Social Media: The Synthesis of Sociology & Technology - Essay Sample

Introduction

Social media is basically the online content developed by a variety of people who are open for access over the internet. In other words, social media is the shift of people`s attention on the online platforms where people share, discover and read information and gain knowledge.

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Social media is a sort of synthesis of sociology and technology and creating an environment or platform on the internet where people share experiences with each other and develop networks for a variety of different official and unofficial reasons. Social media has become an important platform and has gone so important that nearly every business uses social media for the marketing and promotion of their business, products and services. Social media is also used for sharing information and getting in touch with their customers and society at large.

Marketing through social media is the latest and popular trend in the market. Traditional marketing tools such as TV, newspapers, magazines have been very expensive and cover a limited targeted market. The traditional marketing strategies were based on focusing on specific markets individually. Even now it is difficult for businesses to target and market their products and services to the big geographical position through one single campaign such as covering the entire world through one newspaper advertisement; because not every country in the world watches the same TV channels

The purpose of this memo is to begin to write a research project on social media marketing strategy. This research will explore focused researched issues surrounding social media marketing strategy.

The research is meant to explore on the different ways of marketing on social media platforms, the different platforms in use and how the strategy contributes to company's sales.

This research should also focus on developments in social media marketing with special reference to the growth of online technology and its influence upon different marketing operations. The information flow through the introduction of the concept of social Media involving technology and creating an environment on the internet where people share experiences with each other and develop networks.

This research should identify the most common used platforms of social media, how they work and how companies can market their products. The research should explain how companies can increase their target audience who end up being potential customers.

Further, the research should lead to discussion about Social Media Marketing becoming a latest and popular trend as a digital platform for social interaction between virtual communities. Next section details main social media platforms, their rankings, features, corresponding strategic actions followed by advantages and challenges for organizations using Social Media for Marketing.

Social Media Marketing Introduction

Technology has made a significant impact on organizations in many ways. The rise of online technology - social media - has revolutionized marketing operations globally. (Association, 2018)Social media is a platform where people share, discover, and read information, and gain knowledge. (Brogan, 2010)Competition is high among many businesses where customers have opportunities to make better decisions for the available range of goods and services. In this competitive environment, businesses need to come up with ways of retaining their customers. Increasing the organization - customer relationship is one of the key areas of understanding the consumer's needs and wants. Social media is a key tool in this regard, where organizations are taking advantage of social media's friendly advantage to build brand relationships.

Research has shown that people are moving towards social media to get information, ideas, and opportunities. (Hajli, Handbook of research on integrating social media into strategic marketing, 2015)Social media has made communication and interaction so easy; companies are able to interact with their customers and get to know their preferences, which is used offline to develop strategies for promoting their products.

Though face to face communication is considered the most powerful, social media has proved to be efficient and flexible, targeting huge audiences because of the high traffics. Companies do flash advertisements and also get feedback from the clients; the feedbacks are used to improve brands.

Problem Statement

It's notably evident that most organizations that had/have continued with traditional strategies of marketing have closed down or downsized. (Kashani & Horovitz, 2005)In the modern-day world, many things are changing. One of them being technology, with so many people joining different social media platforms. The traditional common types of marketing strategies include;

Paid advertising - by use of television and print media

Word of mouth - organizations, marketing their products one on one with people

Transactional marketing - retailers encourage customers to buy with shopping coupons and discounts

Cause marketing - by linking goods and services of a company to a social cause or issue

Most of these traditional marketing strategies are proving not to work. Not forgetting that they are also expensive.

The target audience for most of the companies is within the age range of 20-50 years. This age bracket contains a huge number of people on social media. As a result, many organizations are using the social media approach to market their products and services.

This research mainly focuses on the transformation of marketing strategies in line with the transformation of technology and, to be precise, the impact of social medial on the marketing field.

Research Methodologies Observation

A lot of data has been gathered by way of observation; there's been a consistent trend of adverts running on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and linked in. On YouTube, for instance, adverts have been embedded to play before playing the intended media. Organizations are also improving customer relations on their social media platforms; in turn, they get an increased number of followings, which allow them to market on these platforms.

Focus GroupThis particular data collection technique entailed engaging the participants. I engaged the students in a group that was made up of ten members. Moreover, I embarked on a detailed discussion with the other participants that helped in acquiring the reality in the field of marketing. Due to the fact that the focus group is either discussion-oriented, problem solving or decision-oriented, similarly, my approach took the discussion-oriented dimensions, and this greatly helped me gather a lot of information as the open interaction at the same level was greatly enhanced. From the discussion, it was clear that most teens actually spend their free time on social media; they, therefore, get to know and interact with different brands being marketed.

Secondary Data Analysis

Quite some data was also gathered from other people's research. One of the research explains how advertisers are enthusiastically integrating social media into their advertising programs to drive digital engagement. The effectiveness of such digital engagement programs is usually assessed with social media monitoring tools providing quantitative metrics, such as the number of likes, shares, comments, opens, views, followers, or clicks, as indicators of the level of engagement. Growth among these engagement metrics is often thought to stem from the creative execution of ads. (Voorveld, 2018)FindingsMarketing through social media is the latest and popular trend marketing strategy. Traditional ways of marketing, such as television and magazines, have been expensive and cover a small limited audience. Social media has enabled organizations to take feedback, comments, and suggestions from their customers through ratings, pictures, and blogs to improve their products and services. (Emi, 2019)Through social media, customers have been able to get a good knowledge of diverse services and products. They also share the information with other consumers making a direct impact on businesses. Consequently, companies are able to make more sales and retain customers, as well.

One of the best merits of social media is that it helps organizations to market their brands globally. Social media platforms are accessible by everyone in the world. This creates a better opportunity for companies to communicate with communities and build relationships with the target audience.

The most common social media platforms are YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and not limited to websites. It is estimated that nearly one in four people worldwide use social media. (Hajli, Handbook of research on integrating social media into strategic marketing, 2015)Facebook is the biggest social network up-to-date. Companies should utilize Facebook to create a strong base for getting in touch with potential customers. They should also create pages that are worth attention, then share interesting and newsworthy information to potential customers. The content can be enriched with information related to products, services, or company launches.

YouTube, with over 1 billion users and more than 4 billion views a day, is the biggest sharing site in the world. It's accessible to everyone, with or without an account. Companies should register using their official Gmail account. Businesses should upgrade with a fee to get the branded channel option; this allows them to use SEO keys and tags that are brand-related.

Instagram is a platform popularly known for photos and videos; a growing number of teens have active accounts on Instagram. Companies can upload photos or videos and can link with other social media platforms, and invite people to like and follow. Companies should continuously upload photos and videos to keep trends. The photos and videos should be of the company's action that would be of interest to users. They should promote offer discount codes, use of hashtags, and invite testimonials. (Hajli, Handbook of research on integrating social media into strategic marketing, 2015)Google, which has over 400 million registered users, who visit more than 70 million times per month. Google has a number of features that are key to social platform marketing. One of the features being share button, it can be used to share links, videos, and photos with segmented and filtered Google circles. Another feature is the option for bigger and clear cover picture. The Business should use keywords strategically. Businesses can link this with other websites and social media platforms and invite contacts. Other features like story, events, hangouts, Google+ community are really worth utility for a business, but it is the responsibility of the business to be responsive, empathetic and trustworthy to your community. (Hajli, Handbook of research on integrating social media into strategic marketing, 2015)

LinkedIn is social networking pla...