Professional and Communication for Internet - MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theProfessional Skills and Communicationfor Internet. Answer: Introduction The advent of the internet and online technologies have changed the consumer behavior. Due to the explosion of social media and networks over the last few years has seen a significant impact on the way pod cuts get advertised and how their publicity reaches the consumers. The companies look for innovative ways to advertise their products and services. Online reviews by the customers are one way of knowing more about the value of a certain product. The essential question that arises is as to what do consumer believes more, company advertising or online reviews? The essay makes an analysis of what influences the decision-making process of consumers. Discussion There is no denying that the customer care experiences find an easy and convenient voice online. Consumer opinions and the usage of the sites can impact the choice of brand or company among the consumers. After all, the word of mouth has always been a popular means of advertising, and consumer opinions about certain products and customer care carry an importance here. It is observed that the midsized companies can offer more personalized and better experiences for their customers. Today, almost every business has a website and social media channels like Facebook and Twitter (Gesenhues, 2013). Online chat service and emails address customer concerns efficiently and much faster. Customers prefer to go online and surf the web to learn more about the product and services. Consumer opinions and reviews on the socially?based websites and do create an image of a company, postive or negative. The credibility of the information source has always been a major issue for advertisers. Their advertising message and practices add credibility to their products (Karakaya and Ganim, 2010, p. 447). The trustworthiness and expertise of the sender impact how well it is received at the other end by the receiver of the message. The online activity and information can influence consumer opinions as they read product reviews and any complaints. Today, a broad range of rating sites and social networking sites exist online that provide opinions, ratings, and reviews for products or services. Consumers browse the information and reviews to make decisions when they buy a product online. Frequent users of online review sites are more likely to place higher importance on the information they come across online (Karakaya and Ganim, 2010, p. 448). As the number of internet users and the usage of online sites increases, there is no denying that online reviews will play a major role in influencing the customers. There has been an explosion of social networks over the last few years. Consumer-generated reviews online continue to have a substantial impact on advertising. Nielsens latest Global Trust in Advertising report shows that online consumers have risen phenomenally. The majority of these customers state clearly that they trust recommendations from friends and family over any other form of advertising. The next best medium they trust is online reviews and surveys. A lesser percentage tests the information and email messages from the email messages (The Nielsen Company 2013). Display ads on mobile devices do enjoy a certain level of trust among the consumers, but the consumer trust consumer confidence is still lower. Almost half the users around the world are said to believe television and print media ads in magazines and newspaper. However, their confidence in the traditional, paid media has declined over the years. A recent survey by Dimensional Research shows that an overwhelming percentage of customers do read the online reviews and a positive or a negative review influenced their buying decision. The customers are not only anxious about the quality of an individual product or service but were equally particular about the customer services and their shopping experiences. Today, one finds an increasing number of buyer sharing their experiences online via social networking sites and online reviews. Gesenhues, 2013). Thus survey clearly reveals the importance of online reviews by the customers. Recent research shows that it is advantageous for the companies and businesses to raise awareness of their products online and via social media sites. This is because an increasing number of shoppers use social media for shopping and rely on the reviews and information on Facebook and Twitter when making shopping decisions (Paquette 2013, p. 20). Thus, those advertising avenues are proving to be powerful when targeting a specific market. Further studies reflect that the companies cannot ignore traditional marketing completely, but it is the right combination of traditional advertising and web marketing that can create the most effective approach to influence the customers (Shima and Varfan, 2008, p. 36). Each of those mediums carries their benefits, but internet marketing does appear to carry higher popularity among the buyers and sellers. It is observed that drug advertising has expanded over the past decades and drug products are being promoted directly to consumers via traditional ad media and the internet. Drug companies have raised their marketing budgets for advertising which has already crossed $4.8 billion (Faerber and Kreling 2014, p. 110). Healthcare consumers need reliable information about drugs, and when the truthfulness of claims made by the drug advertisements was evaluated, it was found that many claims were misleading to consumers. When comparing click-and-mortar retailers to Internet retailers in general, the consumers familiarity with the retailer does have a role to play. A loyal customer would be less receptive to negative online reviews and information if he is well familiar with the retailer as compared to the retailers (Chatterjee, 2001, p. 132). These results show that organizations and business need to create a positive relation and trust with their customers in order to negate the impact of any negative reviews. Surveys and investigations suggest that consumers attach credibility to online sources and reviews (Karakaya and Ganim, 2010, p. 457). When reviewing practices at Amazon and BN.com, it is observed that both retail sites enjoy positive customer reviews (Chevalier Mayzlin 2006, p. 31). Still, the differences in their relative market share of book sales can be attributed to the number of detiale4d reviews and the star ranking of the reviews. The differences in the quality of customers reviews ca n impact the sales, revenues, and profitability for the online retailer. It is observed that Amazon has more reviewers and detailed reviews than its rivals. Conclusion The above discussion shows that companies and business cannot afford to ignore their advertising efforts online. With an increasing number of online customers and a rising usage of websites, it is evident that online reviews are getting more important than the traditional company advertising. The web has indeed become a fastest growing advertising medium, and an increasing number of customers rely on web information to base their decisions. Along with traditional advertising, the companies need to build trust and loyalty with their customers to get positive reviews online. Bibliography Chatterjee, P., 2001. Online Reviews: Do Consumers Use Them? Mary C. Gilly and Joan Meyers-Levy, Valdosta, GA: Association for Consumer Research, 28(1), pp. 129-133. Chevalier, J.A. Mayzlin, D. 2006, "The Effect of Word of Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews", JMR, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 9. Faerber, Adrienne E., and David H. Kreling, 2014. Content Analysis of False and Misleading Claims in Television Advertising for Prescription and Nonprescription Drugs. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 29(1), pp. 110118. Gesenhues. A, 2013. Survey: 90% Of Customers Say Buying Decisions Are Influenced By Online Reviews [Online] (Updated 9 Apr. 2013) Available at:https://marketingland.com/survey-customers-more-frustrated-by-how-long-it-takes-to-resolve-a-customer-service-issue-than-the-resolution-38756 [Accessed 17 May. 2010]. Karakaya, F. and Ganim, N., 2010. Impact of online reviews of customer care experience on brand or company election. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 27(5), pp. 447457. Paquette, H, 2013. Social Media as a Marketing Tool: A Literature Review. University of Rhode Island, 1(1), pp.1-26. Shima, A and Varfan, M., 2008. Traditional Marketing vs. Internet Marketing. Mlardalen University, 1(1), pp.1-40. The Nielsen Company (US), 2012. Consumer Trust In Online, Social And Mobile Advertising Grows Online [Online] (Updated 4 Oct. 2012) Available at: https://www.nielsen.com/in/en/insights/news/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-and-mobile-advertising-grows.html [Accessed 17 May. 2010].