A PROJECT REPORT ON
A Study on Social Media as a Tool of
“
Marketing” Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the Award of the’ Degree of Bachelor in Business Administration 20142017
Under the Guidance of:
Submitted By:
Mrs. Charu
Jayesh Gupta
Mohla
University
Enrollment
02214701714
Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi
No:
PSP Area, Plot No. 1, Sector 22, Rohini, Delhi 110086
STUDENT DECLARATION This is to certify that I have completed the Project titled “A Study on Social Media as a Tool of Marketing” under the guidance of “Mrs. Charu Mohla” in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Degree of Bachelor of Business Administration at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies, Delhi. This is an original piece of work & I have not submitted it earlier elsewhere.
Date:
Signature:
Place:
Name: Jayesh Gupta
University Enrollment No.:
02214701714
CERTIFICATE FROM THE INSTITUTE GUIDE This is to certify that the summer project titled “A Study on Social Media as a Tool of Marketing” is an academic work done by “Jayesh Gupta” submitted in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Management Studies, Delhi, under my guidance & direction. To the best of my knowledge and belief the data & information presented by him/her in the project has not been submitted earlier.
Signature: Name of the Faculty: Mrs. Charu Mohla
Designation: Professor
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to thank all those with whom I have worked, interacted and whose thoughts and insights helped me in furthering my knowledge and understanding of the project.
I would especially like to express my gratitude and sincere thanks to Director Dr. C.S. Sharma and assistant professor Mrs. Charu Mohla whose excellent teaching has left an undeniable print on my mind leading me to prepare this project report in a better way and which would not have been possible without her support and active guidance. I am highly obliged to them for their opportunity that they gave me to work on “A Study on Social Media as a Tool of Marketing”. The present report has made me learn a lot about the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The project titled “A Study on Social Media as a Tool of Marketing” deals with the study of an influential social media presence for a company on all major and niche platforms that benefit a business’s bottom line. Many have fallen into the business social media marketing trap at one point or another. Pouring energy into growing a social presence and posting the polls, pictures, and videos to entice fans into ‘Liking’ and retweeting your posts. Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet” or “repost” comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the user connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company. This project involves the study of social networking sites which plays a vital role in social media marketing. It includes the history of social networking sites and how they help in marketing. Internet is the main source by which social media marketing is done. Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships. When companies join the social channels, consumers can interact with them. That interaction feels personal to users because of their previous experiences with social networking site interactions. Case studies such as “America’s Got Talent Youtube submissions”, “Nike makesit count”, “Clip In Touch” are done to understand the marketing strategies and its concepts. Various
techniques are used by these companies to promote their products and events. These companies have used various social networking sites as a source for marketing.
Table of Contents
Page No.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
1
Chapter 2 - Literature Review
3
Chapter 3 – Methodology
26
Chapter 4 - Case Study
28
Analysis
Chapter 5 - Conclusion &
41
Suggestions
Chapter 6 - Limitations of the
43
study Bibliography
44
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Chapter – 1 IntroductionTo Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. The resulting electronic word of mouth (eWoM) refers to any statement consumers share via the Internet (e.g., web sites, social networks, instant messages, news feeds) about an event, product, service, brand or company. When the underlying message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself, this form of marketing results in ‘earned media’ rather than ‘paid media’.
Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships. When companies join the social channels, consumers can interact with them. That interaction feels personal to users because of their previous experiences with social networking site interactions.
Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet” or “repost” comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the users connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company. In 2009, bloggers had an enormous impact on fashion, affecting everything from print publishing to how brands market themselves online. There are thousands of style-related blogs on the web these days, and those dedicated to their craft have earned industry recognition. A number of unknowns earned recognition from Dolce &Gabbana, Burberry, Alexander McQueen and leading publications such as Vogue. They participated in fashion design collection collaborations and received front-row, international Fashion Week seats. 1
next to some of the most notable figures in the couture world. A recent Financial Times article notes that being a style blogger is a perfectly respectable career for someone in the fashion industry. The social web has removed the gatekeepers of an industry that was notoriously hard to penetrate and build a name in. These sites have succeeded because of the quality of their content. While each is unique, they’ve built a cult following around their areas of expertise and passion. Through social networking sites, companies can interact with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience. Social networking sites also include a vast amount of information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new Semantic Analysis technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online. Understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns. In today’s rapidly-evolving media landscape, social media has not onlybecome a fundamental tool for communication, but a must-have skill in amultitude of industries. With the right amount of practice and social mediaeducation, students and professionals are empowered with a competitiveedge in their studies, careers and communications. This course will teach marketing students how to create and maintain asocial media presence for business, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+,Tumblr, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, etc. Students will learn to usesocial media and content marketing to grow their business and engagewith customers. Social media has changed the way we communicate and the way we do business. Word of mouth marketingis being replaced by tweeting recommendations to friends, and more and more customers are researchingproducts online before purchasing.
