Social Media Marketing

A Plan of Action for TCP Events

12/22/2011

Executive Summary
The recent Arab spring, agitations across Europe, and street revolts in UK started a new debate in the academic, intellectual as well as government circles. The debate was about the rapid commercialization and spreading of one idea and thought across the board simultaneously. What made the world astonished was the research that only Facebook and Twitter caused revolution in Egypt. This may sound a bit immature, but these incidents have become part of our modern history and their impacts will keep on coming into limelight slowly. Social media, the modern day equipment that has become more dangerous than atomic bombs in terms of its impact, is the real cause of concern everywhere. Every serious researcher and scholar is studying keenly what will happen to the world, if this media will keep on growing at its current pace. Facebook has crossed 800 million (Facebook, 2011), Twitter has over 300,000 unique visitors daily and so is the case of other social networks. Are these tools totally destructive or nothing more than a pastime or a source of entertainment? Or do they have any relevance in our practical lives as well? This is the burning question in various circles. Particularly the business organizations and young entrepreneurs are very keen to know more about them and use them in their favour. There is no doubt that social media has become an undeniable powerful propaganda tool in modern age. The propaganda can be positive as well as negative. This piece of paper is also about the said subject and highlights the important factors that have been contributing to the charm of this media as well as its futures. What are the implications of social networks and social media marketing for the businesses has to be realized in various spectrums of society. The paper is an effort of the writer to understand the social media, its concept, background and vitality for our modern daily professional as well as personal life. 2|Page

Table of Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 2 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review............................................................................................................................ 6 History of Social Media: ............................................................................................................. 6 Social Media Interface: ............................................................................................................... 7 Social Media A Revolution:........................................................................................................ 8
Statistics of Social Media: ..................................................................................................................... 8

Social Media and Business Marketing:....................................................................................... 9 Implications for the Businesses: ............................................................................................... 10 Importance of Social Media in E-Marketing: ........................................................................... 11 Some Powerful Social Media Marketing Tools: ....................................................................... 14
Key Social Media Tools and practices: ................................................................................................ 14

Tasks: ............................................................................................................................................ 15 Task 1: ....................................................................................................................................... 15 Task 2: ....................................................................................................................................... 17 Task 3: ....................................................................................................................................... 18 Task 4: ....................................................................................................................................... 19 Conclusion: ................................................................................................................................... 20 Bibliography ..................................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Introduction
Over the last two decades, internet has had a significant impact on various aspects of our lives. It has changed our ways of thinking and behaving. Particularly, business activities and social involvement in them has completely changed. If you look a bit deeper, the concept of globalization is an outcome of internet technologies. So, globalization, increased competition, changed work habits, and patterns of information sharing are some key points and features of this information technology era. The most important impact has been on the public perception of the networking and socialization, and the way they communicate. Previously, we used to share piece of information on paper, telephone and fax machines, today we have internet and digital sources that have made the task far easier than our thinking and imagination. Just like any other industry, the internet and information technology also faced some ethical and operational issues in the beginning, but with the passage of time and increasing maturity of the industry, the dynamics are changing. Social media is the hallmark of this change and mature internet industry. Now, there is a well-planned, disciplined and properly organized set of platforms, which can be very helpful for you to share your views, thoughts and any piece of information for your social network. Owing to the very fact, people and professionals in the PR and marketing are welcoming the new technologies and utilizing them for the greater benefit of them as well as public. Social media has not only enabled people to remain connected to each other but also has served as foundation stone for the businesses to improve their performance in the information technology driven era. There is greater engagement of the business with public by using various social media platforms, but still a great work has to be done. This is because of the simple fact that research in the field of social media is still limited. 4|Page

The fundamental factor that has been the centre point of this debate, is that the research still on the way and despite some comprehensive and very delicate pieces of paper getting published, there is a great work that still needs to be done. This adventure has started new debates in the academic, professional and research circles, where everyone is looking at the findings of the researches that may finally decide about the impact that social media has been able or will be able to make on our lives, attitudes and thinking. The aim of this paper is also the same; to find out the vitality of social media to the businesses and how effectively it can be used in this regard. When we talk about the socialization, it is restricted to the people to people contacts. It also contains people to business and business to business relations. Hence, the discussion will get further interesting with an objective analysis of this relation and how a business organization can use the elements of social network for their greater benefit and advantage. This is also a sort of social media marketing program for a newly formed event management company; TCP (The Crispy People) Events, and it highlights the possibilities and probabilities of making the most out of available social networking space. Once the theoretical perspectives of social media are done, we will move to the tasks that have been required to be done.

