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Evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes 1 Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs. Assess how Social Media Marketing is helping Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise. Research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media Marketing to their advantage. Discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and provide examples with your discussion Speculate what impact
Social Media will have business over the next decade and identify what skills you need to improve to take advantage of the changes. Conclusion/ Recommendations References Introduction/Background In the world we live today, many businesses 7 and millions of individuals around the world use the social media for various reasons. Social Media can be considered as an umbrella term that defines the various communicative activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos, and audio.
The term social media is generally a fancy way to describe the ways people utilize technology, namely be-based and mobile, to communicate with each other. The reasons why social media has become so popular is because its fast, cultures are shifting, its driven by generations x and y, it creates a new you, it makes money, and its new. In present competitive society, organizations have to go to great length to advertise and promote their products to earn valuable customer loyalty.
It is clearly seen that marketing concepts have evolved with the evolution of the internet and social media sites. To remain relevant, businesses have no choice but to adapt to the new changes in their marketing strategies. Effective marketing can be the differences between a company being good and a company being great. The Journal of Marketing indicates that consumers are increasingly relying on social media to learn about unfamiliar brands.
As clearly indicated, the internet has basically expanded from entertainment and communicating with friends and family. To being used by companies as an outlet to capture their audience. At present, most companies have pages on sites like Backbone, Twitter and Mainstream to name a few. Many companies now even offer special incentives just for signing up for their page. There is great interest by everybody to expose their brand to a larger audience.
This is because the more people are aware of your brand, the greater the chance you have of turning those into revenue. This paper attempts to discuss the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes, analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs, assess how Social Media Marketing is helping Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise, research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media
Marketing to their advantage and discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and speculate what impact Social Media will have business over the next decade and identify what skills you need to improve to take advantage of the changes. Evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes The globalization of the economy, internationalization of businesses and emergence of new markets are all key themes in contemporary business.
During the past decade, businesses have experienced a significant transformation. Firms have embraced he Internet for both commerce and communication. As social media grows in popularity,it is observed that business owners are using this high tech tool more than ever, and for many it has become popular in use as the primary form of advertising for new business because of the enormous benefit.
According to our text, marketing is the activity, and processes for delivering, creating, and communicating a variety of information for a particular product a company is looking to sell (Boone Kurt, 2012, peg 353). However, it is learned that the new evolution of attention and gaining additional traffic for any product or service is wrought social media marketing (What, 201 2, Para. 1). Some examples of social media are the Instating, eBay, Linked, Backbone and Twitter (Investor, 2012 About, 2012).
As seen, many times Google is used as a heavy search engine. According to Whisks businesses must have the ability to have a strategy that links technology with the customer experience (Whisks, 2012). As it can be clearly seen, social media marketing has become popular in use by many people today. They have smart phones and other devices, which facilitate connecting to their favorite hobbies, restaurants, and businesses via their mobile devices.
Social media marketing also enables businesses to get close to their customers even faster. The different social media marketing has allowed entities to elevate their business, products, and services, and many times have inspired customers and their friends to purchase items, based on the marketing (Whisks, A, 2012,). Social media marketing has also enabled customers to be more knowledgeable of different organizations and any news surrounding the company. The social media marketing is also been described as cost effective .
According to IBM reports, its social media analytics solutions can help your business)capture nonuser data from social media to understand attitudes, opinions, trends and manage online reputation 2) Predict customer behavior and improve customer satisfaction by recommending next best actions 3) create customized campaigns and promotions that resonate with social media participants and 4) Identify the primary influencer within specific social network channels To reach a specific market and not spend a large amount of money in marketing is a great cost savings for any business.
As an owner of the African Restaurant serving food in the restaurant and providing catering services, I find it expedient to have social outwork such as Backbone and twitter page to reach new customers, as well as allowing existing customers to stay aware of specials that I would have to provide to our customers.. Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs. Though social media has grown in popularity, there are numerous benefits some business owners may not be aware that exist in the market.
It is stated that one of the main advantages of social media marketing is the ability to access thousands, even millions of customers (How, 2009-2012, Para 2). As a restaurant owner who is using Backbone, I am informed of different activities going on in my neighborhood, as well as sales/promotions that may take place at my favorite stores. As a result, this has a direct impact on me going to a particular store and doing more research on a particular company.
Our customers are also informed of what we have in our restaurant on a daily/weekly basis. Some other benefits or top advantages of a social media campaign is the feedback from followers. As we provide information via social media we can immediately see if people are reading the information simply by the increased traffic on the websites r blobs. Another advantage is that new followers are quickly informed and direct messages and information sharing with others can be easily identified on the social media sites.
Social media can help one to handle service outages, answer questions or respond to complaints promptly. This allows a business to protect their brand (in the case of complaints), provide relevant information about their products or services and immediately provide answers to service outages. This makes it possible for a company to protect their brand by being responsive to their audience For decision making, a business may depend on commendations of products and services from direct consumer inputs or comments on the website.
Information offered on review sites are very popular and significant because consumers want to build confidence with a business before they start purchasing. Social media allows consumers the opportunity to see what others think about a business easily, especially with the new tool called HYPERLINK http//www. Google. Com/characterizations-theft-extraterrestrials- rural RIGGING_en SUCKS 1 counterrevolutionaries- swaggerers R 1 2EDpHmsQPsqJCxBwsaXoimode_Iinkctmodecd6ved0CDYQ_Obviation. 2,or. R_go. _pa. Puffed parameterization offered by Google. Keying in a company name and selecting this tool provides immediate information about a company that others are discussing via social media. Social media also enables a company to target a specific geographic location and expand beyond their local audience at a lesser cost. Location based searches or broader searches make this possible. For example, a local farm product agent in New Jersey may not be interested in clients in Dakota, but those in China.
