The only consequence of employing social media as a strategy to market the business is an increase in the throughput of the business venture. In the modern world, it is difficult for businesses to operate through physical addresses only because the world has turned global. This is aided by the advancements in technology that come up every day and make business dealings different than they were. Therefore, consumers have also transformed in the way they find the products they want. Instead of walking in and out of shops, most consumers decide to check for the products, services, and appliances they need in online pages. This directs them where to find the products they want making it easy for them to buy whatever they need. This means that business organizations and companies that do not use the social media to advertise their products are left behind to compete for the few customers who do impulse buying or are not interested with goods and services that are advertised online through social media and other means. This means that the social media is remarkably important for businesses, which means that business people, organizations, and companies should consider using the social media. In conclusion, it is imperative to point out that in the current technological world, the social media are significantly important in business. This is because of its massive benefits when it comes to marketing and selling products. Social media expose business organizations and their products and brands to a wide variety of consumer groups. This is beneficial for businesses not only in the sense of marketing but also for the reduction of costs that an organization would use to pay marketers to market their products, or pay for advertisements in electronic media. The benefits that the social media offer to businesses are enormous and this fact cannot be ignored, thus underscoring social media’s importance. References Debono, J. (2012). 13 reasons why using social media for business is non-negotiable. Retrieved November 18, 2012, from http://www.jamesdebono.com/using-socil-media-for-business/ Gitomer, J. H. (2011). Social boom: How to master business social media to brand yourself, sell yourself, sell your product, dominate your industry market, save your butt, rake in the cash, and grind your competition into the dirt--by the global authority on sales, attitude. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press. Retrieved from http://www.books.google.com/books?isbn=0132686058. Mandiberg, M. (2012). The social media reader. New York: New York University Press. Retrieved from http://www.books.google.com/books?isbn=0814763022. Pencak, S. (2010). The importance of social media marketing. Retrieved from http://www.mymagneticblog.com/the-importance-of-social-media-marketing Smith, N., Wollan, R., & Zhou, C. (2011). The social media management handbook: everything you need to know to get social media working in your business. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Retrieved from http://www.books.google.com/books?isbn=1118003527. Read More