SOCIAL MEDIA AS PLATFORM TO BOOST BUSINESS

Introduction

Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, career interests, ideas, and pictures or videos in virtual communities and networks. Social media is defined as a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Furthermore, social media depends on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content. They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between businesses, organizations, communities, and individuals. Social media differ from traditional or industrial media in many ways, including quality, reach, frequency, usability, immediacy and permanence. Social media operates in a dialogic transmission system, (many sources to many receivers). This is in contrast to traditional media that operates under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers). Social media has been broadly defined to refer to the many relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on a common effort, or build relationships.

i.              History and The Evolution of Social Media

The first recognizable social media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997. It enabled users to upload a profile and make friends with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, creating a social media sensation that's still popular today. After the first super computers were created in the 1940s, scientists and engineers began to develop ways to create networks between those computers, and this would later lead to the birth of the Internet. The earliest forms of the Internet, such as CompuServe, were developed in the 1960s. Primitive forms of email were also developed during this time. By the 70s, networking technology had improved, and 1979’s UseNet allowed users to communicate through a virtual newsletter. By the 1980s, home computers were becoming more common and social media was becoming more sophisticated. Internet relay chats, or IRCs, were first used in 1988 and continued to be popular well into the 1990’s. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, creating a social media sensation that’s still popular today. After the invention of blogging, social media began to explode in popularity. Sites like MySpace and LinkedIn gained prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like Photobucket and Flickr facilitated online photo sharing. YouTube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and share with each other across great distances. By 2006, Facebook and Twitter both became available to users throughout the world. These sites remain some of the most popular social networks on the Internet. Other sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest began popping up to fill specific social networking niches. Today, there is a tremendous variety of social networking sites, and many of them can be linked to allow cross-posting. This creates an environment where users can reach the maximum number of people without sacrificing the intimacy of person-to-person communication. We can only speculate about what the future of social networking may look in the next decade or even 100 years from now, but it seems clear that it will exist in some form for as long as humans are alive. Six Degrees was followed by social networking sites based on the “social-circles network model.” Instead of connecting with people you see as first, second or third degree connections. Social circle networks allow you to connect with anyone you know, whether they’re best friends or acquaintances. To highlight how social media has evolved, let’s take a look at a few of the seminal platforms that helped the social media phenomenon take off. Friendster was founded in 2002 and at its peak had more than 100 million users. Sadly, after many struggles to re-invent it, Friendster’s doors closed on June 14, 2015. The site was many people’s intro to online social networking, but like many before and after, the network failed to become a part of users’ daily routine and ultimately people skipped off when newer, shinier social networks emerged. From 2005 until 2008, Myspace was the largest social networking site in the world, and in June 2006 surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States. Facebook overtook Myspace in May 2008 and since then the platform has been playing catch-up and trying to re-invent itself.

ii.            Importance of Social Media in Business

To some entrepreneurs, social media marketing is the “next big thing,” a temporary yet powerful fad that must be taken advantage of while it’s still in the spotlight. To others, it’s a buzzword with no practical advantages and a steep, complicated learning curve. Because it appeared quickly, social media has developed a reputation by some for being a passing marketing interest, and therefore, an unprofitable one. The statistics, however, illustrate a different picture. According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media—but 85% of participants aren’t sure what social media tools are the best to use. This demonstrates a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but a lack of understanding on how to achieve those results. Here’s a look at just some of the ways social media marketing can improve your business. Firstly, it  increased brand recognition. Every opportunity you have to syndicate your content and increase your visibility is valuable. Your social media networks are just new channels for your brand’s voice and content. This is important because it simultaneously makes you easier and more accessible for new customers, and makes you more familiar and recognizable for existing customers. For example, a frequent Twitter user could hear about your company for the first time only after stumbling upon it in a newsfeed. Or, an otherwise apathetic customer might become better acquainted with your brand after seeing your presence on multiple networks. Secondly, it improved brand loyalty. According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. The report concludes “Companies should take advantage of the tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their audience. A strategic and open social media plan could prove influential in morphing consumers into being brand loyal.” Another study published by Convince&Convert found that 53% of Americans who follow brands in social are more loyal to those brands. Thirdly, it has more opportunities to convert. Every post you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. When you build a following, you’ll simultaneously have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers, and you’ll be able to interact with all of them. Every blog post, image, video, or comment you share is a chance for someone to react, and every reaction could lead to a site visit, and eventually a conversion. Not every interaction with your brand results in a conversion, but every positive interaction increases the likelihood of an eventual conversion. Even if your click-through rates are low, the sheer number of opportunities you have on social media is significant. Fourthly, it has higher conversion rates. Social media marketing results in higher conversion rates in a few distinct ways. Perhaps the most significant is its humanization element; the fact that brands becomes more humanized by interacting in social media channels. Social media is a place where brands can act like people do, and this is important because people like doing business with other people; not with companies. Additionally, studies have shown that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing, and a higher number of social media followers tends to improve trust and credibility in your brand, representing social proof. As such, simply building your audience in social media can improve conversion rates on your existing traffic. Social media is an interesting phenomenon, especially for businesses and customers, and the relationship between the two. Looked at one way, social media provides an opportunity for businesses, giving them a personalized platform to connect with their customers. By using social media as a way to advertise for your company, you can speak directly to the consumer in an arena they are comfortable with. Social media allows businesses to connect with customers while shaping their perceptions of products and services.

