Social Media Marketing For Dummies. Shiv Singh. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Shiv Singh
Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited
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Жанр произведения: Маркетинг, PR, реклама
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9781119617020
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social graph and influence brand affinity and purchasing decisions through consumer reviews, by updating their own status and Twitter feeds, and by commenting on blogs and forums. In some cases, the social influencers know the consumers personally. Social graph is a term popularized by Marc Zuckerburg of Facebook and is used to describe the relationships that people may have on a social network and how they connect to one another.

      Because the consumers know and trust their referent influencers, they feel confident that their advisers are also careful and punctilious. Because they’re people they trust, they value their advice and guidance over most other people. Referent influencers influence purchasing decisions more than anyone else at the consideration phase of the marketing funnel, according to various studies.

      Expert influencers

      A consumer who’s mulling over a high-consideration purchase might also consult an expert influencer. An expert influencer is an authority on the product that the consumer is considering purchasing. Also called key influencers, they typically have their own blogs and huge Twitter followings, and rarely know their audiences personally.

      FIGURE 1-3: The Edmunds car view website.

      Positional influencers

      A positional influencer is closest to both the purchasing decision and to the consumer. Called peer influencers sometimes, they are typically family members or part of the consumer’s inner circle. They influence purchasing decisions most directly at the point of purchase and have to live with the results of their family member’s or friend’s decision as well.

      As Shiv says, “I know that I can’t make a high-consideration purchase like a car purchase without discussing it with my wife. Invariably, she’ll drive the car, too, and sit in it as much as I will. It is as much her purchase as it is mine. Her opinion matters more than anyone else’s in this case. After all, I need to discuss with her the relative pricing of the cars available and whether one is more suitable for our family versus another.” This person derives her influence from her relative position and duties in relation to the actual consumer. She’s closest to the purchasing decision and to the consumer and, therefore, has the most social influence.

      Influencing on digital platforms

      As we discuss earlier in the chapter, social influence impacts every purchasing decision and always has in some form or other. Each time people make purchasing decisions, they ask each other for advice. Sometimes they depend upon an expert’s guidance, and in other cases, that advice comes from people they know.

      So why is influence such a big deal today? This is because Internet consumption, and social media consumption specifically, have hit the mainstream. For example, as of June 2019, the social network platform Facebook had 2.41 billion users worldwide, giving it a population larger than any single country in the world, including China and India. That’s a lot of people talking about a lot of things (including products) to a lot of people! But there’s more to it than that. Social media traffic referrals have risen dramatically in the last few years. Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter have 18 percent, 7.5 percent, 0.73 percent, and 0.73 percent, respectively, of global referrals per Shareaholic (February 2018). These numbers show how much people are also acting on the influence of others — they’re visiting the websites that they’re being told to visit.

      People are making more and more purchasing decisions online every day. It’s as natural to buy a product online as it is to go into a physical store. People buy clothes and shoes online, not to mention high-consideration items such as computers, cars (yes, cars), and jewelry. But that’s not all. Not only are consumers buying online, but thanks to social media, they’re also conversing, socializing, and influencing each other online on a scale never seen before.

Screenshot of a YouTube page displaying a movie clipping, where people ask each other for advice and guidance for purchasing movie tickets.

      FIGURE 1-4: YouTube.

      

You may need to put a lot of effort into convincing your managers how important the social media platforms are. The best way to communicate these ideas and techniques to your staff is by organizing lunch-and-learn sessions and bringing in external speakers who can walk your managers through the major social platforms and how best to market on them. Sharing case studies from other brands always resonates well and goes a long way to establishing credibility.

      It isn’t enough to deploy social media marketing in isolation of every other marketing effort. If you do, you’re sure to fail. Your customers will notice that you have a disjointed, conflicted story — depending on where and how you’re interacting with them. Therefore, it’s important to understand how you can integrate your social media marketing within your other, more traditional marketing — direct mail, public relations, display advertising, and promotions.

      

Some of the social media marketing philosophies are in conflict with traditional public relations, media buying, direct mail, and promotions