Dissertation refinement strategies and best practices

Social Media Advertising

Advantages of Social Media Advertising/Marketing for Small and Medium Enterprises

The use of social media as a marketing and advertising platform extends far beyond the it industry and theoretical determinations of consumer trends and audience size, and both practical applications and ongoing theoretical research have demonstrated the power of social media as an advertising and marketing tool for SMEs. Social media has become one of the most significant features of the Internet over the past decade or so, dramatically changing how a significant portion of the world's population -- and especially the consumers of the developing world -- create and maintain social circles; seek out, retrieve, and share product information; spread "word of mouth" knowledge regarding events and information; and generally interact with each other as individuals and communities (Qualman, 2011). This necessarily has an impact on the way small and medium enterprises must reach out to local/regional and consumers and potentially provides a way to reach consumers on an international basis, for the right type of business. The simple process of "tagging," in which a news item or other piece of information is given a tag such as "bargain deal" or "must-have Christmas item" are used in social media settings to provide individual user assessments and to "catalog the Internet" for future searches and greater individual access and clarity, and both economically and socially this small feature alone has a tremendous and measurable impact on advertising and marketing capabilities (Qualman, 2011, p. 24).

Though social media is quickly becoming the mass media outlet (or outlets) of note in the current era, capable of reaching more consumers with a single marketing element and in a more targeted, cost effective, and efficient manner, it is also important to note the divisions and different types of categories into which social media can be broken down. What qualifies as "social media" as opposed to other related features and applications in the "Web 2.0" setting, which specific companies and social media outlets can serve as effective marketing platforms for various companies, and the complexities of effectively targeting marketing material on different platforms and to different audiences are all difficulties that enterprises must face in dealing with social media, and SMEs have fewer resources to devote to the knowledge acquisition and task completion necessary for effective social media campaigns (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Focusing on high self-presentation/self-disclosure social media forms can help target marketing but can also have consumer backlash, while marketing in other social media arenas is fraught with other practical difficulties of message crowding (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Finding and maintaining the proper balance for any business is an ongoing process of great delicacy (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).

Resource allocation has been and continues to be a significant problem for all enterprises of any size seeking to engage in social media marketing, as the return on investment for such efforts is often difficult to present with any concrete certainty (Weinberg & Pehlivan, 2011). The Internet has a long memory and provides a tremendous amount of data, but whether or not this data is an accurate portrayal of offline consumer behavior is still a question of heavy debate. The tactical deployment of marketing resources at SMEs requires even an more careful differentiation of various social media types and platforms, and an identification of specific "social objectives" that can be used to guide social media development and marketing efforts in social media contexts in a way that is more advantageous for branding and market share gains (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Weinberg & Pehlivan, 2011). Keeping a diverse yet well-focused identity across social media platforms yet tactically choosing those platforms that are of true resource advantage to enterprises is again a complex and continuous process, but one that is vital to modern businesses.

Despite the recognized importance of social media marketing and the known difficulties of establishing how to effectively engage in these efforts, many businesses do not even attempt to gauge the effects of their social media marketing efforts (Michaelidou et al., 2011). According to Michaelidou et al. (2011), most SMEs utilizing social media marketing techniques are hoping to increase their numbers of new customers, which is a concrete goal that can be more accurately assessed and even individually tracked (individually both by instance of marketing and by individual consumers) via much social media and can therefore be more accurately measured and assessed than many other social media marketing efforts and goals (Michaelidou et al., 2011). Despite this, many of these companies fail to actually incorporate any metrics measuring, and this has led to an increased reliance on potentially ineffective and inefficient marketing techniques that present a drain on resources and a lack of identification of other more effective social media marketing strategies (Michaelidou et al., 2011). Tactics for such measurement are available and the measuerment itself can be carried out by a number of third-party vendors specializing in such tracking, making it all the more urgent for SMEs to begin a more accurate and effective use of social media marketing if they are to remain/become more competitive (Michaelidou et al., 2011).