Social Media & Business
Before you read: some questions to help you think about the topic and the words you might need.
How are companies using social media to do business?
Do you connect with companies through social networking sites (SNS)? How and why?
Social Media is having a big effect on how companies do business. Every company and business now needs to not only be on board with how to use the Internet to help market their business, but needs to be on the social networking bandwagon.
In Nielsen and McKinsey’s Social Media Report, consumers were surveyed to discover how they use social networks.
Social care is the way for companies to provide regular customer service through social media platforms. The study revealed that one in three social media users prefers social care to contacting a company by phone.
Consumers use a variety of channels for social care. For example, they are most likely to comment or ask a question about a company’s products or services on the company’s Facebook page (29%), on their personal Facebook profile (28%), on official company blogs (15%) and on Twitter (company’s handle, 13%).
So what can companies take away from this? Social media has conditioned consumers to get immediate feedback. As a marketer, the risk of failing to meet such high expectations is not just losing customers, but having negative comments about your brand blasted around the user’s network and their friends’ networks. If you can get social care right, you will create a competitive advantage for your brand. You will create a wide gap between your brand and your competition.
Guessing meaning from context (the words around that word or phrase).
Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and have similar meaning.
The answers are below the table.
|
be on board |
A |
1 |
Place where things happen, a place where information can be communicated |
|
on the bandwagon |
B |
2 |
to not miss out or lose a chance, to understand |
|
social media platforms. |
C |
3 |
A choice of ways to be able to achieve something, to be able to get a result |
|
a variety of channels |
D |
4 |
Cause people to have habits through experience. Doing the same thing many times then people begin to expect a same result |
|
take away |
E |
5 |
Destruction, bad feedback |
|
conditioned |
F |
6 |
Doing something to make your company or product have something special to offer that is difficult for others to copy, something done very well by your company or brand |
|
blasted |
G |
7 |
Something learned from an experience |
|
a competitive advantage |
H |
8 |
Joined with, to be part of |
A=2, B=8, C=1, D=3, E=7, F=4, G=5, H=6
Some example sentences using the new words to help you to better understand their meaning.
1. If you want to make money on the KOSPI (Share market), then you need to be on board with what different companies are doing.
2. Companies that didn’t understand the changes missed the bandwagon and died.
3. Politicians use newspapers and television as platforms to send information to people. However, these days politicians are using a lot of different channels such as social networking to make connection with people.
4. One of the best lessons I took away from university life is that it is important to network and make friends who could help me in the future.
5. Cafes condition customers to clean take their own cups and plates back when they have finished.
6. I don’t like to watch famous movies on television these days because I get blasted with too much advertising.
7. In the beginning Hyundai Motor Coy’s competitive advantage was cheap price, but now they are trying to change it to excellent value and quality.
Some discussion questions using the new words to help you better understand the word meaning and how to use them correctly. Try to use the words in your answer.
1. What companies do you know that are getting on board of the social networking bandwagon by social networking with customers? Are they doing a good job?
2. Are social media platforms the best choice for all companies? Why or why not?
3. Do you feel that the statistics for the variety of channels in the reading would be similar in your country? How different do you think it might be and why?
4. What important lessons have you taken away from today’s reading?
5. How do you feel that social media has conditioned people to expect a fast response?
6. Do you have some examples of how a company has been blasted on the Internet?
7. How can a company create a competitive advantage through social care?
ECK Education
