Author:M. Azim Ulfati

Introduction

In this paper first of all, I will evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes. I will then analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs.

I will assess how Social Media Marketing is helping Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise.  I will research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media Marketing to their advantage and will discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and provide examples with my discussion.  I will lastly speculate what impact Social Media will have business over the next decade and identify what skills you need to improve to take advantage of the changes.

Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security

Evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes.

 As we all know that businesses need techniques to assist get their specific audiences on the Internet. Search engine optimization, marketing with topics, and a new technique is used to complete this today. Social media advertising is indeed famous that a majority of new enterprises, or even a lot of existing types, is swiftly proceeding on the web in order to use these tactics. It is possible to improve the long run revenue of your respective business using the fantastic social media advertising ideas under.

And there are many reasons that Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes as the following. Millions upon millions of people around the world use the Internet every second of every day. The World Wide Web has basically changed the way in which we communicate with each other on a social level and with our coworkers, directors and customers in the professional arena. It has also revolutionized the way the modern business appeals to its target audience and this is primarily because the Internet enables people like you and me to search for any product (from a garden hose to a high performance sports car) or service, be it a dentist or a hairdresser, simply by clicking through the virtual pages of this truly fathomless ocean of information. (Patricia, 2012)

Before the age of Information Technology, you would have to physically sift through the tissue-thin pages of some yellowed directory book for names, phone numbers and addresses. That or rely on the advice of a friend or a family member. Now, you are but a matter of mouse clicks away from not just the first, for instance, florist it took you ages to find, but the best and closest florist to your doorstep! With a staggering 75% of all people globally going online to find information about the products and services they need, one thing has become exceedingly lucid about modern marketing principles: if you’re not visible online, then you are losing out on an incredible amount of business! You may ask the social marketing agency: all of these potential clients are wishing and skipping into your competition’s virtual retail store! (Patricia, 2012)

With the uncompromised accessibility of the Internet, competition between businesses for this online visibility has become fierce, which means that strategies such as social media and social marketing have become indispensible. Without the right tools, strategies and investment of time and money, you may also gift-wrap and hand all those potential customers over to your competition. So, what does all of this really mean and how can you, the business owner, increase the online visibility of your brand name and identity using social marketing? (Patricia, 2012)

There are three areas on the Internet that are important to target when designing an effective social media and social marketing campaign:

1. Search Engines: This terminology may seem unfamiliar for a lot of people how ever you use them every day when ever you browse the World Wide Web like Google, Yahoo! and MSN, amongst others.

2. Social Marketing in the Blogosphere: The realm that is a site for written ideas and experiences are for social marketing includes Blogger, Word Press and Bloggit.

3. Social Marketing in Social Media: The array of websites dedicated to promoting social interaction and media sharing (video, audio, photo, etc.), such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, YouTube and the 500+ more.

With over the next year is projected at 3 percent meaning 91 percent of companies will use social media for marketing in 2013.Going into 2014, growth is projected to be 1 percent, the eMarketer report. Overall, the most popular social network for marketing is Facebook. Eighty-three percent of companies expected to use Facebook this year for marketing while 53 percent of companies will use Twitter for marketing. YouTube is the least popular marketing network with just 36 percent of companies using the video site. Social media has certainly changed and improved

Businesses can not afford to ignore the benefits of using social media. In the past, consumers often just had the opinions of a few friends before making a significant purchase. The use of social media can increase of the number of those opinions from just a few to hundreds or even thousands reiterated that social media continues to abound for both businesses and the consumer. As Buch walter stated, online access is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. (Susan)

Businesses have also realized that consumers use social media because it is fun. They can easily share their ideas, photos, videos, likes and dislikes with each other. Businesses realize that importance of having increased interaction with consumers and retailers, and the use of social media gives them the chance to more efficiently meet the demand of their clients.

