According to Tuten, & Solomon (2013), social media marketing is a form of digital advertising that uses social media sites to get attention for a product or brand. Social media sites are sites where individuals are able to interact electronically through the internet. As such, social media marketing aims to generate interesting content for viewing and sharing across social media platforms. There are a number of strategies available to market the new tablet to the target consumer via social media. The two main strategies are passive approach and the active approach, which are both applicable in promoting the tablet.
In passive approach, the company behind the product will generate content in an aim to interest possible customers. For example, the company will extensively advertise the product and make sure that a number of social media influencers have information about the product. Social media influencers are personalities on social media with a large following. Typically, they will attract people with similar interests (Tuten, & Solomon, 2013). Their position of leadership means that their followers are likely to believe what they say. Furthermore, as a result, the company can contract social media influencers to promote the new product on their social media sites or pages. As a result, the product will receive exposure to a large number of individuals. For example, a prominent technology blogger can be given access to the tablet beforehand. They have an opportunity to use the product extensively and give a review at the end. People following the technology blogger will tend to believe what the blogger says. This can generate a market for the new product (Tuten, & Solomon, 2013).
The active approach involves the actual company behind the product operating social media sites focused on promoting the product. The main difference between passive and active approaches to social media marketing is that the passive approach uses third party individuals to generate interest in the product while the active approach involves the actual company behind the product (Tuten, & Solomon, 2013). In active approach, the company can manage a forum for people interested in the product where they can discuss the product extensively, with occasional input from the company. Social media sites can also be used to offer customer care services to clients. This is also an example of the active approach to social media marketing.
Regardless of the approach used, the key indicators for the performance of the social media marketing campaign remain similar. The key indicator is usually the interest raised in the product. This can be measured in a number of ways. For passive approach, the number of shares or comments about a product can be a good indicator of the interest raised. The more people discuss the product online, the more successful the social media marketing campaign utilized (Tuten, & Solomon, 2013). Additionally, the interest generated can also be measured using the number of hits on the company website. The difference between the number of hits prior and after the social media campaign is used to measure the effectiveness of the campaign.
Social media marketing is highly favored by many companies, especially start-up companies, because of the relatively low cost. The campaign relies on electronic word of mouth and can therefore involve social media users to generate content rather than the company being responsible for generating all the content. However, the company must also be aware of negative effects of social media. Any negativity about a product can also as easily be shared the same targeted audience thus leading to problems. The company must therefore try to maintain as much control over the social media campaign as possible.
Reference:
Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2013). Social media marketing. Boston: Pearson.
