Social Media and Its Impact

Arguments in Favor of Social Media

Though social media is a new trend, it has swiftly turned into a vital component of the contemporary marketing mix. Speaking about the social media revol
ution that is gaining more and more importance, it has become a mandate for most of the businesses to have their presence on the major social media like i.e. Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter. Following are the benefits of social media that will justify the argument which is in favor of usage of social media by various businesses:

• Helps in Promoting Brand: Managing a robust social media presence is an effective means of building a company’s reputation and helps in promoting their brand or its product/service. Through regular updating the potential customers on every product and social events, the customers unintentionally begin to perceive the company as an influential figure. Once the company defines the business purpose of creating brand awareness, public relations or driving fresh sales or the company can work together on all the above. It is only a matter of how perfectly the company will manage to place the business on the key social media networks (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2014).

Nike is perhaps one of the biggest names in the sports apparel brand. They have an advertising and promotion budget which many companies can hardly imagine. However, when it about their presence on Facebook, they do not exaggerate the need to buy their merchandise. Although Nike is such a popular name, they still face lots of competitors. Brands like Puma and Adidas are some of its closest rivals who are always ready to grab the greater part of market share but Nike has established itself and continues to enjoy a robust brand image in the market which is reflected on their Facebook page which has more than 20 million followers. They possess reasonably the most catchy and famous slogan (Just Do It) due to which they have gained much more fame and include it in the photos via branded hashtag. Nike's Facebook page is the complete balance of fresh products, innovation, and charitable programs. An essential way in which they differentiate themselves from their rivals is by giving emphasis on research and innovation which reflects in all its products and designs. Their products are results of extensive engineering and innovations, which induces that these articles are high quality and advanced (Do Ko and Woodside 2015). 

• Boost Sales: Getting swift access to consumers' opinions undeniably helps in increasing their sales. Prospective customers are more probable to become customers if the company responds to their individual requirements in a speedy and special way. Social media helps the company effortlessly determine the customers’ preferences so that the business can concentrate on meeting the individual necessities and expectations, increase expertise in that precise slot, outclass their product list, and examine their competitors (Treem, and Leonardi 2013).

Sony Corporation has been successful in increasing its sales of Sony Vaio laptops through its online campaign on Twitter. The company offered more than 1500 Twitter subscribers the opportunity to build up a tailored Sony Vaio laptop and further offered 10 per cent discount to them and the offer turned in favor of the company and they earned sales revenue of more than one million through their Twitter handle. Sony Corporation by offering its customers more customized shopping experience, wherein they had a genuine impact on the final product. The main highlight of this sales campaign was the clear focus on sales and simplicity in the process that led the company to achieve success in its motive. While most social media campaigns aim at competitions or giveaways, this had an apparent sales target at the center which offered somewhat extra to the consumers in terms of customization of laptops. The selected users felt honored as they were getting something which nobody else was getting with an additional benefit of discount to conclude their purchase (Rinaldo et al 2013).

Enhances Company’s Credibility: Social media networks are proactive mechanism once it comes to enhancing company’s credibility. Through close communication with the customers on a social media level, the company becomes a credible source of information which makes social media a grand asset while creating company’s brand credibility and awareness. Social media has become a great foundation for customers’ service, altering negative prospects experience into constructive outcome for the business. The company should always take into account that satisfaction of the customers is the key towards retention and earning the loyalty of the customers towards the brand (Rowley Ashworth and McCarthy 2014).

Enhances Company’s Digital Exposure: When a company is keen in getting noticed among the innumerable sites on the internet, the company surely needs to work hard on enhancing its presence on social networking sites. Social media guide the company in achieving enormous exposure due to the worldwide presence, sharing competence and the massive amount of regular users. It can convey information instantly in the social networking sites, hence providing the businesses the ability to promote their products. Experts suggest that communicating even twice every week through social media network can radically increase a company's online presence in both digital and conventional marketplace, while they are fostering relationship outside the premises of their office.

