Research Essay: Role of Social Media on Global Businesses

  Research Essay: Role of Social Media on Global Businesses

INTRODUCTION

In this essay, I will be writing about the role of social media in global business. The paper will begin by giving an overview of the social media roles on the global market, followed by typical characteristics, and this will offer a better understanding of how social media is affecting global business. I will then talk a bit about the history social media has transitioned up to date. Later on, I will describe in detail the roles of social media in global business. This will also include cultural and other factors showing the role of social media and will also include some examples. The essay will conclude with my opinion on the part of social media on global business.

OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN GLOBAL BUSINESS 

In global business marketing, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have over 3 billion users globally. Companies and international business corporations target to market their products and advertise on these social platforms. Advertisements are shown on the user’s page based on the ‘users’ interests. This could have easily been tracked from the consumers ‘ history of searches. Global business perceives this as a better way of marketing and advertising their brands as well as promoting their business in the worldwide market. The essential purpose for social media to visit specific social media is to socialize.it is through such visits they will have access to the business advertisements and marketing pages. Though at some times, users may fail to see the ads. They get referrals from friends who are using the same pages and have already obtained the results. Any global organization in business needs to make the best decisions towards the best social media campaign that is effective towards making the company successful. Organizations ensure that they are using better approaches towards reaching the consumer needs to market their brands and earn bigger profits.

EVOLUTION OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA ON GLOBAL BUSINESS 

In the pre-internet days, the global business used to market their brands through the use of infomercial mostly in televisions, radio, and billboards. In 1941 in the USA, television Bulova watches products were first advertised; this not only changed the people’s perspective of the products but also helped in promoting the products. Currently, we have evolved into the era of ad blockers from the golden age. Facebook is presently playing a vital role in digital ad marketing, and it has made significant investment returns to the business owners. Google and Twitter are also following. The user of social media is using geo-referencing on their mobile gadgets in specific zip codes; this was used in advertising. Business to business markets has currently ranked social media marketing as the top and a result in increased advertising revenues on different social media. In 2019 the majority of the global brands are using YouTube to campaign. For instance, RedBull is utilizing social media to engage in marketing its brands.

The main struggle now is to get fans to buy the brands since many are aware of the current brands. Facebook is the cheapest platform to do advertisement as compared to many others ,global business organizations are taking this opportunity to market their products.it is therefore a fact that the social media has been said to increase the boundaries of sponsoring as this is an opportunity used by the companies to make many people get aware of their products

   FROM GLOBAL BUSINESS POINT OF VIEW

            In the modern world, corporates firms are targeting promoting these products tend to fall at the mercy of social media. In respective social media, the companies mine the information and data of the social media users and thus find their interests and thus promote or advertise their companies ‘ brands accordingly. Social media acts as an alternative to buying leads social media is currently used in international business as an alternative to buying leads. For instance, the use of platforms likes Twitter and Facebook give the company the capability of blogging on their topics of interest, maybe explaining their brands and products in the market. This is done efficiently to ensure that it conveys the needs of the consumer. As a result, we have seen many and big companies like Coca-Cola marketing their products via Facebook and Twitter, the advantage is they can easily have control of their fan pages can control the way they want their adverts to grow or reach people.

THE ROLES OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON GLOBAL BUSINESSES

In the global business, things are changing as we are witnessing technological advancement from day today. Direct impact on the business and investments is resulting from technological advancements. The key impact has been affected by the consumer’s target and products. Technological advancement impacts global business marketing strategies and target consumers. There is also a direct impact on the way companies are marketing their products in the global market. In the modern world, using social media and the internet has been the key and effective method of reaching out to the targeted audience. International business organizations tend to recognize the aspects and implement the relevant steps toward renovating the use of social media. Currently, organizations are using social media to reach their customers in the global market.

Used in Marketing new brands in the market

All over the world, social media is rated the topmost media known to spread information and data over a large area within the shortest time possible. Business Corporation has noted that they are highly benefiting from the use of social media. Companies mostly use social media in introducing their brands and marketing them online.

