Social Media In Marketing Communication

tender Media In selling CommunicationThe technologies and tools people phthisis to distribute online be referred to collectively as kindly media (Scott, 2010 ). affectionate media is not understood in terms of the dissimilar technologies and tools but, rather how those technologies and tools entirelyow you to communicate straightaway with people or intended recipient. The term complaisant media represents media that exploiters buns easily participate in, contribute to (Karjaluota, 2008), communicate with and congregate to own fun with promoters and friendship (Scott, 2010 ). companionable Media is an emerging phenomenon of recent ages. favorable media is a aggroup of untested kinds of online media embodied participation, openness, conversation, connection and touchedness as unique characteristics (Mayfield, 2008). Boyd (2008) refers complaisant media is an umbrella term that refers to the knack of tools, services, and applications that al modest people to inte ract with others victimisation mesh topology technologies. Social media encompasses groupw ar, online communities, peer -to-peer and media-sh atomic number 18-out technologies, and networked gaming.Mayfield (2008) explain affable media is all around being human same(p) sh ar ideas, cooperating and collaborating to create art, thinking and commerce, vigorous debate and discourse, purpose people who might be good friends, allies and lovers, which our species has built since several(prenominal) civilisation. He further adds fond media is becoming touristy so accelerateily, not beca give its great shiny, speedy new technology, but beca enforce it lets us be ourselves. People can find learning, inspiration, communities and collaborators faster than ever before. New ideas, services, business models and technologies emerge and evolve at fast speed in complaisant media. jibe to Scott (2010) neighborly media .provides the way people collapse out ideas, content, thoughts and relationships online. Social Media differ from so-called importantstream media in that any oneness and only(a) can create, comment on, and add to affable media content. Social media can return key the form of text, audio, video, images, and communities (Scott, 2010 , p. 38).Social media is in any case known as user generated media (Mangold Faulds, 2009). utilisationr creates a network among friends, families, celebrities, and those who sh ar super acid characteristics etcetera that has built strong user base among different favorable media forms. It is becoming customary day by day due to its unique characteristics such(prenominal) as genialising, participating, freedom of expression, engaging, interactivity and easily r to each oneable at fraction of cost. The main important features of social media is to keep in touch with friend, communicate with friend and sh be memories of good and bad experience through notes, post, blogs, video sharing and photo sharing etc. So cial media is sometimes referred to as social softw ar or social computing or computer-intercede conversation (Boyd, 2008). In next section, social medias characteristic is explained.Characteristic of Social MediaThe power of social media is rooted in its superpower to connect people across time and space. The way these tools are used converts plethora of practices, including communication, collaboration, nurture dissemination, and social organisation (Benkler, 2006 Cas proves, 1996 Rheingold, 2002). Social media has affected how people interact with one another and, thus, it has the potential to alter how society is organised though they are simply the messengers, social media tools are revered for their potential to connect people( (Shriky, 2008 Tapscott Williams, 2006 Weinberger, 2008).Social media provides power to communicate one to literally hundreds or thousands of other people quickly and with relatively little effort. Participation and making connections are habitual characteristics among social media platforms. Part of this is informed by the opinion of a flat community, in which all parties engage in open dialogue. Influence and credibility are prized in this arena, as the users reputation can a great deal be a key motivator for one to remain active in the dialogue (Karjaluota, 2008).Some of the common characteristics of Social Media identified by Mayfield (2008) areParticipation, social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience.Openness, virtually social media services are open to feedback and participation. They encourage voting, comments and the sharing information. There are rarely any barriers to accessing and making use of content-password -protected content is frowned on.Conversation, whereas traditionalistic media is about shell out and in contrast social media is better seen as a two -way conversation.Community, social media allows communities to for m quickly and communicate effectively. Communities share common interests, such as a love of photography, a political fill in or a favourite TV show.Connectedness, most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links to other sites, resources and people.Common Forms of Social MediaThere are various tools and format are in practice in the forms of social media. The commonly used or basic forms of social media (Karjaluota, 