BUS104 - Social Media: Giving Power to Consumers Against Companies

This essay examines the extent to which social media empowers consumers to take actions against companies. It discusses how social media has shifted power into the hands of consumers, allowing them to resist brands, share experiences, and hold organizations accountable for their actions. The essay highlights examples of consumers using social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to protest against companies, raise awareness about issues, and demand justice. It also acknowledges the potential for consumers to engage in anti-branding activities. The essay concludes that social media is not only a marketing channel but also a platform for customer experience, enabling consumers to influence brand responsibility, provide feedback, and participate in public debates, which ultimately leads to improvements in products and services. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar essays and study resources.

Running Head: Impact of Social media
Introduction to marketing

Impact of Social media 1
Extent to which social media is giving power to consumers to take actions againts
companies
Powers are shifting more in consumers hand due to social media. Few years back
individual use to have very little power to take steps against any organisation. The traditional
methods have collapsed and it is shifted to it remove the imbalance communication between
the customers and corporation. Social media is not only used for communication purpose but
it has provided many ways to customers to take proper actions against any mistake. It has
provided power to consumers to resist brands on the social media platform for their faults.
Additionally it has given a chance to consumers to be an adaptive observer and take proper
actions.
This has helped in building trust as the brand interactivity depends on the trust. There
are various cases where power was used by consumers to stand for their right; recently in
Swedish case customers took a stand by using Facebook as a platform. The goal was to bring
back the old ako which was made possible by just posting a single picture, the power of
single picture lead to reintroducing the brand in the market (Parveen, Jaafar and Ainin,
2015). This was just achieved by the power of consumers. They have given right to
customers to show their reaction for the wrong thing so that brand owners take action
accordingly.
Consumers now a days control the information and the content with the help of social
media, on the other hand organisations are losing control over their content. Consumers have
active participation with all the activities and can take appropriate actions when required
(Rodriguez, Peterson and Ajjan, 2015). Consumers have the wrong powers as well they can
destroy brands name by getting engaged in anti-branding activities. Another example where
power of consumers was used for anti-branding is the website exploring the McDonalds

Impact of Social media 2
cruelty, thus consumers have the right to spread the awareness about the content that is
irreverent or harmful (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2016).
It is the fact that social media is constantly developing with new posts and blogs
coming up very day. It has provided numerous ways to communicate with each other. Social
media has powerful pace to control and observe everything that is happening. This is created
pressure among business as they need to think wisely before creating any investment. Social
media have given right to consumers to aggressively influence the responsibility. Social
media is a way to share the ideas and is alos a way to give punishment to the irresponsible
organisations (Moro, Rita and Vala, 2016). Like consumers protested against the
Greenpeace-led Facebook to support deforestation in Malaysia and from that date people
have followed more protest pages (Montalvo, 2016).
It can be stated that Social media is no longer a marketing channel but is a channel
that provide customer experience. It is very difficult to build the brand culture by keeping
customers in mind as they extremely focus that the voice is delivered correctly. Most of the
success of the company depends upon the customer satisfaction and social media have
provided a way to customers to provide response against any urgent situation (Ngai, Tao and
Moon, 2015). According to the research it was twitter and Facebook are continuously
observed by consumers thus any cheap comments can be a concern for the company as user
have the power to take immediate actions.
In today’s era, everyone spends majority of the time on social media. It has become a
platform for consumer to raise their voice against any issue or any company. It has been
serving as a bridge between the organisations and the issue of consumers (Paniagua and
Sapena, 2014). It has provided the ability to make the difference in the world as consumers
can talk online, they can discuss regarding any issue by making changes. Social media have

Impact of Social media 3
given extra control to consumers by allowing them to fix their problem by raising their voice.
The companies often respond to social issues faster as it is visible to everyone (Lange,et. al,
2016).
The control over consumers has become beneficial for companies as they can use suggestions
or feedback given by customers to update their services. Companies are listening to
consumers and are coming up with the solution. Social media allows consumer powers to be
used in an efficient way. Social media is not biased to any group, as normally only powerful
people gets the chance to speak in general public but social media have given the right to
everyone along with powerful people. Especially, youth are active on social media thus this
platform can be used as a place where any issue could be raised, discussed or debated. Social
networking provides young people with many opportunities on how they can successfully
function in a community or at a public space (Li Stacks, 2015). If any misconception is seen
then they can file the online petition and raise their voice so that particular actions could be
undertaken.
Social media is a giant platform where everyone can speak and raise their perception
regarding the issue. It has given the power to user to recovery back to companies if there is
any issue so that companies could improve their product. Social media is a channel where
consumers can raise their voice for justice or it can be seen as a new form of communication
by engaging the real issues. If consumers face any issue regarding payments they can ask for
return on investment. It also indulges the audience to take the step for their right and facing
the challenges by raising the voice. Additionally, social media helps in removing the risks as
it provides security to the consumers that their query would be resolved (Wamba and Carter,
2016). The power in the hand of consumers is very beneficial as they can share their
experience and provide interactive customer feedback for encouraging organisation to serve
better.

Impact of Social media 4
Social media helps consumers to make appropriate decisions, amazon is an example
where customers raise their issue regarding any product or they can appreciate the services.
These reviews help in sharing information and gaining knowledge about other's experience.
Social media has helped in building trust among employees and vendors. Apart from that
more that 89% people use social media, thus this platform can be used to connect people for
any location and have a strong discussion regarding the issue so that conclusion could be
figured out. During crises social media is the only way to commutate and raise their voice.
Most importantly now days with the increase in online shopping the consumers have the right
to speak if they get any wrong product, they can ask for their refund (Kumar, et. al, 2016).
The powers are more in consumers hand and this is good as it provides justice to every user.
Additionally a network like twitter can be used by a user to give their opinion against ay
constructive or destructive approach. Most importantly social media can be used as a valuable
aid for solving crimes (Hofacker,et. al, 2018).
Social media plays the role of political influence as it is a powerful source to
influence the audience and listen to on-going debates by being a part for making decisions. It
is the best way to connect people from vast distances and take steps for public support.
Social media have transformed the marketing industry by proving the ability to brands by
personally engage the customers (Chang, Yu and Lu, 2015). Additionally, it has given the
right to consumers to respond to the brand by making comments whenever there is an
issue. The use of social media is slowly becoming standard practice.
It can be concluded that social media has given power to consumers to take actions
againts companies. They have provided many ways to user to take steps for their jusitice and
file online petitions for any mis behaviour. Consumer power on internet and digital media
environment has presented a framework to describe the sources of consumer demand and
information (Alwagait, Shahzad and Alim, 2015). They help in shaping the social media

Impact of Social media 5
platform by effectiveness and ability to speak for their right. Social media have given the
chance to everyone to speak up and raise their issue (Agnihotri, et. al, 2016). It is a large
platform which covers wide audience in making decisions. It is very helpful for consumers to
ask their query and look for appositive outcome. In today’s time everyone is available on
online sites thus it is a right way for users to speak up their issues and look for the solution. It
is beneficial for the companies to work on the feedback provided by the users (Hajli, 2014).

Impact of Social media 6
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Impact of Social media 7
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