In this chapter you will read:
• About the new marketing landscape
• Facts about social media
• Facebook facts
• Twitter facts
• LinkedIn facts
• Google+ facts
• Instagram facts
• Pinterest facts
• Other facts
• Social media’s impact on society
• About the SoLoMo consumer
Introduction
Nobody can predict the future. But as consumers change, marketing has to change too. Its role in the evolution of business is essential to identify and address the modern consumer behaviors. As a well-developed scientific field, marketing is constantly adapting its methods and strategies to fully meet the new consumer needs.
In Winning the Zero Moment of Truth, Jim Lecinski (2012, p.11) writes about the customer’s multiplatform journey that the shopper’s journey looks less like a funnel and more like a flight map. Shoppers dart back and forth as they touch down—again and again—not at cities but at all the information hubs on their journey. The new consumer starts his journey from online search engines (Lecinski, 2012). Other sources of influence such as traditional media (TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, etc.) as well as in-store marketing in brick-and-mortar stores play a supplementary role.
According to Ericsson Mobility Report (2015), around 7.2 billion mobile subscriptions were reported in Q1 2015. Furthermore, 108 million new mobile users were added the first four months of 2015. What is more impressive is the report’s prognosis that smartphone subscriptions will be more than double by 2020, which means that 70 percent of the world’s population will own at least one smartphone. In addition, Ericsson Mobility Report (2015) forecasts the connected devices (smartphones, tablets, and phablets) will be 26 billion by 2020.
The digital world will be based on mobility as the numbers of mobile applications and mobile data traffic are rapidly increasing. The global digital agency “We are Social” argues in its Digital Statshot Report (Kemp, 2015) that mobile will help to push internet penetration beyond 50% of the world’s population during mid to late 2016. As connected devices and mobile data become more affordable, people will ubiquitously connect online, through a wide variety of mobile applications like WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger achieving the top ranking spots in social media around the world.
The current and expected growth of connected devices in social networks develops a new marketing environment which will be based on three pillars.
1. Consumers are getting Social.
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are growing rapidly as channels of human communication allowing brands and consumers to engage in public discussions. As consumers are using social media as their main source of information, communication, and entertainment, marketers will be finding a fruitful environment full of opportunities.
2. Consumers are checking Local.
The rapid proliferation of advanced smartphone and other mobile devices allowed people to exchange information by pinpointing consumers’ location and providing them on their mobile devices with location-specific advertisements. The integration of mobile advertising with location-based services is what characterizes location-based advertising.
3. Consumers are becoming Mobile.
As presented at Internet Trends 2015—Code Conference by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB)—mobile digital media time has already overtaken desktop and other media Internet access. Smartphone penetration has increased for two reasons. First, wireless networks have become faster and ubiquitous. Second, mobile devices are nowadays more affordable. Mobile marketing can provide consumers with personalized information based on their location and the time of receipt. To use simple words, consumers are more attached to their phones than their personal computers, providing marketers with new tools and opportunities to fish where the fish are.
This leads us to the assumption that the study of the convergence of social media expansion, location-based services, and mobile usage becomes a necessity in digital marketing. As mentioned above, SoLoMo stands out for Social, Local, and Mobile. It is an emerging marketing concept that can make use of modern digital marketing tools.
In today’s marketing environment everybody has a voice. Consumers have their own voice. Brands can reply. Social media is not simply used by people. Products and brands have their own accounts as well. For instance, the official match ball of the 2014 World Cup Brazuca was given human characteristics through a creative and anthropomorphic Twitter account. @Brazuca started tweeting seven months prior to the official start of the World Cup 2014. Adidas used Twitter in the most appropriate way to apply SoLoMo marketing, initiating a variety of human discussions with its over 3.4 million followers, including famous brand ambassadors such as David Beckham, Pharrel Williams, and Zinedine Zidane.
Using Brazuca’s Twitter hashtag, the #ballin is everywhere and anywhere. It is not anymore about simply selling. It is about establishing connections. Brands want to be like humans, and humans want to be like brands. Consumers are surrounded by a plethora of marketing tools and applications. Search engines, optimized websites, responsive platforms, Facebook pages, digital advertisements, video campaigns, Twitter accounts, Instagram hashtags, etc., are part of the game. Mobile marketing, location-based services, e-mail marketing with opt-in mailing lists, affiliate marketing, online public relations, article syndication, advertorials, referrals, and back links create a new marketing landscape in which the brand needs to have a loud and consistent voice. Otherwise, brands and consumers will never manage to meet. The following section provides a brief overview of the new marketing landscape.