2008 Mayfield, 2008 Scott, 2010 Mangold Faulds, 2009) areSocial Networking Sites (SNS) are virtual communities that allow users to build in-person profile, connect with friends, and cultivate a community of friends and to share information, content and communication. Some appeal to broad groups (i.e. Facebook) whereas others are built around particular niches and demographics (i.e. LinkedIn). The common SNS are Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Faceparty etc.Blogs are personal web sites written by somebody who is passionate about a topi c, which provide a means to share that passion with the world and to foster an active community of pointers who provide comments on the feature posts. Perhaps it is the outstrip known form of social media, blogs are online journals, with entries appearance with most recent first. Blogs are vary widely in nature, but tend to be general as they often provide an unvarnished, insider location on a particular topic. For example, user sponsored blogs (unofficial Apple Weblog, Cnet.com) and companionship -sponsored websites/blogs (Apple.com, PGs Vocalpoint).Content Communities are sites that allow users to post and share content. Such communities exist around anything from videos and photos to stories and links. Some of these sites admit voting functions that allow the community to determine the relevance of content. Sites like YouTube, Flicker, Vimeo and Jamendo.com greatly simplify the process of sharing and commenting on Photos, Videos and Music. Other examples are content sharin g combined with assistance Piczo.com and general intellectual piazza sharing sites Creative Commons.Forums are areas in which multiple users can create topics and then comment on these topics. They are commonly used as resources for those interested in particular topic. It is a place for online discussion, often around specific topics and interests. Forums came about before term social media and are a powerful piece of online communities. It is also known as chat rooms and message boards, with the main feature being that anyone can start a discussion thread.Wikis are community -generated documents and databases. These websites allow people to add content to or edit the information on them, acting as a communal document or database. The best -known wiki is Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia which has over 2 one thousand million English languages articles.Virtual Worlds represent one of the most story areas on the web, in which users can engage in immersive worlds. Some of these spaces closely mirror real-world notions such as community and economics. Second Life is an example of virtual worlds.Micro blogging are social networking combined with bite-sized blogging, where depressed measures of content updates are distributed online and through the mobile phone network. Twitter is well known form of little blogging.Social Bookmarking sites like digg, del.icio.us, Newsvine, Mixxit, Reddit allows users to recommend online news stories, music, videos and content to others and vote on what is interesting.Many other forms of social media exist are news aggregators, podcasts (Apple iTunes), mash-ups, company sponsored cause/help sites (Doves Campaign for Real Beauty, click2quit.com), invitation only social networks (ASmallWorld.net), commerce communities (eBay, Amazon.com, Craigs List, IStockphoto, Threadless.com), news delivery sites (current TV), educational materials sharing (MIT OpenCoourseWare, MERLOT), open source software communities (Mozillas spreadfiref ox.com, Linux.org) , windows Live, Google community and Yahoo.The Use of Social Media in Marketing CommunicationCommunication has become more challenging due to speedy changes in technologies, multiple communication channels and consumers constantly changing preferences and media use for obtaining information. Effectiveness of communication go away largely depends on understanding of consumers purchase behaviour, indentifying their information need and provides them with the right information, in right time at right place. It is enormously important to make sure the appropriate media is used (Ennew, 1993). Selection of a medium is relative with the guest preference with that particular medium.In an interview by www. sellingprof.com , a market guru, Philip Kotler says.major challenge today is take inting people attention. Consumers are pressed for times and numerous worked hard to neutralize advertising messages. The main challenge is to find new way to capture attention and p osition a brand in consumers mind.. (Kotler, 200517)Multiple communication channels pose a challenge to marketers to select a right medium to reach their position consumers. Traditional market communication media are loosing thier importance and are being challenged by new media. The internet has replaced traditional media such as radio, newspaper, magzine and the TV as the best-loved medium for advertising (Selek, 2010). TV advertising is loosing its effectiveness because of growing advertising clutter, the increeasing number of channels and cut back watching of television by certain group of people (Kotler, 2005).Social Media charge in selling communication is increasing cursorily. Social media is becoming a part of the marketing strategies of organisations