What does social media and digital marketing mean to you?

For non-marketers, social media is a channel to interact with friends and family, and to keep up with external factors such as celebrity updates, news updates, promotion updates and more. However, for marketers, social media and digital marketing is a popular new communication method to reach out and understand customers.

Mark Ritson argues that digital is meaningless as similar marketing prints are applied through traditional channels such as newspapers and synergistically linked with social media and stands by his opinion that they are just tools that when combined and used together in a campaign, it brings better results as the integrated marketing campaign. He also holds a point of view that relying on social media as the only digital tool is restricting from using more powerful marketing tools.

According to the Society for Marketing Professional Services, marketing is “The process of creating firm awareness; building and differentiating the brand; driving business development activities; and identifying, anticipating, and satisfying client objectives to achieve profitable business goals.“. This coincides with some points that Mark Ritson had pointed out in his video.

The common goal of social media, digital and traditional marketing is to be customer-centric by thinking of their target consumers as their long-term investment. Therefore, a combination of social media, digital and traditional marketing leads to a strong marketing campaign overall as it will target all contact points to ensure higher chances of reaching and interacting with target and even non-target consumers.

Is there an overreaction towards social media and digital marketing like what Mark Ritson had pointed out? I do not think so. I feel that social media and digital marketing are new tools developed to fit the modern era of technological advancements and digitalisation, and these developments added on more avenue for marketing to expand and capitalise on.

Mark Ritson also mentioned that marketers should listen to customers before strategies and tactics and this is important as the main goal of marketing campaigns is to reach consumers in the end. Therefore, understanding what consumers want by standing in their position provides more insights to select the right marketing tools and strategies.

Therefore, marketing campaigns at present times can incorporate social media, digital and traditional marketing as a whole marketing campaign to generate better results with “proficient development of strategies and tactics along with the prioritization of such programs” (Kieran Hannon, 2016). This is backed up with Mark Ritson’s belief that a good marketer should be trained in marketing in aspects such as in developing and executing diagnosis, strategy and tactics.

Final Conclusion:
Just like how social media marketing was not a popular option in the past, the stigma that social media was just for connection has changed to become a popular marketing tool to target present day consumers. Thus, the tools and capabilities of marketing will continue to advance and be developed further as the world advances.

Fake news, trolls, bots, inappropriate accounts and contents flood the internet and social medias, and they are on the rise. Whether is it done intentionally, unintentional misrepresentation, or the lack of knowledge of true facts before sharing to more people, these actions contributed towards the dark side of increased connectivity and access through the internet and social media.

These lead to an increase of laws, such as the POFMA (Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act), to tackle “fake news” which in turn threatened media freedom in several countries, as a trade-off for protection against fake news and contents.

A recent example of POFMA being filled to protect victims of misleading viral Facebook post is a couple accused of hoarding and stockpiling the eggs when the truth was that they were school canteen vendors who were purchasing supplies and not hoarding eggs due to neighbouring country’s lockdown announcement.

Some of Facebook’s initiatives in tackling inappropriate contents:
Facebook estimated that they prevented millions of attempts to create fake accounts using their detection systems every day in 2019, and found that their content actioned for spam increased in Q2 2019 and had since then taken enforcement. Facebook reportedly removed inappropriate accounts and contents during Q3 2019, where 11.6 million contents depicting child nudity and sexual exploitation were removed from Facebook and 754,000 from Instagram. 2.5 million posts about suicide or self-injury, terrorist propaganda, and more were also removed.

To educate users, a new enforcement page was published to shows multiple examples of how their Community Standards apply to different types of content. Facebook also complied with Singapore’s fake news law.

Some of Twitter’s initiatives in tackling inappropriate contents:
Twitter posted about their rules and policies, (e.g. hateful conduct policy, child sexual exploitation policy and report violations), guidelines and policies (e.g. Terrorism and violent extremism policy and Financial scam policy), and law enforcement guidelines for Twitter users and general public to access and read to understand and guide to how how they can report the any violations.

