Abstract
This paper’s arguments aim to demonstrate social media’s superior marketing effectiveness. In this ever-evolving digital era, social media is the ultimate framework for marketing. Building trust, credibility, and brand personality through social media is a powerful approach to reach out to wider customers with interesting advertising content.
Introduction
social media platforms have become an integral part of our daily lives. Social media platforms have grown in popularity as a result of the Internet. In today’s society, social media is a big source of entertainment for people of all ages. The World Wide Web acts as a platform for individuals to interact and communicate through social networking sites. As a result of this interaction, the world has become more of a realm where knowledge is instantly transported from one spot to another. The dissemination of knowledge in this manner has had a wide range of repercussions, some of which have altered how individuals spend their money. Information is powerful, and it has the potential to drastically impact individuals who interface with it. Marketers have effectively taken advantage of the platforms provided by social media organizations to influence people’s perceptions of goods and, as a result, influence their purchasing behavior. In these present times of digitized life, social media has ultimately achieved impactful popularity and exposure as a very essential tool of communication. It has also been lauded in a different of sectors for enabling participatory engagement among corporations, organizations, communities, organizations, customers, groups, forums, and other institutions. Marketing is no exception from social media networks and their popularity.
Social media popularity and marketing 1.1
People are introduced to social media networks such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Blog, etc on a continuous basis. The World Wide Web has been instrumental in the growth of social networking sites. Mobile phones and electronic gadgets have dramatically increased the accessibility of the forms of interaction and communication. Active social media utilization is a term that refers to internet-based behavioral patterns that allow users to have “direct exchanges” such as Likes, comments, messages, and other forms of interaction with other users (Trifiro & Gerson, 2019). Since these communication technologies continue to flood the marketplace, social media platforms have grown to rise in popularity. The prevalence of social media networks demonstrates their commercial potential. Because of the large number of individuals who have accepted social media, they are leveraged as effective marketing tools. As a result, social media platforms serve as a framework for marketing. For instance, one of the marketing aspects is through fan promotion and the rising popularity of brand content, social media has become a vital aspect of market strategy and has revolutionized how businesses connect with their consumers (Swani et at., 2017). Brand content prominence is vital for marketers in the context of social media because studies show that it impacts revenues, brand recognition, brand image, and brand loyalty (Swani et at., 2017). Therefore, marketers try to publicize their marketing content by incorporating programs that support interaction with customers and are designed to influence revenues, attract new clients, establish trust, boost brand awareness and recognition, and even facilitate purchasing choices (Swani et at., 2017) through social media and its population. Moreover a decade before now, statistical data shows In 2011, more than half of social media users followed brands on social media platforms, and was noted that businesses are seen progressively investing in social media platforms, as seen by $4.3 billion in global marketing expenses spent on social media sites in 2011 (Vires, 2012). This statistical data proves that social media utilization in terms of marketing was indeed extremely popular before a decade and to compare it to the present era, over the years social media has exceptionally become a vital tool for businesses to leverage.
Social media marketing 1.2
social media is “fundamentally changing the way we communicate, collaborate, consume, and create” (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). Normal citizens use social media to take a break and escape reality around them and develop innovative new methods to unite their combined voices in the social media platforms in order to achieve their desired outcome. Almost everyone in this digital era uses social media, and even companies, regardless of their popularity, have begun to use social media it to advertise and promote themselves. Big and successful companies use social media to express their strong social presence and maintain consumer relationships. Social media marketing entails product development, pricing, advertising, distribution, and market analysis, as well as the creation, execution, and management of programs aimed at influencing the popularity of social media users (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). In a larger sense, social marketing is described as the use of traditional advertising technology in programs aimed at influencing target audiences’ voluntary behavior in order to improve their own well-being and that of the company’s target audience. In fact, social marketing is a form of marketing that is fast gaining traction and has the best potential to boost consumer buyer persona (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). The social media wave has had a very impactful influence. Social media has revolutionized the methodological approach. This enables firms to communicate more effectively with their consumers and solidify their bonds with them. The advertising industry is not exempt from social media’s effect. Companies are increasingly becoming more cautious when it comes to advertising, mostly in terms of anticipating customer response and avoiding surprise missteps in order to avoid a viral public backlash on social media platforms (Constantinides, 2014). Marketing encompasses those actions that connect a company to those portions of the outside world that consume, purchase, sell, or impact the results and benefits and services it provides. This concept of marketing clearly shows that social media networks truly create the link between a company unit and the target audience (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). In the promotion mix, social media is playing a mixed function. It allows businesses to interact with their customers while also allowing locals to interact with one another (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). The company’s first priority is to construct consumer conversations so that they match with the company’s goals. Companies have begun to give social networking platforms to their customers, which they have occupied through blogs as well as other social media applications (Constantinides, 2014). Marketers in present era consider social media networks as a tremendous way to grow their market share estimates. Marketers are ecstatic to know that the social networking website as a essential set of tools for advertising their products or services (Constantinides, 2014). For businesses, social media marketing is a hot topic. It enables businesses to construct a channel of interaction with their consumers, advertise their products, increase brand reputation, and increase customer loyalty (Constantinides, 2014). People can offer their opinions on a variety of subjects through social media networks. The opinions are frequently expressed in the form of brief comments. The feelings and attitudes of persons who write such remarks are reflected in the comments. Companies can build accounts on social media platforms and use such accounts to gather information made in the form of comments. Such comments from consumers