The Impact of Social Media Marketing in Marketing Communication Opportunities: in Context of Dell

set back of Content No. Content Page Number 1. Table of Content 1 2. Abstract 2 3. Introduction 3 4. Literature Review 4 5. dingle Business type 7 6 touch of affable Media selling in dingle under representation converse Process 8 7. Challenges of companionable Media trade in the merchandise Environment 11 8. Benefits of Social Media market in the Marketing Environment 13 9. terminus 15 10. References 16 2. AbstractSocial media trade is no capaciouser a foreign to work marketer straightadays. This paper will figure the sham of kindly media market on the merchandise chat opportunities in context of dingle in the United States. Basically, this assignment will be begun with the introduction which generally explains active the emergence of complaisant media. Next, several(prenominal) literature reviews will be provided to explain on the marketing chat process and how neighborly media marketing impacted on the dell current converse process.Then, s everal challenges and hits of mixer media marketing will be flesh outd at the end of this paper. Keywords sociable media marketing, marketing communication process, media fomite, consumers, means 3. Introduction Undeniably, revolution of socio-technological has significantly changed the ways and performer of media consumption. From super-fast digitally empower laptops to mobile eBook readers. All of these aspects commit affected how business ( prints) and consumers blow over and thus sit around the way of marketing communications will be functioning.One of the most significant evolutions when people talk about marketing tools or strategies is the emergence of social media marketing. Fundamentally, social media marketing is a way of connecting with consumers by means of the current technology (i. e. The Internet). As of now, there argon more than 800 million active users in Facebook, all over 3 billion videos be viewed per day and 100 million people use cheep each sin gle day. Having all social media channel available for consumers, this provides consumers with plenty of choices in products and services in the market.Alongside, social media marketing has impacted on businesses marketing communication opportunities. 4. Literature Review The emergence of parvenu communication channels via the Internet has tremendously affect businesses way of marketing strategies (Owen and Humphrey, 2009). One of the most significant developments to the marketers is the do from the Internet evolution from the generation of Web 2. 0 or social media as a media fomite to deliver the message to the bearing market (Constantinides et al. 2008). Social media marketing in this context is the opportunities provided for business to extend with the society, with the help of the organizations gull, thus resulting in building a positive connection and develop brand baffle through the Internet as the medium of communication (Pandey, 2010). Murphy (2010) mentioned that a go od marketing placement occurs when organization or marketer using the right communication channels or media to send the right message and generateing the right market.Therefore, it is vital for marketer to understand the communication process when using social media as the media vehicle in the marketing communication. Kotler (n. d. , p. 546) mentioned that there argon several elements that involved in the communication process in secern to determine effective communication. The major two parties in the communication ar the transmitter (marketer) and receiver (market). A nonher major communication tool is the media vehicle or media channel which carries the message to the receiver.Alongside the communication parties and media vehicle, there are four major communication functions encoding, decoding, result and feedback. Finally, the element of hoo-ha in like manner interferes in the communication process. Dargiewicz (2010) suggested that in order to communicate in an effect ive way, the sender mustiness have an understanding of the point of the message, who are the target audience to be reached and how the audience will meet and respond to the message. Schramms standard of communication points out that the senders ncoding process must be coherent with the target audiences decoding process, whereby, the more marketer field of experience overlaps with the target markets field of experience, the higher(prenominal) is the effectiveness of process of communication (Dargiewicz, 2010 Holm, 2006). The matches of both parties experiences are called the divided Frame of Reference. Figure 1 Willbur Schramm model Source Dargiewicsz, K. (2010) Monologue vs Dialogue How Innovative Social Media Technology developing Effective Marketing Communication Strategies online. unattached at http//www. slideshare. et/guywithideas/social-media-dissertation Accessed fifteenth celestial latitude 2011 The high level of trust associated with social media as the media vehicle makes social media is highly satisfying among the target audiences compared to traditional media vehicle much(prenominal) as televisions, newspapers, billboard and etc. (Inklingmedia, n. d. ). Mohr and Nevin (1990), bring up that, the absent of trust may distort the message that is organism sent. agree to DesignDamage (n. d. ), social media fosters a highly transactional