Social Media Marketing: Game Theory and the Emergence of Collaboration - Research Proposal Example

? Social Media Marketing Business Plan Introduction The companies have started to use social media platforms for effective implementation of businessplans for marketing of their products. The marketing of products and services of the companies is extremely crucial for the promotion and growth of the business. The social media platform is an important channel for carrying out the marketing campaigns for the promotion of the products and services. The marketing plan of the business could be implemented at a much faster pace through the tools of social media marketing. The interaction of the users and the communities in social media leads to higher interaction between the groups. The daily updates provided by the businesses on its offerings and discounts could be viewed by the customers using the online platform. Apart from this, the customers could also put up queries on the products and offerings of the business. The customers could exchange their views and share their experiences with each other using the social media network (Barefoot and Szabo, 2009). This leads to further spread of the brand image of the companies which gains further popularity among the communities. Thus social media helps the business to enhance the prospects of marketing the products and services as per the business plan. Proposed research question The research question proposed for this study is “What are the ways in which the companies could effectively implement the business marketing plans using the social media platform?” Objective of the research problem The research question designed for this study has the objective of exploring the different ways that could be adopted by the companies using the social media platforms for marketing their business plans. The various tools and techniques that could be adopted by the companies for marketing the products and services of the company have been identified and analyzed in this research. The findings are to be disseminated to the companies that would find these tools to be effective in implementation of marketing of their respective business plans. Literature review “Lips To Go” is a restaurant and cafe located in Iowa in the United States. The restaurant offers delicious and mouthful dishes of baked chicken, pizza, salads, soups, various other variations of chicken, lip specials, etc. “Lips To Go” is exploring the prospects of social media marketing as one of its potential business plans. The various daily updates and offerings of the restaurants are to be marketed on a daily basis. In its plight of reaching out to the customers in order to achieve the set business targets of the restaurant, “Lips To Go” could choose the several social media platforms available for marketing its business of restaurant and cafe. In order to utilize the social media platform for marketing its products and services to the customers, the restaurant needs to form a community in the social media platforms like face-book, twitter, linked-in, you-tube, etc (Evans, 2010). The social media marketing plans to enhance the restaurant and cafe business are quite significant for the features of flexibility and accessibility to its customers. The social media platforms provide opportunity for the business to market its products and offerings on a daily basis. With the help of social media platforms, the business could increase the interaction with the customers. Due to high rates of voluntary engagement by the prospective customers, the customers express their desires and concerns about the restaurants and the dishes offered by the restaurants. The restaurants advertise and promote the delicious dishes of chicken and its variations, soups, salads, pizzas, etc. The customers are able to use the social media platform in viewing the campaigns of the business and take decisions after due exchange of information. The increase in interaction leads to the spread of the brand name of the restaurant and cafe. The interface between the communities in the social media platforms acts as a catalyst to the business promotion campaigns (Zarrella, 2010). The interaction between the communities in the social media platform enhances the effectiveness of the business marketing campaigns. The social media enhances the scope of customer relationship management of the business. The social media plays the role of maintaining a sustainable ecosystem between the business and its consumers. The various efforts of brand promotion have widespread reach through the use of social media platform. The marketing campaigns with the help of social media platforms are indicated by the reach of social media graph. The business could capitalize for wide spread reach to its customers that is depicted by the social media graph. The social media platforms incorporate the aspect of social feedback in their sites. The feedbacks and responses of the customers are posted in the social media which improves the prospects of marketing plan of the business. Thus social media marketing is an important tool for implementing the business plans. Social media marketing helps the business to promote the products and services to a wide range of customers who share their feelings and opinion about the product and service enjoyed. This provides a real time feedback on the company’s business which leads to effective implementation of the business plans. Proposed research methodology The research methodology proposed for this research is secondary method of research. The research methodology to be adopted is aimed at finding effective ways in which social media platforms could be used by “Lips To Go” restaurant and cafe for marketing its business. The data to be collected for the purpose of research is secondary data. The “Lips To Go” restaurant and cafe is already present on the face-book platform. The use of the social media platform intended to be done by “Lips To Go” at its highest potential in order to effectively implement its business marketing plan. In order to promote its food products and services at the highest rates, the performance of the marketing plan needs to be measured. For the purpose of measurement of the business marketing plan, the targets of achievement of the business marketing plan needs to be set. A market analysis needs to be carried out in order to determine the target audience. For this purpose an analysis of the consumer demographics is important before starting the marketing campaigns in the social media. The target market segment of “Lips To Go” restaurant and cafe needs to be identified based on which the marketing