“A STUDY ON

SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING”

A Project submitted to
University of Mumbai for partial completion of the degree of
Bachelor of Management Studies
Under the faculty of commerce
By
ANMOLPREET KAUR BHANGU

Under the Guidance of

Prof. Sonia Pant

Mahatma Gandhi Mission’s

College of Commerce
MGM education campus, sector-18, kamothe,
Navi-mumbai-410209, Maharashtra

MARCH 2020

1
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To list who all have helped me is difficult because they are so numerous and the
depth is so enormous.
I would like to acknowledge the following as being idealistic channels and fresh
dimensions in the completion of this project.
I take this opportunity to thank the UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI for giving me
chance to do this project.
I would like to thank my Principal, DR CHAITALI GADEKAR for providing the
necessary facilities required for completion of this project.
I take this opportunity to thank our Coordinator PROF. SONIA PANT for her moral
support and guidance.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards my project guide PROF
SONIA PANT whose guidance and care made the project successful .
I would like to thank my COLLEGE LIBRARY , for having provided various
reference books and magazines related to my project.
Lastly , I would like to thank each and every person who directly or indirectly helped
me in the completion of the project especially my parents and peers who supported me
through my project.

2
 DECLARATION BY LEARNER

I the undersigned MS. ANMOLPREET KAUR BHANGU here by, declare that the
work embodied in this project work titled “ A Study On Social Media In Marketing ”,
forms my own contribution to the research work carried out under the guidance of
Prof. Sonia Pant is a result of my own research work and has not been previously
submitted to any other university for any other Degree / Diploma to this or any other
university.
Wherever reference has been made to previous work of others , it has been clearly
indicated as such and included in the bibliography.
I, here by further declare that all information of this document has been obtained and
presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct .

ANMOL PREET KAUR BHANGU

Certified by
PROF. SONIA PANT

3
 Mahatma Gandhi Mission’s
College of Commerce
MGM education campus, sector-18,kamothe, Navi Mumbai- 410209, Maharashtra

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that ANMOLPREET KAUR BHANGU has work and duly completed his
project work for the degree of Bachelor of Management Studies under the faculty of
commerce in the subject of Marketing and his project is entitled,
“STUDY ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING”
, under my supervision.
I further certify that the entire work has been done by the learner under my guidance
and that no part of it has been submitted previously for any Degree or Diploma of
any University .
It is his own work and facts reported by his personal findings and investigation.

Signature: Signature:
PROF. SONIA PANT EXTERNAL EXAMINER
PROJECT GUIDE

Signature:
DR. CHAITALI GADEKAR
PRINCIPAL
Date of Submission:

4
 TABLE OF CONTENT
PAGE
SR.NO PARTICULARS
NO.
1 CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION 07-56
1.1 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING DEFINITION
1.2 DEFINITION- WHAT DOES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
(SMM) MEAN?
1.3 TECHOPEDIA EXPLAINS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM)
1.4 SCOPE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
1.5 HISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
1.6 BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
1.7 FEATURES OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
1.7 BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACED BY SOCIAL MEDIA
MARKETERS
1.8 OVERCOMING CHALLENGES FACED BY SOCIAL MEDIA IN
MARKETING
1.9 SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
1.10 LIMITATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
1.11 TOOLS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
1.12 IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
1.13 TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
1.14 SOCIAL MEDIA AND INTEGRATED MARKETING
1.15 SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERS

2 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 57-61

2.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
2.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
2.3 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
2.4TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION
2.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

3 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW 62-68

3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
3.3 CORRELATION BETWEEN THE TWO CONCEPTS
3.4 CONCLUSION OF LITERATURE REVIEW

4 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 69-80

5 CHAPTER 5: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION 81-84

5.1 SUGGESTION
5.2 CONCLUSION
5.3 FINDINGS

6 CHAPTER 6: BIBLOGRAPHY 85-88

6.1 QUESTIONNAIRE
6.2 REFERENCE

5
6
 CHAPTER 1 :-
INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a
product or service Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in

7
academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and
researchers. Most social media platforms have built-in data analytics tools, which enable
companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns. Companies
address a range of stakeholders through social media marketing, including current and
potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general
public. On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of a marketing
campaign, governance, setting the scope (e.g. more active or passive use) and the
establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone."
When using social media marketing, firms can allow customers and Internet users to
post user-generated content (e.g., online comments, product reviews, etc.), also known as
"earned media," rather than use marketer-prepared advertising copy.

1.1 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING DEFINITION

Social media marketing ( SMM ) refers to techniques that target social networks and
applications to spread brand awareness or promote particular products. Social media
marketing is perceived as a more targeted type of advertising and is therefore believed to be
very effective in creating brand awareness.

1.2 DEFINITION- WHAT DOES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM) MEAN?

Social media marketing (SMM) refers to techniques that target social networks and
applications to spread brand awareness or promote particular products. Social media
marketing campaigns usually center around:

 Establishing a social media presence on major platforms

 Creating shareable content and advertorials
 Cultivating customer feedback throughout the campaign through surveys and contests

Social media marketing is perceived as a more targeted type of advertising and is therefore
believed to be very effective in creating brand awareness.

1.3 TECHOPEDIAEXPLAINS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (SMM)

Social media presence is a necessity for many customer-driven enterprises as it gives the
impression of a more immediate connection between the customer and the seller. Moreover,
campaigns spread through social media are believed to have more resonance because they are
usually discovered through links shared by trusted sources. The rich data available through
social media can allow advertisers to target their message to very specific audiences,
providing the potential for better results.

1.4 SCOPE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING

8
The scope of social media marketing is a topic of discussion in many digital
marketing circles, especially for brands and companies with limited resources to burn on
marketing.
For most small brands and companies in the market, social media is only a medium to simply
maintain a presence on. A great example is companies that post images on festivals and
special days but keep their accounts inactive otherwise. Such companies, though highly
invested in digital marketing through SEO and search ad marketing, are not as keen on social
media marketing as it does not benefit them in any form.Big brands, on the other hand, have
already begun to use social media marketing for a variety of different goals. Whether it is for
simple branding purposes, online reputation management, or even selling products and
generating leads, social media marketing can be a highly lucrative exercise if done
effectively.As a subject of learning, social media marketing is taught across various
different digital marketing courses. From an online program to a digital marketing course in
Delhi, social media marketing is a part of curriculums across the board.

1.The Recent Trends:

Recent trends relating to social media marketing have suggested that some of the most
trafficked platforms of the world such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so on are being
used by brands from all segments of the market

2.Targeting Capabilities:
The scope of social media marketing is defined by its ability to target specific segments of the
audience. Brands and companies which earlier depended on traditional marketing pivoted to
digital once they realized they could tap into the practice of targeting specific segments of the
audience..

3.Mobile-Friendly Setup:
One way social media platforms have managed to maintain their popularity is by setting up
intuitive native apps for their customers. The shifting trend towards mobile has left many
internet companies in the dust.

1.5 HISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING

9
The growth of social media has created a need for platforms to evolve with consumers
demands for something new and entertaining. Over the years there have been many networks
that have been slow to implement changes or unable to adapt their platform to demands of
consumers.
On a daily basis we check our phones on average 150 times, it is the first thing we do in the
morning, the last thing we do at night and continually throughout the day, social media
marketing is everywhere. Over the years there have been many social platforms that have
successfully developed their brand to accommodate the needs of consumers, but of course
where there are successes there are failures, and many platforms have failed to stay relevant
in an ever changing climate.
Believe it or not social media did not start with Facebook, the idea of social media began in
the early 1970’s as a result of aspects like e-mail, the first e-mail being sent in 1971. With the
first solely social interaction site developing in 1997, Six Degrees.
The importance of understanding the history of social media marketing is not only the
development of the platforms but how they also offer something unique for the customers and
offer a personal, yet sometimes interruptive form of advertising for businesses. Knowing how
to use social media marketing for your business properly and acknowledge upcoming
platforms as well as out-of-date sites gives you advantage over others. At the moment Video
is a hot trend but images do still have more engagement on social media, so be sure to use the
right method for your business. There are so many different trends available and with the
platforms continually updating it is more important than ever to make sure that you are
creating content that your audience will see. Your audiences are now more accessible than
ever with the help of these social media sites providing advertising and specific targeting
opportunities.
The majority of the sites that are still relevant are using Paid Advertising on their platforms,
this is increasingly important as businesses want to be where consumers are, and if your
platform is good enough it will have the people. Using Paid Advertising on social media
allows you to target specific demographics, choosing the right social media marketing
strategy will determine the success of your campaign. For example, Facebook’s demographic
has shifted over the years and now 73% of 30-49 year old’s are using the social network! If
you are wishing to target this audience, it would be illogical to put money into advertisements
on Instagram for example where the demographic is much younger.
As well as primarily using social networks to advertise, they will allow you to monitor
audience trends and adapt to them. Social networks also let you to communicate with your
audience directly, by doing this you are making your brand more personable; breaking down
the impression that your accounts are being run by corporate robots. Overall, social networks
allow you to get your name out there, by interacting with your target demographic this can
create a chain effect in growing your business.

Social Media seems to be a new trend, but its roots stretch to the beginning of computer era.
What we see today is the result of centuries-old social media development. Usernets, which

10
was launched in 1979, was the first progenitor of social media, and the journey from Usernets
to Facebook is a long one. Usernets allowed users to post on newsgroups. It was followed by
bulletin board systems (BBS) which allowed users to login and interact. Online services like
progidy were the precursors to BBS. After online services, internet relay chat came into light
which gave way to instant messaging.

