The Use of Social Media in Global Marketing - Research Paper Example

Running head: The use of social media in marketing 25th February Introduction Social media is avaluable tool that is used in marketing. Social media helps in online communication that makes commercialization of the brands in the company easier. Having millions of individuals visiting the social media sites, they can view the brands and share them globally. This paper seeks to discuss the impacts if using Social Media in marketing. Investing in social media marketing – a need than want According to De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang (2012), different consumers use the social media to get the brands and services they require. This is the reason why it has become very common in the business atmosphere. Approximately 76% of firms in different geographical areas use social networking to achieve their marketing strategy. Retailers have achieved 133% increases in profit through the mobile market and thus they promote social media. An approximated 40% of United States shoppers usually use their Smartphone to buy products online and thus becoming a need than a want. There is a gap that exists while investing in social media marketing. Messages are shared in the social network concerning the brands and services offered by a certain firm and thus they are passed from user to user. This means that the company only posted once in the site for example, in the Facebook which has millions users. The messages and images of the brands are available to the third person without his or her request that he or she wants the brands but they are going to be posted. This means that the firm that posted the brands once does not need to keep on monitoring who has been interacting with their site. Through the use of social media they can use the strategy of winning a prize or the first individual who can share and like the brands in the firm can win a prize or get the brand of his or her choice at a discounted rate. This is a gap that many companies have never thought about it but play a significant role in social media marketing. Based on the research done by Mangold and Faulds (2009), though investing in social media is costly, it plays a significant role in marketing for example, brand awareness is attained. Social media is a tool that creates competition in the market since different companies use the technology to advertise their products through such media. For example the use of Facebook, YouTube, twitter, Google and LinkedIn among others. One of the notable aspects to note while educating an individual who want to use social media marketing is that it is generally expensive. However, in reality it plays a significant role in making sure that awareness of the brands is attained thus increasing the sales. One can learn that investing in social media marketing leads to global expansion since one is able to identify a favorable environment to venture in. Market segmentation is known since market research must be done before one engages in global expansion. To look for favorable environment that can lead to success of the business means that one has to communicate with different individuals on how they conduct their businesses. The social advertising trend becoming indispensable in digital marketing Research done by Trattner and Kappe (2013) indicates that most consumers spend their time on the social media. This indicates that individual has the advantage of shopping online through the use of social networking. Companies have obtained a lot of profits since many of the companies have adopted online shopping. This shows that digital marketers continue to position their brands in the social media. This has made the companies and small businesses to achieve increased profit since millions of the users shop online or share the brands with other consumers. Comparing with the users of Facebook, it is quite clear that millions of profit is gained since the use of Smartphone in the developed countries is increasing in the contemporary period. This means that the consumers discover the different brands and still research on the brands through the use of Facebook, Twitter, and Google among others. If the brand is of high quality and meets the consumer needs, then it is shared in all the social media giving it a competitive advantage. The brands that are not posted in the social media cannot be able to compete stiffly with those products that are liked and shared with other individuals in the social networking. One of the gap that exist in the social advertising trend is that firms are not aware of the call center and they do not consider it as a key aspect that can make the firm to attain high profit. The call center even if it is operational is not taken seriously since one can call and the receiver or the customer care does not respond leaving the clients who want clarification hanged. According to Blanchard (2011) a call center should be managed well and be operational in 24 hours so that any client who needs clarification can get it in the right time. Call center is another social media that is used since individuals use the Smartphone and if one wants to know more about the products he or she can use the call center. Social media though tend to make individuals to be on their phone now and then chatting with others and searching for other relevant and non-relevant materials, it cannot be criticized a lot since on the other hand it plays a major role in marketing of the products. This helps in creating awareness of the brands and services available to the firm. Cyber crimes and bullying may occur due to the use of social media but the advantages of social media outweigh the disadvantages. It is important to have company website with all the products and services available since it plays a significant role in ensuring that the clients can visit the site and go through the available brands. Call center should be operational in case the clients need any clarification it can be offered within the shortest time possible. Seminars should be conducted to train the customer care to use polite language so that clients can feel appreciated. If the right language is used to the customer there is a possibility of that customer to avail him or herself again. Image centric content for social media marketing Images have power in social media marketing, since individuals nowadays are visual learners. 