The Internet as Social Media: Connectivity and Immediacy essay
Does the availability and use of social media on the Internet really provide businesses with new and different useful information? Social media can be viewed as an effective tool to promote business. YouTube and other social media platforms provide massive opportunities for advertising campaigns, which help to attract more and more customers. However, social media may have negative impact on businesses as well, especially on business reputation. According to researchers, “with the web, opinions, facts, truth and lies can spread across the world as fast as a rumor or piece of gossip might have passed among the inhabitants of a small town 100 years ago” (Newson et al., 2009, p. 171). The case of Dave Carroll, a young Canadian singer, who travelled with his band from Toronto Canada to Nebraska, and faced serious problems with his baggage, hurt the United Airlines reputation to a great extent. Dave Carrol used social media to inform others about the United Airlines customer service, and he succeeded. Careless baggage handlers managed to break Dave Carroll’s guitar which cost $3.500. United Airlines refused to reimburse Dave’s repair bill of $1.200. Dave Carroll’s song “United Breaks Guitars”, which was posted on YouTube in the form of a humorous video clip, had more than 3 million viewers within two weeks. According to research, “by mid-2011the YouTube clip had accumulated well over 10 million views”(Fritz, 2012, p. 53). Today people have an opportunity to share their problems with others via social media platforms. Many customers use social media to voice their disagreement with customer services, hurting the reputation of many highly acclaimed companies. So, the availability and use of social media really provide businesses with new and different useful information, including negative comments and critical review about products and services, which may hurt the company’s reputation.
To start with, social media platforms play an important role in business communication, proving massive opportunities for customers to share their opinions about products and services. Social networking sites, YouTube, Twitter, blogging and other types of social media creates a serious threat to business reputation. The term “social media” is used to “describe online tools and utilities that allow communication of information online and participation and collaboration” (Newson et al., 2009, p. 49). Today social media tools make it difficult for businesses to monitor online reputation. Customers use social media to tell online users about their dealing with this or that business organization. According to researchers, “these online communications can be anything from a few comments to even a full scale campaign against a business”(Newson et al., 2009, p. 172). There are many examples of negative impact of social media on businesses. 40 % of the well-known marketing brands had negative commentaries or critical reviews of customers, based on the online monitoring survey (Newson et al., 2009, p. 172).
Besides the above mentioned facts, social media platforms influence competitiveness of businesses on the market. Many companies have established and implemented effective strategies to become “first movers in social media and developed insights as how consumers think and behave about their products and services”(Rajagopal, 2013, p. 127). Many companies face certain challenges caused by social media power regarding the sustainability of market competition. Many companies used negative commentaries of consumers about their competitors’ products and services to become more successful on the competitive market. Competition is influenced by social position of businesses. In other words, social status among business organizations reflects their social position on the market, measured by business relationships among business organizations. Social media platforms may shape the way that the company’s competitors may use to become more successful on the competitive market.
In addition, negative word of mouth communication by means of social media platforms reduces sales rate. When consumers are not satisfied with some product or service, they have an opportunity to relieve their frustration, making efforts to convince others about the company’s failures (Beal & Strauss, 2009). These consumers’ complaints about the quality of products and services may be crucial in the sales rate of businesses because consumers try to find other companies, more trustworthy and more competitive ones. Many companies are concerned about the effects of the negative word of mouth communication because it can go global, influencing the overall productivity of the company on the market. The information on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other major social media sites requires the proper control and feedback (Fritz, 2012). Thus, some specific strategies and effective tactics are necessary to be focused on building business.
Nevertheless, some experts argue that the use of social media does not have a strong impact on the company’s reputation and competitive advantage. The success of any company on the competitive market depends on the level of customers’ trust. There are many ways to obtain good reputation and keep it without effort, e.g. powerful advertising campaigns on TV, radio, print media, reduced prices, employee benefits, etc. Social media tools, such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and some other well-known platforms will fail to completely destroy the company’s values (Fritz, 2012; Newson et al., 2009).
But despite these contradictions, social media may have a harmful impact with negative customer opinion regarding the company’s products or services, providing businesses with new and different useful information. Although many companies have developed their reputation management plans, which integrate the application of both offline and online procedures, social media platforms, like YouTube, create a serious threat to the company’s reputation. It would be better for any company that is criticized in the social media to give a prompt and adequate response (Rajagopal, 2013). Social media can teach a customer service lesson; therefore any company should be ready to respond adequately (Rajagopal, 2013). Public relations should work with customer service department to ensure that the company is ready to give responses to consumers.
Conclusion
Thus, it is necessary to conclude that the availability and use of social media on the Internet really provide businesses with new and different useful information. In many cases, this information is negative and has an adverse impact on the development of businesses. As a result, many companies have to develop and implement the proper strategies aimed at reducing the negative effects of the use of social media platforms by consumers. In many cases, consumers’ comments on blogs, YouTube video clips, and other negative comments about products or services are discussed by managers and the proper changes in strategic directions are made to address the issues of concern, e.g. poor customer services, low quality of products, etc.
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