In the 90s, dating sites and forums were on peak, which led to the development of social
networks. But they did not let users make friend lists. Six degrees launched to overcome this
feature. It allowed profile creation and listing pears. It was purchased and shut down after
playing for a decade. Blogging emerged in this phase, creating a sensation in social media. It
is popular even today. Other sites like Black Planet (African-American Social Website) and
Mi Gente (Latino) cropped up having provision to create profiles and add friends.

Modern social networks came into picture post 2000. Apple launched its Friendster in 2002.
It has millions of users. Hi5 and Linkedin were launched in 2003. Linkedin is a ground for
professionals to reach out to one another. MySpace also originated in 2003 and became well
known by 2006. Similarly Facebook was launched in 2004 and surpassed MySpace, Orkut,
Multiply, etc., and is still expanding. This decade also conceived media sharing platforms
like photobucket, flickr, youtube, instagram, etc., along with news and bookmarking
platforms like Digg and Delicious.

Since 2000, Social Media has bloomed to horizon and is still expanding limitlessly. Along
with media sharing, many other portals that provide real-time updates were introduced, for
example, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. In 2007, Facebook launched its advertising system.

1.6 BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING

11
The benefits of social media can be defined in many ways. This is because the value
of social media is often evaluated from different perspectives. For example, say you have an
e-commerce website. Your goal could be to increase hits to your site. So you
decide to do SEO (increase ranking on organic search). There are a ton of search benefits
from social media. Social sharing and back-links help increase ranks. Also, social media
outlets can help increase hits to blogs and other relevant content you have.
But social media can do much more for you than just increase traffic. The key benefits of
social media lies in relationship building. Relationships build trust and trust builds sales.
Picture being able to talk with your customers one-on-one on a daily basis. Can you imagine
the impact that would have? With social networks you have that opportunity.

The key is to know how to find the right people. Then understand their interests and
problems. And bang, you add value.

1. Advanced Targeting: The exact audience that your business is targeting is on social
media. You can find them based on what they are talking about and the data that is associated
with their profiles. This is a huge advantage for brands with a niche or local market. Use
social media as a way to find your customers and solve any needs or problems they may
have.

12
2. Direct Access to Customers: Social media allows you to connect with your target market,
prospects, and customers at any time. In fact, some platforms allow you to import your
contacts into your account to connect with them. You can use this as a way to instantly
inform your customers on current promotions, special offers, new products, and more. And
best of all its free. This is a great way to up sale your current base.

3. Brand Awareness: Social media allows you to market your business to thousands of
people around the world at any moment. There is no limit to the demographic, location, or
type of consumer that your brand can touch. Every time someone shares one of your post,
your reach grows larger. For example, if your tweet gets shared by 20 people who average
500 followers, then up to 10,000 people have the ability to see your post! That’s pretty good.

4. Lower Advertising Cost: Let’s face it. It cost more to print flyers than to make a post on
social media. There are Facebook ad campaigns that reach more people than billboards.
YouTube, which is the second largest search engine in the world, can be more cost efficient
than network TV ads. Social media allows brands to be laser focused and spend less on
advertising.

5.Increase Relationship Capital : For the first time in history, brands have the opportunity
to build relationships online through social media. For brands on social media, it means to
build a bond within the market you are targeting. People tend to buy from brands they know
and trust. You must first look to connect with your customers on a personal level and look to
sell lasts.

6. Unbiased Reviews on Brand, Product, or Service: Consumers today are leaving more
online reviews than ever before. They will either show their love or hate for your product or
service. Either way, it provides honest feedback for your brand to consider. Whether good or
bad, by monitoring what is being said about your business is a great way to improve. Show
your customers you care about them.

7. Build a Community: With social media you are able to build an entire community around
your brand. Think about it like this. If there was a soft drink that tasted better than Coke,
would it alarm them? Probably not. Why? Because Coke has an entire community of brand
advocates. Coke has millions of people who support their brand every where

13
8. Word of Mouth: Social media can be a great tool to create massive word of mouth about
your brand. Great content can go viral in reach millions fast. Also, the right promotions and
contests can get the word out pretty quick. For example, our client Clearon Bleach, a bleach
product in Walmart, wanted to get more college students talking about their brand. To do so,
they hosted a “Clearon Giveaway” in which they gave away a $50 gift card twice a month to
the person who used the Clearon Giveaway the most. The results were tremendous and they
were able to reach over 75,000 people each giveaway. Below is an example of tweets from
the exact audience Clearon was aiming to reach.

9. Increase Leads & Sales: Yes. Social media marketing can increase sales. It is your job to
decide how. There are people who are tweeting right now about a specific need they have.
Brands who engage with this audience daily may can convert leads. A percentage will turn
into sales and the source will be apparent. Perhaps you have a great website, but you just
need qualified traffic to convert them into sales. Social media can help generate the traffic
you need.

14
1.6 FEATURES OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING

Social media networks are mode of social interaction. It is a platform of sharing and
discussing information among human beings. Social media can include text, audio, video,
images, podcasts and other multimedia communication elements. Social media sites are
nothing but a group of special and user friendly websites. Social media marketing is a very
broad term. Social media marketing is a technique of building a business using various social
media networks. For instance, videos and blogs that gives exposure to your company. When
someone talks about social media marketing people often think that they may be talking
about Facebook and Twitter. But social media networks also offer effective marketing tools
that can bring more traffic to your website and improve your online popularity. Social media
marketing has many characteristics. To attain a good marketing strategy, you need to have a
look at the following SMM characteristics.

1.Participation:

Social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone. Social media includes

delivery of ideas at the time of online conversation. It tries to bridge the gap between

companies and audience. With all the new channels of social media, people are enjoying this

process of participation.

2.Openness:

Social media success requires honesty, transparency and authenticity. You should maintain a

trust worthy relationship with your customers in your SMM (social media marketing)

strategy. One fake or negative comment can destroy your online reputation.

3.Build-relationships:

Social media is a two-way communication channel. It requires participation from both

companies and customers. As a business owner, it is very important to make good

connections with your target audience. Online conversation through various social media

tools happen in real time with real people. You get a chance to interact with your target

audience and you can answer to their queries. Answering to their queries is a good way to

build relationship with customers.

15
4.Reliability:

To make your profile reliable, you need to consistently show your online presence. Effective

social media marketer visits their targeted sites regularly. They also get involved with new

users and promote their products. They talk to their target audience on a regular basis.

5.Build-communities:

Social media sites allow you to build communities quickly, this helps you communicate more

effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political

issue or a favorite TV show. These communities help you to know about your target

audience. You can also support other communities which you think are good for your

business.

6.Customer-service:

It is very essential to take care of your customers. Social media networks are all about

helping each others. It’s about providing value to your customers, not just promotion.

7.Avoid-spamming:

Don’t give importance only to promoting your links. Also share insightful content about your

company. Do not send the same message to your community again and again, it works as a
spam and it may irritate your customers.

Social media marketing is the most powerful platform for small businesses. An effective

social media marketing campaign grows your business and brings more traffic to your

website. Social media marketing is the best marketing strategy allows you to promote your

company at the same time build relationships.

16
1.7 BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACED BY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETERS

As the use of social media continues to rise, businesses finally understand the value and the
importance of social media marketing. While it’s a constantly changing platform, there is no
doubt that it’s here to stay.

Now, 70% of the US population has at least one social networking profile and 52% use two
or more social media sites. However, because of the constantly shifting landscape, the need
for social media engagement, and the relevance of technology, some businesses are
struggling to adapt.

Because of that, sometimes it’s better for businesses to hire an agency to take care of your
social media marketing strategy. This is especially true for smaller and medium sized
businesses, as the owners and management team are more than likely wearing many different
hats as is. Adding social media marketing to their plates means it may not get the attention it
needs.

Following are the Biggest Challenges Faced by Social Media Marketers

1.Measuring ROI

Measuring the ROI is important to track and show results. However, this can be difficult
because of all the different costs associated, such as labor, technology, and training. The
different goals make it even harder. That’s why setting specific goals beforehand is so
important. This keeps your team focused only on relevant KPIs. If your goal is to increase
brand awareness, then your ROI will be based on the number of followers. If your goal is to
increase sales, then your ROI will be based on the amount of sales. Create your goals before
you begin and to make it easier to track your success.

17
2.Targeting Right Audience

Creating a successful strategy is all about your target audience. Clearly defined buyer
personas are the foundation for your entire strategy. The best way to develop your buyer
personas is to survey current clients and to monitor the success or shortcomings of your
competitors.

3.Targeting Right Platform

Your customers are using social media, you just have to figure out which platform they’re
using. When creating your social media marketing strategy, you need to ask: Who is our
target audience? Which social media platforms are they using? What times are they using it?
By understanding your target audience and how they use social media, you’ll increase your
odds of success.

4.Knowing When to Take Action with Social Media Data

All online activities can be tracked, providing the data you need. Tracking the analytics of
your social media marketing strategy shows you what’s working and which aspects need to
be changed. This is why your social media marketing strategy requires proper planning, a
target audience, and specific KPIs. This allows you to track the data important to your
strategy and ignore unrelated metrics.

5.Securing Enough Internal Resources

Businesses are run by people, which means they have the same flaws. It’s easy for businesses
to continue operating as they have for years, even as the landscape is shifting. This mindset
can make it difficult for some businesses to get on board with social media marketing.
Listening to concerns and offering data-driven solutions is the only way to change that
mindset.

