Social media moves marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, enabling companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns. Companies address a range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of a marketing campaign, governances, setting the scope e.g. more active or passive use and the establishment of a firm’s desired social media cultured tone
When using social media market, firms can allow customers and Internet users to post user-generated content e.g., online comments, product reviews, etc., also known as “earned media,” rather than use marketer-prepared advertising copy.
Social networking websites
Social networking websites allow individuals, businesses and other organizations to interact with one another and build
relationships and communities online. When companies join these social channels, consumers can interact with them directly That interaction can be more personal to users than traditional methods of outbound marketing and advertising. Social networking sites act as word of mouth or more precise, e-word of mouth. The Internet’s ability to reach billions across the globe has given online word of mouth a powerful voice and far reach. The ability to rapid change buying patterns and product or service acquisition and activity to a growing number of consumers is defined as an influence network.Social networking sites and blogs allow followers to “retweet” or repost comments made by others about a product being promoted, which occurs quite frequently on some social media sites. By repeating the message, the user’s connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the
product/company.
Strategies
There are two basic strategies for using social media as a marketing tool:
Social media can be a useful source of market information and a way to hear customer perspectives. Blogs, content
communities, and forums are platforms where individuals share their reviews and recommendations of brands, products, and services. Businesses are able to tap and analyze the customer voices and feedback generated in social media for marketing purpose; in this sense the social media is a relatively inexpensive source of market intelligence which can be used by marketers and managers to track and respond to consumer identified problems and detect market opportunities. For example, the Internet erupted with videos and pictures of iPhone 6 “bend test” which showed that the coveted phone could be bent by hand pressure. The so-called “bend gate” controversy
Active approach
Social media can be used not only as public relations and direct marketing tools, but also as communication channels targeting very specific audiences with social media influencers and social media personalities as effective customer engagement tools.
This tactic is widely known as influencer marketing. Influencer marketing allows brands the opportunity to reach their target audience in a more genuine, authentic way via a special group of selected influencers advertising their product or service. In
fact, brands are set to spend up to $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022, per Business Insider Intelligence estimates, based on Mediacom data.
Social media marketing in sport
There has been an increase in social media marketing in sport, as sports teams and clubs recognise the importance of keeping a rapport with their fans and other audiences through social media. Sports personalities such as Cristiano Ronaldo have 40.7 million followers on Twitter and 49.6 million on Instagram, creating opportunities for endorsements.
Marketing techniques:-
Social media marketing involves the use of social networks, consumer’s online brand-related activities (COBRA) and electronic word of mouth to successfully advertise online. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide advertisers with information about the likes and dislikes of their consumers. This technique is crucial, as it provides the businesses with a “target audience”. With social networks, information relevant to the user’s likes is available to businesses; who then advertise accordingly. Activities such as uploading a picture of your “new Converse sneakers to Facebook is an example of a COBRA. Electronic
recommendations and appraisals are a convenient manner to have a product promoted via “consumer-to-consumer interactions. An example of enwomb would be an online hotel review the hotel company can have two possible outcomes based on their service. A good service would result in a positive review which gets the hotel free advertising via social media. However, a poor service will result in a negative consumer review which can potentially harm the company’s reputation.
Marketing research:
Mobile social media applications provide companies data about offline consumer movements at a level of detail that was previously accessible to online companies only. These applications allow any business to know the exact time a customer who uses social media entered one of its locations, as well as know the social media comments made during the visit.
Communication: Mobile social media communication takes two forms: company-to-consumer (in which a company may establish a connection to a consumer based on its location and provide reviews about locations nearby) and user-generated content. For example, McDonald’s offered $5 and $10 gift-cards to 100 users randomly selected among those checking in at one of its restaurants. This promotion increased check-ins by 33% (from 2,146 to 2,865), resulted in over 50 articles and blog posts, and prompted several hundred thousand news feeds and Twitter messages.
Social media marketing becomes effective through a process called “building social authority”. One of the foundation concepts in social media has become that you cannot completely control your message through social media but rather you can simply begin to participate in the “conversation” expecting that you can achieve a significant influence in that conversation.[17] However, this conversation participation
must be cleverly executed because although people are resistant to marketing in general, they are even more resistant to direct or overt marketing through social media platforms. This may seem counterintuitive but it is the main reason building social authority with credibility is so important. A marketer can generally not expect people to be receptive to a marketing message in and of itself. In the Edelman Trust Barometer report in 2008, the majority (58%) of the respondents reported they most trusted company or product information coming from “people like me” inferred to be information from someone they trusted. In the 2010 Trust Report,[19] the majority switched to 64% preferring their information from industry experts and academics. According to Inc. Technology’s Brent Leary, “This loss of trust, and the accompanying turn towards experts and authorities, seems to be coinciding with the rise of social media and networks
