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32nd International Conference on Organizational Science Development SMART ORGANIZATION High Potentials. Lean Organization. Internet of Things.
March 20th – 22nd 2013, Portorož, Slovenia
Facebook Marketing Maja Djurica Belgrade Business School – Higher educationinstitution for applied studies, Belgrade, Serbia
[email protected] Nina Djurica Higher school of professional business studies Novi Sad, Serbia
[email protected] Miha Marič Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Kranj, Slovenia
[email protected] Marko Jovanović Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia
[email protected] Abstract Social media has shifted consumer behaviors and will continue to shift them for the foreseeable future. It has created new necessities for businesses and marketing, but has also generated new opportunities. The main goal of this paper is to analyz facebook marketing in light social media, digital and social world. This paper looks at social media as a strategy more than as technology. It discusses how businesses can apply social media tools given their industry, target market and larger marketing and PR goals. Keywords: social media, facebook, marketing, consumer, consumer behavior, marketing strategy
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Introduction
Marketing Management, according to Kotler and Keller (Kotler, Ph., Keller, K., 2006), is the art and science in selection of target markets, and the ability of acquiring, keeping and increasing the number of customers through the creation, delivery and communicating a superior value to consumers. American Association defines marketing as an organizational function and a set of processes of creating, communicating and delivering value to consumers and customer relationship management in a way that brings benefits to the organization and its stakeholders. Peter Drucker, a leading management theorist, stated the following:
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"Since the purpose of business is to create and keep customers, it only has the two central functions - marketing and innovation. The basic function of marketing is to attract and retain customers with a profit. " The development of modern information and communication technology had significant implications on all-important dimensions of marketing, and in particular the way in which organizations communicate with customers and the environment. Among the most important information and communication technologies belongs to Internet, and Internet based social networks. With the advent of social networking, marketing-based social networks have become the most popular form of Internet marketing. Social networks have proven to be very efficient and effective medium for sending commercial messages, advertising, branding and promotion of products and services. Members of social networks are not only made of young people looking for companionship, leisure and exchange of different bits, but they are also made of more and more intellectuals and business people worldwide. Marketing through social networks and social control is a process based on the promotion of existing and potential customers (target market) to voluntary and free exchange of information about a product or service, to comment, to Like it, and thus allow the organization to ensure that the maximum amount of exposure of promotional message to customer. The social network is an online community made up of individuals and organizations who share common interests and activities through various technological interactions, blogs, instant messaging, newsfeeds, etc.. Social network is a free online service that enables users to have a different forms of communication with the environment and the possibility of their own presentations. Nowadays social networks are used by hundreds of millions of people. Access to social networks require from users to create a profile, which includes demographic data, description of interest, activities and knowledge. After creating a profile, users are able to interact with other members of the social network (friends), who share the same or similar interests and activities. The development of social networks was preceded with the development of communication via newsgroups or forums as the first form of internet socializing and discussion, as well as the development of chat applet (eg Skype). Also, the development of modern information and communication technologies, as well as increased connectivity speed and online communicating has contributed to the evolution of social networks as the most common forms of communication.
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Overview of the social networks
The development of social networks has contributed to the development of new forms of twoway communication with the target audience. This form of communication involves creating a message, which will be the subject of a freely agreed exchange discussion by multiple users through the social network. The main advantage of communicating via social networks is that the organization in a very short time can get feedback on their products and services at relatively low cost campaign, and in the short term, as well, may include specific groups of customers. Here is the preview of the important characteristics of today's most popular social networks.
