Chapter One introduces the reader to the SoLoMo experience in digital marketing. Primarily, however, it briefly defines essential tools of digital marketing to help the reader shape a clearer view of the digital marketing landscape. Then, we signify the SoLoMo concept’s importance in marketing literature by mainly explaining its impact on consumers and brands. As users are being transformed into presumers, producers, and consumers at the same time (Trendwatching, 2014), the web becomes a more semantic environment, with its own culture and set of expected consumer behaviors. Therefore, the first chapter presents the general characteristics of the new, more digital-oriented user, the SoLoMo consumer.
In Chapter Two the SoLoMo consumer goes social. In today’s turbulent environment the “new” types of consumers no longer look to brands as the primary source of information. SoLoMo consumers are more likely to consult a third-party resource and others in the social networks they are engaging to. Some common social activities that they are performing are seeking advice, reading or writing reviews, or sharing experiences via a social network. In this chapter the authors are going to extensively analyze the following topics:
• SoLoMo consumers are social
• New trends in social engagement (social search, visual search, content marketing, social commerce)
• Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as entry points to purchase
• The YouTube community and social entertainment (product reviews, home videos, song covers, thumbs up, dislikes)
• Use of collective coupons (Groupon)
• Seek recommendations through social networks
• Case analysis
In Chapter Three the SoLoMo consumer searches locally. Consumers are submitting more and more location data, with the use of geolocation techniques. Social networks, such as Foursquare and Google Places, use these data of information in order to connect and coordinate users with local people or events that match their interests in the highest possible degree. In this chapter the authors are going to extensively analyze the following topics:
• SoLoMo consumers are local
• Characteristics of their local behavior
• Geosocial networking
• New trends in geolocation services
• Use of geosocial applications (such as Foursquare) to check in
• NFC payments
• Use of coupons
• Use of beacons
• Benefits of geolocation services
Chapter Four presents the mobile characteristic of the SoLoMo consumer. It is estimated that over 4.55 billion people worldwide use a mobile phone in 2014 (Pew Research, 2015). In addition, the global smartphone audience surpassed the 1 billion mark in 2012 and will total 1.75 billion in 2014. SoLoMo consumers rely heavily on their smartphones spending an enormous amount of time checking for messages, social updates, and online information. In this chapter the authors are going to extensively analyze the following topics:
• SoLoMo consumers are mobile
• Characteristics of consumers’ mobile behavior
• New trends in mobile marketing
• Multiscreen behavior
• Mobile marketing strategy
The last three chapters suggest strategies for brands to apply the SoLoMo strategy to today’s marketing. Chapter Five discusses a variety of digital marketing and SoLoMo-oriented strategies to provide the readers with full understanding of how SoLoMo marketing can be applied. It also discusses several SoLoMo applications to provide the reader with the necessary digital, social, local, and mobile tools to apply the I.N.T.E.R.A.C.T. model to their marketing strategies. More specifically, this chapter discusses the following:
• The mobile web
• Digital marketing tools
• Social tools
• Local tools
• Mobile tools
• The I.N.T.E.R.A.C.T. model
• Implications for marketers
Chapter Six concludes with a forecast on digital marketing’s next day. How is the SoLoMo consumer able to shape the current online environment? What brands should do to embrace the new breed of consumers? This chapter examines how new technologies will affect and be embraced by the SoLoMo consumer, such as NFC payment and wearable items. Whether we are right or wrong in our predictions nobody knows. The future will tell…