"Social Media Strategy for Online Service Brands", Johnstone, N

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Article Title: Mills, A. J, Plangger, K. (2015). “Social Media Strategy for Online Service Brands”. Service Industries Journal, 35(10), 521-536

Find article online: https://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fsr&AN=102991181&site=eds-live&scope=site

doi: 10.1080/02642069.2015.1043277

Contents

[edit] Context

This article focuses on how major companies have strategized and changed their marketing to focus on the quickly evolving world of social media. Social media is a relatively new aspect of technology that allows users to post various types of content. This is great for businesses because they get the chance to promote themselves on many different platforms and get their name out to numerous potential customers. Many services that are traditionally in-person experiences are changing their ways to expand their online presence. “Some services, like banking and accounting, have generally seen efficient industry-wide movement to the online environment via branded websites. Other services, like healthcare and law, are in a slower process of industry transition.” (p.521). It also introduces a two-way brand-to-customer-to-brand relationship, opposed to the traditional brand-to-customer advertising and marketing relationship. The article emphasizes that more than one-third of 18-44-year-old social media users consciously follow brands on social media and almost three quarters for users between the ages of 24 to 34. This is a huge audience that marketers can now effectively reach. It is fascinating to see how each company uses the different platforms in their own unique way. The article contextualizes the social media strategic process as well as defining the types of social media platforms brands typically market on; blogs, microblogs, video-sharing websites, picture-sharing websites, and social networking websites. Through this article we see the powerful channels that marketers can now use to reach the consumer.

[edit] Overview

Different companies are able to choose from different types of social media applications that better suit their marketing needs. The article moves through the use of social media as a marketing tool in an effective way. It defines the types of social media and discusses the key differences between them. Differentiating between a blogs, micro blogs, video-sharing websites, picture-sharing websites, and social networking websites. Each platform is valuable in its own way and can suit the needs of specific cases and goals of any given marketer. The article then moves on to discuss the importance of relationships and trust between the customer and the brand. One of the main aspects that the article focuses on is “two- way communication between brands and customers” (p.522). This communication allows not only for brand-to-customer-to-brand, but also customer-to-customer communication. Since many brands deal with sensitive customer information, the customers perception of trust must outweigh their feelings of potential risks and dangers. Social media provides the opportunity for brands to increase this feeling of trust. These different social media platforms have also given the gift of access and reach, which is extremely important when it comes to marketing. Social media offers brands access to market segments and demographic groups that may have previously been hard to reach and connect with. These platforms should be seen not as an extension of corporate websites, but as complementary channels for building customer relationships. A helpful chart is presented on page 530 of the article, where social media channel selection is outlined in terms of the maintenance and setup investment for brands. Another chart is offered on the next page, which discusses the strategic process that online service brand managers follow. The article closes by reflecting on the fact that social media platforms are active, rather than passive channels that give brans the power to reach new demographics and build lasting trust with existing customers.

[edit] Strengths and Weaknesses

A strength of this article is how it outlines what platforms companies are able to use to their marketing advantage and the features that each application has. A few benefits consist of customer data collection, marketing communications and a better customer service. Another aspect the article brought forth is that social media is always active. It is best for companies to post certain days at specific times. When businesses have a huge following, they most likely have people viewing their posts at any given point every day. The article succeeded in expressing how important social media is to customer-brand relationships and trust. The use of social media for online service brands is not only promotional or a communicative channel, but also part of an integrated marketing and customer relationship management strategy that can simultaneously engage and build relationships with customers. It was helpful to have charts included as visuals when it came to the process of building an online brand. It did a nice job of expressing the basics of online marketing and how a brand can use multiple platforms to their advantage and why it is important. The main weakness in this article is that it was slightly dated. Having social media platforms evolving at a rapid pace, brands are changing their techniques every day. There are a number of popular platforms that are used by marketers today that were not mentioned. The article was also slightly repetitive. Also, the article does not go over any of the content that companies should be posting, but rather the pros of using social media and some of the different platforms.

[edit] Assessment

In conclusion, this article does a great job of expressing the evolution of online marketing and how companies are able to use it to their benefit. It has a strong focus on using social media platforms to build a successful brand-customer relationship and how to use it to reach new audiences. Though it is slightly dated, this article would be a good reference when researching marketing, branding, and social media. It’s a helpful resource when it comes to outlining the importance of social media promotion as well as how to build a successful online brand presence.


--Nj16kp 15:18, 8 February 2019 (EST)

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