Words: 444
Abhishek Joshi 6 August 2011 Integrating Social Media into Marketing Strategy Social media takes various forms, such as internet forums, blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, photographs/pictures, video and more. The most important aspect of Social is that is participative and dynamic. (Evans, 2008) The digital footprint of an individual, and in turn that of the entire world is multiplying, thanks to social media.
With this development, we can see three logical reasons for an enterprise to engage into Social Media Marketing of their products/services. 1. Your consumers are present in the web space and spend significant amount of time on these platforms. They should feel your presence in the area. 2. It is an interactive space. You have an opportunity to narrowcast and talk to your audience personally. 3. Owing to its participative nature, people will talk about your product/service.
You should have a chance to express and help channelize the flow of discussions. Although a direct cause and effect cannot be established, companies that are both deeply and widely engaged in social media are found to have surpassed their peers in terms of both revenue and profit performance by a significant difference. All traditional forms of marketing need to be integrated with email, paid search and social media to maximise impact, rendering centralised consistency and co-ordination.
Starbucks, through their presence on social media, were able to develop a mini-Starbucks card based on consumers’ comments (Engagement-db, 2009). This is basically delegation of people throughout the organisation, thereby increasing organisational involvement in the customer. Integration of social media into marketing strategy also makes the promotional activity a 360 degree experience for the target audience as the brand moves with them from physical space into the digital one.
Fastrack, the lifestyle brand in india, performed this integration quite successfully. They started by linking all their existing properties with to the social media platforms they joined. The great response pushed them to integrate even more and the URL for their fan page has been used across billboards, take-ones, contest forms, emailers and all online forms. (IndiaSocial, 2010) While social media is not new anymore, integration of the same in the marketing mix is an area to be explored.
The current challenge for companies is to arrive at an equilibrium, which will do the trick. While the budgets for social media are increasing, managers are still working on ways to effectively integrate this communication into overall business strategies. (eMarketer, 2011) References: 1. Evans, Dave (2008). Social Media Marketing: an hour a day, John Wiley ; Sons. 2. (2009). Engagement-db. 3. (2010). HP IndiaSocial Casebook 1. 4. (2011). How Well Is Social Media Fitting into the Marketing Mix? Retrieved from http://www. emarketer. com/Article. aspx? R=1008251