Social Media Marketing And Its Challenges

Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND ITS CHALLENGES
Social Media Marketing and its
Challenges

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND ITS CHALLENGES
Abstract
Social media is considered as the best marketing channel, as there are more than 3 billion
users worldwide. Companies can competently market their products or services with the
social media channel. Social media is the best marketing tool which could be a leading factor
for the success of products or business if strategized and implemented prudently. There are
numerous viewpoints on the positive as well as negative aspects of social media which are
deliberated in the report using journals and articles. Pavlovian theory involves combining a
stimulus with a habituated response; the theory has established successful results when
applied to engage customers with the business. The paper highlights the Pavlovian theory on
consumer behavior through which companies can develop an effective brand image in the
marketplace. Dove’s racially motivated advertisement on social media took the attention of
millions of viewers destructively which led to major downfalls in the business. Pavlovian
theory can be effectively used in Dove’s situation to renovate its brand image in the
marketplace. The applications of Pavlovian theory are deliberated in the report with the help
of Dove’s case study.
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Table of Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Literature review...................................................................................................................................4
Pavlovian Theory on Consumer Behaviour (Classical Conditioning Theory).......................................9
Case Study...........................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................14
References...........................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
There are more than 3 billion people using social media around the world, it is one of the
prime enablers for organizations to reach nearly half of the global population. With effective
and pertinent social media strategy organizations can connect with people more effectively
and their brand image will also be elevated in the marketplace. With efficient use of social
media, businesses could reach a high number of potential customers with the lowest time
frame. The prime benefits of using social media as a marketing channel are improved trades,
increased customer engagement, increased customer feedback, access to wider market
segments, and so on.
There are some negative aspects of social media marketing in businesses; proper planning
and preparation is must requirement for launching the business in social media. Constant
monitoring is one of the prime requirements if an organization plans to market their product
on social media; as a small mistake could make a major impact on the organization’s
reputation. Companies have to be vigilant about the type of content they are posting on the
internet; once posted on the internet will stay on the internet, millions of viewers would have
already watched the content even if it is deleted. Hacking and negative feedbacks posted
publically are some of the prime negative influences which may impact the company
reputation to a greater extent. The fact is tacit that social media has numerous advantages for
a business to market their product; on the other hand, there are some of the negative aspects
of social media on business which has to be potentially eradicated with some set of actions.
Whereas, some businesses believe in upholding closer customer relationship, believing that it
would be much better and business outcomes will also be progressive. Rather than marketing
the products through social media, some businesses uphold relationship marketing, in which
long-term customer relationship is focused. The essay encompasses a literature review on the
negative aspects of marketing through social media and potential methods to manage it. A
critical argument is presented through which views of several authors on the topic will be
presented. A theory on consumer behavior is presented in the report, and the application of
that theory to overcome the challenges of social media is also deliberated in the report. A
case study on Dove is presented to deliberate the application of selected theory in the report.
Generally, the essay will emphasize the prominence of social media marketing in the present
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era, and further, several ways to handle the negative aspects of social media marketing will
be elucidated in this paper.
Literature review
Social media is becoming an imperative fragment of the business's marketing and
development platform, as it considered as a prime medium by the organizations to connect
with people globally (Tuten & Solomon, 2017). The fact is tacit that presence in ‘big three’ is
the main step taken by any organization to connect people globally; the big 3’s are Facebook,
Google+ & Twitter. The study shows that almost 40% of the fortune 500 companies are
active on social media, but they have not integrated social media with their company website.
According to a study conducted by Burson-Marsteller, out of Fortune 500 list, more than 86%
of 100 largest companies in the list are full of zipping in social media websites such as
blogging, Twitter, YouTube & Facebook. In the present trend, companies that use Twitter are
more popular on social media (Heidi Cohen, 2018). Companies are using social media as a
channel in order to actively promote themselves and develop a clientele by connecting with
consumers from various market segments (Erdoğmuş and Cicek, 2012). On the other hand,
companies that are planning to get involved in social media marketing should be intensive of
time; as timely response and content reforming in accordance to the current trend is one of
the prime aspects and challenges in social media. There are many other challenges of social
media in this era which has to be considered seriously, or it would negatively influence the
brand image of the organization (Liebowitz, 2017).
