Social media in the recent decade has exploded and has become an integral part of any good business strategy and its prominence in marketing is ever growing. The purpose of this blog is select and analyse one of the section of Chaffey’s 6 channels( chaffey,2016) , The channel this blog will Audit is social media marketing.
source:( PR Team, 2017)
- the importance of social media to PR & Publicity?
publicity is absolutely critical. Good PR is infinitely more effective then good front page Ad – Richard Branson. Public relation doesn’t solely consist of Social media its only a aspect of it. However social media is a cost effective way of engaging and responding to customers, it allows for two way communication between both company/ business and the customers they are trying to appeal to. Thusly having good social media campaign can make or break a company through bad PR.
2. The effectiveness of social media as advertisement
Research indicates in the U.S that for every 15 hours spent by users between 18-70 they would visit one social media website( emarketer,2015) , thusly social media is exceptionally effective way of advertising your business to consumers. To continue it is up to date news on any upcoming events or services such as sales( black Friday, Christmas, seasonal) allowing better consumer awareness.3
3. social media is very popular
Social media is very very popular, with entities such as Facebook who have net worth off over 350 billion dollars (Monica, 2017) and over 1.7 billion users. with other social media form such as twitter, Pinterest and Instagram to name a few , social media is everywhere. By not being on the social media loop a business sees to isolate itself from a great deal of customers of every demographic. Social media have dynamic functions and can allows a business to advertise to a greater variety off consumers, as seen by the statistics gathered www.emarketer.com shows that consumers found advertising on social media to be the most effective. With sponsored social messages on periscope and snap chat eclipsing classical TV commercials.
source:emarketer
4. Its effective for customer service
Using social media can be an effective tool of customer service, since it allows immediate and personnel responses to customers and there queries. Social media users are extremely active using there accounts up to 17 times day( constant contact blog, 2017) thus meaning any feedback given to customers will be immediately seen, a two way communication as previously mentioned allowing business to gain constructive feedback from there consumers. It also gives customers confidence that there queries will be handled quickly and effectively as opposed to the traditional method of using the a phone line or emailing the business which can and does take more significant time. This allows business have a cost effective way of handling customer service as opposed to the traditional method of calls, a single member of staff can effectively answer several queries at a time, saving money and time.
conclusion:
in summation social media should be an essential strategic element of any business marketing campaign, by neglecting social media companies can isolate themselves from a myriad of benefits. 1. Good PR and allowing your company to have some form of control over its own brand image online. 2, its exceptionally effective way of advertising since customers can see any upcoming events or news real time. 3,It goes without saying social media is very popular with quarter of the world using Facebook, with new forms of social media being made everyday and its not likely to stop in the near future. Finally it is an excellent way to interact with customers and a cost efficient way of running a customer service sector of any business due to the ability for employee to answer multiple queries, as well as be quick and easy for customers.
bibliography:
Chaffey, D. (2016) ‘Definitions of Digital marketing vs Internet marketing vs Online marketing’. Smart Insights, 21st December 2016 [Online] < https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/online-marketing-mix/definitions-of-emarketing-vs-internet-vs-digital-marketing/> [Accessed 29th Nov. 2017]
Constant Contact Blogs. (2017). 10 Ways Social Media Marketing Can Help Grow Your Business | Constant Contact Blogs. [online] Available at: https://blogs.constantcontact.com/why-social-media-marketing/# [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].
Monica, P. (2017). Why Facebook could one day be worth $1 trillion. [online] CNNMoney. Available at: http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/investing/facebook-trillion-dollar-market-value/index.html [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].
Emarketer.com. (2017). Are Sponsored Social Posts the Most Effective Marketing Channel? – eMarketer. [online] Available at: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Sponsored-Social-Posts-Most-Effective-Marketing-Channel/1013242 [Accessed 29 Nov. 2017].
PR Team. (2017). Public Relations v Advertising – explaining the difference. [online] Available at: http://prteamsolutions.com/public-relations-v-advertising-explaining-the-difference/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2017].