mobile social media marketing Archives ⋆ Page 4 of 6 ⋆ Mobile Commerce Press

Tag: mobile social media marketing

Social media marketing expectations are changing

Julie Campbell | August 14, 2013

According to the latest research, there is a maturing occurring in what people expect from this technique.

There is nothing rare about research being conducted on the results that are being generated by social media marketing, but what is starting to become quite interesting in this domain is the change in the expectations surrounding the results that the technique will generate.

Now that the channel has been used for a few years, it is becoming possible to view its trends.

Some patterns have started to emerge as the very latest in studies have been released by the researchers at the Pivot Conference, and their publication, the “State of Social Media Marketing 2012-2013”. Though the research did provide a large amount of detail as to the breakdown of the use of the strategy over the last few years, it is the trends that are being viewed as the most worthwhile.

For example, many of the respondents in this study changed their feeling that social media marketing success must be gauged by sales.

Social media marketing changes In 2011, the respondents stated in 100 percent of the cases that an increase in sales was the top goal for any campaign using social media marketing, either for their own company, or those of their clients. However, that opinion has changed dramatically since that time, as in 2012, it was recorded that less than 50 percent of the participants felt the same way. This year, it appears to be climbing again, and is currently settled at the 56 percent mark.

The data from the study also showed that there were tremendously high expectations of the performance of social media marketing in 2011 and a withdrawal of that belief in 2012. This year, there seems to be a rebound in the faith that marketers have in the technique. This occurred in nearly every response area of the study.

Many are interpreting this as a sign that social media marketing as a technique is now maturing, and that the understanding and expectations surrounding it are starting to become more realistic and steady. It has moved beyond the tremendous hype and has survived disappointment and is now starting to level off to a degree that is often seen in areas that are more established.

Mobile commerce sites grow loyalty through social media

Julie Campbell | June 20, 2013

These smartphone friendly websites are using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and others to build relationships.

According to the latest research, mobile commerce websites are increasing their use of social media marketing because of the advantage it provides in generating a sense of a personal relationship between their customers and their brands.

The researchers in this study referred to the trend as “swift guanxi” due to its areas of effectiveness.

The term has been used because the “guanxi” concept is from China and is “broadly defined as a close and pervasive interpersonal relationship” as well as “based on high-quality social interactions and the reciprocal exchange of mutual benefits.” This, according to the researchers from the study, Robert M. Davison, Carol Xiaojuan Ou, and Paul A. Pavlou.

The researchers found that using mobile commerce in this way was highly effective for building loyalty.

When they spoke of swift guanxi, they were talking about the ability to ease interactivity, loyalty, and repeat transactions when using social media for mobile commerce purposes. The data used in this study was gleaned from the leading online marketplace in China, TaoBao. They looked into the way that computer mediated communication (CMC) technology could be used for this purpose and convert shoppers who would otherwise have made a single purchase and never return, into a long term customer by way of personal rapport.

It had previously been assumed that shoppers had a preference for impersonal transactions. However, this mobile commerce study shows that both consumers and retailers have an inherent liking for the type of relationship that can fall under the guanxi label, even though the degree of that interaction may vary from one culture to the next.

According to Pavlou, “Nobody would argue that personal relationships are unimportant, but it is unfathomable that people in the U.S. would engage in such extensive communications and personal interactions for a small transaction.” He was referring to the fact that in China, for instance, a very small transaction where only a few dollars were spent could be the result of a communication that could take well over three quarters of an hour.