Social media marketing is gaining website traffic or attention through media sites. Over the years there has been widespread use of social media sites by people from all over the world hence it is a natural evolution that social media is being used for advertisement by various businesses. A recent study showed that there are over 200 million twitter users and over 500 million active facebook users. This is a large number of people hence businesses have taken advantage of this social media platform that has enabled them to have access to a large group of people which the traditional advertising sites did not have access to.
Brands have created profiles so that they can interact with their customers. These interactions are more personal hence enabling businesses to know the likes and dislikes of their customers. These personal interactions also create loyalty between the business and its customers. Customer loyalty is very essential for any business. When customers are loyal to a business, they are able to share about the business with other people hence leading to the increase in the number of customers. Increase in the number of customers leads to increase in sales which eventually lead to increase in profits for the company.
Information shared from one user to another is usually more trusted because it is earned media instead of paid media. It is of a more personal nature hence more trusted. Large amount of information can be shared through social media. Information can be shared about an event, product, service, brand or company. When information is shared through the social media, the repetition leads to a large amount of people having access to the information and social media marketing breaks the geographical barrier. Social media users are people from all over the world hence the information about the product is shared with a larger number of people enabling the company to have customers from all over the world.
Social media marketing provided the business and customers with a new way of engaging. Through social media customers share their opinions on various aspects of the business hence enabling the business have access to a wide range of information at a lower cost. Traditionally, if surveying method is used to gather information on the business from the customers it would cost the business a large amount of money and time. According to Douglas Lim, there are two reasons for social media marketing. The first reason is branding and the second reason is trafficking. Branding is creating a presence for your label through a unique image and name. Social media helps in branding of the business by providing it with a platform to put its name out there and share information on the various products it has and the features of those products and services. Branding is just about sharing information on the various aspects of that business. The second reason for social media marketing is trafficking. Trafficking is the sharing of information about the business by a large number of people. In social media trafficking can be measured through for example the number of likes a page has or the number of views on the videos that are posted. Another reason for social media marketing is that the information about the business is able to reach a large number of people since social media has very many users. The traditional advertising mediums did not have as much access to a large number of people from all over the world. Social media marketing is also used because the information shared on social media is more trustworthy. The main aim of social media marketing is that the company or business does not force its products on people but it provides a platform for the customers to share information about the product. The way social media marketing works therefore is that the customers advertise the products by sharing information about the product with other people. Customers sharing information about the product seems more sincere and has the likelihood of attracting other customers than the business sharing information about their product themselves. This therefore shows that through social media marketing, the customers are part of the marketing department of the business or company. Social media marketing enables the business to advertise its products and services at a cost effective rate. Social media marketing is cheaper than the traditional advertising mediums like print media and television. Social media marketing enables the business to both advertise its products and services as well as gathering information about their products and services and the likes and dislikes of its customers. Social media marketing is there very cost effective since in the past, advertising products and services and gathering information used to cost the business a large amount of money as well as time. The above points show why social media marketing is very popular and the reason why it has overtaken the television which used to be the major marketing medium in the past.
In 2002, internet sales were low. Social media marketing had not gained momentum. It was at just 16%. These however changed in 2003 and it has been on the rise ever since. In 2003, my space, LinkedIn and Skype began to get popular and internet advertising went up by 21%. In 2004 major changes began to happen in the social media marketing. Facebook and Gmail were introduced and internet advertising revenue in the United States totalled $2.69 billion in the fourth quarter of that year. In 2005 YouTube gets popular and internet advertising is up by 34%. YouTube has been a huge part of internet advertising especially for musicians. Most artists share their music through the internet and let their fans know of the music that they have released. This has been a game changer in the music industry and nowadays social media is a huge aspect of a musician’s career. The most successful artists are very keen with social media and they interact with their fans enabling them to have a personal relationship with them and ultimately have a large fan base which equates to more success for the artist. In 2006, twitter is introduced and there is a lot of online advertising going on through blogs and social media. Internet advertising is then up by 37%. In 2007, tumbler begins micro blogging and the iphone is introduced. The search engines takes up 41% in advertising. There was $21.2 billion in internet advertising revenue. The search engine enables social media users to search for the product online enabling them to get a wide range of information on the product. The information includes the features of the product and services, the price and even the location of the business. A major event happened in 2008 which brought social media marketing to a whole other level. Barack Obama was elected the president of the United States thanks to his memorable digital marketing. Before 2008, social media marketing had been used mostly by businesses to advertise their products. We can now see that even politicians are embracing social media marketing and that it is becoming a huge aspect of political campaigns. In 2008 the advertising revenue was at $23.4 billion and 46% was to search engines. In 2009, foursquare was introduced and due to the global economic crisis, internet advertising revenue decreased by 3.4%. In 2010 the internet sales revenue hits the $26 billion mark with mobile advertising bringing in $650 million. Most smart phones nowadays come with social media applications enabling the owners have access to social media at any time of the day. In 2011 it was observed that 40% of users browse the internet on their phones and that 70% of smart phone users make a purchase on their phones. The first 6 months of 2011 see internet advertising up by 23% with search being almost at 50%. In 2012 annual revenue totalled to $36.6 billion up 15.2%. In 2013, the half year report was 17.8% higher than 2012’s half year report. This statistics and report show the evolution of social media marketing and how it has risen over the years. It is bound to rise even more in future with the many developments in social media.
