Exploring the Integration of Social Media Within Integrated

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Exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing
communication frameworks: perspectives of services marketers
Citation of the final article:
Valos, Michael John, Haji Habibi, Fatemeh, Casidy, Riza, Driesener, Carl Barrie and
Maplestone, Vanya Louise 2016, Exploring the integration of social media within integrated
marketing communication frameworks: perspectives of services marketers, Marketing
intelligence and planning, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 19-40.
DOI: http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1108/MIP-09-2014-0169
This is the accepted manuscript.
©2016, Emerald Group Publishing
Downloaded from DRO:
http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30081191

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Exploring the integration of social media within integrated marketing communication
frameworks: Perspectives of services marketers
Introduction
Social Media (SM) is constantly evolving and playing an increasingly significant role in
organisations’ marketing communications with other organisations, communities, and
individuals (Kietzmann et al., 2011). According to Barnes (2010), SM is becoming integral to
marketing strategy due to its interactive nature (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010) that allows
collaboration (Prohaska, 2011) and fast, efficient information collection (Wright et al., 2010).
Through the use of SM, business organisations can build relationships with existing and
prospective customers, and identify problems and solutions through collaborative interaction
between online communities (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014).
As recently as 2010, researchers found that only a limited number of organisations utilised
SM (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Since that time, however, social media has proliferated
throughout the corporate environment with two in three organisations reportedly making use
of it (Treem and Leonardi, 2012). Challenges remain, however, with integrating SM into
marketing communication strategy (Zarkada and Polydorou, 2013). Despite its potential
benefits, the integration of SM could result in the loss of control over brand messages (Winer,
2009). Moreover, SM may require new lines of communication and responsibility (Kaplan and
Haenlein, 2010, Denning, 2010) between organisational departments (Edosomwan et al., 2011).
Over the past few years, several studies have attempted to examine the roles of SM in
business organisations. Most of these studies have been done from the perspective of the

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customers. Yap and Lee (2014) found that customers’ loyalty to SM networks (i.e. Facebook
page of a company) is associated with social influence, compatibility and enjoyment, and
usage behaviour associated with the company’s offerings. Jin (2012) found that consumers’
perceptions of luxury brands are significantly related to their satisfaction with the luxury
brand’s Facebook page, and intentions to use the brand’s SM platform for online shopping. In
a study of location-based social network sites, Singh et al. (2014) found that customers’
check-in behaviour is driven mainly by social enhancement values (i.e. to promote their
desired self-image) and entertainment value (i.e. the enjoyment of interacting with others).
Despite the increasing importance of SM in business organisations, most studies in the past
have focused on consumers’ attitude towards SM, while relatively limited academic research
has examined how firms themselves may benefit from SM (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014).
Even though SM have been acknowledged as a powerful medium for building relationships
with customers, there is a lack of understanding of how and why organisations are actually
using them (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014). The existing frameworks available to
marketers for guidance in terms of marketing communication, planning implementation and
measurement were largely developed before the pervasive use of SM for the purposes of
information seeking, purchase and post-purchase behaviours (Schultz, 1996, Schultz and
Kitchen, 1997, Schultz and Schultz, 1998). Hence, the dramatic increase in the use of SM and
social networks requires a renewed emphasis on Integrated Marketing Communications
(IMC) research (Porcu et al., 2012). Since the characteristics of social and digital media are
quite different from traditional marketing communications channels, there is a need to modify
existing IMC frameworks for effective integration of SM in organisations’ IMC strategy.
Furthermore, the services industry has characteristics that differ considerably from those of
non-services industries. The intangible, inseparable, perishable, and variable nature of

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services has not been well reflected in existing IMC frameworks, notably in marketing
messages (Abernethy and Butler, 1993, Grove et al., 1995, Stafford, 1996), branding (De
Chernatony and Dall'Olmo Riley, 1999, Berry, 2000, McDonald et al., 2001), and channels
(Wilson 2001). In view of these research gaps, the present study aims to contribute to IMC
research within the service literature.
This study seeks to accomplish two main objectives: First, to provide empirical insights into
the strategic roles of SM for services organisations from marketers’ perspectives; and second,
to develop a modified IMC framework that integrates SM with Traditional Media (TM). It is
expected that the framework will provide relevant contemporary guidelines to managers and
researchers in the services marketing area. This paper is organised as follows: the literature
review addresses SM and IMC frameworks, and marketing communication issues for services
marketers. Next, the qualitative exploratory methodology is justified and explained. The
subsequent sections provide the study findings and address how the findings can be
implemented. Finally, the paper concludes with management guidelines and directions for
future research.
Literature Review
Characteristics of Social Media
SM is defined as “a group of Internet based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user
generated content” (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p.61). SM platforms include, but are not
limited to, social networking tools (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), professional networking sites
(e.g. LinkedIn), media sharing sites (e.g. YouTube, Instagram), commerce communities (e.g.,