The New Marketing Landscape
Advertising blooms from the early existence of humanity. People have the need to influence other people, using any mean they have. Until recently brands relied heavily on traditional marketing tools such as television ads, print ads, brochures, posters, and radio ads to communicate with their target markets. Now, with the rapid development of the Internet, brands communicate directly with their consumers seeking for immediate and accurate feedback.
The desire of every business or brand is primarily to approach new customers, then progressively to build relationships with them, and finally to convert them to loyal customers and lead them to purchasing. In that purpose, digital marketing has distinct differences from traditional marketing. In digital marketing the achievement of acquisition, conversion, and retention may be fulfilled with different manners (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). It depends on the product or service that someone wants to promote, the needs, or even the target audience that refers to. There is not an ideal marketing plan in the digital world; there are always different solutions.
We used to say that a marketing plan needs to master the 4Ps: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. Today, in addition to what traditional marketing dictates, we need to know what the customer thinks and how he or she behaves before, during, and after the purchase. Knowing the variety of different channels that can be used in the new marketing landscape, a consumer can be approached through a well-structured website, social networking sites, blogs, or mobile apps.
In order for a digital marketing campaign to be successful, it is crucial that both the online and offline marketing techniques have to integrate properly. Rolling out a digital marketing campaign can be challenging. Thus, a wise selection of acquisition, conversion, and retention tools is essential (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012) to guide modern consumers to their digital and physical customer journey.
In other words, the acquisition tools are used for starting the customer cycle, focusing on selecting the right target audience and emphasizing on establishing the relationship between the customer and the product. Conversion tools, on the other hand, aim to persuade customers to act by proceeding on the purchase of the product (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). Finally, after the customer–product relationship has started, the brand’s main goal is to keep its existing customers and turn them into loyal, returning customers. In order to do so, retention tools are used, so that the company’s products will be always on the radar of the existing customers. To better illustrate the wide variety of available “stops” in customer journey, the following table classifies the acquisition, conversion, and retention tools in digital marketing (Econsultancy, 2014).
Today’s customer journey is greatly affected by social media, local marketing, and mobile applications. The following section discusses a 2014 study by Pew Research about teens, social media, and technology.
As smartphones and mobile telecommunication companies offer constant and high-speed online access, 92% of teenagers answered that they go online daily, and 24% almost constantly (Pew Research, 2015). Much of teenagers’ (aged 13–17) access is facilitated through mobile devices (smartphones, tablets), with Facebook (71%) being the most popular social media platform among them. In addition, according to Pew Research (2015), other than Facebook, the most popular social media platforms for teenagers are Instagram (52%), Snapchat (41%), Twitter (33%), Google+ (33%), Vine (24%), and Tumblr (14%).
It is quite impressive that YouTube is not one of teenagers’ options. Nevertheless, 71% of them logs in to more than one social networking sites. The terms social networking sites and Web 2.0 are widely discussed in a range of industries, such as advertising, marketing, web development, and human resources. Both terms, however, are elusive since they are constantly adjusting to new realities that online users shape. Social networks are the
“activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational networks. Conversational networks are web-based applications that make it possible to create and easily transmit content in the form of words, pictures, videos and audios” (Safko and Brake, 2009, p.6).
The narrow concept of social networks includes not only the well-versed social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, but it also consists of blogs (online journals), forums, wikis, and virtual worlds. In a wider definition, the social networks are referred by websites that share common characteristics in the sense of developing online communities that promote communication and self-expression (Santonocito, 2009). Social networks also include the more recent concepts of open-source-generated content, which is too technical to be discussed in this dissertation. Nevertheless, a main characteristic of social networks, although a bit simplistic, is that online users are able to generate content and to promote it through the web by sharing links with the online Web 2.0 communities.
The social networking sites affect the way companies promote their products, communicate with their consumers and employees, and recently organize their recruitment practices. An essential aspect of social networks is the need of online users to participate instead of simply retrieving information. Social networks users are willing to share personal information online. However, as Murugesan (2007) argues, they follow a set of rules and norms that do not violate the community’s expectations. This characteristic is what makes online social networks such a powerful communication and business tool.
