A lot of companies are using social media nowadays. They use it for many reasons. One example of this is to interact with their customers. Besides these active ones, there are also firms that do not want to use social media, because they are worried about mistakes or have a lacking social media strategy. It is important for this last group, to realize how important social media is.
Just 5% of the B2B marketers said social media is a well optimized part of their marketing, while nowadays a lot of customers start to look for information about a product online. Companies should be aware of this and take advantage of it, as Giamanco and Gregoire state, the biggest potential is during the prospecting and opportunity stage. Be part of it and make mistakes is better than choose not to be present on social media, but to be successful, companies need a social media strategy. This should include goals and plans that gain business value out of social media.
Li, Berens and de Maertelaere claimed users are motivated to participate in social media by two factors, namely engagement and informedness. People want to connect with the companies and be informed about the price and availability of a product. Both factors have a positive relationship with corporate reputation. According to Dijkmans et al. positive corporate reputation leads to customers that are willing to pay more for products, are more loyal to the firm and will protect the company in times of crisis.
Dijkmans et al. also stated another important reason for the use of social media. Word-of-mouth and online reviews are trusted far more than traditional marketing. Besides positive feedback, a company obviously also receives complaints and these will be visible for all users on social media, but still, Dijkmans et al. believe the net effect of social media is positive. Surprisingly, the biggest advantage can be obtained from non-customers, that show more clear their changes in preferences.
Enginkaya and Yilmaz (2014) stated some drivers for customers to interect with brands through social media, in addition to the drivers mentioned by Li, Berens and Maertelaere. Consumers care about the objectiveness of others’s opinion about products or services and believe more in this than the website of the seller. Another driver are the viral marketing campaigns. Consumers expect some entertainment and amusement from brands on social media.
Heineken can be seen as an entertaining brand on social media, and is a great example for this. They are posting some videos on YouTube and share these across different social media channels. For example, during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Heineken posted a compilation of the people at the Museumsquare in Amsterdam who were watching the soccergame of the dutch team against Mexico.
Sources:
Giamanco, B., and Gregoire, K. (2012) Tweet me, Friend me, Make me buy. Harvard Business Review 90(7/8) 88-93.
Li, T., Berens, G., and de Maertelaere, M. (2014) Corporate Twitter channels: The impact of engagement and informedness on corporate reputation. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, forthcoming.
Li, T. and Soonius, G. (2012) Is your social media strategy effective? An empirical study of the factors influencing the success of Facebook campaigns. Proceedings of the Workshop on Electronic Business, Orlando, FL, December.
Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. and Beukeboom, C.J. (2014) A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517714001757
Enginkaya, E. and Yilmaz, H. (2014) What drives consumers to interact with brands through social media? A motivation scale development study.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187704281403941X
