The social media – A powerful tool for advertisement and branding

Today it is said that world has become a small village because through the use social media as we can connect with each other within no time irrespective of distance barrier. This is been possible due to the use of social media. During early 1990’s we were aware of only television, radio and newspapers as a media for communication due to its high accessibility to reach out masses but then the revolution in the field of information technology has changed the scenario. The high speed internet with broadband connectivity has helped many of us to bridge the gap between a common man and constantly changing market place. Social media has a huge impact on consumer mindset as it creates an image of a company, product and services. Also, a company gets profit from the use of social media because of power to reach masses within less time so that they can serve their customers in a better way. With these changing dimensions throughout the world, India is also trying to make use of social media. Hence in this paper we are going to study what is social media? What are different forms of it? How it can be efficiently utilised for advertisement and branding and its impact on consumers.


Introduction
There may be different marketing strategies, only one can bring in consistent sales from day one: social media advertising. These are advertisements served to users on social media platforms and ultimately leads in creation of brand name in the market by targeting the very mindset of consumer. Social networks make use of information to serve highly relevant advertisements based on interactions within a specific platform. In many instances, when target market aligns with the user demographics of a social platform, social advertising can provide huge increases in conversions and sales with lower cost of acquisition and growth within less time span.
Advertising is a form of marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea to the customers. Sponsors of advertising are typically businesses wishing to promote their products or services. Advertising is differentiated from public relations in that an advertiser pays for and has control over the message. It differs from personal selling in that the message is non-personal, i.e., not directed to one individual as such. Advertising is communicated through various mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio or through direct mail; and new form of media such as search results, blogs, social media, websites or text messages. The actual presentation of the message in a medium broadcasted for delivering certain information to customers is referred to as an advertisement.
Branding is to create name, logo, design, symbol etc by the company for their product and services in order to keep their presence alive in customers' mind forever. This helps them to distinguish them from competitors. Branding creates a sense of responsibility and accountability to serve better to their customers. It certainly shows company's perception, goodwill and market presence for long time. There are many areas that are used to develop a brand including advertising, customer service, promotional merchandise, reputation and logo. All of these elements work together to create one unique and (hopefully) attention-grabbing professional profile.

Literature Review
As rightly said by Shri. Anumeha Chaturvedi, Editor Economic Times in his latest article on social media dated 28 th May, 2019, advertising spending and creating brands through social media is rising in India which is driven by content creator and proliferation of new platforms like TikTok and ShareChat. It is also noted that TikTok may overtake Facebook owned Instagram.
Also as stated by Shri. Rakesh Yadav, Economic contributor in his article published on 5 th Oct, 2018 reveals that social media marketing has become a need for every small business. The beauty lies in how social media allows personal broadcast messages which can be updated swiftly to keep target audience acquainted with the rapidly changing business dynamics of the company. Recent research says that consumers today are spending their majority time on social media alone.
According to Assocharm and the report dated 24 th July, 2017, a survey of 235 families was conducted and it is been observed and analysed that Indians are spending less than half hour in reading newspaper and televisions as compared to 3 to 4 years ago. Study also reveals that the use of social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc as changed reading and viewing habits mostly of youngsters.
Shuchi Bansal of Mint Media in her article dated 6 th Dec, 2018 says that efficiency, targeting and measurability is driving digital media over a print media. Amardeep Singh, CEO of the IPG Media brands digital media agency, Interactive Avenues, is flooded with queries from his clients on digital media possibilities for brand promotions. "Every advertiser today has a focus on digital media," he says, adding that typically organisations have a digital marketing manager looking specifically at digital media. "Firms with a huge focus on digital, now have a chief digital officer. Advertisers are spending upwards of 15% of their total media budgets on digital." Three years ago, the fast-moving consumer goods category had a negligible presence on digital. Today, they are big, adds Singh. So, is there a big shift in advertising from print to digital? Rajiv Dingra, CEO, WATConsult, a digital and social marketing agency, responds with a resounding yes. "The shift of monies from English print to digital is happening across clients and not just in FMCG. Firms such as Unilever, ITC Ltd and Godrej group are increasing their digital spends year-on-year. Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media, India and South-East Asia, elaborates on the logic behind the shift. There is a dramatic change in consumers' media consumption habits, thanks to growing use of mobile phones, especially smartphones, and the internet. "1,300 PB (Petabyte) worth of internet data is being consumed monthly in India, witnessing nine times growth from 2016." India stands second in the global mobile traffic share. The impact of Jio saw 48% drop in data prices, leading to rise in streaming services. "We live in a world of content overload and consumers are consuming content on varied platforms and on various devices," adds Nayyar.

Insignificance and Scope
In India no much study has been conducted on use of social media and its impact on consumers and overall business performance of the company. Therefore, this study shall try to analyse and understand use of social media and its relevance in connecting business with the common man throughout the world and business growth rate. It will also help us to know how strongly an influence of modern technology with the use of internet through the mode of social media drives us crazy through advertisement and branding of products and services.

Objectives
Following are the objectives of study: 1. To determine use of social media in advertisement and branding. 2. To know the impact of social media on consumers' mindset. 3. To study the paradigm, change in the level of performance and growth of business of a company.

Research Methodology
An exhaustive secondary study has been done to understand Social media and its importance. This study also takes place to understand the how Social media can be an essential factor for reaching out to consumers and determine the impact it has on consumers' and company's performance, growth rate and return on investment.

Major Social Media Tools
Following are the foremost tools of social media which are used to deliver information in the form of advertisement and create brand image for the product and the company itself in the consumers' mind.

Facebook
One of the most currently relevant and widespread platforms for social networking is Facebook. Although trends come and go, Facebook should be the second social media device used after blogging for the very reason that it takes brand awareness to the next level by making your company logo very visible and allowing people to easily share news about your business to all their "friends". People who become your fans are frequently reminded of your presence by status updates, news, and other interactions. Additionally, Facebook provides an analytics tool whereby companies can view weekly reports detailing new fans, numbers of interactions, and types of actions taken on their pages. Furthermore, Facebook allows for the creation of customized tabs on which to link other platforms, such as Twitter or a blog, to a Facebook profile. Facebook ads are specially designed to help you achieve one of three broad types of campaign objectives i.e. awareness of the products or services, building brand name and to increase the reach out. Facebook is more popular amongst the young generation hence now a day's companies make use of this platform to reach their wider customer base throughout the world.

Twitter
Twitter is another form of social media which has 27.3 million tweets per day, keeping track of who is talking about your company, your product, or who might need to know about you can be overwhelming, to say the least. Additionally, one must keep in mind various factors such as the need to "retweet" or reply quickly, maintain an appropriate "follower to following" ratio to ensure better optimization and a host of other variables. On the upside, Twitter allows users to use programs such as Tweet Deck to monitor tweets or schedule tweets for distribution. Twitter can be an extremely innovative and relevant way to reach customers, but this tool will only work for certain industries, in certain instances, and must be maintained regularly with a good strategy in place in order to be successful. Twitter ads work towards five different business objectives:

Blogs
Blogs are widely considered the "base" of any social media campaign. Blogs can add personality to your website and boost industry perception, educate others through the demonstration of your knowledge of the market, create an emotional investment in your company, build brand awareness, and more. Additionally, blogs can be integrated with other types of social media platforms, and can even have your Facebook posts or Twitter streams live on the blog itself. Blog is considered to be very powerful social media due to very thought of writing whatever is real and factual. One of the downsides to blogs is that they need to be as real to their readers as you should be to your customers. Readers will know if you are faking your industry knowledge if you have too much emphasis on yourself and not on them, and also whether or not you are involved with the blog regularly. Along those lines, blogs should be updated frequently, which can be difficult from a time perspective. This factor must be taken into consideration before deciding to create a company blog.

Snapchat
Snapchat (also known as SC or Snap) is a multimedia messaging app used globally. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users' "Stories" of 24 hours of chronological content, along with "Discover", letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. Snapchat has become notable for representing a new, mobile-first direction for social media, and places significant emphasis on users interacting with virtual stickers and augmented reality objects. As of February 2018, Snapchat has 187 million daily active users.

Pinterest
Pinterest is a social media web mobile application company. It operates a software system designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the World Wide Web using images and, on a smaller scale, GIFs and videos. Pinterest has reached 300 million monthly active users as of August 2019. Pinterest chief executive officer Ben Silbermann summarized the company as a "catalogue of ideas" that inspires users to "go out and do that thing", rather than as an image-based. Pinterest is a free website that requires registration to use. Users can upload, save, sort, and manage imagesknown as pins-and other media content (e.g., videos) through collections known as pinboards. Content can also be found outside Pinterest and similarly uploaded to a board via the "Pin It" button, which can be downloaded to the bookmark bar on a web browser, or be implemented by a webmaster directly on the website. Some websites include red and white "pin it" buttons on items, which allow Pinterest users to pin them directly. In 2015, Pinterest implemented a feature that allows users to search with images instead of words.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social network with nearly 240 million users. The social media network enables its members to network professionally, post and find jobs, ask and answer questions, and build thought leadership. LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002, and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs. As a marketer, LinkedIn is one of the most effective places online to engage with decision makers within your target market who may be in need of your products or services. The goal is to be consistently visible and valuable. It's not about selling. You need to educate and provide useful information. LinkedIn as a Marketing Tool is one of the best to use. It is targeted towards business to business relationships and focus on hard working professionals. LinkedIn is also a great place to expand your business network and to recruit new employees. The features and functions of this social channel are invaluable. In addition, LinkedIn is a network of well-established business professionals from across the world and is brilliant for gaining new business contacts. From powerful influencers to your average joe, this channel allows you to create a connection with those you would not expect to bump into in real-life.

