Essay On Social Media

Over the past decade, social media platforms have penetrated deeply into the mechanics of everyday life, affecting people's informal interactions, as well as institutional structures and professional routines. Far from being neutral platforms for everyone, social media have changed the conditions and rules of social interaction (van Dijck and Poell, 2013). The concept of Social Media is top of the agenda for many business executives today. Decision makers, as well as consultants, try to identify ways in which firms can make profitable use of applications (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Social media include networks (e.g., Facebook), wikis (e.g., Wikipedia), multimedia sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), bookmarking sites (e.g., Del.icio.us), virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life), and rating sites (e.g. Yelp) that allow people to interact with each other and share information about products and brands (Edwards, 2011). This represents the social media phenomenon, which can now significantly impact a firm's reputation, sales, and even survival (Kietzmann et al, 2011). Social media holds enormous potential for companies to get closer to customers and, by doing so, increase revenue, cost reduction and efficiencies (Heller Baird and Parasnis 2011) and should be considered by all businesses. Three key areas to consider ahead of engaging in social media are:
What channels are most appropriate to reach customers?
Social media can be very effective. A key part of achieving the desired outcome through social media is to understand who the audience is and how best to reach them. A social presence needs to be created where the target market are spending time (Evans, 2012).
The more sales channels used, the greater customer reach. However, each channel ad...

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... the liberation that the Internet offers, consumers are actively connecting with each other and talking about anything and everything. In the process, they are either enforcing marketing efforts or beating marketers at their own game by directly sharing their own experiences and thoughts on the social web. The practice of social media is an opportunity found for a business. If you believe in your product’s ability to sell itself around cost and convenience, then all you really have to do is get it in front of the targeted audience. With a strong message, you can do that, skipping the traditional middle step. Most important is that people feel there’s a value in clicking through, and not that they’re being sold to. Social media is meant to be social, and the best and cheapest way to use these platforms is to rely on others to do the work for you (Piskorski, 2011).