The Use and Application of Social Media Marketing - Assignment Example

? Assignment 4: Internet Technology, Marketing and Security Assignment 4: Internet Technology, Marketing and Security 1. Evaluate the reasons Social Media Marketing has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes. First and foremost, Social Media Marketing (SMM) has been defined as “a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking websites as a marketing tool. The goal of SMM is to produce content that users will share with their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach” (TechTarget, 2012, par. 1). The reasons that have been identified for the overwhelming popularity of SMM among business are as follows: (1) Customer Interaction and Feedback. SMM offers opportunities for business organizations to directly encourage feedback from customers and therefore enable them to address any weaknesses noted or areas for improvement. As emphasized by Hastings and Saperstein (2010), “today, more than ever before, businesses can not only listen to customers, they can invite customers to help shape the company activities. Customers have input on which products to develop with which features, how events should be planned, and what kind of meaningful dialogue they’d like to have” (par. 5). This reason therefore assists business organizations in immediately determining the reaction of customers through solicitation of their feedback, which is one of the most beneficial uses and reasons for SMM’s popularity. (2) Generate Traffic to Social Networking Websites. According to Prince & Rodgers (2012), generating traffic to identified social networking sites is made possible through target customers’ sharing “branded and highly relevant content with users who, in turn, pass your content to like-minded people they’re connected to” (Prince & Rodgers, 2012, par. 1). Using the Pepsi Refresh Project experience, it was explicitly disclosed that through Viral Marketing (defined as “on the Internet, viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect” (TechTarget, 2012, par. 1)), the growth and identified visibility of the project was monitored to significantly increase . Likewise, as noted: “there was 800% traffic gain to its website…Additionally, the number of live Tweeter feeds relating to the Pepsi Refresh Project being streamed across Google grew tremendously in a short time”. This reason has been proven, therefore, to be effective in increasing target audience reach at a relatively short span of time and minimal expense compared to other advertisements or promotional campaigns. (3) To achieve the goal that the organization is targetting on a least cost yet greater target audience reach. As emphasized by (Prince & Rodgers (2012), “a core objective of social media marketing — or of a thought leadership campaign, for that matter — is to gain “mindshare.” You want to be top-of-mind when potential clients or customers are interested in products or services you can deliver. You want to provide content your preferred audiences find so appealing and beneficial that they’re motivated to pass it on” (par. 6). One of the goals of the SMM has been identified to “generate interest in your offerings” (Prince & Rodgers, 2012, par. 1). Through the use of this strategy, business organizations are able to achieve their organizational goals, as well as the objectives identified in the particular project or promotional campaign; thus, increasing its popularity among business organizations. 2. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing for business entrepreneurs. According to the Marketplace for Entrepreneurs (2012), there are seven benefits of SMM, to wit: “(1) increased customer acquisition; (2) powerful word-of-mouth marketing; (3) increased brand awareness; (4) customer retention; (5) market research; (6) keep an eye on your competition; and (7) fast results” (Marketplace for Entrepreneurs, 2012, pars. 9-16). From these advantages, it could be deduced that majority pertains to the objective of enabling the products and services of business entreprenuers to be acquired, with opportunities for enhanced recall, retention and feedback within a fairly short time frame. The ability to SMM to solicit feedback from customers enable business entrepreneurs to gain first-hand data and information needed in primary research. As disclosed, “people freely express their opinion on social media sites. This can help you in getting first hand and fast feedback. You can use this for an effective and powerful market research. With a direct data from customers, it is much easier for you to correct your shortcomings and cater to your customers in a much better way” (Marketplace for Entrepreneurs, 2012, par. 14). Another relevant advantage is being able to keep track of competition, also through accessing the competitors’ official social networking sites and by using industry research studies to gain information on market shares and customer profiles and purchase buying behavior, as needed. On the contrary, among the noted disadvantages of SMM as cited by Barbara White are as follows: (1) potential magnifying of negative information where the damage caused, if not addressed appropriately, could be irreparable; (2) continuous monitoring and updates for establishing a product, service or brand; (3) application of the law of reciprocity where target audiences’ feedback are expected to be responded to for continued interest and patronage to the product, brand or service; and (4) assuming a proactive stance by keeping regularly abreast of factors that could impinge on the operations of the business . Likewise, although the costs involved in running programs or campaigns using SMM are relatively cheaper compared to traditional means, the kind of message, how it is relayed, and the strategies applied to entice customers to show interest in the products still depend on the expertise of marketing professionals who opted to apply this strategy. 