Impact of Social Media on Business and Our Life - Thesis Proposal Example

Impact of Social Media on Business & Our Life Table of Contents Introduction 3 Thesis ment 3 Discussion 4 Part Positive impact of social media on business 4 Marketing 4 Word of mouth 5 Building strong relationships 6 Part 2: Positive impact of social media on human lives 6 Explore creativity 7 Personal use 7 Part 3: Some Positive and negative impact of social media on businesses or human lives 9 Some more positive impacts of social media 9 Negative impacts of social media and its solution 10 Conclusion 11 References 13 Introduction Social media has created a revolution in the customer experience. The term social media is quite often used a lot these days. And the fact reveals that, some way or the other ninety percent of all online users use social media. The emergence of social media began during the early days of internet when people used to communicate between each other and share information. In early days internet platform were technologically more intensive and required expertise to use it. But over the period of time, when technology developed and platforms were advanced, then regular users can actively use the services without requiring any technological background. The history of internet drastically changed during the time and made internet technology all inclusive. People are no longer a silent spectator to the contents that are being dished out to them. Social media has now developed in to global phenomenon. Nowadays, it is hard to find a people who uses internet that does not exercise any form of social media. The likes of Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp and many more sites enable users to interact between each other in various different ways. This user interaction has provided a stimulus to the development of the media. This essay will support the following thesis statement about the impact of social media on businesses and human lives. Thesis statement “The use of social media has positive impact on business growth and human lives”. Discussion Part 1: Positive impact of social media on business Social media provides a platform for every individual to connect with each other. Whether it is an SME or any large organization, the reality of connecting with customers by social media cannot be ignored by any business. Customers are vital part for any successful business. Businesses are always trying to reach out to customers and trying to seek their attention for feedback, new leads and service. The dominance of social media came in to perspective when it became destination for millions of people. This provided a perfect platform for all businesses to carry out some of their company task through online. Survey states that, social media is used by more than 90% of adult population. Social media cannot be ignored by any organization. If social media is ignored, then company not only loses opportunity to enhance their business but also can lead to damage of their brand and reputation (Davidson and Wiklund, 2013, p.39). Now-a-days social media is playing a pivotal part in buying decisions of customers. The fact that it is not only taking place on multinational organizations but also at local levels such as restaurants, local firms, etc. From multinational firms to local firms are all discussed on the social media. Some of the benefits of social media for business are being discussed below: Marketing Social media has become an ideal stage for organizations. Social media is effortlessly accessible to the people with the help of internet connection at their offices and homes. As a result, social media is the ideal platform for all firms and businesses to connect and reach out to their target customers for sale promotion, marketing, advertising, publicity and selling, etc. Today’s scenario on social media has changed the way of organization to communicate with target audiences. Web 2.0 has created opportunity for people with set of tools to cooperate, create, share and interact with businesses online. Every company to become successful needs a wider exposure of their business. It can only be done by promoting their products and services on social media platforms and engaging with customers. Engaging in the sense commenting on popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, logs, etc. social media can be said as the most effective tool for a business for all the advertising and promotional campaigns. Social media website provides a huge opportunity for businesses to attract the attention of the target customers and at the same time building brand image. Social media can provide a better ROI than that of traditional strategies. It can also help to increase the customer base, sales and produce inbound leads. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, YouTube and blogs are the main social marketing platforms that are used by businesses. Word of mouth Social media platform is the perfect opportunity for businesses to take advantage of work of mouth. Social media is the modern networking or the word of mouth. As we know that, people are all interconnected between each other. Small mention of any new news about business can spread the word long way. Customers can do the work of a marketing agent. Simple example of word of mouth can be like button on Facebook. Liking a particular brand on Facebook can spread very quickly throughout the various popular social media sites. The fact says that, people trusts the opinions of their peers than that of advert on glossy magazines. It’s been much easier for people to share their thoughts, spread news, information, etc. on social networking sites (Brown, Broderick and Lee, 2007, pp. 2-20). Social networking sites can be used effectively to spread the word about their products and services. Encouraging people to like their company page and share its contents with others. Social media sites like Facebook, Google+, and twitter are the