Due to the advancement in technology, business has become easier since most entities have engaged in online business. The introduction of social media platforms has enabled entrepreneurs to share more with their customers without necessarily meeting physically. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have helped business people collect significant feedbacks from consumers who use their products. According to Robert and Piller (2016) in his article “Finding the Right Role for Social media in Innovation”, information collected from the social sites is primarily used to improve customers’ satisfaction. Therefore, many companies are yet to realize the secret behind social media and new product innovation. Reason being, the data available in the social media is bulk on lack reliability due to its diversity. However, a company can lay down strategies that can facilitate utilization of raw data from the social platforms to come up with new products designed to fit customer’s preference.
Roberts and Piller (2016) talk of the social media narrative turning to be irrelevant in business. That is because market segments are full of new competitors who seem to be performing better than the veterans. Every business personnel is turning to the social media to promote their products as well as launching the new ones. Currently, business managers tend to allocate more funds for online marketing compared to what they spend on marketing their products and services in other digital mediums such as televisions and radio programs. All they get in return are likes and comments on whether the product is good or not. They rarely focus on product development cycle that is important in the customers' purchasing decision-making process.
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Many people depend on the common social media platforms to present their commodities to the public ( Stelzner, 2013) . However, there are other numerous ways in which entrepreneurs can create their own social sites and attend to the needs of their customers in a timely manner. That also helps in reducing the traffic of data experienced in the commonly used sites. Personally, I would suggest for a Web-based Self-nutrition Forum site that will target the youths who are struggling in attaining body fitness. Research proves that there are many products associated with body fitness such as dietary pills, canned food, and muscle building tablets among other things. Additionally, nutritionists recommend a variety of exercises to their clients. In the current generation, such products are in high demand and people need them to maintain their healthy status. People end up visiting the internet to look for valuable information on how they can undertake nutritional therapies. Therefore, creating a web-based self-nutrition forum with relevant information on the different products and services would be of great help to many people globally.
Despite that the business primarily relies on the presence of internet, a good number of people in developed countries will have an opportunity to access the information. The web-based self-nutrition forum will give clients an opportunity to discuss the results of using specific products and services. That shall lead to logical arguments and suggestions on what the products should contain to make people attain their desired body shape and weight. As a result, the information in the forum will be essential when it comes to new product development. Interacting with clients and making follow-ups on the effects of new products on their bodies is will also be an added advantage to improve the quality of existing product hence winning customers’ loyalty.
Performing a good market research as well as market intelligence are some of the strategies that can be applied during a new product development process. The web-based self-nutrition forum is more likely to provide a chance for a perfect market survey. Most companies do not dwell much on what customers say about their preference( Stelzner, 2013) . All they need to see on Facebook and twitter is how their product has many likes and people are buying it. Instead, they should aim at discovering what the clients would like to have and changes in the existing products that will make them attain satisfaction. Therefore, the proposed web-based self-nutrition forum will give the manufacturers an opportunity to make exchange information of their daily progress and changes that would be necessary to make the products. With such information, developing a new product becomes an easy task to the company.
To conclude, the effect that social media has had on business turned people from using the traditional way of conducting a marketing survey. Business people should stop viewing social media as ordinary sites for collecting negative and positive views of specific products. They ought to dig deeper into the consumers’ mind to know the actual expectations of the client. That will help managers gather relevant information on what other competitors are bringing into the market and use it to develop new products that suit customers' preference in order to increase their competitive ability. Ultimately, it is the desire of every entrepreneur to retain a competitive ability in the market segment and win customers’ loyalty in the long-run.
References
Roberts, D. L., & Piller, F. T. (2016). Finding the Right Role for Social Media in Innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review , 57 (3), 41.
Stelzner, M. A. (2013). 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers are Using Social Media to grow their Businesses .
