Social Media Marketing

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Social media marketing

Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service.[1] Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, Social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers.[2] Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, enabling companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns.

Companies address a range of stakeholders through Social media marketing, including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public.

On a strategic level, Social media marketing includes the management of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope (e.g.

more active or passive use) and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone." When using Social media marketing, firms can allow customers and Internet users to post user-generated content (e.g., online comments, product reviews, etc.), also known as "earned media," rather than use marketer-prepared advertising copy.

Social networking websites allow individuals, businesses and other organizations to interact with one another and build relationships and communities online.

When companies join these social channels, consumers can interact with them directly.[3] That interaction can be more personal to users than traditional methods of outbound marketing and advertising.[4] Social networking sites act as word of mouth or more precisely, e-word of mouth.

The Internet's ability to reach billions across the globe has given online word of mouth a powerful voice and far reach.

The ability to rapidly change buying patterns and product or service acquisition and activity to a growing number of consumers is defined as an influence network.[5] Social networking sites and blogs allow followers to "retweet" or "repost" comments made by others about a product being promoted, which occurs quite frequently on some social media sites.[6] By repeating the message, the user's connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people.

Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company.[4] Social networking websites are based on building virtual communities that allow consumers to express their needs, wants and values, online.

Social media marketing then connects these consumers and audiences to businesses that share the same needs, wants, and values.

Through social networking sites, companies can keep in touch with individual followers.

This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers.

Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience.[4] Social networking sites also include much information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in.

Through the use of new semantic analysis technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online.

An understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns.

In 2014, over 80% of business executives identified social media as an integral part of their business.[7] Business retailers have seen 133% increases in their revenues from Social media marketing.[8] Some examples of popular social networking websites over the years are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, MySpace, LinkedIn, and SnapChat.

More than three billion people in the world are active on the Internet.

Over the years, the Internet has continually gained more and more users, jumping from 738 million in 2000 all the way to 3.2 billion in 2015.[9] Roughly 81% of the current population in the United States has some type of social media profile that they engage with frequently.[10] Mobile phone usage is beneficial for Social media marketing because of their web browsing capabilities which allow individuals immediate access to social networking sites.

Mobile phones have altered the path-to-purchase process by allowing consumers to easily obtain pricing and product information in real time.[11] They have also allowed companies to constantly remind and update their followers.

Many companies are now putting QR (Quick Response) codes along with products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smart phones.

Retailers use QR codes to facilitate consumer interaction with brands by linking the code to brand websites, promotions, product information, and any other mobile-enabled content.

In addition, Real-time bidding use in the mobile advertising industry is high and rising due to its value for on-the-go web browsing.

In 2012, Nexage, a provider of real time bidding in mobile advertising reported a 37% increase in revenue each month.

Adfonic, another mobile advertisement publishing platform, reported an increase of 22 billion ad requests that same year.[12] Mobile devices have become increasingly popular, where 5.7 billion people are using them worldwide.[13] This has played a role in the way consumers interact with media and has many further implications for TV ratings, advertising, mobile commerce, and more.

Mobile media consumption such as mobile audio streaming or mobile video are on the rise – In the United States, more than 100 million users are projected to access online video content via mobile device.

Mobile video revenue consists of pay-per-view downloads, advertising and subscriptions.

As of 2013, worldwide mobile phone Internet user penetration was 73.4%.

In 2017, figures suggest that more than 90% of Internet users will access online content through their phones.[14] There are two basic strategies for using social media as a marketing tool: Social media can be a useful source of market information and a way to hear customer perspectives.

Blogs, content communities, and forums are platforms where individuals share their reviews and recommendations of brands, products, and services.

Businesses are able to tap and analyze the customer voices and feedback generated in social media for marketing purposes;[15] in this sense the social media is a relatively inexpensive source of market intelligence which can be used by marketers and managers to track and respond to consumer-identified problems and detect market opportunities.

For example, the Internet erupted with videos and pictures of iPhone 6 "bend test" which showed that the coveted phone could be bent by hand pressure.

The so-called "bend gate" controversy[16] created confusion amongst customers who had waited months for the launch of the latest rendition of the iPhone.

However, Apple promptly issued a statement saying that the problem was extremely rare and that the company had taken several steps to make the mobile device's case stronger and robust.

Unlike traditional market research methods such as surveys, focus groups, and data mining which are time-consuming and costly, and which take weeks or even months to analyze, marketers can use social media to obtain 'live' or "real time" information about consumer behavior and viewpoints on a company's brand or products.

This can be useful in the highly dynamic, competitive, fast-paced and global marketplace of the 2010s.

Social media can be used not only as public relations and direct marketing tools, but also as communication channels targeting very specific audiences with social media influencers and social media personalities as effective customer engagement tools.[15] This tactic is widely known as influencer marketing.

Influencer marketing allows brands the opportunity to reach their target audience in a more genuine, authentic way via a special group of selected influencers advertising their product or service.

In fact, brands are set to spend up to $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022, per Business Insider Intelligence estimates, based on Mediakix data.[17] Technologies predating social media, such as broadcast TV and newspapers can also provide advertisers with a fairly targeted audience, given that an ad placed during a sports game broadcast or in the sports section of a newspaper is likely to be read by sports fans.

However, social media websites can target niche markets even more precisely.

Using digital tools such as Google Adsense, advertisers can target their ads to very specific demographics, such as people who are interested in social entrepreneurship, political activism associated with a particular political party, or video gaming.

Google Adsense does this by looking for keywords in social media user's online posts and comments.

It would be hard for a TV station or paper-based newspaper to provide ads that are this targeted (though not impossible, as can be seen with "special issue" sections on niche issues, which newspapers can use to sell targeted ads).

Social networks are, in many cases, viewed as a great tool for avoiding costly market research.

They are known for providing a short, fast, and direct way to reach an audience through a person who is widely known.

For example, an athlete who gets endorsed by a sporting goods company also brings their support base of millions of people who are interested in what they do or how they play and now they want to be a part of this athlete through their endorsements with that particular company.

At one point consumers would visit stores to view their products with famous athletes, but now you can view a famous athlete's, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, latest apparel online with the click of a button.

He advertises them to you directly through his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.

Facebook and LinkedIn are leading social media platforms where users can hyper-target their ads.

Hypertargeting not only uses public profile information but also information users submit but hide from others.[18] There are several examples of firms initiating some form of online dialog with the public to foster relations with customers.

According to Constantinides, Lorenzo and Gómez Borja (2008) "Business executives like Jonathan Swartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, Steve Jobs CEO of Apple Computers, and McDonald's Vice President Bob Langert post regularly in their CEO blogs, encouraging customers to interact and freely express their feelings, ideas, suggestions, or remarks about their postings, the company or its products".[15] Using customer influencers (for example popular bloggers) can be a very efficient and cost-effective method to launch new products or services[19] Among the political leaders in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the highest number of followers at 40 million, and President Donald Trump ranks second with 25 million followers.[20] Modi employed social media platforms to circumvent traditional media channels to reach out to the young and urban population of India which is estimated to be 200 million.

Engagement with the social web means that customers and stakeholders are active participants rather than passive viewers.

An example of these are consumer advocacy groups and groups that criticize companies (e.g., lobby groups or advocacy organizations).

Social media use in a business or political context allows all consumers/citizens to express and share an opinion about a company's products, services, business practices, or a government's actions.

Each participating customer, non-customer, or citizen who is participating online via social media becomes a part of the marketing department (or a challenge to the marketing effort) as other customers read their positive or negative comments or reviews.

Getting consumers, potential consumers or citizens to be engaged online is fundamental to successful Social media marketing.[21] With the advent of Social media marketing, it has become increasingly important to gain customer interest in products and services.

This can eventually be translated into buying behavior, or voting and donating behavior in a political context.

New online marketing concepts of engagement and loyalty have emerged which aim to build customer participation and brand reputation.[22] Engagement in social media for the purpose of a social media strategy is divided into two parts.

The first is proactive, regular posting of new online content.

This can be seen through digital photos, digital videos, text, and conversations.

It is also represented through sharing of content and information from others via weblinks.

The second part is reactive conversations with social media users responding to those who reach out to your social media profiles through commenting or messaging.[23] Traditional media such as TV news shows are limited to one-way interaction with customers or 'push and tell' where only specific information is given to the customer with few or limited mechanisms to obtain customer feedback.

Traditional media such as physical newspapers, do give readers the option of sending a letter to the editor.

Though, this is a relatively slow process, as the editorial board has to review the letter and decide if it is appropriate for publication.

On the other hand, social media is participative and open; Participants are able to instantly share their views on brands, products, and services.

Traditional media gave control of message to the marketer, whereas social media shifts the balance to the consumer or citizen.

Small businesses also use social networking sites as a promotional technique.

Businesses can follow individuals social networking site uses in the local area and advertise specials and deals.

These can be exclusive and in the form of "get a free drink with a copy of this tweet".

This type of message encourages other locals to follow the business on the sites in order to obtain the promotional deal.

In the process, the business is getting seen and promoting itself (brand visibility).

Small businesses also use social networking sites to develop their own market research on new products and services.

By encouraging their customers to give feedback on new product ideas, businesses can gain valuable insights on whether a product may be accepted by their target market enough to merit full production, or not.

In addition, customers will feel the company has engaged them in the process of co-creation—the process in which the business uses customer feedback to create or modify a product or service the filling a need of the target market.

Such feedback can present in various forms, such as surveys, contests, polls, etc.

Social networking sites such as LinkedIn, also provide an opportunity for small businesses to find candidates to fill staff positions.[24] Of course, review sites, such as Yelp, also help small businesses to build their reputation beyond just brand visibility.

Positive customer peer reviews help to influence new prospects to purchase goods and services more than company advertising.[25] In early 2012, Nike introduced its Make It Count social media campaign.

The campaign kickoff began YouTubers Casey Neistat and Max Joseph launching a YouTube video, where they traveled 34,000 miles to visit 16 cities in 13 countries.

They promoted the #makeitcount hashtag, which millions of consumers shared via Twitter and Instagram by uploading photos and sending tweets.[26] The #MakeItCount YouTube video went viral and Nike saw an 18% increase in profit in 2012, the year this product was released.

One of the main purposes of employing social media in marketing is as a communications tool that makes the companies accessible to those interested in their product and makes them visible to those who have no knowledge of their products.[27] These companies use social media to create buzz, and learn from and target customers.

It's the only form of marketing that can finger consumers at each and every stage of the consumer decision journey.[28] Marketing through social media has other benefits as well.

Of the top 10 factors that correlate with a strong Google organic search, seven are social media dependent.

This means that if brands are less or non-active on social media, they tend to show up less on Google searches.[29] While platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ have a larger number of monthly users, the visual media sharing based mobile platforms, however, garner a higher interaction rate in comparison and have registered the fastest growth and have changed the ways in which consumers engage with brand content.

Instagram has an interaction rate of 1.46% with an average of 130 million users monthly as opposed to Twitter which has a .03% interaction rate with an average of 210 million monthly users.[29] Unlike traditional media that are often cost-prohibitive to many companies, a social media strategy does not require astronomical budgeting.[30] To this end, companies make use of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to reach audiences much wider than through the use of traditional print/TV/radio advertisements alone at a fraction of the cost, as most social networking sites can be used at little or no cost (however, some websites charge companies for premium services).

This has changed the ways that companies approach to interact with customers, as a substantial percentage of consumer interactions are now being carried out over online platforms with much higher visibility.

Customers can now post reviews of products and services, rate customer service, and ask questions or voice concerns directly to companies through social media platforms.

According to Measuring Success, over 80% of consumers use the web to research products and services.[31] Thus Social media marketing is also used by businesses in order to build relationships of trust with consumers.[32] To this aim, companies may also hire personnel to specifically handle these social media interactions, who usually report under the title of Online community managers.

Handling these interactions in a satisfactory manner can result in an increase of consumer trust.

To both this aim and to fix the public's perception of a company, 3 steps are taken in order to address consumer concerns, identifying the extent of the social chatter, engaging the influencers to help, and developing a proportional response.[33] Twitter allows companies to promote their products in short messages known as tweets limited to 140 characters which appear on followers' Home timelines.[34] Tweets can contain text, Hashtag, photo, video, Animated GIF, Emoji, or links to the product's website and other social media profiles, etc.[35] Twitter is also used by companies to provide customer service.[36] Some companies make support available 24/7 and answer promptly, thus improving brand loyalty and appreciation.

Facebook pages are far more detailed than Twitter accounts.

They allow a product to provide videos, photos, longer descriptions, and testimonials where followers can comment on the product pages for others to see.

Facebook can link back to the product's Twitter page, as well as send out event reminders.

As of May 2015, 93% of businesses marketers use Facebook to promote their brand.[37] A study from 2011 attributed 84% of "engagement" or clicks and likes that link back to Facebook advertising.[38] By 2014, Facebook had restricted the content published from business and brand pages.

Adjustments in Facebook algorithms have reduced the audience for non-paying business pages (that have at least 500,000 "Likes") from 16% in 2012 down to 2% in February 2014.[39][40][41] LinkedIn, a professional business-related networking site, allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network and meet others.[42] Through the use of widgets, members can promote their various social networking activities, such as Twitter stream or blog entries of their product pages, onto their LinkedIn profile page.[43] LinkedIn provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners.[44] Members can use "Company Pages" similar to Facebook pages to create an area that will allow business owners to promote their products or services and be able to interact with their customers.[45] Due to spread of spam mail sent to job seeker, leading companies prefer to use LinkedIn for employee's recruitment instead of using a different job portal.

Additionally, companies have voiced a preference for the amount of information that can be gleaned from a LinkedIn profile, versus a limited email.[46] WhatsApp was founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton.

Joining Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp continues to operate as a separate app with a laser focus on building a messaging service that works fast and reliably anywhere in the world.

Started as an alternative to SMS, Whatsapp now supports sending and receiving a variety of media including text, photos, videos, documents, and location, as well as voice calls.

WhatsApp messages and calls are secured with end-to-end encryption, meaning that no third party including WhatsApp can read or listen to them.

WhatsApp has a customer base of 1 billion people in over 180 countries.[47][48] It is used to send personalised promotional messages to individual customers.

It has plenty of advantages over SMS that includes ability to track how Message Broadcast Performs using blue tick option in Whatsapp.

It allows sending messages to Do Not Disturb (DND) customers.

WhatsApp is also used to send a series of bulk messages to their targeted customers using broadcast option.

Companies started using this to a large extent because it is a cost-effective promotional option and quick to spread a message.

As of 2019, WhatsApp still not allow businesses to place ads in their app.[49] Yelp consists of a comprehensive online index of business profiles.

Businesses are searchable by location, similar to Yellow Pages.

The website is operational in seven different countries, including the United States and Canada.

Business account holders are allowed to create, share, and edit business profiles.

They may post information such as the business location, contact information, pictures, and service information.

The website further allows individuals to write, post reviews about businesses, and rate them on a five-point scale.

Messaging and talk features are further made available for general members of the website, serving to guide thoughts and opinions.[50] In May 2014, Instagram had over 200 million users.

The user engagement rate of Instagram was 15 times higher than of Facebook and 25 times higher than that of Twitter.[51] According to Scott Galloway, the founder of L2 and a professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business, latest studies estimate that 93% of prestige brands have an active presence on Instagram and include it in their marketing mix.[52] When it comes to brands and businesses, Instagram's goal is to help companies to reach their respective audiences through captivating imagery in a rich, visual environment.[53] Moreover, Instagram provides a platform where user and company can communicate publicly and directly, making itself an ideal platform for companies to connect with their current and potential customers.[54] Many brands are now heavily using this mobile app to boost their marketing strategy.

Instagram can be used to gain the necessary momentum needed to capture the attention of the market segment that has an interest in the product offering or services.[55] As Instagram is supported by Apple and android system, it can be easily accessed by smartphone users.

Moreover, it can be accessed by the Internet as well.

Thus, the marketers see it as a potential platform to expand their brands exposure to the public, especially the younger target group.

On top of this, marketers do not only use social media for traditional Internet advertising, but they also encourage users to create attention for a certain brand.

This generally creates an opportunity for greater brand exposure.[56] Furthermore, marketers are also using the platform to drive social shopping and inspire people to collect and share pictures of their favorite products.

Many big names have already jumped on board: Starbucks, MTV, Nike, Marc Jacobs, and Red Bull are a few examples of multinationals that adopted the mobile photo app early.

Fashion blogger Danielle Bernstein, who goes by @weworewhat on Instagram, collaborated with Harper's Bazaar to do a piece on how brands are using Instagram to market their products, and how bloggers make money from it.

Bernstein, who currently has one and a half million followers on Instagram, and whose "outfit of the day" photos on Snapchat get tens of thousands of screenshots, explained that for a lot of her sponsored posts, she must feature the brand in a certain number of posts, and often cannot wear a competitor's product in the same picture.

According to Harper's Bazaar, industry estimates say that brands are spending more than $1 billion per year on consumer-generated advertising.[57] Founder of Instagram Kevin Systrom even went to Paris Fashion week, going to couture shows and meeting with designers to learn more about how style bloggers, editors, and designers are currently dominating much of the content on his application.[58] Instagram has proven itself a powerful platform for marketers to reach their customers and prospects through sharing pictures and brief messages.

According to a study by Simply Measured, 71% of the world's largest brands are now using Instagram as a marketing channel.[59] For companies, Instagram can be used as a tool to connect and communicate with current and potential customers.

The company can present a more personal picture of their brand, and by doing so the company conveys a better and true picture of itself.

The idea of Instagram pictures lies on on-the-go, a sense that the event is happening right now, and that adds another layer to the personal and accurate picture of the company.

In fact, Thomas Rankin, co-founder and CEO of the program Dash Hudson, stated that when he approves a blogger's Instagram post before it is posted on the behalf of a brand his company represents, his only negative feedback is if it looks too posed.

"It's not an editorial photo," he explained, "We're not trying to be a magazine.

We're trying to create a moment."[58] Another option Instagram provides the opportunity for companies to reflect a true picture of the brand from the perspective of the customers, for instance, using the user-generated contents thought the hashtags encouragement.[60] Other than the filters and hashtags functions, the Instagram's 15-second videos and the recently added ability to send private messages between users have opened new opportunities for brands to connect with customers in a new extent, further promoting effective marketing on Instagram.

Snapchat is a popular messaging and picture exchanging application that was created in 2011 by three students at Stanford University named Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown.

The application was first developed to allow users to message back and forth and to also send photographs that are only available from 1–10 seconds until they are no longer available.

The app was an instant hit with social media members and today there are up to 158 million people using snapchat every single day.[61] It is also estimated that Snapchat users are opening the application approximately 18 times per day, which means users are on the app for about 25–30 minutes per day.[61] YouTube is another popular avenue; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience.

The type of language used in the commercials and the ideas used to promote the product reflect the audience's style and taste.

Also, the ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video requested, this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers.

Certain ads are presented with certain videos since the content is relevant.

Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube, "for example, a user who searches for a YouTube video on dog training may be presented with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos."[62] YouTube also enable publishers to earn money through its YouTube Partner Program.

Companies can pay YouTube for a special "channel" which promotes the companies products or services.

Websites such as Delicious, Digg, Slashdot, Diigo, Stumbleupon, and Reddit are popular social bookmarking sites used in social media promotion.

Each of these sites is dedicated to the collection, curation, and organization of links to other websites that users deem to be of good quality.

This process is "crowdsourced", allowing amateur social media network members to sort and prioritize links by relevance and general category.

Due to the large user bases of these websites, any link from one of them to another, the smaller website may in a flash crowd, a sudden surge of interest in the target website.

In addition to user-generated promotion, these sites also offer advertisements within individual user communities and categories.[63] Because ads can be placed in designated communities with a very specific target audience and demographic, they have far greater potential for traffic generation than ads selected simply through cookie and browser history.[64] Additionally, some of these websites have also implemented measures to make ads more relevant to users by allowing users to vote on which ones will be shown on pages they frequent.[65] The ability to redirect large volumes of web traffic and target specific, relevant audiences makes social bookmarking sites a valuable asset for social media marketers.

Platforms like LinkedIn create an environment for companies and clients to connect online.[66] Companies that recognize the need for information, originality/ and accessibility employ blogs to make their products popular and unique/ and ultimately reach out to consumers who are privy to social media.[67] Studies from 2009 show that consumers view coverage in the media or from bloggers as being more neutral and credible than print advertisements, which are not thought of as free or independent.[68] Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services, can include testimonials and can link to and from other social network and blog pages.

Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers, and also for acquiring followers and subscribers who can then be directed to social network pages.

Online communities can enable a business to reach the clients of other businesses using the platform.

To allow firms to measure their standing in the corporate world, sites enable employees to place evaluations of their companies.[66] Some businesses opt out of integrating social media platforms into their traditional marketing regimen.

There are also specific corporate standards that apply when interacting online.[66] To maintain an advantage in a business-consumer relationship, businesses have to be aware of four key assets that consumers maintain: information, involvement, community, and control.[69] Blogging website Tumblr first launched ad products on May 29, 2012.[70] Rather than relying on simple banner ads, Tumblr requires advertisers to create a Tumblr blog so the content of those blogs can be featured on the site.[71] In one year, four native ad formats were created on web and mobile, and had more than 100 brands advertising on Tumblr with 500 cumulative sponsored posts.

These posts can be one or more of the following: images, photo sets, animated GIFs, video, audio, and text posts.

For the users to differentiate the promoted posts to the regular users' posts, the promoted posts have a dollar symbol on the corner.

On May 6, 2014, Tumblr announced customization and theming on mobile apps for brands to advertise.[73] Social media marketing involves the use of social networks, consumer's online brand-related activities (COBRA) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM)[76][77] to successfully advertise online.

Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide advertisers with information about the likes and dislikes of their consumers.[62] This technique is crucial, as it provides the businesses with a "target audience".[62] With social networks, information relevant to the user's likes is available to businesses; who then advertise accordingly.

Activities such as uploading a picture of your "new Converse sneakers to Facebook[76]" is an example of a COBRA.[76][77] Electronic recommendations and appraisals are a convenient manner to have a product promoted via "consumer-to-consumer interactions.[76] An example of eWOM would be an online hotel review;[78] the hotel company can have two possible outcomes based on their service.

A good service would result in a positive review which gets the hotel free advertising via social media.

However, a poor service will result in a negative consumer review which can potentially harm the company's reputation.[79] Social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, MySpace etc.

have all influenced the buzz of word of mouth marketing.

In 1999, Misner said that word-of mouth marketing is, "the world's most effective, yet least understood marketing strategy" (Trusov, Bucklin, & Pauwels, 2009, p. 3).[80] Through the influence of opinion leaders, the increased online "buzz" of "word-of-mouth" marketing that a product, service or companies are experiencing is due to the rise in use of social media and smartphones.

Businesses and marketers have noticed that, "a persons behaviour is influenced by many small groups" (Kotler, Burton, Deans, Brown, & Armstrong, 2013, p. 189).

These small groups rotate around social networking accounts that are run by influential people (opinion leaders or "thought leaders") who have followers of groups.

The types of groups (followers) are called:[81] reference groups (people who know each other either face-to-face or have an indirect influence on a persons attitude or behaviour); membership groups (a person has a direct influence on a person's attitude or behaviour); and aspirational groups (groups which an individual wishes to belong to).

Marketers target influential people, referred to as influencers, on social media who are recognized as being opinion leaders and opinion-formers to send messages to their target audiences and amplify the impact of their message.

A social media post by an opinion leader can have a much greater impact (via the forwarding of the post or "liking" of the post) than a social media post by a regular user.

Marketers have come to the understanding that "consumers are more prone to believe in other individuals" who they trust (Sepp, Liljander, & Gummerus, 2011).

OL's and OF's can also send their own messages about products and services they choose (Fill, Hughes, & De Francesco, 2013, p. 216).

The reason the opinion leader or formers have such a strong following base is because their opinion is valued or trusted (Clement, Proppe, & Rott, 2007).

They can review products and services for their followings, which can be positive or negative towards the brand.

OL's and OF's are people who have a social status and because of their personality, beliefs, values etc.

have the potential to influence other people (Kotler, Burton, Deans, Brown, & Armstrong, 2013, p. 189).

They usually have a large number of followers otherwise known as their reference, membership or aspirational group (Kotler, Burton, Deans, Brown, & Armstrong, 2013, p. 189.

By having an OL or OF support a brands product by posting a photo, video or written recommendation on a blog, the following may be influenced and because they trust the OL/OF a high chance of the brand selling more products or creating a following base.

Having an OL/OF helps spread word of mouth talk amongst reference groups and/or memberships groups e.g.

family, friends, work-friends etc.

(Kotler, Burton, Deans, Brown, & Armstrong, 2013, p. 189).[82][83][84][85][85][85] The adjusted communication model shows the use of using opinion leaders and opinion formers.

The sender/source gives the message to many, many OL's/OF's who pass the message on along with their personal opinion, the receiver (followers/groups) form their own opinion and send their personal message to their group (friends, family etc.) (Dahlen, Lange, & Smith, 2010, p. 39).[86] Owned social media channels are an essential extension of business' and brands in today's world.

Brand must seek to create their brand image on each platform, and cater to the type of consumer demographics on each respective platform.

In contrast with pre-Internet marketing, such as TV ads and newspaper ads, in which the marketer controlled all aspects of the ad, with social media, users are free to post comments right below an online ad or an online post by a company about its product.