2
LITERATURE REVIEW What is Social Media? Social Media is defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content."
Furthermore, the New Zealand Government of
Internal Affairs describes it as "a set of online technologies, sites and practices which are used to share opinions, experiences and perspectives. Fundamentally it is about conversation. In contrast with traditional media, the nature of social media is to be highly interactive." Moreover, the term social media is described an online tools that let people to interact and communicate with each other. This has become a standard word for online and cultural and it has a dominant ways for individuals to engage on the internet. By using social media individuals became more closely and strongly connected than ever before. Social Media as a Public Utility Applying the term public utility to social media implies that social media websites are public necessities, and, consequently, should be regulated by the government. While social media is not as essential for survival as traditional public utilities such as electricity, water, and natural gas, many people believe it has become vital for living in an interconnected world and without it, living a successful life would be difficult. Therefore, many people believe that social media has reached utility status and should be treated as a public utility. However, others believe that this is not true because social media is constantly revolutionizing and giving such platforms "utility status" would result in government regulation, which would consequently hinder innovation. Over the past decade many have debated and questioned whether or not "Internet service providers should be considered essential facilities or natural monopolies and regulated as public utilities."
3
Individual Level On the individual level, advocates of social media as a public utility believe that Internet presence using social media websites is imperative in order to adequately take part in the 21st century as an individual, and consequently, these sites are public utilities and need to be regulated. Specifically, social media researcher Danah Boyd has argued that the social media site Facebook is obtaining public utility characteristics, and due to such characteristics she concludes that regulation will eventually take place in the future. She asserts "Facebook may not be at the scale of the Internet (or the Internet at the scale of electricity), but that doesn’t mean that it’s not angling to be a utility or quickly becoming one," Additionally, Boyd points out that just like water, power, and sewage, most people will not give up Facebook regardless of how much they hate it. She argues that Facebook is becoming a public utility, and regulation is imminent. Specifically she states, "we can argue about whether or not regulation makes things cheaper or more expensive, but we can’t argue about whether or not regulators are involved with utilities: they are always watching them because they matter to the people." Furthermore, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, ZeynepTufeci expresses that social media is a public utility and is optional in the same sense that electricity, telephone, and modern medicine are optional. Tufeci claims websites such as Facebook act as a "phone directory" in the lives of young people. Additionally, she expresses that maintaining a social media profile is not an easy endeavor and users are highly unlikely to duplicate this effort across multiple services. She claims this is "the same way multiple electric companies don’t put down parallel cables to each neighbor to compete with each other." The research done by both Tufekci and Boyd illustrate the way advocates of social media as a public utility feel about social media websites. Specifically, these advocates claim that such websites are the equivalent of "social utilities" or "social commons," and are essential to one’s social existence.
4
Social Media Trends Opponents of this theory claim that social media websites are not public utilities because new social media websites continually come into existence and replace the old. Such evolution does not happen with common public utilities like water, electricity, and natural gas. To illustrate this argument, the following lists popular social media websites. Many were very popular in the past, and have been displaced by similar websites of the present. CompuServe, Prodigy&The WELL: popular social networking websites sites 25 years ago. America Online: popular online service in the 90’s, which charged a monthly fee and offered many tools including its own browser, search engine, content, chat rooms, and email system. GeoCities, Tripod.com &Yahoo! Groups: common websites of the mid-nineties. GeoCities and Tripod offered tools that allowed users to publish web pages that others could discover. Yahoo! offered a free ad-supported alternative to America Online Google: Search engine which beat out Yahoo! by its uncluttered website design and relevant search results. Google+, in addition to providing the profiles and features of Facebook, is also able to integrate with the Google search engine. Other Google products are also integrated, such as Google Adwords and Google Maps. With the development of Google Personalized Search and other location-based search services, Google+ allows for targeted advertising methods, navigation services, and other forms of location-based marketing and promotion. Blogger, TypePad, WordPress.com: common blogging websites. Flickr, Photobucket, ImageShack: general websites where users can share photos. YouTube: video sharing website that was eventually bought out by Google and thus is still prevalent today.
5
YouTube is another popular avenue; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience. The type of language used in the commercials and the ideas used to promote the product reflect the audience's style and taste. Also, the ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video requested; this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers. Certain ads are presented with certain videos since the content is relevant. Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube, “for example, a user who searches for a YouTube video on dog training may be presented with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos.”Youtube also enable publishers to earn money through Youtube Partner Program.
MySpace: began in 2003 and became the most popular social network site that allowed users to interact, share photos, and videos.
Facebook: after one year, in 2004, this social media website beat out MySpace by nearly doubling the amount of users and is currently the most popular online social network. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages, and receive automatic notifications when they update their profile. Facebook profiles are far more detailed than Twitter accounts. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how to use it. These also can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product’s Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.
