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24 EDIT BNYAI

0 Society and Economy 38 (2016) 2, pp. 239259


DOI: 10.1556/204.2016.38.2.6

THE INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA


INTO CORPORATE PROCESSES1

EDIT BNYAI

Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Pcs


E-mail: edit@ktk.pte.hu

The primary aim of this paper is to give a comprehensive overview of social media marketing
solutions which can be used by companies. Many authors and researchers dealing with specialised
subjects examine certain areas of this topic and, in particular, with the influence of the social
media on marketing communication. An overview of current literature and practical solutions ena-
bled us to create a framework usable in the corporate sphere for creating a social media marketing
strategy and for measuring the efficiency of social media activity. The framework helps
companies to identify which social media solutions are worth taking advantage of to support their
business processes, how they are able to measure the effectiveness of social media and it also
provides a basis for the identification of additional research directions.

Keywords: social media marketing, social CRM, social branding, social media strategy

JEL-codes: M31, M39

1. INTRODUCTION

The social media explosion created new sources of competitiveness for those
companies that are able to take advantage of this opportunity. The aim of this
paper is to discuss key challenges of marketing in the social environment.
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Companies may only be successful in the social media if they know precisely
the individual community platforms, the social media usage habits of their
respective target audience, and if they are able to support their decisions
regarding individual platforms with the efficiency and return ratios used for
conventional marketing tools. The effective integration of social media into
corporate mar- keting strategy requires answers to certain questions: Alongside
which values does social participation take place? How do the company, the
consumer and the members of the supply chain benefit from this? What
changes do the social media bring about in the companys internal and external
communication? What other organisational, in-process and cultural changes
may be triggered by social networking solutions and the new forms of contact?
What kind of new coopera- tion forms develop between market participants due
to Web 2.0 solutions and the social media? How can the efficiency of social
media activity be measured?
An overview of current practical solutions will help to answer the questions
above. The paper contributes to the literature in several ways. It organizes a
frag- mented literature by linking special characteristics of social media to the
core of marketing management. The framework for measurement could be used
to stimu- late a systematic investigation (on corporate and industrial level also)
into how social media should be integrated in corporate processes. And finally
the result of an explorative research on corporate social media activity is
presented.

2. TYPES AND FEATURES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Specific features of the social media and their unbelievable and rapid increasing
popularity have equally influenced marketing, companies and consumer behav-
iour (Mangold Faulds 2009; Powers et al. 2012). The corporate use of social
media is extremely widespread and it may serve as a resource with many oppor-
tunities and challenges. The social media have significantly re-shaped the forms
of communication between companies and their customers, enabling direct and
even real-time contact with consumers and partners. Since, compared to tradi-
tional communication channels, this is possible in a more cost effective way, the
various social networking solutions are worth applying not only by
multinational companies but also by SMEs and non-profit organisations.
The number of social media platforms is increasing, whilst newer variations
continue to emerge. Thus, the scientific literature mentions various groupings of
the social media. This article shows a classification which may serve as a good
starting point when creating social media marketing strategy.
The classification of Kaplan and Haenlein uses two dimension-pairs: the
rich- ness of the medium and the degree of social presence; on the other hand,
THE INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA INTO CORPORATE PROCESSES 24
they consider self-presentation and self-disclosure as a differentiating factor2
regarding the platforms (Kaplan Haenlein 2010; see Table 1).
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Table 1. Classification of social media by social presence/media richness
and self-presentation/self-disclosure
Social presence/Media richness
Low Medium High
High Blogs Social networking Virtual social worlds
sites (e.g., Second Life)
Self-presentation / (e.g. Facebook)
self-disclosure Low Collaborative Content communities Virtual game worlds
projects (e.g., (e.g., YouTube) (e.g. Warcraft)
Wikipedia)
Source: Kaplan Haenlein (2010).

