A company can be either actively or passively involved in social media marketing, says Efthymios Constantinides. But before you even think about social media, make sure the back end of your company is in good shape.
Does your product have a ‘unique selling proposition’? Is it good value?
It is very easy for customers to compare your offering with
that of others, and be vociferous online about it.
Do you have a good marketing department and a robust,
customer-oriented website that can cope with increased orders and traffic
resulting from your foray into social media?
Production, logistics, customer service, sales and
procurement might be traditional but they’re vitally Important.
Lastly, does your company have the staffing resources to
position itself in social media marketing?
If you answered NO to any of the above questions: Get your company
in order, social media marketing can come later.
If you answered YES to all the questions, then your company
is ready. You now need to choose whether
your engagement with social media is active or passive.
The aim of the PASSIVE approach, or ‘Listening-In’, is to provide marketers with
information about market needs, customer experiences, competitive movements and
trends. The social media marketing tools you can use includes blogs, forums and
content communities. Content communities
are websites that organise and share content such as YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia
and TripAdvisor.
An ACTIVE approach to social media marketing, can result in
direct communication with customers, the acquisition of new customers and the
retention of old ones. An active approach
can involve the use of: Blogs, social networks (ie, Facebook, LinkedIn, and
Twitter), content communities and forums.
Forums & bulletin boards are interactive sites for
exchanging information about sharing particular types of content. Forums & bulletin boards can also be
aggregated around selling such as eBay and Gumtree. Content aggregators can
also be used to actively interact in the social media world. Content
aggregators are apps that allow users to access customized web-content, or apps
such as Google maps which contains content from various sources and is
customisable by the user.
I want to have an ACTIVE voice in social media marketing so
please comment on this blog!
Constantinides, E. (2014). Foundations of Social Media Marketing. Procedia - Social & Behavioural Sciences, 148, 40-57.
Porter, M.E. (2001). Strategy and the Internet. Harvard Business Review, 79(3),62-78.
