Social Media - Research Paper Example

Social Media Social media can be defined as a web based medium that enables interaction and communication between people. The main feature of social media is that it enables the sharing of user generated content. In fact, social media has transformed the way people behave and interact within the internet community. There are many small and large scale social media in the internet community today. Based on popularity, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter can be named as the most leading social media. Recently, social media has been misinterpreted to include only the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, etc. But social media is a combination of social news, social bookmarking, social networking, social photo sharing, etc. (Nations, 2012) Among these, the most popular category is social networking. The huge success and popularity of social networking sites had resulted in the companies having establishing their own presence in such networking sites. Almost every international brand will have their official page in the Facebook. This is one sole area where the company can interact with billions of people daily. Customers are now fans of brand on the Facebook page. Due to the huge popularity of social media, it has been largely used by various business houses as channel for product marketing. Social media has emerged as one of the most cost effective means of marketing. The reach of such marketing campaigns are also large compared to that of the traditional marketing channels. This essay will focus mainly on the popularity of social media in the marketing space. The evolution of social media and a marketing tool will be discussed in the beginning following which the current usage of social media in driving business will be discussed. The core purpose of the essay will be discussed with the example of a Mercedes-Benz which has successfully implemented brand building through social media. The efficacy of such a marketing model will be discussed based on the success factor of the organization under discussion. Evolution of Social Media as a Marketing Tool It is just less than a decade since social media has emerged as an effective marketing tool. “Before the social media boom, marketers thought social media marketing was just another fad that would soon likely pass, something in the vein of pyramid and networking scams.” (King, 2012) It was from the immense popularity of Facebook that the companies started realizing the potential of social media for effective marketing. It especially helped the startup companies that did not have huge cash piles to shell out for marketing their products. Social media marketing for products and services is usually built around the users sharing the information with fellow users in their social circle. Users generally mean any one with an access to internet services. Organizations generally target these users to generate brand awareness and get customer feedback. The increasing popularity of social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google + etc has taken the whole process of social media marketing to another level. The users ‘reposting’ or ‘re tweeting’ the product ad’s and brochures gives the organizations wide exposure at a cheaper price compared to TV ads. The wide use of mobile phones with internet connection has also helped the companies to be in constant touch with their customers, prospective or existing, and to interact with them on a real time basis. This has enabled them to provide constant updates and to gain instant feedback .The popularity of video search engines like YouTube has also helped organizations to share videos of their products with customers. This can save time and money spend on product demonstration and creating brand awareness. But the greatest advantage of using websites like Facebook, YouTube, etc. are that they are absolutely free and even the smallest of organizations can make a profile page or upload a video that has potential to reach millions of users around the world. Some companies even have special deals and events being promoted in their pages which often help them in distinguishing them from their competitors. It is estimated that almost 90% of marketing personnel uses social media as one of their major marketing channels. The customer satisfaction level is also expected to be higher in the case of social media marketing. The major reason for this is that the customer grievances are resolved with much less time than usual. There is also a closer interaction between marketers and customers in the case of social media. Current Usage of Social Media for Driving Business Social media is the most popular marketing medium in the current business environment. “Companies have been using social media primarily as a general communications tool – mostly for public relations and marketing. That’s about to change, as businesses discover its value as an essential tool for customer engagement.” (Gordon, 2012) The success of social media as an effective marketing tool was re-emphasized with the huge success of online marketing campaign for the 2009 United States’ Presidential election campaign. Branding, information sharing, public relations, understanding customers, lead generation, collaborative work, internal communication and sales support are the major activities for which the companies use social media. Branding and information sharing are the leading and most popular activities for which companies use social media. As per the study by Gordon 2012, in the coming years, lead generation is expected to surpass branding and information sharing as the primary use of social media. The study also shows that smaller organizations depend more on social media compared to that of large organizations. With the use of social media, small business and brands are able to penetrate into the domain where bigger players of the market rules. In fact, social media has helped to bring the smaller players to the forefront. The