Page 63 - MYM 2016

Social media are internet-based technol- ogies that facilitate online conversations and encompass a wide range of online, word-of-mouth forums. ese include social networking websites, blogs,
company sponsored discussion boards and chat rooms, consumer-to-consumer e-mail, consumer
social MeDia
little guidance for incorporating social media into their IMC strategies.
Social networking as a communication tool has two interrelated promotional roles:
Firstly, social networking should be consis- tent with the use of traditional IMC tools. at is, companies should use social media to talk to their
product or service rating
Internet discussion boards and forums, and sites containing digital audio, images, movies, or pho-
“s websites and forums, customers through such platforms as blogs, as
well as Facebook and Twitter groups. ese media
either may be company-sponsored or sponsored in a social media by other individuals or
tographs, just to name a few (Hollensen and Opresnik, 2015). e o cial company and brand web sites have typically been losing audience. is decline is believed to be due to the emergence of social media marketing by the brands themselves, an increasingly pervasive marketing practice.
Integrated Market-
ing Communications
(IMC) have traditionally been considered to be largely one-way in nature (“Bowling” – see Figure 1 on the next page). In the old paradigm, the orga- nization and its agents developed the message and transmitted it to potential consumers, who may
or may not have been willing participants in the communication process. e control over the dis- semination of information was in the hands of the rm’s marketing organization. e traditional ele- ments of the promotion mix (advertising, personal selling, public relations and publicity, direct mar- keting and sales promotion) were the tools through which control was asserted.
e 21st century is witnessing an explosion
of Internet-based messages transmitted through these media. ey have become a major factor in in uencing various aspects of consumer behav- ior including awareness, information acquisition, opinions, attitudes, purchase behavior and post-purchase communication and evaluation. Unfortunately, the popular business press and aca- demic literature o ers marketing managers very
organizations. networking is enabling
marketing world, you Secondly, social cannot know outcomes in customers to talk to
an extension of tradi- advance. instead, marketers one another. is is
tional word-of-mouth have to be prepared to communication. While
respond in real time to companies cannot consumer-to-con-
sumer (C2C) messages, they do have the ability to in uence the con-
versations that consumers have with one another. However, consumers’ ability to communicate with one another limits the amount of control compa- nies have over the content and dissemination of information. Consumers are in control; they have greater access to information and greater command over media consumption than ever before.
Marketing managers are seeking ways to incorporate social media into their IMC strategies. e traditional communications paradigm, which relied on the classic promotional mix to cra IMC strategies, must give way to a new paradigm that includes all forms of social media as potential tools in designing and implementing IMC strategies. Contemporary marketers cannot ignore the phe- nomenon of social media, where available market information is based on the experiences of indi- vidual consumers and is channeled through the traditional promotion mix. However, various social media platforms, many of which are completely independent of the producing/sponsoring organi- zation or its agents, enhance consumers’ ability to
the spin put on the ball by directly control such
consumers.
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