SOCIAL MEDIA: CONVERSATION BETWEEN COMPANIES AND CONSUMERS

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Social Media: Conversation between Companies and Consumers

Cecilia Von Mann
Spring Hill College
Abstract: This paper analyzes what social media is and how it affects the worlds of public
relations, advertising, and marketing. It goes more in depth discussing how each social media
site, more specifically Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and how businesses use them to their
advantage. Finally, it discusses the trend that social media has created in these industries, this is
the trend toward a rising consumer control which has led to a more open conversation between
companies and ordinary people.

CMM 220
Stacy Wellborn
19 April 2016

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Social Media: Conversation between Companies and Consumers

Retweet, Insta that, #no filter, slidin into your DMs like, becoming FB official,
and many more are all terms that have become a part of our everyday conversations, and have
spread faster than that viral cat video your mom shared on Facebook. These terms all come from
the same placesocial media. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, social media has
taken the world by storm and changed how people live their everyday lives. From Facebook to
Twitter to Instagram, every company, consumer, to everyone and their actual grandmother are on
these sites. This is the world of social media. However, social media has changed much more
than the lives of the ordinary people who use it. Social media has transformed the public
relations, advertising, and marketing worlds as well. In recent years, this trend is one that has
been undeniable, and has taken over and become a part of every facet of these industries, but
how has it truly changed these fields? The answer is by giving power to the consumer. Although,
these websites give companies the capacity to advertise themselves on a platform that consumers
see everyday, it also gives consumers the ability to let the companies know what they like and do
not like about their brand. As a result, the tone of public relations, advertising, and marketing has
been changed forever, and social media is the reason. In order to understand this shift toward the
consumer, one must know about the main social media sites of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
They need to know the ins and outs-how they work, and how professionals use them.
Social Media is a tool that has sprung up and really taken off in the past few years. It is
not only here, but it is thriving and growing, Social networking has now become the number
one content category in worldwide engagement and accounts for 19 percent of all time spent
online this activity has more than tripled in the last few years (Stareva, 2014, p. 15). In
addition to the excessive time spent online, the number of social media users increases every

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year. About two-thirds (65%) of adult Internet users said they use a social networking site (SNS),
such as Myspace, Facebook, or LinkedIn (Wu, 2015, p. 1). These numbers are staggering, but
they help to emphasize just how important social media is. Before delving deeper into how social
media has completely changed the field, it must be defined. Social media is an all encompassing
term for many different websites, but out of all of these different types of sites they all have two
things in commonthey connect people and share information through these connections that
are made. These types of website can be seen From the very beginning of computer networking,
the Web has been a place for social interaction. Thats why we call it social media. Blogs, social
networks like Facebook, and microblogging platforms like Twitter are simply technologies that
foster communication, sharing, and collaboration (Barefoot, Szabo, 2010, p. 3). This social and
online community is very different than what has been seen in past decades within traditional
media where the only audience feedback mechanism is the letter to the editor, which is often
shortened or edited by the newspaper, rather social media and the Internet [have] become a
public venue where the audience responds to news reports, suggest stories to cover, and even
reports on stories. The media is well on its way to being democratized (Barefoot, Szabo, 2010,
p. 5). Everyone now has a say, and businesses and companies get real feedback; Social Media
is a game changer because the customer has become a partner who drives the business
forward (Stareva, 2014, p. 18). This feedback does not only come in the form of comments
from consumers, but it is also has become easier to determine how well a particular advertising
campaign is doing. In the past, Offline advertising has traditionally been expensive and difficult
to measure. Thanks to the hard numbers that web analytics programs like Google Analytics offer
up, measuring the success of social media marketing campaigns is a science, not an
art (Barefoot, Szabo, 2010, p. 14). In addition to connecting people, social media also creates

