Defending the Practice of Social Media Marketing

How to Use Social Media Influencers to Promote Products
Social media marketing has become an important marketing strategy for companies today, as many consumers turn to social media for information on products and for their peers’ opinions on products (Lou & Yuan, 2019). Through influencers, blogs, video-sharing platforms, and messaging apps, companies can use social media to gain followers, build brand equity, and answer questions and tease coming products (Ki & Kim, 2019). Thus, companies that want to influence the consumer’s intention to purchase are looking at social media as the best way to do this (Lim, Radzol, Cheah & Wong, 2017). This paper will describe the pros and cons of social media marketing and examine an example of a practical application.
Pros and Cons of Social Media Marketing
The pros of social media marketing are that it allows the company to directly connect to consumers on platforms that consumers themselves choose to use for the purpose of getting information about products and services. Companies that use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms can answer questions, post videos promoting concepts or products, put out press releases, address rumors, and work to control a narrative in moments of crisis. The pros are that consumers feel connected to a company that cares about them, and the company’s brand equity can grow as consumer confidence in the company’s image increases through this level of direct engagement and interaction.
The cons are that social media marketing is not as easy to control as other forms of marketing. There is always a narrative out there being spun about a company or its products on social media, and the job of social media marketing is thus a full-time job. It is not like producing a commercial and broadcasting it and it is done. It is more about interaction, which can be very time-consuming, and it is unclear whether the return on investment is actually worth the effort (Lim et al., 2017). If a company puts out a bad product, everyone is going to hear about it instantly because news spreads so quickly on social media that there is almost no one to control it. That is the major downside of social media marketing. When the news is favorable, the upside is unlimited; however, when the news is critical or negative, the impact can be catastrophic to the company’s brand and sales. It means having to be on top of every criticism and always be ready with a new distraction so as to steer the narrative back towards something positive and favorable.
However, when it comes to social media influencers, this form of marketing is very advantageous because it uses the peers of social media users to promote products and brands. Since social media users are more likely to trust peers who post messages, pictures or blogs about products, the use of influencers can help users to feel more confident about making a purchase (Lou & Yuan, 2019). Companies can pay influencers to review their products or just send products out for an honest review. It is a cheap and effective way to get what essentially amounts to free marketing.
Example of Practical Application
An example of how social media influencer marketing works is in the example of a clothing company that is up-and-coming and what’s to grow its brand name among consumers. The target market is of a younger age and female, so the company sends its products to a YouTuber who models clothes on her YouTube channel. The YouTuber will wear the clothes and show them off to her followers. This could mean that anywhere from 50,000 to 1 million different users see the clothing line worn by the social media influencer. Moreover, the company is free to do this with numerous influencers. So long as the influencer has a large enough following, it is more than worth it to send a free sample of clothes to the YouTuber for a review online.
However, one does not even have to just send samples. Many influencers are paid to leave favorable reviews—so it is much like hiring out for a commercial, but instead of paying actors and a director and a crew to write and film a commercial, the company pays the influencer to create a favorable video that shows how great the product is. The thousands of followers that watch the influencer’s videos then develop a favorable impression of the company’s products and are more likely to go out and try them or buy them. It is a much better way of marketing than a commercial, mainly because the target market is not watching TV like in the past and the target market trusts influencers to tell them the truth about products.
Conclusion
Social media marketing is a great way for companies to leverage digital technology and the Internet for their own purposes. More people are connected than ever before thanks to online sharing platforms like Twitter and YouTube. These platforms allow users to give their favorable impressions of products and services; however, they also allow people to share their own views and this can mean that negative reviews spread more easily on social media than anywhere else. Using social media influencers to promote products is a good way for an up-and-coming company to leverage social media.
References
Ki, C. W. C., & Kim, Y. K. (2019). The mechanism by which social media influencers persuade consumers: The role of consumers’ desire to mimic. Psychology & Marketing, 36(10), 905-922.
Lim, X. J., Radzol, A. M., Cheah, J., & Wong, M. W. (2017). The impact of social media influencers on purchase intention and the mediation effect of customer attitude. Asian Journal of Business Research, 7(2), 19-36.
Lou, C., & Yuan, S. (2019). Influencer marketing: how message value and credibility affect consumer trust of branded content on social media. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 19(1), 58-73.