Chapter 4 Social Media: Living in the Connected World 79
CHAPTER 4
SOCIAL MEDIA: LIVING IN THE CONNECTED WORLD
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This chapter explores the ways that organizations use social media to market their goods and services.
Once the domain of a few adventurous start-ups, now even the largest and most venerable firms have
established a marketing presence in social media.
This chapter begins with an overview of the different types of social media, ranging from blogs to social
networking sites, and examines how they work. It looks at how consumers use social media—and why.
Then it turns to the marketer’s point of view: social media marketing. It outlines the elements of a formal
Changes in the 17th Edition
The chapter has been updated and revised in several ways.
• The Opening Vignette and Evolution of a Brand highlights LinkedIn, which ten years ago was
no more than an online résumé-hosting site that struggled to amass its first million users. Today,
• Solving an Ethical Controversy feature discusses Barnes & Noble’s recent security breach
when hackers broke into store keypads where customers swipe their credit and debit cards and
enter personal ID numbers, or PINs. The important question “Should Barnes & Noble be
responsible for keeping consumer data secure?” More is discussed in “Barnes & Noble Security
Breach: Who’s to Blame?”
• Marketing Success talks about how Weight Watchers has used social media to connect with
members and followers through its website, Facebook, Twitter, online community groups, blogs,
and mobile apps. Celebrities such as Oscar-winning spokesperson Jennifer Hudson, entertainer
Jessica Simpson, and former NBA star Charles Barkley have embraced Weight Watchers
approach to losing weight and have connected with members and other consumers in various
marketing plans and activities.
• Career Readiness offers some suggestions on how to use social media to look like a rock star in
the job market. More in “Job Hunting via Social Media.”
• Chapter Case 4.1 “Kellogg’s Approach to Social Media” profiles how Kellogg’s is using social
80 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
media to attract and retain customers. Rather than jumping into social media channels for all of its
products, the company is focusing its social media efforts on several of its blockbuster products,
such as Pop-Tarts, Frosted Flakes, and Nutri-Grain. Its Pop–Tarts’ Facebook page boasts more
than 5 million fans. Kellogg’s is also expanding its use of digital media, collected through
retailers’ shopper loyalty cards to track what its competitors are doing and refining its own
marketing messages.
• Collaborative Learning Exercises are provided in several areas related to social media—
consumer behavior, rules of engagement for social media, and ethical and legal issues
encountered by marketers in social media marketing
• Video Case 4.2 provides an overview of how Zappos uses social media to build and maintain
customer relationships.
LECTURE OUTLINE
The Opening Vignette and Evolution of a Brand—LinkedIn Lifts Off illustrates how the online
social media site has gone from an online résumé-hosting site to an online provider of original
content and resource for professionals seeking new job opportunities and employers looking for
top talent. What are some advantages to becoming a LinkedIn member? What are some of the
disadvantages?
1. What is social media
a. Social media is defined collectively as the different forms
of electronic communication through which users can
create online communities to exchange information, ideas,
2. Social Media Platforms
a. Social media platforms act as a home base for an online
community
3. Social-networking sites
a. Social-networking sites are websites that provide virtual
communities for people to share daily activities, post
opinions on various topics, increase their circle of online
4. Bookmarking sites
5. Social news site
a. People post news items or links to outside articles on a
6. Blogging sites and forums
a. Members hold conversations by posting messages on
online forums
7. Microblogs
a. Through microblogs, subscribers get a steady stream of
82 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
Table 4.1—Popular
marketing
8. Social media tools
9. Media sharing
a. Services like YouTube and Flickr allow people to upload
10. Blog and microblog postings
a. Blogging allows people to communicate in greater detail
than microblogging does
b. Marketers use blog postings to
11. Apps
a. Short for application, an app is a paid or free software
opportunities created by this phenomenon
12. QR codes
a. Short for “quick response,” QR codes are two-dimensional
bar codes that can be read by some mobile phones with
13. Why should marketers turn to social media?
a. Despite its relatively brief existence, social media has
quickly grown to be an important tool for marketers to
i. Build relationships with customers
ii. Strengthen brands
b. Studies show that consumers are connecting with
retailers, restaurants, travel and entertainment firms,
financial companies, and other businesses via social
media
c. But, every effort at social media is not successful
d. Effective social media marketing (SMM) uses social media
portals to create a positive influence on consumers or
businesses customers toward an organization’s brands,
goods, and services, public images, or websites
i. Marketers generally view the goal of social media
marketing as developing a conversation with
e. Not-for-profit organizations also create social media
marketing campaigns to expand their reach
f. Social media marketing contains three essential features
i. It creates a buzz
Assessment check questions
1.1 What are social-networking sites? Social-networking sites are the
1.2. Define social media marketing. SMM uses the social media portals to
create a positive influence on consumers or business customers toward
an organization’s brand, products, public image, or website.
