Research Paper on "Internet Technology Marketing and Security"

Research Paper 7 pages (2288 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Social Media

In the contemporary era, social media is surely playing an extremely fundamental role in order to get a word out about any business, not considering its size or nature. Without a doubt, social media marketing is turning out to be an exceedingly popular tool among businesses of all sizes as it is helping to provide the exposure to the audience, no matter which part of the world the audience is in. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook fans are normally the people who are aware of the organization i.e. The potential customers and they are most likely the people who share the word with their social circle about the businesses' products or services. By using social engagement strategies, an organization is now easily enabled to strengthen the relationships with the fans and ultimate connections ("Why Social Media Marketing? 10 Ways Social Media Can Help Grow Your Business," 2013).

The best thing about using these social media websites is that they are totally free unless one wants to use their extensive advertising applications and features. It is so beneficial for the businesses that Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn offer total free accounts which can be activated by simply providing a single valid email address. The dynamic usability of these social media websites has broken down all the barriers of age, nationality and gender. Anyone can activate an account on these social media websites. Users can normally visit the store once a week, but with the help of social media websites, users can easily visit and get the latest product/service updates on a daily basis. There is no competitive software available for the small businesses today which can provide such usability and extensive reach ("Why Social Media Marketing? 10 Ways Social Media Can Help Grow Your Business," 2013).

Another added advantage to the businesses is that the social media websites have enabled them to provide instant satisfaction to the target audience. Social media website's application can be downloaded for free to use it on the mobile phones and both the customer and the company can stay updated on-the-go ("Why Social Media Marketing? 10 Ways Social Media Can Help Grow Your Business," 2013).

There are several advantages of using the social media websites for a business. It increases the awareness about the products and services which in return gives a better understanding of customer perception and response of the brand. All sorts of positive and negative feedback can be identified and incase applicable quick measures can be taken. Social media websites usage can increase the customer base of a brand. In addition to that the feedback of the customers can be used to identify the new features and new service or product opportunities in the market. The traffic can be routed from the social media websites to the official website of the organization which can easily be monitored and measured. Targeted and niche market can easily be identified using the additional features of the social media websites which in long-term can help to develop the target marketing activities ("The New Conversation: Taking Social Media from Talk to Action," 2010).

There are certain drawbacks of using the social media websites for businesses as well which are necessary for business owners to understand. Once a business decides to route the updates through social media websites, they need to manage the social media network in order to maintain the visibility to the public. The organization may face difficulty in measuring the return on investment. There is a possibility of the reputation of the brand on social media. Social media websites need urgent and prompt responses to both positive and negative feedbacks to the customers. The business owners can easily market their products and services and take the full advantage of this free medium. There is also a concern among businesses and the related marketers "about spending significant amounts of capital to give assurance (building trust) to media users to assure that the users than any information obtained from them will not be misused" (Hensel & Deis, 2010).

Social Media marketing has also helped Pepsi to increase customer insight to a great extent. It can be said that Pepsi has been able to successfully and unquestionably transform the digital experiences in support of its consumers (Mathieson, 2010, p. 32). PepsiCo has used DEWmocracy promotions on the social networking websites to get the exact customer insights. In addition to this, PepsiCo has been thoroughly working towards the recognition of Gatorade that is also a sports drink. PepsiCo wants to make this recognized as the leading participatory product on the planet. For this purpose, PepsiCo has created a "war room" in its marketing department to track the brand on social networking websites. The product and campaign launches are analyzed and tracked in PepsiCo by custom built data visualizations and dashboards. All of the feedback from these social networking websites are gathered on daily basis and integrated into marketing and products. This integration helps optimizing the landing page of the company's website as well. By doing all this, PepsiCo finally succeeded in increasing the length of visitor interactions with online properties of Gatorade's, viral sharing and ultimately the sales (Payne & Frow, 2013).