The main characteristic of a social networking site is the sense of community that the traditional web sites cannot develop. Many examples of social networks prove that today’s administrations are gradually using it for their benefit. Social networking sites, blogs, wikis, and forums are low-cost advertising and communication platforms that further engagement with customers and users of the Internet (Miller and Lammas, 2010).
Facts about Social Media
The use of social networks is extremely popular among digital consumers. The numbers are dazzling. According to Kemp (2015), 3.65 billion users access the Web via their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.). As per the official data given by Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Instagram, and Pinterest, almost 1.7 billion people have active social media accounts.
It is almost impossible to define something that is constantly changing and adapting to new realities. Boyd and Ellison (2008) make an interesting distinction between the words network and networking. The authors argue that the term networking refers to connections among strangers while people network with those who know. Even if someone might claim that people use the social media to communicate with their friends, reality has shown that the social media allows users to interact with each other regardless their level of familiarity.
In an attempt, though, to explain what social networking sites are, Boyd and Ellison (2008, p.210) define them as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or a semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” The latter authors’ definition argues that the system in which online communication takes place has certain boundaries and limitations. In fact, scholars are still not clear as to the pure nature of those sites and their potentialities.
Social networking sites are online platforms designed by users who constantly add new features on the Internet to serve a wide and growing variety of consumer needs (Weaver and Morrison, 2008). It is almost impossible to provide an accurate number as to how many social networking sites are currently operating, or how many people are actually active on social media. Following, this section quotes from Digital Statshot Report (Kemp, 2015) some interesting statistics and facts about the most popular social networking sites.
Facebook facts
Facebook is the most popular social networking site with nearly 1.4 billion users (nearly 47% of all Internet users). Facebook was created in 2003 to primarily connect Harvard University classmates. Then it is expanded to connect friends in different universities in the United States, but soon it became widely known to the overall population. Facebook offers a wide range of features and applications to its users to connect with friends online, find old classmates, join in groups and other networks, post images, videos, hyperlinks, thoughts, and personal updates. The most popular feature is the Like buttons that is hit 4.5 billion times per day.
Twitter facts
Microblogging services are online social networks that allow users to post instantly their thoughts and to share their favorite links. The most popular microblogging social networking site is Twitter with 284 million active users as of December 2014.
Using Twitter, the registered users can send short 140-character messages (tweet) expressing personal thoughts or posting the URL address of interesting articles. There are 500 million tweets per day. Twitter uses the term follower to describe those users who are following other Twitter accounts (persons and organizations). The general idea of Twitter is simple and straight forward that makes it very attractive to the online users, with 88% of them to access it through their mobile devices.
LinkedIn facts
LinkedIn is one of the oldest social networking sites, having started in 2002. LinkedIn has 347 million registered members and is considered the professional Facebook. LinkedIn has a more professional nature compared to Facebook’s social and friendly nature. Using LinkedIn, the users upload their resumes, make professional connections, and emphasize on their professional and academic credentials. More than 39 million of LinkedIn’s users are college students and recent graduates.
Google+ facts
Google+ is Google’s social network and according to the same company, “a social layer across all of Google’s services.” It is the newest of the popular social media, offering almost similar services and features with Facebook and Twitter. Probably this is the main reason why Google’s half a billion dollar project has only 363 million users. In Google+, the +1 button is clicked 5 billion times daily.
Instagram facts
Instagram is a mobile application with 300 million users (53% of them are between 18 and 29 years old). Over 70 million images and videos are uploaded per day. Instagram nicely integrates social and mobile characteristics making it one of the most promising SoLoMo tools in digital marketing.
Pinterest facts
Pinterest has similar characteristics with Instagram, allowing its over 70 million users to pin images they like and not necessarily images they own. Pinterest is more appreciated by women, as 80% of Pinterest users are female. Pinterest offers some amazing online purchase opportunities as 88% of users who pinned a product actually bought it. Recently, Pinterest allowed direct purchases of products from the platform.
