"The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media" reader response draft 1

The article titled “The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media” (Newton, 2014) states that social media is a critical concept to all businesses. The author discusses the different challenges and opportunities of using social media for businesses (as cited in Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). He believes that social media is crucial for improving sales and it is advisable to allow employees’ participation in the platform. However, businesses have to know ways to attract their target market and also engage them through the right social media platform.

In this article, the author mentions that “social media is a concept that most organizations are realizing they have to embrace”. I feel that this is indeed true based on my personal experience. I use social media on a daily basis, and I usually browse through different platforms for new updates on products such as clothing, accessories and shoes. For example, if I come across a product I like on Instagram, I would visit the online store and purchase it. Hence, social media serve as a good advertising platform for businesses as they can make use of it to increase brand exposure and increase web traffic. Moreover, there is an increasing trend in the users of social media, according to the statistics provided by Statista; number of social network users worldwide has climbed from 0.97 billion in 2010 to 1.79 billion in 2014. This means that businesses would be able to achieve higher market penetration through social media.

The author also point out another important point which is choosing their active sites. I feel that this would be dependent largely on the business’s targeted market. For instance, if the target group is the youth, Instagram, Twitter and online blogs would be a better choice of platform as most users are from the younger age group. However, just being active is not enough to attract new customers; businesses have to engage customers by using humor and interesting posts. One of the five reasons why people follow brands on social media is for its entertaining content (2014 Statistics and Trends for Businesses on Social Media). This is true because as a consumer myself, I would be attracted to sites which uses humor to promote their products and also this would certainly leave a deep impression in me.

In addition, the two other reasons to why people follow brands on social media are for its customer service and ability to offer feedback (2014 Statistics and Trends for Businesses on Social Media). Being a consumer myself, I would like to have product support after purchases from the seller as this would improve my buying experience and trust in the products. Furthermore, before I buy a product I would read the buyers’ reviews of the product and the feedback provided by the seller as these would have an influence on my purchase decision. In order to provide feedback more efficiently, the author suggested that organization should set up a social media team to handle any matters regarding the platform and allow other employees in the organization to participate instead of blocking social media applications. I feel that this is a useful concept which businesses should adopt as by proving prompt feedback to the consumers, as it can improve customer satisfaction and in turn translates into more sales for the company.

In conclusion, social media is a useful tool for businesses as it can help to boost their sales level. Nonetheless, it is only useful if businesses choose the suitable platform where the targeted customers are present and also have the ability to retain them.



References


Number of social network users worldwide from 2010 to 2018 (in billions). (2015). Retrieved Feb 5, http://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/


Puala Newton. (2014). The Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media. Retrieved Feb 9, http://www.intelligenthq.com/social-media-posts/the-challenges-and-opportunities-of-social-media/

Douglas Karr.(2014). 2014 Statistics and Trends for Businesses on Social Media. Retrieved Feb 8,
https://www.marketingtechblog.com/2014-statistics-trends-businesses-social-media/

Andreas M. Kaplan & Michael Haenlein. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Retrieved Feb 9 http://michaelhaenlein.com/Publications/Kaplan,%20Andreas%20-%20Users%20of%20the%20world,%20unite.pdf