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Amazon), and blogs and discussion forums (Agarwal and Yiliyasi, 2010). Firms have used a
combination of SM platforms to attain various organisational objectives. A Facebook fan
page is used by firms to establish interactive communication with their existing and
prospective customers. Twitter posts are used by media enterprises to spread short
informational messages in real time. Firms with visualised messages make extensive use of
their YouTube channel to promote their products or services through video advertisements
(Tsimonis and Dimitriadis, 2014). Restaurants make effective use of Instagram to promote
their menu items and to encourage customers to share their dining experience with their
social networks (Bilgihan et al., 2014)
The benefits and opportunities presented by SM have meant that it is becoming integral to
marketing strategy (Barnes, 2010). These benefits include reaching a wide array of customers
beyond geographical constraints (Wright et al., 2010), enhancing service quality, facilitating
timely and cost-effective research, building and enhancing databases, and reducing costs
(Barnes, 2010). However, compared to TM, SM possesses unique characteristics and its
implementation requires a significant modification of existing IMC frameworks. For the
purpose of this study, TM is defined as any conventional form of one-way communication
such as television, radio, direct mail, outdoor billboard, newspapers, magazines, newsletters
and other print publications. The following section provides an overview of SM
characteristics in comparison with its TM counterparts.
Interactivity and Individualisation: Most TM channels do not allow two-way interaction
between customers and marketers. Direct mail and call centres do have a direct and two-way
element, but are not as technologically sophisticated as SM. This contrasts sharply with
Kaplan and Haenlein's (2010) definition of SM which emphasises content creation and

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sharing that can occur entirely internally (i.e., employees-to-employees), entirely externally
(i.e., consumers-to-consumers or other external stakeholders), or across organisational
boundaries (i.e., consumers-to-organisation). This results in SM being a challenge to
traditional authority and control in regard to an organisation’s branding and customer
relationship management activities (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010) which are traditionally very
hierarchical, with a centralised control structure.
Integration of communication and distribution channels: these were clearly delineated and
less integrated prior to the development of SM. The growth of SM has brought these channels
closer and made it easier for customers to move between them in a seamless, and indeed,
imperceptible manner. SM has the potential to have a broad impact on the organisation both
within and between functional areas such as marketing, sales, advertising and IT (Mangold
and Faulds, 2009). Organisations that successfully manage the increased level of complexity
of these business functions may well outperform others in the new environment.
Immediacy: SM monitoring and behavioural tracking allows consumer-centric information to
be obtained and disseminated quickly. SM empowers consumers by providing quick access to
information, facilitating a faster response to marketing activities. The immediacy and digital
nature of SM also permits marketers to quickly and accurately measure the effects of these
activities. An important aspect of immediacy is the viral nature of SM whereby information
can be disseminated quickly by consumers to their peers (Mitic and Kapoulas, 2012).
Information collection: SM offers new ways of researching customers as it allows marketers
to observe consumer comments via SM platforms that capture consumers’ own words in a
naturalistic manner (Bekkers et al., 2013, Mayeh et al., 2012, Brooks et al., 2014, Wright et

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al., 2010). Thus, SM represents an opportunity for more informed decision-making for
marketing communications specifically and marketing generally.
Integrated marketing communication
IMC is seen as a process that integrates and aligns strategic and tactical marketing
communication decision-making (Reid et al., 2005, Schultz and Schultz, 1998). Early IMC
frameworks were developed to allow marketers to achieve the optimum mix of
communication elements to reach target markets effectively. The frameworks were also
designed to assist marketers with communicating consistent brand messages across different
channels.
Schultz and Schultz (1998) argued that marketing and marketing communications are in
transition due to technological advances. Thus, an organisation moves from one stage of IMC
development to another as a result of the organisation’s ability to capture and manage
information technology. The conceptual framework developed by Schultz and Schultz
(1998), although effective in describing the IMC process of integration, did not take into
account the importance of feedback mechanisms for future improvement of IMC programs.
Nor, obviously, did it account for developments in media technology such as SM. Duncan
and Mulhern (2004) expanded the model by incorporating two-way communications with an
emphasis on creating long-term value through a mutually exclusive exchange. More recent
conceptualisations of IMC were provided by Kliatchko (2008) and Winer (2009). The ‘four
pillars model’ of Kliatchko (2008) was based on the interaction between a brand’s
stakeholders, content, channels and results. This framework emphasises the “outside-in”
perspective in terms of being customer-focused. On the other hand, Winer (2009)

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incorporated management decisions such as target market, strategy, copy, media, timing,
budgeting, and evaluation within the conceptual framework.
Despite the recent advances in IMC frameworks, most of those identified in the literature are
generic and were developed prior to the pervasive use of SM. To the best of our knowledge,
there are few studies on the development of IMC frameworks that take into account the
unique characteristics of the services industry.
Implications of the characteristics of services for marketing communications planning
Previous studies have reported differences in marketing communications between services,
FMCG and durables (Dibb and Simkin, 1993, Stafford, 1996, Pina et al., 2006, Mann and
Kaur, 2013, Tripp, 1997). The following four characteristics discussed in the context of IMC
are largely accepted in the literature as differentiating services from products (Dibb and
Simkin, 1993, Parasuraman et al., 1985).
Intangibility: According to Stafford (1996), services marketers should use specific cues in
marketing communications to provide perceptions of tangibility more so than FMCG
marketers. It has been found that services marketing communications place greater emphasis
on cues of quality when compared to communications of FMCG organisations (Abernethy
and Butler, 1993); moreover, they emphasise factual information more so than do the non-
services (Grove et al., 1995).
The entwined customer-employee relationship: There is an inseparable relationship between
customers, employees and the service, as the service outcome is co-produced on demand by
the parties involved. Because of the close relationship and interactions between employees

