Social Media Your Purchase. With the Advent

Social Media your purchase.

With the advent of social media websites, many business administrators struggle to implement a workable and feasible approach of implementing social networking sites into their business models. Managers and consultants must work collaboratively to identify sound means of incorporating computerized technologies that support and foster profitable utilization of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Yet, despite the widespread and pervasive consumption of social media, many business owners simply fail to understand what social media involves, and, more importantly, how to successfully involve social media resources into their businesses.

This paper will first define and describe social media, explain how social media differs from similar concepts, such as User Generated Content and Web 2.0, explain the importance of social media inclusion in today's business models, and provide a viable approach to implementing the requisite and necessary tools to maximize customer satisfaction with social media outlets at a small airport.

Introduction:

For most of the 20th century, people acquired information, news, education and entertainment, through traditional means of media; newsprint, television, film, and radio. These traditional media outlets are, for the most part, highly dependent on the availability of specialized resources for creation and marketing; not everyone can afford to produce a television show, a radio talk show, or a newspaper without significantly vested resources. Toward the end of the 20th century, these types of industrialized media outlets were becoming usurped by internet-based communications while people began to explore internet-based options for media consumption activities as the pervasiveness of internet-based technologies increased exponentially. Relatively inexpensive and easily accessible modes of communication became mainstream as people of all ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic status realized the unique characteristics of social media resources; the ability to publish and access information instantly, and to communicate over great distances in an asynchronous environment.

A recent addition to the gamut of communication modalities is the so called "Computer-Mediated Communication" whereby "a wide range of technologies that facilitate both human communication and the interactive sharing of information through computer networks, including e-mail, discussion groups, newsgroups, chat, instant messages, and Web pages" (Barnes, 2003, p. 4). These computer generated communications are becoming increasingly more frequent in our technological society.

Hybels & Weaver (2007) note two distinctly important and unique attributes to Computer-Mediated Communication; it is both asynchronous and provides a type of social leveling that allows all individuals an equal position because social status cues are not apparent. Examples of Computer-Mediated Communication include communicating via text messages, through email, or social networking internet sites such as Facebook or MySpace.

Social media is both a recent addition to the influx of interactive online technologies and an instant mainstay in popular culture. Given the ubiquitous distribution of social media in the last decade, it is imperative that business operators understand and appreciate the importance of social media resources. Further, business investors and operators alike must recognize the advertising and promotional opportunities available from implementing and maintaining a social media-friendly business.

What is social media?

While there seems to be little consensus as to what, exactly, "social media" means, Kaplan & Haenlein (2010, pg. 61) define Social Media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content." According to Lawerence (2010) "94% of executives report that they are using Web 2.0 technologies to boost their internal communications specifically for: managing knowledge (83%), fostering collaboration across the company (78%), enhancing company culture (74%), and training (71%)." While only 87% of business executives utilize Web 2.0 applications and tools for interfacing, 73% say their goal is to improving customer service, 71% do it to acquire new customers in existing markets, 53% to generate customer participation in product development, 53% to let customers interact, and 23% for other customer interactions (Lawerence, 2010)

Social media, then, is primarily a means to maintain social interactions utilizing widely available and highly scalable internet publishing tools. Using web-based technologies to create a venue for interactive discourse and dialogues, social media sites provide end users the ability to create and generate media-based content and utilize the vast resources available in internet-based forums. As a type of "consumer-generated media," then, social media allows individuals to tailor-fit the type of information as well as the delivery of information sought. In this way, technology and social attributes contribute to a value-laden creation by the end user; the customer is the consumer and creator of their own consumption.

"The growing availability of high-speed Internet access further added to the popularity of the [Social Media], leading to the creation of social networking sites such as MySpace (in 2003) and Facebook (in 2004). This, in turn, coined the term "Social Media," and contributed to the prominence it has today" Kaplan & Haenlein (2010, pg. 60).

Social Media Marketing

Stelzner (2010, pg. 7) notes that "the number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating exposure for the business, indicated by 85% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic (63%) and building new business partnerships (56%).