Collaborative projects are also applicable for corporate purposes. Nokia, for
instance, established an internal Wiki for its employees to update the status of
the individual projects and to exchange ideas on an ongoing basis, and this is
used by tens of thousands of employees.2
A blog is also an excellent tool for the benefit of a company; many managers
maintain blogs to represent their firms. Jonathan Schwartz, for instance, kept a
personal blog as the manager of Sun Microsystems in order to ensure transpar-
ency of the company; he then launched a blog as the former manager to disclose
information that he did not share as manager.3
Content-focused communities differ, depending on the shared content (text,
photographs, videos, presentations). From the perspective of companies,
content- focused communities may carry a risk through sharing protected
intellectual property. At the same time, their huge number of members makes
them very at- tractive for supporting their market and business activities.
Virtual realities and worlds are platforms which re-create our world in a
three- dimensional digital form, where users create their own avatar. These
platforms are usable for advertising through ads placed within the games.
The social media are a highly dynamically changing tool, their use can be
easily learnt and, in addition, it inevitably entails a strategic approach. In
addition to knowledge of the individual platforms and tools, this requires a
novel way of thinking. The need for something different from the traditional
way of thinking is triggered by fundamentally changed customer behaviour.
many established management methods are ill-suited to deal with customers
who no longer want to be talked at; instead, customers want firms to listen,
appropriately engage, and respond. (Kietzmann et al. 2010: 250)

2
See http://developer.nokia.com/ for more details.
3
See https://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/about/.

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In the social media the direction of information flow changes, roles inter-
change and become parallel. Information democratizes, the one-way communi-
cation model shifts towards a more complex, two-way model (Mangold
Faulds 2009).
The next characteristic is sharing, which indicates the degree of the exchange
of content between the various participants. Social networking sites exist and
subsist if they reach a critical mass and their users are active. This can only be
reached if the content reaches large masses and moves many users. Sharing is
not possible without connections. The connections between the participants, the
manner of how users connect often determines the information that is
exchanged and the manner of information exchange in the individual dialogues
(Kietzmann et al. 2011).
Groups mean the smaller communities or sub-communities created by us-
ers based on different interests, connection features (e.g. fans of a music group)
and constitute the fundamental elements of social media. There are two types of
group: one is open to anyone, whilst in the case of the other, the user filters their
connections and organizes them into different groups (Mayfield 2008).
The social media also feature a certain type of transparency since content,
commenters and sharers as well as the mass of comments are generally
highly visible. This is the feature which makes the social media attractive for
marketing professionals, since transparency and traceability enable precise
targeting and the measurement of results during a campaign. Transparency,
however, is realized only partially, since the users can restrict the public
visibility of their profiles and activities.
The presence, the participation is characteristic of the users availability on
the individual social networking platforms (Kietzmann et al. 2011). According
to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) the intimacy and immediacy of the media is
decisive in terms of the presence in the social media.
The primary manner of communication is dialogue. The main goal of the
users is to share their contents, and in most cases they expect some form of a
reaction to this, be it just a simple like or a share, or a specific reply or
comment.
The users of the social media create their own identity on the respective plat-
form, which means disclosing various data and information, the degree to which
the users reveal themselves on the social media platforms (Kietzmann et al.
2011).
Parent and associates (2011) examined how the above characteristics of the
social media appear and how they can be exploited in the case of corporate
users. They analyzed the significance of dialogue, sharing, content, the groups
and the use of the social media in their so-called social media commitment
model (Parent et al. 2011). According to their observation, companies are able
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24 EDIT BNYAI
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to

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ers in the social networking sphere (call-for-award game, new product introduc-
tion, etc.). After the consumer has been involved, the original content changes;
it is supplemented by posts and comments (a dialogue starts), it is shaped, and,
through sharing, it reaches other, not directly addressed, members also. At this
point the company loses the possibility of direct control over the message. In
many cases it is not the companies who initiate the communication about
themselves; they are its followers or, in the case of passive behaviour, its
sufferers. On the various social media platforms the companies can be
observers or moderators.