6
As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase sequential ad spend in social by 25%. Strategies to extend the reach with Sponsored Stories and acquire new fans with Facebook ads contribute to an uptick in spending across the site. The study attributes 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. Today, brands increase fan counts on average of 9% monthly, increasing their fan base by two-times the amount annually LinkedIn: launched in 2003, business and professional networking site, popular site of today. A professional business-related networking site, allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network and meet others. Through the use of widgets, members can promote their various social networking activities, such as Twitter stream or blog entries of their product pages, onto their LinkedIn profile page. LinkedIn provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners. Members can use “Company Pages” similar to Facebook pages to create an area that will allow business owners to promote their products or services and be able to interact with their customers. Due to spread of spam mail sent to job seeker, leading companies prefer to use LinkedIn for employee's recruitment instead using different job portals. Additionally, companies have voiced a preference for the amount of information that can be gleaned from LinkedIn profile, versus a limited email. Instagram: Instagram is a free photo and video-sharing program and social network that was launched in October 2010. The service enables users to take a photo or video, apply a digital filter to it, and then share it with other Instagram users they are connected to on the social network as well as on a variety of social networking services. Twitter: launched in 2006, social networking and microblogging service that allows users to post updates that are up to 140 characters long.
7
Twitter allows companies to promote their products on an individual level. The use of a product can be explained in short messages that followers are more likely to read. These messages appear on followers’ home pages. Messages can link to the product’s website, Facebook profile, photos, videos, etc. This link provides followers the opportunity to spend more time interacting with the product online. This interaction can create a loyal connection between product and individual and can also lead to larger advertising opportunities. Twitter promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in. Social Media Platforms Social networking websites and blogs Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build relationships. When companies join the social channels, consumers can interact with them. That interaction feels personal to users because of their previous experiences with social networking site interactions. Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet” or “repost” comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the users connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company. In 2009, bloggers had an enormous impact on fashion, affecting everything from print publishing to how brands market themselves online. There are thousands of style-related blogs on the web these days, and those dedicated to their craft have earned industry recognition. A number of unknowns earned recognition from Dolce &Gabbana, Burberry, Alexander McQueen and leading publications such as Vogue. They participated in fashion design collection collaborations and received front-row, international Fashion Week seats next to some of the most notable figures in the couture world. A recent Financial Times article notes that being a style blogger is a perfectly respectable career for someone in the fashion industry. The social web has removed the gatekeepers of an industry that was notoriously hard to penetrate and build a name in. These sites have succeeded because of the quality of their content. While each is unique, they’ve built a cult following around their areas of expertise and passion. 8
Through social networking sites, companies can interact with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience. Social networking sites also include a vast amount of information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new Semantic Analysis technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online. Understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns.
Mobile phones Mobile phone usage has also become beneficial for social media marketing. Today, many cell phones have social networking capabilities: individuals are notified of any happenings on social networking sites through their cell phones, in real-time. This constant connection to social networking sites means products and companies can constantly remind and update followers about their capabilities, uses, importance, etc. Because cell phones are connected to social networking sites, advertisements are always in sight. Also many companies are now putting QR codes along with products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smart-phones.
9
Facebook History
Facebook is an online social networking service. Its name comes from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some American university administrations to help students get to know one another. Facebook was founded in February 2004
by Mark
Zuckerberg with
University students Eduardo
his
college
Saverin, Andrew
roommates
McCollum, Dustin
and
fellow Harvard
Moskovitz and Chris
Hughes. The founders had initially limited the website's membership to students of the University of Harvard, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before it opened to high-school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages, and receive automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends". As of September 2012, Facebook has over one billion active users, of which 8.7% are fake. According to a May 2011 Consumer Reports survey, there are 7.5 million children under 13 with accounts and 5 million under 10, violating the site's terms of service. Facebook (as of 2012) has about 180 petabytes of data per year and grows by over half a petabyte every 24 hours.
10 Role of Facebook in Social Media Marketing
Facebook profiles are far more detailed than Twitter accounts. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how to use it. These also can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product’s Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in. As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase sequential ad spend in social by 25%. Strategies to extend the reach with Sponsored Stories and acquire new fans with Facebook ads contribute to an uptick in spending across the site. The study attributes 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. Today, brands increase fan counts on average of 9% monthly, increasing their fan base by two-times the amount annually.
The social network no longer supports social marketing and that it has become a traditional ad seller. Although Facebook promises it will better connect marketers to their customers, the social network shows 16% of each brand's posts to its fans, the report said. Facebook has also done little to improve branded page formats and the tools marketers use to manage those pages. Instead of supporting social marketing, the social has instead become a traditional ad seller. Although Facebook delivers as many as one-third of all display impressions online, fewer than 15% of Facebook ads use social data to reach more-relevant audiences. "Facebook's static-image ad units offer marketers less impact per impression than marketers could achieve with the ad units other sites offer.
11
Facebook placed last in a list of 13 marketing channels by 395 marketers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Social sites including LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Plus and Twitter all ranked above Facebook. Facebook did, however, achieve a score of 3.54 on a scale of 1 to 5.
