Social Media-Facebook Media Is an Important Tool

Social media-Facebook

Media is an important tool of communication or instrument of passing round significant information. Some examples of media that comes to mind anytime one mentions the word are radio and newspaper, however there are other mediums of communication that pass for media such as the magazines, supplementary, guides, flyers, banners and catalogues among others. Of late there has emerged a rampant use of social media as a tool of communication.

Social media can be viewed as a social or shared instrument which enables communication from one person to another, exchange between individuals or groups and most significantly interactivity between/among the concerned groups or persons (about.com, 2011). Today, we have a good number of people running into millions of them who are registered as members of several social media communities and they rely on them heavily for communication since they have e very well established online social network with which they share information and lots of time just for fun and company.

Technological advancements go in tandem with the evolution of social media, with each passing day bringing it advancement in technology and consequently better and easier ways of interaction via social media. As the web designers get better with the advancing technology, so is the advancement of more user friendly modes of interaction. The social media is not only about the sharing of information but has also utilized the ICT greatly and has a provision for sharing pictures and videos. The ICT has turned virtually anyone with a camera phone into a photo journalist. Events that are captured on phone can easily be circulated all over the world via the social media. It is amazing that in this respect, even the main stream media like CNN, Aljazeera, CBN, BBC and the list is endless with their journalist spread all over the world still have to rely on the social media to get some invaluable videos or photos that could be circulated by the social media.

The most recent versions of social media will not only act as a podium for information collection but also a platform to participate as well as interact with other users on the same website. The advancement is so high that one can participate in web contributions to an issue or topic in real time as a result of latest versions of social media avenues.

There is a variety of ICT companies that deal with the social media in a bid to enable the user of the service to enjoy the comfort of being able to communicate with others. Bearing the interactivity of the recent ICT and the social media, there are various social media that specialize in dealing with Bookmarking which is handled mainly by Simpy, del.icio.us and Blinklist among several other smaller social networks.

When it comes to social news that both gives the user the information needed as well as a chance to comment on the news then it can be found in reddit, dig and properller as the major players in this area of concentration.

Social Networking and connecting people on various ends of the universe is aptly provided by Twitter, Hi5, Neighborhood America, facebook, yahoo messenger and Last.FM.

Due to the increasing need for photo and video sharing, there those websites that are well-known and dedicated to making this possible. Among the well-known ones are Flickr and YouTube, Wikis like wikia and Wikipedia. The above serves to indicate how diverse the social media is and can be. However the categorization is not indelible since most of them will transcend the boundaries more often than not. There are others that are difficult to categorize since they serve more than two or three social media functions at the same time. One good example of the is the Skype service that integrates speaking to each other, with seeing each other and even sending texts to each other. It is therefore worth noting that the categorization is quite superficial and not final and categorical in itself but attempts to bunch the various social media according to what they offer.

There are several other small scale players in the social media sphere some growing fast though not frequently mentioned throughout the world. These include KickApps, Sparta Social Network, Metro Mojo, Small World lab, Select minds, Igloo Software, Community Servers, Ramius, Corespeed, IHype, Phpizabi, Elgg, Boonex, Hivelive, Lithium, Clearspace, Intronetworks, Onesite, Awareness Networks, Mzinga, Blogtronix, Wordframe, Bluepulse, Ideastrom among several others used in the U.S.A. And across the world.

Executive summary

The social media under study here is facebook which has become the most popular social media so far in the history of social media. It is said to have in excess of 800 million fans so far and there is still a wide subscription trend that is experienced and expected to grow over the few coming months (Michael B. Sauter, 2011).

Overview of McDonald's Worldwide

The McDonald's corporation is noted to be the largest fast food otherwise known as quick service restaurant chain. It has branches spread throughout more than 100 countries with an average of 50 million customers on a daily basis across their 30,000 McDonald's restaurants. It traces its history from 1955 in Illinois where the first restaurant was established in Des Plaines with an investment of around $366 on the commencement of the business. This has been highly increased as it now rakes in billions annually in their worldwide sales (McDonald's Singapore, 2008). In 2011 McDonald's made a net profit of $6.91 billion, which was a 16% increase in the profits from the previous year where they made $5.95 billion within that year even with the rise in food price inflation (The BBC, 2011).

The chain dishes out a wide variety of products some of which are burgers, chicken, fish, pork, salads, muffins, various beverages, assorted deserts among others. It is worth noting that all these are repacked with various accompanying complementary so as to cater for the wide customer taste that the chain has.

With such a deep history and a wide variety of foods that it offers to the vast number of customers, the above mentioned number of members in their facebook account is justifiable. On their page, they provide various resources and activities to their fans. One prominent feature is that they provide the members with the information on the quality of the products that they use to make their food.

Investigation and analysis of the McDonald's Facebook

The focus of the paper will be on McDonald's and the way it has used the social media to enhance its businesses across the U.S.A. And promote its brand across the globe. McDonald's is observed to have 18,534,858 members up from 11 million in 2011. With this, it is ranked as the most recognized restaurant in the world. Sauter indicates that the company has widely utilized the popular annual "Monopoly" contest to usher fans to their facebook and their website. This has worked very well since the fan base has been increasing at the rate of 50,000 fans each day which is a big advantage to the company.

On their page they have also assembled the new events or products that may be expected to be rolled out by the company. They have also dedicated space for the members to view the various career vacancies that they may have from time to time.