 Offering Customer Services

Most of the global business organization is currently offering its customer services through social media. For instance, social media offers a new platform that is used by the company for communication to the consumers to ensure that the information is at their reach. Additionally, consumers get referrals to the products and new products from all parts of the world through social media. Companies like Nike, Apple, and general motors have integrated the use of social media in their business strategies. Interestingly they are making increased sales and high revenue and generally resulting in profits.

Identification of New Demographics

Using social media has enabled the business organization to explore many avenues and establishment of better brand names in the market. Based on history, there have been many companies that have included the use of marketing strategies through the use of Facebook and Twitter aimed at attracting many consumers. The social media platform is becoming the avenues for many companies to the identification of new demographics.

Boost Sales

According to research, social media is used by global business firms to boost their sales. Research identifies that several benefits are associated with social media marketing. The business owners and the top official in global business firms confirmed that using social media has enabled the companies to raise revenues and boost the sales of their brands. There is an upsell of the products if companies use social media.

The happy customers or consumers are allowed to give their positive comments reviews and reactions towards their experiences with the brands they purchased from respective organizations. This gives the capability of another potential customer to get the opportunity of getting the products the consumers might have never thought about previously. The global business organizations have been able to venture into a business that could not have performed without, use of the internet. It is good to emphasize that we have word of mouth advertising in social media. Generally, in the global business, using the internet to market the company’s brands has helped them to realize and change their perspectives on marketing towards reaching their target audience.

Presents and Ethical Dilemma

The key ethical dilemma found in social media is the issue of consumer privacy. Social media has failed to be controlled appropriately; this could, therefore, lead to easy access to personal data. For instance, the customers could be required to provide their secured information such as credit card information, Social security numbers, and some other information that could put them at risk. The critical information can be exposed to theft. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the business organizations to safeguards the customer’s information. There is a need for protecting the consumer’s information through the use of encryption software before their information lands in unsafe hands, which makes the company very successful.

On the global perspective that consumers mostly prefer to purchase the products from the companies that they have trust in. Researching and protecting consumers will add value to the company. Building trust with customers will lead to increased sales and profits. Since the consumers are aware of the brands that are safe and best, they will recommend their families and friends to buy the same. To address consumer privacy can result in better trust and better word of mouth, thus resulting in the attraction of the consumers.

Cost of Social Media as a Threat

The implementation of the social media campaign has been facing an obstacle to cost. The business was operating at the international market; they incur some cost that is associated with advancing technology. Ensuring that the organization reaches almost every potential consumer, there is a need to make a wise financial decision to ensure that the companies meet consumer expectations or perfume better than their competitors.

When the consumers share their data with the company, such as payment details, they expose themselves to identity theft. We have the issue of virus identity theft as well as hacking since it is true that there is no enough scanning done to discover the potential phishing and viruses on social media platforms. The social media drives people towards spreading false information, which could be an obstacle to the business. Although the failure of business organizations to advancing and incorporating the new advanced technology could make customers lose consumers. Customers could opt to choose a competitor with better technological advancement; this makes the other company fail.

Foster (2015) noted that for any business to successfully integrate social media in its business, there is a need for setting social media campaigns. The international business is currently setting the marketing strategy and with a key purpose for the campaigns. Additionally, these companies are establishing successful campaigns via social media to ensure that the rich to their marketing sales. Successful companies in the global market like Nike and Apple are using SMART analysis as a tool to ensure that they have set goals before they start their campaign. The company is capable of setting specific, attainable, measurable, relevant, and attainable objectives. They also focus on the competition as this will reveal what is needed in the market. Upon identifying and analyzing the current competitors in the market, the company now develops a strong, unique campaign message. Thus could be developed to meet the social media standards and formats.