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Facebook is the most advanced form of direct marketing that allows users to reach their target market for free or for a minimal investment. Because of its local and global character, advanced applications, and unstoppable growth, Facebook has huge marketing potential. Through it, users announce the message they want to convey to others in different ways. In addition, besides the young people, there is growing number of adults, intellectuals and business people around the world who use Facebook. Twitter allows you to directly communicate with each other by sending tweets. Tweet is visible to all Twitter users, although it is addressed to a specific user. Twitter is very suitable for the conversation between brands and people, or between people who do not know each other personally. Like Facebook, marketers can use Twitter to get out their message and to communicate with their associates. Because of the viral nature of Twitter, there is a greater possibility for the message to reach the targeted audience. Unlike Facebook, Twitter targets a smaller number of the people (audience). One of the main advantages of Twitter lies in Twitter search. Users are able to go to search.twitter.com and type in any word or phrase, and thus obtain a list of tweets that use the particular word or phrase. When using this option, companies can follow the tweets that may be relevant to them as a company and to find people with problems that their business can offer to solve. Quora is a social network that allows users to follow each other in one direction. Users of social networks can track the topics they are interested in, and can also see and ask questions regarding these issues, or to ask their own questions. If the company's target market on Quora, it can be used as an important tool for market research. YouTube is a social network for sharing video content, where users can upload, view and evaluate the video clips. If user wants to post content it requires registration, but to browse the content registration is not required, except for content that is not suitable for persons under the age of 18. Through YouTube users can comment, add or take voice, or mark as "favorite" other spots. They can also upload their own video recordings and create lists. Google + as Google's version of social network, like Facebook, allows users to create links to their social networking and sharing content. Google + has a greater emphasis on privacy, in the sense that its interface encourages users to control with whom they share their details. Google + users can divide their contacts into 'circles'. Through this function, users can divide contacts into different groups they in the way they find it appropriate. Google + has Hangouts feature (internal video function), which allows users to have video chat with other users. LinkedIn network borrows many elements from Facebook concept of social networks, but it is directed very professionally. Profile consists of detailed concerning users information on the history of its profession. LinkedIn allows users to connect, to be part of a group and to follow companies. Foursquare and Gowalla are mobile geo-location applications that can be installed on smartphones running Google's Android or Apple's operating system. These applications allow users to be "checked" at their current location. The phone can detect the user's location and display a list of user-generated events nearby. After "checking" the user has the option to
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share its position with friends on Foursquare or Gowalla sites, as well as on other social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Groupon and Living Social are known as platforms for the "bargain of the day". They act as digital coupons, offering special benefits to its subscribers each day, which are created according to their interests and location. User interest data is collected over time, both through the use of opinion polls and is likely based on the type of coupons that users actually use. Users can subscribe by e-mail and through applications for smart phones. The benefits that are offered are discounts that are usually between 50% and 75% of the normal price. Yelp, Google Places, Bing Local Business Portal are location-related applications that serve the local comments. These applications use the local traditional businesses to create awareness and start a business. Consequently, large companies have invested in creating their own business directories. Slideshare.net is the site where users can share and upload their presentations. Presentations are often an effective way for presenting the topics and companies often create them for marketing purposes. Social networks allow a number of marketing activities, such as oral advertising, market research, design and testing ideas, developing new products, improving relationships with customers and other stakeholders, all forms of promotion and communication, and, all marketing activities in general. Marketing through social networks contribute to: increasing familiarity with the product or brand, increases web traffic and enhancing e-commerce, strengthening presence in the search engines (Search Engine Optimization), strengthen customer loyalty and trust, provides the successful launch of new products. Percent of People Who Use Social Networks
Percent Yes
Do you ever use / have a profile on… (Poll Taken in early 2012) Any social network
56 %
Facebook
54 %
LinkedIn
13 %
Twitter
10 %
Google+
8%
Social Network Statistics
Data
Total number of Facebook users worldwide
1.2 Billion
Total percentage of 18-24 year olds who already use social media
98%
Total percentage of people on Earth who use Facebook
11%
Total amount of minutes people spend on Facebook every month
700 billion
Average amount of time a person uses Facebook per month
15 hours 33 minutes
Total amount of people who access Facebook with phone
250 million
Total amount of websites that have integrated with Facebook
2.5 million
Total pieces of content shared on Facebook each month
70 billion
Total amount of unique YouTube users per month
490 million
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Total amount of YouTube page views per month
92 billion
Total amount hours spent on YouTube per month
2.9 billion
Total amount of articles hosted by Wikipedia
17 million
Average pictures uploaded to Flickr per minute
3,000
Total amount of pictures hosted by Flickr
5 billion
Average amount of tweets per day
190 million
Percent of teenagers who log on to Facebook over 10 times per day
22%
Percent of Facebook users under the age of 10
25%
Percent of teens that view social networks as unsafe
59%
Percent of Americans who aren’t confident in their ability to use privacy settings
24%
Top ten most engaged countries for social networking
Average Month
Israel
11.1
Argentina
10.7
Russia
10.4
Turkey
10.2
Chile
9.8
The Philippines
8.7
Colombia
8.5
Peru
8.3
Venezuela
7.9
Canada
7.7
United States
7.6
Hours
Per
