Lincoln University College, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor D. E., Malaysia
*Corresponding Author’s Email: research_student@yahoo.com
Social media's rising prominence forced marketers to include it alongside more conventional marketing functional areas. Social media typically uses the internet or mobile phone-based tools and applications to allow users to exchange information. Today, there are more social media users than there are people in some nations. Comparing marketing before and after an overview of social media, as well as the sorts of technology utilised in social media, allows one to assess the impact of social media on marketing.
Keywords: Technology; Digital Marketing; Online Marketing Strategy; Social Media Marketing
Social media advertising is the practise of promoting commodities and customer services through websites and online social networking platforms. Social media advertising is growing in popularity among both practitioners and researchers, despite the fact that e-marketing and digital advertising are still the most frequently used terminology in academia. Nearly all social media platforms include built-in data analytics features that facilitate organisations to keep tabs on the development, achievement, and commitment of marketing activities. Through social media marketing, businesses can connect with a variety of stakeholders, including present and prospective customers, existing and prospective employees, bloggers, journalists, and the public. Managing a marketing campaign, governance, deciding the scope (such as whether to use social media more actively or passively), and developing the intended social media "culture" and "tone" of a firm are all strategic aspects of social media marketing. When employing social media marketing, businesses can use user-generated material, often recognized as "earned media," rather than pre-written marketing copy. Examples of this type of content include online comments, product reviews, and more.
To learn about social media advertising
To learn about digital advertising
To learn about current trends in digital marketing
Shareef et al. (2019) conducted study with the intent of determining the motivations behind social media usage, approaches toward social media marketing messages, and the efficacy of communications promoting the value of online buying. The Uses and Gratification Theory served as the foundation for this investigation of consumer gratification in social media use (Liu, Min & Han, 2020). The value of online shopping in relation to social media marketing messages was looked at. Entertainment, knowledge, and contact were considered to be exogenous elements for social media gratifications. The endogenous variables were one's attitude toward social media marketing messages and one's online shopping preferences.
Cross-cultural populations (subjects) were used in this extremely intriguing study on sustainable marketing and social media by Lee, Kim & Lee (2021) which examined the motivations for sustainable behaviours. On the basis of their use of Facebook and Twitter to discuss the drivers behind sustainable habits, South Koreans were investigated as a representative of collectivist society, while Americans and Germans, whose cultures are more individualistic. The individuals from various cultures were covered by an online survey method employing Kelman's practical motives as a core hypothetical framework (Bannaga et al. 2017). The conceptual framework for this study aimed to investigate the relationship between sustainable actions, such as reprocessing practises, organic food purchases, use of green transportation, anti-avaricious viewpoints, and charitable giving, and functional motives (responsibility, involvement, and internalisation).
In order to maximise the effectiveness of online marketing strategy, Hruska & Maresova (2020) conducted this investigative study based on primary data by means of Romanian university students to examine how to interact with different audience types on social media advertising platforms (on the basis of their online interactive characteristics). The effectiveness of several factors connected to online users and social networking sites on audiences' impressions of online advertising was investigated using a linear model.
Social networking websites enable online interaction and the development of communities and interactions between people, businesses, and other organisations. When businesses join these social media platforms, customers can communicate with them directly. Users may find that relationship more intimate than more conventional outbound marketing and advertising strategies (Pelletier et al. 2020). Electronic word of mouth, or e-word of mouth, is spread through social networking sites. E-word of mouth now has a potent voice and a large audience because to the Internet's capacity to interact with billions of people globally. An influence network is described as having the capacity to quickly alter the behaviour of a rising number of consumers in terms of their purchasing habits, selection of products, and use of services (Hollebeek, 2019). Followers frequently "retreat" or "repost" statements made by others regarding a merchandise that is being advertised on social networking sites and blogs on some social media platforms. The message's audience will grow if it is repeated since the user's networks will be able to get it. The information about the product/company is spread and repeated, which increases traffic to it (Alaimo & Kallinikos, 2017).
