¶ … Social Media Can be Used to Support Ecommerce
In basic terms, ecommerce has largely got to do with the utilization of the internet in the buying and selling of goods and services. It is important to note from the onset that recent advances in online payment mechanisms have made it easier for people to shop and conduct business online. Today businesses are continuously exploring how various online communication platforms including but not limited to Twitter and Facebook could be used to support ecommerce.
To begin with, business entities can make use of social media to further enhance their customer base. For instance, by setting up or creating an online presence, a business effectively exposes itself to the global audience it could not have ordinarily had access to via traditional advertising (Wollan, Smith, and Zhou, 2010). Such a move could impact positively on the bottom-line of a business entity.
Next, it is also important to note that thanks to social media, business entities can easily target specific demographics in the marketplace (Wollan, Smith, and Zhou, 2010). Facebook is one of the social media platforms businesses could use for this endeavor. For instance, in this particular case, a business that sells hunting gear could easily select that criterion when placing advertisements of Facebook. It is those who have an interest in hunting that get to see the advertisement once it is successfully placed.
Social media also makes it possible for businesses to not only enhance customer experience but also address subsequent concerns that may arise in the course of doing business. According to Kroenke (2013), "product users are amazingly willing to help each other solve problems" (p.266). Through discussions in social platforms like Facebook, businesses could see the satisfaction levels of their customers rise.
References
Kroenke, D.M. (2013). Using MIS (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Wollan, R., Smith, N. & Zhou, C. (2010). The Social Media Management Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Get Social Media Working in Your Business. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