YouTube
YouTube is considered as another very influential social media platform. What's more, it is also the 2nd most-used search engine following Google. For the record, YouTube is used in this fashion primarily by the younger generation, and not as frequently as those who might actually have the resources to become a customer. However, with a trend, this large, companies should not be quick to overlook a branding and informational tool such as YouTube, especially considering the average time on site is 23 minutes. The benefits of maintaining a YouTube presence include a potentially huge audience for companies on a tight budget, and the ability to "tag" keywords to videos so that you will have a good chance of being seen when your terms are searched. Of course, as with the other platforms we have discussed, various factors play a role here, but if your company has already produced video creative to be used on your website or blog, it is easy to create a YouTube Channel and cast a much wider net, especially considering YouTube's time constraints are also much lighter on company resources than with the other types of social media platforms. According to Amanda Finch, VP Operations, Titan, as with all social media platforms, what is hot today might not be in the future. Companies need to be able to accurately determine what to allocate their time and resources in to increase brand awareness and maintain a positive reputation on-and offline. This conservative and well-thought-out approach will help prepare these companies for the next phase of social media, or whatever type of media becomes the "next big thing". Search engine marketing companies and their clients must consider these factors when making decisions about how and when to further marketing efforts.

Benefits of Social Media
1. Enhanced customer acumens: Through the use of social media the business gets a better understanding of their customers' views and perception about products and services, they can always share their insights as customers are always aware that the company is accessible. Social media allows customers to share their valuable suggestions and opinions as well. 2. Improved customer service: Through Social media customers can directly share grievances, questions and concerns almost instantaneously with the company. And also expect that company must resolve their issues as early as possible. According to the study conducted by Forbes, 71% of consumers who receive a quick response on social media say they are more likely to recommend that brand to other people and also be loyal to the brand. 3. Cost effectiveness: There is always a certain amount of budget allocated for marketing, in such a case social media plays a vital role being most cost-efficient way to market and promote the business. Some platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc, allow any business to share their content for no cost at all. Hence Social media is considered to be the most affordable advertising way. 4. Connectivity: With the use of social media companies will always be able to connect with their customers in terms of changing preferences, lifestyles and resources and adapt to the changing interest with time flow.
Companies also have an opportunity to cater to the dynamic interests, need, want and desires of their customers and innovate on their marketing strategies in order to serve much better. 5. Brand Awareness: Social media has such an impact on customers' mind that it helps companies to create demand, image, goodwill and loyalty for their products and services offered. This will surely help in gaining popularity amongst the customers and create strong image of the company. 6. Sales: Constant presence of company through social media try to hit customers mind thus helping in lead generation. This in turn converts the potential customers to actual customers. Finally results into increased sales volume.

Importance of Social Media
Social Media is source of marketing communication which is most powerful and the best way to increase the conversion of lead into sales. If you use social media platforms such as (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc) you can strive the business in the right direction and to the right target customers. Now a days, Social Media is part and parcel of everyone's life and in India itself 50 to 70 percent people are using social media platforms to engage with the friends and family. Social media has its own benefits which may influence us in following manner-Firstly, in every social platform if you are having a certain number of followers, you can become influencer and earn money from each brand to promote them. Secondly, it is very important now a days to be in competition. Every brand using social media tools like YouTube, Facebook, twitter, and many more for getting edge in the market. Thirdly, it become earning source to people, but they have to invest their time in You Tube and affiliate marketing to understand the whole concept. Finally, Social Media becomes humongous and still growing very rapidly in across the world. Following are the advantage of social media, 1. It empowered the sales team to achieve the target and promote the business 2. It has a power to make or break the business. 3. Social media is the best source to connect with the audience emotions. 4. It has potential to make your business visible globally. 5. Apparently, 75 percent of the users across the world using social media, so imagine the power of social media to reach wider audience within just few seconds.

Impact of Social Media on Customers
Social media marketing increases your brand's awareness. 78 % of small businesses use social media to attract new customers. Furthermore 33% of customers have identified social media as how they identify new brands products and services. Social media marketing helps to validate your brand. A company's social media presence, when done correctly, tells consumers that their brand is active and focused on thriving communication with consumers. 63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to use ones with an informative social media presence. Social media marketing has the power to increase customer loyalty. 71% of consumers who received a quick response on social media would recommend the brand to others.

Impact of Social Media on Business Growth and Performance
Companies tends to get more increased brand awareness, improved search engine rankings, high conversion rates, increased inbound traffic, customer satisfaction, improved brand loyalty, helps to get market insights, cost effectiveness, increased brand authority etc. thus helping them to make their presence strong into the market.

Conclusion
Social media marketing is an evolutionary process, as marketers seek to optimize their marketing budget on social platforms. Customers are more aware and educated about the product, service and brand these days due to the social media. Therefore, companies need to design their marketing strategies so efficiently so that they could anticipate the future need, generate lead and make sales which then eventually results into higher performance and growth rate.