Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security - Essay Example

? Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security Answer Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes. There are many reasons for this current trend of digital marketing. Few important reasons have been discussed below. Through social media networks, the company can spread out their message without incurring huge cost. Hence the businesses can get high returns at comparatively low cost. Through social media, the firms can easily segment the target market as compared to traditional target where it takes time to segment the market and approach it. The audience which the firms can reach out is limitless. Billions of people visit websites every day, which increases the likelihood that the product be seen by the target audience. If we count the number of users in Facebook its size would be greater than even United Sates. People are spending more time on the internet to do online shopping than the traditional shopping in the malls (Zarrella, 2009). No one likes to wait in the long queues during their holiday season and rather choose and order from home. Answer 2 Advantages of Social Media Marketing The best thing of suing social media marketing is that it is free. Anyone can sign up to their Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other countless sites free of cost and can build huge list of followers in their page and post about any new product or new advertisement that the company is coming out with. According to a recent survey by comScore, it was seen that around 98% of the online population living in USA uses Social Media sites, and worldwide out of every 10 people 6 uses social media forums. Hence it is ideal for businesses to reach out to new target customers and new markets where they have no presence. Through these networks professionals can interact and share ideas and discuss about important topic across boundaries in much lesser time than ever imagined. Hence one can use LinkedIn as a more professional site or Twitter to give quick updates or Facebook as more friendly and informal sites. Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing Social media marketing might not be free, but a business needs to take into consideration the time it takes to make new relationships, time it takes to catch their attention, make the sites look great. The company needs to spend time regularly to update their status and read new comments of the customers, like reviewing their suggestions, replying to their comments, accepting any new request etc. Any negative publicity will severely damage their reputation as it is seen worldwide by millions of fans following. Though there are a lot of Social media sites to choose and spread their networks, firms must understand the simple fact that they are just a needle in the haystack. They have to stand out from the crowd. It is easy for anyone to get frustrated with lack of response form the customers; hence they must have a clear thought out strategy. It is not easy to get a Facebook like from millions of people in the internet, and hence they must take their time to build the relationship. Answer 3 Pepsi launched their Pepsi Refresh Project in 2010. Pepsi funded people for their business ideas in areas like health, food and shelter, arts and culture, education and planet and neighborhoods. Pepsi measured the results of their campaign through the level of engagement between their customers and their brands, the level of social impact it created and the brand-equity results it created. It was seen that consumers felt that Pepsi as a cola making company cares about the community and their thinking of Pepsi as an innovative and forward thinking brand was strengthened. Pepsi’s research showed that the consumers who knew about the Pepsi refresh project started to choose Pepsi over any other brand while buying any cola drink. It was also seen that the social network which Pepsi developed had the largest fan base as compared to any beverage company. It showed both the aspects of how these kinds of programs can be very successful and not successful at the same time. When it was launched in the Super Bowl, their social media metric went through the roof. It showed the effect such campaign can have, and hence people responded and said that Pepsi is a good company. But the revenue figure didn’t shot up like their popularity. It showed that the loyal Pepsi drinker were people who don’t get excited for such causes (Barker, 2010). Hence it shows that the people who got excited and voted for such programs where often not usual Pepsi drinkers. Hence this program didn’t get what it actually stood for. Answer 3 Two companies which used social media marketing successfully are Ford Motors and TV Network. Ford Motors During recession in time Detroit automakers wasn’t among the favorite brand list of anyone. Of the big three automakers, Ford Motors used the social media marketing to the best way to regain the ground of the consumers. For 100 indie agents who publicly advertised their experience with their car, Ford gave a free Fiesta to them (Blanchard, 2011). The Recipients of such a prize included filmmakers, bloggers, social networkers who were doing similar job online like documenting and sharing their lives with others. Ford published all such stories online at FiestaMovement.com which made an authentic and compelling narrative for others to read. It cost Ford $5 million what would have cost other auto makers millions of dollars. By doing this Fiesta was able to achieve 60 percent name recognition in the US market even before it hits the market. They basically wanted the customers to tell the company’s story to others and earn credibility among the consumers. TV Network A Few years ago CBS was known for showing old, boring shows. They were losing ratings to NBC in the Thursday night block. CBS then tried to regain the position by introducing a sitcom named The Big Bang Theory, though it needed to do something to make the younger generations watch it. The producer of the show Bill Prady then started to share the insider’s view of the show on Twitter. He showed the inside of each character, how they were in their original life. He would spot pictures of them in their school life and as a result people started comparing them with their own life. Prady would even crowd source old computer props for their show. He basically pinpointed the target audience and started to build on the fan base. Such a step increased the Neilson rating from 59 in 2008 to 12 in 2010. Answer 4 Recently Facebook had over 500 million users and Twitter hosted billionth Tweet by the end of 2009. Many companies are using it as a means to communicate with the customers or marketing their products and services. Social media is more than a fad. In fact there has been a technological expression of values shift which has was taking place over a number of years. The companies need to truly grasp the concept of social media as an expression of profound change in the way business operates (Lovett, 2011). It has the potential of connecting to anyone anywhere but without any obligation. It can democratize the decision making process and also be a forum to collaborate ideas and innovate without across boundaries. Through this business can tap into the collective wisdom to help make the smartest decision (Holloman, 2011). Through the shifts in the mind-sets which drive the social media forward, it is possible to take a note of that which might change the way people work, their communication, the trust and relationships between each other, how the view the world etc. One classic example is “Patients Like Me” which has used this social media to seek shared solution by creating platform for the doctors to share their information. Reference Barker, M. (2010). Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Approach. Mason: Cengage Learning. Blanchard, O. (2011). Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization. Boston: Pearson Education. Holloman, C. (2011). The Social Media MBA: Your Competitive Edge in Social Media Strategy Development and Delivery. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Zarrella, D. (2009). The Social Media Marketing Book. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media, Inc. Read More