Ways That Social Media Marketing Can Help Organisations to Market Their Products - Essay Example

Compare and Contrast the Ways That Social Media Marketing Can Help Organisations to Market Their Products The report intends to analyse the various ways through which social media marketing can help the modern organisations in marketing their products/services. For the accomplishment of this particular aim, a thorough study has been conducted with emphasis on the advantages and disadvantages of the social media marketing to the business organisations of the modern day. After the analysis of these factors, the report has justified whether social media marketing is truly effective for the business organisations in the 21st century. The report has emphasized the discussion of the utilities that the business organisations can extract from the social media marketing. At the final section of the report, it has been analysed and observed that social media marketing not only helps in marketing products/services efficiently, but also provides immense facilities of creating long term and healthy relationship benefits with the existing as well as potential customers. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 1. Introduction 4 2. Advantages of Social Media Marketing in Business Organisation 5 3. Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing in Business Organisation 10 4. Is Social Media Marketing a Myth or Factual for Business? 15 5. Critical Evaluation 18 6. Conclusion 20 22 References 23 Bibliography 29 1. Introduction In the modern age, social media has become one of the essential parts of human lives. It is often observed that more than 250 million people are the users of social media sites today. Perhaps it is owing to the benefits offered by social media as one of the most effective and convenient forms of communication between the people. With a similar consent, the business organisation has been using social media as their marketing tool for their products. Notably, social media marketing was in some way present from the traditional business module itself. Few of the traditional social media used for the promotion of the product are newspapers, radio and magazines, which were also denoted as the modern one-way communication tools at often instances. However, at a certain point of time, the feel for the development of newer social media marketing tools motivated organisations to perform better due to the number of such instances. For example, in the traditional era of social media developments, it was perceived to be impossible for the customers to give their feedbacks or comments to the organisation. However, in case of modern social media tools and the organisations adopting those, it has helped the business organisation to create their own contents for successful promotion of the product gaining better flexibility in their approach. Apparently, it aids the business organisation in promoting their products in a cost effective manner and allow its customers to view the product for free through easy access to the social networking sites (Zarrella, 2010). It has been apparently observed that the bigger brands or companies have been utilising the social media marketing tools for raising their level of sales and increasing their brand loyalty in the market to a substantial extent (Paquette, 2013). Few of the examples of companies that have been able to achieve success in increasing their sales level are Dell and Skittles (Evans & McKee, 2010). Apart from marketing the products, these business organisations extensively use social media marketing tools for improving the internal communication and relationship with the stakeholders including employees, customers and public (Busscher, 2013). Social media is one of the cheapest means of promoting a particular product as the customers can easily view the advertisement or promotion of the product for free. The improvement of the communication through the social media usage denotes towards three of the major functions within the business organisation i.e. marketing along with growth of public relation, sales and provision of customer services (Constant Contact, Inc., 2013). With regards to the aforementioned three of the business functions, it is necessary for the company to decide as to which of these functions will be served by it in the process of product promotion (Evans & McKee, 2010). In this report, the major focus will be delivered on critically reviewing the various ways adopted by the business organisations in promoting their products through the social media marketing tools (Riese & et. al., 2010). In order to complete this study, a critical study of the various benefits and limitations of the social media marketing will be conducted, with the intention to assess if it actually benefits the business organisation. 2. Advantages of Social Media Marketing in Business Organisation From a critical point of view, it can be affirmed that the basic three functions being played by the social media in business are refer it as a sales channel, as promotional marketing tool and a catalyst of public relation to enrich customer services delivered by the company (Stelzner, 2013). Through the analysis of the statement, it can be ascertained that the social media marketing has been providing ample benefits to the business houses. In the modern world, with technological advancements, it is often observed that people are very much acquainted with the use of social media technologies and networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging (Bashar & et. al., 2012). It is one of the most convenient means of promoting the product of the company to a large mass of customers at a time. More than millions of customers can view the products of the company through their social networking or other forms of social media (Gillin, 2010). In the recent few years, it has been apparently observed that most of the business organisations are making continuous investigation on the effective ways of promoting their products and services to the existing and potential customers, through the use of social media forms (Merrill & et. al., 2011). Facebook and other social networking sites have changed the perception of the entrepreneurs and managers worldwide, regarding the possible benefits that can be yielded through effective advertisement and promotion of their products and/or services (Yang & et. al., n.d.). Moreover, the businesses drive their customers towards the web pages designed by the company to make the customers aware of the on-going trend and raise the level of brand awareness to gain long run competitive advantages. Apart from all these