Assignment 4: Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security
BUS 508
Name
August 24, 2012
Dr. Professor

Assignment 4: Internet Technology, Marketing, and Security

Marketing plays a large, pertinent key in the success of a product, and/or business. Excellent marketing creates brand awareness and a call to action for the target market. Even Not-for-profit organizations such as the Red Cross and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America use marketing to create awareness (Boone & Kurtz, 2012). Marketing campaigns today must be clever, catchy, and sophisticated. These campaigns use various methods to capture the target markets attention. These methods range from passing out fliers, radio and TV commercials and now social media. Social media such as Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter have totally revolutionized the way people communicate, by sharing ideas, thoughts, and pictures. These social media outlets allow for a free, easy, and effective way to communicate among friends and family. Members of such sites as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter can post pictures, create common interest groups, and update their status (www.facebook.com, www.myspace.com, www.twitter.com). It is not uncommon for a favorite book, band, or movie to have a Facebook page that users can “like.”
Even politicians today have Facebook pages spreading their campaign news, thoughts, and photos. LinkedIn is a unique social media site for job seekers to network with fellow co-workers, make connections, post resumes and search for jobs. Employers can use this site to search for qualified candidates and post job openings. YouTube is a social media site where regular people can post videos about their opinions, or playing music. Marketers for movie studios can post trailers for upcoming movies to create buzz. Music videos are available on demand. These social media outlets allow advertising companies the opportunity to reach a larger, vaster audience for their product(s) and message(s). Evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes. Social media marketing allows companies and advertisers alike numerous new ways to reach out to new demographics. Social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace provide a way to be able to offer customers coupons, entertain and keep current customers intrigued by offering games on their pages. Customer service representatives are able to reply to questions and address complaints (Petrecca, 2012). It is very beneficial for small businesses attempting to enter the market, create brand and consumer awareness since these social media sites are free to sign up and use. Businesses small and large can use social media outlets as a way to build relationships with their customers. These outlets lets the businesses have a voice beyond a customer service representative. It can be used almost like a face to face meeting with customers. The use of social media, by such businesses as a start-up consulting firm, or retail business provides customers with information, as well as provides access to prospective clients (Petrecca, 2012). The downside for small businesses using social media is that setting up and maintaining the sites/profiles/Tweets which can take a significant amount of time. Most small businesses starting out do not have the resources available to constantly reply to emails, complaints, and update statuses. A small business could get a family member or a good friend to maintain these sites and responses, however if they are not familiar with the business- such as policies, procedures, specials, etc. they may not be the best resource to utilize as the information they provide could confuse customers. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs. Social media is truly a revolution in the way businesses both large and small communicate and interact with their customers. There are several vehicles to choose from,