Social media can be defined as an interactive computer- mediated technologies which assist in the facilitation of creating and sharing of ideas, expression, career interests and information through networks and virtual communities. Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are the most commonly used social media platforms that are increasingly being used by the consumers in different parts of the world. New ways are being described by social media through which individuals are engaging with the content on the internet and vice versa (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014). This essay focuses on the increased use of social media platforms which leads to new behaviors among the customers and creates opportunities for the marketers.
Social media acts as a platform through which the customers are able to connect with the organizations and vice versa. For the customers, social media can also be referred to as the outlets which present wealth opportunities for the establishment of closer relationships with the brand through various functions such as plug- in applications, fan page and groups. Social media also have a great influence on the shopping decisions of the customers. The content spread on the social media has the ability to make people act in particular ways which are positive for the owners of the business. In this way, there is a great influence of social media on the behavior of the customers. There are a lot of differences in the demographics on the number of people who use the internet, the kind of devices used by them and the manner adopted for looking for information. Despite these differences, the prevalence and meaningfulness is increasing day by day for all demographics (Hollebeek, Glynn and Brodie, 2014).
An important role is played by the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat in influencing the behavior of the customers as they gets the customers to sign over the rights to their privacy. In this way, the customers authorize these platforms to collect information regarding their activities both on and off the website. The marketers can utilize the data collected by these platforms for showing the relevant advertisements to the target customers (Baumöl, Hollebeek and Jung, 2016).
Therefore, social media is something which cannot be overlooked by the business owners. According to Deloitte reports, the customers who use social media during their shopping process are more likely to get influenced by it and is expected to spend more on the purchases then the customers who do not do so. However, the customers cannot be forced by the marketers to use social media but they can influence the kind of things that are found by the social media connected shopper. This is the reason why it is important for the marketers to establish their presence on the social media (Roesler, 2015).
The marketers can even use point of sale marketing in their social media in order to encourage people for using social media. If people are aware of the fact that they can find some special stuff and information on the social media then they will go for checking it out. The shopping behavior of all the ages is influenced by social media especially younger and Hispanic populations. Therefore, there is a requirements that the marketers refine their social media strategies in order to bring a boost in their sales (Hudson, Huang, Roth and Madden, 2016).
Therefore, there are a number of new opportunities for the marketers to influence the customers through social media. Social media platform is an effective way of reaching greater number of audience than ever before. This can be done with the help of targeted communication through which the message of the company can be received by a large number of customers. Through social media, two way communication can easily take place through the creation of interactivity between the businesses and customers and therefore have an influence on the customer behavior (Solomon, Dahl, White, Zaichkowsky and Polegato, 2014).
The marketers can create a virtual home for their business on social media through which they can take the benefit of the opportunities that increase their visibility to the customers. The customers can use the freedom provided by the social media platform for giving their opinions regarding the products and services offered by the companies in a semi- public setting where several number of people can see and read such opinions. The positive comments on the social media relating the business and its products can play an important role in driving the sales of the business (Ngai, Moon, Lam, Chin and Tao, 2015).
The dissemination of important information relating to the company also becomes easier with the help of social media. The dissemination of the information is not restricted to what is shared by the company itself but also involves a number of sites on the social media network which are completely devoted to the customer collected information. The increase in the open availability of the information has now converted the customers into a researcher. Therefore, the marketers can prompt the customers to comment their views regarding the products of the company so that they ca be circulated among the potential customers of the brand. This will assist the customers in logging on to social media whenever they will think of purchasing any product (Heller Baird and Parasnis, 2011).
Another way which can be used by the marketers for influencing the behavior of the customers is to take the needed steps for improving the customer service. This means that on the basis of the opinions received by the customers on the products of the company, needed amendments can be made in the services and features of the products in order to meet the demands of the customers. With the help of the information available openly on the social media, the customers can make the buying choices that best fits their requirements (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang, 2012).
