The Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends Dominating, Research Paper Example

Executive Summary

Social media in the workplace (especially in regards to the communications department) is a vital tool that can be used to save money, generate revenue, create brand awareness, keep customers loyal/satisfied, and improve the overall productivity of the business. As more and more businesses are using platforms such as FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn to revolutionize the way business is being handled it’s important to note in what specific ways such platforms can be used as tools to garner a more enhanced and improved business model.

Social media is quickly becoming the go-to tool for business marketing as “consumers are now spending more time on social networks than any other form of website, including porn” (North Social, 2009, p. 2). This type of viewership denotes an area of available expanse for business marketing: meaning that as the increase of social networking sites exceed a previous dominating site (such as porn) exponential growth in this area has already occurred. Since social media has exponentially occurred this means that there’s a breadth of viewership, and consumership ready to be integrated into new business models. Such models need to be designed with operational functions according to standards already prevalent in the market and twined with growing areas of potential growth in social media. This paper will focus on how marketing should incorporate social media into its business strategy in order to improve its operational efficiencies, save money, increase revenue, improve guest satisfaction, and enhance brand image.

Operational Efficiencies

In order to run a dynamic marketing scheme, proper employment must be secured. Thus, the HR team should be well aware of available social networking resources such as LinkedIn not only to garner a company-wide image, but also to scout possible talent as LinkedIn in particular has increased it’s page usage this year from 24% to 57% (DeMer, 2014, para. 21). This new tool helps as its own filtering device as it can easily group potential employees into necessary categories of expertise through the sites own analytics and promotional tool. This promotional tool functions in this way: other previous employees or employers promote a workers’ skill set (or endorse as it were). This is a great way for the company to seek out the best in the field as well as to increase how Human Resource hires potential employers. Through this social media tool Human Resources job can be done more quickly, more economically and more creatively. As workers are inundated with social media using out-dated or arcane tools in which to pool potential employers simply isn’t conducive to company growth, thus, when HR uses LinkedIn, it’s almost like a game: find the best people out there for the job. Most of the hiring process such as interviews can be done through messages in order to get a sense of a person’s skill set through this online tool (skills such as proper and prompt communication). LinkedIn’s profile page allows for a quick background check and the way that others vouch skills and experiences for people boosts their ratings to a certain degree. LinkedIn, in fact, has surpassed other networks such as FaceBook and Twitter for B2B marketers, “33% of B2B marketers are using the platform, as compared to 31% for Facebook and 16% for Twitter. And while both the B2B and B2C crowd plan on increasing their use of the platform, a whopping 77% of B2Bs plan on increasing their investment in the network this year” (DeMer, 2014, para. 21-22). This not only generates great potential employers, but allows HR to fully develop a new hiring system that’s savvy and up-to-date, and fun (as finding the right fit through going through people’s profile pages is kind of like a treasure hunt).

Save Money

As social media grows (not just on a yearly basis, but on a daily basis) so too does the opportunity to reach a wider audience through cost-effective means. Companies around the world are now able to not only talk to millions of customers, or potential customers, but the cost to do this is fairly cheap-in fact, in some cases, all it really costs to promote a company is a person’s time (as the advent of ipads, downloads, video editing apps are all usually included on the ipad or else available for free downloads). Social media allows for companies to send messages and received instant responses to queries or questions for merely the price of an internet bill (Ennes, 2011, p. 2). Ennes (2011) gives an example of this in the form of a major publishing company that used social media in order to recruit new employees. The company used YouTube as a platform to post interviews from potential employees and the results were phenomenal. It is free to join YouTube so there’s no cost there, and the potential audience includes everyone who has access to the internet-literally billions of people can view a video at no cost to the company, merely an investment in time. This could effectively cut the cost of advertisement and in fact re-fashion the entire division. Advertisement will no longer be able trying to find placement for ads, but be more like a creative team that writes scripts for actors, or comes up with savvy ways to represent the company in uploaded YouTube videos. This will also change who is hired to be part of the HR team and in fact, this job will be more akin to a writer’s room than an adverts’ room. Connections with other companies and agencies for ad space while still important will not be the main source of revenue/company exposure to customers.