6.Developing Social Media Marketing Strategies

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media marketing. There are many different
platforms, many different demographics to each, and different strategies that each platform
requires. Staying up to date on the latest trends on each platform, as well as optimizing posts
for each site, requires research and time. Develop your strategy based on this research and
support your objectives with data.

18
1.8 OVERCOMING CHALLENGES FACED BY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETERS

While there may be no one-size fits all approach, there are aspects of creating a social media
marketing strategy that need to be completed to achieve success. First, you need to spend
time planning, finding your target audience, learning the different platforms, and creating the
KPIs important to your objectives.

Once you’ve created your objectives and target audience, and after you’ve implemented your
strategy, you need to be adaptive. Rarely will your first attempt be successful. This is an ever-
changing landscape and you need to be able to track your results and restructure your strategy
as needed.

The easiest way to achieve success with your social media marketing strategy is to be active.
You need to focus on engaging with your followers and those that engage with you. Social
media is social, and you need to be social to continue to grow your audience.

19
 1.9 SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING
Following are some of the facts that highlight the importance of social media.
o Social media is easily accessible and it’s also the meeting point of today’s internet
savvy audience.
o Major portion of younger generation, teenagers and middle aged people, are major
percentage of the total social media user population.
o Social media opens possibilities of direct access to clients without any third party
intervention.
o Advertising through social media is pretty cost friendly as compared to costs incurred
by print, TV or other traditional media.
o Social media also helps in search engine optimization and increase in rankings of any
company websites.

1.No Geographical Boundaries:

Geographical boundaries cannot stop social media from reaching people, prospects, and
customers across the globe. Anybody who has online presence can be targeted. If you are
head hunter or a consulting firm, wouldn’t it be nice to expand your reach on a global
scale and to start expanding your business and market share by starting to serve customers
from all over the world?

20
2.Larger scales, Fatter Profits:
Targeting customers from all over the world helps to increase sales and makes it more
likely that your more ambitious sales targets will be met. Service oriented businesses can
especially take advantage of the nearly cost free environment of social media that can
provide a global presence.

3.Keep up with current Global Trends:

Most likely, all of your competitors will either already have an online presence or plan to
incorporate social media marketing strategies into their businesses. Even if you and your
competitors are not currently implementing a social media strategy, just know that it is
likely that soon your competitors will begin to do so any day.

4. Marketing Budgets:If you have newly started your business, be it a coffee shop,
laundry, moving company, regardless of the fie you are working in, you can reduce
pressure on finances from marketing activities by taking your marketing online. Online
marketing campaigns are much less expensive then print media campaigns that typically
incorporate display advertising in local newspapers as well as national periodicals.
Another advantage of online campaigns over print has to do with time sensitivity where
advertisements purchased in newspapers and magazines have a limited effective exposure
period. Online advertisements are viewable to customers as long as businesses wish them
to be with time periods lasting from days to years.

21
5.Communication…Two way Traffic:

Traditional marketing techniques, usually adopted by small scale businesses comprise of

dropping promotional letters, fliers, brochures and other forms of delivering marketing
messages, in mail boxes, print, radio and television or placing them on other “locations”.
These forms of communicating with customers are entirely one sided communications
where only the business has something to say.
By perusing a social media strategy opportunities for customers to provide feedback as
well as opportunities for direct dialogue with a corporate representative over Facebook can
be possible. Social media efforts give companies a digital personality and provide an
additional component for effective branding techniques.
You need to hear from your clients. Feedback is the lifeblood of any business and social
media helps you find out what your customers have to say about you. Once you have
communicated about your business and made a sale, you need to hear what you can and
should do to improve your service.
Another cool thing is that successful service stories and satisfied customers have a higher
likelihood of spreading the news to others on their own by getting your company a
presence and personality on social media networks. Social media is your key to two way
communication and continued professional success.

22
1.10 LIMITATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING

1. Time consuming – Social media is often described as an 'online conversation', so

you'll need to be constantly feeding your pages and profiles with interesting
comments and links to keep people interested. You also have comments to monitor
and respond to on a daily basis. Being consistently interesting and relevant all the
time can also be difficult to maintain.

2. Long time before ROI –Social media is a long haul strategy. It could be months, or
even years, before you start seeing it translating into increased customer loyalty and
sales.

3. Dilutes brand voice –If you have more than one person posting messages on social
media sites then this can lead to a mish mash of phraseology and tone

4. Risk of negative comments – If you use social media clumsily, there's a risk of a
public backlash and damage to your brand's reputation.

5. Loss of control –Anything you publish is open to comment and criticism. Providing

an arena for people to post negative comments about your company is the stuff of
nightmares for marketers.

23
1.11 TOOLS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING

What are Social Media Marketing Tools?

Social Media Marketing Tools provide underappreciated features not common to all social
media management suites. They can be hyper-specific and dedicated to one thing like brand
activation or contesting. They might be focused on gaining followers on a single platform
(e.g. Instagram).

Applications in this category fall under several names. Social media advocacy tools
encourage employees’ and brand customers to promote companies across their own social
media profile and feeds. Beyond that, social media promotion might include contesting,
sweepstakes, or polls. Social media curation tools help marketers find and reuse user-
generated content. UGC can then be cast into a feed, social media wall, television, or even a
Jumbotron.

24
1.BITEABLE

Creating content for social media is an essential part of the game. Visual content gets three
times more engagement on Twitter than plain ol’ text, so good visual content can help you
take it to the next level.

With Biteable, you can easily create engaging, entertaining, and informative short videos to
share on social media. With a host of free video templates, footage, music, and animated
scenes, Biteable is a godsend for anyone who wants to create studio-quality quickly without
needing expensive resources like film or sound recording equipment.

25
2.BUFFER

Buffer started off as a scheduling tool for Twitter. Today, it supports all the major social
media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google.

You can do some pretty neat things with Buffer:

 Use the chrome extension to add articles and content from the web to your Buffer
queue or share content on the go.
 Automatically shortens links you share. If you’re Bitly user, you can connect your
accounts.
 Upload custom photos and videos (or use ones pulled from the article you shared).
 Access complex analytics to track your content’s performance.
 Create a posting schedule so your content gets spread out throughout the day.
 Reply to posts from inside Buffer.
 Add team members.

A social media dashboard like Buffer helps you fill your social media feed with relevant and
exciting content without spending half your life logged in to Facebook and Twitter.

26
3. BUZZSUMO

Buzzsumo is a research tool which tells you how your content is doing and who’s spreading
the word.

Sometimes when you sit down to create content, you’re on fire. Other times it’s like pulling
teeth and you’re just grateful to have met a deadline. It’s impossible to guarantee success, but
a tool like Buzzsumo can help you increase the odds.

One of the most powerful research tools on the market, the functionality includes:

 Find content that’s most shared on social media channels – you can enter your own or
someone else’s domain and see what’s been shared socially.
 Find influencers related to particular topics.
 Get alerts based on keywords, brand name, links, author name, or domain.
 Track competitors and do an analysis based on their content.
 Use it to research keywords and trending topics your audience is interested in. You
can use it to find interesting new posts to share or to search for content ideas based on
what’s performing well.
 And, if you’ve got some cash to splash, Buzzsumo Pro is a powerhouse for competitor
research.

27
4. MEET EDGER

So you need a content manager but you’re already a one-person-band responsible for
evergreen content creation, tech support, and design? Meet Meet Edgar.

A social media management tool that handles both re-sharing your content and optimising
your social traffic, Meet Edgar is your handy automated content manager.

Working with your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles through a web plugin, you can
keep your social channels populated with posts and check in from wherever you are using
your mobile.

Meet Edgar allows you to schedule content re-sharing and monitor traffic while boosting
engagement and optimizing the ROI of your digital assets.

By putting your evergreen content out there on the regular, you can increase your traffic and
boost engagement. With an automated auto-refill queue, you won’t run out of regular posts. It
also features a category-based scheduling tool allowing you to mix different content types so
your audience never gets bored.

28
In Conclusion:

In conclusion, social media marketing is an important part of digital marketing with immense
scope as a field. Brands and companies not concentrating on social media marketing should
consider using it effectively based on the aforementioned points. 

29
1.12 IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

The importance of social media is undebatable. It is a powerful channel of marketing − a

game changer for any business. It provides us the flexibility to communicate at both personal
as well as business levels.

Business owners can improve search rankings, leads, sales, and traffic using search media.
This can be done at reduced marketing expenses. Besides business, it is a cool platform to
connect with friends and dear ones.

SMO Strategy for Business

A wisely implemented Social Media Optimization (SMO) strategy can give a great boost to
your business. To draw maximum benefit out of Social Media, you need to set clear and well-
defined business goals and objectives. The following points are the backbone of any well-laid
SMO strategy −

• Set measurable and achievable goals.

• Know you customers.

• Research over market and trends.

• Explore more social networking platforms. Reflect your presence on all.

• Choose core topics related to your business. Use them in content.

• Set Social Engagement parameters.

• Plan your resource use.

• Track your results.

30
+SMO − Key Concepts

• Aim for building reputation by depicting yourself as a trusted source or business.

• Encourage more engagement and sharing.

• Be an authorized name in your industry.

• Gear up originality.

• Keep it social.

• Master over your media platforms.

• Optimize every single point that hinders your efforts.

Business Profile Creation

Create an impactful Business profile. Add a well-defined persona and proficiency statement
of your business.

• Study competitors’ business profile, analyze their strong points, and add them to
yours.

• Add prominent features of your business that makes it stand out among others.

• Include the milestones achieved by your company.

• Add address and other details.

• Include data and statistics.

• List your renowned vendors.

• Add some keywords to it to get noticed by the web crawler.

