The importance of social media and to what extend its effect on the global economy

The social media is not as fun as it used to be. It became a necessity of trade and business worldwide. There is no doubt that all large, small and medium companies now rely on their marketing and acquisition of a larger proportion of the market through the presence of their identity and continuous interaction with their clients on various social media platforms.

The reason for the great importance of social media is the large number of its daily users and how long they use social media platforms during the day. The boom that occurred in social media not only make the doubling of the number of users of the platforms, but was also represented in the increase in the periods of users’ use of the platforms and the extent of their dependence on social media mainly in managing all aspects of their daily lives.

A vivid picture of the impact of social media on economic events

The importance lies in the extent of these companies’ ability  to attract their customers and strengthen their relationship with them through the professional marketing strategies and interactive advertising campaigns on social media sites and their compatibility and integration with events on the ground. It is worth noting that global events and public opinions spread in no time on the social media, which works to maximize and accelerate the effect on the value of the shares of companies and large commercial entities if the events and opinions are connected to those companies. This is one of the most important effects of social media on the global economy. We all know what happened recently in the Coca-Cola stock price when the video of Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo spread at lightning speed on social media platforms. For who don’t know we will mention what had happened:

During the press conference for Euro 2020 just before the match against Hungary, the Portuguese sports star entered the press conference and then Cristiano Ronaldo removed a bottle of Coca-Cola and replaced it with water to arouse everyone to drink water instead of drinking Coca-Cola. That action led Coca-Cola’s share price fell from $56.10 to $55.22.

The video of Ronaldo asking people to drink water instead of Coca-Cola spread on various social media platforms at lightning speed. As soon as that happened, people on social media started posting funny designs and videos and made fun of Coca-Cola and other soft drink companies. Thus Coca-Cola had to pay a heavy price for this and they actually lost $4 billion that day in just 4 hours.

Later, the company responded to Ronaldo’s action very wisely. In its announcement, the company appeared very positive about Ronaldo’s act and said that everyone has the right to choose the drink because people have different tastes. Despite being the official sponsor of Euro 2020, the company had no problem with Ronaldo’s attitude to a Coca-Cola bottle.

Coca-Cola said in a statement “Players are offered water, along with Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, when they arrive at our press conferences.”

The most important images of the effect of social media on the global economy

The influence of social media in the global economy was not only limited to the interests of large companies and governments, but the influence of social media extended to include the individual interests of people as well. The Evidence for this is the contribution of social media to the emergence of new functional entities of great importance that everyone is looking for. One of the most important of these jobs are the manager of social media platforms, the social media marketer, the moderator, the social media advertising designer, and the social media video designer.

In addition to this many other effects of social media on the economy, one of them affects it directly whereas others affect it indirectly. One of the most important images of the effects of social media on the global economy:

1)  Facilitate marketing work and reduce its costs:

Before the appearance of social media platforms, marketing dependence was focused on publishing advertising campaigns in the most watched television channels, newspapers and best-seller magazines, besides the traditional advertising media such as road and street signs.

After the spread of the use of the Internet and social media platforms, social media platforms have become the most used communities in the world. They are used daily by billions of users and for long periods of time, estimated at an average of 9 hours of daily use for each individual which led to the transformation of the marketing orientation of the whole world to social media platforms.  The simple costs of social media campaigns, planning tools, market studies, measuring campaign results and analysis were the most important motivators that facilitated that transformation.

2) Raising a revolution in healthcare and sanitation:

Social media platforms had a major role in spreading health awareness around the world by publishing and sharing many health information, blogs and research by accredited organizations and doctors. All of us have noticed the role of health care for social media during the crisis of the Corona epidemic. This was represented in the awareness leaflets that the World Health Organization was publishing, beside what other international and local health organizations publish through awareness leaflets, blogs and videos to urge individuals to take to preventive measures.

The increasing interaction with information, health leaflets and awareness by social media users has caused a huge trend by the leading companies in the pharmaceutical industry towards racing and competing in producing an effective vaccine that reduces the risk of the Corona epidemic. This trend led to a lot of money being pumped by businessmen and governments to invest in the production of an effective vaccine. Thanks to social media as we mentioned before.

3) Fair competition and Preventing monopoly:

Social media platforms depend heavily on ads for their profits. Therefore, social media platforms have designed professional advertising control panels which enable everyone to create ads with the budget available to them. Interestingly, social media platforms not only rely on the results of ads on budgets but also the multiple factors on which advertising results depend. This makes fair competition between companies that provide the same services and products.  

The fairness of competition provided by social media platforms has helped to enhance the opportunities for newly established companies to grow. Interestingly, we can say social media platforms give companies and businesses real opportunities to target their customers. This is the most distinctive element in marketing products on social media platforms. So, market studies and professional planning for marketing campaigns make the targeting process on social media platforms more accurate without the need for huge costs.