Social media
provides companies to build a relationship with their customers. Companies can
use social media platforms such as blogs, Facebook and Myspace groups in order
to talk with their customers and also customers can communicate with the
companies through social media platforms. Besides, social media gives an
opportunity to customers to talk with each other through blogs or Facebook groups.
Marketing is no longer one dimensional; now with the social media it is a
two-way process to engage with the company/brand and the consumer (Drury, 2008;
Mangold, Faulds, 2009; Bernhardt et al., 2012). The interactive features of
social media gives opportunity to individuals share and talk with each other.
Audiences have begun to create content about the brand/firm without any control
by the firm. The content has become more democratized than ever before (Drury,
2008). Since it is interactive it is more reliable (Eberle et al., 2013).
Besides, the interactive nature of social media channels enables social
marketers to become a part of the conversation and gives opportunity to lead
audiences for a social change (Bernhardt, Mays, Hall, 2012). The communication
among audiences about the brand/firm or the product/service is an extent WOM
communication (Mangold, Faulds, 2009). WOM communication is defined by AMA as
following:
―Information imparted by a
consumer or individual other than the sponsor. It is sharing information about
a product, promotion, etc., between a consumer and a friend, colleague, or
other acquaintance‖ (AMA). The evolution of social media, audiences started to
share those opinions/experiences with other audiences through social media platforms
such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, company-owned or independent websites instead
of their friends, families and colleagues with face-to -face. Electronic type
of WOM has a higher diffusion speed for new pieces of information and it is
hard to control. Marketers lose control over the content of the information
(Mangold, Faulds, 2009; Kaplan, Haenlein, 2011).
One of the prominent aspects of
social media is being active and fast moving domain. A particular content can
be up-to-date today however the day after it can be outdated in the virtual
landscape (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010).
With the development of internet
technology, individuals took an opportunity to access internet from their home
and their workplace. New ad formats have inspired digital creatives and they
have started to produce engaging and innovative online advertising campaigns.
Increased use of videos has given a chance for creatives to build successful
online branding campaigns to engage consumers with the brands. Those engaged
audiences talks about the brand both online and offline. It spreads rapidly via
the social media channels. So, the video or the content becomes viral (Drury,
2008). Firms can also contact directly with their end-consumers in time and
respond their requests rapidly by social media. Since, social media is low-cost
and has high level of efficiency (Kaplan, Haenlein, 2010).
Researchers can reach information
about individuals, society and around world through social media since social
media is a rich source of easily accessible in nature (Schoen et al., 2013).
Consequently, social media offers
a wide range of opportunities to its users. Besides those advantageous
opportunities, marketers can confer with disadvantageous results of the social
media usage. Those pros and cons of social media marketing rely on the
characteristics of social media. According to the information provided by
literature the characteristics of social media can be listed as following:
Interactive, WOM communication, content, rapid, hard to control, viral, easy to
access, low-cost and effective. If marketers have knowledge about how to
develop brilliant strategies on social media, those characteristics provide a
successful marketing campaign and communication to the firms.
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