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How Social Media Helps Improve Their Overall Business Performance Essay

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INTRODUCTION Over the past few decades, social media has swiftly emerged into daily life. It has developed into such an important part of daily routines and tasks for many. The number of social media users worldwide grew almost 30 percent in 2010, going from 244 million to nearly 315 million users (Gupta 2011). In fact, 92 percent of consumers trust recommendations made by family, friends, and strangers posted on social media over any other form of advertisement (Lithium 2014). With the spontaneous, minimal cost, live form of communication and knowledge social media brings, businesses are continuously noticing social media’s presence in society. Social media offers mechanisms that allow customers to consume, produce, and redistribute content that strengthens the traditional customer-business relationship. By using social media, organizations are able to capture customer feedback, enhance market knowledge, strengthen customer relationships, and stay innovative (Du and Jiange 67). All of these advantages enable organizations to improve their overall business performance. Despite the many benefits of social media, there are costs that need to be taken into close consideration. Social media can rapidly spread product recall information that damages a firm’s public image more than traditional social media would, such as newspapers and magazines. The additional detriment social media imposes on product recalls for firms can be quite costly (Hsu and Lawrence 70). During a

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