The dramatic rise of social media has opened up new possibilities for marketers to connect with their customers (Lamberton & Stephen, 2016).

Figure1: (Jenkins and profile, 2019)

 

Here comes the question, what is social media?

Social media refers to the applications on tablets and websites that are designed for people to share content quickly, efficiently and spontaneously (The Balance Small Business, 2019). Digitalisation is the trend now and everything can be done in just one click. It has changed the way businesses are ran and the way people live where photos, ideas, events can be published on social media easily. Companies who implement social media as an integral part of their marketing strategy shows measurable results. However, it is advised that social media must be used adequately and not misused it for other purposes.

 

Why is social media the key to publicity?

 

1. Reach out to audience (Boost Views)

There are a lot of social media platforms out there such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and etc which you could promote your products.Companies tend to pay these platforms every month to promote their post. For example: In order to boost a post on Facebook, the organisation has to pay RM30 (which is 5.45 pounds) for a 10 days ad(Facebook.com, 2019). Companies will tend to arrange the budget for their social media promotion according to a percentage of the amount they budgeted for digital marketing.According to Jody Allard (The Freelancer, 2019), she tried out boosting her post on Facebook and not long after an editor contacted to work with her.

 

Figure 2,3 : (Facebook.com, 2019)

 

ZARA is a high fashion brand which also uses Facebook to promote their items. Zara’s Facebook page showcases their latest collections and their visual content involves lookbook-style photos. Also their clothes do the talking for them and drive the most engagement in terms of likes and shares (Unmetric Social Media Analytics Blog, 2019). ZARA uses social media campaign according to different seasons and encourage buyers to promote their items online and #livingzara.

Figure4,5:(Unmetric Social Media Analytics Blog, 2019)

 

It’s so easy to gain publicity for a company if the company is willing to pay to promote post on social media where viewers can be potential buyers.  Therefore, social media is the key to publicity as you can sell your products easily or even buy products by just a click.

 

         2. Influencers gain publicity

Influencers has been popular recently as they can be the image for the company to promote the particular product. Using social media influencers as the marketing strategy for a company can build relationships with the people who can build relationships for you. An influencer can reach consumers via their blogs and social networks that your brand may not be able to.Companies can work together with different famous people with high publicity such as celebrities or even influencers. Looking at Figure 6, Kylie Jenner gets sponsorships from different companies and it is definitely due to her popularity as she has 127million followers on Instagram. The amount of audience she has is incredible! Companies who work with her will get the privilege to promote their items. According to GroupHigh (2019), 90% of the customers tend to trust peer recommendations. Therefore, if an influencer promotes an item on social media, audience will be inspired and will want to dress the same as them. Therefore, company’s sales will keep growing by working with influencers as this is a great tactic to attract existing and new customers.

Figure6,7,8 : (Instagram.com, 2019)

List of influencers : https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-social-media-influencers-instagram-15879359

        3.  Advertisement target to audience.

Companies tend to pay advertising companies in order for their product to turn up on certain websites. If you realised whenever you look up for an item online it will appear on your Facebook, Instagram ads. For example in Figure 7, it shows the product which I recently searched online and it appeared on other websites which I clicked on. This is the power of digital marketing and the key to it is data. Most of the company will analyse customers’ data and will make personalisations to it. For example ” Do you remember this product, James?” or “Anna, are you still thinking about this item?” . The company can tackle customers preference by making searched items appear on the specific customer’s social media platform. Companies are willing to pay advertisement and for their product as customers might not buy at first sight but customers will be tempted to buy it if it keeps appearing at sight.

Figure9 :(Cite This For Me., 2019)

 

Types of paid ads :

• Cost per click (CPC): When a person clicks on your item, the company has to pay the click. In Google AdWords, the average CPC is between $1 and $2 and this  approach drives sales (Hootsuite Social Media Management, 2019).
• Cost per a thousand impressions (CPM): You pay for the number of times the ad pops up regardless if it is clicked or not. This is a brand awareness approach, where customers might consider buying it after (Hootsuite Social Media Management, 2019) .

 

According to the article  Tafesse, W. and Wien (2018) ,  social media is a great way to tackle targeted audience and collect data based on their customer based market. The strategies used can be applied to evaluate if the ways mentioned above is compatible:

1. Customer engagement : Customer engagement is a concept where customers’ behavior and emotions response with a firm’s aim (Dessart et al.,2016). Customers must feel engaged and valued by the firm to create brand loyalty.
2. Personalisation:Personalisation is also a great tactic to gain customers attention as every customers wants to feel valued. Customers want to feel special and indeed personalisation will make them feel appreciated .
3. Marketing performance: According Effing & Spil (2016), social media strategy is important to support social media with firms’ strategic marketing goals. It also acts as an important role in underlining goal commitment and enabling optimal resource allocation decisions (Felix et al., 2017).