Many firms now use social media to enhance their marketing scheme. Health care and pharmaceutical firms have been slower to react because of regulatory concerns, but even they are now regularly using social media to communicate with patients and physicians. Other firms also use social media for promotions and to survey groups for records of past purchases and interests. One has to be careful, however, when reading the reviews of any firm on a social media outlet. It is easy for a firm to put a fake review of a product on a social media outlet to enhance the probability that a consumer will purchase that product. (Patricia, 2012)

Social media essentially refers to the myriad of Internet-based sites that facilitate and promote social interaction and networking. In order to truly appreciate the marketing power of social media, one need only consider the following statistics:

75% of the global consumers who go online visit Social Media Marketing Service websites. This figure has increased by a massive 24% since last year.

Each visitor spends approximately 66% more time on Social Media Marketing Service websites than the previous year (from 3 hours per day to 6.5!)

22% of the people’s time is spent browsing Social Media Marketing Service websites. In July of this year (2010), Facebook announced over 500,000,000 (million) users. LinkedIn currently has 60 million subscribers, which increased by 5 million in just 2 months. Twitter has 110 million users. Myspace has 57 million users in the United States alone. Yelp sees over 30 million viewers per month. Tagged  has 100 million registered users. (Susan)

So, what does this all mean? Social media has captivated the world’s attention and the number of users and time spent per day by each user is only increasing with each passing month. And what does this mean for business?  

The explosion of Social Media Marketing Service websites on the Internet and the vast number of people who subscribe to any of the hundreds out there has provided businesses of all sizes with an incredible opportunity to cash in on the exposure they can afford. Consider Facebook; one of the biggest of all the social networking sites to exist in the virtual domain. Facebook has over 500 million active viewers: subscribers who login and spend time on the site every day. Tens, if not hundreds of millions of users on a daily basis are therefore seeing the business that has visibility on Facebook. It is this potential for incredible exposure and the subsequent accumulation of leads that has made social media the new medium for modern marketing and advertising. The statistics have spoken: the business that does not make the jump into social media as a means for spreading their brand image and name will literally be left in the dust of its competitors. (Patricia, 2012)

Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs?

There are both advantages and disadvantages to using social media for business entrepreneurs. Advantages would include the ease of obtaining data input from media users via the Internet or computer based automated applications without having to manually sort through the data. Although the initial process of developing a customized applications/process can be costly and time consuming, it will pay off over time because of the valuable information that marketers can use to target specific market areas. Data obtained might include age, gender, zip code, money spent, material purchases, and other details of information relevant to the market content that is desired. (2012)

Das (2009) gave some advantages of social media. Among them were low costs, builds credibility, and the increased number of connections. Some of the advantages relevant to business cited by Mercer (2009) included making it easier to form a new business, enhance an existing business, enhance selling merchandise, receive employment recommendations, and receive employment recommendations. (Hensel & Deis, 2010)

Disadvantages would include, from a marketer's viewpoint, safety concerns, especially those applicable to Internet privacy and security issues. Marketers might also be concerned about spending significant amounts of capital to give assurance (building trust) to media users to assure that the users any information obtained from them will not be misused. Examples would include sites as the dating site, match.com, or social sites such as facebook.com Additional disadvantages might include concerns relevant to who is watching the sites, such as employers, parents, or individuals who the users of the site would prefer not have access to the information. Disadvantages mentioned by Das included lack of anonymity, scams and harassment, and time consuming. Another disadvantage might include the possible bias of opinions shown on social media sites. A careful analysis of the material being presented is important, but this is cumbersome at times. (Hensel & Deis, 2010)

An article by Dube and White (n.d.) listed some additional areas where social networks might be harmful to society. The article stated that surveys indicated a huge amount of teen use of social networks. Doing this often leads to the teens depending on the social networks to maintain friendships. Dube and White (n.d.) also indicated that too much dependence on social networks can lead to poor interpersonal communication. (Hensel & Deis, 2010)

 When companies participate on the social web in a meaningful way, it helps create a personal connection between customers and the brand. One of the greatest benefits specifically for small businesses is that access to potential customers has increased tremendously. Rather than strictly focusing on paid advertising, word-of-mouth referrals, and in-store promotions or a wacky mascot standing outside businesses can now directly find customers. People may be interested in their products based on profiles, active discussions, and keywords or expressed interests. This is especially key in the early stages of a business life cycle when cash is at a premium. Marketing is the key ingredient for a successful business. Thus doing it in cost effective way is a burning challenge to all the marketing managers out there since the more cost effective. (Debashish, 2011)

The top two advantages of social media marketing are increasing exposure and increasing traffic. Nearly two-thirds of marketers are using social media to gain marketplace intelligence.(65%). Tied for fourth place, 58% of marketers indicated generating leads and developing loyal fans were benefits of social media. (MICHAEL, 2012)

It takes time to develop relationships that lead to sales. However, a large percentage of marketers who take the time find great results. For example,

More than half who spend 11 or more hours per week find the same results and over 65% of those who spend 30+ hours earn new business through their efforts.

