The Notion Of Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is a form of marketing in which social media technologies, channels and software are utilized in order to create value for customers and satisfy their wants and needs. Compared to traditional ways of marketing, which follows a top-down strategy – meaning that the initiative is always taken by the company itself –, social media marketing has a bottom-up approach, meaning that it is much easier for consumers to interact and engage with brands. Customers communicate, contribute and collaborate with the brand and with other consumers of the company, which creates a feeling of community.

Definition of marketing

Kotler et al (2013, p. 5) define marketing as a “process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships to capture value from customers in return”. It is all about understanding the consumers’ needs, creating products that provide value, finding an adequate pricing strategy, a suitable distribution channel and a promotion strategy.

Definition of social media

Social media stands for all web-based software and services that make it possible for users to get together online and communicate, discuss, exchange and take part in many forms of digital social interaction. This includes all kinds of media, such as images, videos, text, audio and others. There are many different types of social media sites, depending on their primary focus. So called social networks provide an interactive platform, where people are able to find their friends and add them, comment on profiles or pictures, have discussions and join groups. The most frequently used social networks are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. A specific type of social media site that is getting more popular nowadays are so called social photo and video sharing sites. Those allow the users to share photos or videos and comment on other media that has been posted. YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr and Pinterest would have to be the best-known social photo and video sharing sites, of which lots of huge companies that dominate the market in their industry make great use of. Overall, social media enables people to do a lot of things, including sharing and documenting events using videos, creating blogs in order to share recipes or other ideas, sharing infographics with friends, finding people and connect or reconnect with them and much more.

Types of social media marketing

Product Placement

Even though the first time that Product Placement got public attention was when a child spread out Reese’s Pieces in a forest in the movie E.T. during the 1980’s, this form of marketing has been existing for much longer than that. Ever since motion picture has been invented at the end of the 19th century, brands and products were placed unintentionally in the background of the main scene. When using Product Placement, a firm has the main goal of including commercial content – such as brand names, products, logos or other typical characteristics of a brand – into non-commercial contents. It is mostly seen in television, movies or other commercial settings, which makes it possible for a brand to reach the mass market. According to the literature, customers often notice Product Placement and recognize brands in movies or on television, but most of the time they do not perceive it as annoying. This leads to a higher brand awareness, attention, recognition and in the best case it can cause a potential customer turning into a regular consumer.

E-Mail Marketing

E-Mail Marketing is a form of Direct Marketing in which companies send offers, announcements or other information to customers or potential customers via e-mail. This form of marketing allows personalization, a well-selected target market and direct one to one communication. Compared to the more traditional form – Direct Mail Marketing – e-mail marketing allows a much higher speed of distribution, lower costs overall and it is more sustainable. Although many customers perceive e-mail marketing as annoying, the probability of reaching potential future customers can be quite high. E-mail marketing can be successful when sending them to people who have given the company permission to do so; otherwise it will be perceived as spam, which can lead to a negative association with the company.