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Exploring the Dynamic Linkages between Social Media and Present Marketing Practices.27

28.International Journal on Customer Relations Volume 7 Issue 1 March 2019

International Journal on Customer Relations
7 (1) 2019, 26-35
http://publishingindia.com/ijcr/

EXPLORING THE DYNAMIC LINKAGES BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND PRESENT MARKETING PRACTICES
Aniruddh Vijay*, Apoorva Srivastava**
Abstract:.At present, social media contributes a wider role in the marketing and promotion of brands. It has been transformed into a key for success. There are lots of marketing practices which has been incorporated by well-known brands to remain ahead in the market. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, Blogs, etc. are some of the important social media platforms which are generally used by all the existing brands. In this research paper, researchers have figured out the various social media platforms to explore its linkages with present marketing practices. For this purpose, researchers have collected data from various secondary sources like, research papers, reports, magazines, newspaper articles and others. A researcher has figured out that it is almost impossible to design a marketing strategy without considering the dynamic role of social networks.
Keywords:  Marketing Practices, Social Media, Marketing Strategies and Dynamic Role




INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
In present time, it is evident that people are living in the era of digitalization. Social media comprises of major part of this era which includes social media giants like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Marketing plays a vital role in creating brand value of the company and of promoting and creating mindfulness of company’s product. The vast number of users associated with these social media sites form up the main reason in choosing these platforms by the company for promoting its brand over it. Social media marketing methods has been transformed as major part of social signals building which are very essential in any search engine optimization (SEO) based digital marketing campaign. Most of the time, users are not aware that the growth of various social media channels at global level, offers immense marketing opportunities through the digital marketers which results into strong brand equity. Benefits to Buyers include Convenience, Ease and Privacy, Access and selection and much more. Similarly, Benefits to sellers includes CRM (customer relationship management), reduced cost, Increase speed and efficiency in advertising and marketing, Flexibility in targeting the audience for the marketing, Global medium, etc.
The main impact of social media over marketing is to influence the buying decision of the user which includes the following process:
Step 1: Need Recognition (Difference between an actual state and a desired state).
Step 2: Information Search (through different means of social media).
Step 3: Evaluation of Alternatives (Marketing of these alternatives through social media helps in better evaluation of these alternatives).
Step 4: Purchase Decision
Table 1: Major Forces Shaping the Internet Age
Social Media Marketing
 Social Media Advertising

1. Digitalization and Connectivity 
 1. Banner Ads

2. The internet explosion
 2. Interstitials

3. New types of intermediaries
 3. Browser Ads

4. Customization and customerization
 4. Micro sites

5. Interactive marketing

6. Consumer empowerment



Some of the Benefits Associated with the Social Media Based Channels Usage in Marketing Includes:
..
Emerging social connections and indicators: Social indicators can significantly improve SEO efforts. Users’ website becomes more relevant when more and more people on social media like, comment and share posts.

..
Promoting company brand awareness and equity: Users of social media always suggests in their social media groups about the brand quality.

..
Social media users can always recommend to their social media circles about the quality aspects associated with the brand.

..
Social media is utilized appropriately by public relations agencies and activities: Public relations agencies are the one who deals with the stream of data between an individual or an association and the general population.


LITERATURE REVIEW
As technology is growing and updating in a fast phase and the globe is moving towards a technology dependent world, social network websites have emerged as a place where businesses, marketers as well as the entrepreneurs can provide their marketing strategies at a wider range of customers available at social media platform.  Chi (2011, p. 46) defines “social media marketing as a connection between brands and consumers while offering a personal channel and currency for user centered networking and social interaction”. There have been a great adaptations and modifications in the tools and approaches used for communicating with customers mainly due to social media emergence; therefore, it is becoming very much important that businesses must understand the solution to incorporate social media as a way that it is consistent with their business plan (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). This is specifically important to those businesses that are trying to achieve a distinctive image among the customers and hence working towards achieving the competitive advantage in the market. This research paper examines the recent literature that focuses on the impact of social media on current marketing practices. This research mainly focuses on (1) defining what it is through the explanation of new terminology concepts and marketing approaches that makeup its foundations and (2) assessing the impact of social media on marketing practices.
Social media has emerged as a marketing tool that has become a necessity to be understood by the businesses and marketers to have a competitive advantage in the market. It is a term that describes a new way in which end users use the World Wide Web, a place where content is continuously inserted, altered by all its users in a sharing and collaborative way (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). “It is much more to do with what people are doing with the technology than the technology itself, for rather than merely retrieving information, users are now creating and consuming it, and hence adding value to the websites that permit them to do so” (Campbell et al., 2011, p. 87). The term word has evolved from where the information can be retrieved towards interactivity where all operators come together to achieve their individual or group objectives.  According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p. 61) social media can be defined as “a group of Internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web, and allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.” A simple website cannot be claimed as a social networking website until and unless it consists of the following basic features like user profiles, contents, a technique that enables the users to connect with each other and post their comments and reviews on each other’s pages and join virtual groups based on common interests like politics or fashion (Cox, 2010). Before we move further in the research paper it is important to know that the phrase social networking sites’ can often be used in the place of social media.  But social media is slightly different from the social networking, as social media allows its users to unite by collecting personal details from their profiles and inviting their friends and colleagues to have access to those profiles (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Thus, social media is the platform in which social networking takes place and social media has altered the way in which customers gathers the information related to different products and services and based on the available information they make their purchasing decision.
Social media has emerged as a platform that simply provides a tool for individuals to stay in touch with their family and friends and moreover provide a platform to the targeted audience or customers so that they can get a chance to know and learn more about their favorite companies and gather information related to goods and services that the marketers and businesses are offering. Marketers, agents and entrepreneurs are also utilizing these sites to reach to their targeted audience that is their customers and provide them with a new way to buy the products. “Technology related developments such as the rise of powerful search engines, advanced mobile devices and interfaces, peer-to-peer communication vehicles, and online social networks have extended marketers’ ability to reach shoppers through new touch points” (Shankar et al., 2011, p. 30).
Based on the historical research done on marketing, it was exhibited that the changes in the marketing were constant throughout the time phase. It was found that the production era focuses on enhancing the standard of products and its overall efficiency, but this emphasis totally shifted by the time of the marketing era that is towards marketing. The changes remained constant through time they just moved from the product to consumers, this focus also continued with the current social media era, this aims at satisfying the manufacturers’ desire for profit and the customer needs to get the quality product in the minimum price to be met simultaneously. Since the 1950s, Marketing Mix has been used as the main building blocks by the marketers. It is true that there have been changes over the years, but for the most part these pillars have stood the test of time. They are still the keys to the science of marketing, but a new question is relevant: how does social media fit into them – or does it at all, we will further discuss in the research, the one of the element of marketing mix is product? As per the Kerin and Hartley (2013), “a product is a good, service or idea consisting of a bundle of tangible and intangible attributes that satisfies consumers’ needs and is received in exchange for money or something of value”. The terminology ‘product’ can be divided into further two categories i.e., business & consumer product. The traditional marketing strategy which will be studied further and provides a clear ground to make sure that marketers promote their own products in such a manner that so that it deals with specific requirements according to the type of customers that they are trying to reach. It specifies that the methods in which products are marketed among the customers are influenced by the type of the product irrespective of their nature, that is, whether the products are tangible or intangible. Another element is price, Schindler (2012) described price as “that which is given in return for a product in a commercial exchange”. According to Nagle (1987) the importance of price mainly in the indigenous marketing, is not mainly related with the creation of value. It can be stated that marketing based activity involves capturing, or “harvesting” the value generated by other marketing activities (Schindler, 2012). The right pricing strategy is significant for the organization for the long term success, if the pricing strategy is wrong the whole system may collapse including from production to marketing. Pricing also help in determining the difference between traditional and non-traditional approach to marketing.
The techniques that are used in traditional marketing approach for promoting products and services are completely different from that of non-traditional due of the modifications that are occurring in communication and technology used in the current businesses. According to Hodgkinson (2005), “Promotion includes advertising, public relations, and marketing communications. The role of promotion is to call attention to a product or service, and build awareness of it, usually with a focus on key benefits, with the ultimate aim of influencing purchasing decisions. Promotion exists both to inform and create awareness among the customers, and it is an essential aspect of marketing in the competitive markets”. Traditional marketing strategy mostly includes, encouraging marketing communication and building public relation with the help of social media and the most commonly used is advertising and it is based on simply informing customers related to product and services. The approach is more focused towards addressing the customers about the products reverse of seeking out the wants and needs of customers.
The last element of a product marketing mix is distribution, it is also one of the traditional marketing strategy that is pivotal because even if production is effective and quality of product is also good but if the distribution strategy which is implemented by marketers is not effective then the benefits gained from efficient process of production and the standard set of the product is lost, it is to consider that if the goods are not available in the market where they can be easily found by customer, all the profits gained with the help of efficient and effective strategy in promotion and production process is lost. Therefore is it very much important to consider all the elements of the marketing mix before implementing any strategy especially on a social media platform (Listkova, 2015).
The Transactional Marketing Approach
Transactional marketing approach, the changes that are occurring in the strategies that are applied by organizations and business markets has affected the transactional approach immensely; they produce the products that may relate with their target audience. Ferrell and Hartline (2014) stated that “the goal of transactional marketing is to complete a large number of discrete exchanges with individual customers. The focus is on acquiring customers and making sales, not necessarily on attending to customers’ needs and wants”.  Transactional market follows strategy of manufacturing the products according to the need of the customers in the minimum price, it make sure that the right product reaches to the consumers at the right time.  Social media plays a vital role in developing the transactional marketing relevant in this competitive environment it follows the taking an action-driven strategy in this transactional approach, it focuses on digital-to-in-person conversions that are individuals place their orders with the help of technical tools through the use of call-to-action methods such as coupons, referral programs, offers and mobile lead generation etc. Taking action is the most important element, those actions may include referring a friend or colleague a particular product or service that you may think he like or it may be of some use to him.  Transactional approach also includes the strategy of advertisements that helps in providing helpful suggestions to the consumers and helping them finding the best deal or aid and the location where those products maybe available. The increase in the mobile use and internet service has leaded the way to find helpful content through engaging in the social media.
Social media helps in providing right inputs related to the customers to retailers like location, additional information like their purchase history and other social data with the help different tools that monitor the activities of customer. Retailers also link offers with the use of credit cards to enhance digitization i.e., the marketers have engaged target audience on social media with deals and offers, so that the customers can take its advantage on same time.
Based on the research done by Zineldin M., (2002) in the present scenario 4 out of 5 customers use smart phones or any internet based technology to shop for goods and services, according to him native social advertisement has grown from a $1.6 billion industry in 2012 to a $4.6 billion industry by 2017. This strategy has the ability to induce the customer action and marketers to use the context of native advertisement and hence combining these two trends so that the content which is reached to customer makes sense on the social media platform (Zienldin, 2002). This strategy creates an ideal situation for the marketers with the strong focus on converting the mobile users into physical actual consumers, it creates the ideal environment that provide the customers a seamless shopping experience that guides customers to their unique point of purchase through their choices.
The Market Segmentation Approach
The market segmentation technique is one of the traditional techniques that are present to the businesses, this approach is totally different from the transaction marketing approach which was discussed above, the marketing segmentation technique is more detailed and long term oriented. Pride and Ferrell (2014) explain “market segmentation is the process of dividing a total market into groups, or segments, that consist of people or organizations with relatively similar product needs”. This approach is different because it enables the businesses to develop a perfect strategy for marketing that can help the organizations to develop the products and services that can precisely match the needs and wants of their customers. It is one of the characteristics of the market that it lets the businesses to develop and produce products and services that fulfill these needs and thus, help in designing the most effective and efficient marketing strategies so that the businesses can reach to its customer no matter whether they are end consumer or industrial customers. It is essential to focus that here the marketing segmentation is only applicable in a miscellaneous market due to difference in the needs and choice of consumers in the market. It is important to know that the technique of market segmentation does not apply to a homogenous market because homogenous markets are those that involve the individuals and groups that have the similar needs and preferences therefore it does not require any market segmentation. Moreover, Marketers and businesses further classify these segments into small sub markets which are known as target market this is done to more specify their market and clear their niche. Lacobucci (2014) discusses that “once the different segments’ preferences of the segmented market have been identified, the next step is to now target each of the market segments using the appropriate targeting approach.”
Targeting approaches are further divided into three different categories that are applied to target markets. Pride and Ferrell (2014) described three types of targeting techniques which are further discussed below:


Fig. 1
Undifferentiated Targeting
Pride et al. (2015), describe undifferentiated targeting as “a strategy in which an organization designs a single marketing mix and directs this strategy at the whole market for a particular product”. This strategy is used by the marketers only when the businesses or organizations try to market a unique or only one product to the entire market without segmenting on the basis of the needs and preferences of the customers in a specified market. This means that the marketers do not differentiate between the products that are being marketed, the price that is being charged and the promotion strategy that is implied, as well as the means of distribution. Undifferentiated targeting is important for those markets where the products are used by large number of people such as perishable food items and products that are similar to home daily needs. 
Concentrated Targeting
Concentrated targeting is an approach that allows the organization and marketers to focus their marketing efforts so that they can target only those customers those who may buy their products and that the marketers can provide best service and products to their customers according to their preferences. Lamb et al. (2012) elaborates “a strategy used to select one segment of a market for targeting marketing efforts” This strategy makes the marketers able to focus upon its limited marketing resources by targeting only the particular segments among the various segments that are present in the market. This strategy is especially feasible for the social media marketing as there are different tools which help in deterring the concentrated audience and targeting them.
Differentiated Targeting
Differentiated marketing can be defined as “a strategy in which an organization or marketers targets two or more segments by developing a marketing mix for each” In this approach the marketers follow a different strategy from the others, the marketers develop a marketing mix that fulfills the desires of each and every of the targeted markets, this technique is also known as multi-segment or customer targeting approach. The differentiated marketing is most successful in those industries where few larger customers or a single customer require customized developed products.
MINING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SEGMENT DATA RICHES
Social media platforms in the current era may be described as the great sources for sales prospect profiling that is selecting the right audience based on the intelligence data available online, that can be used to inform your segmentation schemes. Let’s take the example of LinkedIn which is a social networking site solely based on the working professionals, therefore, it offers loads of knowledge about individuals work lives. The marketers utilize this data to segment them according to the demand of their product and designing a marketing strategy impacting their position, profession, employer, education, group memberships and connections. Similarly, twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many other social networks consist of information related to its user. Now let’s take the example of a Twitter profiles, they contain less personal information as compared to any other social network because it only enable its users to describe themselves in less than 150 words in there ‘bio’, but still there is a lot that can be learned from the tweets themselves, which are almost always publicly available. The information available on twitter can easily be accessed from the profile with the help of the user’s bio blurb, number of followers, website URL, list of people he or she follows and location all can be easily accessed. There are also many great tools available that can help marketers to draw conclusions about Twitter users, based on their activity and the keywords they use. Hash tags are also used to easily find the keywords or related topics and the topics that are trending on site. Many of the marketers run the campaigns to use a particular hash tags to win different gifts and rewards, which result as the increase in the post engagement of the marketers. For instance, at the time of demonetization, Paytm came up with a slogan ‘Paytm karo’.
FORMULATING AND TARGETING SEGMENTS
Once all the relevant data is collected from the different social networks, the marketers effectively enabling their efforts to better understand what customer segments they are influencing with their posts on social media platforms. It is time to look into those segments which are most likely to interact with brand profile and make purchases.
The common strategy used by the marketers is that they add tracking various parameters to the universal resource locators (URLs) of one’s post and take benefit from native targeting tools of social network. It means all the insights related to their post engagement will be made available with the help of those tools, the marketers can learn a lot about their target audience by analyzing which sort of people react to various types of advertisement or message.
Customer relationship management and premium analytics platform are some of the techniques and tools, that help the marketers in direct integration of social media sites, allowing the marketers to get really innovate with how the marketers use the data for making strategy regarding marketing automation with the help of private messaging like email and custom targeting via paid social posts in Facebook, twitter and Instagram. Segmentation can be done based on the various criteria. For the successful implementation of this strategy, it is essential that the marketers use correct keywords while developing a promotion on a social media platform.
SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE ON MARKET SEGMENTATION
Nowadays customers are much more aware and well informed and influenced, sites like  ‘trip advisor’ and ‘policy bazaar’ enables the customers to compare different brands dealing in the same product, now the customers have a greater access to choice this is all due to the emergence of social media.
Therefore, the most common type of classification used in the segmentation approach is demographic segmentation, it all about assigning a particular category to people on the basis of income, gender, profession, age, location and assuming there are always changes and hence shifting according to their needs and their reaction which may be positive, negative or neutral. This technique is a part of social networking psychographic segmentation also known as ‘social graphics’, the marketers track their audience based on their interest, opinions and preference.
FOLLOW THE TREND WHERE SEGMENTS ARE HANGING OUT
Social media platforms are very fertile forums which help brands to promote their products and services to their targeted customers that are conveniently participate at a single platform like social media.
These groups of individuals who have come together due to their common interests, they are being fostered by social network platforms , these social networking sites charge some amount from the brands to participate in them for example Google+ circles and Linked groups. Potential customers also use this platform to get information and knowledge related to the products especially the products and services related to technology, they seek support or even entertainment; so the thumb rule of social media marketing is not to openly advertise in the indigenous sense (Fennemore, 2012). Some of the strategies that are commonly used by the marketers is mentioned below:
Influencing the Influencers
In most of the social networking sites, based on the research done it was found that about 10 percent of social network users generate 90 percent of the content, they are the users that have the highest engagement in their profiles or pages. These are referred as ‘creators’ or ‘e-influencers’. In fact, they are also known as bloggers, they are the individuals who write about the product and provide their feedback or suggestions to their audience. These individuals are highly influential and have a large audience reach related to one or more specialized product or service and thus now can be classified as a new market segment for the marketers to target.
Generally, influencers’ plea for a particular brand or products on behalf of the marketer. Marketers usually carefully select the influencer to promote their product as the success is highly depended how these influencers showcase the product to their followers. The marketers or organizations should always try that they provide influencer with something unique and really interesting to review or talk about , this will help motivate them in reviewing the product this technique is also known as ‘social influence marketing.’
Influencers are further classified as ‘detractors’ or ‘trolls’, they are negative in their nature. They give negative feedback related to the product and their words can be highly spreadable like no other as people focus on negatives more. So therefore while dealing with these the marketers must keep in mind that they not necessarily require having a conversation with them through the social media channel which is available to all, as it may lead to make the issue a far bigger deal. To resolve the issue the marketers can address their objection and resolve the critic’s issue directly. There are many examples where the detractors have damaged the brand’s image; therefore it is important that they respond to these individuals rationally. It is also essential for the marketers that no corporate or official respond to these types of posts. Therefore, the creators and detractors can also be classified as market segments for the marketers especially on a social media platform, how they affect a brand solely depends how people react to it.
Conversation Marketing
Until and unless the marketer or business are dealing with particular customers or have a well-defined niche, conversation marketing or personalize marketing is not possible. The marketers can affect their influencer to promote their product but it would not be feasible to have an individual online conversation with each and every potential customer. However this marketing strategy is still feasible, if the marketers follow the basic concept of segmentation that is the marketers can form groups based on the interests of individuals and encourage them to buy their products with help of promotions on those particular groups. The marketers must understand that majority of their posts must be adding value and helping in building brand image and the remaining posts can be used for endorsing products and aware them about them different events.
Relationship Marketing Philosophy
According to Gronroos (1997), relationship approach can be used to “establish, maintain and enhance relationship with customers and other partners, at a profit so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. This is achieved by mutual exchange and fulfillment of promise”.
Relationship marketing approach is the amplification of the transfer of correspondence among different relations that help all the parties that are concerned either for short term but it focuses mainly on a long-term relationship marketing, the relationship marketing approach is usually utilized by those marketers who are interested in gaining a competitive advantage in the market. This approach is mainly focused with all the different stakeholders like customers, suppliers, agents, and the benefits derived among them. Therefore it becomes very much necessary to identify and explaining the roles to various stakeholders. The stakeholders are identified based on a ‘six markets model’, which comprises: a) customer markets; b) internal markets; c) recruitment (employee) markets; d) influence markets; e) supplier/alliance markets; and f) referral markets (Payne, Ballantyne, & Christopher, 2005).
Social Media and Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is one of the majorly used practices in the current market scenario. This strategy has the ability to enhance the retention rate of customers by building a strong long term relationship with their customers. It can help in enhancing the marketing effectiveness and efficiency by reducing the cost of promoting their product. Moreover, by facilitating the customers to generate the high profit and thus reducing the price sensitivity among its customers. This approach can also aid in creating the opportunities for upward and cross selling and establishing some exit barriers, and facilitating a database development (O’Malley & Tynan, 2000).  Relationship marketing is an important tool for gaining advantage over its competitors.
As the use of new technology emerged, especially in communication technology, it enabled the relationship marketing and its successful implementation as a marketing strategy. Zineldin (2002) stated that without the effective use of technology, relationship marketing would not be as influential. Wang et al. (2002) stated that “Social media can be viewed as a new marketing tool or a new marketplace”.  Internet is an essential element nowadays for the implementation of the relationship approach on the social media platform - it acts as a communication tool for the marketers to promote their product to their consumers, it is important for establishing a regular and frequent exchange of information among consumer and marketers which is the basis for establishing relationship.
The social media enables the implementation of relationship marketing as a low cost communication/ interactive too. It helps to build and maintain the relationship with the customers. This strategy has a greater capacity to recognize, target, trace and communicate with the consumers (Berthon et al., 1996; Burke, 1996). It also enables the marketers to respond to the request of customers and in return get feedback from them, this helps in enhancing the abilities and techniques for relationship marketing.
It motivates the marketers to develop the methods and techniques to build close customer relationship; it also advances these abilities, thus helping in enhancing the value of relationship marketing to the marketers and retailers. Social media is expediting the consolidation of products and services in market offerings.
As mentioned above the relationship marketing is important for gaining the competitive advantage for formulating relationship with its customers, which can be done with the help of the below-mentioned approaches:
Referral Markets
According to (Harwood, Garry, & Broderick, 2008 as cited in Buhler & Nufer, 2010)” referral marketing is a marketing relationship that deploys the ‘word of mouth’, that is, advocates the principle of ‘the best relationship marketing of marketing is to get the customer to do the marketing for the organization’.” The referral markets encourages the existing customers to suggest some modification to organization within their sphere of influence like their friends or relatives whom they interact with frequently, it provides maximum exposure to the brand.
Relationship marketing utilizes different type of referral programs, some organizations or marketers pay some amount of cash to their customers for every new referral they bring in. Whereas other marketers pay customers only, if they bring in sufficiently many referrals for example they specify a minimum number of people who need to buy that product or login as a new user then only they will be paid if they will fulfill the minimum criteria.  It can be an important element of referral traffic; this is because many of the customers are now part of any of the social networking platform, many marketers also provide two sided incentives in the referring customer as well as the referred friend gets a discount so, that he may also be encouraged to join the program.
Influence Markets
According to a recent study, it was revealed that 84% of marketers prefer on executing at least one influencer marketing promotion while developing a marketing strategy to promote their product. Influence marketing is a strategy that enables the organization to promote their products through the people with a large audience or following on the social networking sites. The primary  social networking sites like Facebook, twitter, Instagram including smaller social platforms like musical.ly have the existence of social media influencers, this has led in the generation of ‘internet celebrities’ and segmenting them according to different age groups.
The effectiveness of an influence marketing strategy depends on the multiple factors but the most important is the product itself another is high consideration of the product which may lead the customer to seek the help of an influencer, they may be expert of that particular product or they may simply be promoting it. An expert influencer is an individual or a group who has the expertise on the product that the consumer is considering purchasing.  They are also called as key influencers, they typically have their own blogging sites, have huge number of Twitter or Instagram followings, and they rarely know their audiences personally and interact with them on one to one basis. Another type of an influencer is a positional influencer they are also known as ‘peer influencers’ occasionally, they are typically family members or part of the consumer’s inner circle. They influence purchasing decisions most directly at the point of purchase. Using social media to mobilize Social influencers, it obviously, plays a significant role in influencing people to do things and this strategy spread out beyond the area of marketing.  Social media has helped in increasing the reach of the influencers in the market with the help of internet. This strategy is not limited to mainstream or popular markets such as sports, politics, fashion, architecture, athletics, or entertainment. There are influencers in markets centered around everything from concepts that may seem too basic to even write or promote on social media. In fact, it may not be wrong to say that “influencer marketing” is really only the beginning of the changes that are occurring on marketing due to the emergence of social media.
Supplier/Alliance
According to Markets Brink and Berndt (2008) “one of the key relationships that organizations build is with their suppliers”. Market focuses on establishing a relationship with other businesses that also deals in the same organization, it is not only limited with the supplier also, this strategy also includes the marketers or organizations that are in alliance. The reason for the success of this strategy is that it originates from the relationship with customer in a people to people fashion. Social media offers a platform for suppliers to make sure that customers feels provided, closer and more reachable about their needs. It helps in enhancing the customer’s perception about the organization.
Internal Markets
The domain of internal market changes that concern because it concentrates more on internal customers that are employees of organization. Brennan et al. (2008) define, “internal marketing as the process of applying explicit marketing practices to the organization’s internal departments that are, treating departments within the organization as if they are real customers”. External customers mainly rely on the employees that is the internal customer of the organization to meet their needs (Naumann & Giel, 1995). The role of internal customers can be made an effective one by making certain changes in the organization and implementing new techniques for example make sure that the staff understand how customers benefits can be gained from engaging your business with social media, the internal customers may formulate the certain questions like  ‘ were you pleased with our product’ would you recommend us to friends and family’ ‘did you know we have referral programs?’.
CONCLUSION
Social media marketing has transformed as an important tool for the businesses, marketers as well as for the entrepreneurs. Social media has provided an interactive portal for the brands to interact with the customers.  Customers of all age groups and different cultural backgrounds now constantly visit social media platforms to review services and products. Not only the customers, but now the business professionals also regularly participate on social media platforms by becoming their member or regularly visiting these websites for such types of objectives as to research potential that is to search for their potential consumers and vendor partnerships with different other businesses. Marketing is based on the five different elements of marketing mix that are price, product, promotion and distribution, social media marketing does not neglect these elements as these are the basis for the success of a marketing strategy, therefore the marketers  examines these elements before entering into a social  media platform.  If all these elements are prompt according to the current market scenario they may provide a competitive advantage to the marketers.
It is imperative to know that social media based marketing is not present to replace the indigenous marketing but to complement. Its approaches, it facilitates to gain an interactive dialogue for strong loyalty and will help in enhancing brand image among your customers and/or prospects, and increased brand awareness as well as increasing the reach of your product to the customers, it enables marketers to reach their existing customers more frequently and quickly as well as help them open up a new pool of interested buyers. Traditional approach includes segmentation of the customers based on the different criteria. Segmentation is essential as social media consist of extensive audience it enables the marketers to segment their group of buyers based on their interests and preferences and help marketers to directly focus on their prospective customers. Marketers in the traditional approach take the help of influencers who are generally bloggers as the audience trust them they seek them as the experts and try to get their opinion before making and buying decisions. Marketers provide them with their new products and ask them to review it or maybe to recommend the product to their audience, they even provide discounts if they purchase it through their links.
Another marketing approach is relationship marketing approach, the most common tactics used are referral programs, in this the marketers take the help of their existing customers to refer the product to their friends or known by sharing the product information on social networking sites, in exchange marketers provide two sided incentives in which they reward the referring customers and the referred friend also gets the discount. Employees nowadays also help in promoting the product, they interact with the customers through social media asks for their feedback and try to solve their issues.
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* Assistant Professor, Institute of Business Management, GLA University, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India. Email: aniruddhvijay@gmail.com
** MBA, Institute of Business Management, GLA University, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India. Email: apoorva.srivastava_mba17@gla.ac.in


