Week 2 Post 1

     Social media has become an integral part of communicating with businesses because it is instant. Once something has been posted or published, it is available to the public within seconds. This allows communication to be done faster than previous types of communication in the past. Normally, businesses would use email and phone calls as a type of communication/advertising or marketing their business with billboards, magazine ads, newspaper ads, etc. These techniques are still used today and will grab people's attention, but social media spreads the business promotions to a bigger audience. It is also less costly to run a social media page and be able to have that free marketing. Marketing can be extremely expensive for a business, this way of communicating is much more cost efficient. Typically, companies now have hired a specific team to run their social media pages. This career involves reading all comments and feedback and replying in a short amount of time. If there are issues, companies have someone respond to the comment as quickly as possible and ask them to personally reach out via a direct message so they can communicate and solve the issue from there. This is also time efficient for businesses, sometimes a phone call or email complaint can take days to get the issue solved. These new ways of communicating and solving problems through social media makes it much easier on the company as well as the consumer for a positive experience. 

    If I am extremely happy with a purchase I will write positive feedback in order for other consumers to see that this a product worth purchasing. Something that I like about reviewing product especially clothing is when you see other people wearing the product and seeing how it fits. I have not personally done this but I think it is a great way to see it on another body type. With the social media businesses I follow, I always like their photos and will sometimes leave a nice comment expressing what I like about the photo. I do not leave negative comments on a social media page, if I have had a bad experience purchasing something I do not feel that is going to solve the issue for me personally. I prefer to email or speak to someone or go into that specific store to deal with the problem.

    If I were to have my own social media page for a business I would try and respond to as many comments as possible. I think it is really important to engage with your customers regardless if it is positive or negative. I have worked in customer service/hospitality for over ten years so I would do my best to recover the situation. I would apologize for the bad experience, I would reach out to them personally rather than have a conversation in the comment section. I would respond with gratitude to those who were happy with their purchases, and thank them for their support. I think consumers appreciate when they are acknowledged, it makes them feel good that a company had the time to respond to them personally.