The arrival of new technology has raised a number of new issues for managers and leaders. The use of the internet is an unavoidable feature of today's business environment, as it can be very productive to companies. Email can be used as a very potent business tool, enabling business transactions at much faster speed that other kinds of mail do and enabling fast and precise high quality customer service. In addition, with the increase on popularity of social media in the form of sites like Twitter or Facebook, new business opportunities have emerged. During recent years, management team from car companies all over the world have implemented a number of programmes and initiatives regarding this issue, taking into account the potential of the use of social networking sites to enhance the company's operations and achieve organizational goals (Tarter, 2009).
The popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter cannot be denied. 500 million people now use Facebook. Twitter has 175 million registered users (Carlson, 2011). These figures make these sites the two largest social networks in the world, “with the fastest-growing membership segment being adults aged 35 to 54” (Tarter, 2009). Social media use can be very effective for business enterprises, enabling their employees to interact more effectively and frequently with customers (ibid). The use of social media has proved to be essential for the effective organizational use of experiential marketing. Experiential marketing uses a theoretical approach that attempts to provide effective ways for companies to connect with potential customers at a personal level through the use of sensory ways. Experiential marketing "allows customers to engage and interact with brands, products, and services in sensory ways (…) Personal experiences help people connect to a brand and make intelligent and informed purchasing decisions." Various recent promotional campaigns by car companies have effectively used social media to implement the experiential marketing required to increase brand awareness.
[...] The use of these applications can enable the company to significantly increase brand awareness, which in turn can increment profit. Companies like Ford have seen the potential of social media to obtain testimonials that can be later used to attract potential new customers. Very intelligently, Ford used a number of advertising projects to promote his 2009 Fiesta Movement campaign, which intended to prepare the model's reintroduction in the U.S. The campaign required the combined efforts of the company's marketing and communications departments (Wilson et al. [...]
[...] The main way to increase visitor participation and community spirit in a website is through the use of social media. Social networking sites allow the user to insert site content to wider audiences, and the characteristic nature of this site allows visitor engagement in the site's activities. In this respect, there are a number of very effective ways to use networking sites to drive traffic to a company site. A number of applications have been introduced to share website content with members of social networking sites. [...]
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