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Copyright © 2024 by Cherkas Global University
Published in the USA
Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie)
Issued since 2005.
ISSN 1994-4160
E-ISSN 1994-4195
2024. 20(1): 144-150
DOI: I0.i3i87/me.2024.i.i44 https://me.cherkasgu.press
Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie)
Media Culture in Promoting Photo Services Companies in Social Media
Marina Ponomareva a > *, Yulia Andreeva a
a Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Russian Federation
Abstract
The article examines the essence of media culture, the degree of its impact on public life and corporate activities in the market of photography services, describes the features of media culture and the activities of young people in social media. Furthermore, it focuses on the principles of media culture and its main trends within the information-oriented society. The results of the study present the main mistakes that photo services businesses make in promoting, as well as ways to avoid these mistakes, and offer recommendations on key social media platforms for companies that provide photography services. Based on theoretical knowledge about the essence of media culture and the specifics of social media promotion, the essential goal of media culture is to build an identifiable brand and create positive emotions in current and potential customers. The presence of media culture can be traced in almost all spheres of human activity. It has a significant impact on human consciousness through the use of information technology in sociocultural processes.
The modern information system of society in the context of media culture necessitates taking into account accumulated experience, as well as analysis of the theoretical and practical aspects of human activity, which is why social media are of particular importance.
Keywords: media culture, photo services, social media, promotion of services, young people, consumers, Internet, promotion.
1. Introduction
The companies that provide photo services as their main activity area, are currently showing active growth. In order to keep a competitive position, such companies are required to perform an efficient PR strategy to build and expand their customer base. Among the most popular and attractive marketing communication channels used for selling services is social media, such as VKontakte, Telegram, Ok and others. Advertising on several social media platforms helps companies to reach the largest possible target audience, giving a positive impact on the business. Popularization of photography services is impossible without media culture, since photography is an integral element of visual culture. Within the framework of media culture, photos already perform new functions and acquire new forms, as well as influence the changes in sociocultural reality (Krasikova, 2022). Photography services are a method of communication with society. Media culture is reflected in almost all areas that exist in the modern society, including mass media and social media, and has an impact on personality formation and public mind. Besides, media culture socializes a person, promotes self-esteem, and creates a value system. Photographs play a special role in this process, since they form the core of many communications and are capable of influencing people's feelings and their emotional state. Any company operating in the photo services market, through the use of a special type of culture - media culture, can track and analyze
* Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: maponomareva@fa.ru (M. Ponomareva)
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trends in public minds and moods and, through the new product created, influence the level of demand for its products. Thus, media culture has a significant impact on companies operating in the photography services market.
2. Materials and methods
This study applies such methods as analysis and synthesis. The classification method is used to formulate the conclusion for the research performed. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study comprises of scientific articles on researched topics, as well as teaching guides and statistical studies. A detailed approach to photo services promotion in social media is possible through the concept of media culture and research of its coverage. Media culture acts as a reflection of culture as a whole and is a symbol of the accessibility of culture to society via mass media. Media culture is the complex of material and intellectual values in the media field, as well as the composite of implementation and functioning of these values in society, built over time. Media culture is reflected in a system of levels of personal improvement that can analyze, evaluate, perceive media information, and gain new knowledge in the field of media (Osmolovskaya, 2021).
The presence of media culture can be traced in almost all areas of human life. It has a significant impact on human minds through the use of information technology in sociocultural processes. Media culture is a set of cultural practices and patterns formed under the influence of mass communications, including the study and analysis of media products, as well as the impact of media technologies on society. For photo services companies, it is important to consider the basic principles of media culture when creating social media content.
In modern society, it is impossible to deny the objective impact of media culture on human social life. The most essential features of media culture are its systematicity and integrity, that is, media culture has unity within the media space. However, there are reasons that can undermine the integrity of media culture. For example, lack of access to media culture for some individuals, leading to limited participation of people in the media-cultural process. With the loss of common media-cultural relations, the components of media culture do not contribute to the consolidation of society and do not ensure social development. It turns out that the unity of media culture, achieved through information interaction, is the main condition for personal and social development. Another problem is overloading of media culture, its excess, which contributes to a strong distortion of the real picture of the world: mass media and social media can act as a tool for manipulating public opinion (Sokolova, 2018), which is why companies at the photo services market need to efficiently build promotion of their products, in order not to actively impose your services, but to create desire and natural demand among buyers.
In cannot be denied that current information technologies allow people to perform individual real-time interactions with a screen to meet their needs and purchase necessary services. Modern information and communication technologies, social media included, have an influence on public mind, on types of culture and on the nature of company activities. We can say that real communication is being replaced by online communication: now it is easier to order a service online than to visit a physical office. Social media expand our communication capabilities, providing consumers, educators, or ordinary people interested in any information with access to necessary sources (Ivanchenko, 2022).
