The Effective Way Of Using Social

Media As A Marketing Tool

By Bong Wonkyung
2012-05-16
The Effective Way Of Using Social Media As A Marketing Tool
By Bong Wonkyung
It is becoming easier to spread ideas and share information today thanks to the
development of technology and the social media platform. From the time when Twitter and
Facebook started to get popular, social media!s problems immediately started to become clear.
Because so many companies use social media to attract customers ineffectively, it causes
inefciencies for companies and inconvenience for customers. When companies do understand
these problems and what the proper strategies and techniques are, which they can use for social
media to improve their business, these problems can be solved.
Social media is booming throughout the world. Nowadays, over 140 million people are
using Twitter, and tweeting over 340 million tweets per a day.
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Facebook has 900 million active
users all over the world, and its value is estimated at $77 billion.
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This number of users on
Facebook is quite amazing. Society is networking and interacting using social networking tools.
So, that is why companies have started to consider the use of this type of media for marketing.
The sites Twitter and Facebook, especially, are tools for companies to communicate with
customers in a lower price and in an easier way. These are two main advantages for using social
media marketing. There is no cost for making and maintaining the accounts of Twitter and
Facebook, and secondly those media are easy for any individual to utilize. Moreover, using social
media is highly contagious among people. Because Twitter and Facebook are based on
connections between many people, it is also easy for this information to go viral. This is attractive
for many companies which want to start to use social media as a tool for word-of-mouth
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1
Twitter Team (2012-03-21). "Twitter Turns Six". Twitter Blog (blog of Twitter). Access Date 2012-05-012.
2
The Nation (2012-04-25). hits 900m users, values $77b http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-
newspaper-daily-english-online/entertainment/25-Apr-2012/hits-900m-users-values-77b Access Date
2012-05-12.
marketing and customer service. According to recent research, 71% of companies now have a
presence on Facebook, 59% are on Twitter, and 43% use a company blog for marketing.
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But,
these companies! social media accounts are giving users unpleasant experiences.
The problem is companies are not utilizing social networking services effectively. Of
course, companies would want to boost their presence by using Twitter and Facebook. But now,
this marketing is making other users irritated and annoyed by companies! misuse of the tools. For
example, indiscriminate friend requests from many companies! accounts and too much
meaningless information are one of the biggest and the most common problems in the social
networking eld. It could be likened to junk mail or Unsolicited Bulk Email, or even information
pollution. For this reason, many other users started to think company accounts send too much
information and useless or meaningless data.
It is understandable that companies are making these kinds of mistakes. Companies have
a harder time than individuals to adopt social or technological changes because companies
should adjust many things such as employees, marketing strategies, budgets, and so on. In
reality, just 11% of businesses using social media marketing have been using it for more than 3
years.
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As the research shows, social networking platform is still new for companies. It is natural to
take time to build new strategies for it, and thus they are using social media in the same way that
they used to use for old media such as newspapers or TV commercials.
Between this old media and social media, strong differences exist. First, mass media aims
at general mass audiences; second, social media targets specic individuals. Moreover, mass
media is projected one-way, and social media is interactive between a company and customers.
That is why utilization should be changed to suit each medium for marketing.
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3
Search Engine Journal (2011-08-30). The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic http://
www.searchenginejournal.com/the-growth-of-social-media-an-infographic/32788/ Access Date
2012-05-13.
4
MDG (2011-09-07). [Infographic]: The ROI of Social Media http://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/
infographic-the-roi-of-social-media-2/ Access Date 2012-05-13.
The situation today shows the problem that companies don!t or can!t help themselves,
because they are slow compared to the extreme and rapid changes in technology. But, more
than 70% of companies do respond that they have plans to increase social media marketing
using YouTube, Facebook, Blogs, and Twitter
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. Yes, they are still struggling to follow up on social
and technological changes, for they don!t want to be behind their competitors. This fact makes
companies take urgent action, even though they have no elaborate and specialized plans for
social media marketing. This explains why companies can!t earn a return on investment from it.
So, what can prevent this kind of ineffectiveness? What should companies be doing differently.
The main point is companies should know well how to follow the special features of social
media. Most of all, a basic understanding of the several different features of social media that
distinguish it from mass media is strongly required. The features of this media are very distinctive
and unique. One of the largest differences is interactivity between users. In comparison with
newspapers or TV commercials, Twitter and Facebook are more interactive: they have
advantages that allow companies to collect responses and feedback from customers. In the
timeline of social media sites, an index page where users can read all contents of them and their
friends at a look, everything is very fast. Accordingly, companies spend a great deal of time
sending information, so customers can read it frequently as much as possible. Not only
companies, customers also have the same user tendency. People want to show where they are,
what they do, and, basically, who they are through their posts, pictures, and friends. As a result, in
social media, always lots of information and opinions ood. Social media marketing strategy
based on these factors can be summed up in the following three points.
