Social Media Marketing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Social media marketing is a term that describes the act of using social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other collaborative Internet form of media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
In the context of Internet marketing, social media refers to a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g. the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees).
Concept
Social media marketing has three important aspects:
- Creating buzz or news worthy events, videos, tweets, or even blog entries that attract attention, and become viral in nature. Buzz is the piece that makes social media marketing work. It replicates a message, not through purchase of an ad, but through user to user contact. The message does not necessarily have to be about the product; many successful viral campaigns have gathered steam through something funny or interesting, with the company logo or tagline included.
- Building ways that fans of a brand or company can promote it themselves in multiple online social media venues. Fan pages in Twitter, MySpace of Facebook are exactly this.
- It is conversational. Social media marketing is not fully controlled by the organization, it allows for user participation and dialogue. Potentially a badly designed social media marketing campaign can backfire on the organization that created it. That is the reason that SMM campaigns must fully engage and respect the users.
According to Lloyd Salmons, first chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau social media council "Social media isn't just about big networks like Facebook and MySpace, it's about brands having conversations.".
The parameters surrounding social media marketing are arguably elusive today; however a growing consensus suggests social media marketing and Social Media are here to stay. Nielsen published a report suggesting that blogs and social networks make up the emerging social web. The social web includes social media sites and it is a location within which social media marketing takes place.
Social network marketing
Social network marketing or social level marketing, is an advertising method that makes use of social network service and to increase their web presence. This ranges from simply advertising directly on social networking sites, viral marketing that spreads throughout the web, email, and word of mouth, or providing niche social networking sites focused around the item being advertised.
Many sites include features where companies can create profiles. For example, on Facebook companies can create "pages" where users can become fans of this company, product, service, individual, etc. Many companies create MySpace pages for themselves.
Companies sometimes invest in internet presence management, which can include social network marketing.
Studies
According to a 2009 CMO Survey, currently 3.5% of marketing budgets is spent on social media marketing, with that figure predicted to grow to 6.1% within 12 months and 13.7% within five years. The survey also found that social networks (e.g., Facebook and LinkedIn) are most favored by marketers, followed by video sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), image sharing sites (e.g., Flickr), blogs, and microblogs (e.g., Twitter and Seesmic). According to the 2009 Digital Readiness Report, "Essential Online Public Relations and Marketing Skills," a majority of organizations are now contemplating hiring social media specialists. In a 2007 study by eMarketer, commissioned by MySpace, it was predicted there would be a $1230 million spend on social network marketing. In a 2008 study by Forrester Research evaluating the social network marketing programs, only one of the 16 major firms it had reviewed had received a passing grade, with half of the programs scoring a zero or lower.
Social Media Marketing in China
Social Media Marketing is particularly effective in China, where a perceived lack of business ethics have resulted in a consumer tendency to mistrust traditional advertising and depend more on word-of-mouth marketing. Such a demand would be filled with Social Media Marketing, as individuals such as college students aiming to advertise their computer graphics skills to corporations as large as BMW implement online initiatives to attract the Chinese consumer.
Social Media Marketing and Businesses
Social Media has started to become heavy marketer for businesses. They have especially become popular for media outlets to use. CNN has a podcast and a facebook. In addition to CNN as company using social media, their employees use different social media. For example Anderson Cooper, of Anderson Cooper 360 has a blog, a facebook and a twitter. Facebook seems to be the leading social media outlet for businesses by having pages from from different companies such as Dots, New York and Company. Twitter comes in 2nd place and Myspace comes in 3rd place.
“A customer oriented mindset stemming from deep social interaction allows a company to identify and meet customer needs in the marketplace, generating superior profits." - Wetpaint and Altimeter, The Engagement Report
Social Media Potential for Business to Business
Business technology buyers participate socially more than adult US consumers. Forrester surveyed technical and line-of-business decision-makers who buy technology. Socially, this is an extremely active group compared to US adults or many other groups. Almost all (91%) read blogs, view videos, or listen to podcasts online, and just 5% don’t participate in any social activity at least monthly. More than three fourths of respondents say that peers influence their purchase decisions, more so than any other media or information source.
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