SHARENTING AND SOCIAL MEDIA: TURNING PARENTS’ POSTS INTO MARKETING TOOLS

After the phone, social media has become one of the most effective communication tools for today's people. People share many experiences from their daily lives to education and marketing on these platforms. At the same time, social media enriches these shares with videos, pictures, audio and written texts and presents them to other people. This study aimed to investigate the effects of parents' shares on social media on children and businesses. The impact of social media has affected parents' family relationships and parenting habits. The digital traces that parents create about their children, storing various memories about their children, documenting their growth processes, creating social networks in this sense, strengthening family ties and even sharing experiences with other parents represent the positive side of sharenting. However, sharenting, as a form of interaction between parents and social media, carries certain risks beneath its innocent appearance. First of all, children's privacy is violated. A picture that seems innocent at first may also cause children to encounter some bullying in the future. Written or visual products shared without children's permission may even cause psychological damage in the future. Our study is based on the thesis that sharing can offer opportunities for marketing strategies. Many consumers are positively affected by innocent images of children and may form closer relationships with the brand. In many cases, these images can offer advantages for businesses to develop products. Businesses can influence parents through their children, encouraging them to buy more products and increasing brand reliability. In fact, short photos of parents with their children can enable businesses to produce content that supports these moments, thus creating an emotional connection and increasing consumer loyalty. All of this is possible if the right strategy is used. In addition to academic studies, professional opinions of the business world on social media were also used in the presentation of this study. The practical implications of the study reveal that parent sharing, if used correctly, can be beneficial in terms of marketing without causing psychological or social harm to children.