The Great Shift: A brief account of how social media changed the marketing game forever

Social media, the online space where content is shared worldwide, nowadays everybody’s on it, and accessing it is as simple as pulling out a smartphone. For humanity, social media changed everything; for business, it changed how we market.

Social media streamlined the dialogue between producer and consumer, made it intelligible; feedback is instantaneous, responses likewise; never before has this level of intimacy been possible, and, with better relationships, business flourishes. Consumer engagement with brands is linked to higher brand equity (the stand-out-from-the-competition factor a brand has), while brand engagement with consumers is linked to a better attitude towards the brand*. The consequences are practical as well since both brand equity and brand attitude are linked to purchasing intention*.

With social media, businesses can also direct their brand more accurately towards their target demographic. They can achieve this by aligning their values with those of their audience, thereby increasing their audience’s identification with them**. When consumers identify with a brand they are more likely to feel committed towards it and spread positive word of mouth**.

The power of social media is also accentuated by its scope, which is virtually limitless given how engrained social media is in our society and how accessible it makes everyone. Most of the world’s population is on social media: 53% out of a population of 8.3 billion***. Besides being present everywhere, it also takes an important role. To say that humanity depends on social media for communication is an understatement, and it goes beyond that: we depend on it to shop, to keep up with the news, to find jobs, and much, much more.

All of this potential and power is relatively easy to unlock given how inexpensive digital marketing is compared to the traditional school. We’ve seen this first hand, after the global recession, firm after firm turned to social media as a means of saving money on advertising ****. Between the savings and social media’s other advantages, the firms found that the shift into digital marketing too good to ever go back, which is why most never did.

With less capital investment and a wider, stronger network, social media changed the game for business. Long gone are the days in which publicity was locked behind expensive billboards. In the age of information, everything is fair game, and everyone is in on the fun.

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Sources

*Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands.

**Tuškej, U., Golob, U., & Podnar, K. (2013). The role of consumer–brand identification in building brand relationships.

***Kemp, S. (2021, January 27). 15.5 Users Join Social Every Second (and Other Key Stats to Know).

****Kirtiş, A. K., & Karahan, F. (2011). To be or not to be in social media arena as the most cost-efficient marketing strategy after the global recession.