Twitter also tried a new approach to manage trolls and reported a result of 4% drop in abuse reports from search and 8% fewer abuse reports from conversations in 2018 (Del Harvey and David Gasca, 2018), and suspended thousands of accounts to fight the spread of disinformation and political discord.

The dark side of the digital world:
Despite internet and information technology being major contributors to global development, digital innovations may be a shared root cause of poor physical wellbeing and in some cases even affect mental health. Digital and connectivity platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram is also used as a base for unethical activities such as scam, spam, harassment and exploitation.

A recent exploitation example is the Korean Telegram porno ring “Nth Room” with 260k members exposed to exploiting and forcing violent crimes on Women and Female minors into sexual slavery by blackmailing victims with their private information. This is a real example of how some users took advantage of the digital world to harm others due to wide usage and easy connectivity and accessibility of digital platforms.

Conclusion:
In this digital age, heavy reliance on the internet, social media and digital devices exposes digital users to various risks such as scam, spam, fake news, and danger. Therefore, everyone has a responsibility towards keeping the online community a safe place.

Do not create or engage in immoral contents and communities that will bring any harm. If you see a post / content or activities that promotes or propaganda about immoral issues and practices, make a report towards relevant site management (e.g. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) or the POFMA to protect yourself, your family, your peers, and the online community.

Things to take note of
Some methods to check for the authenticity of news include:
– Check if official news and / or government sites reported it.
– Verify information source (such as the URL and website).
– Check the author of the source or article.
– Examine for fake images and impersonation.

Some prompts / actions to watch out for:
– Do not respond if it requires disclosing of personal information (unless they are required by verified websites such as government website).
– Do not save your bank / credit card details and information online.
– Never pay by bank transfer.

“Don’t forget me when you are famous!”

Social media users might have seen this common comment by friends or long-term followers of the content poster under a post or tweet that had gone viral or received many retweets / likes, like the ones shown in the snippets of some Twitter tweets below.

Viral posts / tweets are rare. For some, virality is short-term, and for some, it had long term effect. However, for most, it did not work towards their favour.

In my previous blog posts, I covered about relevant aspects that contributed towards virality such as the Facebook segmentation matrix to identify the right target group, approaches for the spread of ideas and contents, marketing for mobile social media applications, how IoT and big data can link the business / product with consumers, and how the science and art aspects of SEO are vital for a successful SEO. In this blog post, we will explore reasons why some contents did not go viral and examples of solutions to improve.

Reasons for lack of virality:

1. Digital-only Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC):
Marketing strategies must consider both online and offline elements. The first principle of IMC is consistency, and when the online strategy is unmatched with offline strategies, it is considered as a breach. This leads to a confused brand message which will confuse consumers.

There is a shift towards omnichannel marketing. Therefore, if the business only focus on online strategies, they would loose out on reaching and interacting with customers across other touchpoints such as physical (e.g. feel of product and store) and sensory (e.g. sounds and scents of product) interaction as the experience is inconsistent. Consumers will exprience their own journeys across the multiple channels and touchpoints, and each touchpoints matters as it impacts the customer’s experience. Therefore, there should be consistency and unified customer service and shopping experiences (Branwell Moffat, 2017).

2. Lack of Clear Understanding of Target Audience:
It is important to clearly identify target audience by demographic and psychographic (attitudes, interests and behaviors), to develop key messages and identify the best communication channels (Linda Pophal, 2014).

For example, Bloomingdale’s, a high-end fashion retail, 2015 Christmas advertisement appeared to promote date rape with their advertisement message. Despite being a high-end retail business, Bloomingdale’s failed to ensure proper advertisements that matched their target customers and image. Although virality was achieved, it received negative responses from their customers and non-customers.

3. Lack of Emotional Appeal:
Emotional appeals in advertisements attempts to evoke strong emotional feelings to make potentially make content more viral as some reasons why people share emotionally charged contents is to make sense of experiences, to deepen social connection or make use of Jonah Berger’s social currency to improve their image. A lack of emotional appeal might not resonate, evoke thoughts / emotions or encourage sharing of content.

