Social Media Marketing In India: Opportunities and Issues M. Sujatha sujathajuturi@gmail.com N. Chandra Shekar chandrashekargtl@gmail.com V. Naga Bindu vnagabindu@gmail.com Gates Institute of Technology The present stage in the evolution of the Internet, has revolutionized the way people communicate, interact, and share information has radically changed the way customers search for and buy products. The social media has changed the power structures in the market place. Social media are a means for consumers to share text, images, audio and video information with each other and with companies and vice versa. With the rise of social media marketing as an important domain of practice and research, a growing number of scholarly and practitioner articles have emerged highlighting best practices in social media marketing. Therefore, business must learn how to use social media in a way that is consistent with their business plan. This is especially true for companies striving to gain a competitive advantage. The popularity of social media for marketing purposes can be attributed to a number of advantages associated with social media when compared to traditional marketing channels. Today, we are in 21st century and people do not find time to come and interact with each other. Social media helps in connecting themselves with social networking sites through which now people can stay far and yet remain connected. India is in transition stage we are moving from traditional marketing tools like TV, Radio, Magazine etc to modern marketing tools i.e. social media tools Facebook, corporate blogs, video channels, banners as on social net thus which requires more employees. The trend of online marketing is increasing all over the world as well as in India also. Keywords: Media Tools, Modern Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media 1. Introduction Kaplan and Heinlein define social media as a group of Internet based applications that build ISBN 978-1-943295-10-4 291
on the ideological and technological foundations and allow the creation and exchange of user generated content. Social media are a means for consumers to share text, images, audio, and video information with each other and with companies and vice versa. Social media allow marketers to establish a public voice and presence on the web and reinforce other communication activities. Because of their day-to-day immediacy, they can also encourage companies to stay innovative and relevant. Therefore; business must learn how to use social media in a way that is consistent with their business plan. This is especially true for companies striving to gain a competitive advantage. The popularity of social media for marketing purposes can be attributed to a number of advantages associated with social media when compared to traditional marketing channels. 92% of marketers declared that social media marketing plays a vital role for their business. 97% of marketers are showing interest by participating social media ( Report by social media examiner). 62% of the marketers said Social media played dynamic role in marketing past 6 months (State of Inbound marketing, 2012). Presently, Companies that picked up customers are from Social media. 80% of the network users desire to connect brands through Facebook. As per the Statistics an average of 42 minutes were spent by users on Facebook daily. The above statistics exhibits a vast prospective of social media marketing to surge sales. According to the recent studies, companies recognized the importance and role of social media marketing and planned to increase social media budgets for next 5 years. It is a best medium to convey our information easily and effectively online. From last 7 or 8 years we have seen a sudden increase and progression on Social Media sites. Presently the most diversified Social media networks are Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn etc. India is World's 7th largest in Internet Market; there are 21 million people in India who are estimated to visit social media sites regularly which is 60.3% of the total active Indian Internet audience. More than 90% of Indian online users belong to 18-45 age group which has high purchase power and high disposable income. The social media websites in India are growing by almost 100% year after year. Objectives To know the opportunities of social media marketing in India. To know the impact of social media marketing on products and services. ISBN 978-1-943295-10-4 292
2. Methodology The paper is conceptual in nature. Data collection was achieved by online websites and the data is filtered to improve the quality of paper. The interpretations are made by the authors with the help of guide. Few Popular Social Media Networks Facebook Marketing campaigns on Facebook can make your social presence more visible and vivacious. FB marketing solutions consists of integrated Facebook advertising campaign, Facebook application development, page design, paid advertising, viral marketing and a lot more. Twitter Twitter provides innovative marketing services which can help to increase your followers and make your products and services more visible in several social media platforms. It provides your business to engage your product or service with millions of users at a time. LinkedIn LinkedIn promotes services helps you link with your targeted audience. The innovative strategies and ideas can play an active role in enhancing your social presence and make it better than your opponent. Google+ and You Tube Marketing Google+ and YouTube offers an exciting opportunity by which any organization can competently promote their business. By using these networking platforms, we promote the services and products of our clients and improve their visibility and brand equity online. 3. Opportunities By Social Media Marketing Blogger/ Copywriter The post and articles you read on the internet were written by people. Working as a blogger or online writer means managing a varied workload and keeping track of plenty of deadlines, but it's hard to argue with the convenience of working from your home computer. ISBN 978-1-943295-10-4 293
App Developer App development is typically a humble field but offers a significant potential for success. A great idea, if given enough effort and exposure, can grow a tiny start-up into a wildly popular social media giant. At the very least, though, developers can be satisfied knowing that their work is making the Internet a better, more diverse place. Web Designer A great idea for the Next Big Thing in social media may be technically sounds, but it won't do much good unless it's presented in an accessible, user - friendly package. This is where the web designer comes in. Designers create the layout and aesthetic of a site, essentially building a bridge between the codes that makes the site work and ordinary users. Hacker/Security Specialist It's generally more about stealing and destroying top-secret files, extorting money from large corporations and government institutions, and more often than not, flying through wire-frame environments. The reality is a lot less fantastic, but real-world hacking is invaluable to today's social media and is an honest, paying job, to boot. Digital Marketer Digital marketers focus on the critical task of studying internet trends and using them to cleverly draw traffic to a particular site. As social media's influence on society has grown, more and more businesses have recognized the importance of building their web presence, so opportunities for digital marketers are more widespread than ever. Issues of Social Media Marketing Choosing appropriate Brand Ambassador for the organization. In social media it involves high budget to promote product effectively. Ignorance of advertisements from customers in social media to save time. Faceless relationships with customers. Fake news and false promises in social media leads to decrease in reputation of organization. ISBN 978-1-943295-10-4 294
4. Findings Organization in order to save their budget they should promote their products and services on one proper channel, which is used by majority of the people. Choose the Brand Ambassador which is having more followers in social networks. Advertisements should be designed in an effective manner in social media. By providing quick response to the customers can build strong relationships. Social media is a backbone of marketing to create brand image. Social media is responsible for the development of online applications. Social media acts as the root cause for the development of media richness. Social media marketing helps to promote sales effectively. Social media marketing provides a good platform to communicate with large number of customers at a time. 5. Suggestions By using innovative advertisements we can attract more customers. Organization should choose one popular channel to promote their products and services which in turn increases reputation of company. The company should choose the brand ambassador who is very active and who has more followers in social networks (Facebook, twitter). The company must promote products as according to the present trend which leads to stand in the competition. 6. Conclusion Social media marketing is emerging rapidly to promote the products and services in online through various social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter, Instagram etc. Major benefit of social media marketing, which results in increasing profit of your company, is improving sales, regardless if you own an online shop or you want to encourage people to visit your business a specific location. So basically the organizations must adopt social media strategies to sustain in the market. A job in social media is likely to ne fast-paced and challenging, but it can be quite rewarding, monetarily and otherwise. If you know what kind of position to look for, social media could just be the source of your dream career. ISBN 978-1-943295-10-4 295
7. Reference 1. Marketing management by Philip Kotler, 14 editions, PEARSON publications. 2. www.socialmediatoday.com 3. www.slideshare.com 4. blog.ochre-media.com 5. link.springer.com ISBN 978-1-943295-10-4 296