Social media are media for social interaction

8/7/2019 Social media are media for social interaction

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Social media are media forsocial interaction, using highly accessible and scalable

publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to turn communication

into interactive dialogue.

Social media marketing is a recent addition to organizations integrated marketing

communicationsplans. Integrated marketing communications is a principle organizationsfollow to connect with their targeted markets. Integrated marketing communications

coordinates the elements of the promotional mix; advertising,personal selling,public

relations,publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion.In the traditional marketingcommunications model, the content, frequency, timing, and medium of communications

by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e. advertising agencies,

marketing research firms, and public relations firms. However, the growth ofsocial

media has impacted the way organizations communicate. With the emergence of Web2.0, the internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business

connections, share information and collaborate on projects online.

Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attractsattention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporatemessage spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is coming from a

trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.

Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internetaccess, opening doors for organizations to increase their brand awareness and facilitate

conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively

inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns. With

emergence of services like Twitter, the barrier to entry in social media is greatly reduced.Report from company Sysomos shows that half of the users using Twitter are located

outside US demonstrating the global significance of social media marketing.Organizations can receive direct feedback from their customers and targeted markets.

Social media marketing which is known as SMOSocial Media Optimizationbenefitsorganizations and individuals by providing an additional channel for customer support, a

means to gain customer and competitive insight, recruitment and retention of new

customers/business partners, and a method of managing their reputation online. Keyfactors that ensure its success are its relevance to the customer, the value it provides them

with and the strength of the foundation on which it is built. A strong foundation serves as

a stand or platform in which the organization can centralize its information and directcustomers on its recent developments via other social media channels, such as article and

press release publications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_(communication)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_interactionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_technologieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing_communicationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing_communicationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_sellinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_marketinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_promotionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sysomoshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_optimizationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_(communication)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_interactionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publishinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_technologieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing_communicationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_marketing_communicationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_sellinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relationshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_marketinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_promotionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_mediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sysomoshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_optimization


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The most popular platforms include:

Blogs

Delicious

Facebook Flickr

Hi5

LinkedIn

MySpace

Reddit

Tagged

Twitter YouTube
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Political parties using social media

Social media has and will continue to be a significant influence over politics. President

Obama leveraged social media as the differential in his Presidential campaign and it wasthe difference that got him elected.

Now we see the Tea Party using social media to propagate their message and rally voters.

More and more politicians are awakening to the influence afforded by using social mediaas a channel to reach voters and influence "the market of conversations.

The Coming Elections

The traditional media will be consumed with reports about the November elections but

social media is likely to be the differential which continues to change the political

landscape. Lets examine what is happening with the parties and their use of social media.

Republican candidates for the U.S. senate have amassed more than four times as many

Facebook Fans as their Democratic counterparts, and more than five times as many

Twitter Followers, according to an analysis by HeadCount, a nonpartisan voterregistration organization.
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As of Sept. 21st, Republican candidates for the Senate had over million Fans on

Facebook, compared to just under 300,000 for Democrats. The differential on Twitter is

even more striking, where Republican Senatorial candidates collectively have close to520,000 Followers, and Democrats are just below 90,000.

Even when eliminating Arizona Senator John McCain and California Senate hopefulCarly Fiorina, Republicans who respectively have the largest number of Facebook Fans

and Twitter Followers, Republicans are clearly making larger inroads with social media.Without McCain and Fiorina, Republican Senate candidates average 20,985 Facebook

Fans, compared to 8,260 for Democrats. The G.O.P. averaged 5,891 Twitter Followers,

compared to 2,591 by their opponents.

The full report, which lists social media statistics for all Senatorial candidates along withmajor political figures and musicians, is available at www.HeadCount.org/blog.

"We began by researching the disparity in social media activity involving musicians

compared to political figures, to illustrate the point that music is a great tool to spurpolitical conversation online," said Andy Bernstein, Executive Director of HeadCount.

"We then discovered that the gap between the parties was proportionately just as wide."

