Summary of The Key Points of The Article
“The future of social media in marketing” is a peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. The article highlights how social media enables the free interaction of persons and provides multiple ways marketers can reach and engage with their clients. The article considers how businesses and people are affected by social media, offering a comprehensive evaluation of the current state of social media.
Discussions with leaders in the marketing industry, prevalent debates, and academic research inform the article. It proceeds to categorize nine themes arranged through projected convenience: the current, the forthcoming, and far-away trends.
The article proposes that these trends will play a significant role in molding the future of social media. Particularly, the article highlights three lenses that will be instrumental: the public policy, the consumer, and the industry lens (Appel, Grewal, Hadi, & Stephen, 2019). The article highlights the prevailing trends in the digital landscape and converses forecast on every theme, identifying appropriate research direction for the future that practitioners and academics can embrace.
The reader can discern the clarity with which the article is written by the finer details that the author incorporates. The article includes finer statistics on the use of social media, indicating that Facebook had 1.56 billion daily active users in 2019 (Appel, Grewal, Hadi, & Stephen, 2019). The estimated growth rate of social media users in 2022 is projected to stand at 2.29 billion user growth (Appel, Grewal, Hadi, & Stephen, 2019). The article then discusses the topic in an array of dimensions and particularly indicates the mutation that social media has undergone. A key point is the rise of influencers and new forms of social influence. The article concludes by advocating for more research directions, indicating that the nine themes discussed need to be studied further in various directions.
Relationship To Key Concepts Examined in This Course
The article relates to key concepts studied in the course that have implications for marketing practitioners. Particularly from the course reading “Essential of Marketing,” a marketing concept is defined as directing an organization’s effort to ensure clients are satisfied and making profits (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2017). It asserts the simplicity and importance of the marketing concept, an idea that has existed for quite some time. It proceeds that certain managers are not interested in the needs of clients. According to the course reading, such managers have a market orientation involving producing products that are easy to make. It asserts that production orientation has been replaced with market orientation, which involves executing the marketing concept.
This concept relates to the article, particularly marketing, where the author discusses the emergent trends of social media and social media marketing literature. It can be seen that trends such as under-generated content can be used to provide user-specific content. For example, one that satisfies a specific age group and, in turn, earns profits for the creator, this is mainly the case with influencer marketing.
The article asserts that social media has created an environment where each part of a consumer’s decision is capable of being influenced by social media. This can be seen as adopting the marketing orientation concept in the course reading. The article further expounds on how the marketing concept is executed: when a consumer watches a YouTube video of their favorite beauty influencer using a new product on YouTube. Their need is activated, and, in the process, the beauty product company earns a profit. This is the subtle way influencers and companies leverage social media as a marketing tool.
Student’s Personal Reaction and Several Detailed Recommendations
From a marketing consultant’s perspective, social media’s possibilities for businesses, particularly from a marketing perspective, are amazing. The article asserts that influencers on social media, such as YouTube, have become culture icons in their own shows and product lines, attributing celebrities to specific products and shows. It is amazing how if companies use such cultural icons, they can offer products that meet a client’s needs by leveraging on the influencer’s image and thus making profits, which would be a perfect execution of marketing orientation. For example, a skincare product can capitalize on an influencer’s flawless skin to sell its brands.
In conclusion, there are three main recommendations based on social media’s potential for marketing. The first is that companies should conduct research on particular aspects that are attracting consumers and adopt them within their marketing mix. The company can, for example, capitalize on what the article asserts are consumers enjoying live experiences. Organizations can thus advertise their products through such live platforms. Companies should also research the time consumers of their products are online and on which platforms they can then advertise on these periods and platforms.
The last recommendation would be on the negative aspects of social media. The article discusses at length the adverse privacy impacts social media presents to its users. Brands should be careful about managing clients’ data and desist from collecting more information than is needed. For example, companies should collect simple information such as the age group of their consumers rather than going for specifics such as their location and other details that seem to infringe on their privacy.
References
Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R., & Stephen, A. T. (2019). The future of social media in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 79-95.
Perreault, J. W., Cannon, J. P., & McCarthy, E. J. (2017). Essentials of Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach, Fifteenth Edition. NewYork: McGraw-Hill Education.