ACX707 Impact of Social Media on PR Campaigns Assignment Sample

• Subject Code : ACX707
• University : Deakin University My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : public relations

Professional Research Project

Contents

1.0 Introduction.

1.1 Problem statement

1.2 Research aim..

1.3 Research questions.

2.0 Literature review..

2.1 Supporting theories.

2.1.1 Social media.

2.1.2 Marketing communications.

2.1.3 Advertising.

2.1.4 Brand awareness.

2.1.5 Online media.

2.2 Integration of social media and Public Relations in the marketing mix.

2.2.1 Traditional marketing mix.

2.2.2 Modern tools used in the traditional marketing mix.

2.2.3 Integrated marketing communications.

2.3 Importance of social media.

2.4 Impact of social media in India.

2.4.1 Social media impact on business performance and growth.

2.5 Social media- An essential tool for marketing.

2.6 Summary.

References.

1.0 Introduction to Industry of Public Relations

The industry of Public Relations has faced spectacular changes since last few decades with respect to technology as well as media channels along with the various novel opportunities for the purpose of communication with businesses and clients. The key reason behind this is appearance of social media networking that has enabled the customers to get involved into two-way process of communication with the organizations (Yapa, 2017). On the other hand, for all the businesses this shows a massive challenge of effectively handling the various modern forms of engagement so that they could realize the rising significance of public relations in terms of organizational function. However, social media remains as a huge challenge for the Public Relation industry in itself. The era of ‘we talk, you listen’ style of communication within the organization has gone too far as the interaction with the stakeholders is considered to be the only method forward due to the fact that the social media has amended the methodology of forming opinions and making decisions of the consumers (Papasolomou & Melanthiou, 2012). Thus several specialists of public relations believe that we have reached the peak of a stupendous era for the practice of Public Relations. It also signifies that new tools and techniques are required for meeting the needs and requirements of the clients.

1.1 Problem Statement

Globally, numerous studies can be found that have been carried out to understand the significance and requirement for a business to be linked with social media. However, varieties of studies cannot be found in India therefore this study aims at understanding the social media and its role in businesses and also in terms of essential marketing tool for every business organization, to comprehend the impact of social media on the growth and performance of the business.

1.2 Research Aim

This research aims at analyzing the impact of social media in the PR campaigns to create product awareness in India

1.3 Research Questions

1. What is the impact of social media in the factors like improvement of new products awareness, product buying interests, rapidness of new product awareness and new product intense recall?
2. What is the importance of social media in marketing the products?

2.0 Literature Review of Impact of Social Media on PR

Odhiambo (2012) stated that it can be seen in the modern era that the competition in the business through social media is becoming tougher every day. The rising number of social media user can be observed on regular basis. In the year 2002, Friendster, which was the first social media, was created by Jonathan Abrams who was the first programmer and was responsible to popularize this social media into Asia. However, it did not work for longer period. After this, in the year 2004, Facebook was introduced by Mark Zuckerberg who further was able to influence the whole world. Then Twitter was launched after two years by Jack Dorsey who was a programmer from the United States. Another one is Instagram and Twitter that rose up gradually. Moreover, the previous studies of the researchers show that the role played by marketing communications of any organization in the world of social media influence the awareness among social media users in relation to the brands of the company. Social media can be seen being used widely in almost every organization as a facility to display their offerings to the social media users (Yapa, 2017). However, there are few companies who have failed in marketing their services and products through social media. This may be due to the fact that information which is managed these organizations is not much attractive so that the consumers do not respond.

2.1 Supporting Theories

2.1.1 Social media

Tritama & Tarigan (2016) mentioned social media can be described as a assortment of application which is based on web 2.0 and it also allows the social media user to fill up its content. Social media will not function if there is no user filling its content. The attributes of social media is based on the fact that information is conveyed not on a particular individual but to the entire community of several people. The message which is conveyed is faster as compared to the other media as the interaction with various users makes it lively. The forms of social media can social networking, micro blogging, forums, wiki and social book marking.

