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This was really interesting, I enjoyed reading it. You did a good job of covering not only
the current state of social media, but also the history. Great job; well written and
organized. – Professor Gaffney (Sean)
Current State of Social Media
David Alan Owens
San Jose State University
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Introduction
Social media possibilities have made their way from the personal and
professional lives of people to the corporate and business routines of everyday life.
Institutions and organizations are faced with the necessity to articulate and administer
social media in order to measure the success of promotions, gather customer
perceptions and preferences, distinguish brand discernment, obtain feedback, and
observe market trends. Furthermore, social media has the potential to offer useful
information to businesses in relation to marketing, sales, customer relations, public
relations, and product development (Miller, 2014).
No doubt, these advantages and the huge variety of technology capabilities in
social media, businesses are still struggling with adopting, implementing and
institutionalizing methodologies and techniques for an effective social media program
(Ruhi, 2012). This paper aims to give significant background information and a current
understanding of the growing prominence of social media in current society.
Background
The first “social media” was the bulletin board systems adapted in the 1970s.
CompuServe made it possible for users to communicate with one another through
online discussions. America Online (AOL) ruled online access where users with dial-up
modems could communicate using live chats and e-mail (Business, 2011). There are
some similarities to today’s social network sites, but one major difference was that users
often created profiles different from their own name (Business, 2011).
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The expansion of computer technology and the internet during the 90s enhanced
communication and the sharing of ideas and information all over the globe. This digital
era ushered in such social media companies as Myspace and Facebook. Lightning
quick communication over global distances and increasing social media user-base
created a “social media phenomenon” (Miller, 2014). Now, social media is an effective
method for people to interact with each other. Concurrently, more organizations are
using social media to promote their services and interact with patrons (users) (Xie &
Stevenson, 2013). There are many different variations of social media. Xie & Stevenson
(2013) identify the most popularly applied social media in libraries as blogs, Facebook,
photo sharing, podcasts, RSS feeds, Twitter, YouTube, and wikis.
Presently, social media envelopes all sectors including economic organizations
and religious associations. Common house-hold names like the New York Times even
use social media. Miller (2014) reports that even the Catholic Press Association offers
webinars for churches in order to teach about the opportunities from being active in the
digital world. Basically, the possibilities with organizations interacting with social media
are largely diverse. Organizations can utilize micro-blogs, social bookmarking, votingsites, forums, blogs, social networks, and media-sharing platforms. The most crucial
part of using these platforms is communication with users, authenticity, honesty,
transparency, and the ability to react successfully to complaints (Miller, 2014).
Rutsaert et al. (2012) states that the proliferation of social media applications
such as online communities, social networking sites, or blogs gives the public new
means for receiving and providing information. Many opportunities are appearing for a
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wide variety of social media applications and the digital environment with massive
abilities for storing, retrieving and reusing information.
Literature Review
Social media, along with possessing the ability for the exchange of information,
can also be a powerful component of the consumer’s decision making process. Smith et
al., (2013) state that online messages from peers have become important in helping
shape different features of consumer behavior. These features are related to
awareness, attitudes, and purchasing. Furthermore, consumers are using social media
to lessen their normal effort in decision making over purchases. Smith et al., (2013)
states Facebook has the largest user base of all social media and has over 700,000
active business pages.
According to Smith et al., (2013) the number one advantage of using social
media is that it helps a company stand out in a “noisy” world. As search engine rankings
improve, so does business exposure. Value is consequential from online customer
communities who are so involved with the company they become loyal customers and
even promoters for the brand. Amazon and Wal-Mart are good examples of companies
with followers like this.
Pros and Cons of Social Media
The evolution of social media presents a quantity of pitfalls, namely information
accuracy, trust and source credibility (Rutsaert et al., 2012). This is partially due to the
nature of the online information environment. Web 1.0 allowed users to search and
consult information, but with web 2.0 users are now able to generate information as
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well. The internet has shifted from a content-centric to a user-centric information
environment where there is no longer an obvious direction of information flow. Rutsaert
et al. (2012) states that as a consequence of this shift, traditional sources of information
lose control over the content and distribution of the information resulting in a more
complex communication process which is no longer easy to separate into distribution or
application. One interesting and unique feature is that a message on social media is
spread by users themselves while direct contact with the information supplier is minimal
(Rutsaert et al., 2012).
There is no doubt that social media is growing exponentially. Twitter, YouTube,
and Facebook each have millions of users. Along with the growth in popularity of social
media, the increase in the amount of time people are spending on these applications is
changing the way people spend their time on the internet and off it. This has major
consequences for how people behave, share and interact during their normal lives
(Rutsaert et al., 2012). Pynta et al. (2014) report there is much industry-driven
quantitative research examining the incidence of multi-screening or viewing and
interacting with more than one screen. Current industry studies have reported that
anywhere from 31 to 77 percent of television viewers interact with a second screen
even as they watch television. Comparable findings also show that up to half of
television viewers between the ages 18 and 24 reports using a second-screen device
for messaging, e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter to discuss what they are viewing on
television (Pynta et al., 2014).
One advantage of social media is the collaborative journalism and citizen era
where journalists can both create news collaboratively and interactively with members
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of the public but also use the public as eye witness reporters (Smith, 2013).