All these competencies can be seen in the ways I mentioned above and it proves that social media gains publicity by targeting correct audience with good marketing strategy.

 

The pros of using social media to gain publicity :

1. Create brand awareness: By spending some time per week, over 91% marketers claimed that there is increased in brand visibility and heightened user experience (Digital Doughtnut, 2019).
2. Cost effective:  Being cost-effective is important as it helps you attain a greater return on investment and hold a bigger budget for other marketing and business payments (Digital Doughtnut, 2019).
3. Create brand loyalty:By connecting with your customers through social media, you are more probable to upsurge customer retention and customer loyalty (Digital Doughtnut, 2019).

 

The cons of using social media to gain publicity:

1. Overwhelming : According to Tafesse, W. and Wien (2018), companies who are overly active on social media might be overwhelming for its customers who will be facing time pressure on social media. Customers might have peer pressure and gets annoyed if the product keeps popping out.
2. Engagement levels: Social media algorithms prioritises and present content to users based on engagement levels. If a company’s content cannot get  initial level of engagement, it is harder to reach a wider range of audiences. Therefore, high level of social media activity with little engagement can be hard to obtain positive results.
3. Misused : There might be scams and people might misused it to earn money inappropriately.

 

In conclusion, social media does gain publicity. In order for it to work, appropriate use of promotions and influencers will help boost views. Target your audience and use strategies wisely will make a difference. DON’T BE AFRAID TO START, JUST DO IT!

 

How to start social media marketing?

References:

Cite This For Me. (2019). Save Time and Improve your Marks with CiteThisForMe, The No. 1 Citation Tool. [online] Available at: http://www.citethisforme.com/ [Accessed 24 Feb. 2019].

Digital Doughtnut. (2019). 7 reasons why social media marketing is important for your business. [online] Available at: https://www.digitaldoughnut.com/articles/2018/february/7-reasons-why-social-media-marketing-is-important [Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].

Dessart, L., Veloutsou, C., & Morgan-Thomas, A. (2016). Capturing consumer engagement: Duality, dimensionality and measurement. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(5–6), 399–426.

Effing, R., & Spil, A. A. M. (2016). The social strategy cone: Towards a framework for evaluating social media strategies. International Journal of Information Management, 36(1), 1–8.

Facebook.com. (2019). University of Brighton Chinese Society. [online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/UoBChinese/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of a strategic social media marketing: A holistic perspective. Journal of Business Research, 70, 118–126.

GroupHigh. (2019). Social Media Influencers – Find and build relationships. [online] Available at: https://www.grouphigh.com/social-media-influencers/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Hootsuite Social Media Management. (2019). The 7 Components of Every Social Media Budget. [online] Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/the-7-components-of-every-social-media-budget/ [Accessed 27 Mar. 2019].

Jenkins, M. and profile, V. (2019). Social Media Icon 3D Ball Hd For Wallpapers. [online] Iswallpaperbackgroundhd.blogspot.com. Available at: http://iswallpaperbackgroundhd.blogspot.com/2017/01/social-media-icon-3d-ball-hd-for.html [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Lamberton, C., & Stephen, A. T. (2016). A thematic exploration of digital, social media, and mobile marketing: research evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an agenda for future inquiry. Journal of Marketing, 80, 146–172

The Balance Small Business. (2019). Learn What Social Media Is and How to Use It to Grow Your Business. [online] Available at: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-social-media-2890301 [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

The Freelancer. (2019). Should You Pay to Boost Your Articles on Social Media?. [online] Available at: https://contently.net/2016/05/18/resources/tools/social-media/pay-boost-articles-social-media/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Unmetric Social Media Analytics Blog. (2019). Zara’s Social Media Strategy – How They Delight Their Customers. [online] Available at: https://blog.unmetric.com/social-media-strategy-zara [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Wondwesen Tafesse & Anders Wien (2018) Implementing social media marketing strategically: an empirical assessment, Journal of Marketing Management, 34:9-10, 732-749, DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2018.1482365

YouTube. (2019). How To Start Social Media Marketing As A Beginner In 2019 – STEP BY STEP. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94K-CxKNVk0 [Accessed 24 Feb.