Problems with social media

There are many people that use social media in the world. In fact, some people are mad about social media. Social media are interactive technologies that allow the creation or sharing/exchange of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

Backinko.com

The current percentage of people who use social media in the world is 56.8%. As of 2021, the number of people using social media is over 4.48 billion worldwide, with the average user accessing 6.6 social media platforms on a monthly basis. Popular platforms like Facebook have over 65.86% of their monthly users logging in to use social media daily. This data shows that how much time people spend on social media. Many people do not know that there are problems with social media. Let me tell you all.

The problems with social media are that there is a difference between online and retail. It is a way people use it in actual communication and in-person socializing. Social media friends may not be actual friends. The next point is the time spent on social media may lead to cyberbullying, exposure to content that is not appropriate, creates depression and social anxiety. The 3rd point is that social media is addiction because once you start using it you cannot stop. Once you succeed you brain will give you happiness. This will go on even if you like a video or comment that is why it is addictive.

Another problem with social media is fear of missing out. That is why many people tend to check their social media account frequently. Therefore, this affects your mental health. Lastly, social media creates self-image issues. This is because it provides tools that compares them with other people and earns their approval. It can be associated with body image concerns. It may also lead to bullying.

To conclude I would like to ask how addictive are you in social media? Do you face any of these points that I mentioned?

Why is traditional marketing fading

Before we discuss about why traditional marketing is fading let me discuss about Integrated Marketing Communications or IMC. Have you ever wondered what is IMC? Let me tell you. IMC or Integrated Marketing Communication is a simple concept. It is a process for managing the customer relationships that drive brand value (Duncan, 2002).

The American Marketing Association defines IMC as “a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time.

There can be many types of IMC which are content strategist, marketing director, digital and social media manager. These are only a few there can be many more. So, in these times Integrated Marketing is very important because they may strategize across multiple channels. In some companies IMC creates value content and their marketers focus on buyer and seller co-created value.

Now let us discuss about why traditional marketing fading. Since the introduction of IMC traditional marketing has been affected a lot and has been fading. Due to advancement in technology there has been a decrease in traditional marketing because many people use digital tools to market their product. Once upon a time, traditional marketing was more than enough to keep businesses’ heads above water. However, today this is no longer true (or at least, it is a point that holds less and less relevance as time goes on).

Traditional marketing strategies like in-store sales packages and door-to-door marketing techniques simply do not gain and hold the attention and loyalty of consumers as much as, say, social media ads or online store sales packages. This is exactly how, where, and why digital marketing has come into the picture and had such a profound impact.

So, to conclude these are the reasons why traditional marketing is fading. Now my question to you all is do you think traditional marketing is fading?

Internet of Things

How marketers use big data

Now let us look at Internet of things. Many of you must have heard of this word several times. Have you ever wondered what is this? Let me explain you all. The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of physical devices around the world that are now connected to the internet, all collecting and sharing data (Steve Ranger 2021). It can also be super cheap computers chips, sensors, actuators, mobile phones which through unique addressing schemes can interact and corporate with each other to reach common goals (Glusto et al., 2010).

Forbes.com

There are many examples of Internet of Things which are connected appliances, smart home security systems and biometric cyber security scanners. These are only a few there can be many more. In our daily life some examples of Internet of Things are home automation such as consumer electronic gadgets. Another example can be wearable health monitors. They are designed to track activities such as heart rate, pulse rate, etc. It also helps in disaster management when there are sensors installed in forests to detect fires.

Data Flair

The driving forces for IOT are there is lot of data that is generated. Reduction in the cost of sensors. Now let us discuss how marketers use IOT. They analyze the consumer buying needs, they gain data on how consumers interact with devices. Lastly, they resolve issues to keep the customers happy. Next let us discuss about Big Data.

Big data is a field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software. Marketers use big data to understand what the audience wants and to get a 360 view of the audience. They follow the idea of know your customer. Next, they want to know how the customers interact with your brand, example of this is how to improve the products. Next, they also create brand awareness. These are only a few ways of using big data. My question to you is how would you as a marketer use big data?

Viral Marketing

How does viral marketing create problems?

Nowadays, viral marketing is becoming very common because more people are using it. There are 2 types of viral marketing which are word of mouth or they share it by the internet. The goal of viral marketing is to inspire individuals to share a marketing message to friends, family, and other individuals to create exponential growth in the number of its recipients (Kagan, 2021).

Word of mouth can sometimes be a very effective way of sharing ideas because most people can be tempted to buy a product. It may be a very persuasive because it comes from a trusted source. Some people share only interesting things only to a target audience. But some people and marketers also share negative comment to the world. Therefore, viral marketing is a problem because there is too much information around and some information may be negative.

Viral Marketing

As such, social media provides the perfect ecosystem for viral marketing, though it has its roots in traditional word-of-mouth marketing (Kagan, 2021). While the practice was much more widely used in the early to mid-2000s, as new internet businesses were being created in extreme numbers, it is still common among internet-based business-to-consumer (B-to-C) companies (Kagan, 2021). Therefore, it can be possible that still some marketers do not do viral marketing.

Although they are many advantages of using viral marketing, but they are also some disadvantages of viral marketing. Some of the disadvantages of viral marketing are that some views that a person suggest may be discriminative because it can hurt them. Another negative will be that viral marketing will that consumers share more negative comments about a restaurant or a place they do not like (Kagan, 2021). Another point is it is hard to measure viral marketing (Kagan, 2021).

