Marketers' New Tool

Businesses can soar to greater heights if they leverage the immense power of social media.

- Apeksha Hooda & M L Singla

The percentage of internet users in India has dramatically increased over the last five years, especially in 2010. In 2014, 18 percent of Indian population used the internet, which is further expected to rise to 34.8 percent in 2016, almost the double of 2014 users, according to internetlivestats.com. Such a surge in usage of the internet has a drifting impact on Indian economy, leading to a complete change in the way human interaction happens, human activities are performed, business operations are done and wealth is created.

In the current jittery environment, where companies are facing colossal competition, no company would like to ignore such an extolling opportunity to maximise its consumer base. Rather than pestering customers with a spate of advertisements, companies are whizzingly looking for clout to get customers to visit them, and one of such way is presented by the social media.

With the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies, which includes social networking sites and social media, human interaction has totally reformed and the way businesses analyse their market has undergone a 360 o change. Now, rather than going for a field survey to identify user preference, social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, are being used as a pedestal to promptly analyse user preference and taste and what they desire. In addition to this, marketing of products and services has expanded to social media, leading to coining of term social media marketing.

Digital platform