1. Executive Summary
2. Why I Chose This Topic?
Undeniably, social media is taking up a more significant portion of a person's life than before. Americans alone spend up to 23 hours a week online, this includes reading of emails, being involved on their social media plat forms as well as various communication platforms made available to us today (Mielach, 2013). Hence, with the increase in amount of time people spend online, it is naturally that businesses want to jump onto the band wagon and make use of social media to boost sales. Whether it is through increasing the awareness of a brand or product to simply maintaining a close and friendly clientele relationship with consumers, social media has got these businesses covered. It is hence of utmost interest to me to explore how the technology of social media can affect both businesses and consumers socially, economically and politically.
Undeniably, social media is taking up a more significant portion of a person's life than before. Americans alone spend up to 23 hours a week online, this includes reading of emails, being involved on their social media plat forms as well as various communication platforms made available to us today (Mielach, 2013). Hence, with the increase in amount of time people spend online, it is naturally that businesses want to jump onto the band wagon and make use of social media to boost sales. Whether it is through increasing the awareness of a brand or product to simply maintaining a close and friendly clientele relationship with consumers, social media has got these businesses covered. It is hence of utmost interest to me to explore how the technology of social media can affect both businesses and consumers socially, economically and politically.
3. Background
- What is social media marketing?
- Technology used in social mediate marketing
- How did social media marketing come about
4. Historical Perspective
4.1 Time line of how marketing has evolved into today's social media marketing
4.2 Why is there a trend towards social media marketing? / What made previous marketing methods not as attractive anymore?
4.2 Why is there a trend towards social media marketing? / What made previous marketing methods not as attractive anymore?
5. Current Situation
Types of social media marketing & the technology behind each:
5.1 Using a netizen's cookie information to strategically place advertisements related to his interest
5.2 'Share This' widget / 'Like and Share' methods
5.3 Online persona for businesses (eg. Facebook/Twitter pages rather than their official websites)
5.4 Engagement of celebrities/bloggers to endorse company's products/brand online
- Number of followers do matter (eg. A blogger with a six hundred thousand follower count will garner more sales than someone with only two thousand followers)
- Blogs: Sponsorship of a product/service and the recipient to blog a review/advertorial (can be in the form of a video)
- Instagram/Twitter: A picture/tweet that show cases the celebrity/blogger with the product/patronising the service
Types of social media marketing & the technology behind each:
5.1 Using a netizen's cookie information to strategically place advertisements related to his interest
5.2 'Share This' widget / 'Like and Share' methods
5.3 Online persona for businesses (eg. Facebook/Twitter pages rather than their official websites)
5.4 Engagement of celebrities/bloggers to endorse company's products/brand online
- Number of followers do matter (eg. A blogger with a six hundred thousand follower count will garner more sales than someone with only two thousand followers)
- Blogs: Sponsorship of a product/service and the recipient to blog a review/advertorial (can be in the form of a video)
- Instagram/Twitter: A picture/tweet that show cases the celebrity/blogger with the product/patronising the service
6. Future Consideration (To be completed upon further research)
6.1 Advantages of social media marketing:
6.1.1 Economic:
- New marketing strategies that are low in cost à More business opportunities since social media marketing is now available
6.1.2. Social:
- Opportunities for social media managing companies to emerge (eg. Nuffnang, Churp Churp, Gleam Digital)
- Universities preparing the undergraduates in this field of social media marketing (eg. National University of Singapore Faculty of Arts and Social Science module: Communication and New Media)
6.1.3. Political
6.2 Challenges/Obstacles that may emerge:
6.2.1 Economic
- The sunset industry of the print media
6.2.2 Social
- Privacy issues on tracking of cookies/Internet browsing history
6.2.3 Political
-
6.1 Advantages of social media marketing:
6.1.1 Economic:
- New marketing strategies that are low in cost à More business opportunities since social media marketing is now available
6.1.2. Social:
- Opportunities for social media managing companies to emerge (eg. Nuffnang, Churp Churp, Gleam Digital)
- Universities preparing the undergraduates in this field of social media marketing (eg. National University of Singapore Faculty of Arts and Social Science module: Communication and New Media)
6.1.3. Political
6.2 Challenges/Obstacles that may emerge:
6.2.1 Economic
- The sunset industry of the print media
6.2.2 Social
- Privacy issues on tracking of cookies/Internet browsing history
6.2.3 Political
-
7. Conclusion
8. References
- Mielach, David (2013). Americans Spend 23 Hours Per Week Online, Texting. Retrieved from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4718-weekly-online-social-media-time.html
Comments (Freddy):
ReplyDeleteThe topic is very relevant to the modern day context. The outline seems okay!
I do believe that your current approach is from a business standpoint and hopefully my pointers would be able to help you expand on your topic more.
Firstly, you might want to highlight the link between social media and ICT. You may want to state how the development of ICT can affect social media. I presume that the current development in ICT has provided the necessary conditions for social media to thrive. ICT has huge potential, whether or not if there is a correlation between ICT development and the growth of social media, the impact on social media will be tremendous.
Secondly, you might want to consider the use of social media for "whistle-blowing"? Case in mind, the Global Surveillance incident which has affected political ties (USA and Germany; The Angela Merket Incident where she compared US to the Stasi) and sparked a global debate about privacy. You can state how this incident might spark paranoia within the social media community and it might even result into the possible boycott of social media (even though highly impossible).
With that, I wish you all the best for the Individual Topical Review Paper!
Hi Freddy! Thank you for your comments. I have included the linking point between ICT & social media in my draft. Hopefully it's evident enough :)
DeleteI have done some research on whistle blowing on the Global Surveillance issue regarding Edward Snowden. I dont think it has to do with social media though? Did I misinterpret readings? Do share with me what you know about the Global Surveillance disclosure and maybe I can relook into it!
Thanks!
The comment provide is base on your topical review outline and personal perspective, please be remind that it is just a comment or feedback.
ReplyDeleteYour topic is well chosen as it is a current scenario of how businesses using these opportunity to target specific range of audiences. Especially base on you support evidence which mention that most of the time people spend are surfing the net.
However social media has been already established for a certain amount of period, is it going to stay at the top peak ?
Base on your article, you mention that it will maintain a close and friendly relationship for consumer, but this is merely virtual. In other words, the kind of relationship project is like a short-term which is lack of loyalty, friendliness or closeness. Yes, it did create the overall brand awareness but not valuable shopping relationships, you can ask your friends who like blog shopping for this.
Hi Wei Liang,
Deletethat is indeed a very valid point and I have included those two you have mentioned in my draft :) Thank you for pointing it out to me! :)