12 Instagram History
Instagram is
an
online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social
networking service
that
enables its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr.A distinctive feature is
that it confines photos
to a square shape, similar to
Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 16:9 aspect ratio now typically used by mobile device cameras. Users are also able to record and share short videos lasting for up to 15 seconds.
Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and launched in October 2010. The service rapidly gained popularity, with over 100 million active users as of April 2012. Instagram is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play. Support was originally available for only the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch; in April 2012, support was added for Android camera phones. A third-party Instagram app is available for theWindows Phone. On October 22, 2013, during the Nokia World at Abu Dhabi, UAE, Kevin Systrom has confirmed that official Instagram app for Windows Phone will be available in the coming weeks. The service was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock.
13 Instagram is a free photo and video-sharing program and social network that was launched in October 2010. The service enables users to take a photo or video, apply a digital filter to it, and then share it with other Instagram users they are connected to on the social network as well as on a variety of social networking services. Instagram debuted as a photo sharing network but implemented support for video on June 2013. As of June 2013, Instagram had 130 million monthly active users. 71 percent of the world’s largest brands have adopted Instagram, which now rivals the brand adoption of Google+ and Pinterest, making it the fastest growing social network worldwide. The brand hashtag monitoring, multi-account monitoring, competitive monitoring and a complete social media snapshot. This is a comprehensive view of activity that tracked brands across all social channels and put in context with their other social media activity. Instagram is a channel we’ve been tracking for some time. It’s an excellent channel for brands to repurpose their marketing content. Brand adoption has increased significantly, which has made it a great place for consumers to connect with those brands.
Source: Simply Measured 14 The top brand on Instagram is Mercedes-Benz, with more than 425,000 followers and more than 9 million engaged users. This might be surprising since Instagram draws a younger crowd. They are very strong all the way around. There is extreme interest in luxury goods and brands on the network. Like more brands, Mercedes-Benz gains the most engagement through photos, rather than videos. Video use is increasing slowly, but the top 10 brands are the best users of the tool. Photos will continue to outperform video in terms of engagement. Other key findings from the study include:
As activity increases, so do followers. 57 percent of top brand marketers are now averaging at least one post per week, up from only 38 percent in Q3 of 2012. As a result, more than one third of top brands have 10,000 followers and 19 percent enjoy audiences that exceed 100,000 followers.
Engagement is skyrocketing. Brand engagement has grown by a staggering 350 percent year over year, due, in part, to a 70 percent increase in brands posting to the network.
Automotive, media and luxury brands dominate. Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi make up three of the top five most engaging brands. In total, the Top 10 brands received 83 percent of all Instagram engagement, while accounting for 33 percent of all posts.
Photos receive more comments and likes than videos. Like most new features, video adoption has been slow to gain momentum, accounting for only 6 percent of total posts. Meanwhile photos continue to lead the way, driving 26 percent more engagement than videos.
Hashags have become the norm. 83 percent of Instagram posts include at least one hashtag, with 63 of the 65 active brands on Instagram using the new feature. Of interest, top brands use hashtags more sparingly than other brands.
15 Blogs History
A blog (a truncation of the expression web log) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first). Until 2009 blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject. More recently "multi-author blogs" (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, interest groups and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into societal newstreams. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. A majority is interactive; allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via GUI widgets on the blogs, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking service. Indeed, bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs, but also build social relations with their readers and other bloggers. There are high-readership blogs which do not allow comments, such as Daring Fireball.
Everyday there are more reasons for companies to use blogging platforms for their social media repertoire. Platforms like LinkedIn creates an environment for companies and clients to connect online. Companies that recognize the need for information, originality, and accessibility employ blogs to make their products popular and unique, and ultimately reach out to consumers who are privy to social media.
16 Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services. The longer description can include reasoning and uses. It can also include testimonials and can link to and from Facebook, Twitter and many social network and blog pages. Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers. Other promotional uses are acquiring followers and subscribers and direct them to your social network pages. In a similar fashion, online communities benefit businesses because the online communities enable the businesses to reach the clients of other businesses using the platform. These online environments can be accessed by virtually anyone; therefore consumers are invited to be a part of the creative process. To allow firms to measure their standing in the corporate world,Glassdoor is a site where employees can place evaluations of their companies. Some businesses opt out of integrating social media platforms into their traditional marketing regimen because their employees dislike such isolated online environments. There are also specific corporate standards that apply when interacting online. Other corporations fear that the general public have too much power over how their marketing is perceived, due to the accessibility of Internet-retrieved information. To ensure having the advantage in a businessconsumer relationship, businesses have to be aware of four key assets that consumers maintain: information, involvement, community, and control.
