Engage rather than sell
– Tom. H.C. Anderson
I wake up in the morning and check out Instagram and WhatsApp to see if there is anything that I might have missed, any calls or important messages. While scrolling around, I encountered many ads that are directly catered to me every single day. The ads changes once in a while, restaurants, shampoos, and even cat beds when I just gotten myself a new kitten. The thing is, those ads are not annoying, they are interesting and I’m not the only one. There are 200 million Instagram users visiting at least one business profile daily. How does this change the way of marketers and advertisers promote their products around the world? It all started on the change of the web itself, Web 2.0.
The Web 2.0 basically describes the current format of the internet where we users can interact with one another and it is fundamentally about user-generated content, which eventually lead to the birth of Social Media. As the internet is on its user-based interface, it is a highly great tool for marketers to market their products, whether it is goods or services. Social Media is a free tool for marketer to use, less costly invest on a social media page, with higher interaction rate. However, do not be fooled, Social media pages also requires non-financial resources such as time and strategy to achieve the best result.
As the use of Social Media rose, advertisers begin to notice the potential of its market reach, hence in 2000, Lunarstorm was born. Lunarstorm was the first mover regarding the commercial advertisement-financed social networking websites though it closed down after a decade. Now, users are constantly exposed to advertisement every single day whenever they use their Social Media and as more and more people are moving away from traditional media, advertisers are putting more investments to improve Brand Awareness through social media. In 2013, Instagram first introduced advertising in their platform and since then more and more Social Media introduced sponsored posts such as Twitter, Facebook and Reddit where users can pay to boost the activity of said post and improve brand awareness. Nowadays, we are more exposed to advertisement/ sponsored posts more than ever, it is time for us to further think upon not only selling products but also engage with customers to build good brand resonance to improve customer based brand equity (CBBE).
How do you think company should utilise social media further to engage and build relationships with their customers and potential customers?
I personally think that company should focus on a certain target market so they can curate their content better and have better focus on the long run. Regularly updating their social media regarding promotions and information of the company and doing their best to reply to inquiries sent by users. Furthermore, companies should give back to customers by doing giveaways or challenges that may garner bigger following and better brand awareness.
digital diary 
Great post! I like how you are able to relate your findings to your everyday life.
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i personally feel the younger generation are less loyal to brands and they focus more on the trends that are going on. For brands to be able to acquire more awareness besides ads, “WOM” is a more effective way to encourage consumers to buy your product. Therefore, i believe that social media communities like facebook groups or platforms like reddit can help raise more awareness towards the targeted market.
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I do agree that the younger generation tend to follow a certain style to express themselves and thus making it a must for companies to renew their strategies to maintain brand loyalty. One example that can be done is to create an omni-channel based loyalty program where customers can gain points by sharing and referring their friends to the brand, like having your own mini marketers!
One thing about word of mouth, in the world of twitter, people use hashtags and hashtags that reached trending pages will have the company’s popularity boosted. So, the homework for companies is to deepen their understanding upon using twitter hashtags to boost their brand awareness. For example, using giveaways?
Great discussion points Jason!
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I see that social media has been used to advertising product. Therefore, can you give example on which companies that have incorporated this strategy that has been successful in their business? If you think we should more focus on engaging with customer, how do you apply customer based brand equity to help build the relationship with customer?
Furthermore, you stated that companies should give promotions, share new information and answer customer’s feedback. Do you have any idea on company that might have adopted this strategy before?
Before that, thank you for giving me clarity on how social media can be used to market product and help company operate their business. I have gained new knowledge and insight about social media after reading this post. No pressure on these lengthy question. Just want to answer my curiosity. Take time on brainstorming and answering these questions. Keep up the good work.
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Hi Sarah! Thank you for visiting my blog, you know through social medias new brands comes out of nowhere and become successful such as the makeup brand Anastasia and KVD Vegan Beauty.
For CBBE, it depends on what the company is selling and how the company handles it, so for CBBE, social media can satisfy all from brand salience e.g. new companies establishing themselves to Brand Resonance e.g. established fandoms that can be found through hashtags like k-pop fandoms #carat for the Boyband Seventeen, #monbebe for Monsta-X fans.
One example that is on my top of mind would be Benefit Cosmetics! they do many giveaways and improve products through consumer feedbacks.
Thank you for giving such an insightful question and I am glad that you enjoyed this article,
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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Hi sabrina!
I enjoyed reading your blog. I think apart from throwing out ads i’d personally like to see brand’s doing more campaigns on their social media platforms. I feel that this is a better way to engage with customers as well as getting them interested compared to ads.
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Advertisements are a part of campaigns as campaigns are a series of activities of an operation intended to achieve a certain goal. However, I do understand your point, hard selling advertisement really does bother one’s activity, better campaigns such as giveaways or doing CSR can also be done to improve brand awareness and boost sales!
Thank you for reading my blog
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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Hey! that was an amazing post. I notice that many companies are very new to digital marketing. They often couldn’t catch the attention of users and consumers and hence wasted their efforts and resources producing the advertisements on social media! What do you think these companies could done better to utilize the social media since the human population are so crazy addicted to it! hahaha!
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Welcome to my blog and thank you for reading Aldon!
I do believe that companies should follow trends and listen closely to consumer feedback to better grasp the usage of social media. I do believe bigger companies should hire social media manager while smaller companies should try and follow their bigger competitors while differentiating themselves. There are may ways to improve one’s social media but these are the ones I can think of right now
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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Hi there Sabrina!
I really love what u had to say for this topic! I think social media really helps businesses grow and improve!
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Since young consumers are getting familiar with the use of the web 2.0. I think it is a great idea for marketers to target the consumer to find their needs and wants.
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Thank you for reading my blog post! Indeed I believe that Social media is crucial for marketers to target consumers especially visual products such as beauty products that thrive in social media!
Warmest Regards,
Sabrina
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