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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 792-805. 
The Effects of Social Networks on Elements of Internet Marketing Mix among Users
Faezeh Saidi MORADI* 
University of Human Development, Sulaimaniah, Iraq.

Hamid Saidi MORADI
Department of Computer Engineering, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran.

ABSTRACT
Social networks (SN) play a fundamental role in distribution of information. After emergence and increasing expansion of social networks, new markets and new marketing methods were developed in online environment. These networks are highly rich of content such as text, images and other multi-media data. These characteristic can be used as a tool to analyze most social and economic problems. Due to increasing significance of social networks and elements of Internet marketing mix, the present study examines the association of these two phenomena to analyze their effectiveness on each other. The present study is of correlative-descriptive type. It is an objective survey due to its method of data collection and cross-sectional in regard to the analyzed period of time. The present study is based on structural equations modeling (SEM). The Reliability of the questionnaire was measured through Cronbach’s alpha method and the validity of present study was confirmed through two methods of content validity and structural validity through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and KMO index. The final findings of present study obtained through SPSS and Lisral applications showed a significant association between social networks and elements of Internet marketing mix among the sampled users. Finally, the analysis of collected data including information of website clients as well as their URL-based order of visiting different site pages contributes to this conclusion that “Vitrin Searching” is a significant and optimizing factor of marketing strategies in social networks.
JEL Classification: D85; L14; L86.
Keywords: Online Social Networks; Internet Marketing; Users.
* Corresponding author.
1. INTRODUCTION
In the present competitive world, the concept of social networks is the dominant paradigm of public relationships of humans. The manufacturers and service providers need a thorough understanding of clients' demands and elements of Internet marketing mix so to survive and obtain social support while feeding on financial and social infrastructures and capitals. In their strategic plans, they need to pay significant attention to the issue of major social networks affecting the decisions of clients. The concept of social networks is increasingly showing its significance due to application of findings of social sciences. However, the new role of social networks in marketing and mass media has generated new approaches towards them. Today, most of the clients have lost their faith in the companies and on the other hand, they have more confidences to other clients of social networks than advertisement and sales growth plans of the companies. Therefore, the transformation of current business environment as manifested in social networks has also changes the viewpoints of marketers towards the consumers (Kotler, P & Armstrong, G. 2015).
The conditions and status of human's life has incredibly changed. These changes of the market are accompanied by emergence of new rules. Different studies have shown that numerous factors affect decision-making. From organizational viewpoint, these factors are categorized into two types of organizationally controlled and uncontrolled factors. The most significant factors controlled by the organizations are the elements of marketing mix such as product, price, distribution which the organization mix them in their targeted markets to generate the expected reaction and to affect the demand level.
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In fact, with the help of marking mix elements, the companies can track the demands and suggestions associated with a product and design a new product or develop a new service to satisfy them (Kotler, P., Kartajaya, H & Setiawan, I. 2010). On one hand, the experts believe that the main source of organization's failure is lack of sufficient knowledge of consumers and markets. Based on these conditions, it seems that most of the companies, if not all of them, have to be market-oriented, pay attention to their clients' demands and needs and become highly flexible to succeed in future (Soo Kim, G. 2017). On the other hand, human is a diversity-seeking being who needs associated with its mates. The mutual needs of human beings to each other creates human communities which have existed since the initiation of human civilization with different forms, sizes and functions. The family might be the smallest and at the same time the oldest social community of the mankind.
In the present era, the significance of marketing has multiplied. The value and application of means of social networks for organizations depend on the approach of organizations towards them and their proper utilization of such networks rather than the essence of these media. Therefore, a company's marketing is regarded as one of its significant properties. In addition, the researchers have found for decades that the expansion of marketing would increase the public inclination to buy the products of the companies (Han Lee et al. 2014). In regard to marketing through social networks, the companies should start from association and interaction which can potentially develop into persistent relationship between corporates and clients. Today, the social network can be regarded as one of the ways of distinguishing marketing efforts. Differentiation is one of the most important concepts of powerful marketing of the companies.

2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
People often depend on their personal relationships and relatives to obtain access to information, resources and locations. These relationships create social networks of the individuals which themselves develop social systems. The scientists use the concept of social networks to refer to complicated system of interpersonal relations in a social system (Wang et al., 2014). A social network is a social structure mostly composed of groups which are either personal or organizational. These groups are connected to each other through one or more types of associations. In a complication information society, the social networks show the effective function of the network
(i.e. convergence) but with a closer look, such a society is composed of numerous networks. These networks are of intra-organizational, inter-organizational, personal and computerized types. In addition, there are cross-border networks through which significant information passes. In traditional theory of social network, it is defined as a set of social entities, including the public and organizations connected through a set of significant social relations and interacting with each other by a sharing their values (Jiang et al., 2016). The social network could be family, relatives, tribes, friends or colleagues. There is another type of social networks in which personal relations are based on online connection (i.e. online) via computer and Internet.
In simpler terms, this type of sites is defined as an online society in which the clients are authorized to share information, images, films, and applications, establish connections with each other and find the virtual addresses of other users. Such social networks represent Web.2 in which the members create the web content through cooperation and usage of applications (Aslay et al., 2015). Marketing in Online Social Networks: The increasing significance of online social networks is accompanied by concrete effects upon the companies. The marketing experts believe that social networks generate significant changes in the business of traditional industries (Heidemann and Probst, 2012).The social networks influence the behaviors of clients from different aspects such as information search strategies, decision-making processes and decision to consume (Knight, 2016). An online social network such as Facebook is an instance of a virtual society. The information sharing in such virtual communities is done relatively easier and faster. As a result, a more significant role can be expected for effective marketing of virtual communities in such networks. For instance, Casteleyn et al., (2009) pointed out that the data of social networks can be regarded as a "crystal ball" which represents the future intentions and measures of the consumers. Jakson et al., (2011) in a paper called "An Overview of Social Networks and Economic Applications" provided a summary of studies on social networks and their role in forming the economic behavior and outputs.
This review included some discussions on theoretical and experimental analyses of the role of social networks in markets and transactions, learning and its distribution, and online games. In addition, it includes a background of characteristics and measurements of social networks, models of network information, models for statistical analyses of social networks and social monitoring. Jothi et al., (2011) in a study called "Analysis of social network sites" did a case study on the effects of communicative strategies of "individuals" to discuss the products and services which create competition among different market brand.
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This case study emphasized the role of social networks because online social networks are full of potential clients with a lot of free time to spend in Internet and above networks. For instance, Bernoff and Li (2008) showed how OSNs can act as new channels for more effective and efficient marketing activities. Saravankumar and Suganthalakshmi (2012) thoroughly discussed the popularity of social networks and marketing advantages of these media. They stated that marketing of social networks is a way of promoting a website, increasing the popularity of a brand or enhancement of a business through establishing consistent relationships with clients. Das et al., (2009) provided a comprehensive discussion of social networks, mentioned different types of means they provide for uses and studied social networks from different perspectives. Qiao (2008) dealt with positive and negative aspects of e-business in social networks and stated that social networks have fundamentally changed e-business but the limitations of this field can be relatively removed. Hartline et al., (2008) examined different marketing strategies of social networks and implementation of different smart sales strategies. They also touched upon the issue of viral marketing. 
Dimensions of Social Networks: In regard to dimensions of social networks, the following ones would be useful. Level of Members' Associations: The associations of social networks are based on human interactions. The content of an association refers to the transferred sourced. An association could be direct or indirect. The associations might be different in strength.
Bridge of Members: Most of the associations originate from the existing networks amog the individuals but the bridges among the individuals constitute the descriptive characteristics of social networks.
Centrality of Individuals: The centrality of the network refers to its general centrality and it is associated with number of connections inside a network and around one or small number of network members. The high level of centrality means that the knowledge flow inside the network is dependent upon a limited number of interacting members. If these members exit the network, the flow of transferring and sharing information would face disruption.
Extent of Individuals' Role: The order of connection characteristics in the network and network operators enables the identification of the roles of the network.
Extent of Individuals' Closeness: This measure denotes the closeness of individuals in a network and reflects their accessing ability in cluster format.
Common Factor of Categorizing Individuals: In social networks, the common points of individuals such as their inclinations and thoughts collect the individuals into a network.
Ranking based on Number of Nodes: The number of connections of each node divide them into weak and strong types. This measure denotes the expansion of connections of this node with other nodes. In other words, it is the sum of links to other active members of the network.
Density of Connections among Group Members: It is the ratio of total number of connections of an operator to his potential ones.
Marketing mix, marketing mixture, marketing combination, marketing means and marketing tactics all refer to the same phenomenon. By mix, mixture or combination, a systematic and coordinated relationships among the elements is intended which can influence and convince the clients. In other words, suitable product with good price from customers' perspectives with proper distribution and efficient application of communication methods interact with each other. If one element is not coordinated with the others, the results would be reduction of the efficiency and effectiveness of the set and prevention of the company from achieving its goals. Tactic or means refers to the instruments available for a company to fight for more market share and higher success compared with the competitors (Kotler, P & Keller, L. K., 2012). The major changes in the past decade has revolutionized most of the common perceptions of marketing. Numerous papers have viewed these changes from a distinctive perspective. The opportunity offered by Internet in regard to creating simultaneous and multiple-addressee connections makes the companies to better use their marketing mix as a set of controllable variables. In other words, the association-oriented marketing demands its own competitive means. If previously segmentation of market and defining target groups were referential framework of marketing mix, association-orientation and one-to-one and many-to-many connections have currently assigned a new form to marketing mix so that each individual is recognized as a "target group" for whom a distinctive mix can be developed. 
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Therefore, it is necessary to redefine the elements of marketing mix and provide the conditions for their utilization. The 4Ps (i.e. Place, Price, Product, Promotion) of marketing mix elements have changed and to them new elements are added. These new elements show a necessity originating from the characteristics of e-space, especially Internet. In a setting in which definition of customer's requirements is facilitated, competition and standardization of prices increase, interactive associations with client is more readily mad and significance of traditional intermediaries decrease. One surely cannot view the product, price, advancement, and distribution through traditional lens. In addition, the Internet infrastructures necessitate the existence of other elements (Sharma, 2015).
Internet Marketing: Internet is one of the most significant and controversial issue of business and commercial training. The rate of e-marketing expansion is very high and it is evident that business entities are rapidly changing to adapt with such variations. Therefore, Internet is one of the most-frequented media of largest numbers of domains which has generated numerous changes in marketing and development. These capabilities have influenced the majority of marketing fields from segmentation and targeting, pricing, customers' services and management to packing, marketing relationship, progress, distribution channel, value chain, global marketing and global brand. The marketing experts compare the evolutions in marketing domain with discovery of television and emergence of supermarkets in the past 50 years and invention of railway and telegraph in more than 150 years ago (Alt & Klein (2011). Some regard digital marketing as a complete transformation from a unilateral marketing paradigm into an interacting one with one-by-one relationships (Delaney, 2016). It is evident that the Internet contains a set of characteristics of previous media along with new and unique features such as interaction (bilateral or multiple-party associations) and addressing. This new media can give the individuals and companies what they want.
In regard to "e-marketing", lots of experts have done research. In their study, Blattberg and Deighton (1991) emphasized bilateral interactions and necessity of dialogue instead of monologue. Based on the viewpoints of Hoffman and Novak (1997), the interaction of electronic development and consumption behavior makes the implementation of modern marketing paradigm based on traditional marketing pattern impossible. The process of modern marketing is accompanied by increasing role of consumer and advanced interactive technologies to link the manufacturers and consumers. Haecke (1998) evaluated the entry of Internet and information technology into business domain as important and believed that playing with customers is more significant than playing against the exponents. Hammond et al., (2000) did a study on the difference of characteristics of IT users and non-users as well as their desired strategies. They stated that Internet users are usually interested technology and its benefits. They regard Internet as significant and pleasant. The Internet users might be provoked by information and communicative stimuli. The findings of their study lead us to this implication that the Internet should have more entertaining and interactive aspects to attract more users.
Table 1. Suggested Items of Experts regarding Internet Marketing Mix
Expert(s)  Elements of Internet Marketing Mix Mentioned in Different Studies 
Kalyanam and McIntyre (2002)  Product, Price, Distribution, Promotion, Personalization, Privacy Protection, Customer’s Services, Site, Security, Community 
Rafeie (2001)  Communicative Interaction, Customized Manufacturing, Brand, Distribution, Community of Customers, Communications, Price, Product 
Capon and Hulbert (2001)  Selection, Customized Manufacturing, Adaptation, Ease of Access, Community of Customers, Change and Information Variations 
De Groote (2002)  Individuals, Product, Progress, Price, Distribution, Partner(s) 
Arnott and Bridgewater (2002)  Product, Price, Progress, Distribution, Customer’s Relations, Customers’ Feedback, Online Customers’ Services, Identity and Features of Customers, Community of Customers, Association with Customer 
Skyrme (2000)  Location, Packing, Interfaces, Roads, Pages, Personalization, Progress, Payments, Processes, Function 
Karayanni and Bridgewater (2002)  Emphasis on Website Design with Interactive Features (e.g. Storage in Memory and Responding), Navigation, Multi-media in regard to Sound, Visual and Speed, Supply of Information, Visualization of Information, Supplying the Customer with Information, Collection of Customer’s Information 

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Venkatesh (1998) regarded the existence of new technology as the factor of changing the pattern and ways of consuming as well as development of a new social order. Silk et al., (1997) paid attention to the role of Internet as an instrument of advertisement which is competing with other media. Based on econoindex models and considering other traditional media, they studied four issues of online advertisement. These issues were the effects of online ads on householders, consumer's demand for information, pricing and measuring compliance of advertised products and serviced with real ones. As a result, the widespread and long-term effects of Internet over competitive media was conformed so that in some cases it was used as an alternative of some media and in other cases, it acted as their complement.
Elements of Internet Marketing Mix: The emergence of the new media, Internet, and the new marketing philosophy along with communicative interaction characteristics and personalization show the necessity of redefining marketing mix. In this regard, numerous studies have been done of which the following are noteworthy.
Dimensions of Internet Marketing Mix: The following elements are the agreed-upon dimensions of Internet marketing fix in different associated studies.
-
 Product: Product refers to a combination of items and services which a company offers to the intended market. Different products are offered via Internet from physical items (e.g. clothes and cars) to informational items (e.g. online newspapers such as Wall St. Journal). The sub-items of this dimension include a large list such a diversity of product, quality of design, characteristics, brand, packing, size, services, guarantee, support, etc. In online marketing, price is a vital factor because it affects the perceived value by the client.

