Uses of Social Media by Businesses or Professional Organizations

Social media refers to a group of internet based applications that create interactions which enable people to create and share ideas and information in virtual markets and networks. It is mainly dependable on the web and mobile based technologies. Social media has greatly infiltrated into the fabrics of most businesses and professional organizations. The use of social media by organizations and businesses is unprecedented and unequivocal because the benefits are paramount. Social media has been of great impact to communication between organizations and businesses. Social media has greatly revolutionized market research for businesses. It acts as an infinite panel it is providing a clear view into the beliefs, needs, desires and behaviors of millions of people across all consumer segments. This is achieved because the users of social media are increasingly comfortable in expressing themselves. Infinite survey has also been made possible and easier. Marketers can now easily know just about anything in the minds of consumers by using a fixed number of predetermined survey questions. Furthermore, the real time nature of social media enables marketers to test new ideas and get feedback faster. Most important of all, the social media has substantially reduced the market research costs. Samsung Company has greatly exploited this avenue by using the Facebook platform. They have an official page in Facebook in which they interact with their consumers, in other words, conduct market research. Communication is now easier and effective courtesy of social media. Businesses can now reach their consumers and discuss constructive issues. The government can also reach its citizens and discuss matters of national interest. The European Commission uses the social network platform to reach out and connect to citizens in addition to communication through the traditional channels.They use the social media in communicating political priorities and campaigns. The Non-Governmental Organizations also use the social media to rally people towards a common cause. The use of social media for communication can be clearly illustrated by McDonald’s which offered $10 and $5 gift cards to about 100 people who had been randomly selected from those visiting their restaurants.. The aftermath of this promotion was an increase in check-ins by 33%, 50 articles and several blog posts, news feeds and twitter messages. Sales promotions and discounts Businesses can now change promotions in relation to specific users at specific times courtesy of social media.This is an improvement from the past where customers had a tendency of using printed coupons. For a sales promotion via social media to be successful, you should ensure that you offer a special promotion. You should also ensure that you create a custom landing page and create conversations around the product. You should not by all means focus solely on promotional messages. You should mix them in with personalized interaction and also hold contests in the social media. Virgin America used social media when establishing its California-Cancun service.It rewarded clients who checked in via Loopt at one of three Border Grill taco trucks situated in Los Angeles and San Francisco between 11 am and 3 pm on August 31, 2010. E-Commerce Online purchases have greatly increased due to social media. The integration of social media in e-commerce is referred to as social commerce. This will lead to an increase in your customer base and visibility of the business. A business can also be able to concentrate on a target market. Social media platforms such as Pinterest and Amazon have caused an upward trend in popularity and accessibility of e-commerce. Zappos, which is an online shoe and apparel retailer, has fully embraced social media with several blogs, videos on Youtube, active use of Twitter and share this buttons on its posts to encourage spreading of its content through the social web. Social media has become the trend in customer service and, in fact, it has made it better. It has ensured that current customers are kept happy and potential customers are shown how well they do their work. The main social media platforms used in this case are Facebook and Twitter. Safaricom is known to be on the forefront in doing this. If you have any queries about their products or a complaint about their service, you just have to tweet them. They will also instantly tweet back. This has led to customer satisfaction as evidenced by their magnanimous market share in Kenya. Training via social media is continuously becoming mandatory for businesses, NGO’s and professional organizations. This form of training has been greatly embraced by PepsiCO, Adidas, HP and Sprint who mainly offer social media literacy training to their employees. This has increase their performance and productivity. For a social media program to be successful, you should start early and create a branded program for social media. NGOs, such as United Nations, have also embraced the social media in their training programs. The social media is a tool which should not be ignored at any cost. This is because it is a trend in technology and operations of businesses and professional organizations. Its success is paramount, therefore, more organizations should be encouraged to venture into the use of social media which will lead to an improvement in their productivity If the article was cognitive for you, proceed to read more papers from our premier essays writers on https://essayswriters.com/. Most of the articles are written by Joanna Webster, a professional writer.