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and customers, organisational culture affects branding and marketing messages through
employee-customer interaction (Pina et al., 2006). It has been suggested that organisational
culture will have a bigger impact on a customer’s perception of brand than will formal
marketing communication (Wilson, 2001). Thus, there is a need to consider the employee-
customer interaction as part of a marketing communication framework.
Direct company-customer contact based relationship: In services, customers have a real-time
interaction with an employee and/or technology from the company. Customer touch points,
whether they be employee- or technology-based, need to support the brand promise;
otherwise, the image of the brand will be compromised.
Variability: Services tend to be heterogeneous in quality (Dibb and Simkin, 1993) due to
minimal tangible differentiation. As a consequence, services rely more on a corporate brand
while FMCG rely more on a house of brands approach (Mann and Kaur, 2013). Firms seek to
overcome the greater perception of risk associated with services by focusing on a strong
corporate brand (De Chernatony and Dall'Olmo Riley, 1999, Berry, 2000, McDonald et al.,
2001).
These inherent characteristics of services may have potential implications for services’
marketing media and messages. In addition, the use of SM by services marketers also raises
different issues than those of other industry sectors as far as a framework of IMC is
concerned. This study focuses on exploring the appropriateness of existing IMC decision-
making frameworks for service marketers using SM. In particular, we consider the following
research question:

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How do existing Integrated Marketing Communication decision-making
frameworks need to be modified to incorporate the characteristics of SM
for services marketers?
Methodology
As SM is a rapidly evolving phenomenon, an exploratory approach integrating the existing
literature with a qualitative methodology was appropriate. Previous examples of the
applicability of this approach in marketing theory building include (Bonoma, 1985, Frazier
and Antia, 1995, Pitt et al., 2011, Woodside and Wilson, 2003, Workman Jr et al., 1998,
Kohli and Jaworski, 1990).
Sampling
Purposive sampling of senior marketing executives was undertaken in order to obtain
participants who had significant responsibility for SM (Shiell et al., 2009) or a sound
knowledge of the implementation of SM within their organisations (Agarwal and Prasad,
1998). Such participants can be considered as ‘expert’ or ‘key’ informants (Kumar et al.,
1993, Abaddi et al., 2011). Only services organisations were approached as the literature
indicates differences in the marketing communication practices of FMCG, durables and
services (Mann and Kaur, 2013, Dibb and Simkin, 1993).
Thirty potential participants from a reputable and comprehensive corporate database of
marketers were e-mailed and invited to participate in an interview. Two follow-up emails
were sent to increase participation rates. All selected participants were responsible for
developing or implementing marketing and communication strategies within their
organisations, and had a diversity of job titles. Eight respondents indicated that they would be

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interested in participating and mutually acceptable interview times and dates were agreed on.
Table 1 provides participant characteristics whilst maintaining participant anonymity.
[Table 1 around here]
In-depth Interviews
In-depth interviewing is often described as a ‘conversation with a purpose’ (Berg and Lune,
2004) and is a reliable primary data collection method for qualitative research. The informal
style of the semi-structured interview generates a discussion as opposed to a structured
question-and-answer format (Mason, 2002). This methodology allowed the exploration of
managers’ experiences not currently identified in the literature, which is appropriate given the
rapid evolution of SM. Further, the qualitative interviewing process has greater potential for
eliciting rich information (Mason, 2002).
A pilot study was conducted via telephone with an interviewee who fulfilled the requirements
of the criteria sample. This enabled pre-testing of the interview protocol and the sequence,
structure and quality of the individual questions (Yin, 2009). This pilot interview was not
used in the sample but was an instrumental part of the iterative process of conducting the
research in a rigorous manner (Patton, 2002). Contents from both the pilot study and the
existing IMC framework were used to develop the interview agenda (see Appendix A1)
consisting of 16 semi-structured, open-ended questions, and one closed-ended question
(Cresswell, 2007). These questions addressed marketing communications strategy, and
implementation and measurement of both TM and SM.
The eight interviews were conducted at the respondents’ place of work and took between 45
minutes and 60 minutes to complete. In the tradition of qualitative studies which aim to

