The Growth in Social Media Usage
"The use of social media has grown exponentially to the extent of engaging close to one third of the world’s population as of January 2016" (WeAreSocial, 2016., Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. 2017) and this is constantly increasing. "As of March 2016, and on average, Facebook had more than 1.09 billion daily active users (Facebook, 2016); Instagram had more than 400 million monthly active users and 80 million daily shared photos with 3.5 billion likes daily (Instagram, 2016); Twitter had 310 million monthly active users (Twitter, 2016); and LinkedIn had more than 433 million active users (Linke- dIn, 2016)." (Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. 2017). There is a common view that the younger generations make up these numbers however; "the social media are no longer the domain of Generation Y; older generations are heavy social networkers with Facebook’s largest demographic now women aged 55 and older" (Angel & Sexsmith 2009, p.2).
Social media & Marketing
Social media, unlike face to face interactions, has a global audience with quick response times (Power, A. 2014), this makes it a really effective method of marketing. One social media post can reach so many more people than forms of printed advertising and is quicker and cheaper to do.
‘New web technologies have made it easy for anyone to create- and, most importantly - distribute their own content. A blog post, tweet, or youtube video can be produced and viewed by millions virtually for free’ D. Zarrella, The Social Media Marketing Book
Small businesses are massively benefiting from social media marketing. "These sites are providing a platform for the companies to reach people faster, build relationships, and connect with potential customers." (Taneja, S. & Toombs, L. 2014,). Supporting this statement, in my informal interview with Jess Southall, Owner of Beautythings Ltd, an online retail website, I asked how the growth of social media in regards to marketing has affected her sales. Her answer was that "as social media grows, my website grows. I started Beautythings in 2011, working alone alongside a full time job and packing 1 to 2 orders a week. As the business grew, I hired my first employee to help me take my website to social media and since then our website has blossomed into a huge success for me. I now dedicate all my time into Beautythings... we use online resources to identify where the majority of our sales come from and we have found that in the past year social media alongside the emails we send out have bought in the highest amounts of new customers." (Jess Southall, Beautythings, 2019)
Social Media Uses in relevance to the Skincare Industry
- Advertising
- Celebrity Endorsement
-Ability to follow social media trends & keep in with trends.
References
Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. (2017). The Relations Among Social Media Addiction, Self-Esteem, and Life Satisfaction in University Students. Social Science Computer Review, 35(5), 576–586. retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439316660340
WeAreSocial . (2016). Social media use: January 2016. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/digital-in-2016/31-wearesocialsg_31JAN2016_SOCIAL_MEDIA_USE
Power, A. 2014, "What is social media?", British Journal of Midwifery, vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 896-897.
Taneja, S. & Toombs, L. 2014, "Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, Viability, and Sustainability The Impact of Social Media on Small Business Marketing", Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, vol. 18, no. 1.
Jess Southall, Beautythings Ltd Owner, Interview, 2019
D. Zarrella,The Social Media Marketing Book, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1524839908325335
Bibliography
Ofcom, Feb 2019, Children and parents: media use and attitudes report 2018, retrieved from https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/media-literacy-research/childrens/children-and-parents-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2018
Gholston, K., Kuofie, M. & Hakim, A.C. 2016, "Social Media for Marketing by Small Businesses", Journal of Marketing and Management, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 24.
