There is an ancient Chinese proverb: “Good spirit can be sold well even if the storefront was deep in a small alley”. Yes, I agree that a good production can mean a lot and attract a lot of very loyal customers. However, nowadays the whole market place is changing. A good product line cannot guarantee the success of companies. Companies should come up with good ideas to gain the attention of new potential customers. Everyone need marketing! This is also the reason why I choose this major.
Of course, the current trend is the usage of social media. Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Instagram… you name it. Social media, when used strategically over time, has become the most powerful form of marketing and market research tool that the world has ever seen. Even for a single person, everyone need market in order to hunt for a job. It’s probably obvious that social media is a great short-cut for the first pillar of marketing for us. When seen from a different dimension, every companies can also use the social media platforms to show customers that you can be trusted. The biggest factor that kills your conversions is lack of trust. Social media gives you an awesomely efficient, cheap, and effective way to build that trust.
Yes, it is relative a cheap way to do marketing using social media. What the internet does change is the pace, scale, and cost of communication. You can send more messages to more people, more quickly and more cheaply, than ever in history. Although it is relative cheap, social media demands a huge investment. The best way to do the investment is to encourage sharing of best experiences from loyal customers. Customers are increasingly becoming active partners in their relationship with the firm and brand rather than passive targets of product development and advertising. To harness this change, managers should create and support customer communities. As for encourage potential customers, clearly identified firm spokesperson can be effective. However, ignore the power of social media can hurt the whole business. There is an example:a few words of bad commend about a hotel in Yelp can bring the result of cancellation many orders. Another powerful usage of social media is survey. One of the best method of doing survey is no doubt form customers’ straight feedback. One motivation of social media to companies is that they can hear customer experiences and opinions about a brand from social media. Also, this can save a lot of money on doing surveys or doing focus groups. We know that companies are using millions of money on market survey. Why not begin a social media survey?
by Lingxiang Wen
Wen 
