Impact of social media on
business
Madison Hedges

What is social media?
Social Media is an accumulation of websites and applications that
allow users to create and share content or to participate in social
networking. Examples of social media: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube,
Instagram. Most kids these days are using a popular app called Tik
Tok.

Digital Marketing?
Social media can be used for digital marketing. Digital marketing is what businesses use to
reach to a certain group of people on the internet. They may use Facebook to reach an
older audience because most users on Facebook are adults. A great example of this is the
Wendy’s official Twitter account. They reach young people on the internet and get very
popular from it. They did this thing called “The Wendy’s Roast” and would “roast” other
chain restaurants on Twitter. Young people went crazy about it.

What does this have to do with Business?
Businesses use social media for digital marketing heavily. Every day a new business
opens a social media account in an attempt to reach new customers. They may post
memes or videos of their products. They may post skits from the kitchen or even
videos of how they stock the shelves in their grocery store. This attracts people.

Do businesses get a negative effect?
Yes and no. Businesses’ sales go up after these videos, pictures and texts. However,
some businesses get so caught up in digital marketing that they don’t put much effort
into reaching people who maybe don’t have access to social media or the internet.
They may lose older customers who don’t have social media or people may be
absolutely clueless to the new sale. They tend to neglect other marketing tactics.

Why does this happen?
Since technology is so popular now, people in general have forgotten ways of
communication with each other. They text each other in person when they want to
trash talk someone nearby. People will actively avoid each other instead of making
small talk, staying on their phones and talking to their friends via text or phone call.
Businesses have started to adapt to this, taking things to social media and not doing
things in person.

Do small businesses realize they are doing this?
Most don’t. Small businesses especially. They have a hard time getting
customers and heavily advertise on social media. People with small businesses
aren’t very inclined to just talking to people, they are still trying to figure out
how to advertise their business in the first place. They probably won’t just bring
it up in a conversation.

Do big businesses realize this?
Yes. Big businesses typically have a big team of marketers. They have a lot of people
to focus on the different types of advertisements. Print ads, television commercials,
social media and even just advertising on the side of websites. Big businesses are
pretty good at advertising, which is why they have so many customers.

Ethos, Pathos, Logos.
Most companies use Ethos, Pathos or Logos to draw their audience in. Their
customers get hooked to these things. Often times, they focus on one of these
three per type of ad. Print ads may be Ethos. Television ads may be Pathos.
Social media ads may be Logos.

What is Ethos, Pathos and Logos?
Ethos is the act of using someone people respect to sponsor the ad. Like Shaquille
O’neal in the papa john's commercials on TV. It’s using someone to show a good
rating on the company. Pathos plays with your emotions. Like those commercials
asking for donations for those puppies in the pound. Logos uses logic. Giving you
statistics in an commercial is a good example. Like those makeup ads or healthy drink
ads.

Conclusion
Digital Marketing and Social Media play a big role in businesses today. They help
with businesses reaching a target audience, normally younger people. Social
media helps businesses to maintain a good consumer number but also takes
away from society being able to socialize “normally.”