The active use of the Internet implies that everyone has access to the network (Kryukova, 2013), providing anyone with the opportunity to find available information and enrich their knowledge on any aspect. Insufficient information can have a significant impact on the number of clients seeking photography services. Social media can solve this problem or reduce it to a minimum and provide cultural opportunities to have an unlimited amount of information about goods and services in the photography market. It turns out that all it needs is to come up with a request and find time to sort the information provided. It is also necessary to acknowledge that social media and the Internet in general are a reflection of the real world and provide opportunities for improving media culture (Nebrat, 2019). It becomes much easier to find photo service companies on social media than to look for banners on the streets or distribute leaflets about photo services.
The basic principles of media culture that can be applied when promoting a company in the photo services market via social media include several components.
- First, quality content: Creating high-quality and attractive content, such as photos, reels and long videos, podcasts, blogs, stories or articles will help attract the attention of the audience. The content should be unique, interesting and relevant to the interests of the target audience.
- Second, audience engagement: Engaging with the audience through comments, likes, shares, polls, contests, and other forms of interaction will help strengthen the connection with customers and create a community around your company.
- Third, maintaining long-term relationships: Social media allow to stay in touch with customers throughout their whole life cycle. Constantly updating content, answering questions, and providing feedback will help build long-term relationships with the customers.
- Fourth, use of analytics tools: monitoring and analyzing the results of social media promotions will help the company understand what content is efficient, what strategies work best and how the business can be improved.
The largest share of social media users are young people, so they are most likely to find information about photo services and use it. In this regard, it is necessary to pay special attention to the specifics of media consumption among youth (Amirova, 2019). Young people typically use media devices and information on social media depending on the specific situation and their needs, that is, through regular (daily) interaction with other users, young people develop communication skills, that is why it is easier for them to contact a company and choose the service they are interested in. Besides, young people perceive media culture as a personalized means of obtaining information (Gorbat, 2022): any person can become a key link in the information flow, a filter of opinions, and an authority for a group of people, that is, there is the possibility of influence within social media. This has a positive impact on photo services companies, since young people (and Internet users in general) can spread the services offered by the company. Moreover, young people are actively involved in influencer marketing, creating publications on online platforms, and can also be used for advertising photo services. In addition, young people consume content in fragments, meaning that they are able to sort information and connect information received from various sources.
Applying the principles of media culture in promoting a photo services company in social media will help increase brand awareness, attract new customers and strengthen relationships with the existing audience. It is important to constantly analyze the results and improve promotion strategies in order to be successful in the photo services market.
3. Results
Media culture, as well as social media, allows to acquire new business contacts, distribute goods and services, create promo websites and present portfolios. Besides, social media make it possible to implement active exchange of information. For a company in the photo services market, media culture presents the following opportunities: distribute information about the services, build the image of the company for consumers, analyze potential customers, attract future clients, collect customer feedback through reviews, promotions and bonus programs, as well as statistics and analytics of business activities (Skomorokhova, 2018).
Based on the analysis of the sources used in the study (scientific literature), as well as their practical use in social media, we can identify the key ways to promote a photo services company in social media:
- Create a group, a business account on several social media platforms. This can be done by either one person or a group of specialists (depending solely on the size of the company). To maximize the efficiency, it is necessary to have a group administrator and assistants (Grigoriev, Chvyakin, 2019).
- Implement activities aimed at promoting services, namely participate in online conferences, conduct live streams, organize corporate conferences. These streams can show the process of photographing, creating a photo, the team itself, and so on.
- Offer promotions and giveaways, activities much appreciated by consumers, adding to customer base increase, media culture growth and increased corporate activity in social media (Kurcheeva, Saprykin, 2015).
- With the increase of advertising activities in social media, general advertising activities are actively growing, so a photo services company can place its products in other groups or accounts. Moreover, this offer allows to establish professional connections with other representatives in this field.
Based on theoretical knowledge about the essence of media culture and the specifics of social media promotions, we can say that the most significant objective of media culture is to build an identifiable brand and to create positive emotions in current and potential customers. Besides, there is a high probability of mistakes while promoting services in social media, which is why it is
necessary to identify these mistakes and find ways to overcome them. The occurrence of these mistakes can lead to a decrease in the popularity of the company in social media and to the loss of its customer base (Nigmatzyanova, 2018).
The first mistake is impatience. While advertising photography services, one should not hope for immediate new customers; it may take several months. Moreover, not all group members can be true customers, but only a small part of them. As a recommendation, one can focus on only a few social media platforms, and not cover all available ones, mastering one or two platforms well and actively developing them.
The second mistake is underestimating activity in social media. Many companies, especially start-ups, think it's easy. A company that provides photo services needs to create a consistent page design, determine its target audience, find content, design a portfolio, and much more. It is very important not only to attract the audience, but also to retain it.
The third mistake is copying the ideas of other companies without analyzing them and adding something new and unique (Wertime, 2018). It is not at all necessary that the ideas of one company will have the same effect for the other, so the solution to this problem is in creating one's own company style, thoughtful content design and action plan. Having a system of actions to ensure consistent development.