The foundation of social networking sites is the creation of online communities that let users articulate their demands, intends, and ideals. Afterward, social media marketing links these customers and viewers with companies that have similar requirements, interests, and beliefs (Kuss & Griffiths, 2017). Social networking websites permit organizations to communicate with their fans on an individual basis. Followers and potential consumers may feel more loyal as a result of this personal engagement. Additionally, by carefully selecting who to keep an eye on these networks, businesses can achieve a highly specific target market. Social networking sites also offer a wealth of details about the goods and services that potential customers would find interesting (Verduyn et al. 2020). Marketers can identify buying signals by utilising new semantic analysis technologies, such as information shared online and online queries. Understanding buying signals can assist in running micro-targeted marketing and helping salespeople target the right prospects (Montgomery et al. 2019).
In 2014, more than 80% of company executives thought social media was crucial to their companies. Social media marketing has increased business retailers' revenues by 133% (Felix, Rauschnabel & Hinsch, 2017).
The number of Internet users worldwide exceeds three billion. From 738 million in 2000 to 3.2 billion in 2015, the number of individuals utilising the Internet has grown significantly over time. The US populace currently uses social media on a regular basis to the tune of 81%. (Wang, & Xu, 2021). Since mobile phones contain social networking characteristics that enable instant web surfing and approach to social networking sites, they are useful for social media marketing. The path to buy process has been significantly changed by the rapid rise of mobile devices since it is now simple for customers to acquire evaluating and product info in real-time and for businesses to routinely prompt and keep posted their supporters (Pantic, 2014). Numerous businesses now incorporate QR codes (Quick Response) on their items to enable customers to gain access to the company site or online facilities using their smartphones. By connecting the QR code to brand websites, campaigns, merchandise details, or any additional mobile-supported matter, retailers can make it easier for customers to interact with brands. Due to its advantages for mobile web browsing, real-time bidding is growing in popularity in the mobile advertising business. Nexage, a company that offers real-time request for mobile advertising, stated a 37% rise in monthly income in 2012. Another mobile ad publishing company, Adfonic, claimed a 22 billion rise in ad requests in the same year (Nabati, Maadani, & Pourmina, 2022).
With 5.7 billion users globally, mobile devices are becoming more and more common. This has changed how customers co-operate with media and has several additional effects on TV watching, marketing, mobile business, and more. In the US, it is anticipated that over 100 million individuals would use mobile devices to access internet video content. Mobile media consumption is increasing, including mobile audio streaming and mobile video. Pay-per-view downloads, marketing, and payments make up mobile video revenue. In 2013, there were 73.4% of mobile phone users online globally. According to studies, in 2017 more than 90% of Internet operators are expected to gain access to online matter via mobile devices (Li et al. 2021).
Building social signals, which are crucial for any SEO digital marketing effort, has been greatly aided by the development of social media marketing platforms. Perhaps you are not aware of the expanded marketing chances that social media's advent has given internet marketers like you for increasing brand recognition online. Your website's conversion rate, customer and lead generation, and search engine ranking all have a significant bearing on these factors. Building organic website traffic with the integration of social media marketing and SEO techniques is successful. In order to enhance their lead production and website transformation rates, digital marketers will be influenced by a number of social media marketing trends in 2018. (Kotane, Znotina & Hushko, 2019).
The following social media marketing trends, in the view of digital marketing experts, could affect the development and achievement of your digital advertising and search engine optimisation activities (Ibrahim & Ganeshbabu, 2018). Are you prepared to adopt these trends and incorporate them into your online marketing strategies?
Online marketers now have a distinct viewpoint on the importance of social media marketing for their company. The amount of people using social media to find the goods and services they require has significantly increased. Prestigious social consumer data show that:
Around 76% of businesses use social networking to accomplish their marketing goals.
After promoting the advantages of social media marketing for their company through mobile marketing, business retailers saw a 133% boost in revenues.
The smartphone is used for in-store purchases by 40% of US online buyers.
About 71% of consumers react to social media users' reviews and recommendations of a particular brand.
Consumer evaluations are more trusted by consumers than marketing promotions that come right away from brand websites.
Most well-known firms have a social media presence to broaden their advertising reach and boost their brand's approachability amongst social media operators.
Your efforts to optimise your website for search engines can benefit greatly from social signals. The search engine discovers your website more appropriate the more people share, like, suggest, and discuss about your company on social media, which increases the likelihood that your web pages will appear higher on the search engine results page.