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achieve consistent processing of data (Yin, 2009), the protocol for the interview process
followed a simple procedure. Each interview was preceded by a reiteration of the topic,
completion of the plain language consent form, questioning procedures and a reminder that
the interview would be recorded. Follow-up questions invited participants to expand on their
responses and comment on other issues, thereby eliciting deeper meaning. The broad nature
of the questioning was designed to allow participants to discuss their experiences as well as
identify those factors which they believed facilitated or impeded the implementation of SM
within their organisations (Botha et al., 2011). The questioning structure was derived from
issues identified in the literature in regard to problems with SM implementation. The
questions were also designed to allow respondents to raise issues that had not previously been
identified within the literature.
Data Analysis
This research used thematic analysis (Grbich, 2007) to process the data according to the
broad areas identified within IMC literature (Schultz and Schultz, 1998, Duncan and
Mulhern, 2004, Kliatchko, 2008, Winer, 2009).This approach is especially useful when
examining a theoretically underdeveloped area (Zhang et al., 2009, Botha et al., 2011).
Thematic analysis requires the researcher to categorise the underlying themes within data
(Miles and Huberman, 2006), thus enabling researchers to draw together the common topics
discussed, allowing for the different terminology used by the participants (Morgan, 1997).
This approach is especially valid for examining organisations’ use of SM, as the terminology
and applications are continually emerging and evolving, with alternative terms often used for
the same practice and approach. Thematic analysis is also appropriate for theory construction
or proposition development (Warwick and Lininger, 1975, Weinberg and Berger, 2011, Yi et

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al., 2006), although the analysis is not generalisable outside the sample frame (Braun and
Clarke, 2006).
There is a reciprocal relationship between the development of a coding system and the
evolution of understanding a phenomenon under consideration (Weston et al., 2001).
Interview transcripts were coded according to the three areas of marketing communication
decision-making and then grouped and classified under the most appropriate theme.
The data analysis and refining process involved two iterative stages. Stage one involved two
researchers independently coding the data, which is designed to ensure reliability of the
interpretations (Kassarjian, 1977). There was 80% consistency in assessments. Discussion
between the researchers occurred where there was disagreement, and these contentious items
were allocated after consensus was reached. In the first stage, participants’ comments and
statements were categorised according to the ideas and concepts (Gibbs, 2002), where
“discrete passages of text or other data items that, in some sense, exemplify the same
theoretical or descriptive data” (Gibbs, 2002, p.57).
The second stage of the analysis involved grouping ideas and concepts into larger themes
using the data coding procedures developed by (Galman, 2013). A two-level hierarchical
codification framework grouping concepts into themes is at the heart of many qualitative
approaches, such as within NVivo (Hutchison et al., 2010). When coding the data, comments
related to multiple ideas and concepts were attributed to multiple themes. The iterative
hierarchical process enabled ideas and insights to emerge from the data, which may not have
been identified in the first categorisation (Miles and Huberman, 2006).

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Findings
Characteristics of Sample
We begin by describing the relevant characteristics of the sample. Table 2 shows the
characteristics of the service organisations interviewed in terms of the types of SM being
used and their purpose. Virtually all organisations use Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. No
organisation used Pinterest, with only CHARITY using blogs. Further, CHARITY also used
the most SM (eight forms in total) while SUPER 1 and FINANCE used three SM forms.
While it is obviously not generalisable, three finance-related respondents reported using
fewer forms of SM.
[Table 2 around here]
Table 3 below shows the use of SM in a number of roles traditionally associated with TM.
However, there are a number of roles that are quite different from TM (termed ‘innovative
roles’ in Table 3) that encompass some degree of interactivity such as customer service word-
of-mouth (WOM) advocacy, and include reaching audiences not typically reached with TM.
[Table 3 around here]
While FINANCE used the fewest SM channels, it was one of the organisations where SM
had the most roles to play. Intriguingly, whilst PUBLIC TRANSPORT was one of the
heavier users of SM channels, it did not see SM as playing any specific role. SPORT 1 was in
a similar position: although using seven of the eight SM channels, SM was considered to
have only a single role.

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As shown in Table 4, the integration of SM provides benefits for organisations, consumers,
and marketing applications. For organisations, the benefits include: speed, reach, lower cost,
and recruitment tool. The benefits for consumers include: two-way conversations, WOM
advocacy, value proposition enhancement, and younger audience. Marketers could benefit
from advocacy leading to new customers, brand awareness, customer service channel,
support for above the line campaigns, brand equity, positioning, and integrated marketing
programs. In addition, there are several determinants of SM success for these three groups
such as resources, open and authentic communication, lower advertising expenditure than
TM for niche brands, and so on.
[Table 4 around here]
Dominant themes
The responses were coded and classified and four dominant themes emerged. These were: (1)
strategic role, (2) message, (3) organisational implementation, and (4) measurement.
A number of sub-themes emerged from these four themes, which highlighted implications for
the existing IMC planning framework. The sub-themes were: (i) integrated role clarity, (ii)
reach, (iii) service channel, (iv) speed, (v) WOM advocacy, (vi) message control, (vii)
consumer generated message, (viii) message consistency, (ix) cross-functional coordination,
(x) employee skills, (xi) real-time listening, and (xii) behavioural measurement.
(1) Strategic roles
Integrated role clarity: A number of comments were made regarding the place of SM within
the marketing communication mix driven by its unique characteristics, such as WOM