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distinct groups of people that can be utilized by businesses, with these Social media tools enable
like-minded peoplebe they bird watchers, Qubcois undertakers, or Vietnam veteransto
find each other. This is a key benefit of social media marketing. Niche communities exist for all
kinds of interests (Barefoot, Szabo, 2010, p. 7). Unlike traditional forms of media, companies
are now able to find the specific demographic they want to target through the internet and social
media. Furthermore, studies show that while traditional methods are starting to lack, social media
advances More people, particularly young people, are spending less time watching television
and listening to the radio and more time online (Barefoot, Szabo, 2010, p. 14). Businesses are
still able to interact with an escaping demographic that they would lose almost entirely without
social media. Overall, Social Media is becoming a beneficial tool in the marketing and
advertising world, but certain websites really stand out in their overall use and helpfulness to the
businesses. While looking at how social media has transformed the marketing and advertising
fields, it becomes evident how each specific medium works differently and in its own specific
way.
Of all the Social Media websites and outlets, Facebook stands out the most. Facebook
began as a way for people to keep in touch while at college and university, but the site has
morphed into something much more than that (Coles, 2014, p. 29). Facebook has become the
go-to social networking site and is considered the ultimate channel for social
sharing (Barefoot, Szabo, 2010, p. 12). Facebook is one of the most unique and farthest
reaching forms of social media. It has over one billion users worldwide and is growing due to
its very loyal users with 50 percent of active users log on daily and each having an average of
130 friends on Facebook (Coles, 2014, p. 29). This makes for a huge amount of potential
consumers for businesses to connect with. Facebook is unique because rather than becoming

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friends with the companies or brands one merely likes their pages. This means a consumer can
easily select to see a companys posts, and just as easily are able to like, share, comment, and
react to their posts. These types of interactions are most beneficial to the company because
When [a] fan likes or comments on a post, their friends see your page name in their newsfeed
too, so the viral effect gets to work (Coles, 2014, p. 32). However, Facebook also has an outlet
for the same companies to sponsor or boost their posts to get their message to the type of people
they want; You can choose who you target by: locationwithin 50 miles of a town,
demographicsmale, female, age group, interestsjust about anything, connections on
Facebookusers who are connected to certain criteria including certain pages ( Coles, 2014, p.
46 ). This widens their demographic not only getting more people to see their posts, but also
getting a likeor fifty out of it. Facebook has become much more that just a place to stalk that
cute guy from high school you never talked to, it has become a place for advertisement as well.
Furthermore, if a company has a business page, you dont need to be a member of Facebook to
see it (Coles, 2014, p. 31). Company Facebook pages are being seen by the multitude of people
in and outside the group of Facebook users, because Pages are easily seen by Google, a small
business could use a Facebook page as its firsts website, Facebook is free to join and use, One
billion people on Facebook could potentially see your page, and updates feed into your fans own
newsfeed as you post something (Coles, 2014, p. 31-32). Overall, businesses use Facebook to
tell people about the general information, but not for every single event or thought that comes
through your head, like perhaps say Twitter.
Twitter started as a way to keep college students in the know with what was happening
around campus, but in only 140 characters, so the message was short and to the point. Now,
Twitter boasts of about one billion registered users with 300 billion tweets sent in

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total (Coles, 2014, p. 80) . Twitter has transformed since its foundation for party-hopping
college students. It has become a way for people to quickly say whatever it is on their mind.
While what one mainly sees on Twitter is often people ranting and subtweeting about their
personal lives, one can also see retweets and discussion of companies and brands. Due to this
aspect of Twitter, Businesses then saw the advantages of using such a platform to shout about
their products and services while the Individuals [still] saw Twitter as a way to gripe about
products or services from large and small brands, a no-holds-barred, out-in-the-open- air
conversation (Coles, 2014, p. 82). Despite this, companies can be aware and react to the
negative feedback because Twitter is a great tool for listening to conversations people are
having within Twitter (Coles, 2014, p. 92) or, in other words, Twitter is a great way to see what
people are saying about your brand. As a result of these observations, Businesses quickly
realized that they needed to do something to keep any bad press about them under control and
quickly sorted out any issues as they came to light. Likewise businesses wanted to jump in and
listen to all of the positive things that people were saying about their brand and thank them for
being cheerleaders (Coles, 2014, p. 82). Now on Twitter, people can see brands and companies
posting multiple updates each day of what is going on. This keeps the conversation constantly
open between the consumers and companies, and helps them stay engaged while getting the
word out to more people through sponsored tweets and retweets. While Twitter is great for
speaking directly to consumers, it is not ideal for presenting a product or creating a face of the
brand in way that other social media outlets, like Instagram, can.
Instagram is relatively new to the game as it was established in 2010 and bought by
Facebook in 2012 (Coles, 2014, p. 163). However, its newness does not set it back. Instead, it
does quite the opposite given there are over 150 million monthly active users (Coles, 2014, p.

