Today, everything revolves around business. Whether you are a marketing agent, doctor, or engineer, you jobs ultimately ends up in you working for a business that strives to make money using your skills. With this now being a focus, it has also turned us into a consumer society. In a consumer society, there are two sides – the person spending money, and the person making money. Essentially, this constant cycle of spending and buying has created an overarching goal of selling a product: to make money. That product could be simple like a grilled cheese, or something much more complicated like an architectural design. Additionally, society has introduced a new concept called social media. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have consumed our attention. So, whether you are the business making the money, or the consumer spending the money, it’s important to understand the impacts social media has had. After much research, it’s clear that social media has taken the consumer society, and businesses individually, to a new level. It has advanced business in three areas – marketing, advertising, and customer relations. These areas combined, it is very apparent that social media has positively impacted business. As mentioned before, the goal of a consumer society, which everyone has come to live in, is to make money. While social media has brought up some debates of whether or not it is useful and worth the extra times with the use of social media, businesses are able to reach a larger audience, sell more products, and, eventually, make more money, accomplishing the goal of creating a more successful business. 

First, it is necessary to define social media and how it has come to be prevalent. Social media can be defined as an online instrument of communication used to share information from person to person (Lifewire). Essentially, it’s a form of communication that allows interaction to happen at our fingertips, instead of face to face. Although there are many forms of social media, some common examples are Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram. These sites make interaction quick and comfortable, avoiding any awkward or annoying interactions that happen in person. While social media has a tendency to consume the attention of a lot of people, it is a revolutionary concept that allows people the ability to constantly interact with each other. Whether it be sharing a political video on Facebook, tweeting about what you had for lunch, or posting a picture of you and a loved one on Instagram, social media is about constant sharing information in a way to interact with others. 

Social media, first significantly introduced in 2000, was established to share interests. This is similar to how basic social groups exist because members share interest, beliefs, or conflict (Edosowman). While many people believe the internet was designed simply to store information, that was not the overarching goal. Tim Berners-Lee, an MIT professor, quotes, “The Web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect--to help people work together--and not as a technical toy” (Daley). Naturally, humans have the tendency to connect and make relationships, and that goes the same for online, as well. Social media was designed, from the very beginning, to connect and engage people, and to allow them to share information over a much larger and more convenient network. 

This idea of sharing personal information should, and generally has, taken interest by businesses. If people can tell others about what they had for lunch, why don’t show them what they could eat for lunch? Businesses began to think like this. The main goal of businesses utilizing social media is to share information to generate interest. Then, hopefully, this interest will motivate people to buy their product. Eventually, this idea turned into what it is today. Advertisements on the side of a Facebook feed, Twitter promotions using hashtags, and so much more. Nowadays, social media is a tool used by businesses. Although social media has impacted businesses in many ways, the three emphasized areas are marketing, advertising, and customer relations. These main avenues of business have all been significantly impacted by the use of social media (Johansson). The areas have been expanded, made much cheaper, and been able to generate much more revenue since this tool was introduced. 

Essentially, the most significant impact social media has made, which affects the three areas mentioned, is the creation of a two-way conversation between businesses and consumers. As Anna Johansson discusses in her article, “How Social Media has Changed the Way We Engage Consumers,” social media has become such a predominate platform for communication. This communication is important for businesses to engage with their customers via Twitter, Facebook, etc. This open dialogue between producers and consumers is beneficial to business because it allows constant communication. Unlike previously popular communication platforms like billboards and radio advertisements that were only available on certain roadways at certain mile markers, or definite times premiered on certain channels, social media is constantly. As Bill George writes in an article featured in the Harvard Business Review, “social networking morphed from a personal communications tool for young people into a new vehicle that business leaders are using to transform communications with their employees and customers, as it shifts from one-way transmission of information to two-way interaction” (George). This interaction that now exists between businesses and consumers revolutionizes the way businesses now market, advertise, and engage in customer service relations. 