irrespective of shape, size, volume and purposes. Marketers are trying to make it as a part of the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) and element of their marketing mix (Mangold Faulds, 2009 Li Bernoff, 2008). IMC is a guiding principles, marketers has been practising since its identification as a marketing tools to communicate with their target market. IMC is arguably the best tools, as of now, use to coordinate and control varying elements of the promotional materialal mix- advertising, personal selling, humankind relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion to go up customer focused integrated message and to achieve different organisational goals (Boone Kurtz, 2007).Social media is changing the landscape of marketing communication. Growing use and popularity of social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Flicker, Digg, Del.icio.us, Foursquare and others give up compelled organisations use of social media as an integrated marketing communication tool. Consumers are making conversation on these platforms.Facebook alone has 500 million users worldwide, which accounts nearly 8% of world population and collectively, users spend more than 700 trillion pr oceedings a month in Facebook (Smith, 2010). The possibility of exposure to concourse audience and high espousal are propelling organisations to use social media to communicate to their target consumers. Fortunes 500 companies fix been using social media as one of the most important tool in their marketing strategy (Barnes Mattson, 2008).Increase in advertising outlay on social media shows preference of marketers in social media a sop upst traditional media as a marketing communication tool.The growing popularity of internet business such as google and social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook work appendd the use of social media in advertising. Advertising spending in the social networking area is estimated to be $865 million, with a projected value of $2 billion by 2011, or most 8.5% of total online spending (eMarketer, 2006 cited in Gangadharbatla, 2008). Facebooks 525 million revenue from advertising in 2009 (Smith, 2010) shows the magnitude of growing popularity of s coial media as a marketing communication tool.Marketers are breakageing their marketing spending from traditional means of communication to digital ones, focusing on search, dispaly ads and social networking. Marketers who turn over that most important way to improve communication effectiveness is to shift investment from traditional channels to digital channels are increasing. Another noticable changes is to shift advertising spending from awerness and brand building to promotional marketing (Ramsey Douglas, 2010). According to a 2009 mickle, conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Marketing Management Analytics (MMA), most marketers say that they plan to increase their budgets for interactive marketing by pulling specie out of traditional media. Survey shows that U.S. companies moved total of $60 billion from traditional media into online marketing in 2009 itself, which represents a major shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing in an effo rt to increase marketing effectiveness.Research shows that after the corporate website, the most effective way to communicate with prospects is through social media. As many as 80% of U.S. companies are using social media in their marketing efforts, every placing ads on sites, monitoring sites for chatter about their brands, or engaging directly through sites like Facebook. For most marketers two prime objectives for usiing social media are enhancing brand awareness and deepening realationships with consumers. Many others use social media to expand to new audiences and acquire new customers (StrongMail, 2009).Social Media enables customer to disgorge to one another, which is an extention of traditional word-of-mouth communication (Mangold Faulds, 2009). The role of social media giving customer to communicate to one another is unique from traditional marketing communication. In his book The New Influencers, Gillin (2007) says that Conventional marketing wisdoms has long held that a dissatisfied customer tells ten people. But that is out of date. In the new age of social media he or she has the tools to tell billions consumers in few hours.The Internet has become a mass media vehicle for consumer-sponsored communications. It now represents the number one source of media for consumers at work and the number two source of media at home (Rashtchy, Kessler, Bieber, Shindler, Tzeng, 2007). Consumers are act away from the traditional sources of advertising radio, television, magazines, and newspapers. Consumers also consistently demand more control over their media consumption. They ask on-demand and immediate access to information at their own convenience (Rashtchy et al., 2007 Vollmer Precourt, 2008). Social media is perceived by consumers as a more trustworthy source of information regarding products and services than corporate-sponsored communications transmitted via the traditional elements of the promotion mix (Foux, 2006).There are varying levels of tru st and credibility among marketing channels pretty low for ads, more so for traditional media and even lower for brand