The Review of Online Social Media Marketing Evolution and Consumer

Related Behaviour in Recent Year’s

By:

Uriel Augustin

Southern New Hampshire University

Help-Cat University

usaugustin@gmail.com

Jalan Metro Pudu, Fraser Business Park, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Federal

Territory of Kuala Lumpur

Dr. Rashad Yazdanifard

Southern New Hampshire University

Help-Cat University

rashadyazdanifard@yahoo.com

Jalan Metro Pudu, Fraser Business Park, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Federal

Territory of Kuala Lumpur

July 18 2014

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Abstract As the world advances and improves we see many changes in the way corporations market and promote their

products. Many have already been accustomed to the traditional way of marketing through the use of newspapers,

magazine, televisions and billboards. However, in recent times there has been a new channels used for these

marketing and advertising efforts and we see it in the form of social media. Social media is revolutionising the

way business is done today and provides many benefits as well as downfalls that could either help boost or bring

down an organizations reputation or brand. Hence the material in this paper will review the use of social media

on advertising brands and promotion to understand the relation of consumer behaviour toward this form of

marketing.

I. Introduction: Global marketing As the world changes through the many innovations, technological advances and discoveries, all of which make

life easier, more efficient and better. We get a clearer picture of what the world is like and who else is out there,

needless to say from the time that we thought the world was flat to know what is in space the human race has

come a long way. With all the innovations technological advances the world is becoming smaller and smaller,

this is largely due to the fact that the technologies at present allow us to do so. As people and cultures mix so too

does the world economies, this is largely due to free trade, economies of scale and the basic rule of supply and

demand that forces the world to integrate one way or another (Viswanathan & Dickson, 2007). For example people

all around the world know of the brands Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Nike but the question remains how do they

communicate their product to the different cultures across the world to make them understand the product or

accept the concept of it?

As we know culture of today plays a big role in society, it is the basic software in each individual that identifies

those individuals to a certain identity of ethnic group or region of state. Culture is defined in the Oxford dictionary

as “The ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society”, which is often times complex and

difficult to understand. This plays a major role in the decision process in evaluating a product and the method that

is used to communicate such a products to a particular group of people. It is important to understand these

differences in order for global brands to better communicate their message across properly with our

misunderstandings.

The internet and social media has made this task less daunting but a little more complicated at the same time. This

is because brands can reach many people over the internet and social media, it is difficult to control which social

groups sees the marketing camping and if they can properly relate to those messages being communicated.

However many cultures are starting to mix through the internet and social media creating a surface universal

understanding between some aspects of different cultures, which in this case can be advantageous to global brands

(Geissel, 2010).

Today the internet is used for many things such as online shopping, making connections, doing business and of

course advertising. As we know today internet users are growing more and more rapidly and have seen an increase

of advertising revenue, from USD 1.8 Billion in 1998 to USD 20 Billion in 2007; greatly suggesting that online

advertising has grown tremendously in less than 10 years (Ha, 2008). This shows that many companies are starting

to reach out to their customer base via, online media channels, and the most notable avenues are Facebook, Twitter

and YouTube as these draw the highest amount of internet uses (Berthon & et al, 2012).

This is largely due to three major factors which are a shift in locus of activity from the desktop to the Web, a

change in the locus of value production from the firm to the consumer, and a switch of the locus of power away

from the firm to the consumer (Berthon & et al, 2012). It is because of the birth of these social sites that majority

of customers have now the power to engage each other and share opinions and experiences about brands and

products that companies provide. These consumers are now in the driving seat as organizations are having to

switch their focus to be more in tune to listen to what their consumers’ demands are, while still having to market

and communicate their product and services to its consumers accordingly.

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II. Evolution of social media

Online marketing is an easier and quicker way to advertise and reach out to a large majority of society.

Traditionally, advertising was done by using the television, radio, newspaper, magazines and billboards, which

took time to get printed, published and broadcasted to the public (Yuan et al, 2012). This often took time, planning

and effort to coordinate. Today however the internet makes this challenge easier and faster for brands to reach out

and do their advertising to the majority of their target market (Matin, 2007).

