How Social Media Has Leveled The Playing Field And Created A Source Of Power For Consumers

Social media is good for business. You can get more exposure through social media. The fastest way to advertise a product is through social media. You get feedback instantly on the product through social media. You can even attract potential customers just for them seeing your page online. Social media is, of course, good for connecting with your friends and family around the world. Even making new friends or even reuniting with a long-lost relative. Anais and Samantha were two girls living in different countries. Anais spotted Samantha on a Youtube video and noticed she looked exactly like her. Anais then reached out to Samantha through Facebook and the two then decided to meet each other. They then realized that they were twins separated at birth. If Anais hadn’t reached out to Samantha through Facebook, they may have never known that they were twins. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to find and connect with just about anyone, from customers to a twin you didn’t even know about. Browsing these sites can make you feel connected to a larger community, but such an easy, casual connection in an electronic environment can also have its

Whether you're changing jobs, moving in a new career direction or simply trying to move up the ladder, social media plays an important role. Your social network connects you to the people you know, the people they know and so on and so on. And as the old adage goes “it’s not always what you know, but who you know.” Through social media, you can stay connected and manage your business relationships when you’re at the gym or even in your

Social media is ?forms of electronic communications (as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).? (Merriam-Webster.com, 2018) Social media has developed into a platform that is effortlessly available to anybody that can log on the Internet. The ability for businesses to be able to communicate easily with customers promotes the company?s brand, makes the brand more visible, and, often makes customer service better. (Wikman & Cottrell,) The key social media platforms that are used today are: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. (Standberry, 2017)

Social media gives you the amazing potential of finding your target market and sell directly to them in a mutually satisfying relationship. Social media is also a great place to watch and learn from your competition and your industry.

People can travel across the world and still be able to connect with their families and friends. Because of social media networks, people are now able to interact with thousands of others all over the world, which is why some people have thousands of Facebook friends or tens of thousands of Twitter followers. Without social media, that would be impossible. Social media networks allow us the opportunity to share opinions with a far wider audience. In the past, unless people spoke directly, there was no way to get a message across. Now people can use social media to get their messages out to thousands or even millions of people

| First, marketers must realize that they often do not control the content on social media sites. Second, the ability to share experiences quickly and with such large number of people amplifies the impact of word of mouth in a way that can eventually affect a company's bottom line. Third, social media allow marketers to listen. It is no longer one way communication. Marketers now can actually have conversation with customers and get feedbacks. Fourth, social media also provide more sophisticated methods of measuring how marketers meet and interact with consumers than

Social capital is the network of relationships that individuals have throughout the organization. Relationships are critical in sharing and leveraging knowledge and in acquiring resources. Social capital can extend beyond the organizational boundaries to include relationships between the firms and its suppliers, customers and alliance partners. The concept of social capital also stresses that social networks lead to increased productivity in individuals, teams and organizations. This increased productivity can be both financial and otherwise.

Social capital refers to the resources available in and through personal and business networks. Social capital defines that social networks have value. Social capital also refers to collective value of all “social networks” and the fact arise from the things doing for each other in networks. The term Social Capital emphasizes not just feelings but, a wide variety of benefits which flow from trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation with social networks. Michael woolock states in his papers that among the people working in the field, there has been a visible convergence towards something like its definition he offers. Networks have the value for the people who are in them, and they have. There are both public and private faces of social capital. Putnam in social capital largely focusing on the external returns, the public returns to social capital, but Putnam think that is not at all inconsistent with the idea that there are also private returns.

We cannot deny how big of an impact social media has on our lives now, not only on people but businesses too. It has opened a whole new door to the business world and given them a big opportunity to interact and attract a larger amount of customers. It’s given us a new and faster way of communication by exchanging pictures, stories, news, blogs, online discussions, etc. In exchange businesses have benefited by a long shot just by the click of a button. With the help of the Internet a company no longer is dependent on a particular customer base to survive because now it can reach out to a worldwide audience within seconds. It’s imaginable the countless business attributes of all social media to this day and still is growing. Social media

The use of social media has a very wide variety of advantages and disadvantages for companies. In essence it’s an extremely cheap way to reach consumers, and help them develop a brand perception. Companies can use it to hit a wide audience, and show them about a new product, or deal going on. They can also use social media to develop conversations with their consumers. This can positively shape thoughts and ideas about the brand. Also companies can use analytic services figure out the demographics of who is interested in their

The purpose of this report is to show that even though some state that Social Media has fallen short of their expectations, it is actually good for business, given that it enhances the visibility of their brand and helps businesses stay connected to potential customers.

Social media gives marketers a voice to communicate with peers and customers even potential consumers. It individualizes the "brand" and helps you to increase your message in a calm and informal way. The demise to social media, if you could call it that is that it must be a part of your everyday life in order to keep the energy and responsiveness you need for it to be effective. If you think that social media is only for the industry that are trying out an

Research on how businesses benefit from having a strong social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google+, how businesses measure social media success on each platform, and compile detail notes notes on each platform.

Social capital can be identified into three dimensions, structural, relational and cognitive dimensions in which can be improved further with the help of social media (Jashapara 2011). To achieve competitive advantage, development of social capital is vital to aid in the creation of knowledge in the organisation. The table below portrays how usage of social media can benefit the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of the organisation’s social capital.

To understand how organisations are using social media for promoting their products as well as new promotion activities, how they are using this new platform to engage with the customers and how