Companies are increasing using their social media strategy as part of their traditional marketing effort using magazines, newspapers, radio advertisements, television advertisements.

Since in the 2010s, media consumers are often using multiple platforms at the same time (e.g., surfing the Internet on a tablet while watching a streaming TV show), marketing content needs to be consistent across all platforms, whether traditional or new media.

Heath (2006) wrote about the extent of attention businesses should give to their social media sites.

It is about finding a balance between frequently posting but not over posting.

There is a lot more attention to be paid towards social media sites because people need updates to gain brand recognition.

Therefore, a lot more content is need and this can often be unplanned content.[87] Planned content begins with the creative/marketing team generating their ideas, once they have completed their ideas they send them off for approval.

There is two general ways of doing so.

The first is where each sector approves the plan one after another, editor, brand, followed by the legal team (Brito, 2013).

Sectors may differ depending on the size and philosophy of the business.

The second is where each sector is given 24 hours (or such designated time) to sign off or disapprove.

If no action is given within the 24-hour period the original plan is implemented.

Planned content is often noticeable to customers and is un-original or lacks excitement but is also a safer option to avoid unnecessary backlash from the public.[88] Both routes for planned content are time consuming as in the above; the first way to approval takes 72 hours to be approved.

Although the second route can be significantly shorter it also holds more risk particularly in the legal department.

Unplanned content is an 'in the moment' idea, "a spontaneous, tactical reaction." (Cramer, 2014, p. 6).

The content could be trending and not have the time to take the planned content route.

The unplanned content is posted sporadically and is not calendar/date/time arranged (Deshpande, 2014).[89][90] Issues with unplanned content revolve around legal issues and whether the message being sent out represents the business/brand accordingly.

If a company sends out a Tweet or Facebook message too hurriedly, the company may unintentionally use insensitive language or messaging that could alienate some consumers.

For example, celebrity chef Paula Deen was criticized after she made a social media post commenting about HIV-AIDS and South Africa; her message was deemed to be offensive by many observers.

The main difference between planned and unplanned is the time to approve the content.

Unplanned content must still be approved by marketing managers, but in a much more rapid manner e.g.

1–2 hours or less.

Sectors may miss errors because of being hurried.

When using unplanned content Brito (2013) says, "be prepared to be reactive and respond to issues when they arise."[88] Brito (2013) writes about having a, "crisis escalation plan", because, "It will happen".

The plan involves breaking down the issue into topics and classifying the issue into groups.

Colour coding the potential risk "identify and flag potential risks" also helps to organise an issue.

The problem can then be handled by the correct team and dissolved more effectively rather than any person at hand trying to solve the situation.[88] Traditional advertising techniques include print and television advertising.

The Internet has already overtaken television as the largest advertising market.[91] Web sites often include the banner or pop-up ads.

Social networking sites don't always have ads.

In exchange, products have entire pages and are able to interact with users.

Television commercials often end with a spokesperson asking viewers to check out the product website for more information.

While briefly popular, print ads included QR codes on them.

These QR codes can be scanned by cell phones and computers, sending viewers to the product website.

Advertising is beginning to move viewers from the traditional outlets to the electronic ones.[92] While traditional media, like newspapers and television advertising, are largely overshadowed by the rise of Social media marketing, there is still a place for traditional marketing.

For example, with newspapers, readership over the years has shown a decline.

However, readership with newspapers is still fiercely loyal to print-only media.

51% of newspaper readers only read the newspaper in its print form,[93] making well-placed ads valuable.

The Internet and social networking leaks are one of the issues facing traditional advertising.

Video and print ads are often leaked to the world via the Internet earlier than they are scheduled to premiere.

Social networking sites allow those leaks to go viral, and be seen by many users more quickly.

The time difference is also a problem facing traditional advertisers.

When social events occur and are broadcast on television, there is often a time delay between airings on the east coast and west coast of the United States.

Social networking sites have become a hub of comment and interaction concerning the event.

This allows individuals watching the event on the west coast (time-delayed) to know the outcome before it airs.

The 2011 Grammy Awards highlighted this problem.

Viewers on the west coast learned who won different awards based on comments made on social networking sites by individuals watching live on the east coast.[94] Since viewers knew who won already, many tuned out and ratings were lower.

All the advertisement and promotion put into the event was lost because viewers didn't have a reason to watch.[according to whom?] Social media marketing provides organizations with a way to connect with their customers.

However, organizations must protect their information as well as closely watch comments and concerns on the social media they use.

A flash poll done on 1225 IT executives from 33 countries revealed that social media mishaps caused organizations a combined $4.3 million in damages in 2010.[95] The top three social media incidents an organization faced during the previous year included employees sharing too much information in public forums, loss or exposure of confidential information, and increased exposure to litigation.[95] Due to the viral nature of the Internet, a mistake by a single employee has in some cases shown to result in devastating consequences for organizations.

An example of a social media mishap includes designer Kenneth Cole's Twitter mishap in 2011.

When Kenneth Cole tweeted, "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo.

Rumor has they heard our new spring collection is now available online at [Kenneth Cole's website]".[96] This reference to the 2011 Egyptian revolution drew an objection from the public; it was widely objected to on the Internet.[96] Kenneth Cole realized his mistake shortly after and responded with a statement apologizing for the tweet.[97] In 2012 during Hurricane Sandy, Gap sent out a tweet to its followers telling them to stay safe but encouraged them to shop online and offered free shipping.

The tweet was deemed insensitive, and Gap eventually took it down and apologized.[98] Numerous additional online marketing mishap examples exist.

Examples include a YouTube video of a Domino's Pizza employee violating health code standards, which went viral on the Internet and later resulted in felony charges against two employees.[95][99] A Twitter hashtag posted by McDonald's in 2012 attracting attention due to numerous complaints and negative events customers experienced at the chain store; and a 2011 tweet posted by a Chrysler Group employee that no one in Detroit knows how to drive.[100] When the Link REIT opened a Facebook page to recommend old-style restaurants, the page was flooded by furious comments criticizing the REIT for having forced a lot of restaurants and stores to shut down; it had to terminate its campaign early amid further deterioration of its corporate image.[101] In 2018, Max Factor, MAC and other beauty brands were forced to rush to disassociate themselves from Kuwaiti beauty blogger and Instagram 'influencer' Sondos Alqattan after she criticised government moves to improve conditions for domestic workers.[102] The code of ethics that is affiliated with traditional marketing can also be applied to social media.

However, with social media being so personal and international, there is another list of complications and challenges that come along with being ethical online.

With the invention of social media, the marketer no longer has to focus solely on the basic demographics and psychographics given from television and magazines, but now they can see what consumers like to hear from advertisers, how they engage online, and what their needs and wants are.[103] The general concept of being ethical while marking on social network sites is to be honest with the intentions of the campaign, avoid false advertising, be aware of user privacy conditions (which means not using consumers' private information for gain), respect the dignity of persons in the shared online community, and claim responsibility for any mistakes or mishaps that are results of your marketing campaign.[104] Most social network marketers use websites like Facebook and MySpace to try to drive traffic to another website.[105] While it is ethical to use social networking websites to spread a message to people who are genuinely interested, many people game the system with auto-friend adding programs and spam messages and bulletins.

Social networking websites are becoming wise to these practices, however, and are effectively weeding out and banning offenders.

In addition, social media platforms have become extremely aware of their users and collect information about their viewers to connect with them in various ways.

Social-networking website Facebook Inc.

is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves.[106] This may be an unethical or ethical feature to some individuals.

Some people may react negatively because they believe it is an invasion of privacy.

On the other hand, some individuals may enjoy this feature because their social network recognizes their interests and sends them particular advertisements pertaining to those interests.

Consumers like to network with people who share their interests and desires.[107] Individuals who agree to have their social media profile public, should be aware that advertisers have the ability to take information that interests them to be able to send them information and advertisements to boost their sales.

Managers invest in social media to foster relationships and int

Social media

Social media are interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.[1][2] The variety of stand-alone and built-in Social media services currently available introduces challenges of definition; however, there are some common features:[2] Users usually access Social media services via web-based apps on desktops and laptops, or download services that offer Social media functionality to their mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets).

As users engage with these electronic services, they create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities, and organizations can share, co-create, discuss, participate and modify user-generated content or self-curated content posted online.

Networks formed through Social media change the way groups of people interact and communicate or stand with the votes.

They "introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities, and individuals."[1] These changes are the focus of the emerging fields of technoself studies.

Social media differ from paper-based media (e.g., magazines and newspapers) and traditional electronic media such as TV broadcasting, Radio broadcasting in many ways, including quality,[5] reach, frequency, interactivity, usability, immediacy, and performance.

Social media outlets operate in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers).[6] This is in contrast to traditional media which operates under a mono-logic transmission model (one source to many receivers), such as a newspaper which is delivered to many subscribers, or a radio station which broadcasts the same programs to an entire city.

Some of the most popular Social media websites, with over 100 million registered users, include Facebook (and its associated Facebook Messenger), TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, QZone, Weibo, Twitter, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, LinkedIn and VK.

Other popular platforms that are sometimes referred to as Social media services (differing on interpretation) include YouTube, QQ, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, LINE, Snapchat, Pinterest, Viber, Reddit, Discord and more.

Observers have noted a wide range of positive and negative impacts of Social media use.

Social media can help to improve an individual's sense of connectedness with real or online communities and can be an effective communication (or marketing) tool for corporations, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, advocacy groups, political parties, and governments.

Social media may have roots in the 1840s introduction of the telegraph, which connected the United States.[7] The PLATO system launched in 1960, which was developed at the University of Illinois and subsequently commercially marketed by Control Data Corporation, offered early forms of Social media features with 1973-era innovations such as Notes, PLATO's message-forum application; TERM-talk, its instant-messaging feature; Talkomatic, perhaps the first online chat room; News Report, a crowd-sourced online newspaper and blog; and Access Lists, enabling the owner of a note file or other application to limit access to a certain set of users, for example, only friends, classmates, or co-workers.

ARPANET, which first came online in 1967, had by the late 1970s developed a rich cultural exchange of non-government/business ideas and communication, as evidenced by the network etiquette (or "netiquette") described in a 1982 handbook on computing at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.[8] ARPANET evolved into the Internet following the publication of the first Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) specification, .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background-image:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png");background-image:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:9px;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background-image:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png");background-image:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:9px;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background-image:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png");background-image:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:9px;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-image:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png");background-image:linear-gradient(transparent,transparent),url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg");background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:12px;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}RFC 675 (Specification of Internet Transmission Control Program), written by Vint Cerf, Yogen Dalal and Carl Sunshine in 1974.[9] This became the foundation of Usenet, conceived by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis in 1979 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, and established in 1980.

A precursor of the electronic bulletin board system (BBS), known as Community Memory, had already appeared by 1973.

True electronic bulletin board systems arrived with the Computer Bulletin Board System in Chicago, which first came online on February 16, 1978.

Before long, most major cities had more than one BBS running on TRS-80, Apple II, Atari, IBM PC, Commodore 64, Sinclair, and similar personal computers.

The IBM PC was introduced in 1981, and subsequent models of both Mac computers and PCs were used throughout the 1980s.

Multiple modems, followed by specialized telecommunication hardware, allowed many users to be online simultaneously.

Compuserve, Prodigy and AOL were three of the largest BBS companies and were the first to migrate to the Internet in the 1990s.

Between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, BBSes numbered in the tens of thousands in North America alone.[10] Message forums (a specific structure of Social media) arose with the BBS phenomenon throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

When the World Wide Web (WWW, or "the web") was added to the Internet in the mid-1990s, message forums migrated to the web, becoming Internet forums, primarily due to cheaper per-person access as well as the ability to handle far more people simultaneously than telco modem banks.

Digital imaging and semiconductor image sensor technology facilitated the development and rise of Social media.[11] Advances in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) semiconductor device fabrication, reaching smaller micron and then sub-micron levels during the 1980s–1990s, led to the development of the NMOS (n-type MOS) active-pixel sensor (APS) at Olympus in 1985,[12][13] and then the complementary MOS (CMOS) active-pixel sensor (CMOS sensor) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1993.[12][14] CMOS sensors enabled the mass proliferation of digital cameras and camera phones, which bolstered the rise of Social media.[11] An important feature of Social media is digital media data compression,[15][16] due to the impractically high memory and bandwidth requirements of uncompressed media.[17] The most important compression algorithm is the discrete cosine transform (DCT),[17][18] a lossy compression technique that was first proposed by Nasir Ahmed in 1972.[19] DCT-based compression standards include the H.26x and MPEG video coding standards introduced from 1988 onwards,[18] and the JPEG image compression standard introduced in 1992.[20][15] JPEG was largely responsible for the proliferation of digital images and digital photos which lie at the heart of Social media,[15] and the MPEG standards did the same for digital video content on Social media.[16] The JPEG image format is used more than a billion times on social networks every day, as of 2014.[21][22] GeoCities was one of the World Wide Web's earliest social networking websites, appearing in November 1994, followed by Classmates in December 1995 and SixDegrees in May 1997.

According to CBS news, SixDegrees is "widely considered to be the very first social networking site", as it included "profiles, friends lists and school affiliations" that could be used by registered users.[23] Open Diary was launched in October 1998; LiveJournal in April 1999; Ryze in October 2001; Friendster in March 2003; the corporate and job-oriented site LinkedIn in May 2003; hi5 in June 2003; MySpace in August 2003; Orkut in January 2004; Facebook in February 2004; YouTube in February 2005; Yahoo! 360° in March 2005; Bebo in July 2005; the text-based service Twitter, in which posts, called "tweets", were limited to 140 characters, in July 2006; Tumblr in February 2007; and Google+ in July 2011.[24][25][26] The variety of evolving stand-alone and built-in Social media services makes it challenging to define them.[2] However, marketing and Social media experts broadly agree that Social media includes the following 13 types of Social media:[27] The idea that Social media are defined simply by their ability to bring people together has been seen as too broad, as this would suggest that fundamentally different technologies like the telegraph and telephone are also Social media.[28] The terminology is unclear, with some early researchers referring to Social media as social networks or social networking services in the mid 2000s.[4] A more recent paper from 2015[2] reviewed the prominent literature in the area and identified four common features unique to then-current Social media services: In 2019, Merriam-Webster defined "Social media" as "forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)"[29] The development of Social media started off with simple platforms such as sixdegrees.com.[30] Unlike instant messaging clients, such as ICQ and AOL's AIM, or chat clients like IRC, iChat or Chat Television, sixdegrees.com was the first online business that was created for real people, using their real names.

The first social networks were short-lived, however, because their users lost interest.

The Social Network Revolution has led to the rise of networking sites.

Research[31] shows that the audience spends 22% of their time on social networks, thus proving how popular Social media platforms have become.

This increase is because of the widespread daily use of smartphones.[32] Social media are used to document memories, learn about and explore things, advertise oneself and form friendships as well as the growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites.[33] Networked individuals create, edit, and manage content in collaboration with other networked individuals.

This way they contribute to expanding knowledge.

Wikis are examples of collaborative content creation.

Mobile Social media refer to the use of Social media on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers.

Mobile Social media are a useful application of mobile marketing because the creation, exchange, and circulation of user-generated content can assist companies with marketing research, communication, and relationship development.[34] Mobile Social media differ from others because they incorporate the current location of the user (location-sensitivity) or the time delay between sending and receiving messages (time-sensitivity).

According to Andreas Kaplan, mobile Social media applications can be differentiated among four types:[34] Some Social media sites have potential for content posted there to spread virally over social networks.

The term is an analogy to the concept of viral infections, which can spread rapidly from person to person.

In a Social media context, content or websites that are "viral" (or which "go viral") are those with a greater likelihood that users will reshare content posted (by another user) to their social network, leading to further sharing.

In some cases, posts containing popular content or fast-breaking news have been rapidly shared and reshared by a huge number of users.

Many Social media sites provide specific functionality to help users reshare content, such as Twitter's retweet button, Pinterest's pin function, Facebook's share option or Tumblr's reblog function.

Businesses have a particular interest in viral marketing tactics because a viral campaign can achieve widespread advertising coverage (particularly if the viral reposting itself makes the news) for a fraction of the cost of a traditional marketing campaign, which typically uses printed materials, like newspapers, magazines, mailings, and billboards, and television and radio commercials.

Nonprofit organizations and activists may have similar interests in posting content on Social media sites with the aim of it going viral.

A popular component and feature of Twitter is retweeting.

Twitter allows other people to keep up with important events, stay connected with their peers, and can contribute in various ways throughout Social media.[35] When certain posts become popular, they start to get retweeted over and over again, becoming viral.

Hashtags can be used in tweets, and can also be used to take count of how many people have used that hashtag.

Social media can enable companies to get in the form of greater market share and increased audiences.[36] Internet bots have been developed which facilitate Social media marketing.

Bots are automated programs that run over the Internet.[37] Chatbots and social bots are programmed to mimic natural human interactions such as liking, commenting, following, and unfollowing on Social media platforms.[38] A new industry of bot providers has been created.[39] Social bots and chatbots have created an analytical crisis in the marketing industry[40] as they make it difficult to differentiate between human interactions and automated bot interactions.[40] Some bots are negatively affecting their marketing data causing a "digital cannibalism" in Social media marketing.

Additionally, some bots violate the terms of use on many social mediums such as Instagram, which can result in profiles being taken down and banned.[41] "Cyborgs", a combination of a human and a bot,[42][43] are used to spread fake news or create a marketing "buzz".[44] Cyborgs can be bot-assisted humans or human-assisted bots.[45] An example is a human who registers an account for which they set automated programs to post, for instance, tweets, during their absence.[45] From time to time, the human participates to tweet and interact with friends.

Cyborgs make it easier to spread fake news, as it blends automated activity with human input.[45] When the automated accounts are publicly identified, the human part of the cyborg is able to take over and could protest that the account has been used manually all along.

Such accounts try to pose as real people; in particular, the number of their friends or followers should be resembling that of a real person.

There has been rapid growth in the number of U.S.

patent applications that cover new technologies related to Social media, and the number of them that are published has been growing rapidly over the past five years.

There are now over 2000 published patent applications.[47] As many as 7000 applications may be currently on file including those that haven't been published yet.

Only slightly over 100 of these applications have issued as patents, however, largely due to the multi-year backlog in examination of business method patents, patents which outline and claim new methods of doing business.[48] According to Statista, in 2019, it is estimated that there will be around 2.77 billion Social media users around the globe, up from 2.46 billion in 2017.[49] In 2020, there were 3.8 billion Social media users.[50] The following list of the leading social networks shows the number of active users as of April 2020 (figures for Baidu Tieba, LinkedIn, Viber and Discord are from October 2019).[51] (in millions) According to a survey conducted by Pew Research in 2018, Facebook and YouTube dominate the Social media landscape, as notable majorities of U.S.

adults use each of these sites.

At the same time, younger Americans (especially those ages 18 to 24) stand out for embracing a variety of platforms and using them frequently.

Some 78% of 18 - 24-year-old youngsters use Snapchat, and a sizeable majority of these users (71%) visit the platform multiple times per day.

Similarly, 71% of Americans in this age group now use Instagram and close to half (45%) are Twitter users.

However, Facebook remains the primary platform for most Americans.

Roughly two-thirds of U.S.

adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users, and roughly three-quarters of those users access Facebook on a daily basis.

With the exception of those 65 and older, a majority of Americans across a wide range of demographic groups now use Facebook.[52] After this rapid growth, the number of new U.S.

Facebook accounts created has plateaued, with not much observable growth in the 2016-18 period.[53] Governments may use Social media to (for example):[54] The high distribution of Social media in the private environment drives companies to deal with the application possibilities of Social media on Marketplace actors can use social-media tools for marketing research, communication, sales promotions/discounts, informal employee-learning/organizational development, relationship development/loyalty programs,[34] and e-Commerce.

Often Social media can become a good source of information and/or explanation of industry trends for a business to embrace change.

Trends in social-media technology and usage change rapidly, making it crucial for businesses to have a set of guidelines that can apply to many Social media platforms.[56] Companies are increasingly[quantify] using social-media monitoring tools to monitor, track, and analyze online conversations on the Web about their brand or products or about related topics of interest.

This can prove useful in public relations management and advertising-campaign tracking, allowing analysts to measure return on investment for their Social media ad spending, competitor-auditing, and for public engagement.

Tools range from free, basic applications to subscription-based, more in-depth tools.

Financial industries utilize the power of Social media as a tool for analysing sentiment of financial markets.

These range from the marketing of financial products, gaining insights into market sentiment, future market predictions, and as a tool to identify insider trading.[57] Social media becomes effective through a process called[by whom?] "building social authority".[58] One of the foundation concepts in Social media has become[when?] that one cannot completely control one's message through Social media but rather one can simply begin to participate in the "conversation" expecting that one can achieve a significant influence in that conversation.[59] Social media "mining" is a type of data mining, a technique of analyzing data to detect patterns.

Social media mining is a process of representing, analyzing, and extracting actionable patterns from data collected from people's activities on Social media.

Google mines data in many ways including using an algorithm in Gmail to analyze information in emails.

This use of the information will then affect the type of advertisements shown to the user when they use Gmail.

Facebook has partnered with many data mining companies such as Datalogix and BlueKai to use customer information for targeted advertising.[60] Ethical questions of the extent to which a company should be able to utilize a user's information have been called "big data".[60] Users tend to click through Terms of Use agreements when signing up on Social media platforms, and they do not know how their information will be used by companies.

This leads to questions of privacy and surveillance when user data is recorded.

Some Social media outlets have added capture time and Geotagging that helps provide information about the context of the data as well as making their data more accurate.

Social media has a range of uses in political processes and activities.

Social media have been championed as allowing anyone with an Internet connection to become a content creator[61] and empowering their users.[62] The role of Social media in democratizing media participation, which proponents herald as ushering in a new era of participatory democracy, with all users able to contribute news and comments, may fall short of the ideals, given that many often follow like-minded individuals, as noted by Philip Pond and Jeff Lewis.[63] Online media audience members are largely passive consumers, while content creation is dominated by a small number of users who post comments and write new content.[64]:78 Younger generations are becoming more involved in politics due to the increase of political news posted on Social media.

Political campaigns are targeting Millennials online via Social media posts in hope that they will increase their political engagement.[65] Social media was influential in the widespread attention given to the revolutionary outbreaks in the Middle East and North Africa during 2011.[66][67][68] During the Tunisian revolution in 2011, people used Facebook to organize meetings and protests.[61] However, there is debate about the extent to which Social media facilitated this kind of political change.[69] Social media footprints of candidates have grown during the last decade and the 2016 United States Presidential election provides a good example.

Dounoucos et al.

noted that Twitter use by the candidates was unprecedented during that election cycle.[70] Most candidates in the United States have a Twitter account.[71] The public has also increased their reliance on Social media sites for political information.[70] In the European Union, Social media has amplified political messages.[72] One challenge is that militant groups have begun to see Social media as a major organizing and recruiting tool.[73] The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIL, ISIS, and Daesh, has used Social media to promote its cause.

In 2014, #AllEyesonISIS went viral on Arabic Twitter.[74] ISIS produces an online magazine named the Islamic State Report to recruit more fighters.[75] Social media platforms have been weaponized by state-sponsored cyber groups to attack governments in the United States, European Union, and Middle East.

Although phishing attacks via email are the most commonly used tactic to breach government networks, phishing attacks on Social media rose 500% in 2016.[76] Some employers examine job applicants' Social media profiles as part of the hiring assessment.

This issue raises many ethical questions that some consider an employer's right and others consider discrimination.

Many Western European countries have already implemented laws that restrict the regulation of Social media in the workplace.

States including Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin have passed legislation that protects potential employees and current employees from employers that demand that they provide their usernames and/or passwords for any Social media accounts.[77] Use of Social media by young people has caused significant problems for some applicants who are active on Social media when they try to enter the job market.

A survey of 17,000 young people in six countries in 2013 found that 1 in 10 people aged 16 to 34 have been rejected for a job because of online comments they made on Social media websites.[78] It is not only an issue in the workplace but an issue in post-secondary school admissions as well.

There have been situations where students have been forced to give up their Social media passwords to school administrators.[79] There are inadequate laws to protect a student's Social media privacy, and organizations such as the ACLU are pushing for more privacy protection, as it is an invasion.

They urge students who are pressured to give up their account information to tell the administrators to contact a parent or lawyer before they take the matter any further.

Although they are students, they still have the right to keep their password-protected information private.[80] Before Social media,[81] admissions officials in the United States used SAT and other standardized test scores, extra-curricular activities, letters of recommendation, and high school report cards to determine whether to accept or deny an applicant.

In the 2010s, while colleges and universities still use these traditional methods to evaluate applicants, these institutions are increasingly accessing applicants' Social media profiles to learn about their character and activities.

According to Kaplan, Inc, a corporation that provides higher education preparation, in 2012 27% of admissions officers used Google to learn more about an applicant, with 26% checking Facebook.[82] Students whose Social media pages include offensive jokes or photos, racist or homophobic comments, photos depicting the applicant engaging in illegal drug use or drunkenness, and so on, may be screened out from admission processes.

Social media has been used extensively in civil and criminal investigations.[83] It has also been used to assist in searches for missing persons.[84] Police departments often make use of official Social media accounts to engage with the public, publicize police activity, and burnish law enforcement's image;[85][86] conversely, video footage of citizen-documented police brutality and other misconduct has sometimes been posted to Social media.[86] In the United States U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement identifies and track individuals via Social media, and also has apprehended some people via Social media based sting operations.[87] U.S.