The types of marketing strategies provided by social media are research and promotions. For research, social media enables the business gather information about its customers. Facebook for example, has an algorithm that reads what people like and displays adverts that are relevant to that particular user. Search engine marketing is also used. This is when the social media site displays advertisements to users according to the statistics of what they usually search. The other marketing strategy is that of promotions. Social media provides various avenues for businesses to promote their products and services. There are for example websites that are used to broaden the business, fan pages that are used to promote the business and the share button that enables users to share information about a product with other users. Electronic word of mouth is also another avenue of promoting the business as well as social networking and blogging.
Social media plays an important role in marketing. It is 24% fun to use hence leading to more people using it. It is 22% important in making purchase decisions, 21% of people believe that social media provides them with the information they need to make a decision, 18% of the people have been introduced to a new product through social media, 11% role in changing the opinion of people on a certain brand and 6% role of making people feel that they have the information they need. This shows the broad role played by social media in marketing.
Social media marketing can be found in various avenues. The most popular site for social networking is facebook. This is because it has a wide range of features that aides in social media marketing. It has videos, photos and longer descriptions. Other avenues include; twitter, foursquare, LinkedIn, Google, instagram, blogs and YouTube.
Social media marketing is used by a wide range of businesses. They range from big well established businesses to the small businesses. Some of the businesses that use social media marketing include Coke, Starbucks, Microsoft Bing and Southwest Airlines. Starbucks for example has set the bar really high for businesses when it comes to social media marketing. Its focus is not on getting new customers but on nurturing the current relationship it has with its customers. The customers are eager to share their experience hence leading to the popularity of Starbucks. Social media marketing has been popular in campaigns. People who share the same values are able to rally together and get even more followers so as to inform others of their course. In 2012 for example the video of Kony 2012 went viral it was released by a non profit organisation called Invisible Children, Inc which aimed at increasing awareness of child soldiers and spreading the word that Kony was an international criminal who should be apprehended.
In conclusion, we have seen how social media is in marketing and the role it plays in marketing of businesses. With the large number of people on social media, businesses have taken advantage of this and increased the popularity of its business. We have also seen the evolution of social media over the years and the trend shows that social media will continue being an important avenue for marketing for most businesses. Social media marketing plays an important role in the success of a business. It is, therefore advisable for businesses, both new and old to embrace social media marketing.
References
Constant Contact Inc. (2013). Constant Contact Inc. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from Constant Contact Inc. Website: http://img.constantcontact.com/docs/pdf/why-social-media-marketing.pdf
Evans, D. (2010). Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement (Illustrated ed.). New York City: John Wiley & Sons.
Ghali, P. (2011). iContact Corp. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from iContact Corp Website: http://www.icontact.com/static/pdf/whitepaper_SocialMediaMarketing.pdf
Godes, D., & Mayzlin, D. (2004). Using Online Conversations to Study Word of Mouth Communication. Marketing Science , 545-560.
Pride, W. M., & O., C. F. (2011). Marketing. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Sandhusen, R. L. (2008). Marketing (Illustrated, Revised ed.). Hauppauge, New York: Barron's Educational Series.
Schivinski, B., & Dabrowski, D. (2013, June 4). GDNASK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from GDNASK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY: http://www.zie.pg.gda.pl/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=a09080de-92f4-42d5-a1d1-a54d93de3221&groupId=10236
Social Media Examiner. (2013). Social Media Examiner. Retrieved December 6, 2013, from Social Media Examiner Website: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2013.pdf
ymarketing. (n.d.). http://www.ymarketing.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-last-ten-years-of-digital-marketing/.
Zarrella, D. (2009). The Social Media Marketing Book. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
