SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION INTO ADVERTISING STRATEGY 1
Social Media Integration into Advertising Strategy
GB601 MBA Capstone
Darlene Maney
Kaplan University
December 11, 2011
SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION INTO ADVERTISING STRATEGY 2
Introduction
There are four main components to successful marketing: get the customer’s attention, show them the advantages of the product, building their desire for the product, and lead them to action so they will purchase the product. These components share one important link: one must reach people to sell the product. And in today’s world, most people are online and participating in social media. The successful marketing strategy will integrate this media into a plan that is already working for the company. The key to using this media is to consider it just another tool in the marketing toolbox. This paper will examine the trends and incorporate social media into the market trends of Innovation Computers.
Social Media
Social media is defined by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary as “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2011). It includes websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace. There are a few statistics that would be of interest to marketers interested in incorporating social media into their marketing strategy:
Ø “Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US
Ø If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3rd largest and 2x the size of the U.S. population
Ø Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
Ø 80% of companies use social media for recruitment; % of these using LinkedIn 95%” (Qualman, 2011)
Of note is that the social media levels the playing field for a business. “It opens the door to a world of potentially millions of customers with little to no monetary investment.” (Sannino, 2011) This means that larger companies are now competing with small companies that could not afford traditional marketing campaigns. Any company “can use mostly free tools, like Facebook, Facebook Events, a Wordpress blog, and a YouTube account, to drive millions of impressions inexpensively and quickly. In the old days of the brand microsite, that would be a seven-figure investment” (Fischer, 2011). Various companies mixing the two marketing strategies have found that when they really engage their customers, the results can be enormous. As an example: “Integrating social media into a mass-media program in a key way has helped the DQ (Dairy Queen) Fan Club on Facebook grow from 600,000 to 3.2 Million, and DQ has smashed nearly every record they ever set just with stand-alone, mass-media advertising”. (Fischer, 2011)
Trends for 2012
According to Niall Harbison of simplyzesty.com, there are seven trends that are emerging for 2010: social tv convergence, social media will become a default business function, social commerce will grow, branded content, social search improvements, acceleration of print to tablet swap, and Facebook will continue to shine in social media circles.
Social TV Convergence: Harbison states that TV, internet, laptop, tablet, and phones will converge to produce an entertainment unit that is capable of doing all of these things. As a matter of fact, he feels that Apple is preparing to release such an item into the market. “The smart content producers will allow you to watch what you want when you want, to share those experiences and become involved in engaging and producing the content with you and your social graph.” (Harbison, 2011)
Social Media will become a default business function as it is accepted as a fact that the social media is here to stay. Before long, companies will not be able to ignore the benefits associated with that media. Companies will institute their own in-house versions of social media to keep their employees connected with each other, and executives will begin to view it as a discipline that cannot be ignored.
There is plenty of room for growth of social commerce solutions. Online commerce has been around for a few years, but the expectation is that utilizing social media sites will increase the number of customers. “After all, social media is still about relationships, and there’s no substitute for getting to know the people you are hoping will help you promote your brand.” (Schwab, 2011)
“Branded content comes in many forms, but video, audio, graphics, blogs, and games will come to the fore as brands offer the consumer something more meaningful than competitions and promotions.” (Harbison, 2011) It is believed that many businesses will seek to engage their customers across their social profiles and properties.
Social search is a trend that has pretty much been ignored by the social sites. However, it is being utilized currently by Google+ and is being considered by sites such as Twitter. There is definitely room for advancement once this type of search is fully implemented. There is also a “trend towards marketers who are becoming masters of data analysis” (Schwab, 2011). This data is used to determine which products are popular among the various communities and to develop better events and promotions.
It is expected that tablet sales will soar during Christmas this year. They have been fairly expensive but the prices have dropped to around the $200 range on tablets such as the Kindle Fire. Sales in the print industry have dropped as more consumers have access to the internet and are expected to drop further as tablets make their way into more and more households. The printed medium is faced with becoming obsolete.