Fortunately, most social media sites allow for them to focus their efforts using geographical placement. Though cuisines owners have many opportunities that they can select from to use for advertising, a good social media marketing plan can help one reach new clients, provide a better customer experience and reach new markets easily and faster. For business owners who may not have a social media plan, there is still time to see if they can look at several cost effective means of developing and including a social marketing plan into most of their companies advertising budgets.
Cost associated with social media marketing is a great advantage because companies are saving huge amounts of money on marketing via the Internet and mobile vices to customer all over (How, 2009-2012, Para 2). Some times, social viral nature take place (Media, Sandiness, 2012, Para 2). The viral nature ability of the social networks allows information to spread drastically, causing attraction of additional customers. There are also disadvantages of social media marketing. One disadvantage is social media marketing places high demands on your talent.
One must be innovative to constantly come up with exciting content that interests a variety of readers, which might be difficult. Content malls be relevant or your efforts will be wasted. Another disadvantage is that whatever you post is accessible to all and there might be publish backlash, which is the last thing you want your social media marketing to experience. Without the ability to control comments or even what your own team is publishing you open yourself up for potential negative criticism.
If social media marketing is having negative feedback being published online, it allows consumers provide open criticism toward the company, which in turn many other customers have the opportunity to view and comment as well (Mandrakes, 201 1) Another disadvantage is hat marketing returns on investment is delayed because one must work to build relationships and brand loyalty, however it takes time and dedication to accomplish this task..
Social media marketing efforts are not likely to earn immense popularity overnight, so you must be willing to be in it for the long time if you decide to launch a social media marketing campaign. From all indication, social media HYPERLINK http//www. Sprint. Com/resources/online-offline-ads- marketing/ o Americanization can bring many benefits and increased profits to any company with an online presence, but it comes with caveats. If anyone is engendering launching a social media marketing campaign, they must understand all the pros and cons and have a robust plan in place.
With proper planning one might increase the chances for social media success, broaden the company’s horizons and be ready to handle any unfortunate eventualities. Assess how have otherwise. Boone Kurt discusses how Pepsi has incorporated different ways to improve sales of their product (Boone Kurt, 2012, peg. 354). Pepsi made a good decision to invest in social media to assist them market their product. As compared to Coca Cola, Pepsi is not the soda would prefer to drink if both re available, however PepsiCo social media marketing has upsurges sales.
PepsiCo social media marketing campaigns is described to be goldmines rich with customer engagement and insight that companies wouldn’t likely have otherwise. It is indicated that companies like PepsiCo are going extra miles to foster this type of collaboration with fans, and there is big payoff. For example, using social networking on Backbone and Twitter as well as other social network sties has increased sales. Pepsi Mountain Dew division is succeeding into its campaign to launch a new Mountain Dew flavor with the publics involvement at all levels f the process.
Rather than spending money on Super Bowl television ads this year, the company is spending 20 million dollars on a social media campaign, to promote the new product. It can be seen that the Pepsi Refresh Project and the Mountain Dew campaigns are part of a crowd sourcing effort that’s part of the larger PepsiCo plan to more closely integrate consumers with the brand. Pepsi will utilize are Backbone and Twitter Boone Kurt state that having a good product and the marketing behind is always a good idea, in my view..
Pepsi has decided to invest a third of its marketing budget to social media (Boone Kurt, 012, peg 353). One reason for Pepsi success is that it creates relationships with communities using Backbone and Twitter (Are, 2012, Para. 8). Pepsi currently has over 8 million likes/followers. In support of community relationships, Pepsi also implements community projects which are displayed via the social media websites. Customers have the opportunity to display and vote on the different opinions and ideas on Backbone and Twitter.
Based on customers inputs, a project is now being extended for another year(Boone Kurt, 2012). Every part of the PepsiCo campaign involves our Backbone fans and Twitter followers. PepsiCo encourages consumers participation in everything from picking flavor names, to voting on the best user-submitted ad campaign. Let is noted that PepsiCo considers social media as the best way to get direct dialog with their fans to make informed decisions.. Business decisions are now based mostly on customer feedback. In 2012, Pepsi decided to make some changes in their marking.
PepsiCo is focused on investing over 500 million toward its marketing. It is expected that relying on social media will assist with marketing (Keenan, 2012). Some other ways social media is helping Pepsi. Re by means of dynamic consumer engagement, user generated content, data aggregation, ego-local reach, and inbound marketing (Keenan, 2012). According to Keenan listening and respecting the views of the customer to improve the business, while maintaining integrity has been key for Pepsi (Keenan, 2012).
Pepsi knowing, reviewing, and acting on customer feedback displayed on their websites also helped Pepsi as a company (Keenan, 2012) and decision making and business promotion. PepsiCo users generated content has also helped Pepsi with identifying the needs of their consumer base. Another way that Pepsi is using social media marketing to their advantage is data aggregation which is described as using all information being provided and analyzing it to the benefit of the organization (Keenan, 2012).
Research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media Marketing to their advantage. Discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and provide examples with your discussion. I have selected Ford Motor Company and Zaps as the two businesses that have used social media marketing to their advantage. Ford Motor Company and Zaps are utilizing social media marketing to help their business (Profiteered, 2011). It is learned deflator Motor Company has used customer feedback to their advantage.
Ford now post the comments that led to the new change as part of their marketing strategy (Profiteered, 2011 A blob called The Ford Story has been created by Ford Motors which has allowed Ford to put customers voices and opinions first by displaying on their website, prior to any new information regarding the company (Profiteered, 2011). In decision making Ford also utilizes customer feedback to get new ideas for the next generation of cars (Profiteered, 2011). It is very important o review Fords website and know that they are focused on their consumers.