Furthermore, social media is becoming a primary delivery avenue for news. Breaking
news can be delivered to a smart phone, regardless of time or location. Also, there
exists a nearly unlimited potential for information storage, retrieval and reuse (Rutsaert
et al., 2012).
Moreover using social media is one of the most useful marketing tools as it is
cost-efficient and has a huge customer reach. Smith et al., (2013) also state that social
media is advantageous for engaging consumers, creating brand awareness, adding
value to a brand, and staying abreast of consumer opinions. In fact, some companies
use social media internally to facilitate and enhance the flow of information (Smith et al.,
2013).
There is a dark side to social media as well, especially when it comes to
organizational interaction. Though the creation of strong emotional commitment and
loyalty to products and brands is extremely important to a business via social media, the
perception of brands can be easily changed (Miller, 2014). One of the problems with
social media is the “collaborative unfair ratings” as users do not need a firm’s
permission in order to communicate about brands, products or services.
According to Miller (2014) organizations do not understand the various forms
social media can take and how to engage with it and learn. For the reasoning of
complaints affecting a companies’ reputation, sales and survival, appropriate response
strategies are needed in order to defend companies against any damage to their
reputation. This is one of the main reasons it is vitally important to have guidelines how
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to interact with social media and how to create strategies for understanding and
responding to different social media activities (Miller, 2014). Organizations need to
decide how to handle complaints. They may either be reacted to or ignored. On the
downside, either of these stances could lead to major impacts on an organization’s
reputation. The ignorance of communication leads to even higher damage. Miller (2014)
gives the example of more complaints and negative rumors appearing, whereas a
reaction could calm a negative-appearing reputation.
Lockwood (2012) recommends using Manta for “organizational” level social
media. Manta is business focused and allows business to business communication.
Furthermore, it is a much more sales-driven platform than most other social media.
Although it is still structured to make personal connections, one may directly solicit
business via the site. Lockwood (2012) states that in most platforms such as Facebook,
Twitter and blogs, hard-selling is discouraged. Manta is a direct way to advertise and
promote your business and what you offer. It is worth mentioning Lockwood also
promotes LinkedIn as probably the most popular business to business site (2012).
If a particular platform is hurting an organizations reputation, perhaps choosing
another platform, like Manta or LinkedIn, could turn the negative perceptions around. As
Miller states: ‘‘these days, one witty tweet, one clever blog post, one devastating video
forwarded to hundreds of friends at the click of a mouse, can snowball and kill a product
or damage a company’s share price” (2014). Smith et al. (2013) reports that different
firms are using different social media platforms. For example, over 80% of Fortune 500
firms use social media, with the average firm using almost 3 different social media
platforms. Over 70% of firms are using Twitter and Facebook, while almost 60% use
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YouTube. Lastly, about 30% of firms are using LinkedIn. Manufacturing firms use
Facebook and Twitter mostly, while retail firms are using Facebook primarily. Service
firms are dominated by Twitter.
Conclusion
Smith, Blazovich, and Smith (2013) note that firms cannot control the information
that consumers disseminate through social media, but it is essential for business to
have a presence in the social media arena. The most advanced organizations are using
social media “mission control” centers for monitoring and responding to social media
activity in real time (Smith et al., 2013). Organizations need to monitor the internet
before creating a Social Media Marketing (SMM) strategy. The goals of this strategy are
to increase the knowledge of the brand, an improved search engine ranking and
management reputation (Miller, 2014). In order to prevent Public Relations crises and
negativity an organization must act and act fast while correcting negative perceptions.
Furthermore positive perceptions may also be re-enforced.
Though there is no “one size fits all” social media platform when it comes to
institutions, there are findings that identify the characteristics of social media application
in organizations including types, placement, update frequency, interactions, and roles of
social media (Xie & Stevenson, 2014). These results help practitioners understand the
usage of social media and also help identify problems in the application of social media
to the business world. These problems include lack of standards, lack of two-way
interactions between the organization and the user, and lack of education functions. Xie
and Stevenson (2014) offer such solutions to these problems by offering incentives to
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engage users and different types of education functions, and offering social media
applications at different levels of sites.
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References
Lockwood, H. (2012). Social media for your small business. Rough Notes, 155(6), 3435. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1038452000?accountid=10043
Miller, V. (2014). Current state of online response strategies in literature and its future
direction. IBA Bachelor Thesis Conference. 1-9
Pynta, P., Seixas, S., Nield, G., Hier, J., Millward, E., & Silberstein, R. (2014). The
power of social television: can social media build viewer engagement? A new
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Rutsaert, P., Regan, A., Pieniak, Z., McConnon, A., & Moss, A., Wall, P., & Verbeke, W.
(2012). The use of social media in food risk and benefit communication. Trends
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Landscape & Future Prospects. Journal of Internet Social Networking & Virtual
Communities.
Smith, K., Blazovich, J., & Smith, L. (2013). Corporate Social Media Usage: An
Examination by Platform, Industry, Size, and Financial Performance. Society For
Marketing Advances Proceedings, 25, 218-219
The Business of Social Media: How to Plunder the Treasure Trove. (2011). Reference &
User Services Quarterly, 51(2), 127-132
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Xie, I., Stevenson, J. (2014) Social media application in digital libraries, Online
Information Review, 38(4), 502
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