Social Media Marketing: Zones of Social Community, Commerce, Entertainment, and Publishing

Introduction to Social Media Zones: Social Community

The Social Community zone constitutes a primary pillar of social media, predicated on social networks that are technologically enabled and driven by the principles of shared participation. All social media zones operate within the framework of social networks.

Defining Social Networks

A social network is defined as a set of socially relevant nodes connected by one or more relations.

• Nodes: These represent the units within the network.

• Interactions: These are the activities and communications occurring between nodes.

• Flows: These refer to the movement of information or social objects. Flows can occur both inside and outside the online community.

• Network Social Graph: The mapping of nodes and their interconnected relationships.

Characteristics of Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites ($SNS$) vary across three significant dimensions:

1. Audience and Degree of Specialization: Users can be categorized as Joiners, Creators, or Inactive members.

2. Social Objects: These are the items that mediate relationships among members, such as a person, an event, a movie star, or a specific concept.

3. Degree of Decentralization or Openness: This refers to how accessible and transparent the network is.

Audience Specialization: Internal versus External Networks

• Internal Social Network: This provides a method of communication and collaboration tailored to a specific organization. It is characterized as being more dynamic and interactive than traditional methods.

• External Social Network: This is open to the general public or individuals who are not affiliated with the site’s sponsor.

Marketing Applications in the Social Community Zone

Marketing within this zone is divided into three primary categories:

1. Social Presence: The establishment of a brand's footprint.

2. Earned Media: Organic engagement and word-of-mouth.

3. Paid Media: Sponsored advertisements and placements.

Social Presence: Brands as Relationship Nodes

Brands establish a social presence by creating brand profiles within selected social networking communities. By doing so, the brand functions as a node within the network’s social graph.

• Success Indicator: The size of the fan base (friends and followers) serves as a key indicator of the brand’s success in establishing its presence.

• Brand Persona: Building a distinct persona strengthens the brand's personality, differentiates it from competitors, and facilitates a perceived relationship with consumers.

Determining Brand Persona: Key Questions

To define a brand’s social media character, marketers must ask:

• What are the core values of the brand?

• Which social objects best illustrate these values?

• What has the brand promised to its audience?

• What are the brand's aspirational attributes?

• What specific traits are associated with the brand?

• What opportunities exist for engagement?

• What stories can bring the brand to life?

Brand Participation and Friendvertising

Participation in social networking sites allows brands to share information regarding benefits and deals, provide customer care, and build relationships through direct conversation.

Quantitative Results of Engagement:

• Increased brand loyalty.

• Expanded outreach for brand messages.

• $75\%$ of social media users report purchasing an item they heard about on social media (highlighting the power of Word of Mouth/$WOM$).

• Consumers are $57\%$ more likely to buy from brands they have "friended."

Why People Friend Brands on Social Media

(Data from Tuten and Solomon, $2018$, p.$188$):

• Interested in product/service: $73.4\%$

• Interested in promotions: $58.8\%$

• Found them entertaining: $51.3\%$

• Offered an incentive: $42.2\%$

• Interested in the industry: $41.5\%$

• To communicate with the brand: $25.1\%$

• Friends follow/like the content: $21.0\%$

Why People Unfriend Brands

(Data from Tuten and Solomon, $2018$, p.$189$):

• Too many promotional messages: $46.0\%$

• They tweet too much: $41.1\%$

• Information is not relevant: $34.9\%$

• Use of slang/jargon doesn't fit the brand: $29.9\%$

• The brand is "too quiet": $17.9\%$

• They don't reply to the user: $15.3\%$

Characteristics of Social Fans

Social fans (of brands like Coca-Cola, Converse, Samsung, Red Bull, and Nike) exhibit five key characteristics:

1. Emotional Engagement: Relatability and passion for the brand.

2. Self-identification: Aligning their identity with the brand.

3. Cultural Competence: Understanding the brand's values and history.

4. Auxiliary Consumption: Purchasing products related to the core brand.

5. Production: Contributing to the brand's community through content or interaction.

Return on Emotion (ROE): Brands must deliver a conceptual return on emotion to their fans through acknowledgment, special offers, and unique experiences (e.g., Factory Tours or Gift Shops).

Case Study: Brand Persona Engagement

Twitter Interaction Example: User (@menshumor): "This morning I gave birth to a food baby and I think @tacobell is the father." Brand (@tacobell): "I want a DNA test."

The Zone of Social Commerce

Social Commerce is a subset of e-commerce that utilizes social media applications to enable online shoppers to interact and collaborate during the shopping experience. It assists buyers in completing the purchase decision process and helps marketers drive sales.

• Social Shopping: The active participation in the consumer decision-making process (own or others') through sharing opinions, recommendations, and experiences.