http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/ Considering the fact that the social networks are transforming rapidly, spreading, growing and decaying (e.g. MySpace), organizations need to implement specific marketing techniques in order to obtain the maximum benefit from marketing on social networks. It should be noted that access to Twitter is not the same as Facebook, as well as access You Tube differs from Facebook. The development of smart phones and mobile application enables users to "carry" their profile on the social network with them. The data shown in the table below refers to the effect of a new era of marketing that has already begun. Top 5: Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q2 2012 (Units in Millions) Vendor
2Q12 Unit 2Q12Market Shipments Share
2Q11 Unit 2Q11Market Shipments Share
Year-over-year Change
Samsung
50.2
32.6%
18.4
17.0%
172.8%
Apple
26.0
16.9%
20.4
18.8%
27.5%
Nokia
10.2
6.6%
16.7
15.4%
-38.9%
HTC
8.8
5.7%
11.6
10.7%
-24.1%
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ZTE
8.0
5.2%
2.0
1.8%
300.0%
Others
50.7
32.9%
39.2
36.2%
29.3%
Total
153.9
100.0%
108.3
100.0%
42.1%
Source: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com
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Social network “Facebook”
Facebook is a social network on the Internet, which was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckeberg, a former Harvard student. Initially “his” Facebook was only available to Harvard students who could communicate and exchange information in this way. Soon the network spread and today access for this social network is enabled for everyone above 13 years of age. Mark took the name "Facebook" from the school publication that consists from the pictures of the former and active students, which purpose was to make students know each other better. Today, the website has more than a billion users. To access this network, the user must create a profile. Facebook users set their status profile that is visible to all who visit that page. Facebook has the "News" option through which users can see popular and relevant activities of their friends and social parties with which they are associated. "News," is the Home page of the user, when the user logs on to Facebook. Facebook determines what content is popular and relevant to the user via an algorithm which is known as EdgeRank (EdgeRank: The Secret Sauce That Makes Facebook's News Feed Tick | TechCrunch." TechCrunch. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011). EdgeRank is determined according to the following formula: This algorithm operates according to the following formula: EdgeRank = for all edges e, ∑ u e w e d e Where: ue = affinity score between user and edge creator we = weight of edge type (comment, like, tag, etc.) de = time decay factor Facebook users who commented on the status of another user creates an edge, because the interaction is visible change. On the other hand, if the is user just looking at the profile of another user it does not create the edge, because there is no physical manifestation of the interaction. Affinity score, u e , for one edge is a measure of the level of correlation between the user and the edge that is relevant. If users shared messages on walls, comments, mutual friends or images, there is a chance to have a high affinity score and therefore have a higher position in Facebook updates. Speed degradation as a factor of EdgeRank is currently unknown and is probably sometimes set by Facebook. Facebook also offers the option of "Facebook connect", which enables users to log onto thirdparty sites using their Facebook account. This option allows for deeper interaction of Facebook option to share on the site. For example, since the user already entered on Facebook, it can be directly share that web site page on Facebook. Research Facebook marketing platform Buddy Media supports the following strategies for the high-ranking algorithm EdgeRank ("facebooks-edgerank.pdf." Facebook's EdgeRank: How to
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Make Sure You're in the News Feed. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Dec. 2011):: 1. Ask questions on your Facebook page for fans ("Would you?" Provides the most engaging), 2. Set games and trivia, 3. "Interact" with fans, 4. Use the coupons, surveys and other unusual publication, 5. Use relevant photos, 6. Refer to current events, 7. Insert a video, 8. Publish timed content, 9. Broadcast links, 10. Be explicit in your disclosures. Facebook also allows for the producers of online content to set the "like" option to their online content. If a Facebook user chooses to click "like" on a particular piece of content, Facebook will update the user's status and will place a link to a page that the user likes. It follows that the option "Like" on Facebook generates viral messages. Search engine optimization (Search Engine Optimization - SEO) involves the use of strategies and tactics to better rank search results. SEO website for the search engines is the process of improving the quality and quantity of traffic from search engines to a Web site through the search results. According to search engine SEO, the "Like" is considered as a kind of vote for the content or link of that content. If the site is ranked higher (for example, comes among the first in the list in searches) more traffic will be diverted to the search to a specific site. Sharing content on Facebook enables improvement of SEO.
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Development of marketing strategies on social media
Development of effective outreach strategy in social networks requires implementation of a series of activities that take place through several successive stages: 1. Defining the goals of participating in social networks Marketing objectives derived from business goals of organization and contribute to its realization. Marketing objectives should be clear, measurable, realistic and time-bound. A particular problem in setting these goals is possibility of confusion between planned objectives and ways to achieve those goals. In order for qualifying something as a valid marketing goal, the following conditions must be satisfied: ➢ Specification of the desired outcome (such as, for example, increasing awareness about the company, product, brand, attraction, retaining, and increasing the number of customers, increasing the number of members of the mailing list, increasing website traffic, building incoming links to a site, and etc.); Clearly defined outcome in order to avoid any ambiguity and to ensure reliable measurability; The percentage of outcomes must be proposed; Specification of the time period for achieving the desired outcomes. Without well-defined goals, it is impossible to correctly assess the outcomes and create a marketing strategy. When company develops appropriate marketing strategies it also must develop detailed implement programs for conduction of the Marketing plan. Well-formulated marketing strategy can be "sabotaged" by bad implementations. The implementation must take into account the budget, accountability and evaluation. Also, the implementation must be limited in time. However, no matter how well planned a marketing plan is, the market is subject to constant change, so it is possible that some of the planned activities can become in certain time inappropriate or ineffective. Companies should be able to respond to changes in the marketing environment and to change marketing strategy in accordance with the latest information on changes in the environment.
