Table of Contents
Introduction
Social media is increasingly becoming a vital marketing tool. Small businesses are increasingly embracing the use of social media for the purposes of popularizing their companies. The rise in the use of social media is attributed to technological improvements and increased internet access (Ryan & Jones, 2011). Demographics in the market are also experiencing a lot of changes that has contributed to the increased use of social media. The paper thus discuses the importance and challenges of social media and their impacts on start up businesses.
Discussion
Social media is one of the most important marketing tools for start up businesses. Social media is quite cheap as compared to the tradition methods of marketing. As a result of the lower costs, the start up businesses can easily popularize their products and services. This has greatly benefitted the start up businesses by reducing the overall capital costs (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching, 2013). Marketing through the use of social media ensures that a high number of people can be reached within a short period of time. This is thus vital in ensuring that the new businesses are able to attract a high number of customers within a short period of time.
The ability to create awareness in the market has benefited the companies in ensuring that they can compete effectively with the other existing companies. Social media has thus contributed to the growth and development of the new companies. An ease in marking has led to an increase in the number of new businesses. Unlike most of the traditional methods of marketing, social media is simple and the information can be accessed globally (Ryan & Jones, 2011). This has thus ensured that the new businesses can be able to attract the national as well as the international market.
The marketing landscape has greatly been transformed by social media as most of the traditional methods are increasingly being replaced. Millions of people in the developed as well as the developing countries are social media users. This is thus an advantage for the new businesses in terms of tapping in the wider market. Social media as a marketing tool ensures that the information is conveyed immediately to the customers in the market. Based on the number of people who have views the message it is possible for the new businesses to obtain immediate feedbacks (Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker & Bloching, 2013). Although the use of social media has advantages to the companies, a number of challenges also exit in the market.
Social media is mainly dependant on the internet connectivity. In some of the markets, the internet connectivity is low and hence making it impossible for the message to reach the customers. The use of social media in most cases does not target the specific customers. This therefore creates a challenge to the businesses in terms of attracting the customers. Marketing using social media risks locking out some potential customers who are not users. Social media is mainly popular among the youth but not the elderly (Ryan & Jones, 2011). New businesses may therefore loose part of the market segment which is still reliant on the traditional marketing methods.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is evident that social media has greatly changed the marketing landscape when it comes to new businesses. It has a lot of advantages in terms of cost effectiveness as well as the ability to reach a high number of people in the market. It is also evident that it is faced with some challenges.
- Ryan, D., & Jones, C. (2011). The best digital marketing campaigns in the world: mastering the art of customer engagement. Kogan Page Publishers.
- Hennig-Thurau, T., Hofacker, C.F. and Bloching, B. (2013). Marketing the pinball way: understanding how social media change the generation of value for consumers and Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp.237-241.