BUS104 - Social Media Platforms: New Customer Behaviors & Marketing

This essay examines the increasing influence of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat on customer behavior and the resulting opportunities for marketers. It highlights how social media facilitates the sharing of ideas and information, impacting consumer shopping decisions and brand relationships. Marketers can leverage social media data for targeted advertising, enhance customer service, and conduct real-time surveys. The essay also emphasizes the importance of word-of-mouth advertising through social media and how businesses can create virtual homes to engage with customers, gather feedback, and improve their offerings, ultimately boosting sales and customer loyalty. Desklib offers similar essays and study resources for students.

Running Head: INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
Introduction to Marketing

INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING 1
Social media can be defined as an interactive computer- mediated technologies which assist in
the facilitation of creating and sharing of ideas, expression, career interests and information
through networks and virtual communities. Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are the most
commonly used social media platforms that are increasingly being used by the consumers in
different parts of the world. New ways are being described by social media through which
individuals are engaging with the content on the internet and vice versa (Tsimonis and
Dimitriadis, 2014). This essay focuses on the increased use of social media platforms which
leads to new behaviors among the customers and creates opportunities for the marketers.
Social media acts as a platform through which the customers are able to connect with the
organizations and vice versa. For the customers, social media can also be referred to as the
outlets which present wealth opportunities for the establishment of closer relationships with the
brand through various functions such as plug- in applications, fan page and groups. Social media
also have a great influence on the shopping decisions of the customers. The content spread on the
social media has the ability to make people act in particular ways which are positive for the
owners of the business. In this way, there is a great influence of social media on the behavior of
the customers. There are a lot of differences in the demographics on the number of people who
use the internet, the kind of devices used by them and the manner adopted for looking for
information. Despite these differences, the prevalence and meaningfulness is increasing day by
day for all demographics (Hollebeek, Glynn and Brodie, 2014).
An important role is played by the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and
Snapchat in influencing the behavior of the customers as they gets the customers to sign over the
rights to their privacy. In this way, the customers authorize these platforms to collect information
regarding their activities both on and off the website. The marketers can utilize the data collected
by these platforms for showing the relevant advertisements to the target customers (Baumöl,
Hollebeek and Jung, 2016).
Therefore, social media is something which cannot be overlooked by the business owners.
According to Deloitte reports, the customers who use social media during their shopping process
are more likely to get influenced by it and is expected to spend more on the purchases then the
customers who do not do so. However, the customers cannot be forced by the marketers to use
social media but they can influence the kind of things that are found by the social media

INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING 2
connected shopper. This is the reason why it is important for the marketers to establish their
presence on the social media (Roesler, 2015).
The marketers can even use point of sale marketing in their social media in order to encourage
people for using social media. If people are aware of the fact that they can find some special stuff
and information on the social media then they will go for checking it out. The shopping behavior
of all the ages is influenced by social media especially younger and Hispanic populations.
Therefore, there is a requirements that the marketers refine their social media strategies in order
to bring a boost in their sales (Hudson, Huang, Roth and Madden, 2016).
Therefore, there are a number of new opportunities for the marketers to influence the customers
through social media. Social media platform is an effective way of reaching greater number of
audience than ever before. This can be done with the help of targeted communication through
which the message of the company can be received by a large number of customers. Through
social media, two way communication can easily take place through the creation of interactivity
between the businesses and customers and therefore have an influence on the customer behavior
(Solomon, Dahl, White, Zaichkowsky and Polegato, 2014).
The marketers can create a virtual home for their business on social media through which they
can take the benefit of the opportunities that increase their visibility to the customers. The
customers can use the freedom provided by the social media platform for giving their opinions
regarding the products and services offered by the companies in a semi- public setting where
several number of people can see and read such opinions. The positive comments on the social
media relating the business and its products can play an important role in driving the sales of the
business (Ngai, Moon, Lam, Chin and Tao, 2015).
The dissemination of important information relating to the company also becomes easier with the
help of social media. The dissemination of the information is not restricted to what is shared by
the company itself but also involves a number of sites on the social media network which are
completely devoted to the customer collected information. The increase in the open availability
of the information has now converted the customers into a researcher. Therefore, the marketers
can prompt the customers to comment their views regarding the products of the company so that
they ca be circulated among the potential customers of the brand. This will assist the customers

INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING 3
in logging on to social media whenever they will think of purchasing any product (Heller Baird
and Parasnis, 2011).
Another way which can be used by the marketers for influencing the behavior of the customers is
to take the needed steps for improving the customer service. This means that on the basis of the
opinions received by the customers on the products of the company, needed amendments can be
made in the services and features of the products in order to meet the demands of the customers.
With the help of the information available openly on the social media, the customers can make
the buying choices that best fits their requirements (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang, 2012).
The marketers can also take the advantage of the opportunities available to them in the form of
providing an open chance to the customers to directly communicate with a brand representative
online which, in turn, also assists in increasing the loyalty of the customers towards the
company. The marketers can do this by way of establishing a personal connection with the
customers which may not be done by the marketers of some other companies and therefore the
companies can take advantage of this fact. The marketers can also use this platform for the
purpose of resolving the complaints and grievances shared by the customers on the social media.
Through the social media platform, the complaints of the customers can be handled by the
marketers in an effective orders for reducing the bad publicity in a compassionate and
professional manner (Kumar, Bezawada, Rishika, Janakiraman and Kannan, 2016).
Another opportunities which can be utilized by the marketers is to conduct real- time surveys on
social media which can assist them in analyzing the their market along with conducting effecting
tracking of their performance, understanding customer demographics, follow- up with the
customers and crowd sourcing innovative ideas. Social media is an effective platform for
conducting such surveys and gathering the responses within a small period of time as it is used
by a large number of people across the globe. Instant feedback can be gathered on social media
with quick polls which can assist the marketers in quick decision making regarding the
marketing strategies to be adopted (Samson, 2015).
The sales of an organization are greatly affected by the word- of mouth advertising. The
marketers can also use the social media platform for the purpose of conducting the word of
mouth advertising. Through the word of mouth advertising, a single message sent by a single
customer can go worldwide in an instant way. There are some networks which can be utilized by

INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING 4
the customers for the purpose of communicating thousands of people at the click of a single
button and therefore can easily send the message regarding the company (Bratawisnu, Giri and
Rinaldi, 2017).
Therefore, it can be concluded that social media is a platform which assist in the facilitation of
creating and sharing of ideas, expression, career interests and information through networks and
virtual communities. This essay focused on the increased use of social media platforms which
leads to new behaviors among the customers and creates opportunities for the marketers. The
content spread on the social media has the ability to make people act in particular ways which
are positive for the owners of the business. The marketers can utilize the data collected by the
social media platforms for showing the relevant advertisements to the target customers. Also,
they can conduct real- time surveys among the target audience for getting instant feedback.

INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING 5
References
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INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING 6
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