Essay of Corinne Wiseman

“Social networking”

Ten years ago the phrase “social networking” was obsolete but now it has consumed many of our lives.  Social networking covers a host of different tools that allow one to broadcast their life to the world, or just their close friends.  There lies the beauty of social media, it allows people to connect with others in ways that they had not before through outlets that best fit their life.  With the overwhelming presence of social media in the modern day world, marketers for all types of organizations have been able to change their marketing strategies to utilize these new outlets.  With the information gathered about ones life from the social media outlets they use, marketing plans are now tailored to individuals thus affording consumers a more personal relationship with many of their favorite organizations while introducing them to new organizations as well.

Marketing can be summarized as “those activities which occur at the interface between the organization and its customers,” with the end result being, “that customers will conduct exchanges with the marketer’s organization, rather than with the other” (Blythe 2).  While the concept of marketing remains the same for organizations of many different types, the focus may be different for an arts based organization or an organization that is involved in cultural productions.  Marketing for the arts is defined as “an integrated management process which sees mutually satisfying exchange relationships with customers as the route to achieving organizational and artistic objectives” (Hill 1).

An arts or culture based organization doesn’t simply want consumers to buy their product, they want consumers to have an educational, and more importantly, emotional experience with their organization.  The arts are meant to move people to think in new and different ways, which in turn affects the ways that their events and companies must be marketed.  Because of the low cost of social media and the large amount of people that they reach, social media outlets have become an effective way for arts marketers to reach potential audiences.

Facebook, Twitter, and personal blogs have become part of most people’s daily routine.  When one gets home from work or school, or often during work or school, they immediately go to Facebook to update their status and tell their family and friends what their day was like.  Then later, as they are cooking dinner they might tweet a picture of the dish they are preparing.  Another common part of many evening routines is now to sit down at one’s computer and write a blog post about something funny that happened in the day, or publish some insight about one’s personal life.  The global society is becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet and social media for their information and with this dependency comes a great opportunity for arts marketers.

It is no secret that arts organizations often rely on government funding or donations for their monetary support and consequently funding an in-depth marketing plan becomes difficult.  Social media is a great way for these organizations to engage in marketing at a low cost.  Organizations can make a free page on Facebook or profile on Twitter as well as producing a blog for their organizations.

Facebook pages are a good way for potential audience members to receive general information about an organization.  These pages contain much of the same information as an organization’s website would, but because of the convenience of Facebook they have the potential to be viewed more.  Young people are often more comfortable with the Facebook format and will directly search for products or information on Facebook instead of going to an organization’s website.  A Facebook page also allows one to “like” or become a fan of the page or organization so that they can receive updates about upcoming events.  Patrons can also connect with the organization on a more personal level by uploading pictures of themselves at an event to the page wall which gives the organization positive exposure to the patron’s friends as well.

Twitter is also a wonderful opportunity to keep audiences interested in attending performances.  Fans of the organization can follow them on Twitter and then view all of the organizations tweets.  While tweets can only be 140 characters, it is easy to send out one attention-grabbing message that gets readers interested so that they look for more information or click on a link attached to the tweet.  By tweeting promotional offers of “buy one get one free” tickets where patrons just need to reference the tweet, it can significantly boost ticket sales for a performance that is not selling well enough.

Twitter also allows an organization more control over how they choose to interact with their patrons.  A Twitter based marketing strategy that is gaining popularity is something commonly referred to as “tweet seats.”  These new seats are special spots set aside for audience members who would like to tweet during the performance of a play or classical music concert about what they are seeing and their personal reaction to it (Freedman).  The tweets are often directed at the organization’s Twitter page that has an intern or employee receiving and responding to the tweets in real time (Freedman).  Tweet seats are most popular among younger audience members and have been an excellent way to make new attendees feel comfortable in what can sometimes be a pretentious environment (Freedman).