model of communication which it bring home the bacons two-way communication through the feedback mechanism that traditional media not able to offer.Traditional media vehicles were also argued to be a merely one-way process communication, whereby, the message is not clearly communicated or received by the target audience in most of the time (Dargiewicz, 2010). The Shared Frame of Reference suggested by Willbur Schramm model is integrated with social media because it offers consumers to share their experience in the communication process. Calder and Malthouse (2005) supports that e genuinelything that influence the customers experience is a potential marketing vehicle.Therefore, in order to illustrate the theory of social media marketing in context of organization, this paper will look at the impact of social media marketing in dingle Corporation in the United States. 5. dell Business Model The founder of dell Computer Incorporation is Michael dingle in 1984. dells primary products are personal and office computers and business of dell also engages in other products such as printers and software. A feature that determines PC companies such as Dell to manage their products is through standardization of PCs. The main benefit of standardization is that it helps Dell to reduce the cost of productions.However, when Dell adopted standardization strategy, it made Dell more generic with other PCs companies such as IBM, Compact and Hewlett-Packard since most of PCs companies had access to the same suppliers such as Intel and Microsoft. Therefore, Dell started a new direct business model based on customization approach that enables computers or laptops to be produced according to customers requirements in order to be more competitive. However, standardization approached has still remained in Dells business model. The customization approach varies its products from customer to another customer without changing the brand name.Having customization strategy in Dell business model, Dell has to eliminate third party as the middle-man and sell its products directly to the final exam customer, whether the commercial customers or private users. Such business model allows Dell to reach more clients and business units and cut cost with simplify supply chain. Unfortunately, Dell is facing even a bigger supply to balance out the standardization and customization approach as there is no one perfect method. harmonise to The Indian Institute of Planning and focus (n. d. ), customer is the key economic driver to what Dell is doing.Therefore, Dell ex tiped its approach to engage with thei r customers through the social media marketing to market their brand and communicate with their customers. 6. Impact of Social Media Marketing on Current Dell Communication Process Many companies including Dell, have established that social media is a new platform for communication. Dells key policy is constantly being a direct and effective in terms of its communications. Dell and digital communication through the lucre was never dispeld since it started to conduct e-commerce business which selling its customized products directly to the customer.Since Dell engaging the blogosphere in 2006, social media marketing has always been its core communication and marketing strategies. According to Dave (2011), social media efforts at Dell helps to digest the business objectives such as aim to reduce cost, increase revenue and promote customers satis detailion. According to Blythe (2000), the first gear key of effective communication is to identify the target audience. Social media m arketing provide opportunities for dell to separate their target audiences according to social media channel. For example, Dell Community has a mixture of blogs that reflects several key channels.This includes reciprocation on education to business consultation. Different range of blogs that provided by Dell ensures that information and discussion would be used to cater several specification of audiences. In a same way, Dell has contrary kinds of Twitter channels to reflect different purposes. Correspond to Dell Cares, it provides assistance to the customer on any liaison related to the Dells products. This portrays how Dell has separated its branding strategy and how various Twitter accounts sensed differently by the audiences.Therefore, Dell will be able to encode the right message such marketing campaign, to the specific target audience through the right social media channel. There are some(prenominal) other brands out there in the market today compared to in the past. Dargi ewicz (2010) points out that all are trying to communicate a large number of messages to their target audience daily, which interfering the target audience to get the right message across. Thus, social media has changed the communication landscape in providing opportunities for Dell to have a two-way communication with its customers.A good communication is the role of the encoders and decoders skill and its envisioned by the medium which the encoded message is delivered. Realized the effectiveness of social media as the medium of communication, Direct2Dell was launched by Dell, its very own corporate blog through Twitter. Its social media efforts have provided a two-way asymmetric communications, whereby, target audiences able to provide feedback content such as ratings