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advocacy), and its ability to listen to a number of stakeholders (competitors, customers,
bloggers etc.) and subsequently inform marketing actions. CHARITY said: “What we are
trying to get to is social media being included as a part of the first-step planning phase, and
then become an integrated part of a campaign, as opposed to an extension, but that is still a
part of the internal journey as far as getting the right content for social.” The dynamic nature
of SM is, however, creating uncertainty in marketers’ minds. They are unsure of the proper
role of SM, and whether the impact would be short-term or long-term. PUBLIC
TRANSPORT said: “Knowing what is going to work and what is not going to work can be
quite challenging.” Further, there are some concerns about the efficacy of SM: “People have
a tendency to overestimate the impact of digital and SM in the short period of times, while
underestimating its impact on the long term. Right now, it is almost as if we have all
discovered that SM is not the silver bullet to all our marketing woes, but at the same time the
risk now is, not underestimating its impact on a much grander scale in the long term”
(CHARITY).
For some organisations, SM can and does reach many of their customers. Its features also
make it possible to actually target carefully selected markets. For example, INSURANCE
believed that SM “is commercially viable for big companies because they don’t have a
choice. They have to be there because their customers are there. It is like not answering the
phone. They have to be there.” The FINANCE company had launched a travel credit card
aimed at young Australians via SM channels such as Facebook and Twitter, stating: “I guess
we are restricted in the sense of this product does not have a huge marketing budget, so I
don’t think we have ever had the opportunity to go out and use above the line
communications.” This is not to say that there are not issues with SM, with INSURANCE
stating: “I think there is a place for social media, but I don’t think it drives as much into the

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business as some of the other channels, I have not seen success from social media, as much
as I’m seeing in other channels, further the conversion of advertising through Facebook has
not been as successful as other channels to date.”
Reach: Depending on the reach of each SM within the markets of organisations, SM will
have different roles. For instance, Facebook might be used by 90% of the target market but
Pinterest only 10%. This will vary according to each organisation and the service being
targeted. Moreover, the use of SM for services may be more appropriate for younger than
older consumers, who may not use social platforms to the same extent. The roles of SM need
to be considered according to the nature of the target market. For example, “The group, we
felt that it appealed to the most was a younger demographic. That younger demographic
tended to operate in the spheres of social media, so that is why there is more focus on social
media for that product than our other products,” (FINANCE). Other respondents had quite
different target markets that made little use of SM. This reiterates the importance of
understanding the differences between markets for various types of services marketers when
it comes to communications planning. “We are quite a conservative organisation. When we
asked them (fund members), would you feel comfortable about dealing with (the brand) on
any of these (SM platforms), 92% say no” (SUPER1).
Service channel: Some respondents stressed the role of SM as a service channel. PUBLIC
TRANSPORT uses Facebook and Twitter mainly to provide service information directly to
customers in real time: “[It] is almost a full-time job to get all the service information out
primarily through social media. The need for social media to address issues of service
organisations is much greater than non-service organisations. Twitter especially has a role
to play here.”

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Speed: Some respondents considered speed to be one of the strengths of SM, allowing
organisations to respond quickly to opportunities and threats. “If you had the content ready to
go, you could quickly implement that campaign and make adjustments on-the-fly without
having to spend significant amounts of money and taking significant amounts of time”
(FINANCE). However, there are constraints at times on the use of SM, which slow down its
implementation. SUPER1 explained: “one of the hindrances we always have with all our
communications, and Twitter … is the fact that we have got a very conservative legal and
compliance team. It was quite a challenge initially to get them to approve us even using
Twitter. They are very risk averse and very conservative.”
(2) Message
Word of Mouth Advocacy: consumer-to-consumer communications can increase the reach of
a marketing message, and WOM via SM can be a powerful channel. It can be a free channel,
although in order to instigate wide-reaching WOM, the marketer must earn that reach. “You
can build places, forums and platforms … but it ultimately comes down to the type of
customer experience that you create to be able to give those advocates the opportunity … to
advocate. You build up the trust through benefits and attributes, and then you continue to
build that base of advocates through consistent provision over time” (FINANCE). However,
not all services organisations have the consumer passion to drive viral WOM;
superannuation, for example, is often seen as an uninteresting product as its impact is not
immediate but occurs well into the future. The chance to acquire WOM advocacy is weaker
for this subset of services organisations, as SUPER2 found: “It just comes back to the fact
that we are not particularly interesting so we have got to earn our right to be there.” The
heterogeneity of services when compared to FMCG and durables is likely to result in more
negative WOM than will be the case with FMCG due to the variation in service quality. On

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the other hand, exceptional service experiences are likely to facilitate positive viral WOM.
This suggests the need for service operations to be linked to SM communication.
Message control: Both negative and positive issues relating to brand messages were
identified in the data. The negative were often associated with the legal regulatory risk of
employees saying something in an inappropriate manner or an issue to do with industry or
organisation culture. The positive were to do with the tension between having consistent
brand messages across various SM platforms versus matching the brand message with the
particular characteristics of the SM platform. “I think the risk involved with social media is
probably an area that we haven’t talked about. How do you manage content that is not in line
with, firstly, what your brand stands for, secondly, what is considered as being regulatory
compliant” (FINANCE). Some organisations have found brand consistency to be challenging
due to the organisations’ empowering of employees to comment on their behalf “We do find
there is a bit of style difference between who says what, but that is fine, as long as it is on
message,” (PUBLIC TRANSPORT). A solution to the management of risk was put forward
by CHARITY whose organisation developed a rating system to indicate the seniority of sign-
off required for approval. “We do have rating systems [where] it is green, orange or red. At a
red level, we make sure it is going to a General Manager who will sign off and approve
things. Largely everything is prepared with FAQs and what we can and can’t say. A lot of
trust is placed in the social team, given that they work hand in hand with PR and public
affairs.”
Consumer generated messages: Some comments identified a role for SM in facilitating
message development (this echoes the Listening sub-theme identified below). SPORT2
believed that “ideas for content must come from the fans’ perspective in order to be more