Consumer Interaction and Enhancement

Social media creates a platform where there is efficient interaction between the consumers, thus enhancing their motivation. The organization will easily be able to determine if the business is likely to succeed or fail based on the consumers’ reviews and reactions to the available brands. Marketing via social media is also giving the company a competitive edge. It allows the company to put the products and services in the market in a way that they could not be in, were it not for the internet. Social media has been known to increase word of mouth in the marketing efforts since it cannot be easily predicted. The key interest of the international business is to ensure they get the best interest to market through the use of social media and Social Media needs tactics

There is a need for having proper tactics to be effective in marketing the products and brands online. Most of the consumers are viewing marketing on social media as an obsessive and overbearing. Then the companies need to be so creative to develop better software to eliminate any unwanted ad to the consumers timeless. Advertising on commercial platforms such as Netflix is common. Consumers seem not to lie many adverts coming up with a social media platform adverts that do not involve some other adverts will create a competitive advantage to all industries.

MY OPINION ON USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

Social media has been used globally mostly to communicate to the global audience, mostly to the non-native English audience. Communicating with the global audience requires proper analysis of the right social media to use to ensure that people from different locations have access to the products in the market. According to research, most of the organizations in English speaking countries use Twitter and Facebook, but we have some countries like china where these social platforms are banned. Though they have developed social Media  common used within their home, for instance, Russia also avoids Facebook and uses Vkontakte. Moreover, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland use Xing equivalent to LinkedIn. We can safely say Facebook is the key dominant force in all parts of the globe, according to recent statistics, Facebook has mostly used an application available in 128 out of 137 states.Communication on global markets using social media needs the following considerations.The key markets for the company brand-This is fundamental for a company to first investigate on the are the basis of the market they would like to invest in, Some brands would be better in some regions while others will be disliked In other regions, so a company needs to do proper market research in order to identify the key markets.The channels used in marketing-for instance considering the demographics, target audience, and culture or language. Companies will first of all research to identify the most preferred brands and the localities where they could be used, like for instance, marketing cultural products like clothes will be different from one tradition to another. The companies will post on social media, the products according to the respective tradition and cultures.Resources-This is a crucial aspect to consider also including the way the channels will be maintained based regularly; this will mostly result from the available consumers in the market and their potential to move to the next levels.

Another essential aspect to consider could be who will translate the content to the different audiences’. This will include understanding the different language versions when creating pages on social media. The company, therefore, needs to consider the cost of translation.

CONCLUSION

Generally, it is so imperative that global business comes up with establishments in the solid presence of social media. In the modern era, integration of technology has been a predominant factor of life in both the business owners and the business. Organizations should always stay innovative and conscious of technology to ensure that their business is not likely to be obsolete. It has been interesting that social media platforms have paved the way for the companies to reach or interact with customers daily, making them ready and motivated to buy the brands in the market. As this could ensure, there is a promotion of customer loyalty promotion, and strong brand awareness establishment is guaranteed. Another vital aspect to consider in life includes responses from other languages or time zones. This will mostly involve issues like the consumers’ reactions and feedback on the brands available on advertisements vial Facebook or twitter pages reactions.

Every global company also needs to consider the regulation around the promotions of the products advertising and in the local state. This will mostly focus on ensuring that the products posted for advertisements are available and are legit products.

The use of social media monitoring tools that can translate the consumer’s comments will be effective to many since people will be able to get instant replies on their questions irrespective of the language they are using. Social media messengers’ are done in different ways since what works in one country may fail to work in a different country. It is, therefore, essential to consider which social media is mostly preferred is a specific region before posting on advertisements on brands to be sold in different places over the world. It is good to get the right channel indoor to get the audience to ensure they can discover the company brand.

The moment a global company uses SMART and goal metrics could implements campaigns on social media, thus allowing an increase in revenues and customer’s interests and new purchases. Every business should be actively interested to expand its internet usage and social media participation; this could result in many and more customers visit their social platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Advertising on these two giant social Media will make many consumers order and access the products on sale. The establishment of a communication page will also help to understand the customers’ perspectives on the currently sold brands.

Social media and the internet should be included in any business that would like to do better in the international market. It is only through the use of effective marketing strategies and communicating effectively through these social media will make the global organization make better profits in the future.

References

Foster, J. (2015, May 12). How to Build a Social-Media Strategy That Works. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246085

Gordon, S. (2014, April 8). Social Media for the Loan Officer of Today. Retrieved from http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/26986/social-media-loan-officer-today