The marketers can also take the advantage of the opportunities available to them in the form of providing an open chance to the customers to directly communicate with a brand representative online which, in turn, also assists in increasing the loyalty of the customers towards the company. The marketers can do this by way of establishing a personal connection with the customers which may not be done by the marketers of some other companies and therefore the companies can take advantage of this fact. The marketers can also use this platform for the purpose of resolving the complaints and grievances shared by the customers on the social media. Through the social media platform, the complaints of the customers can be handled by the marketers in an effective orders for reducing the bad publicity in a compassionate and professional manner (Kumar, Bezawada, Rishika, Janakiraman and Kannan, 2016).
Another opportunities which can be utilized by the marketers is to conduct real- time surveys on social media which can assist them in analyzing the their market along with conducting effecting tracking of their performance, understanding customer demographics, follow- up with the customers and crowd sourcing innovative ideas. Social media is an effective platform for conducting such surveys and gathering the responses within a small period of time as it is used by a large number of people across the globe. Instant feedback can be gathered on social media with quick polls which can assist the marketers in quick decision making regarding the marketing strategies to be adopted (Samson, 2015).
The sales of an organization are greatly affected by the word- of mouth advertising. The marketers can also use the social media platform for the purpose of conducting the word of mouth advertising. Through the word of mouth advertising, a single message sent by a single customer can go worldwide in an instant way. There are some networks which can be utilized by the customers for the purpose of communicating thousands of people at the click of a single button and therefore can easily send the message regarding the company (Bratawisnu, Giri and Rinaldi, 2017).
Therefore, it can be concluded that social media is a platform which assist in the facilitation of creating and sharing of ideas, expression, career interests and information through networks and virtual communities. This essay focused on the increased use of social media platforms which leads to new behaviors among the customers and creates opportunities for the marketers. The content spread on the social media has the ability to make people act in particular ways which are positive for the owners of the business. The marketers can utilize the data collected by the social media platforms for showing the relevant advertisements to the target customers. Also, they can conduct real- time surveys among the target audience for getting instant feedback.
References
Baumöl, U., Hollebeek, L. and Jung, R., 2016. Dynamics of customer interaction on social media platforms. Electronic Markets, 26(3), pp.199-202.
Bratawisnu, M.K., Giri, R.R.W. and Rinaldi, R., 2017, May. Association perception customer feedback with text network analysis in social media (case study on internet banking BRI, BCA, Mandiri in Indonesia). In Information and Communication Technology (ICoIC7), 2017 5th International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S., 2012. Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of interactive marketing, 26(2), pp.83-91.
Heller Baird, C. and Parasnis, G., 2011. From social media to social customer relationship management. Strategy & leadership, 39(5), pp.30-37.
Hollebeek, L.D., Glynn, M.S. and Brodie, R.J., 2014. Consumer brand engagement in social media: Conceptualization, scale development and validation. Journal of interactive marketing, 28(2), pp.149-165.
Hudson, S., Huang, L., Roth, M.S. and Madden, T.J., 2016. The influence of social media interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing behaviors. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), pp.27-41.
Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R. and Kannan, P.K., 2016. From social to sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social media on customer behavior. Journal of Marketing, 80(1), pp.7-25.
Ngai, E.W., Moon, K.L.K., Lam, S.S., Chin, E.S. and Tao, S.S., 2015. Social media models, technologies, and applications: an academic review and case study. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 115(5), pp.769-802.
Roesler, P. 2015. How social media influences consumer buying decisions, [Online] Available at: https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/marketing/2015/05/how-social-media-influences-consumer-buying.html [Accessed on: 8 December 2018]
Samson, E. 2015. 5 Social-Media Opportunities Businesses Mostly Overlook, [Online] Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254046 [Accessed on: 8 December 2018]
Solomon, M.R., Dahl, D.W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J.L. and Polegato, R., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). London: Pearson.
Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2014. Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 32(3), pp.328-344.
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