4.5 How social media affects organisations

4.5.1 Internal and external factors drawing organisations to social media

Recent research indicates that the marketing budgets of organisations directed towards social media are constantly growing, which suggests that brand are increasingly aware of the potential of establishing a presence on social media for a greater marketing impact. (Lipsman et al., 2012). There are several internal and external factors that can explain this shift of organisations towards social media that has emerged in the past few years. (Gillin, 2007) Research shows that consumer access to social media has reduced the effectiveness of conventional marketing efforts such as television and print media advertisements, which caused declining response rates and significantly affected the marketing strategies of organisations. (Gensler et al., 2013; Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2013) The second contribution to the attractivess of social media are the technological advancements that have influenced the development of new information technology infrastructures, tools and the increasing size of the online population. Furtermore has the use of traditional media declined as people, especially young individuals, have moved online. This demographic shift has strongly pushed organisations to participate on social media (Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2013). Research also suggests that consumers find recommendations from other users to be more trustworthy,