Positive aspects of Social Media Marketing
Most of the entrepreneurs in the marketplace trust that, social media is one of the prime
advantages for marketing; they consider it as a temporary but effective tool that has to be
taken advantage to be on the spotlight (Todor, 2016). Various studies indicate that marketers
of various businesses consider social media as the best tool to use, use of social media
increases the traffic to company websites and it provides a positive influence to the sales as
well. Below are some of the ways through which social media marketing could help the
business to improve and to engage in better customer relationship (Harb et al., 2019).
Viewpoints of several authors are provided which demonstrates the positive aspects of social
media in the marketplace.
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According to Nadaraja & Yazdanifard (2013), social media marketing is a new and prompt
emerging trend in the marketing sector through which businesses can easily target their
customers and promote their products and the company itself. Rather than relying on
traditional web-based marketing activities such as e-mails and newsletters, companies prefer
social media marketing which is swift and spreads the messages quickly. Companies can
make better use of social networking platforms such as Google+, Facebook and Twitter &
market themselves and their products efficiently. Through social media, they could attract
more traffic to their websites and elevate their yield. The social media can provide unlimited
information to the customers without any human intervention; companies can also customize
the social media content according to the user groups. The prime benefits of marketing
products using social media as a channel are low budget, higher interactivity, social
interaction, diverse markets, customer service, and promptness (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard,
2013).
Brand recognition is one of the prime aspects of marketing which is anticipated for the
success of any business or organization. Increasing visibility in the marketplace would
benefit the organization in many aspects, people will start recognizing the brand, and the
brand value will be spontaneously increased in the marketplace. Social media will act as the
organization’s channel to spread the brand’s voice in diverse segments of the marketplace.
With social media marketing, new customers would be attracted, and the brand will be more
perceptible in the marketplace. In other words, customers will be more acquainted with the
brand (Hensel & Deis, 2010).
Rendering to the article by Sajid (2016), social media is one of the best possibilities to get
connected with potential customers in diverse market segments. Marketing in social media is
not an easy process; it is a strategic and methodical process which decides the company’s
situation and reputation in the marketplace. Social media marketing allows the organization
to provide some courtesy to the recommendations and grievances, marketers can also
recognize their market evangelists who would develop the product efficiently with the lowest
costs. Social media allows to, trade more goods and solutions, building a new partnership,
elevating the number of traffic, generating more acquaintance and decreasing marketing
expenditures at a greater extent (Sajid, 2016).
Social media marketing is the fastest emerging marketing trend which is employed by most
of the businesses in order to accomplish marketing goals. The profits of social media
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marketing have been recognized globally, and it has been providing immense opportunities to
the businesses to come up with a consistent presence online (Parveen, et al., 2015). Regular
posting in social media would allow the companies to cooperate with various customers on
acquainted grounds; with a well-organized advertising plan companies can augment their
sales and proceeds. The welfares of using social media as a marketing channel are, search
engine ranking would be enhanced, and there would be more traffic on the company website
(Edkent Media, 2018).
According to the article by Lath (2018), there are many small scale businesses which are not
planning to market themselves through social media, they do not believe much on social
media marketing. The article articulates that, businesses which are not intending to establish
on social media are missing numerous opportunities to get expanded in the marketplace. The
word of mouth publicity on social media would benefit the business to get recognition in the
marketplace; consumers share their experiences online, through which many other people in
the media get motivated to acquire the product or service (Lath, 2018). Marketing through
social media could be a prime tool for the small scale businesses to diversify, as the
marketing cost is almost zero and companies can reach diverse segments in the marketplace,
through which more potential customers would be attracted (Kasemsap, 2018)
Challenges in Social Media Marketing
Social media is reflected as one of the best strategies to interact and engage with the
customers in the diverse marketplace, but there are numerous shares of challenges as well
(Hofacker & Belanche, 2016). The competition in social media is strong in the present era;
the marketing managers would have to work hard to derive an appreciated yield. The fact
cannot be overlooked that there are more than 3 billion users in social media all around the
globe, therefore, marketing activities in social media should be properly strategized and
reconsidered (Kotler & Armstrong, 2015). Scheming accurate social media strategy the prime
challenges for the companies in the present time; the scheme should be efficient for the
reason that the brand image relies on the scheme used in the social media, and the company
cannot afford a mistake, since there are millions of users watching at a time (Yadav, 2017).
Marketing managers spend invest time and money for appropriating the best strategy that
could be used in social media (Kaur, 2016).