Small business owners with 2 or more employees were more likely to see improved sales from social media (51.5%). Conversely, 60% of all marketers taking this survey report social media have not helped them improve sales. This may be because they lack tools to track sales. Those who invest the most time in social media marketing gain the most business partnerships. Of those with 3 years or more of experience, 72% saw new partnerships. However, Fifty-six percent of those investing as little as 6 to 10 hours per week in social media were able to build new partnerships. Marketers selling to other businesses were more likely to achieve this benefit (56%) than those selling to consumers (44%). Both of these are declines from 2011 (61% for B2B and 51% for B2C). (MICHAEL, 2012)

This is a significant increase over 2011 (52%).

A significant 65% of small business owners were more likely than others to generate leads, compared to the 58% average for all marketers.

A strong 78% of marketers with 3+ years of experience gained leads from social media marketing. (MICHAEL, 2012)

Reduced marketing expenses

The main financial cost of social media marketing is the time it takes to gain success.

The self-employed (57%) were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.

Over a third of all mid-sized and large company respondents said social media had not reduced their marketing expenses.

Improved search rankings

Improved search engine rankings were of those with 3 or more years experience,

75% report benefits.

At least 56% of those investing a minimum of 6 hours per week in social media marketing saw improvements in search engine rankings (a drop from 65% in 2011).

Marketers selling to other businesses were more likely to achieve this benefit (59%) than those selling to consumers (50%).(MICHAEL, 2012)

Increased traffic

And those who've been doing this for 3 years or more reported substantially better results (84% reported benefits).

Large brands (75%) reported substantially more benefit than small businesses (68%).

Provides marketplace insight

Nearly 65% of marketers found social media to be a helpful tool in understanding the marketplace. Of those with at least 1 year of experience, 70% or more found benefit.

B2B companies (68%) were significantly more likely than B2C (59%) to use social media for intelligence gathering.

Acquiring loyal fans

B2C companies (63%) were much more likely to develop a loyal fan base through social media than B2B (54%).

Time invested makes a difference. Sixty percent of those spending at least 6 hours a week found benefit, compared to 46% of those spending 5 hours or less per week. (MICHAEL, 2012)

Any way whether you are a social network addict, a novice dabbler, or you are thinking about trying online networking, you probably have some questions about the advantages and disadvantages of social networking. For example, can it really increase one's productivity or does it just waste valuable time? How safe is it? Before you invest too heavily in online social communities, be sure to do your due diligence so you are aware of the risk versus the reward. Here's what you need to know to help you make an informed decision.

Four Advantages of Social Networking (MICHAEL, 2012)

1. Worldwide Connectivity

No matter if you are searching for that former college roommate, your first grade teacher, or an international friend, there is no easier or faster way to make a connection than via the social network. Although Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace are probably the most well known social networking communities, there are new websites popping up regularly that are dedicated to allowing people to connect and to interact via the Internet. Through such sites, individuals make new friends or business connections or extend their personal base by connecting and interacting with friends of friends and so forth. These connections can help one with a variety of things such as: Finding romance , seeking a new job , locating assistance, getting and giving product and service referrals , receiving support from like-minded individuals, making or receiving advice on career or personal issues.In many ways, social communities are the virtual equivalent of meeting at the general store or at church socials to exchange news and get updated on friends and families. Snail mail pen pals have been replaced by virtual avatars and private messages sent via the social network. (Donna )

2. Commonality of Interest

When you opt to participate in a social network community, you can pick and choose those individuals whose likes and dislikes are similar to yours and build your network around those commonalities. For instance, if you are a chess aficionado or a book lover, you can find and interact with those who share your interest. Because you are connecting digitally instead of having to physically attend meetings, you have the luxury of joining many more groups and communities. You can meet with your friends anytime you have an Internet connection and whenever you find them online. (Donna )

3. Real-Time Information Sharing

Many social networking sites incorporate an instant messaging feature, which means you can exchange information in real-time via a chat. This is a great feature for teachers to use to facilitate classroom discussions. A study by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation shows these networks can be used as effective vehicles for students to pursue self-paced online learning. In addition, the Internet is the ultimate online textbook. Students no longer need to take out six library books at a time. Much of what they need to know they can find online.

