استخدام مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي للترويج التجاري

Hello and welcome to BBC Xtra English!

Today Rob and pres talk about social networking and how corporations are using it.

Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have become very popular and now a number of large multinational companies are joining them to try and make friends with people!

This is interesting because social networking sites have begun to give customers more power; if people are not happy with the level of service they have received from a company, they can post their opinions and experiences online and this can quickly spread all over the internet, sometimes making the company apologise or improve its service.

The speed at which opinions and ideas can spread using these social media sites has motivated corporations to try and use them to their advantage.

Starbucks is an example of a company that has set up its own facebook page, offering customers information about some of its new products as well as special offers and deals.

It also allows customers to give feedback and opinions about the level of service they receive and the quality of the products they are buying.

Currently Starbucks has over 14 million 'friends' on its facebook site.

Darcy Wilson-Rymer, the managing director of Starbucks UK told the BBC that the relationships his company has with its online friends are very important as there has been an erosion of trust between consumers and companies over the past ten years and so his company is trying to rebuild that trust by having direct communication with its customers.

In the past a number of companies had suffered from customers using online social networking sites to complain about them.

One man was so angry with the service he received on an airline flight that he sang a song about it and posted it on Youtube.

Within six weeks around five million people had watched his video and the airline was facing a public relations crisis.

On the other hand, some market analysts such as Lucy Kellaway believe that there is too much emphasis placed on the importance of social networking sites by companies.

She thinks that companies should concentrate more on looking at how their company is working rather than on what people are thinking.

But with the popularity of social networking sites increasing, it appears that more and more companies will want to be involved in creating social networking profiles.

What do you think of social networking sites? How do you benefit from them? Write to us in English!
ما رأيك في مواقع التواصل الإجتماعي و كيف تستفيد منها؟ اكتب لنا بالإنجليزية!

social networking sites
مواقع التواصل الإجتماعي
multinational companies
شركات متعددة الجنسيات
customers
عملاء
opinions
اراء
motivated
دفع
corporations
شركات
special offers
عروض خاصة
erosion of trust
تآكل الثقة
rebuild
إعادة بناء
direct communication
اتصال مباشر
public relations crisis
أزمة علاقات عامة
too much emphasis
تركيز مفرط
importance
أهمية