strategies would be fixed by the company. It is proposed that the business would engage professionals to write blogs on a daily basis upon the updates of the business starting from offers, discounts, promotional campaigns, events, sponsors, etc. The professionals would track the activities and postings on the social media platforms in order to provide timely responses to the areas of interest of the customers. The data and information on the marketing campaigns by the business would be collected from the social media platforms where “Lips To Go” has formed communities and the interaction with other communities are taking place. A baseline measurement of the marketing promotions in the form of blogs, responses and level of interaction by the customers and the degree of interest expressed by the customers would be measured in order to determine where the business performance have been able to fulfill its target as a result of the marketing plans. Proposed use and dissemination of research findings The proposed use and dissemination of the research findings are crucial for the companies to understand the ways in which social media marketing could used as an efficient tool to effectively implement its business marketing plans. The various tools that could be used by the companies for marketing its business activities includes social media measurement, automation, social network aggregation, social analytics, social media, social bookmarking, blog marketing, etc. The social media monitoring technique could be adopted by the companies for keeping a close watch on the blogs written in the social media networks, the frequency of conversation on the products and services of the business, the intensity of the consumer interests to the marketing campaigns of the companies, etc (Evans, 2010). The social media monitoring would help the companies to understand the sentiment of the community and the members towards the particular brand. The social network aggregation is another important technique that could be adopted by the companies in which they could collect all the relevant information on the products and services offered and the customer responses to the marketing campaigns. The integration of information from different sources into one single would help the users to form decisive opinions on the company’s business. Social bookmarking is a useful technique that could be used by the companies to encourage participation of its end users. This tool would allow the social media network members to add, edit or modify contents as a way of expressing their opinions and views. This would increase the rate of involvement of the users of social media and would lead to the spread of brand name of the company, the products and the services offered (Anderson, 2010). The social analytics is an important tool for the social media marketing of business plans. The social media analytics could be adopted by the companies in order to measure and then analyze and report the interactions of the members of the social media network. These are important techniques that could used for implementation of the business marketing plans with the use of social media platforms to the fullest potential. The social media marketing also incorporates the speed of automation by reaching out to the customers in the fastest possible time and obtaining the faster responses through feedbacks and sharing of experiences. This produces a rippling effect of the marketing campaigns of the companies. The companies are also able to form an idea of the level of acceptance of its products and services among their customers. The blog marketing is another useful way of marketing that could be adopted by the business for promoting its products and services. The professionals engaged in the blog marketing of the company keep track of the market sentiments by reviewing the information and experiences shared by the members on the company’s business (Funk, 2012). The blog professionals write relevant contents in order to promote the marketing plan of the business. These findings are proposed for dissemination and use by the companies in order to implement their marketing strategies using the techniques of social media marketing for the growth of their business. “Lips To Go” could use the various tools of social media marketing as found during the research in order to implement the marketing of foods offered to the consumers on a daily basis. This would help the restaurant and the cafe to reach out to a wide segment of the customer base by making information available through the online mode. The taste and preferences on the items offered could be shared between the customers and communities that would lead to effective marketing for the business. Conclusion “Lips To Go” like several other companies would be in an advantageous position of marketing its products and services using the social media platform as a part of its business plan. The social media marketing provides the companies with faster access to the communities and enhances the frequency of interaction between the company and its customers and also between the customers themselves. The companies use several techniques in order to use the social media platforms like face-book, linked-in, etc. for marketing their business. The findings of the research is useful to the companies as it indicates ways which could be adopted in order to effectively implement the marketing plans of the business. The companies may choose to engage professionals to track the online activities, comments made by the users and the communities on the business products and services. The professionals could be directed for writing blogs as a part f the blog marketing strategy. The sentiments of the customers could be depicted from the information passed on or shared by the communities on the business of the companies. These are important feedbacks that could be collected and analyzed by the companies to put forward marketing campaigns with required modifications. References Anderson, E. (2010). Social Media Marketing: Game Theory and the Emergence of Collaboration. USA: Springer. Barefoot, D. and Szabo, J. L. (2009). Friends With Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook. USA: No Starch Press. Evans, D. (2010). Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. USA: John Wiley & Sons. Evans, L. (2010). Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media. USA: Pearson Education. Funk, T. (2012). Advanced Social Media Marketing: How to Lead, Launch, and Manage a Successful Social Media Program. USA: Apress. Zarrella, D. (2010). The Social Media Marketing Book. Canada: O'Reilly Media Inc. Read More