-
 Price: Price refers to the amount of money that a customer has to pay for a product. The sub-items of this dimension includes the list of prices, discount, special offers, payment period, credit conditions, etc.

-
 Place (Distribution): This dimension refers to activities done by a company to provide the consumers with the product. The sub-items of this dimension are distribution channels (e.g. retailers, representatives and branches), cover expansion, combination and matching of products, inventory, transportation, logistics, etc. The Internet has paved the way for a radically new type of business which on one hand has revolutionized the interaction of companies with customers and on the other hand acts as a distribution channel for the companies.

-
 Promotion: Promotion refers to activities which a company does to provide the purchasers with proper information of the value and popularity its product(s) so that they can buy the product intended by the company. The sub-items of this dimension are advertisement, public relations, increase of sales, personal sale, direct marketing, etc. The element of promotion is regarded as a primary one due to its high significance in e-marketing and major influence of Internet upon it.

-
 Personalization: This term refers to any type of customization done on products and services due to distinctive identity of a customer. In internet marketing, the technological developments have enabled the customization of products and services which a company offers so that the requirements of each customer are properly satisfied.

-
 Site: Site is an e-marketing instrument which enables the clients to access the company from any location at any time. 


-Privacy Protection: Protecting the privacy refers to ability of individuals to protect information about themselves. In fact, protecting the privacy of individuals and organizations is associated with determination of time, place and method of sharing their information with others. The need to have a set of information on the clients as part of their private data should be satisfied to fulfill personalization. This issue makes the marketers to make decisions on the way to use this information.
- Security: Trust in e-business and lack of others’ access to financial data of clients play a significant role in e-marketing. 
It should be noted that the difference between the two terms of privacy protection and security should be highlighted. There are only two parties for keeping private secrets (i.e. company and customer). In this case, the disclosure of clients’ information is presumably done by the company and it is regarded as a conscious and intentional act but security has a third party that tries to steal the information of the company and customers. This third party is usually called “Hacker”.
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-
 Community: The community is constituted by a set of intertwined connections made by common interests. It is developed to satisfy the requirements of the members so that the individuals can no longer satisfy their needs.

-
 Customer Service: The customer services is a supportive act to realize the intended transaction. In Internet marketing, the temporal and local limitations of providing the clients with services are eliminated and it is possible to access the services at any time. 


Rapid changes in the present era have made the organizations face different challenge but in this regard, only those organizations are successful that use modern management instruments and technologies to use the opportunities to their benefit. With increase of competition in business domain and rapid technological changes as well as increase of options for the consumers, only those companies will survive that are able to properly identify the clients’ desired expectation and values and respond to them in due manner. The features of social networks influence the client’s behavior and the current business needs the strategy of marketing mix. The companies should pay more attention to the elements of internet marketing mix to reinforce the loyalty of the clients and profitability of the companies. The companies have realized that they should redefine the strategies of marketing mix based on the features of social networks and their own capacity to change the intended results. Therefore, entry into social networks to promote the elements of internet marketing mix is highly significant and the features of social networks should be analyzed too. A conceptual model is the starting point and basis of further studies so as to define the intended research variables and highlight the associations among them. The conceptual model of present study follows the theories of social networks (Valadis, 2000) and elements of internet marketing mix (Kalyanam and McIntyre, 2002).

Figure 1.
Conceptual Model

Figure 1 represents the conceptual model (Valadis, 2000) and Elements of Internet Marketing Mix (Kalyanam and McIntyre, 2002). Based on the literature and research framework that mentioned above, the research hypotheses are proposing as follow:
H1: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the elements of internet marketing mix.
H2: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the product.
H3: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the price.

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H4: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the distribution.
H5: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the promotion.
H6: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the personalization.
H7: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the privacy protection.
H8: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the customer services.
H9: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the community. H10: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the site.
H11: social networks have direct and significant effects upon the security.
In the following sections, testing the above hypotheses are explained by details.

3. METHODOLOGY 
In regard to its subject matter, the present study is of correlative-descriptive types. From the perspective of punctual objective, the information were collected through survey. In regard to the method of data collection, the present study is cross-sectional and the associations among the variables were studied comparatively. The statistical population of present study includes all online users of social networks. The present study used a questionnaire written by the researcher based on the associated standards and theories. In this regard, the questionnaire form was posted online on a social network and the users were requested to answer it. Due to unlimited statistical population for the present study, simple and randomized sampling method based on Cochran’s formula was used for sampling. In the present study, 593 questionnaires were collected but after the exclusion of partially answered and repetitive forms, 587 questionnaires were used for further statistical analyses. Based on the Cochran’s formula, the proper number of sample was shown to be above 384 users. It is noteworthy that some of the questionnaires might have been filled in by the same user more than once. To analyze the data, the methods of descriptive statistical analysis
(e.g. tables and diagrams, centrality and distribution indexes, distribution, etc.) and referential methods of statistical analysis (e.g. Pearson correlation coefficient, regression and confirmatory analysis) were applied. In the present study, the statistical tests were done through SPSS and Lisrel applications.
After developing the model, there are different models for estimating the goodness of fit of the model with observed data. In general, numerous indexes are used for measuring the model fitness but three to five indexes are usually used for confirming it. In general all common indexes are applied for evaluating the goodness of fit of the
GFI, and RMR for each one of the indexes are shown in  .
AGFI  .
RMSEA  .
NFI .
NNFI  .
model. The values of CFI
Table (2).
-
 GFI and AGFI: The GFI index (i.e. goodness of fit) commonly evaluates the relative values of variances and co­variances through the model. The GFI index ranges from zero to one. The value of GFI should be equal with or higher than 0.90.

Another fitness index is AGFI (i.e. Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index) which is an adjusted GFI for degree of freedom. This index is equivalent with applying the mean squares instead of the sum of squares in numerator and denominator. This index ranges from zero to one.

-
 RMSEA: This index is the root of mean squares of approximation. RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation) is equal with or less than 0.05 for good models. The models with RMSEA of less than 0.1 have weak fitness.

-
 Chi-Square X2: The Chi-square index tests the model based on convergence pattern among the observed variables. This index is dependent upon the size of sample. The large value of Chi Square can be attributed to falseness of the model and its irrelevance.


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- NFI and CFI: The NFI (Normed Fit Index) index is acceptable for values higher than 0.90 and it represents the fitness of the model. The CFI (Comparative Fit Index) Index is acceptable for values higher than 0.90 and it represents the fitness of the model. This index tests the level of improvement through comparing a so-called independent model in which there is no association among the variables with the suggested model.
There are other indexes in the outputs of Lisrel application such as ECVA, CAIC and AIC which are used to determine the fittest model. For instance, a model with the lowest values of ECVA, CAIC and AIC is fitter. Some indexes are highly dependent upon the sample size and they might be meaningful for large samples. A close look at Table (2) shows that the obtained values for all the indexes are acceptable in their presumed ranges and this shows the good fitness of the model. 
Table 2. Indexes of Goodness of Fit for the Model
Index  Type of Index  Range  Acceptable Value for Model Fitness  Obtained Value for Our Model  Result 
Chi-Square  --­ --­ Level of Significance (P) of higher than 0.05  Chi­Square=562.51 P=0.57  Sufficient Model Fitness 
AIC (Akaike  Criterion of  Lacking  Less than  3287.58  Value of 
Information  Information  Independence Model  Independence 
Criterion)  Model=8558.67 Acceptable 
CAIC  Criterion of Information  Lacking  Less than Independence Model  3507.96  Value of Independence Model=8666.17 Acceptable 
Standard RMR (Root-Mean Square Residual)  Criterion of Information  0-1  Less than 0.05  SRMR=0.22  Acceptable 
GFI (Goodness of Fit Index)  Comparative  0-1  Larger than 0.9  0.93  Acceptable 
TLI or NNFI  Comparative  0-1  Larger than 0.9  0.94  Acceptable 
CFI  Comparative  0-1  Larger than 0.9  0.92  Acceptable 
Critical N  Sufficiency of Sample Size  Lacking  Different For Diverse Models  123  Sample Size: 587Acceptable 

(Source: Research Findings)
To test the research hypotheses, the structural equation modelling was used. A multivariate analysis technique enables the researcher to simultaneously test a set of regression equations. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is a general and powerful analysis technique among multivariate regressions. In other words, it is an extension of “General Linear Model” which can concurrently analyze a collection of regression equations. SEM is a general approach for testing the hypotheses regarding the observed and hypothesized variables which is sometimes called co-variance structural analysis, causative modelling or Lisrel. But it is often called Structural Equation Modeling or SEM.
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Figure 2.
Structural Model for Standard Estimations

Multivariate analysis is one of the best and most suitable method of analyzing the behavioral and social sciences because such fields are multivariate and they cannot be analyzed through bivariate analysis methods (in which an independent variable is associated with a dependent one). The analysis of covariance structures or “structural equation modelling” is one of the primary methods of analyzing complicated data structures and a new method for studying causative relations in which the analysis of different variables in a theory-based structure shows the simultaneous effects of the variables. Through this model, one can test the propriety of the theoretical models in distinctive communities through correlative, test or non-test data. To measure the influential factors affecting the elements of internet marketing mix and determination of coefficients of each variable affecting it, the structural equation modelling with Lisrel Software was used. Through this method, one can define the acceptability of conceptual models for multivariate subjects which cannot be solved by bivariate method. In other words, the structural model merely explains the causative relations among hidden variables. The objective of this model is to discover the direct and indirect effects of exogenous hidden variables upon endogenous hidden ones.
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4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
All of the hypotheses of the present study (primary hypothesis and ten secondary hypotheses) are confirmed because the path coefficient (T) for all of the variables is more than 1.96. As a result, all of the developed hypotheses are supported. It is observed that there is a significant association between social networks and the internet marketing mix. The results show that the social networks significantly influence the internet marketing mix (with impact factor of 0.87 and significance level of 5.60). In addition, the results show that the social networks have the highest impact on the aspect of promotion (with impact factor of 0.85 and significance level of 19.22). The second most influenced aspect is product (with impact factor of 0.80 and significance level of 18.37) while the aspect of distribution has the third position in regard to the influence of social networks upon the dimensions of marketing mix. In this regard, the social networks have the least influence upon the dimension of privacy protection (with impact factor of 0.39 and significance level of 9.22). The ranking of these hypotheses is shown in Table (3).
Table 3. Results of Testing the Hypotheses
Hypotheses  Direction  Coefficient of Hypotheses  T  Result  Rank 
H1  From Social Networks to Internet Marketing Mix  0.87  5.60  Supported  -
H2  From Social Networks to Privacy Protection   0.39  9.22  Supported  10 
H3  From Social Networks to Community  0.64  15.94  Supported  6 
H4  From Social Networks to Personalization  0.75  16.79  Supported  4 
H5  From Social Networks to Price  0.58  15.81  Supported  7 
H6  From Social Networks to Customer Services  0.57  14.35  Supported  8 
H7  From Social Networks to Site  0.69  16.61  Supported  5 
H8  From Social Networks to Product  0.80  18.37  Supported  2 
H9  From Social Networks to Promotion  0.85  19.22  Supported  1 
H10  From Social Networks to Security  0.48  10.95  Supported  9 
H11  From Social Networks to Distribution  0.79  17.33  Supported  3 

(Source: Research Findings)
All of the hypotheses for the present study were supported. The results showed that the social networks with impact factor of 0.87 significantly affect the elements of internet marketing mix.

5. CONCLUSION
The present study examines the association of these two phenomena to analyze their effectiveness on each other. The results showed that the social networks have the highest effect upon the dimension of promotion with impact factor of 0.87. Followed by dimension of promotion, the social networks have the highest effect upon dimensions of product and distribution with respective impact factors of 0.80 and 0.79. However, the social networks have the least influence upon privacy protection with impact factor of 0.39. In sum, the present study analyzed one primary hypothesis and ten secondary hypotheses through statistical methods. The results of testing the hypotheses are described in the following.
- The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the elements of marketing mix. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon
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the elements of marketing mix (load factor: 0.87; significance value: 9.22). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the elements of marketing mix.
-
The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the product. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the product (load factor: 0.80; significance value: 18.37). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the product.

-
The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the price. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the price (load factor: 0.58; significance value: 18.51). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the price.

-
The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the distribution. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the distribution (load factor: 0.79; significance value: 17.33). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the distribution. 

-
The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the promotion. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the promotion (load factor: 0.85; significance value: 19.22). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the promotion. 

-
 The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the personalization. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the personalization (load factor: 0.75; significance value: 16.79). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the personalization. 

-
The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the privacy protection. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the privacy protection (load factor: 0.39; significance value: 9.22). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the privacy protection. 

-
The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the customer services. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the customer services (load factor: 0.57; significance value: 14.35). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the customer services.

-The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the community. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the community (load factor: 0.64; significance value: 15.94). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the community. 

-
The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the site. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the site (load factor: 0.69; significance value: 16.61). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the site.

-
The findings of present study show the significant effects of social networks upon the security. The results of path analysis through Lisrel Software verified the significant effect of social networks upon the security (load factor: 0.48; significance value: 10.95). As a result, one could assert that the social networks influence the security.

Due to the verified significance of social networks and their influence upon the elements of marketing mix as verified in the present study, it is necessary that the companies do the following measures to develop their activities. 

-
 Based on the obtained result, it is recommended that the companies do some research on the favorite items of households to create a superior marketing situation for themselves in different period of sale.

-
 The maximal quality enhancement of some manufactured products to create a favorable view and perception of them.


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   International Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017, Volume 11, Issue 4, 792-805. 
-
 Offer more diverse products in social networks because attention to diversity of products is often accompanied by creating competitive advantage and offering associated services for definite market sections. Attaining competitive advantage through diversification of product necessitates a clear understanding of selection process of number, profitability and costs of the product.

-
 Advertisement and offering high-quality products in social networks will improve the perception of users regarding the quality of products despite of the fact that measuring the quality of items is only possible through close observation.

-
 Offering innovative features based on new technologies can significantly influence the decisions to purchase among the social network users. 

-
 The attempt to create a distinctive brand in the mind of clients should also be highlighted because brand is more than a set of features. The customers do not only buy features but also look for advantages. The features should be changes into operational or mental advantages. An outstanding brand will increase the income of the company, supports it against periodical recessions, and lessens the pressures applied on it.

-
 Increase of number of ads in social networks in the format of textual messages.

-
 Increase of popularity of product offering systems is accompanied by development of new social networks, online chat applications and major social networks. So, such systems should be reinforced.

-
 Recent studies have shown that the oral expressions and talks among the clients is far more positive and better for development of a company. The oral marketing has significant advantages because the recommendations by a trusted friend or source can atone for the deficiency of advertisement budget. 

-
 Holding seminars, festivals and conferences to increase the awareness of consumers.


Suggestions for Further Studies
-
 Creating a chain of messages on a social network. This means the sending of recommendations in which the primary target is to advertise for a distinctive product to create a chain of stimuli, increase verbal advertisement and more sale of a product.

-
 Understanding the ways that definite types of connections are associated with definite recommendations. 


-Analyzing the association and closeness of relations among the friends in a social network to verify the types of recommendations on product send in such relations and in the weak ones. 
- Developing a model to estimate the probability that a person purchases a distinct product with definite features. The social networks have unique characteristics such as analysis and highlighting the data of users and friends. Therefore, knowing the purchase habits of the customers will be useful for predicting the favorite items for their friends. 
Limitations 
Every scientific study will face some limitations. In the present study, the major limitations are presented below:
-
 Lack of reviewing a larger number of users.

-
 Privacy problems.

-
 Problems of data collection, partiality of such data and fake identities.

-
 Insufficiency of resources and experts in this field.

-
Lack of standard questionnaire on the research variables.

-
Limited knowledge of some respondents regarding the research variables.


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-
 Expansion of the research domain.