major change in the trend has happened in the use of social media in the workplace. Previously, organizations had discouraged the use of social media at workplace as it affected the employee productivity at large. Many organizations had started using social media as a tool for internal communication. This will act as their common place for corporate announcements and the like. The study shows that LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media among the corporates. The other major purpose of these social media is that they offer a pool of prospective candidates. This is especially true in the case of LinkedIn which is mainly a media focused on professional interaction. Companies can reach to the best of candidates for the vacant posts in their organization. This is one of the most productive uses of social media by a business organization. Monitoring of customer trends is gaining popularity among the use of social media. With a close watch on the contents shared and discussed by the users, the companies will be able to do data mining. Based on the customer interests, the companies can customize the contents they share on the social media. Organization & Efficacy of the Model It is not only the small organizations that extensively use social media for marketing but also large multinational conglomerates. The success of Social Media marketing can be explained with the example of Mercedes-Benz. Compared to the main competitors Audi and BMW, Mercedes has been facing the problem of appealing the young affluent population. It is in this situation that Mercedes planned to introduce the social media marketing. “The German luxury car marque is currently looking for an agency to devise a three-year social media strategy, which will enable it to connect with 25- to 44-year-olds.” (Shearman, 2012) Mercedes’ tie-up with the Fashion Week is one of their most successful social media strategies. The three main mediums for Mercedes’ social media strategy are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Until few years before, the prime focus of Mercedes was to the customers above the age of 45. But lately, the company realized that there is a great potential among the age group of 20 – 45. But Mercedes had the inherent limitation of the brand image that appealed more to the people above 45 years than the younger ones. The company wanted a medium that could help them to establish a better connection with the young potential customers. “Since members of this demographic are "interested in cars, are Internet savvy, network with each other and express their opinions," a social network made perfect sense, but as a number of companies have learned the hard way, immersing the brand in social networking can be a double-edged sword.” (Carlson, 2012) Mercedes partnered with the global marketing consulting firm Taylor Nelson Sofres for devising a social media strategy for the company. These efforts from the company resulted in the launch of the portal ‘Stars Insight’, which is an online market research community. The portal helped customers and potential customers to create an account and provided them a domain where they could meet and discuss with people on topics related to automobiles. Therefore, this portal provided a pool of valuable information for Mercedes Benz in terms of the customer preferences. Exclusive videos and Facebook contents helped Mercedes to expand their brand image. “Mercedes-Benz’s official Facebook page provides a goldmine of information and entertaining content, from promotional videos showcasing the new cars to sporting events sponsored by Mercedes Brand.” (Bulman, 2011) Mercedes had two main objectives to accomplish with their social media strategy, market research and brand building. Mercedes implemented the strategy in such way that a single domain could serve both the purposes. It could simultaneously perform both brand building and market research. Such a clear focus helped the company to be one of the successful marketers in the social media. Analysis shows that Mercedes’ video post about sport was the most accepted among the viewers. The next most watched and discussed are about Mercedes Films with various themes. Product information came only third in the preferred list. The survey showed that the customers developed a perception of innovation, cool image, market leadership, and the like about Mercedes Benz. The success of Mercedes-Benz’s social media strategy shows that the model can be applied to all the major brands that intend to establish a social media presence. The major success factor is that the company should first get the objective right. The second major success factor is to get a right partner. Extreme focus on these two factors can help a company to perform successful social media marketing. Works Cited Nations, N (2012). What is Social Media. Retrieved April 1, 2012. From: http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm King, A (2012). The Evolution of Social Media Marketing. Retrieved April 1, 2012. From: http://ambrking-business-marketing.blogspot.in/2012/03/evolution-of-social-media-marketing.html Gordon, J (2012). The Coming Change in Social Media Business Applications. Retrieved April 2, 2012. From: http://socialmediatoday.com/ClientFiles/adcb5c24-341d-4387-b3e9-9ff0972653f2/SMT_whitepaper_biz.pdf Shearman, S (2012). Mercedes-Benz seeks younger appeal through social media. Retrieved April 2, 2012. From: http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1112810/Mercedes-Benz-seeks-younger-appeal-social-media/ Carlson, C (2012). Mercedes-Benz uses social media to drive market research. Retrieved April 3, 2012. From: http://www.fiercecio.com/story/mercedes-benz-uses-social-media-drive-market-research/2012-03-07 Bulman, L (2012). Mercedes-Benz push their cutting edge brand image with exciting video content on Facebook. Retrieved April 3, 2012. From: http://wave.wavemetrix.com/content/mercedes-benz-push-their-cutting-edge-brand-image-exciting-video-content-faceboo-00723 Read More