Social Media’s Effectiveness as a Marketing Tool

This research paper examines the effectiveness of Social Media as a marketing tool. With the increase popularity and usage of Social Media as forms of recreation by the general population, organizations and firms have recognized the potential and ability to utilize Social Media. Due to the landscape of being user generated and maintained, firms have been using Social Media as a marketing tool. However, the problem and discussion arises because many professionals and Social Media providers highly disagree with this methodology and implementation by firms. Although it is commonly used, it is also a commonly debated topic amongst professionals in the business world. Some believe by utilizing and turning Social Media into a marketing term, Social Media loses its uniqueness and core advantage, which is the element of pure human interactions. By inserting and allowing firms to do marketing within in this unique market would discredit and potentially damage the popularity and demand by users of Social Media. In addition, they believe it is an inefficient tool due to its broadness and inability to be properly tracked. This paper disagrees with the above views and researches the accessibility and abilities of firms to fully manage and efficiently use Social Media as a marketing tool. Through landscape definition and an analysis by utilizing three of the most commonly and efficient marketing models currently used in the marketing world, this research paper illustrates the effectiveness and efficiency of Social Media