Social Media Marketing - Coursework Example

Social Media Marketing Name Institution Date Social Media Marketing Introduction Marketing is one of the most important departments that a company cannot do without since it aids in building a stronger market power in the highly competitive environment. Therefore, businesses are doing advertisement in different ways whenever a new product or services emerge or when they want to expand the market for its real goods or services. One of the cheapest ways of doing marketing is by use of the social media which can be done through Facebook and Instagram. Therefore, organizations which are aspiring for growth and expansion of their market can use these social sites to do advertisement through the social media. Consequently, due to the wide range of users of Facebook and Instagram, these social sites have a marketing advantage to enterprises and thus can be used in strengthening the marketing power. Summary of the Report The report starts with a review of social media marketing which begins with a definition of social media marketing and its use in brand promotion giving examples of Facebook and Instagram as companies to be used in social media advertising. The next part of the report discusses the importance of social media marketing which includes: provisions of a platform for interaction with clients, enables organizations to monitor and measure performance, helps a company to minimize the promotion expenses since its cheap, and the social media also allows the company to advertise other products while marketing a single product since the customer can get into the enterprise’s website. The paper also analyzes the importance of social media marketing which includes: gives customers a chance to air their views, intensifies competition which lowers the price of goods, and also enables online solving of customers’ problem thus saving their time. Additionally, the report looks into the advantages that the social media marketing forms have over the traditional forms of marketing. Social media marketing has some disadvantages associated with it and therefore the report continues with a discussion of these demerits associated with social media promotion. Finally, the report concludes with an analysis of the industrial application of social media beginning with the creation of a social media plan and later industrial use of social media companies which include Facebook and Instagram in business enterprises for promotion purposes. Review of Social Media Marketing Social media is a platform which ensures that marketers reach the consumers where they are through promotion. It can, therefore, be defined as the use of technologies to communicate, create software, and exchange offers that are of great value to the organization. Previously, social sites marketing concentrated on promoting brands, but it has other applications such as the political funding and social indexing. Initially, companies have been doing advertisement that has been difficult to obtain feedback from the customers. For example, marketing products using the political broadcast and print media allows no feedback from the customers. However, Facebook and Instagram are sites where the customers can be able to air their views by sending back their comments. At the same time, the enterprise can be able to learn the needs of the clients and make improvements since the customer is always right. As a result, it is, therefore, right to say that traditional method of advertisement focused on one way of communication while the current approach which involves the use of the social media is a two-way communication (Tuten and Solomon, 2014). Importance of Social Media Marketing to Businesses To survive in the market today, it is nice to listen to the consumers and offer products and services according to the needs of the customers. As a result, customers will always come back for the goods and services if the company provides them with what they prefer. Social media has, therefore, changing the way firms have been doing promotion in the past and is thus allowing customers’ participation in the planning of the production of goods and provision of services. Due to such involvement, enterprises are therefore building customer loyalty by use of the social media. Therefore, it can be very correct to say that social media marketing is allowing businesses to survive in the highly competitive environment by producing what the client exactly what the consumer needs. Another importance aspect of the social sites is that it is enabling organizations to monitor and measure performance. Since promotion in the social media is done live with the consumer and allows comments from clients, companies can, therefore, be in a position to know where they are going wrong in the manufacturing or provision of services. Therefore, the marketing department can, therefore, be able to read comments from the customers and be in a position to tell where there is a deviation from normal. After noting the variation, the marketing department can now start putting strategies on how the problem is going to be rectified and therefore provide as per the needs of the customers (Schoja, 2016). Every company tries the very best on how they can lower their cost of doing business and in turn improve their revenue. A company spends a lot of money while taking their advertisements to the broadcasting stations such as the televisions and radios stations. However, these adverts do not reach everyone in the market as the young generation is spending their time on phones and the internet and not on the televisions and radios. On the other hand, the social sites have a large number of users and most people around the world have access to the internet. Therefore, promotion activities done through the social media reach the high number of internet users who are accessing the social media in their daily access. A company doing its development activities on platforms like the Facebook just needs to open an account with the site then invite followers. Therefore, organizations with Facebook accounts which have a huge number of fans ensure that its advertisement on the Facebook account is reaching many individuals unlike in the social broadcasting stations. Consequently, the firm would not spend as much as it would have spent on television and radios (In Lugmayr and In Dal, 2014). When promotion activities are done through the traditional methods like the use of television and radios, customers can only view or rather