Essay the Effect of Social Media in Marketing

           There was a time, when social media was not present in the lives of people, and everything was done in conventional manner. But everything changed with the evolution of internet and social media. The business dynamics were also changed by social media as it evolved as one of the important marketing tools. When marketing was done conventionally through other mediums like press & electronic media, it had specific kind of audience, but numbers of social media users are way more than the audience of TV. It means that when more people are gathered at a platform, it is a great opportunity for business companies to reach and attract those potential customers. So, social media made a great impact in marketing by changing its dynamics in so many ways (Shaw, 2018).

          The social media users are in billions and they use it on daily basis, and it has become important part of their lives. So, brands can target them daily through social media platforms and look for brand recognition more than ever before. The marketing through social media has also made an impact in increasing brand loyalty, more conversion rates, fewer marketing costs, and improved customer experience (DeMers, 2014)

            It has been observed that popularity as well as reach of social media is increasing with every passing day and it looks that if social media will continue in this fashion, then many of the functional and traditional areas of marketing will be over taken by it. The research has observed that there has always been a gap between consumers and marketers, and great impact of social media is that it is quickly filling this gap, which is helping to develop the trust of consumers (Kaushik, 2012).

             The way social media has made its influence on marketing of brands, the relationship between consumers and marketers have experienced dramatic changes. The other impact of social media on marketing is that it has allowed more power to consumers as compared to the past, when there was no social media. The analytics have becoming easier with the essence of social media which allows companies to derive better targeted marketing strategies to right set of consumers. The social media has created great buzz as well as brand consciousness for the companies as social media users do talk about brands on their social media platforms (Popali, 2017)

            The other major impact of social media in marketing landscape is its ability to promote brands and their products in given real time. There was a time, when companies used to make ads and then broadcast them on TV, which used to take a lot of time before brand and products are promoted to target audience. But now they can do it in real time through social media. For instance, if brands make changes in any product, introduce any new product or come up with new offers, they can right away communicate it to their target consumers by posting this information on their social media pages. They can quickly engage consumers and get their attention about new developments, which was not possible earlier, when social media presence was not there (Wells, 2014)

General Summary on The Effect of Social Media in Marketing

            Social media use is getting common in the world. According to the statistics of 2019, social media users all around the world are more than 3.2 billion. In other words, almost 42% population of the world is using social media platform to collect information and have socialization. Social media platform has important role in business growth and overall performance. Social media platform such as Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn are the cheapest platforms for the companies and brands to advertise and market products and services.

            Social media provide a large audience following user generated content on social media platforms that support a company or brand to communicate and interact with the targeted customers. Continuous interaction and communication between companies and customers results in the increase of customer loyalty and brand equity.

             As low cost marketing tool social media gives marketer a voice to communicate with proposed customers and peers with the purpose to spread awareness and do promotion of some specific products in the targeted market. Social media is basically a digital way of marketing and advertisement. In the old traditional marketing, marketer were used to advertise products and services through print resources. In past, communication channels were not enough strong therefore, traditional marketing had limited concept of public relations building.

           Now social media has changed the whole marketing style. Web technologies and social media platform has taken up the limitation of time duration for marketing. Marketers can communicate and interact with the customers 24/7.  Several research studies putting emphasis on the social media platform concluded that social media has let to a culture of active engagement between brands and consumers (Kaushik, 2012).

         Immediate and easy access to the audience and customers resulted in the constant communication. Thus marketing is no longer limited to only advertisement or a short process of spreading awareness. In fact, now because of the social media marketing is becoming a full time process that ensure full time customer engagement with the brand. Moreover, increased interaction and communication has made it possible for the brand to grab clear understanding about the possible demand of a product or service in the future.

           Traditional style marketing was not capable to provide such a clear response of customers. In fact, social media has made marketing a two way process. Now it’s no more a one way communication channel. Social media platform immediately provide customer responses towards an advertised product or service (Kaushik, 2012). Customers can provide responses to the published content and user generated posts by following it, commenting on it, and showing their likes and dislikes.

          In the past traditional marketing was only limited to the promotion of the products. Somehow, now social media has made it possible for the marketers to think about brand loyalty and brand image. Social media translate the brand image and ensure positioning in the targeted market. Concluding the whole discussion we can say that social media has significant impact on marketing. Social media has enriched the concept of traditional marketing and presented an improved and more effective marketing style.     

References of The Effect of Social Media in Marketing

DeMers, J. (2014). The Top 10 Benefits Of Social Media Marketing. Retrieved July 2, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/#578d644a1f80

Kaushik, R. (2012). Impact of Social Media on Marketing. IJCEM International Journal of Computational Engineering & Management , 15 (2), 91-95.

Popali, S. (2017). What is the Impact of Social Media on Your Marketing. Retrieved July 2, 2019, from https://www.ronsela.com/impact-of-social-media-marketing/

Shaw, A. (2018). How Social Media Can Move Your Business Forward. Retrieved July 2, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/05/11/how-social-media-can-move-your-business-forward/#7b4a7f764cf2

Wells, G. (2014). Advertisers Use Social Media to Promote Brands in Real Time. Retrieved July 2, 2019, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-companies-promote-brands-in-real-time-with-social-media-1395171013