STUDENT REPORT SOCIAL MEDIA’S SURGING PRESENCE IN BUSINESS By Luke Maguire, student at West Chester University
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n the 21st century social media has become the number one communication outlet worldwide. Social media’s are online constructs that allow individuals to express themselves and stay updated on current events in real time. Posts on socials consist of a widespread variety of topics, such as photos of family and friends, news articles, lifestyle habits, and my focal area; businesses and advertisements. Businesses have used a plethora of different marketing strategies over the last century. Some of these strategies include television and radio ads, signs and billboards, newspaper and magazine listings, professional endorsements, conventions, emails and phone calls, etc. Although, the newest and perhaps most useful
player in this marketing roulette wheel is social media. Businesses have been able to utilize social media as a marketing tool through accounts, influencers, portals, and advertisements. The question surrounding this new marketing concept is the interworking relationship between the realms of successful business and social media. I have attempted to address this relationship through a variety of research and statistical analysis. The first scope that I explored was the overbearing presence of social media on current society. According to DataReportal, a research and analysis website, there are currently 4.33 billion users on social media. This number accounts for 55% of the entire world’s population. Users also are said to spend around 2.5 hours a day on their socials. In addition to over half of the world being on social media for over two hours a day, it has been discovered that every user has
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bout the author: My name is Luke Maguire, and I am currently a senior at West Chester University majoring in Economics and Finance. I pride myself on diversifying my knowledge and skill sets in numerous different aspects of life. In the future I strive to be able to work for myself, and use different acquired financial skills to sustain my livelihood and well being.
20 OCTOBER 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS
about seven different forms of social media. Some example social media platforms are, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Linkedin, TikTok, and Reddit. With all of these different outlets and users, it is no surprise that businesses are generating success over these platforms. Taking a further look into what these platforms provide, we can find a variety of contributing success measures. One crucial factor of businesses involvement with social media platforms is the fact that it can be entirely free. Unlike purchasing an ad in the weekly paper or paying for a thirty second TV commercial, businesses can access and advertise on social media at no cost. This allows companies to allocate zero resources for marketing and advertising, turning over an immediate 100 percent profit for sales induced by socials. Although it can be free for businesses to operate on social media, they also have the option to pay in order to access more sophisticated accounts and push online ads, chat bots, and web portals. Looking further into the statistical results of social media marketing, I have gathered a few key metrics. According to Single Grain, a digital www.chart-exchange.com
