1 FACEBOOK AS A TOOL OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION The world of social media has no doubt brought in ample amount of business development opportunities alongside its very strong networking and marketing approach. The reach, the speed coupled with cost effectiveness is increasingly making social media the most chosen platform for business transactions by large as well as small scale companies. According to Shin, Pang & Kim, H. J. (2015), Facebook with its 2.27 billion monthly users has potential to promote business products and services, increase customer retention and support as well as boost recognition. In this article, the central emphasis would be in understanding the potentials of Facebook in business development and what are its wide spread impact across varied business sector. In the retail and e- commerce business, Facebook for Business has shown tremendous success results where it ensures perfect reach of the brand across its 2.5 billion user base every month, to bringing in more buyers through effortless signup process, email marketing and hassle free mobile app installations to finally making the sell happen. One of the leading example in this sector is ASOS, the online fashion retailer operating on a dynamic mobile platform which has significantly used Facebook ads to get customised and personalised advertising messages spread across varied social media platforms and increase sales by volumes (Lee, Hosanagar & Nair, 2018). Next is the consumer packed goods sector where it has been observed that globally 1.59B people have access to Facebook everyday and these CPG can easily market their products using this social media platform. One of the finest examples of this is none other than the renowned brand Tropicana (Luarn, Lin & Chiu, 2015). The next business sector where Facebook has made remarkable effect is the Tourism Industry also known as Destination marketing which is increasingly becoming popular in today’s age of digitalisation (Erkan, Gokerik & Acikgoz, 2019). TheconceptofFacebookforbusinessisnodoubtanintegratedmarketing communication approach which according to Schivinski & Dabrowski, (2015) aids the
2 FACEBOOK AS A TOOL OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION business organisation by providing multi-media promotional campaign ether through its class advertisingsattractiveannouncementaspectsorsponsoredbrandadvertisingstories. However one needs to be quite conscious regarding the authenticity of information available online alongside the security of consumer transactions and personal information as there is no such gate keeping when it comes to business transactions.
3 FACEBOOK AS A TOOL OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION References: Lee, D., Hosanagar, K., & Nair, H. S. (2018). Advertising content and consumer engagement on social media: Evidence from Facebook.Management Science,64(11), 5105- 5131. Luarn, P., Lin, Y. F., & Chiu, Y. P. (2015). Influence of Facebook brand-page posts on online engagement.Online Information Review. Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2015). The impact of brand communication on brand equity through Facebook.Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing. Shin, W., Pang, A., & Kim, H. J. (2015). Building relationships through integrated online media: Global organizations’ use of brand web sites, Facebook, and Twitter.Journal of Business and Technical Communication,29(2), 184-220.