Digital marketing has changed the way brands market to consumers. Stop preaching to the converted. New customers are online, right now.
Social media was defined in 2010 as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content."
This includes a range of social media tools such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs. Specifically, social media are developing into an increasingly pervasive tool within the evolving media environment. To illustrate, in April 2012, Facebook.com was reported to have 901 million users worldwide, with the average friend count being 190. Further, in 2010 American users spent, on average, 421 minutes on Facebook each month. Based on these developments, organizations were rushing to engage and leverage this massive global audience to achieve their marketing objectives.
Based on the observed trends in 2009, social media was a new hybrid element in the promotional communications mix, which traditionally included advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations. Specifically, in 2010, the authors posited that using social media as a promotional tool differs from using the more traditional elements. It has enabled the undertaking of many-to-many and/or consumer-to-consumer communications about products, services, and organizations. In addition, in 2007, the level of consumer bargaining power in the marketplace had been reported to have increased significantly.
Further, in 2009, social media reflected specific characteristics of traditional media (e.g., facilitating company communications with (prospective) customers); it also exhibited non-traditional characteristics (e.g., enabling consumers to communicate directly with each other). Thus, resulting in a reduced level of managerial or company control over specific brand, product, and organization-related communications. Despite the substantial changes that social media represented to organizational communication processes and the dramatic global surge in social media usage, scholarly investigation into this area had been limited to date in 2009 and then later in 2012. To capitalize on social media opportunities, corporations needed to understand the nature of critical developments within this rapidly changing new media landscape and use this knowledge to inform and plan their strategic activities.
Theoretical Foundations: The Communications Model
The American Marketing Association defines marketing in 2012 as "the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." Central to marketing practice is the importance of engaging in effective marketing communications reaching appropriate target audiences in terms of identifying and meeting their specific needs, wants, and preferences and co-creating value with focal stakeholders.
A range of factors influences the effectiveness of any marketing communication process. However, the traditional communication model includes four vital such elements:
1) The sender of the message
2) The recipient of the message
3) The message itself
4) The medium by which the message is sent.
According to the model, the sender encodes the desired message sent to the recipient via a specific medium. The recipient then decodes and takes a thorough understanding of the message content. Further, external factors prohibiting the message from getting across to its target audience (i.e., interference) are known as noise.
THE COMMUNICATIONS MODEL IN SOCIAL MEDIA CONTEXTS
Although many aspects reflective of more traditional marketing communications processes may still apply, the emergence and rise of social media marketing have engendered considerable changes to the traditional communications process. Specifically, social media's unique, dynamic nature implies that while social media campaigns require an understanding of the four stated core factors and their focal interactions, particular adaptations reflecting the unique characteristics of social media are also needed. In 2000 – 2010, a review of the academic literature highlighted four key factors generating distinct dynamics of the communications model in a social media versus more traditional media environments:
1. The degree and ease of interactivity. (2000, 2005)
2. Users' active involvement and engagement in shaping the new media environment.
(2006, 2007, 2011)
3. Users' perceived level of control. (2005, 2010)
4. Users' motivations for using social media. (2008, 2009)
Specifically, the identified four areas highlight that social media has engendered a shift in the communications and promotional processes. The heightened degree of interactivity and consumer engagement in this process implies that many consumers are no longer merely passive recipients of incoming organizational, brand- or product-related information. Instead, consumers are increasingly acting as proactive co-creators of message content (e.g., user-generated content) and meaning. While in 2011, this specific interactive process was not new to the communication literature. What was unique was the number of customers that marketing communications may have potentially elicited deeper levels of interaction and engagement with consumers. Hence, we observed a movement toward much richer forms of communication, yet which was characterized by benefits and costs.
CONCEPTUAL MODEL
Based on the exploratory findings, we developed a modified communications model for specific social media contexts. Specifically, the unique potential for engaging in interactive, two-way consumer communication processes using social media is highlighted in this new conceptual framework. Furthermore, while social media simply represents a specific new media format in many respects, as history has shown, new media in themselves may have radical impacts on both businesses and societies with the advent of radio and television. Specifically, new media change how individuals interact with each other. Thus, our proposed adapted social media communication framework focuses on identifying the critical communication aspects, which require modification from the traditional communication model due to the emergence and rise of social media.
Managerial Implications
With the sender, we highlight two central elements in social media contexts. First, the actual value of social media is that it can provide a basis for conversations to take place directly between an organization and consumers (including via blogs, Facebook pages, Tweets, etc.). Second, the attributes presented to the consumer via social media communications will have a significant impact on the organization's brand perception. Further, organizations need to understand that the potential impact of an errant message or tweet can rapidly spread virally, which poses a significantly lower risk in more traditional media contexts. Consequently, the need for selecting and disseminating appropriate content within social media contexts is crucial for reaching desired levels of organizational social media performance.
Relatively little is known regarding the critical qualities of a successful Twitter or blog-based campaign. Despite the lack of understanding in this developing area, we deduce from the literature addressing essential success factors in more traditional media forms. These would include the primary attributes of organizational empathy, credibility, trustworthiness, and responsiveness. In some respects, this need for disseminating credible social media content may represent a potential advantage to the smaller businesses where the owner or a senior manager may act as the focal social media spokesperson. The aim is to develop a perception of a relationship between the social media spokesperson and consumers based upon the fundamental goals of relationship marketing of trust, cooperation, and mutual goals over time.