An example of an successful viral advertisement which used emotional appeal:
The “Always #LikeAGirl” advertisement by feminine care company “Always” managed to achieve virality because they managed to address social perceptions of females which evoked some anger and empathy.

4. Not “Share-worthy”:
A content is “share-worthy” if it resonates with the audience or is funny, useful, relevant or that it also affects others, and more. Some factors that could be missing from advertisements / campaigns / business that were considered as not “share-worthy” includes the lack of triggers, lack of practical value, lack of credibility, lack of connection, and lack of call-to-action prompts.

For example, an advertisement about a new menstrual pad solely based on the product might not evoke a lot of shares and affect. However, when emotional elements are incorporated along with the brand, such as the “Keep girls in school” campaign by Whisper, it will resonate more with viewers and even leave lasting memories

5. Wrong Timing:
The timing of the launch of an advertisement / campaign / post is crucial as it affects the demand and and reach towards consumers.

For example, in this current period where COVID-19 affected many countries world-wide, the advertising for a cruise trip / holiday to overseas / hotpot business that encourages group sharing of food would not be effective due to ban on cruise vessels, travel restrictions and fear for sharing food. Promotion of such businesses would lead to lack of content reach as it would not be searched by most people during this period.

6. Poor Visual Appeal:
Visual appeal matters as it affects how viewers will view and perceive an advertisement / campaign / poster. One of the major factor in an advertisement is viewer’s perception. Therefore, a poor visual will not attract attention and even a click to view from consumers.

Some of the recommended advertisement design tips are: to keep it simple, include a call to action, appeal to niches, use visual metaphors, channel some surrealism, and more.

For example, an advertisement with poor appeal:

Example of advertisements with good visual appeal by WWF (left) and Plant-for-the-Planet (right)

7. Poor or Wrong Distribution:
Content distribution is the process where content gets discovered, read, and re-shared through promoting to targeted individuals (Bobby Machado, 2019). The use of a wrong or lack of target audience distribution will incur negative impacts as content distribution is essential in expanding reach and overall brand / campaign / advertisement awareness (Bobby Machado, 2019).

Popular distribution channels for contents that worked for businesses are owned channels (e.g. website), earned media (e.g. social medias – Instagram, Facebook and more), and paid distribution (e.g. video advertising – YouTube advertising and more). These distribution channels also provide functions that allows for more opportunities to be shared, such as the Instagram share post function and Twitter retweet function.

An example of a health campaign (National Steps Challenge season 5, Singapore) being promoted through YouTube advertising:

Conclusion:
Viral marketing is the goal of many companies, although it does not happen to all companies. Positive virality is a strong push for the brand / business / campaign / advertisement to gain wider content reach and even follow-up action from the consumers (such as further search on the brand, purchase, and more).

However, a lack of virality can also increase the brand value over time as long as the business conducts the right marketing with the right techniques (such as some of the mentioned solutions and examples above), to build up a base and recognition over time. There are also brands that are successful without virality. For example, established long-time local bakery “Four Leaves Bakery” did not conduct much advertising but is still a popular bakery among consumers with various positive reviews online. Krispy Kreme is another brand that does not conduct much advertising as the brand was build on word-of-mouth.

Therefore, positive virality is a bonus and an opportunity to capitalise and build on the sudden increase in brand awareness / popularity, and negative or the lack of virality is a chance to learn from experiences, relook and replan marketing strategies for future strategies.

If everyone perceived the world and even the meaning and application of science and art differently, then what is the actual truth and unambiguous reality?

The debate of differences between science and art lasted over centuries, and it seems like this debate will last through the eternity of humanity’s era.

Both science and art are in a symbiotic relationship. Science needed to be seen and explained creatively to be understood, and art found a new way to be expressed, visualised and communicated by relating to science as a basis. The combination of both leads to a new perspective that one might now have thought of being useful before (James Stephenson, 2017). Applied science is technology. Applied art is decoration. Both are applications of science and art for practical purposes, and science and art changes how we perceive what is around us (Dave Featherstone, 2016).

How does this affect the perception that we have about our modern technological world? Lets explore a technological debate:
Is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) a science or art?

