LO3

social media

refers to online and mobile technologies that create and distribute content to facilitate interpersonal interactions, with the assistance of various firms that offer platforms, services, and tools to help consumers and firms build their connections.

Information Effect

the outcome of digital marketing in which relevant information is spread by firms or individuals to other members of their social network. Information--whether because it is funny, cut, instructive, surprising, or interesting--is the key to turning the wheel. But the relevance of the information, and therefore its impact, depends on its context and the receiver. Marketers work hard to provide information that is somehow contextually relevant, such as interjecting a humorous advertisement into a social network of users who like to joke around and share funny pictures.

Network Effect

the outcome of social media engagement in which every time a firm or person posts information, it is transferred to the poster's vast connections across social media, causing the information to spread instantaneously.

Four Ways of Generating Revenue From Apps

1. Ad-supported apps 2. freemium apps 3. paid apps 4. paid apps with in-app purchases

The 7C Online Marketing Framework

1. Core goals 2. Context elements (design & navigation) 3. Content 4. Community 5. Communication 6. Commerce 7. Connection

Mobile Facts

1. In the US, 77 percent of adults own a smartphone and more than half of them make purchases on these devices. 2. Almost 200 billion apps were downloaded globally in 2017, and customers spent more than $86 billion, even though nearly 93 percent of apps downloaded are free. 3. Mobile app downloads are expected to grow to 353 billion annually by 2021. Thus, mobile marketing is significant and growing.

The Wheel of Social Media Engagement

1. Information 2. Connected 3. Network 4. Dynamic 5. Timeliness

Social Media Engagement Process

1. Listen 2. Analyze 3. Do

Experience the Product or Service

Although most of the top videos on YouTube are funny, silly, or otherwise entertaining, the site's most useful contributions may be the vivid information it provides about a firm's goods and services--how they work, how to use them, and where they can be obtained. YouTube and similar sites can come relatively close to simulating real, rather than virtual, experiences. Such benefits are very common for products that have long been sold online--so much so that we might forget that it used to be difficult to assess these products before buying them. But today, consumers can download a chapter of a new book to their tablet before buying it. They can try out a software option for a month before buying it.

Educate the Customer

An imperative of well-designed digital marketing offers is that they have a clear call to action to draw customers through their computers, tablets, and mobile devices into online websites or traditional retail stores. When potential customers arrive at the websites or stores, the marketer has a golden opportunity to educate them about its value proposition and communicate the offered benefits. Some of this information may be new, but in some cases, education is all about reminding people what they already know. Therefore, by engaging in appropriate education, marketers are expanding the overlap of the benefits that they provide with the benefits that customers require.

Do (step three)

Even the greatest analysis has little use if firms fail to implement what they have learned from analyzing their social and mobile media activity. That is, social media may be all about relationships, but ultimately, firms need to use their connections to increase their business.

Dynamic Effect

First, it describes the way in which information is exchanged to network participants through back-and-forth communications in an active and effect manner. Second, the dynamic effect expands the impact of the network effect by examining how people flow in and out of networked communities as their interests change.

Analyze (step two)

First, it is important to determine the amount of traffic using their sites, visiting their blogs, or tweeting about them. A measure used for this purpose is the number of hits. More useful, however, is the number of unique visitors and page views. If, for instance, Sam visits a site once, but Sol visits it five times, there are six hits, two unique visitors, and Sam has one page view, while Sol has five page views-- Sol is potentially a more important customer than Sam.

Listen (step one)

From a marketing research point of view, companies can learn a lot about their customers by listening to (and monitoring) what they say on their social networks, blogs, review sites, and so on. Similar to being at a party or in class, it is best to listen before engaging in a conversation. Listening can help marketers determine their digital marketing objectives. If no one is talking about a product or brand, then stimulating brand awareness or excitement may be required.

Engage the Customer

In a sense, the first three E's set the stage for the last one: engaging the customer. With engagement comes action, the potential for a relationship, and possibly even loyalty and commitment. Through social media tools such as blogging and microblogging, customers actively engage with firms and their own social networks. Such engagement can be positive or negative. Positively engaged consumers tend to be more profitable consumers.

Excite the Customer

Marketers use many kinds of digital offers to excite customers, including mobile applications and games to get customers excited about an idea, product, brand, or company. Firms actively use social networks such as Facebook, Pinterest, and WhatsApp to communicate deals that are likely to excite consumers, such as the Red Letter Days encouraged Facebook and Twitter followers to post pictures with their mother and tell why she deserved a day off for a chance to win a free lunch at a top London restaurant.

Core Goals

The basis of any marketing strategy is its goals. In general, the primary goal of any website is to engage its users by encouraging them to spend time viewing and interacting with its content. More specifically, however, the goal may be to engage the customer in commerce, as exemplified by Walmart's site. Alternatively, it may be to educate the customer about the product, such as by introducing a new offering using appealing, engaging content, like Hasbro's Hanazuki line and related digital content.

Connection

The final E of the 4E framework involves engagement; but it also might be called connection. A good website or blog engages customers and provides them with a call to action-- whether to buy, post, review, comment, or share. Call-to-action buttons such as Buy Now, Learn More, or Show Your Support encourage visitors to delve deeper into a website, to explore other pages, and, in general, spend more time on the site.

Content

The information content on the site (text, graphic, video, and audio) is critical to being successful with the 4E's of digital marketing discussed earlier in this chapter. Marketers must continually monitor the information content they share digitally to ensure that the information is relevant to their target markets and creates excitement, such that they will be interested in engaging more, with both the website and the firm. By providing the right content, the firm anticipates visitors' questions and attempts to answer those questions through its content. The home page is particularly important in this regard. When visitors land on this page, the firm's purpose must be clear; if not, visitors will quickly exit the site. It is critical that the content aligns with the target market and that content is not always directly about the firm's products or services.

Context Elements

The second element of website design involves the traditional contextual elements, such as design and navigation. Those contextual elements must be in alignment with the target markets.

Communication

Virtually all websites provide a mechanism for customers to communicate with them through live chat, instant message, telephone, or email. The various types of blogs described in the previous section also can engage consumers by providing a compelling platform for two-way communications.

Commerce

When it comes to actual purchases, consumers exhibit varying preferences for the types of digital marketing tools they want to use. Some consumers rely on websites; other want a mobile app that enables them to shop quickly. yet despite the predominate use of apps for checking social media or the weather, desktop usage is greater, and conversion rates are higher, for online purchases. Many people might start searching online but then visit a physical store in person for their actual purchase. The most loyal customers use multiple channels. Customers thus demand that firms offer them a range of options, consistently and constantly, so that they can pick and choose the channel from which to purchase at any specific time.

Community

Whereas they previously might have been confined to a journal or diary, kept hidden in a person's room, blogs (forums) allow people to share their thoughts, opinions, and feelings with the entire world. Another way to build a community is by crowdsourcing, in which users submit ideas for a new product or service, and/or comment and vote on the ideas submitted by others.

Connected Effect

an outcome of social media that satisfies humans' innate need to connect with other people. This connection in social media is bidirectional: People learn what their friends are interested in, but they also broadcast their own interests and opinions to those friends. Humans seek connections to other people, and social media have provided them with a new, easy, and engaging way to do so. In particular, people can connect by sharing different types of information, whether their location, the food they have consumed, exercises they have completed, or a news article that they find interesting. And they achieve this connection by checking in, posting a picture to Instagram, uploading a video to YouTube, or sharing a link to an article they have liked on Facebook. Brands like Mr. Clean seek to leverage this effect.

Timeliness Effect

is concerned with the firm being able to engage with the customer at the right place and time-- that is, 24/7 from any location.