Social Media Marketing

My business class team had to do presentations on emerging issues in business. We chose Social Media Marketing. Above is the presentation and below is the summary I wrote. Thanks and much credit to the rest of my team!

Social Media Marketing is the act of bypassing traditional communication channels to establish direct and meaningful relationships with current and potential customers. Over the past two years, there has been nothing short of a gold rush among businesses to establish a presence on social networking sites due to a high return on investment. Research from Forrester predicts that social media marketing, currently a $716 million industry, will grow to become a $3.1 billion industry over the next five years at the expense of offline advertising.

The driving theories behind social media marketing are much the same as for traditional marketing. They are slightly altered to fit the online nature of social networks. Because all media is now social media, meaning they can be shared, downloaded, uploaded and spread virally, these new methods are very effective in the online world.

Social media marketing is a pull method. It uses content disseminated through social networking channels so customers will be drawn in as opposed to interrupted. Content can include blog posts, videos, online contests, webinars, surveys, studies, cartoons, or anything that customers will find rewarding and valuable.

Customer relationship management becomes a much more possible and pronounced aspect of marketing online. An infinite number of feedback loops are now possible so that customers can easily tell a company what they think or feel about a product or idea without being wrangled up for a focus group. Additionally, personal selling shifts from the responsibility of employed salespeople to the enthusiasm of fans. One goal of social media marketing is to, through content and relationships, turn strangers into friends, friends into customers and customers into salespeople.

In our research, we found that many businesses were being dragged into social media after experiencing a crisis or communication breakdown between the marketing department and customers. With 71% of Americans who have Internet access using social networks, this new type of marketing is going to be a necessary part of every marketing plan in the very near future. Businesses will forever strive to put a human face on their corporate name.