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Literature Review
History of Social Media:
Although the term of social media has been in use over the past 5-6 years, but a commonly accepted definition has yet to be announced. However, what so far has been popular in the academic circles is listed below. According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein; "Social Media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of usergenerated content. (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010) Unlike traditional industrial media, the social media platforms are not purchased or commercialized completely. This means that you can only use a set of techniques, to get public involved with you and your business. Here, lots of internet and web-based technologies are adopted to obtain the objectives that are aimed for the long-term success. Moreover, the platforms are multiple as the term if very broad. So, when you talk about social media, it includes internet forums, social blogs, wikis, pictures, videos, social bookmarking, social networking and weblogs etc. So, the term is and should not be restricted to the Facebook and Twitter only. However, one has to bear in mind that the term social media is that much new as is considered by many. However, its socialization with the internet and communication technology got matured with the commercialization of electronic world (McConnell and Huba', 2007). Since the search engines started helping people gain their required information without any problem, public sought for platforms where they could share their valued information for the greater good of the society.

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Social Media Interface:

If you look at the socialization of the internet and communication technologies, you will realize the fact that they have become a defining change in the modern era. All of the traditional media tools and publications like newspapers, magazines, and TV etc. are finding ways of their online presence. They have to ensure that the web surfer finds them when he/she browse through the web so that anyone could read and publish his/her favourite piece of writing and information. So, there has been a visible shift in the distribution of the information and news by traditional players to the millions of the people following them. Some people might think that the fundamental driver of social media is technology. However, many researchers and scholars have described it as a trend, and as per their research, the driver is not technology; instead, it is how people interact with each other (Li and Bernoff, n.d.). This trend has been named as Groundswell. So, the vital aspect of the debate is that social media is more about people than technology. How we form new relations, maintain them and use them is something that is considered more important than the technology itself. In simple words, technology may be a good source and field of debate; however, usage of that technology for personal and business activities is always more important and vital. How we employ latest technology for sharing news, information and our insight has become the most significant aspect of this social media revolution. People have been using and will be using the technology for the purpose that not only suits them but makes them feel enjoyed. Hence, its not the technology that will guide the people in the future; instead, it will be the public that will guide the technology and technological trends. Look at the following figures and you will agree with what has been written over here.

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Social Media A Revolution:

Statistics of Social Media: In order to have an insight, as to how bigger the social media has become, just have a look into the listed statistics. Facebook has more than 800 million, where every user has 130 friends on average. Over 350 million active users use the site from their mobile phones, where 475 global mobile operators offer Facebook on their services. More than 250 million photos are uploaded everyday and 75% of Facebook users are outside of United States of America. More than 7 million sites and apps are integrated with Facebook (Facebook, 2011). Twitter has more than 380 million users by November 2011, whereas more than 300,000 people sign up for the site every day. LinkedIn showed impressive 300% growth since the year 2007 onwards. Having over 135 million users by November 2011, LinkedIn became the worlds leading professional networking website. YouTube has shown an impressive 200% growth in the last two years. Every 60 seconds, a 24 hours video is uploaded on YouTube. More than 700 billion YouTube videos were watched in the year 2010 (Mashable, 2011). Having a look on the given statistics, anyone can guess that the amount of people moving into various social media platforms is bound to make an impact. It has disrupted the traditional business models with a low cost entry for everyone. The implications of the trend for the businesses are multiple as social media has opened up a lot of windows and opportunities to

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conduct business, and engage people in the commercial activities. Hence, for making any business marketing plan, social media marketing aspects are very important.

Social Media and Business Marketing:

Due to the listed facts in the statistic page, it has become clear that any business that has to increase the number of the customers it serves, social media marketing is a must thing that has to be taken up seriously for conducing commercial activities. This simply means, you have a population of 800 million on Facebook, (Greater than that of US), can you forget to target that market, when you have a free platform to attract those. The case is not restricted to the large or Multinational Organizations. The small business can also develop a coherent strategy to become more than what they are today. According to the recent research conducted by Harvard Business School, there is a direct relation between the engagements of social media marketing efforts and output. However, there has to be a calculated effort, with predetermination of who will matter the most and how anyone can influence the buying decision (HBS, 2009)? So, regardless of the size, nature, industry and profit and turnover of the business, any business organization can engage in the commercial activities and can indeed enhance the output in a greater manner. There are various aspects of social media marketing that can be applied for any business, social or commercial activity. Some of them include social bookmarking, social automation, blog marketing and validation. However, the list of the social media marketing along with the engagement of other e-marketing functions goes longer than this (Sentic Computing for Social Media Marketing , 2011). In the following chapter, a case study is being presented, where a newly formed company is in the pursuit of its objectives with the help of social media. 9|Page

