The Importance of Social Media in Marketing

The Popularity of Social Media Platforms in Marketing

The popularity of social media platforms in the modern world influences businesses to extend their marketing strategies to sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn among others. As a result, these companies increase the chances of gaining new customers and keep their current customers frequently updated. Numerous businesses have embraced social media as a marketing opportunity and the results reflected in their profits are impressive. Due to the increased popularity of social media, business owners ought to evolve the changing needs in marketing to current and potential customers (Winer and Dhar, 2011).

The Importance of Online Marketing and Competition

Research indicates that online marketing has increased business competition (Winer and Dhar, 2011). Due to the competition, tax service organizations use these platforms to increase their popularity against competitors. However, the strategies applied by these organizations do not guarantee success since they fail and leave unmet marketing campaign requirements (Nord, Paliszkiewicz & Koohang, 2014). Therefore, the tax services organizations need a fresh approach to new marketing strategies on social media that will stand the test of time and grant it a competitive advantage over similar organizations in the market.

Social Media as a Public Relations Platform

Tax service organizations like Tac Pac and Deloitte should use social media as a public relations’ platform. The information that customers seek from physical offices of organizations ranging from the launching of new products, press new releases, addressing customer complaints and prices for their services should be available on the organization’s social media account (Winer and Dhar, 2011). Since social media users visit these sites at least once a day, the management of these firms should take advantage of interacting with their customers about their services and products. Immediate feedback to the customer's concerns keeps the firm at a competitive advantage than the rest.

Qualified Public Relations Officers

Additionally, the tax service providers should employ the most qualified person with excellent social skills as public relations officers. The competent staff with the ability to connect, interact, and actively listen to the customers are to monitor the accounts regularly (Winer and Dhar, 2011). These employees should be knowledgeable about all of the firm’s products and services as well as how to efficiently operate the social media site to reduce wasting time while responding to the customers. Consequently, the efficiency of the social media personnel will earn the firm positive consumer reviews thus improving their public representation.

Addressing Customer Complaints and Problems

Moreover, the organizations should use social media platforms to address the customers’ complaints and problems associated with their services or products. Since many people use social media to complain about products frequently than filing a formal complaint, the already established social media experts should immediately solve the problem to avoid the complaint from going viral (Winer and Dhar, 2011). As a result, consumers will remain faithful to the tax service provider, and may even recommend friends to join (De Vries, Gensler & Leeflang, 2012). Additionally, the staff responding to the problem may recommend other products and services which offer more consumer satisfaction as compared to the current one. The organizations’ responsiveness and accountability will earn them new customers from a similar business.

Marketing Products and Services

Furthermore, the firms should use social media in marketing their products and services. The availability of potential customers in online platforms offers the organization the chance to pitch their offers incentives and discounts. Since social media provides an interface of communicating directly with the clients, the public relations’ representatives should further woo the customers and explain the benefits of buying from them in addition to the discounts (Ashley & Tuten, 2015). Besides, the social listening process in the organization should be cross-functional (Winer and Dhar, 2011). The information gathered by the public relations’ staff from the marketing department should be used by other departments like sales hence maximizing the organization’s impact. As a result, the organization will be insightful on whom to address when marketing their products and services thus optimizing on potential clients under a short time.

Developing Lasting Relationships Through Social Media

In retrospect, the application of social media platforms in gaining competitive advantage is popular among business owners across the globe. This strategy seeks to invest in retaining loyal customers due to the belief that loyal customers tend to buy more from the organization than new customers. Therefore, tax service organizations should seek to develop lasting relationships with their customers through social media. However, this adoption guarantees competition advantage over the organization’s competitors by employing socially competent public relations officers and encourage the cross-functional use of information about the customers obtained by these experts.

References

Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15-27.   

 De Vries, L., Gensler, S., & Leeflang, P. S. (2012). Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of interactive marketing, 26(2), 83-91.  

Nord, J. H., Paliszkiewicz, J., & Koohang, A. (2014). Using social technologies for competitive advantage: impact on organizations and higher education. Journal of computer information systems, 55(1), 92-104.

Winer, R. & Dhar, R. (2011). Marketing Management (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Prentice Hall.