For taking full advantage of social media, companies need to act like a normal user. If
companies just send friend requests and information about them each time, it is not more than a
robot which always talks repetitive lines. Announcing information unilaterally is an old way that is
used for mass media. When it comes to social media, there should be more interaction between
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5
MDG (2011-09-07). [Infographic]: The ROI of Social Media Access Date 2012-05-13.
each party such as a company and a customer. Still, many companies think company accounts
need to be formal and informative. This is not best. If it is B2B(business to business) marketing,
companies need to be more professional than B2C(business to customer). But, when it comes to
B2C marketing, it is important to angle toward customers. In other words, it is more effective to be
one-on-one. So, a more favorable account image helps make companies! accounts activity more
sociable. This is important, because if there is no sociability, there is no benet using social media.
In addition, for making an impression on customers, companies need to make a
conversation with their potential customers. Again, the most distinguishing feature of social
network service is interactivity, since customers can give feedback to companies and companies,
also, can response to the feedback in real time. When a relationship between a company and a
customer has a more personal connection, a customer remembers better and longer than when
they just learn information unilaterally. Moreover, because it shows the company pays more
attention to build and keep a connection with customers, the customer would feel he or she is
more considered as a crucial customer by the company. As a result, the company can have
customers with a high level of loyalty to the company. Gavin O!Malley relays research from New
York University which nds that 78% of respondents agreed that social media platforms are
parallel to customer service, and become the dominant way for consumers to communicate with
corporations. The study also noted that 45% of customers feel angry when their comment is
ignored by companies. Moreover, nearly 1 in 3 respondents said they would stop doing business
with the companies which unanswered their customer complaints on a social media site.
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In other
words, communication with customers is compulsory, not optional, since it shows the sincerity of
the company for customers and good business.
Finally, the basic role that social media marketing plays is to discover potential customers.
Even though companies have a million and one friends or followers, they are not real customers.
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6
MediaPst NEWS (2011-10-22). Companies Should Communicate Via Social Media http://
www.mediapost.com/publications/article/164669/companies-should-communicate-via-social-media.html
Access Date 2012-05-14.
That is the reason why companies should put a lot of effort into drawing their concealed customers
in social media out in order to become real customers. Then, companies can decide how to make
the potential customers into actual customers. Holding events or parties to invite the customers is
the easiest way to meet them in reality. These should be attractive and interesting for customers,
so they will want to join the company and be customers. The most fatal weakness social media
connection has is weak bonds among users. It is easy to disconnect as much as it is easy to
connect. So, without this step, the followers and friends will not be true customers.
To use these 3 techniques, social network service provides limitless possibilities in terms of
marketing. But for the most basic marketing strategy, the rst step should be having many
followers or friends to send and receive comments. After the company has their potential
customers, it is important to keep attracting their attention to the company!s account. The
following paragraphs are about the strategies in detail.
The strategy to attract people to follow or be a friend with the company!s accounts, there is
follow and retweet (share) asking marketing. This type of marketing asks people to be a
companies! friend and spread information. It is the very rst marketing when companies started
Twitter or Facebook as a marketing tool. No matter how good their ideas or events, if they have
no followers or friends, eventually, they can!t continue to promote their company. It is essential
marketing before companies really start social media marketing. For the next strategy, there is
lottery system marketing. A lottery system is the most common way to choose a winner to award
for events. For instance, when a company holds a photo upload event; people will send photos
with the company!s logo or products to the company!s social account. Then, the company draws
for winners from the participants and gives prizes. Through these kinds of events, they make
followers or friends concentrative on their account, so they can expose customers to receive their
new information.
WARAWARA(@WaraWaraKorea) is a chef-made food specialty pub with over 80
branches in South Korea, and they use Twitter to promote their brand and branches. The
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company!s account has more than 25 thousand followers, and only one person manages this
account. The account prole describes who the manager is, not about the company. She uses
informal Internet speak like every user does and chitchats with her followers, so, many followers
feel more comfortable with the company. Moreover, they hold a new menu show every season,
and invite followers who will evaluate the menu. When customers participate in the show, they
tweet where they are and what they are doing immediately and spontaneously. The company
retweets their customers! satisfaction to promote their brand image and the event. Other their
followers watch this feedback and apply to the next show. Through this customer participation,
WARAWARA can benet from word-of-mouth. Is it truly benecial? Echoing the statistic from Erik
Qualman that 78% of people trust peer recommendations vs. only about 14% who trust ads.
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Yes, it is effective. As we can see, even only using the most basic features, social media
marketing can be a more effective way of promotion than mass media.
This is a very essential and vital utilization of social media marketing. Amazingly, social
media has various features that can be utilized in many more creative ways than people expect.