Candidates associated with the Tea Party are clearly responsible for much of the social

media activity, most notably South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint. Hailed asone of the most new media savvy elected officials, he has more Twitter Followers than

any incumbent and more Facebook Fans than any incumbent other than McCain. Across

both parties, candidates in California and Florida have strong social media followings. In

Florida Kendrick Meek has the third largest social media following of any Democratnationwide, but he also ranks third in his own state, trailing Republican Marco Rubio and

Independent Charlie Crist.

Still, none of the candidates have a social media presence comparable to musicians.HeadCount tallied the number of Facebook Fans of 25 of the artists that have supported

the organization's voter registration efforts. All had more Fans than any Senatorial

candidate other than McCain. Kings of Leon, the artist in the group with the largest

number of Facebook Fans with close to five million, has more than double the number offormer vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

As we have seen in states like U.S the approach of using social media is high by the

political parties, dont worry even our country is not far behind. The political parties like

congress, BJP have also entered in the social networking sites.

There are already 70,532 fans of the congress party on the facebook so here you see how

the parties are trying to reach us.

There are following reason which are beneficial to the parties by reaching to the local

people and updating them
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As we talk about trust, loyalty faithfulness, transparency which of course it follows but

yes there is something more to it which are

Social networks also allow the efficient organisation of rallies and events, plus thecoordination of volunteers and workers. Additionally, a dedicated social network is the

ideal place to raise campaign funds through donations, subscriptions and sales ofmerchandise.

Raising Campaign Funds

Campaign donations, subscriptions and sale of merchandise can be easily collected fromconstituents from within a dedicated social network site.

Coordinate Volunteers & Workers

Volunteers and workers are easily coordinated and managed using the grouping

functionality, with volunteers and groups effectively getting their own network within anetwork.

Constituent Engagement & Feedback

A dedicated social network lets a politician have a focused and controlled online space

that facilitates e client and e ective engagement of constituents on a scale that waspreviously not economically possible.

Develop & Promote Policy

The dynamic environment that a dedicated social network provides lets politicians

develop policy from live and active consultation with constituents, which createsownership in the policy by constituents so they become evangelist to the cause.

Organize Rallies & Events

Dedicated social networks make organising rallies and events very simply and

straightforward; each event or rally gets a dedicated webpage within the network thatworks as an event management system.

One of the best examples of a politician using a dedicated social networking site toeffectively and efficiently further his political cause is Dominic Villepin who is currently

challenging for the French Presidential election. On his dedicated social networkwww.villepincom.net he and his team have gained almost 10,000 core supporters with

whom he has developed and promoted policy,coordinated volunteers and raised funds

using blogs, videos, forums and organized events.
http://www.villepincom.net/http://www.villepincom.net/


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This site is the primary online presence for Dominic Villepan's campaign for President of

France and has pioneered a new web presence for politicians that has only becomeeconomically possible in the past few years.

Benefits ofsocial network communities forpoliticians and political campaigns:

Relenet social network communities offer a wide range of possibilities to improve and

coordinate electoral engagement using the following features:

Up to date information on local events to increase the degree of participation,e.g. GoogleMaps included in the social network community showing the users

where the next partys barbecue, fundraising concert or speech takes place thats

direct citizen participation!

Photo and video galleries linked to interesting events, persons...

Personalized design and a proven online marketing concept: This broadens thespace for adverts or banners in a virtual community which adapts perfectly to the

needs of your projects requirements

Coordination of local groups and a feature to locate other supporters in your

region

Coordination and preparation of upcoming events, RSVP function and guest listssimplify the organization

Analyse the members data to find out about the preferences and behaviour of

your supporters

Peer-to-peer discussions and instant chat with candidates in forums Opportunities for supporters to create popular products promoting your campaign

like photos, videos, music, etc. which can easily spread virally in the world wideweb

Organisation and coordination of interest groups: Users will come to the

community in order to participate in public communication and campaigning, you

will learn about their commitment and about their interest directly and quickly bymeans of forums, wikis, blogs etc.

