Introduction
In this era of technology social websites are new means by which organizations communicate their brands with their customers. In order to increase the awareness of the products, companies need social media because it is easy and inexpensive way off marketing. As the peoples spend more time on social media they perceive it as a mentor for purchasing because through social media they can share information with each other.
The social media now a day has great impact on marketing communication. The growing importance of applications like Facebook, YouTube and others in consumers’ lives has an increasing influence on their communication habits. With consumers spending more and more time in the social media realm, an increasing share of communication occurs within these new social network environments. (Kozinets et al., 2008, Merz et al., 2009)
A random survey of 399 European and U.S firms showed that 88.2% of firms had started the initiative of social media, and almost 44.2% of these firms have fully integrated social media in their business policies (Barwise, 2010).
Related research demonstrates that consumers are spending 25% of their Internet time on social networking sites, up from15% in 2009 (Nielsen 2010). According to Experian Marketing Services in 2013, 27 percent of time spent online was on social networking. Which shows that people spend most of their online time on social media and its increasing every year. In 2014 smart phones trend is high which also has made easy to connect with social sites. Now Social media usage is not just business-to consumer (B2C), it is also extended to business-to-business (B2B) community. More than 93% B2B marketers use social media to interact with their customers (Holden-Bache 20...
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...s captured with three items measuring the acceptance of shared content while purchase intention was captured by three items adopted from (Wells et al., 2011).
Procedure
The researcher asked respondents to take an online survey questionnaire to measure their purchase intention and their attitude toward the Outfitters brand. The researcher design the questionnaire on Google docs and the URL of that questionnaire is then posted by the researchers on different social media sites including Facebook, twitter, Linkdin, badoo etc. The respondent just simply click that URL of the questionnaire that needs to be filled .The respondent then fill the questioners which on the back end is collected by the researcher in form of (excel sheet, bar graphs and Pie charts). Participation was voluntary by the participants and there was no monetary compensation given by the researchers.
With the invention and development of the Internet, communication has changed in to a revolutionized platform. The Internet has evolved from a means to facilitate data, to a stage of public communication through the use of social media. Social media has affected every aspect of interaction from personal lives to the business world. The business world however, has been especially impacted by the application of social media. Social media has opened up a plethora of opportunities for businesses to advertise, promote and market themselves to consumers. Social media “is one of the fastest growing and most promising strategies a business can employ to boost sales and conversions” (Adobe). As social media continues to grow as a marketing tool, more and more companies have incorporated social media into their daily business activity for brand awareness, target market reach, business expansion and customer interaction.
Many organizations have had to change the way they operate because social media has become such a powerhouse that has to be implemented in their marketing and communication strategies.
Among the billions of social media users, there is a percentage dedicated to businesses who use social media as part of their marketing strategy. The sheer number of people who use services like Facebook and Instagram on a daily
People can share information, learn about brands, products, and services of a company. Social media allows individuals to search different websites, compare prices and experience online shopping even though everyone is not an online shopper. Nevertheless, there are several avenues open having access to social media. There is the availability to keep up with the different trends, take advantage of promotions and the opportunity to engage in multiple organizations. However, social media can be used as a tool for exchanging knowledge among peers as well as provide an outlet for networking and allow people to social interact online or on a professional level.
Social media avenues are a new, upcoming, and popular way to advertise for businesses and for people to connect to each other. Alexis Ohanian once said that "Being effective at social media, whether for business or personal use, means capturing people who have short attention spans. They 're only a click away from a picture of a funny cat, so you have to make your thing more compelling than that cat. And that can be a high bar." (Ohanian) Powerful usage of social media can have a big impact.
The increased interest of social media usage has led numbers of company and business to provide new experiences for their customer to leverage media platforms to make more efficient and effective purchases (Rad, 2010). In addition, the emergences of Web 2.0 technologies are dramatically changing the web collaboration concepts, which made the web more social and interconnected. The aforementioned phenomenon is called “social commerce”. It is a subset of electronic commerce, which utilize social media, or online media that support interaction and user contributions to enhance the online purchase experience.