31
Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is a degree to which your brand name is known. Brand name solidifies
customers’ trust. So, it is important that your brand name overshadows your products.
Promoting the brand name helps your business grow and get over obsolete business state.

Social Media Marketing can help you in branding your business. It helps you increase your
public profile as well. All you need is to

• Choose right Social Media Channel for your business.

• Finalize a social content strategy.

• Make a strong content strategy.

• Participate in good conversation with your customers to let them feel more connected.

• Keep track of all key metrics like potential reach, conversation share, links, etc.

32
Social Engagement

Social Media Engagement is the process of reaching out to potential customers and
interacting with them through Social Media. It is primarily done in order to draw attention
towards a particular product or a service. It is a two-way channel where a consumer can share
a good relationship with the vendors.

To achieve optimum reach, you need to engage with your audience. It can be a relentless
task. To grab more out of less, you need to strategize your social media engagement norms.

• Use 'Social Channels' to reach out fans.

• Use Social Media platforms to announce any event you are organizing.

• Entertain Posts your audience is posting.

• Use Social Media Circles to participate in valuable and educational conversations.

• Participate in Social Media groups.

Measure your engagement level to trace your engagement efforts. It is basically a ratio
between the social platforms that you use and the social platforms that you don't use to
engage. The higher is the level, the stronger is your bonding with the audience.

33
Viral Marketing

Any hot topic that is infectious is Viral Marketing. It is 'exposing an idea' for a cause. It is a
message getting viral by passing it from one to another with an intention of boosting your
business.

Social Media Viral Marketing is the use of social media channels to spread any message for
creating brand awareness. Viral marketing rate may differ on each level.

Examples of Viral Marketing

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge − ALS Association received increased media attention by soaking
the whole world. Even celebrities and entrepreneurs participated in it.

Ashton Kutcher hits 1M − Ashton has been a seeding strategist who influenced his fans by an
influencing message that went viral.

Hotmail went viral − Hotmail team placed a link 'Want a free email account? Sign-up for
Hotmail today.' in the footer of any mail sent from a Hotmail account. It was a viral hit.

When you’re a small business on a budget, social media marketing is just plain SMART.

After all, how else can you reach thousands of customers, leads, and prospects all over the
world without spending a penny on advertising?

The thing is, though, if you’re NEW to social media marketing, it can seem pretty
intimidating. It might feel a little like you’re showing up to a party long after everyone else!
If you’re feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, or downright confused about how to get started
with social media marketing, we’ve got you covered. Just use this beginner’s guide to get
started!

Originally, social media sites were a place for friends and family to sign up and interact with
each other. Over time, more and more people joined up and businesses realised there was a
hub of people who could be easily reached.

34
Popular social media sites include:

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Google+

• LinkedIn

• YouTube

• Pinterest

• Instagram

• Tumblr

• Vine

• Snapchat

But there are literally hundreds of social media sites. Some of them cater for very specific
niches and some are only available in certain countries. Some are even only available as an
‘app’ on your phone, whilst some are only available as websites.

35
What’s the general idea?

You can sign up to a social media site and usually create a ‘page’ for your business at no cost.
You will upload your logo, include your contact details and a link to your website. People can
then go ‘like’ or ‘follow’ your social media page.

By doing this, they will then be able to see all of your updates via some kind of ‘feed’ which
most people check regularly.

At Statement, we use many social sites including Facebook (which is arguably the most
popular). As you can see below, we share news and updates and other people can comment
on these and start conversations.

You can use social media to post company news, industry news, behind the scenes images of
your company, videos, and you can highlight your products or services.

However, the best thing about social media is that your existing and prospective customers
can comment on and engage with your posts - and you can comment back. This direct
communication can be incredibly valuable in building relationships with your customers or
clients.

Another great aspect of social media is that your followers can ‘share’ your content with their
own friends and followers. Their friends and followers can share with their friends and so on.

This is why it is called ‘social media’ because there is a real aspect of being social and
communicative.

36
Why is having a social media presence important?

To customers, especially younger customers, having a social media page is something so

simple and convenient that if they can’t find their favourite business on Facebook or Twitter,
then their brand loyalty can be seriously damaged.

If you link to your blog posts and videos via social media then this can also positively affect
your search engine ranking. If your content is being shared many times on social sites,
Google’s algorithms will notice this and realise that your content must be valuable. They will
then improve your position in their search results.

Having a social media page can also give credibility to your company. Research suggests that
7 in 10 people would be more likely to engage with a business that has an active social
presence. It makes you appear up-to-date with cultural norms, makes you appear easy to
contact and makes customers feel like they have a direct relationship with your brand.

37
What makes a successful social media strategy?

A successful social media strategy has many features. One of the possible problems with
social media is that not having some of these can actually be detrimental, so it’s important
that social media is taken care of by somebody who knows what they’re doing:

• A social media page needs to have a human feel to it. If you sound too corporate or
business-like, prospective customers can be easily scared off;

• A social media page needs to be updated regularly. If somebody visits your social
page and it hasn’t been updated since January 2001, they are likely to question the credibility
of your company with questions like ‘do they even exist anymore?’;

• A social media page needs to interact with its followers. It’s called social for a reason;

• A social media page also needs to be monitored - people on social media can openly
talk about your brand and they can sometimes be negative or hurtful. So if you monitor it
regularly, you can turn a negative situation into a positive one very quickly.

Many people believe that social media is a more informal aspect of digital marketing and
they treat it as such by giving it less priority. But as the digital marketing landscape is
changing, social media is becoming more and more significant in the way that customers
expect to interact with their favorite brands.

38
1.13 TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Some of the most popular current forms of social media are social networking websites such
as Facebook, which surpassed over one billion active monthly users in October 2012. There
are several types of online platforms classified under the vast umbrella of social media. These
categories include:

1.Social Networks: Social networking websites allow users to build web pages featuring
personal portfolios and interests. These pages are used to connect with friends, colleagues
and other users in order to share media, content and communications. Examples of social
networks include Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Bebo.

Visual social networks are becoming more popular, with Instagram having now surpassed
Twitter in its amount of users. Data has shown that a tweet that includes an image has a 150%
more chance of being shared. There are also new networks such as Snapchat and Periscope,
that are slowly growing in terms of popularity, especially with the younger generations.

2.Web blogs: Some of the oldest and most popular forms of social media are blogs. Blogs are
often viewed as online journals that order content chronologically, or by date, month, year
and category. Users can also maintain “vlogs,” or video blogs, featuring shared or homemade
videos. Blogging websites include WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr.

3.Microblogs: Microblogs are blogging tools that feature short posts, as opposed to journal-
style posts. Users are usually restricted to posting a few lines of text, or uploading individual
images and videos. Microblogging is particularly common for posting quick updates and
distributing content via mobile devices. Notable microblogging sites include Twitter and
Tumblr. However, social networks such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace also
have their own microblogging features.

4.Content Communities: Users on content communities organize, share and comment on

different types of content, including images and videos. YouTube, Flickr and scribd are
examples of content communities.

5.Wikis: Wiki websites allow a community of people to add and edit content in a
community-based database. One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.

39
6.Podcasts: Podcasts are audio and video files available through subscription services such
as Apple iTunes. The term “podcast” is a neologism derived from “broadcast” and “pod” (as
in “iPod”), since Podcasts are often listened to on portable media players.

Other types of social media include the following:

• Rating and review sites (e.g. Yelp)

• Social bookmarking or social tagging features (e.g. Digg; Stumble Upon)

• Forums and discussion boards (e.g. Yahoo!; Answers)

• Virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life; World of Warcraft)

• Music and audio sharing (e.g. Spotify; Pandora Radio)

Social media can also be classified by their ability to facilitate certain social functions. These
social functions often involve identity, conversation, sharing, presence, relationships,
reputation, and groups. Kaplan and Haenlein created a classification scheme using six
different types of social media– collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia), blogs and microblogs
(e.g. Twitter), content communities (e.g. YouTube), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook),
virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft), and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life).

40
1.14 SOCIAL MEDIA AND INTEGRATED MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS

Some of the post popular tweets are tweeted by companies and businesses. Powerful brands
like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s boast Facebook pages with millions of fans. Social media,
including social networks, makes it ever more important for companies to ensure their online
exposure ties directly to their brand image and messaging. Along with television, radio, and
print, social media is part of the communications ecosystem that works as a whole to create
an enjoyable and seamless consumer experience across multiple channels. Likewise,
integrated marketing communications is increasingly incorporating social media into the
promotional mix to reach consumers on the web and on mobile devices.

Facebook Business Page: Social networking sites such as Facebook can serve as lead
generators for marketing communications campaigns.

Brand Authenticity

The explosion of social media websites has led to the increasingly important practice of
social media marketing. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create
content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A
brand’s corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it
appears to come from a trusted, third-party source as opposed to from the brand or company
itself. Social networking sites and blogs allow individuals to retweet or repost comments
written by the creator of the product.

When that individual repeats the message, their connections are able to see it, which means
the message reaches more people. Because of the virality of social media, companies
frequently use social networking sites for word-of-mouth promotions of products and
services. As the information about the brand is broadcasted and repeated across the social
network, more traffic is brought to the company’s website. This results in earned media rather
than paid media and both serves as a lead generator and creates favorable publicity for the
brand.

41
Consumer Intelligence

Social media allows marketers to refine their segmentation strategy by reaching a narrow
target audience. For example, Pinterest, a social bookmarking site with an overwhelmingly
female user base, attracts companies that primarily target women.

