In today’s day and age businesses need new and innovative ways to reach consumers. In our current technology based society, businesses need to reach out to the consumer through the use of social media. In the year 2012, approximately 56% of people with access to a computer used some sort of social media (statisticbrain.com). With an immense amount of people using social media on a daily basis, companies can contact consumers through ads, commercials and social networks. With the total number of Facebook users at 1.2 billion people, businesses can ultimately reach a substantial number of people around the globe. Now businesses need to figure out a way to attract consumers through social media. However, according to Altimeter, “42% of businesses in the US are prioritizing Social Media Listening in 2013 – putting real focus on how they sift through and learn from the conversations in social media. But a recent study of US consumers found that 51% of them do not want brands to be listening to what they say online. As a greater emphasis is placed on social media listening and big data, the tensions with consumer privacy will also rise,” (Freshnetworks.com). In due course, businesses need to learn how to properly attract consumers and market through social media. If consumers are not attracted to a company’s ad, they tend to ignore it. As a consumer, if I find an ad appealing, I will choose to look at it and decide whether to purchase from it or not. Fact is, firms can now easily approach consumers directly with social media with little or no cost. As technology progresses, it will become easier for business’s to connect consumers through the web and television. The goal of businesses is to reach out to consumers through social media in innovative ways to attract customers.
Marketers want to know how to locate potential customers using social media. Nearly 83% of marketers use social networks to connect with and locate prospective consumers (Socialmediaexaminer.com). Before searching for customers, marketers need to know which social networks their target audience uses. Businesses also need to figure out how to get noticed by the consumer. Firstly, companies need to figure out which age they need to target. People from the ages of 20 to 29 years spend more time than other age groups utilizing social media. Next, marketers need to decide on how to properly approach the consumers from aged 20 to 29 ( people between the ages of 20 to 29 spend approximately 11 plus hours weekly on social networks). It takes marketers time and research on how to develop relationships which lead to sales. Nearly 58% of marketers who used social media more than 3 years say “They improve sales.” The best social networks for marketers to use are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and
YouTube (Socialmediaexaminer.com). Upon understanding the target audience, marketers can ultimately decide how to approach consumers with surveys, twitter, blogs, and Facebook questions to the consumers. The suitable technique designed for marketers on “how to market on Facebook,” is build, connect, engage and influence. The first step is to build a Facebook page. Once the page is accomplished, the marketer needs to connect with consumers: either through word of mouth or by paying Facebook to tell users about the company. Once companies have established enough followers, they need to post quality post on a constant basis to keep followers from leaving. Finally, by the influence of all these steps, consumers will like the page enough to spread the word to others. (Facebook.com) Twitter is another great marketing tool for businesses to interact with consumers. Twitter is another great social network which has over 175 million users ( Hypebot.com). The fact is Twitter has many celebrities, athletes, and a great deal of people with power. Celebrities have many endorsements from companies, thus with their twitter accounts they can publicize the product or a fad to the