According to the study by Digital Life which was published by TNS in 2012, a staggering 81% of internet users

seek information online before buying a product or service, especially in high involvement types of products such

as like travelling services, computers, laptops and cars (Dasilva et al, 2013). The amount of internet users and

consumers who seek the internet for guidance in their buying choices are increasing more and more, as about 54%

of internet users considered using social sites as a good place to find and learn about new brands directly increasing

the presences of marketing in social media (Dasilva et al, 2013). These internet and social media savvy consumers

not only buy but also recommend products that they have assess, valued and deemed to be satisfactory. Adding

that of all the internet users in the world, about 84% are regularly use social networks and 33% follow or are

friends with brands on social media sites and networks (Dasilva et al, 2013).

As we see today there is no longer a monopoly of magazines, television or experts that are influencing the modern

day consumer, but a larger force call the internet and social media that possess a huge influential capacity to the

modern day consumer. To survive on the internet and social media means two things which are; the design and

maintenance of a good company and brand reputation to gain great benefits, as well as being able to handle the

great many uncertainties in the vast ocean called the internet that if there were mistakes would prove to be

detrimental (Dasilva et al, 2013).

III. The Usage of Facebook The use of the social networks by corporations was uneven in 2010, however it begins to be part of the strategy

multiple corporations despite the fact that almost half of them do not take advantage of this channel to “talk” to

their consumers (Anuncios, 2010). According to the study done by the advertising agency NCA and the IE

Business School regarding the influence of brands in the society in 2010, states that around 60% of corporations

uses Facebook as a way to be closer to their consumers to induce more positive perceptions about their brands;

and about half of them use Twitter to engage their customers as well as to broadcast their news and promotions.

As of today Facebook attracts more than 135 million users in America alone, and many large companies use

banner advertisements to market their product offerings, create groups or fan pages in order to gain followers to

try to better communicate their ideas and products to a large following (Li ea al, 2012). With these pages

organization can take advantage of instantly communication and branding their brand in the media and society,

as Facebook is able to drive huge amounts of traffic through their domain. Apart from branding and

communication their messages, organizations are directly able to efficiently talk to its consumers and not only get

to know them but receive feedback as well, this is a big help as communication between the consumer and the

corporation is key to the satisfaction of the consumer and the success of the corporation (Li ea al, 2012).

IV. Usage of Twitter Other social site such as Twitter whose primary functions is to convey personal messages in real time to one, or

many, or many to many instantaneously. These messages are then ‘re-tweeted’ if the user feels they identify or

think that your message carries a certain weight. Therefore Twitter is more of a world of mouth social media site

where millions of users share their thoughts, feelings pictures and more. Electronic word of mouth (EWOM) can

have big influences on businesses as research shows that EWOM messages can generate massive amounts of

publicity for a company and or its products (Bickart & Schindler 2001). EWOM messages for advertising also

provides more trust when it comes to online marketing as most of the corporations has followers who ‘re-tweet’

their promotions, thus creating that instant trust because of the relationship of the ‘re-tweeter’ and their followers

(HA, 2004). Therefore providing a good platform for corporation to build and develop brands as well as expanding

their marketing efforts and strategies.

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Twitter not only helps develop brands but also allows brands to develop communities and gain followers in return

for the brand following the consumer. This is important because as their marketing efforts and advertising are

broadcasted, instantaneously millions of followers can view their tweets and thus share it. Consequently creating

a ripple effect in the number of people seeing the messages, and is directly related to an increase in the brand

awareness (Zhang et al). Therefore by gaining more followers and connecting with them, a brand can use EWOM

to promote their brand and influence consumers in the way that they want in real time.

V. Usage of Youtube Another social site that is popular with advertising is YouTube which has quickly become one of the world largest

video sharing site (Bausch & Han, 2006). YouTube is a video sharing site that consumer can upload their own

videos that has a wide scope of genre that the public can view, resulting in a potentially huge reach to the general

public if the video is well received (Godwin-Jones, 2007). This makes understand the intention of the video

uploaded by consumers very important, as which placing a banner or a short clip before the video may have a

wide range of massages. For example material on YouTube could have a popularity that may vary due to the

content which could be conflicting, controversial, inappropriate, and immoral or frowned upon in some cultures

or groups (Park, Jung & Lee, 2011). Therefore YouTube offers a video viewing counter that enables the number

of times a video is watch to be tracked, comments to be viewed and the amount of times a video is liked or disliked,

letting brands know which videos are popular and which are not so to be able to choose where and how they want

to market their brands that is safe in the public eye (shields, 2009).