websites. Social media leverage the trust that users accept with one another. This is well proven fact in marketing that most effective influencers in buying decisions are friends and family. Social media has been providing consumer different platforms to communicate easily with friends and family quickly and effectively. Recommendations from friends and acquaintances, particularly those people we think are most like ourselves, garner the highest trust. Almost three-fourths of customers consult product reviews before making a purchase, and more than half arouse made a purchase based on consumer reviews. They create transparence and establish trust to prospects (Ramsey Douglas, 2010).Marketers use several methods to improve consumer guardianship. Social media is becoming an important part of consumer retention and is giving companies new ways to tap into consumer mindset. A survey conducted by King Fish Media (2009) shows that 72% of US marketing managers, who participated in the survey, believes that social media is the most effective way to communicate with current consumers.Social media leave behind the old model of one- to- one communication and enable communication from one to many or many- to- many. Social media such as blogs, tweets, wikis, and social networks are all about speeding up and enriching communication. Social media tools bring the advantages of flatter, more democratic and presumably more effective communication networks (Hawn, 2009). The advent of social media challenge traditional type of intrusive and one way communication. Social media offer multi -dimensional communication among marketers to consumers, consumers to consumers and consumers to marketers. Social media is a great tool for listening to consumers and improving products and services using feedback and suggestion from consumers. Understanding the speed and b readth of response to a consumer issue is crucial in social media (Econsultancy, 2009).Mangold Faulds (2009) struggle that social media is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because it combines characteristics of traditional IMC tools (companies talking to consumers) with a highly hypertrophied form of word-of-mouth (customers talking to one another) wherby marketing managers cannot control the content and frequency of such information. Consumers ability to communicate with one another limits the amount of control companies pass over the content and dissemination of information. In the era of social media, consumers have greater access to information and great command over media consumption than ever before (Vollmer Precourt, 2008).In the era of social media, marketing managers control over the content, timing, and frequency of information is being severely eroded. In the new communication simulacrum, information about products and services also originates in the marketplac e. This information is based on the experiences of individual consumers and is channelled through the traditional promotion mix. The traditional communication paradigm, which relied on the classic promotional mix to craft IMC strategies, must give way to a new paradigm that includes all forms of social media as potential tools in designing and implementing IMC strategies. Contemporary marketers cannot ignore the phenomenon of social media because it has rapidly become the de facto modus operandi for consumers who are disseminating information on products and services (Mangold Faulds, 2009).In this section enquiryer tried to gain insights about social media from available literatures and its uses in marketing communication. In following section looker reviews of live literature on social networking site Facebook and its uses by disciples, motives of use and use of Facebook in selection of universities, which is the main purpose of this study.The FacebookFacebook is very popular s ocial networking sites, which gives user an opportunity to create personal profile (include general information like education background, work background, and favourite interest), build a friend networks who have Facebook account, upload and share photos, put comment, show liking or agreeableness on any subjects, issues, comments, products and brands through like button, write notes and create news and many more. Facebook members can also join virtual groups based on common interests, see what classes they have in common, and learn about others hobbies, interests, tastes, and romantic relationship statuses through the profiles (Ellision, Steinfield, Lampe, 2007). It also has an option to add specific applications to further personalise ones profile (Rosmarin, 2007). People mostly use it to make friends, networking with friends, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet (Reuben, 2008).A Harvard undergraduate student and a programmer Mr. Mark Zuckerberg along with his friend Eduardo was set up Facebook.com in February 2004 at Harvard University dorm room as an online student directory for only Harvard students (Cassidy, 2006 Mayer Puller, 2007 Boyd Ellison, 2007). To join a user had to have a Harvard.edu email address. Facebook all-encompassing beyond Harvard to other Ivy League school in spring 2004. In fall 2004 Facebook.com had added websites to several hundred of colleges and university, then later expanded to any