SOCIAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGY

Social Media Technology

Social media helps conversations to reach a wider audience leveraging the "long tail" concept, which means conversations that can be conveyed to different forums. There are several communication channels in an organization that include meetings, phone calls, and emails.

These communication channels have their own limitations such as forgetting a message, missing to take notes during a meeting, and searching for information in a huge list of emails which can be challenging. Use of social media web sites has increased the channels of communication and its effectiveness in the organization.

Now people need not waste their time as it has become easy for a person to send messages through an instant messenger or a tweet and get the response really quick. Social media has also improved collaboration between team members in an organization, which has resulted in a better outcome. When a team is encouraged to work as a team allowing them to share their workload, the outcome will be tremendous compared to what an individual could have created.

At such situations, the social media acts as a source to allow people to generate and share their ideas. Through communication and collaboration, one can increase the overall effectiveness of a team.

Companies must allow their employees to leverage their networks if they have a well-built social profile. This will result in professional gains as these social media will enable collaborating without leaders in their respective industries. Moreover, this will help the employees stay up to date with the latest developments in the industry and also stay connected with the top leaders.

The key factor for the success of social media is conversation. When a social media site is used for a business, it enlarges the conversation through buzzes that would call out the brand name. A company must be truly dedicated towards conversation through social media, as much as the customers are. The companies must take time to review the conversation and must dedicate time and effort to respond to customers‟ responses.

Social media is a cost-effective method for marketing activities (Paridon & Carraher, 2009). It was used by businesses initially to market products and services at a minimal cost. During the time when companies do not have sufficient money, they had to become careful about where, when, and from whom they would buy the products and services, and the recession resulted in the lack of trust in businesses.

Because of the extreme conditions of the economy, companies made several unethical decisions which affected customers negatively (Carraher, Buchanan, & Puia, 2010). This is where the social media plays its role. It was the most inexpensive method of marketing and advertising, but also offered its brand that was reliable to the customers. Social media allowed two-way communication between brands and the customers and enabled customers to react to the concerns of the customers.

As a result, if there was no response from the business about the concerns, the customers would consider the company as not reliable. Moreover, the company would lose the brand loyalty and credibility. Social media is not only a place to market the products and services of a company, but also a place to interact with the customers to try and solve their problems. Yes, social media is now a major player in most people's business lives.

BY MWINYIJUMA REHEMA

BAPRM III - 42686