3. AREAS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

McKinseys research group examined the value the use of the social networking
technology can provide for companies (Chui et al. 2012). They identified 10 op-
portunities which are useful for the corporate functions, as detailed in Table 2.

Table 2. Ten ways social technologies can add value in organizational functions
within and across enterprises
Organizational Across entire
functions enterprise
Product 4 Derive customer insights1 9
development 1 Co-create products Use social
2 Leverage social to forecast technology to
Operations and and monitor improve intra- or
distribution 3 Use social to distribute inter-organizational
business processes collaboration and
4 Derive customer insights communication
Enterprise-wide
5 Use social technologies for levers
Marketing and marketing communication/ (Social as
sales interaction organizational
6 Generate and foster sales leads technology) 10
7 Social commerce Use social
8 Provide customer care via technology to match
Customer service talent to tasks
social technologies
Improve collaboration and
Business support2 communication; match talent to
tasks3
Source: Chui et al. (2012)
1
Deriving customer insights for product development is included in customer insights (lever 4) under market-
ing and sales.
2
Business support functions are corporate or administrative activities such as human resources or finance and
accounting.
3
Levers 9 and 10 apply to business support functions as they do across the other functional value areas.

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The remainder of this section examines the integration possibilities of so-
cial media alongside the corporate functions identified by McKinseys research
group.

Product development

Maybe one of the most important, but at the same time difficult to measure, im-
pacts of social media in corporate marketing is its contribution to product devel-
opment. The platforms of social media are perfect tools for obtaining consumer
insights. Companies can regularly track their followers and those sharing their
contents can analyze the connection network, and the information collected may
contain important input also for product development. A more targeted and
more effective solution is to directly invite members to share their ideas. There
are multiple possibilities for this: it can be either a competition, a game, or the
regular buyers of the given product (brand-lovers) can be invited to test their
products and share their opinions on an ongoing basis. Companies can join a
crowd-sourc- ing site or can create such a site themselves.

Production and distribution

By following the conversations of the followers and likers of corporate so-


cial networking sites, it is possible to prepare forecasts for production and sales.
Observing social networking hearsay is also useful for sales forecasting (Chui
2012).
The social media extend the disintermediation impacts of the Internet, since
they work as perfect tests when judging the market value of certain products,
ideas, creators. If someone is successful as a creator in the social media, it
shows the market potential of the given person. Today, venture capital investors
already rely on the social media when looking for start-up companies.

