Social Media Strategy for Online Service Brands by LA16OJ

From Digital Culture & Society

Article Title: Social Media Strategy for Online Service Brands by Mills A. and Plangger K.

Find article online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02642069.2015.1043277?needAccess=true

Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2015.1043277

Contents 1 Context 2 Overview 3 Strengths and Weaknesses 4 Assessment

[edit] Context

This article focuses on social media strategies for online service brands. The article discusses the transition of traditional services to online services through the Internet, however, poses unique challenges and opportunities for marketers. The digital era has provided social media with the ability to influence online shopping trends. Having shoppers active online means that brand building needs to be transitioned into a digital platform as well as maintain some form of brand, customer loyalty, and accessibility through using social media. Companies have created a new communication channel that helps nurture the brand, the consumer and other relationship between allowing companies to expand to a global market based on information they can obtain throughout their online presence. It is important for every brand to realize that social media is the new way of advertising and one of the best ways to interact with potential customers, or people who already use your merchandise. A lot of in person services are changing their ways to become more online. “Some services, like banking and accounting, have generally seen efficient industry-wide movement to the online environment via branded websites, whereas other services like healthcare and law are in a slower process of industry transition” (p.521). Companies have the opportunity to reach an increasing amount of customers if they move their services to an online platform. “More than a third of 18– 44-year-old social media users consciously follow brands and brand pages on social media networks, and this percentage increases to almost three-quarters for users between the ages of 24 and 34 (Edison Research, 2012)” (p. 528). This percentage of the population and age bracket is what companies need to be marketing to and the opportunities with social media are endless.

[edit] Overview

The article by Mills and Plangger (2015) discusses the expansion of dialogue that is created through social media growth; brands can directly communicate with consumers and consumers can interact with other consumers. This is considered to be a step towards building customer relationships. Comparisons between different industries like insurance or banking are outlined with their main focal points of considerations through their expansion to social media platforms. With this building brand awareness and dealing with consumers, it is very important to know who should be targeted, on which platform to find them, how to interact with consumers and maintain that relationship. We are reminded of how important this is for any growing business because unlike other forms of traditional media, social media platforms is considered a virtual hub where there is direct communication and relationship with the consumer that both the producer and consumer are equally as important for successful growth. The types of social media platforms are broken down by definition and what sort of content is most suitable to have within them. But most importantly, establishing trust between the consumer and the brand is discussed throughout the article as something crucial after researchers found that 17% of social media users felt "more connected to brands they have seen on social media than those they have not". More importantly, brands have found social media just as effective when reaching new consumers; the article outlines the percentage increase within the financial services industry in different continents.

[edit] Strengths and Weaknesses

The article outlines the strengths and benefits of marketing on social media. 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 during certain days at certain times, but when businesses have a huge following they most likely have followers viewing there post every part of every day. This paper has attempted to illustrate the role social media can play for online service brands not only as a promotional or communicative channel, but also as part of an integrated marketing and customer relationship management strategy that can simultaneously engage and build relationships with customers. The article expresses that with the data companies collect from social media sites they can adjust their tactics to better their statistics. “Unique to social media, versus traditional media, is the ability to adapt and adjust media communications during the process of executing strategy; the ability to respond and to accommodate needs and desires is present in both content and context.” (p.533) This was a very well written article with not have many weaknesses. I believe it goes over all of the main points that have to do with the benefits of companies marketing on social media and moving their services to be accessible online. The article though does not go over any of the content that companies should be posting, but rather the pros of using social media and all of the different platforms. It does not touch on what is a good way for services to move to being online.

[edit] Assessment

In conclusion, social media platforms are explained to be a vital expansion for any service brand to have a direct and successful relationship between consumer and producer. Different brands require different approaches that target different consumers; but the common thing that should established with all of them is trust and accessibility. How a brand service should approach selecting an appropriate channel and strategic process are key steps to fostering and enhancing relationships on social media. These are considered powerful channels that have exceeded traditional forms of media when it comes to being unique and accessible for all parties interested/invested in the brand.