Social Media Marketing (Definition and Explanation)
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
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Social Media Marketing (Definition and Explanation)
Basically, there is no fixed definition for social media marketing, however most people are of the idea that it is the inclusion of technological concepts and techniques in the marketing in order to achieve the different objectives of a particular company. Additionally, social marketing is more of building a business through the use of multiple and diverse media like blogs or videos for the aim of giving your company or firm exposure.
The core goal of social media marketing is producing information (content) that will be shared among the users in the social networks to facilitate the broadening of customer reach; furthermore, it is a representation of low cost tools used to combine technology and social interaction through the use of words. The most common tools, both internet and mobile based, include; Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube – where updating of a company’s information is done through statuses, tweets, blog posts or even new videos and clips (Brick Marketing 2013).
Generally, social media marketing helps a firm get direct feedback from customers or potential customers hence making it seem more personable through communication where the customers are given opportunities ask questions or voice complaints and feel they are being heard.
Effect of the Social Media on Marketing
Through the communication privileges offered by social media, companies are able to personalize the brand and helps them to spread their message in a more straight-forward and conversational way. The different ways that it is applied in marketing facilitate the provision of an identity to the business and the products and services that they offer, the creating of relationships with people (i.e. potential customers) who are not aware of the services and products, interacting with other firms that may be serving the same target market and it is also used to communicate and provide the interaction that consumers look for (Pitney 2013).
However, there also some of the negative effects of marketing using the social media; false sense of connection- where the sites make it difficult for people to differentiate the scope of the social media relationships as compared to the real world, there also cases of cyber bullying and in the aspect of privacy, people are encouraged to be more public about their public lives.
500 Fortune Companies (Starbucks and Whole Foods)
Starbucks
Starbucks have been successfully executing their social media marketing plan since the first days of social media and social commerce and for the past five years or so their strategies have played a significant role in their growth with more than 18,000 retail locations in 60 countries making the coffee house a picture of success (Mike 2013 [a]). Today, it has taken a leadership position when it comes to social media marketing which is built around the company’s website and six other social platforms (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus, My Starbucks Ideas and YouTube) (Nora 2013).
Starbucks have been a huge success mainly due to their strategy of combining the concepts of change, experimentation, customer engagement and market research, and making the results key components of both their brand as well as their overall marketing strategy (Mike 2013 [a]). However, the company’s key factor has been utilizing the social media to enhance customer relationships where instead of solely focusing their efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates it current relationships.
Whole Foods
Significantly, Whole Foods has been successfully executing their social media marketing plan for over five years now and as a result their strategies have played a significant role in their growth making it the leading natural and organic food store with nearly 300 locations in North America and the UK (Mike 2013[b]). The company has its own website and six additional social platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Pinterest and their blog.
Whole Foods has a number of key features that they apply to their social media strategy, which also enhance the gap difference in the marketing campaign; for starters, they put priority on the local component of its strategy where there is a community manager in every branch who is responsible for the customer engagement through multiple platform accounts by actually focusing on where the customers are (Nora 2013). In the stores, there are also personnel who are in charge of maintaining very loose control from corporate headquarters; generally, these people assist and collaborate with the local stores to ensure lots of freedom of initiative.
Additionally, most of the efforts are focused on improving relevancy of customer engagement and the company is not afraid to see what works and what does not with each media platform being assigned its primary objectives but with some flexibility and adaptability being maintained (Mike 2013 [b]). In Conclusion, the Whole Foods strategy sets a goal of linking and loose integration of all the platform efforts; moreover, they believe in letting customer engagement and occur as naturally as possible through listening, observing and applying new ideas from what they learn.
References
Brick Marketing, (2013), what is Social Media Marketing: Full Service SEO Solutions Firm. Retrieved 11th December 2013, from HYPERLINK “http://www.brickmarketing.com/what-is-social-marketing.htm” http://www.brickmarketing.com/what-is-social-marketing.htm
Pitney, B. (September 3, 2013). Marketing through Social Media Channels have Counterproductive Effect on Consumers: Hispanic Business. Retrieved on 11th December 2013, from HYPERLINK “http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/9/3/marketing_via_social_media_channels_have.htm” http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2013/9/3/marketing_via_social_media_channels_have.htm
Nora, G. B, Ava, L. & Stephanie, W (2013). Fortune 500 Are Bullish on Social Media; Big Companies Get Excited About Google+, Instagram, Foursquare and Pinterest: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. 1 (1), p. 1-9.
Mike, S (2013) Starbucks Marketing Strategy- Making Social Media a Difference Maker: Digital Spark Marketing. Retrieved 11th December 2013, from HYPERLINK “http://www.digitalsparkmarketing.com/creative-marketing/social-media/starbucks-marketing/” http://www.digitalsparkmarketing.com/creative-marketing/social-media/starbucks-marketing/ [a]
Mike, S (2013) How Whole Foods Marketing Uses Social Media to be a Difference Maker: Digital Spark Marketing. Retrieved on 11th December 2013, from HYPERLINK “http://www.digitalsparkmarketing.com/creative-marketing/social-media/whole-foods-marketing/” http://www.digitalsparkmarketing.com/creative-marketing/social-media/whole-foods-marketing/ [b]
