MANAGEMENT
Literature Review
Literature on marketing suggested that it was years ago that organizations carried out their businesses in brick and mortar form and depended heavily on the door to door marketing to create and maintain a customer base. As technology continue to chip in, new avenues started to open for business marketing such as television, radios, telemarketing, emails, direct mail, print advertisement etc. Although the technology based marketing efforts have helped businesses make a huge amount of profits but now they are seen as intrusive or ineffective. Consequently, the customers all around the globe began to ignore the traditional tools of promotion and got closer to social media.
Social media marketing is an inbound approach which ensures the online presence of small businesses. Social media includes websites where people from all around the global interact with each other and share different nature of stuff. As social media gained popularity, kids and adults became used to of its convenience via laptops, tablets, music players, game consoles, tablets etc. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube are regarded as the most powerful components of social media. The number of people using social media is increasing with every hour, every second. Surveys reveal that people of all ages prefer to spend their time on social media websites which turned out to be an opportunity for all businesses. Small businesses which have to operate at low-cost structure consider it as a norm to have their presence on social media. The literature review will suggest that social media marketing helps in the creation of brand awareness, retention of customers at global level, brand expansion and intensification of brand equity.
It has been reported by Forbes that about four out if five organizations operating in America are relying on social media to help expand their customer base and build strong and long term relationship with stakeholders. It is an accepted fact that social media will stay and its role in the establishment, promotion, and strengthening of businesses both small and large is increasing with every passing day. Every business understands that mastering the art of social media marketing for the purpose of growing profits is mandatory. Previously, companies which were included in the Fortune 100 list were the ones who took huge advantage of social media marketing and tripled their profits but statistics have revealed that today, all businesses whether they are popular or not, are making use of social media very actively (Patel, 2015).
Evans (2012) believed that social media has changed the way people communicate with each other. Instant messages and picture/file sharing among friends, family and coworkers dwelling in any part of the world is the best way to stay connected. Online social communities exist which serves as a target market for several small businesses. Officials belonging to social media reported that with social media marketing, small businesses can communicate with customers on a direct basis. Employment opportunities are being increased due to social media marketing as small businesses are developing virtual sales and marketing teams on virtual grounds. Small businesses can easily reach to their target market and address their concerns in an effective manner.
Customers have also changed the way they create perceptions about various products and services. Whenever they wish to make a purchase, they very first thing they do is log on to their social media account, search for the official page of the organization/brand and read the comments of people who have had previous experiences. Relying on what other people think about a particular product, service or a brand in overall terms is considered more effective than any other form of marketing campaign. As people in the circle of customers observe what he or she promotes, they would certainly follow the trend.
Kotler, Roberto and Hugo (1991) suggested that small businesses make use of social media strategies to create and maintain customer relationships as well as generate awareness of their products and services. In the world of today which is considered as highly connected and united, people rely on social media presence of businesses to validate their performance and efficiency. Since decades, the trend of online shopping has been on the rise. People find it convenient to make purchases of small and big stuff online as it saves time and hassles spent on visiting traditional stores. Obviously, the lifestyle has become fast and people tend to save time as much as they can so that it could be invested into more productive and financially beneficial activities. Previously, customer reviews on products and services were fewer which did not serve the purpose of facilitating the purchase to a considerable degree (Qualman, 2010).
Since the introduction of social media, people rely on each other’s words more than any other published reviews on websites. Social media has strengthened communication and people belonging to any part of the globe can express their views openly which serves to assist the online purchasing norm (Evans, 2010).
Traditionally, businesses had to think twice before ending their products and services beyond national borders because a huge amount of budget was required to be allotted to the marketing campaigns. Print advertising including leaflets, newspaper ads had to be distributed. Advertisement on social media is helpful in expanding the brand reach. With no costs involved, many small businesses can set up their pages and promote on social media. The more likes and sharing of the page is done by social media users, the more awareness is created among that target market and this is how a brand becomes popular (Zarrella, 2009).
Social media has helped online businesses in expanding their market share. In the absence of social media, online businesses were not popular. But now, online businesses can simply communicate their portfolio of products and services along with prices so that customers could make a choice just like they would do in any regular store. The order of items is placed on the official brand page and delivery is made within a few days via local courier service.
We can say that social media has turned out be a great opportunity for employment for those who possess the knowledge and capabilities but due to lack of capital are unable to make profits. With just their online presence on social media websites and images of their brand portfolio, they can easily cater to the needs and demands of the target market and build strong and long lasting customer relationships. Social media has given rise to employment not only for small businesses but also given rise to the creation of new and innovative platforms of social media.
Service businesses can also take advantage of social media equally- all they have to do is share the images and description of the services they provide; a few testimonials of customers and accept orders. Hogarth-Scott, Watson and Wilson (1996) are of the view that social media marketing is seen as the most effective and useful marketing option by almost all organizations. Many small businesses all around the globe have come into existence only because of social media. Large businesses also make use of social media marketing along with traditional marketing efforts to increase their market share and attain customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Businesses which rely on social media marketing for strengthening and expansion of their brands set up marketing goals, identify their target market, and look for ways to make use of various platforms of social media websites to help them achieve their profit-making goals while keeping an eye on the social marketing moves of the competitors. Neti (2011) proposed that social media marketing has intensified the competitive arena for small businesses because all businesses are making the most of the social media websites to create awareness and acquire as many customers as they can. Ethics must be followed by small businesses while using social media as an ingredient of their marketing strategy.
Literature review on the significance of social media marketing for small businesses has a strong connection with the increase of market share, creation and retention of customer loyalty, building of brand equity and of course, brand extension. The literature has implications for further research. Brand equity and its dependence on social media marketing can be discussed. Moreover, research can be conducted on integrated marketing communications by giving ample importance to the role of social media marketing. Consideration of ethical issues with regards to social media marketing can also be researched.
References
Evans, D., 2010. Social media marketing: the next generation of business engagement. John Wiley & Sons.
Evans, D., 2012. Social media marketing: An hour a day. John Wiley & Sons.
Hogarth-Scott, S., Watson, K. and Wilson, N., 1996. Do small businesses have to practise marketing to survive and grow?. Marketing intelligence & planning, 14(1), pp.6-18.
Kotler, P., Roberto, E. and Hugo, H., 1991. Social marketing. Econ-Verlag.
Neti, S., 2011. Social media and its role in marketing. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems, 1(2), pp.1-15.
Patel, S. (2015). How To Quickly Master Social Media Marketing For Small Business. Available: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sujanpatel/2015/07/09/how-to-quickly-master-social-media-marketing-for-small-business/#14dcb2512da1. Last accessed 1st May 2016.
Qualman, E., 2010. Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. John Wiley & Sons.
Zarrella, D., 2009. The social media marketing book. " O'Reilly Media, Inc."
