Has Social Media Marketing Helped Multinational Companies or Not

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Uses of social media by consumers for grievances

Most of the consumers these days now use social media for complaints and mistakes about their products and services and how to use them effectively and efficiently. Multinational companies see whether their products or services have some problems or working correctly. If there are problems then companies respond most of the time to consumer complaints and mistakes by giving a refund to their customers, replacing the product or fixing the product.

If a multinational company’s customer services across social media platforms are effective and efficient then a multinational company’s goodwill might increase in the near future.

Reflecting on comments made by consumers to a multinational company

Multinational companies want to keep on improving their products or make new products and satisfy consumers. For this, a multinational company needs information on consumers’ personal choices and preferences. And depending on the data collected by surveys or other activities through social media, a multinational company will include consumers’ comments while making strategies and budget. A company might also use the data collected to make a new or innovative product, enter a new product line and/or deliver better services.

Brand management using social media marketing platforms

A multinational company needs to keep on maintaining and managing a brand. And what better way to do that than using social media marketing. A multinational company cannot just rely on traditional marketing like promotions or discounts to maintain a brand. A multinational company must think beyond that. Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to build and maintain a brand (Kornberger, 2011).

Gurus about social media marketing

Many social media marketing gurus believe that when a multinational company uses social media to market their products and services to a great extent, a company’s brand loyalty, profitability and market share will increase significantly (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).

A multinational company’s perspective

Many multinational corporations are looking for other marketing platforms and not the traditional advertising which includes TV advertisements and billboard advertisements for marketing their products and services very creatively. As social media marketing platforms can be used very creatively to attract consumers and help them to compare their products and services to other competitors’ products and services so that a consumer will be satisfied and not confused and might recommend a company’s product or services to others who may not know about it. Thus, a multinational company increases its number of customers and expand their market share by using social media marketing platforms.

Social media marketing’s use for attracting all groups in a population

A multinational company always wants to attract every group and segment in a population for their long run effective and efficient performance. A multinational company cannot make different marketing strategies for different types of people as it will be very expensive and time consuming. Social media marketing can be used to reach all groups in a population of different countries. Differences can be due to gender, age, religion, caste, race, ethnicity, etc. Television adverts cannot attract everyone even if consumers see it. Sometimes it may hurt their sentiments because of their religion, colour and other whatsoever reasons.

Social media marketing’s Return on investment (ROI)

It is very difficult for a multinational company to measure returns on investment on investing in marketing through social media. But when measured, it will give a result on how much social media marketing should be used next time and how much not to use it. Different companies use different ways to measure the returns on investments by investing in social media marketing. Some companies use social media websites like Facebook and Twitter and others might use Google Analytics and so on for promoting their products or services (Fisher, 2009).

Social media marketing use in corporate social responsibility

A multinational company must not only aim for profit maximization but should also do something well for the society like giving charity to the needy, giving employment opportunities to the disabled people. Performing corporate social responsibility is very expensive and that is why to reduce costs a multinational company must use social media marketing platforms. When a multinational company gives back something in return to the public, the public will assume that the company has good intentions and is doing well for the society. A company which does not perform corporate social responsibility will have a bad image among the public and may not survive in the near future. If a multinational company exploits resources or uses child labour then consumers might boycott the goods sold by the company. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to do some corporate social responsibility through social media and through other ways.

Criticisms towards social media marketing

Critics have argued that social media marketing should not be used by multinational companies because it needs commitment of resources to manage a company's social media presence, responding to feedbacks and producing new content and it can be difficult to quantify the return of investment (ROI) and the value of one channel over another. It is difficult and time consuming to create social media content on most of the social media marketing platforms. And companies must use most of the social media marketing platforms to reach a wider audience. A multinational company must hire a really good social media marketing expert which might cost the company more than it can benefit. Good social media marketing experts who are effective and efficient are really hard to find. Sometimes a multinational company can go so far in social media marketing that it might hurt some sentiments towards a particular group. (Fox and Kotler, 1980)

Conclusion

In this paper arguments have been critically examined from both sides. A considerable amount of research activities have documented that the uses of social media marketing platforms by multinational companies have helped in both the short run and the long run. Social media marketing