Social networking sites also reveal vast amounts of information about prospective interest in
products and services. Today, new semantic analysis technologies allow marketers to detect
buying signals based on shared and posted online content. Understanding these buying
signals can help sales professionals target relevant prospects and help marketers run micro-
targeted campaigns.

Engagement Advertising and PR

Social media in business allows anyone and everyone to express an opinion or idea
somewhere along the company’s path to market. Through social networking sites, brands can
have conversations and interactions with individual followers. This personal interaction can
instill and strengthen brand loyalty amongst followers and potential customers. Thus, each
participating customer informally becomes part of the marketing department, as other
customers read their comments or reviews.

Facebook and other social networks are often used to tune into customer conversations and
quickly flag customer service issues and concerns. However, these conversations can also be
repurposed across other social media and corporate channels. Brands often use social media
to transform customer comments and testimonials into relevant and compelling content for
personal selling, advertising, and other promotional tactics. Listening to social media
“chatter” also helps companies stay in tune with public sentiment about their brand. By
tracking and analyzing conversations on social media, public relations professionals can catch
problems early and prevent negative publicity from turning into full-blown crises.

This engagement process is fundamental to successfully integrating social media into a

company’s marketing communications strategy. Organizations can use social media to cost-
effectively increase communications across the promotional mix, fostering brand awareness
and, often, improved customer service.

42
 DIGITAL MARKETING CHARACTERISTICS

Digital marketing is defined as the use of internet-connected devices such as computers,

tablets, smartphones, and game consoles to engage consumers with online advertising. One of
the key principles of digital marketing is creating an easy, seamless, and convenient user
experience for target audiences. Moreover, eliminating the amount of consumer effort needed
to act on digital content helps establish an ongoing, automated relationship between brands
and their audience.

Blog website: Digital marketers often incorporate blogs and other social media elements in
their corporate websites to encourage web traffic.

Pull Digital Marketing

Pull digital marketing is characterized by consumers actively seeking marketing content.

Consumers might use tactics including search engines, email newsletters, text messaging, or
web feeds to search for brand information. Push technologies deliver content as it becomes
available and are better targeted to consumer demographics. However, microtargeting tends
to produce smaller audiences, and results in higher creation and distribution costs.

Websites, blogs, and streaming media (audio and video) are examples of pull digital
marketing. In each of these channels, users must navigate to the website to view the content.
It is up to marketers to create digital content – text, images, videos, and audio – that is
relevant and captivating enough to attract web visitors, increase page views, and improve
search engine rankings.

Building online communities on related social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube is
another pull tactic used by brands to increase the number of interactions with prospects and
customers. Companies frequently use their corporate websites and blogs to build authority
and credibility in their field, as well as improve their search engine optimization. Major
search engines such as Google often index sites based on the quality and relevancy of their
content. Thus, the higher a brand is ranked in Google, the more likely web users will find
their website.

43
Push Digital Marketing

Push digital marketing occurs when marketers send messages with or without the consent of
the recipients. These digital marketing tactics include display advertising on websites and
blogs. Email, text messaging, and web feeds are also considered push digital marketing when
the recipient has not agreed to receiving the marketing message. This practice is also known
as spamming. The opposite of spamming is permission marketing, which uses technologies
with the prior permission of the recipient. Marketers obtain consumer permission to send
communications via subscriptions or written consent.

Subscriptions provide the opportunity to push content to fans and followers, prompting them
to visit the brand’s video channel, social media page, or corporate website. Text and video
press releases can also be distributed easily through online distribution services. Journalists,
bloggers, and other content producers visit these sites for news stories. Brands can gain web
traffic from media publications and blogs that use their press releases as information sources.

Other Types of Digital Marketing

A company may not exclusively use pull or push digital marketing strategies, or they might
not use these strategies at all. There are other marketing strategies that may involve a
variation of push or pull marketing. For instance, multi-channel communications use push
and pull message technologies simultaneously.

Mobile Marketing

This type of marketing allows marketers and advertisers to promote products and services
over m.obile devices including cellular phones, smartphones, portable media players and
tablets.

According to marketing professor Andreas Kaplan, mobile marketing is, “Any marketing
activity conducted through a ubiquitous network to which consumers are constantly
connected using a personal mobile device”. Because mobile marketing is conducted using
wireless networks, it is also known as “wireless marketing”. Marketing communications on
mobile devices is generally carried out via text messages or applications. Since consumers
typically carry their mobile devices with them throughout the day, mobile marketing presents
a cost-effective way for brands to deliver targeted messaging across different platforms.

44
1.15 SOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF CONSUMERS

Digital and social media has spurred brands to develop research tactics that hone in on the
social behavior of consumers online. Observing and understanding how consumers behave
and interact with each other has led to the introduction of new semantic analysis technologies
allowing companies to monitor consumer buying patterns based on shared and posted
content. The data helps sales and marketing professionals improve segmentation to target
prospects and customers.

Consumer Behavior

Traditionally, consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the
processes they use to select, purchase and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas.
Their purchases are meant to satisfy needs. Research has shown that consumer behavior is
difficult to predict, even for experts in marketing communications. Relationship marketing,
customer retention, customer relationship management (CRM) and personalization are all
tactics used to assess consumer behavior.

However, consumer behavior is also influenced by internal conditions such as demographics,

psychographics (lifestyle), personality, motivation, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and
feelings. Psychological factors include an individual’s motivation, perception, attitude and
beliefs, while personal factors include income level, personality, age, occupation and
lifestyle.

Types of Buyer Behaviors

Extensive research is often used to understand what appeals to buyers: colors, thought
triggers, images and sounds; all of these factors address psychological buying behaviors.
Societal buying behavior incorporates identification and suggestion to prompt a specific
buyer behavior. When a company hires a spokesperson or personality to promote a product,
they are utilizing societal buying behavior to connect buyer actions to that of the
spokesperson or the personality involved. Similarly, psychographics are often used that offer
insight into the lifestyle and personality traits of buyers.

Situational buying behavior involves a specific scenario or event that pressures a buyer to
purchase product. Perhaps it is the fact that peers have bought the same product, or a certain
product has become a “status symbol. ” Whatever the reason buyer behavior is often
impacted.

45
 ADVANTAGES

Social media is an excellent opportunity for you to grow your business.

Here are seven benefits of using social media marketing.

1. YOU REACH LARGE AUDIENCES

There are millions of people using social media platforms. It’s a great opportunity for your
business to reach a large pool of people that are interested in your products or services.

According to Pew Research Center, these are the percentages of U.S. adults that use social
media sites online or on mobile:

• YouTube: 73%

• Facebook: 68%

• Instagram: 35%

• Pinterest: 29%

• Snapchat: 27%

• LinkedIn: 25%

• Twitter: 24%

U.S. adults use many of these sites, which creates great opportunities for your business to
reach leads. You have numerous opportunities to reach leads and can engage them on these
different platforms.

46
2. YOU HAVE A DIRECT CONNECTION WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

Social media is one of the few marketing strategies that allow you to connect directly with
your audience. You know who is interested in your business because they choose to follow
your social media account.

This social media advantage helps your business in numerous ways:

• You get to know them better: When you know your audience better, you can deliver
more valuable content to them. You make the content more personalized to their interests,
which leads to more engagement on your page and with your business.

• You provide better customer service: A direct connection with your audience allows
you to resolve issues easier. You can address them personally, deal with their issues 1-on-1,
and build your brand in a positive light in the process.

• You gain valuable insight about your customers: The direct connection with your
audience helps you get to know your audience better. You see who interacts with your posts
and how they interact with them. It helps you adapt your strategy to make it better for your
followers.

• You see how your audience perceives your business: It’s always good to know how
others view your business. With social media marketing, you know what your audience
thinks of your company. It’s a huge advantage of social media marketing because you can
capitalize on aspects people like about your business and fix elements they don’t like.

The direct connection with your audience is a great way to improve your overall marketing
campaign. You’ll get insight from your followers and be able to adapt your social media
strategy better to meet their needs.

3. YOU CAN CREATE ORGANIC CONTENT

The ability to post organic content for free is an incredible benefit of social media for
business. This opens many opportunities for your company to connect with valuable leads at
no cost. It’s one of the reasons why companies love using these platforms.

47
You can post as much content as you want to engage your audience too.

These platforms enable you to post photos, videos, and more, depending upon the social
media network. It’s a great way to put your brand out in front of people interested in your
business and help them get more familiar with it.

4. YOU HAVE ACCESS TO PAID ADVERTISING SERVICES

If you want to go beyond organic posting, there is an option to run paid advertisements. Each
social platform offers its own form of paid advertising. Your advertising capabilities will vary
depending upon your platform.

Paid advertisements offer your business the opportunity to connect with interested leads that
haven’t found your business yet. Social media platforms allow you to tailor your ads to
appear in the feeds of people who are looking for your products and services.

This creates a great opportunity for your business to expand your reach and obtain new leads.
You help more interested leads find your business, which results in new followers, as well as
conversions for your business.

5. YOU BUILD YOUR BRAND

One advantage of social media marketing is the ability to build your brand. When you
connect with interested leads, you expose them to your brand. The ability to post organic
content for free allows you to build brand recognition repeatedly with your audience.

This builds brand loyalty. The more people get exposed to your brand, the more they become
familiar with it. Brand familiarity leads to more conversions down the line because people
tend to buy from brands they know well.

Social media also helps you build your brand because it enables sharing. You can share,
retweet, and re-pin content on these platforms. This means that followers can share your
content with their friends and family, which helps expose your brand to more people.

It’s an excellent way for you to gain new leads. You can reach leads that you wouldn’t reach
otherwise. It helps you grow your followers and earn more leads.