Looked at another way, however, social media can be a risk. Instead of the power of advertising and marketing being in the hands of the business, it’s now shifted into the hands of the consumer. Consumers have all the power when it comes to what they want to see and how they respond to what they see. Because of the “social” aspect of social media, your company’s successes, failures, and mistakes are publically displayed, discussed, shared, etc. for the whole world to see. This is a definite risk for businesses that was never such an issue as it is today. The benefits far outweigh this risk of social media. Social media and social networking will continue to change the behavior and decision making of consumers. Instead of ignoring the way things are going in order to protect themselves, businesses should decide how they will respond to this change for the better, by using the resources available to help promote their reputation and build business through the amazing opportunities supplied by social media and reputation management. There are three main reasons businesses should at least look into implementing social media and reputation management strategies into their marketing strategies. At first, help to reduced cost. If properly implemented, social initiatives can help reduce costs. Social media provides businesses with the means to increase customer service, saving costs and increasing customer satisfaction. Next, it increased revenue. Engagement with social consumers allows for increased direct communication with consumers. These consumers can then influence others, shaping opinions and in turn expanding the customer base, driving new business. Moreover, it emphasizes brand building. Developing a social forum around your business helps to increase awareness of your brand as well as build brand value.

iii.           The Global Usage of Social Media in Business.

The incredible reach of social media throughout the world is probably not one of the aspects of the internet’s development you would have thought of ten years ago. The rise and rise of the mobile phone industry, leading to smartphones and now tablets, means you can keep in contact with whomever you want, whenever you want and wherever you are. It’s not surprising, then, that the business world has embraced social media even though it wasn’t initially designed for businesses to use. Businesses realize that they have the opportunity to connect and communicate with you. Firstly in building trust, rather than just post information on products and services, businesses want to build up a relationship with customers, and it’s a useful strategy. If, for example, you follow a business on Twitter, instead of bombarding you with advertising and low prices, they could post something more personal or relating to a charity they support. By engaging your interest and not smothering you with ads, they have a better chance of striking up that relationship, and you may be more likely to become a customer or client. Secondly in global influence, many businesses have global interests, and they can harness the power of social media to get their messages across to those they might not otherwise reach. Strategies here, such as using Facebook to connect with people, need to carefully thought through before being implemented. Different countries use different social media platforms, for example, and cultures are different too. Sound research should ensure that, as far as possible, businesses put out a positive, friendly image. Thirdly, international politics, social media was a major player during the so-called Arab Spring, where thousands of people in countries such as Egypt and Libya used platforms such as YouTube and Twitter to communicate with each other and the outside world to inform about developments and send pictures and videos of what was happening, frequently live. For telecommunications companies, the instant access to rolling news, when often they were unable to have reporters on the ground, proved invaluable. Fourthly, thanks to social media, businesses effectively never close. They can contact you at any time, and you can choose to access information from them at any time. This can be especially useful for global businesses as they can tailor their messages to specific time zones and respond quickly to orders and requests. Successful businesses are ones that can adapt quickly to new opportunities, and by using social media outlets to connect to millions of potential customers and clients, they open up new opportunities for the future.

