Digital and Social Media Usage Analysis: Amazon's Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Amazon's digital and social media usage. It begins with an executive summary and introduction to the company, including its products, services, financial status, and employee count. The report then delves into Amazon's utilization of various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest, as well as its influencer program, detailing how each platform is used for marketing, promotion, and sales. Furthermore, the report analyzes the strategic advantages Amazon gains through the use of Big Data, providing a case study of how the company leverages customer data for improved service and personalized experiences. The analysis acknowledges potential privacy concerns related to Big Data and concludes by emphasizing the significance of social media in modern business and Amazon's success in the e-commerce landscape.

Running head: DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE ANALYSIS, AMAZON
DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE ANALYSIS, AMAZON
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1DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE ANALYSIS, AMAZON
Executive Summary
This paper provides information relating to Amazon.com, Inc. It states the various products and
services offered by Amazon, its area of operations, the total number of employees working at
present and the financial status of the company. Apart from this the company also makes use of
digital and social media platforms to promote and conduct its products and services. The paper
states all the forms of social media that are used by Amazon and how Big Data helps to provide
the company a strategic advantage in the market. The conclusion states how Big Data may be a
concerning factor to the consumers since it is a threat to the privacy of personal information of
individuals.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Section 1: Company Information.....................................................................................................3
Section 2: Digital and Social Media Use.........................................................................................4
Section 3: Analysis..........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
Appendix........................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
This paper provides a brief overview of Amazon and the various products and services
provided by it. The company has experienced a great rise in the amount of revenue generated.
The use of social media as a promotional and sales tool is said to be the most important factor
behind the rise of the company. This paper analyzes how the company makes use of different
social media platforms to its own benefit. The introduction of Big Data has proven to be an
effective tool for providing companies with a strategic advantage. This paper also discusses how
the use of Big Data has affected Amazon in a positive manner and how it may continue to do so.
Section 1: Company Information
Amazon.com, Inc. is an American company that conducts is business as Amazon and is
associated with e-commerce and cloud computing services on a global scale. The company was
established on July 5th 1994 by Jeff Bezos (Amazon, 2015). The company’s headquarters are
located in Seattle, Washington in the United States.
In its initial stage, Amazon started out as a website hosting an online bookstore. This
soon changed into Mp3, video, audio book streaming/downloading and the sale of electronic
appliances, clothing, jewelry and accessories, food, furniture and entertainment appliances. The
company is also involved in the production and sale of electronic goods like the Fire TV, Fire
Tablets and Kindle e-books. Amazon also produces Echo, which is considered as the world’s
largest cloud computing service. The other products of Amazon include the Amazon app store,
Amazon Prime, Alexa, Amazon Web Services, AmazonFresh, Amazon Digital Game Store,
AmazonWireless and ComiXology.

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The company has a primary goal of focusing on the consumers and fulfilling their needs.
Apart from this, the company has set an objective to emphasize on the growth and maximization
of profit while maintaining a favorable market position in terms of competition. The company
wishes to infiltrate potential markets overseas, bring about a change and reduction in the delivery
times and providing better customer service.
Amazon has a significant base of hard working, smart and talented individuals employed
under the company. As of 2017, the company has 566,000 employees actively working as a part
of the company.
In terms of revenue, Amazon is considered the largest internet based company. The
company generated a revenue of US$ 177.86 billion for the financial year of 2017. In the same
year, the company recorded a net income of US$ 3.033 billion with a total asset of US$ 131.31
billion and a total equity of US$ 27.709 billion (Amazon, 2015).
The official e-commerce website of the company is https://www.amazon.com and
https://aws.amazon.com is another website of the company that deals with web services.
Section 2: Digital and Social Media Use
Amazon as a company has been efficient in its use of the social media platform. The
online shopping website is a popular part of the lives of a large number of consumers all over the
world. Amazon makes use of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest and Social
Media Influencers in order to communicate with customers, promote and advertise products and
services and to facilitate sales (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). The ways by which the company
makes use of the various social media platforms are explained below:-

5DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE ANALYSIS, AMAZON
 Facebook – Amazon currently has an estimated 26.6 million likes on its Facebook page.
The reason behind the huge number of followers on Facebook is the company’s
promptness in answering the doubts and queries of the users/consumers as well as
addressing the frustrations and grievances of the consumers (Hajli, 2014). The company
is creative in its approach while answering the consumers and makes sure the answers are
polite, appropriate, prompt and at times, humorous in nature. Even though it is a difficult
and impossible task to reply to all the people, the company still makes it a point to answer
as many questions and complaints as possible. The connectivity of a user’s Facebook
account with his Amazon account allows him to view product reviews and wishlists
posted by his mutual connections or friends from Facebook. In case of promotions, the
company uses Facebook effectively to highlight numerous products, offer limited time
promo codes and discounts in order to encourage more sales (Kumar et al., 2016). The
company also promotes relevant products on certain events to further increase its sales.
For example, many gift items and products are displayed on Facebook as promotional
content or advertisements on Valentine’s Day. Due to this reason, many of the users who
were going to purchase items for that day directly purchase it online and therefore sales
takes place (Kumar et al., 2016).
 Twitter – The company lays the same emphasis on the utilization of twitter for sales and
promotion just as it does with Facebook. However, in case of twitter, the company is seen
to be more creative in its innovative process to provide convenience to its customer. In
case a product featured on Twitter has an Amazon Code included, it can be added
immediately to the Amazon Cart just by replying with the hashtag #Amazoncart. Amazon
currently has 2.77 million followers on twitter. The in house team present in the company