can be beneficial in two ways: they can aid in the enhancement of a product as well as the development of a new product to meet the company’s target audience (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). Negative remarks about goods or products put on a company page will be taken seriously, and efforts should be made to fix the issue by the company. Positive feedback as well (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). As previously said, social media platforms have a large following, and the views expressed on these platforms cannot be disregarded. Another factor that sets social media networks is their capacity to disseminate information fast (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). Because of the ease with which information can be shared, social media platforms are convenient for marketing. They are also quite useful for quickly gathering lots of opinions about an item or even a company’s image. Consumers of social media networks are exposed to each other, and when an issue arises, they are alerted very quickly. This means that marketers can be confident that their messaging will spread quickly. Because consumers of social networking sites are interlinked to one another, disseminating information among social media users is simple. Customers are more knowledgeable about products as a result of social media, and they constructed new techniques for exploring, assessing, selecting, and purchasing goods and services. Multiple studies have shown customer behavioral tendencies that are anchored in the use of social media. For example, the need for personalized goods and consumers’ willingness to participate effectively in the product creation process (Constantinides, 2014). Such innovations have an impact on how marketers function and how marketing tactics are implemented on a strategic and operational level. In many cases, marketers are even increasingly comfortable with the idea of supplying goods that can be modified to the likings of the consumers and they are also increasingly supportive of the idea of generating conditions that enable consumers to collaborate in the development and testing of new products, a method known as co-creation (Constantinides, 2014). Furthermore, intense competition and marketers’ realization that they must have some influence over the customer-controlled Social Media area has pushed many organizations to invest in a Social Media presence or establish plans to begin marketing operations in this sector in the near future. Every business out there aims to use social media as part of its marketing strategy (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). Although social media advertising is mostly internet-based, but it has some characteristics with non-internet-based advertising methods such as word-of-mouth marketing. Social media marketing is a method of advertising a site, company, or organization by interlinking with or taking in existing or potential consumers via social media networks (Keegan & Rowley, 2017). Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Tiktok, Twitter, and other social media platforms are increasingly frequently utilized by businesses and celebrities to promote themselves and their products. With the amount of users on social networking sites growing every day, the companies will be able to target at more consumers and also more advertising and marketing, making social media platforms the superior framework for marketing.
Conclusion
Therefore, Social media apps can be used as marketing tools in a variety of ways. They are low-cost yet essential resources of genuine customer feedback, allowing businesses to perfect their marketing efforts and avoid mishaps. Social media can also be used for public relations and advertising reasons. as tools for consumer impact, allowing customers to personalize their online experience and the things they purchase. Finally, the Social Media framework provides businesses with a variety of opportunities as channels for taking in collective intellectual capabilities; Social Media can be used to inspire consumer collaboration with the label in the context of contribution to the manufacturing, production, and marketing process. Hence, In this ever-evolving digital era, social media is the ultimate framework for marketing.
References
Constantinides, Efthymios. (2014). Foundations of Social Media Marketing. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 148 : 40-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.016
Keegan, Brendan James., & Rowley, Jennifer. (2017). Evaluation and decision making in social media marketing. Management Decision, 55(1) : 15-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-10-2015-0450
Swani, Kunal., Milne, George R., Brown, Brian P., Assafb, A. George., & Donthu, Naveen. (2017). What messages to post? Evaluating the popularity of social media communications in business versus consumer markets. Industrial Marketing Management, 62 : 77-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.07.006
Trifiro, Briana M., & Gerson, Jennifer. (2019). Social Media Usage Patterns: Research Note Regarding the Lack of Universal Validated Measures for Active and Passive Use. Social Media + Society, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119848743
Vries , Lisette de., Gensler, Sonja., & Leeflang, Peter S.H. (2012). Popularity of Brand Posts on Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media Marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2) : 83-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2012.01.003
Dear Rakshana;
Your paper ‘Social Media: Essential marketing tool’, is very informative from the marketer’s perspective, and it explained your topic well. It is easy to understand how the use of social media can make marketing effective for companies as you explained both the positive and the negatives of the topic.
Hello Rakshana,
Nice paper. Social is really crucial in marketing since it helps to know more about brands and products branding.
Hello Rakshana,
I agree that social media has become primordial for marketers. But do you think it is a reliable platform? Why?
Hello Rakshana,
You present a viable and strong argument regarding how social media is widely used as a marketing tool that can be utilized by businesses, and content creators alike. Nonetheless, I believe it is important to recognize that there are different types of social media users. A study conducted by Aimia large percentage of social media users were found to range between No-shows, Newcomers, and Onlookers. Please find the link to this study below.
In adherence to this, do you think that marketing through social media is actually successful, especially as a viable percentage of users are only … users of social media. Furthermore, it is also important to condsider the social media usage of less developed countries as well, as individuals in these countries have a lower adoption rate of social media.
I would appreciate your insight on this.
https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/customer-segmentation-targeting/the-6-types-of-social-media-user/
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-global-overview-report
Hi Rakshana,
Very good, interesting and important topic especially in this era of technology where social media is indeed the most essential and popular marketing tool. I really like the way you have explained everything in detail and put a strong argument that why social media is essential tool for marketing against who don’t agree with this argument.
Hello Rakshana,
Very interesting topic. I really like the way you have written the paper and I cannot agree more with you on how social media is one of the most important marketing tools especially recently. Most of us are always on our social media and continuous screening of the platforms makes us aware of the up and coming products and services which really shows the strength of social media marketing.