-
 Lack of investment in this field by the national authorizes and associated manages.
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Analysis of Marketing Strategies in the Social Media: Facebook Case Analysis
Etienne Musonera
Mercer University-Atlanta

J. Michael Weber
Mercer University-Atlanta

This paper uses a case analysis approach to address and analyze marketing strategies in the social media in general and Facebook in particular from its inception to now. We discuss how Facebook has strategically integrated its marketing activities to achieve superior results, and how it has managed to become and maintain its position as the premier social networking site around the world We used Michael Porter's Five Forces to conduct industry analysis and we conducted a thorough evaluation. We selected, justified and recommended alternatives strategies that are consistent with Facebook mission, goals and objectives.
INTRODUCTION
Facebook is the world's largest social networking site for individuals, businesses, and groups. It has grown from a small social networking site geared for Harvard students to a brand that is recognizable and used around the globe. The current CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, launched The Facebook from his college dorm at Harvard in 2004 along with three of his friends. At the time, he never intended for it to become a global entity, or even catch on beyond Harvard's walls. Within one month of launching the website, the popularity increased exponentially. They soon had expanded the reach to other Boston area colleges, Ivy League schools, and Stanford. This was the beginning of their realization that there was vast potential to reach people all over who were looking for a way to feel connected with family, friends, and the world. Not two years after launching they would drop "The" from their name, and use the singular form "Facebook" which is recognized everywhere.
As Facebook grew, there was great uncertainty regarding its next steps. Many people were unsure whether Facebook was a business or just a social networking site. Potential investors wanted Facebook to focus on monetization in its early stages, but Facebook wanted to focus on growth and reaching people around the world. They were much more concerned with connecting the world, their original goal, then worrying about pleasing potential investors. So, they remained privately held, and funded mainly by venture capitalists for their first eight years. They worked on continuing to expand their use base, and offer Facebook in as many languages as possible. They also focused on adding new products such as timeline, news feed, games, groups, "Like" button, and numerous other new features which helped to grow the popularity further. This allowed them to grow their user base to almost one billion users before going public in 2012.
Once they turned public in 2012, they had to concern themselves with more of the business side of their company and create a vision for how to generate a return for their stakeholders and shareholders in particular, without sacrificing their vision of connecting the world. The obvious revenue generation opporhmities stemmed from the magnitude of users on their site. Allowing advertisements was the easiest way to monetize their business, and they could do it without ruining the user experience by keeping ads to the sidebars or other noninterfering locations. It presented new opportunities for marketers to reach their target markets in a magnitude that wasn't possible beforehand. Marketers now had the opportunity to tailor advertisements based on user likes/dislikes, affiliations of groups, and even business to business interaction occurs on Faccbook. In this analysis, we will look at the different challenges and opportunities that Facebook has it continues to find ways to monetize its business and connect the world.
ENVIRONMENT ANALYIS
Ecoaomics CoaditioDS & Treads
Since Facehook's launch in 2004, the company has remained strong with rapid growth around the worl~ despite economic downturns such as the stock market crash in 2008. Facebook has allowed for the connection ofabout 1.3 billion users since its initial startup as small niche for Harvard University students to connect and share ideas (Deloittc, 2015). Facebook has increased not only in popularity over the years gaining more users daily, but has also helped stimulate the economy worldwide.
FIGUREl
Macro-regional impact -Platform effects·
RegIon  Econ.  Jobs 
Impact (bn)  ('000) 
North America  $9  140 

Central and $1 50 South America
EMEA $13 270
APAC $7 200
Global total $29 660
• Numbers may not sum due to rounding.
From the diagram above you can see how much of an impact Facebook has had on increasing the economy as well as the job market. Alone Facebook has found roughly 140 thousand people jobs in North America. Facehook's economic impact is also shown at roughly $29 billion as they help promote the sale ofgoods and services for all markets that are willing to participate whether it is local Mom and Popshops or mega-corporations. Facebook's availability to promote and provide "free" marketing is what allows the success of these local shops. That in ret1D1l allows the economy to thrive and become more stable and prosperous. However, Facebook itselfhas remains profitable by the various applications and platforms it is able to run on such as the constant flow of advertisements that are shown depending on the users appeared interests and wants. Facebook allows corporations to pay for time and space on their website as
Journal ofMarketing Development and Competitivencss Vol. 12(1) 2018 11
an additional way to increase awareness and popularity for the various target markets that are trying to
attract.
Cultaral and Social Values & Trends Facebook initially started as a way for college students to share ideas and interests and has positioned itself as a site where people can come together and connect with one another; They pride themselves in
bringing 1I1e world closer toge1her by living and working by 5 core values: Being bold, Focusing on impact, Moving fas~ Being open, and Building social value (Facebook,2017). It makes sense 11181 during
an election year, the interactions on this social media platform grow at a rapid pace as discussions and information are constantly being updated with the latest polls and candidate information. It is because of
1I1e rapid availability ofcurrent information 1hat voters constantly login to stay informed and up to dare so
that when time comes to cast your ballot voters feel confident in the choices that they are making. With that said there is also a large opportunity for the candidates to :ftll the viewer's screens with various advertisements promoting their visions and goals for the future. During the 2016 election, various analysts projected that Facebook was truly the winner ofthe election as 40% of digital advertising costs went to Facebook, eqna! to roughly 607 million dollars' wor1h ofreveoue (Bryan).
FIGURE 1
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From these projections alone we can see the how strong the viewed perception is of Facebook's ability to reach billions of people at once and to allow the flow of thoughts and ideas to affect the views of everyone logging in as well as how they will make decisions. The overall consensus is that Facebook in today's cultural society provides a gateway for people to voice their opinions that may sway others to choose! thinking differently as more facts and information is available for the average user.
Political & Legal Is.ue. One of1I1e biggest political issue 1hat Facebook has been plagued wi1l1 is 1I1e Russian interference in America's presidential election last year. It was alleged 1hat Facebook sold $100,000 wor1h of political
Ads to fake accounts originating from Russia. These ads were used to manipulate the election. As a result, Facebook was under-fire by lawmakers accusing them of skewing the election (Guynn, 2017).
Facebook like any other social media platform has always been scrutinized for its lack of privacy, as many conspirators believe social media is used to monitor its users and gather information that these users may not want to share. For instance, this can be seen through the ads one user may come across versus another. Facebook gathers user's information such as what they Google on the internet or what stores websites they frequent the most in order to provide relevant ads for which they receive revenue to stream. Therefore if they successfully provide the right ad and the user purchases a product or service the company would continue to pay Facebook for its advertising and would in return keep Facebook profitable. Currently Facebook is facing legal issues from the European Court of Justice, as the justice system in Europe feels that Facebook is just a middleman for the US to gather information from the users of Facebook in their country (Farrell). This issue not only affects Facebook but any other company that provides a service and or product from the US to Europe and dates back years to when an agreement was made between the two countries. The Safe Harbor agreement was established in 1998 as a way for US companies to self-certifY that any information that crossed over from Europe to the US stayed within the European Data Protection Standards when transferring personal data (Clark). With today's pressure from the EU Department of Justice Facebook will have to begin changing the ways that personal data is collected and will have to begin to abide by how Europe wishes to control how information is received and transferred.
Summary of Environmental Opportunities & Threats
Facebook over the years has taken many opportunities, which has allowed them to stay in the forefront of social media. They also have the ability to adapt and create new ways for their users to remain attracted to their website and overall mission to keep people connected. With an estimated 2.07 billion active monthly users, Facebook has the opportunity to expand their advertising business reach (Facebook, 2017). As more of the population purchase mobile devices or gets more access to mobile devices, this provides Facebook with the opportunity to generate more revenue through mobile advertisement. Facebook has a multitude of opportunities to step into new markets and create new ways of people to stay connected. In a recent article, it stated that Facebook would soon compete with Uber, a fairly new corporation that provides easy and safe transportation (Rebecca Stewart, 2016). Facebook would be jump into their competitive market by connecting their already vast number of users to one another through similar events they are planning on attending and provide opportunities for carpools and/or setting up safe ways for a large group of users to get to the same destination such as a concert. Below is a diagram of what Facebook could potentially start offering its users when they RSVP to an event or when they create on event and share with friends. However, just as there are more people using Facebook, there are more sites or apps that are competing with Facebook for their users. This could potentially reduce the amount ofrevenue that the company could generate.
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O'Brien, Sara Ashley. "Facebook Is Eying Ridesharing." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 28 Jan.
Although Facebook has a strong hold in the social media market and has a strong leading presence in today's society they are also faced with various threats. Being such a widespread platform that provides numerous outlets into the world and markets, F acebook lacks the specialized characteristic. That many of the smaller niche social media platforms have developed into, such as Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Instagram is solely for users to post/share pictures with their followers as well as catch up on other user's lives. Similarly, Twitter and Pinterest provide that one special place users can go to where they can see/find exactly what they are looking for at that moment in time. While, Facebook is a constant search and scroll through ofa vast amount of information and extemal links that create a never-ending path. It is with this large amount of information that we believe smaller niche social media sites could be a large potential threat to Facebook as people in today's society are looking for a fast way to up to date with our fast pace environment. Facebook should identify their target customer or market and serve them better than the competition. From this, Facebook can build a more fuvorable reputation and gain more customers.
INDUSTRY
Classification & Definition ofIndustry
In today's world technology and the internet have become integrated in practically everything we do. It is a constant struggle to stay up-to-date on events, news, and the lives of friends and families. Social media has created a simple way to stay informed of all aspects of social, personal, economic, business worlds and so many more. Facebook is among many companies which fall into the industry of media and specifically social media (Bloomberg). There are a wide range of users of social media platforms from businesses to individuals. Social media has created a one-stopshop to hrowse and share things such as news articles, current events, pictures, life events, shopping trends, sports news, and anything one could possibly imagine ever wanting to read about. Social media has changed the way we stay connected.
Analysis of Existing Competitors
The threat of existing competitors in the social media industry is strong because there are a multitude of other options available at the touch of a button. It is the job ofthe innovative teams at these respective social media companies to stay upto-date on the wants and needs of the consumer. It is also their job to create new ideas on how to share information in a seamless manner. Competitors catering to niche markets pose a threat to Facebook because they are more in tune with the specific area in which they are serving. Facebook has a wide variety of services offered throughout their application which can be an opportunity in that it gains a greater reach to all types of consumers, but also a threat in that smaller niche companies are able to capture the attention of smaller remote areas. Major competitors of Facebook include Twitter and YouTube. All of these competitors have a smaller following than Facebook, but cater to different wants of the consumer. Facebook holds the largest customer base with 1.55 billion of the 1.79 billion social network users worldwide; Twitter falls behind with 320 million users (Statistia). Facebook has kept ahead of the competition, and it will be necessary to maintain innovative strategies to remain there as new companies and technologies emerge. The emergence of new start-ups continue to eat away at market share that Facebook must retain. Therefore, attaining new users continues to be a challenge.

Analysis of Potential New Entrants
With the ever-changing wants and needs of consumers the threat of potential new entry into the social media industry is moderate. It is relatively inexpensive to create a new social media platform with an innovative way to capture users' attention. The cost comes into play in how to market the new social media platform, rather than creating it, and it is simple to gain acknowledgement given the current emphasize on advertisements being linked all over the web. A social media platform can be based off any specific idea or any wide range of ideas, which allows new companies to be created with ease. On the other hand, the current social media industry is saturated with developed and sustainable companies making new entry slightly more difficult. While consumers tend to be partial and repeat users to platforms such as Facebook, they are also willing to try to latest and greatest avenue of information sharing. The curiosity of consumers for new outlets of information sharing is where potential new entry gains power. There are barriers for new entrants that will be difficult to overcome. New entrants will find it difficult to provide the same quality and breadth of services that are competitive to the Facebook brand. Furthermore, it will be difficult to build loyalty of advertisers and active users which will weaken the threat of new entry against Facebook (O'Hara et.al, 2017).

Analysis of Substitute Products
A substitute performs a similar function by a different means (Porter, 1979). The threat of a substitute product reduces revenue and profit and can provide other challenges for Facebook. Other companies that feature mobile apps provide the strongest substitute to Facebook. For example, App.net is an alternative to signing into third party sites with your Facebook account. Common complaints from consumers are how Facebook gives data to third party users and manipulating its News Feed to display information that are not updates from your friends (Pullen, 2015) There are numerous social media platforms available for use today, making it simple for users to switch between their various options with little opportunity cost. The largest threat to Facebook for substitute products is other social media platforms catering to specific areas of interest. Another threat for substitute products would be new mobile applications because they could potentially draw attention away from Facebook users. As of December 31,2015 Facebook had 1.44 billion mobile monthly active users (Facebook Newsroom). The ever-changing environment for the social media industry tasks each company with the goal of constantly adding new features to keep the current customer base and expand the customer base.

Analysis of Suppliers
Powerful suppliers have the ability to control the quality and quantity of the services being provided and are able to shift their costs to those purchasing the services for the customer (Porter, 1979). The threat of suppliers in the social media industry is weak because there are not many companies that have the capacity to support such social media giants as Facebook. Another aspect of supply to companies in the social media industry is knowledge and experience; these are required to maintain day-to-day information technology responsibilities. Suppliers can also include members of the innovative teams that create the new in-app features to expand the customer base and attract attention of current users to remain loyal.
Analysis of Buyers
In the social media industry, buyer is a vague term. Buyers can be users of the social media platform or marketers looking to advertise on that platform. When considering buyers in terms of social media platform users, the threat of buyers is strong because these users have the opportunity to create profiles on an endless number of other social media platforms and spend their time there instead. Facebook has captured the attention of its current users and successfully maintained a market share of 45.4%, followed by Y ouTube with 22.2% and Twitter with 4.8% (Statista). As Facebook is a continually growing company with the goal of continual customer base growth, it is expected that the threat of buyers in relation to social media users will remain evident, but not of major concern. When considering buys in terms of marketers, the threat of buyers is also strong because Facebook is among many offering contracts to advertise on their platform; the perception of the deal is in the marketers' mind though. The threat of buyers will always be evident, but Facebook has done a successful job at keeping ahead ofthe game.
Summary of Industry Opportunities & Threats
Technology is ever changing, which presents Facebook will never-ending opportunities to better their product and expand their customer base. Major opportunities for Facebook would be expanding their customer base to untouched overseas markets, creating new interactive features within the original Facebook platform, and diversifying revenue sources. Constant expansion of customer base is a main goal of any social media platform; but there are certain untouched markets overseas due to government restrictions that Facebook has had difficulty gaining access to, such as China (Motley Fool). By gaining access to such markets, Facebook would exponentially expand their customer base, this would allow for new sources of revenue from other avenues of advertising and marketing. By creating new interactive features within the platform users will be more likely to spend a greater amount of time on the app or website.
In terms of opportunities, Facebook is the owner of the Oculus VR software which leaves the door open for additional revenue to be made in the forms of VR (Virtual Reality) games, and other apps that allow for a more connected Social Media interaction between users. Facebook also owns WhatsApp, which is not banned in China unlike Instagram and Facebook, because of this the company has become open to a very large market which it did not have access to in the past, the company could essentially monetize off of this market through the sale of its subscription services. Due to the number of users daily from Instagram, researchers have estimated that the value of this Facebook owned platform could grow to 10 Billion dollars in 2019 (Koetsir, 2017). Currently Facebook relies heavily on revenue from advertising and marketing within the platform (Strategic Management Insight). By finding new ways to create sources of revenue, Facebook will put itself in a position to not only be an even more fmancially stable company, but to expand their product base and product market as well
Threats to Facebook would be users start using other social media platforms more often than Facebook, government policy restrictions, and losing advertising revenue. There is a constant worry that users will stop using Facebook and start using another social media platform either instead of or more often than Facebook, it is the innovative team that is tasked with finding ways to avoid this tragedy and keep users engaged. Government policy restrictions could harm Facebook in that they could limit what kind of advertising can be placed within the platform, what kinds of in-app features can be created, and what markets Facebook is allowed to enter. Working with the legal team to create agreements and keep informed of all new corporate laws will allow Facebook to avoid encountering this issue. Losing advertising revenue would hurt Facebook because it is a major source of revenue, this can be avoided by diversifying revenue sources beyond advertising. In today's world, new opportunities and threats will constantly emerge causing Facebook and all other social media platforms to work tirelessly to stay ahead of the game.
A few years ago, Facebook experienced a decline in its revenue from its inability to display ads on desktops due to ad blocking software (Pratap, 2016). The continual development of ad blocking software could be a threat to the company's revenue particularly for desktop users. In addition. " Another major threat before the social media giant is the severe competition it faces from Google's AdWords as well as the social networking sites. Google still reaps the lion's share in online ads. Other social networking sites like Twitter are also making efforts to grow their share in online ad revenue (Pratap, 2016).
Implication of Strategy Development
Given the information that has been gathered regarding the Industry, there are some implications that can be drawn to devise strategies that will allow the company to expand its growth and increase its revenue. As we have read Facebook's sister company is expected to grow to $10 Billion in 2019, however in order for the company to attain this goal it will need to ensure that its keeps its monthly user base steady and or grow it more. If it does not Snapchat will likely steal the Market as it has experienced more user activity than Instagram. Facebook should consider expanding the features of Instagram I.e. Adding more options to tinker with photos, added security for videos and even more interactive messages either through direct message or as a part ofthe comments on pictures.
It is recommended that Facebook capitalize on the Chinese market and monetize its "WhatsApp" application. This could be done through raising the price of subscription and researching new ways to reach this market in order to promote the application further. Facebook has lost revenue in the past from ad blocking software that does not allow ads to be displayed by desktop users. Due to this Facebook should create more incentive for users to access their websites through the mobile device. This can be done by adding features to the mobile application that the desktop does not offer. An example of this is Facebook Messenger, which is rumored to be expanding its mobile platform to offer more services, and has already began to allow mobile electronic payments.
ORGANIZATION
Objectives & Constraints
Facebook was built to help people connect and share, and over the last decade, Facebook's tools have played a critical part in changing how people around the world communicate with one another. From its infancy, the organizational culture at Facebook was about open communication and nonhierarchical management. The offices at Facebook had always been open interactive spaces where the small team frequently met to troubleshoot and resolve issues. Preservation ofthe corporate culture was one ofthe top priorities for the company as it was growing (Purkayastha & Qumer, 2011).To retain its culture, all its employees were put through a six-week Engineering Boot camp, where they not only learned about the company's product and processes, but also got exposure to Facebook's organizational culture and created lasting relationships with mentors. To ensure that the culture was instilled in its offices around the world, the organization made use of "landing teams." These were a group of experienced people from the head office at Palo Alto, who helped the new offices set up, hire and teach the recruits the Facebook culture.
According to Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO), as of 2017 the company's mission statement has officially changed. Facebook's new mission and objective is to "Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together." The CEO has reported that the world remains divided despite being more connected, although this connectedness has in part been aided by Social Media. The focus of Facebook moving forward will be to connect people to meaningful groups both online and offline. The CEO has expressed in his vision that a large amount of connection will take place offline and Facebook hopes to aide this offline connection through the Social Media platform.
Facebook faces the following constraints: retaining and increasing user engagement, reliance on advertising revenue, dependency on mobile operating systems, networks and even risks associated with new product development. Given these constraints the company should reevaluate its new objective.
Bring Internet Access to the Other Two-Thirds of the World Zuckerberg described in his July 2014 WSJ article how roughly 2.7 billion people currently have Internet access. That sounds like a lot, but the majority of the world lacks connectivity. He knows
Facebook's future growth is tied to increasing and sustainable investment in wireless infrastructure. The phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats" takes on significant implications not only for Facebook but also for its competitors.
Make Facebook Mobile App Killer
Flurry (the mobile ad and analytics fmn Yahoo recently acquired for $200 -$300 million) says mobile users spend 17% of their time on their phones in Facebook's app. This metric shows Facebook's mobile app is the most popular app on lOS and Android devices. Facebook's Q4 2015 Quarterly Financial Reporting slides show a consistent, steady climb in daily and monthly mobile users. Zuckerberg knows consumers live in a mobile, one-screen world. The only screen users care about is the one in front of them. Acquire Mobile Platforms, that Increase Short Term and Long Term Competitive Advantages. Prove Digital Marketing Results in Positive ROI (Tony Faustino, 2014)
Financial Condition
F acebook is currently in a very strong fmancial condition. In its second quarter of 20 17, the company reported profits of nearly $4 billion which is a 71% increase from its previous year where it reported profits of roughly $2 billion (Chaykowski, 2017). These returns beat analyst predictions and have been attributed to growing demand for social networks, the company's ability to attract new users and also its mobile ads. Facebook users have increased a total of 17% and this includes both daily and monthly users. The company hopes that the volume of ads that they are able to show users will become a less important factor in the company's growth, which hints to the idea of new streams of income for Facebook. There appears to be only upward mobility from here, as Instagram is projected to grow to nearly $4 Billion in revenue worldwide according to analyst and social media marketers. The company continues to have high hopes for its mobile data and virtual reality software which it hopes to expand and segue into additional markets. Facebook continues to improve its financial condition as it monetizes its business. They had great top line revenue growth YoY, up 44%. Within that 44% increase, they grew ad revenue by 57%, which generates the vast majority of their revenue. They continue to invest dollars back into the business, Capex up 38%, but have also had success growing their bottom line YoY, up 25%.
Management Philosophy
Facebook stands for bringing users closer together and building a global community. Facebook ultimate philosophy is to develop a social infrastructure that give users the power to build a global and informed community, and to have the greatest positive impact on the world. Facebook tries to remind itself to focus on the following: Focus on Impact (find big problems to work on), Move Fast (and break things), Be Bold (take risks to stay ahead of the curve), Be Open (information sharing is crucial to better decision making), and Build Social Value (Forbes, Entrepreneurs).
Organizational Structure Mark Zuckerberg -Founder, Chairman, & CEO Sheryl Sandberg -COO David Wehner -CFO Mike Schroepfer -Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Chris Cox -Chief Product Officer (CPO) Board Members: Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreessen, Susan Desmond -Hellmann, Reed Hastings, Erskine Bowles, Peter Thiel, Sheryl Sandberg, & Jan Koum
Important Attributes to Organizational Structure
Freedom to connect and share, ownership and control of information, free flow of information, fundamental equality, social value, open platforms and standards, fundamental service, common welfare, and transparent processes. (Jaypee Capville). Its organizational structure is designed to address creativity and innovation. The foremost features of Facebook's organizational structure are: Corporate Function­Based Teams, Geographic Divisions, and Product-Based Divisions.
Organizational Culture
Facebook's open culture allows employees to work on problems that they care most about, and fosters a unique pride in problem solving. Facebook prefers to work in small teams, moving constantly to build new products, or reengineer and improve existing products. Lastly, they try to live by the creed "the journey is 1% fmished", a constant reminder that their mission has just begun. (Cameron, K S., & Quinn,
R. E.). Facebook Inc., which pushes employees to strive for improvement, labels itself as a hacker culture. Facebook's mission and vision statements emphasize making the world more connected which allows them develop and foster business resilience and competitiveness. Facebook's organizational culture can be characterized by: rewards creative problem solving and decision-making, boldness, openness, speed, and continuous improvement.
MARKETING STRATEGY
Objectives
Facebook's primary objective is to continue to appeal to individuals, business, and groups the world over. Facebook is known for its company motto "Bringing the World Closer Together" and in recent years has made profit by bringing users closer to buying merchant products. In terms of generating revenue, the social media network has focused on three basic priorities for ensuring that businesses continue to do business with the tech superpower: helping businesses expand their use of our mobile products, developing innovative ad products that help businesses get the most of their ad campaigns, and making our ads more relevant and effective through our targeting capabilities and outcome-based measurement. Facebook will continuously try to connect the world by offering products and resources that make people want to join their networking site. However, the company may face many constraints in emerging markets and underdeveloped nations, because people in these markets have a harder time accessing the internet. If you can't access the internet, then there is no tangible service Facebook can provide to these potential customers.
Since Facebook is free to join, it is easy to understand that their main objective is to sign up new individuals to their site. Facebook makes its money from companies paying for advertising, so they are constantly trying to grow their user base which leads to more money for advertisers. Also, since Facebook exists solely online, they don't have to worry about suppliers and distribution channels. They can control all of these aspects through their network of employed engineers, which again helps them remain solely focused on user growth. They don't have to devote time to other aspects of a traditional business. It is fairly easy for Facebook to interrelate their marketing strategies since they are really focused on user growth. They just need to keep developing compelling reasons for others to access their site, and continue to make it friendly for different cultures around the world. Although it may sound difficult to try and connect people around the world, they still benefit from not having to develop any real infrastructure around the world except for data centers to handle the large amount of data stored on Facebook servers. Facebook even realizes that its primary constraint, people around the world without internet access, is worth the investment to bring internet to these places. They have worked on providing internet access to people around the world, knowing the investment now, is worth the long run payoff from advertisements aimed at these emerging markets.
Analysis of Sales, Profits, & Market Share
Facebook's sales and profits are directly tied to their market share, which really consists of their user base and that user base's average time spent on Facebook. Facebook's sales primarily consist of advertisement revenue generated, as well as some secondary revenue via games played through Facebook such as Farmville. Facebook isn't as concerned with profits to the same degree as more mature companies, as they understand that profit will inevitably grow as they continue to grow the user base.
They are still in the growth phase, and there main concern is not turning all revenue into profit, but rather reinvesting that operating margin back into the business via capital investments and new product research and development.
Facebook recently announced full year (2015) earnings at the end of January. They continue to show impressive user growth, revenue growth, and even earnings growth. They realized a 44% increase in Yo Y (year over year) revenue, to $17+ billion, which is impressive, and confmns that they are still very much in the growth stage. They also managed to increase their operating income from $5 billion to $6.3 billion, which was actually a drop in operating margin. This is still a positive absolute increase, and the drop in operating margin as a % of net revenue is indicative of them reinvesting those earnings back in to the business in a n attempt to continue their worldwide growth. In all, 2015, was a great year that saw increased revenue, via ad sales primarily, and also an increase in absolute operating income. Even though operating income was down as a % of net revenue, as stated above, it is expected in a high growth business.
According to recent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Facebook, 97% of its revenue was generated through third parties advertising on the social media in 2016 (SEC FORM 10-1(,2016). Though Google nearly double their profits Facebook still holds a majority of the market share at 61% according to some recent fmdings (Lardinois, 2015).
Most importantly, Facebook showed an impressive YoY daily user growth rate of 17%. Facebook now averages over 1.04 billion users per day on its primary networking site. In addition to this impressive growth, they saw even more impressive growth in their mobile division. Increasing daily active users in mobile by 25% YoY, to 934 million active users per day. Lastly, they saw growth in both monthly active users of their traditional site as well as mobile users. Growing both user sets to 1.59 billion users, and
1.44 billion users, respectively. It is important to note that approximately 65% of their user base interacts daily with Facebook. It is easy to see why this user base is attractive to companies as a means of advertising, and why the continued growth in user base is important to Facebook.
Analysis of Target Market (s)
Facebook has a truly unique target market in that it is vast, and somewhat undefmed, much in the same as Google. Although Google is not accommodating people in the same structure as Facebook. Facebook began as a company targeting a selection of students at specific universities, grew to accommodate all colleges, then high school students. After its fITst five years of targeting those specific student segments, it opened its door to the world, and the priority became connecting the entire world. In that respect, Facebook has made its target market anybody with internet access around the world. They are truly trying to connect the entire world and make it more open, which is clearly stated and embodied in their mission. Because Facebook's business success largely hinges on its ability to attract more and more consumers, for advertisers to target, they are continually developing new products to pull in all different market segments and provide everyone a reason to join Facebook. Beyond trying to attract new users and bring together all different segments of the market, they are trying to extract as much information from these users as possible. This is truly where there products become venues for targeting specific markets. Certain target markets may be more apt to play games, while others just want to share information between friends and family. Identifying what is important to these different groups and segregating them internally allows them to develop specific problems, as well as provide targeted advertising for their paying clients.
Analysis of Marketing Mix Variables
Product: Facebook (social networking, games, messenger, video, mobile, places, etc.); Instagram; WhatsApp; Atlas (ad services and measurement platform); Oculus VR (virtual reality gaming).

