CHAPTER-9
SOCIAL MEDIA
Learning Objectives
• What types of social networks assist marketers?
• What characteristics are present in various social media
websites?
• What is the nature of social media marketing?
• Which social media marketing strategies do companies employ?
• How can marketers use social media strategies in international
operations?
Social Networks
A social network is a social structure of
individuals and/or organizations that are
tied together in some manner.
Social media marketing involves the
utilization of social media and/or social
networks to market a product, company,
or brand.
Social Media Sites
Facebook Instagram
YouTube QQ (China)
WhatsApp Tumblr
Messenger QZone (China)
WeChat TikTok (China)
Facebook
Facebook is an American online social
media and social networking service
owned by Meta Platforms. It is world’s
largest social media site.
The companies that enjoy the most
successful Facebook presence, according
to Adweek, are Starbucks, Coca-Cola,
Best Buy, and Microsoft.
YouTube
YouTube is an American online video sharing and
social media platform owned by Google. The
fastest-growing area of social media networking
involves posting videos, especially on YouTube.
A second trend includes video reviews of
products. Rather than writing a review and
posting it on a blog or a website, consumers
create videos in which they talk about the brand
and their experiences.
Trends in Consumer Video Sharing-
• Uploading broadcast ads
• Video reviews of products
• Re-creation of ads
• Creating consumer-produced how-to
videos
• Capturing real-time events
• Creating branded videos
Instagram
The Instagram mobile photo and video social
sharing network owned by Facebook recently
enjoyed an explosion in popularity, leading to
more than 600 million monthly users.
Instagram enthusiasts tend to be young,
wealthy, and female. Among the brands with
an established Instagram presence, lingerie
retailer Victoria’s Secret is the largest.
Twitter
Twitter is an American micro-blogging
and social networking service on which
users post and interact with messages
known as "tweets".
Twitter helps marketers identify and
reach customers as they monitor what
customers say about a company or brand.
Tips for Using Twitter-
• Develop a strategy
• Maintain consistent brand voice
• Engage followers
• Focus on relationships
• Respond to customer comments
• Avoid total automation
Pinterest
Pinterest, the bulletin-board style social site
on which individuals post photos and image-
based articles about events, special interests,
or hobbies, hosts 250 million people per
month. Fashion and dining are the two most
featured topics on the site, which means
retailers and food producers find it to be an
attractive outlet.
Snapchat
Snapchat users know that their “snaps” are
only viewable for a set duration, between 1
and 10 seconds, and are then deleted, which
increases the site’s popularity. Users can
modify snaps with no time limit, but each one
disappears when closed by the recipient.
Pepsi employed Snapchat to promote a limited
edition of its cinnamon-flavored Pepsi Fire.
TikTok
TikTok, one of the fastest-growing social media
platforms provides biddable ad space through
its “managed service platform”.
TikTok can be a goldmine of engagement for
your business. The platform mainly focuses on
content creation rather than pushing on
monetization making it a viable option for
better reach.
Nature of Social Media Marketing
• Increase Traffic and Assist Mobile
Marketing
• Enhance Brand Image
• Improve Search Rankings
• Customer Intelligence
• Identify Consumer Advocates
• Build Brand Loyalty
• Provide an Alternative Outlet
A Caution
A recent Coca-Cola study suggested that online buzz, or talk on social media about the brand, did not
lead to any measurable impact on sales. This finding surprised many outsiders because Coca-Cola has
more than 60 million Facebook fans, which is a total greater than any other brand. The researchers
concluded that what cannot be determined by just counting comments or even looking at sentiments
(whether positive or negative) is the impact social media has on brand image and brand loyalty.
Further, the researchers asked, “If Coca-Cola was not involved with social media, would the impact be
negative on sales?” For megabrands such as Coca-Cola, social media marketing cannot be considered
as an option. Instead, marketers use this valuable new tool to engage fans more deeply.
Social Media Marketing
Strategies
Content seeding
Real-time marketing
Video marketing
Influencer marketing
Interactive blogs
Consumer-generated reviews
Viral marketing
Content seeding
Content seeding involves offering consumers
incentives to share content about a brand.
The incentive does not have to be financial,
although monetary incentives tend to be the
most frequently used. It can be information,
uniqueness, novelty, or anything that engages
consumers and motivates them to share with
others.
Real-time marketing
Real time marketing is the creation and
execution of an instantaneous marketing
message in response to and in conjunction
with an occurrence during a live event.
It is achieved on social channels by listening to
and anticipating customer needs. Real-time
marketing focuses on current events, trends,
or feedback.
Video marketing
Video marketing means using videos for
promoting and telling people about a product
or service. It helps increase engagement on
your digital and social channels, educates
audience, and allows a company to reach
them with a new medium.
Vloggers create videos, post them on video
sites and seek to build followings.
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing involves an individual
endorsing a brand on social media sites.
Influencer marketing is a form of social media
marketing involving endorsements and
product placement from influencers, people
and organizations who have a purported
expert level of knowledge or social influence
in their field.
Interactive blogs
Interactive blogs permit visitors to send
comments or posts, making them another
important component of social media.
Effective blogs attract followers and encourage
active participation. Such interactions present
a higher level of risk because the blogging
company surrenders some control over
content.
Consumer-generated
Reviews
User reviews or customer-generated reviews
are the results of evaluations, comparison, and
analysis made by the users or customers about
a business entity with which they have had an
experience.
Customer reviews are the cornerstone of a
user-generated content marketing strategy.
Viral marketing
Viral marketing is a sales technique that
involves organic or word-of-mouth
information about a product or service to
spread at an ever-increasing rate.
The internet and the advent of social media
have greatly increased the number of viral
messages in the form of memes, shares, likes,
and forwards.
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