Social Media Platforms

Businesses today can no longer rely on word of mouth or simple print ads in a newspaper to gain the attention of new customers. Social media has become almost a necessity for all businesses to retain their place in the market. In 2014 almost 50% of consumers looked to at least one social media page before making a purchase (Go Gulf, 2016).  This means the businesses need to use their presence on social media in order to be involved in their consumers buying process.

            It is very easy for a company to look at the demographics of one social media site and see that their target market is present there and decide to only use that site. This philosophy will lead the company to have a minimal presence on social media and could lead to missed opportunities. There are a number of solid reasons on why companies should use multiple sites and they begin with the fact that by using multiple sites you can reach a larger portion of your audience. For example, a company may see that a large portion of their target market uses Facebook so they focus solely on that. A portion of their target market may also be present on Instagram and this may make up a group of the market that is more willing and financially capable of buying your product or service. So by focusing on Facebook the company is loosing potential sales.

            Customer Service is a part of any business that may not affect a customer buying your product the first time but without a doubt will effect whether or not they purchase your product or service again. Having a presence on multiple social media sites allows a company to control the conversation. If a company is only present on Pinterest they might be missing negative comments customers are making on Twitter. By allowing customers to post their negative comments on Twitter without a response from the company, the customer is controlling the conversation and the viewer’s perspective of the incident. A company that is present and activate on the site would be able to respond and potentially lessen the impact of the comment. A company’s presence on multiple sites can improve customers’ opinion of the brand and thus increase the brand image.

            In todays world many companies live by the theory that if your competition does it then you must too. While this is definitely not always the best or smart option, but when it comes to social media sometimes it is the best option. If your competition is more active on sites that your company is not present on then they may be able to reach a part of the market that you cannot. This allows them to gain control of a sector that you are willingly giving them by not making your presence known on that network. In ultra competitive markets and industries, companies cannot afford to give away any portion of the market share in order to stay in business.

            The biggest reason that all companies should be using multiple social media sites is because every site has different strengths and weaknesses. All of these can affect conversation rates, brand image, and overall reach of a company. Facebook while having lower click-through rates on their advertisements, are the elite when it comes too remarketing and tracking (Reed College of Media, 2016). Facebook has mastered the process of making sure that page likes and clicks are recorded and follow the customers in forms of ads and post placement. This is great for companies who need to increase brand awareness and reach more customers. While many people do not recognize YouTube as a social media site, it currently has accounts for roughly 50% of all Internet users (Reed College of Media, 2016). YouTube is great for leading traffic to other sites or pages and provides a great analytics resource for its users to monitor its traffic and so much more. While companies might not see the need for YouTube, posting something as simple as a commercial, infomercial, or basic industry information can create a connection that the company did not previously have access too.

            Instagram provides companies an even bigger advantage now that it was recently bought by Facebook (Shontell, 2013). This acquisition allows companies to link their ads on both sites to help drive traffic. Linking the ads helps for marketing campaigns and allows companies to keep a consistent message across the sites, increasing the chances for brand recognition. One of the newest social media sites is also the fastest growing and that is Snapchat (Morrison, 2015). Snapchat is idea for companies to drive traffic as well as help build a brand image. Connecting to your consumers directly and providing an insiders look into the company is great for building brand loyalty. Companies can now use the story section of Snapchat to reach users that do not even follow them. This allows companies to contact the almost 60 million daily users of Snapchat (Kokalitcheva, 2016).

            Companies must take into account all of these factors when deciding whether they will use one, multiple, or all of the social media networks. Another statistic that will have to be considered in this decision making process is the frequency in which users visit these networks. Facebook and Instagram have more then 50% of their users who visit their site on a daily basis (Duggan, 2015). In comparison Pinterest and Linkedin have almost 50% of their users visiting their site less frequently then on a weekly basis. So it is not worth a company to post daily on sites such as Pinterest and Linkedin but they must on sites such as Facebook and Instagram.

            Using all of this information I believe that it is clear what a company must do in order to compete in today’s competitive market that is technology driven. Companies must be present on at least multiple social media networks in order to most effectively reach their target market. Reaching the target market, building brand awareness, brand loyalty, and increasing the overall brand image of a company can only be effectively and completely done by proper use of these networks.

References

Businesses on Social Media- Statistics and Trends [Infographic]. (n.d.). Retrieved

October 29, 2016, from http://www.go-gulf.ae/blog/businesses-social-media/

Duggan, M. (2015, August 17). The Demographics of Social Media Users. Retrieved

October 26, 2016, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/19/the-demographics-of-social-media-users/

Kokalitcheva, K. (2016, September 25). Snapchat’s Daily Active User Count Has

Surpassed a New Milestone. Retrieved October 29, 2016, from http://fortune.com/2016/09/26/snapchat-users-us-canada/

Morrison, K. (2015, July 28). Snapchat Is the Fastest Growing Social Network

(Infographic). Retrieved October 29, 2016, from http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/snapchat-is-the-fastest-growing-social-network-infographic/624116

Reed College of Media (2016). Week 3 lesson: Social Media Analytics & Advertising

Channels. West Virginia University. Retrieved from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_69901_1&content_id=_3398293_1&framesetWrapped=true

Shontell, A. (2013, May 09). How Instagram Co-Founder Kevin Systrom Spent His

Year After The $1 Billion Facebook Acquisition. Retrieved October 29, 2016, from

http://www.businessinsider.com/its-been-1-year-since-facebook-bought-instagram-for-1-billion-heres-how-co-founder-kevin-systrom-spent-it-2013-5