• Key Elements:

  1. Ratings and reviews.

  2. Curated merchandise.

  3. Shopping applications and venues.

The Consumer Decision-Making Process in Social Commerce

The process consists of five stages, each facilitated by specific social tools:

Stage 1: Problem Recognition

• Social ads on networking sites.

• Shared endorsements in activity streams.

• Curated images and lists (e.g., Pinterest).

• Location-based promotions (e.g., Yelp).

• Participatory commerce (e.g., Kickstarter).

Stage 2: Information Search

• Comments and conversations across social channels.

• Ratings and reviews (e.g., Yelp, Zagat).

• Product/pricing info tagged in images.

• Social search queries.

• Shared wish lists/registries.

• Conversational commerce ($Chatbot$ services).

Stage 3: Evaluation of Alternatives

• Bar code scanning and price comparison apps.

• Recommendations and testimonials.

• Popularity filters.

Stage 4: Purchase

• Shop-within-network options (Facebook Buy, InstaShop, Snapchat Deeplinks).

• Social shopping malls (Wanelo).

• Peer-to-peer marketplaces (Etsy, eBay).

• Group buys (LivingSocial, Groupon).

Stage 5: Post-purchase Evaluation

• Comments on social networks.

• Requests for help/support sent to brand profiles.

• Participation in loyalty programs with social benefits.

• Submission of ratings and reviews to retailers or blogs.

The Power of Ratings and Reviews

Statistics from Tuten and Solomon ($2018$):

• $95\%$ of consumers read reviews before purchasing.

• $66\%$ read between $1$ and $10$ reviews.

• $70\%$ of mobile shoppers are more likely to buy if an app includes reviews.

• $82\%$ seek out negative reviews to verify authenticity.

• $60\%$ view reviews on smartphones while standing in-store.

Transparency and Authenticity Issues

• $25\%$ of users have seen reviews they believe are fake.

• $21\%$ have seen incentivized positive reviews.

• $81\%$ find it difficult to distinguish between authentic user content and native advertising.

• Incentivized reviewers are $4$ times less likely to be critical; Amazon prohibits such reviews.

Best Practices for Reviews:

• Authenticity: Accept all comments, including negative ones.

• Transparency: Disclose when an opinion was invited or incentivized.

• Advocacy: Allow users to rate the helpfulness of reviews.

• Participatory: Actively encourage customer feedback.

• Reciprocity: Thank users for providing value.

• Infectiousness: Make sharing reviews simple.

The Social Entertainment Zone

Social Entertainment encompasses events, performances, and activities shared via social media designed to provide pleasure and enjoyment. It includes social games, socially enabled video games, Alternate Reality Games, social music, social TV, and original video.

Marketing within Social Entertainment

Brands can integrate with entertainment at varying levels:

• Advertising: Lower integration.

• Sponsorship: Moderate integration.

• Branded Entertainment: High integration (brands create their own participatory games, music, or films).

Social Entertainment as Play

Consumers engage in play for various reasons:

• Play as Power: Competition.

• Play as Identity: Affiliation.

• Play as Fantasy: Imagination.

• Play as Frivolity: Fun.

Social Games

Social games are multiplayer, competitive, goal-oriented activities with defined rules and online connectivity.

• Users: Over $3.3\text{ billion}$ people play social games globally.

• Revenue: Approximately $\$2\text{ billion}$ in $2020$.

• Characterization: Games are defined by Platform (hardware), Mode (experience), Milieu (visual theme like sci-fi/horror), and Genre (method of play).

The Social Publishing Zone

Social publishing involves the production and issuance of content via channels like blogs, media-sharing sites (YouTube, Instagram, Scribd), social networks (Facebook, Snapchat), social bookmarking (Sprout), and news sites (Reddit, Digg).

Content Marketing Definition

"Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action" (Content Marketing Institute, $2017$).

Types of Content and Evaluation

Ethics and Authenticity in Publishing

Content ranges from Organic to Incentivized and Sponsored.

• Spokesbloggers/Influencers: Individuals who represent a brand.

• Counterfeit Conversations: Deceptive practices where brands create fake personas to interact with users.

Case Study: "Abby" and Chick-fil-A

An interaction on Facebook showed a profile named "Abby Farle" defending Chick-fil-A against a user's complaint about toys. A user named "Robert R" quickly identified "Abby" as a fake PR profile by showing her profile picture was a stock photo from Shutterstock labeled "Pretty Redhead Teenager Isolated On White Smiling." Robert R commented: "Busted. You moron."

Questions & Discussion

Q: How can marketers build a strong base of authentic reviews?A: Marketers should:

1. Listen and respond to supporters, detractors, and neutrals.

2. Study how, when, and where opinions are shared.

3. Provide tools to facilitate opinion sharing.

4. Identify key people most likely to share insights.

5. Educate consumers about the products.