How Social Media Changed Marketing Forever

Over the years, social media has had a major impact on how businesses market their products and in how businesses talk with their customers. Generally, companies use ads on televisions or newspapers to show their product off to their customers however, with how used social media is today companies have shifted their focus to social media and relying on it in order to expand their consumer base.

One flaw of social media being the primary way to market a company’s product or service is that the branding must stay consistent with the latest trends in order to attract the most amount of customers. Not only that but the company must understand how to utilize social media and such trends in order to effectively create awareness for their product.

However, despite this flaw, Bo Huang, the leader of the Department of Biology at Kenyon College, writes in his article: “An Assessment of Marketing Strategies Used by Online Shops Selling Hemp-Derived Delta-8 Products,” that 79.9% of online stores have a link that takes the user to their social media dedicated to promoting their product. Social media allows companies to directly appeal with their consumers.

Moreover, Minseong Kim, a worker in the Department of Management and Marketing at the College of Business at Louisiana State University Shreveport claims that influencers have a major influence on business marketing because now companies must promote their product through popular social media influencers. A study was done on 355 social media users within the United States and after conducting research almost all had bought a product because of an influencer’s recommendation. Because these influencers have such a large following of people who are willing to buy what these influencers buy, influencers can use their channels to promote, review or recommend a product.

When entering a store you find many items that don't appeal to you at all and thus many times you don’t see items that might appeal to you. Businesses use an online strategy called “targeted advertising,” this displays personalized ads to specific customers to which the product would appeal. By using data, marketers are able to produce relevant content to users who would find it most interesting.

Reagan Siggard, a teacher at Utah State University writes that social media has the most profound effect on consumers. This is because people have the ability to comment and like videos and pictures. Physiologically, when one sees a product that has many comments that praise it, people are naturally inclined to buy the product and the same works when people see a product which has numerous comments that distaste the product. One study studied around 170,000 complaint comments and in that category, purchase heavily declined.

As technology continues to develop, social media will likely remain one of the most important tools businesses use to market their products and connect with their audience. The way companies reach customers will keep evolving, but social media will be at the center of it.