Original Research Article http://doi.org/10.18231/j.jmra.2019.

038

The social media – A powerful tool for advertisement and branding

Dr. Pratima Suryawanshi

Assistant General Manager, Dept. of HR and Administration, Kay Bee Exports, India

*Corresponding Author: Pratima Suryawanshi

Email: [email protected]

Abstract
Today it is said that world has become a small village because through the use social media as we can connect with each other within no time
irrespective of distance barrier. This is been possible due to the use of social media. During early 1990’s we were aware of only television,
radio and newspapers as a media for communication due to its high accessibility to reach out masses but then the revolution in the field of
information technology has changed the scenario. The high speed internet with broadband connectivity has helped many of us to bridge the
gap between a common man and constantly changing market place. Social media has a huge impact on consumer mindset as it creates an
image of a company, product and services. Also, a company gets profit from the use of social media because of power to reach masses within
less time so that they can serve their customers in a better way. With these changing dimensions throughout the world, India is also trying to
make use of social media. Hence in this paper we are going to study what is social media? What are different forms of it? How it can be
efficiently utilised for advertisement and branding and its impact on consumers.

Keywords: Social media, Advertisement, Branding, Social media marketing.

Introduction logo. All of these elements work together to create one unique
There may be different marketing strategies, only one can and (hopefully) attention-grabbing professional profile.
bring in consistent sales from day one: social media
advertising. These are advertisements served to users on Literature Review
social media platforms and ultimately leads in creation of As rightly said by Shri. Anumeha Chaturvedi, Editor
brand name in the market by targeting the very mindset of Economic Times in his latest article on social media dated
consumer. Social networks make use of information to serve 28th May, 2019, advertising spending and creating brands
highly relevant advertisements based on interactions within a through social media is rising in India which is driven by
specific platform. In many instances, when target market content creator and proliferation of new platforms like
aligns with the user demographics of a social platform, social TikTok and ShareChat. It is also noted that TikTok may
advertising can provide huge increases in conversions and overtake Facebook owned Instagram.
sales with lower cost of acquisition and growth within less Also as stated by Shri. Rakesh Yadav, Economic
time span. contributor in his article published on 5th Oct, 2018 reveals
Advertising is a form of marketing communication that that social media marketing has become a need for every
employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to small business. The beauty lies in how social media allows
promote or sell a product, service or idea to the customers. personal broadcast messages which can be updated swiftly to
Sponsors of advertising are typically businesses wishing to keep target audience acquainted with the rapidly changing
promote their products or services. Advertising is business dynamics of the company. Recent research says that
differentiated from public relations in that an advertiser pays consumers today are spending their majority time on social
for and has control over the message. It differs from personal media alone.
selling in that the message is non-personal, i.e., not directed According to Assocharm and the report dated 24th July,
to one individual as such. Advertising is communicated 2017, a survey of 235 families was conducted and it is been
through various mass media such as newspapers, magazines, observed and analysed that Indians are spending less than half
television, radio or through direct mail; and new form of hour in reading newspaper and televisions as compared to 3
media such as search results, blogs, social media, websites or to 4 years ago. Study also reveals that the use of social media
text messages. The actual presentation of the message in a like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc as changed reading
medium broadcasted for delivering certain information to and viewing habits mostly of youngsters.
customers is referred to as an advertisement. Shuchi Bansal of Mint Media in her article dated 6th Dec,
Branding is to create name, logo, design, symbol etc by 2018 says that efficiency, targeting and measurability is
the company for their product and services in order to keep driving digital media over a print media. Amardeep Singh,
their presence alive in customers’ mind forever. This helps CEO of the IPG Media brands digital media agency,
them to distinguish them from competitors. Branding creates Interactive Avenues, is flooded with queries from his clients
a sense of responsibility and accountability to serve better to on digital media possibilities for brand promotions. “Every
their customers. It certainly shows company’s perception, advertiser today has a focus on digital media," he says, adding
goodwill and market presence for long time. There are many that typically organisations have a digital marketing manager
areas that are used to develop a brand including advertising, looking specifically at digital media. “Firms with a huge
customer service, promotional merchandise, reputation and focus on digital, now have a chief digital officer. Advertisers