17 Google+ History
Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus is a social networking and identity service that is owned and operated by Google Inc. Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" that enhances many of its online properties, and that it is not simply a social networking website. It is the second-largest social networking site in the world after Facebook. 540 million monthly active users are part of the Identity service side, by interacting
socially
with
Google+'s
Enhanced
Properties,
like Gmail,
+1
button, YouTube comments. 300 million monthly active users are part of the Social Networking side by interacting with the Google+ social networking stream itself. Google+ Mobile App was used by 30% of smartphone users between April–June 2014, making it the fourth most used app. Google+ Enhanced apps and mobile sites are used on 92% of USA smartphones. Two Main strengths Of Google+ Social Site are Photography and it's Hangouts feature. An update in October, 2014 focuses on these areas. Google+ has 1.5b photos uploaded each week.
18
YouTube History
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 and owned by Google since late 2006, on which users can upload, view and share videos. The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.
Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program. Unregistered users can
watch videos, while registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users at least 18 years old. YouTube, LLC was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion in November 2006 and now operates as a Google subsidiary.
19 MySpace History
MySpace is a social networking service with a strong music emphasis owned by Specific Media LLC and pop music singer and actor Justin Timberlake. Myspace was launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In June 2012, Myspace had 25 million unique U.S. visitors. Myspace was founded in 2003 and was acquired by News Corporation in July 2005 for $580 million. From 2005 until early 2012, Myspace was the most visited social networking site in the world, and in June 2006 surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States. In April 2008, Myspace was overtaken by Facebook in the number of unique worldwide visitors, and was surpassed in the number of unique U.S. visitors in May
2009, though Myspace generated $800 million in revenue during the 2008 fiscal year. Since then, the number of Myspace users has declined steadily in spite of several redesigns. As of June 2013, Myspace was ranked 303 by total web traffic, and 223 in the United States.
Myspace had a significant influence on pop culture and music and created a gaming platform that launched the successes of Zynga and Rock You, among others. The site also started the trend of creating unique URLs for companies and artists.
In June 2009, Myspace employed approximately 1,600 workers. Since then the company has undergone several rounds of layoffs and by June 2011, Myspace had reduced its staff to around 200. In June 2011, Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake jointly purchased the company for approximately $35 million. 20
LinkedIn History
LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner, previously a Yahoo! Inc. executive. The company was founded by Reid Hoffman and founding team members from PayPal and Socialnet.com (Allen Blue, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Lee Hower, Konstantin Guericke, Stephen Beitzel, David Eves, Ian McNish, Yan Pujante, and Chris Saccheri). Founder Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn, is now Chairman of the Board. LinkedIn is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in Omaha,
Chicago, New York, London, and Dublin. It is funded by Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partnersand the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006. Through January 2011, the company had received a total of $103 million of investment. In late 2003, Sequoia Capital led the Series A investment in the company. In June 2008, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and other venture capital firms purchased a 5% stake in the company for $53 million, giving the company a post-money valuation of approximately $1 billion. In 2010, LinkedIn opened an International Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, received a $20 million investment from Tiger Global Management LLC at a valuation of approximately $2 billion,and announced its first acquisition, Mspoke, and improved its 1% premium subscription ratio. In October of that year Silicon Valley Insider ranked the company No. 10 on its Top 100 List of most valuable startups. By December, the company was valued at $1.575 billion in private markets.
21 Twitter History
Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Dorsey, then an undergraduate student atNew York University, introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group. The original project code name for the service was twitter, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr and the five-character length of American SMS short codes. The developers initially considered "10958" as a short code, but later changed it to "40404" for "ease of use and memorability." Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST): "just setting up my twitter". .Dorsey has explained the origin of the "Twitter" title: ...we came across the word 'twitter', and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was. The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as an internal service for Odeo employees and the full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006.
22 In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey, and other members of Odeo, formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo, together with its assets—including Odeo.com and Twitter.com—from the investors and shareholders. Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitter's startup until 2011. Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview: With Twitter, it wasn't clear what it was. They called it a social network, they called it micro blogging, but it was hard to define, because it didn't replace anything. There was this path of
discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is. Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network.
23 Foursquare
History
Foursquare is
a
location-based social
networking website
for mobile devices,
such
as smartphones. Users "check in" at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby. Location is based onGPS hardware in the mobile device or network location provided by the application, and the map is based on data from the OpenStreetMap project. Each check-in awards the user points and sometimes "badges". The user who checks in the most often to a venue becomes the "mayor," and users regularly vye for "mayorships." The service was created in 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. Crowley had previously founded the similar project Dodgeball as his graduate thesis project in the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at New York University. Google bought Dodgeball in 2005 and shut it down in 2009, replacing it with Google Latitude. Dodgeball user interactions were based on SMS technology, rather than an application. Foursquare is the second iteration of the same idea, that people can use mobile devices to interact with their environment. As of April 2012, the company reported it had 20 million registered users. The company was expected to pass 750 million check-ins before the end of June 2011, with an average of about 3 million check-ins per day. Male and female users are equally represented and also 50 percent of users are outside the US.Support for French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Japanese was added in February 2011. Support for Indonesian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Thai was added in September 2011. Support for Turkish was added in June 2012. 24
Yelp History
Yelp, Inc. is a multinational company that operates an online review site and local business search service.
