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How social media can positively affect your business

Joshua N. Rohr

Arkansas Tech University

Organizational Leadership Capstone

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Social media is a concept most are all too familiar with. It’s how we connect with one another

share stories and create content to give others a better understanding of who we are. But What If

I were to tell you that social media isn’t just a tool that could be used for personal use and

enjoyment? What If I told you that social media can directly affect the engagement, presence and

the overall visibility of your business or brand? According to a study ran by “Statista” a “leading

provider in market and consumer data” an “estimated 3.6 billion users are on social media today

and is expected to grow to 4.41 billion by 2025”. Clement, J. (2020, July 15).

Those are incredible numbers that simply cannot be ignored if you’re a business or brand trying

to grow. Social media can play a direct role in businesses and brand awareness and more

importantly revenue. But how does social media management help your brand? Is it just posting

pictures on a brand Facebook or Instagram page? Not quite. Social media management can be

defined as “process of creating, scheduling, analyzing, and engaging with content posted on

social media platforms” Crawley Connor (2020). Social media can have a direct role in the

increase of brand visibility and influence through social management.

Social media mangers aren’t your typical social user. They are experts in social platforms and

social media insights. Whether it’s managing an online community to creating compelling

content that tells a brands story’s social media managers create digital strategies that play a

pivotal role in a business long term goal.

Before we go any further it’s important that we not only understand what social media

management is, but why social media management matters to marketing as well as the business

bottom line today.

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Social media has the potential to not only increase brand awareness but creating a connection to

one’s audience to establish influence. Authors Stefan Kock and Asli Dikmen of “Does

Successful Social Media Marketing Affect Brand Value? An Empirical Investigation” state that

“the brands' orientation for higher influence and connecting with customers has shifted from

engagement with individual recipients towards dissemination of information through interactive

social media platforms.” Kock S, Dikman A. (2015) What that means is that businesses are

seeing that one of the most effective way to spread brand awareness and their business user base

is through social media influence.

It presents a tremendous amount of opportunity for brands to connect with their current audience

while expanding the net of influence to potential customers. Now more than ever brands are

starting to see the value of connecting with their users on a more personal platform and its

changing the entire playbook from more traditional marketing. Now let’s look at how it can

positively affect one’s brand and business.

When people think of social media they automatically think of personal use, but what if I told

you it could play a major role in generating thousands in revenue as well as influence in culture.

In today’s world reputation is incredibly important, it lets people know who you are as well as

what you stand for. Social media presents the opportunity to educate your audiences and

potential audiences on what you believe, what you do, and why it matters. According to Megan

Mahoney a writer for Single Grain “Social platforms already have your customer’s attention. It

breaks down the barrier of trying to make them open an email or click on a link because they’re

already right there.” Grain S. (2020). What this means is that by using social media one’s brand

or business is put in an incredible position to create new customers as well as increase their

overall social community. Social media allows your business to enter the homes of thousands
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maybe even millions of people with little effort. Social media is no longer just about personal

use. It not only can provide brand awareness and audience engagement, but it gives the

opportunity to connect to the customer on a more personal level.

Social media has the potential to influence what you think and what you deem necessary for

purchase. The key is influence. An example that I have heard throughout my experience in

digital marketing goes as follows: You scroll through your Instagram account, only to stop at a

picture of someone who is about your age, wearing the brands jacket that goes perfectly with his

entire outfit. You don’t have the rest of the outfit, but you have some items in your closet that are

similar so if you buy the jacket you can dress like the guy that made you stop scrolling.

Not every situation is like the one stated prior, but it gives a clear vision to how social media can

play a role in how we make our choices. It doesn’t just stop at the product, it can also have an

influence on your beliefs, your ideas, and what we have been seeing most recently. You political

standing. Social media has the ability to do great things for those who use it and use it

strategically.

A trend that we are starting to see amongst brands is encouraging their current and potential

customer/fans base to go vote. Political stances are starting to become more prevalent and bold

throughout various media outlets. Recently the popular surfing magazine “Surfer Magazine”

issued a statement that " If you care about the future of surfing, vote like it.” Prodanovich, T.

(2020).

It causes one to question if brands are aware of the amount of influence they hold, and if they are

going to use it to fit their own agendas. We may never know, but what we do know is that it can

influence the individual, and that is something to be considered.

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Reference:

Clement, J. (2020, July 15). Number of social media users worldwide. Retrieved September 18,

2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-

users/

Crawley Connor (2020) What is Social Media Management.

https://tech.co/digital-marketing/social-media-management-guide

Koch, Stefan, and Dikmen, Asli. "Does Successful Social Media Marketing Affect Brand

Value?: An Empirical Investigation." Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO)

13.1 (2015): 15-26. Web.

Written By Megan Mahoney Megan Mahoney is the founder of the agency. (2020, September

24). The Impact of Social Media on Business in 2020. Retrieved October 02, 2020, from

https://www.singlegrain.com/blog-posts/impact-of-social-media-in-todays-business-world/

Prodanovich, T. (2020, October 01). Why Surfers Should Vote For Joe Biden and Kamala
Harris. Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.surfer.com/features/why-surfers-should-
vote-for-joe-biden-and-kamala-harris/?
fbclid=IwAR33BfSPMqWaLaHIjR28xTnQEnIO5hThoqSBxI7JsohfNcIl5UZQqVMSCNY