The loyalty of the users of social network communities is extremely high as the analysis

of a vast number of social network communities has proven. Users check their messages,

upcoming events or blogs and hence log in regularly they keep in touch with you andyour campaign community. Changing from one social network community to the other

would mean to lose all these new contacts, photos or videos and to get used to different

designs. Therefore most users stick to a political social network community after havingjoined it once.

Furthermore, users invite others to join the social network community ofpoliticians orpolitical campaigns and find friends as well as local supporters within the virtual

community. The community grows by itself. A social network community lowers thethreshold of participation: supporters do not have to go to e.g. official meetings in order


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to participate, they only need to register virtually and they can immediately join the social

network community. Local speeches, meetings and all other kinds of happenings may be

suggested to them and furthermore planned and discussed within the forums. Afterwardsyou may share the photos and videos.

How can politicians influence people when using social networking websites such asfacebook?

It's actually easier. You put small updates and its noticeable my millions of viewers, It'slike a free commercial where you can reach to the target people my just 1 click and send

them what you wanted them to hear from you.

Pay attention to the influence and use of social media in politics. It is likely to

become a dominate factor from here on out.

Q. How do you bring politicians into the discussion today?

A. Being involved in West Virginia politics, it isnt hard for me personally to discuss

issues with State Senators and members of the House of Delegates, but only because Iknow them and am on a first-name basis with some. But as far as discussing issues as a

constituent who isnt involved in the Mountain States political arena, it wouldnt be

easy. West Virginia is a mountainous state, and therefore we are still lacking inbroadband infrastructure, disabling opportunities for more open communications

between elected officials and those they represent. While we are working on connecting

all public buildings, (i.e. Hospitals, schools, libraries, etc..) to the Internet, were a longway from where we should be. Currently, several elected officials do use Facebook and

respond to constituent requests and reporter comments via this social media vehicle.

Personally, I wrote an op-ed piece discussing the need for more elected/aspiring

politicians to engage and converse with their current/hopeful constituents via socialmedia. All my companys political clients utilize several social media vehicles to

eliminate transparency and obtain real-time feedback. This allows us, as political

consultants and campaign managers, to adapt our messages more quickly based on theneeds of younger voters.

Q. With the infrastructure challenges/limitations that exist in West Virginia today,

what are the most common methods being used by politicians to get the word out?

A. Politicians rely heavily on direct mail, radio, and TV as vehicles for reachingcandidates. Also, fundraisers, pig roasts, and going door-to-door still occur regularly

during campaign season in West Virginia. One young member of the House of Delegates,

Doug Skaff, hosts a Cinco De Mayo party at a local Mexican restaurant.

Q. Do they come to you, do you recruit, does the local party send them in?

A. As a company, Rainmaker, Inc. both recruits candidates and we have several

candidates that come to us. We win nearly 90% of elections.

Regarding educating politicos on the importance of open government, I would love to

teach a social media class to elected/aspiring politicians. This field, more than any other,
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needs to be PC or politically connected to their voter base, which is a youngeraudience.

Q. If you were to teach a class to politicians, what information,at a high-level, would

you discuss with them?

A. Politicians need to learn more about Gen Y and how we communicate. We like tobe engaged, not just a recipient of information. Simply using social media as a means to

broadcast information wont work with us. You must use it as a communication tool that

fosters a 2-way dialogue between you and your constituents. In a nutshell, Id teach

effective constituent relations through social networking using open dialogue. Id alsoteach politicians how to speak the same language with younger constituents, and how to

engage them.

Q. What is the biggest mistake you see politicians making on social media today?

A. Treating social media as a broadcast tool, rather than an engagement tool, is the

number one mistake committed by most elected officials. When it comes to social media

usage for open government, elected/aspiring politicians must have a conversationalmindset.

Q. Do you see differences in social media usage between political parties?

A. While searching on Twitter, there seem to be more GOPs involved in the broad

political arena than Dems. Id say its about even in West Virginia though.

Q. In your opinion, which social media tools are the best fit for todays politicians?

A. I think Obama had the best social media of any politician to date, obviously. But just

starting out, lets keep it simple. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Rather Stone Age in

the digital democracy, I know, but its a start.

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Social media are media for social interaction