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strategic in how we integrate our commercial messaging through our social channels.”
Along similar lines, CHARITY remarked how the SM voice influenced the TM voice, asking
“How can we get more of our communications to sound like our social media voice?”
Message consistency: Two differing experiences involved consistent brand message across
media, some finding that message consistency was relatively easy to achieve, and others the
opposite. INSURANCE ‘repurposes’ above the line content for SM: “whatever we do online
somehow fits with our above-the-line, so it is like a big overall push.” In contrast, CHARITY
found that “Television commercial content does not necessarily work well on social media.”
(3) Organisational Implementation
Cross-functional co-ordination: The difficulties of obtaining senior executive support were
raised. This support is fundamental in terms of staffing technology and ensuring cross-
functional support from various stakeholders, all of which can hinder the successful use of
SM. CHARITY mentioned: “It is our job to convince the executives within our various
organisations on what they need to be doing and how they need to be changing. It is not
going to happen overnight.”
Employee skills: In terms of implementation issues, CHARITY believed that staff must be
skilled in SM to ensure that their interactions support other service channels and other
marketing communications. “The biggest challenge for lot of brands is, if you have got one
social media person, they probably come from a low-level communication background or
mid-level communication background and they are not a customer service expert.” When
organisations empower employees to speak on the brand’s behalf, the latter need to be skilled
(and cognisant of the sensitivity of their role): “We are fairly open to our players using social

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media as well. We are fairly open, when it comes to letting our players appear in the
marketplace and converse with customers” (SPORT1).
(4) Measurement
Behavioural measurement: Some respondents were successfully measuring the link between
specific SM click-throughs and sales and were utilising specific analytics and programming
techniques to do so. Examples of this measurement of behavioural outcomes of SM include
FINANCE: “when they run SM campaigns, they measure it against a benchmark or a
baseline, and they can see a definite correlation between campaigns that they run through
social media and the increase in the number of applications for their product.”
INSURANCE: “you can … identify where the click has come from. You can monitor all the
activity that has happened from the click.” SPORT1: “The rich engagement targets have
obviously got a direct correlation to the membership and attendance targets, we can insert
various coding to … give us a direct indication of the success of a post on social media.” This
contrasts with the measurement of TM effectiveness where it is more complicated to measure
the link between media exposure and sales.
Real-time Listening: Unlike TM, SM allows an organisation to monitor complaints and other
consumer ‘outputs’ such as opinions about new products and ideas about marketing issues in
real time. CHARITY utilised negative comments as insights to improve customer experience,
mentioning “generally we are happy to have the good comments and I’m usually really happy
about the bad comments from a customer service perspective. It gives a lot more insight
about the things we need to focus on and improve internally.”

21
Discussion
This study used a qualitative methodology to investigate how the existing IMC frameworks
of services marketing organisations may need to be modified to incorporate SM. The
qualitative methodology was particularly appropriate for this study as: a) SM platforms and
their use by consumers are rapidly changing, and b) a holistic organisation-wide
understanding of IMC is required. SM is a long way from being integrated into marketing
communication frameworks (Zarkada and Polydorou, 2013), particularly in the services
context. This is the first study to explore this issue with a methodology that identifies the
range of SM’s strengths as well as implementation issues needing incorporation into IMC
frameworks. We discuss the four themes and their sub-themes and present implications for
SM and a services-focused IMC framework.
(1) Strategic role
If organisations see SM as an add-on and not as a vital part of integrated marketing
communication, they are not likely to grasp the opportunities offered by social media. This
should be addressed as the first step of both marketing strategy and marketing
communication strategy planning. It is suggested that due to the infancy and nature of SM, it
is more ambiguous than TM (Kunz and Hackworth, 2011, Mangold and Faulds, 2009), and
this is a barrier to SM investment. One of the great strengths of SM and digital media is that
consumer activity can be tracked and collated. The value offered by social media is twofold.
First, it allows targeted communications to be efficiently delivered in a manner not previously
possible. Second, it facilitates the development of effective communications by linking
consumer response to specific SM contacts.

