Chapter 2
2.0 Introduction
In the past few years, social media has evolved from just being a basic tool for collaborative creation and the sharing of content to becoming an important part of the present media landscape (Evans & Bratton, 2008; Weinberg, 2009). From a business perspective, companies are actively leveraging social media to create brand communities and crowd sourcing models, gain consumer insights, enhance product/brand awareness, improve search engine optimization efforts, reduce customer acquisition and service costs, and optimize overall marketing and communication efforts (Weinberg, 2009). This chapter seeks to review literature that has been propounded by past and present researchers in the field of social media, its use in the marketing communications mix and their various areas of convergence in this field of study.
Social media and its development
The media landscape has undergone an immense transformation over the past decade (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Social media popularity has increased substantially during the last few years, firms are eager to profit from this ever increasing trend (McCann (2010). The relatively low costs of implementing social media measures are a major catalyst of the increase in popularity and growth of social media. Social media is thus changing the traditional way of marketing. Traditional marketing involves an information exchange in one-way direction (e.g., TV and radio commercials). On the other hand, web-based marketing enables interactive communication with customers while maintaining the push-messaging (Trusov et al., 2009). Therefore, customers are no longer passive recipients of information; they actively use and distribute information via social media (Ryan and Jones, 2009...
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...ia as people without an email address ending with “.edu” could in 2006 create their own accounts. (Scott, 2010, p. 175). Facebook allows businesses to create public profiles that have many of the same features as a user’s profile. Users can connect with a page and become fans. Pages can have public messaging walls, events, photos, and custom applications. (Zarrella, 2010, p. 67). Essentially Facebook is one of the more complex social networking environments, but potientially very rewarding when businesses have its strengths and weaknesses in mind. (Clapperton, 2009, p. 60). It is therefore important for businesses to not underestimate the time and effort it is going to take to supervise the profile and pull together an online community. (Clapperton, 2006, p. 64). Clapperton (2006, p. 64) writes that you cannot just expect that things happened, you have to be active.
In the 18th century, Habermas coined the term “public sphere” to describe a discursive space, detached from the state and market relations, where individuals would come together to discuss societal matters. This environment, which could take the form of salons or cafes, allowed individuals to engage in enlightened debates that would foster democratic participation. Fast forward to the 20th century: technological changes dramatically transformed the normative understanding of the public sphere. The Internet gradually provided new online spaces for people to communicate, debate and deliberate across any distance regardless of their age, class, and gender. Undoubtedly, social media platforms like Facebook drastically transformed ways in which
Online media is the newest form of media. With the younger generation using social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and so many more, organizations are changing the way they get their information out to the public. Social media allows people to interact with other people on several different level. It is no coincidence that the advertising industry emerged at a particular conjectural moment when new technologies enabled the overproduction, and therefore oversupply, of consumer products (Jackson, 2015). The products that have emerged are the different smart phones and the different social media applications that come with them.
This paper will discuss and identify the effects of social media, and what will make social media better through research on best practices. Social media is an imperative public relations tool for companies to utilize in their business practices. Social media cannot be regulated so anyone can say what they want about the company, whether it is good, bad or ugly. Social media is developing rapidly and there are new platforms daily, making it necessary for companies to not only be familiar with those platforms, but also know how to reach the consumer through them.
Marketing through Social Media (Exploratory Essay) Throughout the ages there have been many intriguing ways that businesses have portrayed their product or services for accessibility. Recently, businesses have been researching how to market the businesses product through the World Wide Web. With websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, it started becoming popular within the past 20 Years. People have started to rely heavily on the internet over the past decade, whether it be for searching for information on products or people.
Social media is at the core of many marketing plans for corporations in the United States and world-wide. One of these companies at the forefront of social media use is Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (Wells Fargo). The ability to directly contact customers and potential customers in a real time online environment is crucial to the bank / customer conversation and reinforcing the company’s place in a customer’s mind as the entity that they want to do business with (Wells Fargo Bank, 2014). This case study will discuss the current status of Wells Fargo’s use of social media as a means to building their customer base. Additionally, historical information on the process of the marketing move to social media will be presented and the development of the roles that are involved in this marketing strategy will be discussed. The impacts to the public sphere and society at large will play into the discourse of the social media topic and finally, the underlying theories will be discussed as they pertain to Wells Fargo and social media.
