How Social Media is helping Businesses Build Relationships with Consumers and the Importance of Doing So
Social media is one of the tools that have emerged in the recent past as an important tool that helps businesses to build relationships with their consumers. This is based on the realization by these businesses that the social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can help in the establishment of relations, which they can leverage on in order to influence the purchase decisions of customers (Trainor et al, 2014). Therefore, most businesses have made it easier for people to share their stories with them through the social media platforms by establishing their own social media presence, which can be followed by the potential customers. They also leverage on the social media by providing services to the customers as well as connecting and inspiring them with each other. In addition, the social media platforms help these businesses to obtain feedback from their customers, which can be instrumental in the designing of products and services (Laroche, Habibi and Richard, 2013). This paper argues that the social media is an important tool for businesses in building relationships with the consumers because it creates a forum for sharing content, which enhances attachment and loyalty with one another.
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Online Identity
Online identity is the personality, or the social identity that the business entity that uses the internet such as the social media sites like Facebook, adopts over the internet in order to interact uniquely with the online communities. The use of social media sites such as Facebook may be important for the business in establishing an online identity that provides a platform that inspires confidence in the consumers about the exact identity of the business (Van Dijck 2013). Therefore, businesses should always have a strong online identity that should strongly portray the brand in order to build their reputation as well as make them stand out from other entities that are in direct competition with it. In addition, the online identity should project the specific values and the beliefs that the business upholds in order to attract the customers to its particular brand amongst the several within the market.
The online identity should communicate the personality of the business in order to shape the expectations of the customers as well as show them the promises that the entity extends to them. This means that the company can establish an online identity within the social media sites that strongly identifies the business with the terms of the quality, service, reliability as well as trustworthiness of their product or service offerings (Van Dijck 2013). This will help the customers to differentiate the business from their competitors, which has a positive impact in terms of influencing the purchasing decisions of the business. With increased purchasing from the customers, the business can be profitable, while at the same time increase its competitive advantage over the rivals.
Media Richness Theory
Media richness refers to the ability of information to change the understanding or comprehension of a matter within a particular time interval, while the Media Richness Theory (MRT) is the structure that describes the ability of a communication medium to replicate information conveyed through it during an interaction (Alberghini, Cricelli, and Grimaldi, 2014). In business organizations, the media richness theory would be important in evaluating the effective nature of the communication mediums in order to determine the challenges that the organization faces in its quest to reach its intended audience. This may include evaluating the inadequacy of information required to carry out particular tasks to the expected levels, conflicting interpretation of tasks, or the determination of the equivocality of a task. While this theory has been used in communication studies, in business circles it is used to show the medium that a manager is likely to choose for communication to the targeted consumers.
Social media has emerged as one of the most significant technology tools that the businesses can use to evaluate the real time reaction, and views that people have about the products and services offered by the consumers (Alberghini, Cricelli, and Grimaldi, 2014). In addition to this, the social media networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter are important in the sense that a simple post within the sites can be reproduced from a single user, and passed on to others, hence obtaining a multiplier effect (Lange-Faria and Elliot, 2012). This effect is advantageous to a particular business as it enables it to establish several relationships with the targeted consumers, which can help it reap from the increased consumer numbers.
Further, the fact that social media guarantees instant communication between the consumers and the business makes it ideal for establishing long-lasting and fruitful relationships that can help the entity to create a competitive advantage over rivals that may not have a social media presence (Alberghini, Cricelli, and Grimaldi, 2014). Complementary to this is the fact that the business may use the advantage of instant communication to engage several consumers at the same time, which also increases the level of communication and interaction between consumers and the business. Therefore, irrespective of the geographical location of a business, it may use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate virtually with consumers from wherever they are.
From the foregoing discussion, it is evident that the businesses that have an online identity within the social media networks can use it to attract customers to their businesses. With the application of the media richness theory, they are able to achieve their tailor-made messages in the right way by using the social media sites to their advantage, which leads to increased profitability.
References
Alberghini, E., Cricelli, L., & Grimaldi, M. (2014). A methodology to manage and monitor social media inside a company: a case study. Journal of Knowledge Management , 18 (2), 255-277.
Lange-Faria, W., & Elliot, S. (2012). Understanding the role of social media in destination marketing. Tourismos. An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism , 7 (1).
Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., & Richard, M. O. (2013). To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information Management , 33 (1), 76-82.
Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., & Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM. Journal of Business Research , 67 (6), 1201-1208.
Van Dijck, J. (2013). ‘You have one identity’: performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn. Media, Culture & Society , 35 (2), 199-215.