listen to the advert and be aware of that particular product or service only. However, social media platforms enable clients to visit the firm’s website. As a result, the customer can view a broad range of other products and services that the company offers thus making it possible for the customers to come for the next product or service. Therefore, social media platforms provide a great advantage to the enterprise in such a way that it assists the customer to access many goods and services at a given promotion activity. How Social Media Marketing Benefits Consumers Clients can advise the company on what they need by just commenting on the social platforms of the enterprise, and the company can in turn produce and serve as per the instructions. Therefore, unlike in the traditional methods of advertising, social media platforms are enabling direct and easier access to the customers directly from where they are. Customers can, therefore, be able to give the feedback on how the company served them. Consequently, the company responds to the requests of the customers to ensure that they get what they want. Therefore, it can be very right to state that the social media is making a client to be a friend with benefit who is availing information to the company on how the production is going to happen. However, the information the customer provides does not only assist the company in knowing what to be produced but also a benefit to the client since it enables the customers to get what is needed by them (Barefoot and Szabo, 2010). Social media advertisement helps customers to beware of the rage number of products and services available in the market. Therefore, through the social media, customers get to know about other upcoming companies with better products and services. As a result, competition increases and in turn the price of the goods at the market lowers since firms are competing for clients out there in the market. Every company in the market operates to attract more customers and therefore expands its market base. Consequently, the competition which emerges as a result of continued promotion helps in reducing the prices which act for the customers and turn benefits than in a way. Social media lowers the cost of transport that a customer may spend traveling all the way to the physical location of a business to go and solve a problem at hand. However, the customer just clicks on the social site and lays out the complaint which the company addresses immediately. It could be very costly for a client to pay the fare or take a flight to the physical location of the business, but due to the existence of the social platform, the customer just gets into the internet and clicks to the site launching the problem. In addition to that, the customer may also waste a lot of time traveling to go and lay out the complaint. Therefore, social media platforms help in reducing the cost and also the time a customer may spend while traveling to the physical location of the firm (In Singh and In Duhan, 2016). Advantages of Social Media Marketing over Traditional Marketing Strategy Social media platforms provide a tool for interaction and also involvement opportunities which offer a chance of getting into a discussion with audience unlike in the traditional media forms of marketing like the TV, Radio or the newspapers. Therefore, when a company is marketing using the traditional forms of marketing, there are no chances of interacting directly with the audience who are listening or rather watching the advert. However, on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the audience can get into a discussion with the enterprise (Trost, 2013). Regarding expenses, social media forms of marketing like Facebook and Instagram tend to be very cheap as compared to the traditional media forms of marketing like the TV and Newspapers. In social media forms of marketing, one just has to log into the account of the company and update the timeline of the enterprise with the new information about a new or an existing product or service. However, in the social media forms of marketing, the organization has to pay the firm which owns the media form which makes it more expensive than the social media form of advertising. Also, in social media platforms, the information gets to a huge number within a short time unlike in the traditional forms of media where one has to follow many bureaucratic procedures so that the information can get to the advertising style. Not every business in the market can be able to do traditional marketing which involves the use of the traditional media forms like the newspaper, television, and the radio. However, regardless of the size of the business, each and every business can use the social media forms like Facebook and Instagram as their advertising tool since no massive amounts of money that are required to be paid to qualify for advertisement. Therefore, social media platforms do not discriminate on the size and the financial capability when it comes to an advertisement of goods and services. Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing Since social media involves publication of the events in the in public, a post in the social platform may ruin the image of the entire company. A customer might have once in a time been furious with the services of the company and post a comment which portrays the negative part of the firm. Consequently, since the post can be viewed by everyone in public, other customers who can access the site can get to know the negative part of the firm. However, the information the client is posting about the company might be true or false, but the company cannot be able to able to reverse the image that the customer has already tarnished. Therefore, social media marketing might end up ruining the reputation and also the goodwill of the organization by posts from negative comments who have negative thoughts from the customers (Zarrella, 2010). There is no privacy when it comes to social media marketing. As a result, the company cannot be in a position to conceal previous information which it cannot allow access to new customers who are not aware. However, in the process of trying to hide the negative information which occurred during the previous period when new customers were not there, an old customer who might be aware of what happened may publicly state the truth, and this might scare away new customers who were about to enter into business with the firm. As a result, this might reduce the number of investors who are