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1. Social media in marketing Assigment 2 1 (2)
HAAGA-HELIA ammattikorkeakoulu
Samu Vilkki 18.9.2011
Social media in marketing – Assignment 2
What is social media? Social media is network communication, where everybody is able to be an act-
ive operator and join the conversation. In social media, communication is con-
veyed from many to many, so the message will pervade exponentially. Can be
said that social media is the biggest invention since television or internet. So-
cial media is a postindustrial phenomenon, which has changed society’s pro-
duction- and distribution structure, economy and culture.
Participation is the main key. Social media encourages contributions and feed-
back from everybody who is interested. It breaks the line between media and
audience. Most social media services are open and comfortable to use. Pass-
words and log ins are rarely needed, and participants can communicate freely.
Elements At this time, social media divides into six divisions. These divisions are social
networks, blogs, wikis, podcasts, forums and content communities.
A social network allows people to build personal webpages and then connect
with friends to share information. The most known social networks are
MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.
Blogs are perhaps biggest branch of social media, beside on social network of
course. Everybody can start blogging, and very many have also done that.
Wikis allow people to add content or edit information of them, acting as a
communal document or database. The most known wiki site is Wikipedia, the
online encyclopaedia. Wikipedia has over 2 million English language articles.
Podcasts are audio and video files that are available by subscription. Apple
iTunes is a well-known Podcast channel.
Forums are areas for online discussion, often around specific topics and in-
terests. forums came about before the term “social media” and are a powerful
and popular element of online communities.
Content communities organise and shares particular kinds of content. The
most popular content communities tend to form around photos (Flickr),
bookmarked links (del.icio.us) and videos (YouTube).
Advantages Social media is an excellent tool for marketing, if it is used right. Making
strategies and campaigns is cheap in social media, and what’s best, it is low
costing and very effective. Many customer and non-customer can easily find a
way to your website, articles and blogs etc. via social media.
Social media brings people together, and these people are usually interested of
same things. This is golden for companies. They can use social media in mar-
keting, and information pervades all around very fast. Social media helps you
to keep contact with your audience. Customer service etc. is easily made with

2. Social media in marketing Assigment 2 2 (2)
HAAGA-HELIA ammattikorkeakoulu
Samu Vilkki 18.9.2011
social media. When conversation can be made online, it is fast, and also easier
for both sides.
Social media doesn’t just make things easier, it also regenerate working and
widespread communication.
Disadvantages Social media can be used wrong. Badly made online brand strategy may dam-
age your reputation. Damaged reputation is very difficult to heal. Making a
mistake online can be touched hundreds of thousands, or even millions of
people. Using social media in marketing and advertising will take a lot of time.
If marketing in social media isn’t made carefully, may results be worse than
without marketing in social media at all.
People have to learn to use social media. This also takes a lot of time. Com-
pany has to know how to use it and which channels to focus on. Social media
may have negative effect on workers’ productivity. They can easily spend more
and more time on Facebook and Twitter, especially if their job is to update
company’s social media page.
Main principles Main principles in using social media in marketing is to success. Company and
its products will get more recognisability via social media. Customer service is
much easier, and company can discuss with customers online to improve their
products and services.
Bibliography Thought-pick social media pages
Url:
http://blog.thoughtpick.com/2010/11/10-must-know-advantages-disadvant-
ages-of-social-media.html
Social Media Connection
Url:
http://www.relationship-economy.com/Five%20Elements%20of%20Social
%20Media.pdf
Social Media Wikipedia page
Url:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media