84 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
PowerPoint Basic: 11–13
PowerPoint Expanded: 15–23
Figure 4.1—Top Ten
(Visits)
Figure 4.2—Top
1. How consumers and businesses use social media
a. For businesses to be successful at using social media to
2. Consumer behavior
a. Studies show an overall link between social media and
trends in consumer behavior
b. According to one recent report conducted by comScore
and Group M Search, roughly half of online consumers
use a combination of search engines and social media to
make purchase decisions
c. Shoppers who start with search engines do so because
these provide the greatest amount of information about
products and companies
i. Search engines also help with comparison
e. Some experts contend that social media can shift the way
consumers behave within entire industries
3. Business behavior
a. Like consumers, businesses also use social media to build
relationships, including partnerships with other companies
4. Not-for-Profit Organizations
a. Not-for-profit organizations use social media to market
themselves to individuals as well as to other organizations
b. They use social media to connect with the general public,
the business community, and each other
Chapter 4 Social Media: Living in the Connected World 85
iii. To promote an event for fundraising or educational
purposes
Assessment check questions
2.1. Why do online shoppers often begin with search engines? Search
2.2. Why might B2B firms have a difficult time developing a loyal fan base
via social media marketing? The nature of the relationships between B2B
Chapter Objective 3: Outline the four key elements of a written social media marketing
plan.
Key Terms: social media marketing (SMM) plan
PowerPoint Basic: 14
PowerPoint Expanded: 24-27
1. Creating a Social Media Marketing Plan
a. Effective social media marketing requires setting goals
and developing strategies to reach a target audience
b. The social media marketing (SMM) plan
i. Identifies and describes all three of these variables
ii. The tactics required to implement the plan
d. A well-written plan contains clear, concise prose that
covers the salient points and answers anticipated
questions
e. Most SMM plans contain the following information:
i. An executive summary
86 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
ii. A brief overview
iii. Analysis of the competition
iv. The body of the plan
Assessment check questions
3.1. What function does the SMM plan serve? The SMM plan documents
3.2. What are the main characteristics of an effective executive
Chapter Objective 4: Discuss the importance of setting goals and developing strategies,
including targeting an audience, for a social media marketing initiative.
Key Terms: influencers
PowerPoint Basic: 15
PowerPoint Expanded: 28-35
Social Media
Marketing Ask
students if they have
had experiences of
social media
marketing. What
was the effect of the
1. Goals and strategies of a social media marketing plan
a. Before embarking on a social media marketing campaign,
it’s important for social media marketers to understand two
major distinctions between traditional marketing and SMM
i. Traditional marketing seeks to control the content
and message received by an audience; but SMM
actively solicits the audience’s participation in the
message
ii. Successful SMM efforts require the audience’s
trust
b. The process of developing a social media marketing
campaign consists of the following phases:
i. Set goals
c. Marketers must keep in mind the importance of listening
throughout all phases of the campaign
d. Smart marketers use social media to listen to what is
being said about their own company and its products,
competitors, consumer likes and dislikes, consumer wish
lists or problems they would like solved, even the overall
Chapter 4 Social Media: Living in the Connected World 87
campaign?
hopes and fears of the general public
2. Setting goals
a. A successful social media marketing campaign starts with
clear goals
3. Targeting the audience
a. Social media efforts customize marketers’ approach to
targeted audiences more than many types of traditional
marketing because they are interactive
4. Developing strategies and choosing tactics
a. Every strategy in an effective social media marketing
campaign traces back to the campaign’s goals—and
ultimately links to a firm’s overall strategic goals
b. Once marketers answer the question of who they are
trying to reach by targeting their audience, they ask a
second vital question: “How do we engage the audience in
a conversation?”
c. Then they develop strategies for developing and delivering
the content that will drive the interaction
d. They decide
88 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
Marketing
iii. Who will participate in the conversation on behalf
of the company?