2.1.2 Marketing communications

According to Tritama & Tarigan (2016) marketing communication is a process wherein companies can inform, influence and remind the customers either directly or indirectly about their offerings and brands. Marketing communication can be regarded as a “voice” of the company as it presents its brands and a source of a company for creating a dialogue and building relationships with the consumers. Moreover, marketing communication is useful in describing the manufacturer of the products ad services along with the company’s objectives and brands.

2.1.3 Advertising

Advertising is considered as paid form of promotion and non-personal presentation of goods and services and ideas via explicit sponsorship.

2.1.4 Brand awareness

Brand awareness can be considered as the ability of the prospective consumers for recognizing and recalling a brand as portion of a specific product category. Tritama & Tarigan (2016) stated that brand awareness needs continuum from the feeling of improbability that a certain brand has been recognized before and hence the consumer tends to believe that this product is the only brand in that specific group. Moreover, there are four stages in which brand awareness has been divided: brand unaware, brand recall, brand recognition and top of mind. Brand recognition is considered to be the lowest level in the category brand awareness or is also called as levels of aided recalls. The next is the brand recall or unaided brand recall due to the fact that the customers do not require to be assisted in remembering the brand. The term ‘aid’ in the aided brand recognition can be referred to a poster, advertisements, video, social media or banners. The next level is unaided brand recognition which has been introduced for the first time and is also called as top of mind and is considered to be the highest brand awareness that remains on the top of various other brands existing in the minds of the consumers.

2.1.5 Online media

Online media is also known as Digital Media that is displayed online on the internet. Generally, online media can be defined as a media format which is accessible through internet constituting images, sound and text (Baum et al., 2019). It can also be understood as online communication. Thus, mailing lists, e-mail, websites, whatsapp, blogs and social media can lie in the group of online media. Online media can also be described in the mass communication context which shows the work of journalism online such as news, feature or articles.

2.2 Integration of Social Media and Public Relations in The Marketing Mix

2.2.1 Traditional marketing mix

The traditional marketing mix comprising of PR, advertising, personal selling, sales promotions and direct marketing, considered PR until 1980s in terms of just a support for the purpose of marketing the products via media coverage or was viewed as ‘free advertising’ for encouraging sales. However, there has been a shift recently from one-way to two-way conversation along with the rising requirements for incessant interactions which has provided Public Relations a extensive benefit over marketing or advertising because it just not only emphasizes on the establishment of the affiliation with the end-users but with the other stakeholders as well thereby playing a massive role in the management of reputation (Kotler et al. 2016).

2.2.2 Modern tools used in the traditional marketing mix

According to Zhou & Wang (2014), social media can be considered as a ‘game changer’ as the customer nowadays has become a ‘partner’ driving the business ahead which signifies that it involves greater levels of engagement. Further the Ngai et al. (2015) argued that for allowing this process, the marketers of modern generation are required to incorporate both new ‘inbound marketing’ which enables the interaction between the organization and customer through social media and old ‘outbound marketing’ which includes direct mail, advertising, telemarketing and so on.

2.2.3 Integrated marketing communications

According to Csikosova et al. (2014) noted that integrated marketing communications can be referred to as the medium which integrates all kinds of promotional tools together for purpose of making them work together in peace along with the single voice throughout. In this case, effectiveness can be considered as one of the major advantages due to the reason that any message conveyed through one channel tends to have less credibility as compared to the message conveyed through multiple channels. In theory, these types of integration can be considered as credible but pragmatically one of the components, either advertising or marketing accomplishes the highest budget share and the remaining just support this one sideways. On the other hand, media as well as advanced technology are being used all through the boundaries of communications mix majorly for every promotion tool because social media makes companies capable of reaching their target audiences further than the means of traditional media (Clow, 2016).

The reason behind this is that mass communication has been replaced by social media with networked relationships. This significant steadiness of social networking by using traditional integrated marketing communication as novel prototype results from the phenomenon that says that social media is considered to be professed by consumers as more trustworthy as compared to the messages of corporate that are transferred through the traditional mix. Yeshin (2012), argues that social media is referred as a hybrid component of promotional mix combining the traditional integrated marketing communication attributes on the one hand and an extensive form of word-of mouth not managed by marketers with respect to frequency and content.

