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Using Social Networking Sites in Marketing Brand Development

December 22, 2020

Using Social Networking Sites in Marketing and Brand Development

Introduction

The rise of social networking in business operations and activities has changed how many people conduct their businesses today. Social media marketing uses social networking sites to communicate with the audience to build a brand, increase sales, and increase website traffic. Marketing through social networking sites involves the publication of unique and enticing content on company social media profiles, engaging the followers on social media, and analyzing data collected on these sites. Some of the commonly used social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Over the past decades, the rise in social networking sites has proven very useful in businesses' growth (Moser & Korstjens, 2018). Most companies have assimilated this technological advancement to aid in marketing and branding, thus becoming an interesting research topic. The rise in technological advancement has facilitated global connections through social networking, with millions of subscribers joining for various reasons.

Many studies have been conducted on social networking sites' role in morality, education, health, industrialization, and inequality. However, regarding its contribution to fostering marketing and branding of products, it remains a significant concern of whether it has met its intended target or not. Inconclusive research on this area propels further discussion to be conducted, making it relevant and crucial (Kujur & Singh, 2017). Whereas the benefits of using social networking sites to market products and increase brand are activities that many organizations, the ethics behind the practice have elicited mixed reactions. Many of the data used by marketers are private. They do not consult the owners before using these data. Due to these technological developments, millions of people worldwide have internet access and subscribe to at least one social networking site. This has provided businesses with opportunities for marketing and brand development. However, there is inconclusive research regarding social media's role and effectiveness as a branding tool (Nisar & Whitehead, 2016). The inconclusive research makes the proposed study both relevant and significant. This paper will show that organizations need to get the data owners' consent before using it for marketing and brand enhancement.

Analysis of Humanities

Human Behavior

Social media marketing has become a powerful tool for companies of all sizes and nature to connect with their customers and prospects today. Many customers interact with brands through social media, and organizations that have not made these efforts are missing out big and have to reconsider their strategies. Excellent and effective marketing on social networking sites can bring remarkable success to any organization by creating devoted brand advocates and driving clues and sales (Kujur & Singh, 2017). Social media marketing, also known as SMM, is a new form of internet marketing developed in the recent past, creating powerful content and sharing it with other people on social media to achieve marketing goals. Organizations can achieve many marketing goals through social networking campaigns. Organizations can increase website traffics, build conversation, raise brand awareness, and create a brand identity (Bashir et al., 2018). Organizations can also achieve positive brand association, improve customer brand communication, and interact with key clients, increasing leads and sales.

Through social media listening and engagement, business organizations can understand what consumers say about the brand and appreciate its brand rating (Bashir et al., 2018). Organizations that want to understand their performance will analyze their engagement, reach, and sales on social media using social networking analytical tools. Organizations that want to get a specific audience will conduct social media ads through social media advertising and reach their targeted audience. Whereas social networking sites can be an essential tool for marketers, little has been done to understand how they can be used effectively. Recent research has focused on understanding the pillars of social media marketing, which has created enough knowledge. According to Kujur and Singh (2017), the five pillars of social media marketing include developing a strategy, planning and publishing, listening and engagement, analytics, and reporting, and finally, advertising. Organizations need to understand rather than identify their marketing goals before determining the type of social media platform they want to use to convey their message.

The choice of the platform depends on the nature of the products and the targeted group. Every critical actor involved in social media marketing is measuring the success involved in the campaign. Most organizations have not gained much success through social media marketing strategy because they have not tracked data gained through marketing (Bashir et al., 2018). Organizations need to use analytics tools such as google analytics to measure their success through their campaigns. Google Analytics can also be used to determine the marketing strategy that is effective and which approach should be abandoned all the same. Attaching tracking tags to marketing campaigns is the best way to track marketing data and monitor their success or effectiveness. Organizations need to understand that social networking marketing campaigns do not go swimmingly for any brand (Mukherjee & Banerjee, 2019). The organizations need to have a playbook to manage some of the social media crises that crop up during the campaigns. Several publications have been developed which provide comprehensive social media crisis management to avoid social media management disasters. The success of any social media advertising campaign begins with having an effective strategy. Without an approach, organizations cannot enjoy the benefits presented by social media adverts.

Human Expression

Presently, social media sites in cyberspace are becoming the most ubiquitous human social activities. The trends in social networking among humans can be reflected in society's dominance today with data indicating that Facebook, the leading social networking site having around 2.13 billion users monthly with more than 1.4 billion active users according to 2017 statistics (Mukherjee & Banerjee, 2019). The rise in the number of social media users has prompted research in human psychology and sociology to investigate and study how human behaviors are affected by social media through human expressions. Apart from sociology and psychology, different disciplines have also studied human behaviors as influenced by the use of social networking sites (Bashir et al., 2018). Human behaviors analysis through online platforms is a new archetype in contemporary sociology. In the present technological and cultural environment, everyone uses some form of social media.

According to the monumental 2018 Pew Research Center study, 88% of respondents involved in the study between 18 and 29 confirmed to have used some social media. The same applied to about 77% of 30-49 years old respondents. Around 64% of people aged between the ages of 50 to 64 years reported having used social media in one way or another (Bashir et al., 2018). For the generation that did not grow up with the internet, these statistics may sound unrealistic. The high level of social networking site users has prompted many organizations to opt for social media marketing. The prevalence of social media use has made many people and organizations conduct most advertisements through online platforms. Advertisers and marketers can access as many customers as possible through social media advertisements.

Ethics in Social Media Marketing

With the high level of social media use prevalence, skepticism relating to online site content is increasing. All social media marketers must pay attention to the content readers' ethical issues for successful marketing campaigns. Considering ethics in building strategy and developing content is essential. It allows social media content developers to build a strong relationship and trust with the audience, making it easy to create a loyalty culture (Kujur & Singh, 2017). Studies have shown that some content promoters and social networking site marketers take advantage of many netizens' high dependence to exploit their emotions and gain attention. Similarly, many advertisers are colluding with social media companies to infiltrate the social media account holders' private data without their consent.

Whereas using account holders' data in marketing is ethical, data privacy issues are a big concern for many social media users. Several organizations that have not taken privacy issues seriously have found themselves in hot soup and compromised their brands' trustworthiness. Organizations have paid a lot of monetary compensation for not taking privacy issues seriously. Business leaders need to understand that customers are connected and willing to give brands more information (Mukherjee & Banerjee, 2019). However, the more information customers are willing to share, the riskier it becomes for those collecting the data. Privacy issues are the leading ethical issue involved in social media marketing. Apart from the privacy of the data, transparency and overstating of the content are other ethical concerns. Marketers need to clarify and not distort the information when developing their content to enhance trustworthiness and loyalty with the content consumers.

References

Bashir, A., Wen, J., Kim, E., & Morris, J. D. (2018). The role of consumer affect on visual social networking sites: How consumers build brand relationships. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 39(2), 178-191.

Karpińska-Krakowiak, M. (2016). The effects of social networking sites on consumer–brand relationships. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 56(3), 204-210.

Kujur, F., & Singh, S. (2017). Engaging customers through online participation in social networking sites. Asia Pacific Management Review, 22(1), 16-24.

Moser, A., & Korstjens, I. (2018). Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 3: Sampling, data collection, and analysis. European Journal of General Practice, 24(1), 9-18.

Mukherjee, K., & Banerjee, N. (2019). Social networking sites and customers’ attitude towards advertisements. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing.

Nisar, T. M., & Whitehead, C. (2016). Brand interactions and social media: Enhancing user loyalty through social networking sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 743-753.