iv.              Level of Social Media Usage in Business at Malaysia

Apart from advocating social awareness, we are also seeing an increasing number of Malaysians making use of social media in their purchasing decisions. Findings from a recent survey by Adobe suggested that as much as 70 percent of Malaysian turn to brands’ social media platforms to research and find out more about the products before making a purchase. This is evident as top Facebook pages tracked in Malaysia were found to be of consumer brands such as McDonald’s, KFC, Head and Shoulders, Visa and many more. Malaysia is embracing mobile commerce in a big way, with expectations of the industry to make up almost 60 percent of the total e-commerce market by this year. Messaging chat apps like LINE and WeChat will be a big driver of this trend, as the country has also established itself as one of the highest adopter of such messaging chat apps. LINE, for instance, has reached 10 million users in Malaysia mid last year and WeChat tracked a 95 percent smartphone penetration rate with Malaysian users in May this year. These messaging apps have also evolved beyond their basic functions of just mobile messaging to become more interactive social media platforms for brands to engage with their customers directly on a more personal level. For example, LINE Shopping Malaysia, which was launched two years ago, has already partnered with retail brands, such as Rakuten, Groupon, Lazada and ZALORA. As for WeChat, they have been working with brands in Malaysia such as ChaTime and Domino’s Pizza to extend deals and rewards to their users.  Social  networking may sound like something casual and informal, but it can translate into real benefits for entrepreneurs. Series of studies and surveys have been conducted for years, which found that firms that rely heavily on external social networks scored higher on innovation and feedbacks from their customers, ompared to companies that don’t. Online networks can help you hire the right people, market your product or even find a manufacturer. In both professional and personal life, human beings go a long way in sharing interests, and this has migrated to the online world. Online social networking has been around in various forms for nearly a decade, and has taken many forms as well as created opportunities all over the world. Customers have gradually lost interest in traditional sales and marketing, and according to expert’s going online is the most credible source of information about a company – now hunting for something faster and less complex is as simple as a click (of a mouse). The connections enables by social networks are the glue that put humanity back into business – to solve the problem of lack of interest, as well as issue on trustworthiness. In other words, the SMEs that will win are the ones that most easily enable customers to build relationships with people they trust, which is as important as disseminating information about products and services faster and more effectively. Though social online networks like Facebook and MySpace are known to be online hangouts for teenagers and school kids, they have moved forward into creating spaces and ooportunities for business and professional use. Hence, it is essential for local entrepreneurs to acknowledge the benefits of a social network for business and to find potentials, as well as use the medium broadly. Here are some ways of how you can use social network to benefit your business. Customer and member relationship development, where this
enables genuine business relationship and hold an interaction in more
convenient way, for you and your client. Customer support, where you connect with customer and assist them and answer their questions. This makes your company valuable to the clients Use the network as a database for knowledge and updates, in
the field that your business is under  Differentiate your business with your own brand and create a  unique approach in the network. You may use the ‘personal connection’that social network often offer, in order to create a more friendly approach to your customers Create a ‘world’ of your own into the network, so that
customers will find anything or everything they need to know about your
business in just a click away.

v.            The Challenges of Social Media Usage in Malaysia

It is common to see young people browsing and surfing social networking sites, reading blogs or chatting using Facebook and Twitter through sophisticated devices anywhere and at any time. It is through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that users are allowed to create, share, collaborate and organise content among themselves, and at the same time provide virtual self-presentation and self-disclosure of oneself. In 2011, it was reported that more than 770 million people worldwide visited social networking sites. For example, Facebook claims that recently it had 500 million active users. In Malaysia, the adoption of social media in particular has shown significant growth in the last few years. Nine of the top 20 websites in Malaysia are social networking sites and the top five are Yahoo, Facebook, Google, YouTube and Blogger. There are several social media sites established in Malaysia such as, myfriends2u.com, ruumz.com, Friendster and Twitter. Facebook is currently the most visited social media website in Malaysia. There are 10.4 million Facebook users of which 3.5 million are youth aged between 18 and 24. Social media complements the mass media and they are part and parcel of a youth’s life. Social media is now a popular and common medium of fostering relationships among people around the globe. It is the “place” where new ideas are being generated and also serves as one of the most efficient methods in educating oneself and gaining knowledge. The point is social media makes it easier for users to share ideas from different sources. Firstly, although social media connects people across the globe instantly, there are still drawbacks especially within the context of socialisation. The excessive usage of social media has caused social and health problems to Malaysians too. Malaysia incidentally is ranked sixth in Asia with the largest number of obese people. About 15.1% of Malaysians aged between 18 and above are suffering from obesity. The Health Ministry has attributed the obesity issue to the excessive use of “exciting electronic gadgets and instantaneous communication”. The usage of social media has caused Malaysians to waste precious time in front of computers and resist physical activities. Another issue that needs to be considered is the quality of communication on social media. Although the communication evolution has been brought to the next level, there are still certain issues to be addressed. For example, social media makes it possible to interact with people around the globe through a few simple clicks but the question that needs to be answered is “Do Malaysians really communicate with each other?” Communication is the essence of life for a human being. We communicate for the sake of survival. The genuine communication is our connection with another person. Malaysians spend more time on their social networking sites without meeting their friends face-to-face. Statistics show that Malaysians are engaged for long hours on social networking sites rather than actually meeting people. It is very common in Malaysia to have people who are busy updating their Facebook status or being on other social networking sites. People tend to share everything about themselves on social networking sites rather than having an actual conversation with their family and friends. Malaysians fail to realise that they are actually losing the rapport among family and friends by indulging themselves in various social networks. Eye contact, voice tone and gestures indicate or prove the authenticity of the message communicated by human beings. Social media hides the real non-verbal communication and replaces it with smiley faces and symbols. Will people be able to communicate effectively among themselves without non-verbal communication? Social media grabs the total attention and concentration of students and diverts them towards non-educational, unethical and inappropriate actions such as useless chatting which are time consuming. It is very important to realise that every second is precious. The social media addict becomes a useless node for parents, friends and associated people. Applications such as games, advertisements and other online activities while providing immense joy to their users can also be destructive to students. As a result, social media addicts show little or no academic growth since much of their time is spent staring at the screen. While it is relevant to engage in social media in this era of globalisation, only a reasonable time should be allocated for such activities.