perfect platform for businesses to increase their customer base. This can be done by creating a profile page on every popular social networking platform and spread the word on these sites about their existence to increase more followers. Social media helps firms or organizations to leverage their network to their benefit. Building strong relationships Successful business requires satisfied customers and satisfied customers need good customer care and service. Customers who are satisfied are generally loyal customers. The good customer care and service can be provided with the help of social media. Business uses social media to interact with customers at a level which is comfortable to them. This can help to build strong long lasting relationship with customers. All the possible queries and issues are sorted out by businesses. Social media is used as an effective tool that can help customers to provide care, support and services at their fingertips. The main success of a company depends upon customer service, trust and loyalty. With the help of social media, business has the opportunity to send newsletter via e-mail or phone calls and offering them special offers and discounts. This can help effectively to build strong customer relationship through online. Rather than public platform, businesses now can offer customer support on their website which can encourage customers to interact directly with the customer care to address their grievances. And the best possible way to encourage customers is by leaving feedback on the website via pools or forms, etc. Part 2: Positive impact of social media on human lives The way in which people communicate between each other and share information has gone on to a totally different level than it was a decade ago. And this fact cannot be denied anymore. Due to the global nature of internet and web technologies, it made possible for human beings to global reach. Recent research reveals that more than 77% of Americans spends their internet time on Facebook (Pew Research, 2012, p.1). This proves that social media has become an important part of human beings. The benefits of human beings from social media are largely experiential and it creates an avenue for people to connect with network and share information. The percentage of internet users has increased massively in every country. Some benefits of social media on human lives are discussed below. Explore creativity Social media can help people to explore their creativity. Example, people who loves writing can create their own blogs and show their creativity to the whole world. This provides a perfect platform for writers to explore their writing talents. Blogs are the superlative mode for people to express their opinions and views on all subjects. This can help a person to be expertise on a particular niche subjects. There are also some writing platforms that consent people to submit their writings and get reward in many ways. Social media provides an opportunity to reach interested readership and larger audience. Site like YouTube, that allows people to upload their own videos and can also edit them to create new one. Facebook provides opportunity for people to upload their personal photos and store them. All the personal photos can be kept in privacy and can also be shared selectively with others. Personal use Social media can be used by individuals for personal reasons. Personal reasons can be possibly keeping in touch with the latest news, technology, blogs and latest activities all over the world. The traditional method of communication is quickly replaced by social media. Now-a-days, it is really difficult to find a people who do not use e-mail to send personal messages to colleagues or friends. People use social media for many reasons which may be for official purpose or collaboration. It is really useful for people to talk between each other with the help of instant chat feature which in built in most email clients. People can also make calls from application like Skype which also provide option to make video calls in real time. E-mail clients like Gmail also has the options of video chat and conference calls. Social can help individuals to keep in touch with their hobbies like gaming, sports, music, movies, etc. there are many media sites like Bit Torrent that allows people to upload their files and download media files. It can also indulge gamers in social gaming on online gaming in real time with friends or strangers example Steam application. Getting empowered The virtue of individual’s interaction with mobile technologies or on the web can create a social influence. This is due to the fact the social media has given the power back into the people’s hand. Most of the people share their experiences of holidays or products with their families, friends or colleagues. Sharing of experiences and their conversations mostly takes place on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. People those are connected with them can also hear about the stories. The experiences can be bad or good, but whole network is aware of the situation. Therefore, single person can affect the reputation of business online. Social media sites have created new options for people like sharing and tagging. This allows people to share their content with groups or own network of friend lists. This process is the fastest way to share the content and it can become viral in few minutes. Latest example proves the craze of social media. Social media giant Facebook bought popular instant messaging app for mammoth $19 billion (Top News Today, 2014, p.1). Instant messaging app, Whatsapp has more than 450 million users. The purchase of Whatsapp is the largest single acquisition in the history of Facebook. But after the days of acquisition, Whatsapp faced an outrage. The outrage was for three hours but it created havoc among the 450 million users of Whatsapp. Millions of people were twiddling their thumbs in wonder what