university students having an university e-mail and now anyone over age 13 with an valid e-mail account can join Facebook (Reuben, 2008). Mr. Zuckerberg, who set up Facebook at his early 20 (now 26), has grown it into a business worth an estimated 15 billion (Smith, 2010).Facebook has now become habitual and a part of everyday life for 500 million users worldwide. Facebook has reached almost eight percent of world population with meteoric rise of its users from 150 millions in January 2009 to 500 million in 2010 (Smith , 2010). Today, Facebook is the number one social networking site beating MySpace, LinkedIn, Foursquare etc. Facebook is third popular online brand after Google and MSN respectively. According to Nielsen survey (April, 2010) 54% worlds internet population visiting Facebook and spends 6 hours per person every month.On fairish user create 90 pieces of content every month, 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news, blogs etc) are shared each month, more than 3 billion pictures are uploaded every month, there are more than 60 million status updates a day and have an average of 130 friends (Smith, 2010). Collectively, users spend more than 700 billion minutes a month on Facebook. Alex Burmaster, of research agency Nielsen Online said Facebook has become a phenomenon of our time, its become almost like a mobile phone, and people cant imagine their lives without it.Popularity of Facebook among Colleges and Universities StudentsOrigin of Facebook is directly associated with university students. Facebook was set up by a university student as an online student directory. Initially, it was restricted to users with a harvard.edu email address and was limit to colleges and universities students and staffs. It was officially open to non-academic and non-US based users in September 2006 (Joinson, 2008 Reuben, 2008).Facebook has become a number one option among universities students. According to Pew Research Centers survey nearly three quarters (73 percent) of online teens and an equal number (72 percent) of unripe adults use social networking sites. The survey also reveals that among adults 18 and older Facebook is most preferred choice 73% have profile on Facebook, 48% own profile on MySpace and 14% use LinkedIn (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, Zickuhr, 2010). According to previous survey by Pew Center 50% of young adult social network users had profile in MySpace, 22% had profile on Facebook and only 6% had a profile on LinkedIn (Lenhart, A., 2009).The recent survey als o shows that among adult profile owners with high school degree or less, 64% have a profile on MySpace, 63% have profile on Facebook and just 3% have LinkedIn profile. Adults with at least some college experience, 78% have profile on Facebook, where 41% have a profile on my space and 19% have a LinkedIn profile (Lenhart, et. al, 2010). It shows the greater presence and growing popularity of Facebook among colleges and universities students.There is growing concern about universities students excessive use of Facebook. Sheldon (2008) states that 93% student had a Facebook account, on average they spent 47 minutes a day on Facebook and in boilers suit 81% student logged into Facebook on a daily basis. Social networking sites are widely thought to have changed students communication pattern because many college/university students lives have an online component (Zywica Danowski, 2008).There is hard debate going on about the risk of students being addicted to, and spending too much ti me on Facebook. Those who argue about ban impact and against on students excessive use of Facebook are demanding control on students from using Facebook. Facebook has been met with criticism by educators, with suggestions that students spend too much time on Facebook and find it addictive (Bugeja, 2006). Others, who believe control is not the right options, are suggesting attract and encourage students for its academic and positive use. Some studies have shown advantages of Facebook use for undergraduate students to assist and adjust to university life, especially those experiencing low self-esteem (Ellision, et al., 2007).Lloyd, Dean, and Cooper, (2007) concluded that students can gather and suffer from using technology Facebook. Positive effects of technology Facebook are knowledge acquisition, socialisation and cheer. However, negative effects include that students tend to be less healthy and passive in off-line activities when their furbish up purpose is for entertainment, w hich has a direct effect on their academic success, personal relationships, and wellness.Students Motives for Facebook UsePeople use media to gratify their various communication involve and wants. Uses and atonement is viewed as a psychological communication perspective which focuses on how individual use mass media and other forms of communication to fulfil their needs and wants (Sheldon, 2008 Rubin, 2002). According to the uses and gratification perspective, media use is determined by a group of key elements including peoples needs and motives to communicate, the psychological and social environment, the mass media, functional alternative to media use, communication behaviour, and the consequences of such behaviour (Rubin, 1994).McQuail, Blumler and Brown (1972) classified