My personal opinion is that SEO is both science and art. While your perception might differ from mine, here are the comparisons and reasons that lead to my perception that SEO is both science and art.

First, what is SEO?
SEO is one of the key search engine marketing (SEM) technique that is based on organic listings. It is a structured approach to increase the company’s or its products’ position in search engine natural or organic results listings for selected keywords or phrases (Chaffey et al, 2012).

SEO tries to promote the “white hat” technique of genuine, high quality content that customers want to receive as providing true values leads to lower bounce rates out of the website. Optimization for mobile platforms are important due to the rise in mobile usage.

SEO and Science Comparison:

Science	SEO
A branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws.	A structured approach in search engine organic results listings for selected keywords (Chaffey et al, 2012), in an ordered sequence through Google’s algorithm (Eric Sharp, 2015).
Systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.	SEO requires periodic observation of consumers’ pattern and trends online. Google’s algorithm formulas are the brain of search engines (Eric Sharp, 2015).
Verification and testing.	Google Verification allows verification of ownership of a website. Tests, experiments, and metrics are the key to SEO (Neil Patel).

SEO and Art Comparison:

Art	SEO
Quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.	Quality: Researching and studying a design (keyword research, website layout). Production: setting of foundation (on and off-site optimization). Expression: SEO tools (e.g. backlink analysis tools) are like paint brushes and canvass (Sen Si. 2020).
Any field using the skills or techniques of art such as advertising art.	Quality and relevant contents that readers and algorithms want to receive (Rob Peterson, 2014).
Creativity.	Creative SEO is thinking of how a marketing program can encompass social, graphic design, link building, content generation, and PR to drive toward a common goal (Rob Petersen, 2014). It is also about the website’s design/code so that usability and accessibility improves (Mark Jackson, 2011).

Conclusion:
Although digitalisation has turned marketing more into a science than an art form, there are many ways that online marketing techniques (like SEO) are still done through the combination of both forms.

A blend of scientific skills with creativity on experimenting or improving programs can lead to a competitive edge. Therefore, SEO is science and art because mathematical models do not establish business goals, relate or understand why audience purchase certain product. And every optimization process and project are unique. However, to be able to execute a good SEO, one will require skills and knowledge of SEO and the various algorithms that underly the website and SEO.

Just like how a creative staff cannot develop and execute creative strategies without understanding how to use and apply SEO, a technology staff cannot rely only on technical knowledge to implement attractive SEO that relates to consumers. Therefore, SEO is a combination of both science and art.

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life… results not merely from life’s imitative instinct, but from the fact that the self-conscious aim of life is to find expression, and that art offers it certain beautiful forms through which it may realize that energy” – Oscar Wilde

You might wonder, how does the above quote link to this blog post about the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big data?

In the late 1900s and early 2000s, popular cartoon “Totally Spies”, and popular anime “Detective Conan” and “Digimon: Digital Monsters” featured futuristic gadgets and technologies that could only be found in the animations. Today, some of these made-up technologies in the animated world transcended beyond the limits of animated art and fancy ideas into real life gadgets. For example:

Smart Wearable:
The Scanner Watch from “Totally Spies” created in 2003 (left), and the Apple Watch Series 6 that is looking to bring advanced technology of facial scanner and recognition into their watch created in 2019 (right).

Smart Glasses:
Detective Conan’s Criminal Tracking Glass from the manga story written before 1994 (top), and Google Smart Glass created in 2012 (bottom).

Artificial Intelligence (AI):
Digimon’s AI creatures who can learn, think, feel emotions and more was created in 1999 (top), and first humanoid robot “Pepper” who can recognise human emotions was created in 2014 (bottom).

These evolutions in technology is due to the increase in study and application of IoT and Big Data.

IoT:
The IoT is the pervasive presence of a variety of devices (like sensors, actuators and mobile phones), where unique addressing schemes allowed the interaction and cooperation of each other to reach common goals and is increasingly being used to define objects that talk to each other.

