Paper Example on Impact of Social Media on Business

Introduction

Factors such as technology and globalization have led to a majority of businesses operating in different sectors to select the social media platform as an appropriate medium for marketing their campaigns to a wide range of consumers. The growth of the social media platform has become an important communication channel between businesses and their targeted customers (Akalamkam & Mitra, 2017). It has also led to the creation and emergence of virtual communities that may have never met in the real world due to various factors such as their respective geographical locations, and social classes. Social media sites such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Twitter, and Linked-In are affecting consumer behavior especially in terms of their purchasing decisions (Broilo et al., 2016). Some of their available features such as easy access has enabled a majority of consumers to connect with others to share information, thoughts, and feedbacks in the relation of the different products that they use.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The social media market is ideal for businesses and brand promotion because it is not restricted in the same manner as is the case with the traditional media. For instance, a company can open a Facebook page, and start advertising their products. They may only be required to pay when potential customers open, or like their pages. Even in such cases, the rates charged by the social media sites for marketing are cheaper than for the traditional media. The advertisements that a company posts on their official Facebook or Twitter page can be viewed at any time by the potential customers who are looking for information about the products. Also, through the social media, customers can create their own adverts using the photos that they share, hash-tags, and other methods that will promote the product. In such cases, an organization gets free publicity while at the same time it will enjoy the benefits of advertising.

Businesses and brand marketers are taking advantage of the opportunities and also 'loop-holes' present by the social media sites to market unhealthy products to teenage consumers. Today, more than any other point in history, teenagers have access to information, and also targets for a variety of marketing campaigns, which are meant to influence their purchase decisions. These businesses 'tap' into both their external and internal stimuli, creating a need, which for some did not exist in the first place. The consumers on the other hand do not necessarily rely on the professional reviews that is either provided in the official website of a company, printed in media, or even scholarly articles. The reason for this is that they feel that in some cases the information may be biased in order to influence them to make the purchase.

Instead, the teenage consumers are using these social media sites as sources of information. They will read the comments, feedback, ratings of their friends, peers, and family members in order to see how the product or brand is rated, and this will have an influence on the consumer behavior and attitudes towards the product. It is important to point out that social media marketers have realized this is the strategy that most of the teenage consumers use in order to gain a certain perspective about a product. In order to ensure that they are appealing and therefore influence purchase, companies and brands such as Coca-Cola have come-up with various online promotional strategies that influence a majority of the consumers to 'Like', 'Share' and 'Tag' their friends and family members. Also, they have introduced competitions whereby they encourage customers to come up with the best captions, photos, or videos of them using their product, and they will award them with prizes, share these captions on their official page, and vote for the most popular user created advert. All these strategies actually create the impression that an individual is endorsing a product, and this may lead his or her friends to purchase it.

Problem Analysis

Chu and Kim (2018) provide the argument that social media platforms present an ideal platform for the modern day consumer to provide information and exchange opinions about a certain product or service (Chu & Kim, 2018). Montgomery et al. (2012) also argue that the social media platform offers a great influence on every stage of the consumer decision-making process, a feature that was not available, or had little effect on consumers when the traditional media platforms were being used. It has been established that today, a majority of consumers rely more on user reviews, and customer feedbacks than the description of the product, or information from an expert to make a purchasing decision (Montgomery et al., 2012).

Social media is becoming an important tool for consumers who are seeking to obtain new product information, and also has created a platform for them to share their information through reviews and feedbacks on different products and brands (Park et al., 2017). This (providing feedback and reviews) in the past was not easily accessible to consumers when businesses were using the traditional form of media for their marketing campaigns. A majority of the most competitive, or companies that want to achieve a high sense of competitiveness, and sustainability they are beginning to integrate the social media systems, and adapting social media programs in order to meet their marketing needs.

Park et al. (2017) states that the new business dynamics have forced companies to adapt to new marketing campaigns that will help them reach more customers and also provide them with a competitive edge over their rival businesses. Social media plays an effective role in terms of customer's dissemination of information (Park et al., 2017). Although the social media platform has been seen to be advantageous in terms of helping businesses reach their targeted customers and therefore achieve some if not all of their marketing objectives, its influence on the consumer behaviors impacting their purchasing decisions and consumption habits are considered to have a negative effect on the consumers especially the teenagers.

Laroche et al. (2012) states that teenagers and young adults today consist or represent the first generation that was born during the internet boom, and grew up or are growing up as the social media platforms are increasingly becoming popular (Laroche et al., 2012). Th...