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According to Elawadi (2016), Social media benefits the organization in two aspects; first, it
allows the company to promote themselves in front of their target audiences and
communicate with them. Second, with social media marketing, word of mouth
communication increases through which consumers are led by other consumers. The word of
mouth publicity parts an imperative role for the success of product or service provided by the
organization; as a consumer communicates with another consumer with personal experience,
this is considered as one of strongest means of marketing. This is a challenge for the
companies at the same time, for the reason that the companies cannot control the
communication (conversation) between two consumers, which is demarcated as consumer-to-
consumer conversations. These conversations can only be influenced by portraying
consistency in an organization's mission, vision, and goals. The organizations should ensure
that they are portraying their motive while marketing their product and how the consumers
will be benefited. The marketing team should be efficient enough to portray the company as a
transparent organization with virtuous objective (Elawadi, 2016).
Measuring ROI is one of the prime challenges in marketing through the social media channel,
marketers persistently needs to estimate the approaches and techniques they have executed on
the internet. Measuring ROI is also a time-consuming process, as all of the techniques
implemented on social media have to be evaluated first, then only ROI could be calculated.
Social media is a new marketing channel as compared to the traditional marketing tactics;
therefore it is difficult to determine the impact of new ideas on the revenue as the results are
unpredictable. The challenges of measuring the ROI in social media marketing could be
resolved by identifying the KPI’s first, by equalling the social media objectives to business
goals, by associating with the competitors and by trailing the performance by setting up
appropriate analytics (Schultz & Peltie, 2013).
Performance evaluation is one of the prime aspects of marketing; whereas social media
marketing involves enormous data and evaluating performance from such movement
becomes very problematic managers who are managing the marketing activity in a social
media channel. The data management in social media marketing has to be precise and
managers would have to classify the useful data from an enormous amount of data and
perceive the behavior of the target audience. This process is almost unmanageable because
industry trends and communication among the audience changes every day. Each and every
detail in social media marketing should be observed and the company would be left far
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behind if the marketing manager fails to observe any latest industry trend. The fact is tacit
that new leads and conversations should be observed on a frequent basis in order to uphold
efficiency in marketing schemes and tactics. A marketing manager could overcome these
challenges by using an integrated and centralized platform for managing the data efficiently
(Moro et al., 2016). Second, comprehending consumer insight is the prime aspect of social
media marketing, so managers have to analyze consumer insights to understand social media
performance. Media management tools also aids to segregate the data types and manage the
data effectively, so these tools could also help the managers to analyze the social media
performance effectively (Hudson et al., 2016).
Apart from the aforementioned challenges, there are some of the factors such as lack of time;
there are numerous things to distract even if dedicated personnel is appointed for social media
marketing. There are thousands of notifications and other diversions that divert the dedicated
personnel from doing the real work, so companies would have to employ people dedicated
for each and every task in social media marketing (Liebowitz, 2017). Another challenge is,
there are thousands of brands in social media who have created their identity by portraying
their brand value through innovative concepts; developing a plan that is unique and attractive
in the social media market is one of the prime challenges faced by the social media
marketers. Social media channel such as Facebook has billions of users and the amount of
data produced in Facebook is far-fetched; it is really challenging for the social media
marketers to diversify data and segments from such amount of data and plan marketing
activities. Providing each and every customer in each segment with frequent updates is also
imperative as well as a challenging task at the same time (Zhu & Chen, 2015).
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Pavlovian Theory on Consumer Behaviour (Classical Conditioning Theory)
Pavlovian Theory is a practice of learning in which stimulus is combined with a habituated
response. The theory was named after a scientist called Ivan Pavlov; Pavlov conducted this
experiment with his dogs after noticing that events, as well as objects, could also trigger a
habituated response. Pavlov started demonstrating the experiment by presenting the dog food
(meat) in front of a dog and measuring the dog's unconditioned response by considering the
quantity of saliva secreted by the dog. After this, Pavlov noticed that the dog started
associating with the lab assistant and learned a habituated response (McLeod, 2018).
Pavlov then designed an experiment in which bell was used as a neutral stimulus and he used
to ring the bell before giving food to the dogs. He started repeating this process and he started
ringing the bell without food, he started noticing that there was secretion of saliva even if the
bell is rung without food. This shows a response or reflex that was generated through an
unconditioned stimulus. This theory is linked to consumer behavior in a way that, definite
response or reflex (urge to shop) could be expected from the customer if they are provided
with a stimulus in an effective manner. For instance, a word ‘sale’ stimulates the customers to
shop even if there are no such personal requirements; the stimulus totally relies on the
planning and effectiveness of the shop (Husson University, 2019).
