Analysis Of Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing is a relatively new marketing communications tool, having taken off in the last few years (Fill, 2013). Although both the modern and more traditional literature available offers a great amount of insights and theories, this particular review will focus on three themes, which have been broken down into key components of the study. These themes are: an introduction to social media marketing, prospect engagement and the communication process. The appraised literature presents the themes in many different lights, however this study focuses on the opportunities social media marketing offers with regards to Tactical Solutions obtaining new business opportunities.

2.1) Introduction to Social Media Marketing (185)

Technological advances of the twenty-first century have seen a dramatic shift in how businesses operate and interact with customers (Bashar, Ahmad & Wasiq, 2012). The use of social media has accelerated globally, with businesses now jumping on the bandwagon to take advantage of the benefits it can offer and generate themselves a USP against competitors (Jobber, 2010). Social media allows “… users to come together online and exchange, discuss, communicate and participate in any form of social interaction” (Ryan & Jones, 2009: Pg. 152), essentially allowing almost everything to be co-created, distributed and shared via word-of-mouth communication (Fill, 2013). Arguably an extension of the promotional element of the marketing-mix, social media influences consumer behaviour such as brand awareness, information acquisition, communication and evaluation (Mangold & Faulds, 2009).

Social media marketing allows marketers to understand and communicate with their customers in order to create deep and meaningf...

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...urcing, organisations can keep control of their content (Jobber, 2010)- especially if there is a selected person in charge.

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In conclusion, this review has reflected upon both the opportunities and limitations social media marketing offers to organisations. The review has been able to provide a more focused route for the research methodology in order to answer the research question in hand. By building upon the traditional models such as the 4 C’s and SOSTAC framework within this study, Tactical Solutions can engage with prospective and current clients through the powerful world of social media marketing in order to maximise business opportunities- although having a solid digital marketing presence is considered to be the foremost important step to have in place (Scott, 2011), changes in society are leading to a technology and social media focused generation.