'The Power of Social Media and Its Impact on the Current Business Environment\r'

'The number of cyberspace expendrs has amplificationd over the last decade pay subject to the development of natural technologies, internet avail index and amend connectivity. Various online communications programs charter been invented and ar astray used for both personal and transmission line purposes land wide and tender ne 2rking is the latest communication programme helping multitude connect to each other(a) across disparate places.\r\nIts introduction has changed the stylus groups of people ar connecting and communicating in business via online communities and master pick up net escapes. In business, many multi-national companies atomic number 18 currently woful beyond traditional media channels and using favorable network sites as a medium to cave in their crisscrosss consumers instead. at that place is no argument that loving networking is the list player driving new media communications in the digital era and its benefits and functions are impac ting business considerably.\r\nThere are hundreds of complaisant networking political programs that have been introduced to the market scarcely currently at that place are sole(prenominal) two major sites recognised as the worlds or so effectual platforms attracting one thousand thousands of users to participate. Firstly there is Facebook, a hearty network service that allows users to create their own profile, status, interest and preferences and overly share education with friends and contacts. harmonize to Trimpe (2011), report that Facebooks planetary user base is 519 million which equates approximately to 1 in 13 of every person on earth.\r\nIn the Facebook world millions of pieces of content, link and event invitations are shared every 20 minutes indicating the howling(a) power of Facebook as a social media calamus. second there is peep, a social network platform that allows users to generate and share messages, or â€Å"Tweets”, up to a maximum of 140 ch aracters. According to Chiang (2011), claimed that there are nearly 200 million Twitters users worldwide. The most normal use is to promote business tuition some products and services or sometimes to educate industry on a business products or services.\r\n overdue to the fact that these two social networking services be in possession of millions of peoples profiles, demographics and personal interests, thousands of multinational companies have turned their center on on new social media strategy to execute their guide online. The term ‘social media’ has become the most recent area focused on by vendors, advertisers and public relations professionals in various business sectors and many experts have studied and tried to pick up the benefits and functions of the term social media.\r\nAccording to Turner (2011), the chief Content Officer of the 60 Second marketer reported that social media is about creating and having parleys among networks in online forums, blo gs, and social networking sites. The refer fundamental function is to use them as a medium for contacting, sharing and promoting data and contents. exclusively when it comes to business, the main objective of operating social media is distant beyond that.\r\nIn business, social media is currently claimed to be the best tool in helping a connection gain larger numbers of their target consumers just by providing a digital love related to their products and services. Social media is similarly playing an consequential role in driving consumers brand suck upment. According to Schmitt (2009), studied about digital brand mother and the result indicated that consumers who have a chance to engage with a brand in social networking sites sens evolve from passive reactors to support the brand about instantaneously.\r\nCreating a brand presence in social media can create non only opportunities for a company to gain more customers but in addition help marketers to understand more d eeply what their voltage target customers think towards their products and services thanks, for example, to Facebook that first invented the â€Å" standardized” application that allows users to express their interest towards other websites, links or even competitors brands and share across networks.\r\n give thanks considerably to the advantages of social media, and its large numbers of authority target consumers, it is no surprise that many worldwide companies have selected social networking as a key medium to start launching their campaign. According to Parsons (2011), reported that recently, Kellogg’s, the texture manufacturer, launched a new range of Krave cereal and used Facebook as a medium to send and offer drop out sample packs to around 80,000 consumers on their Facebook fan page.\r\nThe brand also developed film content to engage their 16-24 year old target age group to create interaction in Facebook. Additional examples show that Dell also gained a m ajor success generating $3 million in sales after it launched its online outlet through Twitter and Starbucks has achieved the top ranking of Facebook brand pages, with nearly 4 million friends, by just offering fans coupons for free pastries and ice cream. Additionally, Whole Foods has topped Twitter with 1. million followers by broadcasting weekly specials and shop tips (Schmitt 2009, p. 26). Companies in the FMCG industry are not the only sector that is involved in social media. presently Honda, the Japanese automotive manufacture, is implementing their new marketing endeavour from budget-led to customer-led by moving beyond traditional advertise and using social media as a tool to understand, manage and encourage open communication and conversation among their customers (Fisher 2011).\r\nIn this point, the decision to buy a long-lasting good like a car is a lengthy process, so to ensure that their brand provide be in front of mind of consumers, Honda accordingly focuses th rough a combination of data analytics using, and social influence methodologies, to engage and change consumer perception and increase brand awareness at the same time. In other words the role of social media, in this case, is to help maximise the goodwill and favourable mentions of company and brands.\r\nMoreover, not only can a platform of social networking provide a benefit to pass with customers but it also enhances the capability of informal communications amongst staff as it has benefits of real-time discussion, response and f number to spread out information or opinions internally and reduce the time spent in meetings and it is tremendously useful for companies with teams/staff members who working in different locations or time zones.\r\nFor instance, according to Willson (2011) reported that AT&T, a US telecommunications company, launched a new tool aimed at providing their staff the opportunity to have discussions, brainstorm and refine ideas through its own interna l social media platform. Employees have opportunities to be involved by voting their opinion on the companys ideas and strategies. As a result of this implementation, and in just 6 months, there are more than 200 topics that have been discussed with huge outcomes and many fresh ideas generated without wasting time in meetings.\r\nUndoubtedly, social media platforms help a company say to both customers and staff faster and easier, however, the unproblematic nark of shared data can be a risk to a company’s surreptitious products and information. many an(prenominal) companies to date have suffered from the secret leaking of their products before its launch to market and it is not only bloggers or online journalists who cannot keep the information secret but also staff who are caught, sometimes by mistake, sharing confidential information.\r\nAs recent examples, Coggan (2011), reported that Renault has hang three senior executives allegedly for passing on blueprints for e lectric cars, Facebook’s corporate privacy settings went incorrect when some of the social network’s pecuniary resource were published and a strategy document from AOL came to electric discharge revealing that the internet and media firm’s journalists were evaluate to write five to ten articles a day. As a result of this type of leak information many companies, especially in the USA, do not allow employees to use their own computers or use memory sticks for certain online services.\r\nAccordingly Robert Half engineering also found in 2009 that more than half of chief information officers in America close up the use of networking sites such as Facebook at work to prevent leaking of information. In the digital era, todays business is borderless with mobile devices, smartphone and computers helping the world connect with the internet. Social networking is a new communications platform that enhances this borderless world providing users with an ability to cont act one another and spread information.\r\nMany companies use these social networks as a key strategic media to reach their target consumers or fit its platforms for internal communications purposes to enhance the productivity of its members. However, with its easy access and ability to disperse information rapidly, social networking is becoming a big argufy for todays businesses on how to control data leaking and to protect information assets whilst, at the same time, sharing data without affecting the companys competitiveness.\r\nUltimately, the challenge of gaining benefit from social media is to operate it in a balanced way and in the same way a company has always managed its confidential information. A company must know what it wants to achieve from bed covering information about its products and services and also what information it needs to protect . A businesses staff who are involved in the management, operation and control of these platforms should be trained to know ho w to add accurate data in an online social context and be able to understand what information is acceptable to share.\r\n'