Assessment check questions
4.1. Identify the two main distinctions between traditional marketing and a
4.2. In order to target an audience, what three types of information do
marketers gather? Marketers collect information on demographics, what
4.3. What vital question do marketers ask when developing strategies for
an SMM plan? Marketers ask: “How do we engage the audience in a
conversation?”
Chapter Objective 5: Identify the seven qualities of effective social media content and the
rules of engagement with social media.
Key Terms: content marketing
PowerPoint Basic: 16
PowerPoint Expanded: 36–41
1. Producing content and implementing the plan
a. Marketers create content and implement the SMM plan
with the firm’s goals and strategies in mind
b. In order for SMM to succeed, the content of its messages
must engage the target audience in the conversation
c. Content marketing involves creating and distributing
relevant and targeted material to attract and engage an
audience, with the goal of driving them to a desired action
d. Content for an effective SMM campaign has the following
qualities:
i. A strong brand focus
ii. A focus on the audience rather than the
organization
2. Implementing the plan
a. The social media marketing plan requires a timeline for
implementation
b. Marketers may decide to create separate schedules for
3. Rules of engagement for social media
a. Marketers who use social media to reach their targeted
audience are entering into conversations with customers—
and must respect the conventions of personal interaction if
they want to build successful relationships
b. The rules of engagement for social media are meant to
make the exchange a positive one for all parties
Assessment check questions
5.1. What is content marketing? Content marketing involves creating and
5.2. What is the one major drawback to social media as it pertains to
scheduling? Because social media operates around the clock, marketers
5.3. What is the function of rules of engagement in social media
marketing? The rules of engagement for social media are meant to make
90 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
Chapter Objective 6: Describe the different means of monitoring, measuring, and
managing the social media market campaign.
Key Terms: social media monitoring, social media analytics, return on investment (ROI)
PowerPoint Basic: 17–19
PowerPoint Expanded: 42-48
Table 4.2—Social
Media Monitoring
1. Monitoring, measuring, and managing the SMM campaign
2. Monitoring and measuring
a. One of the greatest challenges faced by social media
b. But various social media analytics tools help marketers
track, measure, and interpret data related to SMM
market who are exposed to the marketing effort at
least once
ii. Frequency: The number of times an individual is
exposed to the marketing material during the
campaign
f. Expenses are weighed against savings
g. Effective monitoring gives marketers a clearer picture of
an organization’s influence via social media
h. Measuring the success of a social media marketing plan
includes such factors as
i. Share of voice
3. Managing
a. Managing a social media marketing campaign—or a
company’s overall social media efforts—requires skill,
expertise, and understanding of the company’s brand, its
Chapter 4 Social Media: Living in the Connected World 91
competitors, and the social media environment
b. This means maintaining a grasp on the success or failure
of previous strategies, knowledge of the benefits and
Assessment check questions
6.1. What is the function of social media monitoring? The role of social
6.2. Identify the two vital approaches for a firm as it manages a potential
social media crisis. Timeliness and transparency are vital approaches for
a firm involved in managing a potential social media crisis.
Chapter Objective 7: Discuss ethical and legal issues encountered by marketers in social
media marketing.
Key Terms: None
PowerPoint Basic: 20–22
PowerPoint Expanded: 49-52
1. Ethical and legal issues
a. Social media marketers face ethical and legal issues, such
as privacy and accountability, as part of their job
b. As rapidly as the various social media evolve and expand,
so new ethical situations will appear
c. Firms will have to stay apprised of new threats as well as
the solutions to problems
2. Be honest
92 Part 2 Understanding Buyers and Markets
Barnes & Noble
Security Breach:
Who’s to Blame?
a. Social media messages travel at lightning speed around
the world; potentially millions of people may view a
3. Respect privacy
a. Although marketers try to gather as much information as
possible about a targeted audience, they must not
distribute any personal information without consent
that affect them and their customers
4. Be accountable
a. When mistakes happen, smart social media marketers
take action to solve the problem or resolve the issue
i. They acknowledge the problem and take
responsibility for it
Assessment check questions
7.1. How does the interactivity of social media cause potential privacy
issues? Marketers are collecting personal data about users that could
7.2. Identify the three positive steps that firms take when they make a
mistake related to social media marketing. Marketers acknowledge the
problem and take responsibility for it; communicate with the right people
via relevant channels; and implement agreed-upon changes.
Chapter Objective 8: Identify the different types of positions in social media marketing,
and outline tips for landing an entry-level job.
Key Terms: None
PowerPoint Basic: 23–25
PowerPoint Expanded: 53-56