Social media operators know how to constantly propose your brand's noteworthy qualities to their social media networks. This may serve as a useful marketing tool for enhancing your brand's reputation and increasing the number of individuals who are willing to support it.
Consumers are more likely to trust word-of-mouth marketing than product descriptions that your business offers on its website. Your website's influence and audience reach increase in direct proportion to the number of likes and shares it receives from the social media group.
So, if you want to achieve your marketing goals, you must integrate social media into your digital marketing approach. Social media marketing has evolved from a just opulent method of online business promotion to a crucial component of SEO as a result of the requirement to incorporate it into digital marketing in an attempt to keep small-scale and standard-sized companies viable with their rivals.
Digital vendors are enticed to social media marketing as a result of the change in consumers' shopping habits. According to social media polls, users pay a standard of 37 minutes per day on well-known social media platforms like Facebook along with Twitter, and 10% of internet operators are active on these platforms. Consider the prospective market growth that social media may extend for online businesses. In 2013, almost 53% of digital marketers used social media to position their businesses, and by 2014, spending on social advertising will rise (Liang et al. 2022). If your company hasn't already implemented this marketing strategy to expand your market reach, your rivals are undoubtedly doing so with more advanced measures and a bigger market opportunity to experiment with.
Implementing the following strategies is crucial if you want to use social media advertising to your company's advantage:
Establish quantifiable objectives for your company.
To maximise your marketing efforts and outcomes, incorporate social advertising into your SEO approach.
Use SEO analytics to determine the behaviours, needs, and activities of your target audience. This will make it easier to assess the possible efficacy of the social media advertising strategy you can employ to engage your target market.
Improve your website's landing pages by fusing SEO as well as social media advertising techniques. Don't undervalue the role that social networking buttons play in increasing user engagement on your landing pages.
Users of social media are spending more time liking and sharing photographs. This is an excellent chance for online marketers to increase the social signals that will help their business rank higher in search results. For social media users, image material may be incredibly alluring and provide a brand with good online visibility (Dwivedi et al. 2021). Image-centric matter is one of the social media advertising developments employed by Atlanta's social media advertising agencies because research has proven that images increase a brand's visibility to search engine users. These companies also incorporate image-centric content into their SEO campaigns.
Digital marketers consider email marketing to be one of the foundations for effective lead transformation. Despite the most recent trend in digital marketing, email marketing is still widely used, and marketers are incorporating social media advertising to further increase their company lead exchanges. If your brand appears in their friends' social feeds, leads will be more likely to purchase from you through social media. Social media marketers frequently update their email promotion material in their status updates on social media, which is an efficient way to promote brand marketing updates (Sahni, Wheeler & Chintagunta, 2018).
Users of social media can often exchange information through the internet or tools and programmes based on their mobile phones. Through social media marketing, businesses can connect with a variety of stakeholders, together with current and prospective clients, existing and prospective employees, bloggers, journalists, and the common public. Furthermore, social networking sites offer a wealth of details about the goods and services that potential customers may find fascinating (Hruska & Maresova, 2020). Digital marketing experts have discovered that social media marketing developments might affect the expansion and achievement of your digital marketing and search engine optimisation operations. Social media users may find image material to be particularly alluring, and this may offer a brand a powerful online presence. Frequently modernising their email marketing matter in their status keep posted is a good way for social media marketers to promote updates to their brand marketing (Wu, Zhang & Zhou, 2022).
The initial objective of the study was to examine the various challenges surrounding digital marketing. The discussion revealed that connecting with users is the most significant factor when it comes to digital marketing. The customer attachment strategies are displayed on the engagement ladder. The study also showed that in order for businesses to use digital marketing effectively, an effective platform must be designed. The efficiency of a social media platform has been examined using the example of Interest. The report has also covered current developments in digital marketing. It has shown how important it is to incorporate all structures with the digital platform in the current environment. An illustration of current digitization trends is the conversion of newspapers from their printed to online versions.
The author declares that he has no conflict of interests.
The author is thankful to the institutional authority for completion of the work.