Implications for the Businesses:

Social media has great implications for not only the businesses and markets, but B2B and B2C relations. Alan Mitchell (2001) is of the view that the rising era of interactive marketing is about to amend the very fundamentals of marketing; the new manytomany (B2B, C2C, B2C, C2B etc.) contact gives the customers the upper hand. Social media provides a platform for dialogues, and on these mediums people converse about diverse brands and their incident with them, about both the positives and the negatives. Christodoulides (2008) point of view is in the same line of thoughts; marketers are no longer in complete control of their brand, as social networks and communities heavily influences how those brands are perceived, which in turn influences not only customer choices but also company decisions. The actual value is being shaped in an interactive process, and companies can either sit on the sidelines or come in the social space in order to join in an open dialogue, and manipulate how their brand is being spoken about. No one can deny the fact that the amount of information on the web is immense, and the only resource people are lacking is time. Hence, marketers have to provide revisit on attention to the customers so as to get keep their awareness once they have it; rather than pushing marketing messages on the public, marketers require focusing on creating relationships, involving with customers in order to realize their behaviour and needs, in order to boost the demand for their products or services. Modern era has indeed brought about a bundle of opportunities for the companies to interact with the customers, and hence influence their decision making. No other platform can be as successful as is the case of social media networks. The technology age will provide opportunities to make brands with the help of a dialogue and customers rather than trying to inspire convenient brand imagery into the public minds (Golden, 2010). 10 | P a g e

Importance of Social Media in E-Marketing:

Electronic marketing or E-marketing is a very broad field and involves a great variety of activities, practices and theories. As an e-marketing manager, you have to not only take care of your contents and advertisement but also of social media presence and search engine optimization perspectives. In order to look at the importance of social media in the e-marketing practices, a look into the following 10 perspectives can be very helpful. (Scifo, 2010) Social Media Marketing is the one of the hottest topics in online marketing currently and you can notice a lot of articles and publications on social media marketing, its importance, and customs to implement and so on. Nearly every one of the companies is trying to get themselves engaged in a variety of social media channels for various purposes. If designed and executed well Social Media marketing can be one of the most cheapest and valuable mode of online marketing and promotion. Conversely, the social media can be a source of catastrophe. The are many reasons for why a company needs to go round towards social media marketing and it depends upon various factors such as the company profile, its products, it customers etc. Day by day the significance of an effective social media marketing campaign is on the rise for almost all the companies. Here I would like to cite 5 major significances of social media marketing (Scifo, 2010) for a company. Brand Development: Social media can be used for the sake of goodwill generation and increasing the loyalties of the targeted market. Firms can involve in discussion, acquire feedback and advertise on social media in order to take a great advantage of these. This finally ends up in the development of brand and helps businesses organize its activities.

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Engagement with the Customers: Social networks help organizations stay in touch with the customers. Customer engagement is the key benefits of social media marketing and this helps to hold its active customers and also increase brand trustworthiness. During the recent economic downfall, a lot of companies succeeded in retaining its customers with the help of customer engagement programs at various social networks and channels. Lead Generation: In marketing, leads play a very important role, and social media helps businesses in developing leads. This helps enterprise to focus on the core and relevant areas of the market that are actually value-holders and can provide a great deal of them. Web Traffic Generation: Another aspect of social media is in terms of search engine optimization as social networks play a very significant role in web traffic development. Just look at the statistics, you will be amazed to see that the social networks are the primary fundamental factor, which plays the most vital role in the development of quality traffic to the website. Just moving people to the website does not matter as much as matters the quality of that traffic. If you are able to target just 50 people on your website in a given day, but 90% of them are your prospects, the traffic quality is good, because their conversion rate will also increase with passage of time. Better ROI: Advertising of your products in applicable and product niche social media channels can facilitate you in escalating your return over investment (ROI). Business related and compatible social media marketing can improve your ROI significantly. 12 | P a g e

