Communication through Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is an effective and powerful way for every business organization
whether small business owners or large-scale business organizations. Social media marketing has
changed the way of other traditional forms of marketing adverts through television, newspaper
and radios. By replacing the traditional advertising through printing methods companies are
saving a lot of money every year in their advertising expense. The access to communicate with
the people world-wide has increased. Messages can be delivered with ease which resulted in
communication and information traveling much faster and farther. Social media has made the
world seem to be smaller now. This has changed how the world communicates today, especially
with today’s world full of social media. The role of social media marketing for businesses is to
facilitate communication with one’s clients and customers. Companies use social media as a
platform of digital marketing to attract customers and achieve their branding goals. Digital
marketing includes creating business accounts and optimizing and maintaining them by posting
photos and videos for advertisement purposes to influence a relevant audience.
The social media platform is not created equally hence we need to develop an effective strategy
and be aware of the channels that best suit our brand. Understanding and choosing the right
social media platform is a vital process for any business. The key to the success of any social
media marketing lies in understanding how social media platforms work and how they can be
used to promote your brand or business. Some social media platform works better than others,
this depends on the purpose. The first step is to understand the target customers. The factors to
be considered when choosing social media and its channels are urgency, cost, and audience
preferences. Some of the social media platforms that work well are You Tube and Facebook,
these social media platforms dominate others when it comes to marketing products or services.
Instagram is another platform where it has done a really good job taking advertising, traditionally
advertisement was gone into newspapers or magazines which is now taken by a digital platform.
Twitter helps a company to reach the target audience and respond to marketing messages which
offer instant feedback A classic example is the US and Australian markets via Facebook as it
enters the China market, where Facebook is banned. If we have to go down the social digital
marketing route for China we have to investigate platforms like WeChat Groups and TikToks.
When a business wants to pursue globally for international expansion, the market strategy that
worked in the home country may not work in the host country. If we apply the same approach it
may act as time and cost-effectiveness, but it will certainly affect a company in a long term. One
needs to adapt an effective strategy to tackle cultural differences or language barriers. Each
country is unique not just geographically and structurally but also linguistically and
culturally.Every people across the globe have a preference for imagery and communication
styles. Without a good understanding of cultural context, it becomes hard to craft a market
strategy. Products and Services should be marketed in such a way that it satisfies customer
because some elements are culturally determined. This falls under intercultural business
communication where interpersonal communication happens within the business including
people from different cultural backgrounds. This communication deals with the study of
communication in a cross-culture business context. By enhancing cultural diversity inside the
business, companies can enhance their trust in customers and target audiences.
The main important element of intercultural communication is a language that is sub-divided into
a verbal channel and a non-verbal channel. Verbal communication is a form of communication
that includes messages transmitted by speaking and writing whereas non-verbal communication
includes wordless messages such as gestures, body language, or tone. Iceberg is used as a
metaphor for culture because some aspects of culture are observable while a large portion is
suspected, imagined, or prejudiced. The barriers to intercultural communication are
ethnocentrism, stereotyping, and discrimination. Ethnocentrism refers to the belief that a
particular culture is superior to the other one. This attitude occurs when people start evaluating
other cultures based on their cultural values and practices. Stereotyping happens when a
particular group of people comes up with inaccurate representation based on experiences.
Stereotypes are carried by institutions such as mass media through advertisements, news, and
music. Discrimination is interpersonal behavior where one refuses or denies people belonging to
a certain race. Today, intercultural communication is necessary to meet the needs of people of all
nationalities, races, religions, and cultures. One needs to be better at understanding a wide
variety of cultures which is called cultural intelligence. Cultural knowledge doesn't only include
every detail of culture but knowing people’s behaviors, values, and beliefs. People having high
cultural intelligence (CQ) tend to catch up with people’s needs, emotions, and feelings. To build
cultural intelligence one needs to have the drive to understand and respond to a different culture.
Learning a new language and getting people to know from different cultural backgrounds can
improve cross-cultural communication.
Social media have changed how producers and consumers interact with each other, due to the
involvement through social media has resulted in positive sales for the business. A company
should facilitate its behaviors through the perspective of effective communication, value
creation, and customer satisfaction. Therefore, a business organization should learn to portray
consumer discussions in such a way that is accordant with the company’s mission and goals.
Social media helps us to know about the information related to our target audience including
marketing campaigns. This helps us to use related information available about our target
audience in which we are interested. Using this information to be successful in the long run can
be beneficial. Today social media has become highly useful for marketing communication
efforts. Companies need to be consistent and properly use social media to improve marketing
channels.