Facebook has been growing and will become a public company and pass one billion users. It is expected that, by next year, it will be “the default social operating system that powers the web” (Harbison, 2011). Along with this move is the increasing concern of personal privacy and security. Just as these are concerns of private citizens using social media, it should also be a concern for marketers. All of this “could lead to challenges in privacy rights and changes in how the social networks protect (or don’t protect) individuals’ data” (Schwab, 2011)
Recommendations for Innovative Computers
The first recommendation is to build a presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites because it is a good way to engage customers in discussions regarding the products. It could also be a great place to sell products. Most of the tools for these sites are free and it has been proven that a presence on these sites can raise sales exponentially. According to Cadotte and Bruce, if one does not keep up with the competition, the competition may take one’s customers away. (Cadotte & Bruce, 2008) That’s why it is important to utilize the social media. The number of businesses on the sites is growing and it is important for Innovative Computers to join its competitors.
Another recommendation is to target advertising to those publications which have a strong online presence. With the advancement of the tablet, the future of printed publications appears bleak and they may become obsolete before long. By targeting advertising to online publications, it may reach far more consumers (at a much lower cost) than traditional magazine or newspaper advertising. Traditional advertising can be expensive and a drain on the advertising budget. As more and more consumers turn to the internet, through the use of computers and/or tablets, fewer will be purchasing newspapers and magazines which are free online. Therefore, these advertising dollars are being wasted when they could be reallocated to a more useful position in the budget. The goal, according to Cadotte and Bruce, is to select the media outlets that the target segments would most likely see and are consistent with the message the company wants to convey. (Cadotte & Bruce, 2008) The target populations for Innovative Computers are those seeking the Workhorse, Mercedes, and Traveler computers. It would be good to be on a social media site because the company can announce upgrades, specials, promotions, and so on that would be of interest to customers and future customers. Since the best advertising is word of mouth, the positive comments from satisfied customers would be there for future customers to read. And one of the benefits to using social media is that there would be relatively no impact to the advertising budget, freeing up money that could be used for rebates, coupons, etc., that would draw the attention of the customers and entice them to purchase from Innovative Computers rather than the competition.
This writer also recommends that an analyst and an IT tech be added to the marketing department. This analyst can glean insights from the various social media sites in order to determine what content can be used on each of those platforms. They can also use the information to “to figure out which products are resonating within various consumer communities” (Schwab, 2011). IT techs on the marketing staff can help the department to move more quickly and creatively into the social sites than waiting for the technology department to make time for that function.
Conclusion
Innovative Computers could benefit greatly by having an online presence in the social media. Interacting with customers can identify problem areas to be corrected and, at the same time, give customers an outlet for their product satisfaction. Offering coupons, ebates, special sales and promotions could be done on these sites, which could entice potential customers to purchase. Of course, the best customer for any business is the repeat customer. Social media is a great place to identify loyal followers of Innovative Computers through the use of surveys and comments. It is also the perfect place to thank all of the loyal customers for sending their friends to Innovative Computers for their own computer needs. Cadotte and Bruce state that this brand loyalty “offers a great strategic advantage for any firm” (Cadotte & Bruce, 2008, pp. 197). The tools to set up the sites are free and maintenance of the site would just be staff cost, so this type of advertising is certainly easy on the advertising budget and shot in the arm to the ROI (return on investment). All in all, using social media as a method of advertising would be an excellent move for Innovative Computers.
SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION INTO ADVERTISING STRATEGY 9
References
Cadotte, E., & Bruce, H. (2008). The Management of Strategy in the Marketplace. Knoxville, TN: Innovative Learning Solutions.
Fischer, M. (2011, May). Integrated Social Media Marketing Encourages Customer Engagement. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from QSR Magazine Web site: http://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/5-must-haves-social-marketing-success
Harbison, N. (2011, November 22). The 7 Social Media Trends That Will Emerge in 2012. Retrieved December 11, 2011, from Simply Zesty Web site: http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/the-7-social-media-trends-that-will-emerge-in-2012/
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (2011). Social Media. Retrieved December 11, 2011, from Merriam-Webster Dictionary Web site: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media
Qualman, E. (2011). 10 WOW Social Media Statistics. Retrieved December 11, 2011, from Socialnomics Web site: http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/06/07/10-wow-social-media-statistics/
Sannino, G. (2011.). Integrating Social Marketing with Traditional Marketing & Boost the Effectiveness of Both. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/social-media-traditional-marketing-integration.html
Schwab, S. (2011, November 15). Five Social Media Trends for 2010. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from Social Media Explorer Web site: http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-trends/