The fourth mistake is refusing to analyze business activities. Companies in the photo services market need to analyze both positive and negative experiences of competitors, evaluate the other photo service content, determining the competitors' strengths and weaknesses and creating an improved work system. Thus, eliminating the mentioned errors will allow the company in the photo services market to use media culture for promoting its products in social media.
4. Discussion
Social media as an online construct drastically changed the way information is spread. Indeed, information exchange became increasingly easier and more relaxed. Several companies wanted to capitalize on this phenomenon by creating "fan pages" on social media (Akrimi, Khemakhem, 2012).
Each historical period has its own methods of expanding cultural space. Changes in both social relations, lifestyle, and culture as a whole, that will occur due to scientific and technological discoveries and related technological changes, namely the expansion of telecommunications and the widespread introduction of computer technology (Mussayeva et al., 2019).
In modern society, it is impossible to deny the objective impact of media culture on the social life of a person (Manovich, 2016). It is important to note that online media freedom must also be protected offline, as "traditional" forms of censorship, such as harassment or imprisonment of online journalists or physical raids on newsrooms, apply to online media as well (Stevenson, 2016). Despite technological innovations, Web 2.0 and social media, it should not be forgotten that this traditional censorship also "works" on the Internet (Motller, 2019).
The presence of media culture can be traced in almost all areas of human life. It has a significant impact on people minds through the use of information technology in sociocultural processes (Reed, 2014). It is important for photo services companies to consider the basic principles of media culture when creating content for social media. (Jakic et al., 2017)
Media culture is a set of cultural practices and patterns formed as a result of the influence of mass communications, including the study and analysis of media products, as well as the impact of media technologies on society. Media culture also deals with the analysis of the role and functions of the media in the modern world, their impact on public opinion and the formation of public opinion (Shirky, 2010).
Users can express sentiments by publishing online opinions. Online opinions can directly or indirectly affect the future sales of e-commerce, restaurants, hotels, and other products. Sentiment analysis in social networks mines user opinions, emotions, and attitudes to derive useful insights into community opinions (Jie Chen, 2022).
Social networks were developed after electronics information sharing systems coming out, and social networks are modeled by using graphs. Due to the interests of users and capabilities of social networks, this area is an important emerging area, so, there are many studies of social networks (Karadogan, Karci, 2022).
Recent research across various disciplines suggests that social capital, as captured by social norms and the density of social networks, can reduce financing constraints, and facilitate economic exchanges by encouraging cooperative behavior (Hongying, 2022).
The importance of social connections - our social networks - is the focus of a burgeoning literature which has found that they influence a wide variety of economic decisions such as whether to utilize financial services (Chowdhury, 2022).
Social network refers to the relationship formed by interaction between individual members of the society. With the increasingly popularity of social media, individuals are closely related to each other and form a variety of social networks. Based on the relationship of individuals (friendship, cooperation, trust relation and conflict relation, etc.), social network can be divided into friend social network, cooperative social network, trust network, interest network, conflict network and so on (Qingxian, 2022).
Exponential growth in the number of internet users has led businesses to explore efficient ways of managing their presence in electronic space. Businesses have adapted new business models that allow them to utilize the opportunities that the internet has to offer (Chawla, Chodak, 2021).
Different conclusions are withdrawn when comparing Facebook to Instagram, proving empirically that different social networking sites have distinct influence on customer engagement. This chapter is relevant for content and social media strategies and helps brands increase their customer engagement (Balio, Casais, 2020).
The experiment results show that different effects were obtained depending on the content of posts (picture, video, album) related to the same products. In the case of video, the highest level of reach, while in the case of pictures, the highest level of engagement was achieved. The analysis of social media engagement metrics in relation to the published content type, dissemination process and time were proposed (Chodak, 2019).
Digital marketing is leading the way in offering new features to reach, inform, engage, offer, and sell products and services to customers, and is expected to continue to be at the forefront of the technological revolution (Kim, 2019).
5. Conclusion
Media culture is of great importance in promoting photo services companies in social media. The modern society information system in the context of media culture requires taking into account accumulated experience, as well as analysis of the theoretical and practical aspects of human activity, which is why social media in this case are of particular importance. Companies must consider the basic principles of media culture when creating content and interacting with audiences. Effective use of social media will allow companies to attract new customers, strengthen their brand and remain competitive in the photography services market. Media culture is the basis for distributing media content and attracting consumers to promote the product.
Using the principles of media culture in promoting the company in the market of photo services through social networks will increase brand awareness, attract new customers and strengthen relationships with the current audience. It is necessary to regularly analyze the results and develop promotion strategies in order to be successful in the photo services market. For the development of photo services within the framework of social networks, it is important to use creative technologies, actively interact with the audience, regularly update the company's profile on social networks, cooperate with bloggers or other popular personalities. Following these recommendations will help you successfully promote your company in the photo services market through social networks and attract new customers.
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