Stefanone et al. (2010, pg. 511) writes that "the explosion in popularity of Social Networking Sites represents one of the fastest uptakes of a communication technology since the web was developed in the early 1990s."

Stefanone et al. (2010, pg. 511) writes that academic research on Social Networking Sites "is growing, with focus on a range of issues including privacy….identity and reputation…. And the role these sites play in relationship maintenance and the accumulation of resources like social capital."

Stefanone et al. (2010, pg. 511) writes that Social Networking sites "typically allow an individual to connect his/her personal profile to the profiles of other users, resulting in a public display of one's entire (online) social network."

Laidler (2010) observes that "blogs have greater potential for organic leads because their content-rich nature makes them more search engine friendly." This is an important consideration as search engines, such as Google.com, give a higher page rank to content-rich content than other, less content-rich webpages. This, of course, suggests that business managers should strongly consider utilizing one of the several blogging tools available to increase business visibility and recognition. Laidler (2010) correctly suggests that "social media efforts should lead back to your blog or website, which should be dynamic and informative, providing content and information that encourages visitors not only to return, but to distribute your content to their network."

Stelzner (2010, pg. 2) writes that "Social media…represents a marketing opportunity that transcends the traditional middleman and connects companies directly with customers." This marketing opportunity, of course, has the potential to drastically increase business reputation and, therefore, should be a necessary consideration for all neophyte entrepreneurs. Without the ability to connect to people, to customers, in meaningful ways and across several modalities, business operators will lose "wallet share" to those business personnel who recognize the clear benefits of online social networking. Stelzner (2010, pg. 16) notes that "even with a minimal time investment, the vast majority of marketers (78% or higher) indicated their social media efforts increased exposure for their business." Perhaps even of more import is the relative time necessary to realize significant progress. "Nearly all marketers who've been employing social media marketing for years report it generates exposure for their business and a significant 62.4% strongly agree." Stelzner (2010, pg. 16).

"53.1% of people who've only invested a few months with social media marketing report new partnerships were gained." Stelzner (2010, pg. 16).

"A key challenge to such efforts is the fact that the quantity and quality of non-verbal (or nontextual) social cues available to computer-mediated communication

(CMC) participants changed continuously since scholars first began examining them" explains Stefanone et al. (2010, 506).

"Rather than allowing users to experiment and play with their identity, many of today's CMC technologies tie users ever closer to their offline, physical selves. As new communication platforms diffuse throughout a population, navigating a social environment comprised of mediated identities becomes an increasingly important communication skill." (Stefanone et al., 2010, pg. 508).

Social networking sites, including BlinkList, YouTube, Delicious, Flickr, Tumblr, BlogMarks.net, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn….provide an opportunity to strategically network and close deals based on shared interests and personal engagement." (Laidler, 2010)

However, Laidler (2010) notes that social networking sites do much more than just allow people to share similar interests; they allow users to advertise and promote products and services, to create and saturate brand recognition, as well as to build business relationships and create and foster a sense of community by soliciting for feedback. As such, users "also have unprecedented access to consumers, hiring managers, prospective clients, industry experts, and opportunities." (Laidler, 2010).

Stelzner (2010, pg. 7) notes that "the number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating exposure for the business, indicated by 85% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic (63%) and building new business partnerships (56%).

Stelzner (2010, pg. 5) writes that "Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs [are] the top four social media tools used by marketers, in order."

"The popularity of social media is undeniable -- three of the world's most popular brands online are social-media related (Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia) and the world now spends over 110 billion minutes on social networks and blog sites. This equates to 22% of all time online or one in every four and half minutes" (Prescott, 2010).

Prescott (2010) found that nearly a quarter of billion people age 13 and older in the United States used some form of mobile device in December of 2009 alone.

Classification of Social Media

Collaborative Projects: Collaborative projects enable the ability to simultaneously co-create content by many end-users; this is perhaps the most direct manifestation of User Generated Content. "Within collaborative projects, one differentiates between wikis -- that is, websites which allow users to add, remove, and change text-based content -- and social bookmarking applications -- which enable the group-based collection and rating of Internet links or media content" (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, pg. 62).

