Social media &
Successful strategies for marketing in the social networking platform?
Filed under: Social Media, Surveys and stats, Trends
What are the differences in online and offline advertising and marketing. Why do campaigns fall on their faces when marketeers are trying to use old strategies in new channels. This excellent paper looks at the social component and tries to find key points to achieve success in social marketing.
It is clear that social networking marketing is very different from traditional marketing. In fact, online and offline advertising are two different fields. One cannot use the old model of advertising in the new landscape.
In this 162 page paper by Weng Wah Wong looks into online advertising, social advertising in the social media environment. The main question of the research is “What strategies can be successfully employed by advertising and marketing practitioners within the social networking platform?”
To address the main question three sub-questions were answered:
- What elements do current social marketing campaigns exhibit?
A social marketing campaign exhibits five types of characteristics which are participation, openness, conversation, community and connectedness - What elements make marketing with social networking unique and different from other forms of online advertising?
The flexibility, the precision targeting and the viral element that is in built in a social networking site are the main reasons that make marketing with social networking unique and different. It allows brands to target specifically to their target audience while no other forms of online advertising can provide such accuracy. Harnessing on the social power of recommendations, the consumer no longer hears only from the brand but hears the brand message through friends which increases the credibility and trust of consumer and the brand. - What strategies can be devised to enable advertisers to maximize success on the social networking platform?
An integrated campaign, offline and online will be the most strategic strategies that will maximize their success on the social networking platforms because it reaches the consumer through all touch points and driving traffic to the web through offline activities and online activities. In order for the web strategies to work, advertisers need to understand their consumer and learn how to interact and engage with the consumers without being intrusive. Successfully executing this will allow the brand message to be passed along (that is, by word of mouth).
The research is from 2008 but not to worry, the findings are still valid and probably will be for some time. You can find the full paper in Scribd.
Posted on: October 22, 2009