Customs and Border Protection (also known as CPB) and the United States Department of Homeland Security use Social media data as influencing factors during the visa process, and continue to monitor individuals after they have entered the country.[88] CPB officers have also been documented performing searches of electronics and Social media behavior at the border, searching both citizens and non-citizens without first obtaining a warrant.[88] Social media comments and images are being used in a range of court cases including employment law, child custody/child support and insurance disability claims.

After an Apple employee criticized his employer on Facebook, he was fired.

When the former employee sued Apple for unfair dismissal, the court, after seeing the man's Facebook posts, found in favor of Apple, as the man's Social media comments breached Apple's policies.[89] After a heterosexual couple broke up, the man posted "violent rap lyrics from a song that talked about fantasies of killing the rapper's ex-wife" and made threats against him.

The court found him guilty and he was sentenced to jail.[89] In a disability claims case, a woman who fell at work claimed that she was permanently injured; the employer used her Social media posts of her travels and activities to counter her claims.[89] Courts do not always admit Social media evidence, in part because screenshots can be faked or tampered with.[90] Judges are taking emojis into account to assess statements made on Social media; in one Michigan case where a person alleged that another person had defamed them in an online comment, the judge disagreed, noting that there was an emoji after the comment which indicated that it was a joke.[90] In a 2014 case in Ontario against a police officer regarding alleged assault of a protester during the G20 summit, the court rejected the Crown's application to use a digital photo of the protest that was anonymously posted online, because there was no metadata proving when the photo was taken and it could have been digitally altered.[90] Social media marketing has increased due to the growing active user rates on Social media sites.

For example, Facebook currently has 2.2 billion users, Twitter has 330 million active users and Instagram has 800 million users.[91] One of the main uses is to interact with audiences to create awareness of their brand or service, with the main idea of creating a two-way communication system where the audience and/or customers can interact back; providing feedback as just one example.[92] Social media can be used to advertise; placing an advert on Facebook's Newsfeed, for example, can allow a vast number of people to see it or targeting specific audiences from their usage to encourage awareness of the product or brand.

Users of Social media are then able to like, share and comment on the advert, becoming message senders as they can keep passing the advert's message on to their friends and onwards.[93] The use of new media put consumers on the position of spreading opinions, sharing experience, and has shift power from organization to consumers for it allows transparency and different opinions to be heard.[94] media marketing has to keep up with all the different platforms.

They also have to keep up with the ongoing trends that are set by big influencers and draw many peoples attention.

The type of audience a business is going for will determine the Social media site they use.[3] Social media personalities have been employed by marketers to promote products online.

Research shows that digital endorsements seem to be successfully targeting Social media users,[95] especially younger consumers who have grown up in the digital age.[96] Celebrities with large Social media followings, such as Kylie Jenner, regularly endorse products to their followers on their Social media pages.[97] In 2013, the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) began to advise celebrities and sports stars to make it clear if they had been paid to tweet about a product or service by using the hashtag #spon or #ad within tweets containing endorsements.

The practice of harnessing Social media personalities to market or promote a product or service to their following is commonly referred to as Influencer Marketing.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines an "influencer" as any person (personality, blogger, journalist, celebrity) who has the ability to affect the opinions, behaviors, or purchases of others through the use of Social media.[98] Companies such as fast food franchise Wendy's have used humor to advertise their products by poking fun at competitors such as McDonald's and Burger King.[99] Other companies such as Juul have used hashtags to promote themselves and their products.[100] On Social media, consumers are exposed to the purchasing practices of peers through messages from a peer's account, which may be peer-written.

Such messages may be part of an interactive marketing strategy involving modeling, reinforcement, and social interaction mechanisms.[101] A 2011 study focusing on peer communication through Social media described how communication between peers through Social media can affect purchase intentions: a direct impact through conformity, and an indirect impact by stressing product engagement.[101] The study indicated that Social media communication between peers about a product had a positive relationship with product engagement.[101] Signals from Social media are used to assess academic publications,[102] as well as for evaluation of the quality of the Wikipedia articles and their sources.[103] Data from Social media can be also used for different scientific approaches.

One of the studies examined how millions of users interact with socially shared news and show that individuals’ choices played a stronger role in limiting exposure to cross-cutting content.[104] Another study found that most of the health science students acquiring academic materials from others through Social media.[105] Massive amounts of data from social platforms allows scientists and machine learning researchers to extract insights and build product features.[106] Using Social media can help to shape patterns of deception in resumes.[107] In the United States, 81% of users look online for news of the weather, first and foremost, with the percentage seeking national news at 73%, 52% for sports news, and 41% for entertainment or celebrity news.

According to CNN, in 2010 75% of people got their news forwarded through e-mail or Social media posts, whereas 37% of people shared a news item via Facebook or Twitter.[108] Facebook and Twitter make news a more participatory experience than before as people share news articles and comment on other people's posts.

Rainie and Wellman have argued that media making now has become a participation work,[109] which changes communication systems.

However, 27% of respondents worry about the accuracy of a story on a blog.[64] From a 2019 poll, Pew Research Center found that Americans are wary about the ways that Social media sites share news and certain content.[110] This wariness of accuracy is on the rise as Social media sites are increasingly exploited by aggregated new sources which stitch together multiple feeds to develop plausible correlations.

Hemsley, Jacobson et al.

refer to this phenomenon as "pseudoknowledge" which develop false narratives and fake news that are supported through general analysis and ideology rather than facts.[111] Social media as a news source is further questioned as spikes in evidence surround major news events such as was captured in the United States 2016 presidential election.[112] News media and television journalism have been a key feature in the shaping of American collective memory for much of the twentieth century.[113][114] Indeed, since the United States' colonial era, news media has influenced collective memory and discourse about national development and trauma.

In many ways, mainstream journalists have maintained an authoritative voice as the storytellers of the American past.

Their documentary style narratives, detailed exposes, and their positions in the present make them prime sources for public memory.

Specifically, news media journalists have shaped collective memory on nearly every major national event – from the deaths of social and political figures to the progression of political hopefuls.

Journalists provide elaborate descriptions of commemorative events in U.S.

history and contemporary popular cultural sensations.

Many Americans learn the significance of historical events and political issues through news media, as they are presented on popular news stations.[115] However, journalistic influence is growing less important, whereas social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, provide a constant supply of alternative news sources for users.

As social networking becomes more popular among older and younger generations, sites such as Facebook and YouTube, gradually undermine the traditionally authoritative voices of news media.

For example, American citizens contest media coverage of various social and political events as they see fit, inserting their voices into the narratives about America's past and present and shaping their own collective memories.[116][117] An example of this is the public explosion of the Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford, Florida.

News media coverage of the incident was minimal until Social media users made the story recognizable through their constant discussion of the case.

Approximately one month after the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, its online coverage by everyday Americans garnered national attention from mainstream media journalists, in turn exemplifying media activism.

In some ways, the spread of this tragic event through alternative news sources parallels that of Emmitt Till – whose murder by lynching in 1955 became a national story after it was circulated in African-American and Communist newspapers.

Social media is used to fulfill perceived social needs, but not all needs can be fulfilled by Social media.[118] For example, lonely individuals are more likely to use the Internet for emotional support than those who are not lonely.[119] Sherry Turkle explores these issues in her book Alone Together as she discusses how people confuse Social media usage with authentic communication.

She posits that people tend to act differently online and are less afraid to hurt each other's feelings.

Additionally, studies on who interacts on the internet have shown that extraversion and openness have a positive relationship with Social media, while emotional stability has a negative sloping relationship with Social media.[120] Some online behaviors can cause stress and anxiety, due to the permanence of online posts, the fear of being hacked, or of universities and employers exploring Social media pages.

Turkle also speculates that people are beginning to prefer texting to face-to-face communication, which can contribute to feelings of loneliness.[121] Some researchers have also found that exchanges that involved direct communication and reciprocation of messages correlated with less feelings of loneliness.

However, passively using Social media without sending or receiving messages does not make people feel less lonely unless they were lonely to begin with.[122] Checking updates on friends' activities on Social media is associated with the "fear of missing out" (FOMO), the "pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent".[123] FOMO is a social anxiety[124] characterized by "a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing".[123] It has negative influences on people's psychological health and well-being because it could contribute to neg

Social marketing

Social marketing has the primary goal of achieving "social good".

Traditional commercial marketing aims are primarily financial, though they can have positive social effects as well.

In the context of public health, Social marketing would promote general health, raise awareness and induce changes in behaviour.

Social marketing has been a large industry for some time now and was originally done with newspapers and billboards, but similar to commercial marketing has adapted to the modern world.

The most common use of Social marketing in today's society is through social media.[1].[2] However, to see Social marketing as only the use of standard commercial marketing practices to achieve non-commercial goals is an oversimplified view.

Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to social change.

Social marketing aims to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good.

The goal is to deliver competition-sensitive and segmented social change programs that are effective, efficient, equitable and sustainable.[3] Increasingly, Social marketing is described as having "two parents." The "social parent" uses social science and social policy approaches.

The "marketing parent" uses commercial and public sector marketing approaches.[4] Recent years have also witnessed a broader focus.

Social marketing now goes beyond influencing individual behaviour.

It promotes socio-cultural and structural change relevant to social issues.[5] Consequently, Social marketing scholars are beginning to advocate for a broader definition of Social marketing: "Social marketing is the application of marketing principles to enable individual and collective ideas and actions in the pursuit of effective, efficient, equitable, fair and sustained social transformation".

The new emphasis gives equal weight to the effects (efficiency and effectiveness) and the process (equity, fairness and sustainability) of Social marketing programs.[6] Together with a new Social marketing definition that focuses on social transformation, there is also an argument that "a systems approach is needed if Social marketing is to address the increasingly complex and dynamic social issues facing contemporary societies"[7][8] The first documented evidence of the deliberate use of marketing to address a social issue comes from a 1963 reproductive health program led by K.

T.

Chandy at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta, India.

Chandy and colleagues proposed, and subsequently implemented, a national family planning program with high quality, government brand condoms distributed and sold throughout the country at low cost.

The program included an integrated consumer marketing campaign run with active point of sale promotion.

Retailers were trained to sell the product aggressively, and a new organization was created to implement the program.[9] In developing countries, the use of Social marketing expanded to HIV prevention, control of childhood diarrhea (through the use of oral re-hydration therapies), malaria control and treatment, point-of-use water treatment, on-site sanitation methods and the provision of basic health services.[10] Health promotion campaigns began applying Social marketing in practice in the 1980s.

In the United States, The National High Blood Pressure Education Program[11] and the community heart disease prevention studies in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and at Stanford University[12] demonstrated the effectiveness of the approach to address population-based risk factor behaviour change.

Notable early developments also took place in Australia.

These included the Victoria Cancer Council developing its anti-tobacco campaign "Quit" (1988) and "SunSmart" (1988), its campaign against skin cancer which had the slogan "Slip! Slop! Slap!"[13] Since the 1980s, the field has rapidly expanded around the world to include active living communities, disaster preparedness and response, ecosystem and species conservation, environmental issues, development of volunteer or indigenous workforces, financial literacy, global threats of antibiotic resistance, government corruption, improving the quality of health care, injury prevention, landowner education, marine conservation and ocean sustainability, patient-centered health care, reducing health disparities, sustainable consumption, transportation demand management, water treatment and sanitation systems and youth gambling problems, among other social needs (See[14][15]).

On a wider front, by 2007, government in the United Kingdom announced the development of its first Social marketing strategy for all aspects of health.[16] In 2010, the US national health objectives[17] included increasing the number of state health departments that report using Social marketing in health promotion and disease prevention programs and increasing the number of schools of public health that offer courses and workforce development activities in Social marketing.

Two other public health applications include the CDC's CDCynergy training and software application[18] and SMART (Social marketing and Assessment Response Tool) in the U.S.[19] Social marketing theory and practice has been progressed in several countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, and in the latter a number of key government policy papers have adopted a strategic Social marketing approach.

Publications such as "Choosing Health" in 2004,[16] "It's our health!" in 2006 and "Health Challenge England" in 2006, represent steps to achieve a strategic and operational use of Social marketing.

In India, AIDS controlling programs are largely using Social marketing and social workers are largely working for it.

Most of the social workers are professionally trained for this task.[citation needed] A variation of Social marketing has emerged as a systematic way to foster more sustainable behavior.

Referred to as community-based Social marketing (CBSM) by Canadian environmental psychologist Doug McKenzie-Mohr, CBSM strives to change the behavior of communities to reduce their impact on the environment.[20] Realizing that simply providing information is usually not sufficient to initiate behavior change, CBSM uses tools and findings from social psychology to discover the perceived barriers to behavior change and ways of overcoming these barriers.

Among the tools and techniques used by CBSM are focus groups and surveys (to discover barriers) and commitments, prompts, social norms, social diffusion, feedback and incentives (to change behavior).

The tools of CBSM have been used to foster sustainable behavior in many areas, including energy conservation,[21] environmental regulation[22], recycling[23] and litter cleanup[24] In recent years, the concept of strategic Social marketing has emerged, which identifies that social change requires action at the individual, community, socio-cultural, political and environmental level, and that Social marketing can and should influence policy, strategy and operational tactics to achieve pro-social outcomes.[5] Other Social marketing can be aimed at products deemed, at least by proponents, as socially unacceptable.

One of the most notable is People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) which for many years has waged Social marketing campaigns against the use of natural fur products.

The campaigns' efficacy has been subject to dispute.[25] Not all Social marketing campaigns are effective everywhere.

For example, anti-smoking campaigns such as World No Tobacco Day while being successful (in concert with government tobacco controls) in curbing the demand for tobacco products in North America and in parts of Europe, have been less effective in other parts of the world such as China, India and Russia.[26] (See also: Prevalence of tobacco consumption) Social marketing uses the benefits of doing social good to secure and maintain customer engagement.

In Social marketing the distinguishing feature is therefore its "primary focus on social good, and it is not a secondary outcome.{{[27]}} Not all public sector and not-for-profit marketing is Social marketing.

Public sector bodies can use standard marketing approaches to improve the promotion of their relevant services and organizational aims.

This can be very important but should not be confused with Social marketing where the focus is on achieving specific behavioral goals with specific audiences in relation to topics relevant to social good (e.g., health, sustainability, recycling, etc.).

For example, a 3-month marketing campaign to encourage people to get an H1N1 vaccine is more tactical in nature and should not be considered Social marketing.

A campaign that promotes and reminds people to get regular check-ups and all of their vaccinations when they're supposed to encourage a long-term behavior change that benefits society.

It can, therefore, be considered Social marketing.

Social marketing can be confused with commercial marketing.

A commercial marketer may only seek to influence a buyer to purchase a product.

Social marketers have more difficult goals.

They want to make potentially difficult and long-term behavior changes in target populations, which may or may not involve purchasing a product.

For example, reducing cigarette smoking or encouraging the use of condoms have difficult challenges to overcome that go beyond purchasing decisions.

Social marketing is sometimes seen as being restricted to a client base of non-profit organizations, health services groups, the government agency.

However, the goal of inducing social change is not restricted to this narrow spectrum of organizations.

Corporations, for example, can be clients.

Public relations or social responsibility departments may champion social causes such as funding for the arts, which would involve Social marketing.

Social marketing should not be confused with the societal marketing concept which was a forerunner of sustainable marketing in integrating issues of social responsibility into commercial marketing strategies.

In contrast to that, Social marketing uses commercial marketing theories, tools, and techniques to social issues.

Social marketing applies a "customer-oriented" approach and uses the concepts and tools used by commercial marketers in pursuit of social goals like anti-smoking campaigns or fundraising for NGOs.

Social marketers must create a competitive advantage by constantly adapting to and instigating change.

With climate change in mind, adaptations to market changes are likely to be more successful if actions are guided by knowledge of the forces shaping market behaviors and insights that enable the development of sustainable competitive advantages.[28] In 2006, Jupitermedia announced its "Social marketing" service,[29] with which it aims to enable website owners to profit from social media.

Despite protests from the Social marketing communities over the perceived hijacking of the term, Jupiter stuck with the name.[30] However, Jupiter's approach is more correctly (and commonly) referred to as social media optimization.

Many scholars ascribe the beginning of the field of Social marketing to an article published by G.D.

Wiebe in the Winter 1951-1952 edition of Public Opinion Quarterly.[31] In it, Wiebe posed a rhetorical question: "Why can’t you sell brotherhood and rational thinking like you can sell soap?” He then went on to discuss what he saw as the challenges of attempting to sell a social good as if it were a commodity, thus identifying Social marketing (though he did not label it as such) as a discipline unique from c mmodity marketing.

Yet, Wilkie & Moore (2003)[32] note that the marketing discipline has been involved with questions about the intersection of marketing and society since its earliest days as a discipline.

A decade later, organizations such as the KfW Entwicklungsbank in Germany, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands, UK Department for International Development, US Agency for International Development, World Health Organization and the World Bank began sponsoring Social marketing interventions to improve family planning and achieve other social goals in Africa, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.[33][34] The next milestone in the evolution of Social marketing was the publication of "Social marketing: An Approach to Planned Social Change" in the Journal of Marketing by Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman.[35] Kotler and Zaltman coined the term 'Social marketing' and defined it as "the design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research." They conclude that "Social marketing appears to represent a bridging mechanism which links the behavior scientist's knowledge of human behavior with the socially useful implementation of what that knowledge allows." Craig Lefebvre and June Flora introduced Social marketing to the public health community in 1988,[12] where it has been most widely used and explored.

They noted that there was a need for "large scale, broad-based, behavior change focused programs" to improve public health (the community wide prevention of cardiovascular diseases in their respective projects) and outlined eight essential components of Social marketing that still hold today: Speaking of what they termed "social change campaigns", Kotler and Ned Roberto introduced the subject by writing, "A social change campaign is an organized effort conducted by one group (the change agent) which attempts to persuade others (the target adopters) to accept, modify, or abandon certain ideas, attitudes, practices or behavior." Their 1989 text was updated in 2002 by Philip Kotler, Ned Roberto and Nancy Lee.[37] In 2005, University of Stirling was the first university to open a dedicated research institute to Social marketing,[38] while in 2007, Middlesex University became the first university to offer a specialized postgraduate programme in Health & Social marketing.[39] In recent years there has been an important development to distinguish between "strategic Social marketing" and "operational Social marketing".

Much of the literature and case examples focus on operational Social marketing, using it to achieve specific behavioral goals in relation to different audiences and topics.

However, there has been increasing efforts to ensure Social marketing goes "upstream" and is used much more strategically to inform policy formulation and strategy development.

Here the focus is less on specific audience and topic work but uses strong customer understanding and insight to inform and guide effective policy and strategy development.

Social marketing in most cases stands in contrast to business marketing and serves for society wellbeing.

The techniques of this marketing are used for change of attitudes and behaviours of different audiences in public life.[40] Social marketing is also being explored as a method for social innovation, a framework to increase the adoption of evidence-based practices among professionals and organizations, and as a core skill for public sector managers and social entrepreneurs.

It is being viewed as an approach to design more effective, efficient, equitable and sustainable approaches to enhance social well-being that extends beyond individual behavior change to include creating positive shifts in social networks and social norms, businesses, markets and public policy.[41] Many examples exist of Social marketing research, with over 120 papers compiled in a six volume set.[15]).

For example, research now shows ways to reduce the intentions of people to binge drink or engage in dangerous driving.

Martin, Lee, Weeks and Kaya (2013) suggests that understanding consumer personality and how people view others is important.

People were shown ads talking of the harmful effects of binge drinking.

People who valued close friends as a sense of who they are were less likely to want to binge drink after seeing an ad featuring them and a close friend.

People who were loners or who did not see close friends important to their sense of who they were reacted better to ads featuring an individual.

A similar pattern was shown for ads showing a person driving at dangerous speeds.

This suggests ads showing potential harm to citizens from binge drinking or dangerous driving are less effective than ads highlighting a person's close friends.[42]

Digital marketing

Digital marketing is the component of marketing that utilizes internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services.[1][2] Its development during the 1990s and 2000s, changed the way brands and businesses use technology for marketing.

As digital platforms became increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life,[3] and as people increasingly use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops,[4][5] Digital marketing campaigns have become prevalent, employing combinations of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing, e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–books, and optical disks and games have become commonplace.

Digital marketing extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as television, mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones.[6] The extension to non-Internet channels differentiates Digital marketing from online marketing.[7] The development of Digital marketing is inseparable from technology development.

One of the key points in the start of was in 1971, where Ray Tomlinson sent the very first email and his technology set the platform to allow people to send and receive files through different machines.[8] However, the more recognisable period as being the start of Digital marketing is 1990 as this was where the Archie search engine was created as an index for FTP sites.

In the 1980s, the storage capacity of computer was already big enough to store huge volumes of customer information.

Companies started choosing online techniques, such as database marketing, rather than limited list broker.[9] These kinds of databases allowed companies to track customers' information more effectively, thus transforming the relationship between buyer and seller.

However, the manual process was not as efficient.

In the 1990s, the term Digital marketing was first coined,.[10] With the debut of server/client architecture and the popularity of personal computers, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications became a significant factor in marketing technology.[11] Fierce competition forced vendors to include more service into their software, for example, marketing, sales and service applications.

Marketers were also able to own huge online customer data by eCRM software after the Internet was born.

Companies could update the data of customer needs and obtain the priorities of their experience.

This led to the first clickable banner ad being going live in 1994, which was the "You Will" campaign by AT&T and over the first four months of it going live, 44% of all people who saw it clicked on the ad.[12][13] In the 2000s, with increasing numbers of Internet users and the birth of iPhone, customers began searching products and making decisions about their needs online first, instead of consulting a salesperson, which created a new problem for the marketing department of a company.[14] In addition, a survey in 2000 in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had not registered their own domain address.[15] These problems encouraged marketers to find new ways to integrate digital technology into market development.

In 2007, marketing automation was developed as a response to the ever evolving marketing climate.

Marketing automation is the process by which software is used to automate conventional marketing processes.[16] Marketing automation helped companies segment customers, launch multichannel marketing campaigns, and provide personalized information for customers.[16] However, the speed of its adaptability to consumer devices was not fast enough.

Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s, when[17][18] the proliferation of devices' capable of accessing digital media led to sudden growth.[19] Statistics produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that Digital marketing was still growing.[20][21] With the development of social media in the 2000s, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, consumers became highly dependent on digital electronics in daily lives.

Therefore, they expected a seamless user experience across different channels for searching product's information.

The change of customer behavior improved the diversification of marketing technology.[22] Digital marketing is also referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing' or 'web marketing'.

The term Digital marketing has grown in popularity over time.

In the USA online marketing is still a popular term.

In Italy, Digital marketing is referred to as web marketing.

Worldwide Digital marketing has become the most common term, especially after the year 2013.[23] Digital media growth was estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spend at 48% growth in 2010.[24] An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises concern of consumer privacy and data protection.[19] Nonlinear marketing, a type of interactive marketing, is a long-term marketing approach which builds on businesses collecting information about an Internet user's online activities, and trying to be visible in multiple areas.[25][26] Unlike traditional marketing techniques, which involve direct, one-way messaging to consumers (via print, television and radio advertising), nonlinear Digital marketing strategies are centered on reaching prospective customers across multiple online channels.[27] Combined with higher consumer knowledge and the demand for more sophisticated consumer offerings, this change has forced many businesses to rethink their outreach strategy and adopt or incorporate omnichannel, nonlinear marketing techniques to maintain sufficient brand exposure, engagement and reach.[28] Nonlinear marketing strategies involve efforts to adapt the advertising to different platforms,[29] and to tailor the advertising to different individual buyers rather than a large coherent audience.[26] Tactics may include: Some studies indicate that consumer responses to traditional marketing approaches are becoming less predictable for businesses.[30] According to a 2018 study, nearly 90% of online consumers in the United States researched products and brands online before visiting the store or making a purchase.[31] The Global Web Index estimated that in 2018, a little more than 50% of consumers researched products on social media.[32] Businesses often rely on individuals portraying their products in a positive light on social media, and may adapt their marketing strategy to target people with large social media followings in order to generate such comments.[33] In this manner, businesses can use consumers to advertise their products or services, decreasing the cost for the company.[34] One of the key objectives of modern Digital marketing is to raise brand awareness, the extent to which customers and the general public are familiar with and recognize a particular brand.

Enhancing brand awareness is important in Digital marketing, and marketing in general, because of its impact on brand perception and consumer decision-making.

According to the 2015 essay, “Impact of Brand on Consumer Behavior”: “Brand awareness, as one of the fundamental dimensions of brand equity, is often considered to be a prerequisite of consumers’ buying decision, as it represents the main factor for including a brand in the consideration set.

Brand awareness can also influence consumers’ perceived risk assessment and their confidence in the purchase decision, due to familiarity with the brand and its characteristics.”[35] Recent trends show that businesses and digital marketers are prioritizing brand awareness, focusing more of their Digital marketing efforts on cultivating brand recognition and recall than in previous years.

