Marketing Technology
Marketing has changed greatly for the last few decades. Most people have started using internet technology in marketing their services or products. There are different types of internet technologies that have been used to market products and services. For instance, some of the companies have used face book, twitter and other social networking sites to market their products and services. Others have used Google as a marketing technology.
The advances in technology have helped businesses change their marketing techniques. This has made it easy for business to attract customers and retain existing customers. Before, business used traditional methods of marketing to market their products. Some of the business found it dificuty to attract new customers and satisfy customer needs.
The use of marketing technologies has helped business design products that meet customer needs hence customer satisfaction. In addition, the businesses have been able to desogn services that are inline with client expectations. Most of the businesses that have integrated marketing technologies in their marketing plans have recorded high sales. This paper analyzes the importance of face book in marketing.
Discussion
Description of the technology
There are different types of marketing technologies that can be used in marketing. For example, companies can use face book as a marketing technology. Face book is a social networking service and site that was established in 2004.The site is owned by face book Inc. It is also operated by face book Inc. The site has a large number of users. The number of users has increased greatly since 2004.For instance; the number of face book users in January 2011 was more than 600 million.
Face book is a social networking site and this has made it easy for people to use it as a social networking tools. Face book provides an opportunity for different people to socialize. It also allows people to share information with people from different parts of the worlds. Additionally, face book allows people to connect with former schoolmates and friends. It is one of the best social networking tools in the world. Apart from offering social services, face book gives business an opportunity to market their services.
Many companies rely on face book to market their services, promote and advertise them. Most of the companies that have used face book as a marketing tool have been effective (Todaro 2007, p90).Face book users are required to comply with certain requirements so as to be able to use face book and ensure the site runs smoothly. First, face book users are required to create a personal profile. The personal profile contains various details that one should fill in. For example, one should indicate his or her names, year of birth, place of residence and even education details .It also allows users to state their job details and personal information.
Some of the information needed to open a profile is optional while other details are a must. For example stating your names is a must. After creating the profile, one is required to add his or her friends. Facebook has various tools that users use to find their friends and add them. They are also able to exchange messages using the tools available. Moreover, face book allows users to join different user groups that are available in the internet. They also join groups that are organized by workplace. An applicant should be over 13 years so as to be able to become a face book user (Kotler &Armstrong 2008,p67).
Personal review
Face book has various advantages and disadvantages. This is according to my personal experience with the technology. First, face book has helped improve communication between different people in the world. People are able to communicate effectively using face book. Face book provides various communication tools that can be used to communicate. For instance, face book provides chats that are used to communicate with friends. Also, users can user their accounts or profiles to communicate with different people. This has made communication effective and prompt. It has also improved communication between customers and organizations and made transactions effective.
Moreover, the technology helps strengthen relationship between different people and groups. For example, it helps improve the relationship between clients and companies. It also helps improve the relationship between friends. The technology has helped enhance customer relationships in many organizations and improved customer satisfaction.Further, the technology has helped in the transfer of information from one person to another. This is mainly through the profiles created (Charlesworth 2009, p45).
However, the technology has various disadvantages. First, the technology does not enhance privacy. Most studies have proved that social networking sites do not have proper policies to protect client’s information and promote privacy. Most people using the technology are able to view your personal details and this affects the user’s privacy. Most technologies have been accused of infringing on privacy of the users by letting other people access users details. The privacy problem needs to be improved. The organization should develop the right mechanism to prevent friends from viewing private details of other users.
This will enhance privacy and increase the number of users. Security is also a major challenge in social networking sites. Most of the technologies do not promote customer security and this makes the users prone to threats. For instance, users are likely to be attacked if their details are exposed to third parties. The quick transfer of information and communication has impressed me a lot. The technology functions like other communication technologies. The next version should take into account the security and privacy of the users. This will make the new version more effective than the current version (Lee 2001, p45-90).
Aligning the technology with marketing
As stated earlier, face book is a marketing tool that helps in marketing. The technology helps the marketer in different ways. The technology offers various marketing tools that business can use to market their services and products. The tools used include user profiles, messages, friends and applications. Other tools include news feeds and groups. Moreover, organizations can use market place, networks and events to market their products and services. Other tools that are available in face book for marketing are social advertisements, polls and sponsored groups.
Most business have utilized the tools above to market their products and services (Payton 2009, p12-89).The technology gives business an opportunity to create a strong profile for the company. The company profile created is used as a marketing strategy. The strategy developed outlines the company strengths, services offered and customers targeted. The company profiles are created well to make them attractive to the users. This makes it easy for the users to visit the company link provided. Moreover, studies have shown that the technology offers a chance for businesses to reach customers in their market segment and connect with them.
