Prompt 1
Social media companies have revolutionized communication, and their increasing popularity presents an ever-growing wealth of data leveraged by businesses for strategic insights and marketing purposes. The platforms collect enormous volumes of customer information, which are subsequently used for such activities as targeted advertising, opinion mining, and customer relations. According to Ram and Liu (2018), these organizations primarily collect data through the platform’s tracking and feedback processes, conducting online surveys, and web-based public relations methods. For instance, Jacobson et al. (2020) contend that social media listening is emerging as a strategic business tool through which enterprises gather and analyze insightful information from mobile and web platforms. The data obtained is then used for designing or altering product specifications, targeting marketing, and customer relations.
As customer data increasingly plays a definitive role in businesses, ethical considerations in its usage and utilization are emerging as major concerns. As companies gather troves of consumer information, such issues as privacy, transparency, ownership, consent, and power of determining how it is used are integral questions. For instance, Facebook and Google collect enormous volumes of personal data without consent, which is then monetized (Esteve, 2017). An organization like Google has been celebrated for using consumer information to develop and enhance the effectiveness of digital health technologies.
Generally, social media organizations do not provide adequate disclosure on the type and scope of data to be collected or how it will be utilized. Similarly, these companies formulate devious policies on such critical areas as data ownership, privacy, consent, and power to use them for commercial purposes (Fuller, 2019). For example, in 2018, investigations revealed that Facebook sold information harvested from millions of users’ accounts to such organizations as Cambridge Analytica, which was eventually used to influence the UK’s Brexit referendum (Fuller, 2019). Moreover, once such information has been collected, the owners lose control of how it is used or applied by the custodians. Facebook and Google’s conduct are among the prominent incidents where social media organizations have behaved unethically.
Prompt 2
Product and service promotion tools are the techniques and methods used by marketers to boost sales. Ranked from the most to the least effective, they include social media marketing, advertising, public relations, direct marketing, and personal selling. The former entails utilizing such interactive communication technologies as computer and mobile phone-based applications and platforms to promote sales. The rationale for ranking social media as the most effective is its ability to combine various crucial marketing components, including data analytics, consumer behavioral dispositions, and artificial intelligence. The data generated from the personal nature of social media facilitates targeted advertising to an individual who is highly expected to execute such preferred action as subscribing to a newsletter (Alyoubi & Alotaibi, 2021). The effectiveness of advertising is premised on its ability to repeatedly target the public with a guaranteed ability to influence the purchasing decision or behaviors of a section of the audience.
The third best marketing tool is public relations, which involves the execution of strategic actions which direct attention to the product. Notably, this tool integrates personal and niche-oriented communication, which are significantly effective in stimulating the desired actions (Naumovska & Blazeska, 2016). The rationale for ranking public relations third is its potential to create an excellent commercial impression which easily influences consumer decisions. The logic for placing direct marketing as the fourth most effective tool is that it relies extensively on the ability of marketers to precisely identify their target customers and the inflexibility of its execution. For instance, the business should have sufficient knowledge about the target consumer’s income range, age, and browsing habits to create effective and personalized messages. Personal selling is the least effective product promotion tool since it is relatively expensive, extremely labor-intensive, and has a limited reach.
References
Al Youbi, K. H., & Alotaibi, F. S. (2021). Evaluating conversion rate from advertising in social media using big data clustering. International Journal of Computer Sciences and Network Security, 21(7), 305−316. Web.
Esteve, A. (2017). The business of personal data: Google, Facebook, and privacy issues in the EU and the USA. International Data Privacy Law, 7(1), 36−47. Web.
Fuller, M. (2019). Big data and the Facebook scandal: Issues and responses. Theology, 122(1), 14−21. Web.
Jacobson, J., Gruzd, A., & Hernandez-Garcia, A. (2020). Social media marketing: Who is watching the watchers? Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, 1−12. Web.
Naumovska, L., & Blazeska, D. (2016). Public relation-based model of integrated marketing communications. UTMS Journal of Economics, 7(2), 175−186. Web.
Ram, J., & Liu, S. (2018). Social media-driven innovations: An exploratory study in China. Journal of Innovation Economics & Management, 27(3), 123−146. Web.