This is evidenced by a 2019 Content Marketing Institute study, which found that 81% of digital marketers have worked on enhancing brand recognition over the past year.[36] Another Content Marketing Institute survey revealed 89% of B2B marketers now believe improving brand awareness to be more important than efforts directed at increasing sales.[37] Increasing brand awareness is a focus of Digital marketing strategy for a number of reasons: Digital marketing strategies may include the use of one or more online channels and techniques (omnichannel) to increase brand awareness among consumers.[45] Building brand awareness may involve such methods/tools as: Search engine optimization techniques may be used to improve the visibility of business websites and brand-related content for common industry-related search queries.[46] The importance of SEO to increasing brand awareness is said to correlate with the growing influence of search results and search features like featured snippets, knowledge panels and local SEO on customer behavior.[47] SEM, also known as PPC advertising, involves the purchase of ad space in prominent, visible positions atop search results pages and websites.

Search ads have been shown to have a positive impact on brand recognition, awareness and conversions.[48] 33% of searchers who click on paid ads do so because they directly respond to their particular search query.[49] 70% of marketers list increasing brand awareness as their number one goal for marketing on social media platforms.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are listed as the top platforms currently used by social media marketing teams.[50] 56% of marketers believe personalized content – brand-centered blogs, articles, social updates, videos, landing pages – improves brand recall and engagement.[51] According to Mentionlytics, an active and consistent content strategy that incorporates elements of interactive content creation, social posting and guest blogging can improve brand awareness and loyalty by 88%.[52] One of the major changes that occurred in traditional marketing was the "emergence of Digital marketing" (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015), this led to the reinvention of marketing strategies in order to adapt to this major change in traditional marketing (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015).

As Digital marketing is dependent on technology which is ever-evolving and fast-changing, the same features should be expected from Digital marketing developments and strategies.

This portion is an attempt to qualify or segregate the notable highlights existing and being used as of press time.[when?] To summarize, Pull Digital marketing is characterized by consumers actively seeking marketing content while Push Digital marketing occurs when marketers send messages without that content being actively sought by the recipients.

An important consideration today while deciding on a strategy is that the digital tools have democratized the promotional landscape.

The new digital era has enabled brands to selectively target their customers that may potentially be interested in their brand or based on previous browsing interests.

Businesses can now use social media to select the age range, location, gender and interests of whom they would like their targeted post to be seen by.

Furthermore, based on a customer's recent search history they can be ‘followed’ on the internet so they see advertisements from similar brands, products and services,[58] This allows businesses to target the specific customers that they know and feel will most benefit from their product or service, something that had limited capabilities up until the digital era.

Digital marketing activity is still growing across the world according to the headline global marketing index.

A study published in September 2018, found that global outlays on Digital marketing tactics are approaching $100 billion.[59] Digital media continues to rapidly grow; while the marketing budgets are expanding, traditional media is declining (World Economics, 2015).[60] Digital media helps brands reach consumers to engage with their product or service in a personalised way.

Five areas, which are outlined as current industry practices that are often ineffective are prioritizing clicks, balancing search and display, understanding mobiles, targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic, and cross-platform measurement (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Why these practices are ineffective and some ways around making these aspects effective are discussed surrounding the following points.

Prioritizing clicks refers to display click ads, although advantageous by being ‘simple, fast and inexpensive’ rates for display ads in 2016 is only 0.10 percent in the United States.

This means one in a thousand click ads are relevant therefore having little effect.

This displays that marketing companies should not just use click ads to evaluate the effectiveness of display advertisements (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Balancing search and display for digital display ads are important; marketers tend to look at the last search and attribute all of the effectiveness to this.

This, in turn, disregards other marketing efforts, which establish brand value within the consumers mind.

ComScore determined through drawing on data online, produced by over one hundred multichannel retailers that digital display marketing poses strengths when compared with or positioned alongside, paid search (Whiteside, 2016).[61] This is why it is advised that when someone clicks on a display ad the company opens a landing page, not its home page.

A landing page typically has something to draw the customer in to search beyond this page.

Things such as free offers that the consumer can obtain through giving the company contact information so that they can use retargeting communication strategies (Square2Marketing, 2012).[62] Commonly marketers see increased sales among people exposed to a search ad.

But the fact of how many people you can reach with a display campaign compared to a search campaign should be considered.

Multichannel retailers have an increased reach if the display is considered in synergy with search campaigns.

Overall both search and display aspects are valued as display campaigns build awareness for the brand so that more people are likely to click on these digital ads when running a search campaign (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Understanding Mobiles: Understanding mobile devices is a significant aspect of Digital marketing because smartphones and tablets are now responsible for 64% of the time US consumers are online (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Apps provide a big opportunity as well as challenge for the marketers because firstly the app needs to be downloaded and secondly the person needs to actually use it.

This may be difficult as ‘half the time spent on smartphone apps occurs on the individuals single most used app, and almost 85% of their time on the top four rated apps’ (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Mobile advertising can assist in achieving a variety of commercial objectives and it is effective due to taking over the entire screen, and voice or status is likely to be considered highly; although the message must not be seen or thought of as intrusive (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Disadvantages of digital media used on mobile devices also include limited creative capabilities, and reach.

Although there are many positive aspects including the users entitlement to select product information, digital media creating a flexible message platform and there is potential for direct selling (Belch & Belch, 2012).[63] Cross-platform measurement: The number of marketing channels continues to expand, as measurement practices are growing in complexity.

A cross-platform view must be used to unify audience measurement and media planning.

Market researchers need to understand how the Omni-channel affects consumer's behaviour, although when advertisements are on a consumer's device this does not get measured.

Significant aspects to cross-platform measurement involves deduplication and understanding that you have reached an incremental level with another platform, rather than delivering more impressions against people that have previously been reached (Whiteside, 2016).[61] An example is ‘ESPN and comScore partnered on Project Blueprint discovering the sports broadcaster achieved a 21% increase in unduplicated daily reach thanks to digital advertising’ (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Television and radio industries are the electronic media, which competes with digital and other technological advertising.

Yet television advertising is not directly competing with online digital advertising due to being able to cross platform with digital technology.

Radio also gains power through cross platforms, in online streaming content.

Television and radio continue to persuade and affect the audience, across multiple platforms (Fill, Hughes, & De Franceso, 2013).[64] Targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic: Targeting, viewability, brand safety and invalid traffic all are aspects used by marketers to help advocate digital advertising.

Cookies are a form of digital advertising, which are tracking tools within desktop devices; causing difficulty, with shortcomings including deletion by web browsers, the inability to sort between multiple users of a device, inaccurate estimates for unique visitors, overstating reach, understanding frequency, problems with ad servers, which cannot distinguish between when cookies have been deleted and when consumers have not previously been exposed to an ad.

Due to the inaccuracies influenced by cookies, demographics in the target market are low and vary (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Another element, which is affected within Digital marketing, is ‘viewabilty’ or whether the ad was actually seen by the consumer.

Many ads are not seen by a consumer and may never reach the right demographic segment.

Brand safety is another issue of whether or not the ad was produced in the context of being unethical or having offensive content.

Recognizing fraud when an ad is exposed is another challenge marketers face.

This relates to invalid traffic as premium sites are more effective at detecting fraudulent traffic, although non-premium sites are more so the problem (Whiteside, 2016).[61] Digital marketing Channels are systems based on the Internet that can create, accelerate, and transmit product value from producer to a consumer terminal, through digital networks.[65][66] Digital marketing is facilitated by multiple Digital marketing channels, As an advertiser one's core objective is to find channels which result in maximum two-way communication and a better overall ROI for the brand.

There are multiple Digital marketing channels available namely;[67] It is important for a firm to reach out to consumers and create a two-way communication model, as Digital marketing allows consumers to give back feed back to the firm on a community based site or straight directly to the firm via email.[80] Firms should seek this long term communication relationship by using multiple forms of channels and using promotional strategies related to their target consumer as well as word-of mouth marketing.[80] The ICC Code has integrated rules that apply to marketing communications using digital interactive media throughout the guidelines.

There is also an entirely updated section dealing with issues specific to digital interactive media techniques and platforms.

Code self-regulation on use of digital interactive media includes: Digital marketing planning is a term used in marketing management.

It describes the first stage of forming a Digital marketing strategy for the wider Digital marketing system.

The difference between digital and traditional marketing planning is that it uses digitally based communication tools and technology such as Social, Web, Mobile, Scannable Surface.[84][85] Nevertheless, both are aligned with the vision, the mission of the company and the overarching business strategy.[86] Using Dr Dave Chaffey's approach, the Digital marketing planning (DMP) has three main stages: Opportunity, Strategy and Action.

He suggests that any business looking to implement a successful Digital marketing strategy must structure their plan by looking at opportunity, strategy and action.

This generic strategic approach often has phases of situation review, goal setting, strategy formulation, resource allocation and monitoring.[86] To create an effective DMP, a business first needs to review the marketplace and set 'SMART' (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-Bound) objectives.[87] They can set SMART objectives by reviewing the current benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) of the company and competitors.

It is pertinent that the analytics used for the KPIs be customised to the type, objectives, mission and vision of the company.[88][89] Companies can scan for marketing and sales opportunities by reviewing their own outreach as well as influencer outreach.

This means they have competitive advantage because they are able to analyse their co-marketers influence and brand associations.[90] To cease opportunity, the firm should summarize their current customers' personas and purchase journey from this they are able to deduce their Digital marketing capability.

This means they need to form a clear picture of where they are currently and how many resources they can allocate for their Digital marketing strategy i.e.

labour, time etc.

By summarizing the purchase journey, they can also recognise gaps and growth for future marketing opportunities that will either meet objectives or propose new objectives and increase profit.

To create a planned digital strategy, the company must review their digital proposition (what you are offering to consumers) and communicate it using digital customer targeting techniques.

So, they must define online value proposition (OVP), this means the company must express clearly what they are offering customers online e.g.

brand positioning.

The company should also (re)select target market segments and personas and define digital targeting approaches.

After doing this effectively, it is important to review the marketing mix for online options.

The marketing mix comprises the 4Ps – Product, Price, Promotion and Place.[91][92] Some academics have added three additional elements to the traditional 4Ps of marketing Process, Place and Physical appearance making it 7Ps of marketing.[93] The third and final stage requires the firm to set a budget and management systems; these must be measurable touchpoints, such as audience reached across all digital platforms.

Furthermore, marketers must ensure the budget and management systems are integrating the paid, owned and earned media of the company.[94] The Action and final stage of planning also requires the company to set in place measurable content creation e.g.

oral, visual or written online media.[95] After confirming the Digital marketing plan, a scheduled format of digital communications (e.g.

Gantt Chart) should be encoded throughout the internal operations of the company.

This ensures that all platforms used fall in line and complement each other for the succeeding stages of Digital marketing strategy.

One way marketers can reach out to consumers, and understand their thought process is through what is called an empathy map.

An empathy map is a four step process.

The first step is through asking questions that the consumer would be thinking in their demographic.

The second step is to describe the feelings that the consumer may be having.

The third step is to think about what the consumer would say in their situation.

The final step is to imagine what the consumer will try to do based on the other three steps.

This map is so marketing teams can put themselves in their target demographics shoes.[96] Web Analytics are also a very important way to understand consumers.

They show the habits that people have online for each website.[97] One particular form of these analytics is predictive analytics which helps marketers figure out what route consumers are on.

This uses the information gathered from other analytics, and then creates different predictions of what people will do so that companies can strategize on what to do next, according to the peoples trends.[98] The "sharing economy" refers to an economic pattern that aims to obtain a resource that is not fully utilized.[101] Nowadays, the sharing economy has had an unimagined effect on many traditional elements including labor, industry, and distribution system.[101] This effect is not negligible that some industries are obviously under threat.[101][102] The sharing economy is influencing the traditional marketing channels by changing the nature of some specific concept including ownership, assets, and recruitment.[102] Digital marketing channels and traditional marketing channels are similar in function that the value of the product or service is passed from the original producer to the end user by a kind of supply chain.[103] Digital marketing channels, however, consist of internet systems that create, promote, and deliver products or services from producer to consumer through digital networks.[104] Increasing changes to marketing channels has been a significant contributor to the expansion and growth of the sharing economy.[104] Such changes to marketing channels has prompted unprecedented and historic growth.[104] In addition to this typical approach, the built-in control, efficiency and low cost of Digital marketing channels is an essential features in the application of sharing economy.[103] Digital marketing channels within the sharing economy are typically divided into three domains including, e-mail, social media, and search engine marketing or SEM.[104] Other emerging Digital marketing channels, particularly branded mobile apps, have excelled in the sharing economy.[104] Branded mobile apps are created specifically to initiate engagement between customers and the company.This engagement is typically facilitated through entertainment, information, or market transaction.[104]

Social media optimization

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity to increase the awareness of a product, service brand or event.

Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news and bookmarking sites, as well as social networking sites, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, video sharing websites and blogging sites.

SMO is similar to search engine optimization, in that the goal is to generate web traffic and increase awareness for a website.

In general, Social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content to encourage more users to use and share links to the website across social media and networking sites.

SMO also refers to software tools that automate this process, or to website experts who undertake this process for clients.

The goal of SMO is to strategically create interesting online content, ranging from well-written text to eye-catching digital photos or video clips that encourages and entices people to engage with a website and then share this content, via its weblink, with their social media contacts and friends.

Common examples of social media engagement are "liking and commenting on posts, retweeting, embedding, sharing, and promoting content".[1] Social media optimization is also an effective way of implementing online reputation management (ORM), meaning that if someone posts bad reviews of a business, a SMO strategy can ensure that the negative feedback is not the first link to come up in a list of search engine results.[2] In the 2010s, with social media sites overtaking TV as a source for news for young people, news organisations have become increasingly reliant on social media platforms for generating web traffic.

Publishers such as The Economist employ large social media teams to optimise their online posts and maximise traffic,[3] while other major publishers now use advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology to generate higher volumes of web traffic.[4] Social media optimization is becoming an increasingly important factor in search engine optimization, which is the process of designing a website in a way so that it has as high a ranking as possible on search engines.

As search engines are increasingly utilizing the recommendations of users of social networks such as Reddit, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram to rank pages in the search engine result pages.[citation needed] The implication is that when a webpage is shared or "liked" by a user on a social network, it counts as a "vote" for that webpage's quality.

Thus, search engines can use such votes accordingly to properly ranked websites in search engine results pages.

Furthermore, since it is more difficult to top the scales or influence the search engines in this way, search engines are putting more stock into social search.[5] This, coupled with increasingly personalized search based on interests and location, has significantly increased the importance of a social media presence in search engine optimization.

Due to personalized search results, location-based social media presences on websites such as Yelp, Google Places, Foursquare, and Yahoo! Local have become increasingly important.

While Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, it differs in several ways.

Primarily, SMO focuses on driving web traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search engine ranking is also a benefit of successful Social media optimization.

Further, SMO is helpful to target particular geographic regions in order to target and reach potential customers.

This helps in lead generation (finding new customers) and contributes to high conversion rates (i.e., converting previously uninterested individuals into people who are interested in a brand or organization).

Social media optimization is in many ways connected to the technique of viral marketing or "viral seeding" where word of mouth is created through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites.

An effective SMO campaign can harness the power of viral marketing; for example, 80% of activity on Pinterest is generated through "repinning."[citation needed] Furthermore, by following social trends and utilizing alternative social networks, websites can retain existing followers while also attracting new ones.

This allows businesses to build an online following and presence, all linking back to the company's website for increased traffic.

For example, with an effective social bookmarking campaign, not only can website traffic be increased, but a site's rankings can also be increased.

In a similar way, the engagement with blogs creates a similar result by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogosphere and special blog search engines.

Social media optimization is considered an integral part of an online reputation management (ORM) or search engine reputation management (SERM) strategy for organizations or individuals who care about their online presence.[6] SMO is one of six key influencers that affect Social Commerce Construct (SCC).

Online activities such as consumers' evaluations and advices on products and services constitute part of what creates a Social Commerce Construct (SCC).[7] Social media optimization is not limited to marketing and brand building.

Increasingly, smart businesses are integrating social media participation as part of their knowledge management strategy (i.e., product/service development, recruiting, employee engagement and turnover, brand building, customer satisfaction and relations, business development and more).

Additionally, Social media optimization can be implemented to foster a community of the associated site, allowing for a healthy business-to-consumer (B2C) relationship.[8] According to technologist Danny Sullivan, the term "Social media optimization" was first used and described by marketer Rohit Bhargava[9][10] on his marketing blog in August 2006.

In the same post, Bhargava established the five important rules of Social media optimization.

Bhargava believed that by following his rules, anyone could influence the levels of traffic and engagement on their site, increase popularity, and ensure that it ranks highly in search engine results.

An additional 11 SMO rules have since been added to the list by other marketing contributors.

The 16 rules of SMO, according to one source, are as follows:[11] Bhargava's initial five rules were more specifically designed to SMO, while the list is now much broader and addresses everything that can be done across different social media platforms.

According to author and CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, Lee Odden, a Social Media Strategy is also necessary to ensure optimization.

This is a similar concept to Bhargava's list of rules for SMO.

The Social Media Strategy may consider:[12] According to Lon Safko and David K.

Brake in The Social Media Bible, it is also important to act like a publisher by maintaining an effective organisational strategy, to have an original concept and unique "edge" that differentiates one's approach from competitors, and to experiment with new ideas if things do not work the first time.[2] If a business is blog-based, an effective method of SMO is using widgets that allow users to share content to their personal social media platforms.

This will ultimately reach a wider target audience and drive more traffic to the original post.

Blog widgets and plug-ins for post-sharing are most commonly linked to Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

They occasionally also link to social media platforms such as StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

Many sharing widgets also include user counters which indicate how many times the content has been liked and shared across different social media pages.

This can influence whether or not new users will engage with the post, and also gives businesses an idea of what kind of posts are most successful at engaging audiences.

By using relevant and trending keywords in titles and throughout blog posts, a business can also increase search engine optimization and the chances of their content of being read and shared by a large audience.[12] The root of effective SMO is the content that is being posted, so professional content creation tools can be very beneficial.

These can include editing programs such as Photoshop, GIMP, Final Cut Pro, and Dreamweaver.

Many websites also offer customization options such as different layouts to personalize a page and create a point of difference.[2] With social media sites overtaking TV as a source for news for young people, news organisations have become increasingly reliant on social media platforms for generating traffic.

A report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism described how a 'second wave of disruption' had hit news organisations,[13] with publishers such as The Economist having to employ large social media teams to optimism their posts and maximize traffic.[3] Major publishers such as Le Monde and Vogue now use advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Echobox to post stories more effectively and generate higher volumes of traffic.[4] Within the context of the publishing industry, even professional fields are utilizing SMO.

Because doctors want to maximize exposure to their research findings SMO has also found a place in the medical field.[14] Social media gaming is online gaming activity performed through social media sites with friends and online gaming activity that promotes social media interaction.

Examples of the former include FarmVille, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, FrontierVille, and Mafia Wars.

In these games a player's social network is exploited to recruit additional players and allies.

An example of the latter is Empire Avenue, a virtual stock exchange where players buy and sell shares of each other's social network worth.

Nielsen Media Research estimates that, as of June 2010, social networking and playing online games account for about one-third of all online activity by Americans.[15] Facebook has in recent years become a popular channel for advertising, alongside traditional forms such as television, radio, and print.

With over 1 billion active users, and 50% of those users logging into their accounts every day[16] it is an important communication platform that businesses can utilize and optimize to promote their brand and drive traffic to their websites.

There are three commonly used strategies to increase advertising reach on Facebook: Improving effectiveness and increasing network size are organic approaches, while buying more reach is a paid approach which does not require any further action.[17] Most businesses will attempt an "organic" approach to gaining a significant following before considering a paid approach.

Because Facebook requires a login, it is important that posts are public to ensure they will reach the widest possible audience.

Posts that have been heavily shared and interacted with by users are displayed as 'highlighted posts' at the top of newsfeeds.

In order to achieve this status, the posts need to be engaging, interesting, or useful.

This can be achieved by being spontaneous, asking questions, addressing current events and issues, and optimizing trending hashtags and keywords.

The more engagement a post receives, the further it will spread and the more likely it is to feature on first in search results.

Another organic approach to Facebook optimization is cross-linking different social platforms.

By posting links to websites or social media sites in the profile 'about' section, it is possible to direct traffic and ultimately increase search engine optimization.

Another option is to share links to relevant videos and blog posts.[12] Facebook Connect is a functionality that launched in 2008 to allow Facebook users to sign up to different websites, enter competitions, and access exclusive promotions by logging in with their existing Facebook account details.

This is beneficial to users as they don't have to create a new login every time they want to sign up to a website, but also beneficial to businesses as Facebook users become more likely to share their content.

Often the two are interlinked, where in order to access parts of a website, a user has to like or share certain things on their personal profile or invite a number of friends to like a page.

This can lead to greater traffic flow to a website as it reaches a wider audience.

Businesses have more opportunities to reach their target markets if they choose a paid approach to SMO.

When Facebook users create an account, they are urged to fill out their personal details such as gender, age, location, education, current and previous employers, religious and political views, interests, and personal preferences such as movie and music tastes.

Facebook then takes this information and allows advertisers to use it to determine how to best market themselves to users that they know will be interested in their product.

This can also be known as micro-targeting.

If a user clicks on a link to like a page, it will show up on their profile and newsfeed.

This then feeds back into organic Social media optimization, as friends of the user will see this and be encouraged to click on the page themselves.

Although advertisers are buying mass reach, they are attracting a customer base with a genuine interest in their product.

Once a customer base has been established through a paid approach, businesses will often run promotions and competitions to attract more organic followers.[11] The number of businesses that use Facebook to advertise also holds significant relevance.

Currently there are three million businesses that advertise on Facebook.[18] This makes Facebook the world's largest platform for social media advertising.

What also holds importance is the amount of money leading businesses are spending on Facebook advertising alone.

Procter & Gamble spend $60 million every year on Facebook advertising.[19] Other advertisers on Facebook include Microsoft, with a yearly spend of £35 million, Amazon, Nestle and American Express all with yearly expenditures above £25 million per year.

Furthermore, the number of small businesses advertising on Facebook is of relevance.

This number has grown rapidly over the upcoming years and demonstrates how important social media advertising actually is.

Currently 70% of the UK's small businesses use Facebook advertising.[20] This is a substantial number of advertisers.

Almost half of the world's small businesses use social media marketing product of some sort.

This demonstrates the impact that social media has had on the current digital marketing era.

Social media in the fashion industry

Social media use in the fashion industry has enabled average consumers and regular people to have much more interaction with fashion designers and high-end clothing, shoes and accessory firms.

Unlike traditional advertising platforms, such as billboard ads, magazine ads and television commercials, which the fashion company and their advertising agency had complete control over, when fashion companies do a social media marketing campaign in the 2010s, average consumers and regular people can post online comments immediately below the fashion company's social media advertisement.

This accessibility is due to the increased usage of social media since 2009.

Social media is a real time platform that reaches across the globe; this has had a great impact on how consumers interact with the fashion industry.

Social media has brought about new channels of advertising for fashion houses to reach their target markets.

These new channels include, but are not limited to: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and .

Since the global financial crisis in 2008, global consumption of luxury fashion goods diminished.

Retailers had to shift their focus to "classic" lines to recapture their target market, as consumers were less likely to take risks on avant-garde items.

(Kapferer, 2012)[1] confirms: "The recent economic crisis prompted the affluence population – the top 20% of income earners representing 60% of the market – to refocus on real value and great classics, and to pay the expected price." Although the marketing strategies, platforms and tactics have changed, the primary aim of marketing fashion remains the same, "ultimately attracting and retaining customers" Webber (2009).[2] In the social media era, fashion houses needed to reshape their marketing strategies to capture consumer's attention.

This is where the shift from traditional print media to more interactive media started to occur.

Social media is able to use different forms of media such as: videos, live streams and interactive Web 2.0 features to engage their target market.

The use of social media surged in 2009 to promote luxury fashion brands.

Labels were now able to connect and build lasting relationships with customers at the push of a button.

Initially social media was believed to be damaging for the fashion industry, because regular consumers could post critical comments about products and designs.

However, some observers argue that despite these potential drawbacks, social media is a powerful opportunity to reach and engage a wider audience (Mohr, I; 2013).

The Internet, as a means of advertising is able to reach a much wider, diverse group of people, as there are far fewer limitations compared to traditional print media.

For example, people in their own homes using the Internet are able to access almost anything compared to previously having to go out and purchase fashion magazines to access the same content.

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful sources of information to influence consumers decisions.

Information on particular products can easily accessed by consumers on social media, which can either make or break reputations.

"Word of mouth -- interpersonal communication about products and services between consumers -- is one of the most influential sources of marketplace information for consumers.

Regardless if bad or good these messages can go viral" (Arndt, 1967; Alreck & Settle, 1995) Fashion brands use social media for advertising and to engage their target market.

The outcomes from all the social media channels are specific, measurable and targeted Other uses include reporting on fashion news, providing customers with company updates and announcements about new fashion lines, events and promotions, and providing customer service to clients.

For example, organizations can use Facebook to promote fashion events and release news-style stories about these events, including digital photos and videos.

They can use Twitter for shorter updates and announcements.

The fashion company and its ad agency decides which sites to use and controls, to the degree that it is possible, how these sites display their image and content.

Companies' awareness of society's dependence on technology as an information-searching tool has encouraged fashion brands to invest in improving their social media presence.

Social media has enabled consumers to feel more "connected" to fashion companies.

It has also proven to give more exposure to individual brands.

Mobile apps, on smartphones such as the iPhone, allow users to shop brand sales, receive style tips, and customize fashion trend news feeds.