Marketing

In the social media world the content, timing, frequency and control over the
me- dium significantly reduced compared with the traditional communication:
name- ly, the companies have fewer opportunities to influence the consumer
decision. The main reason for this is that there are social media platforms which
are fully independent from the creator organisation or its representatives.
Although mar-
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keting managers cannot control the spread of information through the social me-
dia, they do have the opportunity to direct the conversation towards the
adequate direction (Mangold Faulds 2009: 365.). Paid ads, displaying PR
messages, the creation of ones own profile, active participation in the
conversations, the organisation of events and games in the social media are
good means of achiev- ing this.
The social media provide opportunities for conducting market research and
gaining consumer insights. Interactions can be mapped and transformed into so-
cial graphs, from which we can learn, for example, whether or not a relationship
between individuals is mutual and what the social capital of the given person is.
In reality, consumers are interested in one another, and social media becomes
trustworthy by the fact that the pieces of information displayed here are control-
led by the other consumers. In this way, the followers of the companys profile
guarantee the restriction of a companys intrusive, unacceptable behaviour or its
taking advantage of hidden information. Each company must understand that the
use of social media requires from them awareness, honesty and flexibility.
Social media can forward messages to the consumers at a much lower cost
compared to the conventional communication channels. Although through the
so- phistication of activities the companies social media expenses are
increasing, the costs still constitute only a small part of their total advertising
expenses (Hoelzel 2014).
The most active users join brand communities. These online communities
have proved to be an effective tool in terms of influencing consumer behaviour
(Adjei et al. 2010) and provide opportunities for companies to know better the
thoughts and needs of their customers through monitoring the shared
information (Kozinets 2007; Williams Cothrel 2000). The social brand
communities play a significant role in the social media marketing, and it is,
therefore, worth taking a closer look at their role and impact.
Social media-based brand communities are special forms of online brand
com- munities. The social media allow people with a similar mindset to create
groups and share information or to keep contact within such groups. (Fournier
Avery 2011; Kaplan Haenlein 2010). The essence of brand communities is
sharing in- formation and sources (Muniz OGuinn 2001; McAlexander et al.
2002), and in the same way the essence of social media is creating and sharing
content (Kaplan
Haenlein 2010). Thus, due to their networks and social character, social media
are a perfect environment for brand communities (Habibi et al. 2014).
There are a number of effective brand communities on the various social me-
dia platforms. Outstanding is the Harley Davidson community with over 7 mil-
lion fans or the Coca-Cola Facebook community with nearly 96 million likers
(in January 2016).
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The brand personality reflects the life style and image of the customers
and this connection is more evident in the social media. The media extend the
brands social identity role and those writing and sharing brand stories become
part of this (un)intentionally. In the social media consumers voluntarily join or
follow a brand, and this influences the trustworthiness of a brand (Naylor et al.
2012). Fournier and Avery (2011: 194) use the metaphor of open-source
brand- ing, which implies participatory, collaborative and socially-linked
behaviours whereby consumers serve as creators and disseminators of branded
content.
Companies have the possibility to advertise their brands, to provide
immediate customer support, provide customer service and create a brand
community from enthusiastic fans. The conversations of customers, the shared
information about the brand provide the companies with cost-effective
possibilities to increase awareness and loyalty (Gensler et al. 2013; Erdogmus
Cicek 2012).
The stories and contents generated by users can, however, be equally positive
or negative. They reach the target audience much more efficiently than the
stories disclosed through traditional channels, as, owing to the use of social
media, they spread in digital form more quickly and visibly (Hennig-Thurau et
al. 2010).
Customers consider social media also as a service provider channel where
they can connect to the companies in real time (Leggat 2010). However, the real
time feature clearly influences the type of content. Customers value only up-to-
date information, and so the precise and relevant, valuable content is a central
ele- ment of brand management in the social media. The brand stories generated
by consumers either complement or enrich the stories of the company or
contradict them. The response indicates whether the company adopts an
observer or a con- versing role in the given story.
The question is why the members of the community tell brand stories, what
type of message they share and which network features contribute to sharing.
Based on the research of Muntinga (2013) the main motivator is the need for en-
tertainment and self-expression, connection to others and empowerment (when
a company invites active participation) (Labrecque et al. 2013).
The target market must be analysed and the company must appear on the
plat- form used most by them. In the case of global companies, the question is
how to display brand messages at national and at international level, as the
brand may have a different meaning in different countries.
The impact of social media on the user, contents, brand stories and brand per-
formances depends on multiple factors: characteristics of the market (the visibil-
ity of consumption and competition (Fischer et al. 2010)), the characteristics of
the company/brand (e.g. organisational structure, brand design) and the charac-
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teristics of the consumer-brand relationship. If the consumption is visible and0
can be made visible (e.g. a car purchase with a photograph) then the brand is
much

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more predisposed to the social media. The structure of the brand also influences
how much a company can benefit from the social media (e.g. a company uses an
umbrella brand), since, if people talk or write about a product, the effect of this
extends to the other brands also (Gensler et al. 2013).
The negative versions of brand stories generated by users cause serious head-
aches to companies. Since the consumer complaints go from the private zone
into the public, an adequate complaint management is even more important
(Ward Ostrom 2006).

