Strategy Issues in Marketing - Essay Example

Strategy Issues in MarketingThe article is concerned with the use of social media as a marketing strategy among other uses in business. The article discusses the revolution social media is making among the Canadian businesses. The authors indicate that the social media has increasingly become a significant tool that businesses in Canada can not ignore. Furthermore, the author provides statistics of the use of social media among businesses in Canada. He quotes BMO Financial Group report that stated that, “57% of small businesses in Canada now use social media, a 42% increase from last year.

” The application of the social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn is increasingly becoming sophisticated. The author indicates the uses of social media in businesses that include tracking the sentiments of the companies and their customers, recruiting the top employees, as well as selling their products and services. Organizations large and small have a common interest of obtaining customers but perhaps more important and less costly they seek to retain current customers and have battled for decades with competition and the needed perseverance to take the leading edge for various reason that include capital and budgeting.

Advertising and committing to customer surveys as to gauge experiences and implement changes has always been a daunting task for most. Social media is a great marketing strategy for businesses, that being said, businesses need to analyze why it is important to utilize social media to promote a product or service. Questions such as, what are the business' needs, why they are using the site, and who are they trying to target are all relevant in deciding whether or not to incorporate a SNS to the business.

Even then there are still a multitude of sites that offer social networking capabilities for different purposes which you have to decide on. The shift from individual company websites to using social media for business has been drastic, and the effects have become apparent. Through these sites, companies can get direct information from customers through blogs and forums in turn giving the organization the benefit of fulfilling the wants and needs of customers in a more efficient manner. With the reduction in expenses of marketing, by using social media, companies are able to focus the attention more on the customer and offer freebies or giveaways to accompany the social networking campaign.

A huge draw card for companies to advertise on social media is the fact you can tailor your marketing campaign to a specific group of people. By these sites collecting information about the people using them through special algorithms, companies can provide exactly what the consumer desires. The major benefit for business' is the cost saving of getting there company out there. The real life example of social media as a marketing strategy is the case study of the U.S. elections where president extensive used social media to market his policies and candidature.

Social media was extensively used in the presidential election of the United States that took place in the year 2008. The current president of the U.S, Barrack Obama carried out its campaign using Facebook as well as other social media tools. In the past years, Facebook was overwhelmingly pro the virtual territory of Obama. Indeed, the victory of president Obama in the year 2008 presidential elections is attributed to the Facebook effect. Several companies have joined the social media platforms to market their products and services.

In a nutshell, social media is a marketing strategy that can never be overlooked by any company globally. Works CitedHolmes, Ryan. “Social media shake up: Big changes coming for Canadian businesses.” Financial Post, 9 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 Oct. 2014. .