SOLUTION: Social media as the new marketing strategy | My Assignment Tutor

Student ID: Student Surname: Student Given Name: Proposed Research Title: Social media as the new marketing strategy Research Background / Context: Background: The higher development pace of web clients and the increasing number of users registering on social media is one of the many motives to advertisers interested in gaining consumer engagement (Carim and Warwick, 2013). This development has been rapid also because of the development in technology, awareness around the usage of internet and its many portals. Businesses were quick to gauge this radical change and could see how opting for this new way can help increase their sales and edge over the competition. To back this understanding are several researches in this direction that demonstrate and evidence the co-relation between social media tools and their impact on consumers. Today, social media marketing is a very common and more used marketing strategy for both consumers and businesses. Marketing managers are faced with these challenges to balance the customer needs and company’s strategic goals. They have to be creative of incorporating social media options into their marketing plans and use it for varied purposes such as advertisement, branding, promotion and even after-sale. Modern days consumers are spoilt for choices of social media platforms and therefore, have greater accessibility to information and knowledge of the products or services they wish to buy. Social media today, not only facilitates searching of products and services but also help access reviews, rating, after-sale services etc. to help take all necessary pre-purchase decisions (Wang and Chang, 2013). It has therefore, become vital to tap into social media to exploit opportunities to create brand awareness in the minds of the potential customers and gain competitive advantage in the global era. This is because social media affects the psychology that drives purchase and the ability to convert a potential client to an actual customer and to retain them. However, businesses also have to be cautious due to a rising trend in social media advertising – User Generated Content (UGC) as they have the ability to influence the buyer’s decisions. Several social media sites have provided a platform for consumers to voice their opinions in terms of providing feedback, reviews and their level of satisfaction with the product or service. Many large firms use this in their favour by focusing on customer engagement, responding to their needs thereby winning their loyalty and retaining a client base. Businesses can use UGC to enhance their credibility as many tend to share their honest findings about the product and it is free marketing to them. Adding such reviews on their website makes them more reliable and successful in the era of digital globalisation. While large businesses turned to social media marketing, small businesses still debate the idea. They still prefer traditional marketing and some consider digital marketing not feasible. Several researchers argue that small businesses should consider digital marketing as the core to their marketing communication plans. They insist that not only is it a more popular approach but also more affordable than going down the traditional route. They also stress on the need of educating small businesses on the fundamentals of social media, its significance, the various beneficial tools etc. to help them utilize it to the best of its potential. Small business owners need to understand that consumer attitude, demand and expectations have changed. Integrating social media aspects in their marketing can help them reach their customers, hear them, receive feedback, and gain their confidence. However, it is not as simple as it sounds. Implementing digital marketing and using social media requires awareness and efficiency. It needs well defined marketing strategies to measure its success or failure. Research Aim & Objectives: Aim: To explore social media marketing strategies to understand its psychological impact on the consumers and the importance of small businesses shifting to using it Objectives: To understand the effect of User-Generated Content (UGC)To assess how it helps attain competitive enhancements in the digital eraTo examine the reasons of why small businesses need to go digital Literature Review: Companies generally do tend to focus on the psychological, emotional and social needs that determine consumer behavior in their marketing strategies (Quelch and Jocz, 2008). With the growing need to earn a significant place in digital marketing, companies now have several tools that help to enhance consumer interest, brand positioning and also improve the overall customer experience. However, it’s not only companies that have all these tools at their disposal, customers also have new and better ways of seeking information that help them make their pre and post purchase decisions. One such tool is User-Generated Content (UGC) where people upload videos sharing product reviews on several parameters. While this is not entirely unheard of as a marketing strategy, there is no denial of how popular it has become in recent times. It stems from the fundamentals of human behaviour that we are dependent on our social networks to make all sorts of decision. There are no laws as such governing these videos and therefore, they are free to upload their content (Jarrett, 2008). While videos remain a popular, there are several other means of communication used by people such as blogs, chats, tweets, images etc. Several studies also find that consumers find these more trustworthy and many consider them as ‘opinion leaders’ (MacKinnon, 2012). Therefore, businesses are forced to deliver quality products and services as these users would share honest reviews about them thereby affecting their sales and brand perception. To attain competitive advantages, businesses are not only focusing on pushing the products through digital media but also advertising their quality by registering themselves on various portals that are popular such as Trust Pilot, Which reviews etc. These modes are considered very vital to boost social media presence and credibility. It works by attracting content that drives customers towards them. Many companies encourage customers to post reviews and feedback to portray themselves confident about the quality of the product and service they offer. Marketing managers also have to be able to access these aspects in terms of both financial and non-financial measurement to ensure the business not only connects with their client base but also gain a competitive advantage. Therefore, there has been a change in the approach for the businesses as well. They are not only spending more on social media marketing, but also being conscious in how they can use this medium to its optimum potential. Therefore, some companies hire content creators to build content for their digital platforms in line with the Unique Selling Points (USP) of their product or service and their profit objectives. Small business claim to be affected by large businesses investing heavily on digital marketing and affecting the small businesses. However, several small businesses are making efforts to make their presence felt on digital marketing but they lack knowledge to do better. Also, many are still reluctant and rely on traditional marketing methods. Most small businesses rely on their networking and elements of personal touch with their regular customers. Hence, their marketing strategy revolves primarily on relationship building. However, consumers expect more and internet has certainly changed the way a customer behaves thereby affecting their purchase decisions. Small businesses need to look at exploiting these opportunities to reinforce their reliability and loyalty amongst their customers. Therefore, these are important matters to address. Methodology & Methods: Methodology: This research will rely on the use of secondary data that it will use to explain the analysis and provide critical analysis to the existing literature. It will use case studies of some businesses to understand how digital marketing has helped their business alongside viewing several UGC videos to evaluate its impact on the consumer’s buying intentions. The research will evaluate and reflect on how both large and small businesses have used customer engagement to their benefit and also how small business have suffered not catching up to this marketing revolution. It will also refer to secondary data to understand how these shortcomings could be made up for and if it is worthwhile for small businesses to make these changes. It will also rely on this information to understand the challenges small businesses face in implementing social media. Data collection methods: The basis for this research is secondary data from academic sources such as journals, articles, books and also evaluating the digital content in light of the objectives of the research. This method is chosen not only for its simplicity and availability but also bearing in mind the current situations. Reference List: Wang, J. and Chang, C., 2013. How online social ties and product related risks influence purchase intentions – A Facebook experiment. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 12(5), pp.337-346. Carim, L. and Warwick, C., 2013. Use of social media for corporate communications by research-funding Organisations in the UK. Public Relations Review, 39(5), pp.521-525. Quelch, J. and Jocz, K., 2008. Milestones in marketing. Business History Review, 82(4), pp.827-838. MacKinnon, K., 2012. User Generated Content Vs Advertising; Do Customers Trust the Word of Others over Advertisers. The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 3(1), pp.14-22. Jarrett, K., 2008. Beyond Broadcast Yourself (TM): The Future Of YouTube. Media International Australia, pp.132-144.