The Pavlovian theory on consumer behavior could be effectively used for the social media
marketing perspective; more efficient the strategy and planning, more traffic would be
attracted and there would be more in yield as well. The fact is tacit that the social media
strategy should be effective in order to ensure that the word of mouth publicity is good as it is
the prime challenge of social media marketing that couldn’t be controlled as well. The
practical application of this theory would be demonstrated with the help of a case study
(Husson University, 2019).
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Case Study
The fact is tacit that content posted in social media should be strategically designed in a way
that it is appropriate for a group of people or a specific fragment for which the company is
targeting. The content posted through social media marketing should not be offensive and it
should not be racially motivated as well. According to the Pavlovian theory, the consumer
response depends on the type of stimulus provided, and how much effective it is provided.
The case study is on Dove which is one of the prestigious organizations owned by Unilever
and grounded in the UK. It is a personal care brand which produces cosmetic products and is
sold in more than 80 countries. Dove renowned for promoting Dove Self-Esteem Project
which has been organizing workshops in various countries for offsetting the appearance
pressures on women, this programme has esteemed many young people and made them
understand that they are beautiful as the way they are.
In the month of October Dove posted an advertisement on its official Facebook page that
highlighted a black lady taking the shirt off which was similar to the colour of her skin tone,
after removing the shirt off the woman turned into a white woman wearing a white shirt
having very fair skin tone similar to her white shirt. This advertisement was criticized just
after it was displayed; people criticized the advertisement by labeling the brand as a racist.
This was the biggest social media marketing fail by Dove, as the advertisement created a bad
remark in the mind of existing consumers and potential customers as well (Slawson, 2017).
The company had to pull off the advertisement from social media when thousands of people
started giving negative comments about the brand and the advertisements as well. The
company apologized openly about the type of advertisement they posted on social media, and
the company also assured that these kinds of advertisements would not be posted again
(Astor, 2018).
The case pointed above deliberates the fact that companies should think twice before posting
any content in the social media, as there are billions of people active and it should not hurt
the sentiments of any section of the society. The fact is tacit that, it is very challenging for the
marketers to develop a content which is unique from all the other content posted in the social
media by other organizations in the industry. Therefore, companies should assign expert
personnel for reconsidering the content before posting in the media and proper time is given
to ensure that the posted content is reaching the targeted segments. The marketing managers
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of Dove were obliged to take some time to ponder the fact that the advertisement they are
about to post on the internet would call severe troubles and people would get angry about the
racially motivated advertisement. The advertisement must have influenced Dove’s sales at a
greater extent; word of mouth publicity of Dove was ruined in diverse segments of the
society (Rana & Kumar, 2016).
Social media is a place where an update travels promptly; there are many influencers in social
media who when shares any controversial or negative post, it gets a lot of propaganda over
the media and shared within millions of people very quickly. Dove posted the advertisement
on Facebook, and according to facts and figures Facebook is considered as one of the prime
social media channels in which advertisements are posted and mostly discussed; therefore,
the ad posted by Dove reached far more diverse segments of the society. In social media,
negative sentiments are mostly raised for an advertisement as compared to the positive
sentiments. Subsequently, social media marketers should be very careful about the type of
content they are about to post on the internet (McIntyre et al., 2016).
Application of Pavlovian theory on the context of Dove’s ‘racist ad’
In the present situation, publics' response when they hear about Dove refers to the racist and
that was posted earlier back. Consumer's response to the stimulus is connected to the negative
advertisement that was posted long before. Dove could resolve this issue by portraying their
brand value and motto effectively in the marketplace. For instance, they could make use of
Pavlovian theory in order to create a conditioned response in the customer's mind by
associating it with a positive stimulus (Klein, 2018).
The first step, they should be apologetic for the advertisement they have posted on the
internet and they should strategize their social media marketing tactics in a way that the
negative impact caused by the previous advertisement would get minimized and people again
start memorizing the brand with a positive viewpoint. With the use of Pavlovian model, Dove
could develop and implement tactics that would encourage people to acquire the products
with a stimulus, such as offers or any special programmes.
