Discussion
Today Facebook is one of the leading platforms through which businesses can communicate and interact with their target customers. In recent years, the role of social media marketing has increased considerably, and Facebook has emerged as the primary tool that helps companies to reach out to their customers and interact with them (Kwok & Yu, 2016). One of the main reasons for Facebook as an effective communication tool for businesses is the fact that it is used by people from different ages and different regions. This means businesses, by using this platform, can expand and extend their reach among customers as well as various stakeholders.
Instant customer engagement is another such characteristic which makes Facebook a preferred platform for businesses to communicate with their customers. This is due to the fact the Facebook allows multi-media information sharing. Businesses and the customers or the users can share photos, videos and other such forms of medias with one another (Shin, Pang, & Kim, 2015). Companies can, with much ease, share information about their products and/or services with the customers. This simplifies the overall communication process by a great margin.
In addition to this, using Facebook means two-way communication can be promoted and encouraged (Kosinski, Matz, Gosling, Popov, & Stillwell, 2015). In contrast to conventional methods like emails and newsletters, the process of communication was slow and long. However, Facebook has eliminated that because it allows for almost immediate interaction between both the parties. This way customers can raise their queries with the company and get almost instant reply or resolution. This shows information immediacy and almost instant feedback. The fact that it is free to use and provide such wide reach to the target customers, are some of the key reasons for Facebook becoming a key tool for businesses to communicate with their customers (Gatautis, Vitkauskaite, & Reuver, 2017). By using this tool, firms can carry out large scale advertising and promotional campaigns.
Bibliography
Kwok, L., & Yu, B. (2016). Taxonomy of Facebook messages in business-to-consumer communications: What really works? Tourism and Hospitality Research, 311-328.
Shin, W., Pang, A., & Kim, H. J. (2015). Building relationships through integrated online media: Global organizations’ use of brand web sites, Facebook, and Twitter. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 184-220.
Kosinski, M., Matz, S., Gosling, S., Popov, V., & Stillwell, D. (2015). Facebook as a research tool for the social sciences: Opportunities, challenges, ethical considerations, and practical guidelines. American Psychologist, 543.
Gatautis, R., Vitkauskaite, E., & Reuver, M. d. (2017). Use of Facebook and Google Platforms for SMEs Business Model Innovation. Bled eConference, 38.
Critique On Peer Post
You have reflected and covered Facebook as the means and methods for business communication. Your post was comprehensive as you included characteristics of Facebook, helping business communication. The post has strengths because it has summarized the benefits of Facebook in light of its two features. First, it enables instant messaging, and it must be the characteristic of excellent business communication. Second, it allows for two-way communication. Excellent communication must contain these two properties to be successful. The post has these two characteristics at its center, and it makes the case clear and straightforward for Facebook.
So far as examples are concerned, the post has not included examples of any user. However, it has substantially used examples of the characteristics of Facebook. For instance, the post provides an example of sharing photos and videos over the platform. It is a meaningful example, because it offers how Facebook enables instant customer engagement (Yang, Ren, & Adomavicius, 2019). Videos and photo sharing become a means to do so. The other characteristic is the two-way communication through Facebook. The post contains examples of two-way communication as well. However, the focus is more on comparison as you have compared Facebook with traditional communication means like emails and newsletters. It is also understandable because it may help to know how Facebook can act for business communication. The direction for businesses to advertise and promote businesses may also be helpful (Kwok & Yu, 2016).
In short, the post is comprehensive, but I would like to add one thing. It might be better to include an example of a user who has used Facebook for this purpose. Overall, the post has recommended businesses and users on how they can enhance communication for business purposes. Facebook is free and open for use by multiple users, and it is the strongest point.
References
Kwok, L., & Yu, B. (2016). Taxonomy of Facebook messages in business-to-consumer communications: What really works? Tourism and Hospitality Research, 16(4), 311-328.
Yang, M., Ren, Y., & Adomavicius, G. (2019). Understanding user-generated content and customer engagement on Facebook business pages. Information Systems Research, 30(3), 839-855.