60% to 65% of social media users tend to use images to communicate about what they want and they post it on the social media for individuals to comment about it. This means that customers can interpret the images more easily than the text. According to Blossom (2009), the sharing of the images that are used by internet marketers plays a significant role by giving the brands simpler and better search since an individual does not need to go to the site but rather he or she has got it from another friend. The sharing plays a key role in the brand awareness since it boosts the products exposure to the users. Many companies do not communicate through the use of images rather they use text. Images capture the attention of the consumers more easily since the consumers do not have time to read the long text that is posted. But an image with an explanation on it attracts the customers. Images plays a role in marketing especially in the social media where consumers goes directly to the image, like and share to other friends so that they can still have chance to have look at it and find whether it is their preferred choice brand. Images drive the point home since while one is looking at the image steps to use it are directed using the images. Additionally, if it is a brand that is not fixed and one needs to go and fix it images gives the directions clearly. Instagram plays a key role just like face book and twitter does since images that are of high quality can be shared to different consumers. Instagram creates fun between the consumers and the companies since images of the brands are shared to different customers thus one comparing the brand of one choice. The gap that exists in social media marketing through the use of images is that most firms do not use images to market their brands and services. Firms use texts for example in the face book and in twitter account, consumers do not have time of reading the text rather a well drawn diagram with an explanation on it can be viewed by a lot of consumers through liking and sharing of the images to different social media. Images play a role in marketing of brands in social media, though many companies use text to communicate about their brands there are some images which can be posted to the social media that do not represent the reality. Exaggeration may occur to make the firm competitive for example, Smartphone’s vendors may have an image that is of high quality but the features that are indicated may not function according to the expectation of the customers. This means that images may be used only to attract the consumer but does not indicate the reality when it comes to the usage of the product. Lesson that is learnt from the topic is that a new entrant company can use images to market itself in the social media since one image represents a thousand words. It is therefore important to use instagram, Tumble, face book, twitter, YouTube and Google among others to post images of the brands since they create attention to the consumers. Visibility is attained since images one does not need to keep on looking but one looks just once and the brand is indentified. Promotion of company brands and awareness The products sold by companies are listed, and thus strong customer awareness is created making the company to effectively compete with other retailers who offer the same brands. The use of attractive images make the consumers to perceive that the product is of high quality, thus it can satisfy his or her want. Competition is stiff in an open market economy since firms have adopted use of technology to promote brand awareness in the market. Social media is an ideal platform that helps small and multinational companies to boost their brand awareness since images and information concerning the brands is shared online. Social media platform has contributed greatly to find customers and makes the brands to be cemented in the minds of the consumers since the brands are always revolving around the social media. The use of social media has played a great role since firms are able to find the target market. Since individuals are able to communicate online they are able to sharing information concerning the brand and whether the brand is accepted in the market. Social media provides high quality content concerning the brand boosting awareness to different consumers in different parts. It also plays a role of connecting the consumers with the company brands. For example, the use of twitter where comments are send directly and publicly to the consumers. The consumers comment on the brand on how it meets the consumer requirement or negativity of the brand. If they comment on the negativity the company twitter feed can try to solve the challenge and make it to suit the requirement of the consumers. One of the gap that exist is that individual tend to think that social media is only used to socially socialize with different individuals. According to Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi (2012), social media is a useful tool that can increase the sale volume since it acts like an agent of advertising. Individual only share information concerning individual relationship status but cannot indicate what a certain company offers to the consumers. Consumers comment on the brands and share it to other consumers since they want others to benefit from the brands that meet the requirement. Others criticize the brands so that consumers will not accept it since they want the product to lose the competitive advantage over other brands. The use of social media if used wisely can be beneficial to the firm and to the consumers since one does not need to move to a firm but rather one can shop online. It is important to note that branding awareness increases the sales volume and the production rate. This means as the consumer increases the production rate must be increased to meet the demand. Employment rate increases still since more employees need to be added to meet the demand of the consumers. The reader is educated that when branding awareness is attained the sales volume increases, the production rate needs to be increased which result to employment to individuals. Social media should be utilized fully so that firms can compete with global companies leading to satisfaction of the consumers. Word of mouth Social media is a platform that usually uses the word of mouth. Individuals are interconnected since the use of Smartphone is widely experienced in the developed countries. Liking of a brand and sharing it means that one has communicated to different individuals making the consumers have trust with that product. Trust is build when individuals tend to share and like brands in social media. The stories that are shared in the social media is a driving force that makes the consumers to accept the product in the market. As indicated by the studies done by Dennhardt (2012), if customers share information concerning different brands in the social media, it means that they have trust with those products and services. It is obvious that trust cannot be attained in an overnight