Marketing in Social Media (Facebook) - Research Paper Example

Facebook as a Marketing Tool Marketing is an important business strategy that involves creating awareness of a certain product or institution. There are various methods to market a product, which include billboards, television and radio broadcasts, internet, road shows, newspapers and magazines among others. Social media is one of the latest marketing aid tools in the commercial sector. Facebook is a popular social network that enables people from all corners of the globe to create respective accounts and communicate to each other regardless the distance. The commercial sector has taken advantage of the popular network to advertise or create awareness of their products among other relevant information. This work focuses on Facebook, one of the most popular social networks, as an advertising tool in the commercial arena. There are over a million commercial pages in Facebook, hence, it is important to incorporate some attractive features to attract more people to the social networking community. The success of communication through Facebook could be measured by the number of likes or comments. Attractive photos or images attached to accounts play a significant role. From a psychological view, a normal human being would always be attracted by unique or colorful images, and this would make one read the content of the pages and finally like such pages. Bright colors like yellow, pink and white could be incorporated into the images to attract some attention and this would improve the chances of one to make positive comments or like a page. Business pages could also include the images of popular individuals like famous sportsmen, actors, models and comedians among others. However, it is important to consider all the legal and ethical implications before using anyone’s image; for instance, a company should enter into a contract with a preferred celebrity to have his/her photos used on such pages. People tend to associate themselves with celebrities, hence, more likes and positive comments, which is a good sign of an advert message. The use of simple appealing language could also attract more people to like or comment on such pages. For instance, adverts in Europe could be done in English or French as these are the two most spoken languages in the area (Arvind 19). It is also important to incorporate current events like sports in such pages. For instance, such pages may contain images of the ongoing confederation cup and rugby sevens world cup among others. The advert information should be short and precise, meaning the core information should be easy to access. Recent business studies of hotel and tourism business in Taiwan recommend the industries to engage in more Facebook adverts to increase more clients or customers. Compared to their counterparts in Europe and other parts of the developed world, Taiwan hotels are not that well known due to poor advert or marketing strategies. The language barrier is another factor limiting effective communications through Facebook. Taiwan hotel market expect more customers from Europe, Africa, North America and South America among others whose main languages are French, English and Portuguese, which are not spoken in Taiwan. However, Taiwan hotel industry could create business pages in their native language but have it translated into other languages to limit the issue of biases ((Hsu 972). The industry could also post images or photos of some of well established hotels among other tourism facilities to attract more clients from all corners of the globe. The pages should be interactive, meaning the clients or customers’ questions or concerns should be answered considering all important details in the most respective ways. The pages should have appropriate passwords to limit hackers from posting non-relevant information that could compromise the image and reputations of such hotels. Facebook has enabled e-commerce in several ways and this could be attributed by the fact that the majority of the youths' access the Facebook pages at least three times in every hour. More youths among other groups could select their favorite online products then make orders after making online payment. There are over a million Facebook pages advertising youth wear, educational institutions, entertainment joints and favorite artists and thus provide a wider platform to choose from. A business phenomenon called advert stratification has been employed to specify the youth as the main business target and increase the general sale or revenue of such companies (Lisa 339). The youths can access various internet mobile gadgets like mobile phones and tablets and this enhance their abilities to access such pages. Facebook is more of a culture or habit among the youths in every continent in this world, hence the commercial sector has created various commercial pages to advertise their products and reach the youths as customers or clients. There are various advantages of using Facebook as an advertising tool in the commercial sector. Facebook is the most accessed social network ever established, according to the Forbes 2009. There are billion Facebook accounts and these are personal, corporate, organizational and commercial Facebook accounts. This means that certain commercial information would reach billion of people the moment it is posted. The best comments from other people may attract even more customers to try the product and experience their advantages or benefits. The mobile phone industry for instance posts both the negative and positive comments about their specific products to attract more customers. Facebook is easy to use, one is only required to log in, comment or like relevant pages. Information posted in facebook is brief and precise and this saves the consumers’ time to retrieve the most important part of any advert. Facebook is entertaining and this keeps the clients keep accessing the pages until they digest all important advert posts or information. The recent studies indicate that normal youth (18-35 yrs) could spend up to 12 hours a day on Facebook (Taining 57). Making adverts through Facebook is much cheaper compared to using television or radio broadcasts. A commercial establishment just needs an IT specialist to manage the company Facebook pages. Information posted on Facebook could be later retrieved and used as reference; furthermore, one can read several times to increase his or her understanding and this is attribute of a good advertisement platform. However, Facebook has some limitation as an advertising tool. First, it is unsecure as some hackers could access a certain account and post irrelevant information to compromise the image or reputation of a certain company. For instance making phonographic or vulgar posts could discourage several customers from being associated by such companies. Secondly, anything could be posted and this could mislead customers, among other stakeholders. The advantages overweigh the limitations and this make the platform suitable. The factors behind Facebook as a marketing tool include the legality behind it. Facebook is a legal entity, meaning that all information posted by various companies should be the truth to provide correct guidance to the customers. One has the right to sue any company making wrong allegations or posting irrelevant images to the national security agents. Facebook has proven to be effective in the past years. Hence it has an established brand name. Facebook came in the era of electronic commerce, meaning majority bought their property through online arrangement after using Facebook posts or comments to make decisions. In other words, Facebook came the right time it was required (Shih 79). Facebook accounts or pages are easy to start and manage. It is much easier to post on a commercial facebook page than shoot a film advert, and this makes more companies shift towards Facebook. Facebook is also enhanced by the fall in price in various mobile computer gadgets like mobile phones and tablets; at least every teenager owns two or three of such gadgets, both in developed and developing nations. Increase in computer knowledge and technology has also enhanced d the use of the internet or Facebook as a marketing tool To conclude, Facebook is more than just a social network of the modern generation being extremely useful in making commercial adverts. It has several advantages, for instance, it is cheap and easy to install and manage, it is accessible by billion of people, it keeps information for quite a long time meaning one can reassess such information for deeper understanding. The tool is enhanced by improved technology and the fact that at least everyone can own one internet gadgets like personal computers, mobile phones and tablets among others. Facebook is still the best advertising tool to beat, with regard to cost and accessibility. Furthermore, Facebook keeps updating its features to make it even a better advertising tool. However, it has some limitations like language barrier, low or weak internet accessibility and illiteracy among other limitations. Work Cited Arvind, Malhotra. "How to Create Brand Engagement on Facebook ." MIT Sloan Management Review 54.2(2013): 18-20. Print. Hsu, Yu-Lun. "Facebook as international eMarketing strategy of Taiwan hotels." International Journal of Hospitality Management 31.3 (2012): 972-980. Print. Lisa, Harris. "Engaging customers on Facebook: Challenges for e-retailers." Journal of Consumer Behaviour 10.6 (2011): 338-346. Print. Shih, Clara. The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Market, Sell, and Innovate. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall 2010. Print. Taining, Yang. "The decision behavior of Facebook users." The Journal of Computer Information Systems 52.3(2012): 50-59. Print. Read More