2.3 Importance of Social Media

According to Singh & Sinha (2017), social media can be regarded as a form of communication which internet based. The platform of social media allows its users to get involved into conversations, establish web content and share information. Social media is being utilized all across the world for building relationships and sharing information. Personally, social media is a platform that allows its users to interact with family and friends and professionally it provides the opportunity to get into a conversation with professionals from the business world. Avenues have been opened by social media for the marketers that was either not available before or was extremely complicated. Social media is considered to be a powerful tool which remains at the fingertips of every marketer as they can easily share every piece of content across the world within a second.

Singh & Sinha (2017) social media is one of the most significant aspects for every business in the contemporary world because it is helpful in showcasing the brand of the company and also establishes the image of the brand by managing a firm presence of social media. By regularly revising details related to the company as well as its social happenings, potential clients or customers are sublimely on the sentry for the brand of the company.

Moreover, social media is a platform that can lead to huge exposure because of its wide-reaching access, large amount f every day users and sharing capabilities. Additionally, it helps in delivering instant information within the digital marketplace thereby providing the ability to the businesses for advertising their offerings and moving beyond distance. Odhiambo (2012) noted that social media channels are regarded as one of the proactive tools for the businesses for increasing the trustworthiness of the company. With the close communication with the customers on the platform of social media, the organization becomes reliable source of sharing information making it a great asset in the process of creating awareness along with the brand credibility. Moreover, social media can considered to be one if the biggest sources of customer service which can transform the negative experience of the customers into a positive result for the business.

2.4 Impact of Social Media in India

There is no doubt that social media has tremendously impacted the entire world as well as business. There has been a revolutionary change in the manner people associate and communicate. The mediums of traditional marketing like TV commercials, radio and print ads have become completely obsolete in modern times (Singh & Sinha 2017). However, businesses are capable of connecting with the targeted customers with the help of social media which is cost free and the only cost incurred is time and energy. Through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or any other social website one can lower the cost of marketing to a significant level. Ali Kinston Mwila mentioned in one of his articles named ‘Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society’, October 2015, that the sites of social networking are meant of unite people on massive platform for the purpose of aching specific objectives which is extremely significant to get the positive change within the society.

Moreover, social media has an immense impact in the field of politics also as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been potentially seen as one of the most dynamic and early adopters of this platform. One such example can be seen in which he visited the USA and as per The New Digital, company based on digital services combining the power of technology, content, creative and analytics for digital transformation, Twitter pragmatically detonated with the activity.

2.4.1 Social media impact on business performance and growth

As we know that social media has been rising at an astronomical speed, the impact of it is tremendous on the businesses and their marketing strategies. Various popular websites such as twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and LinkedIn provide opportunities to several businesses in order to grab the customers’ attention and concurrently establish brand image. Such social networking sites help businesses and display several tactics and build a brand profiles such as fan pages, sweepstakes, contests and many more. Singh & Sinha (2017) mentioned that social media helps in allowing us to get personalized with the products and services to the customers. This platform also displays the preferences and likes of the family and friends and in accordance with that decide on the product on the basis of peer’s preference against any glossy advertisement in the magazine. When an unhappy customer writes anything about it on the platform of social media along with the well-built online presence, every organization can easily tackle that circumstance by applying their distinctive approach of innovation and its customer service (Yapa, 2017).

Naveed (2012) stated social media requires less time for reaching out the customers and also has never-ending possibilities. It also assists to grab the attention of the target customers by writing any blog or commenting on other’s blog. The employer can also contact potential client cost effectively manner through advertisement on social websites specifically for a small business owner having no budget for advertising and television campaigns. The marketers can send and receive messages, connect with the groups as well as individuals via social media sites.