Social trading

Social trading uses social media applications for online customer interactions
and cooperation, and for the support of online sellers. This includes online
valuations (ratings and reviews), the purchase supporting applications, deal sites
and social shopping sites. At the same time, social shopping is a common
experience for buyers, as the main point is that buyers are in interaction with
one another when shopping, thus providing the opportunity to influence one
another. In addition, the risk factor in a purchasing decision can be reduced by
getting to know the opinions and experiences of others. With the help of the
social media we can learn the opinions, recommendations and suggestions of
users inside or outside our own social network, so getting closer to the most
rational and optimal decision.
The opinions of buyers (in the form of ratings and scores) are strong
influenc- ing forms of user content. However, not all ratings come from buyers;
some sites ask experts to form an opinion. Nevertheless, consumers are
primarily interested in the opinions of other consumers. Since ratings have such
power, the companies invite their customers to rate their product or service
hoping that their positive opinion will help them generate new customers.
Customers who take the time and rate a product are more likely to purchase
from the company again (Tuten Solo- mon 2013). In addition, ratings improve
the organic hits available in browsers and are sources usable also in market
research to learn consumers opinions.
Many companies are afraid of negative ratings, although these offer an op-
portunity in the sense that any feedback provides valuable information for im-
provement, whilst a page where negative comments appear must boost trust and
confidence in potential buyers.
In addition to this, companies can make use of the following possibilities:
pick list: item list such a wish list, they also offer a sharing feature;
popularity filters: list of most popular, most viewed products;
forums;
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group purchase opportunities, coupon sites. 2

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In the case of the latter business model the actors exploit the benefits implied
in the collective purchases by many people. The essence of the model is that
visi- tors can purchase coupons for certain products and services at discount
prices, if enough people showing an interest in the purchase sign for the deal.

Customer service, customer relationship management (CRM),


social CRM

More and more companies use the social media for keeping contact with their
customers. The real-time feature on the platforms, the quantity of information
and the speed of its flow produce many benefits and challenges. The motivation
of the members of the communities can be different (contacting, getting
acquaint- ed, self-expression, etc.), but one thing is common to all: they belong
to the pri- vate sphere, and so we are talking about a rather closed or cloistered
community facing the corporate sphere. The items of information provided by
users about themselves are casual and in terms of content they change, which
does not allow
or allows only limited systematic data collection. At the same time some
users of the social media accept the presence of companies and their content
indeed, they take advantage of the contact and can be activated.
The social media, therefore, could be a new channel for Customer
Relationship Management (CRM), although, due to their features, the platforms
significantly changed consumer behaviour, their willingness and ability to
communicate. The question is, how the media incalculable as they are can
be integrated into corporate CRM.
Social CRM (SCRM) does not replace conventional CRM systems, but it can
supplement them by creating value both for customers and the company.
The features of SCRM are shaped primarily by the characteristics of the
social media and the rules and habits that developed on the social networking
platforms. The challenge for companies is to become visible and trustworthy
enough to be trusted by customers and to be addressed on the social networking
sites, or, in the case of already established trust, to cause customers to become
ambassadors of the given company. SCRM can also contribute to this, since it is
a very good tool to gather precise insights and, due to this, efficiency improves
both in sales and customer relations.
The concept of SCRM was defined by Greenberg (2009; 2010), according to
which SCRM is a philosophy and business strategy supported by technological
platforms, processes and social features; its objective is to involve the customer
into a collaborative conversation that provides mutual value for both parties.

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According to Faase and associates (2011), social CRM is a CRM strategy
which uses Web 2.0 services to establish and improve customer relations
which is then realised in mutual value. During the relationship, new contact
(and at the same time monitoring) points are created due to which customer
involvement is also enhanced.
Social media influences the degree of customer commitment, which impacts
all three CRM activities of the organisation (customer acquisition, retention and
closing the customer relationship). Low commitment can be seen in the simple
liking of the companys page, and higher commitment in comments written
about the company. However, the degree of commitment can lead to unexpected
consequences: the like of a person with many followers can be more valuable
than a positive critique written on a less visited page. When creating SCRM
strat- egy, organisations must take into consideration the probable degree of
commit- ment, and the CRM process it is dealing with (Malthouse et al. 2013).
Due to its basic features, the social media bring the customers closer to the
company, even if the company is fundamentally not relationship-oriented, and
this happens on customer initiation or due to the social activity of employees.