School is not the only setting where this type of real-time information sharing can be beneficial. Social networking can provide a tool for managers to utilize in team meetings, for conference organizers to use to update attendees and for business people to use as a means of interacting with clients or prospects. (Donna )

4. Free Advertising

Whether you are non-profit organization who needs to get the word out about your upcoming fundraiser or a business owner marketing a new product or service, there's no better way to get your message in front of millions of people 24/7. The best part is it that you can spread the word through social networking profiles for free. You can promote one product, service or idea or many because you are limited only by the amount of time you wish to invest in the endeavor. (Donna )

Four Disadvantages of Online Social Communities

1. Face to Face Connections are endangered

A huge advantage of these social communities has a reverse side effect that is also a big disadvantage of social networking: they reduce or eliminate face-to-face socialization. Because of the autonomy afforded by the virtual world, individuals are free to create a fantasy personal and can pretend to be someone else. It is hard to say no, be rude, or ignore someone when you are looking them in the eye. It's incredibly easy and quick to unfriend or unfollow someone or simply block their efforts to make a connection. Just one click of the mouse and your problems are over. Unfortunately, this feature of online socialization cheats people of the opportunity to learn how to resolve conflicts in the world outside the Internet and it could retard or cripple one's social skills developments. Tweens and teens are at higher risk because those years are when they are learning to interact with others or build and maintain relationships. A report from the National School Boards Association shows that of the children in these age groups that use a social network, 41 percent spend their time posting messages. They are not spending this time in face-to-face interactions with their peers or others nor are they developing the necessary social skills for future success. (Donna )

2. Cyber bullying and Crimes Against Children

Use of social networks can expose individuals to harassment or inappropriate contact from others. Unless parents are diligent to filter the Internet content to which their families are exposed, children could be exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content. The Pew Center, in their Cyber bullying 2010 report, states that 93 percent of teens aged 12 to 17 use the Internet. Of that 93 percent, 63 percent of them use the Internet daily. Such high usage increases the risk of their being victims of cyber bullying or other cyber crimes. (Donna )

3. Risks of Fraud or Identity Theft

Whether you like it or not, the information you post on the Internet is available to almost anyone who is clever enough to access it. Most thieves need just a few vital pieces of personal information to make your life a nightmare and if they successfully steal your identity, it could cost you dearly. A report on CNET reveals over 24 million Americans put their personal information at risk by posting it on public sites such as social communities. (Donna )

4. Time Waster

A Nielsen report explains that social networking can be a big waste of time that sucks 17 percent of our Internet time down the non-productivity drain. While it is true that some of that time is likely spent in making and maintaining important business, social or professional connections, it is also true that it is easy to become distracted and end up spending valuable time on games, chats or other non-related activities. Dorie Clark of the Huffington Post reports Facebook users spend about six hours each month on the site, while social networkers spend three times as much time on those communities as they do on other online activities like email. (Donna )

It Is Really Up to You

Because networking in online social communities is still a relatively young online trend, whether or not social networking is harmful is still unknown. Like any other type of networking or social club with which individuals become involved, it is a good idea to do your homework and make sure that you know what you are getting into. Understand the terms of use, the rules and regulations, and be clear on issues like security and privacy.

Take responsibility for your own safety and integrity and never join something just because it is trendy or all your friends are doing it. In evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of social networking, it's best to err on the side of caution and information. After all, the lack of both can have a devastating effect. (Donna )

Social Media Advertising – Advantages & Disadvantages

Social media advertising is a type of online marketing that focuses on social network websites. For instance, a friend’s comment in a social networking site can provide direct advertising of a product. Some people may post about a product they have bought, and their messages appear in the news feed. The messages can affect other people to formulate opinions about the product based on the testimonies of close friends or family members.