Moreover, small and medium enterprises can enjoy greater level of playing field with the huge organizations with the help of social media marketing, Accessing social media tools and social network sites is helpful in connecting the businesses directly with the customers and acquire explicit idea related to their demands and location, and for this Know your Customer can be considered to be the key to success. According to Naveed (2012) once the customers are known to the businesses, it quite becomes flexible and easier for reaching out to them and builds brand awareness by raising the visibility.

While establishing a strategy for social media marketing, it is important to ponder upon carefully whom to target. There are people in the social networks not necessarily considered as customers but who nonetheless can tend to have the impact on the efforts for marketing.

2.5 Social Media- An Essential Tool for Marketing

Traditional forms marketing mainly involve social media, print media and broadcast media which had certain drawbacks. Television advertisements, leaflets, email and direct mail do not have the same effects as they used to have before. One key limitation was that they would follow the same strategy for advertisement or repeated advertisement over time. All those modern businesses that use social media as a source of marketing their offerings allow creativity and innovation. Social media helps the organizations to get the strong online presence through reaching out the target customers and offering them with amazing service. The businesses can easily adopt new approaches for their products and services innovation and enhance awareness among the target audience (Baum et al., 2019). Moreover, social tools can be helpful in strengthening brand perception by sharing core values to broader audience. This eventually brings in the opportunity to begin the conversation, enlarge the online community and enhance business partnerships to attract new customers or followers.

Social media majorly demands innovation as well as creativity in almost every press release made by the company. It is also vital for the companies to keep up with the other organizations for fighting competition and provide to the demanding needs of the customers. Moreover, to stand out from the cut-throat competition, the businesses must pay attention and be trained from their customers for mapping their needs aligned with what else is going to happen in the domain of social media. Dynamically application of social media can be considered as the easiest easy for reaching out to a huge customer base and get the name of the company or brand in the head of the customers.

2.6 Summary of Impact of Social Media on PR

Various organizations are using the platform of social media to market their products and services so that they could appropriately connect with their potential customers. Social media has helped many in reaching out to more and more customers thereby catering them with the basic needs. Moreover, companies are able to build brand image through social media. Hence social media can be regarded the effective tool to perform the business activities and brining out various innovative strategies from the companies that once used to be monotonous.

References for Impact of Social Media on PR

Naveed, N. (2012). Role of social media on public relation, brand involvement and brand commitment. Interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 3(9), 904-913.

Singh, T. P., & Sinha, R. (2017). The impact of social media on business growth and performance in India. Internafional Journal of Research in Management & Business Studies (IJRMS), 4(1), 36-40.

Yapa, U. A. (2017). The Impact of Social Media on Brand Awareness (With Special Reference to Facebook Use in Fast Moving Consumer Goods in Sri Lanka). International Journal of Engineering and Management Research (IJEMR), 7(5), 262-272.

Baum, D., Spann, M., Füller, J., & Thürridl, C. (2019). The impact of social media campaigns on the success of new product introductions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 50, 289-297.

Tritama, H. B., & Tarigan, R. E. (2016). The effect of social media to the brand awareness of a product of a company. CommIT (Communication and Information Technology) Journal, 10(1), 9-14.

Odhiambo, C. A. (2012). Social media as a tool of marketing and creating brand awareness. Unpublished master thesis.

Papasolomou, I., & Melanthiou, Y. (2012). Social media: Marketing public relations’ new best friend. Journal of Promotion Management, 18(3), 319-328.

Yeshin, T. (2012). Integrated marketing communications. Routledge.

Csikósová, A., Antošová, M., & Čulková, K. (2014). Strategy in direct and interactive marketing and integrated marketing communications. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116(0), 1615-1619.

Clow, K. E. (2016). Integrated advertising, promotion, and marketing communications. Pearson Education India.

Kotler, P., Kartajaya, H., & Setiawan, I. (2016). Marketing 4.0: Moving from traditional to digital. John Wiley & Sons.

Zhou, L., & Wang, T. (2014). Social media: A new vehicle for city marketing in China. Cities, 37, 27-32.

Ngai, E. W., Moon, K. L. K., Lam, S. S., Chin, E. S., & Tao, S. S. (2015). Social media models, technologies, and applications. Industrial Management & Data Systems.

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