How to Achieve and Measure Success in Social Media Marketing

Introduction

By the beginning of the 21^st century, the new generation of web technology fueled the social commerce phenomenon and significantly affected online business models. In today’s business world the use of the Internet and social media has become a part of many marketing strategies. Therefore, companies have adapted their marketing strategies as a result of this new e-commerce medium. Web 2.0 is a powerful medium to locate key consumers and brand advocates in this online community. Social media has become a new marketing channel to effectively interact with customers. Furthermore, companies can use social media as one of the most profitable tools to attract a target audience. Specifically, social media allows the diversification of the brands' marketing messages through viral advertisement applications. This is one of the main advantages of Internet-based marketing tools.

The emergence of social media as a communication tool in marketing operations has established it as an important part of e-commerce practices in this era of new technology. In the context of social media, e-commerce companies should establish specific brand communities, listen to the desires of these communities, and create special promotional programs according to customers’ requests or expectations based on community feedback. Overall, Internet use has empowered promotional activities that have led to the development of direct marketing, mass customization, and interactive communication with both current and prospective customers. Consequently, interactive marketing endeavors should be included in traditional promotional strategies. However, it is important to make the right decisions in terms of social media marketing strategies. Social media marketing involves viral consumer-to-consumer communication, maintaining public relations activities, and conducting marketing research on social networking sites (Pentina, Koh, & Le, 2012). This new marketing concept raises a critical question for e-commerce companies: how can a company promote its products in a more controllable and cost effective way to support the purchasing behavior of customers via social media?

In this new channel of interaction via the Internet and social media, customers search for product-related information, and access product reviews from experienced consumers, as well as industry experts. The inherently uncontrollable nature of social media makes it more difficult for marketing managers to harness customer feedback via these channels. Participation in social media is no longer enough. Instead, in this information rich environment, companies aim to increase the amount of positive customer comments via social media. Generally, companies attempt to create positive customer responses using corporate marketing activities in a social media environment.

In this dynamic environment, companies should clearly measure their social media marketing efforts and revisit them regularly. Companies should explicitly decide their social media objectives from the outset. For e-commerce companies, it is a crucial mistake to utilize a social media medium without defining performance objectives and measurement criteria. These objectives contain different social media-related marketing efforts such as:

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  Measuring the effectiveness of:

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    Reaching a target audience;

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    Engagement on social media;

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    Social influencers in the brand community.

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  Defining metrics for advertising campaign success, which is conducted through social media channels;

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  Measuring the contribution of social media marketing efforts on sales revenue and return-on-investment (ROI).