Usage of Social Media Word of Mouth

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.

It is interesting how social media today is influencing the marketing role of many companies and how it’s playing a big role in their success. The more the company advertises on social media, the

Social media has become an influential ground for consumers to share their opinions about a company’s brand and products. In addition, it helps in having a strong brand that produces positive relations and distinguish the brand from competitors, is a critical component for effective marketing. According to Dahlén and Lange (2009) “the quality of the product is not the evident factor when it comes to purchasing a product, the deciding factor depends on how the brand is perceived” (Para. 1). This demonstrates the importance of incorporating social media as a tool to promote brands, allow for interactions, and customer satisfaction by engaging with customers more frequently for feedbacks or reviews. Thus create an opportunity for the company to show its devotion to their customers, and initiate good reputation, which can increase sales. In other words, social media has the ability to upsurge the awareness for businesses as well as the brand.

The paper will began by an overview of the social media sector accompanied by its impact on human behaviour. I will then talk a bit about the modern marketing strategies which companies are using through social media. Later on I will describe the Statistics that Show Social Media is the Future of Customer Service. Finally the essay will conclude with my opinion about the impact of social media on today’s business world and human life.

Mark W. Shaefer is a successful businessman that built his company while spending zero dollars on marketing. “I built my entire business without spending a dime on advertising or marketing in three and half years. All of my business has come from my blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn.” (Bell 34) By using the platforms that many individuals visit on a daily basis, free business exposure is created. “Social media is rapidly replacing traditional media as a source to which consumers turn for information about products and brands.” (Brison 309) Much like in the past, consumers want to learn about a product before purchasing it.

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

The rise of social media has been a global phenomenon since internet giant Facebook began, with one in seven people having a Facebook account (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). This has had an impact on the marketing environment in several ways, with the two most notable being increased active participation and a strong level of networked interconnectedness (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching 2013). These two changes have shifted the power from the marketer to the consumer, as the regular consumer now has access to vast amounts of information and has the ability to amplify their opinion globally (Labrecque et al. 2013). For this reason, it may be argued that in the 21st century, marketing occurs among consumers, and is no longer purely

Social media plays an important role in how products and services are discovered researched, and information is shared. As a matter of fact 60% of consumers found information on products and services through searches on multiple online sources such as networking sites. Active users of social media are more likely to read product reviews online, and 3 out of 5 create their

The online presence for an organization or product is very important. With the widespread adoption of the internet over the last couple of decades, more consumers have begun to rely on internet presence and related consumer reviews before a product or service is decided upon. Solis (2015) explains the importance of the Zero Moment of Truth, which is a process in which the consumer makes their final decision on consumption of a good or service. Solis (2015) connects the Zero Moment of Truth to what he deems the Ultimate Moment of Truth, the decision to post a review about the service or product. The negative or positive online presence and reviews of an organization can make or break their success. Therefore, it is vital for any organization

The way that individuals and businesses communicate and interact has radically changed. With the development of technology and the internet, people can connect almost instantaneously and with very little effort. Social media has come to play a huge part in the way that the world communicates with each other. In fact, a recent report shows that in a single month people spend over 25 hours on social networks (“The Digital Consumer”). With consumers committing that much time to social media sites, social networking has become an important aspect of everyday life for individuals—and businesses. Like most marketing activities, social media marketing poses some risk. However, it is advantageous for businesses to exploit this opportunity, and develop an effective and ethical marketing strategy that includes using social media as a marketing tool.

Based on the behavior of people who are using various social media sites, studies show that they interact with one other in a trusting and communal way and this simply proves the strength of digital interaction and the power of connection. The main issue that the marketing people face is that consumers are no longer satisfied with traditional advertising as the main source of product information, hence social media serves as the solution to this dilemma as this has become a community wherein consumers share their own direct experiences with various brands,

“Despite the emergence of digital technologies, one thing remains true in the business world: word of mouth

In today’s business world, social media is being discussed on a daily basis. This phenomenon has taken over the marketing and advertising industries and has changed the way they handle their efforts to attract customers. There is a big misunderstanding that social media are only popular networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, social media are “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” The rise of these online communities has given companies an opportunity to engage in conversations with their customers. This in

In recent years, social media has become the best available option for brands to communicate with prospective consumers. In other words, social media is an opportunity for brands to transcend the traditional middleman (Neti, 2011). One of the many positives is that companies can build their own brand communities easily on the social media. There are some obvious benefits of brand communities which are facilitating information sharing, spread the history and the culture of brands, providing help to customers, and positively influencing brand loyalty (Laroche, Habibi and Richard, 2013).

With the development of the Web 2.0 which made Internet participative, the Internet users are now capable of expressing themselves, interacting, and giving their opinion onto everything (products, services, brands, companies, cultural property) and on everybody, via multiple platforms on Internet. To criticize a restaurant on Cityvox, to note a seller on eBay, to denounce the actions of a brand or a company via a viral video on YouTube, to support a candidate for an election, to