Marketing And Social Media - Essay Example

? Social Media Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 3 2. 5 3. 6 6. 7 Reference 10 The world of the 21st century is moving at a very fast pace.It is utterly relevant to mention that the world is progressing ahead on the lines of tremendous change and rapid development. The emergence of the telecommunications technology in the last decade has played a major role in triggering the rapid pace of the current society. It can be said that the evolution and faster acceptance of various technological gadgets like the laptops, Smart phones, I-pads and I-phones has helped in a great way in the process of kicking in a transformation of the globe. Because of this transformation on the lines of digital connectivity, it can be said that the globe has become a highly connected single entity. It needs to be mentioned that this has increasingly resulted in the creation of a platform for diffusion of various trends of globalization. The new trends of globalization are increasingly creating the birth for various kinds of needs in the minds of the consumers. It is to mention that the needs of the consumers that are increasingly coming from various global trends have resulted in the process of creation of significant amount of business opportunities. Recognizing these new kinds of consumer demands that are coming from the masses of both the developing as well as the developed economies, many organizations around the world are increasingly focusing on the process of entering new markets or developing their businesses in markets of high potential. The presence of multiple firms in a particular market is resulting in the evolution of various kinds of homogeneous products and services, which is resulting in the process of rise of substitute products in the marketplace. The large number of substitutes that are available in the market is resulting in the process of rise of consumer choice. This is increasing the complications for businesses around the world in regards to market competition. It can be said that because of the rise in market competition, it is becoming increasingly important for the companies to effective communicate the value of products and services to the desired target consumers. Here in, comes the emergence and importance of social media. The social media, because of active integration of technology in the lives of the masses around the world has resulted in the playing of a major catalytic role in regards to the formation of a large number of followers in the virtual world. It can be said that in the today’s date, the social media represents a series of programs that run explicitly by exploiting the functionalities of Web 2.0 (Wankel, 2010, p. 9) Talking in regards to the product lifecycle, it can be said that there are four stages such as introduction, growth, maturity and decline. The social media holds a tremendous value in the first two stages as it is deeply integrated with regards to value communication of the products to the masses. Just because social media is largely diversified in its forms through the presence of various social networking and micro blogging sites likes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. it can be said that the marketing power of the social media is tremendously high (Zarrella, 2010, p. 3). Talking more in connection to the power of marketing of the social media and the product life cycle, it can be said that the social media plays a very influential role in regards to the process of introducing new products and services in the markets by simply helping in the process of communicating the values of the products and services to the desired target audience. It also needs to be highlighted that during the course of attaining the growth phase of product development, the social media helps in a great way in manipulating the demand for the products and services by helping the marketers of the respective products and services to maintain a bilateral method of communication with the desired target audience. 2. It is important to mention that in today’s date, the social media has gathered a tremendous amount of importance in the recent times. Because of the high technology friendly nature of the consumers of the young as well as the middle age, who are located in both the developing as well as the developed markets, it can be said that the social media which promotes social networking among the masses has become a very important form and medium of communication. Talking about the social networking sites, it can be said that the growth of the social networking sites has been largely augmented by the tremendous favoring of the growth prospects of the United States. Like as witnessed in the case of dotcom bubble of the late 1990’s, the mere presence of the social networking sites in the virtual web space does not help in any way in the process of generating revenue. Every social networking site needs to operate on the basis of a business model, which will help in generating revenue for the online business. It is of significant and utmost importance to mention that the business models that are applicable in the case of social networking sites should not only focus on the process of generating monetary value, but also on the lines value creation, identification of the core competencies of the online business as well as proper value communication to the right target audience. Considerable amount of interest also needs to be given on the lines of creating competitive edge for the online business. It is of considerable importance to mention that an online business is built on four key model components. The first one is the value creation, which distinguishingly addresses the value that will be provided to the customers. The second factor is the issue of target market, which necessarily takes into account the factor of the desired target audience. The third aspect talks about the factor of core competencies which will help in leveraging maximum advantage in regards to the process of generating the business model’s potential strengths and opportunities in the market. The final aspect talks about the revenue prospects that need to be idealized for the purpose of developing the potential business aspects of the online business model (Albarran, 2013, p. 62- 63). It is important to mention that in most cases, though the online media provides free access and use of its online web 2.0 concepts, yet it can be said that the revenue is generated through the process of cost per impression (CPI), cost per contact (CPC), advertising, lead generation and even licensing deals. However, it is of considerable importance to mention that the technological devices are riding the wave of innovation and are increasingly transforming themselves in regards to shape and size. The bulky laptop and PC has paved the way for tablets and smart phones, thereby playing a major role in regards to device space and capacity. Business models of the online nature in order to keep their connect with the tech savvy masses increasingly are concentrating on the process of adopting their visual offerings of their online products and services. Due to the changing requirements of today’s technological gadget altering masses, the business models are being designed in the platforms of open source (Hinchcliffe and Kim, 2012, p. 8). 