willing to invest in an enterprise at a particular time when negative information about a company is brought into public. Additionally, this might also scare away existing clients who were not aware of the negative information at that time it was being put in public. Learning the social sites might be difficult to entrepreneurs. Opening the sites might seem to be a very simple activity which is not hectic in any way. However, managing the site and coming up with a plan of how they are going to strategize the business might be tough for the entrepreneurs. Additionally, there must be an additional training that must be given to the contractor I order to run this site in the most efficient manner. Therefore, this requires the entrepreneur to start enrolling into training activities instead of focusing on the business. As a result, enterprises need to hire more staffs which can be given the sole mandate of managing the social sites and coming up with a plan on how the company is going to engage customers on the social media platforms. Due to this, the business must develop a strategy for managing the social sites to achieve the goals set (Friedrichsen, 2012). Industrial Application of Social Media Marketing Creating a Social Media Plan To ensure that the company achieves its objectives set in social media marketing, it is very significant that a proper plan is created which gives guidance on how the marketing should be carried out. Social media plan starts with the setting of goals. Set goals must be SMART which means that the goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable Realistic and Time Bound. Therefore, the goals set must be set taking into consideration the size and the stage of the organization. For instance, the company can set a target of posting ten photos in Instagram in a week which the goal for each should be one hundred like and thirty comments. The next thing that the firm should do while creating a social media plan should be conducting an audit of its social media accounts if they have been in existence. Consequently, this should assist the company in identifying most customers who use an individual social media account. For instance, Facebook came into existence before Instagram. Therefore it is more likely that Facebook will include older generation while Instagram will be associated with the younger generation. Therefore, the company might decide to be advertising products related to all ages on Facebook while the products associated with younger generation be advertised in Instagram. The third step in this move should be creation and development of social media sites. If the company does not have a social media site, it is in this step that the firm should create the site considering the goals and audience identified as per the audit. Also, the company should now develop the sites if they have been in existence. Therefore, if it is Facebook, the company should start updating the profile and the status. On the other hand in Instagram, then the company should start updating the pictures and the videos there. The fourth step that the enterprise should while developing the plan be benchmarking its site to that of the competitors or the leaders. However, this is done if the company is not sure of what to post. Therefore the company should how the leaders in the market are posting their information on the social sites. As a result, the company should get guidance on how to do it well and attractively. The final step in this social media plan creation should be creating the content plan and a calendar of how the content should be posted. Therefore, the company should decide on which type of content that should be promoted through the social media. Also, plans should be made on how and when the content should be posted plus determination of who the data plan in the content promotion targets. After the company is sure that all the above steps have been followed, the company should be sure that it is now ready for social media marketing. Industrial application of Facebook into Marketing Facebook is one of the social sites that has a huge number of followers currently. Marketing involves the processing communicating information about the products or services of business. The process becomes active if the information disseminated gets too many people as it can be. Consequently, Facebook being a social site that a company can create its page with it and start posting information about goods and services, this can be a very efficient method of advertising even with smaller enterprises that are not up to the size of funding the traditional forms of marketing. Facebook is being used by companies to advertise for political contests which societies are holding. For instance, businesses that are carrying out adventure activities like taking a nature walk and team building activities can upload beautiful photos of previous events where individuals are very excited. Consequently, when a Facebook user views the cute pictures of the events, the user gets very upset and get into the feeling of attending the activity. Enterprises, therefore, use Facebook to market their brands and services by posting pictures of their goods and services. As the customer views the product, they, therefore, get a sample picture of how the product or the activity will be like and get eager to get the product or attend an event. Companies are making advertisements of their products by targeting customers who are visiting their websites for such of goods and services. For instance, where a customer visits a company website in such of products but fails to make a purchase, the enterprise can later post an ad on the Facebook page of the client about the similar product. As a result, the company can identify the needs of the customers and serve them with the information about a product or service they might have once ordered from the enterprise through the use of Facebook Exchange. Therefore, the company might make some improvements on the products declined by the customer and later be able to reach the same customer through Facebook exchange who can later be in a position to acquire the renovated product. Companies are using Facebook to rate the feeling of the clients by use of the comments and the likes the customers have a product or service. Facebook provides a chance for the users to give feedback on the information submitted by a post. Therefore, a company might post an advertisement on its products and services. The post might be a picture, a video or an