Daniel Mathews regards the incredible role reviews and social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter play in marketing and in a firm’s success in a blog post on DuctTape Marketing. Because of the amount of time and information people put online today, businesses could have a better idea regarding what customers and stake holders are thinking about their products, services, or the firm itself. For example, Five Guys makes efficient use of social media by studying the metrics of how many positive and negative posts there are regarding the products. It had also been realized that customer satisfaction would lead to better marketing since customers’ experiences are often shared online and thus turn into word of mouth and free publicity. From this, Five Guys would also study the reviews on their products for each area so that they could better adjust their products and services. UPS likewise uses social media as a “barometer for customer concerns or business opportunities.”

Using social media as a marketing tool would help businesses increase brand awareness (say, via advertisements and word of mouth) and also help increase reputation by providing cheap means of announcing recent projects to the community. However, social media must also be used carefully as a wrong post or comment could lead to plenty of negative views, such as how an employee at KitchenAid had accidentally and wrongfully tweeted, “Even Obama’s gma knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’. #nbcpolitics”, which led to various outraged reactions. The use of social media must then be carefully considered before any action is posted.