With this constant communication occurring, it is very difficult for business not engaged in social media to become prevalent in the conversation. If businesses aren’t present in the conversation happening online between consumers and producers, they will not be able to establish themselves and create an argument for why consumers should purchase their product. Social media has revolutionized and adapted the conversation, and if businesses aren’t currently engaged, they will not be able to compete with rival companies that are involved. 

This open communication has significantly affected advertising. Advertising, defined as notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary), is the physical promotions seen or heard by the public. Some common examples of this, before social media, would be print advertisements in the newspaper, or commercials on the TV. With social media, these are the tweets, Instagram posts, are Facebook advertisements commonly seen on a day to day basis. Social media allows advertisements the ability to reach a larger number of people, constantly. As Anna Johansson describes, users know when another user’s birthday is, what they had for dinner, etc. It has become the norm, thanks to social media, to not recognize a limit when it comes to what and when things get shared. This puts advertisers at a new advantage, because they are able to constantly interact with the public and generate interest about the product. 

In addition to advertising, social media has actively played a role in revolutionizing the marketing strategies used by businesses. First, it’s necessary to understand the difference between marketing and advertising. Advertising, usually associated with a single product or service, varies from marketing, which is the overall strategies and plans to reflect on a business as a whole, yet still includes individual advertisements. As Kimberly McCall writes, “advertising is just one component, or subset, of marketing. Public relations, media planning, product pricing and distribution, sales strategy, customer support, market research and community involvement are all parts of comprehensive marketing efforts” (McCall). For a business, marketing campaigns are the greater picture that reflects the business and its success as a whole. 

Overall, marketing is the intention of a business to influence and persuade consumers. To see the value of social media in marketing, the focus is on the competition aspect. If one company has more of a presence in consumers’ lives, they will consequently have a greater influence. According to a study on a group of small businesses done by Network Solutions, LLC, 75% have a company page on a social networking site, and 69% post status updates or articles of interest on social media sites (Neti). This overwhelming majority of businesses puts other businesses at a disadvantage. The businesses not prevalent on social media are not able to have as much influence on consumers, therefore their marketing campaigns are, comparatively, much weaker. 

 Additionally, businesses have much more flexibility for creative ideas now, “social media allows businesses to connect, and engage, with customers in an environment that’s friendly to the customer” (Johansson). While Facebook and Twitter have become so second-nature to their users, marketing campaigns are integrated into the feed, and barely even recognized as advertisements. This camouflage allows businesses to integrate their campaigns, actively and effectively influencing their views without them even realizing it. Especially with the generations that are active of social media, marketing has become heavily immersed into their culture and daily lives. Famous celebrities they “follow” on Instagram for enjoyment, post a picture of themselves using a new product, and then the consumer is subconsciously influenced to go buy that product. There is a new, and much broader spectrum, of opportunities businesses have to utilize in their marketing campaigns. For a business to engage with social media, they are able to communicate with consumers at a much more comfortable level. If the consumer is more comfortable, they will be more easily influenced. This gives businesses involved with social media an advantage compared to those not. 

Previously, both advertising and marketing used strategizes that focused on the idea of 4 “P’s” – product, price, place, and promotion. However, with social media, a fifth “P” is introduced; now, social media can also focus on people (Johansson). Sites like Facebook and Twitter have the ability to reach certain, highly targeted areas. For example, if a baby clothing company wants to advertise to mother of infants, if it easy for that company to reach mothers based on their activity on social media – their most recent posts, if they “like” the Pamper’s Diapers page on Facebook, etc. With social media, it is easy for businesses to quickly, confidently, and cost-effectively reach an extremely focused audience. 

