The Impact of Social Media as a Marketing Tool for Small Business Entrepreneurs

Abstract

In today’s virtual world, Technology plays an important role. People are becoming more and more tech savvy. With the emergence of technology, Social media has become one of the important aspect of human and business world.28 years ago World Wide Web was invented, only 14 years ago Facebook went online.

Within a short span of time, it is interesting to note how Social media plays an important role in our day to day life. Webster dictionary defines Social Media as “forms of electronic communication such as websites for social networking and microblogging through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content such as videos.”

Majority of people are communicating with one another through various online mediums. The medium can be blogs, facebook, twitter, linkedin and so on. This new way of communicating is known as Social Media. The new generation tools have totally changed the way how corporate connects and relate to its customers. If today’s   customer is contemplating to buy a product, he or she could just post it on his social media profile page and invite his network of trusted connections to get feedback on various options available and their reviews instantaneously.

This paper explores the various means of social media that can be used as a marketing tool by the Small entrepreneurs in conducting their business. The researcher aims to find whether firms that have used social media as a platform in conducting the business have gained competitive edge over other firms and  a positive impact on sales.