3. Assess how Social Media Marketing is helping Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise. SMM helped Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have, otherwise, through the results of the monitoring efforts implemented by Scott Moir, reportedly the founder of Irbtrax, a social engine optimization firm that measures the effectiveness of SMM. As disclosed and mentioned earlier, “there was 800% traffic gain to its website…Additionally, the number of live Tweeter feeds relating to the Pepsi Refresh Project being streamed across Google grew tremendously in a short time” (Case Study II: The Pepsi Refresh Project: Making the Best of Viral Marketing, p. 3). As such, the increased traffic gain proves that there are significant numbers of customers who expressed interest in their project. From the noted advantages of using SMM, Pepsi’s campaign of giving grants through online viewers votes, have been instrumental in gaining more customer insight. It was also evident and noted that eventually, customers who are intent to win the grants run personal campaigns also through social networking sites that further increase visibility and encourage further target reach and recall. The most concrete evidence of SMM’s positive effect from the Refresh Project was the significant increase in sales of Pepsi products. 4. Research two (2) other businesses that have used Social Media Marketing to their advantage. Discuss how each of these businesses has utilized Social Media Marketing and provide examples with your discussion. Zoho Corporation One business reported to have applied SMM to their advantage is Zoho Corporation. Upon access to this organization’s website, it was revealed that Zoho “serves the technology needs of more than 6 million customers worldwide” (Zoho Corporation, 2012a, par. 3) through their official site Zoho.com. In more accurate detail, “Zoho.com offers a comprehensive suite of award-winning online business, productivity & collaboration applications. Customers use Zoho Applications to run their business processes, manage their information and be more productive while at the office or on the go, without having to worry about expensive or outdated hardware or software” (Zoho Corporation, 2012a, par. 1). A quick review of this organization’s products from the site would reveal business applications that include: assist, BugTracker, creator, invoice, people, reports, sites, books, challenge, CRM, marketplace, recruit, site24x7, and support (Zoho Corporation, 2012b). In an article written by Clancy (2012), it was reported that Zoho adds email and SMM applications through the Zoho Campaigns. As disclosed, “the new application, called Zoho Campaigns, integrates into the company's CRM software, which means small-business owners can maintain a single customer list that might be used for different purposes including marketing, sales automation or customer support” (Clancey, 2012, par. 2). The advantages of offering these additional applications include convenience for customers in terms of availing a one-stop-shop option. Likewise, as noted by Zoho’s evalengelist, Raju Vegesna, “with the bi-directional integration between Zoho Campaigns and Zoho CRM, lists remain up to date and sales representatives can now see how customers acted on previous email marketing campaigns, right from within their CRM" (Clancey, 2012, par. 4). Accessing the Zoho Campaigns from their official website, it is clear that the organization explicitly enumerates the following benefits to customers, to wit: “(1) deliverability perfectionist; (2) social campaigns; (3) Zoho services and Google apps; (4) free; (5) hosted convenience; and (6) value for money” (Zoho Corporation, 2012c). Therefore, by focusing on serving the diverse needs of customers worldwide, the organization’s use of SMM would further enable Zoho to increase their market share and customer reach on a more global sphere. Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company has been known as a manufacturer of quality vehicles and focuses on “creating a strong business that builds great products that contribute to a better world” . In launching its 2011 Ford Explorer Reveal, Tobin (2010) indicated that Ford “decided to unveil the Explorer entirely on Facebook. First, they built a Facebook fan page for the Explorer. They promoted fans on that page by teasing the coming unveil and by giving away a single Explorer to a fan who entered a sweepstakes on that page. The unveil day was very, very busy on the page, with about a dozen videos, live streams, photo collections and more” . Likewise, the promotional campaign was deemed a success for the following reasons: “Ford “broke the rules” and got a lot of attention in doing so. Auto shows are designed to appeal to the gatekeepers (analysts and media), but the gatekeepers had to cover this effort anyway. And, Ford was wise to start a new Explorer page. As the owner of four-consecutive Ford Explorers, I can tell you that I’m much more a fan of the Explorer than I am of Ford generally. They now have over 60,000 fans as a result” . 