mostly found needs and gratifications in four categories diversion (escape from problems, emotional release), personal relationship (social service of information in conversation, interpose of the media for companionship), personal Identity (value reinforcement, self understanding), and information (as cited in Sheldon, 2008).These classifications were, basically, developed for audiovisual media use and researchers extendend it for internet use and developed different motivational scales for internet use over time. According to Morris, and Ogan (1996) internet accomplishs interpersonal and mediated needs. Needs traditionally carry out by media are social interaction, time pass, habit, information and entertainment (Flaherty, Pearce, Rubin, 1998). Media fulfilled interpersonal needs such as companionship, maintenance of relationship, problem-solving and persuation (Flanagin Metzger, 2001).LaRose, Mastro, and Eastin (2001) found that the expectation of finding enjoyable activities online predicted the amount of online media consumption. Song, LaRose, Eastin, and Lin (2004) identified virtual community as a new gratification that strengthen comunication with people met on internet. T his definition contrast with relationship maintenance focused to watch relationship with existing acquaintances (Song et al., 2004).Uses and gratification research has usually focused on how media are used to satisfy cognitive and affective needs relating personal needs and entertainment needs (Rubin, 2002), which includes need for personal identity, escapism, and self presentation. Researchers found various gratifications of internet and SNS uses such as acquisition of information, ability to engage in interpersonal communication and socialisation (Stafford Gonier, 2004) interpersonal utility functions such as relationship building, scoial maintenance and social recognition (Leung, 2007) interpersonal relations, information, and entertainment (Ho Cho, 2006) infromation, interpersonal communication, and entertainment (Matsuba, 2006).There has lot of research done about students motives in using Facebook. Majority of the previous research found friending, time pass, annoyer and fi nd new friends are the students prime motives to use Facebook. According to Coley (2006) most students use Facebook for fun to organise parties, and to find dates. They use it to find people with similar interest, peer who are in same class, and with whom they feel a sense of community and connectedness and its become habit to those who are already in online. Urista, Dong, and Day, (2009) in their study what motivates young adults to use SNS (MySpace and Facebook) found that individual use SNS to fulfill their needs and wants, which includes efficient communication, convenient communication, curosity about others, popularity and relationship formation and reinforcement.Ellision, et al. (2007) suggest that Facebook is mostly used to maintain or reinforce existing offline relationships, as opposed to establishing new ones online. There is usually some common offline activity among individuals with friends one another, such as a shared class or extra curricular acitivity. Lampe, Ellis on, and Steinfield (2006) found that Facebook users engage in searching for people with whom they have an offline connection more than they browse for new people to meet.Sheldon (2008) conducted a survey of 172 students and found that large porportion of students use Facebook to maintain relationship with people they already know, majority of students also visit Facebook for time pass like when feel bored or get wall post update notification, significant porportion of students use Facebook for entertainment purposes and a small porportion use Facebook to develop new relationship.According to Pew Internet American Life Project survey (2009) teens and adults use Facebook to stick by in touch with friends (97 percent), make plans with friends (62 percent), make new friends (52 percent), organize with others for an event, issue or cause (56 percent), and flirt (22 percent) (Lenhart, 2009). 2,251 subjects were participated in the survey.Research on Facebook is starting to emerge along with its popularity. The applications and utilities of Facebook is also constantly being developed. most(prenominal) of the previous studies about motives to use Facebook was done before 2008, when Facebook was just started to emerge and not much popular as now and not much applications as now. The researcher found limited limited predictors have been used to study students motive for Facebook use. In this paper the researcher try to find out university students motives of using Facebook using new predictors. The first research question of the study isRQ1 What are the motives of university students for Facebook use?Students Use of Facebook in Selection of Universities and CollegesOklahoma State Universitys study highlights a typical lifestyle of a todays student. On average each day students sleep for 7 hours, spend 1.5 hours watching TV, spend 3.5 hours online, listen to music for 2.5 hours, talk on a cell phone for 2 hours, spend 3 hours in class, spend 2 hours eating, go to work for 2 hours and study for 3 hours. This totals 26.5 hours a day, nearly half of that involve technology. Students read 8 books a year, surf t