Other facts
Finally, we also have to take into consideration the rise of non–English-speaking social networks, operating mainly in China and Russia. Qzone and Wechat in China have 639 and 468 million users accordingly while the Russian VKontake has 100 million users. In addition, there is a growing trend from instant messaging mobile applications with great marketing potentials. WhatsApp counts over 600 million users, Facebook messenger has 500 million users, and Snapchat has already 100 million monthly users in just couple of years of operation. Snapchat’s value is close to $20 billion, and many of the big companies are aiming for profitable collaborations.
Social Media’s Impact on Society
The primary objective of social networks is to strengthen the social bonds among friends. As such, the social networks became widely known as channels of interpersonal and group communication. The social networking sites have greatly affected the way Internet users are able to communicate with friends, make new friends, get informed, and share links with the public (Boyd and Ellison, 2008). In the traditional ways to communicate, such as the face-to-face interaction, or the phone conversation, new forms of communication have been added.
Nowadays, the Internet users are able to e-mail or IM (WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, etc.) each other as well as initiate a video call. Younger generations consider e-mail and chat as primitive ways to communicate. Twitter posts, Facebook status updates, and Skype conversations are also part of their communication process. In some cases, the Internet users decide to communicate and share their news through online virtual worlds such as the Second Life, or the widely known online games Lineage and World of Warcraft (WoW) with millions of users logging in on a daily basis (Qualman, 2009). Today’s Internet users consider themselves as part of an online community, in which popularity is measured by the number of friends, connections, followers they have on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accordingly.
The online social networks have changed the way people follow the news. Instead of simply getting the news from a newspaper article, or from a TV story, the new generation of Internet users relies heavily on their friends within their network. Users read their Facebook friends’ statuses to comment on a news link. The source of the news is not always a traditional newspaper, but also blogs written by anonymous sources. In addition, many mainstream websites covering the news allow their users to comment on their news stories. That leads to the argument that the control is now on the hands of the Internet users who are gradually becoming the gatekeepers of information.
Digital customers are getting more familiar and comfortable with the Internet, and they expect from brands to approach them and interact with them. A website is a portrait of a business, is the beginning of all. Customers may explore in the website and learn about a brand everything they need. Through a website a brand may also provide access to social networks accounts. Social media, like Facebook and Twitter, are becoming the main sources for people’s information.
The number of users of social media globally is extremely big. Online profile of a business, product, or service may rise positively in the digital world, in order to manage its purposes. For this reason a new breed of consumer, the SoLoMo consumer, needs to be explored.
The SoLoMo Consumer
This book is an exploration of SoLoMo consumers with a special focus on the generation of Internet users who are having a natural connection with computers and other electronic devices. Prensky (2001) describes digital natives a group of students bearing fundamental distinctions from the classes and generations he had encountered in his academic career. His main argument stems from the observation that these new digital natives seem to have “spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age” (Prensky, 2001, p.1).
Digital natives are especially adept at functioning within a web-based interface. Research on this particular characteristic has been widely conducted within market segment research on Gen-Y consumers and products, yet less advanced in academic scholarship on the topic. Studies of the latter sort are generally investigations into socialization rather than contributory to research and development strategies meant to generate profit. In either case, the topic of HRM is tertiary to the broader trends found in the literature.
Gen-Y born after 1980 are children of a digitized world. Change has been rapid. Digital natives in business sectors are especially predisposed to this sociological profile. Configured by e-mail communications, Sharepoint project management, and virtual meetings, digital natives find validation in their professional standing by way of multiple digital accounts, competency in SNS networking, and their ability to forge consensus through self-volition in online forums (CISCO, 2012). Digital natives are first-generation bloggers, wikis, and leaders on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Flickr, etc. Many of those same natives might also have a digital self (also known as avatar) that lives in virtual worlds such as the Second Life or in online games like Lineage and WoW (Qualman, 2009).
These digital natives are equally eager to experience new technological gadgets when they hit the market. The iPhone series and other smartphone phenomenon are evidence of this movement. They listen to music by downloading MP3-formatted songs from the web. They receive information through video streaming applications like YouTube, and they are commenting on anything they found worth discussing. Finally, they even refer to networks to acquire friends. For this new breed of consumers, SoLoMo is not a marketing strategy. It is a way of living.
The next three chapters of this book will explain the characteristics and implications of Social, Local, and Mobile aspects of digital marketing.