Social Media in a Business Context - Apple - Case Study Example

Social Media in a Business Context Name Institution Course Date Social Media in a Business Context Introduction Traditionally, brand stories were done through none-to-many marketing communications like advertising (Bernhardt et al., 2009). Today, social media is one of the most used marketing media. Social media has the capacity to enhance the construction of brand meaning. Today, consumers are highly using the social media to look for information and have walked away from the traditional media include television and radio. Social media has converted one-way communication into multi-dimensional communication (Bernhardt et al., 2009). Initially, social media can a channel for communication between people, but it has become one of the most used media for marketers. Companies have changed their conventional marketing strategies to incorporate social media usage. Social media once used in business can have a significant impact on marketing activities (Fogel and Nehmad, 2009). Two most important social media pages for marketers include Twitter and Facebook. This report evaluates the use of social media in marketing and how Apple business can use Facebook and Twitter to communicate to the consumers. It will also highlight the benefits of social media in the business context. Social Media in Marketing Social networking has built an online community that is made up of people from different locations across the globe. The main aim of social media is for interaction and socializing (Bernhardt et al., 2009). Companies are interested in sharing information, trading products and services and staying connected to consumers across the globe. This is made possible through social networking. Social media has resulted to a culture of active engagement, constant communication and immediate access (Neti, 2011). Consumers interact freely through the social media making them the main source of brand communication. Consumers share their experiences of different products and services of different organisations (Das and Sahoo, 2011). In the social network, information can easily be created, distributed and consumed by users as a means by which people educate one another about brands, products and services. Companies and consumers can openly engage through the social media and firms can influence consumer perceptions of products, services and brand. This enhances customer loyalty in the long run (Bernhardt et al., 2009). Use of Facebook in Business Context Facebook has more than one billion active users and thus it offers a great opportunity for companies to reach its customers. Apple business is able to execute marketing campaigns by making use of Facebook’s features (Cater and Levy, 2012). Effective use of Facebook is able to help the company build an engagement with customers and attract new ones. One thing that will ensure Apple succeed in Facebook is its ability to keep updating. The company should post updates every day in order to ensure they remain relevant. It should not just rely on photo contents but should make use of other contents such as video, links, events and offers. People enjoy giveaways, discounts and promotions (Cater and Levy, 2012). Apple should come up with a way to keep its Facebook followers engaged. The company can offer discounts and giveaways to specific group of followers. For instance, people who watch a posted video or answer to questions receive the discounts (Cater and Levy, 2012). In addition, Apple business should create a personalized relationship with the Facebook followers (Casteleyn, Mottart and Rutten, 2009). The company can engage more on conversations. For instance, it can create a Facebook campaign in order to be able to reach the potential customers. Apple can use Facebook to fine-tune targeting. Once the company has a community of people in its page, it is possible to target specific adverts to specific target audience (Casteleyn, Mottart and Rutten, 2009). It is important to be specific about the target audience for different campaigns and advertisements. The company can set some adverts to connect to different audiences (Casteleyn, Mottart and Rutten, 2009). Doing this will enable the company create personalized relationship with Facebook users. Use of Twitter in Business Context Twitter can be a very valuable marketing tool if used correctly. Apple business can use Twitter in several ways in order to yield its benefits (Goldenberg et al., 2010). For instance, Apple business can use twitter to drive traffic by driving people to its website. The company should ensure that it tweets about interesting information posted on its website. The company can post links to special offers and promotions found in its website to twitter in order for people to start tweeting about it and share information with others (Junusz, 2009). The company can also use twitter to promote events and campaigns. When Apple business holds an event or campaign, it is important to tweet about it. It should think about hashtag for the events in order to gain popularity among twitter users. Launching of new products should definitely be shared in twitter (Goldenberg et al., 2010). Apple business can use Twitter for customer service. It can use Twitter for customer support by using Twitter representatives who can assist in serving and supporting customers (Fogel and Nehmad, 2009). In order to facilitate customer service, it is important for the company to