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Social Media Marketing By: Jessica Carroll Executive Summary This report will discuss social media marketing as it relates to integrated marketing communications. Throughout the report topics such as the description and background of social media marketing will be explained. Common facts, known issues and important insights will reviewed. The growth of social media marketing over time, and how it will continue to grow in 2015 will be discussed in detail, as well as what factors have influenced it’s growth and potential future growth. This report will also discuss the industry participants that are excelling in social media marketing. As well as how to measure and evaluate social media marketing to assist in determining if it was successful. Finally, the report will conclude with an application of social media marketing with clear examples of how it can be applied in real life marketing situations. Social media marketing, a term also known as the acronym SMM is a form of internet marketing that marketers use to market their products or services to gain insights, build awareness or build customer base. A few well known social media networks commonly used are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram. Social media marketing is extremely important to the everyday marketer, in fact 92% of marketers agree that it is important to their business (Kusinitz, 2014). SMM provides various benefits to a business such as increased brand loyalty and increased traffic (DeMers, 2014). Dating back to the 1960s, social media marketing has played a large role in the growth of marketing communications and has revolutionized the way companies connect with their target market. Social media is extremely popular in today’s market with the total number of Facebook promoted posts reaching 2.5 million. In fact it costs $200,000 to have a 24 hour promoted trend on Twitter and YouTube is expected to generate $5.6 Billion in gross revenue in 2016 (Parks, 2014). While 92% of marketers have said that social media has increased more exposure for their products/services (Kusinitz, 2014), there are some issues that are prevalent in SMM, such as a lack of in-house resources/skills (Bennett, 2014). When creating an effective social media 1

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Social Media Marketing By: Jessica Carroll

Executive Summary

This report will discuss social media marketing as it relates to integrated marketing communications. Throughout the report topics such as the description and background of social media marketing will be explained. Common facts, known issues and important insights will reviewed. The growth of social media marketing over time, and how it will continue to grow in 2015 will be discussed in detail, as well as what factors have influenced it’s growth and potential future growth. This report will also discuss the industry participants that are excelling in social media marketing. As well as how to measure and evaluate social media marketing to assist in determining if it was successful. Finally, the report will conclude with an application of social media marketing with clear examples of how it can be applied in real life marketing situations.

Social media marketing, a term also known as the acronym SMM is a form of internet marketing that marketers use to market their products or services to gain insights, build awareness or build customer base. A few well known social media networks commonly used are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram. Social media marketing is extremely important to the everyday marketer, in fact 92% of marketers agree that it is important to their business (Kusinitz,2014). SMM provides various benefits to a business such as increased brand loyalty and increased traffic (DeMers, 2014). Dating back to the 1960s, social media marketing has played a large role in the growth of marketing communications and has revolutionized the way companies connect with their target market.

Social media is extremely popular in today’s market with the total number of Facebook promoted posts reaching 2.5 million. In fact it costs $200,000 to have a 24 hour promoted trend on Twitter and YouTube is expected to generate $5.6 Billion in gross revenue in 2016 (Parks, 2014). While 92% of marketers have said that social media has increased more exposure for their products/services (Kusinitz, 2014), there are some issues that are prevalent in SMM, such as a lack of in-house resources/skills (Bennett, 2014). When creating an effective social media marketing campaign it is detrimental to set clear business goals to ensure there is a clear purpose of the campaign.

In recent years social media has grown immensely, and 2015 will be no different. Trends such as video content, increasing popularity for SlideShare in the B2B market, creating more meaningful relationships with customers, and more personal interaction will be popular in the next year.

SMM is on an upward trajectory of growth, as it has been for the last 10 years, in fact it is suggested that by 2018 there will be 2.44 billion users on social media (Statistica, 2012).

The main “suppliers” of social media include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Blogging, Google Plus and LinkedIn. There are many companies that have been able to effectively utilize these channels to build their brands, such as Ford, Cranium and BlendTec.

The most important portion of a social media marketing plan is the ability to measure and evaluate the success of the campaign. This can be done by using ongoing analytics, as well as using campaign focused methods to determine the effectiveness as the campaign as a whole and as small strategies (Jenn Deering Davis, n.d.).

This report will finalize by giving an example of the steps that need to be taken when creating an effective social media marketing strategy using a new to market product called Homemades.