Big data:
Describes large volume of data, both structured and unstructured, that inundates a business on a day-to-day basis. Big Data is described by the 3 Vs:

1. Volume: Organizations collect data from a variety of sources, including business transactions, smart (IoT) devices, and more.

2. Velocity: The growth in the IoT leads to data streams at an unprecedented speed and must be handled in a timely manner.

3. Variety: Data comes in all types of formats, from structured, numeric data in traditional databases to unstructured text documents, emails, videos, financial transactions, and more.

Benefits:
Marketers can use IoT and big data to connect devices together and connects things across different platforms, analyse customer buying habits across platforms, gather previously unobtainable data about consumer interaction with devices and products, gain deeper insights into a customer’s buying journey, provide real-time point-of-sale notifications and targeted ads, and resolve issues and respond quickly.

For consumers, IoT can provide convenience and comfort (e.g. security systems allows easier monitoring and control of home situations and smart thermostats can heat up homes before home owners return home), save time (e.g. consumers can purchase online when lack the time to physically shop), receive enhanced experiences (e.g. smart school building provides better learning environment), receive more responsive services (e.g. 24 hours online chat-bot to attend to queries even after working hours), and more.

Problems:
There is no real solution or ideal solution for IoT and over-reliance on IoT creates vulnerability towards hacking and invasion of privacy (such as the recent case where a hacker accessed a ring camera installed in a children’s room and harassed the child). A data drenched world increases concerns about privacy and personal abilities for self-control as there will be complicated and unintended consequences such as the lack of knowledge to fix when things get out of control or when misused. The disconnected and those who do not want to be connected will stray further away from the connected society.

With the advancement and increase in use of IoT, marketers have more opportunities to manipulate consumers on their choices and perceptions. Marketers will also need to put in more effort to present authenticity. The “filter bubble” effect also comes in where consumers will only receive information about what they or their peers want / like, leading to a lack of exposure towards other information that might be relevant or important.

Future of IoT and Big data:
There has been a vast convergence of IoT, big data and AI incorporated into businesses. Although the world is currently in its early stages of incorporating IoT, big data and AI into daily work and living, there are a lot of possibilities and prospects where these technologies will provide more beneficial effects in businesses and daily lives.

Robots created for handling biohazardous waste and perform decontaminating procedures are ideas born out of an era of increasing experience with pandemic risks (Eric Rosenbaum, 2020). A current example (as at 2 March 2020) where IoT, big data and AI plays a crucial role is in the COVID-19 epidemic. For example, robotic sprayers are used to disinfect and reduce transmissions in China.

The collection of data and current big data allowed Singapore to effectively conduct contact tracing of those who were in contact with the infected patients and to plan and disseminate information accordingly (e.g. the Gov.sg WhatsApp service to provide reliable information about COVID-19 situation in Singapore).

Therefore, IoT, big data and AI will have increasing importance and bigger roles to play as the world progresses and even in critical times. However, it is important to use these technological aspects ethically to avoid a future of uncontrollable technological singularity.

A common saying goes that “Dogs are Man’s best friend”. Dogs are widely known to be loyal, provide great company and requires attention. Both Man and Dogs have a mutually beneficial relationship.

In today’s modern society, this relationship between Man and Dogs can be interpreted with our daily relationship with our mobile phones and social media usage. We are loyal to our phones we carry them with us almost everywhere we go. Studies have shown that Singaporeans spent about 3 hours 12 mins on average per day on mobile phones. Our phones provide great company in many situations, such as during travels and while waiting in line. We give attention to our phones every day, and have mutually beneficial relationship with our social media or mobile applications. Mobile social media applications provides entertainment and company while we provide them with attention.

Andreas Kaplan (2012) classified mobile social media application into four categories:

1. Quick-timers:
Applications that are time-sensitive but not location-sensitive. This meant that users can send / post messages or contents and the receivers / viewers can view them despite being in a different location or time zone. For example, an Instagram user can upload a story showing that they are having dinner at Marina Bay Sands at 7pm and their followers can view the story within the next 24 hours wherever they are.  

