Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites.
Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it across their social networks. The resulting electronic word of mouth (eWoM) refers to any statement consumers share via the Internet (e.g., web sites, social networks, instant messages, news feeds) about an event, product, service, brand or company. When the underlying message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself, this form of marketing results in earned media rather than paid media.
Social media platforms
Social networking websites
Social networking websites allow individuals and businesses 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 & advertising.Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Social networking sites and blogs allow followers to “retweet” or “repost” comments made by others about a product being promoted. 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.
Social networking websites are based on building virtual communities, that allow consumers to express their needs, wants and values, online. Social Media Marketing then connects these consumers and audiences to businesses that share the same needs, wants and values.
Through social networking sites, companies can interact with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience.
Social networking sites also include a vast amount of information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new Semantic Analysis technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online. Understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns.
In order to integrate Social Networks within their marketing strategies, companies have to develop a marketing model. In a marketing model (SNeM2S) based on Social Networks is provided. The model includes the following steps:
- Selection of potential Social Networks to use;
- Definition of a financial plan;
- Definition of organizational structures to manage the Social Network in the market;
- Selection of target;
- Promotion of products and services;
- Performance measures
Social Networking is used by 76% of businesses today. Business retailers have seen 133% increases in their revenues from social media marketing.
Mobile phones
Mobile phone usage is beneficial for social media marketing because mobile phones have social networking capabilites, allowing individuals immediate web browsing and access to social networking sites. Mobile phones have grown at a rapid rate, fundamentally altering the path-to-purchase process by allowing consumers to easily obtain pricing and product information in real time and allowing company's to constantly remind and update their followers. Many companies are now putting QR (Quick Response) codes along with products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smart-phones. Retailers use QR codes to facilitate consumer interaction with brands by linking the code to brand websites, promotions, product information, or any other mobile-enabled content.Mobile devices and internet also influence the way consumers interact with media and has many further implications for TV ratings, advertising, mobile commerce and more. Mobile media consumption such as mobile audio streaming or mobile video are on the rise – in the United States, more than 100 million users are projected to access online video content via mobile device. Mobile video revenue consists of pay-per-view downloads, advertising, and subscriptions. As of 2013, worldwide mobile phone internet user penetration was 73.4%. In 2017, figures suggest that more than 90% of internet users will access online content through their phones.
Strategies
There are two basic strategies for engaging the social media as marketing tools:
The passive approach
Social media can be a useful source of market information and customer voice. 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 voice generated in social media for marketing purposes; in this sense the social media is an inexpensive source of market intelligence which can be used by marketers to track problems and market opportunities.The active approach
Social media can be used not only as public relations and direct marketing tools but also as communication channels (targeting specific audiences with social media influencers) and as customer engagement tools.Engagement
In the context of the social web, engagement means that customers and stakeholders are participants rather than viewers. Social media in business allows all consumers to express and share an opinion or an idea somewhere along the business’s path to market. Each participating customer becomes part of the marketing department, as other customers read their comments or reviews. The engagement process is then fundamental to successful social media marketing.With the advent of social media marketing it has become increasingly important to gain customer interest which can eventually be translated into buying behavior. New online marketing concepts of engagement and loyalty have emerged which aim to build customer participation and reputation.
Engagement in social media for the purpose of your social media strategy is divided into two parts:
- Proactive posting of new content and conversations, as well as the sharing of content and information from others
- Reactive conversations with social media users responding to those who reach out to your social media profiles through commenting or messaging
Traditional media is limited to one way interaction with customers or ‘push and tell’ where only specific information is given to the customer without any mechanism to obtain customer feedback. On the other hand, social media is participative where customer are able to share their views on brands, products and services. Traditional media gives the control of message to the marketer whereas social media shifts the balance to the consumer.
List of Social Media Networking Sites and Strategy:
A study from 2011 attributed 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. By 2014 Facebook had restricted the content published from businesses' and brands' pages. Adjustments in Facebook algorithms have reduced the audience for non-paying business pages (that have at least 500,000 "Likes") from 16% in 2012 down to 2% in February 2014.
Google+
Google+, in addition to providing pages and some features of Facebook, is also able to integrate with the Google search engine. Other Google products are also integrated, such as Google Adwords and Google Maps. With the development of Google Personalized Search and other location-based search services, Google+ allows for targeted advertising methods, navigation services, and other forms of location-based marketing and promotion. Google+ can also be beneficial for other digital marketing campaigns, as well as social media marketing. Google+ authorship was known to have a significant benefit on a website's search engine optimisation, before the relationship was removed by Google. Google+ is one of the fastest growing social media networks and can benefit almost any business.Yelp
Yelp consists of a comprehensive online index of business profiles. Businesses are searchable by location, similar to Yellow Pages. The website is operational in seven different countries, including the United States and Canada. Business account holders are allowed to create, share, and edit business profiles. They may post information such as the business location, contact information, pictures, and service information. The website further allows individuals to write, post reviews about businesses and rate them on a five-point scale. Messaging and talk features are further made available for general members of the website, serving to guide thoughts and opinions.Foursquare
Foursquare is a location based social networking website, where users can check into locations via a Swarm app on their smartphones. Foursquare allows businesses to create a page or create a new/claim an existing venue.YouTube
YouTube is another popular avenue; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience. The type of language used in the commercials and the ideas used to promote the product reflect the audience's style and taste.Also, the ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video requested, this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers. Certain ads are presented with certain videos since the content is relevant. Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube, "for example, a user who searches for a YouTube video on dog training may be presented with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos." YouTube also enable publishers to earn money through its YouTube Partner Program.
Social Bookmarking Sites
Websites such as Delicious, Digg, Slashdot, diigo, stumbleupon and Reddit are popular social bookmarking sites used in social media promotion. Each of these sites is dedicated to the collection, curation, and organization of links to other websites. This process is crowdsourced, allowing members to sort and prioritize links by relevance and general category. Due to the large user bases of these websites, any link from one of them to another, smaller website usually results in a flash crowd. In addition to user generated promotion, these sites also offer advertisements within individual user communities and categories. Because ads can be placed in designated communities with a very specific target audience and demographic, they have far greater potential for traffic generation than ads selected simply through cookie and browser history. Additionally, some of these websites have also implemented measures to make ads more relevant to users by allowing users to vote on which ones will be shown on pages they frequent. The ability to redirect large volumes of web traffic and target specific, relevant audiences makes social bookmarking sites a valuable asset for social media marketers.Blogs
Platforms like LinkedIn create an environment for companies and clients to connect online. Companies that recognize the need for information, originality, and accessibility employ blogs to make their products popular and unique, and ultimately reach out to consumers who are privy to social media.Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services, can include testimonials and can link to and from other social network and blog pages. Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers, and also for acquiring followers and subscribers who can then be directed to social network pages.
Online communities can enable a business to reach the clients of other businesses using the platform. To allow firms to measure their standing in the corporate world, sites like Glassdoor enable employees to place evaluations of their companies. Some businesses opt out of integrating social media platforms into their traditional marketing regimen. There are also specific corporate standards that apply when interacting online. To maintain an advantage in a business-consumer relationship, businesses have to be aware of four key assets that consumers maintain: information, involvement, community, and control.
Tumblr
Tumblr first launched ad products on May 29, 2012. Rather than relying on simple banner ads, Tumblr requires advertisers to create a Tumblr blog so the content of those blogs can be featured through the site. In one year, four native ad formats were created on web and mobile, and had more than 100 brands advertising on Tumblr with 500 cumulative sponsored posts.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
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