Developing Marketing Strategy on Social Networks

Introduction

Research of the last few years points to the fact that people more often than not turn to social networks when looking for discounts and more affordable shopping and usually come in contact with brands promoting themselves on social websites in this manner. Advantage of social network marketing is, unlike traditional promotional channels, ads and sending promotional materials by mail, results of online social campaigns can be directly measured, which gives organizations far clearer insight in invested/gained ratio giving them plenty of information about consumers, clients and their needs and interests which they can use in the long run to create new, more efficient promotional campaigns to fortify and create a more complete business and marketing strategy.

Social networks are an online community of people which usually share a common interest or activity. They offer different ways for users to communicate with each other through blogs, e-mail, instant messaging and news containing valuable information for people in your network. Social networks are powerful in their ability to ease communication. Social networks are becoming increasingly important part of media mix. Organizations are starting to treat them as traditional offline and online media (Peters, Chen, Kaplan, Ognibeni, & Koen, 2013). Social networks are affordable tools used to combine technology and social interactions with the use of words. These tools are mostly internet or mobile based. In the field of social networking, wide range of currently available applications can be used with the goal of connecting people, sharing resources, hosting multimedia conferences etc.

Attempts to hear the voice of consumers or users on social networks uses the advantage based on openness and honesty (Patino, Pitta, & Quinones, 2012). Users are willing to ask questions about important things and expect comments from people sharing the same interests or problems. Flow of information is open to the members of the community and represents conversation that member can follow.

They enable marketers to communicate with visitors, users and potential consumers. They personalize the brand and help to convey the message in a relaxed and conversational manner. Social networks help to inform consumers about the advertized product, about the company and what it offers. Relationship is created with people who otherwise probably wouldn’t find out about the products and services or what the company represents. Social networks make a company ”real” for the consumers. If the goal to be achieved is for the people to keep track of the company, then not only should newest products be discussed, but share its “personality” with them. It can be used for communication and providing interactions which consumers want (Lake).

Websites of social networks are starting to serve as a center on the web where large groups of people, usually with similar interests, gather together. Philosophy is simple: Make an appearance where target population spends time. Appearance benefits the company in several ways (Williams, 2009):

• 1.

  Exposure to the target group,

• 2.

  Interaction with the target group,

• 3.

  Sharing the business identity of the company.

This strategy of social marketing refers to the need for suitable branding and establishing appropriate strategies for user services.

Another reason for the use of social networks is that contents can be sent to those interested in receiving new information. Users subscribed to the news about the product or brand, are often offered several methods of informing. They can subscribe or unsubscribe with ease. Therefore, those connected to the company on social media are those most interested to find out more about the company, or what it offers.