There are also indirect ways of using social media advertising, which is by making Facebook group or fan pages. Others opt to advertise their business by using banner ads in social network sites. Typically, this type of advertising encourages people to supply information on a product by posting comments in a particular social network such as MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook. (Socialolio, 2012)

Is Social Media Advertising Really That Important?

Social media technology has produced massive changes in the way people communicate and express their opinions. These advancements in communication channels have also increased user activities, as well as viewership. Several websites that have utilized Facebook, as a manner of advertising the business, have experienced a great boom in their business.

For instance, the Sporting News site had a 500 percent increase in unique visits when it used Facebook for advertising purposes. Other companies have used other popular social network sites in promoting their products, and these websites have gained excellent benefits, as well. (Socialolio, 2012)

It is not enough that a company has an eye-catchy or appealing website. Social media advertising can draw a huge bulk of visitors in the website, which can affect the revenues and number of potential customers. Business owners should understand that social media could build and strengthen their company’s image.

Every opinion shared by individuals in any social network environment can affect the public’s overall image and opinion of a company. When a number of people react positively or negatively on a product, their opinions can affect the company’s overall growth.

Many businesses apply social media as a form of advertising their products and services because it has become a fad. However, individuals should understand the benefits and drawbacks of social media advertising, so they would know how it would affect the business. The following are among the advantages of utilizing social media:

Grabs the attention of existing and potential customers with the use of relevant and interesting content

Increases visibility of brand, particularly for companies that are new in the business

Convenience in responding to developments in the industry

Low-cost type of advertising, as compared to promotional activities and conventional marketing strategies

Boosts web search traffic, sales, and revenues because of frequent appearance in search results

Allows companies to respond quickly to consumer feedback and improve the quality of services based on the clients’ recommendations

Generates leads when customers discover the company’s website through social media and other channels

Strengthens the advocacy of existing customers and increase chances of getting new clients because of networking

Although there are advantages in using social media advertising, it is also necessary for business owners to become aware of these possible drawbacks:

Necessity for managing a social media network to maintain visibility to the public

Difficulty in measuring and comparing the return on investment from one channel as compared to the other

Possibility of damaging the company’s reputation because of failure to respond to a negative feedback and poor engagement with customers

Business owners should be keen on determining the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing social media for advertising purposes. They can come up with the most effective way to market their products and services to the public by tackling the different issues related to social media advertising. (Lyve)

Assess how Social Media Marketing is helping Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise.

I think that building a social media program is an exciting opportunity. It’s an opportunity to dramatically change the way you connect with customers and other constituents - a chance to tap into conversations, learn more about how your brand is perceived, promote your product or service in new ways, and ultimately grow your business. Often the things you learn in your social media program can inform your more traditional marketing efforts as well, as you engage directly with your audience and learn more about what makes them tick.

Social Media Marketing has helped Pepsi to localize social marketing efforts in different culture contexts to gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise. Consistency of brand image is necessary on a global scale, but it is equally important to leverage the local social media platforms and understand the local consumers in order to carry out successful and efficient campaigns. (2010)

1.Social Media Marketing has created platforms to target multiple consumer segments with all these varying platforms using habits. For example, somebody who registered both on Facebook and Twitter probably does not use them for the same purpose. The saying that “Facebook is on the social graph and Twitter on the interest graph” still holds. It is generally believed that Facebook friends are interested in the person while Twitter followers are interested in the topic, not necessarily the person. Twitter is more open and dynamic than Facebook, but tweets also fade into the crowd faster. If one carefully checks Coca-Cola and Pepsi’s Facebook and Twitter pages, one would discover that they do not have the same style at all. The Facebook page of Coca Cola is a place for anybody to express any feeling, while Pepsi’s page is neatly managed by a team, aiming to elicit dynamic interactions with the consumers which correspond closely to Pepsi’s fun image.