explanation just writing about an information of a product or a service. The enterprise can be able to rate the reaction of people by counting on the likes and dislikes of the post. Also, the negative and positive comments about a product or a service can assist the company in measuring the reaction and also the performance of the product being advertised on Facebook. The number of views of the users of Facebook can have on a video posted can guide a company on how customers are reacting the business’s product. Therefore, Facebook is helping the companies to measure performance and reaction of clients about a product or services. Organizations are also using Facebook for marketing by posting links which can direct the customers to the products or the services that a customer offers. Some websites of the company can be complicated for a client to access a specific brand that is being provided by a corporation. Therefore, a company is, therefore, trying to make it easier for the customers to get in touch with the company products through provided links. A company can also offer assistance to its customers through Facebook whenever they have a problem in accessing the links since Facebook allows direct conversation with the customers. Therefore, Facebook is being used by enterprises to make it easier for clients to access company’s products. Marketing is done to expand a business market and attract more customers in a company. Expansion of a market can occur where the company can be able to attract new clients to its business. Therefore, Facebook is one of the platforms that businesses are using to win more customers. Practically, there are a certain number of users who can access an individual page on Facebook, and that limit cannot be exceeded if the company has not paid for it. Therefore, companies are using Facebook promoted sites to increase the number of users who can have access to the promotion activities. Due to this, if the company needs more people to have access to information about a particular development post, the enterprise goes ahead of paying for that advertising site so that more individuals can have access to that information on the post. Also, this can also be improved through tagging. Tagging friends can enable other friends also view the promotion site thereby creating a chain of friends who can access this promotion post. As a result, the company can attract more customers to its product or services. Use of Instagram as a social media marketing site Instagram is another online social company which enterprises are using to market their goods and services. As a result of this online marketing, companies are ensuring that the Instagram account of the company has a direct link which leads to the company website. However, there is only one opportunity of that can lead to these the company websites though this should not discourage the entrepreneurs since there are more people who are using this social site unlike in tweeter. Therefore, as more people are getting into Instagram, the more the company is getting more customers as the new users are now accessing the company’s website are more people are getting connected to the company through that link. Practically, most people would like to know more about an attractive thing posted on the internet. Therefore, companies are setting up interesting profiles on Instagram posting the best pictures of the enterprise. Additionally, the companies are also ensuring that the information contained in the Instagram profiles of the companies is very attractive to those who get access to it. Therefore, companies are using Instagram as a marketing platform by ensuring the best information about a company is contained in the profile thereby marketing the company to the Instagram users who access the profile. Creation of online posts which are very attractive and appealing to followers will attract more fans. Therefore, marketing teams in companies are making sure that everything they post on Instagram is very attractive to the customers thereby attracting more followers. In addition to this, the users will always want to be viewing the company’s profile now and then, and this will make them live with the up to date information about a product. As a result of this, when companies are launching new products, the followers of Instagram will know even before the products get released to the market. Instagram is also being used by businesses as a marketing platform for sending pictures and videos. However, the pictures must be very appealing to anyone who access them. As a result, companies are therefore using images which are clear and of good size. The beautiful models are even making the products being advertised look more beautiful than they would be in the real sense. Consequently, as the customers get attracted to the picture of that item in the profile, they eagerly want to get the actual product or service. Therefore, beautiful videos and photos on Instagram are making the products to market for themselves before the company starts real promotion of the items in the market. Conclusion Social media is overcoming the traditional media forms of marketing as the in the current evolved world almost every individual is accessing the internet now and then. Also, the social media types have a broad range of advantages which is making it more evolved than the traditional forms of marketing as they are allowing for an interaction between the company and the consumers. Therefore, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are becoming very crucial tools of marketing when it comes to social media marketing. References Barefoot, D., & Szabo, J. (2010). Friends with benefits: A social media marketing handbook. San Francisco, CA: No Starch Press. Friedrichsen, M. (2012). Handbook of Social Media Management: Value Chain and Business Models in Changing Media Markets. Berlin: Springer Verlag. In Lugmayr, A., & In Dal, Z. C. (2014). Media convergence handbook: Volume 2. In Singh, A., & In Duhan, P. (2016). Managing public relations and brand image through social media. Schoja, V. (2016). Why Should Companies Invest in Social Media Marketing? Parameters and Means for Performance Measurement. Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2014). Social media marketing. Trost, E. (2013). Social media marketing in BRIC countries: Examining case studies of BMW, Adidas and NIVEA. Zarrella, D. (2010). The social media marketing book. Beijing: O'Reilly. 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