Stone Goose may use YouTube not just how the publishing company used it, but they could post a blooper reel to generate interest in the company, or do a “day in the life” series of different employees at the office so that potential employees may see with whom they would be working with, and what type of environment Stone Goose creates. YouTube isn’t the only platform Stone Goose may use to generate interest in the company from potential employees, customers, and potential customers, but platforms such as FaceBook and Twitter are a bevy of interaction as well. These platforms may be used to generate “PR about new books and other products” and they may also be used by employees to create personal blogs (much like National Geographic does) so that employees may stay connected to each other even though they’re in different departments or work on different floors (Ennes, 2011, p. 8). All of this is a way for the company to stay connected, and to use platforms to save money.

Increase Revenue

92% of business owners state that social media is an important part of their business. As such, business re-allocating budgets away from typical or traditional areas of advertising in order to put those funds into social media “and other inbound marketing strategies” (DeMers, 2014, para. 4). Much like YouTube allows for free video posting, Stone Goose may use social media to post their own videos as opposed to advertisements on cable, especially since “YouTube reaches more U.S. adults aged 18-34 than any cable network” (Cooper, 2013, para. 7).

Improve Guest Satisfaction

Guest satisfaction may be used through social media in a much improved platform than other avenues. For instance, live chatting with a customer or guest instead of calling them and having them punch out prompts on a phone can be a hassle and may give off a bad image for Stone Goose; on the other hand, by using Facebook comments, Facebook “likes,” or Tweets, there is no cost, the information is instantaneous, and the response time lessens between guest/customer and company. This dynamic creates a more satisfied customer/guest because they’re used to social media use, and this type of response doesn’t take as much time to get through to a live agent. This can be done by Stone Goose using “a blog to comment on business issues, which reporters follow, while also using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to reach customers. The company monitors customers’ and analysts’ comments to take a proactive approach in responding” (Ennes, 2011, p. 7).

“The company uses Twitter to get news in front of reporters; LinkedIn is where company salespeople post scholarly articles to share with each other and their customers; their Facebook page focuses on the company’s social responsibility efforts, while the company blog is more of an exchange with customers” (Ennes, 2011, p. 12).

Enhance Brand Image

In order to enhance Stone Goose’s brand image, it’s important to know what type of brand we have on social media. People are talking about the company but there needs to be a proper analysis of what is being said in order for the company to get control over its image. Monitoring the web is an important step in this process as both positive and negative comments inform the specific steps the company must take, as Ennes (2011) states, without such information,“You won’t know how influential a particular praising or criticizing customer is. You won’t be able to compare different brand messages, commercial videos, etc. and see what the quick reaction is to them. In short, you’re missing a lot of marketing opportunity”(p. 4).

Companies around the globe are using social media in order to boost sales, increase customer satisfaction, enhance brand image, generate revenue and decrease costs. Recently, MTV announced that they’d be using snapchat to announce their Video Music Award nominees (DeMers, 2014, para. 12). Using social media doesn’t just keep employees focused on their jobs because they’re using a fun, interesting and engaging new tools and platforms, but the cost vs. public awareness ration is incredible. To pass up posting free videos on YouTube that have the potential to reach millions of potential buyers/customers is too positive a thing to ignore. Social media needs to be included in Stone Goose in order for proper management of brand awareness, and cost efficiency.

References

Cooper, B. B. (2013). “10 surprising social media statistics that will make you rethink your social strategy.” Work Smart. Pp. 1A.

DeMers, J. (2014). “The top 7 social media marketing trends dominating 2014.” Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/07/23/the-top-7-social-media-marketing-trends-dominating-2014/

Ennes, M. (2011). “Social media: what most companies don’t know.” Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://hbr.org/web/slideshows/social-media-what-most-companies-dont-know/1-

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“Nine ways your business could be using social media but probably isn’t.” (2009). North Social. pp. 1-20.