Social Media Marketing

Statista estimates that there are currently (in 2022) over 4.5 billion social media users worldwide.¹ Whether you post to Instagram frequently or use Facebook Messenger to chat with your friends, the chances are you probably use some form of social media. The high levels of social media usage have led to the creation of various social media channels that marketers use to communicate with customers. Communicating with customers through social channels is known as social media marketing. However, there is much more to social media marketing than posting aesthetic pictures and chatting with your community. Read along to find out why!

Social Media Marketing Definition

To create a comprehensive definition of social media marketing, let's first look at how social media has become widespread.

The advancement of digital technologies has given rise to numerous social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Due to increased social media participation, marketers quickly noticed an opportunity to engage and communicate with consumers through these new channels.

Before diving deep into social media strategies, let's explore the different types of media organisations use to communicate with their target audience.

The POEM framework (paid, owned, and earned media) is used to classify the different digital media platforms (see Figure 1 below).

• Paid media is any media you pay to use and promote your product/brand. Paid advertisement is a form of paid media that ranges from digital display ads to billboards and sponsorships. The benefits of paid media include that the firm can easily control the ad's message and scale.

• Owned media is any form of media that belongs to the organisation. The organisation has complete control over owned media. Owned media is vital as it can be used as a tool to build long-term relationships with customers. However, it can take a long time to do this successfully.

  A mobile app, a website, or a blog are examples of owned media.

• Earned media - refers to any media on a third-party channel. The user (in this case, the company or brand) has to adhere to the platform's community guidelines. The benefits of earned media include its two-way communicative nature (e.g. direct communication and back-and-forth between consumer and brand); however, the company has little control over the audience's reaction.

  TikTok is a form of earned media. If TikTok deems posted content inappropriate, the company risks losing the account.

Figure 1. Types of Digital Media Platforms, StudySmarter Originals

Types of Social Media Marketing

There are various types of social media marketing. To understand them, let's first take a look at the different kinds of social media platforms.

Social networks are what usually comes to mind when considering social media. They include platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. These channels work on content and interactions and thus depend significantly on the network effect.

Blogs - can include weblogs or microblogs. Weblogs (blogs) can be used for commercial purposes, e.g., to advertise a product or service through search engine optimised posts. Microblogging is similar to blogging but in a shorter format (e.g. Twitter). Twitter can also be used as a platform to communicate promotional messages.

Online communities - include forums and information-sharing platforms. They find goods, services, and experiences, discuss a common purpose/hobby, share professional tips, or have general discussions. Examples of online communities include Reddit, Duolingo forums, and TripAdvisor.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

There are various social media marketing strategies organisations may wish to pursue.

Influencer Marketing Strategy

Marketers may use influencer marketing strategies which involve identifying opinion leaders within a particular community to promote a product. An important aspect of influencer marketing is deciding the type of influencer to pursue:

• 'Nano influencers' have between 1,000-10,000 followers.

• 'Micro influencers' have between 10,000-50,000 followers.

• 'Macro influencers' have over 500,000 followers.

• 'Mega influencers' have over 1 million followers.

However, a higher follower count does not necessarily guarantee results. Influencers with an increased number of followers may be suitable for raising awareness of a product or brand, but smaller-scale influencers tend to create higher engagement. For an influencer marketing campaign to be successful, the influencer has to portray credibility, high engagement rates, and share similar interests to the target group.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy

Another type of social media marketing strategy can be observed through word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. Word-of-mouth takes place on various forms of social media. For example, ranting your followers on Twitter about an awful product experience is a form of WOM.

Word of mouth can either be positive or negative. Although negative word-of-mouth is less common, it can often be catastrophic for a company or brand. However, East et al. (2008) studied positive and negative word-of-mouth and found that there are several factors which influence its impact on brand purchase probability, including:

1. Generally, the impact of positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) is more extensive than negative word-of-mouth (NWOM).

2. People resist NWOM for brands they 'like' and PWOM for brands they 'dislike'.

3. The impact of both PWOM and NWOM is related to the pre-WOM purchase probability.

4. PWOM and NWOM have similar characteristics - they are both used to give advice.³

Viral Marketing Strategy

Certain companies and brands try to create viral content.

In most cases, viral content usually involves an element of shock, information-sharing or humour, which results in consumers being more likely to distribute the content to others.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

The benefits of social media marketing are vast. Businesses can reach millions of active social media users through their marketing messages. On the other hand, they can also focus their notes on specific groups of consumers.

Similarly, social media is beneficial as companies and brands do not necessarily have to set up their media. Instead, they can use existing social media channels.

ASOS Online Shop, StudySmarter Originals. Source: screenshot taken from Instagram

Social Media Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages

Let's now take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of social media. The advantages of social, in addition to the benefits outlined above, are as follows:

1. Targeted - Social media allows for personal communication with target customer segments.
2. Engagement - Social media channels allow for interactive, two-way communication between brands and consumers. Customers can participate in brand communications, and brands can listen to customer feedback.
3. Immediate - Posting to social media takes little time and can instantly reach thousands of people anytime.
4. High ROI - Social media is a relatively cost-efficient communication channel that brands can use for free and post unlimited content. For example, a brand can post dozens of Tweets a day for free, whereas having a promotion advertised on TV dozens of times per day can be very costly.

On the other hand, the disadvantages of social media are:

1. Effectiveness - Marketers must understand how to use social media and find the correct segments to target with their communications efforts. They must pay close attention to trends, popular keywords, etc., to capture consumers' attention.

2. Consumer trends - Marketers cannot simply start posting to social media and expect high returns. To engage consumers, a brand has to build a community on social media. This is especially relevant nowadays as consumers are bombarded with numerous ads daily.