Journal of Management Research and Analysis, October-December, 2019;6(4):185-190 185

Pratima Suryawanshi The social media – A powerful tool for advertisement and branding

are spending upwards of 15% of their total media budgets on Research Methodology
digital." Three years ago, the fast-moving consumer goods An exhaustive secondary study has been done to understand
category had a negligible presence on digital. Today, they are Social media and its importance. This study also takes place
big, adds Singh. So, is there a big shift in advertising from to understand the how Social media can be an essential factor
print to digital? Rajiv Dingra, CEO, WATConsult, a digital for reaching out to consumers and determine the impact it has
and social marketing agency, responds with a resounding yes. on consumers’ and company’s performance, growth rate and
“The shift of monies from English print to digital is return on investment.
happening across clients and not just in FMCG. Firms such
as Unilever, ITC Ltd and Godrej group are increasing their Major Social Media Tools
digital spends year-on-year. Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Following are the foremost tools of social media which are
Media, India and South-East Asia, elaborates on the logic used to deliver information in the form of advertisement and
behind the shift. There is a dramatic change in consumers’ create brand image for the product and the company itself in
media consumption habits, thanks to growing use of mobile the consumers’ mind.
phones, especially smartphones, and the internet. “1,300 PB 1. Facebook.
(Petabyte) worth of internet data is being consumed monthly 2. Twitter
in India, witnessing nine times growth from 2016." India 3. Instagram
stands second in the global mobile traffic share. The impact 4. Blogs
of Jio saw 48% drop in data prices, leading to rise in 5. Snapchat
streaming services. “We live in a world of content overload 6. Pinterest
and consumers are consuming content on varied platforms 7. LinkedIn
and on various devices," adds Nayyar. 8. YouTube

Insignificance and Scope Facebook

In India no much study has been conducted on use of social One of the most currently relevant and widespread platforms
media and its impact on consumers and overall business for social networking is Facebook. Although trends come and
performance of the company. Therefore, this study shall try go, Facebook should be the second social media device used
to analyse and understand use of social media and its after blogging for the very reason that it takes brand
relevance in connecting business with the common man awareness to the next level by making your company logo
throughout the world and business growth rate. It will also very visible and allowing people to easily share news about
help us to know how strongly an influence of modern your business to all their “friends”. People who become your
technology with the use of internet through the mode of social fans are frequently reminded of your presence by status
media drives us crazy through advertisement and branding of updates, news, and other interactions. Additionally,
products and services. Facebook provides an analytics tool whereby companies can
view weekly reports detailing new fans, numbers of
Objectives interactions, and types of actions taken on their pages.
Following are the objectives of study: Furthermore, Facebook allows for the creation of customized
1. To determine use of social media in advertisement and tabs on which to link other platforms, such as Twitter or a
branding. blog, to a Facebook profile. Facebook ads are specially
2. To know the impact of social media on consumers’ designed to help you achieve one of three broad types of
mindset. campaign objectives i.e. awareness of the products or
3. To study the paradigm, change in the level of services, building brand name and to increase the reach out.
performance and growth of business of a company. Facebook is more popular amongst the young generation
hence now a day’s companies make use of this platform to
reach their wider customer base throughout the world.

Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising/ as on 29th August, 2019.

Journal of Management Research and Analysis, October-December, 2019;6(4):185-190 186
Pratima Suryawanshi The social media – A powerful tool for advertisement and branding

Twitter good strategy in place in order to be successful. Twitter ads

Twitter is another form of social media which has 27.3 work towards five different business objectives:
million tweets per day, keeping track of who is talking about
your company, your product, or who might need to know Website clicks: Promote Tweets with Website Cards to
about you can be overwhelming, to say the least. encourage people to visit and take action on your website.
Additionally, one must keep in mind various factors such as You’re charged per click.
the need to “retweet” or reply quickly, maintain an Tweet engagements: Promote Tweets with the goal of
appropriate “follower to following” ratio to ensure better starting conversations about your brand. You pay for the
optimization and a host of other variables. On the upside, initial engagement.
Twitter allows users to use programs such as Tweet Deck to Followers: Promote your Twitter account and pay per
monitor tweets or schedule tweets for distribution. Twitter follower gained.
can be an extremely innovative and relevant way to reach Awareness: Promote your Tweets to a broad audience and
customers, but this tool will only work for certain industries, pay for impressions (CPM).
in certain instances, and must be maintained regularly with a App installs: Promote your Tweets with App Cards and pay
per click to open or install your app.

Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising/ as on 29th August, 2019.

Instagram
Facebook owns Instagram. So, it’s not surprising that Instagram ads support the same three broad categories of campaign
objectives as Facebook ads:
1. Awareness
2. Consideration
3. Conversion
The specific Instagram ad types also mirror four of the Facebook ads types:
1. Photo
2. Video
3. Carousel
4. Collection
You can create each type of ad for either the main Instagram feed, or for Instagram Stories. Your Instagram photo or video will
look like a regular Instagram post—except that it will say Sponsored in the top right. Depending on your campaign objective,
you may also be able to add a call-to-action button.

Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising/ as on 29th August, 2019.

Journal of Management Research and Analysis, October-December, 2019;6(4):185-190 187
Pratima Suryawanshi The social media – A powerful tool for advertisement and branding

Blogs
Blogs are widely considered the “base” of any social media campaign. Blogs can add personality to your website and boost
industry perception, educate others through the demonstration of your knowledge of the market, create an emotional investment
in your company, build brand awareness, and more. Additionally, blogs can be integrated with other types of social media
platforms, and can even have your Facebook posts or Twitter streams live on the blog itself. Blog is considered to be very
powerful social media due to very thought of writing whatever is real and factual. One of the downsides to blogs is that they
need to be as real to their readers as you should be to your customers. Readers will know if you are faking your industry
knowledge if you have too much emphasis on yourself and not on them, and also whether or not you are involved with the blog
regularly. Along those lines, blogs should be updated frequently, which can be difficult from a time perspective. This factor
must be taken into consideration before deciding to create a company blog.

Snapchat
Snapchat (also known as SC or Snap) is a multimedia messaging app used globally. One of the principal features of Snapchat
is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The
app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours
of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. Snapchat has become
notable for representing a new, mobile-first direction for social media, and places significant emphasis on users interacting
with virtual stickers and augmented reality objects. As of February 2018, Snapchat has 187 million daily active users.

Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising/ as on 29th August, 2019.

Pinterest LinkedIn
Pinterest is a social media web mobile application company. LinkedIn is a social network with nearly 240 million users.
It operates a software system designed to enable saving and The social media network enables its members to network
discovery of information on the World Wide Web using professionally, post and find jobs, ask and answer questions,
images and, on a smaller scale, GIFs and videos. Pinterest has and build thought leadership. LinkedIn is an American
reached 300 million monthly active users as of August 2019. business and employment-oriented service that operates via
Pinterest chief executive officer Ben Silbermann summarized websites and mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002,
the company as a "catalogue of ideas" that inspires users to and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for
"go out and do that thing", rather than as an image-based. professional networking, including employers posting jobs
Pinterest is a free website that requires registration to and job seekers posting their CVs. As a marketer, LinkedIn
use. Users can upload, save, sort, and manage images— is one of the most effective places online to engage with
known as pins—and other media content (e.g., videos) decision makers within your target market who may be in
through collections known as pinboards. Content can also be need of your products or services. The goal is to be
found outside Pinterest and similarly uploaded to a board via consistently visible and valuable. It’s not about selling. You
the "Pin It" button, which can be downloaded to need to educate and provide useful information. LinkedIn as
the bookmark bar on a web browser, or be implemented by a a Marketing Tool is one of the best to use. It is targeted
webmaster directly on the website. Some websites include towards business to business relationships and focus on hard
red and white "pin it" buttons on items, which allow Pinterest working professionals. LinkedIn is also a great place to
users to pin them directly. In 2015, Pinterest implemented a expand your business network and to recruit new employees.
feature that allows users to search with images instead of The features and functions of this social channel are
words. invaluable. In addition, LinkedIn is a network of well-