Other social platforms such as YouTube have even looser connections, but can attract users with a different manner. Pepsi Company analyzes these platforms carefully and chooses the correct strategy, which corresponds to their brand image and company vision. (Susan)

2.Social Media marketing help Pepsi Company to understand what the followers want. (Susan)

3.Social Media Marketing helps Online and offline events for Pepsi to gain more customers. Pepsi Company chooses to launch both offline and online campaigns separately. Alternatively, jumping at opportunities such as the torch relay is less costly, and they also have great visibility. But there’s a lot of work that needs to be done before jumping into a full-scale social media program. Companies beginning these programs often overlook these steps, but they are key to the success of your efforts. There are other steps that Social Media Marketing helps Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise and be a successful company.

Consumers have more choices than ever, thanks to the ease of finding information online, and the social Web has opened up a global online conversation that most companies still don’t know how to leverage.

Building relationships, brand loyalty, and business in very important, but it’s also an amazing tool for search engine optimization, opening more doors for people to find you online than anyone could have dreamed of a decade ago via the following Social Media Marketing. (Susan)

Human Resources

Networking

Facebook

LinkedIn

MySpace

Bebo

Niche networking sites

Blogs

Twitter

YouTube

Executive

Thought Leadership

• Blogs • Twitter

  

Public Relations

Commenting

• Blogs
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Digg
• StumbleUpon
• Delicious
• Other social bookmarking sites
• Review sites like Yelp and Epinions

Marketing

Create Content

• Blogs
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Digg
• StumbleUpon • Facebook
• MySpace
• You name it!

Customer Service

Direct Dialogue

• Blogs
• Twitter • YouTube(Susan)

Research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media Marketing to their advantage. Discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and provide examples with your discussion.

Eastman Kodak:

Eastman Kodak Company is recognized for the company’s vision and outstanding achievements in using social media, like facebook, twitter, linkein, youtube, blogs to connect and engage with consumers and grow its brand in the 21st Century. Kodak recently leveraged social media to crowd source the name of its newest pocket video camera. Kodak also produced a Social Media Tips Booklet sharing key learning’s and best practices to help businesses develop an effective social media plan. The booklet is available at kodak.com/go/followus. (Matthew)

Here is an example that social Medial has worked for Kodak

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Kodak, Jeffrey Hayzlett, is ubiquitous and seemingly knows everyone. Well, on Twitter. He's always tweeting about where he is and what he's doing, and he's become a fixture at something called the "140 Conference," which celebrates Twitter as a communications method.

Social media is nice and I use it a lot. But how it is tied to organizational goals is the important issue. Maybe Kodak seems a little more hip with a tweeting CMO, but that does relatively little to get me to buy a product from them; it just lays a little groundwork. Tweets like, "break-at my NYC fav diner having some smoked whitefish on crackers. Wonder if I can shove some in my pockets for later?" do little for me personally. And Hayzlett's tweetstream consists of little more than that, frankly. (("Has social media," 2010)

US Airways:

US Airways is also one of the businesses that use Social Media Marketing for their advantage, in an effort to build customer engagement, an increasing number of airlines are creating an active social media presence — Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and check-in locations for location-based apps. SimpliFlying, “a unique blog offering insights, hind sights, and foresights into the world of airline and airport branding”, has created an info graphic that shows how the airline industry has allocated resources to social media. We all know that it’s easy to set up social media profiles, but many brands fail to follow through and dedicate the huge amount of time and energy it takes to gain followers and create meaningful dialog. And who could forget the string of recent airline-industry PR debacles that had the companies scrambling to redeem themselves? These days, a social-media presence is vital for public relations, branding, marketing — everything, really.

The info graphic below shows that airlines with an integrated model are more likely to perform better than those with a dedicated social media marketing staff. Social media dexterity was calculated by using an algorithm that accounted for Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and Klout scores. These results are airline-industry-specific, but all marketers should take them into account regardless of what product or service they’re trying to publicize — what works for one industry can be viable for others, too. (Pam, 2011)

Some interesting facts

There has been a 60% increase in the number of tweets received by airlines between February 2011 and March 2011.

40% percent of airlines are expanding their social-media teams, bringing in employees from marketing, customer service, e-commerce, corporate communications, and other departments.

