Social Media as Tool of Marketing

Marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. It is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Businesses use various marketing tools to communicate company information, stimulate customer interest and motivate action. An integrated marketing approach applies several tactics to engage customers and build business. Such as Traditional media, Digital media, Social media, Promotional items. Social media marketing is a subset of digital media marketing. However, the goal of social media marketing tools is to develop an interactive, online relationship with the customer rather than to mine covertly for customer data. Specific examples of social media marketing tools include blogging, tweeting, posting, sharing, networking, pinning, bookmarking, media sharing and commenting on social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit and YouTube. Social media marketing level the playing field for small companies and individual entrepreneurs by offering low-cost tools with potentially high returns. This paper talks about how social media can be used as a marketing tool. Right from describing the various forms of social media, it touches upon the different methods by which social media are engaged with by a marketer. The tasks of creating awareness, generating interest, encouraging action, resulting in purchase, and doing brand advocacy are all covered. There is also a section on how the marketer can evaluate the effectiveness of these social media options both in comparison with traditional media as well as in isolation