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Social Media Marketing: Description and Background

Social Media Marketing, which is also referred to as SMM, is an aspect of internet marketing. Businesses and companies utilize SMM to market their product or service, gain insights, create word-of-mouth, create brand awareness and/or increase consumer base through social media network platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube (Rouse, 2011). An important strategy of social media marketing is social media optimization, which is used to create new prospects and bring in new customers to a business. SMO can be achieved through adding social media links such as “like” or “share” buttons being posted on interesting content, or by promoting the desired outcome through the social media network though posts, statuses, blogs or tweets (Rouse, 2011).

Social media marketing has spread like wildfire in recent years, making itself a necessity among marketers. In fact a recent study in 2014 found that 92% of marketers agree that social media is very important for their business, which has increased 8% from the previous year (Kusinitz, 2014).

There are many benefits a business can gain from using social media marketing, including: increased brand recognition, improved brand loyalty, more opportunities to convert prospects into consumers, higher conversion rates, higher brand authority, increased traffic, decreased marketing costs, better search engine ratings, better customer experiences, and improved customer insights to name a few (DeMers, 2014). Social media gives businesses a new outlet where they can have a voice and feel comfortable, which in turn will make customers feel more familiar and trusting with a brand. It is essentially a new way of communicating with the consumer and prospects, which not only increases loyalty with current customers, but it turns possible customers into actual consumers. Social media marketing provides a human aspect to marketing, allowing customers to have a voice through a conversation, rather than simply being spoken to, such as television ads or out of home advertising (DeMers, 2014).

Social marketing has been a necessity that has been in place for thousands of years, dating back to medieval times, when lords would create social hubs in the market place to gather town members to create a shared experience among all (Friedman, 2014). Social media has been around for over 40 years, in 1969 the first Commercial Online Service by CompuServe was created (See appendix, figure 1&2). In 1997 the first modern social network “Six Degrees” was launched, under the notion that no person was more than six degrees from another, and unfortunately only gained roughly one million users in its peak. Users found the website to be too pushy and spam filled, and the website soon closed three short years later (Digital Trends Staff, 2014).

In the last 10 years social media has revolutionized, to become the marketing monster that it is today (See appendix, figure 3) (Kolowich, 2014).

In 2004 Flickr was launched and Facebook, the social media mogul we all know and love, was founded.

From 2005 to 2007 social media platforms including YouTube, Bebo, and Twitter were launched. And in 2007 Facebook became open to the public.

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In 2008, Facebook outranked Myspace in number of users, and one year later it created the “like” button. During the same year YouTube hit 1 billion views per day.

2010 brought sponsored tweets, and in 2011 Pinterest, Google Plus and Snapchat launched.

In 2012 Facebook reached over one billion users, purchased Instagram, and launched paid promoted posts.

2013 was the year of Instagram and Vine, YouTube launched paid channels, and Twitter had over 200 million active users.

It is safe to say that as social marketers businesses needed to stay socially relevant, and in the last 12 years it has become a necessity to maintain a strong online presence not only on digital platforms, but on social media as well.

Facts, Issues, Insights

Social media has such a large impact on businesses, small, medium and large in size, and their ability to grow and be successful. The following are some interesting facts that pertain to social media marketing:

There are over one million small or medium sized businesses advertising on Facebook (Parks, 2014).

There are a total of 500,000 Facebook pages with promotional posts (Parks, 2014). The total number of Facebook promoted posts has reached 2.5 million (Parks, 2014). It costs $200,000 to have a 24 hour promoted trend on Twitter (Parks, 2014). YouTube is expected to generate $5.6 Billion in gross revenue in 2016 (Parks, 2014). 92% of marketers have said that social media has increased more exposure for their

products/services (Kusinitz, 2014). 80% of marketers have suggested that social media marketing has increased traffic on

their websites (Kusinitz, 2014). 72% of marketers use social media to increase loyalty, and develop new loyal customer

base (Kusinitz, 2014). Over half of the marketers surveyed have reported that over the past three years social

media marketing has improved their sales (Kusinitz, 2014). Of the marketers who spent at least six hours per week focused on social media

marketing, 66% found lead generation, and have reported that new partnerships were created (Kusinitz, 2014).

Nearly half of said marketers have also reported a reduction in marketing costs (Kusinitz,2014).

Of the marketers with over one year of social media marketing experience, 69% found that social media platforms provide key marketplace insight, which provides them with a competitive advantage (Kusinitz, 2014).

