Social media, a positive development for businesses or just a negative decline for consumers?
The evolution of social media is undoubtedly massive, and to put it into perspective; if Facebook was a country, it would be the most populated country in the world, with over 1.5 billion users – which is more than both China and India. Therefore it’s hard not to notice the power which social media sites like Facebook can have on the public, but the question is do these influences fall more into the positive or negative? And who are they really helping?
Businesses use social media for digital marketing purposes frequently, in an effort to spread brand recognition and increase communication with potential target markets. If the social media campaign is successful it is proven to help to do the following 7 factors:
- Increase communication with clients
- Drive traffic to your site
- Remind your prospects of your brand
- Improve your online influence
- Reach the friends of your clients and prospects with your message
- Inform your audience of specials in real time
- Increase your SEO ranking
All these outcomes are clearly positive, and will help a brand to become a success, with the only negative impact of potential time consumption and effort, but this is countered with the developments which it brings. Oreo is the perfect brand to represent this as there social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat) are constantly updated, and forum chat rooms containing over 500,000 people talking about Oreo helps for word of mouth to occur digitally.
These are the positives for businesses and brands when undertaking marketing methods, but what are the effects which social media has on the other stakeholders, the consumers?
With a massive 72% of adults confirming that they use some form of social media it is clear that the population is obsessed with the internet, so much that it could be causing personal issues or users. Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is becoming bigger in certain countries, with studies in the US which suggest 8.2% suffer from the disorder, and in Hong Kong 6%. However a study showed that 64% showed that they might be addicted to the internet, which brings up the theory that it’s more common than people realise, and it could be more serious than led on to be.
When receiving a notification on a social media website dopamine is released into our brain which gives us a feeling of happiness and euphoria, however it’s that released which makes users addicted, and they keep clicking for more after this – Marketers use this as a tactic to keep their target market coming back for more.
50% people said they felt worried and uncomfortable if they can’t access their Facebook or email, but when this is put into correlation that 51% of people said that social media has had a negative impact on their behaviour, it suggests it’s a habit which people don’t enjoy. This is said to be because of the stress it causing from missing out on social interaction after being so used to it.
FOMO is the perfect term for this – ‘Fear of missing out’!
Another major issue which comes from social media is cyber bullying. Due to the increase of social media it is almost too easy for ‘keyword warriors’ to access vulnerable people over chat rooms, no matter of the age. Even little comment on Youtube videos can be more serious than they look. Over 2.2 million people reported to a National Crime survey have dealt with cyber bullying in 2011, and I can’t imagine there has been a decrease since then with the popularity building.
BUT IT’S NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM:
Other studies have received results of social media actually improving user’s mental state – with enhancements on participant feelings of social connectedness and lower levels of loneliness. So I think it’s clear there’s no certain correlation that social media can have a negative or positive impact on users. However if consumed too much it could become an addiction problem for certain individuals, but this makes it all the better or marketers trying to spread the word of their brand, and even if there was a clear correlation who’s going to stop them?
References
2017, C. (2015) Infographic: How social media hurts mental health. Available at: https://contently.com/strategist/2015/07/02/infographic-how-social-media-hurts-mental-health/ (Accessed: 27 February 2017).
Bennett, S. (2012) The 7 side effects of social media [INFOGRAPHIC]. Available at: http://www.adweek.com/digital/social-media-side-effects/ (Accessed: 27 February 2017).
Mangukiya, P. (2016) Social media by the numbers [Infographic]. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/piyush-mangukiya/social-media-by-the-numbe_b_9757926.html (Accessed: 27 February 2017).
Oreo – likes (no date) Available at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/oreo/likes/?ref=page_internal (Accessed: 27 February 2017).