YouTube can also be considered as a EWOM social site because if a consumer who is viewing a video that is an

ad, and feel that he and his circle of influence can relate or can benefit from the product or service, that person

would be more than likely to share this video via, twitter or Facebook (Wu, Lirn & Dong, 2013). This does not

only drive up traffic to YouTube but to twitter and Facebook as well. Thus creating a large amount of traffic for

all three of these social sites that will eventually lead to much more exposure for the brand. However if the

consumer feels that the ad or marketing effort is of a negative connotation towards him, his ethnic background or

social class, then the reverse is possible on all three sites, this will evidently tarnish the reputation of the brand

and corporation (Smith, Fischer & Chen, 2012).

VI. The problems associated with online advertising The issues arise when companies do not fully understand the perceptions and characteristics of consumers on

advertisements within Facebook, although the growth potential to gain market share and inform consumers is high

in a short period of time (Campbell & Wright, 2008). It is risky because the communication of its messages might

not get a cross to all cultures clearly due to incorrect characteristic of the advertisement, which leads to difficulties

in identifying the correct target market (Hadija, 2008).

It is suggested that due to mass online advertising, most consumers are tired of being bombarded and sold over

ads cluttering their computers or laptops, creating an advertising clutters that often times ends up being ignored

by the consumers (Speck & Elliott, 1997). This results in most online consumers to avoiding these ads by installing

pop up blokes, deleting pop up ads or simply avoiding sites in its self, most often times because of bad past

experiences due to misleading or false advertising (Cho & Cheon, 2004). Therefore it is important that advertising

be done on credible sites and not mislead its consumers to create that trust and credibility as not to further inflict

anymore negative conceptions to online advertising. As media and advertising credibility can be defined as the

extent to which the consumer believes or trusts in the media or advertising claims (Moore & Rodgers, 2005).

Other issues on online advertising on social media sites especially with Facebook is the privacy issues where in

most users share their personal information, pictures, locations and events with their friends on these social

networking sites (SNSs) (Barnes 2006). This however are counteracted by having privacy settings on these site

that allow the user the set privacy setting as to who can view and access their information, which have shown

although it is time consuming increase the possibilities of users willing to share information on these sites as well

as to trust the advertisements more (Cranor et al, 2000). As stated, we see that the more comfortable and secure

the consumer is on their site the higher chances that they are willing to listen to the advertisement or ads place on

those social media platforms.

VII. Consumer behaviour In evaluating the impact of online advertising on consumer behaviour we have to look at the cultures, attitude and

communication styles (Biswas et al, 1992). It is important to know the impact of advertising in the context of the

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country in the way that they communicate, including retrieval and processing of information that determine how

a statement is understood. Advertising in high context cultures, we must understand that the cultures seek to

preserve connectivity, therefore group togetherness and harmony are important cultural anchors, while analytical

processes and clear structures are not (Park and Jun, 2003). People in high-context cultures aim to affiliate

themselves with groups, rather than to be individualistic. In contrast low-context cultures prefer messages

communicated as clearly as possible while serving its purpose of convincing, influencing behaviour or attitudes

([Biswas et al, 1992). Hence, low-context cultures need detailed communication sequences and clear processes to

be effective when communicating an idea or product through an advertisement, because the facts sell (Park and

Jun, 2003).

Here we see that the consumers’ attitudes toward advertising are important indicators of judging the effectiveness

of advertising on social site (Mehta, 2000). As some studies suggest that online advertising is welcomed however

some show that is it seen as intrusive (Le, et al, 2002). This is because most consumers would like to connect with

people online instead of being marketed to when on social sites, however some welcome the ads and promotions

as they see it as a way to gain more knowledge and be updated on the latest product offerings and promotions

(Previte, 2008). It is because consumer using social media have such control over what information they see, share

and accept, that they can dictate the type of information they see through the use of technologies. Therefore it is

crucial that corporation and brands understand their consumers individually through the use of internet data from

social sites, to correctly target and engage the correct consumers to be most effective (Orzan & Platon, 2012).