There have been noted issues that must be addressed and resolved to perfect social media marketing, these include:

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Lack of in-house resources/skills – businesses do not have employees skilled in social media marketing (Bennett, 2014).

Inability to measure return on investment (Bennett, 2014). Insufficient or non-effective social media marketing strategy (Bennett, 2014). The absence of interesting content (Bennett, 2014). Lack of assimilation across marketing channels (Bennett, 2014). Inadequate budget (Bennett, 2014). Lack of unanimity on importance of social media (Bennett, 2014). Failure to become mobile aware (Bennett, 2014).

When planning and implementing social media marketing it is very important to have insight on what will determine the success of the campaign. Similar to other aspects of marketing, strategy is extremely important. Here are some key insights that a marketer should have when creating a social media marketing campaign:

Set business goals for social media marketing campaigns. Ensure they have a clear idea of how they will determine whether or not they are reaching these goals (Smart Insights, n.d.).

Create a strategy for the social media marketing campaign. This will allow the marketer to prioritize and ensure that their campaign is effective and successful (Smart Insights, n.d.).

Actively listen to colleagues, customers and suppliers. Reflect and re-read to better understand what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how they can change for the better (Smart Insights, n.d.).

Create a strong content and a captivating engagement blueprint. It is important to ensure marketers are gaining engagement from their followers, which happens to be one of the most difficult aspects of social media marketing. Therefore, they must have a good strategy in place that will ensure high participation and engagement. (Smart Insights, n.d.).

Determine the communications strategy. It is crucial to be speaking to the customer on many different marketing communication channels. All of which must provide interesting content to the consumer, and be integrated with one another (Smart Insights, n.d.).

Use the best practices known to each social media platform. Know how each social media platform works, and what type of approach will be most effective, as this will allow marketers to optimize their message through the specific tools and services offered by the specific platform (Smart Insights, n.d.).

Utilize SEO (social media optimization). Optimizing the brands image to reach the consumer more effectively, allowing the brand to have an established presence within the social media community.

Growth and Predictions

The growth of social media over recent years has provided marketers with new opportunities and possibilities. Throughout the recession and economic dip, social media has grown tremendously,

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largely because of its affordability and popularity (Porterfield, 3 new studies prove social media marketing growth, 2010). Small and medium sized businesses increased their social media marketing usage from 12% to 24% from 2009 to 2010, and even more so in more recent years (Porterfield, 3 new studies prove social media marketing growth, 2010). In 2010, 75% of small businesses surveyed stated they had a company page on a social networking site (Porterfield, 3 new studies prove social media marketing growth, 2010). In 2014, a group of 2800 marketers were surveyed and they found 92% of them found that social media was important for their business, which was a 6% increase from 2013 (Social Media Examiner, 2014). Suffice to say that social media marketing has been on a positive growth trend throughout the past ten years, and will continue to grow and become more of a necessity to businesses and marketers.

Last year was a fantastic year for social media and social media marketing. The following are some predictions for how social media marketing will change in 2015:

Video becomes the new favourite way to show content. YouTube is still dominating the video media market, but Facebook has begun to catch up, capturing more video shares than any other platform in 2014 (See Figure 4) (King, 2015).

Studies suggest businesses will move away from Facebook because of the difficulty of reaching the target audience. New content forms will be created to allow businesses to stand out in comparison to their competitors. Also, filters will become increasingly popular, therefore marketers will have to find new ways of being able to get their messages through the filtering systems, which will create many new challenges (King, 2015).

Since introducing videos in 2014, SlideShare has become increasing popular and is forecasted to become an even more useful tool in B2B marketing in 2015 (King, 2015).

Paid advertising on social media will become inevitable, as social media platforms are continuing to thrust businesses into paying for promotions and advertising in new ways (King, 2015).

Brands will realize that social media is the perfect platform to create relationships with their customers, rather than just get their message across. Humanization and honesty and telling a store through drip campaigns and content marketing are also upcoming trends of 2015 (King, 2015).

Creating meaningful experiences will become more important in ensuring that lasting relationships are being maintained with the customer. This will involve not only have the right employees managing social media marketing, but ensuring they are passionate and invested in the company, the message, and the customer (King, 2015).