Additionally, blogs of all types can be an asset to arts organizations marketing efforts.  If an organization has its own blog, it is possible for many employees to contribute ideas and articles so that patrons feel that they are getting to know the people of the organization, not just attending events.  Blog posts that feature a behind the scenes look at a specific production are also a beneficial way to raise awareness of upcoming events.  If an audience member has a particularly good experience at an event or performance they may dedicate a post on their personal blog to the experience, giving the arts organization greater exposure.

 

The use of marketing is an essential factor for any organizations survival.  All organizations are trying to sell something so as to achieve a certain goal, and while there can be great diversity in the product being presented and the end result desired, marketing strategies must be employed.  In the world’s developed societies where most everyone has a smart phone where they routinely update their Facebook and Twitter accounts, marketing has no choice but to adapt to these changes.  While the core principles and concepts of marketing remain the same, the introduction of social media has changed the way we live as individuals and receive information as consumers for the better.

Works Cited

Blythe, Jim. Essentials of Marketing. 3rd ed. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.

Freedman, Richard, and Karen D’Souza. “The ‘tweet Seats’” Times-Herald. Vallejo Times-Herald, 5 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Feb. 2012.             <http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_19898166>.

Hill, Liz, Catherine O’Sullivan, and Terry O’Sullivan. Creative Arts Marketing. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003. Print.

essay 4 stephanie Forgeois

 

As we were asked to write a paper on marketing choosing a subject that deals with it i personally chose to talk about why it’s important for companies to use social networks, or at least to be present on the world wide web. So first of all i apologize for my mistakes because i’m french. Second of all i never followed a marketing course in my university, we just talked about why communication and advertisements are important for a company so i will try to give my point of view about this subject  using the right references.

 

Social networks are a part of everyone’s life today holding a huge part in social life, activities but also companies’ strategies. Internet crossing all borders, those networks connect people all around the world allowing them to have social interaction but also to know more about each other’s online and “instantaneously”.

 

Facebook, Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn are so many networks that connect people but also business manager all around the Earth.

 

 

But why does a company chose to integrate social networks into their marketing strategies.

 

 

Marketing gets a lot of definitions: it’s the management process which identifies, anticipates, and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably. (UK chartered Institute of Marketing)

 

It’s also seen as the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchange and satisfy individual and organizational objectives. (American Marketing Association)

 

For Jay Conrad Levinson”Marketing is not an event, but a process. . . . It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end. . . . You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause in it. But you never stop it completely”.

 

The most important think for a company it’s their consumers and the public that they can reach, all their marketing is based on how they are going to touch them.

 

The Vaughn matrix shows perfectly the kind of target that companies want to reach with their strategy; it can be the cognitive level, the affective level or the conative level that affects them, with the DAGMAR model we could probably more talk about awareness, knowledge, preference, conviction and purchase.

 

 

 

 Marketing in the social media include a new rule: use mostly the net. Indeed this service is mainly free and is used to share and communicate. By using it they could reach more people, internet users that can rapidly become consumers, but also the global market. One of the most important things that a company should be able to consider is that internet is a world that is in continuous change and if their website can’t follow this change it can survive.

 

These key concepts can be abbreviated as follows: (Social Marketing Institute)

 

Action is the objective

The target audience is the focus

 

The exchange is critical

 

Segment markets

 

Use all four Ps

 

Analyze and beware of competition

 

Monitor and be flexible

 

 

 So the main question that they should ask themselves could be: How can I reach most of the population?

 

           A social network is defined as “a network of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts” and moreover as an “online community of people with a common interest who use a Web site or other technologies to communicate with each other and share information or resources”.

 

Indeed it has become a real connection between people all around the earth, who can share, communicate, and even find a job thanks to internet. “Nobody owns the net; it is a communications medium spread across thousands (even millions) of computers worldwide, which operates independently of the telephone companies that supply its cable connections, of the governments in whose countries it resides, and even of the computer owners in whose machines data are stored. The net therefore operate under its own rules.”(Essentials of marketing, Jim Blithe,2005, third edition, page 323)

 

If we take a lot on certain kind of those social networks we can have some examples of this phenomenon.