Constant and Immediate Feedback: Customer feedbacks are the moral fibre of any industry and the feedback helps in getting better the products as per the customers requirements. Since social media channels helps in making customer meeting much easier, customer feedbacks are always there on the peak and one can always anticipate helpful customer reviews and advice which can help in making the products or services even more better. Announcements of New Products and Services: Social media is the best option for you. When you have to release the information about the new products or announcements of the new package or service, social media becomes the best choice for you along with others. It is very easy to spread news using Twitter and other social networking websites and is always free. 2 Way Traffic in Relationship: You can get more information about the customers and social and traditional trends by using social networks. Moreover, your customers choice can also be noted easily if you appoint a social media strategist, who could judge and analyze the ideas regarding that. If you have an idea about customers preferences, you will be able to target the quality market that can be or could be the prospect. Search Engine Ranks Perspective: Social media campaigns can be very helpful for you as a business, as your positive search engine ranks indicate that. This means that, when using social media, you should also keep the perspective of website and customer base development in mind as well (Scifo, 2010) and this can really work wonders as has been proven in many cases. 13 | P a g e

Some Powerful Social Media Marketing Tools:

Social media is not only a broad field of study but also involves a great variety of tools for various purposes and perspective. Normally, in order to develop the business and improve search engine ranks, companies employ a great variety of facts and figures. Just look at the given list and the things will be clearer to you. Key Social Media Tools and practices: Here are some of the most powerful tools (Kim, 2008) that have been are still being used for the sake of marketing, clientele and business development. 1. Blogs 2. Bookmarking/Tagging 3. Brand monitoring 4. Content aggregation 5. Crowdsourcing/Voting 6. Discussion boards and forums 7. Events and meet-ups 8. Mashups 9. Microblogging 10. Online video 11. Organization and staffing 12. Outreach programs 13. Photosharing 14. Podcasting 15. Presentation sharing 16. Public Relations & social media releases 17. Ratings and reviews 18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities 19. Sponsorships 20. Virtual worlds 21. Widgets 22. Wikis

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Tasks:
Task 1:
Being a consultant to the TCP Events Company, and a social media strategist, we will take at least two courses for marketing. Formal course of action Informal In the formal set up, we would go for a formal marketing program on the leading social professional networks. Here, the core aspects of the study would be following. 1. Setting up official pages of the company on the leading social and professional networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, About.com, and an official announcement channel on YouTube. 2. It will also be ensured that every networking site not only has our official page, but also our specific and official group as well. 3. We need to build up fans pages on Facebook, Twitter etc. and companys own group at LinkedIn and Facebook as well. 4. In order to ensure that customers respond to what we offer, we will not restrict ourselves to just announcements and news. Instead, we will engage in a constructive and an interactive dialogue with them to keep them engaged. This on the one hand will help us build brand awareness, and on the other hand, we will also keep ourselves ready for the customers expectations and anticipation. 5. Interactive marketing is always far more comprehensive as well as effective. So, in order to be successful in marketing, an interactive approach to remain in constant communication with the customers is vital. 15 | P a g e

6. Furthermore, it will be ensured that the company has its own blog to share, and distribute specific relevant as well as accommodative information. 7. The blog will be constantly updated, and to make sure this, we have recommended hiring a professional blogger and content writer, who could provide us with the fresh content as per the guidelines and suggestions of the Google. 8. To make blog visible in the search engine, we will ensure that our blog posts are constantly being uploaded and shared on all of our profiles and groups. 9. Our marketing manager will ensure that the blog is not only being constantly updated, but also is being shared on the given social and professional networks. 10. Finally, it will be mandatory for the team members of the company to follow the official pages and groups of the company. Moreover, they will be trained to share the relevant information in their respective social and professional networks to generate leads and attract as many prospects as possible. 11. In order to ensure business to business relations and attracting corporate clients, we will ensure that we do not neglect LinkedIn and other professional networks. We will follow our fellow partners and industry players to have them in touch as well as build and develop positive corporate relations. In short, every effort is focused on the concept of brand development. As we are new in the market, so we do need to not only ensure that we offer valuable services, but also need to create brand awareness. The efforts individual as well as group efforts will have to remain focused and objective if we are to achieve our organizational goals.

