Social Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 4

Social Media - Essay Example Social media differentiates from traditional/industrial media in many aspects such as usability, reach, frequency, quality, permanence, and immediacy. There are many effects, which stem from internet usage. The role of social media in marketing is to use it as a communication tool that makes the companies accessible to those interested in their product and makes them visible to those that do not know their result. It ought to lie used as a tool that creates a personality behind their brand and creates relationships that they otherwise may never gain. This not only creates repeat-buyers, but customer loyalty as well. Fact is social media is so diversified that it can be used in whatever way best suits the interest and the needs of the business (Tini, 2011). Social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities co-create, share, discuss, and modify user-generated content. It introduces pervasive and sub stantial changes to communication between relative communities, organizations, and individuals. Various statistics account for social media usage and effectiveness for individuals worldwide. Some of the most recent statistics have it that Facebook remains the most-visited social network in the U.S. and all over the world. It receives over 152.2 million visitors via P.C and is multiple times the size of the next largest social site across this platform. Similarly, statistics state that Consumers continue to spend more time on social networks than on any other category of sites. To be more precise, they spend roughly 20% of their total time online via, and 30% of total time online via mobile (Smith, 2011). Social media can have tremendous benefits but also can have serious security risks for organizations. Two of the greatest risks to organizations are malware and inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information. The security risks are often cited by companies as a reason they do not a llow social media use. Seventy-two percent of companies believe employees’ use of social media poses a threat to their organizations. Their concerns are justified. Companies in the west are investing increasingly in SMM to get in touch with their customers (Capriotti, 2009). They indulge in constant interaction with their prospects in order to understand their needs and hence make products better. It lies as the best way to learn from ones customers about their needs and your own shortcomings. Nonetheless, SMM is a very personalized way of advertising and promotions can lie targeted only to specific groups, which are interested in a particular domain, quite unlike conventional advertising. According to a report by researchers, the incidence of malware is increasing on the most popular social media sites including Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter (Smith, 2011). There are currently more than one thousand companies compiling comprehensive databases about individual consumers, a va st increase in just five years. Rather than engaging in mass marketing, they focus on gathering as much information as possible about specific people to engage in targeted or profile marketing. By compiling layer upon layer of information about specific individuals, they are able to produce a profile based on income, lifestyle, and an enormous variety of other factors. By making use of these databases, it is possible to identify people by what many would