The page also gives the members a chance to comment on the post that the company puts up in that manner getting the views of the public about their foods and services. The McDonald's has also used their page to advertise the activities that they engage in or have engaged in especially the PR activities and the CSR activities that the company has either participated in or contributed to the success in one way or the other. Apart from the products that they intend to make available to customers in a given area or during a given event, the company has also hugely utilized the facebook page to advertise their range of products that they have on their various chain restaurants.

It is noted that the company sells its products through this social media in that it advertises the products that it has in the numerous restaurants and does not use facebook for socializing alone with customers/members alone.

Consumer trust, market and media fragmentation and connection via the facebook page

Through the comments that the members are allowed to leave on the page, there is gathering of consumer generated content. This is very useful information to the company as it is the easiest way to know the grievances of the customers. It is also a way of knowing the major changes that the consumer would like to see implemented within the company for a better service delivery. This is also another way of addressing the complains that the clients may have since the person responsible for updating the facebook page of the company can promptly reply to some pressing issues that the customers may raise on their page. The consumer generated content is also an easy way of getting ideas for innovations since the content will definitely provide intelligence that if followed through can lead to great innovations.

The customer generated content also enables the company to rate the rate of identification that they have with the general population out there. This way, McDonald's will be able to gauge where their products fail or excel according to the content provided by their facebook members.

The content can also act as a customer service quality survey. This is a cheap way of conducting market research that will help the company know how their employees treat the customers and the levels of satisfaction among their customers hence improving on the weaknesses.

The content generated by the clients can also serve to show the company why the customers may not be buying a given product from them. It is also an easy way of knowing the reactions of the customers to a newly introduced product of the company as many may be in a rush to leave the restaurant once they have bought their food, but once they have eaten the food they will be able to react according to the taste they have experienced via the page of the company on facebook (Rick Suttle, 2012).

There are various reasons therefore for people to want to join a facebook page of a given company. The most outstanding is the aspect of people having the urge to identify with the company and feeling proud to be part of the company even by proxy like through facebook membership where they can only contribute to the ongoing discussions of the company.

The second reason for people joining a company profile on facebook is to express their trust for the company and the services and goods that it delivers. Once one has a good experience with a company like McDonald's, he will trust their food and their services, once the trust comes the person would like to express the trust of the brand to other people so as to lure other people into the group hence they will join facebook or any other social media since it is the easiest way currently to express this trust.

The contemporary consumer is cornered each day by various advertisements on TV channels as well as the magazines, online media and the radio ad well as along the roadside. This then has made many companies to find some more personal ways of advertising that will capture the audience more than the conventional means that the consumers are used to and would do anything to avoid (Kate Hornsby, 2012). The facebook has been one of those channels that companies like McDonald's have chosen to use and connect to their clients through. By one then belonging to a company fan page it is a way of declaring the segment of the market that one belongs to.

The other reason for one to join the McDonald's facebook fan page is the need to have social connections. There are fans of the company that feel that there could be other fans within the same page that they could be sharing some common interest and urge for some common knowledge. There is therefore that urge to join the fan page and have a career network as they socialize as well. The companies have also realized that they get a better social image and better social rating within the community when they have social pages like facebook and help bring together their customers, hence the opening of facebook accounts just like other social media is more of a prerequisite for most companies of late.

It can therefore be said that Facebook page builds and maintains customer relationships. This is an aspect that can be possible only if the company regularly updates the status and gives comments and replies back to members and not just set up a docile page and let is be. The company therefore will strive to ensure it keeps their clients 'talking' to each other in order for their page to be considered as one that build relationship between the clients. The company will strive to bring up new topics that directly concern their operations and even at time those that are not directly connected with their operations but they feel can be of common interest among their customers. Once the update has been posted, the customers will start commenting on the issue at hand and in the process the company will be keeping the customers interacting through making comments as well about the progress of the discussion. The company will also be responsible for the healthy interaction between the customers by monitoring the step-by-step discussion going on and ensuring that there is no use abusive language and if any comes up they are responsible for deleting such inflammatory statements. This monitoring will enable the company not lose the customers on facebook as well as keep the discussion in the intended direction.

The ICT has become a part of all companies that cannot be denied by any company that operates efficiently in the current civilized society. Each company has tried to make adjustments all round in order to be in step with the current technology particularly the ICT sector. The management is fully aware of the social media and the effects it can have on the operations and success of companies, be they negative or positive.

To begin with the positive, it is via the social media like the twitter or facebook that one company can learn what is happening in the surrounding, other competitors and the market in general so as to respond in accordance with the needs and construes of the market. Information leaks out very fast through the social media and knowing the happenings in the market and the prevailing trends is as easy as logging into the company page.

The management can also get viable feedback on their items, goods or the services from client comments that they may post on their interactive web pages. With the information they get from the social media, management can take appropriate actions to correct, emphasize or introduce a concept according to the view expressed by the customers. These interactive media are fast taking over review forms and questionnaires that companies used to rely upon for feedback from their clients.

The social media can also improve the social outlook of companies. The managers, if they keep a keen eye on the social media, can learn the new trends in the target market so that they don't run the risk of being irrelevant in their own field of operation. Without the social media and its power to share, many companies and organizations would lag behind in terms of advertisement, web content, brochure trends and newspaper/magazine articles irrelevance or outdated content.

Communication is one fundamental thing that the social media does with great execution. The social media will enable the management to communicate smoothly and in time to their teams. This can as well be used to share information among the employees themselves about company events in the event of big companies (Helium, 2011).