The document discusses social media marketing and its advantages and disadvantages for businesses. It defines social media as online media that allows people to share, participate and network. Social media marketing involves engaging with audiences in authentic conversations to build relationships and achieve business goals. The advantages for businesses include low cost advertising and ability to target specific groups. However, competitors are a disadvantage and damage to brand image can occur from incorrect social media use. The document outlines two main principles for effective social media marketing - sharing valuable content, listening to customers and engaging in two-way conversations as outlined by Bullas and Peck.

1. Social media in marketing<br />What is social media?‘Social media essentially is a category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking, and bookmarking online.’ (Jones, 2009) With social media, people can share their stories, photos, ideas to the world. When hearing social media, most people think of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, however there are a lot more sites. Jones (2009) breaks social media down in groups, in order to understand them better. Those are social news, social sharing, social networks and social bookmarking.Social media marketing is `when companies take a human approach to marketing by participating in conversations with their audiences. It’s about engaging audiences in an authentic way to provide helpful information, solve problems and build relationships to achieve business goals and gain a leg up on the competition.’ (Peck, 2009)<br />The advantages of social media in marketingThe advantages of social media are that all sorts of information can be easily exchanged between persons all over the world. For businesses social media is an ideal tool for marketing. They can reach a large sum of persons at the same time. Social media is an relative cheap form of advertising. <br />With social media businesses can focus on target groups by making use of sites that are mostly used by this group. It is a good tool for building relationships with customers, by providing personal communication and service. Businesses can also get an better inside in the customers’ needs and lifestyle.<br />It is an easy way for businesses to show their brand, ideas, values tot the rest of the world. It creates brand awareness and can help improve how people see the brand.<br />The disadvantages of social media in marketingDisadvantages from social media for the users are that often their private information is spread without that they know it. The university of Maryland (2010) concluded in a new study that most college students are unable to function without social media.They are addicted to social media because they have the tools (mobile phone, laptop, television) available all day long, to participate in social media. <br />For companies using social media as a marketing tool, disadvantages are that there are many competitors. As social media is becoming one of the most important marketing tools, it is hard to compete with other businesses and to come up with something new. (Williamson, 2010) Furthermore damage to their brand image can occur by not updating their information on websites or by wrong social media use. Also advertisements by businesses are usually perceived as annoying by individuals.<br />The main principles of social media use in marketingThere are various theories and opnions about the main principles of social media use for businesses. As most of those theories are overlapping, I will mention two of them.Bullas (2011), state that the key elements to keep in mind with social media use in marketing are:1. Share<br />2. Go Real Time, businesses have to publish everyday and immediately respond to complaints and inquiries. People want information straight ahead.<br />3. Educate – Don’t Sell. Nowadays social marketing has to inform people and solve their problems with answers and information. 4. Entertain – Don’t Market.<br />5. Go Multichannel. Since every business is using social media, it is important for businesses to be active on many channels.<br />6. Give Information Away For Free. By giving things away for free, trust can be build and people will already know you, so they will buy something the next time.<br />7. Think Multimedia. You have to figure outside what type of media your target group follows. It is better to provide information in many ways through different types of media. <br />8. Think Like a Publisher. Consumers are now researching on the web for answers and solutions, so you have to make sure that there are good online publications.<br />9. Target Your Niche. Make sure that there are a lot of people sharing your information to others so your group of followers will grow. <br />10. Show Your Passion. To keep the followers you should show true passion and motivation, because it will show if you fake this.<br />11. Listen. Listening to your audience will provide you with great information about their wants and needs.12. Engage. Build a relationship with them by communicating with your market.<br />Peck (2009), states that the main principles for social media use in marketing are: listen, engage, enable, share, reward and participate. Listen to the target groups to know what they want and need. Engage with them and build a relationship. Enable people to share your content to others and let them feel ownership of the brand so they’ll get closer to it. Share articles, videos, links, expertise, questions and insight will help building more relationships. Reward the loyal fans and followers with some extras like exclusive contents, acces and discounts. Participate, don’t promote. <br />BibliographyBullas, J. (2011). 12 principles of social media marketing. Retrieved from: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/11/17/12-principles-of-social-media-marketing/Jones, R. (2009). Social media marketing 101, Part 1. Retrieved from: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=sbinfocanada&cdn=money&tm=63&gps=447_202_1109_571&f=10&tt=8&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//searchenginewatch.com/3632809Peck, J. (2009). 6 principles of social media marketing. Retrieved from: http://www.jasonfpeck.com/2009/04/02/6-principles-of-social-media-marketing/<br />Williamson, C. (2010). Creating A Social Media Marketing Plan. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/corywilliamson/creating-a-social-media-plan-2529114University of Maryland. (2010). Students Addicted to Social Media - New UM Study. Retrieved from http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/sociss/release.cfm?ArticleID=2144<br />