Among the billions of social media users, there is a percentage dedicated to businesses who use social media as part of their marketing strategy. The sheer number of people who use services like Facebook and Instagram on a daily
Society has over time, developed many means of communication starting with the word of mouth to writing letters, the telephone, and now the internet. The internet has developed its own form of communication, which is a social network. Social networks have created a way for people across the world to communicate with each other at the same time, all in one place, thus making it the internet the reason behind the revolution known as Social Network.
and family, and also “meet like-minded people” ( Metz, par. 1). In some cases, business people such as Ron West, claim that he uses Facebook “to become acquainted with new customers”( par. 8). Yes, these types of websites are great tools to stay in touch with old classmatesand faraway family members. It is a great source of communication, but there is always a con to every pro. Even though users are connecting with others, users of social networks never know exact...
In Betty White’s opening monologue to Saturday Night Live, she said, “I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite.” Originally intended for the use of students at Harvard University in 2004, Facebook grew exponentially to be an online phenomenon in the years following. In 2006, it became accessible to anyone and everyone with internet connection. Aside from the advantages that give the site its popularity, creating a profile comes with a number of significant disadvantages inherit to online social networks. What do more than 500 million active users use their Facebook for? Communicating with long distance friends and spreading awareness of causes are common responses. Unfortunately, Facebook has it flaws, from limiting the privacy of relationships to creating a form of almost unmanageable bullying, making one reconsider their involvement and think, “do I really want my Facebook account?”
In this day and age, many individuals simply cannot go without some sort of socialization. Specifically speaking, most participate in online social networking sites. The most popular and used one is commonly known as Facebook. Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. By 2007, Facebook had over 21 million users, adding up to 1.6 billion page views every single day. The typical user spends over twenty minutes per day on Facebook and two thirds of the users log in every day at least once. It is not questionable as to why many people have a Facebook account. Facebook is generally efficient, easy for socialization, and not difficult to manage. Most organizations are affiliated with Facebook, as “almost 22,000 organizations had Facebook directories,” as of November 2006. A year after that in 2007, Facebook was named the seventh most popular website (Ellison 1). However, with anything well known, many oppose to using Facebook and hold criticism against the popular network. There are many flaws in the website and the relationships it starts online. Facebook is risking dangerous activities, ignoring privacy laws, and demeaning healthy socialization.
The writer finds social media is important in her current organization, Modern Business Concepts, Incorporated (MBC). With small business organizations such as hers, social media is important in spreading information on who the company is and what they do. Also as a business-to-business sales and marketing company, spreading the word is important in gaining customers and potential employees. Ucok (2014) uses research and experiments to prove how social media is essential to marketing. These platforms were essential in Ucok’s research, resulting in higher response with marketing campaigns proving “the importance of social media in marketing strategy and communication” (Ucock, 2014, p. 95).
Social media in marketing is used as an apparatus that builds an identity for a brand and gives awareness that they thought they could have. It does not only respect buyers, but also customer allegiance. Social media is widely-ranged so it can be used in whatever way that best conforms to the strategy and wants of the business. In accordance to the social media marketing report of 2014, a considerable (64%) of marketers use social media for at least 6 hours or more and 41% for 11 hours or more weekly, more importantly nearly (19%) of marketers use up to 20 hours each week on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and many more. The report also showed 7 social media platforms that led in 2014 which are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram.
Since social media users grow larger and larger, many companies take the opportunities of using social media marketing to reach more customers. Companies use social media marketing in order to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. Social media allows companies to see what prospects are saying about their brands and competitors. It also allows companies to build deeper relationships with existing customers that drives them to purchase again and again. Not only it can help them generate new leads, but it allows them to build deeper relationships with existing clients that drives them to purchase again and again. It has become common for businesses to branch out and experiment with multiple networks with the aim of reaching the maximum amount of costumers.
We can now connect with each other instantly over the internet. It is quicker and easier to communicate and share with each other now than it has ever been. Massive amounts of people access the internet every day, and a good number of them are using social media. This means that the ability to use social media and use it well is crucial for modern businesses. Whether for public relations or advertising social media is now one of the best ways to access consumers. Especially when it comes to younger generations, if you aren’t online you don’t exist. Social media is an excellent way to establish a presence in the minds of consumers. They can interact and establish a connection with an organization instantly. Social media is cheap and its everywhere. If a business hopes to compete in the modern world having a social media presence is absolutely
The first advantage of using social media in business is increasing brand awareness. Social media can help business to build their brand awareness by increasing interactions with a business brand. Brand awareness means the total percent of a target people who know the company exists and what the company offers of products or services. When the brand awareness is increased, the possibility of buying is increased. Thus, efforts should be made to make the brand a part of the consciousness of customers. For example, Coca- Cola is one of the best companies that enjoy unusual...