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makes clever use of user generated content and post images, videos and GIF’s, Vine
videos and provides links to live periscope events to increase data traffic. The company
maintains different accounts for the different types of services it provides. The company
makes use of light and breezy- visually appealing content style, conducts online contests,
promoting, and participating in the latest trends via the use of hashtags in order to acquire
new customers (Vinerean et al., 2013).
 Snapchat – In case of Snapchat, the company provides exclusive Amazon codes via the
Snapchat stories (Leeflang et al., 2014). This is known as ‘Snap Deals’ and the company
is efficient in making use of this technique for the Snapchat social media platform.
 Instagram – In case of Instagram, the company focuses on the use of content that is high
in visual appeal. The company frequently uses pictures of animals, since it has a high
visual appeal and makes the content have a high sharing rate by users.
 Pinterest – Pinterest acts as an effective form of social media platform for Amazon
since it helps in direct sales. The use of sensational and vibrant pictures persuades users
to buy the products portrayed (Mohapatra, 2013).
 Social media influencers – Amazon is known to use its influencer program in order to
make use of the prominent social media personalities or youtubers to promote their
products and services (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). The social media personalities receive
a commission for the promotional activities they conduct via the posts on their pages or
accounts. The Amazon Influencer Program allows a scope for youtubers (who fulfill the
criteria) to sign up and promote Amazon products and services and receive a
remuneration for it.

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Section 3: Analysis
Big Data has experienced a significant growth over the last 3 years. It has become quite
popular for the companies because of the advantage it provides in giving the companies a
competitive edge. With the growing reliance on technology by business organizations, the
collection of individual data takes place from mobile devices, surveillance systems, sensors,
computers and so on. This data which is collected is utilized by the companies to know valuable
information about the individual consumers and provide them with better customer service
(Sagiroglu & Sinanc, 2013).
The strategic advantages of big data can be explained better by stating the following
scenario as an example:–
Mr. Jones has been an Amazon Prime subscriber for almost an year. He recently started having
problem while signing in to his account. Due to this reason, Mr. Jones put in a request for service
on the official website of Amazon. Within minutes of putting in his service request, an Amazon
employee via a telephone call contacted Mr. Jones. The employee greeted him and stated the
current problem he is facing in his Amazon Prime account and resolved the issue within a few
minutes. This brought a great satisfaction to Mr. Jones since the problem was resolved in a short
time. A customer service request is usually a nightmare for consumers and is quite a lengthy
process, which requires the customer to provide his name and other personal details for
verification. In case of Mr. Jones however, the Amazon employee knew exactly what was wrong
and what problem needed to be resolved and did so with a no nonsense attitude and prompt
approach. This was possible because of the availability of the required user data of Mr. Jones to
the Amazon employee.

8DIGITAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE ANALYSIS, AMAZON
As is evident from the example, the company was greatly successful in providing a
favorable customer experience. The company was effective in using the collected individual data
for providing a great customer service experience and strengthening the bond of the consumers
with company as well as increasing the goodwill of the company. The use of big data has
allowed the companies to provide the employees with the right tools to serve the consumer needs
in a seamless way without the need for individual form filling. It shows the customer that the
company cares about his needs and keeps a record of vital information on him so that the
consumer may feel comfortable while stating the problems he is facing. The consumers
experience a sense of control due to this reason, which has a positive impact on the establishment
of business relationships and company brand value.
Amazon Prime being an online streaming service, the company could have set up the
system in a way that they are notified when a customer is experiencing problems with his/her
account. This would allow the company to react faster and contact the consumer without him
having to put in a service request.
The use of Big Data by Amazon may be helpful to the company in achieving strategic
advantage, but from the perspective of a potential consumer, it is an issue of great concern. Big
Data consists of the collection of all the personal information of a potential consumer. In case of
a cyber attack or hacking, this data is prone to get leaked and the confidential information of an
individual may land in the wrong hands (Katal, Wazid & Goudar, 2013). Therefore, the
collection of personal information may be beneficial to the company but remains a threat to
potential consumers.

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Conclusion
Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn that social media platforms have emerged as an
important tool for business organizations to conduct their promotional activities and maintain
their competitive position. The wide reach of social media and its effective usage by Amazon has
helped it emerge as one of the leading electronic-commerce websites globally. The recent trend
of using Big Data analytical has proven to be efficient in gaining a database of valuable
information collected from both existing and potential customers. However, the risk factor still
remains as the data is vulnerable to leaks and cyber attacks, during the event of which all private
information of an individual may be compromised.

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References
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Katal, A., Wazid, M., & Goudar, R. H. (2013, August). Big data: issues, challenges, tools and
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Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R., & Kannan, P. K. (2016). From social to
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of Marketing, 80(1), 7-25.
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of Marketing, 80(1), 7-25.
Leeflang, P. S., Verhoef, P. C., Dahlström, P., & Freundt, T. (2014). Challenges and solutions
for marketing in a digital era. European management journal, 32(1), 1-12.

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