Social media platforms provide some of the most effective techniques for successful marketing.

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The Kmart video advertisment showing their customers "shipping their pants" went viral in 2013. This video campaign became "the fourth most popular ad of the year and has been watched over twenty million times."  Furthermore, "it has been shared over three million times on Facebook alone."  This marketing campaign is a prime example of how social media is taking over the world of marketing and advertisements.  Social media marketing is going viral.

Facebook is the most effective social media platform in marketing to reach a demographic of 13 to 55 plus years of age.

Research published in Marketing Science by V. Kumar, Vokram Bhaskaran, Rohan Mirchandani, and Milap Shah demonstrates that Facebook provides minimal effort for sharing with moderate costs of tie information while reaching 64,000 people in regional adoption and holds about 57 percent of local connections.  This means that very little is required in operating the marketing campaign through Facebook and in addition to the minimal effort necessary, costs are extremely low which allows for higher budgets or profits elsewhere in a business model.

Another empirical study done by Abu Bashar, Irshad Ahmad, and Mohammad Wisiq surveyed 150 individuals from 18-60 years of age.  This study demonstrates that Facebook is the most popular social media platform and that one's "motivation to follow a brand or join a brand page" is at its highest when the invitation to follow or join is sent by a friend.  This is due to the fact that if one recognizes their loved ones' interest or support in certain products or services, they are more likely to trust and have faith in the review or recommendation, leading and encouraging them to follow their loved ones' steps and purchase or at least research the product or service.

A randomized survey, performed in 2011, of 1000 undergraduate students, between the ages of 18 and 33, at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with 257 respondents showed that 98.83 percent of respondents found Facebook to be the most popular social media platform. Twitter was second at 17.5 percent and LinkedIn as third with 9.73 percent.  The bar graph to the right represents the data from this survey.


Another factor to be considered is how many accounts each individual has and on which platforms.  The aforementioned survey shows that 65.76 percent of respondents have only one social media account while .39 percent of respondents had at least four accounts.



Social media creates marketing platforms that not only allow for greater brand awareness but also the ability to form relationships.

Each company, organization, business, and brand works to earn the loyalty of specific target audiences, markets, demographics, and ultimately customers and proponents.  These relationships that are created via social media not only create loyal customers but also contributes to free publicity through "sharing" and word of mouth (WOM), both of which are great for marketing, if reviews and public opinions are positive.

The best examples of sharing and WOM can be taken from everyday life; look at your Facebook newsfeed, twitter feed, emails, or recent text messages.  It is highly likely that on at least one if not more of the aforementioned medias you will find some form of suggestion either from you or from an acquaintance encouraging you to watch a video, read an article, learn about something or buy a product.

The Social Presence Theory was developed by John Short, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christies in the 1970s.  Social Presence has been defined as “a measure of the feeling of community that a learner experiences in an online environment” (Tu and McIssac, 2002) and Social Presence Theory is a further explanation of this concept and how it helps to build relationships.  The video on the right details the Social Presence Theory and how it is used to create, build and maintain relationships between consumer and provider.



Benefits to social media platforms used in marketing strategies include much more than WOM and influential relationships. 

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Social media platforms allow for much more in the eyes of a company trying to reach their target market and advertise or promote their services and products.  These platforms allow for greater web traffic (i.e. more page views), customer loyalty, product, brand, and service awareness, and even contributes to successful product launches such as the new Pepsi True soft drink.  Marketing online will increase a company's online presence.  Anytime somebody is pleased with their purchase, or when there is a sale or promotion, more and more consumers see, and those consumers' friends and families see as well and the potential target market expands, this is WOM.

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Being in its infantile stages may be one of the biggest downfalls of social media marketing.

Dr. William Rand, assistant professor of marketing computer science and director for the center for complexity in business, is an expert on the topics of social media as a marketing platform.  Rand expresses one of his frustrations and an obstacle in the field being the age of the technique.  Being a relatively new form of marketing allows little time for research and even less time for an education in and of the field.  This allows for fewer experts and less knowledge on the best ways to harness and take advantage of all that social media marketing has to provide.

Although incredibly effective for most audiences and target markets, social media lacks the ability to reach the youngest, oldest, and poorest of demographics.

Unfortunately, social media does not or cannot always reach every demographic.  The most obvious of the untouched demographics are the youngest and oldest generations and those who are unable to afford the means to reach social media platforms.

The youngest demographic is slowly dying out as an obstacle. This is due to the fact that children are growing up increasingly surrounded by technology at younger and younger ages.  At the rate that technology is being made available to young children, it is eliminating any untouched markets except for infants and toddlers who are unable to understand the power of marketing and the compulsion marketing and social media creates.  Most social media platforms allow users to be no younger than 13 years of age.  To Rand, the question is not how to reach these younger children but rather whether or not they should be reached.

Generations of 70 years of age and older are also an increasingly difficult demographic to reach.  As technology grows and becomes more complex and more capable, the older generations have trouble learning how to use and take advantage of the technology and more specifically the social media platforms available to them.  Another issue is that many of the elderly have trouble trusting the technology and social media and therefore stay away from is as much as they can.  However, Rand believes that there is currently and will be a huge upswing in the usage of technology and social media for the older generations in the coming years.

Using social media platforms as a marketing technique is relatively inexpensive but often carries the weight of major ethical and moral conflicts.

Over the last decade or so technology has become an ever-constant presence in our daily lives.  Everything from messaging a friend to checking the weather, conducting research to purchasing kitchen appliances can be done through technology. With new social media platforms even more can be achieved.  Social media allows for individuals and businesses alike to connect, interact, and build relationships from anywhere in the world, at any time of the day.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YikYak, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ are some of the most well known and highest trafficking social media platforms, and now, they are being used for marketing to personalize and customize advertisements to each individual technology user.

Unfortunately, many feel as though there is an omnipresent parent looking over their shoulder.  Third party companies are constantly tracking our every click, search, and browser.

Dr. Rand expresses great concern for the gray line of customization and personalization through tracking one's web history.  He believes the solution is to create a middle ground between having nothing tracked and recorded and having an invasion of privacy.




Social media platforms have proven to be an inexpensive yet highly effective mode of communication, relationship building, advertising, and specifically marketing.

Research has shown that social media creates interactivity and facilitates relationship building between two or more parties, namely company and consumer. When companies engage in social media, it connects them to their consumers and both parties can communicate more directly.  Through social networks, companies are able to provide better customer service, increase product and brand awareness, increase web traffic, and increase customer loyalty.  Social media marketing is done on many platforms, the most popular being blogging, personal websites, article selling, email sending, video promotion, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others. After extensive research, it has become clear that social media platforms are the future of marketing, and although they cannot and likely will never be the sole mode of marketing, it may well be the most pertinent, necessary, and effective method in any marketing campaign.