COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE BUSINESS AND THE CLIENT ON INSTAGRAM

КОММУНИКАЦИЯ МЕЖДУ БИЗНЕСОМ И КЛИЕНТОМ В ИНСТАГРАМ

Екатерина Беспятых

Бакалавр кафедры маркетинга, Высшая школа экономики — филиал,

РФ, г. Нижний Новгород

ABSTRACT

This document describes the practical features of communication between a business and a client on Instagram, considering the characteristics of users, network capabilities and business goals. This research can serve as a basis for further paper in the field of communication on the Internet, namely communication in social networks, which is the theoretical importance of the work. The data that will be revealed as a result of audience research and the possibilities of interaction with it can be used by companies in building a communication marketing strategy.

АННОТАЦИЯ

В этом документе описываются практические особенности общения между бизнесом и клиентом в Instagram с учетом характеристик пользователей, возможностей сети и бизнес-целей. Это исследование может послужить основой для дальнейшей работы в области общения в Интернете, а именно общения в социальных сетях, что является теоретической важностью работы. Данные, которые будут выявлены в результате исследования аудитории и возможностей взаимодействия с ней, могут быть использованы компаниями при построении стратегии коммуникационного маркетинга.

Keywords: marketing, marketing strategy, business communications on the Internet, social network Instagram.

Ключевые слова: маркетинг, маркетинговая стратегия, деловые коммуникации в Интернете, социальная сеть Instagram.

Introduction

The background. The spread of Internet technologies affects various spheres of society, transforming many processes and structures. The nature of communication is especially changing, which in the transition to cyberspace acquires completely new properties compared to communication in the real world.

The relevance of the topic is since social networks are currently one of the key communication channels between companies and their customers. First, people use social networks for communication, so they can be ready to engage in dialogue not only with friends and acquaintances but also with brands and companies. Secondly, social networks are the place where a modern person spends a significant amount of time. According to the research holding Romir, 81% of Russian Internet users use mobile methods of connection, and the most popular resources that user’s access via the mobile Internet are social networks - 84% of users visit these resources. Thirdly, the use of social media includes many opportunities for interaction with the audience, such as photos, audio and video materials, polls, competitions, and discussions.

Instagram is a promising and young, compared to other social networks, a communication platform, which was launched in 2010 and has attracted more than 600 million users in 11 years. According to research by the Content Marketing Institute, second place in the world ranking comparison of the volume of traffic passing through this social network, belongs to the Russian Federation, a monthly audience of Instagram is 18.5 million users, which indicates a high demand on Instagram among Internet users.

The developers of Instagram, realizing the potential of the network, are constantly modernizing the functionality of the application, aimed at supporting the business. The latest innovations within the network have been related to business: the introduction of advertising in the users' news feed, the creation of business accounts with the display of detailed profile statistics. Business sees the prospects for Instagram and comes there to build communication with the user, but there is practically no research that would explain in detail the communication processes within the network and confirm the effectiveness of such interaction in the Russian market.

The novelty of the work is an attempt to combine a sociological and marketing approach to the study of communication in Instagram, that is, to study the problem both from the users and from the business side.

The problem statement. The research problem is as follows: on the one hand, statistically, Instagram attracts more and more users and business representatives, on the other hand, since the business community has only partial knowledge of the communication processes within the network, it implements a communication marketing strategy on Instagram that is more intuitive than professional.

The general aim of the present project is to study features of communication between a business and a client on Instagram, considering the characteristics of users, network capabilities, and business goals.

Business communications on the Internet are presented as an object of research. At the same time, the subject of research is the characteristic features of the implementation of business communications on Instagram.

In connection with this goal, the following tasks have been identified: explore the role of business communications in a communication marketing strategy, analyze the possibilities and trends of business communications on the Internet, explore the possibilities of Instagram in the implementation of business communications, explore the characteristics of Instagram communication from users and business representatives.

The literature review

In modern science, there are many definitions of marketing, it is noteworthy that it is not true, because each researcher understands its meaning based on his own experience. Speaking about the degree of scientific elaboration of the problem under study, we will focus on the approaches to marketing strategy existing in the scientific community.

There are three approaches to understanding marketing based on existing research work. Moorman (1999), Anam (2020) - the first approach emphasizes the role of the client in marketing. The downside of this interpretation is the fact that marketing is directly related to the company's activities and business goals, and therefore only the interests of the client cannot be put at the head of the whole process. Nevertheless, this understanding of marketing takes place in modern theoretical and applied science, and its representatives are the head of the top management of the international advertising agency “Ogilvy & Mather” Lazarus and the Swiss industrialist Davidoff.

Some scholars characterize marketing primarily as a process associated with a product, a market, and deriving benefits for the organization. This approach is shared by such marketing theorists and practitioners as Christopher, Payne, Ballantyne (2002). In this work, we will refer them to the second approach to understanding marketing. This approach is also not entirely complete because it is impossible to extract benefits without building long-term relationships with market representatives, be they customers, competitors, suppliers, authorities.

In this paper, the concept of marketing is given in the classic version given by our contemporary, professor of international marketing, author of many fundamental studies of Kotler. He argues, “Marketing is a type of human activity aimed at meeting needs and demands through an exchange” (Kotler, 2016, p. 157). It is noteworthy that such an interpretation is quite general, which allowed it to form the basis of later studies and become the basis for work in specific sectors of the economy.

Kotler, Lambin (2012) and Drucker (2001) represent an integrated marketing approach, emphasizing that marketing is an exchange process, and therefore the interests of all parties must be considered when implementing a strategy.

In scientific discourse, there are several approaches to the social network. Representatives of the first approach consider the social network as a methodological basis for research (network methodology). These include, for example, Gradoselskaya, who deals with network measurements of forms of social and political life and complex social structures using a mathematical apparatus, and her colleagues Akhramenko, Chkhartishvili.

The second approach is related to understanding the network as a research technique, where the emphasis is on visualization. This approach is not always associated specifically with sociality but is always associated with the visual reflection of processes. Moreno (2015) and his follower Harari use the graph method, which was originally a mathematical method, as a visual component of various sociological studies.

The social network as an independent object of study is considered by representatives of many humanities: Emerson (1962) with the theory of social exchange, Granovetter (2009) with the theory of the strength of weak ties in a social network.

The transition of communication to the Internet launched the process of creating concepts for studying the virtual community. Researchers in this area include Steinberg, Castells, Short, Williams and Christie.

Thus, many basic concepts and concepts, introduced by researchers of the 20th century even before the spread of the Internet, underlie more modern communication theories that correspond to the current realities.

To summarize, it is worth mentioning that the transition of communication to cyberspace is a rapid and comprehensive process that affects many social structures, including business. Realizing the opportunities that Internet technologies provide for the implementation of the marketing objectives of a business, its representatives turn to the network in search of ways to meet the needs and achieve the company's goals. One of the goals because business is moving to the Internet is to improve communication with various market actors, especially with the consumer. However, in the global network, business is faced with several difficulties, for example, a lack of objective knowledge about its consumer as a member of a virtual community with its own culture.

References:

1. Anam A. (2020). Customer Importance in Marketing. Chron. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/basis-segmenting-consumer-markets-1417.html
2. Christopher M., Payne A., Ballantyne D. (2002). Relationship Marketing: Creating Stakeholder Value. Butterworth Heinemann: Oxford, UK, pp 221-234.
3. Drucker P.F. (2001). Management Challenges for the 21st Century. HarperBusiness, 1st edition, pp. 76-78.
4. Emerson R.M. (1962). Power-Dependence Relation. American Sociological Review, p. 91.
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