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Task 2:
In this regard, we have not only recommended creating fan pages on the social networking websites but also maintained a blog. Official Website: In the first step, we will move to build and develop our business website that we will use as a launching pad for our business. All of our services and their patters, packages, team and every other important information will be available on that. Social Networking: Our focus should remain on the popular websites of our niche markets. In this regard, Facebook and Twitter remain in limelight. However, business to business relations will never be neglected. So, professional networks like LinkedIn will remain a key factor in our social or network marketing program. Blog: It is recommended to create a blog with the name of The TCP Word. The blog will not only inform the pubic about us and our various service offerings but will also work as a teaching platform for the market. We will guide our target market about the trends of the industry, current economic situation, industrial analysis and other informative and vital piece of information. This will make our blog valuable and attract more visitors on that. In any case, when the customer comes any of our platforms, (website, blog, and social networking pages) half of our objective completes. The rest of half will also be a very easy assignment if we are able to convince the visitor that we are offering some value.

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Task 3:
Here are some of vital aspects that we will use to market our blog particularly and website in general for the sake of business development. 1. In order to make a successful attempt, a comprehensive online marketing scheme on the basis of fundamental SEO principles will be executed. 2. We will constantly update our blog posts and will share it on various social networking channels and our own profiles. 3. Due to the popularity of bookmarking sites, it will also be ensured that all of our bookmarks are submitted and distributed properly. 4. In order to ensure that the blog remain visible in search engine, professional writer will be hired for the sake of providing fresh, relevant and unique contents to that. 5. Formal SEM and SEO schemes and link building, forum discussions, forum participations and guest blogging will also be ensured. 6. In doing all of our online marketing practices, honestly and fair play rules will be strictly adhered. This means that we will not indulge in any unethical, unwanted email marketing, spamming and bad link developments. 7. Conversely, our focus will remain on the sound SEO and SEM principles. By applying these with the core social media marketing practices, we will ensure that our site/blog is visible and being read by the public. 8. For making it more popular, we will start article marketing program, where all sound content marketing strategies will be applied. We will hire professional writers to help us prepare quality contents for online content and article directories that could be a powerful source of traffic to our site/ blog.

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Task 4:
Finally, in order to complete the work in balanced and organized manner, we will divide the tasks into the team and will distribute a task to a given person.

Content Marketing

SEO and SEM

Blog and Social Updates Finance & Admin

As it has been listed above, the team will have 4 functions in total, where the responsibilities of the team members will be as follows: 1. Content Marketing person will covers article writing, press releases, on page and other contents required by the site SEO program. 2. Blogger will update the content and distribute it on social media platforms 3. SEO and SEM person will use analytics and come up with plan containing required information on the desired steps in the light of the objectives. 4. Finance and admin person will ensure delivery of the service as per set standards and ensure smooth financial transactions in the whole system.

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Conclusion:
Finally, there is no doubt in accepting the fact that social media has become a very active and vibrant force in the modern era. Due to its greater social and socioeconomic implications for the businesses, it is almost difficult for any business organization to simply ignore it. Hence, what a company has to bear in mind in modern era is, everything that could add value to your system and output is acceptable. Social media, being one of the most powerful tools that could bring value, customers and business to the firms requires a professional approach in a much disciplined manner. The starting point of this exercise is strategic planning of your business and analysis of the needs and requirements. Once you give it a formal approach and really accept it as part of your organizational marketing operations, take up a coherent approach and plan your social media marketing scheme on the basis of principles listed above. Whether it is the matter of general e-marketing, content marketing, social media or any other function, one need to bear in mind that 21st century is a knowledge century. If you are able to offer and provide required and relevant information on the subject to your client and convince him that you provide him better value than that of the competitor, the job is done. On the other hand, if the tasks are yet to be met and there is no proper and mechanized system of organizational planning and implementation of social media, the output can be far more different than your planning and expectations. Hence, a professional and much brighter thinking is required that starts with a logical analysis of the situation, finding the niches to serve, selecting the practical tools to deliver on that and finally perfect execution of the fair plan is highly required. We need to bear in mind that every generation and century has its own charm, characteristics and distinctive abilities; what makes 20 | P a g e

21st century different as well as challenging includes knowledge, information bombardment and technology. Hence, it is highly critical matter for the business organizations like The Crispy People (TCP) to carefully select everything that it intends to do. Most of the people today, do not take SEO and SEM as valid and important practices; however, the fact remains unhidden in the terms that both of these are among the most challenging and highly beneficial e-marketing tools that are based on technical analysis and applications. In short, a comprehensive set of tools that includes e-marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, content marketing and blogging can be a very valuable addition to the general and formal marketing plans of the organizations. In the 21st century, if any organization has to stay ahead and reap the ripe fruits, it will have to be on its toes for making the most out of the available resources. Social media not only presents a challenge, but an ocean of opportunities for you to come and dive into it.

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Bibliography
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