perceptions, there are certain benefits of the social media marketing that can be obtained by the businesses in terms of promotion of their products as well as the provision of customer service (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, n.d.). The major advantages that have been derived in the past by many of the larger organisations can be denoted as their ability of controlling the costs and social interactions with the customers (Jussila & et. al., n.d.). It has been apparently observed in this regard that the cost of social media for the purpose of promotion of products is comparatively cheaper than that of other forms of marketing such as hiring of salespersons and promotional physical distribution of the products (Stelzner, 2013). Above all, the social media marketing allows the business organisation to expand their reach to those customers that was much challenging through traditional forms due to distant locations or absence of proper marketing channels (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, n.d.). The major advantages of the social media marketing can be assessed critically following its various said benefits as in the below mentioned dimensions. Cost effective Cost effectiveness is regarded as one of the most essential advantages of the social media marketing process. The social media marketing possesses low financial cost barriers as compared to that of the traditional forms of marketing. The reason for remarking social media marketing as cost effective is that few of the social networking sites are freely accessible and has the provision of creating profile and promoting the product at a marginally lower cost. Besides, the larger brands or companies promote their products in the most popular and common sites so that more of the viewers can be attracted towards it and build up their minds for using it (Baruah, 2012). Social interaction Social interaction is the other benefit that is being provided by the social media in influencing their potential and existing customers to present its products. It is often observed that most of the people nowadays spent their maximum time on online communication activities such as social networking and emails. The social media sites have not only engaged the people in online communication but also influenced in shaping their perspective behaviour in a more globalised and uniform manner as compared to the traditional era. This particular assumption implies that online communication trend has inflamed the people in a manner that they highly depend on the advices and information shared by people within the global periphery through online communication. With regards to this perceived notion, it has also been observable that the advice and information shared online largely motivates the third party to mobilise their buying decision (KPMG International, 2011). It denotes that through accelerated social interaction using social media, companies can not only promote their products/service but also attract a larger volume of customers by sharing of information and taking greater advantages of word-of-mouth promotion technique. While promoting a company’s product through the use of social media, it has been observed that the company obtains greater flexibility and competencies to relatively increase its reputation and anticipate its mutual benefit through the customers (Aberdeen Group, 2012). Customer service Efficient customer service is one of the crucial benefits of social media marketing strategies. The strategies set by the larger organisations regarding the social media marketing suggests that the companies adopting this particular tool needs to assist the customers in developing their perception towards buying that product (ISACA, 2010). For instance, many of the organisations have developed different links in their web pages for solving the queries of the customers along with assisting them in selecting and understanding the buying processes of the product. It is also observed that the companies develop a toll free number for the customers with an intention that it will assist them in recognising the product in a more efficient manner and can therefore, help them avoid the misconceptions of the non-buyers through the online sources (Berlin Tourismus & Kongress, n.d.). One of the best examples of expanding the business reach to the customers and providing them with efficient customer service facility through the use of social media marketing can be identified in terms of the pizza delivery company. In the recent days, customers can order instant pizza through the online booking facility, from their preferred brands, without having the obligation of necessity to visit the store physically and thus, adding to their conveniences as well as satisfaction level. This implies that the customers can enjoy pizza at home through the quick delivery and payment with just one click from their own personal devices (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, n.d.). From the above discussion, it can be ascertained that social media marketing is one of the best strategies for the business organisation in promoting their products/service along with ensuring better customer satisfaction that further increases the volume of loyal customers to these brands. The organisations can not only promote their products successfully but also drive the buying decision of the potential and existing customers. Based on this particular understanding, it can be ascertained that the companies can obtain considerable benefits through the social media marketing tools. 3. Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing in Business Organisation The use of social media not only provides facilities and strengths to the business but also ignites various challenges for the successful promotion of products/services, is evaluated from a critical point of view. For instance, the promotion of products through the web sources requires huge uniformity in planning and designing of online communication system (Nekatibebe, 2012). With regards to the business perspective, it has been apparently observed that there are five major disadvantages of the social media marketing, which has been elaborated in the sections below (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, n.d.). Time Consuming It has been observed in the above discussion that social media is an interactive system of communication and therefore, being a two-way communication channel, also requires commitment from the parties to be honest and loyal to each other when creating a business deal. It is in this context that the benefits of social media as a marketing tool becomes