Republishing updates, content and statuses will become more important in order to get noticed and gain the reach needed to make an effective campaign, mostly due to the over saturation on social media sites (King, 2015).

Personal interaction with customers will provide higher trust and loyalty with the brand and the consumer in 2015 (King, 2015).

Integrated social media marketing will become a necessity. Ensuring there is a balanced combination of social networks to provide interesting content on many different platforms which will create a more effective social media strategy (King, 2015).

Factors Influencing Growth

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Social Media Marketing is on an upward trajectory of growth, and as mentioned before in this report, it is extremely important that businesses become active on social media platforms to be a part of this growing trend. Social media is continuously growing, according to Statistica, there will be 2.44 billion users on social media by 2018, nearly double the users that are currently active (See figure 5) (Howell, 2014).

The following factors have influenced the growth of social media in marketing:

Social media provides marketers with more information about customer wants, needs, trends, outlooks, values, attitudes and likes and dislikes. By utilizing social media from a marketing standpoint it has allowed marketers to have a more intricately detailed view of their target audience (Howell, 2014).

The increased use of mobile technology, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops has directly impacted the popularity of social media, which has, in turn, changed the way marketers have been able to reach their target audience (Howell, 2014).

72% of all internet participants are actively engaging on social media (Bullas, 2014).

Industry Participants

Social Media Marketing encompasses a mixture of those who supply the platform, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Those who use the platform to connect with their customers, such as businesses and marketers. As well as the customer, who is utilizing the social media platform to take in information, stay connected with their family and friends, and share feelings and ideas.

The top social media platform that are currently used by media marketers are (See figure 6):

Facebook – While it is the most popular platform for social media marketing, Facebook has received bad reviews from marketers when asked if they find that marketing on Facebook is effective. Facebook offers a plethora of marketing options including: personalized pages, statuses, share and like options, paid advertising including banners and ads, detailed feedback and indicators of success. Facebook is more effective when marketing for B2C businesses, and large businesses with 1000 or more employees (SocialMedia Examiner, 2014).

Twitter – Twitter offers users with the ability to create a short biography, and allows them to communicate with their target audience very easily through mentions and hashtags. It has been most effective in B2C marketing, but can also be used for B2B (Schiff, 2013).

LinkedIn – LinkedIn provides marketers with a way to communicate in the B2B field. It provides a detailed company page, which provides insights into products and services, feedback and recommendations from previous users, and a view of the network. It also allows users to share content and articles that can engage the target audience (Sammons, 2013). LinkedIn has become increasingly popular in recent years (Social Media Examiner, 2014).

YouTube – YouTube is considered to be one of the best and most powerful social media platforms, it is accessible, easy to use, and allows marketers to establish their brands in exceptional and extraordinary ways. YouTube also allows marketers to view the success

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of their videos, and is compatible to be shared on many other types of social media platforms. All of these benefits, and an interesting and well put together idea and video are the ingredients for an effective “Trojan horse” (Clum, 2013)

Blogging – Blogging provides many benefits, including search engine optimization, brand awareness, media attraction and loyalty (Chaney, 2013). It has been used more often by small and medium sized companies, and many marketers plan to utilize it within the upcoming year (Social Media Examiner, 2014).

Google+ - Google+ allows users to input their interests and share them with friends and contacts through “circles”, but rather than be focused on family and friends, it is focused on the users interests and sharing information that pertains to them (Wagoner, 2014). Google+ provides social media marketers with the perfect platform to share content and build brand awareness with their customers.

Pinterest – Pinterest is becoming increasingly popular among marketers, it allows users to share, blog, and leave comments about various topics. Marketers can utilize Pinterest to provide users with interesting content that they can share, that will also lead back to their website, turning the viewer into a prospective customer (Williams, n.d.).

It is important to see how companies are able to grasp the concept of social media marketing and create a strong strategy that brings significant return on investment. The following are some examples of businesses that have done a good job at social media marketing:

Ford Motor Company – Ford has done an excellent job at engaging their audience through social media. They utilize blogging, Flickr and YouTube to provide their customers with a brand experience unmatched by any other company. Their blog, called The Ford Story offers a unique perspective into the culture of Ford, a feature that is particularly unique to Ford is that they will post the blog photo, headline and comments from readers on their website, adding additional value to the reader from the start. Ford also involves the reader, by asking for their stories, opinions and ideas. They take these ideas very seriously, and in some cases they are used to create an innovative change in the next generation of their vehicles (Porterfield, 2011).

