Social media is a platform that enhances sharing of thoughts, ideas and information through virtual networks and communities using computer technology. Social media users use different gadgets not limited to computers, tablets or smartphones via websites or using applications. Social media has transformed and influenced many people and businesses in the professional world (Harlow et al., 1180-1201). When you talk about marketing in the current general, what comes to the mind of an entrepreneur is the use of social media. The growing rate of social media application to businesses is that information can reach a wider market using little investment. There exist different types of social media that enable users to share information like documents, videos or photos, and these types include:
Social Networks
Social Networks are the networks that facilitate social interactions and personal relationships on the web. Businesses use social networks in creating social awareness, relationship creation and building, customer service, creation of leads and closing of the deals. Social interactions and personal relations can be met using various means which are not limited to:
Facebook is a social networking site that facilitates individuals, companies and organizations to connect and share content with people like friends and families. It has unique features like using one Facebook account to sign in to different services across the web. The contents shared on Facebook, like videos, links, and photos, are more public and can be seen by many people worldwide. However, the users can regulate who can access the information shared. Like Facebook, Twitter is a social networking site that people use to communicate using short messages. It ensures that readers have a humble time reading because of its ability to restrict the number of characters to tweet. LinkedIn is a social network used by individuals for different purposes like finding the right job or internships, increasing professional relationships and developing skills for career growth. McCabe (85-130) says that some strategies like LinkedIn help other businesses grow and develop. When your target group is professionals and big companies, LinkedIn is the best place to share your information.
Bookmarking and Content Creation Networks
It is a type of social media that helps businesses find out, share, discuss, and save various current and trending content. Some of its examples are as follows: Flipboard is a newsreader, and social application users use to follow people, topics, and important publications. Pinterest is a bookmarking that lets users find ideas like recipes, homes, and style inspiration by saving all the pins you love on boards and keeping them in a more organized manner.
Social Shopping Networks
It is also a type of social media that people and businesses use to find out the latest trends in marketing, shopping tips or following different brands and making purchases. Some of the categories under this type are: Etsy is an online marketplace that brings people together from the whole globe to make sales, buy and collect unique items While Fancy is a social shopping network that allows users to engage in socially oriented shopping through picture feeds and sharing using its web store and mobile app.
Media Sharing
This type of social media facilitates finding sharing photographs, live videos, and other videos by businesses. Media sharing is also be used for brand building, lead generations and targeting. Some examples of this type are not limited to: Instagram is an online platform that uses a mobile app in photo-sharing, photo editing, short video application, and social network platform. Snap chat is a type of media sharing in which individuals and organizations share videos and pictures using its app, and they disappear immediately after the views. YouTube is a media-sharing platform that enables users to share videos wildly trending information. YouTube is used by a young generation who have ideas to share but don’t have adequate resources to use other media. It’s used primarily because of the high number of audience companies, the ability to use fewer resources, especially for those working on a tight budget and the fact that individuals and companies can tag critical words to the videos.
Blogging and Publishing Network
It is a media network mainly used by individuals and businesses looking forward to publishing, discovering commenting on articles, social media blogs, and other content on the web. Some major subcategories associated with Blogging and publishing networks are as follows: Word press is a free blogging software mainly used by personal bloggers to create a website or a blog for large corporations. It is primarily used because it can be modified to suit users’ needs and shared with others. Tumblr is a microblogging and networking website that helps users post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.
Discussion Forum
It is also a type of social media used mainly to find, share, and discuss various types of information, news, and opinion. They are also essential to businesses when conducting immaculate research. The discussion forum is always associated with other subcategories. Reddit is a discussion forum in which registered members can submit content such as links, text posts, images, and videos to the site, which the other members vote down. In Reddit, the popularity of an individual or an organization depends on the votes. The more the polls, the more the rage. Like Reddit, Quora is also a discussion forum that determines the popularity of an organization or an individual depending on the more people upvote your answer. Quora helps individuals improve reputation, know about their audience, and generate organic awareness. When your product is not upvoted, it allows the company to identify weaknesses and try to change as expected. It also allows organizations and individuals to carry out a benchmark on best-performing ones by either copying from them or improving their weaknesses. Digg is also a social news website in which individuals are apposition to vote web content as either up or down, commonly known as digging or burying, respectively.
Conclusions
By 90% of organizations globally, it recognizes that social media influence profitability and profitability (Karami & Tajvidi, 1-10). However, those that rarely or poorly employ social media in their companies should consider utilizing social media more because businesses can interact and tell stories to their audience with the application of social media. They are also apposed to grow their audience with a cost-friendly budget. They can also stay top of mind with the people who matter the most to them, learn about competitors and finally build relationships with target consumers. Social media gives marketers and entrepreneurs to segment their target groups depending on age, class and professionalism. For example, if you want to market products that a company can use, you can opt for LinkedIn, and at the same time, Instagram does better in marketing fancy products.
Work Cited
Harlow, S., Kilgo, K.D., Salaverria, R., & Perdomo, G.V. (2017).To share or not to share. Journalism Studies, 19(8), 1180-1201. https://www.revistaclinicapsicologica.com/data-cms/articles/20210303103831pmSSCI-566.pdf
McCabe, B.M. (2017). Social media marketing strategies for career advancement: An analysis of LinkedIn. Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, 29(1), 85-130. http://asbbs.org/files/2017/JBBS_29.1_Spring_2017.pdf#page=86
Karami, A., & Tajvidi, R. (2017).The effect of social media on firm performance. Computers inhumanbehavior3,1-10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217305514
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