Price:
Facebook's service are free to its users aside from some revenue for credits in certain online games it offers. Its primary revenue is generated through advertisements. Its pricing towards advertising is tiered based on the needs of the ad in regards to text, information, photos, videos, placement, and the call to action. Also important in the tiered pricing is the expected reach of the advertisement. The advertisement pricing can be structured based on number of clicks, views, or people targeted over the ad duration. The estimated cost depending on all of these factors can cost the typical advertiser anywhere from 5 cents per click to $5 per click on average.

Place:
Facebook and its offerings are open to anyone with internet access around the world (who aren't censored by their government). They are approaching 50 offices around the world, and offering Facebook in over 90 languages. Since they don't have a traditional brick and mortar structure, and exist solely online, their primary place decisions are centered on their workforce and data centers. These decisions directly impact users and their Facebook experience through processing times and unique features or languages around the world.

Promotion:
Facebook develops an integrated marketing communication plan primarily through the use of advertising and public relations. They outwardly advertise to potential users on the internet for their different services such as Facebook, Instagram, & WhatsApp. These are mostly web banners, emails, or web ads that are targeted at consumer groups who would fmd some use in services offered by Facebook. Then they also will promote through the use of public relations. Mark Zuckerberg is a noted philanthropist, and every time he donates time, money, or resources to a cause, it helps promote the Facebook brand. They also generate buzz around the world via tech magazines, money and business magazines, and other articles or reports that explain their next moves. Lastly, they gain through public relations when radio DJ's or celebrities use their services to tell people what is going on or cover an event, such as via Instagram. As long as Facebook continues to please its 1.37 billion daily users companies will continue to want to advertise through Facebook with minimal marketing effort from the social media company to obtain these businesses (Facebook, 2015).

People:
Facebooks focus on people is an interesting dynamic, in that arguably the most important people aren't the consumers that are generating the revenue, but rather the free users whom the paying consumers (advertisers) are trying to target. So, Facebook obviously wants good working relationships with their paying consumers, but they also work extremely hard to create a better user experience that not only adds new users, but keeps people on their current platforms for longer periods of times

Summary of Marketing Strategies
Facebook has experienced great user growth from inception to date, and continues to put up impressive user growth year over year. This year Facebook celebrates thirteen years of success and is one of the few social media networks to stick around long enough to have a user base well over a billion people worldwide. This networking site has many marketing strengths that it both actively and passively uses to its advantage: Facebook proactively solicits its advertising services to companies through, ironically, advertisements on users' newsfeeds and it is easy to get started with step by step instructions right from the Home page on Facebook. This tech giant is constantly trying to improve its advertising services by promoting quality control, expanding mobile technologies, and basic customer and user satisfaction. Facebook is also strengthening its potential to monetize products like Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook is able to market these potential new users to possible advertisers through their acquisition of Atlas, which helps show their advertising effectiveness to potential new advertising customers. Brief, Facebook strengths are user growth, new market development, new products for advertising development, and advanced analytics that help potential advertisers understand the success and failure oftheir marketing programs.
As of now, Facebook is still in a very high growth stage, but it does face some weaknesses with its markets and people in the longer term. For one, in the long run, it will be harder and harder to add new users. Saturation of any market increases as you increase the % of market you have captured. This should be considerably far off though, as they are primarily generating revenue through the US, Canada, and Europe. They have a lot of monetization opportunities in Asia, South America, and the Middle East. Another weakness pertains to the people that Facebook must employ. As the operation becomes more global they must add more and more hardware to the system which requires huge capital investments for data centers around the world. There is always some inherent risk in these types of investment, especially with the pace that technology changes. These data centers could be out of date within only a few years, and then need to be upgraded. The other difficulty around its people is continuing to foster their culture across offices around the world, and retaining the talent needed to innovate new products internally. There is a decreasing marginal benefit in each engineer that must be added, in the fact that they become more technical and less innovative, which is how Facebook originally catapulted to the forefront of social networking.
IMPLICATIONS OF PROBLEMS FOUND IN SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
Statement of Primary Problem
The primary problem that Facebook is currently facing is in the area of advertisements. Facebook generates the bulk of its revenue from advertisements and at present has over 5 million advertisers who utilize their services on a daily basis. As a company Facebook needs to keep its current advertising revenue growing, however this is a problem as Facebook admits that its average news feed is as full of ads as it can get (Ingram, 2016). The fact that Facebook has admitted to this issue is proof that the issue does indeed exist and that efforts will need to be made in order to remedy the matter if the company is to see continual growth in revenue from the Social Media site alone. The only alternative to this issue is for Facebook to begin introducing video advertisements. However, the company has not yet ventured into this lane as this mode of advertisements comes with its own set of problems; these include the fact that most people won't sit and watch pre-roll ads and these can be difficult to justify when they are only a few seconds long, in addition when inserting these into live streams one runs the risk of losing viewers (Ingram, 2016). There is an additional threat that will have an adverse effect on Facebook's growth. It is vital that Facebook must retain its younger active users and decrease their level of engagement with competitors. For example, in the United States, monthly active users between the ages of 12 and 17 years old will decline 3.4% in 2017 (Ghosh, 2017). Snapchat is considered a strong competitor for young users. The social media platform has made tremendous strides in acquiring new teenage users since 2013. Currently in the United Kingdom, monthly active Facebook users between the ages of 18 and 24 years old will have declined by 3.1 % (Ghosh, 2017).
Facebook's primary problems will be continuing to grow its user base, increasing user utilization, and demonstrating tangible evidence oftheir value to advertisers. Facebook shows evidence ofthe importance in user growth by acquiring apps and firms that complement its core social networking site, as well as focus on products or areas that expand the attractiveness of their products. This indicates they are keenly aware of the importance in user growth and realize a potential problem from stagnant growth. They also know they must demonstrate value to advertisers, or risk losing advertisers to other social media sites such as Twitter, Linkedln, and Snap Chat. Their acquisition and development of Atlas is an indicator they realized they had a potential problem in demonstrating the value they are bringing to advertisers.
Facebook's shareholders and stakeholders recognize the importance of both of these potential long term problems, and will begin to trade the stock accordingly or invite activist investors if they cannot solve these potential problems themselves. The brand is far too valuable to languish, so as soon as growth
22 Journal ofMarketing Development and Competitiveness Vol. 12(1) 2018 begins to plateau, investors will start to make question leadership and valuation. This could affect future debt or equity offerings needed to fund future development.
Statement of Secondary Problem (s)
One of the secondary issue facing Facebook is the sheer number of alternative options for advertisers on the internet, and some may offer more targeted ways for advertisers to reach their specific market segments. There are a number of competitor options that advertisers can utilize, even if they don't have the same magnitude as Facebook. These options include Twitter, but also nontraditional social media like LinkedIn, Google, Pinterest, iHeart, Pandora, Y ouTube, etc.
Another secondary problem is the past few months Facebook has been in legal controversy with Europe for the way that they process personal data as well as how Facebook tracks users and non-users of their site. Back in October the European Justice System nullified a 15 year long agreement between the US and Europe that allowed US companies to self-certify that they were staying within the European Data Standards. This came about after Europe noticed that Facebook was not abiding by their normal set of standards and that Facebook even had the ability to track non-users through cookies they were able to place on the non-users computer after they visited a public Facebook site. This issue brings to light the unawareness and lack of legal control Facebook has set in their privacy policy, which makes legal for them to obtain all of this information.
The alternative options for advertisers will help suppress advertising rates on Facebook, because there are viable alternatives to Facebook. Ultimately, as long as these other venues exist, it will help keep some ceiling on the prices that Facebook can charge its customers to advertise on their network. This becomes an earnings issue as the company matures, and investors might want to see other ways to monetize the business.
Facebook will now be under strict scrutiny for the way that personal data is captured as well as monitored via their various media platforms. A new agreement has been settled on called the EU-US Privacy Shield, which will force the way Facebook and many other companies collecting personal data from Europe to operate. The Privacy Shield will enforce stronger monitoring from the US Department of Commerce and Federal Trade Commission as well as a more interactive role from the European Data Protection Authorities. These stronger regulations will defmitely impact the amount of data Facebook will now be able to receive compared to what they once had. As a result of this controversy. Facebook's users may now be more reluctant to freely search the web like they once had, now knowing that Facebook is able to follow their internet "footprint" past their Facebook profile.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES

Strategic Alternative 1
Facebook will need to add users and increase utilization, both in time spent and daily interactions with the Facebook suite of products. This can be achieved through continued focus on products that create new benefits for users, as well as acquisitions of products that target unique audiences outside of Facebook's current user base. They will also continue to add users as their presence increases around the world, particularly Africa, South America, Asia, and the Middle East.
Benefits of achieving user growth through increased market presence around the globe is that it is organic growth, and the lowest growth on a cost per user basis. It also helps them to achieve their organization's mission. The benefits of achieving user growth through new products and acquisitions is that it drives user growth up, and hopefully increases utilization of services both in length of time spent and frequency of user interaction. Also, some acquisitions take place quietly, and siphon off customers who intentionally don't want Facebook profiles, but now are unknowingly part of the brand through an acquired product.
The costs associated with global market growth are part of Facebook's ordinary business costs, and mainly involve FTE, marketing, and capital costs. They will need to invest in more data centers, capital intensive, to accommodate global user growth. However, these are costs that Facebook is planning to encounter, and is actual good expense in their eyes. The costs of new products mainly comes in the form of increased salary expense related to product engineers and coders. They will have internal analysis as to whether the product growth is worth the investment. The largest expense from this strategic development comes in the form of acquisitions, particularly because Tech valuations are extremely high right now. Startup tech companies are selling into the billions, sometimes based on extremely aggressive future growth. This is increasing costs to Facebook for these acquisitions.


Strategic Alternative 2
Facebook could also chose to focus more on revenue generation by demonstrating value that it is bringing to advertisers. This is a strategic alternative that has a readily available approach through continued expansion of their Atlas product. The benefits of focusing on their current revenue generation helps Facebook ensure that they are maximizing their monetization of current products generating revenue. It also allows them to build blueprints and understand success or failures as they continue to introduce new products. The direct benefits of continuing to expand Atlas, which shows the value of Facebook as an advertising platform, will show in increased revenues in the US, Canada, and Europe. However, it has the potential to pay much bigger dividends as Facebook expands to more untapped markets. Even though they are growing user base in other parts of the world, they have not begun to monetize those markets. It will be easier to cross cultural barriers and monetize the business when they can show potential advertisers the precise value they can expect to gain from advertising with Facebook.
The costs associated with this alternative will be primarily associated with the engineering and implementation costs of continuing to improve the Atlas product. Secondary costs will be the FTE's needed around the globe to promote Facebook and make connections with local advertisers around the world. Another cost which is harder to measure, is that this strategic alternative doesn't necessarily directly promote user growth and connecting the world, which is Facebook's mission.

Strategic Alternative 3
Facebook needs to look for alternative revenue streams, as they are extremely dependent on advertising revenue in their current business model. This may be achieved through acquisition of companies or products outside of their social media portfolio. The benefits of fmding alternative revenue streams is they become less dependent on advertising revenue as their sole form of success. Advertising revenue could be susceptible to downturns and also the large number of options that are available to reach consumers. So, having other areas of revenue growth are extremely important. Companies like Oculus, acquired by Facebook, will provide alternative revenue streams through the purchase of the gear, games, and accessories. Other opportunities that may present themselves as alternatives, would also be targets for acquisition by Facebook. The largest costs are associated with the acquisition costs of these potential companies or products. Especially those in the tech sector, as large sums of cash are being generated in Silicon Valley to pay for companies without proven revenue streams or business models. So, acquisition costs are extremely high right now, and don't guarantee any type of short or long term success.
Facebook will predominantly focus on strategic alternative 3 by continuing to grow the overall user base, as well as utilization of all services. Components of strategic alternative 3 will also be utilized as opportunities present themselves. Strategic alternative 1 allows them to continue focusing on the objective that has the greatest long term potential return on investment, and also fits their mission. Ultimately, revenue growth only continues with an expanded user base, and a user base that utilizes the services at an expanding rate. Lastly, this strategy best fits their mission to make the world more open and keep people connected.

Implications for Strategic Development
Facebook's strategic development for the foreseeable future is to basically keep focusing on their core business and products that attach on easily. They don't need to do anything revolutionary at this moment. They need to focus on continuing in their current growth phase. It appears that they are aware of this, and have indicated during analyst earnings calls that their intent is to continue down their current path. They will continue to focus primarily on user growth, and also length of time the average user spends on Facebook and its family of products. They will also work on ways to monetize their current suite of products (lnstagram, WhatsApp, Mobile) which are generating either no revenue or very little. The benefit oftrying to monetize those products for Facebook is that they can leverage their own user base for advertisement, and each of those Apps were in very high growth phases when Facebook acquired. User growth and ad revenue growth will also shift from primarily North American and European primary objectives to include further reaches in the world, such as Asia, Middle East, and South America. Eventually these user growth and ad revenue goals will shift to Africa and further reaches like Eastern Europe. A third implication for strategic development will be the continued development of its business relations with Advertisers and expanded capabilities of Atlas. As Facebook continues to refine ways that it can allow advertisers to reach their market, they will be able to command even more premium dollars (higher $ per click), but will still maintain flexibility to allow small businesses to blanket markets at lower $ per click. They are creating a full spectrum of ad pricing that should help them maximize their revenue potential, at the same time they are growing their core business. The user growth also plays into the relationships with advertisers, in that if they continue to add users, then advertisers can't ignore them. Facebook simply becomes too valuable of an advertising pipeline for companies to ignore because of their sheer reach.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Facebook is a multi-billion dollar company which generates a vast majority of its profits through advertising to user on behalf of third party businesses. This case presented several analysis looking at the environment that affects the prosperity of companies like Facebook as well as individuals. An in depth look at the tech and advertising industry as a whole was evaluated to determine the strengths of the competitors and the willingness of the buyers to engage in profitable relations. Furthermore, a microscopic analysis of Facebook as an individual company revealed how it functions amongst the cutthroat competition and it successfully manages to solicit its advertising services to companies needing to reach consumers. Several problems were encountered such as the overwhelming majority of its revenue generated through a single means, how Facebook will retain its users, and problems restricting unwanted access to servers and profiles. This year Facebook celebrates its thirteenth birthday, lucky number thirteen; is this the year another company rises to the top or will Facebook mature and remain the leading company in the online advertising business.
Facebook has managed to become and maintain their position as the premier social networking site around the world. They have had a unique beginning as a company as they were not concerned with being a viable business at first, but rather concerned with creating their vision of how best to connect the world. It wasn't until their user growth exploded that they began to focus on monetizing their social networking site, primarily through the use of advertisers on Facebook. As they continue to grow their user base and provide useful reach and capture data to advertisers, they will continue to increase both top and bottom line for the foreseeable future. They have considerable growth opportunities around the world, and have not yet monetized Facebook in many countries outside of the US, Canada, and EU. In addition to monetizing Facebook, they are still creating ways to better monetize the mobile Facebook app, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other Facebook owned products or Apps. As a secondary strategy they have also begun to acquire fmns not necessarily aligned with social networking such as Oculus, in an attempt to generate revenue outside of advertising. Led by Mark Zuckerberg and team, Facebook will be expected to continue its current growth trends, and continue to deliver earnings reflecting its growth. Barring potential privacy issues which could impact the business from regulatory angles, as well as diminished brand perception, the long term goal seems apparent for Facebook: grow users and prove value to advertisers.