Cranium – Cranium by Hasbro has created a creative way of engaging their audience through the use of activities and interesting videos/photos. They use content from their actual game to intrigue their fans and prospects into playing, through facts, questions and quizzes they take social media marketing to the next level (Porterfield, 2011).

BlendTec – BlendTec did a fantastic job creating a Trojan horse through social media. Through their “Will it blend” campaign, where they blended everyday items from iPhones to baseballs to glow sticks, they created a 5x increase in sales, and it is safe to say they brought in new customers who would have originally never considered purchasing a blender (Balwani, 2009).

Measurement and Evaluation

When marketers discuss social media marketing, the most common complaint they have is that it is not easily measured to ensure that it is contributing to the success of the brand. As marketers, we know how important it is to measure the success of a campaign, and when using social media it becomes even more important to be able to analyze and interpret social activities in order to determine success, and improve for the future (Jenn Deering Davis, n.d.).

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There are two ways that a marketer can measure their social media, in order to ensure the campaign is being evaluated properly, it is imperative that both methods are used.

1. Using Ongoing Analytics: This allows marketers to track the activity on social media over a period of time, to see the long term effects their social media campaign has on the audience. Ongoing analytics also provides businesses with insight into what their customers are saying about their brand (Jenn Deering Davis, n.d.).

2. Using Campaign-Focused Methods: This is more specific to particular events that a marketer wants to determine are successful/unsuccessful. It allows the event to be analyzed specifically and is much more short term (Jenn Deering Davis, n.d.).

When measuring social media marketing efforts there are simple steps to take that can simplify the process and provide clear qualitative and quantitative data that can be used to determine success and form future strategies.

First and foremost, it is important to determine the goals that are being sought out through the social media marketing campaign. Is the company trying to create brand awareness, generate leads, engage with the target market, clarify questions or create more traffic on their website? What does the brand want the consumer to do: like, share, comment, purchase or read? Answering these questions will help establish which channels will be most effective, which will also determine how the goals will be measured (Jenn Deering Davis, n.d.).

Once the SMM goals have been determined the next step is to create metrics that will be able to me measured. For example, if the goal is to create brand awareness, then measure the reach of the message, and/or the volume of likes, shares, hashtags, tweets and views (Jenn Deering Davis,n.d.).

Next, the marketing team must determine how they will measure the effectiveness of their campaign, this involves either using the analytic tools provided by the social media platform, or, if no tools are provided then a third party tool or a personal analytic tool can be used. When measuring data it is beneficial to plan ahead, due to the fact that things can happen very quickly on social media (Jenn Deering Davis, n.d.).

After the SMM campaign efforts have been measured the results must be reported. Reporting the findings will prove the success of the campaign to important company officials and create benchmarks for future campaigns (Jenn Deering Davis, n.d.).

Finally, once the report has been completed, it can be evaluated and changed to ensure the next campaign is equally or even more successful. This is the step where a marketer can decide if the message was effective and if there were any uneventful or pointless components that could be changed or removed if done again (Jenn Deering Davis, n.d.).

Application of Social Media Marketing

The best way to understand how a social media marketing plan will work is to see an example of the step by step process to executing an effective SMM strategy. For the purpose of this report the example that will be used will be a new brand of shortbread cookies called “Homemades”. As the product is new on the market the marketing team is looking to gain a social following and

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inform their target demographic about the new brand and get them into the stores and on the website.

The following is a list of steps that will be taken to develop an effective social media marketing campaign for Homemades shortbread cookies and treats.

Step 1: Determine the goals that need to be achieved through the SMM campaign.

Homemades is a new shortbread cookie product that is the first in its market, it is targeted to students who have moved away from home, as well as women and mothers. The main goals in the social media marketing campaign are to introduce it to the market by building brand awareness by gaining 20,000 followers on Facebook, build a following of 15,000 on twitter, and to entice prospective consumers to visit the website, with at least 5,000 converging from social media to the actual website. All of these goals must be obtained within a six month period.

Step 2: Decide which channels will be most effective to distribute the message.

To have the largest impact on the target audience this SMM strategy will utilize Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube. These channels provide the easiest access to the target market as they are most commonly used by the intended target audience.

Step 3: Choose the strategies that will gain the most traffic and bring in customers.