always respond to concerns of customers’ tweets about its products or services. The company can offer immediate and faster responds to queries and enquiries. This is able to enhance customer loyalty (Fogel and Nehmad, 2009). Apple can use Twitter to update customers of any changes in its products and services, any introduction of new products and campaigns. Customers will be able to appreciate the effort of the company and this can result to recurrent purchases (Fogel and Nehmad, 2009). One important thing to do on Twitter in order to enhance marketing experience is to attract followers and increase reach. Apple business can attract followers by making the username easy to allocate (Das and Sahoo, 2011). It is important to use a name that people are familiar with. In addition, the company can make its tweets unique and beneficial. The tweets should not be purely promotional but should incorporate issues and resources that customers can easily interact with. In addition, the company can post live events including launching new products (Das and Sahoo, 2011). The company can post video clip of new products for twitter users to be able to access. Products can be rebutted to followers before their launch. This is important as its makes the customers feel included and part of the company (Das and Sahoo, 2011). Impacts of Facebook and Twitter on Marketing According to Das and Sahoo (2011), today, more and more people are turning to social media and are spending a lot of time in online marketing. Facebook and Twitter are among the most used social media pages with millions of users using them every day. They can allow Apple business to connect with millions of people across the globe. One major positive impact of social media is its lower marketing costs compared to other traditional marketing media such as television advertisement (Bernhardt et al., 2009). With the economic downturn, Apple is looking for ways to cut their expenditures. Social networking sites especially Twitter and Facebook are a great way for the business to cut spending costs (Das and Sahoo, 2011). Moreover, the emergence of Twitter and Facebook has ushered a new age of both directed and personalized marketing (Goldenberg et al., 2010). Because of their huge number of active users and level of activity, Twitter and Facebook are considered appealing media for marketing and advertisement. These social media pages are ideal direct-response marketing platforms (Goldenberg et al., 2010). Companies and consumers can receive immediate and direct answers to marketing enquiries within a short time. As a result of personalized interaction with consumers, firms can acquire valuable information and insight about their products or services (Goldenberg et al., 2010). However, in addition to the benefits yielded by companies from Facebook and Twitter, there are a number of concerns of their use (Junusz, 2009). Since comments and tweets are posted in a hurry, it can cause damage of company’s reputation. When customers find a tweet that is annoying or intrusive, they alienate themselves from the brand (Goldenberg et al., 2010). In addition, the features of Facebook and Twitter affects marketing activities as it shifts the work of organisations to consumers as the pivotal authors of brands creation and sharing. Any negative response from one consumer may affect the reputation of a company (Goldenberg et al., 2010). Conclusion In conclusion, companies are interested in reaching its customers across the world. Facebook and Twitter offer them an opportunity to do this at cost-effective marketing price. Social media use in business can have a significant impact on marketing activities. Twitter and Facebook are considered appealing media for marketing and advertisement due to their huge number of users. Companies and consumers can openly engage through Facebook and Twitter which can change the perceptions of products, services and brand. In order to be successful, Apple business should be able to create effective marketing strategies in Facebook and Twitter. It is therefore important for the company to improve its social media strategies in order to build strong brand awareness. References Bernhardt, J. M., Mays, D., Eroğlu, D. & Daniel, K. L. (2009). New communication channels: changing the nature of customer engagement. Social Marketing Quarterly, 15(Issue 1 Supplement), 7-15. Carter, B.;& Levy, J. (2012). Facebook Marketing: Leveraging Facebook's Features for Your Marketing Campaigns, Third Edition. Que Publishing. Casteleyn, J., Mottart, A., & Rutten, K. (2009). How to use Facebook in your market research. International Journal of Market Research, 51(4), 439-447. Das B.and Sahoo J.S (2011),”social Networking Sites –Acritical analysis of Its Impact on Personal And Social Life” International journal of Business and social Science , july p 223 Fogel, J. & Nehmad, E. (2009). Internet social network communities: risk taking, trust and privacy concerns. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(1), 153-160. Goldenberg, J., Libai, B., Muller, E., & Stremersch, S. (2010). The evolving social network of marketing scholars. Marketing Science, 29(3), 561-567 Janusz, T. (2009). Marketing on social networks: twitter, myspace and facebook demystified. a publication of the independent computer consultants association, 35(4), 16-17. Neti, S. (2011). Social Media and Its Role in Marketing. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems 2(3):111-132 Read More