This theory can effectively work with the brand like Dove. Customers will start memorizing
the brand with a positive observation after frequent marketing efforts with the
implementation of effective marketing tactics. For instance, earlier people used to recall Dove
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as a brand that empowers people to be the way they are. A conditioned response is certainly
possible if the consumer experiences verified observations (Klein, 2018).
Pavlovian theory has been used to relate this case study for the reason that Dove has already
influenced a negative image in customer’s mind; customers would remember the brand with
the racist ad that was posted in social media. This is a conditioned response that has been
created with the advertisement; therefore, the theory can be used effectively to change the
brand image in the customer’s mind. The theory has been associated with Dove’s case study
because the application of this theory would help the brand to astound the customer in a
positive way and progress a positive sentiment with the brand image (Klein, 2018).
Using the applications of Pavlovian theory for brand advertisement would develop an urge to
shop; Dove is a renowned brand with varieties of products and having enormous customer
base worldwide, therefore the application of this theory in Dove’s case would bring positive
enhancements. This theory can also help marketing professionals to reach a wider audience
and also bring more positive outcomes. These are the reasons for which the use of Pavlovian
theory in Dove’s case study could be justified. The brand just needed to change its image just
by making some changes in its advertisements (stimulus) which would bring some positive
influences in the conditioned response (Husson University, 2019).
Potential ways to manage the challenges of Social Media Marketing
As deliberated above, there are numerous challenges in social media marketing; some of the
prime challenges comprise, measuring ROI, designing a competent social media strategy,
management of the organic reach, time management, and analyzing the performance of the
content posted on social media.
For overcoming the challenge of ROI measurement, the marketing managers could initially
compare the social media marketing goals with overall business objectives. Then, key
performance indicators should be recognized and after accomplishing this step, managers
should compare their marketing performance with their competitors and at last, performance
should be tracked using analytics. For overcoming the challenge of designing a competitive
strategy for social media marketing, marketing managers should initially set their goals in
order to bring more effectiveness and the marketing campaign should be revolved all around
the target audience. Monitoring is also one of the imperative steps through which strategy
could be continuously improved.
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Managing the organic reach is one of the prime challenges; the posts and ads should reach
until the target audience without being struck behind any unnecessary traffic. Therefore,
marketing managers could overcome these challenges by posting high quality and unique
content which would call the attraction of millions in social media. Posts should be regularly
monitored in order to make sure that they are reaching till target audience. Time management
is also one of the prime challenges, and it could be managed through daily planning, making
competent use of technology. Social media management tools and automating most of the
tasks would save most of the time. Analyzing social media performance is also an imperative
task but challenging at the same time; the challenges could be managed by making efficient
use of social media management tools and data management using centralized tools.
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Conclusion
Social media is one of the best marketing channels through which companies get numerous
opportunities to market their product in a way that customers from diverse market segments
could perceive and experience the product details. The three main social media marketing
channels are Facebook, Google+ and YouTube, out of these Facebook is considered as one of
the biggest social media channels in which most of the organizations in the world post their
advertisements. Apart from these three, there are various other social media channels which
are also used for marketing purposes. From the report, the fact could be established that there
are many challenges in social media marketing even though there are numerous positive
aspects as well. The social media marketers would have to be vigilant about the social media
trend and should be updated with the current activities in social media. The fact is tacit that,
more than negative remarks are mostly given to an advertisement in social media, more than
commenting about the positive aspects. Social media marketers should ensure that the content
they are about to post is not racially motivated or hurting the sentiments of any religion,
society or a group of people.
Companies that use social media as a channel to market themselves and their products should
ensure that they are appointed competent and proficient personnel for each and every task in
social media marketing. Dove's case study in the report demonstrates that the social media
marketers in the organization were not competent enough to understand the fact that these
kinds of content would portray racism which would call conflicts in social media. Dove had
to face many consequences after this advertisement was posted in the media; once the content
is posted in media, it reached to millions of people even after it is deleted from the internet.
The content posted in the social media should be unique and it should be segregated and
posted in a way that it is affable by the customers from diverse market segment. Pavlovian
theory of consumer behavior is a theory which guarantees a conditioned response from the
customers with the help of a stimulus. According to the theory, people will remember a brand
or an organization with an aspect which is portrayed by the organization through regular
marketing efforts. Through the case study, the fact is tacit that, Dove could have used this
theory to overcome the damages that were caused due to the racially motivated
advertisement. The theory would help many other brands to overcome the challenges of
SMM in a better aspect.
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