3. It needs to be mentioned that the social media has gathered tremendous fan following in the recent times. It can be said that because of the human tendency and curiosity towards technological gadgets, it can be said that the social media has become the main source of communication with friends, colleagues and relatives who are located in distant regions or even in separate time frames. Social media plays a key role in developing and creating contacts and this can be well explained from the view points of the users as well as the marketers. The world in the current century promotes an environment where the lives of the masses are getting increasingly regulated in the effort to make money. In today’s fast paced lives of the masses, time is money. And this concept is a glaring reality in regards to the lives of both the masses located in the developed as well as the developing economies. Thus the masses of both worlds are cash rich and time poor. This concept is being extremely efficiently utilized by the social media tools, which try to express the skills of negotiation and persuasion on the digital media (Gibbons,. 2009, p. 46). Now talking in regards to the marketers, it can be said that they stand to gain highly because of the increase in the level of communication in the digital platform by the masses around the world. The digital media and social media forums have effectively erased the barriers of cross border communication and hence have opened the venues for marketers to communicate the values of the products and services to the global masses. It is also important to mention that since the virtual digital media effectively plays a dual role in regards to communicating product and service values as well as receiving consumer feedbacks, it can be said that it greatly helps in implementing effective marketing tactics by the marketers (Burrow, 2009, p. 435). 6. The consumer of the today’s world is living in an environment of high digital connectivity. It needs to be mentioned that the high level of connectivity has resulted in bringing a significant amount of change in regards to the traditional methods of communication of values to the consumers. The fast paced lives of the tier I city consumers has resulted in the process of evolution of a lifestyle, where the masses are cash rich and time poor. The digitally enhanced masses prefer to communicate with their preferred and favorite ones using the social and virtual media, since it helps in eradicating the geographical border based barriers. This has resulted in the rise of faster acceptance and wider usage of various social networking sites like Face book, Twitter, etc. It is of high importance to mention that the consumers of today, who prefer to spend more time on the social media of the virtual world, increasingly forms a captive audience for the marketers. The marketers of various products and services, whose values needs to be communicated and catered to the consumers of various regions so as to create a global demand for the products and services, increasingly finds it comparatively easy to target this digitally captive audience. Now talking in regards to the virtual media, it can be said that the marketers often use various kinds of media for the propagation of product and service based values. In many a cases, the communication media can be classified into paid media, owned media and earned media (Chaffey, 2012). It needs to be mentioned that the paid media mainly comprises of the traditional media, whereas the earned media comprises of press content and related and associated coverage. Now discussing in regards to the owned media, it can be said that it is the media that his owned by the corporate groups for the purpose of communicating values as well as competitive advantages of their products and services to the general masses. While elaborating about the paid and earned media, it can be said that the paid media comprises of ad displays, sponsorships whereas the earned media comprise of word of mouth marketing, free publicity and press reviews as well as viral marketing. Only in the case of owned media, it can be said that the company owned website, mobile site, blogs and twitter accounts are pulled into action (Corcoran, 2009). Now, it needs to be mentioned that since the media helps in activities of value communications for an entity or an organization, it effectively forms a part of marketing. Hence, it can be said that the media strategy essentially forms a part of the marketing strategy. Now talking on these lines, it can be said that since the traditional media comprised of ad displays and sponsorships which requires significant amount of monetary investments, focus of the marketers has automatically shifted to on demand and owned online media channels, whose effective can be controlled and measured. Reference Wankel, C. (2010). Cutting-Edge Social Media Approaches to Business Education: Teaching with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, and Blogs (PB). USA: Information Age Publishing. Zarrella, D. (2010) The Social Media Marketing Book.USA: O’Reilly Media. Hinchcliffe, D. and Kim, P. (2012). Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company. UK: John Wiley and Sons. Albarran, A.B. (2013). The Social Media Industries.UK: Routledge Burrow, J.L. (2009). Marketing 3e.USA: South Western Cengage Learning. Gibbons, J. (2009). Monkeys with Typewriters: Myths and Realities of Social Media at Work. UK: Triarchy Press Ltd. Corcoran, S. (2009). DEFINING EARNED, OWNED AND PAID MEDIA. Retrieved from: http://blogs.forrester.com/interactive_marketing/2009/12/defining-earned-owned-and-paid-media.html Chaffey, D. (2012). The difference between paid, owned and earned media – 5 viewpoints. Retrieved from: http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/customer-acquisition-strategy/new-media-options/ Read More