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Introduction
Social Media As a Trend
What is Social Media?
For many to understand how social media is influencing local and global businesses one must really understand what social media is. See, social media is in fact the future of communication. There are a countless array of internet based tools and platforms that increase and enhance the sharing of information. This new form of media makes the transfer of text, photos, audio, video, and information in general increasingly fluid among internet users. Social Media has relevance not only for regular internet users, but business as well. With the use of platforms like twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin industries have created online communities where people can share as much or as little personal information as they desire with other members. The result is an enormous amount of information that can be easily shared, searched, promoted, and created. Although the big question currently at hand with the rapid development of social tools is how people (including corporations) can best utilize the unlimited amount of information available from social media sites for business advertising, social goods, and who knows what else. One thing is for certain; personal data from social media usage will continue to be tracked and logged for the benefit of any business willing to pay for it, and any company that doesn't invest in social media now will be forces to play catch-up in the near future.
Social Media In Business
Many companies globally are increasing their use of social media tools. They are no longer seeing these instruments as ‘media’ but as forums that can be used to broadcast marketing messages, and by weaving these tools into their everyday global operations they are able to connect with the consumers on various different levels. The evolution in social media’s significance among board executives alone has increased by 43% in just two short years . One can assume that for any business to be successful in the years to come they will likely need the right balance of both global and local reach. To achieve this they will require a sharp awareness of problems that arise and the capability to quickly configure operations in response, and the answer to a lot of these issues involve the use of social tools. As corporate ambitions grow so will the use of social media. It allows organizations to go global without the inconvenience of dealing with the many obstacles that come with globalization.
What is Behind This Trend?
The fundamental change driving companies’ social reliance is the rapid growth in social media over the past decade, and most recently, on mobile devices. In just one year, between 2012 and 2013, the total global social media audience increased by an estimated 18 percent, from 1.47 billion to 1.73 billion. What this means is that nearly one quarter of the world’s population is now online using social networks. An important consequence of this expansion is the connection it forges between people globally. Already, 86 percent of Facebook’s users are outside the United States, while nearly 20 percent of LinkedIn’s users are in Asia. Social media has been used as a tool to share content, deepen relationships, express one’s self and take collective action. Although, ironically, businesses, who possess the highest speed internet networks, the largest networks of contacts and the deepest histories of interactions are evidently the ones who need to play catch up with their consumers.
Benefits of Social Media
There are countless benefits to integrating social media into a business. These benefits affect both a company’s reputation and its revenue year round. These benefits include:
1. It properly reflects your business/brand
Your company’s social media portfolio is a direct reflection of the company itself. Thus, it is imperative that your social media accurately portrays your company and the brand. Far too many businesses fail to develop social media marketing strategies, or willingly hand over the reins of these operations to unqualified employees. A professional tone is best created through a well thought out and executed social media marketing plan. This includes knowing what you will post ahead of time, and the creation of professional looking content.
2. It keeps your business and brand fresh in the minds of consumers
A fresh and continual stream of high-quality content keeps your company forever in the minds of your current customers and potential consumers. Advertising is about repetition. Businesses use social media as a way to increase the amount of time potential and current customers are exposed to their brand.
3. It can reduce your overall market costs
Having the ability to tweet something or post it on Facebook is significantly more cost effective than continually running prepaid ads or mailing out thousands of marketing ploys. Regardless of whether you are a small business or a booming multinational corporation these new forums cost less and thus increase revenue (it is basically free advertising).
4. It positions you as an industry expert
The social media presence you develop places you as an easily accessible industry expert. Sharing your expertise with your consumers positions you as a cutting edge leader in your field. Additionally, it establishes trust between you and your stakeholders. By freely sharing your relevant expertise, they will look to you when they need questions answered about your business or the products/services you’re providing.
5. Helps gain a competitive advantage
If a company is to use social media and it is done correctly it can boost their search rankings which allows them to better provide customer service, build an effective online personality, connect with new business partners and validate their professional standing all while providing consumers with the product value and customer service they want and deserve.
6. Social media humanizes your company
Most consumers want to know that they are doing business with other people. By humanizing your brand you are peaking the interests of many potential customers. It keeps them engaged and connected with your brand because you are going that extra mile. It is up to the company to be authentic. People by default, are going to treat your business and brand like they do other people. So as a company you must understand how people interact with one another, and this will help you understand how they interact with your company’s social media entities.
Company Examples:
Many companies have used social media to enhance their products appeal and to spread the word. The success of these companies had influenced consumers to not only continue to purchase these products but to pay attention and look for the new marketing strategies these companies are implementing. As well it is up to these companies to look for opportunities that will leave the biggest impact. For example Oreo used the 2013 Super Bowl blackout as an opportunity to push their brand. They posted an image with the phrase "you can still dunk in the dark". This post went viral and the company benefited from their quick-wit and rapid problem solving. Another example is Khol’s. This company launched a social media campaign to help them decide how to donate millions to schools in need. Due to this they earned 1.5 million likes on Facebook and proved to their consumers that they were socially aware. Finally, as an attempt to promote their Nice n' Easy color blend foam Clairol launched a massive multi-day giveaway in which they gave away over 100, 000 samples to Facebook users. Due to this campaign their number of followers increased by 94%. From these examples it is clear that the use of social media forums appropriately and wisely can greatly influence the success of a corporation.
