http://tellyourbusiness.com/ wp-content/uploads/2014/06/social -media-marketing-campaign.jpg |
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 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.
http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/ wp-content/uploads/2009/04 /social-media-industry-report-benefits- marketing-stelzner-march-2009.jpg |