Corporate level

The above integration possibilities of the social media alone reflect that the in-
fluence it has on the individual areas spreads and changes the companys op-
eration and view. The social view can emerge also in other areas for instance,
social networks can be used by organisations also for recruiting new employees
(Shih 2011).
The social media not only change the relations between companies and their
customers, but the relations within the company also change. The social media
accelerate knowledge sharing within the company, instigates and promotes
inno- vation, common thinking, collaboration between the individual functional
units, thus improving productivity all of these certainly only if the company
uses the possibilities provided by the social media consciously. The boundaries
of the company widen, since the active members of the social media can even
take over tasks from the employees which were previously exclusively the task
of the company, e.g. fans and followers join in product development (crowd-
sourcing), or promotions. The type of collaboration can also change; it can be
more enter- taining, since playfulness (gamification) is part of social media
providing various solutions for putting games and technology into a new
context, as well as real time solutions introducing a competitive spirit.

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Social technology improves collaboration and communication between com-
panies. Amazon uses social technology on the Amazon Mechanical Turk
market- place. This market place is a very good example of crowd-sourcing, and
brings together thousands of companies and employees in order to perform
intellectual works, where the creativity and decision-making capability of the
human mind is still needed.

Table 3. The possibilities for the measurement of corporate social media activity

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OrganizationalTHE INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA INTO CORPORATE PROCESSES 25
functions Values added by Measurement inside Independent 6
social media the company measurements
Derive customer site visits, recurring Real-time market
insights visits, posts, shares tracking, user
(limited tracking), feedbacks
Product followers, fans, Identification and
development Co-create products ideas, tracking of opinion
recommendations leaders, competitor
based on posts analysis
brand community,
activity within that
Leverage social to posts, shares Real time market
Operations and forecast and monitor tracking, competitor
distribution Use social to distribute posts, shares analysis
business processes
Derive customer posts, shares Real time market
insights tracking, user
Use social technologies net promoter score, feedbacks
for marketing access, traffic, Identification and
communication/ tracking of opinion
interaction leaders,
complaint analysis,
Marketing and sales attrition analysis
Tracking of the
spreading of messages
Generate and foster leads, conversation Identification of the
sales leads rate, tracking of the intentions to buy,
Social commerce spreading of messages analysis of activities
developed due to
campaigns
Provide customer care posts, shares Complaint analysis,
Customer service via social technologies attrition analysis
Enterprise-wide Use social technology internal efficiency Tracking of employees
levers to improve intra- or ratios posts
inter-organizational Tracking of sharing of
collaboration and job advertisements in
communication the social media

Source: author

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When integrating the social media into the corporate marketing strategy, a
primary question is the return of the money and effort invested. At the begin-
ning of the corporate use of social media there almost immediately appeared
the relatively new ROI ratios and calculations which can be applied to the given
platforms (Fisher 2009; Zhao Zhu 2010). Hoffman and Fodor (2010)
developed various social metrics for social media by classifying them according
to social media applications and social media performance objectives. We use a
different approach and summarize the possibilities of the measurement of
corporate social media activity based on McKinseys model (Chui et al. 2012) in
Table 3. In order to fine-tune and validate intra-company measuring it is useful
to use also the in- dependent measurements of external companies. The own
software of the given social platforms or a free software which can be adapted
to it provide a great deal of useful information on the social activity or its
results. However, in order to check the results it is also worth using external
(mostly paid) software able to analyse more deeply the more detailed, stronger
correlations.