Future Vision
1. Social media can be used by businesses as a means to fundraise or simply to make people aware of water scarcity problems around the world. For example, currently companies like Pepsico and Nestle have donated their time and money to causes and have announced awareness raising projects concerning freshwater. As well representatives go on forums such as YouTube and Twitter to make people more aware of this issue. This support is relayed to consumers quickly and it provides them with a way to educate themselves on current world issues as well as provide aid to those nations that are in need.
2. The strong presence of social media and digital devices in consumer lives makes it the ideal tool for corporate marketing. In the future businesses will have to really impact/influence their consumers and maintain whatever customer loyalty they have. This is due greatly to the ever-changing mind of the consumer and the fluctuations in trends and the market. It is not enough to just be there, corporations must develop new and innovative strategies that will seemingly save stakeholders money and identify with their wants/needs. They have to engage! Experience matters to consumers and it drives results to the bottom line.
3. The role of the customer service will still be significant in the future but companies will have to learn how to address this via social forums. Maintaining relationships is key, so using helpdesk software and such will help maintain this relationship and keep consumer loyalty. In fact businesses like Starbucks and American Airlines offer exclusive deals and tips to their digital consumers to drive sales and brand awareness as an attempt to keep consumers interested in their products.
4. Corporations can use their influence to make consumers aware of their current water 'footprint'. There are many apps and sites that they can promote that will teach people how to properly conserve water and how to calculate their total water consumption daily. Thus reducing the amount of water waste in countries that are substantially more well off (in water) than others. For example there is currently the H2O calculator, which is an app that details how much water you have used each day in gallons. This unfortunate guilt trip will inspire consumers to help make a difference simply but altering their daily water usage/intake.
Water Scarcity
What is water scarcity?
Important Facts and Terms
-Affects 1 in 3 three people on every continent
-Forces people to rely on unsafe drinking water
-Can lead to diseases such as trachoma, plague, and typhus
-More than 10% of people worldwide consume foods irrigated by waste water that can contain chemicals or disease causing organisms
-There is enough fresh water for seven billion people, but it is distributed unevenly and is wasted
-More than 1.2 billion lack access to clean drinking water
Water Shortage : When countries lack the necessary infrastructure to take water from rivers to aquifers
Economic Water Scarcity : A result of poor management of the sufficient available water resources
Physical Water Scarcity : A result of inadequate natural water resources to supply a region's demand
Impact On People
- In developing countries, people are forced to drink low quality water from flowing streams, many of which are contaminated.
- Causes sanitation issues
- Takes a lot of water to grow food and care for animals
- 70% of water is used for agriculture and irrigation and only 10% on personal use
- Farm animals will die and others won't live for long without water
- Water scarcity results in constant hunger and thirst and low quality of life
Education
- Many parts of the world, children have to be up at dawn to collect water for the family
- Closest water resource can be miles away
- Children get tired and some have to miss school as a result or can't focus because the lack of rest they get
- Some countries girls and women are not allowed to attend school at all, because they have to serve the family by getting water and taking care of other family needs
Impact On Businesses
2) Companies can't attract customers if they have no water because of the lack of sanitation in their store, making a bad first impression of their store.
3) Manufacturing without water makes it almost impossible to manufacture some items. For example manufactures use large quantities of water to manufacture silicon chips, electric suppliers that use large amounts of water for cooling, and agriculture which uses 70% of global freshwater.
4) Lack of water supply can effect the prices of water in the economy negatively. The prices of water will go up a lot if water is such a scarce resource. Water is also a necessity to live, so the demand for water is inelastic, meaning no matter the price of the water, consumers will still buy it because they need it to live.
Impact On Government
2) Water scarcity increases the mortality rate from people being forced to drink contaminated water because they have no other choice for water supply. Being part of the government of a region with the highest mortality rate is not good at all, it makes the government look bad, but in reality there's not much they can do about water scarcity.
Future Vision
1) Water scarcity will have a big impact on the economy regarding the price of water and manufacturing. If water becomes a scarce resource, the value of water will shoot up, due to the scarcity of it.
2) Mortality rates will raise everywhere because with a very limited supply of water, it may not be enough for some people so they're forced to drink water from ponds, lakes or oceans with the chance of the water being contaminated. Drinking contaminated water increases the chance of catching diseases, and some diseases can lead to death.
3) It will also decrease the amount of females attending school. If water was scarce worldwide, women would be degraded to staying home and walking miles to get water for their family and supporting their family. Water being a scarce resource is basically time travel back into the past where women didn't have many opportunities as men did.
4) Social media will post something about water scarcity spreading world wide and that will show and teach everyone to conserve water. People dump 10% of the world's resource of water away because they can't finish it, or they have no use for it. 10% may not seem a lot right now, but when water becomes scarce, everyone would be fighting over 1% even.