There is no doubt that the
world is in a crisis, in Europe we have the Euro crisis, in US they have a debt
crisis and even growth markets as china and India are declining in growth.
Companies all over the world have to fight harder to get the attention of their
costumers and make them want to purchase their products and services.
The question is; will
Social Media have any impact on company’s ability to turn revenue and profit
into positive figures?
Social Media has gained a
new purpose at the same time as technology has become available to everybody,
everywhere at anytime. This has shown in;
- The ability to reach new target groups
- The ability to use mobile devices
Reaching new target groups
As the technology has
become cheaper the target groups for consumers has changed to even getting in
contact with younger people. Further more you can now get in contact with
people in rural areas which have not been an option in the past. Mobility has
been a key word – the increasing number of smart phones and tablet computers
has increased the availability and contact possibility to people all over the
globe. The increasing use of medias as Face Book, Twitter, Google + , LinkedIn
and Orkut has changed the way companies
do communicate with their costumers and even move marketing budget from
traditional communication to Social Media communication.
Using mobile devices
The availability of mobile
devices in rural areas and among people with minimum incomes has increased the
use of Social Media. Another target group is the young people who use the
social media on their mobile devices as more mature people uses the internet
for mails and communication of messages. Companies can now reach new target
groups in a much more direct way and either get credit for their social
engagement or get punished if the product services do not get accepted the way
it is communicated. In other words the
receiver of the social engagement decides if he/she like or dislike the
engagement from the company – the power is at the consumer.
In my mind it is obvious
that in a crisis the social media will be a very good tool to get your message
out to a much broader target group. But one thing you as an enterprise must
remember it is not possible just to go out there and save money on your
marketing expenses if you can not provide a proper content in the right
context. On the other hand can you
provide the consumer/costumer with a proper content in the right context,
Social Media is a very powerful and direct tool which can give you direct
contact to new and interesting costumers/consumers in a crisis situation.
