Introduction
With the advent and increasing popularity of the internet, the social media is fast emerging as a viable platform for marketing by many organizations. This form of marketing that makes use of social media sites and networks is known as social media marketing. It is really gaining popularity among organizations despite its novelty. Social media marketing may be defined as a form of business activity which is done through various channels of social media networks. We argue that companies that are intent on making use of social media as a marketing tool need to have a social media marketing strategy plan. It is the case that a successful social media marketing campaign leads to better exposure for a company, boosts of sales, increase of traffic, increase in customer loyalty and a reduction in marketing expenses. A number of social media channels or platforms that may be used by organizations for social media marketing include Face Book, Twitter, Linked In and You Tube. Indeed, a number of organizations have discovered and realized the benefits attendant to advertising or marketing on social media and have consequently instituted a social media marking strategy into their corporate marketing strategy. The NGOs have also taken a cue from this expanding type of marketing all over the world. Nonetheless, Russia has lagged behind a bit in adopting this new trend of social media marketing. We focus on two significant environmental NGOs in Russia namely Greenpeace and World Wide Found for Nature (WWF) with a view to establishing the role of social media marketing in the country. There lies immense potential in the ability of the social media to revolutionize marketing among the NGOs in the country. This paper seeks to make recommendations aimed at utilizing this potential.
Recommendations
It is evident from the research that two of the significant environmental NGOs in Russia namely Greenpeace and WWF make use of social media for various purposes. Both organizations employ some of the most popular social media sites or networks to engage in social media marketing activity with the exception of the second largest network named Odnoklasskini. Indeed, it is the further finding of the research that respondents or the sampling frame of the study called for the appearance of the organizations in social media channels. As such, it is our recommendation that all environmental NGOs in Russia as well as other companies should create a vibrant presence on Odnoklasskini to take advantage of the huge traffic at the site. It is notable that Greenpeace makes use of social media marketing as a fundraising tool which is not the case with WWF. Increasingly, the social media is also used as a fundraising campaign platform in order to raise funds for a cause and has even been used effectively by presidential candidates in raising funds for their campaigns. Similarly, in just the same way that a rallying cause is made or people are mobilized on social media, so would the fundraising campaign. It is clear that Greenpeace has used the social media platform to raise funds for the organization, a feat which needs to be replicated by other organizations which depended on donors to run their functions and activities. Another recommendation of this paper concerns the raising awareness of the environmental NGOs in the country and the need for knowledge of their presence and its able functioning. The survey that was conducted revealed that people are well aware of the numerous environmental problems in the country. Further, the survey also revealed that there is little information on the existence of the NGOs in the country as well as their roles. As such, there is a need to create awareness on the existence of environmental NGOs as well as clearly defining their role, so that they are able to attract funding and are able to mobilize people towards environmental sustainability measures. This raising of awareness is sure to cause more people to volunteer in organizations, participate in activities as well as contribute financially to the organizations. In order to make this feasible, crucial information need be availed on the social media platform so as to aid in the cause of these organizations. Issues relating to updates and announcements of the organizations, reports of actions intended and taken by the organizations, general environmental education as well as the mission and goals of the organization need be captured in the social media platforms.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we state that social media marketing is the most potent tool that has the ability to transform the affairs of organizations by cutting on spending that is usually put into advertisement. The vibrant presence of the environmental organizations will significantly aid in ameliorating the ecological problems that bedevil the country Russia and thus set it on a path towards sustainability. Further, the use of social media marketing to raise awareness of the environmental organizations will help inform people of the existence of these very organizations as well as their roles, which is currently lacking.
Works Cited
Deis, Michael H and Hensel Kyle. "Using social media to increase advertising and improve marketing." Entrepreneurial Executive: (2010): 87.
Evans, Dave. Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. Boston: John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2010.
Hansen, D.L, B Shneiderman and M.A Smith. Social Media: New Technologies of Collaboration. In Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL. Boston: Morgan Kaufmann, 2011.
Kaplan, AM and M Haenlein. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media." Business Horizons (2010): 59-68.
RUSSIA, GREENPEACE. Greenpeace official website. 11 2 2013. 30 11 2013 <http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/ru/>.
Trattner, C and F Kappe. "Social Stream Marketing on Facebook: A Case Study." International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing (IJSHC) (2013): 2.
