Unit 46 - Social Media Practices and Analysis Assignment Sample

Unit 46 - Social Media Practices and Analysis Assignment Sample 

Introduction of Unit 46 - Social Media Practices and Analysis Assignment

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In this twenty-first century, social media is one of the most powerful communication mediums. It has changed the overall environment of the business by reshaping the various ways business organisations communicate and engage with other companies. Social media also allowed the customers living in different parts of the world to share their distinct experiences regarding commodities and services (Garg et al., 2020). As a result, it is essential and critical for businesses worldwide to understand the importance of customer perception about commodities and services, as per Sivarajah et al. (2017). According to Shiau et al. (2018), social networks and social media have become crucial aspects of the daily part of the life of the consumers.

1. Explanation of the concepts and features of social media in different creative media practices

1.1. Explanation of the fundamental concepts of social media for business

From the data of social media, it can be observed that various Information & Technology and retail businesses are already demonstrating their ability to utilise the social media medium for analysing, measuring and forecasting the insights of the customer as well as industry to engage in effective and healthy decision making for the company as per Rafiq (2017). As discussed in the introduction, social media is an online communication tool that enables the company to interact with the customers while sharing information in real-time. The utilisation of social media can aid in creating effective advertising and promotional activities for the business to attract more customers and get essential constructive criticism or feedback from valuable customers, which can even help build customer loyalty. Moreover, social media provides new ways for exploring the various aspect of the everyday life of the customer, as per Kapoor et al. (2018).

Social Networking

One of the critical concepts of social media from the perspective of business. According to Kaplan & Haenlein (2010), various social media platforms are always considered venues where different individuals build the network and share information. Therefore, social media marketing provides essential analysis tools that enable marketers to monitor their marketing activities (Li, Larimo and Leonidou, 2021). The platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are among the favoured medium for social media marketing.

Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing is another essential social media concept for a business that involves using the social media platforms with digital marketing tools such as analytics, content marketing, email marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), Marketing Automation, etc. The business organisation that engages in advertising and promoting the commodities and services via social media platforms can measure the size of the market (Shah, 2018). There are many user profiles on social media, and their user-generated content can be utilised by businesses to learn more about their customers.

1.2. Discussion of the influence of business and cultural factors on the development of social media

According to Rheingold (2000), social media is constructed on the idea of “sharing information” openly and empowering as well as fostering a “sense of community”. In addition, social media brings people from different backgrounds and cultures together for conversation and interaction. Followings are some of the influences of business and cultural factors on the development of social media:

Business Factors

• Business Intelligence: Business Intelligence helps the social media network to realise the importance of data collection and how it can be used for effective business operations (Kurnia, 2018). The infrastructure of collection, storing and analysing the data is called Business Intelligence which played a huge in the development of social media.
• eCommerce: eCommerce is the most popular and preferred buying and selling medium worldwide. Ecommerce involves online buying and selling. Ecommerce social media can be recognised as being utilised to market, attract and generate revenue (Soegoto and Eliana, 2018).
• Social Media Marketing/Advertising: Social Media Marketing refers to advertising via social media networks to boost brand awareness (Jacobson, Gruzd and Hernández-García, 2020). In the process, social media became very popular, and businesses aided in the development of social media.

Cultural Factors

• E-Gaming: One of the cultural factors is the increasing popularity of video games and how many individuals engage in streaming, making content for the social media platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Gaming etc. (Bankov, 2019).
• Digital Culture: Digital culture has already become a norm in which the technology and the utilisation of the internet are shaping the way of individuals and the world (Miller, 2020). Everything is digitising, especially with the ongoing pandemic; digitisation has fastened.
• Digital Interactions: Digital interaction is also one of the cultural factors that are helping in the development of society. Communication is being done using various digital tools such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. (Rosenberg and Asterhan, 2018).

1.3. Evaluation of the use of social media in the relationship between businesses and consumers

Advantages

Using social media aid in building a positive and compelling brand reputation which encourage more customers to connect with the brand and build brand loyalty (Bacik et al., 2018). The target customer also engages in sharing the business on social media platforms. E.g. People who are happy with their purchase of Xbox Series X or any video game console will share their opinions and feelings about the product, resulting in the formation of a relationship.

Disadvantages

Social media can have many negative, biased reviews about certain products or services from many customers that can ruin the brand image and the relationship between business and consumers (Wellman et al., 2020). For example, Days Gone, a video game, got 6.5/10 by IGN; however, the game was good, but negative and biased studies affected the brand image and relationship due to bad reviews.

2. Discussion of the use of social media and their impact on market and audience

2.1. Exploration of the use of social media platforms for different communication objectives

Followings are the various ways of social media platforms are being utilised by the business to have an impact on the market audience:

• B2B: The business-to-business also uses Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. These social media channels are used for marketing the commodities or services to their business clients (Zuhdi et al., 2019). In addition, the business uses popular social media channels to share insights and coordinate various activities, and it also aids in building networks of professional communication.
• B2C: This is the most common and known form of business that utilises Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to gain maximum potential traffic for gaining brand loyalty, market share etc. (de Oliveira Santini et al., 2020).
• C2C: The customer-to-customer between customers can also be recognised heavily using social media platforms for selling used commodities or giving them rent etc. (Onofrei, Filieri and Kennedy, 2022). Social media has a huge reach and effective tools to inform people about products and services.
• Brand Building: In 2020, around 3.6 billion people will use social media globally (Statista Research Department, 2022). Using digital marketing and social media can increase brand awareness since approximately 80 per cent of individuals evaluate and are informed about the brand via social media networks.
• Segmentation: Segmenting the market via using social media is important for capturing and targeting the core customer of the business. Social Media provides important insights about various customers that aid in segmenting (Nuseir, 2020).

2.2. Discussion of the impact of different forms of social media on brand awareness and consumer engagement

Social Media will be relevant in the future, and so on, and it will help the businesses market their commodities and services in a customised and personalised way. Brand awareness is a vital component for the business organisation to grow, survive and expand in the business environment (Sürücü et al., 2019). More than 3.6 billion people are using social media platforms, which shows that the brand can purchase valuable information about customers from various providers such as Facebook to target the right audience and make them aware of the commodities or services (Statista Research Department, 2022). Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are among the most used social media networks many business organisations use to inform and increase customer engagement.

In these modern times, every major business or any smaller business has a page on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. Social media engagement is an analysis tool that can monitor and measure how people are reacting and interacting with the brand or the business with the help of metrics such as Likes, Comments, Direct Messaging, Retweets, Saves, Mentions etc. (Moran, Muzellec and Johnson, 2019). One of the biggest examples is how Elon Musk uses the popular social media platform Twitter to promote their brand and the company (Davydovska, 2020). In the process, the company also gains huge stock market value. Any launch of a new product like Cybertruck is advertised and informed using Twitter and other social media mediums. Customer engagement and brand awareness get hugely boosted by using social media platforms.

2.3. Critical evaluation of different social media platforms to recognise their areas of most significant influence

The first and foremost tool is the data attained from social media channels and used effectively to identify the most significant areas. When the technology was not advanced, it wasn’t easy to target and recognise the right audience in old times. But with the technological advancements, the business can use the data and insights more effectively and efficiently (Jagtap and Duong, 2019). This data involves the various demographic details and what the consumers like to consume when they are most active on social media or the internet. Google is the number one platform for knowing about specific customers more detailedly. One of the tools named Google analytics shows the data and involves insights about other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. (Zhang et al., 2022). The metrics such as Engagement, Reach, Hashtag engagement, and clicks to identify the area of significance, the business organisation can narrow down the #tags to appeal to the customers (Han, Gu and Peng, 2019). It must be very specific to attract customers to the business.

Furthermore, the investment in social media advertising is another important effective way to reach more customers and identify the significant area of the business (Gould and Nazarian, 2018). An effective, interactive advertisement can attract and connect the customer with the brand. For instance, Xbox Series Consoles advertisements are among the best examples of marketing. Advertising uses social media interactively and makes effective advertisements to make the brand appeal to the customers (Zhongming et al., 2021).

2.4. Critical analysis of how organisations use social media to develop and promote business aims

Social media is vital for the business organisation to increase customer engagement and brand awareness effectively and efficiently. The business organisation has different goals and objectives that the right can carry forward and effectively use social media. Business Intelligence is heavily influenced by the data accumulated from different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google (Lee, 2018). Google is among the largest providers of necessary and important insights regarding customers' tastes, preferences, and behaviour when purchasing or consuming the commodity or services. For example, Coca-Cola used the Twitter platform to increase customer engagement and brand awareness by creating a hashtag “#ShareACoke” to encourage the consumers to share a coke with their “loved ones” (Hungate, 2018).

As per the global survey, 93% of businesses use social media platforms to promote their business. Facebook and Instagram are popular mediums to communicate with customers living in different parts of the world (Statista, 2021). In addition to that, around 2.8 billion active users can be found on Facebook. Therefore, the majority of business organisation uses Facebook and Instagram to target, attract, and segment the right group of customers.

3. Conclusion

This individual report has come to an end. It can be concluded that for any business organisation to survive, expand and grow in this competitive business environment requires strong social media advertising and marketing. From the analysis in the individual report, it can be recognised that 93 per cent of the businesses utilise social media platforms to inform the customer or consumer while also increasing the brand awareness of the business, which is also relevant for increasing the market share of the business. The targeting, marketing and segmenting are hugely influenced by the use of social media platforms and all the data, insights and information aid in providing the necessary tool to the businesses to reach the right audience and generate profitability.

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