Small businesses in America have existed since civilizations first settled, whether people traded goods in the place of currency, or offered services and talents for money. Over the past 100 years, the small businesses and entrepreneurs of America have evolved in ways no one could have predicted. From the invention of the internet to the sliding scale that is the American economy, small businesses have seen their times of great success and struggle alike. With the changing culture, obstacles may morph into opportunities, and, conversely, opportunities can turn into obstacles. The presence of social media is an opportunity for businesses today but an obstacle for businesses of the early 20th century; demand was an opportunity for business owners in the 20th century but an obstacle today; and economic fluctuation is an obstacle found in both time periods. Unlike small businesses in the early 20th century, small businesses today can greatly benefit from social media platforms. Not only can businesses run their own pages online, they can pay for ads that promote their product in a unique and novel way. For example, social media can allow a smaller business to grow on their chosen platform (such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) and increase the amount of potential customers that view their product(s) or service(s). Everyday, there is an abundance of advertisements uploaded and viewed on several varieties of social media platforms and “[b]ehind these staggering numbers is a
The use of social media marketing has become a standard way in which organizations advertise their products or services. Social media marketing allows consumers to have immediate access to other consumers reviews or to post a review about a product or service. There is engagement between the company and the consumer (Evans, Dave 2010). Social Media emerged in the late 1980’s when websites such as Prodigy, Compuserve and America Online. Prodigy was first of it’s kind and was known as a ”consumer online service”. Half of the page is devoted to advertising. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Hi5, Bebo and Orkut are all social media platforms that are utilized as platforms today.
In today's society, social media rules the world and is one of the easiest marketing strategies for younger customers. As stated in The Shallows, when people are interrupted from social media communication they feel out of the loop. "We want to be interrupted, because each interruption brings us a valuable piece of information. To turn off these alerts is to risk feeling out of touch, or even socially isolated," (Carr). I will utilize the societies weakness to my advantage. By using marketing strategies like offering free items from a company if they follow a link through a social media application like Instagram or Facebook. Customers will feel socially isolated if all of their friends received a free item because they were on social media. This marketing strategy would be one of the least expensive types and reaches one of the largest networks of people. Using my skills in statistics I can analyze which social media application gets the most feedback and tell a company which application to put more money into advertising. This not only makes the customers maintain their feeling of being in the loop but increases the company's sales and potentially lowering their advertisement
Social media is not new. Facebook has been around since 2004, YouTube since 2005, and Twitter in 2006. What is new is how social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are affecting the way businesses market their products and services. Never before in our history have consumers been able to communicate so effortlessly with each other and with the businesses they frequent. Never before have businesses been able to interact and react to customer feedback so quickly and efficiently. However, just because businesses have the ability to use social media for their marketing and advertising efforts, does not necessarily mean they should. This paper intends to
Small businesses are the heart of the United State economy. There are 28 million small businesses in America and count for more than 54% of sales (Small business trends, n.d.). Many of those businesses are started by entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks and develop their visions and dreams of owning a business in today’s competitive market. That was the case when Victoria Carolina Pocasangre opened Pocasangre Olivia Dental, a small dental practice in the heart of Clovis, California five years ago.