So due to these disadvantages I would like to say that some ideas do not become a hit. Now I would ask you if you would do viral marketing? If yes then which method will you use? If no then why would you not use this method.

Mobile Marketing

How useful is Mobile Marketing

In the times of Covid-19 majority of the people in the world use mobile phones to do things. In fact they are so engrossed in their phone that even while crossing the road they use their phones. So you can understand that if people do not use their phone for a hour they think they will die. Majority of the people cannot live without their phone.

Therefore, Mobile Marketing is important from the marketers point of view. It is also important for businesses to use mobile marketing because growth of mobile commerce is increasing day by day. Let us see some statistics on usage of mobile phones.

smart phone statistics

If we look at the bar chart and compare we find that in 2019 there were more than 5.6 billion users of smart phones worldwide. If we compare that to 2020 there were more 6 billion users of smart phones worldwide. And we compare that to 2021 we see a sharp increase in usage of smart phones worldwide which is 6.4 billion.

If you compare in the year 2016 and 2021 you will see that there is increase in more than 3 billion smart phones. It is also 73.9 percent more than the number of smartphone users there were in 2016, just half a decade ago. In fact, from 2016 to 2021, the total number of global smartphone users grew at an average of 11.84 percent annually, with the biggest growth coming in 2017. That year, the number of smartphone users grew by 20.91 percent (Oberlo).

Mobile marketing is useful because customers treat mobile phones as a friend and are very close to it. It is also useful because businesses can market their products faster and it is the best way to market your products. Mobile marketing will boost their sales. It is also useful because mobile marketing reaches a broader market. Now let me ask you do you prefer Mobile marketing or normal marketing?

Value Proposition and how to communicate with stakeholders

Nowadays there are many people who use digital marketing as a tool either of there business or for there personal use. Digital marketing has changed the way people interact with people. Most of the people spend time only on their phones and less time with their families. Even when they are sitting in the dinner table they are using their phones. People in these times cannot live without their phones. They can also learn how to write a digital marketing proposal. People can learn how to develop a digital marketing strategy. The key features of a digital marketing strategy are value proposition, target market strategy and positioning.

A value proposition is part of a company’s overall marketing strategy. It is important to have a good value proposition because it is considered a value. It is important for the company to value its customers should they buy their product. It can be put as a business or marketing statement that a company uses to summarize why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. Example for a value proposition is Apple I phone.

Target market is when the marketing team customizes a message to the targeted group of consumers. Example of target market strategy is group on. Lastly after they get the feedback they do the positioning of brand.

Next we discuss about how marketers communicate with stakeholders. They can have a mentor or a small business relationship. They can have a set of goals defined. It is important to communicate with the stakeholders properly as this can lead to problems in the business.

To have a proper communication you need to have all information properly. Then you need to communicate the information correctly. Do judge the stakeholders value. Provide feedback to the stakeholders on the issues you have. And lastly keep a record of the communications with the stakeholders.

Digital Consumers

Influencer Marketing

Nowadays many people and marketers get influenced by the social media. Reach first.com defines digital consumers people who use technology to buy and sell products and services. They are the same people who walk into your business, order on a telephone, or request for a discount. They depend on social media to get there work done. Digital consumers also do a lot of online shopping and online transactions. The tech savvy people participate a lot in the social media. Some people even post their personal pictures in the social media. There are many reasons they do it. It may be for personal satisfaction, entertainment or to get information about the latest trends. They may also do it to express themselves.

Wikipedia defines An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Some examples of online communities are  Mom365 community, foursquare idea communities and Duolingo community. MOM365 community is where discuss topics about how to get pregnant, raising a child and develop a baby. Foursquare is tech company developed by Dennis Crowley and create super communities to make the app better. Lastly, Duolingo is a online language learning tool.

Jenn Chen from sprout social defines influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers individuals who have a dedicated social following and are viewed as experts within their niche. Some examples of influencer marketing are 67 shades of Dior campaign, Sony play station virtual reality headset and Radio Globe Design Spark.

Social media influencer

As you can see from this graph that in January 2020 the most viewed social media platform is Youtube. This shows that influencer marketing is mostly done through youtube and whatsapp. Nowadays influencer marketing is very common by marketers because it can be the best way to advertise there products.

How marketers use value

Social media marketing plays an important role in many people lives. Majority of the people use social media every day. Some of them cannot live without it because they are addicted to it. Investopedia defines Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling of a product or service. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses. Value is very important in marketers as they do not just get money but also creates an impression to the society. The impression they create is not only about the product but also the experience they have with the marketers.

Social media marketing creates value to the society by letting the people know about the features of the product. Values created by social media help the marketer know the audience better. It also lets the society know what type of content is being published in social media. According to a data from backlinko.com In 2020, there are 3.96 billion people actively using social media in the world, and this is an increase of 10.9% year-on-year from 3.48 billion in 2019. Back in 2015, there were only 2.07 billion users – that’s an overall increase in users of 92.76% in just five years. So therefore, this shows an increase in the usage of social media compared to 5 years. Value creation in social media is important because they let the society know what values the marketer has to the society. Through value creation the consumers and the society knows whether the marketer is telling the truth about they products.

When the marketer advertises the products on the internet they are trying to gain customers through value. Internet and social media nowadays have become very important because most of the work is done through this and this adds value to the consumers.