INTERACTIVE SESSION: PEOPLE

Social Commerce Creates New Customer Relationships

1) Assess the people, organization and technology issues for using social media to engage with customers.

a) People

v  Need to spend time to monitor each network, respond to comment, answer the question and post product information.

v  Sometime the workers might not be able to think rationally to respond on the comment of the customers.

b) Organization

v  The organization need to choose the suitable channel to engage with customers.

v  The social media that using by the company must well suit with the company products and service.

v  The security problem by using the social networking. The company confidential information might expose to competitors.

c) Technology

v  The technology does not always work. When the company cannot connect to the social networking, it will affect the operation efficiency.

v  The company might face problem to integrate new technologies into the enterprise environment.

 

 

2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising, brand building, market research and customer service?

            The businesses that use social media for advertising, brand building, market research and customer service have advantages and disadvantages.

            First, the advantage of using social media is decreased cost and increase revenue. By using social media for advertising and promotion activities is cheaper than traditional marketing method. The company can put the advertisement in the social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. It helps the company save the cost to do promotion because it was free for display ads in social media. The using of social media is more efficiency because the company can update the information at any time.

            Secondly, the advantage of using social media is targeting the customers. The company through Facebook can identify the target market based on age, sex, geography and education. This is because the user of Facebook will full up their personal information, it will let the company more understanding about the audience characteristic and interest. Facebook is one of the popular platform that provided information about the people and it make the process of market research become more easy and fast.

            Moreover, the advantage of using social media is interactivity. The social network provided a platform for the company to interact with their potential customers. For example, Twitter posting the company products or services, the promotion that offer by the company to customer and the news about the products. The followers are able to give comment and feedback in Twitter messages. The follower also can post their question in the Twitter and the company can answer the user questions. This was increase the customer relationship and interactivity between customers. It is more easily to communicate with potential customers by the time to time.

            Furthermore, it can increase the customer loyalty. The social media enable the company provides real time data in Facebook wall. Nowadays, almost everyone have Facebook account and the user which include all level of people in the market. The company brand will be famous when the customers saw a lot of LIKE on the brand.

            Although using social media for advertising, brand building, market research and customer service have many advantages but it also have disadvantages the company need to commit resources to managing the social media, respond to feedback and producing new content. The company might not have expert people to managing the social media so the organization need to engage knowledgeable people to managing the social media and responsible to respond to customer feedback.

            Another disadvantage is lack of feedback control. The company cannot control the customer to leave negative comment or post in social media. For example, when a customer is not satisfied with the company products, the customer will comment on the company Twitter about the weakness of the products. If the management team unable to overcome this complaint, it will damage the company image. When potential customer saw the post, they might lose the interest to buy the products. Therefore, the company must efficiently to respond on negative responses but it takes more time.

 

3) Should all companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising? Why or why not? What kinds of companies are best suited to use those platforms?

            No, it is not necessary all companies need to use Facebook and Twitter for customer services and advertising. The reason is the small businesses are not really need to involve in social media. When the company cannot effectively using the social media and giving response to the customers, it will bring negative impact on the company at the same time it will damage the brand of the company. Social media can help some companies interact with their customers but not all the companies. Some customers just want the company be accessible and it does not mean want to follow or like the company. For the small company, business owner might not have enough time to manage the social network and give respond to customer questions. Moreover, some of the company especially small company is lack of experience or technical skills to carry out the social media. Therefore, not all companies should use Facebook and Twitter for customer services and advertising.

            The kinds of companies that best suited to use social media platform are sell technology products company, company that need sharing idea, dealing with criticism and providing customer support are needed Facebook and Twitter.