1. chapter 9 : social media marketing 1 : Introduction
Social media : ‘The sum total of people who create content online, as well as the people who interact with it or one another’ McConnell and Huba (2007)
Social media marketing (SMM) : ‘any online marketing strategy or tactic which uses social media as the medium for its communication ’ Charlesworth (2007)
Social networking ‘ … is more than just something to do, it’s also the venue in which they do it’ TNS, TRU & Marketing Evolution (2007)
Key impact: The marketer no longer has control over the brand

2. chapter 9 : social media marketing 2 : Consumer generated content
CGC – website content produced by someone who has experienced the product, organization or service and wishes to pass that experience on to others
Reviews and ratings, can be on:
Websites that publish review forums as a business model
Websites that use reviews as additional content that attracts visitors.
Retail sites that offer feedback facilities for customers to leave comments on products that are available on that site.
Service provider sites that use customer feedback as part of their product presentation

3. chapter 9 : social media marketing 2 : Consumer generated content
People trust their peers more than marketers
Marketer’s involvement:
Passive - tracking comments as market research
Proactive: - Overt: join in or comment on sites after declaring interest - Covert : make comments as a member of the public – a risky practice
Online e-fluencers
Note also: CGC need not be textual eg video

4. Four kinds of online community: 1 Communities of interest
chapter 9 : social media marketing 3 : Social networks and online communities
Difficult to differentiate between the two, but generally accepted to be sites such as MySpace and FaceBook
Four kinds of online community:
1 Communities of interest
2 Communities of relationship
3 Communities of transaction
Communities of Practice Pitta and Fowler (2005)
Cyberbashing sites

5. Marketing utilization :
chapter 9 : social media marketing 3 : Social networks and online communities
Marketing utilization :
Facilitate : the organization facilitates users in creating profiles and interacting with other members of a community
Employ : use social media as a channel for recognized promotional activities eg sponsorship & advertising
Join : the organization actively engages in publishing on social media sites by entering into exchanges and interacting with the community

6. chapter 9 : social media marketing 4 : Virtual worlds
Essentially, online games played in 3–D environments with virtual characters – avatars – as themselves inhabiting the virtual world and interacting with other residents eg Second Life
Marketing utilization:
Join an existing virtual world – Dell, Adidas and Gap have presences in Second Life
Set up your own virtual communities eg MTV and Coca– Cola
Advertise in the virtual world

7. chapter 9 : social media marketing 5 : Blogging
Developed through being online personal journals to mini websites based around the thoughts or interests of the writer
Most are either read only by friends and family of the blogger or abandoned altogether
Marketing utilization
Monitor others’ blogs and add no comments
Monitor others’ blogs and respond only to comments made about your organization, product or brand
Participate in conversations on others’ blogs
Create and maintain your own blog

8. chapter 9 : social media marketing 6 : Viral marketing
An essential element of social media in that ‘viral’ precipitates social communication
Based on the centuries-old practice of word-of-mouth marketing
Though viral messages can be non–commercial – a video of a dog on a skate board – in viral marketing it is something about a product, brand or organization that the marketer wishes to be passed on by – hopefully satisfied – customers
To be successful the viral normally has to include offline media

9. chapter 9 : social media marketing 6 : Viral marketing
Essentially, the success of any viral marketing depends on three fundamental issues:
The originator of the message must benefit from its propagation
The sender – that is, anyone who passes the message on to others – is actively seeking, or at least willing to receive, any kudos that comes from forwarding the message.
The receiver must perceive value in the message. For example if it is a joke, they should find it funny

10. Link development and online PR
chapter 9 : social media marketing 7 : Online public relations and reputation management
Online PR – part of social media marketing? Public relations now open to the public, no longer a close-knit society with journalists as gatekeepers – PR spread though social media
Link development and online PR
Reputation management – continuation of the impact of CGC. Negative reputation issues might arise online in:
Detrimental feedback on forums or review sites
Negative blog content – including replies to original post
Negative social network groups – not all groups set out to support products or organizations