Headquartered
Stoppelman and Russel
in San
Simmons in
Francisco,
2004.
It
Yelp
received
was
founded
by Jeremy
$130
million
in venture
finance before going public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012 with a valuation of about $898 million. Yelp sells memberships to businesses and advertising on its website. Yelp began as an email service for exchanging local business recommendations. An expanded website in 2005 introduced networking features. Yelp also organizes member events such as food and beverage tastings, offers discounts, and launched a mobile application. The body of reviews and web and mobile traffic has grown sharply. The company's rating system and tools for filtering reviews has been the subject of controversy and litigation.
Yelp Inc. developed out of a business incubator called MRL Ventures that was founded by Max Levchin and several former PayPal executives. Stoppleman proposed a website where users could ask friends for their recommendations on local services via email and Levchin agreed to invest $1 million in the project. MRL co-founder, David Galbraith, who had instigated the research into a Yellow Pages style Internet product, came up with the name "Yelp", and the project was launched in 2004.
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CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Chapter – 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Methodology is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field of study, or the theoretical analysis of the body of methods and principles associated with a branch of knowledge. It, typically, encompasses concepts such as paradigm, theoretical model, phases and quantitative or qualitative techniques. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of the study of social media marketing are To understand the social media fundamental concepts and social media etiquettes. It refers that how to use the concepts and etiquette of social media in marketing. These concepts are helpful in effective marketing as they direct path in which social media marketing has to be done. Another objective of the study is to understand the social media strategy which is used in marketing. It helps to know the various ideas and techniques used in social media marketing. The strategy helps in understanding the market more effectively.
We also understand how to advertise by using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.Case study analysis helps in understanding how to advertise through social media. Advertising is the most important part in marketing i.e., to sell any product or organize any event the main part is to advertise it. So social media marketing plays a major role in advertisement. Case studies such as “America’s Got Talent Youtube submissions”, “Nike Make It count”, “Clip In Touch” are done to understand the marketing strategies and its concepts. Various techniques are used by these companies to promote their products and events. These companies have used various social networking sites as a source for marketing. The study of Social Media Marketing, since not being a related to particular company, has been conducted through secondary data. 26
Secondary data, is data collected by someone other than the user. Common sources of secondary data for social science includes
Censuses Organizational records Data collected through qualitative methodologies or qualitative research.
Secondary data analysis saves time that would otherwise be spent collecting data and, particularly in the case of quantitative data, provides larger and higher-quality databases that would be unfeasible for any individual researcher to collect on their own. In addition, analysts of social and economic change consider secondary data essential, since it is impossible to conduct a new survey that can adequately capture past change and/or developments. The data collected by a person is already been collected and used by some other individual. It can be said as the re-usage of the data being collected. No questionnaires, etc. are involved in this as the person seeks the information which is already present to him/her. Secondary data refers to the data, which is not newly generated but rather obtained from. •
Published sources.
•
Unpublished sources i.e., information about the performance of the company.
Secondary research uses outside information assembled by government agencies, industry and trade associations, labor unions, media sources, chambers of commerce, and so on. I have collected information from various sources like:1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Pamphlets Newsletters Trade publications Magazines Newspapers
27
CHAPTER 3 CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Chapter - 4 Case Study Analysis Case studies are analyses of persons, events, decisions, periods, projects, policies, institutions, or other systems that are studied holistically by one or more methods. The case that is the subject of the inquiry will be an instance of a class of phenomena that provides an analytical frame — an object — within which the study is conducted and which the case illuminates and explicates. Case 1 "America's Got Talent" YouTube submissions.
Source: Google Images
28 Why this is one of the best social media campaigns of 2012: This campaign crosses online and offline participation in a way that makes sense. Videos are highly shareable, and when users see videos, they begin to build relationships with the subject of the video and might be more likely to follow along on the television show. Furthermore, opening up entries to all Americans (who have a YouTube account or a way to share videos) ensures that the show is authentic and gives everyone a chance to compete.
Interpretation Social networking site “youtube” has been used to promote a television show America’s Got Talent. People got a chance to participate just by uploading their video on youtube and share it with whole world. So social media marketing played an important role in grand success of this show. Whole world got chance to see videos through youtube.
