The Motivations for Using Twitter and Its Satisfaction
The essay investigates the motivations for using Twitter and its satisfaction, primarily to determine the level of achievement attained by users. People mostly use this site for information and social purposes. Unlike other social media networks, Twitter users gain knowledge from their use. The component of social media application is frequently overlooked because it is usual habit among Twitter users to refer to it in search of the most recent news and information. Many users even prefer it over popular media platforms such as television and radio due to its timely nature. With technological growth and increase in the use of social media, Twitter has carved itself a niche in the industry, being rivaled only by LinkedIn and Facebook.
Motives for the Use of Twitter
People have two motives for the use of Twitter. As seen above, it is primarily either for information and social reasons. Twitter helps its users to share short text messages online to people within their network. The words, although concise, are informative to the recipients. However, it is not to mean that Twitter cannot be used for socialization. People can interact by chatting using their usernames. Research has shown that in most cases, people do not get satisfied with their expectations by using social media platforms. Thus, satisfaction is projected in the future, not presently. The use of internet has allowed a variety of communication media to coexist together. Most users of Twitter were satisfied with its helping pass time, socialization, and free communication, among others. Lesser people felt they were confident with having fun through this platform. In this regard, it is clear that most satisfaction is derived from an informative aspect of Twitter.
Patino, A., Pitta, D. A., & Quinones, R. (2012). Social media's emerging importance in market research. Journal of consumer and marketing. 29 , 233-237.
The Use of Social Media in Marketing Research
The authors of this work focused on determining the use of social media in marketing research. With the growth in the use of the internet, marketing practitioners cannot ignore its importance. People have used online services for varied reasons over the years in growth trends. Through social media, consumers of a given product can easily interact and share their views on the product before buying or using it. The consultations may either work to promote a product or diminish it. Currently, the use of conventional advertising and product promotion media such as television and radio is outdated. People prefer social media for those critical business tasks. Notably, research in marketing has shifted from the general offline press to the utilization of websites and social media. Qualitative researchers can now access consumer information from these platforms.
Technological innovations have made a researcher's work more comfortable. Unlike in the past when they had to incur costs to meet consumers and collect their views, currently, all these information is available on social media. One only needs access to the internet to conduct research. As a fact, consumers' views are critical in product development and marketing. Through social media, marketing consumers have opined their preferences for being included in the products, rather than being its object. Also, consumers use social media to seek advice from others, get connected with sellers, share their experiences about a particular product, as well as discuss matters of common interest to them. Accordingly, such information is readily available to market researchers for their particular use such as advising the producer on the required quality as per customer's feedback and preferences. Precisely, market researchers can utilize this information to discern consumer trends, contact the client groups, and note customer preferences, among others. Although it may be difficult to track down individual consumers, it is only reasonable for researchers to employ the internet as it is faster and cheaper.
Avraham, E., & Ketter, E. (2012). The social revolution of place marketing: The growing power of users in social media campaigns. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 8, 285-294.
The Growing Power of Users in Place Marketing
With the entry of social media into the marketing sphere, there has been an increase in the role of consumers. They have become more proactive and an essential element in place marketing. Typically, advertising is based on the consumer, rather than the product itself. The significance of the marketers and the different concepts involved fade with the continued use of social media marketing. The role of consumers is no longer that of an object audience, but an active part in the distribution and spread of information to others on the network. Online campaigns are so compelling that they affect the physical world with people behaving as a reaction to the same.
Place marketers choose a specific appealing message carefully, which is sent to a dormant online audience with an anticipation of a particular reaction, as far as their work goes. The rest is left to the social media users to decide whether they are interested or not. If the message seems appealing to them, the users actively spread the campaign to others. In this regard, the physical effect is of more interest to the general public, as well as the marketed place. Mostly, the use of social media to evoke interest is a dominant marketing element being used currently. As a result, the users become either distributor, message creator or both at the same time. These three categories of users are surely efficient place marketing tools; beat common media platforms. Thus, it is evident that for the 21st-century place marketing, the answer lies in social media.
Michaelidou, N., Siamagka, N.T. and Christodoulides, G., 2011. Usage, barriers, and measurement of social media marketing: an exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(7), 153-1159.
Usage, Barriers, and Measurement of Social Media Marketing for B2B Brands
The purpose of this document is to research on the use of social media by business-to-business organizations. There has been little research in this area; hence, the need for it. The study, therefore, focuses on the use of social media by B2B small businesses in the UK, hindrances and the effectiveness of internet marketing. While some SMEs utilize social networking sites in the UK, mainly for market expansion, there is still the challenge of measuring their effectiveness. There has arisen the need to put measurability into consideration with many such businesses planning to increase their budgetary allocation. Thus, it serves as an indicator of the importance of SNS to these companies, given that the benefits are worth the expenditure.
Since its introduction, social media continues to attract more attention and coverage globally. There has been a notable rise of social media platforms apart from the dominant Facebook and Twitter. Many company websites are directly linked to social networking sites in a bid to direct consumers to the websites, thereby, marketing them. B2B companies use the internet to provide information about a product brand, interact with consumers, get their views and most importantly, conduct online business transactions, well known as e-commerce. Apart from enhancing sustainability, B2B businesses also benefit from the ability to compete against established and well-performing enterprises. Barriers faced include the high costs, need for training, time for adoption and the fear of the unknown. However, it is clear that social networking sites are viable advertisers for small businesses.
Phing, A. N., & Yazdanifard, D. R. (2014). How Does ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Achieve its Viral Outcome through Marketing Via Social Media? Global Journal of Management and Business Research: E-Marketing,14(7)(1.0,) 1-9.
The Success of ALS Ice Bucket Challenge through Social Media Marketing
The paper intended to understand ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. So long as something attracts the interest of users, it becomes popular in a short time. For instance, ALS has become a favorite event due to social media. In understanding the phenomena, the researchers used available electronic sources. Some reasons were discovered, inclusive of social media marketing, celebrities' influence, online word-of-mouth phenomenon, viral marketing and right-timing marketing. These factors are further discussed hereunder.
Through social media marketing, online users were able to promote the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge event. People are allowed to voice their concerns freely, make contributions and spread the idea of the challenge. Notably, it is this freedom of expression and ability to contribute that made it famous. The content provided by organizers of the problem was also appealing. Also, the sense of community and a shared interest sparked popularity. Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Selena Gomez, and Taylor Swift have an extensive network of fans across the world. Their presence alone attracts more people who seek to see them. Precisely, online word-of-mouth, which is the act of spreading the word about something through messages and chats, has the power to make and enhance one's or entity's popularity. People freely share their fascination with the challenge among themselves. Viral marketing was also used where online users are urged to share marketing messages in their groups. At this point, it is essential to understand that the issue of time is fundamental. In this case, ALS chose a period when people were eager for something interesting. Thus, proper use of social media in marketing is practical.