limited, being subjected to the efficiency of the intermediary entitled to monitor each of the transactions taking place between the company and its online customers or partners. This further implies that the business organisations also need to keep a continuous watch on the responses of the customers, solving their queries and giving complete information as demanded by them, rather than publishing the advertisement and forgetting (Tretenhahn, 2011). Organisations, which do not emphasize hiring of specific personnel to communicate with the customers online faces high risks of failure to derive success from the use of social media marketing. It is worth mentioning that the company simply involving in the use of social media marketing and expecting a huge return is unrealistic. The business organisation must deliver considerable efforts to understand the required time and level of commitment from the use of social media marketing tools (European Commission, 2012). Security and privacy issues The use of social media for promoting a particular type of product(s) or brand(s) can incriminate the security and privacy issues of the company. In this particular context, it is necessary for the companies to adopt appropriate strategies for minimizing their disclosure to accountability when using personal data provided by the customers (KPMG, 2012). The other dimension of privacy and security, i.e. trust, plays a significant role in raising customer loyalty to social media marketers. One of the recent threats of fraud related with online credit card system has created a fear among the customers and lowered the level of confidence regarding the online shopping or buying of the product, further hampering the interests of the organisation at large (Ossian, 2012). The marketers, taking extensive the assistance of third party social media outlets for promotion of product, further needs to ensure that the customers are not violating the privacy policies of the social media company (Dinerman, 2011). If the companies do not take the privacy policies when attempting to promote their products/services through social media, it is likely that any individual can violate the norms and misuse the personal data and information of the customers (European Commission, 2012). Copyright and Trademark issues Copyright and trademark related issues, or simply the intellectual property rights issues, are often considered as one of the most prominent and serious challenges presented by the social media in conflict with organisational interests (Morrison & Foerster LLP, 2011). Various preventive and punitive laws have been enacted emphasising the continuously advancing types of cyber crimes, abiding which the companies involved in the use of social media for promotion of products must make sure that the published contents are not misused to affect the intellectual property rights of the company (Hogben, 2007). In majority instances, many hackers were identified to have tried to violate the norms and policies of the company through nurturing the copyrighted materials of the company, making it more challenging for the businesses to prevent intellectual property threats when promoting online. It can also somehow affect the security of the company as well as that of the customers (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, n.d.). User Generated Content (UGC) Often, it is observed that business organisations, involved in social media marketing adopt User Generated Content (UGC). UGC is that system through which the customers or the internet users can make various comments in a diverse form using photos, videos, articles or blogs. However, in the business perspective, it is often observed that the companies using UGC for the marketing of their products enter into the legal risk associated with the marketing campaigns and tools (Institute of Business Ethics, 2011). The user generated content facility has received many negative impacts over the business as per the previous data (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, n.d.). Negative feedbacks Social media is one way of creating a relationship between the customers and businesses promoting their products, which also increases the threat of negative promotion inhibiting the brand value of the company amidst the targeted customer pool (Protiviti, 2013). Customers often find the social media as the best place to give their feedbacks regarding the services and/or products of the company. The major threat resulting from such as attitude is that the negative responses of the customers affect the brand loyalty of the company largely. At often instances, comments under the advertisements or promotional campaigns organised by companies through social media replicate messages of unsatisfied customers or the competitors of the company, which sometimes also include offensive words or pictures to portray their negative perspective towards the products/services offered by the company. As this risk is considered inherent to every two-way communication process, companies face many challenges to control such inhibitions or challenges, which in turn affect their online credibility to a major extent. Nevertheless, one of the common steps followed by companies to mitigate this particular challenge is to provide the customers with quick responses as well as neutralizing the negative feedbacks by the customers (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, n.d.). According to the above-mentioned disadvantages of using social media as a business promotion and marketing tool, it can be assumed that despite of larger scale benefits of social media marketing, it still possesses certain limitations and risks in its designing and implementation procedure, which the organisations as well as the customers’ needs to be adequately aware of. For instance, one of the major disadvantages of the social media marketing is the occurrence of negative feedback for the customers in an offensive manner (Miller & Lammas, 2011). The prevention of this kind of incidents might prove quite time-consuming, as the company needs to design proper strategies and implement those in an effective manner within the organisation. Concerning the disadvantages of social media marketing, it can be affirmed that such an initiative cannot be considered as the tool for promoting the products of the company in an all-inclusive manner to reward excessive financial returns being subjected to various limitations and the proficiencies of the management to deal with the same. In the process of product promotion through the social media, it is essential that the companies must comply with the step-by-step processes. The companies must properly plan, design and implement the marketing strategies for successful promotion of the product. It shall in turn help the companies to ensure that they are gaining sustainable advantages through the adoption of social media marketing. 