In order to grab the attention of the target market effectively, there must be a cross-sectional strategy that provides interesting content through various social networking channels, ensuring that all networks link together comprehensively. Homemades needs to create a story through social media, to educate the audience on the values and culture of the company, this will be done through sharing interesting and valuable content that prospective consumers can interact with and respond to.

Step 4: Follow through with the campaign and analyze the results.

Monitoring Facebook likes, shares and comments, Twitter hashtags and mentions, Pinterest shares, comments and likes, and YouTube comments, likes and views. The conversation rate will be reviewed throughout the entire campaign, as well as the conversion rate. Also, specific content marketing will be evaluated to determine its effectiveness.

Step 5: Measure, evaluate and report.

Once the campaign has finished, Facebook analytics and an external analytics software known as IBM Social Media Analytics will be used to determine the effectiveness of the entire campaign. A report will be created to review what worked and didn’t work, such as whether or not the content was found to be interesting and received positive feedback, this report will help shape future social media campaigns and assist in determining if there was a return on investment.

References

Balwani, S. (2009). Presenting: 10 of the smartest big brands in social media. Retrieved from: http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/social-media-smartest-brands/

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Bennett, S. (2014). The 8 biggest problems facing social media marketers. Retrieved from: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-marketing-obstacles/504121

Bullas, J. (2014). 22 social media facts and statistics you should know in 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/01/17/20-social-media-facts-and-statistics-you-should-know-in-2014/

Chaney, P. (2013). 5 reasons blogging is good for the marketing soul. Retrieved from: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2302039/5-reasons-blogging-is-good-for-the-marketing-soul

Clum, L. (2013). Why youtube is an essential marketing tool for small businesses - and how to take advantage of it. Retrieved from: http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/blog/2013/07/why-youtube-essential-marketing-tool-small-businesses-and-how-take-advantage-it

DeMers, J. (2014). The top 10 benefits of social media marketing. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/

Digital Trends Staff. (2014). The history of social networking. Retrieved from: http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/

Friedman, P. (2014). The 1,000 year history of social media marketing. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-friedman/the-1000-year-history-of-_b_6275846.html

Howell, D. (2014). Social media marketing trends for 2015. Retrieved from: http://usefulsocialmedia.com/marketing/social-media-marketing-trends-2015

Jenn Deering Davis, P. (n.d.). The 5 easy steps to measure your social media campaigns. Retrieved from: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-measurement/

King, C. (2015). 28 social media marketing predictions for 2015 from the pros. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-predictions-for-2015/

Kolowich, L. (2014). The evolution of social media since 2004 (infographic). Retrieved from: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-history

Kusinitz, S. (2014). 16 Stats that prove social media isn't just a fad (new data). Retrieved from: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-roi-stats

Parks, J. (2014). 11 social media marketing facts and statistics you need to know. Retrieved from: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/09/09/11-social-media-marketing-facts-statistics-need-know/

Porterfield, A. (2010). 3 new studies prove social media marketing growth. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-new-studies-prove-social-media-marketing-growth/

Porterfield, A. (2011). 9 companies doing social media right and why. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-companies-doing-social-media-right-and-why/

Rouse, M. (2011). Social media marketing (SMM). Retrieved from: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media-marketing-SMM

Sammons, S. (2013). How to build a linkedin marketing plan that delivers ongoing results. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/linkedin-marketing-plan/

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Schiff, J. L. (2013). 14 ways to use twitter to market your business. Retrieved from: http://www.cio.com/article/2380667/twitter/14-ways-to-use-twitter-to-market-your-business.html

Smart Insights. (n.d.). Social media marketing. Retrieved from: http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/

Social Media Examiner. (2014). 2014 social media marketing industry report. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2014.pdf

Wagoner, A. (2014). What is Google+ and why should i use it? Retrieved from: http://www.androidcentral.com/what-google-and-why-should-i-use-it

Williams, E. (n.d.). A brief guide to pinterest marketing. Retrieved from: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/pinterest-marketing-guide/

Appendices

Figure #1 Figure #2

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Retrieved from: http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/

Figure #3

Retrieved from: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-history

Figure #4

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Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-predictions-for-2015/

Figure #5

Retrieved from: http://usefulsocialmedia.com/marketing/social-media-marketing-trends-

Figure #6

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Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/SocialMediaMarketingIndustryReport2014.pdf

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