Introduction
Social media marketing is the
use of social
media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. It is a new
phenomenon that has changed how the business environment operates and helps
businesses gain access to resources that were otherwise not available to them
(Jagongo, A. et. al, 2013).This first chapter provides the reader the background
of what the research study is all about. It will give you a closer look of the
topic specifically on the effectiveness of social media marketing as marketing
strategy or tool. It will also provide a general insight of the problem that
will be addressed in this study
Social Media Marketing in a Small Business
According to Cox, Sarah (2012),
it was essential that small businesses understand
today’s social media driven
environment. They should also know the strategies behind
using social media such as Facebook
and Twitter for growing their business and to stay competitive and reach their
target markets. However, many small businesses did not have a strategy when
they began using social media. The research was conducted to acquire an initial
understanding on how small businesses were recognized for using social media to
grow their business, and increased their customers. The respondent of this
study was Bandee, an Internet-based accessory retailer and wholesaler
established in 2009. The results showed that with the help of social media, Bandee
doubled the number of their clientele who were aware about their products and services.
With that, they also considered social media important for communicating with their
customers and creating relationships. It also enabled Bandee to develop many relationships
with other businesses and clients that would not have normally developed. The
study also concluded that social media marketing increases brand exposure,
sales and business profit.
Effectiveness of Social Media as a Marketing Tool
Social
Media Marketing is about understanding how technology is making it easier for people
to connect socially with their social networks and how your business can profit
from that understanding (Bashar, A, 2012). The study was based on descriptive research
design and questionnaires were provided to know the point of view of respondents
regarding the extent of social media that helps consumers in buying decision
making. First part of the questionnaire contained information regarding
demographics and usage pattern of social media of the respondents. Second part
had series of close-ended and indirect questions which were based on impact of
social media in making consumer buy a product and expectation from such media.
Conceptual Framework
Figure 4.
Conceptual
Framework
Figure
1.4 above shows that social media marketing is dependent with social media platforms.
Generally social media marketing starts with the use of social media platforms
such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, blog sites and other websites. The number
of employed
users
and number of hours spent on social media to promote the company’s products and
services affect the company’s marketing strategy, profit and sales, as well as
return
of
their investments and increase of the number customers patronizing their
products and services. Overall, social media marketing is a way of companies to
engage with consumers in their efforts to further expand their business and
connect with existing and potential customers. Thus, one important aspect is
consumer engagement. Assuming that other things are constant during the
performance of the study, it will be possible to relate these variables and
confirm that indeed, independent variables can affect the dependent variables.
Conclusion
Based on the needs of the commissioned company, an outline for
social media marketing was made and social media experts were interviewed to
grasp a holistic idea on how the market is perceived. Centered on literature
reviews and interview results, guidelines for the photography company were
made. The idea behind only focusing on certain social media platforms was to
emphasis on only the ones that are relevant for a photography company based in
Finland.
It was important to draw
more traffic to the website, Facebook and also Pinterest –pages of the company.
The interviews, as well as social media optimization rules, signified content
quality in being an important aspect on generating traffic. It was agreed upon
that blog posts were to be designed beforehand, emphasizing on quality and
attractiveness for potential customers. Another noteworthy aspect in the rules
of SMO was making content sharing easy, which was executed by having a
“Share”-button on the website. This enabled distribution on Twitter, Pinterest,
but also Facebook.
The guideline offers important concepts regarding social media
generally as well as offering ideas on how to incorporate the most important
social media platforms in the 47 company. If taken further, there could have
been results on how the proposed plan was executed and what the results were.
It is vital for companies to first search what kind of social media
possibilities are out there, then start thinking of the goals wanted from social
media marketing, search for references on how clientele acts in the target
market and then use social media in real time, not forgetting about quality in
content.