Martell Home Builders is another business that has used Social Media Marketing to its advantage and is based as Atlantic Canadian home builders. Martell heavily relied on realtors in the past to keep their business moving. After they embraced social media, they successfully created the direct-to-consumer model and this resulted in the elimination of the middle man which was bringing business to the company. Martell focused on content creation and used blogs strategy to get the home buyers and to satisfy their needs. Martell grabbed the attention of the homebuyers by introducing "14 Must-Have Tools for New Homeowners " and the other one was "Home Staging Tips & Techniques." Now, 86% customers are the leads generated from consumers directly. There are social media channels buttons on their website as well. By placing the social media buttons on the website, Martell easily gathered the attention of the visitors and this ultimately encouraged interaction. Martell added geo-location technology and mounted it in the vehicles of the contractor's. This helped the customers to always know the location of their contractor while he/she is on the job. This extended the definition of customer services for Martell (Zimmerman & Ng, 2013).

Martell revamped the homebuilding experience for customers as well as the company itself. Among all the great strategies, showing the photo galleries of the already built or under construction homes was the best. The customers can check the status of the building in process and can share these pictures with their friends and families using the social media websites. This strategy enhanced the visibility and reach of Martell. Martell took the strategic advantage of the "like" button on the Facebook and used it as a social proof. Martell also uses the Facebook Like box. This widget is dynamically updated; pulling content right from their Facebook page each time someone visits their site. The Like box is great social proof. It shows how many people have liked the page and also shows faces of Facebook fans. The benefit of the widget is that people can easily become fans and follow all the updates of the Facebook page without even leaving the visits to the website. Martell simply did the things by thinking outside the box. The customers feel more serviced and satisfied with the contractors when they can easily get the location and check the updates anytime they want (Zimmerman & Ng, 2013).

Another business i.e. Giantnerd has also taken full advantage of social media marketing to its advantage. Giantnerd sells equipment for outdoor activities like biking, hiking and snowboarding. Giantnerd is one of the best examples of the companies which used the social media integration successfully. The emphasis of the company is to provide most value to the customers by becoming friends in the process of transaction. Giantnerd integrated the social networking websites into each and every aspect of their website. They have successfully created a social network on their own website which is totally different from any other social media website. They have introduced the one-click process to join the network on their website which made it fast and very easy for the customers. They use a term called "nerds," and nerds can get discounts on their membership when they join the network. Giantnerd added the Like button on the website as well which made it possible for the fans to get exclusive deals and promotions. If we talk about increased ROI by using the social media tactics, YES, Giantnerd average order increased by 50% after the introduction of the LIKE button on their website (Goldman, 2013).

While researching for the products on Giantnerd website, Giantnerd use multiple social methods for providing information to the potential customers and getting useful feedback in return. Such an example is WikiNerdia, same as Wikipedia, customer can check the various products and they can… READ MORE

How to Reference "Internet Technology Marketing and Security" Research Paper in a Bibliography

Related Research Papers:

Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security Aer Lingus Essay

Internet Technology, Marketing, And Security

Aer Lingus is Spanish for 'air' (aer) and lingus (equal). Aer Lingus is a government-owned airline which was founded in the month of April 1936.… read more

Essay 5 pages (1677 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce

---

Internet Technology Marketing and Security Research Paper

INTERNET TECHNOLOGY, MARKETING & SECURITY

Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security

Internet technology, marketing and security

In the modern society, technological advancements have made access to all type of information very… read more

Research Paper 5 pages (1705 words) Sources: 4 Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce

---

Internet Technology Marketing and Security Research Paper

Zappo's Security Breach

Zappos' Security Breach

Assessing the Zappos' Security Breach:

Lessons Learned for Making eCommerce More Secure

In the first month of this year, 2012, online shoe retailer Zappos'… read more

Research Paper 5 pages (1563 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce

---

Technology Marketing and Security Term Paper

Technology, Marketing, And Security

E-activity

Steps to handle bad publicity in Starbucks

No business should welcome bad publicity. How an organization handles bad publicity determines its breaking or making. Appropriate… read more

Term Paper 2 pages (823 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Business / Corporations / E-commerce

---

Marketing Strategies the Marketing Plan Delivers Marketing Plan

Marketing Strategies

The marketing plan delivers the various strategies that All Technology Computer will use to enhance competitive market advantages. The paper discusses the company mission statement and the strategies… read more

Marketing Plan 18 pages (5577 words) Sources: 10 Topic: Advertising / Marketing / Sales

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>