22
In terms of the strategic role of SM, the in-depth interviews showed various usages of SM
ranging from its use as a broad media platform to a more narrow targeted use such as
launching niche products to target young people. An understanding of the strategic role of
SM will drive a service organisation’s decision to choose specific social networks. For
example, our findings reveal that Twitter is used mainly to provide information to customers
in real-time, whereas Facebook is used as an advertising channel to promote products and
services, with the aim of converting “likes” into purchases. Thus, organisations should first
define the strategic role of SM prior to deciding which SM network(s) to utilise.
SM may be used in a strategic role to facilitate service delivery; it may be used to provide up-
to-the-minute service in a way that reduces the load on call centres, as well as potentially
building loyalty and developing relationships with customers. This is where SM has a role
that goes beyond typical advertising and blurs the line between promotion and service
delivery channels. In regard to services heterogeneity and intangibility, this provides an
opportunity to quickly respond to service complaints. This suggests that the more aligned the
services marketing SM issues are with marketing communications strategy, the more
effective and efficient the SM strategy will be.
Consequently, we place Integrated Strategy at the apex of our model. It is not sensible to
think of a TM strategy and an SM strategy in isolation; hence, we see this as a bidirectional
link. These areas of communication must be considered in conjunction with one another in
the context of the organisation’s markets. Integrated strategy also has significant
implications for the Message (below) and Organisation Implementation (below).

23
(2) Message
Both channel and message aspects of SM can be seen as integrated and mutually supportive
as far as viral word-of-mouth is concerned. This is more marketing supposition than
empirical fact: in other words, the reach of the message is arguably a function of the creative
execution and high impact of the message, although recent research has cast some doubt on
this (Nelson-Field, 2013). SM facilitates positive communications between consumers,
providing opportunities to communicate with known individuals but also via anonymous
review sites regarding positive service experiences. The opposite is also true since reports of
a poor service experience can spread rapidly among consumers; hence, the services channel
rapidly informs the viral channels (Mitic and Kapoulas, 2012), although WOM studies have
generally found that positive rather than negative WOM is more common (East, et.al., 2007).
Further, since services are seen as a high risk purchase, consumer comment enhances
credibility and reduces consumer risk (Dibb and Simkin, 1993).
Our research identified that respondents at times used consumer feedback to guide brand
message development, and at other times used the SM brand messages and positioning to
modify non-SM branding. Research shows that services require more tangible message cues
than do FMCG or durables (Stafford, 1996) and suggestions as to the most appropriate can be
gleaned from observing consumer opinions and comments in SM. The collaborative aspect of
SM supports this relationship (Prohaska, 2011), as do our findings.
The type of message that a service organisation expects to receive through SM networks is an
important driver in that organisation’s choice of SM networks. An organisation may opt to
distribute different types of messages through various SM networks. For example, Twitter
can be effectively used to elicit positive word-of-mouth among customers, whereas Facebook

24
can be used as a means of gathering customer feedback about an organisation. Detailed
information about a new service can be posted in Facebook whereas Instagram can be used as
a powerful tool to entice potential customers to a particular new service or product, without
giving too much information away.
(3) Organisational implementation
It has been suggested in the literature that organisational culture will have a bigger impact on
customers in services organisations than in FMCG organisations (Pina et al., 2006, Wilson,
2001). This highlights the importance of formal and informal cross-functional coordination
between departments and organisational culture, especially within services organisations.
SM requires a greater level of effective cross-functional relationships, teams and
organisational culture compared to TM, which is potentially less reliant on internal
relationships between different functional areas.
Respondents reported the risks associated with non-adherence to regulatory, legal and policy
frameworks. There are also the challenges of ensuring branding and message consistency as
many employees may be empowered to speak on behalf of the organisation, as the more
approvals that are required for SM comments, the slower the response time, and speed of
response is one of the key benefits of SMs.
Our findings reveal that employees’ skills in using SM are of significant importance in
service organisations’ implementation of SM strategy. The competence of employees in
utilising and managing various SM networks should be a determining factor when an
organisation chooses which SM networks to focus on. Service organisations with employees
who are highly skilled in managing SM can afford to use a comprehensive combination of

25
SM networks to achieve various strategic objectives. Others with limited SM capabilities
might decide on one or two SM networks to achieve their organisational objectives.
Integrated Strategy directly affects Organisation Implementation, as organisational form,
processes and systems need to be sensitive to the demands of strategy, and indeed may
constrain it. Measurement (as discussed in section 4 below) also impacts on Organisation
Implementation, as employees need to respond in real time to consumer communications and
behaviours.
(4) Measurement
With the ability to track consumers’ pre-purchase search behaviours, communications via SM
platforms and behaviour within company websites, digital marketing has an enhanced ability
with customer analytics and SM monitoring to provide measures of behavioural activities
(DiStaso et al., 2011). In contrast, many consumer behaviours that relate to TM cannot be
captured. The unique characteristics of SM nevertheless create implementation issues for
services organisations and affect Organisational Implementation.
In terms of the measurement role of SM, this provides input into branding as well as
providing performance measurement of marketing activities. The use of SM monitoring is
similar to qualitative research, and captures consumers in naturalistic settings. The ability to
obtain real-time feedback is also an advantage which can inform media and message strategy
(Bekkers et al., 2013); with services being both more complex (Dibb and Simkin, 1993) and
contentious than FMCG or durables, this is likely to play a bigger role. The more aligned the
services marketing message strategy is with measurement and organisational implementation,
the more effective and efficient SM strategy should be.

