Muhammad Irfan Afzal
Social media is deeply rooted in the business sector soon after its boom in early 2000.
Since its inception, social media websites have been used by people and are meant for people. But as a matter of fact, every media that has a large viewership will eventually transform into an opportunistic marketing medium for businesses.
In today’s world, brand promotion is not just about promoting the brand, but also connecting individuals and retaining the customers.
Global digital snapshot is quite interesting in this regard. The world has a population of more than 7 billion and active internet users are approximately 3 billion.
Out of these 3 billion users, there are more than 2 billion active social media accounts. This is quite interesting as nearly half of the world is interacting via social media. Indeed, the concept of ‘Global Village’ is now getting stronger.
At the outset, only social media websites were in use. But, with the passage of time, social media apps took a leap and surpassed the use of social media websites.
The analysis of social media around the world clearly depicts the bigger picture of this medium and how companies are benefitting from it.
Around 90 percent of the marketers have now considered social media as an important tool for their overall business.
The reason is obvious: it’s cost effective, targeted and results are very clear as compared to ‘traditional’ marketing tools, especially television and hoardings.
It is pertinent to mention that in social media marketing businesses can demographically target anything including age, gender, cities and countries and can also get a clear view of their approximate size of target market which is not possible in traditional media.
Social media has not only been used to market products, but it is considered to be a vital source of marketing ‘People’. Using social media tools, famous celebrities become legendary whereas ordinary people become superstars.
Social media has a bunch of benefits, which makes it a better choice among other marketing tools. The top two benefits of social media for businesses are increasing exposure and traffic/viewership.
A significant 89 percent marketers believe that social media generates more exposure whereas 75 percent believe that it generates more traffic.
Social media is also a great tool for increasing customer loyalty and gaining marketplace intelligence.
As far as Pakistan is concerned, it is still an emerging market for social media. Social media growth in Pakistan is exponential but we are still lagging behind our major competitors.
The base reason is low penetration of internet in most of the cities. Although, concerted efforts have been made by the government but the pace is still slow and requires to be sped up.
In Pakistan, although the trend is still emerging, but the best part is that now everyone is getting engaged. It has now become a ‘must’ for every business. From media celebrities to political personalities, from educational institutions to social causes, everyone is involved in social media.
A major leap in social media is the inclusion of government organisations. Nowadays, government organisations are also using social media to communicate with people and to promote and market their achievements and advancements. People can now ‘interact’ with government organisations and government organizations can ‘respond’ to them. The major reason behind this, is the concentration of current government’s efforts in IT industry.
Recent development in social media in Pakistan is the introduction of ‘Cyber Crime Bill’ that was unanimously passed few months ago.
This shows that the government is more concerned about fair usage of internet and social media, which must be appreciated.
The future of this media seems clearly bright. It can be foreseen that social media will become a viable tool for businesses as well as people.
Therefore, efforts must be put into fostering and supporting this industry in Pakistan to live up to the expectations and global trends.