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Citation: Aydo.an, S., G.vendik, .. & Ayar, B. (2019), Innovative Consumers of The Digital Age: Opinion Seeking on Instagram, BMIJ, (2019), 7(2): 609-628 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15295/bmij.v7i2.966         

INNOVATIVE CONSUMERS OF THE DIGITAL AGE:
OPINION SEEKING ON INSTAGRAM 
  Sibel AYDO.AN1                                                                                   Received (Ba.vuru Tarihi): 21/02/2019   
1 Lecturer, PhD, Marmara University, saydogan@marmara.edu.tr     http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4870-1901 
2 PhD Candidate, Istanbul University, ozge.guvendik@ogr.iu.edu.tr    http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9789-5394 
3 Research Assistant, Marmara University, bahadir.ayar@marmara.edu.tr    http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8547-4613 
  .zge G.VEND.K2                                                                                    Accepted (Kabul Tarihi): 29/03/2019
  Bahad.r AYAR3                                                                                    Published Date (Yay.n Tarihi): 26/06/2019

ABSTRACT
 

Nowadays the internet, social media, and mobile technologies are indispensable for our daily lives. During the past decade, online social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and their social media apps like Instagram have been caused profound changes in the communication and interaction of people. In addition, social networking sites have become the focus of interest for everyone who has access to the Internet and who can use computers, tablets or smartphones.  Especially, youth and university students use the internet and social media as a mass communication vehicle with easy and fast access at an increasing frequency rate for their academic and/or other purposes. These tools are no longer just a good source of information but they have become a good reference guide for social interaction, games, information exchange and other purposes at the same time. People, -due to their nature- seek for entertainment, in order to have a good time and obtain information. Modern consumers use these social networking platforms as well to meet their needs to gather information on many subjects. This research aims to determine the effect of Instagram usage attitude on opinion seeking and the mediator effect of consumer innovativeness on this relationship. The results of this study reveal that consumers use Instagram as an information source about brands, products, and services. Moreover, Instagram usage attitude has a positive effect on opinion seeking.

Keywords: Instagram, Consumer Innovativeness, Opinion Seeking
 



JEL Codes: M30, L86



D.J.TAL .A.IN YEN.L.K.. T.KET.C.LER.: INSTAGRAM'DA F.K.R ARAYI.I

.Z
 

G.n.m.zde internet, sosyal medya ve mobil teknolojiler g.nl.k ya.ant.m.z.n vazge.ilmez bir par.as. haline gelmi.tir. Son on y.lda, Facebook, Twitter gibi .evrimi.i sosyal a. siteleri ve Instagram gibi sosyal medya uygulamalar. insanlar.n ileti.iminde ve etkile.iminde derin de.i.ikliklere neden oldu.u s.ylenebilir. Ayr.ca, sosyal a. siteleri, internete eri.imi olan ve bilgisayarlar., tabletleri veya ak.ll. telefonlar. kullanabilen herkes i.in ilgi oda.. haline gelmi.tir. .zellikle gen. bireyler ve .niversite ..rencileri, interneti ve sosyal medyay. kolay ve h.zl. eri.ime sahip kitle ileti.im arac. olarak akademik ve / veya di.er ama.lar. i.in artan bir s.kl.kla kullanmaktad.rlar. Bu ara.lar.n art.k sadece iyi bir bilgi kayna.. de.il, ayn. zamanda sosyal etkile.im, e.lence, bilgi al..veri.i ve di.er ama.lar i.in de iyi bir referans kayna.. haline geldi.i s.ylenebilir. .nsanlar, do.alar. gere.i, iyi vakit ge.irmek ve bilgi edinmek i.in e.lence aray... i.indedirler. Modern t.keticiler bu sosyal a. platformlar.n., bir.ok konuda bilgi toplamak i.in de kullan.rlar. Bu .al..mada, Instagram kullan.m tutumunun fikir aray... .zerindeki etkisinin ve



t.ketici yenilik.ili.inin bu ili.ki .zerindeki arac. etkisinin ortaya koyulmas. ama.lanm..t.r. Elde edilen bulgular, t.keticilerin Instagram'. markalar, .r.nler ve hizmetler hakk.nda bir bilgi kayna.. olarak kulland.klar.n. ortaya koymaktad.r. Dahas., Instagram kullan.m tutumunun fikir aray... .zerinde olumlu bir etkisi vard.r.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Instagram,  T.ketici Yenilik.ili.i, Fikir Aray...

JEL Kodlar.: M30, L86



1. INTRODUCTION
So long as digital technologies continue making communication channels and platforms more widespread and easier, people become more connected than ever before (Pittman & Reich, 2016: 155).  This connectivity enables various users with common purposes to get together, to engage various sharing, to make some comments and guidance over these sharings, to have new contents produced, as a result, to have these new contents get enriched following the same process and thus enables the creation of a partnership. In other respects, the desire to access news, current information faster without being tied to a specific location and the tendency to experience life in an integrated environment with other people, further trigger the use of this medium by people. In addition, the capability to reach more than one channel using a single vehicle increases the demand for these social networking websites (Becan, 2018: 239). 
Since internet users spend more time on Instagram compared to other social network websites (Sheldon & Bryant, 2016: 89) and since Instagram is currently defined by especially the youth as the “most important social media platform” (Sabuncuo.lu & G.lay, 2016: 112), this research has been realized with active Instagram users with dense concentration of young people. Hirunyawipada and Paswan (2006:182), have covered consumer innovativeness of consumers’ adaptation to advanced technology products, together with perceived risk. They have approached consumer innovativeness concept with a hierarchic point of view and determined a strong connection between the consumer innovativeness and new product adaptation. These studies show that the level of innovativeness impacts an individual’s search for a new product and attitude towards adaption positively.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Instagram usage attitude on opinion seeking and the mediator effect of consumer innovativeness on this relationship. Turkish Instagram users are the universe of the present study. An online survey was used for collecting data from Instagram users. Between 28th of January and 15th of February 2019,
350 completed survey forms gather from respondents. All 350 completed surveys were analyzed for assesment. Structural equation model was used to test hypotheses in research.
2. INSTAGRAM AS A SOCIAL MEDIA AND A SOCIAL NETWORK SITE
The digital age which has entered our daily lives at the beginning of the century expresses a period which has been accelerated with the spread of internet use and the emergence of an effective social media with the transformation of consumers to become active users. Digitalization is an unavoidable result of the globalization by providing people who live far apart from each other, to interact with one another (.nceo.lu & .ent.rk, 2014:353). Besides, in the communication and activities such as banking and advertising, the digital age involves a process where elements such as image creation, affects society independently from time and place and shapes behavior (Castells, 1997:10).
The "mobile and digital era" has begun on a global scale together with recently technological developments. In addition, the needs and demands of consumers are undergoing a rapid change. In purchasing, the technological environment directly affects the decision making process of the consumers (Aydo.an & Pekta.: 364). The digital age has been observed to have an important impact on the consumer and the consumer  behavior (Berry, 2014:22; Berry, 2011:14). Influenced by social interaction, consumers who are not satisfied with less consume fast and seek immediate gratification of desired experience They have become also individuals with a focus on needs and with capabilities provided by the new generation technologies (Bassett, 2015:1127).
Social media which can be defined as internet-based applications, built on the technological foundations of Web 2.0 by users who enable information exchange  (Kaplan & Heanlien, 2010: 61), is one of the effective ways for individuals to explain and express themselves to others (Ku.ay, 2010: 68). Social media brings together many platforms. By creating profiles of their own on social media, individuals connect to other users, they establish virtual groups, provide information exchange, send messages, and engage in sharing by producing contents such as photos.  Social media can also be used for different purposes such as having fun, spending free time, following the latest news, establishing friendships, providing information exchange, following other users and brands and getting in touch with them. Social media from businesses’ point of view, where sharing gets done among users and interaction is realized can be also defined as new virtual environments where online services are conducted simultaneously (Hew et al., 2016:143).
As a media channel where information is shared and distributed, social media provides its users the capability to conduct more research and evaluate choices in a shorter amount of time. Recent studies have emphasized that consumer behavior trends are directly correlated with social media use. Therefore, social media use can be said to have a direct effect on consumer behavior (Constantinides, 2014:42). 
After the traditional social media technology at the beginning of 2000s, different Social Networking Sites (SNS) have become very popular lately among especially young adults (Greenwood, 2016). Instagram especially has approximately one billion unique users (Lup et al., 2015:250). 
Instagram, -composed of the combination of the word “instant” which refers toinstantaneous and the word “telegram” which stands for telegraph (Gibbs et al., 2014:258; T.rkmeno.lu, 2014: 96) has been introduced by Apple in 2010 as a mobile social networking website (Dumas et al., 2017: 1; Yeni..kt., 2016: 95),.  Instagram, a video and photo sharing website (Bulut & Do.an, 2017:74) defines itself as a mobile device application designed to have all  moments of life shared with real time photos. This application provides the users the capability to search and discover media with similar content produced by other users and it allows any sharing to be defined on the media platform easily (Kim et al., 2017: 536). One of the most important characteristics of Instagram is labeling photos. Serious increase in the number of active users has been observed after the addition of the labeling feature, known as “Hashtag” (T.rkmeno.lu, 2015). 
Instagram, after bought out by Facebook in 2012 (T.rkmeno.lu, 2014:87), draws attention as the world’s third largest social networking platform. According to September 2017  figures, the application with more than 800 million active users per month has doubled Twitter’s monthly active users with the feature of Hashtag . Twenty percent of the total internet users use Instagram. In addition, more than 80 million photos are uploaded to Instagram in a single day (Ho., 2017). In this respect, in addition to the proliferation of Instagram, the advantages provided by the platform in comparison to the traditional media, have pushed individual users and brands to develop different strategies in order to increase their interaction performance on these platforms (Kuyucu, 2016:77). For many Instagram users, the main objective is to receive “likes” to reinforce personal images that would be “successful and popular” (Tifentale & Manovich, 2015). Such “various features, capabilities presented to the user in sharing photos and content and the high number of users, have made
Instagram an increasingly important medium for social media phenomenon as well” (Aslan & .nl., 2016: 50). 
Casalo, L., Flavian, C. (2018:2), have stated that opinion leaders are important sources of advice for consumers and that Instagram is the most used platform by many opinion leaders from various sectors. It has been also stated that whether a person is unique or not is a very important factor in the perception of a user as an opinion leader on Instagram. Moreover, opinion leadership leads consumer behavior towards both the consumer (to engage in interaction and intention to provide advice) and the sector. Djofarova et al., (2016:1) have stated that the number of female users of Instagram has  increased and the women’s purchasing behavior has changed as a result of being influenced by famous people’s sharing and that they have taken into consideration the most those people who are identified as “blogger” and “YouTuber”. According to the results of the study conducted on Instagram by .akmak & Ba. (2017:96), individuals use Instagram mostly to provide information about themselves to people close to them, in order to receive information from them, to follow fashion and news and to shop.
3. OPINION SEEKING
Opinion seekers are defined by the current literature as “people seeking information or opinions from interpersonal sources to find and evaluate products, services, current events, or other areas of interest”. (Feick, Price & Higie, 1986:302).
In the literature, there are a limited number of studies on the search for ideas. Researchers saw opinion seeking as one of the common phenomena of opinion leadership. (Flynn et. al., 1996: 138; Shoham and Ruvio, 2008: 286). When referring to the advice of another person in relation to something that is intended to be purchased, it can be said that the person is the leader of ideas (Engel et al. 1990: 42). Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) examined the ways in which the opinion leadership and those who opinion leaders interacted. According to this research, those who are in search of ideas are consumers affected by opinion leaders. The opinion seeking is conceptualized as a subset of the quest for product knowledge. Consumers try to make purchasing decisions by getting satisfactory information they need from opinion leaders (Punj and Staelin, 1983:366). Assael (1987: 428) investigated the possible reasons for the opinion seekers and the possible reasons to get the opinions of others. Assael stated that friends and relatives are reliable product information sources, and that information from
personal sources facilitates the buying action and reduces the risk of false information. Opinion seekers get information to help the decision to purchase.
Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) stated that the desire to be a member of a group is a motivating factor in adopting the values and beliefs of the group leaders. Those who are looking for opinions consult with opinion leaders to learn about products, and this helps them in the process of purchasing decisions.
Beatty and Smith (1987:87) have argued that it is highly probable that a person who has little knowledge or who is concerned about a purchase will receive advice from someone he / she knows. Similarly, Alba and Hutchinson (1987: 416) found that consumers who are younger and less experienced are trusting to older and more experienced people. Opinion seekers also find mouth-to-mouth recommendations from social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram, friends and relatives more reliable than commercial sources (Assael, 1992: 269).
Piirto (1992:34) argued that opinion leaders and opinion seekers could be differentiated by their level of activity in a social network. Flynn et al. (1996: 138) stated that these two concepts are interrelated and there may be some overlap between them, but are still two separate structures. In contrast, Feick et al. (1986: 304) argued that there was a high overlap between commenting and seeking and that the profile of opinion seekers was like that of opinion leaders. The large increase in the rate and frequency of use of Instagram leads opinion seeking consumers to head for this platform. Consumers consider the Instagram application as an important reference source for topics such as fashion, travel and healthy nutrition. It can also be said that opinion leaders, called as “social influencer”, have significantly affected consumers' choice and decisions in these platforms. In light of the information given above, the hypothesis H1 was formed as follows:
H1: The attitude towards Instagram usage has a positive effect on the opinion seeking.
4. CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS
Innovation "is that meaningful value is added to what has been changed by a successful creative process" (Assink, 2006: 217). In the most general sense, innovation is the changes in the production process, service or technology. It is a concept that is used in many fields such as economics, marketing, business management etc. and handled with different
perspectives. In terms of marketing and consumer behavior, innovation is the introduction, acceptance, and application of new ideas, processes, products or services (Kanter, 1983:20).
In the literature, innovativeness is generally examined in three ways: firm innovativeness, product innovativeness, and consumer innovativeness. Firm innovativeness is the ability of an enterprise to develop new products or start new product development. Product innovativeness is the innovation level of a product. Consumer innovativeness, which is the subject of this study, is to realize new products on the market earlier than other consumers, and to tend to buy faster and more frequently (Roehrich, 2004:671). People who have a tendency towards consumer innovativeness try different and new products, new brands instead of previous purchase preferences (Ba.ar & Yaprakl., 2013:152). They defined consumer innovativeness in various ways in the literature according to different perspectives (Eryi.it & Kavak, 2011: 97).
The innovativeness of consumers (Kim, 2008: 21), a concept that is important in the adoption of innovation, is the tendency to buy new and different products or brands rather than previous preferences and consumption patterns (Steenkamp et al., 1999:55). In other words, innovativeness is that a person behaves relatively earlier than others in adopting a novelty (Rogers & Shoemaker, 1971). Consumer innovativeness; Rogers (2003:22), according to individuals or other members of society, expressed new ideas as the degree of early adoption. Midgley & Dowling (1978: 236) stated consumer innovativeness as, openness to new ideas and grade of taking the innovation decision regardless of the experiences they learned or listened from other people and willingness to take risks. Cowart, Fox, and Wilson (2007: 517), Telis, Yin, and Bell (2009:1) and Goldsmith, Kim, Flynn & Kim (2005: 501) have designated this definition as a tendency to adopt new products of some individuals.
Consumer innovativeness is a concept related to the adoption of innovations. Innovators who first adopted innovations have some common features. Innovators; they are opinion leaders, have a high tolerance to risk, act independently from the norms of the social group they belong to and prefer to obtain information from the mass media. Moreover, they are not affected by the conversations between the members of the social group they belong to, they are open to new ideas and changes, they are universal rather than local and they have high socio-economic standards (Dobre, Dragomir & Preda, 2009: 23; Dickerson & Gentry, 1983: 233).
In the digital age where change takes place very quickly and everything is consumed very quickly, consumers' reactions to new products differentiate. While some people adopt and consume innovations easily, new products and services for others mean uncertainty and risk (Bhatnagar et al., 2000: 100; Chhikara, 2010: 295). For this reason, consumers who adopt innovations more quickly than other consumers and who are willing to pay higher prices in order to have new products before everyone else and tend to provide feedback on products, are referred as “innovative consumers”.
Innovative consumers who are willing to pay higher prices in order to have new products before everyone else and tend to provide feedback on products also play an important role in spreading innovation (Kotler, 1997; Vilpponen et al., 2006).
In another study, Lassar et al. (2005:182) looked at the impact of consumer innovativeness with personal characteristics on adaptation to internet banking and found a positive relationship between adaptation to internet banking and consumer innovativeness.
One of the most well-known and exploited roles of innovative consumers is that they are opinion leaders (Rogers, 2010: 42; Flynn et al., 1996: 138; Goldsmith et al., 2003: 321). Opinion leaders, who are thought to have an important social and economic role, have a status in society because they convey valuable information that benefits the people around them (Chan & Misra, 1990; Rogers, 2010).
Mobile devices have became part of our daily routine. Easily available social media and mobile applications such as Instagram not only increased access to information but also allowed consumers to create content and share it with other users (Labrecque et al., 2013).
Today, the possibilities offered by technology, the use of social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Youtube can lead innovative consumers to become more innovative and to purchase innovative products, ie to use the digital environment for commercial purposes. The Internet and the "www" technology have the big potential to support goal-oriented ocnsumers (Aktan, Aydogan & Aysuna: 86). In their study, Citrin et al. (2000: 294) found that consumer innovativeness has a direct impact on consumer adaptation to Internet shopping. Individual’s level of innovation has a positive impact on his / her compliance of shopping from the internet. In addition to the direct impact of innovation on the commercial use of the Internet, innovative consumers see the possibilities of the digital age as a new and facilitating way to solve current consumption problems.
H2: Consumer innovativeness has a mediating effect on the relationship between attitude towards Instagram usage attitude and opinion seeking.
5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Instagram usage attitude on opinion seeking and the mediator effect of consumer innovativeness on this relationship. In light of the theoretical framework and the purpose of the study, the research model in Figure 1 has been proposed.







The universe of the present study is Turkish Instagram users. In order to collect data, an online survey method was performed. An online questionnaire designed and shared with people who use Instagram and convenience sampling technique was used. The questionnaire constituted of 28 questions, 18 of which were scale questions and 10 were demographic questions. Between 28th of January and 15th of February 2019, 350 of completed survey forms were gathered from respondents. All aof the 350 completed surveys were analyzed.
For research purposes, a comprehensive literature review was conducted and authors decided to use which scales to measure the constructs, included in the research model. Instagram usage attitude was measured by six items which were adapted from Ellison et al. (2007). Consumer innovativeness was measured by six items adapted from Demireli (2014) and also opinion seeking was measured by six items which were adapted from Flynn et al. (1996). Five points Likert scale was used for measurement (1: Strongly Disagree….5: Strongly Agree). On the other hand, some demographic questions and Instagram usage behavior questions were included in the survey form.
The demographic characteristics of respondents are given in the Table 1. Demographic findings reveal that 66,6% of participants are female, 72% of participants are single, 48,3% of participants are 18 and 24 years old, 44,6% of participants earn 2020 TL and less in a month and finally, 50,6% of participants have a bachelor degree.
Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Participants
Gender
 N
 %
 Age
 N
 %

Female
 233
 66,6
 18-24
 169
 48,3

Male
 117
 33,4
 25-30
 73
 20,9

Total
 350
 100
 31-36
 30
 8,6

Marital Status
 N
 %
 37-42
 30
 8,6

Single
 252
 72
 43-48
 21
 6,0

Married
 98
 28
 49-54
 16
 4,6

Total
 350
 100
 55 and more
 11
 3,1

Personal Income
 N
 %
 Total
 350
 100

2020 TL and less
 156
 44,6
 Graduation
 N
 %

2021 TL-3000 TL
 50
 14,3
 Primary School
 1
 0,3

3001 TL-4500 TL
 55
 15,7
 High School
 103
 29,4

4501 TL-6000TL
 39
 11,1
 Bachelor
 177
 50,6

6001 TL and more
 50
 14,3
 Graduate
 69
 19,7

Total
 350
 100
 Total
 350
 100




Participants were addressed four questions in order to reveal Instagram usage behavior. The findings of Instagram usage behavior can be seen in Table 2. According to Table 2, 64,1% of participants use Instagram application for more than 2 years, 40,2% of participants spend 2 to 4 hours on Instagram application. 41,6% of participants are affected by posts on Instagram and these posts positively affect preferences and purchase behaviors of 45,1% of participants toward brands and products.
Table 2. Instagram Usage Behavior of Participants
Instagram Usage Period
 N
 %
 Time Spend on Instagram
 N
 %

Less than 3 months
 42
 9,7
 0-1 hour in a day
 131
 30,1

4-10 Months
 12
 2,8
 2-4 hours in a day
 175
 40,2

11-17 Months
 17
 3,9
 5 hours and more in a day
 19
 4,4

More than 2 years
 279
 64,1
 A few hours in a week
 25
 5,7

Total
 350
 100
 Total
 350
 100

Be affected by posts on Instagram
 N
 %
 Preference and purchase behavior is affected by posts on Instagram 
 N
 %

Affect positively 
 181
 41,6
 Affect positively 
 196
 45,1

Affect negatively
 9
 2,1
 Affect negatively
 14
 3,2

Do not affect
 157
 36,1
 Do not affect
 140
 32,2

Total
 350
 100
 Total
 350
 100




Based on Aktan (2018), several Instagram usage reasons were directed to the participants and the most important five reasons for the participants are shown in the Table 3. Spending time on Instagram application is the most important reason to use application for 41,71% of participants.