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2. Market Research Research of the target market is of crucial importance in the process of building marketing strategies from whose quality largely depends the success of advertising campaigns on social networks. Companies need to collect data on the characteristics, needs and social activities of targeted consumer groups on social networks and create programs that will attract them. Companies also need to identify the social networks that their target audience use, and also, find a target audience based on their e-mail data base by using the service to find their friends on social networks and in that way identify the social networks on which they need to occur and engage. 3. Creating a communication message Message is the foundation for achieving the goals of communication. This is a set of signs, symbols, words, images and sounds that the sender sends and which activate the raising of awareness, creation of preference and reinforcement of the positive attitude toward specific product/service or brand. When creating a specific communication messages, the company needs to decide what is a message that should be sent to the targeted audience, create its profile web-page on the social networks, choose colors that match the company's logo and the alike. The basic elements of communication messages are: the text of the message, the graphical elements and schedule. Text messages should be credible, understandable, unique and special in order to get the attention, interest, desire and action from the audience. Attractiveness of the content of the message depends on the type of the social network. The content of the message that is attractive among Facebook users probably will not have the same popularity on Likedln-in. Graphic elements are the carriers of visual symbols and ideas meanings in a propaganda message. There are two basic types of graphics: photos and artwork. The artwork has a major role in the propaganda messages which is dominated by the idea, that it is easier to illustrate by the stunning artwork than by natural images. Using graphics leaves room for multiple interpretations, which cannot be avoided, so you should create a message that will tangle of possible interpretations and focus graphic on the benefits of the product or service. Layout-design presents the functional and attractive allocation of propaganda messages. 4. The choice of social networks The company should choose a social network that will actively be used in achievement of its marketing (business) goals. The choice of social networking is based on market research results, which provide information on the presence of the target audience and their preferences about the social networks. Using social media is free, but to establish and build business relationships in social media there are certain costs (time and human resources). Therefore, the company needs to decide which social networks will have an active participation and make maximum use of all media and channels of communication. 5. Management propaganda campaign in social media
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If a company does not decides exactly and analyze comprehensively the target audience, it is unlikely that the propaganda campaign will succeed. Identifying and analyzing the target audience is the first stage in the development of strategies for the promotion. Effective management of propaganda campaign requires from the company to assign certain employees for managing the propaganda campaign in social media, to post the content and share links, to write and edit blogs, respond to comments and questions, to update their profile, to monitor statistics and accomplishments. The company decides whether to engage, only one person, or a team or external associates for marketing in social media, for these activities. 6. Budgeting for social media marketing When developing a marketing plan, the company should determine the budget for marketing in the social media. Although social media and marketing tools are online for free, it does not mean that the successful implementation of marketing strategies in social media does not require cost. If the company implements marketing strategies on social media without engagement of the new human resources, existing workers will need to allocate some time to implement marketing strategies in social media. On the other hand, outsourcing (e.g. marketing agencies) for implementation of marketing strategies in social media also requires time and labor costs. Successful implementation of marketing strategies excludes aimless surfing on the social networks. Literature Djurica, M., Hanic, H., Djurica, N., (2012): Modern Concepts of Marketing Management, EdgeRank: The Secret Sauce That Makes Facebook's News Feed Tick | TechCrunch. Web. 23 Dec. 2011.http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/22/facebook-edgerank. Facebook's EdgeRank: How to Make Sure You're in the News Feed. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. forms.buddymedia.com Gligorijevic, M., Janicic, R., (2011): Integrated Marketing Communications in B2B Companies, Brand Building, Ekonomske teme, Kragujevac. International Journal of Business and Management studies, No. 2, pp. 109 – 116. Janicic, R., Filipovic, V., Brusati, L., (2010): People as key point in Social Marketing Strategies, Croatian Congress on Preventive Medicine and Health Promotion, Zagreb. Kotler, Ph., Hermawan, K., Iwan, S., (2010): Marketing 3. 0.- From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Canada. Kotler, Ph., Keller, K., (2006): Marketing menadžment, Data status. Palmer, A., (2008): Principles of Services Marketing, McGraw-Hill. Solomon, Marshall, Stuart, Barnes, Mitchell, (2009): Marketing - Real People, Real Decisions, FT-Prentice Hall.
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