Shareef, M. A., Mukerji, B., Dwivedi, Y. K., Rana, N. P., & Islam, R. (2019). Social media marketing: Comparative effect of advertisement sources. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 46(C), 58-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2017.11.001
Liu, X., Min, Q., & Han, S. (2020). Understanding users’ continuous content contribution behaviours on microblogs: An integrated perspective of uses and gratification theory and social influence theory. Behaviour & Information Technology, 39(5), 525-543. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1603326
Lee, J., Kim, C., & Lee, K. C. (2021). Investigating the Negative Effects of Emojis in Facebook Sponsored Ads for Establishing Sustainable Marketing in Social Media. Sustainability, 13(9), 4864. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094864
Bannaga, A., Kelman, L., O'Connor, M., Pitchford, C., Walters, J. R., & Arasaradnam, R. P. (2017). How bad is bile acid diarrhoea: an online survey of patient-reported symptoms and outcomes. BMJ open gastroenterology, 4(1), e000116. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgast-2016- 000116
Hruska, J., & Maresova, P. (2020). Use of social media platforms among adults in the United States—behavior on social media. Societies, 10(1), 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc10010027
Pelletier, M. J., Krallman, A., Adams, F. G., & Hancock, T. (2020). One size doesn’t fit all: a uses and gratifications analysis of social media platforms. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 14(2), 269-284. https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIM-10-2019-0159
Hollebeek, L. D. (2019). Developing business customer engagement through social media engagement-platforms: An integrative SD logic/RBV-informed model. Industrial Marketing Management, 81, 89-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2017.11.016
Alaimo, C., & Kallinikos, J. (2017). Computing the everyday: Social media as data platforms. The Information Society, 33(4), 175-191.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2017.1318327
Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Social networking sites and addiction: Ten lessons learned. International journal of environmental research and public health, 14(3), 311. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14030311
Verduyn, P., Gugushvili, N., Massar, K., Täht, K., & Kross, E. (2020). Social comparison on social networking sites. Current opinion in psychology, 36, 32-37.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.04.002
Montgomery, K., Chester, J., Nixon, L., Levy, L., & Dorfman, L. (2019). Big Data and the transformation of food and beverage marketing: undermining efforts to reduce obesity? Critical Public Health, 29(1), 110-117. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2017.1392483
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, 118-126.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.05.001
Wang, J., & Xu, Y. (2021). Internet usage, human capital and CO2 emissions: A global perspective. Sustainability, 13(15), 8268. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158268
Pantic, I. (2014). Online social networking and mental health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(10), 652-657. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0070
Nabati, M., Maadani, M., & Pourmina, M. A. (2022). AGEN-AODV: an intelligent energy- aware routing protocol for heterogeneous mobile ad-hoc networks. Mobile Networks and Applications, 27(2), 576-587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-021-01821-6
Li, J., Zhan, D., Zhou, Y., & Gao, X. (2021). Loneliness and problematic mobile phone use among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: The roles of escape motivation and self- control. Addictive behaviors, 118, 106857. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106857
Kotane, I., Znotina, D., & Hushko, S. (2019). Assessment of trends in the application of digital marketing. Scientific Journal of Polonia University, 33(2), 28-35.https://doi.org/10.23856/3303
Ibrahim, S. S., & Ganeshbabu, P. (2018). A Study on the Impact of Social Media Marketing Trends on Digital Marketing. Shanlax International Journal of Management, 6(1), 120-125. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1461321
Liang, D., Xie, J., Zhu, W., & Zhao, X. (2022). Cooperative advertising in social networks with positive externalities. Naval Research Logistics (NRL), 69(5), 702-714. https://doi.org/10.1002/nav.22043
Dwivedi, Y. K., Ismagilova, E., Hughes, D. L., Carlson, J., Filieri, R., Jacobson, J., ... & Wang, Y. (2021). Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions. International Journal of Information Management, 59, 102168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102168
Sahni, N. S., Wheeler, S. C., & Chintagunta, P. (2018). Personalization in email marketing: The role of noninformative advertising content. Marketing Science, 37(2), 236-258. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2017.1066
Wu, X., Zhang, F., & Zhou, Y. (2022). Brand spillover as a marketing strategy. Management Science, 68(7), 5348-5363. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4165