Blogs: Perhaps the earliest iteration of Social Media, Blogs are specialty websites that usually display date-stamped entries in reverse chronological order (OECD, 2007). Blogs are "the Social Media equivalent of personal web pages and can come in a multitude of different variations, from personal diaries describing the author's life to summaries of all relevant information in one specific content area. Blogs are usually managed by one person only, but provide the possibility of interaction with others through the addition of comments." (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, pg. 63). While many blogs continue to utilize a text-based narrative, they have also begun to take different media formats. Who's blogging the most? According to a recent Text 100 survey, U.S. bloggers spend the most time blogging with 63% of U.S. bloggers logging in a solid 9 hours or more of active blogging time per week. The message is clear to would be airport business operators; reach this target audience and you will enjoy the benefits of word of mouth and free exposure to a large audience.

Content Communities: content communities involve sharing media content between users. Existing for a wide variety of media types, including "text (e.g., BookCrossing), photos (e.g., Flickr), videos (e.g., YouTube), and PowerPoint presentations (e.g., Slideshare)," content communities remain valuable resources for end users. (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, pg. 63).

Social Networking Sites: Kaplan & Haenlein (2010, pg. 63) writes that "Social networking sites are applications that enable users to connect by creating personal information profiles, inviting friends and colleagues to have access to those profiles, and sending e-mails and instant messages between each other. These personal profiles can include any type of information, including photos, video, audio files, and blogs."

Virtual Game Worlds: Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, pg. 64 write that Virtual worlds are platform-based applications that "replicate a three dimensional environment in which users can appear in the form of personalized avatars and interact with each other as they would in real life." Providing the highest level of "social presence and media richness," virtual worlds are probably the ultimate manifestation of Social Media (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, pg. 64). Virtual worlds comprise two distinct forms.

Virtual game worlds involve adhering to preset logarithms in the context of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Such applications are now mainstream for millions of end users globally. Given the pervasiveness of gaming in general, and online gaming in particular, the inclusion of platforms that support virtual game worlds is certainly worthy of consideration in any business startup.

Virtual Social Worlds: Virtual social worlds allow "inhabitants to choose their behavior more freely and essentially live a virtual life similar to their real life. As in virtual game worlds, virtual social world users appear in the form of avatars and interact in a three-dimensional virtual environment; however, in this realm, there are no rules restricting the range of possible interactions, except for basic physical laws such as gravity" (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, pg. 64). "This allows for an unlimited range of self-presentation strategies, and it has been shown that with increasing usage intensity and consumption experience, users of virtual social worlds -- or "residents," as they prefer to be called -- show behavior that more and more closely mirrors the one observed in real life settings" (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2009; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2009a, 2009b).

Perhaps the most prominent and recognized iterations of virtual social worlds is the Second Life application. Second Life allows users to not only complete tasks that people complete and do in real life (e.g., speaking to other avatars, taking a walk, enjoying the virtual sunshine), but also allows users to create content (e.g., to design virtual clothing or furniture items) and to sell this content to others in exchange for a virtual currency that can then be traded against the U.S. Dollar on the Second Life Exchange (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Interestingly, Kaplan and Haenlein (2009c) note that some participants in Second Life are so successful in their virtual endeavors that the virtual money earned and converted is sufficient for primary income of users. Hence, the untapped potential to support and foster a myriad of opportunities in marketing, advertising and communication is a necessary consideration for business owners and operators.

Facebook vs. MySpace

According to Prescott (2010) fully one-quarter (25%) of all Internet page views in the United States occurred at one of the top social networking sites in December 2009, up 83% from 13.8% in December 2008. Further, nearly one-tenth of all visits went to one of these sites in December 2009, versus 5.8% in December 2008. In December 2009, visits to Facebook accounted for 68% of visits to a custom category of 10 social networks, compared to MySpace's 28%. In December 2008, Facebook had 29% of visits and MySpace had 64%. Facebook market share growth rose 286% from December 2008 to December, 2009 (Prescott, 2010).