VIII. Discussion

In this paper we see that a shift has already taken place from traditional advertising and marketing efforts to a

more paper less environment in the form of the internet and social media marketing and advertising. It is evident

that with such a huge number of people using the internet, they draw large interest from brands and organizations

to market their offerings. It provides a watering hole for organizations to exploit, similar to a waterhole that attracts

large amounts of animals where the crocodiles and lion hunt, this is the opportunity that the internet and social

media provides. We see through the use of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that brands and organization are able

to reach a large amount of people in a very short amount of time. Often times all these promotions and

advertisements can be done at a push of a button, on a readymade page, a twitter tweet or even on a YouTube

video. Thus saving much time and energy in marketing efforts than traditional methods, allowing for almost

instantaneous transfers of messages and promotional messages, to a large portion of the population at a time with

minimal cost.

The benefits of marketing on the internet and social media do not top here, as in recent times more social sites

have the feature of sharing or reposting information that people either agree upon or do not agree upon. Most of

this sites often times are intertwine meaning that if something is posted on Facebook, it can also be posted on

twitter or vice versa. Only YouTube is able to share its content on Facebook, and Twitter as YouTube specialises

in video content and not on pictures, statuses and written content. With these social media sites being connected

it is apparent that promotional efforts and messages can easily be broadcasted to these social sites, thus reaching

many different people in many social interest groups very fast (Bacile, 2013). Many people do choose to share or

re-post good promotions to make their social circle aware of a good deal or a products that may help make their

lives easier. This creating a sort of buss within social media for such an item or service.

The drawback to internet and online social media marketing poses the same magnitude of threats as it does

benefits. This is because in the same way that news is spread over social media for the good positive influences

of promotions, the bad and misunderstood promotion can get just as much bad publicity (Crain, 2014). Social

media and internet uses can easily give bad reputations and bring down promotional efforts of brands and

organizations. This is why marketers have to be very careful when choosing content to market their brands,

because the users of the internet are so intern connected that one wrong move might cause huge amounts of bad

publicity. This is because majority of the internet users are more incline to trust other social media users as they

view them as another customer giving their opinion rather than an organization trying to see you something.

Trust would be another issue that marketers may find a challenging issue to overcome. Many internet and social

media users find trusting ads and promotion material online an issues because, of bad experiences, advice from a

friend or family member or simply the brand is not established enough. Hence advertising on social sites that have

good reputation, providing 24 hours customer support and contact detail of the corporation will be one of the keys

in overcoming these issues. It is also crucial for marketers to understand the cultures of different geographical

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locations as to market the right products but since the internet is so linked it is hard to control who sees and who

doesn’t see the content of the promotions, therefore calling for marketers to have to think of universal way to get

her messages across just in case the information is share somewhere it is not supposed to be (Parsons &

Schumacher, 2012).

IX. Conclusion:

In conclusion, online social media has vast benefits to brands and promotional opportunities that benefits not only

the brands but the consumer as well. This is because brands get to reach a vast majority of consumer to better

inform them of the many product offering that that are available in real time, resulting in more business being

done at a faster rate than ever before. However the drawbacks to this is also great, because if the marketing effort

on these social sites are marketed to the wrong consumers then it would most likely result in negative feedback to

the brand its self; risking the communication being misinterpreted and tarnishing the brand image. Adding that if

the brands over use social media site in their marketing and promotional efforts there is also a possibility of

consumers being overwhelmed an hence creating a feeling of annoyance.

It is important for bands and organization to create trust amongst the promotional efforts and the consumer, for it

is when there is trust that the relationship between the brand and the consumer can blossom. Therefore

organizations and brands must understand what makes a consumer more willing to trust its promotional efforts on

social media. Once this is achieve then there will be much benefits awaiting the organization and its brands.

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