Essay 'Social media as an improvement in business marketing'Robin de Veer / 2535783 / IMM / 23 May 2014Nowadays more and more companies are active on the social web. This new step in marketing cannot be ignored and brings with it new opportunities. Dong-Hun (2010) states that social media is “an open medium for interactive communication led by ordinary people”. The success is that anyone is able to produce content and share it on social networks. Web 2.0 is generated and controlled by its users and is based on openness, sharing and participation (Dong-Hun, 2010). “Digital word of mouth” conversations are attractive for business purposes especially due to its enormous reachability and as a cost-effective promotion tool. Both small businesses and large enterprises benefit from these advantages and therefore rely heavily on social media when it comes to marketing. But why is social media so attractive as a means of marketing communications in the business sector? This essay discusses three areas where social media can be an improvement to the business environment. First of all, using social media offers companies the opportunity to better reach their consumers, but conversely consumers also reach companies better. The type of marketing used by companies is called “viral marketing” (Miller and Lammas, 2010). Viral marketing is a marketing approach that seeks to promote a product or brand through existing social networks in a way that can be compared to a viral epidemic. This epidemic can spread very quickly and reach a more diverse range of people. Target groups such as teenagers, for example, can be reached more easily through viral marketing than through traditional media. Social media has provided consumers... with a means of paper......to have a better view of their company. To conclude, social media really represents an improvement in the business environment, because both communication between buyer and seller and between consumers can be intensified and executed more effectively, and because social media analytics is a useful tool to continuously improve the company in different fields. Both small and large businesses profit from social media, because they can easily reach a huge amount of people (almost) at no cost. Social media is no longer seen as an alternative or simple marketing channel, but now belongs to the mass media. Beyond that, it is “the way” to benefit from building relationships with consumers. With social media as a new and successful tool in the business environment, we are moving from local word of mouth to a new era of global World of Mouth (Dong-Hun, 2010).