Problem Solution Essay Draft 1

Social networking sites are one of the fastest and least expensive ways to find your audience and help your business grow. Often times, Social Media does more harm than good in term of branding and communication for SMEs clothing retail business in Singapore.

Social media also affects the way many retail businesses in Singapore communicate with their customers. Instead of traditional way of calling the store, writing a letter or sending an email, many customers now prefer to communicate with a business using its social media platforms. Customers may send private messages to the business, or they may post information publicly. Customers can also provide both positive and negative feedback about products or customer service using the various social media platforms. If a customer posts this information online, it can affect the opinions of other consumers who are the followers of that business.

Therefore, it is important for the business owners of clothing retail businesses in Singapore to be aware of reviews or feedbacks given their customers. The negative feedbacks or ratings in the social media platforms will eventually harm their business reputation.

Next, SMEs clothing retail business in Singapore mostly only uses Facebook as it social media platform. With Facebook’s recent changes affecting the organic reach of posts, companies definitely need to consider other options. It is a common mistake make by small clothing retail businesses. It does harm the businesses, when huge amount of marketing budget are spent in Facebook’s advertisements. Yet, the amount of return is not up to expectation.

Ultimately, a company should tap the various social media channels used by their target market of potential customers.

To address this problem of small retail businesses not communicating well with their customers using social media platforms. One good method involves training a specialized team of staffs to be able to use the unique features of various social media platforms effectively. This specialized team only focus on communicating with its customers online using social media. They should be able to respond quickly on the various social media platforms the companies are using. For example, using Facebook or Twitter to resolve a customer problem can actually foster loyalty and improve the company's reputation.

Next they should also learn the unique features of each social media platforms to promote their companies.  Facebook has its “Boost Post” feature which allow business user to choose their “specific target audience”, “budget amount” and the “number of audience to reach” in a few simple steps. While hashtag feature of Instagram allows the image post to connect with their target markets. Relevant tags will help businesses to attract new followers who may be their potential customers. In addition, they can creating gift contest; giving sponsorships to famous bloggers and instagramers, tag on other blogger network to help in advertising and reaching out to potential customers. The effective usage of social media will be the effective and efficient marketing tools for SMEs clothing retail businesses to generate brand awareness and generate sale in Singapore. Instead of harming the businesses. 

Solution 2 coming out soon!! :D