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Pratima Suryawanshi The social media – A powerful tool for advertisement and branding

established business professionals from across the world and market and promote the business. Some platforms like
is brilliant for gaining new business contacts. From powerful Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc, allow any business to
influencers to your average joe, this channel allows you to share their content for no cost at all. Hence Social media
create a connection with those you would not expect to bump is considered to be the most affordable advertising way.
into in real-life. 4. Connectivity: With the use of social media companies
will always be able to connect with their customers in
YouTube terms of changing preferences, lifestyles and resources
YouTube is considered as another very influential social and adapt to the changing interest with time flow.
media platform. What’s more, it is also the 2nd most-used Companies also have an opportunity to cater to the
search engine following Google. For the record, YouTube is dynamic interests, need, want and desires of their
used in this fashion primarily by the younger generation, and customers and innovate on their marketing strategies in
not as frequently as those who might actually have the order to serve much better.
resources to become a customer. However, with a trend, this 5. Brand Awareness: Social media has such an impact on
large, companies should not be quick to overlook a branding customers’ mind that it helps companies to create
and informational tool such as YouTube, especially demand, image, goodwill and loyalty for their products
considering the average time on site is 23 minutes. The and services offered. This will surely help in gaining
benefits of maintaining a YouTube presence include a popularity amongst the customers and create strong
potentially huge audience for companies on a tight budget, image of the company.
and the ability to “tag” keywords to videos so that you will 6. Sales: Constant presence of company through social
have a good chance of being seen when your terms are media try to hit customers mind thus helping in lead
searched. Of course, as with the other platforms we have generation. This in turn converts the potential customers
discussed, various factors play a role here, but if your to actual customers. Finally results into increased sales
company has already produced video creative to be used on volume.
your website or blog, it is easy to create a YouTube Channel
and cast a much wider net, especially considering YouTube’s Importance of Social Media
time constraints are also much lighter on company resources Social Media is source of marketing communication which is
than with the other types of social media platforms. most powerful and the best way to increase the conversion of
According to Amanda Finch, VP Operations, Titan, as with lead into sales. If you use social media platforms such as
all social media platforms, what is hot today might not be in (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc) you can strive the
the future. Companies need to be able to accurately determine business in the right direction and to the right target
what to allocate their time and resources in to increase brand customers. Now a days, Social Media is part and parcel of
awareness and maintain a positive reputation on- and offline. everyone’s life and in India itself 50 to 70 percent people are
This conservative and well-thought-out approach will help using social media platforms to engage with the friends and
prepare these companies for the next phase of social media, family. Social media has its own benefits which may
or whatever type of media becomes the “next big thing”. influence us in following manner-Firstly, in every social
Search engine marketing companies and their clients must platform if you are having a certain number of followers, you
consider these factors when making decisions about how and can become influencer and earn money from each brand to
when to further marketing efforts. promote them. Secondly, it is very important now a days to
be in competition. Every brand using social media tools like
Benefits of Social Media YouTube, Facebook, twitter, and many more for getting edge
1. Enhanced customer acumens: Through the use of social in the market. Thirdly, it become earning source to people,
media the business gets a better understanding of their but they have to invest their time in You Tube and affiliate
customers’ views and perception about products and marketing to understand the whole concept. Finally, Social
services, they can always share their insights as Media becomes humongous and still growing very rapidly in
customers are always aware that the company is across the world. Following are the advantage of social
accessible. Social media allows customers to share their media,
valuable suggestions and opinions as well. 1. It empowered the sales team to achieve the target and
2. Improved customer service: Through Social media promote the business
customers can directly share grievances, questions and 2. It has a power to make or break the business.
concerns almost instantaneously with the company. And 3. Social media is the best source to connect with the
also expect that company must resolve their issues as audience emotions.
early as possible. According to the study conducted by 4. It has potential to make your business visible globally.
Forbes, 71% of consumers who receive a quick response 5. Apparently, 75 percent of the users across the world
on social media say they are more likely to recommend using social media, so imagine the power of social media
that brand to other people and also be loyal to the brand. to reach wider audience within just few seconds.
3. Cost effectiveness: There is always a certain amount of
budget allocated for marketing, in such a case social
media plays a vital role being most cost-efficient way to
Journal of Management Research and Analysis, October-December, 2019;6(4):185-190 189
Pratima Suryawanshi The social media – A powerful tool for advertisement and branding

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