Introduction
Social network or
social media refers to websites and applications that are designed to allow
people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real-time. Social
network is a huge audience that runs all the time every day in worldwide. People
use social network different applications in their smart phone, tablets and
computers. Some of the well-known applications are Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp
and Instagram etc. According to (Dogtiev, 2018) in April 2018 Facebook monthly active
users are 56% male and 44% female, roughly 2,2 billion people. Also in 2018
official Twitter statistics show 326 million monthly users actively used Twitter.
These applications have ability to share live and recorded videos, photos, information
and opinions whenever needed to the huge audience. Social media is opened for
all from very young to too old ages and it is the easiest way to passing the
messages to others. Social networking has removed the physical distance barrier
and made it very quick and easy to connect with people living different part of
the nation or even in the world. Because of the influence over our thinking
process, socialization, leisure time, interested context, huge audience and
easy access, social media became the biggest market for the businesses.
In this article I
discussed on a topic about Social
networking is an effective platform for promoting and advancing businesses. For
collecting information about the topic I searched internet and found a research
from Delhi School of Professional Studies and Research done by a researcher (Ghoshal, 2019) on a topic Social
Media as an Effective Tool to Promote Business- An Empirical Study. With the
Keywords, brand loyalty; promotional tool; marketing strategy; social media
marketing (SMM); social networking site; social media and online branding he
has tried to find out the importance and effectiveness of social media as a
marketing and promotional tool and to analyze the extent of influence of social
media as a buying decision maker also find the gap between the customer’s
expectation and social media performance. In
this article I included only the most relevant result for my topic from his
study.
Analyse Data in
Relation to the Topic
This study was done
in India. (Ghoshal, 2019) , said, in 1991 after
the liberalization in Indian Economy Policy Indian customers experienced a
radical change in daily life, as well as in market place. He added the
introduction of modern computers, laptop, tablet, internet, e-commerce, and
m-commerce has had a tremendous impact on how business operates and promotes. As
more and more new technologies are available, businesses houses willing to
adopt them will gain big leverage over its competitor. Companies like,
Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Google are ruling the world because they
have adopted the changes in technology keeping in view of customer’s
expectations and conveniences. Because of these technological improvement and
customers convenient Social Media Marketing (SMM) has become the hottest medium
of promotion for most of the companies irrespective of the private sector or
public sector. Most of the entrepreneurs micro or small, medium or big are
using social media for promotion as well as for lead generation. Entrepreneurs
have realized the power of social media and its role in building brand image
and customer relationship.
The descriptive
research methodology study based on non-probability convenience sampling was
conducted within 150 respondents, 85 respondents are male, and 65 respondents
are female. For the purpose of data collection he prepared a questionnaire and
then the questionnaire put over Google docs and a link was shared with the
users of social media through mail, posted the link on various social network
sites like Facebook, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn etc. The respondents and the users
of social network sites were also requested to share the link from their own profile.
He explained and used
bar charts, pie chart, and table to described the analysis. Below the details
are given.
a)
Descriptive Statistics
From
table-1.1, observe that out of 150
respondents, 85 respondents are male, and 65 respondents are female. As per Govt. of India age categorization, the
researcher has considered the respondents having age in between 18-30 years
will be in the youth category.
Above table-1.2, interpret
that Facebook is the leading social media network site, Snapchat and LinkedIn
are also at the top of the list with 22.5 percent and 17.2 percent preference
share.
b)
Time Dedicated for Socializations
I n these days,
social networking has become an important aspect of lifestyle. People are
spending more than five to six hours browsing on the net or social networks.
From table-1.4, we can see the importance of social network marketing as an
effective tool for promotional strategy, as more than 2/3 of the respondents
are spending more and more hours in a day on different social network sites.
c)
The Purpose of Use of a Social Media Platform
Social media has
become the most effective communication tool through which people can connect
with their long lost friends of childhood or college life. This is evident, as
most of the respondents, near about 100 out of 150, are using such platform to
connect with their friends through network building and chatting. While
‘professional use’ has rated second as a purpose of using the social network, and others apart from just playing games,
watching videos, listening to music, are the next important purposes of using
this medium.
d)
Considering Social Media in Buying Decision
It is clear from
the above fig.1.2, that majority of the respondents, 112 (55+32 +25) out of
150, consider social media networks in their buying decision- making process either
most of the time or some times.
From fig.1.3, it is
pretty evident that the social media is not an effective grievance handling
platform. It seems that consumers are not getting the proper services,
especially the after sales services as perceived by them. During the survey, it has been pointed out by
the respondents that they are not getting any response of their queries and
questions they used to post on the companies social media pages.
Conclusion
Social
media is a part of our daily life and it influences our thinking, socializing, leisure
time and decision making etc. Referring the above statistic in the study, I found
the social networking is an effective platform for promoting and advancing
businesses. The social networking is a platform whereas both gender and
different age categories people are enjoyed and spent near about half of daily
life. Also it’s an advantage for businesses that the huge audiences are engaged
in most of the time on social media networks. If the business varies brand of
products advertised on social network that can be reached the huge population
within few seconds. According
to the study, social media help to making decision on purchasing a product through
friends. Marketers either small or large, have plenty of opportunities to communicate with their
target customers and offer them the products and services, and persuade them to
transact and become a loyal customer for the company. Undoubtedly the social
media is a rapidly growing platform for a brand building and is used by almost
all the sectors. It is another advantage the social networking has brought
people and world market much closer also the market opened for everyone with
unlimited stocks. Because of these many reasons the social
networking is an effective platform for promoting and advancing businesses.
Reference
Dogtiev, A. (2018, May 4). businessofapps.
Retrieved from businessofapps web site:
https://www.businessofapps.com/data/facebook-statistics/#1
Ghoshal, M. (2019). Social Media as an Effective
Tool to Promote Business- An Empirical Study. Global Journal of Management
and Business Research: E Marketing , 1-13.