Geo-location technology provides a meaningful way for brands to connect with shoppers at the point of purchase, giving them the ability to check-in and find tips, recommendations, offers and prizes, resulting in stronger brand loyalty and spread through word of mouth.[3] Companies have found ways to utilize apps on both social networking sites and mobile phones.

Gilt Groupe, a private discounted site for luxury clothing, created Android apps to promote their products.

According to the Vice President of Product Management for Gilt, "The Gilt for Android App was specifically designed for Android-powered devices.

Android users can now shop Gilt sales, preview upcoming sales, and invite friends from anywhere via multiple messaging channels, including sharing the app via QR code.

In addition, unique to Android devices, is the Gilt widget which is always viewable on the phone so that Android users can see today's sales even if they don't have the Gilt app open."[4] Gilt has found multiple ways to market itself through just one custom-made app.

Gilt Groupe earns about 4% of its revenue from purchases made from the iPad.

Shoppers using the device are increasing their spend at a higher rate than consumers using other devices.

The retailer, says 177,000 consumers have downloaded its iPad app.

And the average order value for a purchase made from an iPad is about 30% higher than for purchases made from an iPhone.[5] Facebook allows independent developers to create apps that market for several brands, or custom-develop an app for one brand.

The widespread use of these applications is Facebook commerce.

Target released an application that allows users to virtually play with the clothing by mixing and matching outfits while trying them on.

The merchandise displayed in the game constantly changes to reflect only what is being sold in Target stores.

It also increases traffic[citation needed] by linking users to that same item on their website.

As explained above, in 2007 Gilt Groupe was created at it was one of the first brands to create an online app that offers individuals clothes, furniture, and accessories from a multitude of brands at a lower price.

However, they have lost a lot of usage through other up-and-coming apps.[6][7] Also, many other companies, for example Dote shopping, have been successful in the advertising world.

in 2018, they raised 12 million dollars in net profit.[8] They are an app-based company who uses social media influencers as a way of marketing and advertising.

The concept of the app is at it is a domain that holds different stores.

For example, Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, Uggare companies like these listed can be found within the dote shopping app.

Since 2010, the increase of brand influencers is a new type of marketing.

A brand influencer is an individual who uses their social media platform as leverage to promote brands with sponsored content.

Brand influencers can include models, bloggers, or athletes.

However, it is important to note that it is different than celebrity endorsement due to the niche popularity many influencers have, rather than widespread fame.

This niche allows the brand to build trust between the followers and the influencer.[9] Companies also use brand influencers to narrow down their target audience.

They take note of who uses social media the most and that allows them to morph their strategies.

Generation Z is noted to be the largest group of individuals to use social media, with 75% of people surveyed using Instagram for three hours or more per day.[10] Knowing this information, companies can market direct-to-consumer with features that allow prospective customers to shop right from the brand influencers' pages.

Since 2011, the popularity and usage of smart technology has increased.

This altered the way consumers were interacting and accessing with the fashion world.

Instagram launched in 2010, the app since then has gained over 200 million users, over 25 billion images shared so far, averaging 1.6 billion likes per day (Wilson, A.

2014).[11] These figures suggest that content posted is very exposed and Instagram is a good tool to reach a large number of people.

Instagram is now seen as one of the most powerful tools in shaping the way consumers perceive brands.

Mohr, I.

2013 states: "Instagram in particular has been a game changer for up to date, direct interaction between brands and consumers.

This has been a popular method of exhibiting fashion as there is little filter to the content posted.

It is raw and straight from the brands themselves".

It is rare that a message is un-manipulated on its way to the consumer from the brand; so social media has been a game changer in the sense that the content posted is raw.

With over 200 million active users, access to creative content is virtually unlimited.

Many fashion-forward Instagram accounts with large followings are able to turn their passions into businesses, generating income using their status within the community.

For instance, when we see a face on Instagram that models for a certain brand we then associate that person with that brand.

So, as we continue to see that individual on our timeline we will always think about that brand.

An example of this would be the contestants on the show, The Bachelor.

After these women compete on the show, they start promoting fashion, hair, accessories and much more because of how popular the show is and how well-liked they were on the show.

[12]Fashion labels that understand these accounts' influence have harnessed their huge exposure and often pay high amounts for features of their clothing.

(Penny, S.

2015)[13] confirms their influence: "Creative influencers are becoming increasingly popular and lucrative channels for brands.

Unlike many celebrities, they are not just mouthpieces for brands.

Instead, audiences view them as authoritative and trustworthy – which in a world that is increasingly reliant on word-of-mouth over traditional advertising can be priceless" Vogue's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour also has realized the power of social media and used it to create hype around the Magazine.

"In 2013, when industry doyenne and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour instagrammed herself reading her own September issue, Wilson 'encouraged' Vogue to challenge to challenge its fans to make the same pose.

Thousands did.

Many involved babies and dogs.

I call it the moment Anna blessed Instagram" Whitford, E (2015)[14] explains.

Facebook is another large platform for companies to advertise their products.

While sharing a similar structure with Instagram, Facebook is largely used by an older demographic, with over 92% of its user base being 25 or older.[15] Facebook also features an online marketplace[16] similar to Craigslist, where users can sell and trade goods and services to other users in their area.

"Blogs are usually maintained by an individual or business with regular entries of commentary, description of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

'Blog' can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog" (Bodnar, K.

2011).[17] Fashion blogging has become popular since 2011, blogs often cover the industry as a whole, personal style, reviews of clothing items and collections.

Fashion bloggers have a very high status of legitimacy and those with large followings have power in the fashion world.

Bloggers success comes from being individual, relatable, achievable and having some elite status for legitimacy.

The status of bloggers has shifted from being amateur to trendsetters and are often gaining invites to the top fashion houses shows during fashion week.

As said by Mohr, I (2013) "Once considered fashion-obsessed amateurs, style bloggers have matured into fashion trendsetters and the savvy marketers command four and five figure fees from brands" As said by Mohr, I (2013).

Throughout the years, advertising has developed to an important part of consumers everyday lives.

Advertisements have evolved from the newspaper, to the radio, to television and to the internet today.

The 20th century has been a deciding time for the development of advertising because of all the new technologies emerging.

Nowadays, advertising is used through many different mediums and by a lot of distinct companies.

For instance, some fashion companies have used influencers or celebrities to promote their brands with advertisements on their social media accounts.

Since 2010, fashion and advertising's development coincide.

Another example of a designer harnessing the power of social media to promote and expose their brand was Marc Jacobs model casting.

Marc by Marc Jacobs is a secondary line aimed at selling lower priced goods but still have the reputation of a designer label.

To showcase his new line, Marc selected models from Instagram that had the hash-tag #Marc.

The campaign had almost 70,000 entries from around the world.

The head designer discussed his casting: "It seemed like a great idea to me, as casting through Instagram seemed cool, current and strong.

We wanted the ads to shout with youth and energy.

To be fresh and reclaim the spirit that the collection had when we first conceived of it- to be another collection not a second line".

Marc by Marc Jacobs not only promoted his line, but also made it more relatable and achievable to his target market through social media.

Popular fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger has incorporated social media into their marketing strategy effectively.

They have understood the power that it has and the influence on consumers.

By having someone who is well known and admired the brand received positive attention.

Gigi Hadid is one of the most popular super models of 2016, with the Instagram following of 15.5 million people.

She has modelled for the cover of Vogue, W, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, TeenVogue, Numéro, Schön! And CR Fashion Book, along with appearing in music videos and television programs around the world.

(PVH, C.

2012).[18] Tommy Hilfiger has cast Gigi as the brand ambassador for their fall 2016 collection.

Releasing footwear, sportswear, sunglasses, watches and fragrances all with Gigi's influence.

"Dubbed a "social supermodel," Hadid has been credited with reshaping the world of modeling in the 21st century, and reinventing the role of the supermodel in millennial culture" She has a great relationship with her fans all over the world through her various social media accounts, (PVH, C.

2012).

By being Ambassador for tommy Hilfiger brings this large followings attention to the brand and exposes the line to a much larger audience than traditional print media.

Also to walk in Tommy Hilfiger shows are influential social-models such as: Kendall Jenner, Georgia May Jagger, Hailey Baldwin, Lizzy Jagger, Bella Hadeid, Binx Walton and Stella Maxwell.

(PVH, C.

2012).

The designer himself comments on his relationship with Gigi: "I've known Gigi and her family for years, and it has been amazing to watch her grow into one of the world's top models and most-followed fashion influencers." Gigis influence will be of great benefit to Tommy Hilfiger's Fall 2016 collection.

Charlotte Russe has a successful social media campaign with a strong following on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

Their social media campaign is focused on "user-generated content and social engagement."[19] Charlotte Russe holds a weekly trivia contest on Twitter, which compels consumers to visit their website.

According to Wright Lee, "Charlotte Russe is running 'Be The Next Charlotte Russe Design Star' a T-shirt design contest where the winner will have his or her shirt produced and sold online.".[19] Diane von Fürstenberg is one of the most popular designers on Twitter.

According to Hitha Prabhakar, sources inside von Fürstenberg's company claim that "[w]ithin the last year of having a major online and social media presence, von Furstenberg's online traffic has increased by 13%."[20] The brand uses the re-tweeting capability on Twitter to capture the attention of their target market.

Louis Vuitton adopted the use of social media sites later, but that has not stopped them from building an advantageous campaign.

For instance, "LVMH has produced a 14 percent rise in comparable sales in the division covering sales of high-margin handbags and fashion."[21] According to Dana Gers, who specializes in marketing communications for luxury brands, "Louis Vuitton broadcasts its spring 2010 ready-to-wear show live exclusively to Facebook followers, offering a big incentive for recruiting new fans and a reward to its most passionate customers."[22] Also, in the spring of 2019 they employed Emma Chamberlain, a 17-year-old lifestyle vlogger from California and brought her to Paris fashion week.

During her time there, at the Fall 2019 Ready-to-wear fashion show, she took many pictures and videos[23] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0wpTx6kUPE) of her experiences and brought attention to the brand.

She also collaborated with Karlie Kloss and did a video in which Karlie drove her around Paris to get to know the city with the sponsorship of the brand.

Louis Vuitton has used different influencers over the past year of 2019 since they understand that this will get different generations that would usually not be looking at their brand to view their items.

The use of advertisements and influencers has helped Louis Vuitton grow between the years of 2010 and 2019.[24] Supreme is an American brand established in New York City in the year of 1994 that makes apparel and skating items.

At the time, Supreme's creator, James Jebbia, wanted "his clothing to reach the skateboarding community.

He built a store where the clothing was on the exterior of the shop so that skaters could skate into the shop.

Skaters around the city raved about the comfort they felt in the store, and word continued to spread."[25] This start helped propel the exclusivity and interest in their items.

They have limited releases at certain times so many of the purchasers are waiting for the new articles of clothing.

Supreme has worked with many influencers and young adults to promote their brand and items with a distinct obsessive culture.

For instance, Kid Cudi, Chris Brown, Kanye West, are all photographed in Supreme clothes with the big red logo that distinguishes it from other brands.[26] In 2012, Topshop partnered with Facebook to achieve the largest online audience of a live-stream London fashion show.

Over 200 million people were exposed to images and content from the runway.

A direct impact was seen by Topshop as customers were able to immediately purchase the looks from the runway, with the first dress on the catwalk selling out before the end of the show.[27] Some argue that social media does not always have a positive impact on retail and consumers as a whole.

The reasoning behind this belief is for the perception of how we see ourselves versus others.

For example, if an Instagram user is scrolling through their feed and sees multiple pictures of thin models with perfect hair and makeup as a way to advertise a brand, it may give that social media user a negative perception of themselves.

This causes an attachment between the viewer of the post and social media, since they begin to accumulate their self-worth from social media rather than themselves.[30] However, these ads are not projected as a negative way for others to view themselves, but just as a way to showcase new trends.

Brands such as Aerie by American Eagle have campaigns that show "untouched" models that are not photo shopped wearing Aerie's undergarments and clothing as a way to combat this criticism.

Body positivity is a movement that is on the rise to help women and men feel more confident in their bodies and not to compare themselves to people that they see on social media sites.

Consumers are now so fascinated by the concept of "likes" and want to look and dress like others.

Social media is making this easier than ever, and retailers are taking full advantage of this.

Many retailers have implemented social media as a way to advertise their products among "brand influencers", who are essentially social media users with a high following that can persuade their followers to buy a particular product.

Retailers strategically pick who they want to advertise their products, which is mainly decided by making sure that their target markets align.

Social media has not only changed how consumers shop, but also how retailers position themselves into the marketplace.

Facebook developed engagement ads that allow more communication between advertisers and Facebook users.

Here are some terms Facebook provides to help advertisers know how engaging their ads are:

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing (a.k.a.

influence marketing) is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field.

Influencer content may be framed as testimonial advertising; influencers play the role of a potential buyer, or may be involved as third parties.

These third parties can be seen in the supply chain (such as retailers or manufacturers) or as value-added influencers, such as journalists, academics, industry analysts, and professional advisers.[1] Most discussions of social influence focus on social persuasion and compliance.[2] In the context of Influencer marketing, influence is less about arguing for a point of view or product than about loose interactions between parties in a community (often with the aim of encouraging purchasing or behavior).

Although influence is often equated with advocacy, it may also be negative.[3] The two-step flow of communication model was introduced in The People's Choice (Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet's 1940 study of voters' decision-making processes), and developed in Personal Influence (Lazarsfeld, Elihu Katz 1955)[4] and The Effects of Mass Communication (Joseph Klapper, 1960).[5] Influencer marketing is also important through social comparison theory.

As psychologist Chae reports, influencers serve as a comparison tool.

Consumers may compare influencer lifestyles with their imperfections.

Meanwhile, followers may view influencers as people with perfect lifestyles.

As such, the promoted products may serve as a shortcut towards a complete lifestyle.

Chae's study finds women with low self-esteem compare themselves to the influencers.

As such, they elevate the status of influencers above themselves.

When using an influencer, a brand may use consumer insecurities to its benefits.

For this reason, Influencer marketing may lead to faulty advertising.[6] There is a lack of consensus about what an influencer is.

One writer defines them as "a range of third parties who exercise influence over the organization and its potential customers."[7] Another defines an influencer as a "third party who significantly shapes the customer's purchasing decision but may never be accountable for it."[1] According to another, influencers are "well-connected, create an impact, have active minds, and are trendsetters".[8] And just because an individual has many follows does not necessarily mean they have much influence over those individuals, only that they have many followers.[9][10] Sources of influencers vary.

Marketers target easily identifiable influencers, such as journalists, industry analysts, and high-profile executives.

For most business-to-consumer (B2C) purchases, influencers may include people known to the purchaser and the retail staff.

In high-value business-to-business (B2B) transactions, influencers may be diverse and might include consultants, government-backed regulators, financiers, and user communities.

Forrester Research analyst Michael Speyer notes that for small and medium-sized businesses, "IT sales are influenced by several parties, including peers, consultants, bloggers, and technology resellers."[11] According to Speyer, "Vendors need to identify and characterize influencers inside their market.

This requires a comprehensive influencer identification program and the establishment of criteria for ranking influencer impact on the decision process."[This quote needs a citation] Influencers can play a variety of roles at different times in a decision-making process, an idea developed by Brown and Hayes.[1] Market-research techniques can be used to identify influencers, using predefined criteria to determine the extent and type of influence.[8] Activists get involved with organizations such as their communities, political movements, and charities.

Connected influencers have large social networks.

Authoritative influencers are trusted by others.

Active minds have a diverse range of interests.

Trendsetters are the early adopters (or leavers) of markets.

According to Malcolm Gladwell, "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts".[12] He has identified three types of influencers who are responsible for the "generation, communication and adoption" of messages: Most current information about influencers focuses on consumer, rather than business-to-business, markets.

Word-of-mouth communication is prevalent in a consumer environment.[1] In business marketing, influencers affect a sale but are typically eliminated from the purchase decision.

Consultants, analysts, journalists, academics, regulators, and standards bodies are examples of business influencers.

Influencers may be further categorized by the number of followers they have on social media.

They include outside celebrities with large followings and internet celebrities on social-media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.[14][15] Their followers range in number from hundreds of millions to 1,000.[16] Influencers may be categorized in tiers (mega-, macro-, micro-, and nano-influencers), based on their number of followers.[17][18][16][15][19] Businesses pursue people who aim to lessen their consumption of advertisements, and are willing to pay their influencers more.

Targeting influencers is seen as increasing marketing's reach, counteracting a growing tendency by prospective customers to ignore marketing.[8][20] Marketing researchers Kapitan and Silvera find influencer selection extends into product personality.

This product and benefit matching is key.

For a shampoo, it should use an influencer with good hair.

Likewise, a flashy product may use bold colors to convey its brand.

If an influencer is not flashy, he will clash with the brand.

Matching an influencer with the product's purpose and mood is important.[21] Most influencers are paid before the start of a marketing campaign, and others are paid after it ends.[22] Consensus exists about how much an influencer should be paid.

Compensation may vary by how many people an influencer can reach, the extent to which they will endorse the product (a deliverable), and the success of their past endorsements have performed.[23][24] Top-tier influencers and celebrities may receive a six- or seven-figure fee for a single social-media post.[25] In addition to (or in lieu of) a fee, payment may include free products or services.[24][26] For influencers with smaller followings, free products or services may be the only form of compensation.[16] Online activity can play a central role in offline decision-making, allowing consumers to research products.[27] Social media have created new opportunities for marketers to expand their strategy beyond traditional mass-media channels.[28] Many use influencers to increase the reach of their marketing messages.[8][20] Online influencers who curate personal brands have become marketing assets because of their relationship with their followers.[28][15] Social-media influencers establish themselves as opinion-leaders with their followers and may have persuasive strengths such as attractiveness, likeability, niche expertise, and perceived good taste.[15][28][29] The interactive and personal nature of social media allows parasocial relationships to form between influencers and their followers, which impacts purchase behavior.[28][29][30] Influencer marketing on social media reaches consumers who use ad-blockers.[15] Critics of an online-intensive approach say that by researching exclusively online, consumers can overlook input from other influential individuals.[1] Early-2000s research suggested that 80 to 92 percent of influential consumer exchanges occurred face-to-face with word-of-mouth (WOM), compared to seven to 10 percent in an online environment.[31][32][8][33] Scholars and marketers distinguish WOM from electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).[34] YouTuber PewDiePie's antisemitic and racist comments led to cancelled deals with the Walt Disney Company and a widespread backlash.[35][36][37] Celebrity influencer Kendall Jenner and other media personalities failed to disclose their paid endorsements of the fraudulent Fyre Festival, as required by the Federal Trade Commission.

YouTuber Logan Paul posted a video containing a dead body in Japan's Suicide Forest, sparking a backlash and accusations of insensitivity.[38] Some marketers use Influencer marketing to establish credibility in a market; others use it to create social conversations about their brand, and still others focus on driving online or in-store sales.

Marketers leverage credibility gained over time to promote a variety of products or services.

They measure their success in several ways, including earned media value, impressions,[39] and cost per action.[1] As marketing scholars Lim et al.

find, a social media influencer's personal brand is important.

Likewise, product relation is a key factor.

As social learning theory suggests, influencers serve as informed consumers.

When credible influencers match up with the product, consumers will consider their recommendations.[40] Freberg et al.

find respondents see influencers as a neutral authority pitch for a product.

Especially when compared to CEO spokespeople, influencers are more approachable and trustworthy.[41] Kapitan and Silvera also mention influencers for older generations.

Citing Lithium's 2014 study, a majority of Millennials and Baby Boomers prefer word of mouth.

Such research shows influencers are more effective for younger demographics.

With the rise of social media influencers, Influencer marketing could be a trend.[21] In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) treats Influencer marketing as a form of paid endorsement.

It is governed by the rules for native advertising, which include compliance with established truth-in-advertising standards and disclosure by endorsers (influencers).[42][43] In 2017, the FTC sent more than 90 letters to influencers (celebrities and athletes) reminding them of their obligation to disclose sponsored posts with the hashtag #ad.[44] As a result of the FTC's action, Instagram added a feature in 2017 allowing influencers to indicate a "paid partnership" at the top of a post.[45] Media-regulating bodies in other countries (such as Australia), followed the FTC in creating influencer-marketing guidelines.[46] In 2019, the United Kingdom announced a voluntary agreement between the country's Competition and Markets Authority and high-profile social-media influencers to ensure compliance with consumer law.[47] Fake influencers have been around for as long as their genuine counterparts, and all criteria used to determine the veracity of an influencer account can be fabricated.

Third-party sites and apps sell services to individual accounts which include falsely increasing followers, likes, and comments.[48][49] Instagram has failed to shut down all such websites.[49] One marketing agency tested whether fake accounts could be profitable.

The company created two fictitious accounts, built their online presence through paid followers and engagement (likes and comments), and applied for work in marketing campaigns on popular influencer-marketing platforms.

They published their results, an explanation of how the false accounts were created, and which brands had sponsored them.[50] An analysis of over 7,000 influencers in the UK indicated that about half of their followers have up to 20,000 "low-quality" followers themselves, consisting of internet bots and other suspicious accounts.

Over four in 10 engagements with this group of influencers are considered "non-authentic."[51] A study of UK influencers which looked at almost 700,000 posts from the first half of 2018 found that 12 percent of UK influencers had bought fake followers.[51] Twenty-four percent of influencers were found to have abnormal growth patterns in another study, indicating that they had manipulated their likes or followers.[52] Influencer fraud (including fake followers) was estimated to cost businesses up to $1.3 billion, about 15 percent of global-influencer-marketing spending.

Research in 2019 accounted only for the calculable cost of fake followers.[53] Virtual influencers are also sometimes considered fake.

However, virtual-influencer profiles do not correspond to real individuals and are not automated bots which generate fake likes, comments, or followers.

They are virtual characters, intentionally designed by 3D artists to look like real people in real situations.[54] Although most of the characters can be easily identified as computer graphics, some are very realistic and can fool users.[55] The characters are usually identified as models, singers, or other celebrities.

Their creators write their biographies, conduct interviews on their behalf, and act like the characters themselves.[54] Lil Miquela was a realistic virtual influencer which prompted curiosity and speculation until it was learned that she was created by advertisers.[56]

Social video marketing

Social media and television

Social media and television broadcasting have a number of connections and interrelationships.

In the 2010s, social media technologies and websites allow for television shows to be accessed online on a range of desktop and mobile computer devices, smartphones and smart TVs.

As well, online users can use social media websites to share digital video clips or excerpts from TV shows with fellow fans or even share an entire show online.

Many social media websites enable users to post online comments on the programs—both negative and positive—in a variety of ways.

Viewers can actively participate while watching a TV program by posting comments online, and have their interactions viewed and responded to in real time by other viewers.

Technologies such as smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers allow viewers to watch downloaded digital files of TV shows or "stream" digital files of TV shows on a range of devices, both in the home and while on the go.

In the 2010s, some television producers and broadcasters are encouraging active social media participation by viewers by posting "hashtags" on the TV screen during shows; these hashtags enable viewers to post online comments about the show, which may either be read by other social media users, or even, in some cases, displayed on the screen.

In contrast to pre-Internet TV viewing, which typically took place in a family room of a private home, in the 2010s, digital and Internet technologies enable viewers to watch show anytime, anywhere, regardless of the over-the-air television air times.

For example, when a TV show is made available on a streaming service, viewers can watch the show on any day and at any time.

Viewers with Internet-enabled mobile devices can even stream or download and watch a TV show while commuting on the bus or train.

Television stations and programs have taken advantage of this new accessibility by incorporating aspects of social media into their programming, such as indicating social media websites where viewers and fans can post comments or participate in online activities.

TV show producers are also using viewer comments from social media to improve their content or modify their marketing campaigns.

TV show producers are also releasing video clips from live TV, including promotional trailers and excerpts from shows, on popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat to generate additional advertising revenue and increase Internet users' awareness of and interest in their show.

In some cases, social media marketing may be more effective at reaching a target market and less expensive than using "traditional" marketing approaches for TV shows, such as TV commercials.

At the same time, TV shows using social media may face certain risks, as Internet users can post negative comments about the show online.

In comparison with traditional marketing platforms, over which advertisers generally had a high level of control (e.g., a TV commercial), with social media, regular viewers can post critical comments directly under a TV show's online advertisement on a social media website.

Programs must decide on and promote a single "hashtag" for a show which in turn becomes the show's official hashtag when fans post online comments about it.

For example, the hashtag for Fox's Glee is #glee; for shows with longer titles such as FX network's American Horror Story, an abbreviated hashtag is created, #AHSFX.[1] Some shows get creative with their hashtags, Showtime's Shameless uses #TeamGallagher to promote their show, Gallagher being the last name of the family in the show.

A show's hashtag is usually placed on the lower corners of the screen during new airings of the show, to help guide viewers who want to make online comments.

The first official integration between Twitter hashtags and television programs was during Comedy Central's March 15, 2011 roast of Donald Trump.

Using the hashtag #TrumpRoast at the bottom of the screen, Twitter called it "the single deepest integration of a Twitter hashtag on air-ever." The promotion worked, as it generated the channel's most-watched Tuesday in history; the hashtag #trumproast was used over 27,000 times on Twitter during the show's initial broadcast.[2] With the rise of online digital media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the increasing utilisation and devotion of time to these channels in households, the attention is turned away from traditional media forms, particularly television.

Pagani and Mirabello (2012)[3] explain that this global shift in media preference has forced advertisers to brainstorm new, innovative ways of targeting the customer; as traditional media may not be the most effective channel anymore.

