Social Media and Marketing
Social media marketing is in its early days, and as yet still looks like better advertising, targeted to audiences and affinity-based groups. The terms of talk on the profile page, that accompany user-generated content, and the appear in comments and which are validated by group relations can leverage associations between talk and talkers. Much more, however, is coming. Modern economies are markets of taste. They build taste to satisfy it, and if there's an industry that knows how to surface and organize taste, it's social media. The difficulties will reside in our ability to contextualize user activity and social interaction to the degree that it provides us reliable data with which marketers can conduct dynamic social marketing campaigns. It's a problem of correspondence, of data model and social participation tracking and capture.
Clickthroughs are the audience's footprints, and when it comes to social media analysis, metrics are stuck in the sand
Social media
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Social media are reshaping the marketplace for information and knowledge, goods and services
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They supplement marketplaces with the power of communication
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Communication unfolds in the form of conversations of varying depth, reach, and speed
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Relationships inform the availability and value of information
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All of which is changing the way our culture produces and consumes value
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And presents a challenge to mass media and the organization of conventional media-based marketplaces
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Social media are not just websites, but are dynamic social systems
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Their User Interface is a Social Interface
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Their content is people
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Their people are contributors
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Their contributions communicate
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That communication is a form of talk
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That talk is informed by design
Call to action
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Call to action is not always the conventional call to action
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Call to action is social
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Is often contributed (written, posted) by users
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Can be a call to interaction
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Can be a call to participation
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Can be a call to communication
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Can be a call on the attention of other users
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Galvanize users to continue to create content that serves to mobilize others to do the same
Recommendations and social marketing
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We glimpse the future of social marketing in this. Can social marketers harness the power in people, and in their relationships?
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Of potential interest to marketing and social analytics should be that recommendations say something about the relationship between the recommender and the recipient. This can be useful in measuring affinity markets and their social networks
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Local search offers a rich market and opportunity for recommendations, insofar as much local news escapes mass media and will be a wellspring of value for social media
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Viral marketing and social media
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Word of mouth marketing, now known for its advantages and shortcomings
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"Memes" are passed along by means of communication routed through social networks
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Offer the promise of authenticity (over the pretense of marketing)
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Viral marketing is fast and its reach is broad
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Its self-actualizing manner is inexpensive
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Because viral marketing can run amok, marketers lose control over their message proliferation and are at some mercy of their audience's genuine concerns and attitudes
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Capturing analytics on it (much more exact analytics) will enable future marketers to interact with and intervene in viral campaigns as they unfold
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Influencers and influence, sentiment and loyalty can be visible and measurable byproducts of viral campaigns
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Social media are both susceptible and resistant to viral marketing, depending on the community's ethics and culture
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Viral marketing captures a natural social inclination to share what you like and have it mirrored and acknowledged
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