Social Media Marketing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Media Marketing - Research Paper Example Social media marketing refers to the concept of gaining traffic and attention through launching and running promotional campaigns, through identifying and engaging with influencers and interested parties through social media. Social media marketing is most especially effective and vital for businesses, institutions and organizations that rely heavily on referral and the word-of-mouth as their marketing and communication strategies, considering that there is no easier ways to make referrals or pass word of mouth, than through the social media, owing to its extensive coverage and accessibility. Social media marketing is thus a category of internet marketing, which applies the social media networks as the platforms for communicating and achieving the branding goals of an institution. Fundamentally, this form of marketing entails sharing of written content, audio, images and videos through the social networks, to make such contents accessible by other parties within the social media netw orks, for marketing and branding the institution. Posing for a moment to dissect the assertions that Social Media Marketing is effective for referrals and word of mouth communication, it is apparent that there is no better way to market an educational institution, than through referrals and the word of mouth. Social media is the most effective channel of discovering and combining news with promotional content, while also serving as the most effective tool for building links to different other networks. Thus, finding and responding to online conversation can be the most effective way of marketing, since social media enables even small business which has no established systems and channels of advertisement, as well as those facing resource shortages to reach more customers. (Deis & Kyle, 2010). Therefore, social media does not only offer an opportunity to advertise and promote a brand, but also an opportunity to combine and reinforce the branding content with more informative news, and in a more entertaining and interactive way, that is rarely offered by other communication and promotional channels. Thus, despite the concept of Social Media Marketing being a comparatively recent phenomenon, its role in the current business world has shifted from that of a trendy presence, into a necessary marketing and advertising platform for any business that seeks to remain relevant both in the traditional and the digital marketing (DeMers, 2013). According to a report published by the Forbes Magazine, the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry indicated that 94% of all businesses that had a marketing department utilized the social media as one of their major