Social Media Marketing Page 4 of 10 I.

Cost-related According to Weinberg (2009), The main advantage of social media marketing is
cost-related. The financial barriers to social media marketing are quite low compared to others.
The majority of social media sites are free to access, create profile and post information.
Whereas traditional marketing campaigns can cost millions of dollars, many social media tools
are free even for business use. Businesses can run highly successful social media marketing
campaigns on a limited budget. The advantage of reaching your targeted market for little or no
cash investment is substantial, and the audience wanting your information voluntarily joins or
follows you. Pay-per-click advertisements on sites such as Facebook are "geo-targeted"
according to specific criteria, to reach the correct audience. The viral nature of social media
means that each person who reads your posts has the capability to spread the news farther
within his own network, so information can reach a large number of people in a short time
(Weinberg, 2009). II. Social Interaction One of the most notable phenomena of new media is
how it has increased and created new forms of social interaction. People spend more than a
quarter of their time online involved in communication activities (e.g., emails, IM chat, and social
networks), which is equivalent to the total time spent online for general leisure and
entertainment (Riegner, 2007) cited by (Hill & Moran, 2011). Social networking sites have
become so pervasive that they are the most popular Internet destinations (Burmaster, 2009).
Not only has new media demonstrably altered how often people communicate online, but it has
also enlarged the pool of individuals they communicate with, and led to new ways for behaviors
to be influenced (Burmaster, 2009). Consumer behavior studies reveal that individuals give
greater consideration to advice and information shared online, spending more time with
websites that provide third-party evaluations (Huang et al. 2009), and other studies indicate
such information can directly influence buying decisions, even if received from purely „virtual‟
sources (Awad et al. 2006; Weiss et al. 2008) cited by (Hafele, 2011). Indeed many of the
reported benefits of new media usage (increased reputation, anticipated reciprocity) relate
directly to its social interaction aspects (Kollock 1999; Arthur et al. 2006) cited by (Hafele, 2011).
III. Interactivity As observed by Steuer (1992) cited by Ronald P. Hill and Nora Moran (2011)
unlike watching TV or listening to the radio, the interactivity of new media lets consumers
become more than just passive recipients of stimulation. Interactivity can be broadly described
as the „extent to which users participate in modifying the form and content of a mediated
environment in real time (Steuer, 1992). Interactivity is one of the defining characteristics of new
media technologies, giving greater access to information as well as supporting increased user
control of and engagement with social media content (Fiore et al. 2005) cited by (Hill & Moran,
2011). Interactivity depends on the context. In an online social networking context, interactivity
refers to a usercentered interaction with machines, messages, or other users, focusing on the
experiential aspect of networking process (Liu & Shrum 2002) cited by (Hill & Moran, 2011).
While interactivity can be simple in certain contexts (e.g., simply filling out forms, clicking links),
it can also be more involved and elaborate, such as allowing individuals to develop online
content (Murugesan, 2007) cited by (Hill & Moran, 2011). Studies show that increased levels of
interactivity can lead to higher involvement (Bucy, 2003) and more positive attitudes toward
websites (Kalyanaraman & Sundar, 2003; Hill & Moran, 2011) along with higher source
credibility (Fogg, 2003; Hill & Moran, 2011). This user interactivity enables consumers to
participate in personal social networking by selecting the content, timing, and communication
act Specific applications of social media empower consumers, such that they can take active
control and perform two-way communications. Active control takes place in a social networking
context and requires attention and participation from all participating parties, including individual
users, groups of networked people or communities, and brands (Li, Daugherty, & Biocca 2002).
IV. Targeted market Social media provide marketers with the ability to target audiences and
consumers based on site users' personal interests and what their friends like. For example, list
country music as one of your interests on a social networking site; you will most likely be seeing
ads about country music concerts and artists. Some sites' advertising will also highlight which
country artists your friends like to provide a personal connection. With such "smart" marketing,
and advertising, marketers effectively reach the people who are most interested in what they
have to offer. Furthermore, social networking enables word of mouth to promote products
beyond what advertising alone does (Hill, Provost & Volinsky, 2006)

3. Advantages According to Watson et al. (2002) cited by Sheth and Sharma (2005) with the
popularity of digital marketing on the rise, many businesses are investigating how social media
can help them promote their products and services to potential and existing customers. Social
networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have transformed the way some businesses think
about advertising. Some businesses direct customers toward their social network pages more
than they direct them to their own websites. There are certain advantages to market via social
media, but there are also related drawbacks as well (Watson et al. 2002; Sheth & Sharma
2005). The primary advantages of social media marketing is reducing costs and enhancing
reach. The cost of a social media platform is typically lower than other marketing platforms such
as face-to-face salespeople or middlemen or distributors. In addition, social media marketing
allows firms to reach customers that may not be accessible due to temporal and locational
limitations of existing distribution channels. Social media platforms increase reach and reduce
costs by providing three areas of advantage for customers (Watson et al. 2002; Sheth &
Sharma 2005). First, the marketing firm can provide unlimited information to customers without
human intervention. This is an advantage over other forms of contact because the amount of
information that can be provided is much greater than in any other form of communication.
Additionally, and more importantly, the information can be provided in a form that customers can
easily process and understand. For example, airline scheduling and reservation systems are
very difficult to create and maintain to serve individual needs. Additionally, in this context, the
choices are large and difficult to provide in any format that is better than web-based format
(Watson et al. 2002; Sheth & Sharma 2005). Second, social media marketing firm can create
interactions by customizing information for individual customers that allow customers to design
products and services that meet their specific requirements For example, online checking and
seat assignment can be done on the Internet. Finally, social media platforms can allow
transactions between customers and firms that would typically require human contact as in the
case of successful firms such as Dell and [Link] (Watson et al. 2002; Sheth & Sharma
2005). To understand better about the advantages of social media marketing, there are five
main advantages to succeed in this field: