Social Media Marketing

Types of Social Media Marketing

There are various types of social media marketing. To understand them, let's first take a look at the different kinds of social media platforms.

Social networks are what usually comes to mind when considering social media. They include platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. These channels work on content and interactions and thus depend significantly on the network effect.

Blogs - can include weblogs or microblogs. Weblogs (blogs) can be used for commercial purposes, e.g., to advertise a product or service through search engine optimised posts. Microblogging is similar to blogging but in a shorter format (e.g. Twitter). Twitter can also be used as a platform to communicate promotional messages.

Online communities - include forums and information-sharing platforms. They find goods, services, and experiences, discuss a common purpose/hobby, share professional tips, or have general discussions. Examples of online communities include Reddit, Duolingo forums, and TripAdvisor.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

There are various social media marketing strategies organisations may wish to pursue.

Influencer Marketing Strategy

Marketers may use influencer marketing strategies which involve identifying opinion leaders within a particular community to promote a product. An important aspect of influencer marketing is deciding the type of influencer to pursue:

• 'Nano influencers' have between 1,000-10,000 followers.

• 'Micro influencers' have between 10,000-50,000 followers.

• 'Macro influencers' have over 500,000 followers.

• 'Mega influencers' have over 1 million followers.

However, a higher follower count does not necessarily guarantee results. Influencers with an increased number of followers may be suitable for raising awareness of a product or brand, but smaller-scale influencers tend to create higher engagement. For an influencer marketing campaign to be successful, the influencer has to portray credibility, high engagement rates, and share similar interests to the target group.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategy

Another type of social media marketing strategy can be observed through word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. Word-of-mouth takes place on various forms of social media. For example, ranting your followers on Twitter about an awful product experience is a form of WOM.

Word of mouth can either be positive or negative. Although negative word-of-mouth is less common, it can often be catastrophic for a company or brand. However, East et al. (2008) studied positive and negative word-of-mouth and found that there are several factors which influence its impact on brand purchase probability, including:

1. Generally, the impact of positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) is more extensive than negative word-of-mouth (NWOM).

2. People resist NWOM for brands they 'like' and PWOM for brands they 'dislike'.

3. The impact of both PWOM and NWOM is related to the pre-WOM purchase probability.

4. PWOM and NWOM have similar characteristics - they are both used to give advice.³

Viral Marketing Strategy

Certain companies and brands try to create viral content.

In most cases, viral content usually involves an element of shock, information-sharing or humour, which results in consumers being more likely to distribute the content to others.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

The benefits of social media marketing are vast. Businesses can reach millions of active social media users through their marketing messages. On the other hand, they can also focus their notes on specific groups of consumers.

Similarly, social media is beneficial as companies and brands do not necessarily have to set up their media. Instead, they can use existing social media channels.

ASOS Online Shop, StudySmarter Originals. Source: screenshot taken from Instagram

Social Media Marketing Advantages and Disadvantages

Let's now take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of social media. The advantages of social, in addition to the benefits outlined above, are as follows:

1. Targeted - Social media allows for personal communication with target customer segments.
2. Engagement - Social media channels allow for interactive, two-way communication between brands and consumers. Customers can participate in brand communications, and brands can listen to customer feedback.
3. Immediate - Posting to social media takes little time and can instantly reach thousands of people anytime.
4. High ROI - Social media is a relatively cost-efficient communication channel that brands can use for free and post unlimited content. For example, a brand can post dozens of Tweets a day for free, whereas having a promotion advertised on TV dozens of times per day can be very costly.

On the other hand, the disadvantages of social media are:

1. Effectiveness - Marketers must understand how to use social media and find the correct segments to target with their communications efforts. They must pay close attention to trends, popular keywords, etc., to capture consumers' attention.

2. Consumer trends - Marketers cannot simply start posting to social media and expect high returns. To engage consumers, a brand has to build a community on social media. This is especially relevant nowadays as consumers are bombarded with numerous ads daily.