KLM has 125,000 Twitter followers and 200,000 Facebook fans with 23 dedicated staff focusing on social media. Southwest Airlines, on the other hand, has only four employees trained in social media in an integrated model, has 1,100,000 Twitter followers and 1,390,000 Facebook fans. (Pam, 2011)

 Speculate what impact Social Media will have business over the next decade and identify what skills you need to improve to take advantage of the changes.

How will marketers change their social media activities in the future?

I think based on the survey that has been done, Social Media will have the following impact in the future and they will need the following skills.

. A significant 86% said they have no plans to utilize MySpace or will reduce their efforts. Here is a breakdown by social media channel:

YouTube/Video

Surprisingly, marketers indicated that YouTube/video was the top area in which they planned to increase their social media efforts.

A significant 77% of marketers plan on increasing their YouTube and/or video marketing.

Responding

Affirmatively.

At least 73% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube/video, blogs,

Facebook and Twitter

Businesses with 1000 or more

Employees indicated this is a key

Growth area, with 82%(MICHAEL, 2011)

Facebook

Facebook is clearly a top winner.

. Only 3% of marketers surveyed do not plan to utilize Facebook. Second only to YouTube/video and tied with blogs, Facebook is an area where marketers feel they can achieve substantial results.

80% of B2C plan on increasing Facebook efforts. 83% of large businesses will also increase their Facebook activities. Facebook is also the top focus for people just getting started with social media marketing.

Blogs

Blogs remain a strong area of focus for social media marketers, with 75% indicating they'll increase their blogging activities.

The self-employed are more likely to blog, with 79% reporting increased activity.

In 2010, 81% of marketers planned on increasing their blogging activities.

92% of marketers are using facebook and 75% plan o

Increasing their activities

Twitter

73% of marketers will increase their activities on Twitter.

Large businesses are most likely to increase their activities on Twitter, with 77% reporting.

LinkedIn

As expected, B2B are significantly more likely to plan on increasing their use of LinkedIn (71% of B2B versus 51% of B2C).

The self-employed (68%) were more likely to increase their use of LinkedIn. (MICHAEL, 2011)

Social Bookmarking

A mere 40% of businesses plan on increasing their social bookmarking activities, while more than 1 in 3 have no plans to use social bookmarking.

Forums

Only 36% of businesses will increase their forum activities, while 35% have no plans to use forums.

In 2010, only 27% of marketers had no plans for using forums. Now that number jumped to 35%.

39% of B2B plan on increasing their forum use (versus 34% of B2C). (MICHAEL, 2011)

Geo location

30% of marketers plan on increasing their use of geo location services like Foursquare.

38% of businesses with 501 to 1000

Employees and 42% of businesses with more than 1000 employees will increase use of geo location.

Group on (or similar)

Only 19% of marketers plan on increasing their use of Group on or a similar group-shopping site.

25% of marketers with 3 or more years of social media experience will increase Group on activities.

Larger businesses are more likely to employ geo location(MICHAEL, 2011)

MySpace

Most businesses (81%) have no plans to utilize MySpace and only 5% will increase their MySpace activities. Clearly a lot of people want to learn how to use the many social media tools available. What follows are tools marketers are interested in based on how long they've been using social media marketing. (MICHAEL, 2011)

Based on all the evaluation, it is conceived that marketers will completely change their Social Media Marketing activities to more and more individual and in personal relationship marketing in the upcoming decade, for example Amway company uses more personal relationship marketing among the people and families. (MICHAEL, 2011)

Conclusion

Social media has gone mainstream. And for businesses it represents an unprecedented marketing opportunity that transcends traditional middlemen and connects companies directly with customers. This is why nearly every business on the planet is exploring social media marketing initiatives.

Not only is social media marketing an excellent opportunity for building relationships, brand loyalty, and business, but it’s also an amazing tool for search engine optimization, opening more doors for people to find you online than anyone could have dreamed of a decade ago. The question today shouldn’t be “Why should my busi- ness be active on the social Web?” but instead “Why isn’t my business already active on the social Web?”

Using the tools of the social Web, you can directly and indirectly promote your business, because every interaction opens a new door to your online presence. That means your social media participation shouldn’t be limited to promotional efforts. Instead, you should invite all departments and functions to join your business’s social media efforts.

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