5. Speculate what impact Social Media will have business over the next decade and identify what skills you need to improve to take advantage of the changes. The future of social media would continue to evolve and provide significantly influential changes to business organizations in the next decade. As more businesses have acknowledged that increased benefits are accorded through SMM, there would be further increased potentials seen in business organizations to apply SMM in their marketing strategies for current or future products and services. In gauging the effectiveness of SMM to various business organizations, the chart below clearly indicates the results of a survey received from more than 2,000 marketers: As shown, more than 49% of the respondents have indicated that SMM is very effective in increasing brand or product awareness; followed by 45% indicating that SMM is very effective in improving product or brand reputation. According to Balegno (2010), the research director for Marketing Sherpa, “interestingly, organizations that market to consumers through reseller channels (B2B2C) are much more likely to consider social media a very effective means to achieving their marketing objectives. Social media has opened a wealth of opportunities for marketers to reach business partners and consumers at every point in the distribution process” (par. 3). However, since more business organizations would acknowledge the increased popularity and benefits accorded by SMM, there would be stiffer competition in terms of creating more relevant and consumer-enticing strategies through SMM. As such, the skills that are most needed to ensure that the business organization, where one could be an active part of, would competitively succeed in their SMM campaign are as follows: (1) cognitive and marketing research skills in assessing the target audience more effectively to enable the design of effective contents and campaigns that would cater to their audience’s needs; (2) information technology skills in designs and creating of diverse applications that could entice and captivate audience interests and participation in SMM campaigns; (3) ability to creatively think outside the box and assume a proactive stance in anticipating both opportunities and risks in the external markets; and (4) skills of introspection where abilities would be manifested in terms of understanding the position of the organization and the strategies that are most appropriate to use to achieve the goals envisioned by the company through SMM. Conclusion The current essay effectively achieved its objective of proffering pertinent issues relative to the use and application of SMM in various business organizations. By evaluating the reasons SMM has become exceedingly popular among businesses of all sizes; analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of SMM for business entrepreneurs; assessing how SMM helped Pepsi gain more customer insight than it would have otherwise, the discourse confirmed the many benefits SMM accords to contemporary organizations. Through the real experiences of two (2) other businesses that have used SMM to their advantage, it was further confirmed how each of these businesses has utilized SMM to their benefits. Finally, through indicating the current trends in SMM, one deduced that the future of SMM over the next decade would remain relevant; yet evolving depending on the external factors that affect business organizations on a global scale. References Balegno, S. (2010, March 9). New Chart: How Effective is Social Media in Achieving Target Business Objectives? . Retrieved from marketingsherpa.com: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=31558# (n.d.). Case Study II: The Pepsi Refresh Project: Making the Best of Viral Marketing. In Contemporary Business. Wiley. Clancey, H. (2012, August 15). Zoho adds email and social media marketing apps. Retrieved from zdnet.com: http://www.zdnet.com/zoho-adds-email-and-social-media-marketing-apps-7000002685/ Ford Motor Company. (2012). Our Company. Retrieved from corporate.ford.com: http://corporate.ford.com/our-company Hastings, H., & Saperstein, J. (2010, February). How Social Media Can Be Used to Dialogue with the Customer. Retrieved from Ivey Business Journal: http://www.iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/strategy/how-social-media-can-be-used-to-dialogue-with-the-customer Marketplace for Entrepreneurs. (2012). Social Media Marketing. Retrieved from marketplaceforentrepreneurs.org: http://www.marketplaceforentrepreneurs.org/marketing/social-media-marketing Prince, R., & Rodgers, B. (2012, August 17). Are You Effectively Using Social Media for Business Development? Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/russprince/2012/08/17/are-you-effectively-using-social-media-for-business-development/ TechTarget. (2012). Social Media Marketing (SMM). Retrieved from whatis.techtarget.com: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media-marketing-SMM TechTarget. (2012). Viral Marketing. Retrieved from searchcrm.techtarget.com: http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/viral-marketing Tobin, J. (2010, October 19). 10 Social Media Marketing Examples You Can Actually Use. Retrieved from ignitesocialmedia.com: http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-examples/10-social-media-marketing-examples-case-studies/ White, B. (n.d.). The Ugly Side of Social Media. Retrieved from thesocialmediaboomer.com: http://thesocialmediaboomer.com/social-media-marketing/the-ugly-side-of-social-media Zoho Corporation. (2012a). About Us. Retrieved from zoho.com: http://www.zoho.com/company.html Zoho Corporation. (2012b). Business Apps. Retrieved from zoho.com: http://www.zoho.com/business-apps.html Zoho Corporation. (2012c). Zoho Campaigns. Retrieved from zoho.com: http://www.zoho.com/campaigns/ Read More