and reviews with regards to the issues of Dells products.Moreover, the feedback provided by the customer is in real-time, whereby, the feedback is come directly from customers and Dell able to value their products. For instance, product that has five-stars rating should stay and two-star ratings should be removed. According to Pickton and Broderick (2001, p. 182), feedback will improve the accuracy of the communication to ensure that message has been correctly received and understood, which is one of the reasons wherefore social media is a powerful communication vehicle in Dell communication process.Plus, the CEO of Dell Computer, emphasized that company must be able to listen and connect with its customers and emergence of social media has provided Dell the opportunity to engage with its customers (Farrelly, 2009). Given the feedback mechanism that social media can offer, Dells has taken a major step to establish a Social Media Listening Command Center in order to stay connected with its customers. Channey (2009) points out that listening are no longer an option scarcely rather a new marketing. Listening is crucial in the communication process because it allows Dell to understand what cust omers penury and how customers perceive the brand.Not still did social media marketing allow Dell to understand their customers, , Dell are able to discover about a massive amount of issues that consumers were having with their products through their blog monitoring platform. The system could track each of these and would instantly recognize trends between products, geographic areas, or specific communications with Dell. For instance, Dell proactively approach consumers in the blogosphere and in online community about battery recall, thus allow better response and rectify customers problem as quickly as possible.Plus, customers were also able to blockage whether their battery part of the recall. Furthermore, social media marketing has fostered high Shared Frame of Reference between the sender (marketer) and the receiver (audience) that influence effective communication. Dell has created online designed studio that gives the might for its customers to change the design of their l aptops by choosing a custom switchable lid themselves. Online designed studio has given Dells customers the opportunities to virtually experience the outcome of their customization laptop, thus, encourage Shared Frame of Reference between Dell and its customers.In addition, not just now did social media marketing fostered high Shared Frame of Reference between the marketer and the audience but also among Dell customers. Dell has launched online community for its alive and potential customers to communicate and exchange information. According to Bazaarvoice (n. d. ), 90 percent of consumers online belief the recommendations from people they acknowledge and 70 percent belief the opinions of un cognize users because people tend to trust and often seek the advice from another person or group of people over brands.This feature of speech enables consumer to gather as much information about Dells related products and services onward making purchase decision. Shaw et al. (2000, p. 152) added that a positive feedback can turn into a good promotion the brand of the product. This is why social media perceived to have a higher level of trust and it is more acceptable compared to other media. 7. Challenges of Social Media Marketing in the Marketing Environment Social media marketing has certainly influence the communication process of Dell with its consumer.However, there are several challenges that social media is facing in the marketing environment. Social media allows thousands of conversation streams to be addressed per day. Merely representing a team of marketers will not be able to handle such a great amount of conversation. Definitely, the number of marketers is not sufficient and it is more likely that these marketers are not equipped with comprehensively subject matter expertise that required them to communicate and respond at the proper level of reliable conversation. The consequence of ignoring this can be overwhelming.The risks of involving untrained emplo yees to represents on behalf of Dell could jeopardize Dell reputation. Once Dell encouraged its employees to be active on blogs, Dell is exposed to the risk of staff members writing negatively and revealing confidential information about the organization. For example, in 2007, a former employee of Dell had post a list of tips in a blog for customers who are searching for Dell products (Farrelly, 2009). The employee had no issues with Dell and just wanted to share information for customers such as the best time to purchase and how to get the greatest deal.Therefore, it is essential for Dell to have proper employees that have the ability to monitor and respond to its consumers thought. Additionally, due to high transparency in social media, competitors may know the strategies of Dell and consumers are more well-informed about Dell products and pricing strategy. Essentially, the engaging process with customers has always been in charged by the Dell marketing department. However, the tr end has changed since the emergence of social media. The consumers are now communicating about the organizations product with other online users who are not the employees.In fact, 