Project Objective
Discuss about the Impact Of Social Media Marketing On Brand Loyalty.
Social media is responsible for becoming the new and innovative frontier for businesses for the implementation of specific marketing strategies. With a low barrier to entry and several utilization platforms, social media is responsible for offering unparalleled opportunities for companies for the purpose of reaching “customers and establish brand awareness”. However, the utilisation of these platforms to their full capability is not always simple and has a unique risk set. With the advancement of technology and the customs by which “social media” can impact the lives of people, it is common for business professionals to feel that social media can help in the overall growth of the business. However it is desirable to get a proper consideration regarding the impact of “social media” so that it facilitates the growth of the business (Aral, Dellarocas and Godes 2013).
The aim of this report is to focus on the way in which the utilization of “social media” impacts the business in the sector of the consumers’ food industry. The chosen organisation for this particular assignment is that of the most popular Mc Donald’s. The project comprises of the idea regarding the focus on the importance of “social media” in the business (Chen, Chiang and Storey 2012).
The purpose of the particular research is “to establish the impact which social media has on the business developments and also its impacts on the organisational presentation and the way in which social media can enhance the overall business relationships”. The study is to be conducted with the company Mc Donald’s in mind and thereby conduct the respective research on the topic of the “impact of social media” on the production.
The scope of this research is to focus on “social media and the way in which it impacts the business development of an organisation”, the performance of an organisation and also the business relationships with respect to a particular company. The aim of the researcher is to understand the importance of the said objectives and also to conduct the research accordingly. The major focus is to keep to the social media influences on the business with the help of academic articles, books and journals in order to comprehend the “understanding of social media” on the business. The purpose of this study is to focus on both the positive as well as the negative sides of social media and also to provide suitable articles in support of it. In a way, the said research aims to focus on the importance of social media from an organisational perspective.
Project Scope
“Social media has several building blocks which can be utilized to capitalize on the visibility of the public space like the identity, communications, sharing and social presence, relationships and finally the reputation of the companies and groups. Therefore the social media activities are defined and they are aimed at focussing on all the users and crucial people of the organisation”. There can be both positive and negative changes to the business due to the “social media” (Erdo?mu? and Cicek 2012).
“Social media” is defined as “the production, consumption and exchange of information through online social interactions and platforms”. It is also stated that “social media is a group of internet based applications that are built on the technological foundations of the Web 2.0 and assist the creation and exchange of user generated content”. This is also considered to be responsible for building the functionalities of a business which is utilized for the leveraging of “customers and prospects” for the promotion of value creation. “Social media is also used to denote the way in which people interact, create, share and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities as well as in case of networks”. In association to the “traditional media, social media possesses a incredibly high degree of competence and this has become responsible for prompting several organisations to get into the social media platforms and become eligible enough of the participation in a successful online environment. The term “social media” came into vogue, little more than a decade ago and later on other connotations such as “blog” were also used to denote social media activities (Agnihotri et al. 2012).
Researches have revealed that, “social media and the visibility is intrinsically intertwined and the very idea of companies and people to remain engaged in this particular platform is for the purpose of increased visibility. The concept or the idea of visibility in social media can be stated as the public presence of an organisation or individual which has an impact on the organisational preferences of trust, buying preferences and crisis situations” (Treem, and Leonardi 2013). The degree of visibility on the “social media platforms” is used to denote the frequency with which the users of social media discuss about a particular organisation or issues which are connected to it. The companies with a strong brand presence or media presence are comparatively more on the individual’s minds and on the minds of the overall public in general which is responsible for a greater level of brand visibility, in addition to higher levels of organisational visibility, brand presence, company “trust and product loyalty”. This ultimately leads to the increased levels of business which is ultimately helpful for the organisation (Dijkmans, Kerkhof and Beukeboom 2015).