Social media gives viewers justification to distract themselves while adverts are playing, thus, fewer people are watching television advertisements and the advertisers' clients are those who suffer in response.

In the modern world of social networks and growing Internet stores that sell products and services online, this people-organization chain is used by social media.

Social media marketing gives users a high degree of confidence about the information posted by their real life or online friends, and by trusted opinion leaders.

The trust that people place in their relationship chain reassures users with a higher degree of confidence in recommendations by friends and acquaintances online.

Taking advantage of the social relationship chain allows advertisers to make use of the benefits of Social media and television marketing.

There are several enterprises to broaden viewer's awareness of their product such as Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites.

According to social media facts and statistics, "93% of marketers use social media for business." Social media enables companies to collect a lot of information about users and non-users.

These parameters are not only reserved to just age, race, and occupation.

By analyzing the content which users share, retailers can effectively determine the user's preferences, habits, purchasing power, purchasing patterns and other information.

In addition, retailing is buying and selling both goods and consumer services.[citation needed] Shazam, a musical recognition app, is a recent Social media and television asset from Silicon Valley.

On a technical level, the app can listen to monophonic music which "can be represented by one-dimensional strings of characters, where each character describes one note or one pair of consecutive notes." These characters are part of long-coded algorithms which exist as songs in Shazam's vast catalogue.

For every song, Shazam has a different algorithm.

Advertisers send Shazam algorithms of the audio from their commercials.

When television viewers see a product they like and want to know more about, they can Shazam the commercial and be redirected to the company's website about the product.[4] Researchers have also found a direct correlation between reality TV viewership and increased time spent on social media.

The more reality TV a person consumes, the more likely they are to friend strangers and post pictures at a higher frequency than non-reality TV viewers.[5] "Promiscuous friending" is the phrase used to describe the viewers mimicking the behaviors of their reality TV stars.

Friending and following random online users has been an increasing trend over the past decade.

The reason for this could be, "fame-seeking behavior that is modeled by RTV characters.

Having a large social network on a SNS site can be construed as a sign of popularity (being at the center of a large social network), and conversely as a sign of superficiality."[5] Interactive media such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri have enabled computers to interact with people in human-like ways.

"Computers, in the way that they communicate, instruct and take turns interacting, are close enough to humans that they encourage social responses.

The encouragement is necessary for such a reaction need not be much.

As long as there are some behaviors that suggest a social presence, people will respond accordingly."[6] The exponential growth in the number of social media users between 2006 and 2016 has impacted how television shows are marketed.

As well, the huge increase in social media use has changed how show producers and broadcasters interact and connect with their audiences on a national or even a global scale.

Global, referring to Internet's ability to connect people from across the street, across the country, or even around the world.

The Internet allows instantaneous newsfeeds and posts, regardless of location or time differences.

TV ratings agency Nielsen found that on average, 42% of respondents in a social media survey connect and communicate through digital media because they are interested in keeping up to date about their favourite shows (2012).[7] The increasing efficiency and ease of access to digital devices has enabled more direct interaction between television show producers and their audiences and fans.

Spengler and Wirth (2009)[8] describe this interaction between a brand and their audience as "touchpoints", which are the "various contact points at which brands appear in public and are experienced by (potential) clients".

The phrase "appear in public" refers to the broad range of public events that brands and companies can use to promote their brands, products and services, ranging from celebrity appearances at events, media tours, TV commercials, billboard ads and online marketing.

Due to the phenomenon of enabling the "social practice of commenting on television shows with peers, friends, and unknown people" (Selva, 2016) audiences are all somewhat connected through the captivating world of digital media.

Selva explains that television has transitioned from traditional media where dialogue is conveyed in a linear form, from the source to the receiver; to social and interactive media, where viewers have the power to "navigate content, access on-demand services, and customise supply" which is in theory, non-linear communication (Vos, 2001, van Dijk et al., 2003, as cited in Selva, 2016).

Ovum (2011, as cited in Savitz, 2011) found that "Almost 40% of TV viewers discuss particular TV shows via social media while they're watching them." To put that statement in a practical context, Ovum claim that "This is evidenced by the average 4.5 million tweets from this year's Super Bowl viewers."[9] The earliest form of social interactive television was that of BBC's "Any Questions?" which allowed viewers to call in via telephone, whereas, now there are various other forms in which television can touchpoint their audience.

Television networks want this "buzz" and audience interest to be generated naturally through fans posting links and comments online.

A plan for increasing Internet traffic related to a single show is the placement of hashtags on the screen during dramatic moments of the show, for example NBC's reality competition The Voice places #TheVoice on the screen during the part of the show where contestants get eliminated.[1] Another effective way to increase web traffic is to use what is called a "madlib" hashtag, a hashtag that goes at the beginning of a post that starts a sentence a user can then finish.

An example of this was the hashtag #WhatWillGagaWear used by MTV at the 2011 Video Music Awards where viewers could speculate what they thought musician/performer Lady Gaga—an artist known for her avant-garde fashions—would wear to the event.[1] Some shows create hashtags for promotional purposes.

While advertising the fifth season of Jersey Shore, MTV used promos with various hashtags related to events in the show to generate buzz.

In addition to hashtags, programs can also create their own Twitter accounts.

Often used for talk shows or shows that have a host, similar to a hashtag, the program places @ followed by the specific Twitter "handle" at the bottom of the screen.

CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight showed his Twitter handle @piersmorgan twice during a show, which generated 4,500 new followers as an immediate result.

Accounts also make it possible for hosts to live-tweet during a prerecorded program.[1] Comedy Central's Tosh.0 host Daniel Tosh live-tweets via his Twitter account @danieltosh during new airings of his show.

Jeff Probst, host of CBS' Survivor, did not live-tweet at all during the show's 2010 season.

In spring 2011, using the Twitter handle @JeffProbst, his live-tweeting during new episodes of the show dramatically[clarification needed] increased online traffic related to the show.[1] Fox's crime drama Bones, under the Twitter handle @BONESonFOX, makes a major effort to interact with fans and followers and engage them via social media.

In addition to being able to post on the back channel, followers of the Twitter account can use it to find and download music that is played during the program.

The account also makes an effort to re-tweet and reply to fan comment posts using the hashtag #bones in their posts.

Bones' actors and creative team also hold live tweet sessions where followers can tweet questions about the show.[10] The HBO program True Blood has taken Twitter a step further by creating Twitter accounts for the fictional characters on the show.

Using the tag #TrueBlood, these characters' tweets use dialogue specific to how they speak on the show.

Unlike other, unofficial character Twitter accounts, all of the True Blood character accounts are created and maintained by HBO.[10] A cottage industry has sprung up around facilitating TV stations interaction with viewers.

Companies like Mass Relevance,[11] Never.no[12] TV Interact[13] and Vidpresso[14] all aim to help broadcasters more easily use social media.

Interactive television in a non-linear sense has the ability to empower the regular, sole viewer as they have the opportunity to share their opinion in an open forum that may be seen by huge numbers of users.

Typically the message is encoded on-screen for a short period of time when audience participation is welcomed.

Selva (2016) describes this empowerment as identity-building for the purpose of creating social awareness, real-time fact checking, or perhaps dealing with conversational topics.

It gives regular users the opportunity to think open-mindedly, to consider something from a different perspective or to learn something new.

Users can also provide feedback almost instantaneously, as digital media enhances the efficiency and openness of the communication flow.

Thus, the non-linear model of communication suggests that television shows of in the 2010s tend to prosper from social media's two-way dialogue stream.[15] Moreover, social media has radically influenced and enhanced the way viewers engage with other viewers and fans.

"TV viewers can follow their favorite programs, share TV-related content and reactions, and connect with fellow viewers before, during, and after a program" (Lin, Sung, & Chen, 2016).

According to Selva, many people use social media platforms whilst watching television to feel as though they are not alone or to "compensate for the absence of other people in the physical realm of the living room and to have the chance to control others' reactions" (Selva, 2016).

This is particularly prominent in shows such as a political debate, a sports match or reality TV, due to the dramatic, controversial nature of the content.

Lim et al.

(2016, as cited in Lin, Sung, & Chen, 2016) suggest that there are three levels of engagement by combined TV/social media users; functional, emotional and communal.

Viewers appreciate the opportunity to share their opinion because as emotional beings, humans seek to have a sense of belonging; to think they might find other people who share the same views as they do.

Lin, Sung and Chen in their studies found a direct correlation between audience emotional engagement and television channel loyalty; thus, audience engagement and participation is paramount to maintaining viewer consistency in television.[16] On viewer-to-viewer engagement, Dahlen, Lange, and Smith (2010) analyse the hierarchal effects of "intermediaries" in the model of communication.

These intermediaries are "Opinion Leaders": "regularly perceived by their immediate peer group to embody the characteristics of an innovator, a socialite and to be of a higher social status" (Smith & Taylor, 2004, as cited in Dahlen, Lange, & Smith, 2010); as well as "Opinion Formers": "Considered to be official specialists in the product area" (Egan, 2007, Smith & Taylor, 2004, as cited in Dahlen, Lange, & Smith, 2010).

Both groups of people are extremely influential in shaping the opinions of audiences due to their hierarchal power in society.

Social media makes it easier for Opinion Leaders in particular, to have their opinions heard and adhered to by their fans as they take the role of "filtering messages from the sender to receiver, occupying a position of informal influence over the attitude of others." In social television, the influence of Opinion Leaders can come across as taking a biased stance, particularly for collection of data purposes (e.g.

polls).[17] Through the evolution of Facebook as the top social networking site, television programs have taken advantage of the large number of users by creating pages for users to "like", by clicking on the "like" button, indicating that they have a favorable view of content regarding the show.

After clicking "like" on a page it will then show up under the user's interests.

Television programs take advantage of this by creating exclusive posts that only those who "like" the page can see.[18] The pages post updates that include air-times of new episodes, preview and behind the scenes clips, merchandise and coupon opportunities, and interviews with the show's actors and directors.

Access to exclusive content entices Facebook users to "like" the pages of their favorite shows.

As of May 2011, 275 million users "liked" a television show page on Facebook.

The average users "liked" at least six shows leading to an average of 1.65 billion Likes of television shows.[18] Seventeen of the top 100 most liked pages are television programs with Fox's The Simpsons, Family Guy and Comedy Central's South Park being the top three most "liked" television pages.

A show's Likes on Facebook also trend over time, being the most "liked" show on Facebook, The Simpsons (48 million "likes") sees an average 1.23% weekly growth and a 0.15% daily growth (as of April 2012).[19] As of January 2013 Facebook has announced the launch of hashtags.

Facebook will now have clickable links that users will be able to click on and see the stories surrounding that hashtag.

Facebook has over 4.7 billion content items shared daily and the hash tag will help people to find more people who are talking about the same things as them.[20] In 2014, the new app Snapchat became more popular than Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and television.

On January 26, 2015 24.79 million people watched a series of videos on their phones, called "Snapchat Stories" about the blizzard of 2015.

This beat FOX's Sunday Night Football which had 21 million views, and AMC's The Walking Dead mid-season finale which had 14.8 million views.[21] This statistic shows leading U.S.

television series on Twitter ranked by average unique audience in 2015, sorted by the number of average tweets.

During this period of time, ABC's Pretty Little Liars generated an average of 222,000 tweets per episode airing.

ABC's Scandal was ranked first with an online buzz volume of 559,000 tweets per telecast.[22] Facebook recognized how successful Snapchat was with the launch of Snapchat stories back in 2014, so Facebook launched their own Facebook stories in 2017.

This is a way for you to share, for twenty-four hours, what are you doing with your Facebook friends from the mobile app.[23] Social media and television has changed the way that news is delivered and consumed.

Journalists now have the task of converting their stories into the digital form that is suitable for social media as well as creating content for news programs on air.

With social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, journalists must now market their stories and news organizations by attempting to get shares and likes.

Hard-hitting news is now taking a backseat to fluffy stories that get more shares and likes on social media platforms.

News organizations like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC are some of the most popular news destinations on the Internet.

These major news organizations use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to their advantage by posting and sharing up-to-date content for their newsreaders.[24] With the constant need to share up-to-date information, journalists now have to learn how to market their stories and work to get readers to click on and share their stories.

Like the Television news consumers, online news consumers have particular reasons for following certain news organizations and sharing their content.

The biggest result behind shares on social media is proximity, "the general finding is that geographical proximity and the involvement of elite nations that are considered culturally proximate increase the news value of a story".[25] In May 2013, Twitter launched Twitter Amplify, allowing television networks and content rights holders to share video clips from major live broadcasts, with advertisers' names and messages playing before the clip.[26] Facebook made changes to its algorithm and introduced video autoplay to drive video consumption and attract content from premium content rights holders such as NFL, NHL, Wimbledon and Fox Sports.

It then announced Facebook Suggested Videos, bringing related videos and ads to anyone that clicks on a video.[27] Numerous rights holders now use Grabyo to share clips from live video feeds on Facebook and Twitter.

The real-time video editing platform is used by the NHL,[28] Sky Sports,[29] the Brit Awards,[30] Wimbledon,[31] FIFA World Cup,[32] Channel 5,[33] ATP World Tour, Ryder Cup, FIA Formula E Championship and UFC.[34] Studies have shown that leading social media sites such as Twitter have been used to calculate a portion of television ratings.[35] The rise in various devices currently available for viewers to access television content on has caused for the traditional Nielsen ratings system to become outdated and thus no longer capable of generating an accurate depiction of viewership.

Functions such as online viewing, recorded DVR content, and live streams over the Internet are not taken into account when calculating television ratings.

The Nielsen Media Research took a survey at the end of 2009 which concluded that 59% of Americans simultaneously watched television and accessed the internet at least once per month, spending 3.5 hours of simultaneous use per month.[35] Rating information can be gathered through the social media site's "back-channel".

While social media sites, specifically Twitter, have proven to be able to generate television rating numbers there are still limitations to that function.

Twitter was not designed to calculate television ratings therefore more work needs to be done to refine the method to acquiring a look at viewership though the site.[36] The Grammy Awards provide an example of a direct correlation between back channel traffic and ratings.

In 2010 the award show saw a 35% increase in viewers from the previous year's broadcast as a result of social media integration.

A more extreme example of a social media ratings boost can be scene with the Oxygen Network's Bad Girls Club whose East Coast premiere saw a 97% ratings increase through social network activity where the West Coast airing, which offered no social element, only saw a 7% from the previous week.

On the flipside, a large amount of online traffic does not always however translate into high ratings.

A studied showed that while a large amount of online traffic may circulate about a program it does not necessarily mean that a large audience is physically watching.[37] A report by the Hollywood Reporter showed that most people use social media to determine their choices in entertainment.

It also showed that over 50% of people make these decisions to stay in the loop with their peers.

Many things people do for entertainment are influenced by what is said on social media.[38] Television programs such as the CW's Gossip Girl, Supernatural, 90210 and NBC's Community rank fairly low on the Nielsen ratings scale and come in above 100 on the list on 200 most watched programs within original broadcast times.

Despite this, each program ranks incredibly high on the 200 most watched programs online list with Gossip Girl being the most watched program online according to SideReel Ranking.

On the other end of the spectrum, ratings hits such as CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles, and reality shows such as Fox's American Idol and ABC's Dancing with the Stars have fairly low online viewership while delivering large numbers during original broadcasts.[39] A possible explanation for this discrepancy could have to do with the age demographics of each program.

Dramas like Gossip Girl and 90210 are targeted toward teens and young adults while American Idol and NCIS: Los Angeles have a much broader audiences including older viewers.[39] SideReel described the phenomena as saying "Online TV viewers are younger and more discriminating.

They're driving consumption away from the TV set to the computer."[39] The back-channel is the virtual conversation or information shared on a social media website or application by users and fans while a program is airing in real time.

Studies show that a significant percentage of TV viewers simultaneously use a computer, smartphone, or other device while they watch TV shows.

With the back-channel forums, a distinction made between television-show related tweets and posts, that pertain to the show and its stars, and other information shared that does not pertain to the show (e.g., comments about current political issues made on the back-channel platform for a live sports program).

Specific Hashtags, links, re-tweets, and "@" messages are all ways television programs, stations, producers, advertising agencies and brands work to distinguish their content from being mixed in with unrelated content.

For example, searching the key word "lost" would provide you with all tweets containing the word as opposed to searching "#Lost" which makes the differential between the television series and the literal word "lost".[40] Television programs are adopting Twitter's back-channel to directly obtain audiences' opinions and views about on-aired programs.[36] Mobile phones, smartphones, computers, tablets and other devices that can connect to the Internet make it possible to access and contribute to the back-channel anytime, anywhere.

A major portion of back channel conversation for a single show occurs during its initial broadcast.

Back-channeling networks can lead to miscommunication.

The dynamics of back-channeling provides a system of categorization for the discourse surrounding a topic.

The detriments of such a system are also its strengths.

This is because the lack of filtration that occurs when searching through back-channeled information can miscommunicate the original message.

The presence of false or irrelevant information will remain present within the network and has the potential to be misinterpreted as accurate.

The postmodern perspective of back-channel networks describes the correlation between an original source and a back-channeled source.[41] People often use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to interact with and discuss sports.

Technology is now so advanced that people no longer have to watch the game live on television.

For example, there are apps, like ESPN, that will send users updates on the teams of their choice.

People can also follow their favourite sports team on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

On those websites, professional teams' accounts post live updates of scores and plays during games and interact as much as they can with their fans and followers.

Many professional athletes have social media accounts that they are very active on.

Through social media, fans get the chance to follow their favorite players and keep up with their day-to-day life.[42] Teams and players are now able to directly connect with the fans with the help of social media.[43] Players also have to be careful when they use social media because if anything they post is taken in the wrong context, they could suffer huge consequences.[44] For instance, former Villanova basketball player, Donte DiVincenzo, was criticized in 2018 for controversial tweets that he had posted seven years prior when he was fourteen years old.

The national anthem protests during the 2017–2018 football season, where NFL players knelt for the American national anthem drew the attention of social media users.

The protests began with former quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, Colin Kaepernick, who refused to stand during the playing of the national anthem before the start of the game.

Kaepernick told NFL Media, "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.

To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way.

There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."[45] This has caused a lot of controversy within the NFL and across the US.

Fans, players, and people all over the country had different reactions, using their social media accounts to voice their opinions and their personal reasons for protesting or for honoring the flag.[46] Some of the most famous athletes that currently play in the NFL, like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, shared Instagram posts supporting their teammates.[46] Social media is a way for athletes to get their message across to their fans as quickly and efficiently as possible.

PhillyVoice.com, through analyzing hashtags on Twitter, concluded that the US was equally divided on this issue.

Those who supported the protests included the hashtag #TakeAKnee in their tweets and those who were against them included the hashtag #boycottNFL in their tweets.

Because of social media, it was possible to determine the country's opinion on the current issues within the NFL.[47]

Corporate social media

Corporate social media is the use of social media websites and social media marketing techniques by and within corporations,[1] ranging from small businesses and tiny entrepreneurial startups to mid-size businesses to huge multinational firms.

Within the definition of social media there are varies types of them.

Although there is no systematic way in which social media applications can be categorized.[2] In the 2010s, an increasing number of corporations, across most industries, have adopted the use of social media either within in the workplace, for employees, as part of an Intranet or using the publicly available Internet.

As a result, corporate use of social networking and micro blogging sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, has substantially increased.

According to an article by the Harvard Business Review, "Fifty-eight percent of companies are currently engaged in social networks like Facebook, micro blogs like Twitter, and sharing multimedia on platforms such as YouTube." The Harvard Business Review cites an additional 21% of companies as being in the process of implementing a formal social media initiative.[3] The 2014 HBR report indicates 79% of companies have or will have social media initiatives in place.

This percentage is an increase over a similar 2010 report that indicated that two-thirds of companies had or would have social media initiatives in place.[4] Social media currently can be crucial to the success of growing numbers in a companies value chain activities.[5] For marketers, Social media is a mandatory element within the promotional mix.[5] Marketers also need to understand that marketing on social media can come with difficulties and challenges, and face both reputation and economic risks.[5] This big push to move to Social Media to is thought to create a better experience with the consumers.

(Chart Provided Via [5] ) The widespread and growing use of social media by corporations is resulting in the development and implementation of formal written policies.

Corporate social media[6] use has grown so rapidly that certain regulated industries are now required to maintain formal written social media policies.

For example, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, a consortium of bank and credit union regulators, implemented in December 2013, formal social media guidance for its banks and credit unions.

In the eyes of regulators, risks associated with social media use are of a level that requires formal attention.

At a minimum, regulators require that organizations "listen" to what is being said about them on social media platforms in an effort to identify legal, compliance, and reputational concerns.[7] Corporations have legitimate concerns when it comes to their employees’ use of social media.

Social media environments have created the need for distinct and often strict reputation management practices.

Some corporations have resorted to monitoring the social media accounts of its employees in order to spot posts and comments that are related to workplace issues or the employer, potentially harmful to business or even leak private corporate information.[8] Many corporations have used social media during the hiring process as well.

Survey data shows that within a one-year period 15 percent of finance and accounting professionals found new jobs through social media.[9] Social media can be both helpful and detrimental to those searching for employment.

Hiring managers sometimes search social media to look for reasons not to hire a job applicant.

According to a 2013 survey from CareerBuilder.com, 43 percent of employers use social networking sites to research potential hires.

Another 45 percent are researching the "fit" of a job candidate with their company by conducting a search via Google or another search engine.

51 percent of employers who research candidates on social media say they've found postings which have caused them to not hire a candidate.[10] Job applicants who have racist or homophobic jokes, inappropriate photos, offensive content, or photos depicting drunkenness or other potentially undesirable behaviors may be screened out of hiring processes.

Some observers have stated that employer viewing of job candidates' social media profiles may raise privacy concerns.

Despite the identified risks associated with social media, corporations are recognizing the benefits associated with adopting a Corporate social media strategy.

Benefits include lower cost and more effective marketing and advertising initiatives (as compared with traditional marketing methods such as billboard ads and TV commercials), improved internal and external corporate communications, enhanced overall brand awareness, and better operational efficiency and innovativeness.[11] As a result, corporations are investing at an increasing rate in social business software and services.

The belief is that the benefits outweigh the potential risks of bad press, customer complaints, and brand bashing.[5] Benefits also include, being able to be more one on one with the consumers and being able to talk directly to them, it makes companies seem more reliable and open to work with consumers.[5] Conversely, businesses can find themselves in a bad situation when they use social media poorly.

An example of poor social media execution came in November 2013 when JP Morgan decided to have a question and answer session via Twitter.

During that time, 2 out of 3 tweets received were negative due to prior scrutiny they had faced.

In this case, using social media and interacting with the public did not help to promote them in a positive way.

Another example came on September 11, 2013, when AT&T posted a picture on Twitter of a cell phone capturing a picture of the Twin Towers memorial lights with the caption "Never forget." The tweet was met with great backlash from consumers for using a tragedy as a marketing opportunity, with many customers threatening to leave AT&T.

After seeing the backlash it was receiving, AT&T removed the post and apologized within about an hour of its posting.[12] Risks also include, losing the interest of the people on social media because there is a lack of activity, the content is not interesting, or it is not professional or honest.[2]

Social media measurement

Social media measurement, 'social media monitoring' or social listening[1][2] is a way of computing popularity of a brand or company by extracting information from social media channels,[3] such as blogs, wikis, news sites, micro-blogs such as Twitter, social networking sites, video/photo sharing websites, forums, message boards and user-generated content from time to time.

In other words, this is the way to caliber success of social media marketing strategies used by a company or a brand.[4] It is also used by companies to gauge current trends in the industry.[5] The process first gathers data from different websites and then performs analysis based on different metrics like time spent on the page, click through rate, content share, comments, text analytics to identify positive or negative emotions about the brand.[6][7] Social media measurement process starts with defining a goal that needs to be achieved and defining the expected outcome of the process.

The expected outcome varies per the goal and is usually measured by a variety of metrics.

This is followed by defining possible social strategies to be used to achieve the goal.

Then the next step is designing strategies to be used and setting up configuration tools that ease the process of collecting the data.

In the next step, strategies and tools are deployed in real-time.

This step involves conducting Quality Assurance tests of the methods deployed to collect the data.

And in the final step, data collected from the system is analyzed and if the need arises, it is refined on the run time to enhance the methodologies used.

The last step ensures that the result obtained is more aligned with the goal defined in the first step.[8] Acquiring data from social media is in demand of an exploring the user participation and population with the purpose of retrieving and collecting so many kinds of data(ex: comments, downloads etc.).[9] There are several prevalent techniques to acquire data such as Network traffic analysis, Ad-hoc application and Crawling[10] Network Traffic Analysis - Network traffic analysis is the process of capturing network traffic and observing it closely to determine what is happening in the network.

It is primarily done to improve the performance, security and other general management of the network.[11] However concerned about the potential tort of privacy on the Internet, network traffic analysis is always restricted by the government.

Furthermore, high-speed links are not adaptable to traffic analysis because of the possible overload problem according to the packet sniffing mechanism [12] Ad-hoc Application - Ad-hoc application is a kind of application that provides services and games to social network users by developing the APIs offered by social network companies (Facebook Developer Platform).

The infrastructure of Ad-hoc application allows the user to interact with the interface layer instead of the application servers.

The API provides a path for application to access information after the user login.[13] Moreover, the size of the data set collected vary with the popularity of the social media platform i.e.

social media platforms having high number of users will have more data than platforms having less user base.[13] Scraping is a process in which the APIs collect online data from social media.

