The Dynamics of Social Media in the Global Marketspace - Essay Example

THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE GLOBAL MATKETSPACE Name Institution Tutor Date Introduction Social media is helpful in forging a new era of business engagement and transparency creating new opportunities and challenges in global business. Recently business organizations do not rely on crafted press releases or various flashy advertisement campaigns to communicate with their buyers in an attempt to convince them that their products are the best in providing their needs. In the error of social media, the tenets have radically changed and individuals today need a more direct and honest relationship with the organizations with which they do their business. Social media is very useful in global business. Various organizations can use social media to improve their processes. Social media networking sites enable organization to improve their productivity and communication by disseminating information among various groups of workers in a more effective way. This paper accesses the dynamics of social media in the global marketplace. The use of social media among global businesses Social media platforms such as twitter and Facebook have changed the context of customer relationships, engagement between the customers and the organization and connection among stakeholders (Sashi, 2012). Most popular brands in the social media post less about their services and products; instead, they post information that help their buyers to get to know the personality and the people involves in the business. Their main goal is creating engagement with their customers, through such engagements, customers feel comfortable doing business with such organizations (Michaelidou et al., 2011). For instance, Jeff Swartz who is CEO and the president of Timberland Company uses his Twitter account to justify his personality by tweeting about his social experiences and what he is passionate about rather than twitting about the shoes produced by the company. At the same time, he links from his Twitter Timberland’s earthkeeper schemes that sustain the environment awareness in an effort to create a good connection with the surrounding individuals. Thus, the company uses the social network to obtain proper engagement with their customers globally (Heller and Parasnis, 2011). Social media networks make communication between the customers and the organization secure. Recently, individuals want to interact and engage with a business through different sources of communication whether through facebook, twitter, and any discussion forum. The customers are more comfortable communicating directly with the company; they feel they can get the products more easily without delay. If they have any problem with the products, they can easily talk to the enterprise directly. For instance, companies like Dell have successfully embraced manifold support channels. Their community site outlines how their customers can communicate with them through Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, blogs, forums, email and other social sites. They want their customers to connect with them through various channels available. The customers can identify the suitable social media sites to use in communicating with the organization (Berthon et al., 2012). Additionally, with social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, every individual who has their broadcasting network, and business organization is beginning to realize that rather than spend more money on traditional forms of campaigns, they can instead use small acts since most individuals will undoubtedly share such information and experiences through their social websites. In the past, if customers had a negative or positive experience with the organization, it took much more time to convince friends about unlike in recent times (Michaelidou et al., 2011). Treem and Leonardi (2012) claim that today, in a matter of seconds, customers can inform their friends and social media followers about the new experience. When all experiences from each customer can be widely and quickly spread, small issues become critical. Loic Le Meur, who is the CEO of start-up Software Company, once acknowledged that one of the most significant jobs of CEO’s today is to listen to customer’s opinions about the organization’s product across various social media channels and to respond to such arguments directly. For instance, larger companies like the Comcast and Southwest Airlines utilize their Twitter accounts in ensuring that the needs and concerns of their customers are well addressed. Since bad experiences may spread just as fast and easily as good ones, it is of most importance for the organization to pay more consideration to one on one customer relationship using social media (Treem and Leonardi, 2012). Evaluation of the uses of social media in the global marketplace Utilizing social media to improve communication and collaboration within the organization and across organizations can raise and improve the productivity of employees’ interaction by twenty to twenty-five percent. These dramatic gains occur due to the manner in which the employees communicate with each other using various channels designed for this purpose such as phone calls, e-mail, twitter and Facebook. This enable effective and efficient communication. As the organization adopts social platforms, communication becomes easy with more information within the organization being easily accessed and searched. Employees are capable of acquiring knowledge in the company easily and are able to identify experts on different topics through social communication, thus improving the overall productivity of the organization (Treem and Leonardi, 2012). In addition to productivity, opportunities are provided by social media technologies with several business benefitting in various areas encompassing consumer marketing, customer service and detection of fraudulent activities. The organization uses social media services to market their products and win the hearts of more customers. The aim of any business organization is to realize more profits, thus through social networks, organizations market their products and make more profit. Also, through social media networks, organizations offer customer service to their clients. The organizations use Facebook pages and other social sites to respond to various customer needs. Today it is not a requisite for one to go to the organizations in person and inquire about a new product in the market; but can instead make their inquiries through social sites (Michaelidou et al., 2011). Evaluation of the emerging trends of social media and personal opinions about them As the rise in popularity of social networking increases, new uses of social media technology are constantly being formulated. At the forefront of emerging trends in social media sites is the idea of location-based and real-time websites (Hanna et al. 2011). Real time enables the user contribute their idea, which is then broadcast as it is being uploaded with a model much akin to television and radio broadcast. Twitter often sets a trend for various real-time services, where users can easily broadcast to the whole world what they have in mind or what they are dealing with. Facebook then followed with its live feed where users’ actions are streamlined as soon as they happen. Additionally, Instagram which is another social media site focuses on photo sharing whereby the user can update their photos while attending an event or after the said event. However, Facebook remains the largest site for sharing photos. April 2012, social media network site Pinterest became the third largest site in Unite States (Kietzmann et al., 2011). Foursquare also gained popularity since it enabled users to check in to locations they frequented at that moment. Another service which functions as Foursquare is the Gowalla; it leverages the GPS in phones to create location-based user experience. Clixtr which is also a photo sharing service is real time and is also used as a location-based networking site since various activities, and events by users are geotagged automatically.Individuals can view other activities which occur nearby through Clixtr iPhone app (Hanna et al. 2011). Additionally, Yelp also entered the location-based social networking site through various check-ins with their mobile app.Various companies are emerging business solutions and technologies such as cloud computing with various social networking concepts. Instead of linking individuals based on their interest, organizations are developing various interactive communities that link individuals based on their shared experiences and needs (Giordano and Fulli, 2012). The new trends in social media sites can help the organizations improve its operations and gain a global competitive advantage. The use of social media sites is the best way of building a positive brand image. Through the use of real-time website, the organization can easily update its new brands in the market and upload photos of new products for customers to comment. Consequently, location-based websites can help business organizations and the customers to realize various nearby events and activities. The organization can use such activities and events to promote and sell their products. Conclusion Social networks have manifold uses in promoting global business. Various organizations have deployed various social media technologies to help them engage and communicate effectively with their customers. Additionally, social media enables the organization become more productive in its activities and have a large customer base. Most customers prefer to communicate directly with the business organization and have their issue addressed. Various organizations can start their customer services activities in the social media sites and market their organization. There are also emerging trends in social media sites that can help the business organization obtain effective global competition. The introduction of real-time and location-based websites can help the business organizations improve their relationship and engagement with customers. Thus, social media is a valuable tool in enhancing the operations of the organization and making the organization compete in the global market. References Berthon, P. R., Pitt, L. 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