Literature Review
Research has revealed that a strong social media presence helps in assisting the sales persons and their respective customers for interacting, engaging and forming noteworthy relationships with their customers. The general public opinion points to the fact that social media is greatly influential and helps in assisting people as well as their customers in the development of social capital. It is desirable for businesses to try and reinvent better ways to amalgamate technology into the day to day activities of the organisation.
It has been seen that the organisations have been expending a substantial quantity of “money, time and other resources” for getting the constructive impacts of social media and also to further the opportunities of business both in the vicinity as well as globally. It has been stated that the sustainable growth of social media has been brought about because of the wide spread existence and “availability of high speed internet and the reach and popularity of hand held mobile phones”. At present the “web and social media” have develop into a place of prominence for products and services promotion and this is done also for attracting the target audience. The continuously increasing popularity and perceived value in the ‘brand development” and “organisational visibility research” on the adoption of social media and social networks are still at an infant stage. There are very limited examples for research on the particular topic which study the importance of social media potential for marketing from the perspective of a company. Despite the presence of very few literature sources which elaborate the “usage barriers and metrics of social media usage” and business development impact, there is very slight information on the factors which help in the determination of “social media” implementation by the organisations.
The idea of “social media” management is a continuous procedure which is implemented in the market, “branding and advertising for the establishment of the recognition and the trustworthiness of a business, company or a person’s reputation on the social media platforms”. The main aim of “social media management” is the development of a proper laid out plan with the purpose of researching the target market of an organisation which helps in the understanding of the potential customers of the organisation and also their interests. It has been stated that the major importance needs to be given to the interests of the clients and not only to the organisational objectives because the clients’ interests are bound to take the organisation to a particular level and make it successful. Another important “task of social media management is the planning and scheduling of thought provoking, educational as well as inspirational postings on the appropriate social networks”. These are capable of creating a buzz around the organisation or the products due to the “comments and viewpoints” that contribute towards the rise of the visibility of organisations on social networks (Fotis, Buhalis and Rossides 2012).
Business Development
Researchers state that the overall development of technology has been such that the world is bound to benefit immensely from the clever and well thought of “application of social media” which have assisted the firms in their expansion of newer prospects and this is irrespective of geographical regions as well as in case of target markets. Another benefit of the social media is the capability of the organisation to show their “corporate governance and culture” and all these can add a certain amount of value to the reputation of the business in respective circles. The famous social networks are capable of providing the required visibility to the organisation and an important aspect is obtaining the correct mix of the social networking platforms which can be considered to be significant to the organisations (Trainor et al. 2014).
The increasing “popularity and increase of social media usage by large number of consumers” are responsible for making the corporate world take notice and it has been made “their priority to be active on the social networking platform and majority of the corporate companies have made their presence felt on the social media platforms”. In the recent past, it has been possible for organisations to understand the business implications of such a user generated interface and the user interfacing phenomenon. The broad and noteworthy impact of social media on organisational performance can be resolute only when the critical threshold of followers on the social networking sites is reached (Erdo?mu? and Cicek 2012).
Fiscal performance indicators like the “sales level and growth, the profitability, stock price, operational performance” give importance to the introduction of new products, the quality of the products, efficiency of operation and also the “customer satisfaction”. The corporate social performance is largely dependent on the capability of the firm to establish honest relations at the time of social capital, customer preferences, social marketing as well as corporate social networking.
It has been seen that several organisations have started to build as well as maintain the social media pages as the “importance of Web 2.0 applications” has been realised and the idea behind the improvement of the organisational and social salience is responsible for the enhancement of the interest of the customers in the company as well as in the establishment of the relationships with the online community. “Social media can be distinguished from the social media” in the sense that it can be both web based as well as based on the mobile technologies since organisations consider the utilization of social media because of the wide and rapid consumer acceptance. The increase of the success of the higher communication channels have encouraged the companies and ensured their presence on a plethora of social networking platforms (Neiger et al. 2012).