The data collected from Scraping is in raw format.

However, having access to these type of data is a bit difficult because of its commercial value.[14] Crawling - Crawling is a process in which a web crawler creates indexes of all the words in a web-page, stores them, then follows all the hyperlinks and indexes on that page and again stores them.[15] It is the most popular technique for data acquisition and is also well known for its easy operation based on prevalent Object-Orientated Programming Language (Java or Python etc.).

And most important, social network companies (YouTube, Flicker, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) are friendly to crawling techniques by providing public APIs [16] Monitoring social media allows researchers to find insights into a brand's overall visibility on social media, to measure the impact of campaigns, to identify opportunities for engagement, to assess competitor activity and share of voice, and to detect impending crises.

It can also provide valuable information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific topics, brands or products.[17] This is the work of a cross-section of groups that include market researchers, PR staff, marketing teams, social-engagement, and community staff, agencies and sales teams.

Several different providers have developed tools to facilitate the monitoring of a variety of social media channels - from blogging to internet video to internet forums.

This allows companies to track what consumers say about their brands and actions.

Companies can then react to these conversations and interact with consumers through social media platforms.[3] Apart from commercial applications, social media monitoring has become a pervasive technique applied by public organizations and governments.

Monitoring is a tradition within the public sector, and social-media monitoring provides a real-time approach to detecting and responding to social developments.

Governments have come to realize the need for strategies to cope with surprises from the rapid expansion of public issues.

Sobkowicz [18] introduced a framework with three blocks of social-media opinion tracking, simulating and forecasting.

It includes: Bekkers introduced the application of social media monitoring in the Netherlands.[19][need quotation to verify] Public organizations in the Netherlands (such as the Tax Agency and the Education Ministry) have started to use social media monitoring to obtain better insights into the sentiments of target groups.

On the one hand, the public sector will be enabled to provide timely and efficient answers to the public by using social media monitoring techniques, but on the other hand, they also have to deal with concerns about ethical issues such as transparency and privacy.

Social media management software (SMMS) is an application program or software that facilitates an organisation's ability to successfully engage in social media across different communication channels.

SMMS is used to monitor inbound and outbound conversations, support customer interaction, audit or document social marketing initiatives and evaluate the usefulness of a social media presence.[20] It can be difficult to measure all social media conversations.

Due to privacy settings and other issues, not all social media conversations can be found and reported by monitoring tools.

However, whilst social media monitoring cannot give absolute figures, it can be extremely useful for identifying trends and for benchmarking, in addition to the uses mentioned above.

These findings can, in turn, influence and shape future business decisions.

In order to access social media data (posts, Tweets, and meta-data) and to analyze and monitor social media, many companies use software technologies built for business.

Most social media networks allow users to add a location to their posts (reference all of our feeds).

The location can be classified as either 'at-the-location' or 'about-the-location'.

"'At-the-location' services can be defined as services where location-based content is created at the geographic location.

'About-the-location' services can be defined as services which are referring to a particular location but the content is not necessarily created in this particular physical place."[21] The added information available from geotagged (link to Geotagging article) posts means that they can be displayed on a map.

This means that a location can be used as the start of a social media search rather than a keyword or hashtag.

This has major implications for disaster relief, event monitoring, safety and security professionals since a large portion of their job is related to tracking and monitoring specific locations.

Various monitoring platforms use different technologies for social media monitoring and measurement.

These technology providers may connect to the API provided by social platforms that are created for 3rd party developers to develop their own applications and services that access data.

Facebook's Graph API is one such API that social media monitoring solution products would connect to pull data from.[22] Technology companies may also get social data from a data reseller, such as DataSift or Gnip, which was acquired by Twitter.

Some social media monitoring and analytics companies use calls to data providers each time an end-user develops a query.

Others will also store and index social posts to offer historical data to their customers.

Additional monitoring companies use crawlers and spidering technology to find keyword references.

(See also: Semantic analysis, Natural language processing.) Basic implementation involves curating data from social media on a large scale and analyzing the results to make sense out of it.

Social media analytics

Social media analytics is the process of gathering and analyzing data from social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

It is commonly used by marketers to track online conversations about products and companies.

One author defined it as "the art and science of extracting valuable hidden insights from vast amounts of semi-structured and unstructured social media data to enable informed and insightful decision making."[1] There are three main steps in analyzing social media: data identification, data analysis, and information interpretation.

To maximize the value derived at every point during the process, analysts may define a question to be answered.

The important questions for data analysis are: "Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?" These questions help in determining the proper data sources to evaluate, which can affect the type of analysis that can be performed.[2] Data identification is the process of identifying the subsets of available data to focus on for analysis.

Raw data is useful once it is interpreted.

After data has been analyzed, it can begin to convey a message.

Any data that conveys a meaningful message becomes information.

On a high level, unprocessed data takes the following forms to translate into exact message: noisy data; relevant and irrelevant data, filtered data; only relevant data, information; data that conveys a vague message, knowledge; data that conveys a precise message, wisdom; data that conveys exact message and reason behind it.

To derive wisdom from an unprocessed data, we need to start processing it, refine the dataset by including data that we want to focus on, and organize data to identify information.

In the context of Social media analytics, data identification means "what" content is of interest.

In addition to the text of content, we want to know: who wrote the text? Where was it found or on which social media venue did it appear? Are we interested in information from a specific locale? When did someone say something in social media?[2] Attributes of data that need to be considered are as follows: Data analysis is the set of activities that assist in transforming raw data into insight, which in turn leads to a new base of knowledge and business value.

In other words, data analysis is the phase that takes filtered data as input and transforms that into information of value to the analysts.

Many different types of analysis can be performed with social media data, including analysis of posts, sentiment, sentiment drivers, geography, demographics, etc.

The data analysis step begins once we know what problem we want to solve and know that we have sufficient data that is enough to generate a meaningful result.

How can we know if we have enough evidence to warrant a conclusion? The answer to this question is: we don't know.

We can't know this unless we start analyzing the data.

While analyzing if we found the data isn't sufficient, reiterate the first phase and modify the question.

If the data is believed to be sufficient for analysis, we need to build a data model.[2] Developing a data model is a process or method that we use to organize data elements and standardize how the individual data elements relate to each other.

This step is important because we want to run a computer program over the data; we need a way to tell the computer which words or themes are important and if certain words relate to the topic we are exploring.

In the analysis of our data, it's handy to have several tools available at our disposal to gain a different perspective on discussions taking place around the topic.

The aim here is to configure the tools to perform at peak for a particular task.

For example, thinking about a word cloud, if we take a large amount of data around computer professionals, say the "IT architect", and built a word cloud, no doubt the largest word in the cloud would be "architect".

This analysis is also about tool usage.

Some tools may do a good job at determining sentiment, where as others may do a better job at breaking down text into a grammatical form that enables us to better understand the meaning and use of various words or phrases.

In performing analytic analysis, it is difficult to enumerate each and every step to take on an analytical journey.

It is very much an iterative approach as there is no prescribed way of doing things.[2] The taxonomy and the insight derived from that analysis are as follows: The insights derived from analysis can be as varied as the original question that was posed in step one of analysis.

At this stage, as the nontechnical business users are the receivers of the information, the form of presenting the data becomes important.

How could the data make sense efficiently so it could be used in good decision making? Visualization (graphics) of the information is the answer to this question.[6] The best visualizations are ones that expose something new about the underlying patterns and relationships contain the data.

Exposure of the patterns and understating them play a key role in decision making process.

Mainly there are three criteria to consider in visualizing data.

Business intelligence (BI) can be described as "a set of techniques and tools for the acquisition and transformation of raw data into meaningful and useful information for business analysis purposes".[8] Sentiment Analyser is a technology framework in the field of Social BI that leverages Informatica products.

It is designed to reflect and suggest the focus shift of businesses from transactional data to behavioral analytics models.

Sentiment Analyser enables businesses to understand customer experience and ideates ways to enhance customer satisfaction.[9] Social media analytics Who are the advocates and influences for brand or product? Advocate Influence Are new communities of influence emerging? Complex event processing Sentiment ratio Exposure & Impact How does brand compare against competitors? Which social media channels are being used for discussion? Natural Language Processing Velocity Share of Voice Audience Engagement What are the causes for expressed intent (buy, churn etc.)? Clustering Data Mining Correlations Topic Affinity Matrices Recent research on Social media analytics has emphasized the need to adopt a BI based approach to collecting, analyzing and interpreting social media data.[10] Social media presents a promising, albeit challenging, source of data for business intelligence.

Customers voluntarily discuss products and companies, giving a real-time pulse of brand sentiment and adoption.[11] According to the recent research on Social media analytics has mentioned that the need to adopt a Business Intelligence-based approach is needed for collecting, analyzing and interpreting social media data.[12] Social media is one of the most important tools for marketers in the rapidly evolving media landscape.

Firms have created specialized positions to handle their social media marketing.

These arguments are in line with the literature on social media marketing that suggest that social media activities are interrelated and influence each other.[13] The possibilities of the dangers of Social media analytics and social media mining in the political arena were revealed in the late 2010s.

In particular, the involvement of the data mining company Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 United States presidential election and Brexit have been representative cases that show the arising dangers of linking social media mining and politics.

This has raised the question of data privacy for individuals and the legal boundaries to be created for data science companies in relevance to politics in the future.

Both of the examples listed above demonstrate a future in which big data can change the game of international politics.

It is likely politics and technology will evolve together throughout the next century.

In the cases with Cambridge Analytica, the effects of Social media analytics have resonated throughout the globe through two major world powers, the United States and the U.K.

The scandal that followed the American presidential election of 2016 was one involving a three-way relationship between Cambridge Analytica, the Trump campaign, and Facebook.

Cambridge Analytica acquired the data of over 87 million[14] unaware Facebook users and analyzed the data for the benefit of the Trump campaign.

By creating thousands of data points on 230 million U.S.

adults, the data mining company had the potential to analyze which individuals could be swayed into voting for the Trump campaign, and then send messages or advertisements to said targets and influence user mindset.

Specific target voters could then be exposed to pro-Trump messages without being aware, even, of the political influence settling on them.

Such a specific form of targeting in which select individuals are introduced to an above-average amount of campaign advertisement is referred to as "micro-targeting."[15] There remains great controversy in measuring the amount of influence this micro-targeting had in the 2016 elections.

The impact of micro-targeting ads and social media data analytics on politics is unclear as of the late 2010s, as a newly arising field of technology.

While this was a breach of user privacy, data mining and targeted marketing undermined the public accountability to which social media entities no longer subject, therefore twisting the democratic election system and allowing it to dominated by platforms of “user-generated content [that] polarized the media’s message.”[16] During the 2016 Brexit referendum Cambridge Analytica attracted controversy for its use of data gathered from social media.

A similar case took place in which a breach in Facebook data was acquired by Cambridge Analytica and used to encourage British citizens to vote to leave the European Union in the 2016 EU referendum.[citation needed] Besides Cambridge Analytica, several other data companies such as AIQ[citation needed] and the Cambridge University Psychometric Centre[citation needed] were accused of, then investigated by the British government for their possible abuse of data to promote unlawful campaign techniques for Brexit.[citation needed] The referendum ended with 51.9% of voters supporting the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

This final decision impacted politics within the United Kingdom, and sent ripples across political and economic institutions worldwide.[citation needed]

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is a technique for drawing customers to products and services via content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization and branding.[1] Inbound marketing improves customer experience and builds trust by offering potential customers information they value via company sponsored newsletters, blogs and entries on social media platforms.[citation needed] Compared with outbound marketing, inbound reverses the relationship between company and customer.

In fact, while outbound marketing pushes the product through various channels, Inbound marketing creates awareness, attracts new customers with channels like blogs, social media, etc.

Main characteristics of Inbound marketing: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of utilizing search engine best practices to improve the visibility of a website or a webpage by ranking higher in the search engine results ("SERPS") for keywords relevant to that particular website or webpage.

There are several ways to improve a website or webpage's visibility: Leading search engines use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results.

It is important to ensure that these search engine crawlers (AKA spiders) can successfully crawl a website or webpage in its entirety to fully determine the relevance of that website or webpage for its targeted keywords.

Since some websites have millions of pages associated to them and that need to be indexed, the practice of Technical SEO will help improve a website's ability to get all of those pages indexed by a search engine and thereby improving their prospects of ranking within the search engine results pages.

Search engines utilize contextual relevance or semantic search to determine the relevancy of a website or webpage for a particular set of keywords.

Improving content quality from a readability and relevancy perspective will help sites increase their relevance for a set of keywords and therefore should increase their keyword rankings and visibility within the search engine results page.

Improving Credibility Search engines also determine relevancy based on internal and external links that are found across the internet.

These backlinks will help associate a website or webpage with a particular set of keywords and can help improve the relevancy of this website or webpage for a particular set of keywords.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of web marketing which involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages, principally through paid advertising.

SEM is strictly connected to SEO in regards to pay promotion and get found out in the first search page.[citation needed] There are some methods and metrics to optimize websites: Keyword research and analysis which ensure the site can be indexed in the search engine, finding the more frequently typed words; Presence which means how many times a web page is indexed by search engines and how many backlinks does it get; Back end tools such as Web analytic tools and HTML validators; Whois tools that reveal the owners of various websites and can provide information related to copyright and trademark.

SEM objective is to boost the visibility of a page, it can be done using the so-called "sponsorization".

With the term, "sponsorization" is intended a search engine company charging fees for the inclusion of a website in their results pages.

To work well, Inbound marketing needs a precise process that, if respected, provides a competitive advantage compared with outbound marketing.

The process is composed of four sequential steps: attract, convert, close, and "delight" in order to obtain more visitors on sites, to speed up conversions and finally increase the number of leads and prospects.

One of the most important differences between outbound and Inbound marketing is the fact that "if classical marketing is betting on those people, inbound is betting on that person".

it means that companies using Inbound marketing know better which are the people they are talking with.

They can do it through buyer personas.

The buyer personas are the identikit of our ideal customers.

Only through them can a company know which is their ideal target and which channels they have to use to reach it.[citation needed] "Attract" does not mean attracting random people; companies want to attract the right people at the right time with the right content.

Building a company on the buyer personas, one can define which are the beliefs, pains, hobbies, goals, etc.

of our customer and on their basis, one can create the right contents to attract visitors on one's blog, social, YouTube channel, etc.[citation needed] Evergreen content plays a crucial role in building organic traffic to websites or blogs.[citation needed] After attracting the visitor on their website, for example, a company will be ready to convert him/her into prospect gathering his/her contact information.

Emails are the most valuable information for an inbound marketer.

The inbound marketer wants to attract the right visitor, so they will exchange a tutorial video, an ebook or something valuable for the customer so he/she will be glad to give his/her e-mail in return.

Once the needed information is gathered, it is important to stay in contact with the prospects.

How are prospects transformed into customers? Some helpful tools are: Call-to-actions are very useful to let customer complete an action that we like.

With this powerful tool we can generate a positive cycle that generates value both for our customer and for us.

Generating useful contents and sending it periodically to our prospect we can create awareness but also build trust and make our close-customer be ready to buy something.

Customer-relationship management (CRM) systems track the various steps of customer acquisition.

Taking track of information regarding the customer, partner companies etc.

it is possible to deliver the right message at the right time to the right person.[citation needed] Smarketing is the mix of sales and marketing.

Generally in big companies, they are two separated units but in Inbound marketing, they are usually mixed to have complete and fully understandable information between the two areas.

With closed-loop reports also sales and marketing departments know which is the right time to close a deal with the customer and above all know if the customer is ready to be acquired.

Through the process of nurturing, companies make the customer ready to be acquired.

For example, if the visitor fills a form to download an ebook on a certain site, the company knows that their prospect is interested in the subject treated in the ebook.

After collecting this information, they are ready to "nurture" their future probable customer with a series of emails, videos etc.

connected with the subject he/she is interested in.[citation needed] After attracting the fan, converting him into prospect, and letting him buy something from the company, the company has to keep in touch with their customer, continuing providing good and valuable contents with the hope of doing some upselling.

Social advertising (social relationships)

Social media coverage of the Olympics

Over the years, television broadcast rights have distinguished what Olympic-related content can be accessed by fans online.

By doing so, mobile-friendly social platforms began to integrate into the Olympics.

Athletes and fans use these platforms to share live updates, special moments, and behind-the-scenes specials.[1] The rise of social video and social broadcasting technology has provided a huge opportunity for Olympic athletes, teams, and sponsors to bring coverage to fans like never before.

Olympic-related content has infiltrated all forms of social media, including Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

It is expected to expand in the coming years.[1] The Olympics is able to advertise to its viewers and its host country with the use of data it collects through Social media marketing.

Prominent social media platforms include: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Google, MSN, Yahoo and many more.

Campaign Initiatives and Artificial Intelligence technologies have been used to analyze the social media content of users.

Information from consumers such as their preferences, demographics, age and locality are all analyzed to gain consumer insight.

Campaign initiatives and AI technologies were used for such purposes in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and are in use currently.[2] Social media marketing of the Olympics is a new phenomena, beginning prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics [3] There are two classifications of social media marketing recognized by the IOC: Social media marketing emerged as a phenomenon during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which progressed as a marketing and an advertising tactic ever since.[5] The Beijing Olympics became the test subject for social media marketing initiatives started by advertising agencies.

In 2008, social media marketing began the transition from one-sided communication to mass communication of the Olympic Games.

Although social media marketing of the Olympic Games began in 2008, the audience to the Olympics was still primarily reached through television–reaching an audience of 4.3 billion viewers.

At the time, the viewers of the Olympic Games through Internet website platforms made up an audience of approximately 390 million individuals.[citation needed] What was the beginning of Olympic social media marketing, was also the beginning of a more globalized experience of the Olympic Games via social media.

Twitter, now a prominent social media platform, began in 2006 and grew to three million active users by the beginning of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Members of Facebook, another prominent social media platform, tracking the Olympic Games grew from approximately one million during the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 to 90 million during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[5] Social media use, in general, increased by 24 percent between 2007 and 2008–from 63 percent of U.S.

adults to 87 percent of U.S.

adults.[6] The International Olympic Committee (IOC) deemed The Vancouver Winter Olympics as "the first social media games” based on its fan base through social media platforms.[7] The IOC launched their Facebook page a month before the games began, attracting 1.5 million fans.

Shifting to online viewing attracted a younger audience than past Olympic games with over 60 percent of Facebook fans being under 24 years of age.[7] Athletes like Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White reached fans on social media as the platform posted behind-the-scenes coverage on their experiences.[7] The IOC used social media to create competitions between athletes and fans streamed online.

Its YouTube channel hosted a “Best of Us” challenge in which the public could compete in games with their favorite athletes, acquiring three million viewers.[7] Photos spread across social media platforms, such as Flickr, which had 11,000 photos posted by 600 photographers, bringing a new perspective to the games.[7] Twitter contributed constant live updates of the competitions.

The IOC’s Twitter following doubled to 12,000 followers during the Vancouver Olympics, creating a larger viewer population for the games.[7] The IOC created social media guidelines as more athletes and fans got online to interact with the Olympics.[8] Social media was still relatively new as a marketing platform, so these guidelines confused many individuals.[8] The London 2012 Olympic Games succeeded in broadcasting, participation and marketing.

For the first time, the IOC broadcast the Olympic Games live and on-demand through Youtube,[9] allowing fans to access the Games anytime, anywhere through live streaming.[10] The combination of conventional broadcasting and mobile platforms reached a global audience of 4.8 billion people.[10] Social media soared with Facebook, Twitter and Google+, attracting 4.7 million followers.

Athletes shared photographs, interacted online with fans and updated daily, either in person or via an agent.[11] Instagram was established by 2012, making itself a premier photo-sharing platform perfect for athletes to capture their emotions.[12] Lewis Wiltshire, head of sport for Twitter UK said, "Never before have fans had such direct access to their sporting heroes."[13] Social media created conversation on fan opinions regarding athletes, including 962,756 total mentions of Usain Bolt, “Fastest Man in History,” who defended the 100 meter and 200 meter gold medals.

Michael Phelps followed with 828,081 total mentions.[14] Olympic sponsors were active on social media; created several campaigns to promote their brands; and inspired viewers with mass participation and personalized events.[15] The Adidas “Take the Stage” Campaign recognized talent around the world, installing a photo booth and inviting the 550 Olympics athletes to take the stage.

(IOC Marketing Report 2012).

David Beckham surprised fans at the photo booth in Westfield shopping centre, gaining popularity in UK media.

Coca-Cola, Acer Inc., McDonald’s, Visa Inc.

and several others used similar tactics of participation to attract viewers.[9] The 2014 Winter Olympic Games were held in Sochi, a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, establishing the first “social media Olympics” for Russia.

The most popular Russian social media and networking service, VK, created an Olympic page, similar to Facebook’s.

The Olympic VK page has 2.8 million fans and—the most popular official community on the platform.[16] Throughout the games, VK had 54 million Olympic mentions, an average of 1.5 million per day.[16] Numbers grew on other social media pages: more than 2 million fans joined the Olympic Facebook page, 168,101 followed the Olympic Twitter, 150,000 followed the Olympic instagram and three million visited the Olympic website in February 2014.[16] There were 90,000 total updates on social media by Sochi 2014 Olympians and teams.

The United States was the most active country during the games logging 22,598 posts across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.[16] With social media there is also hashtags.

The most popular hashtag was #sochi2014 with almost 11,000 uses.

The next top five hashtags were #wearewinter, #teamusa, #olympics, #goaus and #wirfuerD.[17] Another popular hashtag was #Sochiproblems, depicting local struggles.

Photos of the poor state of Sochi on all platforms made the games the number one trending topic one week before the opening ceremony.

#SochiFail and #SochiProblems gave multiple reports of the poor living arrangements, incomplete construction, broken elevators, and polluted waters.

This was one way that social media provided awareness to its users.[17] Media perceptions varied during the games; the Olympics was viewed as a confrontation between Eastern and Western Civilizations.

The LGBT community took a stand against the games.

Sponsors for the games including Coca-Cola, Mcdonald’s, and P&G protested against Russian authorities.[17] Many protests took a stand against Russian laws, which created a discussion between human rights advocates.

Advocates believed organizations should not promote certain values in western markets while supporting an anti-human rights government in another market.[17] Social media marketing was an influential tool in the promotion and analysis of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee said that the power of sport demonstrates that diversity and interconnectedness can enlighten us all.[18] With over 25,000+ sources of accredited media covering the games, the 2016 games were the most consumed Olympic games to date.[18] Marketing for the Rio Olympics began in 2013 and ultimately lasted 3 years.

There were 26 million visits to Olympic.org, the official website of the Olympic games, and over 7 billion views of official Olympic content on social media.[18] There were over 270 digital media platforms covering the games and active engagement throughout various social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.[18] Twitter saw over 187 million tweets inspired by the Rio Olympics, a 24.6 percent increase from the 2012 Summer Olympics.[19] The 187 million tweets generated nearly 75 billion Twitter impressions.[19] It is important to note that throughout this same period, Twitter nearly doubled in size in terms of users, suggesting that there could have been an even larger growth in Twitter engagement.

The hashtag, #Rio2016 was official content created by the IOC to generate buzz and encourage engagement.[20] Facebook saw 277 million people interact 1.5 billion times regarding the 2016 games.[19] Comparatively to the London games, which saw 116 million posts, there was a significant increase in interaction.

Facebook also used the Rio Olympics to debut their Sponsored Photo Frame aspect as an alternative method of advertising revenue and marketing outreach.

The idea behind this innovation was to present a new advertising opportunity for the platform and to encourage alternative interaction in a similar way to which Snapchat uses paid and sponsored geographic filters.[21] The Rio Olympics was the first Olympics to utilize snapchat as a marketing tool.[12] NBC directly partnered with Snapchat and Buzzfeed to promote the 2016 games.[12] The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Olympic fans took to social media to discuss and manage their emotions regarding the postponement.

Some platforms explained the sequence of events that led to the postponement, while other shared historical moments.

On Twitter, users used the postponement as a way to explain how dangerous the pandemic really is, as well as to bolster political arguments.

The hashtag #tokyo2021 offered optimism among the negativity and fear.[22]

Relationship marketing

Relationship marketing is a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns that emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction rather than sales transactions.[1][2] It differentiates from other forms of marketing in that it recognises the long-term value of customer relationships and extends communication beyond intrusive advertising and sales promotional messages.[3] With the growth of the Internet and mobile platforms, Relationship marketing has continued to evolve as technology opens more collaborative and social communication channels such as tools for managing relationships with customers that go beyond demographics and customer service data collection.

Relationship marketing extends to include inbound marketing, a combination of search optimization and strategic content, public relations, social media and application development.

Relationship marketing refers to an arrangement where both the buyer and seller have an interest in a more satisfying exchange.

This approach aims to transcend the post-purchase-exchange process with a customer in order to make richer contact by providing a more personalised purchase, using the experience to create stronger ties.

A main focus on a long-term relationship with customers differentiates Relationship marketing from other marketing techniques.

The technique was first proposed by American marketing scholars Berry (1983) and Jackson (1985).

Berry (1983) argued in a conference about the field of service marketing that Relationship marketing is a marketing activity for enterprises to obtain, maintain and promote effective relationships with customers.

After a long-term study on the marketing process of the service industry, it was concluded that the ultimate goal of enterprise marketing is not only to develop new customers but also to focus on maintaining existing customers.

Ultimately, the goal is to improve the long-term interests of both parties through cooperative relationships.

The study also argues that the cost of maintaining an old customer is far lower than the cost of developing a new customer and that maintaining a relationship with old consumers is more economical than developing new customers.

Jackson (1985) further modified the concept in the aspect of industry marketing.

He argued that the essence of Relationship marketing is to attract, establish and maintain a close relationship with enterprise customers.

Furthermore, other studies have concluded that the essence of Relationship marketing is the actual maintenance of existing customers, which creates long-term interest in a product.

This research conclusion has been generally recognised after the original proposal of Relationship marketing.

The research scope, however, is limited to the relationship with old customers, easily ignoring the dynamic development of customers because long-term customers are developed from new customers.

If an enterprise is restricted to the maintenance of existing customers, it is impossible for it to achieve any progress or compete in the market since it cannot attract long-term customers in the first place.

From a social anthropological perspective, Relationship marketing theory and practice can be interpreted as commodity exchange that instrumentalises features of gift exchange.[4] Marketers, consciously or intuitively, are recognizing reciprocity, a 'pre-modern' form of exchange, and have begun to use it.

Thus Relationship marketing revolves around gaining loyal customers.

According to Liam Alvey, Relationship marketing can be applied where there are competitive product alternatives for customers to choose from and an ongoing desire for that product.[5] Research studying Relationship marketing suggests that companies can do this through one of the three value strategies: best price, best product or best service.

Hence companies can relay their Relationship marketing message through value statements.[6] The practice of Relationship marketing has been facilitated by several generations of customer relationship management software, which track and analyze each customer's preferences and activities.

For example, an automobile manufacturer maintaining a database of when and how repeat customers buy their products, including data concerning their choices and purchase financing, can more efficiently develop one-to-one marketing offers and product benefits.

Moreover, extensive use of such software is found in web applications.

A consumer shopping profile can be built as a person shops online and is then used to compute his likely preferences.

These predicted offerings can then be presented to the customer through cross-sell, email recommendation and other channels.

Relationship marketing has also migrated back into direct mail.

Marketers can use the technological capabilities of digital, toner-based printing presses to produce unique, personalised pieces for each recipient through variable data printing.

They can personalise documents by information contained in their databases, including name, address, demographics, purchase history and dozens to hundreds of other variables.

The result is a printed piece that reflects the individual needs and preferences of each recipient, increasing the relevance of the piece and increasing the response rate.

Additionally, Relationship marketing has been strongly influenced by reengineering.

According to process reengineering theory, organizations should be structured according to complete tasks and processes rather than functions.

Thus cross-function teams should be responsible for a whole process from beginning to end rather than having the work go from one functional department to another, whereas traditional marketing uses the functional (or 'silo') department approach where stages of production are handled by different departments.

The legacy of traditional marketing can still be seen in the traditional four Ps of the marketing mix: pricing, product management, promotion, and placement.

According to Gordon (1999), the marketing mix approach is too limited to provide a usable framework for assessing and developing customer relationships in many industries and should be replaced by the Relationship marketing alternative model where the focus is on customers, relationships and interaction over time rather than markets and products.

In contrast, Relationship marketing is cross-functional, organised around processes that involve all aspects of an organization.

In fact, some commentators prefer to call Relationship marketing 'relationship management' because it involves much more than that which is included in normal marketing.

Because of its broad scope, Relationship marketing can be effective in many contexts.

As well as being relevant to 'for profit' businesses, research indicates that Relationship marketing can be useful for organizations in the voluntary sector[7] and in the public sector.[8][9] Martin Christopher, Adrian Payne and David Ballantyne at the Cranfield School of Management claim that Relationship marketing has the potential to forge a synthesis between quality management, customer service management and marketing.[10] Relationship marketing relies on the communication and acquisition of consumer requirements solely from existing customers in a mutually beneficial exchange usually involving permission for contact by the customer through an opt-in system.[11] With particular relevance to customer satisfaction, the relative price and quality of goods and services produced or sold through a company alongside customer service generally determine the amount of sales relative to that of competing companies.

Although groups targeted through Relationship marketing may be large, accuracy of communication and overall relevance to the customer remains higher than that of direct marketing.

However, Relationship marketing has less potential for generating new leads than direct marketing and is limited to viral marketing for acquiring customers.[citation needed] A principle of Relationship marketing is the retention of customers in order to ensure repeated trade from preexisting customers by satisfying requirements above those of competing companies through a mutually beneficial relationship.[11][12] This technique balances new customers and opportunities with current and existing customers to maximise profit and counteracts the leaky bucket theory of business, where new customers in older direct marketing-oriented businesses are gained at the expense of the loss of older customers.[13][14] This process of 'churning' is less economically viable than retaining all or the majority of customers using both direct and relationship management because securing new customers requires more investment.[15] Many companies in competing markets redirect or allocate large amounts of resources towards customer retention.

In markets with increasing competition, attracting new customers may cost up to five times more than retaining current customers because direct or 'offensive' marketing requires much more to cause defection from competitors.[15] However, it is suggested that because extensive classic marketing theories center on means of attracting customers and creating transactions rather than maintaining them, the predominant usage of direct marketing used in the past is now gradually being used more with Relationship marketing as the latter's importance becomes more recognizable.[15] Reichheld and Sasser (1990) claim that a 5% improvement in customer retention can cause an increase in profitability of between 25 and 85 percent in terms of net present value depending on the industry.[16] However, Carrol and Reichheld dispute these calculations, claiming that they result from faulty cross-sectional analysis.[17] Research by John Fleming and Jim Asplund indicates that engaged customers generate 1.7 times more revenue than normal customers while having engaged employees and engaged customers returns a revenue gain of 3.4 times the normal return.[18] According to Buchanan and Gilles, the increased profitability associated with customer retention efforts occurs because of several factors once a relationship has been established with a customer: The relationship ladder of customer loyalty groups types of customers according to their level of loyalty.

The ladder's first rung consists of prospects, non-customers who are likely to become customers in the future.

This is followed by the successive rungs of customer, client, supporter, advocate, and partner.

The relationship marketer's objective is to 'help' customers climb the ladder as high up as possible.

This usually involves providing more personalised service and providing service quality that exceeds expectations at each step.

Customer retention efforts involve multiple considerations: A technique to calculate the value to a firm of a sustained customer relationship has been developed.

This calculation is typically called customer lifetime value, a prediction of the net profit of a customer's relationship with a company.

Retention strategies may also include building barriers to customer switching by product bundling (combining several products or services into one package and offering them at a single price), cross-selling (selling related products to current customers), cross-promotions (giving discounts or other promotional incentives to purchasers of related products), loyalty programs (giving incentives for frequent purchases), increasing switching costs (adding termination costs such as mortgage termination fees), and integrating computer systems of multiple organizations (primarily in industrial marketing).

Many relationship marketers use a team-based approach due to the concept that the more points of contact between the organization and customer, the stronger the bond and the more secure the relationship.

Relationship marketing and traditional or transactional marketing are not mutually exclusive, and there is no need for a conflict between them.

In practice, a relationship-oriented marketer still has choices depending on the situation.

Most firms blend the two approaches in order to reach a short-term marketing goal or long-term marketing strategy.[20] Many products have a service component to them, which has been growing in recent decades.

Relationship marketing aims to strengthen the relationship with clients and secure them.

Morgan and Hunt(1994) made a distinction between economic and social exchange on the basis of exchange theory and concluded that the basic guarantee of social exchange was the spirit of the contract of trust and commitment.

The transition from economic exchange theory to social exchange theory is where the one-time transaction's prevalence is reduced.

Besides, the theoretical core of enterprise Relationship marketing in this period is the cooperative relationship based on commitment, which defines Relationship marketing from the perspective of exchange theory and emphasizes that Relationship marketing is an activity related to the progress, maintenance and development of all marketing activities.

The theory states that trading enterprises are composed of trust and commitment and that the basis of marketing activities to establish long-term relations.

Factors affecting cooperation from both sides include communication, power, cost and benefit and opportunism behavior; but the relationship effect is mainly formed by trust and commitment.

Moreover, Copulsky and Wolf (1990) introduced terminology like 'one to one' marketing that leverages IT to target customers with specific offers.[21] Enterprise has an incentive to improve the effect of relationships with customer.

When access to data and information that improves the relationship with the customer has a low cost, enterprises pay the cost in order to improve relations with customers.

Due to the development of communication and Internet technology, information costs have decreased substantially.

Liker and Klamath (1998) introduced the relationship between enterprises and suppliers into the scope of relational marketing, claiming that in the marketing process manufacturers make suppliers assume corresponding responsibilities and enable them to exploit technological and resource advantages in the production process, improving their marketing innovation.

Meanwhile, Lukas and Ferrell (2000) believe that the implementation of customer-oriented marketing can greatly promote marketing innovation and encourage enterprises to break through the traditional relationship model between enterprises and customers and propose new products.

Lethe (2006) confirms the relationship between enterprises and customers through the observation of the benchmarking customer research, finding a positive correlation to innovation.

He posits that good relations between enterprises and customers results in more efficient benchmarking, identifying new potential products, reduce the cost of new product development and increase market acceptance of products.

Also he proposes that all relationships established with relevant parties for enterprise marketing are centered on the establishment of good customer relations: the core concept of Relationship marketing is maintaining a relationship with customers.

Guinness (1994) propounds that Relationship marketing is a consciousness that regards the marketing process as the interaction between enterprises and various aspects of relationships and networks.

According to his research, enterprise faces four relations: its relationship with the macro-environment, that with the micro-environment, market relations and relations with a special market.

In addition, enterprises in the implementation of Relationship marketing are often able to use networks to promote all aspects of relationship coordination and progress.[citation needed] Relationship marketing stresses internal marketing, which is using a marketing orientation within an organization itself.

Many Relationship marketing attributes like collaboration, loyalty and trust determine internal customers' words and actions.

According to this theory, every employee, team and department in the company is simultaneously a supplier and a customer of services and products.

An employee obtains a service at a point in the value chain and then provides a service to another employee further along the value chain.

If internal marketing is effective, every employee both provides and receives exceptional service to and from other employees.

It also helps employees understand the significance of their roles and how their roles relate to others'.

If implemented well, it can encourage every employee to see the process in terms of the customer's perception of value and the organization's strategic mission.

Further, an effective internal marketing program is a prerequisite for effective external marketing efforts (W.

George 1990).[22] Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne (1991) identify six markets that they claim to be central to Relationship marketing: internal markets, supplier markets, recruitment markets, referral markets, influence markets and customer markets.[10] Referral marketing is the development and implementation of a marketing plan in order to stimulate referrals.

Marketing to suppliers is aimed at ensuring a long-term conflict-free relationship in which all parties understand the others' needs and exceed their expectations.

Such a strategy can reduce costs and improve quality.

Meanwhile, Influence markets involve a wide range of sub-markets, including government regulators, standards bodies, lobbyists, stockholders, bankers, venture capitalists, financial analysts, stockbrokers, consumer associations, environmental associations and labor associations.

These activities are typically carried out by the public relations department, but relationship marketers believe that marketing to all six markets is the responsibility of everyone in an organization.

Each market may require its own explicit strategies and marketing mix.

Live-in marketing (LIM) is a variant of marketing and advertising in which the target consumer is allowed to sample or use a product in a relaxed atmosphere over a long period of time.

Much like product placement in film and television, LIM was developed as a means to reach select target demographics in a non-invasive and much less garish manner than traditional advertising.

While LIM represents an entirely untapped avenue of marketing, it is not an entirely novel idea.

With the rising popularity of experiential and event marketing in North America and Europe and the relatively high ROI in terms of advertising dollars spent on experiential marketing compared to traditional big media advertising, industry analysts see LIM as a natural progression.[23] LIM functions around the premise that marketing or advertising agencies aim to appeal to companies' target demographic.

Avenues such as sponsorship or direct product placement and sampling are explored in turn.

Unlike traditional event marketing, LIM suggests that end-users can sample the product or service in a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere.

The theory posits that the end-user will have as positive as possible an interaction with the given brand, thereby leading to word-of-mouth communication and potential future purchases.[24] If the success of a traditional event and experiential marketing is shared with LIM, a lucrative and low-cost means of product promotion could be demonstrated.

However, this means of advertising is still being developed, and more research is required to determine the true success of such campaigns.

The first company to explicitly offer LIM services was Hostival Connect in late 2010.

Investment in social media

Social Media consists of a myriad of means in which the interactions among people using web-based tools and platforms creates online virtual communities centered on user input and the sharing of information.[1] Social media features anything from content-sharing to collaboration, and can take the form of platforms such as micro-blogging, forums, bookmarking sites, social networks and wikis.

Prominent examples of social media include websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Reddit.[2] Social media is not only used for personal uses but is now playing a growing role in business and organisations; with entrepreneurs increasingly looking towards social media platforms to market their businesses.

It is evidently becoming the case that Investment in social media “is a necessity, not a luxury”,[3] it is a fundamental instrument which should be used in any marketing plan.

However, it is clear that business owners encounter various challenges with respect to investing in social media; they may face lack of time and knowledge on how to determine the return on investment (ROI) as an example; this is a recognized measurement to evaluate the efficiency and financial consequences of an investment and to ultimately assess the profitability of a business.[4] ROI refers to the money that a business or a corporation earns as a percentage of the full value of their assets which have been invested.

The method to calculate this is: Return on investment = (Income - Cost) / Cost.[5] ROI is the most common profitability ratio that establishes the efficiency of an investment.

In this context, ROI will measure the returns from a social media investment.

However, it is commonly argued that calculating ROI is difficult and also depends on the applied returns and costs.

There is no universal way of measuring the ROI of the social media commitments (Kelly, 2012).

As such, some business owners tend to count how many Facebook fans and Twitter followers they have or how many retweets and likes they enjoy.[6] However, this may not be an effective measure of ROI.

We can measure ROI using metric tools that foster conversion measurement and optimized CPM, which enables Facebook ads to reach the target audience (Burg, 2013).

This enables the investor to know who clicked through their ads thus enhancing future business planning.

In addition, we can measure ROI by analyzing interactions, calculated by multiplying the number of received likes by the number of friends of those likes witnessed the action.

This defines how far the advert went; moreover, we can analyze traffic to determine the ROI in social media efforts (Harden & Heyman, 2011).

Indeed, different social media understand the business owners need to evaluate their ROI in social media and thus there is a provision for built-in analytics tools for following engagement, likes, and shares (Burg, 2013).

This helps the marketers to determine how often people find the marketer's page through the social sites.

For example, on Facebook, one can analyze the comment to like a ratio of posts while on Twitter, one can analyze the retweets to tweet ratio.

Notably, the higher the ratios, the higher the ROI is.

Initially, business owners may choose to invest in social media as a means of building their brand recognition.

Through social media, businesses can simultaneously draw in new consumers whilst making existing customers more familiar with the brand.

For example, through the use of the micro-blogging site Twitter; brands can promote their products with a simple “tweet”, and any regular Twitter user could potentially stumble across their products and services via their newsfeed, whilst existing customers may become extra accustomed to the brand after seeing positive responses; following the current consumer's fashions.

Companies can effectively use social media to enforce their company history, values and advantages in a way that will appeal to, and attract, many consumers.[7] It is statistically proven that businesses who engage in social media experience higher brand loyalty from their customers, hence we’ve seen not only an increase in investments, but also in the ROI; with over “72% of marketers now using social media to develop loyal fans”, and of those who have been engaging in social media platforms for at least 1 year, “69% found it useful for building a loyal fan base”.[8] Social media can directly lead to an increase in sales and brand awareness, as demonstrated with multiple campaigns in the past.

A notable example was the success of the Jimmy Choo (2010) ‘CatchAChoo’ campaign; with which the internationally acclaimed luxury shoe and accessories brand set out to generate substantial online exposure to promote their new trainer collection, engaging customers through a real-time treasure hunt around London to locate a pair of trainers using the ‘Foursquare’ network.[9] This campaign lasted just under 3 weeks, with over 4000 individuals participating and 250 different blogs covering this campaign; with over 4000 mentions of this hunt on Twitter.

The results? Trainer sales in Jimmy Choo stores rose by over 33% after coverage from The Evening Standard, furthermore the reputation of the brand; measured by positive mentions of the brand, went up by almost 40% as a result in less than a month.[10] Similarly, online fashion store ASOS.com launched another Twitter campaign; using the '#BestNightEver' hashtag.

ASOS achieved high levels of customer engagement, in turn driving more than £5m worth of sales and helping the brand register its highest ROI to date in the UK, not to mention the successes it brought in the US, with searches for the ASOS trademark soaring by over 50%.[11] Investing in a company's engagement in social media undoubtedly has its benefits.

Activity on social networking platforms such as Facebook as an example can lead to increased traffic that the company's website receives via these referrals.

A common way to measure website traffic can be done by comparing search engine rankings through SEO(Search Engine Optimization) – mentions, sharing and the traffic of websites are positive signals of popularity; stamping the authority of many brand's websites and allowing them to rank highly among their competitors.[12] Activity on social media almost acts as a signal to search engines of a company's popularity and credibility, with all of this ultimately leads to more sales and increased brand awareness.[13] Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp, the popular mobile messaging app, has extreme significance in terms of social media investments.

Although attracting much criticism for Facebook investing the highest sum of money for any IT company ever into an already five-year-old start-up; much profit is to be made with Facebook already raking-in 53% of their existing revenue from mobile-ad sales.[14] However, not only will the WhatsApp staff benefit from this deal, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital are entitled to what is estimated to be over $3 billion from their investments in WhatsApp, with their initial funding figure believed to be approximately $60 million; Sequoia Capital are believed to own approximately 20% of WhatsApp - their investments have clearly paid off.[15] Micro-blogging powerhouse Twitter has recently invested $ 10 million in the “Laboratory of Social Machines” initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This 5 year commitment from Twitter focuses on the creation and development of new technologies; using data from Twitter's archives, improving analysis and the understanding of social patterns among multiple social media platforms and other web content.

Pattern discovery will be utilized to decipher interactions and shared interests among users of social media, while new applications and platforms will be developed for both individuals and institutions to discuss and act on paramount societal issues[19] According to CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo: "With this investment, Twitter is seizing the opportunity to go deeper into research to understand the role Twitter and other platforms play in the way people communicate, the effect that rapid and fluid communication can have and apply those findings to complex societal issues".

The major open source, community based social network and news site Reddit, famously labelled as the “front page of the internet”, has secured $50 million of investments from multiple sources; from global venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horrowitz to an array of celebrities such as the renowned rapper Snoop Dogg.

CEO of Reddit Yishan Wong, has stated that the funding will go towards expanding Reddit's moderately low staff numbers of only 60, as well as developing new tools for community management and moderation; 10% of Reddit's 2014 ad revenue will also go towards charity.[20]

Marketing buzz

Content marketing

Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online.[1] It is often used by businesses in order to: Content marketing attracts prospects and transforms prospects into customers by creating and sharing valuable free content.

Content marketing helps companies create sustainable brand loyalty, provides valuable information to consumers, and creates a willingness to purchase products from the company in the future.

This relatively new form of marketing does not involve direct sales.

Instead, it builds trust and rapport with the audience.[2] Unlike other forms of online marketing, Content marketing relies on anticipating and meeting an existing customer need for information, as opposed to creating demand for a new need.

As James O'Brien of Contently wrote on Mashable, "The idea central to Content marketing is that a brand must give something valuable to get something valuable in return.

Instead of the commercial, be the show.

Instead of the banner ad, be the feature story."[3] Content marketing requires continuous delivery of large amounts of content, preferably within a Content marketing strategy.[4] When businesses pursue Content marketing, the main focus should be the needs of the prospect or customer.

Once a business has identified the customer's need, information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, email newsletters, case studies, podcasts, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, blogs, etc.[5] Most of these formats belong to the digital channel.

Digital Content marketing is a management process that uses electronic channels to identify, forecast, and satisfy the content requirements of a particular audience.

It must be consistently updated and added to in order to influence the behavior of customers.

Traditional marketers have long used content to disseminate information about a brand and build a brand's reputation.

Taking advantage of technological advances in transportation and communication, business owners started to apply Content marketing techniques in the late 19th century.

They also attempted to build connections with their customers.

For example: During the golden age of TV, between the 1940s and 1950s, advertising took over the media.

Companies focused on sales rather than connecting with the public.

There were few ventures into Content marketing and not many prominent campaigns.

During the baby boom era, Kellogg’s began selling sugary cereal to children.

With this change in business model came sociable animal mascots, lively animated commercials and the back of the cereal box as a form of targeted Content marketing.

Infographics were born in this era.

This represented a new approach to make a brand memorable with the audience.

In the 1990s, everything changed for marketers.

The arrival of computers and the Internet made websites and blogs flourish, and corporations found Content marketing opportunities through email.

E-commerce adaptations and digital distribution became the foundation of marketing strategy.

Internet also helped Content marketing become a mainstream form of marketing.

Traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, radio and TV started to lose their power in the marketplace.

Companies started to promote and sell their products digitally.[10] The phrase "Content marketing" was used as early as 1996,[11] when John F.

Oppedahl led a roundtable for journalists at the American Society for Newspaper Editors.

By the late 2000s, when social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube were born, online Content marketing was accessible, shareable and on-demand anytime worldwide.

By 2014, Forbes Magazine's website had written about the seven most popular ways companies use Content marketing.[14] In it, the columnist points out that by 2013, use of Content marketing had jumped across corporations from 60% a year or so before, to 93%[15] as part of their overall marketing strategy.

Despite the fact that 70% of organizations are creating more content, only 21% of marketers think they are successful at tracking return on investment.

Today, Content marketing has become a powerful model for marketers.

Storytelling is part of it, and they must convey the companies’ messages or goal to their desired audience without pushing them to just buy the product or service.

The rise of Content marketing has turned many traditional businesses into media publishing companies.[16] For example: The rise of Content marketing has also accelerated the growth of online platforms, such as YouTube, Yelp, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Pinterest, and more.

For example: Businesses actively curate their content on these platforms with hopes to expand their reach to new audiences.

Part of transitioning to a media publishing mindset requires a change in structure and process to create content at the speed of culture.

The old model you see on shows like Mad Men is too slow and cumbersome.

By the time an idea becomes an ad, it is out of date.

Marketers are increasingly co-locating insights, creative, production, legal approval, and placement to increase interaction and speed in producing and distributing content.

Marketing content production is transforming from an advertising agency model to a newsroom model.[23] Metrics to determine the success of Content marketing are often tied to the original goals of the campaign.

For example, for each of these goals, a content marketer may measure the different engagement and conversion metrics: Businesses focused on expanding their reach to more customers will want to pay attention to the increase in the volume of visitors, as well as the quality of those interactions.

Traditional measures of volume include the number of visitors to a page and number of emails collected, while time spent on page and click-through to other pages/ photos are good indicators for engagement.

Businesses want to measure the impact that their messages have on consumers.

Brand health refers to the positive or negative feedback that a company gets.

It also measures how important a brand is for consumers.

With this companies want to find out if brand reputation influences their customers to make a purchase.[24] Measures in this part comprise For businesses hoping to reach not only more - but also new - types of customers online, they should pay attention to the demographics of new visitors, as evidenced by cookies that can be installed, different sources of traffic, different online behaviors, and/or different buying habits of online visitors.

Businesses focused on increasing sales through Content marketing should look at traditional e-commerce metrics including click-through-rate from a product-page to check-out and completion rates at the check-out.

Altogether, these form a conversion funnel.

Moreover, to better understand customers' buying habits, they should look at other engagement metrics like time spent per page, number of product-page visits per user, and re-engagement.

Refers to companies that want to analyze whether their social media campaigns are generating commentary among consumers.

This helps them to come up with ways to improve their product and service.

This involves "high level of brand engagement and builds brand loyalty".[26] Examples: Digital Content marketing, which is a management process, uses digital products through different electronic channels to identify, forecast and satisfy the necessity of the customers.[27] It must be consistently maintained to preserve or change the behavior of customers.[citation needed] Examples: The supply chain of digital Content marketing mainly consists of commercial stakeholders and end-user stakeholders which represent content providers and distributors and customers separately.[34] In this process, distributors manage the interface between the publisher and the consumer, then distributors could identify the content that consumers need through external channels and implement marketing strategies.

For instance, Library and document supply agencies as intermediaries can deliver the digital content of e-books, and e-journal articles to the users according to their search results through the electronic channels.

Another example is when consumers pay for the acquisition of some MP3 downloads, search engines can be used to identify different music providers and smart agents can be used by consumers to search for multiple music provider sites.

In a word, the digital Content marketing process needs to be conducted at the business level and service experience level because when consumers are accessing digital content, their own experience depends on the complex network of relationships in the Content marketing channels such as websites and videos.

The consumers interact directly with distributors in the big supply chain through various digital products which have an important role in meeting the requirements of the consumers.

The design and user experience of these channels directly decides the success of digital Content marketing.[27] Electronic services refer to interactive network services.[35] In the electronic service, the interaction between the customer and the organizations mainly through the network technology, such as using E-mail, telephone, online chat windows for communication.

Electronic services are different from traditional services and they are not affected by distance restrictions and opening hours.

Digital Content marketing through electronic service is usually served together with other channels to achieve marketing purposes including face-to-face, postal, and other remote services.

Information companies provide different messages and documents to customers who use multiple search engines on different sites and set up access rights for business groups.

These are some channels of digital Content marketing.[27]

Marketing communications

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