Many companies have been able to reach their customers using the technology and this has had a positive impact on the business (Riyad Eid 2005, p266-280).A series of studies carried out to determine the effectiveness of internet technology in marketing have proved that technologies like face book are effective in viral marketing. Viral marketing and advertisement are marketing methods that use existing social networks to create brand awareness and achieve marketing objectives. Viral marketing helps in the transfer of information about a product from one person to another.
The technology helps the marketer create brand awareness and increase product sales using fan pages that are available in the site. Face book has fan pages that allow companies to interact with customers and other people who are close to the clients. Companies that have used face book fan page have benefited a lot from face book. The companies have recorded high sales and increased productivity. They have also increased their customer base. The technology has unique outcome compared to other technologies. For example, the technology has the capability of increasing the number of customers in the organization and also sales. It also has the ability to improve productivity and customer satisfaction and relations in the organization (Moen, Endresen &Gavlen 2003, p129-149)
Though the technology is useful to markets, it has also some drawbacks like other internet technologies. First, the technology might not be able to enhance privacy and security and this might affect the company negatively. Security and privacy are important elements in an organization. Most organizations work hard to promote customer security and privacy so as to increase sales and productivity. Using the technology can pose a risk to customers and the organization as the company information can be exposed to third parties. Thus, this affects privacy and security in the organization.
Hence, the organization should have appropriate guidelines to guide the use of face book in the organization. The technology will only be effective if it is used well and the organization has the right guidelines. Many organizations that have used internet technology have failed to achieve their marketing objectives because of lack of proper security and privacy measures. Additionally, using the technology is expensive as the organization needs to invest a lot in marketing.
The organization should allocate enough money to run the accounts created and also maintain them. Many organizations have failed to attain their objectives because of poor management and resources. So, the organization should be careful when selecting the marketing technique to use. Using internet technology in marketing requires constant management so as to keep customers and attract new customers. Failure to manage the profiles regularly can lead to loose of customers as company looses its connection with the users (Mayer, Chaffey, Johnston &Ellis-Chadwick 1999).
Impact Statement
Integrating the new technology into the organizations activities has a lot of benefits. First, using internet marketing technology like face book helps the organization increase customers and also retain existing customers. This is because the technology gives the company an opportunity to reach its customers and also new customers through viral marketing .It also helps improve brand awareness in the organization and hence increase sales and productivity.
Most organizations have realized the benefits of internet technology marketing like face book as they have been able to improve the effectiveness of marketing activities in the organization. They have been able to achieve their marketing objectives easily. Implementing the technology will help overcome marketing problems that organizations face when marketing their products and services (Azzam &Alramahi 2010, p2-45). Organizations experience various challenges when marketing their products and services.
For example, they find it hard to reach their customers and other people. They also find it difficulty to market their services and products effectively and promptly. This in turn affects the outcome of the marketing process. Integrating the technology will help eliminate such issues (Ab Hamid 2008,p12).The marketing problems in the organization are being solved by developing good marketing strategies and methods. There are different types of marketing strategies that are used in the organization.
For instance, the organization uses product differentiation strategies and cost leadership strategies. The organization has differentiated its products and services from competitors’ products and services. In addition, the organization uses market segmentation strategies to market its products and services. The organization has targeted a particular marker segment and develops products and services to suit the needs of customers in that market segment. There are other marketing technologies in the organization like twitter and Mobile Phones and M-Commerce.
T5he technologies have been effective, but not as the new technology. The face book technology is being used to improve productivity in the organization by improving the sales. It is also used to improve customer satisfactions and relationship with the organization. The technology can be used to enhance the public image of the organization. The organization is supposed to create profiles that promote good public image among the users and customers (Ab Hamid 2008,p12).
Conclusion
The face book technology is an effective marketing technology or tool. This is because of the benefits linked with the technology. For instance, it provides various tools and applications that organizations can use to improve their brand awareness and increase customers. It also provides mechanism that organizations can use to market their products and services. The use of the technology is associated with increase in sale, customer retention, good public image and high levels of productivity. Thus, the technology should be implemented in the organization.
Reference
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Charlesworth, A.Internet marketing. A practical approach. Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009,page 45
Kotler,P.,&Armstrong,G.Principles of marketing. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008, page 67
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Mayer,R.,Chaffey,D.,Johnston,K.,&Ellis-Chadwick,F.An Introduction to Internet marketing .Strategy, implementation and practice,1999.Retrieved from http://www.marketing-online.co.uk/book/ch01im01.html on 31/3/2011
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Payton, S.Internet Marketing for Entrepreneurs: Using Web 2.0 Strategies for Success. Business Expert Press, 2009, page 12-89
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