Social Media Management
At the time of the examining the social connectivity of the employees, the usage of the social media and also “the job environment, it has been seen that there is a positive impact of the social media on the task performance” of the employees. The impact of the perceived brand value is studied in relation to the social networking sites and it has been seen that there is a positive impact of the brand on the electronic “word of mouth” (Kiron et al. 2012). Majority of the organisations at present utilize social media is responsible for causing organisations to get recommendations from one customer to another. For the purpose of adding more value to this particular platform, social media is responsible for allowing organisational information to get shared with the public and also in the obtaining feedback about the customers and their competitors (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung and Valenzuela 2012).
The world’s leading foodservice retailer Mc Donald’s is responsible for serving more than 69 million customers each day. Since a decade back, the company has been extremely active on social media and has been capable enough of connecting with digitally savvy customers and was responsible for building customer loyalty. The two major social media platforms which have been used by Mc Donald’s are Twitter and Facebook. Based on the customer engagement in such platforms the company had developed numerous strategies and procedures to assist it in building customer loyalty. Then the company utilized the websites for communication with the customers and keeping them engaged with the occurrences in the company as also engaging in conversations with them (Yadav, Joshi and Rahman 2015).
It has been stated after proper research that Mc Donald’s is one of the very few brands which have proved to be free of any sort of recession. Mc Donald’s have utilized “social media to try and sponsor their brand” and also attempt to utilize it despite facing a huge amount of criticism from the “health professionals, government and campaign groups”. There are several problems together with sarcastic or amusing observations which are added to the social media feeds. It is seen that the social media feeds of the company are being continuously updated specifically in case of twitter and facebook. The company often utilizes present and seasonal events to their advantage. It has been seen on twitter that the company leaves evidence of consumer engagement by means of their feed. A very strong yet simple method of achieving the customer engagement is by making them feel much more concerned in the company which they are worshipping. By the retweeting of opinions it becomes easier for people to relate to those customers who enjoyed a particular product which is always better than what the company has to say for its products (Kohli, Suri and Kapoor 2015).
Despite a certain amount of criticism which the company has received for its strategy from certain quarters, the strategy of Mc Donald’s is certainly worthwhile. Since Mc Donald’s is one of the major and well known brands in the world, they can help in attracting millions of customers to new customers to retain their current following. It is safe to say that as an organisation it has completely dominated a “segment of the fast food industry”. The growth and the understanding of the results need to be properly studied and understood (Chen, Chiang and Storey 2012).
Conclusion:
Relevant and proper research has concluded that social media has been prevent since the early 2000s. The social networks which have become phenomenally famous have to be adopted by organisations all over due to the fact that every company desires to achieve a state of global dominance. Therefore it can be said that it is a right decision to impact the society deeply and therefore the society at present is experiencing a tectonic shift in the global transformation. The world of social media is responsible for rendering an incredible revolution for the fostering of communication in the present scenario. Apart from the capability of the media to make daily life interesting, the social media and networking has become an effective medium for the purpose of business advertising and marketing,. In the attempt to choose the best medium for reaching the mass of internet users, the best medium is that of social media.
References:
Agnihotri, R., Kothandaraman, P., Kashyap, R. and Singh, R., 2012. Bringing “social” into sales: The impact of salespeople’s social media use on service behaviors and value creation. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), pp.333-348.
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Chen, H., Chiang, R.H. and Storey, V.C., 2012. Business intelligence and analytics: from big data to big impact. MIS quarterly, pp.1165-1188.
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Erdo?mu?, ?.E. and Cicek, M., 2012. The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 58, pp.1353-1360.
Fotis, J., Buhalis, D. and Rossides, N., 2012. Social media use and impact during the holiday travel planning process (pp. 13-24). Springer-Verlag.
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Kohli, C., Suri, R. and Kapoor, A., 2015. Will social media kill branding?. Business Horizons, 58(1), pp.35-44.
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