66 percent of brand opinions are generated by customers and 34 percent are by blogger (Dave, 2011). The growing popularity of online communities has allow consumers to exchange information and able to compare with competitors prices without any barriers. This means Dell have lost their ability to control over on how and where their products and services are being presented to existing and potential customers. Moreover, any bilk Dell customer able to share their negative judgment on particular products. The bad feedback posted on Twitter or Facebook can easily go viral as good news.For instance, in 2005, Jeff Jarvis, blogger and famous journalist and professor created a personal blog known as Dell Hell. Jeff had a problem with his Dell computer and frustrated with Dell customer service. Therefore, he expre ssed his frustration with Dells products and customer support on the blog. Dell Hell served as a place for other consumers to express their frustration on Dell. As for Dell, the situation has attracted the attention of other media from The New York Times, Business Week, The Houston account and many others, thus, reputation of Dell as the well-known brand for PCs was at disaster.Moreover, the social media habit or consumption of the young audience may differ compared to the previous generation. It has been a challenge for the marketers to develop marketing communication strategies in order to sync with this modern language to make sure that the transmitted brand messages are received and properly encoded across different age group. The young audiences who are called digital natives were embossed up in the modern technological era. They have been adapted to the development and respond to information in a different way with their predecessors.Different to the young audience, the prev ious generations are known as digital immigrants because they are exposed with modern technologies only in the later stage compared to the young audience. They have different ways of understanding the language of social media. Therefore, this will be probably a challenge for businesses including Dell to strategize how to get the message across different age group through social media marketing. 8. Benefits of Social Media Marketing Although social media marketing have its disadvantages, it has also brought several values in the marketing environment.Firstly, due to the fact that social media has no barrier for communication it has encouraged companies like Dell to allow customer company in their marketing strategies. For example, Dell has created Dells IdeaStorm, one of the online Community blogs to encourage conversation with its existing and potential consumers. The benefit that the IdeaStorm is able to give is it allows crowdsourcing from the consumers. This is an effective way for Dell to obtain ideas for their company and more importantly, it provides a sense of belonging from onsumers because their opinion influences the internal decision making, thus increase their loyalty, brand sensory faculty and reaffirm their positioning. Plus, not only social media provide suggestion to Dell, it also help other swearing customers to fix their problem. The process are similar to other social media, whereby, people join the community, recommend their opinions or ideas and then, Dell will respond to the most popular ideas according to the number of votes. In addition, it also provides a free market research for Dell.This is a benefit for Dell because most of surveys conducted are deemed to be unproductive because it only focus on certain groups and also incur higher cost. Finally, social media marketing has also assist Dell in their pricing strategy. Since the consumers are more active in social media, Dell able to get their opinion and forecast the demand and pr ice of their products. Plus, Dell product customization business model through the social media marketing can reduce their sales cycle. Different from short sales cycle, long sales cycles requires people at several stages of the buying process.Ironically, when salespeople are spending their time engaging new businesses and relationship to ensure that customers receive satisfactory answers, he or she is rather unproductive because company only creates money if customers are actually buying the products. This leading up to opportunity cost because the salesperson is not making any deals. Therefore, Dell able to reduce the marketing cost through social media marketing. 9. Conclusion In conclusion, Dell has continuously evaluated its business model to search for rooms of improvement and ways to enhance their customer service.Social media marketing has certainly influenced Dell in their marketing communication process and widened their reach to its existing and potential customers. In th e early years of Dell in the blogosphere, Dell has effectively incorporate social media into its marketing and communications strategy and had been awarded for its efforts. Despite of the effort to integrate social media marketing into the business, social media marketing has its drawbacks. Dell cannot afford to put their brand reputation at risk and thus, must pass off ways to overcome the challenges. Today, Dell US is one f the top companies that is being respected and known as the citizen of the social media. 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