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Case Study 2 Nike #MakeItCount in 2012 (Twitter) The goals of the campaign were to use the Nike brand to encourage and motivate people to "make it count" this year. The campaign focused on fitness and health and incorporating powerful photos, content, and videos corresponding with the "make it count" message. The campaign was cross-channel (Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook); however, the hashtag was the stickiest aspect of the program. Here's how the campaign was implemented on Twitter:
Source: Google Images The #MakeItCount campaign was launched in January 2012, right around the time when people are checking in on their New Year's resolutions. The campaign features 11 athletes in three countries. Videos, photos, and links about how these 11 athletes were pushing their boundaries and "making it count" were shared on social channels using the #MakeItCount hashtag. This content was shared virally, and users began sharing their own #MakeItCount experiences and how they were motivating and pushing themselves. 30
Why this was one of the best social media campaigns of 2012: The campaign was in-line with Nike's core messaging: "Just Do It." Choosing 11 athletes and leveraging their fans and followers amplified the messages. The #MakeItCount hashtag was brilliantly crafted to be succinct, to-the-point, relevant, and easily shareable. Furthermore, the videos are highly engaging and motivational. Interpretation In this case study of nike, the company focused on creating awareness of physical fitness through social networking sites such as Twitter, Youtube, Facebook. Various photos, videos were uploaded on social networking sites.
31
Case Study 3 British Midland International's (BMI) Pinterest lottery The goals of the campaign were to drive awareness to the newly created Pinterest account for BMI and incentivize users to pin destination photos to BMI's boards (thus creating a large amount of user-generated content). Here's how the campaign was implemented on Pinterest:
Source: Google images Destination boards were created on BMI's Pinterest account. Each board contained exactly nine pins that each had a unique number on them (1-9). Each week, a number would be chosen at random. Everyone who had re-pinned the image that corresponded to that number was entered into the drawing. A winner was chosen at random, and the prize was a round-trip ticket from any BMI destination. Interpretation The company BMI had launched a campaign Pinterest account in which there were nine pins each having unique number. The winners were choosen at randoms through social networking sites. So social media marketing played important role for BMI. They gave updates to people through social networking sites. 32
Case Study 4 MTV Bloc Party
MTV wanted to be more than just a TV channel, it wanted to connect with its target audience and build a community that the fans could associate strongly with. 76 per cent of the youngsters state that live music events are important or extremely important to them and they would love to experiment with new genres of music and 95 per cent place music as an important and central aspect of their lives.
Execution
A Bloc(k) Party is an established international concept, which is a celebration spread across an entire city block. India’s first ever MTV Bloc Party was set by the sea in Juhu, Mumbai. It was one big party at the center, integrated with multiple party hubs across the block and music thumping with 30 World Class DJs and indie bands, and all accessed through a single ticket; the cost of that one ticket was approximately Rs. 4,000 for 2 days. People stepped in the Bloc(k) that housed the longest party ever, and danced away the 2 days. To heighten the experience, MTV hosted a relaxed beer garden through the leisurely Saturday afternoon. This was followed by a high energy sun-down party. Post sundown, an immersive audio visual spectacle added to the musical experience using projection technology across the stage and venue to bring alive the essence of the celebration mood. The experience was heightened through interactive games, fun graffitis, and origami art and trash art installations. Radio taxi service was provided to fans to hop from one party hub to another. And, yes, it was all inclusive in that magical single ticket.
Interpretation
A seamless party that integrated different sounds of Dance Music – electronic or beyond and also allowed the fans to interact with the artistes across multiple venues.
33 The idea was: One Entry. Multiple Parties! With an incredible line up of DJs and an audio visual experience like never before, all that fans needed to do was to get access with the single ticket to be a part of Mumbai’s longest party. It was an idea with great potential. With a target scale of reaching upto 5000 – 8000 people, a bloc party was the craziest but perhaps the best idea MTV could have come up with to meet its objective.
Case Study 5 Find Your Bliss – LG
It was a community building campaign which drove over 80,000 targeted users to Facebook fan page.
It was published over 100 blogs and tweeted over 75 times in a span of 4 weeks. This campaign generated over 7000 fans in just 4 weeks. Social media marketing was done through Facebook which gained success in a very less time.
34 Interpretation It was a campaign launched by LG to build community. Social networking site Facebook was the source through which marketing was done by the company. The company wanted to promote campaign in short period of time so they did social media marketing.
Case Study 6
Fashion Touch – LG
Source: google images LG organized “Fashion Touch” party at Soho House, West Hollywood, CA. Fashion Touch – LG was an an ambassador campaign recruited 4 influential fashion bloggers that lead asFashion Ambassadors . This campaign generated over 5000 fans in a span of 4 weeks which was a huge success. It also drove over 50 pieces of user‐generated content per week to the Facebook Fan Page. 35 Facebook was the source through which social media marketing was done. Interpretation This was an ambassador campaign which was launched by LG company for
fashion
ambassador of their company. Facebook was the source through which company wanted this campaign to become popular. These kind of campaigns also helps in advertisement of the company through social media.
36 Case Study 7 Clip in Touch
It was a Facebook promotion campaign which reached over 5000,000 impressions. This campaign generated over 26000 unique Facebook users within 1 month which is great achievement. It was published on 20 blogs and Tweeted over 200 times over the course of a 2 week campaign. This campaign also used Facebook as a Social media marketing. It helped to attach with large number of people in very less time, so this campaign was very successful.
