SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY - Essay Example

? SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGY Topics: “Social Media without an effective Marketing Strategy is Lame; Marketing without an Effective Social Media Strategy is Blind”. Tags: Content Marketing, Marketing Tips, Social Business Publication: The Daily Telegraph Date: November 28, 2012 The Daily Telegraph dated July 23, 2012 carried a story “Social Media without an effective Marketing Strategy is Lame; Marketing without an Effective Social Media Strategy is Blind ” With the digitalization of the global markets in the twenty first century, it is undisputable denying the influence of social media in the global business affairs, particularly with respect to marketing strategies. Just as was the case in the early 1920s when television and radios were top-of-mind in the field of advertising, face-book, twitter, and other social networks have become popular marketing and promotional sites for a number of companies (Wollan et al., 2011, p.56-65). Finding a workable and economical marketing solution is the holy grail challenge for top markets today. Advertising lost influence and dominance of the media when internet accorded all the audience the ability and power to manage and run personalized message delivery systems. With facebook, myspace, linkerdIn, instagram, blogs, pinterest, foursquare, yelp, and twitter attracting more than 89% users, it is therefore essential for the executive markets to re-think marketing. However, as evidenced the collapse of top global companies which heavily invested in social-media marketing, the whole idea of intensive social media marketing strategy is more complex and needs to be critically examined (Wollan et al., 2011, p.56-65). Though sophisticated, the use of social media as a marketing strategy is becoming popular even with small business and entrepreneurs investing into this media as a way of reaching out to their potential customers. Managers and markets begin to develop a deeper insight into how leverage online tools build and recognize community that engages into interaction in the social networking media. But what next for this small entrepreneurs who already have online business communities, yet are stranded on the next move? Integrating Effective Media Strategies to Market Mix The “willingness and ability” to develop diverse and new relationship with our clients is the key tool in integrating social media to match sustainable traditional market mix. By closely examining the 4P’s Marking Mix Model; product, place, price, and promotion, it is noted that the success of marketing is based on the strength of connection established between the corporation and its target customers (Wollan et al., 2011, p.56-65). This is the sole objective in marketing as it was more than a decade ago. With the increased competition in every industry, firms takes advantage of current dynamics in social marketing- the biggest step in marketing and advertising evolution as companies source for the most effective and best marketing strategy which connects them with their target audience. This raised the question on how marketing has changed over the last decade. One social media blog posted, “I believe we are in the Toddler Phase of Social Media Marketing. Some companies will walk and talk faster than others - but we ‘ALL’ want to walk.” And not intending to “Coin a Phrase”. Some marketing consultants and managers have also recommended the phrase “Re-inventing Social Media” as a solution to social marketing and market mix challenges (Wollan et al., 2011, p.56-65). Marketing Integration & Social Media: Toddler Categories The first group of social media marketing toddlers is those companies which integrates their social media programs to match their marketing strategies. Though these companies register gains from such operations, they also make errors in the process. Their strategy is entirely founded on the principle of ‘willingness’, hence, they are naturally described as risk lovers. This does not necessarily imply that companies operating in this face are worse or better off than the rest in the social media marketing, but are more aggressive (Wollan et al., 2011, p.56-65). The second group of social toddlers is those described as “cautious” social marketers. They have been a bit successful in brand marketing and have heavily invested time, and financial resources. However, they are cautious not invest in social network product branding which operates beyond their control. It is in this category that many corporations fall in. In this stage, “willingness” is not a major problem. The concern for these companies is building “trust”. They only desired integrating social media with their marketing mix before ‘trusting social media’. The final category of toddlers is ‘Social Media Skeptics’. These groups of companies manage their social marketing strategy under the umbrella “If something is not broken, don’t try and fix it” (Wollan et al., 2011, p.56-65). They robustly defend the conventional marketing concepts and rejects Social Media Strategies as being ‘passing phase’ of internet marketing. Though some companies have been successful in this conservative category, historically, resistance to new marketing dynamics makes corporations stagnate in the long-run. Advantages and limitations of social media marketing Though the use of social media as a marketing tool has been effective in establishing customer-producer relationship, companies still struggle to discover the most effective way adopting social media marketing techniques. An average business owner least understand the risks associated with social media market mix (Wollan et al., 2011, p.56-65). In addition, this being a new venture, it is complex to fully evaluate the qualifications and competence of experts in this field. The major advantage of social marketing over other marketing strategies is its cost-effectiveness. A number of social sites are freely accessible with ease of posting information or creating a profile. Secondly, social media marketing is essential in building strong customer relationship with the company at zero cost. On the other hand, this mode of marketing is effective in reaching out to a large number of target customers as the readers themselves share the posts. The main limitation of this evolutionary form of marketing is the damage it may pose on the reputation and image of the company in case of incorrect branding. Secondly, this source of advertising or marketing is time consuming, hence, may be uneconomical in terms of resources. Social media marketing may adversely influence the productivity of workers either in a positive or negative ways. For instance, employees would spend a lot of time in non-productive activities while Facebooking or tweeting (Wollan et al., 2011, p.56-65). Risks associated with social media marketing This form of marketing poses great degree of threat to the image of the company. Disgruntled employees or customers may hack into the company accounts and post very destructive and negative comments as the company has limited control on what people post in their accounts. To mitigate the risk, the company should deploy experts to check and control their social media accounts. Bibliography Robert Wollan et al. 2011. “The Social Media Management Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Get Social Media Working in Your Business”. p.56-65. . Read More