Facebook statistics

The numbers associated with Facebook are staggering. According to the most recent press release from Facebook (2010), there are more than half of a billion active Facebook users and half of this cohort, 250 million people, log into Facebook every day. The average user has 130 friends on Facebook. Perhaps even more telling is that, combined, people spend over 700 billion minutes every month on Facebook. Further, there are nearly a billion objects that people can access on Facebook every day, with an average user-created content of 90 pieces every month. Although the average Facebook user is connected to about 80 community pages, groups, and events (Facebook, 2010), "more than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) [are] shared each month" (Facebook, 2010).

A special consideration is the mobility of many users; there are more than 200 million active users that access Facebook on a mobile device, such as a cell phone, or even a handheld gaming system like the PSP. Those who utilize a mobile device to access Facebook, are twice as active during their Facebook sessions, as well (Facebook, 2010).

Twitter

Prescott (2010) notes that, during any given day, Twitter receives 40 million "tweets" every day and processed more than one billion tweets in December 2009. Even more telling, perhaps, is that more than 25% of all internet page views in the United States was at one of the top social networking sites in December 2009, up from 13.8% a year before (Prescott, 2010). While Twitter is not quite as popular with the Gen Y cohort as other social networking sites, nearly one-quarter of Gen Y indicate using Twitter regularly. However, of the Gen Y usage on Twitter, 85% use Twitter to follow friends, 54% use Twitter to follow celebrities, 29% to follow family, and 29% use Twitter to follow companies (Prescott, 2010).

According to a report from the Social Media Statistics Compendium, the Gen Y cohort is particularly vested in online social networks; fully 99% of respondents to an online usage survey indicated having created an online profile on one or more social networking site, while nearly 9 out of 10 (89%) of Gen Y'ers have downloaded a content specific application to their profile page, whether it be photos, games, entertainment links, news links, or weather links (Social Media Statistics Compendium, 2009).

Of particular interest to business managers, however, is the rapidly increasing portion of Gen Y'ers who utilizing mobile social networking resources to maintain online social connections. For example, of respondents, nearly 40% indicated having either an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Of those with such devices, 53% of respondents have downloaded games, 35% have installed some form of entertainment utility, and 31% have installed some form of "lifestyle application on their mobile devices. Clearly, then, it is incumbent on business operators to fully consider supporting and maintaining appropriate networks for mobile social networks.

According to Webster (2010), "Twitter is more of a broadcast channel than many realize. The majority of users never post anything & #8230; but they are definitely reading and clicking." Webster (2010) formulates several important facts about Twitter that are of vital importance for business operators. Firstly, Webster (2010) writes that "awareness of Twitter has exploded over the past twelve months. The percentage of Americans who are familiar with Twitter has surged from 5% in 2008 to 87% in 2010. Twitter is a natural "companion medium" to other media channels -- in particular, as an accompaniment to live TV."

Hence, it is important for business owners to recognize that Twitter is no longer the hobby of children and young adults. However, Twitter still doesn't match the effect of Facebook; "7% of Americans (17 million persons) actively use Twitter, while 41% maintain a profile page on Facebook" (Webster, 2010). Further, over 60% of active Twitter users access social networking sites using a mobile phone.

While some "tweeters" are sporadically using the Social Networking site, Webster (2010) observes that others are significantly more dedicated to the "tweets" and are considered habitual tweeters. "The majority of Twitter users are 'lurkers,' passively following and reading the updates of others without contributing updates of their own but they are listening, reading and clicking."

Equally important to consider, is that Twitter's are not only much more likely to exchange information about products and services, but that they are also more likely to follow brands and companies than are the general population of social network users with 51% of active Twitter's actively following brands, products and companies on Twitter (Webster, 2010). The follow up rate for these Twitter's are significant as well; nearly three-quarters of all regular Twitter's posts are updates from previous Tweets concerning their experiences with businesses, and their favorite brands, products and services from those businesses.