1. Mona Petersen Social Media in Marketing 1 (3)
Student code: 1101808
HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences 15/09/2011
Social Media in Marketing - Assignment 2
What is social media and what kind of elements does it include?
When explaining what social media is, one can best split the word first in its
two components: social and media.
Social is considered to be a characteristic of human beings or animals. Being
social means living together with other human beings or communicating, ei-
ther in a voluntary or involuntary way. People have the need to share their
opinions with other people. There always has to be an interaction between
two people to call something social. The term social is also matter of status in
the human society. The social status a person has in dependent on for example
ones income. So social has always something to do with a relationship to other
people; it is a two way process.
Media is a communication instrument, like the TV, the newspaper, the radio
and more. Through media news and facts are communicated, like the current
political situation, the weather and happenings on national and international
level. In comparison to the term social, the term media is always a one way
process. One can listen to the social media and get all the information, but one
cannot respond to it or discuss about it with the sender of the information.
Even though media is a one way communication process, it can influence
people in the same way as social can.
The term social media describes all the webpages one can find in the internet,
on which people can communicate with each other. They can exchange news
and facts on these webpages and social media is considered to be a two way
process. With social media a massive amount of people can collaborate and
share information. Social media tools are webpages like Facebook, Twitter or
even Skype.
What are the main advantages and disadvantages in using social media in marketing?
Marketing is about creating and communicating information to the wide audi-
ence. It is about getting to know the exact target group a certain product
should be communicated to and about having knowledge about the compa-
ny’s competitors.
Social media in marketing is a part of internet marketing and is used to reach a
wider audience. Nowadays nearly all of the people are active in social media.
The use of Facebook for example increased immensely in the last years. Hav-
ing this knowledge, companies can use the social media to reach people from
all over the world and people with different age groups at the same time. This
makes it a lot easier for companies to promote their products, get feedback
about products and stay in touch with customers. Companies can expand their
network and keep their business growing. Also for the people using social me-
dia this is an advantage, because they can stay informed about their beloved
ones or new products. Using social media in marketing also makes it cheaper
for the companies to reach potential customers. To sign in on different places
in social media is cost free for both, customer and the company. When com-
panies are active on different tools in social media, their visibility in the inter-
net grows and people can become more aware of the company.
Disadvantages of social media might be the fact that still not everybody is in-
volved in social media, even though the numbers steadily increase. Especially

2. Mona Petersen Social Media in Marketing 2 (3)
Student code: 1101808
HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences 15/09/2011
elderly people mostly do not have computer access or do not have interest in
social media. This target group is hard to reach through social media and the
companies have to come back to their old marketing tools, which mostly are
more expensive. Companies using social media in marketing also have to be
aware that the wrong online promotion and strategy can destroy their image
and have negative effect on their customers. Companies also should not un-
derestimate the amount of time with updating social media pages.
What are the main principles in social media use in marketing?
The trends in social media marketing have changed so rapidly in the last years
and are still subject to change that companies have to be aware that the strate-
gies that they used last year may not be effective anymore this year.
The principles in social media use in marketing are the key elements compa-
nies have to keep in mind to avoid missing out of changing trends.
One principle is to share the information. News should be published and
promoted effectively and also in time. So when promotion an event or prod-
uct it does not make sense to promote it the day after the event or the new
product has been released.
Social media is not about selling things to the customer, but about informing
customers. It is about entertaining people and giving hints about upcoming
events or new products.
With social media information gets shared all the time, “24/7”. The customer
can access their social media accounts when and wherever they want. In this
way there is no limit in sharing information. Also the fact that the information
is for free has many advantages for the customer and is taken thankfully.
One of the most important things in social media is to listen. The customer
will tell you what he/she wants and expects of a product or event or anything
else. If you listen effectively you get all the information you need to succeed.
So the publisher has to engage the customer to communicate his/her thoughts
and to evaluate.
Bobliography http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/social
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social
http://www.wordreference.com/definition/social
http://blogs.gartner.com/anthony_bradley/2010/01/07/a-new-definition-of-
social-media/
http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/media
http://www.webpronews.com/the-definition-of-social-media-2007-06
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/11/17/12-principles-of-social-media-
marketing/
http://www.jasonfpeck.com/2009/04/02/6-principles-of-social-media-
marketing/
http://www.marketingpower.com/AboutAMA/Pages/DefinitionofMarketing
.aspx
http://www.internetworldstats.com/facebook.htm

3. Mona Petersen Social Media in Marketing 3 (3)
Student code: 1101808
HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences 15/09/2011
http://www.insidefacebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/facebook-
user-growth-250-million.png
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/01/04/december-data-on-
facebook%E2%80%99s-us-growth-by-age-and-gender-beyond-100-million/
http://toprankedwebsite.com.au/5-benefits-of-social-media-marketing
http://blog.thoughtpick.com/2010/11/10-must-know-advantages-
disadvantages-of-social-media.html
.