2. Space-timers:
Applications that are both time and location sensitive. This means that the time of posting a particular information and location of the post are correlated. For example, the sharing of current location through WhatsApp.

During my overseas school program in Vietnam back in November 2019, my friends and I were arranged to stay at 3 different hotels within the same district. Being excited first-timers in Vietnam, we relied on location sharing through WhatsApp to inform each other of where our respective chartered busses are at while on the way to our hotels. However, we realised that the location sharing was only accurate at the time of sending as the location changes as the bus moved. This led to a confusion when a friend mistakenly thought that both our busses are heading towards to same street when the actual fact was that the chartered bus that I was in was just passing by that street.

3. Slow-timers
Applications that are not sensitive to time and location. This meant that viewers can view and access the uploaded contents anytime and anywhere without a time and location limit. For example, fans of K-pop boy group “ASTRO” can watch and listen to their music video for their song “Blue Flame” on their YouTube page anytime and anywhere despite the video being uploaded on 20 November 2019 in South Korea.

4. Space locators:
Applications that are not sensitive to time but sensitive to location. This means time of posting does not matter as much as the location itself.  For example, travelers can rely on applications such as TripAdvisor to read past reviews and find locations of specific places that they had not visited before.

During our free time in the mentioned Vietnam school trip, we relied on travel applications to determine which places we should visit. My friend found a night market through travel websites with positive reviews and wanted to visit it. However, as we approached the location, we found out that the particular night market was closed as it does not open on some weekday nights. Despite making a wasted trip, we learnt the importance of ensuring location information credibility.

Conclusion:
Mobile technology has helped us in different situations and even became a part of our daily lives. Andreas Kaplan’s (2012) study of social media application classifications pointed out the underlying basis of our social media usage that we did not think more about.

Marketing has evolved over the years to include social media marketing into various marketing and outreach efforts to reach a wider audience that are reliant on receiving information and contents through social media platforms. This led to the merger of mobile technology, marketing and social media towards current communication and connectivity approaches. Therefore, time and location are important factors to be considered when executing mobile marketing.

Have you seen this viral “Shoot dance” that was even incorporated into various KPop songs?

Or the viral egg (Eugene) that achieved the highest number of likes on Instagram?

And finally, presenting the viral Baby Yoda:

These are examples of how contents can spread widely through social media, and these are the result of creative ideas.

After learning about Jonah Berger’s message characteristics, Malcolm Gladwell’s network characteristics, and Seth Godin’s people characteristics, I realized the common trait among the three approaches is connection. 

Jonah Berger’s message characteristics of 6 STEPPS of contagiousness underlies how some content spreads more. Let’s apply it into Dove’s #Realbeauty self-esteem campaign through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

1. Social Currency: When people share or participate in Dove’s campaign, they present an positive image as supportive towards the cause and at the same time encourage more women to appreciate their own beauty.

2. Triggers: As the campaign spreads and become iconic, it becomes an ongoing trigger that can even empower women even after the campaign is over due to their natural connection towards female personal care.

3. Emotions: The campaign created high positive arousal of acceptance and appreciation towards different and real beauty.

4. Public: The campaign created social proof whereby watching more women join in and feel empowered will reinforce message / beliefs that everyone is beautiful in their own ways.

5. Practical value: Sharing / participating in the campaign allows individuals to feel satisfaction of contributing to the spread of the positive message and helping others to feel accepted.

6. Stories: Dove created story based advertisements to show reality of women speaking positively of other women to encourage confidence and show that others might be able to see things in us that we might not know.

Malcolm Gladwell’s network characteristics highlighted the six degree of separation, and how strong and weak ties affect information shared.

For example, a recent article showed how Gladwell’s viral effect through connectors can expose a post towards larger audiences. Despite current measures to work from home due to COVID-19 virus, a group of management trainees at Hang Seng Bank (Hong Kong) posted photos through their social media showing the group hiking. These linked to Gladwell’s explanation of how a post can become viral through close connectors / followers before eventually spreading towards weak and non-related connectors. 

An example of Gladwell’s Mavens is Shu An from Clicknetwork who tests various products and provide reviews.