48
6. YOU DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR WEBSITE

Social media is a great catalyst for driving traffic to your business’s website.

Most social media platforms allow you to post content with a link to your website. When you
create compelling content, you can entice your audience click on the link. This directs them
to your site, where they can learn more about your business.

It’s a great opportunity for you to help your audience get more familiar with your business.

They can check out your website and learn about your products and services. More traffic on
your site also helps your other marketing efforts because you’ll drive more relevant traffic to
your page.

7. YOU CAN EVALUATE YOUR PERFORMANCE

The last advantage to social media marketing is the ability to assess your performance.
Whenever you run a marketing campaign, you want to know how it’s performing. Social
media platforms make it easy for you to track your campaign to see if you’re driving valuable
results.

You can determine how many people see your posts, comment, like, share, and more. If you
run an advertising campaign, you can view metrics for that, too. You’ll see metrics like
impressions, clicks, and conversions.

When you can evaluate your social media strategy’s performance, you can optimize it and
improve it to drive better results

8. YOU CAN JOIN SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS FOR FREE

One of the biggest advantages of social media marketing is that it is entirely free to start.
None of the largest platforms have signup fees of any sort, so the only investment you’ll need
to make is in the form of time.

That being said, there are paid advertising options on most social media platforms. These can
be a great tool for growing your following and reaching more users, but are by no means
mandatory for businesses.

49
9. YOU CAN CREATE VIRAL CONTENT

Perhaps the most unique advantage of social media is the ability to get help from your
followers. People love to share things with their networks, from photos and recipes to
interesting articles and hot deals.

Unlike other forms of Internet marketing, like your site and paid advertisements, content on
social media is often shared. However wide your reach, your followers can share with their
followers, who then share with their followers, giving you a wider reach (with lower cost)
than a traditional marketing campaign.

10. YOU CAN UNCOVER VALUABLE INSIGHTS

You can also use social media to gain valuable information about your customers that will
help you make smarter business decisions. For example, social listening allows you to
discover how people feel about your company and brand. With social listening, you can
uncover conversations about your business and answer questions about your offerings.

What do people like about your business? How can you improve your products and services
to better meet the needs of your target audience? Understanding the answers to these
questions can your business stand out from the competition and reach more people.

50
 A FEW BENEFITS OF A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY:

• Increased brand awareness

• Grow a larger audience

• Connect with your audience better

• Increased website traffic

• Generate more leads

• Make more sales and money

There’s no doubt about it – social media should be a vital component of your overall
marketing efforts.

Just look at some of these eye-opening statistics:

• Facebook has 2.2 billion active users every month

• Pinterest? 150 million people are using this popular platform every month

• Instagram is the second biggest social media network

It’s a large pond to go fishing in for your target audience. Not participating in social media
marketing would lead to an incomplete marketing strategy.

If you’re ready to jumpstart your social media strategy, keep reading.

We’re taking a deep dive into the best cutting-edge tactics around.

51
1. Lay out your goals and objectives

Having a solid plan, objectives, and goals are imperative if you want to jumpstart your social
media strategy.

If you don’t know what you want, how are you supposed to achieve it?

Not to mention, you can’t measure or evolve your strategies over time if you don’t have
strong goals to begin with.

Your social media goals should align with your overall marketing efforts.

Writing down your goals is paramount if you want to reach them.

According to a study, you’re 30% more likely to be successful if you write your goals down.
In some studies that number is as high as 40%.

When you set your goals, make them attainable and break them down into smaller action
steps.

How to set attainable goals to slay your social media marketing strategy:

• Use numbers (such as: reach 5000 Instagram followers)

• Always set a deadline

• Be specific and make your goals “SMART”

• Make your goals in line with your entire marketing strategy

Need more help with slaying your goals? Check out Christine’s goal setting post here on
Blogging Wizard

52
2. Research and learn about your audience

Connecting and engaging with your audience is crucial in today’s marketing if you want to
turn a profit.

But, in order to do that, you need to understand your audience – inside and out.

You should be able to pinpoint their needs, wants, and desires -if you have a hope of creating
a successful social media strategy.

How can you better understand your audience?

• Survey your audience to better grasp their pain points

• Look carefully at their demographics

• Take part in conversations on forums filled with your target audience

• Respond to comments on your blog, and comment on other blogs with the same target
audience

• Reply to all comments or questions on your social media channels

• Collect feedback (using one of the many user feedback tools available)

Once you get a feel for who your target audience is, you’re better equipped to help them.
They want to deal with businesses who care – not just a faceless brand.

Which makes this a vital step in creating any social media strategy.

53
3. Run contests to amp up your social media strategy

Crafting a successful social media contest is one of the most alluring tactics you can use. It’ll
increase your online visibility, your followers, and your engagement.

There are a number of tools you can use to create an outstanding giveaway or sweepstakes.

The key to executing a successful contest is offering something of tremendous value.

Something that’ll be irresistible to your audience.

How to run a contest on social media:

• Figure out your goals (do you want more Facebook page likes? Instagram followers?
How many?)

• Decide what social media channel you’ll host the contest on

• Come up with a deadline for when it’ll end and when the winner will receive their
prize

• Create the contest (look at different types and choose the right one for your audience)

• Promote it with all your might!

To get mind-blowing results, aim to have your audience do some of the heavy lifting.

Set the contest up so they get extra entries for sharing the contest or completing similar tasks.

Such as: “Pin on Pinterest”, “Share on Facebook”, or “Like my Facebook page”. You can
also give them a unique link to share for extra entries.

It’s genius. Your contest will basically run itself!

54
4. Craft your social media content carefully

Every piece of content you post on social media should be carefully thought-out. If you’re
posting just to post something – you’re going about it all wrong.

Depending on the social network you’re posting on, you’ll need to learn the various purposes
of each network.

Here are some examples:

• LinkedIn – A professional network that is perfect for B2B audiences. Also includes
LinkedIn Pulse, a content publishing and distribution platform.

• Facebook – Almost everyone has a Facebook account. Particularly good for

news/entertainment related content. While Facebook Pages struggle to perform, Facebook
Groups can be a great way of connecting with your ideal audience.

• Instagram – Perfect if your content is highly visual. Static images and short videos
work incredibly well but it’s not as good at driving traffic back to your blog.

• Pinterest – Similar to Instagram, Pinterest is highly visual. Although it’s limited to

static images, it can be highly effective at driving traffic back to your blog.

Note

For more on how each social network can fit into your marketing strategy, check out our post
on the psychology of social networks.

Once you learn about the varying networks, you can focus on which ones you think will mesh
well with your business.

A major component of killing it at your social media strategy is using the right words. The
way you get your message across will vary depending on the social network you’re posting
content on.

But, in general, there are ways to improve your online visibility over all the platforms!

To craft captivating copy on social media:

• Use copywriting techniques.

55
• Address your audience directly.

• Use snappy, witty, or intriguing hooks to begin your social media posts.

• Switch it up with different content types (Try linking to blog posts, videos, ask
questions, etc).

• Always write a description on every link you post. Never just put the headline of the
post.

If you perfect your social media content, you’ll see higher engagement rates, more followers,
and generate more leads and sales.

5. Keep the salesy tactics to a minimum

Intrusive, traditional marketing went out the window a long time ago, for good reason.

People don’t want to be sold too.

They want to establish real connections and relationships with you.

That’s the secret sauce to getting your audience or customers to trust you.

And, if they trust you – they’ll buy from you.

Consumers find it off putting when brands and businesses post too many promotions.

Alternatively, you can craft helpful content that people actually want to consume. Content
that leads buyers to your products or services – without being pushy or salesy.

56
 CHAPTER 2 :-
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

57
CHAPTER 2:RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2,1 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1) To study and Generate a lot of leads

2) To study and Create brand awareness

3) To study and increase the loyalty for customers

4) To study and make Increment in the size of social communities and accurately targeted
audience

5) To study and Monitor the customer feedback

6) To study and make Conversion of social followers into qualified leads

7) To study the ultimate goal of any business is to get more sales and more leads.

58
2.2 RESEARCH DESIGN
The Data for this research project would be collected through questionnaire. A structured
questionnaire would be framed as it is less time consuming , generates specific and to the
point information , easier to tabulate and interpret. Moreover respondents prefer to give direct
answers . both type of questions .i,e Open ended and Closed ended, would be used.
SAMPLE SIZE :- 100

2.3 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

Since it is not possible to study whole population, it is necessary to obtain representative
samples from the population to understand in characteristics.
(1)Sampling units: would comprise of Men And Women
(2)Research Instrument : Structured Questionnaire

59
2.4 TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION
The Primary Data Would be collected from
1)The Population of Navi Mumbai

The Secondary Data Would be collected from

1) Books
2) Magazines
3) Internet
4) Articles
The Questionnaire’s response format for the population would be close ended questions.
With a mix of questions types varying from ranking , multiple choice to checklist questions.
The attitude of the respondents would be measured by itemized category scales, pictorial
scale.

60
2.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The limitations faced during the research and after the data collection were

1)Sample Size :- The sample size of the study is only 100 which do not give a
comprehensive result. The Conclusion of the study may not have resulted to an accurate
outcome due to sample size being small

2)Bound to only Navi Mumbai :- The other limitation of the study is, it is limited to only
the main city area and ignores the samples from the smaller parts of the district. The
buying behavior of an individual varies from place to place.
3)Questions left bank :- Certain question have been left blank which does not allow an
accurate analysis

4)Biasness :- Among the 100 respondants few of them were loyal.