Social media is a great way for companies to get their brand known. Companies are able to create advertisements and position them throughout social media. Facebook, for example is one social media site that create sponsored advertisements for companies. These advertisements show up on an individual’s Newsfeed and each advertisement is tailored to promote to individuals with interests that are similar to the products or services the company is trying to sell. Companies pay a fee in order to create these sponsored advertisements, but if companies are on a budget, some create their own social media accounts or pages to create posts whenever they want. With this technique alone, companies may be at a disadvantage, considering individuals must like the page in order to view the content on their Newsfeed. Although, after interviews with children,
Businesses use platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as a modern tool to share information with their customers. Facebook offers the option for businesses to create a fan page for their company or product. Twitter allows the use of 140-character posts that users can follow, tweet, or retweet. Blogs are less commonly used, but allow businesses to write in journal type format. YouTube offers a video-library to its users with millions of viewers around the world. There are many other types of social media but most of them follow similar general communication capabilities. Utilizing these
Many small businesses probably do not engage in global trade because of the costs. When a business tries to expand, often times, small businesses do not have enough money to pay those upfront costs. It can be extremely expensive to become involved in global trade, often times, prices and loans that are far too inconvenient for the average small business in America. Additionally, the cultural differences and language barriers between small businesses and their global competitors can be too extreme. In order to survive in a global market, the small businesses you must compete with different groups
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 marketing industry is an elaborate network that links companies to their consumers, primarily through written communication. The main objective of marketing is to identify trends and patterns in consumer behavior, and utilize the data to influence consumers to purchase more goods. From a macroenviroment standpoint, the general conditions of a market are heavily dependent on global environmental factors. The most significant factor that influences the markets today is technological advancements. Since the release of Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, and Myspace in the early 2000s, the number of people using social media has increased to over sixty-five percent. The ever-growing dependency on social media platforms, has given marketers the tremendous opportunity to further market potential consumers. Social media marketing is a specific form of marketing that focuses on producing ad content that social media users will post on their own networks. This particular marketing technique is effective because ads and content are created, based on what personal information users post on social media. Firms and organizations that advertise their brands on social media are more likely to increase their customer base and annual revenue. By doing so, companies are able to increase exposure of their brand and widen previous hidden, customer bases. As a marketer, the fine line between right and wrong is often blurred. The amount and
Today, many businesses are experiencing the effects of social media. Government, businesses, and communities interact through social media and use it to access their investors and potential customers. According to Donovan (2016), “Most types of businesses today make use of different tactics and techniques to make a significant exposure of their website to its target customers.” The goal is to use social media to maximize their potential in order to be one of the strongest participants in the business world.
In the Academy Marketing Studies Journal, it states,“Since 2008 the number of small businesses using social media has doubles as their leader seek to create visibility and awareness, to identify and attract new customers, and to reinforce or change their companies respective perceived brand images.” Since marketing trends follow social media so closely, financial crisis can occur if businesses are unable to adapt to their target audience’s needs. If the business wishes to thrive and continue to evolve with modern trends, then an awareness of ever changing strategies is critical to success. Small business owners start off with a concept and a goal of meeting a need in their community to the best of their ability, however, recently large corporations have become more prevalent in meeting those same needs at a larger scale. Therefore, small businesses have encountered a higher number of crisis because they could not compete with the larger corporations. The Journal of Entrepreneurship Development states, “A system is considered to be strong when its smallest individual components are strong, self organized and controllable… a well organized small scale industry in the strong quantum for large scale production.” This article highlights a concept that the nations likelihood for experiencing financial crisis is attributed to the strength of its small scale industry. Small size enterprises have been especially hit hard by global crisis due to their size and limited resources, and
For this paper, assuming that I am a small business owner, I will examine the power of doing so through various means of social media. Each site I use will be broken down, and I will give an in-depth look as to what techniques and approaches used for promoting my brand. Let’s take a look, starting with the company and its mission.
I do not deny that the purpose of the business (if it moves beyond an idea) will be to connect businesses with consultants. As stated in my response dated 29 May 2017:
Utilizing social network sites to market is extremely inexpensive as well as effective. Social media enables small businesses to overcome the challenges of limited budget, lack of expertise, and positioning against larger competitors. Small businesses are not the same as big businesses and therefore cannot be expected to have the same marketing resources. Competitive advantage often has to be sought from other sources and by other means. Several models of marketing exist that provide guidelines for businesses to survive and grow. However, marketing theory that a large organization uses cannot be generalized to a small business which has different characteristics and requirements. As a consequence, small firms are moving from conventional marketing practices towards more affordable, interactive, and integrated marketing.
The importance of small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) in the economy of any country cannot be overlooked. In fact for nearly 15 years, most researchers dealing with economic planning have highlighted the significance of these enterprises stating that they are a key player in realizing any country’s economic goals. As such, governments as well as other organizations with interest in development are laying plans and strategies to promote the establishment of Small and Micro Enterprises. This is seen as a move to ensure that there is full participation of SMEs in the country’s economy. The Small and Micro Enterprises have been known to contribute to a large extend as a source of innovation, entrepreneurial skills as well as source of employment. For example, statistics in 25countries of the European Union show that 99% of the jobs provided to its citizens come from the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Rowe (2008) points out that the British economy relies heavily on the participation of SMEs. On the other hand, 99% of the UK’s economy is composed of small and micro enterprises.