and the consumers must have used the products and services for a longer time and they met their requirements. The social media is the word of the mouth that many consumers can use to communicate about the products and services. Facebook and twitter are commonly used to market brands since individuals just need to post and others comment on the same. One cannot comment if he or she does not have trust with the products and services that are offered to the consumers. According to Rath (2015), word of mouth is explained in three E’s as used in social media marketing. For example, the first E is Engage which means as the company marketer one should engage with the consumers. This means that one must listen to the consumers on how the brand is used and one can either be followed on twitter or other social media sites. Equip is the second E which indicates the reason why the consumers want to talk about the brands and services provided. This means that innovation and creativity must be employed so that new products can be immerging now and then so as to equip the consumers with what they can talk about. The third E is Empower. This is achieved when the consumers are aware that the company knows they share images and other information concerning the products and services. The gap that exists is that those who are employed in the company to market the brands do not like to engage other consumers through the use of twitter and other social media sites. They only communicate with their friends but they do not like to share information about the company with the consumers. Social media marketing is costly though it plays a major role in making sure that the products are advertised to different locations and this is the reason why companies engage to competition. Learner can be educated that word of mouth builds trust and it is the reason why the brands circulate in the social media. Social integration of email marketing Conversation needs to be done through emails and thus latest trends in the market can be discussed and explained through the emails. Through the use of internet, the emails are shared concerning the prices of the brands and the location one can find the brand. This is the reason marketers always update the emails that they are going to send to the consumers to reflect what is current brands and their prices. Emails can also be integrated to be social media marketing since it promotes sharing of important information concerning the brands. This means that individual share email that had different brands listed and explained on how they are used by the consumers. The brand is shared through the social media sites whereby it is exposed to potential consumers. According to the studies done by Chiang and Chung-Hsien (2011), conversations and clicks are used to comment about the brand that is shared to different consumers. There is email growth list since individual tend to receive emails resulting to more subscribers who get exposure with the brand. The email leads to a connection with the consumers who share information concerning the brand. To make the email be shared to many consumers it is important to engage social icons like Facebook, twitter and LinkedIn among others in the email. When one clicks to the email and share it to the icons it is quite sure that the email is shared to different consumers and thus promoting the brand awareness. For the purpose of making the email to be received to many people it is important for one to urge email subscribers to share it to different individuals so that the brands can have a chance to view what the company offers. Campaign can be done through the use of the emails since one needs to send the message to different individuals indicating the prices of the commodity and how best it is suited to certain individuals. The gap that exists on the use of social integration of email marketing is that individuals have that perception that email is confidential and should not be prone to other individuals. Email plays a major role in brand awareness since one can be sending emails concerning a particular brand and the images together. Emails should be linked together with social media sites so that it can be used to market the different products of the company. When products are shared in the social media as a group it makes the consumers to spend more time trying to view the emails sent. This applies even to student since they can share the brands using the Smartphone’s and thus making the product to be viewed to different individuals. The use of emails plays a major role in advertising the brands to different location since one need o send the email to different consumers and they can share and comment how best the brand is. According to Kincy (2011), one of the important lessons that can be learnt is that not only the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google can be used to create awareness of the brand but emails also play part in social media marketing. Conclusion The use of the internet has made marketing of the brands to be done in a faster manner. The consumers buy the brands that they meet their needs, and they are delivered in time. The use of Facebook, YouTube and twitter among other are the active mood of marketing. The impacts of social media marketing that are listed are social integration of email marketing, word of mouth, promotes Company branding and awareness, image centric content for social media marketing and investing in social media marketing. References Blanchard, O. (2011). Social media ROI: Managing and measuring social media efforts in your organization. Indianapolis, Ind.: Que. Blossom, J. (2009). Content nation surviving and thriving as social media changes our work, our lives, and our future. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Pub. Chiang, I, and Chung-Hsien H. (2011). Exploring the impact of blog marketing on consumers. Social Behavior and Personality 39 -125. De Vries, L., Gensler, S., & Leeflang, P. (2012). Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing. Journal of interactive marketing, 26, 83-91 Dennhardt, S. (2012). User-generated content and its impact on branding: How users and communities create and manage brands in social media. Kincy, J. (2011). Advertising and social media. ABA Bank Marketing 43 (7): 40. Mangold, G., & Faulds, .J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Indiana University, 52, 357-365. Rath, P. (2015). The why of the buy: Consumer behavior and fashion marketing. New York: Fairchild Books / Bloomsbury Publishing. Saravanakumar, M., & SuganthaLakshmi, T. (2012). Social media marketing. Life science journal, 9, 4444-4451. Trattner, C., $Kappe, F. (2013). Social Stream Marketing On Facebook . New York: New York press. Read More