26
Measurement has important implications for Organisational Implementation. Our findings
reveal that the number of “likes” generated by a Facebook page, the number of clicks/visits to
a website, and the number of customer applications for a particular service are important
measures of the success of SM campaigns. This measurement of impact should therefore
drive service organisations’ decisions about the choice of specific social networks. Service
firms should invest more in those SM channels that produce the most impact on their target
audience.
The main contribution of this study is the modifications to traditional IMC frameworks
arising from the application of the four dominant themes derived from the data. This is timely
as many organisations are contemplating or taking tentative steps towards implementing SM.
Figure 1 illustrates the strengths of SM and their relationship to the IMC framework of
strategy, message, organisational implementation and measurement.
[Figure 1 around here]
Implications
This study has contributed to the body of literature by identifying the strategic roles of SM in
the service marketing context and developing a modified IMC framework that integrates SM
with TM. Considering the rapid growth of SM and their rapid diffusion to organisations, this
study explores ways by which firms can integrate SM into their IMC planning.
The major contribution of the study is its evaluation of the appropriateness of generic IMC
frameworks for organisations that are: a) attempting to integrate SM into marketing

27
communication, and b) operating in services industries. The evaluation provided suggestions
regarding how these organisations can modify the three major aspects of the IMC process:
strategic, implementation, and measurement components. These suggested modifications are
not surprising considering that IMC frameworks were developed prior to the rapid
advancement of digital marketing, marketing technology and the pervasive use of SM by
consumers. Research into SM implementation is in its infancy, but is evolving rapidly. The
research presented in this paper has provided insights into potential solutions and identified
opportunities for future research to empirically assess the relationships between SM, IMC
and services-focused organisations.
Services marketers have been attempting to integrate SM into their IMC processes, which
have faced a number of challenges. These challenges have arisen firstly due to the rapid
evolution of digital marketing in general and SM in particular, and secondly, because of the
greater internal organisational connectedness required for both services marketers (compared
to non-services marketers) and SM (compared to TM) implementation. Managerial
implications based on the themes identified in the qualitative research are as follows.
First, the strategic level managers need to clearly define the role of SM within their overall
marketing strategies and TM. It appears that some organisations allow SM to drive strategy,
while others develop them independently of each other. Second, as with all branding, it is
essential that coordinated and consistent messages are used in all communications and
activities; nevertheless, message execution may need to be varied by the SM platform as is
the case with TM. Third, as employees are empowered to speak on behalf of the organisation,
training is required in order to avoid breaching regulatory requirements regarding
inconsistent brand messages. Fourth, cross-functional coordination is essential across the

28
multitude of SM formats used between various departments that interact with consumers, as
different consumers may engage with formats in different ways. Finally, organisations report
an emphasis on behavioural metrics including sales; however, metrics and an understanding
of the correlation with SM are still evolving and ongoing experimentation will likely be
needed, such as converting Facebook ‘likes’ to purchase. These four themes should drive
service firms’ decisions to choose specific social networks within their overall IMC strategy.
Limitations and future research
This study has several limitations. First, since it is an exploratory study based on in-depth
interviews, this places limits on the confidence of our findings, and a larger quantitative study
of service organisations is recommended. Second, the respondents were marketing managers
but the organisational implications of incorporating SM are quite different from TM. This
suggests that interviews with operation managers could provide important insight into cross-
functional issues and employee-customer interaction. Third, all organisations were large in
size and previous marketing communication research indicated that different issues arise
based on organisational size. Fourth and finally, the inclusion of a variable that might
facilitate the successful use of SM within IMC processes such as market orientation or e-
marketing orientation may provide valuable insight. Nevertheless, we have provided
important preliminary findings and proposed an enhancement to the IMC framework within
this study that will encourage the development of a more robust model of integrated
marketing communications for services marketers.

29
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33
APPENDIX A1 Interview Guide
We would like you to focus on one brand where SM has a significant role to play in your
IMC, when responding to the following questions…
Q1 How do you define SM for your brand?
Q2 Which SM platforms do you use for Brand X?
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
LinkedIn
YouTube
Foursquare
Blogs ________________________
Others _______________________
Q3 What marketing activities do you conduct through, or within, these SM platforms?
Q4 What is the purpose of these activities? What do you hope to achieve by performing these
activities?
Q5 Do you see the benefits of SM differing from traditional marketing communication media?
Q6 What traditional media do you employ for this brand?
Q7 Does the purpose of SM differ from the purpose of other elements in traditional media?
(i.e. traditional media such as television and newspaper)?
Q8 What do you do to facilitate the implementation of SM for Brand X?
Q9 What do you do to hinder the implementation of SM for Brand X?
Q10 How do you ensure brand consistency within your SM activities? Is it harder? Why?
Q11 Do the methods you use to ensure brand consistency using SM differ from methods used
to ensure brand consistency via traditional media?
Q12 What is your SM measurement strategy? Do the methods you use differ from those used
to measure the effectiveness of traditional IMC?
Q13 How do you think services differ from FMCG in terms of integrating SM?
Q14 How do you go about linking sales to specific SM activities?
Q15 Is there any other issue that we haven’t raised that is relevant to the implementation of
SM as part of your IMC mix for Brand X?
Q16 What is the biggest challenge marketers will face with SM in the future?
Q17 How much attention should marketers pay to the decentralisation of advertising and
journalism in the age of free media and SM consumption?