might have gone wrong after the acquisition. But much to the relief of millions, Whatsapp was back on running after three hours. A person wants a social networking medium to share their thoughts, messages and information their friends or parents. This shows the impact of social media on users. It has become daily part of a life. Part 3: Some Positive and negative impact of social media on businesses or human lives Some more positive impacts of social media Social interaction Social interaction can create positive impact on human lives. Popular scalable communication and broadly accessible techniques enables people to communicate between each other. The principle of social interaction is used by all social networking sites like Facebook, Google+, etc (Anderson, 2012, p.177). People can invite friends and connect with them in real time. Social networking sites are all free to register which provides opportunity to people to connect with their lost friends and be in touch with them. Therefore, it has become very accessible for people to connect with their friends or colleagues and get information or feedback regarding the service and products of companies (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010, pp. 179-188). Thus, individuals have the power to socially influence on others who are connected online. Online branding Social media has positive on businesses regarding online branding. Every company wants to be renowned brand (Jansen, Zhang and Sobel, 2009, pp. 2169-2188). Exemplification of logo, name and tag line represents the identity of business. The enhancement of brand on online can be possible my incorporating company logo and tag line in their official websites. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Google+, etc. can be used to create identity of a brand by opening profile pages on them. The visibility of brand can be established through online presence in the social media and keeping fans updated by daily updates or news about the brand (Dale and Lewis, 2012, 432). Finally, it is important for every business to know how people perceive about their brand and if they like the brand then customers are bound to come back. Negative impacts of social media and its solution Privacy People are encouraged to be more open and public about their lives on social media sites like Facebook, Google+, etc. Personal intimate details of their lives can be posted on social network sites very easily. Therefore, users normally employ taking about personal lives but they are now prone to bypass the filters. The things that are posted by individuals remain available. Now-a-day, most of the people are on social media sites (Livingstone, 2008, pp. 393-411). Therefore, people posting any information or pictures might not be aware of people who are watching pictures. And this may look less attractive in perceptive of an employer and doing background check. But all social media sites such as Facebook, Google+, etc. Users can control the visibility of picture to certain people. This setting has made certain document or pictures safer. Because people want to share their picture to some listed people and customized setting regarding privacy can make it possible. Decrease in productivity Many businesses use social networking sites to communicate with the customers and enhance the potential customer base. This can prove distraction to the employees who can be more interested on friend’s post that that of work task. Nucleus research report reveals that 1.5 % of the office productivity has been cut off by Facebook. It can hamper the work of an employee, as employee can waste their valuable time on social media sites instead of work tasks (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, pp. 59-68). New technology has been made to block social sites in offices to control productivity. Conclusion Social media online has become hub for many people, where they can trust to pursue recommendations, referrals and share their experiences. It is quite hard to find any people who are not using any form of social media. Social media is continuing to enhance the influence on businesses and human lives as it has become inevitable part. The use of social media has grown at an astounding rate. Businesses which are not using social media are some way or another scrambling to get on-board. The implication of social media has brought a social change by empowering people to share their opinions and thoughts. Social media marketing programs can be used by businesses to create content for organization such as business blog. This can help businesses to attract attention of the readers who are following the blogs and eventually would encourage them to share it on various social networking sites such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Google+, etc. It would be better for an organization or businesses to develop a social media strategy that is sustainable and can take advantage of changing environment. References Anderson, P., 2012. Web2.0 and Be4yond Principles and Technologies. London: CRC Press. Brown, J., Broderick, A., and Lee, N., 2007. Word of mouth communication within online communities: Conceptualizing the online social network. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 21(3), pp. 2-20. Dale, N., and Lewis, J., 2012. Computer Science Illuminated. London: Jones & Bartlett. Davidson, P., and Wiklund, J., 2013. New Perspectives on Firm Growth. London: Edward Elgar. Jansen, B., Zhang, M., and Sobel, K., 2009. Twitter Power: Tweets as Electronic Word of Mouth. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 60(11), pp. 2169-2188. Kaplan, A., and Haenlein, M., 2010. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), pp. 59-68. Livingstone, S., 2008. Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New Media and Society, 10(3), pp. 393-411. Pew Research., 2012. Teens Fact Sheet. [Online]. Available at: . 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