37 Interpretation In this campaign company use social networking site Facebook as a source.
This campaign gained huge success in very short time period. Social media marketing was done to promote campaign. It generated lot of unique Facebook users within period of one month. So, social media marketing is a great source for promoting any campaign.
38 Case Study 8 Full Ride – Musicians Institute
The Robertson Scholars Leadership Program is a joint full-ride merit scholarship and leadership development program at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The scholarship offers participants a unique “dual citizenship” at both Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill to approximately 36 students selected from among the more than 60,000 applications to the two schools each year. The program was created in 2000 by benefactor Julian Robertson, a 1955 graduate of UNCChapel Hill. Mr. Robertson sought to increase collaboration between Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill as well as to recruit students to the two universities. His initial $24 million gift as well as his subsequent gifts to the program and the universities are overseen by a Board of Directors including Duke University President Richard Brodhead, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp, and Julian Robertson himself. It was a micro-site contest which drove over 1500 participants from over 35 different states. It also generated over 7,000 targeted fans on Facebook.It was published on over 10 highly influential musician blogs. 39 Interpretation Facebook is one of the main sources which is used by companies to promote their products.
In this case, facebook is used for micro-site contest which gained huge success in very short time period. Facebook is the main site through which marketing is done.
40
CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Chapter – 4
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions Marketers have been confronted with the fact that their dominance in the marketplace is fading; push marketing, based on mass-media communication is becoming less efficient while substantial changes in the marketplace and developments in the area of Information and Communication Technologies have put the customer in control of the communication and marketing process. Increasing customer power goes hand-in-hand with decreasing trust in traditional marketing, and in the diminishing effectiveness of long-established marketing approaches. The present evolutionary stage of the Internet, widely known as Web 2.0, has boosted customer power by presenting individuals with a new generation of online applications, tools, and networking opportunities, commonly referred to as the Social Media.
Social media has changed the way we communicate and the way we do business. Word of mouth marketing is being replaced by tweeting recommendations to friends, and more and more customers are researching products online before purchasing. So social media marketing plays a vital role in selling or advertising the products and events. But on other hand it has various drawbacks too such as it is time consuming process, hacker’s threat is always there, risk of negative comments, etc. Social media marketing can be done through various social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, etc. Case Studies help in understanding detailed information, strategies, and concepts about the topic. In this project various case studies have been used to know more about social media marketing. This helped to understand the concepts and strategies which companies uses to promote there products. Case study of LG, Nike, MTV have been done in this project which helped to know more about social media marketing. 41 Recommendations
Social media marketing success doesn’t take place over night. It’s a cumulative process that produces success with persistent and consistent execution. Once you've developed your social media marketing strategy, the success of your efforts is dependent on your execution.
1. Spend time every day executing your social media strategy If you’re not investing, at a minimum, the equivalent of 25% of a full-time employee daily to execute your social media marketing strategy, you likely will not get the results you need and expect.
2. Develop a 3-Month Editorial Calendar Now that you know who you want to reach and where you plan to find them, you need to develop an editorial calendar that identifies the content and message you want to communicate over a 3-month period 3. Use the 10-4-1 Rule Your audience will quickly tune you out if all you talk about is YOU! While it’s entirely appropriate to share your blog posts and landing pages on social media, you need to be helpful above all else. Post interesting content from other sources (trade journals, business press, etc.) that your ideal customers would find valuable.
4. Involve your sales team in your social media marketing While you’re focused on optimizing your company’s social media marketing channels, have your sales and management team amplify your efforts with their personal accounts.
5. Make it easy to share your content and follow your company on social media Social media is all about sharing. Make sure you have "follow" buttons on your website, email signatures and marketing collateral. Make sure to include “share” buttons on your email marketing, landing pages and blog articles. 42
CHAPTER 5 LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
Chapter - 6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY Time constraint because of which the research could not be made more detailed. It was not possible for me to collect some data because of the confidential issue. The research is time crucial due to the deadline placed on the submission of the final research findings. Therefore, everything needs to be done as quickly as possible thus leaves researcher with limited amount of time.
43 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Kothari CR, Research Methodology, New Age International Publishers, Second
Edition.13 Kotler, KoshiJha, (2009), Marketing Management, edition, Pearson Education. Saxena, Rajan, (2008), Marketing Management, 3rd edition, McGraw Hill Education.
Weblinks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing http://socialmediatoday.com/pamdyer/1478771/7-facebook-marketing-case-studies http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/33265.asp http://www.businessinsider.in/The-Top-Facebook-Marketing-Companies-And-The-5Strategies-Theyve-Used-To-Help-Clients-Succeed/articleshow/25457480.cms http://www.businessinsider.in/The-Top-Facebook-Marketing-Companies-And-The-5Strategies-Theyve-Used-To-Help-Clients-Succeed/articleshow/25457480.cms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram http://www.globalcommunities.info/limitations-of-social-media-marketing-strategy.php http://www.wisitech.com/blog/social-media-marketing-tool/
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