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164). Unlike Facebook and Twitter, rather than words the main outlet for Instagram is that of
pictures. Everyone has heard the old clich that says a picture is worth a thousand words, this
rings true with Instagrams approach. People are able to capture moments and then add filters,
edits, and then post for all there followers to see. This environment makes it harder for
companies and brands to break into, but some have adapted. For instance, Some brands are now
encouraging their customers to take Instagram pictures of themselves in the brands clothes or
with the brands product in some way, usually for a competition (Coles, 2014, p. 168). This is a
great way to connect with the people who use your products, not only do they see the posts a
company puts out of their items, but also what others post about their products. In addition to
this, People can comment on [businesses] postsand [they] can also add in a link to [their]
website in the description just to encourage click- throughs to [their] brand (Coles, 2014, p.
168). This helps consumers see what others are saying about you or go to the businesses website
to decide for themselves. Furthermore, Instagram has the capacity that These images can be
shared with friends via both Facebook and Twitter (Coles, 2014, p. 167). This is greatly
beneficial to businesses because now their posts can be seen on all of their platforms,
hypothetically tripling the number of eyes that see it. All in all, Instagram provides a face to the
company that cannot be seen in any other medium.
Overall, the industries of public relations, advertising, and marketing have forever been
transformed. According to Richard Edelman, CEO of the worlds largest independent PR
consultancy Edelman, social media has altered the nature of how we do what we do (Stareva,
2014, p. 21). People in the industry have had to completely change their approach. Gone are the
days of traditional forms of advertising, rather These days, consumers most definitely spend
more time online; its up to marketers to understand these new behavior trends. Print, radio, and

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television advertising are no longer the be-all, end-all of a marketing campaign. Today, users
interact in ecosystems like social networks and blogosphere, where peer reviews and
recommendations are key (Agresta, Bough, 2010, p. 8). On the whole, the shift has changed
the dynamics of influence taking the power from the professionals, and putting it in the hands
of the consumers. As a result of this change in power, The consumer buying cycle has been
forever changed by social media because people now do tons of online research before buying a
product and after they do they feel urged to write a review (Agresta, Bough, 2010, p. 32). This
tendency has led consumers away from the traditional types of advertising and turning to their
peers and colleagues. This can be seen through the fact that, 75% of consumers do not believe
traditional advertising, whereas 71% are more likely to buy a product if someone referred to it on
social media (Stareva, 2014, p. 17). Due to this fact, companies have turned their focus from
impressions to connectionsand from campaigns to conversations (Agresta, Bough,
2010, p. 10) and because of these shifts and Because of the rising popularity of social media,
more and more organizations are using it as a tool to establish and maintain good customer
relations. Thus, organizations would like their customers to write positive, not negative,
comments and create positive electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on social media sites, such as
Facebook and Twitter (Wu, 2015, p. 1). Although it seems that social media has left
professionals in the public relations, advertising, and marketing worlds powerless, it instead has
given them a new power that as a result has made Reaching target audiences [sic] become easier
not only locally, but also globally ( Stareva, 2014, p. 24) and created a conversation with the
consumer enabling the supplier to really produce and and know what the consumers want.
All in all, Social Media has drastically changed the world of public relations, advertising,
and marketing. However, this change is for the better. Companies and brands are able to really

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hear what consumers like and dislike about their products or brands, and in turn are able to fix
them. In the long run, this helps everyone. Companies fix what they are doing which makes
consumers happy. In turn, this makes companies happy because the people buy their products or
speak positively about their brands. Although, it is harder to control the relationship between
companies and consumers, it has become more of a positive conversation rather than a lecture
where only one side does the talking.

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Works Cited
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Coles, L. (2014). Marketing with Social Media : 10 Easy Steps to Success for Business.
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Stareva, I. (2014). Social Media and the Rebirth of PR : The Emergence of Social Media as a
Change Driver for PR. Hamburg, DE: Anchor Academic Publishing. Retrieved from
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Retrieved April 19, 2016, from http://www.instituteforpr.org