One of the high costs of social media is the level of control that can be lost. This is especially problematic within a social media context, given the expectation of immediate responses by the consumer. This immediacy, combined with the enormous potential impact of negative communications, determines the organizational social media spokesperson crucial.
The second sender consideration includes the organization's objectives. Social media represents various activities and media formats (e.g., from YouTube clips to information updates and blogs). Depending upon the specific organizational social media objective, different social media channels and message approaches are expected to generate varying levels of message effectiveness. Hence, organizations will need to develop an integrated marketing communications (MIC) plan, which interrelates the different social and traditional media tools needed to define social media campaign objectives clearly (e.g., enhancing consumer awareness, generating increased sales). In addition, specific resultant combinations of social media tools are required to fit specific social media attributes.
Regarding the social media message, in many respects, nothing has changed relative to the process outlined in the traditional communication model. To illustrate, any message irrespective of media must contain the right combination of originality and appropriateness (2009). The specific appropriate balance is contingent upon factors also observed for more traditional media channels, including the product type, the level of consumer involvement and engagement, and the ability of the media format to stimulate consumer response. The challenge with social media is that in most cases, the consumer's primary reason for using the media is social. Unless corporate communications can add value to the network community, or the individual recipient's social status, it may be viewed as intrusive and unwelcome.
Essentially, corporate communications may be considered noise. Unless consumers find value in those communications either through an entertainment value or meeting an immediate need such as information, they will tend to have a low propensity to engage with the corporate communication. As with traditional media, this can lead to the need for highly original content, which can crowd out the appropriateness of the message and, with it, the critical brand-related information.
One of the advantages of social media is that it can have several visible cues, including color, sound, and movement, and includes the potential for interactivity and increasing levels of message customization. Specifically, greater levels of user-generated content can be encouraged via this media with the advantages of higher levels of involvement and engagement. However, based on the observed knowledge gaps, the need for undertaking further academic research in these emerging areas is crucial. Indeed, just one such area of research is the respondents' indication that the effectiveness of social media communications may be reducing as people get accustomed to this new media and the environment becomes more and more cluttered. So, as in the early days of television, while initially, people may have clustered around their set looking at the advertisements, this effect soon died.
For the recipient (receiver), we identify several interrelated new issues in social media contexts. First, any organization needs to determine the current level of relationship they have with the potential recipient. Using the established academic literature, we can view any communication recipient as being anywhere along the continuum from prospect to partner. Second, for organizations, social media communications to prospects will need to be different from existing solid brand partners. Specifically, candidates will require messages that focus far more on attention-grabbing stimuli and may require incentives and other means to encourage engagement. For partners, by contrast, an established relationship exists, thus generating a need to maintain (or enhance) trust, and perceived mutual benefit from engaging with the organization or brand are critical. In addition, the partner's self-concept may well be tied in with their consumption behavior. Finally, social media can reinforce their feelings of self-worth by providing information that enhances their peer esteem.
Targeting needs to consider the customer's specific relationship status. So, while social media allows the potential for relationship marketing to occur, the organization must identify the current state of their relationship with each customer to determine the appropriate message and social media method. Likewise, message components, especially the creative elements of the social media campaign, must reflect the existing knowledge and perceptions of the target audience.
These targeted communications and the developments of a relationship are, of course, not cheap. It would be erroneous to assume that relationship marketing using social media will be substantially less resources dependent than traditional media. Trust is at the forefront of any long-term relationship, and the building of trust requires ongoing communications based upon mutual benefit. An occasional Tweet may excite a follower, but this does not necessitate feelings of empathy, trust, and an advocacy relationship. From an academic perspective, a continuum of social media tools and effects would be invaluable to an organization. Social media sites, such as blogs and Facebook, provide a relatively low-cost media with significantly greater reach than was possible when using more traditional media. The ability of organizations to reach these opinion leaders or those at the center of the network hub subsequently has the potential for significant payoffs. It must also be recognized that while these opinion leaders have become more crucial, their potential influence can be either positive or negative.
Moreover, the data mining potential of social media means the identification of key opinion leaders and network hubs is possible. Therefore, correctly targeting these opinion leaders and developing interactive communications can potentially have a significant word-of-mouth benefit at a relatively low cost. Identifying the requirements of these opinion leaders (which may well be purely information-based to support their expert status and therefore enhancing their self-concept) is a crucial targeting consideration. Essentially the organization must remember the situational factors of the user, primarily the fact that the user is using social media as a social communication tool. Hence, the organization must provide social value. Therefore, this social value should consider the product context, the informational context, and the importance of any information to the social community.
The final point is that organizations must continue to realize that while social media is rapidly changing the communication landscape, it is just a new media and still follows the essential communication principles. However, unlike traditional advertising mediums, it allows a degree of potential interactivity that, while is still inferior in many respects to face-to-face communications, is superior in many respects to traditional mass advertising mediums.
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