A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Social media marketing

  is an important category of digital marketing which involves 

encouraging customer communications on a company’s own site, or social presences such 

as Facebook or Twitter or in specialist publisher sites, blogs and forums. It can be applied 

as a traditional broadcast medium, for example companies can use Facebook or Twitter to 

send messages to customers or partners who have opted in. However, to take advantage of 

the benefits of social media it is important to start and participate in customer conversations. 

These can be related to products, promotions or customer service and are aimed at learning 

more about customers and providing support so improving the way a company is perceived. 

 The growth of social networks has been documented by Boyd and Ellison (2007) who 

describe social networking sites (SNS) as: 

   Web-  based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or  semi-  public profile 

within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a con-

nection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others 

within the system.  

 The interactive capabilities to post comments or other content and rate content are surpris-

ingly missing from this definition.   

 We’ve seen throughout this book that the opportunities of communicating with custom-

ers through social network sites, online communities and interactions on company sites 

are so great today that a social media strategy has become a core element of digital business 

strategy. Yet creating a social media or customer engagement strategy is challenging since it 

requires a change in mindset for the company since they may have to give up some control 

on their messaging to enable them to communicate with customers effectively. The change 

in approach required is clear from a movement that originated in the USA in 1999, known as 

the Cluetrain manifesto ( 

www.cluetrain.com

 ). The authors, Levine  et al  . (2000), say: 

  Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. 

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless 

monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and  your-  call-is-important-to-us 

busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect 

for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. Corporate firewalls have kept smart 

employees in and smart markets out. It’s going to cause real pain to tear those walls down.