How Social Media Has Changed Our Habits as Consumers

Most of the marketers and businesses have heard about the indispensable importance of social media for their carrying out their business activities in the market today.  

Ardath Albee, CEO of marketinginteractions.com says, “Social Media can provide a conversational extension to a B2B company’s nurturing programs. Social Media gives us the opportunity to humanize our communications and make our companies more approachable.”

Social media has not only transformed the way marketing strategies have been made but also provided many profound opportunities to marketers all around the world.

The growth of social media into the lives of people has changed many of the conventional business practices, one of the main being purchase from a brand. This change is pushing businesses to work harder and keep up with the ever evolving marketing trends of social media.
 

Image Source: Social Media Today

For businesses to progress and come up with efficient marketing strategies it is essential to know the impact that social media is having on their customers.
 

Here is how social media has changed our habits as consumers:
 

With numerous cool technology devices making way into the lives of the people, more and more people are owning and operating on them.
 

As a result, these devices have become an indispensable part of life right from the laptop to a tab or a mobile phone. The ever increasing internet connectivity on these devices is pushing more and more people to rush towards them for their social media uses.
 

This may seem like a normal thing, but as consumers, it is severely impacting the online business marketing strategies.
 

There was a time when one online portal was the answer for all of the businesses’ online marketing strategies. But with the evolution of social media and its penetration into daily lives on various devices, there has been an urgent need for optimization for businesses to stand in the market and remain favourites of their customers.
 

Research indicates that most of the millennials are willing to watch short videos, while older crowd like long-form on mobile devices. So, if you’ve been thinking that the length of the content is deciding which device the customer opts to view it, you are probably heading in the wrong direction.
 

This has also led to mobile payment options since most of the payment activities are also carried on mobile phones. Consider it ease of access.
 

Market research suggests that binge watching has become a part of our lifestyles, including people of all age groups. The convenience of content is also one of the main reasons why people like to stream content online rather than downloading it on their devices.
 

Owing to these factors most of the written content that we are seeing today is being transformed into videos or other forms of interactive media. This is both working as an advantage and a better source of engagement for customers.
 

People like to watch something as they feel they can understand it in a better way and moreover it also turns out to be a great source of entertainment.

“Social media is not a media. The key is to listen, engage, and build relationships.” - David Alston

Again social media is greatly impacting the habits of customers by providing them with new videos to watch every day. This is on the other hand also affecting out habits as customers.
 

Don’t you want to see a model walk the ramp with the clothes you decide to buy online?
 

Many ecommerce portals are facilitating this feature because they know people would love to see this type of content. It is also great to see how websites are focusing their marketing strategies to come up with product information, reviews, tutorials etc through videos. Not only is this engaging user but also turning out to be valuable marketing asset for businesses.
 

Who doesn’t love deals?
 

According to a recent survey, most of the people spend an hour or more on social media websites on a daily basis.
 

So what your brand has to say about social media needs to be important and of value to the customer. Deals, on the other hand, are a great way to customer engagement and social media is contributing a lot to making them reach the customer.
 

Most of the online shoppers use social media to look for deals which is why companies spend a great deal of time posting content for their social media accounts. And not only this, according to a market survey, most of the online shoppers change their buying preferences based on the type of content they view on the brand’s social media page.
 

Therefore, businesses are taking social media as an advantage to market their deals and fascinating offers that have the power to draw customers to their business. It helps in promoting sales and minimizes the risk of losing out on potential customers.
 

Referrals form a significant lead drawing marketing strategy for most of the businesses. Social media basically draws people to a place where they can meet and greet their friends.  
 

So, when someone likes something, they share it with their friends all over, and this is primarily how referrals work.  Businesses all over the world come up with enticing offers for their customers so that they refer their brand to their friends and get something as a reward in return.
 

For example, brands often give exclusive coupon codes or discount vouchers to their customers as referrals. And when more and more people sign up through these referrals, they get a small reward for their action and businesses get their potential prospects.
 

Companies such as Uber and Ola among others use this tactic to get leads and reward their valuable relationship with their customers.
 

Jeff Bezos, CEO at Amazon.com says,

“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”

Post shares for referrals and direct messages to friends on social media account for transformed habits as customers. More and more brands have mobile applications that encourage customers to sign up through their social media accounts.
 

More and more online portals are integrating with social media as a better and effective marketing tactics. The social media had not just changed the habits of customers but also made them more aware and vigilant about businesses. They can easily get to know about a company’s reviews through social media and decide where to buy from.
 

Ultimately, the spread of content and its type on social media is changing our habits as consumers and also putting forth challenges in front of businesses.