Wikipedia defines Social media as “media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues.” [1] Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” [2]
Social media has allowed business to connect with consumers around the globe. As more and more consumers connect with various social media sites, they become more brand aware and more educated about consumer trends. Social media has marked a milestone in the world of marketing, everyone is doing it.
The concept of marketing on Social sites has many up sides. The beauty of social marketing is that a marketer can test it out and get instantaneous reports. If something doesn’t seem to work, they can change their marketing efforts or focus on another channel. This is not possible with the traditional advertising channels where a marketer can wait up to several months before seeing a report.
Another benefit to using social marketing channels is that you are guaranteed to remain within your specified budget. Facebook and YouTube enable the user to set up an account and specify maximum daily and/or monthly budget limits. Your account specifications are uploaded to the site’s database and once your max is reached, your account will not be charged further until the next cycle begins.
Web 2.0 marketing strategy allows a company to market precisely to their target. A channel like Facebook will capture detailed demographic information about the user and in turn will use this information to determine which advertisements will work best based off of their profile statistics. This highly effective “pull-marketing” tactic allows marketers to market their products in a non-invasive, non-threatening manner. Viewers/consumers may or may not click on the banner add. Viewers may or may not choose to comment on the product, ad, video, etc. In the world of Web 2.0, the consumer is the decision maker.
There are several downsides to Web 2.0 marketing. The most obvious negative is the fact that negative information about a business’s brand, product or service, can spread virally just as quickly as positive information. This negative press can destroy the credibility of a brand. Consider this fact: 78% of global consumers say they trust and believe other people's recommendations for products and services - more than any other medium, including newspapers, conventional and online advertising [3]. If those recommendations are negative, the effects can be detrimental.
Traditionally, marketing has always had a top-down approach where marketers develop a campaign and push their content toward their target market. The social marketing phenomenon has introduced a pull method, where the consumers seek out their products. This new wave creates a barrier for the traditional marketers who are not yet ready to adapt to the new pull methods. To overcome these barriers, Jennifer Leggio [4], social media blogger, summarized her learnings after the 2009 Web 2.0 Expo. She reiterated that to adapt to this cultural change, a business has to get the big guns (the executives) involved. She recommends starting small and experimenting and then branching out further as marketers gain confidence and comfort.
Finally, companies have to decide their need to be part of this new emerging channels of advertising. They have to investigate and decide if by exploring this new media they would achieve their advertising objectives. Can they substitute their existing media plan? What are the expected results? What are the benefits and risks? All questions must be answered before changing methods and embracing the explosive propagation of new media.
1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
2 - http://www.slideshare.net/guestef2b2f/social-media-definition-and-classification
3 - http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-170803247.html
4 - http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?p=887
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment