Introduction
Social media is one of the most used mediums of advertising today. Social media is not only easy to use, but it also enables the company involved to create a strong relationship with the consumers. This is possible through interacting with the consumers on the social media sites. Many loyal consumers have agreed to the fact that this interaction is relevant in forging relationships with one’s clientele.
A site like Facebook allows for different types of interactions with the consumer. One such type of interaction is the ‘liking’ of products or pages on this social media site.
The people who have liked these pages get to comment on some of the projects that the specific company has, they can give their ideas, and send messages directly to the company that is producing these products in question. This allows for active consumer participation.
Characteristics that a legally shrew social media marketing manager should possess
An excellent manager in social media marketing should possess elements that ensure the aspect of social media marketing is a success and within legal limits. One such component is that the manager should be engaging. This is with reference to engaging with the clientele.
As mentioned, the idea of social media management as a tool for communication revolves heavily around engaging with the consumer. The marketing manager can ensure that they interact with the clientele by allowing them to comment on their statuses or the pictures that they upload about products and respond quickly to their queries and messages, among other things.
Interacting with the client should ensure that disputes are resolved amicably because the manager has already created a strong relationship with the clientele.
The communication process between the company and the consumer should also be easy and convenient. This should lead to more amicable problem solving processes. It should also help the company avoid litigations due to violation of given regulations governing social media marketing.
It is also important for the social media marketing manager to give the client the upper hand on the site. This is terms of making the clients feel like they are right and appreciated. This can be done by engaging and interacting with the client. The manager can do this by creating company blogs where the consumer can both read what the company is all about and give ideas or healthy criticism of the company at the same time. There are many companies that do not like criticism. They end up shutting down the consumer who has been criticizing them. This presents a bad image to the other consumers, thus hindering communication between the company and its clientele.
The astute social media manager in question should also be good at managing. Managing involves the use of communication to do a specific task and do it well. The manager can do this by ensuring an active role in bringing up discussions about the specific company. For example, in Twitter, the social media manager can start a trend about the company.
The trend can be informative, or it can be funny. Whichever type of trend the manager decides to choose, it will spark conversations about the company. Being a good arbiter is also among the many characteristics that a good social media marketing manager should have. All these components are helpful in ensuring that social media acts as a communication tool that links the consumer and the company involved.
Alternative dispute resolution methods for social media
There is a lot of crime that takes place in the social media and the Internet in general. Consequently, a set of alternative dispute resolution ideas have been established to help curb this problem. This is very useful in social media because products are usually sold on an international level. This means that a product from the north of Africa can be sold to a person living in Canada.
There are four main types of alternative dispute resolution techniques. Disputes can be resolved by arbitration or negotiating the matter. A mediator may also be involved, or collaboration law be applied to resolve the dispute. The four techniques are different and have different advantages and disadvantages. Of the four types, negotiation and collaborative law are the best for solving disputes that involve cyberspace (Frey, 2002).
Negotiation involves communicating, specifically talking and coming up with a suitable action that will solve the problem. At times, both parties have to compromise, but reaching the terms of this compromise might be difficult. In a case where an individual bought a product that was never delivered, the company would send the product again for free but the client would have to wait longer to get the product.
This shows that both parties have had to compromise. Collaborative law, on the other hand, involves the parties hiring lawyers, who then control the resolution process. This is usually the case when a negotiation has failed.
Role of the federal government in regulating transactions across states
Business transactions happen within and outside the borders of a given state. It is usually very difficult for the federal government to control these transactions. One way the federal government can control these transactions is by ensuring that all the companies that deliver goods and services across state lines are registered.
This will ensure that they pay taxes. The fact that the companies might transport one product at a time or do one service at a time means that they will evade some tax. Registering these companies will also ensure that the con marketers are filtered out.
The federal government can also request such companies to report and register with their state governments. This is prudent as it will show where a specific company is located, even though it might not have a physical store.
The branches of government and how they impact social media trading
The three main branches of government are the executive, legislature, and the judiciary. These three arms of government have different roles and duties. The executive comprises of the cabinet ministers and the president. The legislature is the law making body of the government, while the judiciary is the court system and the arm that enforces the laws that are made by the legislature.
The arm that is most likely to deal with consumer transactions via social media outlets is the legislature because it is the law making body in the country. The legislature will be able to set rules and punishments for breaking those rules. These rules will then be used to regulate the consumer transactions. The legislature will also be able to regulate these transactions because they actively affect both the executive and the judiciary.
The legislature will provide the executive with the need to create the laws that govern social media trading, while providing the judiciary with legal punishments for those who violate these laws (Newson, Houghton, & Patten, 2009).
Relationship between social media providers and businesses
There are a lot of companies that do not have time to start their own social media campaigns. Such companies use the services of a social media marketing provider in order to communicate and build a relationship with their clientele. A social media marketing provider is the person who speaks of the specific company’s dealership, but he is not an employee of the company.
There are various pros of hiring a professional social media marketing provider. One of these advantages is that they have experience, thus they know how to get the highest number of clients from social media marketing.
Another advantage is that the social media marketing providers know the best ways to create a strong relationship with the company’s clientele. The manager is able to interact with the company’s clientele when the company itself cannot.
The relationship between the social media providers and businesses allows the social media marketing provider to interact with the company’s clientele on the company’s behalf. These social media marketing providers are tasked with ensuring that the public image of the company is spotless. They are also tasked to ensure that the relationship between the company and the clientele is as strong as it can be.
Conclusion
Social media trading is increasingly becoming popular as companies take advantage of an increasing population in the social media platform. Companies are, therefore, finding it necessary to have social media marketing managers who are legally astute. A social media marketer should be able to use the social media platform to connect and interact with the clients.
Whenever there is a dispute, the flexibility of social media allows for alternative dispute resolution methods like arbitration and mediation to be used. The government should be involved in influencing social media marketing by making laws to govern social media marketing.
References
Frey, M. A. (2002). Alternative methods of dispute resolution. Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning
Newson, A., Houghton, D., & Patten, J. (2009). Blogging and other social media: exploiting the technology and protecting the enterprise. Farnham, England: Gower Publishing
Scott, D. M. (2007). The new rules of marketing & PR: How to use social media, online video, mobile application, blogs, news releases and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.