4. Is Social Media Marketing a Myth or Factual for Business? Social media marketing has become one of the most essential constituents of the modern day business. It is also being used by most of the organisations as the major tool of marketing and an instrument for public relations. From the traditional period, it has been apparently observed that social media marketing is playing a significant role in presenting the particular product to a large mass of people (Safko, 2010). In the ancient times, business organisations used one-way communication tools such as television and radio for advertising their products/services and attracting a large group of customers (Kabani, 2013). However, with the evolution of various technological advancements and the changing preferences of the customers, business organisations have been driven to adopt social media marketing at a broader scale (Scott, 2010). In this modern world, it is frequently observed that majority of common people spend their leisure time in surfing the internet and the social networking sites. Thus, business organisations have been able to take the complete benefit of the customer’s preference towards the online shopping and buying habit. As stated by Arca (2012), when the internet was spreading its wings towards all the fields in human lives, ranging from education, socialism and cultural diversity, the customers were also tuning towards the fascination of clearly crafted messages in the web pages along with the decorative presentation of the product (Rutledge, 2008). All the companies, including small and large both started promoting their brands and products from blogs to websites to tap this particular opportunity for growth in their demand. The online conversation between the business owners and customers created a huge influence over the customers regarding what to buy and therefore, develop a positive perception towards the product (Arca, 2012). In the recent days, the popularity of social media marketing and social networking has increased so immensely that it also plays a significant role in the purchasing decision of the customers as it intensifies word of mouth to much of the benefit of the organisations. This particular fact implies that business organisations in the modern day believe social media marketing is one of the trusted forms of advertising products and/or services. Few of the business organisations consider that the social media marketing focuses on expanding their reachability to the targeted people rather than merely presenting their product to inform the potential customers. With the help of social media marketing, the companies can present its products to the customers with all the features and tools for promotion. The customers, in the web pages of the company, can further identify another most important element of this marketing tool in terms of the responses and comments left. Due to this reason, few of the companies find social media marketing as a highly challenging one (Reece, 2010). Apart from the above-mentioned benefits, other facilities can be derived from the social media marketing. To be mentioned, social media marketing has also become one of the important means of learning about the products and/or services offered. It signifies that through the social media marketing tool, the customers can understand and analyse the product features and associated services of that product and also compare the same with that of the other companies and brands. The potential customer again uses the online source for gaining better knowledge about the product and also desires to record the experiences of the other users. All these processes constitute to the development of purchasing capability among the buyers. It has also been apparently observed that besides taking the opinions of the friends or near ones, people prefer to use internet for gaining complete information of the product before developing the purchasing decision. It is also common that the customers, whether they ultimately decide to buy or not, help the companies to know about the success or failure of their products and gain an opportunity to assess the most potential underlying causes to such failures to gain better efficiencies in the future. In simple words, it can be termed that social media marketing helps the business organisations in knowing the needs of their existing as well as the potential customers so that they can design the products and promote it in a more efficient manner (Thackeray & et. al., 2008). Social media provides a different communication system to the business organisations, wherein the organisations can promote their products to a large mass of people. On the other hand, the business organisation can also receive instant feedbacks from their customers with the use of social media. Few of the companies also develop a different web page for receiving the valuable suggestions of the customers regarding the product and mould the products according to the choice of the customers, which further offer them with greater scope to satisfy their customers to the highest possible extent (Welsh Government, 2012). From the above discussion, it can be assessed that social media marketing is quite effectual for the business organisations in the national as well as international markets. There are several ways through which, a product/service can be promoted in the social media marketing strategy. The companies are not only able to promote their products/services by putting up advertisements with crafted words but also write effective posts about the products in their web page. Social media marketing has received ample significance in the modern world due to its various facilities. The other major reason for the business organisations to select social media as the tool for marketing is that majority of the people is the users of internet and spends maximum proportion of their leisure time in surfing the internet. Thus, taking this factor into consideration, organisations in the modern world have been able to use social media options and obtain significant benefits for marketing the intended products successfully to the target population. Pradiptarini (2011) also stated that social media marketing has the ample capacity of successfully promoting a product within a short period of time, incurring lesser costs. Due to all the aforementioned reasons and utilities of social media marketing, it can be affirmed as quite effective for the organisations. 