Table 3. The Most Important Reasons for Instagram Usage
Importance Level of Reasons
 Instagram Usage Reasons
 N
 %

1st
 Spending time
 146
 41,71

2nd
 Getting information about the agenda
 81
 23,14

3rd
 Sharing photograph
 54
 15,43

4th
 Getting information about brands, products, and services
 39
 11,14

5th
 Communicating with friends
 30
 8,57


 Total
 350
 100




Table 4 shows the mean and standard deviation values of items and Cronbach’s alpha values of the variables. The item “Instagram is part of my everyday activity.” (4,20) has the highest mean in Instagram usage attitude scale and the item “I feel out of touch when I have not logged onto Instagram for a while.” (2,66) has the lowest mean. The item “I like to buy new and different products.” (3,65) has the highest mean in consumer innovativeness scale and the item “I am usually the first person to try a new product in my social environment.” (2,67) has the lowest mean. Finally, the highest mean was acquired by “When I consider buying a product, I ask other people for advice.” (4,07) in opinion seeking scale and the lowest mean was acquired by “I feel more comfortable buying a product when I have gotten other people's opinions on it.” (3,85).
Table 4. Mean, Standard Deviation and Cronbach's Alpha Values of Variables of All Scales
Scale
 Item Code
 Item
 Mean
 SD
 .

Instagram Usage Attitude
 IU1
 Instagram is part of my everyday activity.
 4,20
 0,954
 0,841

IU2
 I am proud to tell people I am on Instagram.
 2,75
 1,020

IU3
 Instagram has become part of my daily routine.
 3,69
 1,114

IU4
 I feel out of touch when I have not logged onto Instagram for a while.
 2,66
 1,265

IU5
 I feel I am part of the Instagram community.
 3,18
 1,148

IU6
 I would be sorry if Instagram shut down.
 3,55
 1,233


Consumer Innovativeness

 CI1
 The new products excite me.
 3,57
 0,930
 0,865

CI2
 I like to buy new and different products.
 3,65
 0,923

CI3
 I like to buy new products instead of buying conventional products.
 3,09
 1,005

CI4
 I know more about the latest products than those around me.
 3,14
 1,029

CI5
 I am usually the first person to try a new product in my social environment.
 2,67
 1,021

CI6
 I want to buy new products before than my social environment.
 2,74
 1,179

Opinion
Seeking
 OS1
 When I consider buying a product, I ask other people for advice.
 4,07
 0,748
 0,770

OS2
 I do not need to talk to others before I buy a product.*
 4,01
 0,681

OS3
 I rarely ask other people what product to buy.*
 3,91
 0,585

OS4
 I like to get others' opinions before I buy a product.
 3,93
 0,828

OS5
 I feel more comfortable buying a product when I have gotten other people's opinions on it.
 3,85
 0,918

OS6
 When choosing rock other people's opinions are not important to me.*
 3,91
 ,681



*Reverse coded
Exploratory factor analysis was conducted for three scales. Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin values were 0,929, 0,878 and 0,914 and Bartlett Test significant level was 0,000 so that the sample was both adequate and sufficient for the factor analysis (see Table 5).
Table 5. Results of Exploratory Factor Analysis

 Instagram Usage Attitude
 Consumer Innovativeness
 Opinion Seeking
 Opinion Seeking*

KMO
 0,826
 0,841
 0,771
 0,773

Bartlett’s
 Chi-Square
 951,632
 568,763
 568,763
 483,707

df
 15
 15
 15
 10

Sig.
 0,000
 0,000
 0,000
 0,000



*These values for 2nd exploratory factor analysis for opinion seeking scale.
According to the results of exploratory factor analyses, three of the scales were singled out in one factor group, however, the item coded as OS3 in opinion seeking scale received values close to each other in a rotated component matrix. Because of this problem, OS3 item was moved and exploratory factor analysis was re-conducted. After that process opinion seeking scale reached required statistical values and the new Cronbach’s Alpha value for this scale was calculated as 0,778.
After the explanatory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analyses were performed to determine the validity of the scales by using the AMOS 25. When the statistical values of the measurement models were examined, it was determined that the models did not have acceptable values in acceptable ranges. Modifications proposed by AMOS 25 were made and required model fit indices were obtained. In order to obtain the required model fit indices between IU1 and IU3 items covariance correlation was established. CI4 item was deleted and between CI5 and CI6 IU3 items covariance correlation was established and finally, covariance correlation was established between OS2 and OS5 items. The obtained model fit values are given in Table 6.
Table 6. Model Fit Indices for Scales

 X2
 df
 X2/df
 GFI
 CFI
 RMSEA

Instagram Usage Attitude
 12,496
 8
 1,562
 0,988
 0,995
 0,040

Consumer Innovativeness
 4,218
 4
 1,055
 0,995
 1,000
 0,013

Opinion Seeking
 5,904
 4
 1,476
 0,993
 0,996
 0,037

Good Model Fit Indices
 
 
 .3
 .0,90
 .0,97
 .0,05

Acceptable Model Fit Indices
 
 
 .4-5
 0,89-0,85
 .0,95
 0,06-0,08



p>.05, X2 =Chi-Square; df=Degree of Freedom; GFI=Goodness Of Fit Index; CFI=Comparative Fit Index; RMSEA=Root Mean Square Error of Approximation *Source: Cem Meydan ve Harun .e.en (2011). Yap.sal E.itlik Modellemesi AMOS Uygulamalar.. Detay Yay.nc.l.k.
The next process after confirmatory factory analysis is the hypothesis test. In order to test the hypothesis structural equation models (see Figure 2 and 3) were performed.


Figure 2. Structural Equation Model for H1
Model fit indices for the structural equation model in Figure 2 can be seen in Table 7. The model fit indices are within the required values so it can be said that the model is structurally valid.
Table 7. Model Fit Indices for H1

 X2
 df
 X2/df
 GFI
 CFI
 RMSEA

Model Fit Indices (H1)
 92,006
 41
 2,244
 0,954
 0,963
 0,060

Good Model Fit Indices
 
 
 .3
 .0,90
 .0,97
 .0,05

Acceptable Model Fit Indices
 
 
 .4-5
 0,89-0,85
 .0,95
 0,06-0,08



The standardized . coefficients, standard error, critical ratio, p and R2 statistics of the model in question are shown in Table 8. The findings reveal that Instagram usage attitude has an effect on opinion seeking (.=0,253; p<0,05). It can be said that H1 is supported.
Table 8. The Coefficients for Structural Equation Model (H1)
Variables
 Standardized .
 Standard Error
 Critical Ratio
 p
 R2

Instagram Usage Attitude –
Opinion Seeking (H1)
 0,253
 0,076
 3,663
 ***
 0,064



In order to investigate the mediating effect of consumer innovativeness on the relationship between Instagram usage attitude and opinion seeking, three conditions’ existence were examined. Baron and Kenny (1986) listed these requirements as below;
1. Independent variables must effect dependent variable (see Figure 2 and Table 8),

2. Independent variables must effect mediator variable,

3. Mediator variable must effect dependent variable.


The structural model for condition 2 and 3 can be seen in Figure 3. Model fit indices for Figure 3 are shown in Table 9.


Figure 3. Structural Equation Model for H2
The model fit indices are within the required values so it can be said that the model is structurally valid.
Table 9. Model Fit Indices for H2

 X2
 df
 X2/df
 GFI
 CFI
 RMSEA

Model Fit Indices (H1)
 175,242
 98
 1,788
 0,939
 0,964
 0,048

Good Model Fit Indices
 
 
 .3
 .0,90
 .0,97
 .0,05

Acceptable Model Fit Indices
 
 
 .4-5
 0,89-0,85
 .0,95
 0,06-0,08



The standardized . coefficients, standard error, critical ratio, p and R2 statistics of the model in question are shown in Table 10.
Table 10. The Coefficients of Structural Equation Model for Mediating Effect
Variables
 Standardized .
 Standard Error
 Critical Ratio
 p
 R2

Instagram Usage Attitude –
Consumer Innovativeness
 0,508
 0,126
 6,255
 ***
 0,258

Consumer Innovativeness – 
Opinion Seeking
 0,172
 0,054
 2,243
 0,025
 0,086

Instagram Usage Attitude – 
Opinion Seeking
 0,166
 0,084
 2,143
 0,032



Statistical findings in Table 10 reveals that Instagram usage attitude affects consumer innovativeness (.=0,508; p<0,05) and consumer innovativeness has an effect on opinion seeking (.=0,172); p<0,05). In light of statistical findings, H2 is supported.
6. CONCLUSION
In addition to the sharing and socializing functions of social media, different purposes of usage have emerged. For example, in recent years consumers use social media platforms to generate contents about brands, products or services. On the other hand, changes in technology usage and consumer behavior have led consumers to get information about brands, products or services from a digital world. In this context, the present study investigates the effect of Instagram usage attitude on opinion seeking and the mediating effect of consumer innovativeness on this relation.
Almost half of the participants of the research have indicated that they use Instagram to get information about the agenda, brands, products, and services. This finding can be interpreted as Instagram users perceive and use the application as an information resource. In addition to this, more than half of the participants have stated that posts on Instagram affect their preference and purchase behavior positively. It is concluded that Instagram gives an opportunity to firms or brands for creating positive preference tendency to products.
The results of the study show that Instagram usage attitude positively affects opinion seeking. This finding can be interpreted as Instagram users consider this social media platform as an opinion source about products and services. In this respect, when the reasons for using Instagram application are examined, it is seen that two of the five most important reasons for users are related to gathering information about agenda and product and services. Moreover, most of the Instagram users stated that posts on Instagram affect positively their product and services preferences and purchase intentions. It is clear that Instagram users give importance to posts, influencers etc. on Instagram while they are making decisions on consumption. Mediation effect of consumer innovativeness on the relation between Instagram usage attitude and opinion seeking was determined in this research. This finding implies that innovative consumers, who use Instagram, give importance to gather information from Instagram. On the other hand, statistical findings show that consumer innovativeness is an important variable for predicting consumers Instagram usage attitudes and opinion seeking behaviors.
As a result, brands should attach importance to their social media management not only in the context of Instagram but in also other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter etc. Sharings and comments on social media or attitudes of influencers on Instagram
about a brand can reach millions of existing or potential customers of the brand. In order to create a positive preference tendency among consumers, brands should spend time in understanding Instagram and other social media platforms as a source of opinion seeking. It can be said that if firms understand the importance of social media platforms as a tool for seeking opinion and plan their marketing communication activities toward social media, they can create remarkable customer communities by generating contents on social media. In order to do this, it is clear that value-creating and consistent social media content providing are required. Moreover, celebrities and influencers may be employed in order to help Instagram users to get information or have an idea about a specific product or brand. 
A limitation of the present study is the sample; the sample cannot represent all Turkish Instagram users. Therefore, the results cannot be generalized for the population. Further research can examine the other social media platforms in the context of opinion seeking and different mediators for the relation between Instagram usage and opinion seeking.















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The communication role of social media in social marketing: a study of the community sustainability knowledge dissemination on LinkedIn and Twitter
Lei Huang, Amelia Clarke, Natalie Heldsinger & Wen Tian
Journal of Marketing Analytics volume 7, pages64–75(2019)Cite this article

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Abstract
This study aims to provide social marketers and researchers with some innovative perspectives on the application of social media in disseminating and promoting new sustainability knowledge to targeted audiences including academics, community sustainability stakeholders, and policy-makers. An online survey was used to examine the audiences’ attitudes of and motivations for engaging in LinkedIn and Twitter sites that disseminate sustainability knowledge. Also, the fact-based measurements from LinkedIn and Twitter showing the participants’ reactions to the contents and formats were analyzed. The results suggest that the infographics message format received the highest engagement and response rates. Participants used Twitter to obtain general sustainability knowledge while being engaged in LinkedIn for specific advice on the implementation of community sustainability plans.

Introduction
Owing to the rapid development of technologies, online communication channels such as social media are becoming increasingly popular platforms for communicating sustainability information (Robelia et al. 2011; Bik and Goldstein 2013). More importantly, audiences’ attitudes toward disseminated sustainability knowledge are influencing their subsequent awareness and behaviors (Hungerford 1996). From the marketer’s point of view, the understanding of audience attitudes aids in the selection of dissemination strategies (Swani et al. 2014; Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). The purposes of this study are to (1) assess the effectiveness of intermediaries in disseminating sustainability-relevant knowledge, (2) provide insights for developing effective marketing communication strategies for sustainability stakeholders, and (3) broaden the scope of social marketing by extending its audiences to sustainability practitioners in addition to the traditionally defined consumers. We expect the results of this research will also provide social marketers and researchers with some innovative perspectives on the application of social media in communicating knowledge.

Academic scholars play a vital role in incorporating sustainability knowledge into disseminating strategies for the purposes of fostering a link between knowledge and practice (Sá et al. 2011), obtaining substantial attention from targeted audiences, and better servicing communication platform users (Swani et al. 2014; Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Building on marketing communication theories, this research investigates the role of social media in disseminating and promoting new knowledge related to the implementation of community sustainability plans. Specifically, it aims to help sustainability researchers prioritize online marketing communication channels in order to disseminate their research findings among the target audiences: community sustainability practitioners such as consultants and municipal staff, policy-makers such as municipal councilors, and other academic scholars. This study involves knowledge dissemination through two preselected social networking sites, LinkedIn and Twitter, for the purpose of transferring sustainability knowledge, accelerating collective learning, and providing practical advice.

The remainder of this article is organized as follows: first, we review the related literature, leading to the development of our research questions and hypotheses; and next we explain the methodology followed by the data descriptions. We will then present the results from both an online survey and the measurement indicators from the preselected social media sites: LinkedIn and Twitter. The general discussion, managerial implications, and limitations are also included.

Literature review and theoretical background
Knowledge dissemination in social marketing
Knowledge dissemination is a relatively new research area as opposed to product promotion. Marketing strategies employed for new products aim at raising public awareness and then increasing product sales. From this perspective, new knowledge dissemination is somewhat analogous to new product promotion. Kotler and Zaltman (1971) define social marketing as “the design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to influence the acceptability of social ideas and involving considerations of product planning, pricing, communication, distribution, and marketing research … marketing techniques are the bridging mechanisms between the simple possession of knowledge and the socially useful implementation of what knowledge allows” (p. 5). An advantage of this social marketing approach may lie in its refinement of how to communicate research findings effectively and with greater effect (Roger 1995).

According to the diffusion of innovation theory (Estabrookset al. 2006), knowledge dissemination is often referred to the process of connecting research findings in academia to broader communities (Sá et al. 2011). Gainforth et al. (2015) define this process as “moving research into the hands of research users” (p. 56). Effective knowledge dissemination and utilization of research promises to enrich and revitalize the research, practice, and community contexts (Herie and Martin 2002). In the current research, we use “knowledge dissemination” as a reference to the practice of transferring academic findings in sustainability to related knowledge users, such as other researchers or scholars, policy-makers, and sustainability practitioners (Gagnon 2011) at proper timing (Dell and Grayson 1998).

Community sustainability knowledge
Sustainable community development “is a holistic approach that integrates social, environmental, and economic considerations into the processes and actions undertaken by communities on their path toward sustainability” (Roseland and Spiliotopoulou 2016, p. 2). Sustainability implies social equity and functioning within ecological limits (Goodland 1995). Sustainable development denotes consideration of three interrelated domains: environmental, social, and economic (United Nations 2015). The new global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer 17 goals as an agenda for the world to achieve by 2030 (United Nations 2015). Sustainable development is the process, while sustainability is the goal. One of the global SDGs specifically sets a goal for inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities (United Nations 2015).

In order to address problems related to unsustainability, an increasing number of local governments have developed community sustainability plans (CSPs) (MacDonald et al. 2018). There are over 10,000 CSPs in the world (ICLEI 2012). These CSPs are implemented by local governments, in partnership with other local organizations such as local businesses (MacDonald et al. 2018; Clarke 2014). Broadcasting ideas and expertise from academia to external audiences accelerates and enhances the understanding of sustainable development (Gagnon 2011). Knowledge dissemination enables new information to be shared among audiences (Murphy and Salomone 2013), in this case, information related to implementing CSPs. Scholars desire to know the drivers of audience engagement in various communication channels, as well as the audience’s attitudes toward these channels, so that the most effective methods of sharing sustainability knowledge can be identified.

Social media
Social media are among the most active and popular online communication channels that are primarily designed for networking, which is “a group of Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content” (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). If used effectively and efficiently, social media applications can promote discussion and dialogue (Castronovo and Huang 2012), engage stakeholders (Newell and Dale 2015), facilitate information transfer and understanding (Huang 2010), and improve communication and collaboration in online environments (Murphy and Salomone 2013; Robelia et al. 2011). In this research, we are particularly interested in the role of social media websites, LinkedIn and Twitter, in disseminating sustainability knowledge. These online communication platforms can be considered as mechanisms for disseminating knowledge due to the fact that organizations gain and share knowledge through them (Murphy and Salomone 2013).

Twitter
Twitter represents a social networking tool very similar to blogging. As a “micro-blogging” application, Twitter provides all types of users, including individuals, organizations, and researchers, with many opportunities to effectively communicate and disseminate real-time message via posts limited to 140 characters which are aimed toward a wide and diverse audience (Castronovo and Huang 2012; Lovejoy et al. 2012). As one of the most popular social networking sites in North America, Twitter has nearly 300 million active users on a monthly basis (Waters and Jamal 2011), which makes it “the most used social media application in official public relations, advertising, and marketing campaigns” (Stelzner 2009, p. 313).

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a professional social networking tool that allows users to post and share information in a professional and online environment (Hennig-Thurau and Walsh 2003). Castronovo and Huang (2012) describe several functions of this social networking application, including the ability to advertise a business on the site, to develop company profiles, and to develop two-way relationships with career professionals and firms. As a communication tool, LinkedIn, like many social networking sites, provides users with many opportunities to disseminate information to particular audiences (Castronovo and Huang 2012).

Twitter is more a means for personal branding, whereas LinkedIn is more often used as an online profile (Dessart et al. 2015). Considering that the defined targeted audiences in this research are primarily professionals such as policy-makers and sustainability practitioners, knowledge dissemination platforms need to meet the criterion that the communication channel is generally used for professional purposes and is suitable for disseminating findings from sustainability research. As a result, Twitter and LinkedIn are selected as two representative social media sites for the current research, in that the vast majority of users on LinkedIn and Twitter are professionals, approximately 70% and 50%, respectively (Antheunis et al. 2013).

Types of messages (posts) on social media
Marketing research has been focusing on the importance of verbal versus visual information in various dimensions. Kim and Lennon (2008) investigate how different product information formats (visual vs. verbal) influence consumer attitudes toward product and purchase intentions in Internet shopping. Spiller and Lohse (1998) find that verbal product descriptions available on the Internet are equivalent to salespeople’s service at retail stores.

In a similar way, recognizing the format of knowledge presentation on social media as a potential factor that influences the efficiency and effectiveness of dissemination, we examine a variety of message formats in order to assess the most effective ways of disseminating sustainability research outcomes among the target audiences. Particularly, we examine three message formats used to present the sustainability knowledge on social media: academic that represents the original text and language from the research; public that focuses on easily accessible, every-day language in order to communicate with a wider audience; and visual language with the use of infographics to allow for visual representation of the research data that can easily be accessed and shared (Siricharoen 2013).