The third area of businesses influenced by social media and this new, two-way conversation between producers and consumers, is customer relations. With social media, a constant conversation is flowing. It is much easier for businesses to interact and respond to customers. If a customer has a negative review of a business, their first instinct in today’s society, is to share that with their peers, through social media. This negativity reaches a larger audience, and alternative, so does the company’s response. If the company is able to publicly reach out to the customer in attempt to resolve the dispute in response to the customer, it is much easier for them to satisfy the unhappy customer, all while promoting their brand. Businesses that don’t use social media would have no idea that a particular customer could have promoted their unsatisfactory experience with the company to their friends. With social media, that company could have the ability to respond and prove their loyalty, compassion, and willingness to satisfy. This, consequently, adds positivity to their public image, increasing their customer favorability, selling more products, and making more money. An example of the enhanced customer service system is Delta Airlines. Delta Airlines makes a constant effort to respond to any customer complaints or needs on Twitter. Scrolling through their twitter pages, it’s clear.

…their Twitter account to communicate with more than 1.13 million followers. While a lot of Delta’s strategy involves marketing and branding, a healthy percentage of their communications deal with customer service and disgruntled customers… many of the responses are direct apologies or attempts to solve disputes and problems. Customers know that if they have a problem, they can send a message to Delta and get a quick response. For Delta, this is more than a customer service tactic: it’s a solid PR play. It increases the company’s image as a brand that cares. (Johansson) 

Meanwhile, United Airlines has had many bad experiences shown on social media, and they have not addressed the concerns like Delta has. Social media has created an effective way for companies to respond and react to complaints, promoting their own public imagine.  

In all three of these areas, advertising, marketing, and customer service, social media has also been able to save companies money. If companies can save money, while still earning the same amount of revenue, their profit will skyrocket, which should be the ultimate goal. Social media accounts cost the companies nothing, and advertisements they chose to utilize and put on different websites, cost much less than a billboard, TV advertisement, or super bowl commercial. However, social media, as proven in the earlier argument, consistently reaches a much larger audience. Therefore, this form of marketing is not only more effective, but also a lot less costly, and saves businesses millions.

While social media has primarily affected business positively, many will argue that it has its pitfalls. As Bill George discusses in his article, “How Social Networking Has Changed Business”, this idea of open communication has presented a threat to those that hold middle-level management positions. Middle-level management positions are typically responsible for the communication throughout the business, and between producers and consumers (George). However, the key to successfully implementing social media into a business, without threatening any management positions, is to allow those that work to lead with authority, and without hierarchy (George). This diminishes the need for a middle-level communicator, whose job is threatened by the new wave of communication introduced by social media. 

Additionally, Catherine Lovering wrote an article titled “Negative Effects of Social Media on Business” that highlights many flaws  in the system of integrating social media into business. Her article in Hearst Magazine follows 5 major outlined discussion points for the negatives of business. These are the burden of marketing shift, increased customer power, tracking negative or misleading statements, accidental release of confidential information, and unauthorized employees speaking on company’s behalf. Essentially, the article argues that social media is an open platform for anyone to say anything they want. If those are negative comments, it’s difficult for the business to confine this negativity from overwhelming their reputation. Additionally, anonymity has made it difficult for businesses to track the negative comments, and negativity is much more likely to come from an anonymous source than in face-to-face contact.

 Although there is some criticism, it is nearly impossible to deny to benefits of social media for business. While most businesses are currently gaining those benefits, it’s detrimental to the businesses not involved with social media. It is important for all businesses to engage and social media, to meet the current expectations in each industry. As mentioned before, social media exists for business to primarily influence and persuade its consumers. If a business does not use social media as a tool for success, it will not have the same influence as their competitors. 

The goal of social media is for users to interact and share information, and businesses use it in the same way. This interaction between producers and consumers has created an effective, inexpensive, and far-reaching two-way conversation, which has influenced businesses in three different areas. Advertising, marketing, and customer service, are three areas very valuable and influential for a business, determining much of its success. Businesses that haven’t integrated social media into their advertisements, marketing campaigns, and customer relations strategies, are at a serious disadvantage. Those businesses are not able to reach the same customer base and influence customers in the same way, making it difficult for them to complete with rival companies. Throughout the consumer society that exists today, it is important for businesses to utilize social media to be a successful company. 
