Research shows that 88% of marketers are using social media (Whiting and Williams, 2013), but without strategic marketing planning and specific goals in the long run, over-extension and lack of vision can lead to the failure of any marketing activity (Abdallah and Langley, 2014). So what is the purpose of having a corporate social media account?
Changing Consumer Preferences
Technological advances over time have led to a revolution in typical consumer profile and many customers are now constantly connected through mobile devices (Spaid and Flint, 2014). Social media sites Facebook and Twitter both sit in the estimated top 10 largest websites worldwide by traffic volume (Alexa.com) and users actively seek both entertainment and information via these channels as it is so easily accessible and convenient (Whiting and Williams, 2013).
An example of a company well aware of where their audience are is Nike, who use their Facebook and Twitter accounts to join in and lead real time topical discussions during sporting events.
To boost Brand Awareness
In line with the strategic goals of many companies, growth through acquisition of new clients requires getting the brand and marketing messages out into the world and in front of the right people (Reibe et al, 2014). Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have the potential to reach extremely high volumes of consumers at relatively low costs (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014), however it is important that a social media message is reaching the right consumers in order for the messages a channel sends to reach the target demographic (Budeva and Mullen, 2014). Despite this it is estimated that only 36% of Facebook campaigns are targeted to specific individuals (Schulze, Scholer and Skiera, 2015).
Nike also demonstrate their ability to reach large audiences with their Twitter channel by broadcasting their marketing messages to 4.85 million ‘followers’ and reaching high levels of audience interaction with 25,000 ‘retweets’ on their latest marketing video in approximately three weeks alone (as shown in Figure One below).
Figure One: Nike Twitter channel showing 4.85 million followers and 25,000 retweets on latest video post (Nike Twitter, 2015a)
To Boost Customer Engagement
Tsimonis and Dimitriadis (2014) claim that many marketers are outlining boosting customer engagement as a key objective in marketing strategies and are turning to social media to achieve this. Social media can allow for two-way communication between customers and organisations in real time (Sashi, 2012), which allows consumers to feel more valuable and is essential for customer loyalty, particularly in markets with homogenous and undifferentiated products, such as financial services (Seigyoung et al, 2007). Furthermore, customer engagement goes beyond invoking customer loyalty and may even encourage customers to act as advocates for a brand (Sashi, 2012)
Tens of Twitter users share messages with their circles of connections on a daily basis using the Nike ‘#justdoit’ slogan and Nike replies to each one with an individual message on a daily basis, as shown in Figure Two below.
Figure Two: Nike responds to users on a daily basis (Nike Twitter, 2015b)
This high level of interaction on Twitter, instigated by users demonstrates good consumer engagement as many users are repeatedly interacting with the brand.
To Promote Products and Boost Sales
Lastly, Tsimonis and Dimitriadis (2014) claim that many social media marketing accounts aim to promote products and services to new and existing customers, in line with core marketing goals.
Nike communicate promotional information for their products through their social media channels, such as the Facebook example in Figure Three below and direct users to their Instagram shopping channel, shown in Figure Four.
Figure Three: Nike Facebook (Nike Facebook, 2015)
Figure Four: Nike Instagram Shop (Nike Instagram, 2015)
This brief look at Nike’s social media activities supports the work of Tsimonis and Dimitriadis (2012) in suggesting that companies are using social media to boost brand awareness, engage customers and promote products while meeting convenience demands of consumers and reducing marketing costs. The success of these actions for Nike, Inc. can be seen in their 2014 annual report which shows that revenues have increased 51.71% since 2010 and return on investment has reached a five year peak in efficiency (Nike, 2015).
So it would seem that social media really is an effective marketing tool for reaching these revolutionised consumers.
To read more about what organisations are using social media for visit http://bit.ly/1DErcUX to read the Tsimonis and Dimitriadis (2014) article.
References
Abdallah, C. and Langley, A. (2014) The Double Edge of Ambiguity in Strategic Planning, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 51, No. 2, pp 235-264
Budeva, D. and Mullen, M. (2014) International market segmentation: Economics, national culture and time, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 48, No. 7, pp 1209-1238
Nike (2015) ‘Annual Report 2014’ [Online] <http://investors.nike.com/files/doc_financials/2014/index.html#select_financials> [accessed 28th April 2015]
Nike Facebook (2015) ‘Nike’ [Online] <https://www.facebook.com/nike> [accessed 28th April 2015]
Nike Instagram (2015) ‘@NikeWomen Instagram Shop’ [Online] <http://www.nike.com/gb/en_gb/c/women/instagram?cp=usnw_brs_031115_fb_IGcommerceplt&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F> [accessed 28th April 2015]
Nike Twitter (2015a) ‘Nike’ [Online] <https://twitter.com/Nike> [accessed 28th April 2015]
Nike Twitter (2015b) ‘Tweets and replies’ [Online] <https://twitter.com/Nike/with_replies> [accessed 28th April 2015]
Reibe, E., Wright, M., Stern, P. and Sharp, B. (2014) How to grow a brand: Retain or acquire customers?, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 67, No. 5, pp 990-997
Schulze, C., Scholer, L. and Skiera, B. (2015) Customizing Social Media Marketing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp 8-10
Seigyoung, A., Bell, S., McLeod, C. and Shih, E. (2007) Co-production and customer loyalty in financial services, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 83, No. 3, pp 359-370
Spaid, B. and Flint, D. (2014) The Meaning of Shopping Experiences Augmented by Mobile Internet Devices, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp 73-90
Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S. (2014) Brand strategies in social media, Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp 328-344
Whiting, A. and Williams, D. (2013) Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp 362-369