Seth Godin highlights the importance of producing something remarkable for target audience and how to communicate with the target audience. Thus, different types of campaigns will suit different types of influencers. 

For example, KPop idol Irene (from Red Velvet) becomes the first Asian celebrity to endorse DAMIANI, a Italian luxury jewelry brand, latest collection ‘Belle Epoque’. She “lured viewers with her unmatchable aura and class, emphasizing the elegance of the jewelry collection to the fullest” (AllKPop, 2019).

Conclusion:
Each theory presented different yet relevant theories that is relevant in the spread of ideas, information and content in current time. A combination of all three theories would bring out strong marketing and influences towards the right target group and even attract attention of new viewers. However, if I had to choose one out of the three, it would be Jonah Berger’s message characteristics approach. Only about 30% of viewers believed advertisements, thus it is important to rely on word of mouth offline or spread through other people online to build connection and eventually spread the brand and brand image, along with other aspects that were covered in Berger’s message characteristics approach.

Millennials grew with the constant advancement in modern technology. 100 years ago, our ancestors would not have imagined that connecting with people can be done easily through social media platforms. Today, popular social media platforms such as Facebook, has been adapted into a part of many people’s everyday life.

In the third quarter of 2019 alone, there are 2.45 billion monthly active Facebook users, making Facebook the biggest social network worldwide with global reach. You might even be a part of the 2.45 billion active Facebook users too.

Thus, Facebook became a popular channel to promote businesses. As at 2019, there are 90 million small businesses who used Facebook as marketing. With every content created and shared through Facebook, content consumption and demand is achieved through audience reach and interaction. Facebook does seemed like a great platform for businesses. However, before embarking on this popular route, businesses or brands need to understand Facebook’s consumer segmentation matrix.

According to Hodis, et al., Facebook’s segmentation matrix is created to classify consumers according to the extent of individual creation and content consumption.

Hodis et al classified consumers into four categories:

1. “Entertainment Chaser” consumers who have low level of Facebook content creation and consumption.

2. “Attention Seeker” consumers who have high level of Facebook content creation and low level of consumption.

3. “Devotee” consumers who have high level of Facebook content creation and consumption.

4. “Connection Seeker” consumers who have high level of Facebook content consumption and low creation.

Examples of real-life current ­practice of online business models for respective segmentation matrix categories are:

Attention Seeker: Popular Columbian Singer Shakira has the second highest number of Facebook followers and often shared contents about her personal updates and philanthropic efforts. As Shakira’s followers consumption into her content increases, her brand and image value increases.

How value is created for consumers:
Consumers who consumed Shakira’s content feels a sense of connection by keeping up with her lifestyle. For some consumers, Shakira might be their role model or inspiration to motivate or create ideal imagery towards her followers.

Devotee: Cristiano Ronaldo is the brand ambasador and promoted for “Shopee” an online shopping application and brand. His advertisements were also shared on Facebook through Shopee’s various regional Facebook pages such as Shoppe Singapore, Shopee Malaysia, Shopee Vietnam and more.

How value is created for consumers:
Fans of Ronaldo and online shopping consumers might be encouraged to use Shopee due to Ronaldo’s wide influence which will also lead to a sense of belonging by following the general trend.

Transferability of Facebook’s segmentation matrix
While I understand the basis of classification and see the usefulness of the matrix, I do not think that this matrix will be widely used for some other business models, such as Alibaba where the main focus is to connect the buyer with the seller around the world.

Overall conclusion
There are much more to segmentation, such as segmenting on demographics, psychographics, lifestyle and more. Consumer behaviour and characteristics may also change over time. Thus, limiting Facebook’s segmentation among the mentioned four matrix characteristics does not provide more in-depth segmentation analysis as the derived information are more of a variable that are subjected to regular changes.

Therefore, several segregation models / methods can be applied into Facebook’s segmentation process along with the current segregation matrix to derive more constant and dependable information which is more beneficial and accurate in the long run.

The Facebook segmentation matrix ultimately is still a useful tool and different from common segmentation tools used by other businesses, with the potential to improve.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.