Motivations of engaging in social media for disseminating sustainability knowledge
Marketing studies have examined the motivations for acquiring information online, such as obtaining product information and social orientation, reducing purchasing risks, saving search time, and learning about new products (Hennig-Thurau and Walsh 2003). In a similar vein, we argue that acquiring and enhancing valuable sustainability knowledge, together with seeking professional expertise to improve the implementation of CSPs, are the major drivers for the target audiences in this research to engage in various social media networking sites (Dessart et al. 2015; Smith and Gallicano 2015).

Huang and Barlas (2009) suggest that shared interests toward the same topics in starting a conversation often initiate word-of-mouth discussion. Conversations are more likely to occur between people who share common interests or have similar backgrounds. Likewise, knowledge dissemination targets those audiences who share the same interests and needs; and these target groups then proactively receive new knowledge and ideas (Levin 2008). We argue that sustainability practitioners, who look for and/or intend to enhance related knowledge about their practices on social media will engage with scholars with expertise who have social networks with shared interests in the sustainability field (Gershoff et al. 2001).

Additionally, previous studies have explored the role of agents promoting buzz or vanguards. They are defined collectively as a group of people who “have a disproportionate ability to shape public opinion” (Dye 2000, p. 142), and are considered as early practitioners who play a vital role in attracting new adopters (Huang 2010; Castronovo and Huang 2012). These agents can be referred as media for word-of-mouth communication (Huang and Barlas 2009; Gershoff et al. 2001). Relating to the current study, we argue that sustainability researchers are important agents serving as an expertise and credible information source for practitioners who are seeking guidance and recommendations to improve their implementation of CSPs.

Measurement of the engagement in social media
Castronovo and Huang (2012) suggest that the techniques used to measure marketing effectiveness depend on specific marketing objectives. Strategies employed for knowledge dissemination are usually determined by knowledge content, targeted audiences, dissemination techniques, and dissemination purposes (Sá et al. 2011). The effectiveness of various internet-based tools is measured by audience engagement (Curran and Lennon 2011), such as the viewership of different media as it varies over time (Newell and Dale 2015). Through an understanding of influential factors for knowledge engagement online, we intend to incorporate such factors as attitudes toward environmental issues, adequate knowledge, and intention to apply knowledge and skills (Hungerford 1996) into the information disseminating strategies for the purpose of obtaining substantial attention from the targeted audiences and better servicing communication platform users (Swani et al. 2014; Kaplan and Haenlein 2010).

An increasing amount of scientific research has referred to data from Twitter (Golbeck et al. 2010) because this application also provides users with many opportunities to engage with stakeholders with four outstanding features to easily communicate, without geographical boundaries, through both public and private messages (Waters and Jamal 2011). They are (1) user mentions, such as the counts of impressions, link clicks, and favorites; (2) replies; (3) retweets; (4) hashtags (Zubiaga et al. 2015). Lovejoy et al. (2012) explain that “organizations [or other users] can communicate on Twitter through the use of the “@” symbol” (p. 314). This function connects users in a more direct manner, providing a simple and easy way of searching for other Twitter users. The retweet function is another example of a communication tool on Twitter that allows one user to repost a tweet from another user while giving acknowledgement of the user by adding “RT@[username]” to the beginning of the message” (Lovejoy et al. 2012, p. 314). Lastly, hashtag is a popular communication tool that categorizes messages by relevant topics on the social networking site. By the same token, we use the counts of views, likes, comments for each post, shares, and profile clicks on LinkedIn to measure the stakeholders’ engagement (Castronovo and Huang 2012).

Research questions
According to the Theory of Reasoned Action, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and the Technology Acceptance Mode (Curran and Lennon 2011), attitude is an important antecedent for both behavioral involvement and psychological immersion (Dessart et al. 2015; Smith and Gallicano 2015). On the one hand, different knowledge dissemination sources—referred as social media in this study—have different degrees of impact on audience behaviors. Proper knowledge transfer through appropriate platforms to the focal target audiences is expected to improve sustainability practices. On the other hand, the audiences engage in virtual communities to be connected with other community members (Brodie et al. 2011; Dessart et al. 2015). In summary, our research questions and the according hypotheses are summarized as follows:

R1::
What are the target audiences’ attitudes toward disseminating knowledge about implementing CSPs on social media?

H1::
When social media is involved in disseminating sustainability knowledge about CSP implementation, people are more in favor of LinkedIn than Twitter

R2::
What are the drivers that lead the target audiences to engage with knowledge about implementing CSPs disseminated through social media?

H2::
People are more likely to use Twitter than LinkedIn to browse sustainability knowledge; while LinkedIn is more likely to be used when people seek particular advice on CSPs

R3::
What types of knowledge about implementing CSPs, disseminated on social media, do the target audiences pay attention to?

H3::
In terms of various sustainability knowledge topics on social media, people will engage with some topics more than others on social media (LinkedIn and Twitter)

R4::
What format of knowledge about implementing CSPs disseminated on social media do the target audiences pay attention to?

H4::
Sustainability knowledge of CSPs presented in infographics with visual language on social media (LinkedIn and Twitter) attracts more attention than using academic or public language

Methods
To address the research questions R1 and R2, an online survey was used on LinkedIn and Twitter to test the hypotheses 1 and 2. To address the research questions R3 and R4, we use the fact-based measurements based on the participant’s reactions to various message contents and formats presented on LinkedIn and Twitter (Mairs et al. 2013).

Specifically, the message contents refer to a synthesis of academic research findings on sustainability knowledge of implementing CSPs. Such contents were presented in six topics disseminated through both LinkedIn and Twitter:

1.
Collaborative strategy process (Clarke and Fuller 2010).

2.
Topics in community sustainability plans (Clarke et al. 2014).

3.
Collaborative strategic management outcome types (Clarke and Fuller 2010).

4.
Key structural features for implementing a CSP (Clarke 2011, 2012).

5.
Partner outcomes from joining a community sustainability partnership (Clarke and MacDonald 2012, 2019).

6.
Partnership versus participation for community sustainability (Clarke and Erfan 2007).

Each topic was completed (i.e., standalone), so the order was not relevant. In addition, the content in each topic was disseminated to the targeted audiences, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections, using three different formats: academic, public, and infographics. The results of a pretest suggested the significant differences among three content formats for each topic (F(2, 27) = 7.89, p < .05). Thus, the manipulation of these topic formats was successful. An example of a topic with three content formats is provided in Appendix 1.

Survey
A structured survey was offered to those LinkedIn connections who had viewed the content. These participants were asked about their attitudes toward the LinkedIn websites disseminating sustainability knowledge on three items (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree):

The information about the implementation of sustainable community plans offered on LinkedIn is useful;

The information about the implementation of sustainable community plans offered on LinkedIn is understandable; and

The information about the implementation of sustainable community plans offered on LinkedIn is sufficient.

The participants were also asked about three motivations for engaging in LinkedIn (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree):

I browse or participate in the LinkedIn community is to obtain relevant information about sustainable community plans;

I browse or participate in the LinkedIn community is to learn more about sustainable community plans; and

I browse or participate in the LinkedIn community is to seek advice on sustainable community plans.

The same survey was offered to Twitter followers who had viewed the content. These participants were asked about their attitudes and engagement motivations toward the Twitter websites disseminating sustainability knowledge by using exactly the same items as those used with LinkedIn connections except for replacing “LinkedIn” with “Twitter.” The Cronbach’s Alpha is .92 for the LinkedIn survey items and .91 for Twitter, which indicate a high reliability of these items on measuring the participant’s attitude toward these two preselected social media.

In addition to the demographic information, both LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers were asked to provide comments to an open-end question about their impressions and feelings about sustainability-associated knowledge disseminated through these preselected social media accordingly.

In total, 76 completed surveys were collected on LinkedIn and 40 on Twitter.

Sample
The sampling method used in this study was snowball sampling, which is typically used to recruit participants through the referrals or connections of one member of a particular group (Padgett 2012). Specifically, we initially recruited participants from Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections who shared similar interests in sustainability and then obtained additional participants through their personal, and/or professional online networks (Baltar and Brunet 2012). The final sample included a number of people who were recruited through one of the authors’ own Twitter and LinkedIn sites. These participants were sustainability professionals, academics, as well municipal staff and councilors who were interested or involved in work surrounding sustainable communities. There were 243 Twitter followers and 126 LinkedIn connections engaged in the six key topics used for the final analysis.

Procedures and data collection
All six topics were posted through one of the authors’ LinkedIn online blog site and Twitter tweets in the same time window for each tween and format. Each topic had the same content in three different post formats: public, academic, and infographics. For each topic, the dissemination schedules consisted of a post on Tuesdays (public format), Wednesdays (academic format), and Thursdays (infographics format) around noon each day. In particular, the dissemination of topics on Twitter and LinkedIn ran from June 2015 to October 2015: Topic 1 was disseminated the week of June 23; Topic 2 was disseminated the week of June 30; Topic 3 the week of July 14; Topic 4 the week of July 21; Topic 5 the week of August 4; and Topic 6 the week of September 29. The time of day was chosen in order to reach the greatest amount of social media traffic on each site (Meidlinger 2015). The participating LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers could express their ‘like’ for and/or post their comments on these topics.

Analysis and results
To answer the research questions R1 and R2, the aggregated responses from the survey were analyzed. The perceived effectiveness of obtaining sustainability knowledge, providing professional advice, and enhancing learning were the dependent variables. Gender, age, and education were included as the covariates. Furthermore, a content analysis was used to analyze the textual responses to the open-end questions. To answer the research questions R3 and R4, the number of comments on each topic and other engagement measurements as described in the previous sections were counted for the analysis.

The results from the online survey suggest that the participants had significantly more-positive attitudes toward LinkedIn (M = 5.95, SD = 1.14) than Twitter (M = 4.76, SD = .85, t(112) = 6.32, p < .001) as the dissemination sources for implementing CSPs knowledge. H1 thus is supported.

In terms of obtaining sustainability knowledge about implementing CSPs, the participants were more likely to use Twitter (M = 4.88, SD = .93) than LinkedIn (M = 3.97, SD = .82, t(112) = 5.43, p < .001). On the contrary, the participants were more likely to use LinkedIn (M = 5.21, SD = .77) than Twitter (M = 4.35, SD = .82, t(112) = 3.99, p < .01) in terms of seeking advice on implementing CSPs. There was no significant difference between these two social media when the participants engaged in learning sustainability knowledge on implementing CSPs (t(112) = 1.18, p = .24). H2 is then supported.

The results from the content analysis offered further insightful perspectives. These responses were coded by the key words related to the effectiveness and usefulness of social media as communication channels for academic research. As shown in Table 1, the responses were coded into three categories: useful and effective, inappropriate/ineffective, and issues with post. These categories were indicators of the participants’ perception of each social media for receiving research. Overall, these responses were consistent with those from the online survey outcomes by indicating that Twitter was a more appropriate and/or effective communication channel for receiving and in turn disseminating sustainability academic research knowledge than LinkedIn. Meanwhile, the results also exhibited a number of issues related to the post itself, thereby impacting the reception of information and perception of LinkedIn and Twitter as channels for receiving research.

Table 1 Coded data from the open-end question in the online survey
Full size table
The content of each topic was examined to assess how content plays a role in the engagement rates of participants. As shown in Table 2, the number of impressions and views was provided on each social media application. We then collected these data from LinkedIn and Twitter to compare the engagement rates of each post.

Table 2 The dissemination and engagement of each topic on LinkedIn and Twitter sites
Full size table
The results of a Chi-square test of goodness-of-fit indicate a very significant difference among the engagement in different topics, χ2 (5) = 43.06, p < .001. In particular, the participants on LinkedIn engaged the most with topics regarding community sustainability plans (Topic 2) and participation versus partnership for community sustainability (Topic 6). Participants can use this information to develop and strengthen their own community sustainability plans. A similar pattern appeared for the participants on Twitter, χ2 (5) = 7.23, p < .05. Specifically, they were more engaged in topics of the CSPs (Topic 2) and the structures of those plans (Topic 4). This information details the most effective ways to structure the collaboration between partners and stakeholders, which is increasingly important for practitioners and organizations as they focus on addressing complex social and ecological problems. As a result, H3 is supported.

Table 3 summarizes the impact of message formats for each topic on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Table 3 The impact of content formats on LinkedIn and Twitter sites
Full size table
The results of a Chi-square test of goodness-of-fit indicate a very significant difference among the impacts of three message formats, χ2 (2) = 89.29, p < .001, on LinkedIn. That is, the participants engaged the most with the posts disseminated via infographics, followed by the use of academic and public languages. A similar pattern appeared for the participants on Twitter, χ2 (2) = 7.42, p < .05. Therefore, H4 is supported. Although the visual language posts showed the highest engagement and diffusion rates, the rates for the academic posts are higher than those of the public ones. This discrepancy indicates that participants are not consistently responding to communications presented in more accessible language. This could in fact be due to the audience type. The targeted audience for this research study was sustainability practitioners and other academic scholars. This target, however, could not be easily controlled in social media environments, thus impacting the type of participants and language preferences.

General discussion and conclusion
Academia contributions
This study is a multidisciplinary research that integrates sustainability, social psychology, communication, and knowledge management into social marketing. The academic contributions of this paper are significant in three ways.

First, the findings enhance the understanding of sustainability knowledge dissemination in enriching and revitalizing the research, practice, and community contexts (Kotler and Zalman 1971; Rogers 1995; Herie and Martin 2002) as well as provide policy-makers with insights for developing marketing communication strategies to achieve important social good. Although previous studies have examined knowledge dissemination through online platforms such as blogs or newsletters, this study has addressed the utilization of social networking sites in disseminating sustainability information in social marketing. Particularly, more than 60% of participants indicated that they browsed the information on Twitter sites but sought advice related to the sustainability knowledge on LinkedIn sites.

Second, although seeking information is considered as the entry level of participation (Smith and Gallicano 2015), our study suggests that the site users engage in Twitter and LinkedIn for different reasons in terms of sustainability knowledge. The results based on the engagement rates present a significant difference among various topics of sustainability knowledge. Some topics more intended to share the latest knowledge (such as the content about sustainability plans), others to further learning (such as the types of outcomes), and still other topics are more advanced advice for application (such as the partnership versus participation approaches content). Therefore, in addition to creating one-way dialogue with disseminated research, encouraging two-way dialogue and conversation will further increase the diffusion and engagement rates on social networking sites.

Finally, this research suggests that from a broad view of social marketing, the sustainability knowledge dissemination process provides a starting point for the sustainability professionals to apply and adapt it in their practices, which has the potential to bridge the gap between research and practice more effectively. Specifically, our study illustrates the effectiveness of visualizing data and information to share knowledge with targeted audiences. Providing participants with visual representations of research, including the use of graphs, charts, and graphics, allowed for easy transmission of knowledge between sender and receiver.

Managerial implications
Previous studies concentrated on knowledge dissemination in the domain of science, whereas our study expands the research domain to social marketing by examining the role of social media, such as LinkedIn and Twitter, in sustainability knowledge dissemination. As one of the few studies in social marketing, we apply social media as a marketing technique for the communication of sustainability research findings to a broad extent. Different from other social marketing studies that focus on individual consumers, we have addressed the target audience to professionals and academia. Particularly, when it comes to knowledge dissemination in social marketing practice for professional audiences, it is undeniable that social networking sites have unique features and functions. In terms of disseminating the knowledge of implementing CSPs, social networking sites are recommended for this purpose if researchers have well-maintained official accounts and sufficient social connections. Additionally, sustainability knowledge dissemination through social networking sites potentially is a cost-effective way to reach a large scale of audiences who are motivated to seek information and advice on sustainable communities (Castronovo and Huang 2012). In this study, obtaining accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn were free of charge, although these two sites provide options of paid service for promoting users’ posts as well. Furthermore, visual language, disseminated through infographics, may receive the highest engagement and diffusion rates by online social media users.

Limitations and directions for future research
Accurately analyzing the interactions on social media is a complicated task, which can be impacted by a number of extraneous variables. As this study collected quantitative data from both LinkedIn and Twitter, consequently, it is difficult to control variables that might have impacted the study’s results, such as the participant engagement or the diffusion rate of information. As a result, causation cannot be claimed. For instance, it is hard to control for potential confounds, such as political occurrences, world events, conferences, or personal interests, that may lead to the results where a participant chose to like a particular topic or to share a different topic. Therefore, we can only conclude that a correlation does indeed exist. One of the alternatives to address this limitation may be that the engagement of participants on social media sites through two-way dialogue and discussions should be included in future research. Additionally, future research should also incorporate more discussions and conversations among participants (through replies) regarding the disseminated information in order to ensure the effectiveness of knowledge sharing.

Moreover, Twitter and LinkedIn perform similarly in terms of disseminating sustainability knowledge. Further work may incorporate other social networking sites, such as Facebook and blogs, as a way to compare and contrast different social networking sites. Observing more types of online networking channels would help establish a greater degree of accuracy on this matter. More broadly, previous studies regarding knowledge management or dissemination were mostly in the traditional science discipline. More research is needed to determine the best option for sharing knowledge in other fields through social networking sites.

Summary
Recognizing the significance of knowledge dissemination in social marketing, this interdisciplinary study assesses the effectiveness of social media as the communication intermediaries in disseminating sustainability knowledge. As academic institutions play a vital role in knowledge mobilization, efforts can be made to create incentives for fostering a link between knowledge and practice (Sá et al. 2011). By understanding influential factors for knowledge engagement online, academic scholars are able to incorporate these factors into their dissemination strategies for the purpose of obtaining substantial attention from various targeted audiences, and better servicing communication platform users (Swani et al. 2014; Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). The results may also be transferable to other perspectives of product or service information.

Appendix 1: The example of a topic presented in three different formats
Topic 1
Infographic message
What is the best way to tackle social and environmental challenges?

figurea
Public message
What is the best way to tackle social and environmental challenges?

Climate change, environmental degradation, social inequity … there are no quick-fix solutions. These complex problems require the involvement of different sectors. Cross-sector partnerships bring together different actors in order to enable dynamic solutions to social and environmental problems. The collaborative strategic management process involves

1.
defining the problem and build partner relationships

2.
creating a strategic plan

3.
taking action both as individuals and a collective

4.
realizing the outcomes of these efforts.

Revisions at different stages in the process allow for continual improvement.

Derived from Clarke and Fuller (2010).

Academic message
Collaboration across sectors is essential for sustainable development.

Multi-organizational cross-sector social partnerships are becoming an increasingly common means of addressing complex social and ecological problems that are too extensive to be solved by any one organization. Below details a conceptual model of the collaborative strategic management process:

1.
The first stage of the collaborative strategic management process is assessing the environmental, social, and economic contexts of the issue and forming the partnership.

2.
The second stage of the process is the formulation of the collaborative strategic plan. It is in this phase where partners work together to find a common vision and negotiate a collaborative strategic plan.

3.
The third stage of the process involves the implementation of the collaborative strategic plan, through both deliberate and emergent approaches. Some aspects of the implementation will be collectively enacted by the partnership, and some aspects of the implementation will be individually enacted by the partners within their own organizations.

4.
The final stage is the realized collaborative strategy implementation outcomes, which are the results of the actions taken by both the partnership and by the individual partner organizations.

Each phase of the development process can be influenced by external factors such as changes in the domain. A series of feedback loops persist allowing for corrective action, overlapping activities, cyclical decision-making, and new partners to engage.

Derived from: Clarke and Fuller (2010).

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Funding
This research is funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, Standard Research Grant (SSHRC 435-2014-1250).

Author information
Affiliations
School of Business, State University of New York at Fredonia, E358 Thompson Hall, 280 Central Avenue, Fredonia, NY, 14063, USA
Lei Huang
School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
Amelia Clarke
School of Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
Natalie Heldsinger
School of Local Economic Development, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
Wen Tian
Corresponding author
Correspondence to Lei Huang.

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Huang, L., Clarke, A., Heldsinger, N. et al. The communication role of social media in social marketing: a study of the community sustainability knowledge dissemination on LinkedIn and Twitter. J Market Anal 7, 64–75 (2019). https://doi-org.elib.openu.ac.il/10.1057/s41270-019-00053-8