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Social Media Marketing: Connecting through virtual realities.

Overview on an innovative way to reach consumers.

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Introduction The Social Media Ecosystem Social Media Marketing: a framework for strategic

MGMT Case study: The 52nd Grammy Awards. Conclusions

Index

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These are the arguments providing an insight on what SM is, how to use SM and the potential efficiency of this “2.0” tool.

Ultimately my aim is to show how, given its “hot n cool” environment, Social Media Marketing may enhance value in the marketing context.

Introduction

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What is SM?

• Web 2.0: term describing a new way software developers and end-users started to use the world wide web. The ideological and technological foundation of SM.

• UGC: User Generated Content, refers to the various forms of media content that are publicly available and created by end-users. It represents the sum of all ways in which people use SM.

Social Media: “ Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content.”(Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009)

The Social Media Ecosystem

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Social Media Classification

To create a classification scheme for SM , Kaplan and Haenlein proceeded in a systematic manner relying on a set of theories in the field of media research and social process:

1. Media-related concepts: Social presence theory (Short, Williams & Christie, 1976) Media richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986)

2. Social process-related concepts: The self-presentation theory (Goffman, 1959) Self-disclosure theory (Schau & Gilly, 2003)

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Social Media Platform Classification

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Here are five tips for brand pages management on Facebook, provided by Aron Willis:

1.Promote the Facebook page not just online. 2. Encourage sharing: Through “Facebook Deals” a brand may offer its fans deals

if the page grows to a certain number . Update the page with content that will encourage others to

share the news or offer.  

A Special SNS Platform

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3. Engage Update “Fan pages” 3-4 times a week (old news is no

news). Vary in content published (users don’t seek in being

bombarded with sales messages all the time. ) Ask questions, be helpful and inform fans regarding

promotions or sales. Be relevant in order to induce fans to “like” or

comment on your status as to encourage engagement.

4. Respond Facebook pages needs constant monitoring. If no immediate reply is required then brands must at

least acknowledge the post by liking it or simply thank users for the mention.  

5. Measure Adopt Facebook Insights tool

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Social Media PopulationA conservative CEO or CMO might think that Social Media populations are largely comprised by young adults and teenagers, if they do so they haven’t been well following the SM trend.

According to data in above: while all segments have a different dispersion of platforms and channels, social media plays a prominent role in the communication preferences of every segment.

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Why marketers must use SM

Executives certainly know what social media is. They also might know what makes social media so potent: its ability to amplify word-of-mouth effects.Yet, the vast majority of executives have no idea how to use SMs interactive power regarding:

Product and brand recognition, Raising sales and profitability, Enhance loyalty.

SMM Managerial Framework

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Their lack of confidence is due mainly to:

Complex issues as “where”, “when” and “how” to influence conversations with consumers,

Skepticism regarding ROI measurement ( SM ROI guiding table provided in Appendix),

Lack of Technological “know-how” regarding Financial & Human Resources Management.

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SM grew, and is growing, thanks to gains that come from viral marketing, lessons learned by listening customers and targeting them.Marketing’s main goal is to reach consumers at moments (or touch-points) that influence their purchasing behavior.

Divol, Edelman & Sarrazin (2012) state that depending on the company and industry, some touch points are more important to competitive advantage than others. They try to demystify SM by stating that SM is the unique marketing component that reaches each touch-point by 4 main primary functions within the consumer decision journey path:

1. Monitor2. Respond3. Amplify4. Lead behavior

Demystification of Social Media

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SMM Framework for strategic MGMT

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Case study: The 52nd Grammy

Awards

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The show was confronted with 2 major problems: 1. Facing a declining share of TV viewers due to competition

deriving from the myriad cable and network channels and other forms of electronic entertainment.

2. Its viewership was skewed towards an older female demographic.

(“the Grannies” were perceived to offer less value in reaching the 18-49 year old target, in 2009 only 14% of the viewing audience belonged to the 18-49 age demographic). These issues raised a question in view of the 52nd Grammy Awards: How could the show engage the difficult-to-reach 18-49 demographic segment?

Introduction

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We are all fans: the 2010 Grammy Awards SM marketing strategy

In designing the campaign, TBWA\Chiat\Day combined traditional and online social media in an integrated way.

Media Objectives:

1. Traditional Media: “reach” the target2. Social Media: create “intimacy” and “engage” the

target

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Social media was a centerpiece of the campaign while print and TV media were used mainly to support the SM focus (inverting the conventional advertising model focused on print and TV media).

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Back-End Phase

The back-end was responsible for the platform development phase. The core software was a program developed internally at TWBA\Chiat\Day and the program used keywords selected by fans to scrape content from other social networking sites.

The content could be then organized to create a digital mosaic (figure below) of the fan’s favorite artist and since new content would fill in each time the screen was refreshed fans had a good incentive to return.

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While the software was being developed the TBWA\Chiat\Day staff worked on gathering the support of artists who would be featured on the website.

20 artist agreed their presence of the site (among which names as Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay and expecially Lady Gaga).

The early support of Lady Gaga allowed the agency to feature her in a beta-test shown to the press, and was also featured in the first television spot branding the “we’re all fans” website.

Moreover, the Grammy Award promotional YouTube video of Lady Gaga resulted in the artist posting links to the video on social networking sites as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Front-End Phase(I)

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Another strategy developed was the launch of a webcast event known as:

The Social Media Rock Star Summit: the scope of the event was to dispose of the most influential bloggers for their opinions regarding the “We’re all Fans” SM campaign.

Front-End Phase (II)

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1. Engaging and leveraging the SM ecosystem helped the Grammy Awards to achieve its best ratings in years.

2. It was the top rated program for the week with about 26 million viewers.

3. Engagement from the 18-34 age segment share increased to 32% to almost 9.1 million viewers.

(A future 10% increase in these share would imply 15% higher advertising rates for the consequent edition .)

Moreover, The 30-second TV spot featuring Lady Gaga amplified the

total web traffic by 36% (thanks to referrals from her network externalities)

Online traffic didn’t peak during the show: it spiked the day after consistent with the “water-cooler effect” phenomenon (in its 2.0 version!).

Campaign results

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1. Technology has transformed the traditional model of marketing communications.

2. The rise in interactive digital media has revolutionized company and consumer contact from a web 1.0 passive model to a web 2.0 highly interactive model where consumers are simultaneously the initiators and recipients of information exchanges.

3. The combination of both traditional and social media may allow companies to develop integrated communication strategies to reach consumers on several platforms, thus enabling a wide sphere of influence.

Managerial Implications

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Whether you are an individual, a start-up, a small business or a large corporation, an online presence and constantly conversing and listening your constituents is a baseline requirement for modern businesses.

1. Social Media Marketing does require serious time and expertise.

2. A new 2.0 marketing paradigm through which businesses have to satisfy customers is by keeping in mind 4 key “C”s regarding customers (end-users) needs to:

Create Consume Connect Control

Conclusions

the virtual reality…