The hidden potential of social media is limitless. It shows there are possibilities to keep developing
features and usages in the future, and many undiscovered strategies exist. The point that
companies should focus on in terms of creativity is to attract voluntary participation from
customers. Successful social media marketing has something in common: it makes people move
rst rather than companies taking action rst. The following examples show two international
companies that have utilized social media successfully.
In November, 2009, when IKEA, international home products company that designs and
sells ready-to-assemble furniture, opened their new store in Malm, Sweden, they campaigned a
Facebook event by using a tagging feature that attaches friends! info to photos. IKEA account
unloaded pictures of showrooms with one IKEA product for each photo; participants found and
tagged their name on the products and could win the product. It went viral, and as a result, IKEA
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The Nielsen Company (2011-06-10). Trends in Advertising Spend and Effectiveness Access Date
2012-05-14.
could gain hundreds of new friends and fans for their Facebook account. Thousands of people
saw this promotion and shared the information with their friends and friends of friends on
Facebook. This marketing led to an excellent result for lunching a new store for IKEA. The
essence of this event were, rst, it was easy for anyone to join; second, IKEA displayed their real
showrooms of the new store as a tool of the event. "Instead of people just looking at a banner
with furniture we got people to personally promote IKEA," said Forsman&Bodenfors, a Swedish
advertising agency, on their YouTube video.
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In another example, there is UNIQLO, a Japanese casual wear designer, manufacturer
and retailer. UNIQLO is one of the most active companies with online marketing. They are
famous for creative and attractive online events. There was one event that used Twitter as a tool
to attract customers! attention. It was called #UNIQLO Lucky Line!, which celebrated their 26th
anniversary, in May, 2010. Anyone who had a Twitter account was able to participate in this event.
When customers left a message through Twitter, they could join the Lucky Line by order of arrival,
automatically. UNIQLO chose one of every 26 person in the line and provided around 10 CAD
UNIQLO coupon for each as a prize. While the campaign has only just begun, more than 15,000
people have already joined.
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It was a great success at using the social media platform.
As these examples show, companies made people want to join the marketing voluntarily.
When people take voluntary action and they feel they have free will, of course, they can get much
more satisfaction out of the company!s marketing. It leaves a positive impression of the company
with people. Social media can achieve this with limitless potential for development in marketing,
especially, in the customer service area. Social media is a window to connect with the individual,
and helps companies to achieve more personalized care for their customers. This media is
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direct trafc media (2010-12-04). IKEA Facebook Viral Marketing a Big Hit http://
www.directtrafcmedia.co.uk/blog/ikea-facebook-viral-marketing-a-big-hit-3112755016753 Access Date
2012-05-14.
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ASIAJIN (2010-5-25). Uniqlo!s Lucky Line Campaign Makes It To The Twitter Trending Topics http://
asiajin.com/blog/2010/05/25/uniqlos-lucky-line-campaign-makes-it-to-the-twitter-trending-topics/ Access
Date 2012-05-14.
powerful, and more than useful, as a tool to promote companies, as long as companies
understand clearly their purpose in using social media marketing.
Today, technology changes very fast. New tools that the development of technology
provides require more understanding and a much more creative and exible way of utilization than
before. Continuously developing technology changes PR from public relations to personal
relations. To adapt and adjust to this change is inevitable for development of companies and
industries. That is why when newly developed technology comes up, companies should try to
follow these new creations closely. If companies start to utilize social media, keeping these points
in mind, both companies and customers can reach the point where every interested party can be
satised. That is the ultimate reason why companies should understand social media as a
marketing tool and utilize it with proper and efcient strategies.
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Bibliography
1. ASIAJIN (2010-5-25). Uniqlo!s Lucky Line Campaign Makes It To The Twitter Trending Topics
http://asiajin.com/blog/2010/05/25/uniqlos-lucky-line-campaign-makes-it-to-the-twitter-trending-topics/
2. direct trafc media (2010-12-04). IKEA Facebook Viral Marketing a Big Hit
http://www.directtrafcmedia.co.uk/blog/ikea-facebook-viral-marketing-a-big-hit-3112755016753
3. MDG (2011-09-07). [Infographic]: The ROI of Social Media
http://www.mdgadvertising.com/blog/infographic-the-roi-of-social-media-2/
4. MediaPst NEWS (2011-10-22). Companies Should Communicate Via Social Media
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/164669/companies-should-communicate-via-social-
media.html
5. Search Engine Journal (2011-08-30). The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-growth-of-social-media-an-infographic/32788/
6. Twitter Team (2012-03-21). "Twitter Turns Six". Twitter Blog (blog of Twitter). Retrieved 2012-04-06.
7. The Nation (2012-04-25). hits 900m users, values $77b
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/entertainment/25-Apr-2012/
hits-900m-users-values-77b
8. The Nielsen Company (2011-06-10). Trends in Advertising Spend and Effectiveness
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