 

Facebook is known to be a link between friends in which you can see what’s happening to your friends all around the planet and also talk to them whereas it was first created to regroup student of a specific campus in one country.

 

Skype was first a social network used by companies to communicate all over the world and also hired their employer or even fired them and became a network that everybody can use to communicate with their families or friends.

 

LinkedIn is a professional network that can “boost” your carrier and make you take contacts again with former professionals or even employees.

 

 

 But it will probably be easier to see how far it goes with some numbers:

 

-Facebook had 600 million monthly active users in January 2011.

 

-Twitter has 24+ million unique visitors per month, with 500 million tweets per day.

 

-LinkedIn has 60+ million professionals worldwide, including all Fortune 500 companies.

 

Unique visitors per month, as of February 2010:

 

Facebook: 133,623,529   ; MySpace: 50,615,444    ;Twitter: 23,573,178 ;Linkedin: 15,475,890

 

 

Today even cellular, which are for most of them android, allowed you to use those networks if you download the correct applications like twitter, facebook, or Skype. This was so obvious that companies had to integrate those networks to their strategies and make everything to be on the World Wide Web.

 

But why are those networks essential for a company?

 

The strategy of a company depend on what it want to show about itself, what kind of products they want to sell and which consumers they want to reach and how.

 

But it’s kind of the main point that every company want to reach so what come as the second main point in their strategy, being different, to diversify the firm from competitors.

 

As I said in the previous paragraph, millions of people are connected, millions of potential consumers that you can easily reach if you are a member of those networks or if you can make a partnership giving them money to put advertisements about you company in their “Wall”.

 

In fact advertisements are a huge part of those networks and a real financial help for them but the main problem is that they are bothering the internet users and they aren’t “cool” if we quote Mark Zuckerberg.

 

 

 Examples of a successful marketing strategy using social networks:

 

 

 

-Jimmy Choo’s founder launched an original campaign through “Foursquare” organizing a real treasure hunt in London streets. As you should know, Foursquare is, in short, a social network which enable people to show where they are and meet their friends or contacts there.By following the account @catchachoo on Twitter (another social network) and by following the “check-in” the internet users, who were able to figure out the place faster than the others, were winning a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes from the new collection.

 

 

 -Coca-Cola did a successful campaign on Facebook proposing to create a bottle with the name of the consumer, for a fee, and taking a picture of it to participate to their commercial game “give us your best shot”. More than ever, Coca-Cola succeeds allowing people to be closer without being in the same place.

 

But it can also be bad for a company to use them if they don’t really know how to use them in a proper way. If we take the fizzy drink brand Orangina for example, which is well known for its controversial advertisements already received complaints for advert showing animals lapdancing, was then attack for having use Facebook to post on their page that a racist sentence about Harry Potter. So even if they wanted to be close to their consumers they should have been more careful about the way of using it.

 

In my opinion those kind of Brand which are using the lovemark strategy should be really wise as for the use of social networks because they can create another kind of feeling and regards through this and it can become a real problem for them if they break the trust of their consumers.

 

In conclusion we can say that social networks have become a real institution for companies which want to grow up fastly and be different from their opponents.

 

Integrating social CMR to their strategy, companies can reach the E-market and propose their services online and allow consumers to buy their products online establishing trust between them.

 

 

 

Notes:

 

-http://www.graphicsms.com/blog/877-social-networking-statistics-2010/

 

-http://www.journaldunet.com/management/marketing/marketing-reseaux-sociaux/nokia.shtml

 

-http://fr.locita.com/reseaux-sociaux/integrer-les-reseaux-sociaux-dans-votre-strategie-marketing/

-http://www.social-marketing.com/Whatis.html

 

-http://www.social-marketing.org/sm.html