Emily Wilson (2013) asserts that by and larg most recent studies and statistics agree about the massive use of social netowrks in today’s society. Business Insider, a well-known website, made a study about the need of brand to make use of the social media because of the awesome presence of these in society. In fact, they are dominating our ways of life. We use it not only in a playful and social way, but all large companies and institutions start making use of it in order to promote themselves. However, before performing a study on the social networks in the business world, let’s ask some questions related to the topic … What is media? Who and how do we use it? Since when is it so important for everyone?
If we define “Media” in an official and serious way, we would say that it is every channel of revelation of all kind of information. It consists of the interaction of two elements, the reporter and the receiver of the information. These channels include newspapers, television, radio … but now also it’s included internet and social networks. These two new ones are the most popular among the society because of their easy use and the higher lever of interaction.
As Ross Gerber say “Social media sites are now ubiquitous and have transformed society. They are changing the way entities as diverse as members of Congress and rock bands disseminate information and communicate with the outside world”, currently almost everyone has at least one computer at home and we use it daily. Almost every activity can be done in a computer: social interaction, get informed about the news, shopping, meet new people, school and university schools and, of course, a lot of business stuff.
The fact that the society is dominated by the new technologies is an important factor that all companies take into account; they have to adapt themselves trying to survive in the market. There for most of the enterprises have their own web page and they are present in the most popular social networks with the aim of promoting themselves.
The social media marketing is an essential tool to promote a business, service or product through the internet because of the low cost and high impact today it presents. It’s the perfect opportunity for those companies that want to present their products or to catch more customers. Social networks are also a good mechanism to create our digital identity, which represents you in the internet, it is the online prestige a company has. This reputation is under the control of the individual or organization and also by the other people that see the company on the internet and they chat and put their opinions in online comments.
A part of having a own website, most companies use the most popular social networks. As Shannon Belew and Joel Elad say “the most popular social networking sites — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn — to help drive interest and customers to your business”.
The most popular one is called Facebook. This website is so far a social meeting place. It’s a common space in which you’re in contact with all your facebook friends. In a first moment it was used just for a social objective, but now ir’s becoming also a professional tool. Facebook offers to businesses the ability to create pages of company or brand and a number of utilities to manage this “social professional presence.”
The brands and companies who participate in Facebook are obliged to talk, to use as an instrument of conversation. There is established a relationship with the different users. Facebook provides the necessary tools for businesses to easily create a communicative environment where it is possible to interact with users and measure your results.
The idea is to keep customers informed about all the activities of our company as well as the fantastic prices and promotions. This social network make possible that costumers feel integrated in the company.
The second one is Twitter. This social network is characterized of having an enormous potential of connecting directly with customers as a way to publicize some products or promotions to a wide public.
It is possible to call it corporate, business, blog, website … the fact is that many of us are on Twitter to promote what we do, using it as a “speaker” which deal with many users in a direct and comfortable way.
The rest of the social networks work in the same way as the others mentioned, they present the same services to businesses and each presents a special feature.
The fact of using social media for business may present some advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand it’s sure that the company will catch the attention of customers because the web it’s the space most used by people nowadays. Another evident advantage is the low cost this marketing tactic entails.
On the other hand and although we think there are not, it’s true that there are some disadvantages. It’s necessary to have the skills to be able to work on the web and social networks, which is not easy. You also have to be in constant work since you have to refresh and update the page very often and answer any question at any moment.
In conclusion it is important to note that all or most of the companies are already working on this new form of promotion and advertising. It is possible to say that if a company is not in social networks is not known, or not as well-known as the other, which leads us to think that it has a very low level of competition in comparison with other companies. Of course, if I had a company, I would be present in those social networks that I think that it would be useful and I would get much benefit from it.
References:
– Gerber, Ross (October 22, 2013); Breaking Down The Big Four Social Media Companies 20.11.2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/10/22/breaking-down-the-big-four-social-media-companies/
– Wight, Emily ( 29 August 29,2013); Small business tips: how to use social media to boost business 19.11.2013, http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/aug/29/social-media-boost-business-tips
– Kim, Larry ; Guide to Using Social Media for Marketing, 18.11.2013, http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing
– The National B2B Centre, Online business networking and social networking Advantages and disadvantages of using social media, 20.11.2013, http://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-using-social-media
– Wight, Emily ( 29 August,2013); Small business tips: how to use social media to boost business 19.11.2013, http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/aug/29/social-media-boost-business-tips
– Wilson, Emily ( 13 September, 2013) Business Insider Study: Brands Need Concentrated Social Media Presence 03.12.2013, http://www.business2community.com/social-media/business-insider-study-brands-need-concentrated-social-media-presence-0617892#!oO15Y