The Importance of Social Media and social media platforms: Creating a brand

The Importance of Social Media and its Platforms: Creating a Brand



One of the most important functions that social media does for a modern marketer is that it quickly creates a strong brand for a product. To be successful, a product must distinguish itself from all other brands and products in its category. This is a basic function of marketing. This is why marketing and marketers exist. Branding is basic to any marketing campaign.

Social media creates the "Perfect Storm" that allows modern organizations to create a brand for their product.

The scale of social media is staggering. Facebook is just one social media site. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest nation in the world. Facebook is only one site. Social media creates a scaled presence where, literally, the entire world meets. As luck would have it, social media has come along just when there has been some significant attitude changes in markets that marketers must adjust to.

The first change is that people no longer trust large brands. This change is best explained in a book by Shiv Singh, Social Marketing for Dummies. On page 90 of this book, Mr. Singh explains the change in market attitudes like this. The economic downturn has caused consumers to turn away from large impersonal brands. People do not trust large brands anymore. People are now placing more value in the recommendations of their friends and not on the advertising of large corporations.

Modern marketing is a conversation between consumers and their brands. A modern brand must not only build a relationship, but a real friendship with its customers.This brings us to the second trend which is linked closely with the first. Modern marketing is more of "pull" (the consumers truly define the products that they want) and not "push" in which products are pushed on consumers to buy.

To be truly successful, marketers have to create conversations with "friends" to be successful. Having a presence on Twitter and Facebook, as well as other sites, allow an organization to create this needed conversation.

There is an example of how this is being done. Rihanna is an R and B singer. In times past, a record label decided what songs would be on an album, which songs would be pushed to listening public, and what songs would get air play on local radio.

Rihanna understands the new world of social media. She is now creating a conversation with her fans and having a real conversation with them. Presently she is running a contest on Facebook in which her fans are voting which new song from her present album "Loud" will be released for radio play. Rihanna is asking her fans, her "friends" to help her pick her next song. They are deciding what song they want to listen to, a "pull" strategy. Her fans, her "friends", are taking possession of her music. They now own the song, in a real sense.

Rihanna is creating a brand for herself with this contest. Her brand is that she is interested in what her fans want to hear. This "real time" conversation with her fans allows Rihanna to know what songs to sing when she makes an appearance of MTV or BET, for instance. When she tours, she knows what songs her fans want to listen to. This contest allows Rihanna to enlarge her conversation with her"friends". She now can talk to them personally on Facebook and Twitter. She can create a relationship with her fans that other artists may not have. She can have new contests and offers based upon the first contest, which only enlarge her brand. It will be interesting is seeing her social media marketing strategy as it goes forward.



Dean Hambleton

dth165@students.jwu.edu