Week 2 – Why All Businesses Should Use Social Community Categorised Social Media.

All businesses should be using social media. Literally ALL of them.  It is an undeniable fact that businesses can obtain large amounts of information about their target markets by using social media. Over 60% of consumers use social media sites daily, with a third of that using the sites more than five times a day, as mentioned ‘Yellow Social Media Reports’. And this year, also in the ‘Yellow Social Media Report’, businesses with a social media presence has hit an all time high. Which is great and all but are they doing it correctly? Are they using the correct type of social media to effectively promote their products, services, brands or whatever it may be?

According to Tuten & Solomon in the book ‘Social Media Marketing’, social media sites can be categorised into four different ‘zones’. It is of my opinion that all businesses, no matter what size or type, should be using social media sites in the social community section. These sites (such as Facebook and Instagram) allow businesses to communicate and socialise with their consumers and other businesses which is EXTREMELY important when attempting to develop relationships with them. Don’t get me wrong, the other sites that do not fall into this category are important but just less so.

FEEDBACK FOR BUSINESSES

Using the social community sites allows for consumers to voice their opinions to the business. As these social media platforms involve commenting and instant messaging, it allows people that have interest in the business to directly contact the business about things they are doing wrong or positives in the way they are running their business. For example, if someone has a negative experience at a restaurant, they can tell the business exactly WHY it was negative and therefore the business is able to receive this criticism and make changes therefore improving their services for other customers that they may eat there next time.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

By being active on social media, customers are more likely to form relationships with the brand and may become a loyal customer. Communicating well with customers, will entertain them and allow them to form an attachment to the brand causing them to follow the accounts to keep updated on what the company is doing. Take the meme titled ‘brad’s wife’ according to know your meme.com (pictured below). The customer, Brad, openly complained about the unfair treatment of his wife to a restaurant called the ‘Cracker Barrel’. The meme allowed the company to gain a lot of attention due to the randomness of the comment and made a lot more people pay attention to their social media accounts so they could continue the meme itself. It developed a relationship with the customers and therefore gain customer loyalty due to the meme.

In conclusion, businesses should be using social media that falls under the zone of ‘social community’ or social media sites that are made for communicating and socialising. This is because it allows them to form strong customer relationships and receive feedback on how to improve their  business.