5. Critical Evaluation Based on the above discussion and analysis, it can be analysed that social media marketing is one of the essential tools for raising the conditions of business along with promoting and attracting a large volume of customers overcoming political barriers, geographic divergences and cultural obstacles. In the aforementioned sections, it was observed that there are significant benefits and few noteworthy drawbacks too, linked with the various forms of marketing used in the contemporary scenario. The companies adopting the social media as their major marketing strategy need to consider various factors. The social media marketing opportunity provides the business organisations with the ease of promoting their products within a fraction of time and in a cost effective manner to a larger volume of mass audiences. The social networking sites being free further allow the large and small companies to promote their products in an effective manner that it attracts a huge range of customers. The organisations are not only blessed with the ease of gaining more and more customers, but also providing the best quality services to them. It signifies that the customers can avail huge range of services while purchasing any product through the social media sites or sources. To be precise, evidences suggest that the social media marketing influences the purchasing decisions of the buyers largely. Following this provision, the social media can also be treated to assist in acquiring complete information of the product along with its charges and delivery systems in a convenient manner (Kotler, 2000). In the traditional types of advertising used to promote a product/service through the use of social media marketing was regarded as quite complex and time consuming in nature. In the traditional era, the most commonly used social media in use for the promotion of products were the television, radio and newspaper. In these types of social media, it took a bit longer time as these were referred to one-way communication between the marketers and customers. In the traditional period, the advertisement was placed by the business organisation to promote the products, but the companies lacked in obtaining the valuable feedbacks from their customer regarding the product. In order to improve this situation, business organisations began adopting the modern technologies and advancements in the integration for promoting their products in a more efficient manner. In the modern practices of product promotion through the social media marketing, organisations have been able to understand the changing needs of the customers along with the respective comments and their responses more accurately to gain marketing efficiency altogether. Along with the promotion of the product, the companies also emphasise on designing a different web page wherein the customers can leave their valuable comments regarding the product/service and any necessary suggestions if required for the improvement of the commodity. Thus, on the basis of this difference, it can be analysed that the newer and modern social media marketing is more efficient as compared to that of the marketing with the use of traditional social media tools. Due to this reason, the modern social media strategies are quoted to be the effective means for marketing the intended products. Furthermore, it is also apparently observed that besides promotion of the offered product/service, social media also helps the companies to develop long-term relationship with its customers and share the requisite information of the product. According to Golden (2010), social media is not the strategy, rather it should be termed as a tool when it is used for marketing. Thus, with accordance to the perceived notion of Golden (2010) and the above discussion, it can be assessed that the newer form of social media marketing is more efficient than that of the traditional ones (Golden, 2010). 6. Conclusion From the above discussion and analysis of the social media marketing strategy, it can be considered that it is one of the most effective means of marketing product or services today, to attract a huge volume of customers. It allows successful promotion of the products in a cost effective manner. In the above-mentioned sections, it was observed that social media marketing facilitates the business organisations with three of the essential functions i.e. cost effectiveness, customer service quality assurance and developed social interactions. All these factors contribute to the marketing process of the business organisation in increasing the sales of the product along with ensuring the best quality services to its existing as well as the potential customers. As apparent from the study, the social media marketing not only helps the organisations in promoting its business but also assists in raising the standard of quality service deliverance to its customers. Social media marketing is also the form of getting into social interaction with the customers. For instance, if a company is promoting its products through the social media marketing channels, it also gets the opportunity of collecting the feedback and comments of the customers and act accordingly. The other major benefit of the social media marketing is that it can be conducted with relatively lower cost than that incurred from the other forms of social media. On the other hand, few of the business analysts have also regarded that the social media marketing channels have certain limitations or drawbacks apart from the benefits. With the business perspectives it is generally believed that despite of the low cost social media marketing, the process is quite time consuming. Apart from being time consuming, there are many security issues related to the maintenance of privacy of the customers, protection of the copyrighted products and solving of the problems of negative feedbacks from the customers or the competitors, inhibiting organisational efficiencies in gaining complete advantages from social media marketing. Regardless of all these elements, it can be observed that majority of the business organisations of the modern day have reported to be the major beneficiaries of the social media marketing. In the modern day, it has been observed that many of the larger companies, such as Dell and Skittles are successfully promoting their products through the social media. Due to its immense advantages, social media marketing is also considered as quite beneficial for the modern day business scenario. 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