Community Marketing Through Social Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Community Marketing Through Social Media - Essay Example This is a strategy to actively engage an audience in a non-intrusive manner usually in a public forum. Unlike traditional marketing strategies, community market has its focus on the needs of existing customers. In a nutshell community marketing seeks to establish a permanent connection between existing customers, prospects, companies, and products. By so doing it will be in a position to improve a products adoption into the wider community and also satisfy the same market while strengthening customer loyalty (Unger 2008). In the recent past social media has increasingly been commercialised. It has become a complex community which has been drawn from a wide cross-section of the community all with different backgrounds. It is this large community that has been a major target to marketing, and has made social media marketing to be considered by marketing executives. Incorporation of social media into e-commerce has changed the game of marketing and indeed drawn a lot of benefit to busin esses that are involved. The most obvious benefit would be capturing the diverse and ever growing audience that constitutes the social media. Click on display ads can be linked up with e-commerce websites that would allow customers to make required purchase at their convenience (Schneider 2011). Much as social media and community marketing cannot be measured through direct sales, such efforts usually go a long way in raising awareness of an organisation and creating a good image. Facebook fans It is very evident and clearly spelled out the returns any e store gains in terms of customer interaction and even recruiting new fans. However, it has always been an enigma how to take the momentum created by these fans and convert it to sales. The solution of creating these Facebook fans to paying customers is to create a platform that will move the fans from Facebook to the e store. This can be achieved through the following steps: Engage the fans with content they can relate to and share. Facebook is a powerful community hub, and its fans offer a rich marketing opportunity. Secondly, share content that invites the fans to the e-store. This can be through a link that offers a valuable option, such as a contest entry that will entice the fans. Finally, once the fans attention and contacts have been captured the e-store can introduce sales opportunities via email. Facebook Ads and display branding The most common way of incorporating community marketing in Facebook is through display Ads. Influential branding and strategically placed display advertisement tops the list of factors that increase sales and product awareness. Facebook display Ads can be tailored for specific audience, and be made to offer a lot more than just plain advertisement. Their dynamic nature also allows them to easily fit to any site without interfering with the main content. The only downside to this however, is that it tends to create a clustered landscape which can very easily be managed through careful targeting and selection of markets. Similarly, building brand awareness can be employed as a strategy to capture the rich market found in social media. Beyond marketing, Facebook presents a platform for organisations to directly engage with potential customers, and display their expertise in a given field. Tweeter account Another skilful way is incorporating Tweeter into e-commerce through the development of a user community. A Tweeter account of the e-store can push further the notion of spreading a positive word about the products offered to the larger market. This account can include special features such as group forums of a particular brand, and