vi.           Factor That Enhancing The Usage of Social Media

Social media came about at a time after the world had, in many ways, become one.  Technology and the Internet have made it so we can connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.  We know more about each other than we ever did before. When decades ago we might have only had the ability to have allegiance to one group that we physically had to walk down the street to the town hall for, we now have all these micro groups that we can be a part of from the comfort of our couch, all thanks to the Internet and social media.  The most specific interests or hobbies have groups online that we can be part of. Now that everything has moved online, including businesses, consumers have hundreds and thousands of choices to search for on their computer while sitting right at home. Therefore consumers want more accountability and more transparency when it comes to making a decision about their purchase.  Social media is a perfect platform for businesses to communicate this kind of information. Reasons why people use social media by their platforms:-

Facebook- Facebook is the largest social platform. We use it to see what our network is doing in their day-to-day activities. Facebook is where we share photos of our children, our accomplishments, our marriage, our engagement, etc. For better or worse, people who are on Facebook are there to see what their friends, or even people who they vaguely know are doing at all times.  Going on Facebook is often a mindless activity where we are just scrolling through our newsfeed before even realizing we are doing so.

Twitter- While many use Twitter to connect with their immediate social network, it’s typically a place where we go for niche content that interests us. For example, I follow news publications, fellow marketers- from all over the world most of whom I’ve never met, and other relevant marketing users.

Pinterest- Pinterest is where we go to be inspired and get ideas, be it for style, for cooking, for design or for words of wisdom for day-to-day life. Some of the most popular pins are those of style, of home decorating ideas, of quotes and so on.

Google+- Honestly, I think most people are still trying to figure out how to use Google+. I see a lot of businesses jumping on Google+ due to the inevitable tie it will have for SEO if engagement levels increase. How do consumers use Google+? I think they are still trying to figure it out.  This may be the one platform where businesses beat consumers to utilizing the platform. That being said, the platform is largely used now for sharing and consuming information in niche industries, especially the tech industry.

LinkedIn- LinkedIn is typically where people go to look for jobs and/or connect with other business professionals. It’s a place where people ask business questions, ask for endorsements and share content related to their business or industry. Groups greatly help

Instagram- Instagram, arguably about to be the most popular social media platform due to it’s growth rates, is a place where we go to see fun images and videos from both Twitter and Facebook-like audiences: our friends AND public figures we find intriguing and entertaining.  Due to the way we process visual images, Instagram conveys the information we want instantaneously, a trend that has always fueled social media in the first place.

YouTube- Most people typically go to YouTube with a search query in mind. Someone told them to watch a specific video that made them laugh or was entertaining.  It’s where we want snippets of entertainment being it from amateurs or from last night’s late night talk show or music videos from our favorite artist. The takeaway here is that social media does not lend itself to traditional ways of marketing, of shouting messages at your consumers.

Conclusion

For businesses in any industry, the key to success is knowing your audience. Social media makes this possible, and easier to accomplish than ever. With certain tools you can learn the dominant languages spoken among your social media audience, as well as their age and gender. This knowledge can help you cater campaigns and product offers to your target audience, which will provide you a better return on investment. Geo-targeting is an effective way to send your message out to a specific audience or demographic based on their location. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have tools that allow you to communicate the right kind of content to your audience. For example, if you want to send out a post to people who speak Spanish, geo-targeting is an easy and effective way to do it. Social networks like Twitter allow small businesses to locate their current customers or seek out potential customers. For example, if you open a new coffee shop in the neighbourhood, you can create a geo search to locate anyone tweeting about needing a morning cup of just within your area. After locating those tweeting about coffee, you can start reaching out to them, and invite them to come try a hot bevvy at your new coffee shop. Social media for business gives you instant access to positive or negative feedback, which provides you with valuable insights on the customer perspective. For example, if you launch a new product and share it on social media, you’ll instantly learn what your customers think of it. Another way to gain customer perspective with social media is by learning how they use your product; brands often base new products or services on their customers’ original ideas. With social media monitoring you can gain key information on your competitors, therefore improving your market intelligence. This kind will allow you to make strategic business decisions in order to stay ahead of your competitors.