Over the years, developments in the advertising industry have been generally initiated by the growth of the mass media. The main inventions that have characterized the growth of the media include the printing press, radio, television and the Internet (Lee, 2009).
Social media is an outlet that allows a company to introduce new products, control the speed of how they want to introduce their products and free advertisement. Sending out a tweet or putting up a status would let your customers know about a product that is released. This benefits companies because they spend less money on televised commercials, which takes more time to produce and will not reach as many generations that it could by using social media. Any social media site is free, and it takes less than 10 seconds to put out a post on any website. Facebook has also launched Facebook advertisements, which assist advertisers by showing advertisements to a user based on demographic factors, such as location, age, or gender, and which can further engage the audience by incorporating social context into advertisements, such as displaying when someone’s friend has liked an advertiser’s Facebook page (Li, Lin, & Chiu, Fall2014) . There is nearly 100 million daily active snapchatters and growing. Teenagers are constantly on their phones checking their pages so there is no way they will not know about the product being released. Marketers can discover potential customers for market positioning by filtering the content that online users mention or discuss (Li, Lin, & Chiu,
In short, media plays a huge role in our lives and people rely on them for a lot of different reasons to benefit them by keeping up with the latest current affairs, local neighborhoods to avoid, traffic jams on major highway informing you to take an alternate route. Furthermore, we rely on mass communication for natural disasters reporting such as hurricanes and tornadoes in which gives us a chance to seek cover. Therefore, since media has the power to influence a large group of people there must be some ethical accountability in the process (Neher, W. W. Sandin, P.J., 2007, p. 198)
Social media is pertinent in use of communication throughout today’s organizations. There are many social media platforms that allow organizations to convey communication to potential consumers, stakeholders and the public. “It is essential for leaders to integrate these technologies and seek the best way to use social media and networks to the advantage of the business” (Billington, 2012, p.1). Business owners find that keeping up with current technology trends is essential in having a competitive advantage in the market place and having a strict set of standards and strategy is important in quickly adapting to social media trends.
Social media in marketing is used as an apparatus that builds an identity for a brand and gives awareness that they thought they could have. It does not only respect buyers, but also customer allegiance. Social media is widely-ranged so it can be used in whatever way that best conforms to the strategy and wants of the business. In accordance to the social media marketing report of 2014, a considerable (64%) of marketers use social media for at least 6 hours or more and 41% for 11 hours or more weekly, more importantly nearly (19%) of marketers use up to 20 hours each week on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and many more. The report also showed 7 social media platforms that led in 2014 which are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram.
Since social media users grow larger and larger, many companies take the opportunities of using social media marketing to reach more customers. Companies use social media marketing in order to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. Social media allows companies to see what prospects are saying about their brands and competitors. It also allows companies to build deeper relationships with existing customers that drives them to purchase again and again. Not only it can help them generate new leads, but it allows them to build deeper relationships with existing clients that drives them to purchase again and again. It has become common for businesses to branch out and experiment with multiple networks with the aim of reaching the maximum amount of costumers.
Social media marketing is a new trend of marketing where different Businesses have taken to social media sites to market and promote old and existing products and brands or create more awareness of their new products. Facebook and Twitter are the two most well known sites where firms market and promote themselves. Over one billion users worldwide use both sites everyday; from averages Joe’s to famous celebrities. Such is the power of each social media site that one post can make or break you.
We can now connect with each other instantly over the internet. It is quicker and easier to communicate and share with each other now than it has ever been. Massive amounts of people access the internet every day, and a good number of them use social media. This means that the ability to use social media and use it well is crucial for modern businesses. Whether for public relations or advertising, social media is now one of the best ways to reach consumers.
The first advantage of using social media in business is increasing brand awareness. Social media can help business to build their brand awareness by increasing interactions with a business brand. Brand awareness means the total percent of a target people who know the company exists and what the company offers of products or services. When the brand awareness is increased, the possibility of buying is increased. Thus, efforts should be made to make the brand a part of the consciousness of customers. For example, Coca- Cola is one of the best companies that enjoy unusual...