61
 CHAPTER 3 :-
LITERATURE REVIEW

62
 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) define social media as “a group of Internet based applications
that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and allow the creation
and exchange of user generated content.” According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) web 2.0
is a platform where content is continuously altered by all operators in a sharing and
collaborative way. Web 2.0 is a web based technology which helps to create highly
interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss
and modify user –generated content. Social media are the websites which are build upon the
technological foundations of web 2.0 that help a user to create user generated contents that
can be shared. This technology allows a user to create and publish the content on the social
media networks. This information can be shared with other members of the social media
website, who are connected with the user. This process is interactive where other members
can also respond in different ways.
Mangold and Faulds (2009) describe social media as the set of online word of mouth forums
which includes blogs, discussion boards, forums or social networks to name a few. Using all
mobile and web-based technologies, social media creates highly interactive platforms by
bringing together individuals and creating communities. Internet has a lot of websites; each of
them has different functional attributes and caters to different sections of society. Websites
like facebook are for general masses but LinkedIn is focused on professional networking.
Media sharing sites or blogging platforms (i.e. blogspot, wordpress) are also members of this
ecosystem called social media. Social media has equipped the organization to establish an
direct relationship with the consumers. Both of the organizations and consumers are free to
generate content on the web pages, which further leads to conversations and discussion.
Organization on one end are provided with an opportunity to share their information with a
large base of customers and on the other end consumers are also free to publish any content
whether positive or negative regarding the information.

63
Honeycomb Model Honeycomb model of Smith (2007) identifies seven functional blocks of
social media websites: identity, conversation, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and
groups

Each block allows us to understand the structure of the social media site based on the
facilities it provides to its users. This study attempts to understand the functions of the social
media websites and their role in social media marketing. These building blocks are not
mutually exclusive and also they are not part of every social media site. These building
blocks are the constructs which helps us to understand how different levels of social media
functionality can be configured.
IDENTITY
The identity dimension is about the extent to which individuals or organizations make their
identity public by disclosing personal or corporate information (i.e. name, age, gender,
profession, location) in a social media setting. Individuals also tend to reveal other
information – consciously or unconsciously – about themselves that makes them portrayed in
certain ways through ‗self-disclosure of subjective information such as thoughts, feelings,
likes, and dislikes.

64
CONVERSATION
The conversations dimension of the Honeycomb Model is about the extent to which each
individual communicate with one another in a social media setting. Most social media sites
primarily purpose is to facilitate conversation among individuals and interest groups.

SHARING
The sharing dimension is about the extent to which an individual ex-changes, distributes and
receives content in a social media setting. As the term ‗social implies, exchange between
individuals is a crucial functionality on social media sites. At the end of the day, social media
is about people sharing their identities and lives by sharing relevant content .

PRESENCE
The presence dimension is about the extent to which an individual can know whether his/her
peers are available online. Presence dimension includes information as to where each-
individual-in-ones-network is in the virtual world and/or in the real world. In a way presence
dimension functions as a bridge that connects the real and the virtual realities

RELATIONSHIPS
The relationships dimension is about the extent to which each individual can be related to
other individuals in a social media setting. The word relate„ is used to indicate the type of
association formed between individuals which in turn may lead to conversation and shares .

REPUTATION
The reputation dimension is about the extent to which each individual is able to identify ones
relative position in the society in a social media setting. In social media, reputation is not
something granted to people through their disclosed identities but it is something that can be
earned through shared content, expressed thoughts, likes and dislikes. The same is true for
organizations seeking to build or strengthen their reputation through implementing social
media strategies

GROUPS
The Groups dimension is about the extent to which each individual can form communities
and sub communities in a social media setting. The more social a network is, the higher the
number of groups, communities, followers and contacts

65
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social media marketing is a new marketing strategy which almost every business is adopting
to reach their consumers on the virtual networks. If you have an idea and you want it to reach
millions, at a very little cost, then social media is the only way-out. Entertainment companies
were the first to adopt the social media as a promotional tool. Weinberg (2009) has defined
social media marketing as the process that empowers individuals to promote their websites,
products, or services through online social channels and tap into a much larger community
that may not have been available via traditional channels. So if we keep it simple, social
media marketing is the process where organizations use social media websites to build rush
on their company official websites. It does not stop here but organizations also inform the
potential customers of happenings in the organization, launch of the new model or product
and latest news about the organization through social media applications.
Gordhamer (2009) has related social media marketing to the relationship marketing where
firms need to shift from “trying to sell” to “making connections” with the consumers. This
explanations of social media marketing takes us to the other side of marketing, where
building relations with the potential consumers is the key to repeated purchases and enhanced
brand loyalty. Social Media is an innovative tool that organizations use for creating a very
strong public relation with the customers on the virtual networks (Jan & Khan, 2014).
Maintaining public relations through social media has become easy because a large number
of potential consumers are available on the virtual networks. And making connection with
consumers using social media is only some clicks away. Today’s customers are more
powerful and busy; therefore, companies should be reachable and available in every social
media communication channel such as Face book, Twitter, Blogs, Forums at any time
(Gordhamer, 2009). Exploiting the opportunities provided by the social media
communication channels is important for every organization.

66
3.2 DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MARKETING

There are five dimension of the social media marketing, which means these five things are
required to create connections with consumers or to building traffic to company websites.

ONLINE COMMUNITIES: A company or business can use the social media to build a
community around its products/business. Vibrant communities create loyalty and encourage
discussions, which can contribute towards business development and improvement.
INTERACTION: A Facebook page or Twitter account can notify all its followers of specific
subject quickly and simultaneously Social networking sites enable greater interaction with the
online community through broadcasting up-to-date, consumer relevant information.
SHARING OF CONTENT: The sharing dimension is about the extent to which an individual
ex-changes, distributes and receives content in a social media setting.
CREDIBILITY: It is all about delivering your message clearly to the people, establishing
credibility for what you say or do, connecting emotionally with your target audience,
motivating the buyer and generating loyal customers. The social media provides a very good
platform for all businesses (big or small) to network and reach out to their target audience,
connect with them directly and generate trust by listening to what they have to say.

ACCESIBILITY: The social media is easily accessible and takes minimal or no costs to use.
Social media is easy to use and does not require any special skills, knowledge to use.

67
3.3 CORRELATION BETWEEN THE TWO CONCEPTS
When we study honey comb model of smith (2007) and simultaneously look at the five
dimensions of the social media marketing we can easily figure out that the seven
functionalities of social media websites form the basis for social media marketing. These
seven functional blocks are the pillars on which a firm can establish the structure of its social
media marketing strategy. We have generalized the above theories on social media marketing
and social media as follows:
Group functionality and relationship functionality of the social media leads to
Online Communities.
 Conversation functionality of social media leads to Interaction.
 Sharing functionality of social media leads to sharing of the content.
 Presence and identity functionality of social media leads to Accessibility.
 Reputation functionality of social media leads to credibility.

3.4 CONCLUSION OF LITERATURE REVIEW

In this study I made an effort to understand the concepts of social media and social media
marketing. We studied the literature of the social media first and analyzed the honey comb
model which explains the seven basic functionalities of any social media website. Our
literature review of the social media marketing led us to identify the five major dimensions of
the social media marketing. When we try to correlate the functionalities of the social media
and dimensions of social media marketing we reach to a conclusion where we can identify
that the seven functionalities of social media supports all the five dimensions of the social
media marketing. This finally leads us to redefine the Social media marketing on the basis of
functional block of the social media websites. “Social media marketing is a process where
seven functional blocks (identity, conversation, sharing, presence, relationship, reputation and
groups) of a social media website are utilized for promotion of a brand, organization, political
party, a personality, an idea or an event.” So when we use social media for promotion of an
idea or a product that is social media marketing.

68
 CHAPTER 4 :-
DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

69
 CHAPTER 4

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

It is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming and modeling data with the goal of

discovering useful information, informing conclusion and supporting decision-making. Data
analysis has multiple facets and approaches, encompassing diverse techniques under a variety
of names, and is used in different business, science, and social science domains. In today's
business world, data analysis plays a role in making decisions more scientific and helping
businesses operate more effectively.

The main objective of the study was to understand the social media impact in marketing field , to
effect more efficiently on social media as a marketing tool?

In this chapter, the author describes the research process, explains how data were collected and
analyized and gives the results of the questionnaire and interview

70
1 .Do you think social media is the most sought after method adopted by entrepreneurs?
young and old in the field of marketing, advertising, brand building, promotions?

Social media has taken over the world in every sense. In the field of marketing, advertising,
brand building, promotions social media is the most sought after method adopted by
entrepreneurs young and old . 90% people agree with it but 10% of them still believe in the
traditional way of marketing.

71
2. Which is the most Effective solution for Brand promotion?

Marie Swift (2006) suggest that placing an advertising in the print media is not the best
solution for brand promotion. The problem with traditional mass advertising according to
Marie is that, these media appeal to a wide range of people who may not even be interested to
know who we are. 73% of the people agree with it while rest is still thinking print media has
its own significance.

72
3. Do you think Social media marketing will help the firms to find their potential customers?

Promotions and Brand building must be done with people whom we think are potential
customers for our business. This can be achieved by channelizing a greater part of promotion
and advertising budget for activities such as networking, volunteering, hosting events and so
on. Out of these methods, networking is the best that suits the need of the time.

73
4. Which social networking site are you most familiar with ?

In today’s world there are many social networking sites which are helpful for the mass
marketing. The objective of this question was to find the website which is the most popular
one. Most of the people are familiar with Facebook, Youtube, etc while rest are familiar with
the social networking sites.