Helpful in Increasing Loyal Customers: In reality, public purely enjoy being a part of the business which is proactively creating a dynamic community. Customers tend to purchase from businesses which have the presence on popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Youtube. A poignant relationship with the customers will guarantee a positive reputation for the business. Community power is a very influential branding power and social media presents precisely this type of relationship development opportunity which is nearly boundless. From a marketing viewpoint, it delivers the best possibilities for brands in creating a vast community of active and loyal customers (Laroche Habibi and Richard 2013).

Reduces Marketing Costs: One of the most inexpensive means to promote a business is social media marketing. In the recent past, it has firmly replaced conventional print advertising and marketing. Promoting the products on social media websites helps in increasing return on investment of a business. Through robust social media marketing strategy, a business can achieve wonders in the marketplace. Usage of social media allows a company's marketing opportunities develop aggressively while strengthening the business's public relations endeavors with sizeable time commitment and money. Social media has turned into an essential for all businesses seeking to be an element of the digital marketplace. Though the significance of social media in the current business environment is undeniable, businesses are still not able to make the fullest utilization of its potential. It just takes passion; creativity and uniformity to maintain the social media drive achieve success (Cheung Lee and Chan 2015).

The source of Recruitment: Mostly all the organizations which have social media presence uses it as a platform to publicize its new recruitment campaigns. Employment networking websites like LinkedIn specifically serves the need of the job market and can help the business to attract highly skilled and talented people through their networking. Almost every business around the world advertises about their vacancies through their dedicated website on their own will or due to laws and regulations set by the concerned government authorities (Guedes 2015).

United Parcel Services (UPS) is one of the major business conglomerates which use social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter to draw people's attention towards their unique value proposition for a workforce. The company makes use of social media to connect with a greater mass of aspirants than the employment agencies would usually introduce. For example, the Facebook page of the company features volunteer endeavors and its diverse base of employees. Furthermore, the company’s page keeps the potential aspirants connected by asking questions and responding to them instantly. The social media pages of UPS remind the potential aspirants of their openness and the employees’ diversity every day (Forbes.com 2016). 

The Walt Disney Company makes use of Twitter to show up the fancy linked with the organization, and what it is like working there. The company's social media content prompts job aspirants that they can pursue their dreams while working with the company. Disney certainly shows its strengths by giving importance to its surreal world but it also focuses on the dreams of its job aspirants (Adi 2015). 

References

Adi, A., 2015. # public relations on Twitter: Pushers, Talkers, Influencers on Spamming PR and Job Hunting. Revista Român? de Comunicare ?i Rela?ii Public, 17(3), pp.41-57.

Cheung, C., Lee, Z.W. and Chan, T.K., 2015. Self-disclosure in social networking sites: the role of perceived cost, perceived benefits, and social influence. Internet Research, 25(2), pp.279-299.

Do, H., Ko, E., and Woodside, A.G., 2015. Tiger Woods, Nike, and I are (not) best friends: how brand's sports sponsorship in social-media impacts brand consumer's congruity and relationship quality. International Journal of Advertising, 34(4), pp.658-677.

Forbes.com. (2016). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sylviavorhausersmith/2013/07/09/three-companies-nailing-social-mobile-for-hr/#1b3dfb212eb9 [Accessed 26 Oct. 2016].

Fuchs, C., 2013. Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.

Guedes, S., 2015. The Use of Social Media within the Recruitment and Selection Process.

Laroche, M., Habibi, M.R. and Richard, M.O., 2013. To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information Management, 33(1), pp.76-82.

Piller, F.T., Vossen, A. and Ihl, C., 2012. From social media to social product development: The impact of social media on co-creation of innovation. Die Unternehmung, 65(1).

Rinaldo, S.B., Laverie, D.A., Tapp, S. and Humphrey Jr, W.F., 2013. The Benefits of Social Media in Marketing Education: Evaluating Twitter as a Form of Cognitive Flexibility Hypertext. Journal for Advancement of Marketing Education, 21(1), p.16.

Rowley, J., Ashworth, C.J. and McCarthy, J., 2014. Social Media: The Issues, Benefits, and. Integrating Social Media into Business Practice, Applications, Management, and Models, p.98.

Treem, J.W. and Leonardi, P.M., 2013. Social media use in organizations: Exploring the affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Annals of the International Communication Association, 36(1), pp.143-189.

Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2014. Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 32(3), pp.328-344.