74
5. Do you think the relative cost is lesser as compared to traditional advertising?

More than 50% of people think that relative cost is much lesser as compared to traditional
advertising while more less than 30% think it is not. The studies say that the relative cost is
lesser compared to the social media marketing with traditional advertising.

75
6. Is social media helpful for B2B firms in gathering new sales/clients?

Social media is helpful for both B2B and B2C firms in generating new sales/clients. 63% of
the people agree with it. While others think in B2B everything is taken place in a formal way
so its not possible to generate new sales through the social media.

76
7.”Social media can be effectively used for various B2C clients to increase sales”.Do you
agree?

70% of the people agree with this because most of the people are familiar with social
networking sites and they frequently visit these sites.

77
8. Which one do you think is the most effective social networking site for online marketing?

It shows that most of the people are familiar with Facebook in comparsion with other sites
like Twitter and LinkedIn. Cab providers like Oh Cabs and Taxi for sure are more active in
Twitter than Facebook, So it depends on different industries.

78
9. Do you follow your favourite brands on social networking sites?

Most of the people do follow their favourite brands on Facebook and Twitter to know about
their new offerings and such.

79
10. If yes, why do you follow them?

27% of people follow their favourite brands just because they like those brands. 57% are very
keen to know about their new offerings while 17% follow to know how well they are in
marketing.

80
 CHAPTER 5 :-
SUGGESTION & CONCLUSION

81
 CHAPTER 5
SUGGESTIONSAND CONCLUSIONS

5.1.SUGGESTIONS

Following are some of the suggestions for social media marketing strategies-
 To Identify Your Goals. ...
 To Identify Your Audience. ...
 Selecting the Best Platforms. ...
 Employ a Qualified Manager. ...
 Deliver Consistently. ...
 Woo Influencers. ...
 Grow Your Audience. ...
 Engage Your Audience.

5.2 Conclusion

82
 Social media can be a powerful tool for any organization. It can increase your visibility,
enhance relationships, establish two-way communication with customers, provide a forum for
feedback, and improve the awareness and reputation of the organization.
 Social media websites have become an important platform for organizations. As
organizations “Focus on effectively leveraging social media platforms, there are a few critical
things to keep in mind”.
 Organizations must first develop a comprehensive social media communication strategy
and then incorporate best practices in the implementation of that strategy. Following this ,
guide can help the organization effectively and successfully derive the maximum benefit
from their social media initiative.

Given the scarcity of

studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field

83
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
84
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
85
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
86
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The

87
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
88
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
89
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
90
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
91
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
92
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The

93
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
94
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
95
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
96
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
97
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
98
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The

99
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
100
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
101
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
102
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
103
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
104
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The

105
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
106
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
107
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
108
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
109
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
110
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The

111
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
112
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
113
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
114
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
115
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
116
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The

117
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
118
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
119
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
120
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
121
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
122
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The

123
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
124
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
 The scarcity of studies systematizing the information conveyed by the research done thus
far on the field of social media marketing, we carried out this systematic review of the
literature on this theme.
 The results show that the majority of studies have hitherto focused either on analyzing the
consumer perspective on social media marketing in an attempt to perceive how they react to
these means or on how companies are able to extract the maximum possible value from
recourse to such channels for managing their relationships with clients.
 However, more studies are necessary to explore the perspectives of companies as they
engage in social media marketing, especially in terms of understanding the key barriers and
obstacles to their usage. The results also point to the need for qualitative studies to better
grasp recourse to social media marketing utilization within the framework of marketing
strategies.
 The main limitation of this study would be the fact that the research was limited to the term
“social media marketing,” considering only the Web of Science database, and only including
articles in journals.
 Therefore, complementary analysis including other databases would be necessary to
confirm this study’s conclusions.

125
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
126
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
127
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
128
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
129
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-

130
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
131
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
132
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
133
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
134
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
135
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-

136
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
137
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
138
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
139
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
140
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
141
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-

142
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
143
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
144
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
145
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
146
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
147
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-

148
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
149
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
150
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
151
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
152
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
153
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-

154
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
155
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
156
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
157
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
158
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
159
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-

160
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions
161
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
162
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
163
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
164
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
165
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-

166
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
167
Given the scarcity of
studies systematizing
the informa-
tion conveyed by the
research done thus far
on the field
of social media
marketing, we carried
out this system-
atic review of the
literature on this
theme. The results
168
show that the majority
of studies have
hitherto focused
either on analyzing the
consumer perspective
on social
media marketing in an
attempt to perceive
how they
react to these means or
on how companies are
able to
169
extract the maximum
possible value from
recourse to
such channels for
managing their
relationships with
clients. However,
more studies are
necessary to explore
the perspectives of
companies as they
engage in social
170
media marketing,
especially in terms of
understand-
ing the key barriers
and obstacles to their
usage. The
results also point to the
need for qualitative
studies to
better grasp recourse
to social media
marketing utiliza-
171
tion within the
framework of
marketing strategies.
The
main limitation of this
study would be the
fact that the
research was limited to
the term “social media
market-

172
ing,” considering only
the Web of Science
database, and
only including articles
in journals. Therefore,
comple-
mentary analysis
including other
databases would be
necessary to confirm
this study’s
conclusions.
173
5.3 FINDINGS

 90% people agree with Social media being the most sought after method adopted by
entrepreneurs young and old but 10% of them still believe in the traditional way of
marketing.
 73% of the people think that social media is most effective solution for brand
promotion , while rest is still thinking print media has its own significance.
 70% of the people said Social media marketing will help the firms to find their
potential customer’s while 20% were not sure and 10% said no.
 More than 50% of people think that relative cost is much lesser as compared to
traditional advertising while more less than 30% think it is not.
 63% of the people agree that Social media is helpful for both B2B and B2C firms in
generating new sales/clients. While others think in B2B everything is taken place in a
formal way so its not possible to generate new sales through the social media.

174
CHAPTER 6 :-
BIBLOGRAPHY

175
 CHAPTER 6
BIBLIOGRAPHY

6.1 QUESTIONAIRE
1. Do you think social media is the most sought after method adopted by entrepreneurs?
young and old in the field of marketing, advertising, brand building, promotions?
a. Yes
b. No

2. Which is the most Effective solution for Brand promotion?

a. Social Media
b. Print Media

3. Do you think Social media marketing will help the firms to find their potential customers?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Maybe

4. Which social networking site are you most familiar with ?

a. Twitter
b. Myspace
c. Facebook
d. Youtube
e. All of the above
f. None

176
5. Do you think the relative cost is lesser as compared to traditional advertising?
a. Yes
b. No

6. Is social media helpful for B2B firms in gathering new sales/clients?

a. Yes
b. No
c. It depends

7.”Social media can be effectively used for various B2C clients to increase sales”.Do you
agree?
a. Yes
b. No

8. Which one do you think is the most effective social networking site for online marketing?
a. Twitter
b. Facebook
c. Other

9. Do you follow your favourate brands on social networking sites?

a. Yes
b. No

10. If yes, why do you follow them?

a. Just because you like that brand.
b. You are very keen to know about their new offerings.
c. To know how good they are in marketing.

177
6.2 REFERENCES

[1].Asad, H. Abu- Rumman & Alhadid, Anas Y . (2014).The impact of social media
marketing on Brand Equity: An Empirical study on Mobile Service Providers in Jordan
,Review of Integrative Business & Economics Research , Vol 3(1).
[2]. Babac, R. (2011). Impact of Social Media Use on Brand Equity of Magazine Brands,
Unpublished Master‟s Thesis, Halmstad University, Sweden.
[3]. Berselli, S. & Burger, S. & Close, J. (2012) .Crisis Mapping Community Social Media
Information During and After Large-Scale Disasters, Unpublished master thesis, Victorian
Emergency Services Foundation, Victoria.
[4]. Blackshaw, P., & Nazzaro, M. (2004), _consumer-Generated (CGM) 101: Word Of
Mouth In the age of the Web Fortified consumer „, Retrieved From htpp://www.nielsenbuzz
Metrics.com/whitepapers.
[5]. Chi, Hsu-Hsien. 2011. “Interactive Digital Advertising VS. Virtual Brand Community:
Exploratory Study of User Motivation and Social Media Marketing Responses in
Taiwan.”Journal of Interactive Advertising 12: 44-61.
[6]. Fischer, E. & Reuber, R. (2011). Social interaction via new social media: (How) can
interactions on Twitter affect effectual thinking and behavior?, Journal of Business
Venturing, (26), PP. 3-21.
[7]. Gordhamer, S. (2009), “4 ways Social media is changing Business”, retrieved from
http://Mashable.com /2009/09/22/Social-MediaBusiness/.
[8]. Jan, Anisa. & Khan, M.Furqan.(2014).“Social Media Is Nothing but a Public Relation
Tool.” The International Journal Of Business & Management (ISSN 2321 – 8916), Vol 2(12).
[9]. Kaplan, Andreas M. and Michael Haenlein. 2010. “Users of the World, Unite! The
Challenges and Opportunities of Social Media.” Business Horizons 53: 59-68.
[10]. Kietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I.P. & Silvestre, B.S. (2011), ‗Social
media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media„, Business
Horizons (Article in Press).

178
[11]. Mangold, W. G. &Faulds, D.J. (2009), ‗Social media: The new hybrid element of the
promotion mix„ Business Horizons, Vol. 52, pp. 357-365.
[12]. Taprial , V. &Kanwar, P. (2012). Understanding Social Media, United States: Ventus
Publishing. [13]. Weinberg, T (2009),”the New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social
Web”, 1stEdition ,O‟Reilly: California

179