4. EXPLORATIVE RESEARCH ON CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY

The use of social media by companies still raises many questions to be


answered, there are many company solutions launched with an experimental
character, and the marketing of social media is also trying to position itself, due
to the charac- teristics of the media and the rearrangement of the power
positions of consum- ers and companies. A more in-depth analysis of the issue
requires explorative researches that clarify the relevance of the fields of use, on
the one hand, and the range of detectable company objectives and the
measurement procedures related to efficiency, on the other hand.
We have extremely little information, however, on what company functions
other than marketing communication can integrate the solutions of social media.
In fact, we have limited knowledge even about the marketing solutions of social
media, especially as regards the Hungarian companies. The most important find-
ings of a survey done with the inclusion of 200 SMEs in Hungary in 2015 can
be summarised as follows:

The most popular tool among the SMEs is Facebook, but the role of groups
is continuously increasing. Companies communicate with less and less notes,
organic access is losing its importance as Facebook drives companies towards
the paying solutions.
The second most frequently used social network besides Facebook is
YouTube, but the use of Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn is increasing too.
Instagram caught up with LinkedIn, and Pinterest is now considerably ahead
of it.
Due to the ever more complex tasks, companies use external professional as-
sistance at a growing number of tasks, especially in the handling of advertise-
ments.
The three most important goals of businesses in social media, in order of im-
portance, are as follows: getting new clients, brand building and keeping in
touch with the clients.
Despite the many changes, being present on Facebook is still worth it for the
businesses, but uncertainty is greater than it used to be (Lvai 2015).

Also in 2015, a research was conducted with the leadership of Marketing


Com- mando on the social media use of SMEs, with the questioning of 2,300
persons. As regards the presence in social media, the research found that start-
up busi- nesses use three types of paid advertisements on the average: Facebook
adver- tisements, Google Adwords and Facebook post enhancement. The
marketing mix of mature and growing businesses is much more complex, they
use up-to-date methods such as remarketing or video (Marketing Commando
2015).
In order to get a deeper understanding of the company use of social media,
the issue must be approached from several aspects. For the survey of the social
me- dia use by businesses we must have information about why and for what
purpose the respective companies use social media, what appearances and
solutions they have. We have to know what internal and external measurements
they carry out, in which areas, and how they apply the findings for the
improvement of the ef- ficiency, especially marketing activity. The way of the
measurements, the applied methods and the way the information gained is used
demonstrate the develop- ment level of the use of social media.
The best solution would be to make a complex case study allowing compari-
sons, involving several businesses, looking at the social media activity of a
longer period (including at least one specific campaign or two), the results of
the meas- urements and the company practices applied. However, the
implementation of a survey of this scale is not possible in the framework of
this research. Having mapped the possibilities and the potential company
cooperations, we can carry out more in-depth analyses in the measurement and
usage of social media, along the research plan outlined below.
The social media activity of the companies included in the research for the
last half year is analysed by the comparison of the following three aspects:
findings of analysis through the consumers (external) eyes, on the basis of
customer experiences and the measurements done with free software;
objectives defined by the company, results measured and perceived by the
company (a sort of self-assessment) on the basis of deep interviews done
with the competent marketing leader of the business; and
findings of an analysis done with the Neticle software 4 (expert measurement).

For the planned qualiative interviews and before the use of the Neticle soft-
ware, I made qualitative interviews with professionals, and I analysed the social
media activity of the selected businesses, by the examination of their profiles
and two free measurements software. As a summary of the findings I state my
research questions and hypotheses for the further examinations.
In the opinion of the experts 5 we cannot see a direct correlation between the
market success of the companies, their offline marketing achievements and the
consciousness of their social media presence. Businesses appear on the social
media with the most diverse goals, in fact, several Hungarian businesses do not
even have any concrete goal, plan and budget when joining the social media. An
extremely large number of indices can assist their work, but the applied methods
and tools are not clearly dependent upon the size, character and sector of the
business. The quality of the use and measurement of social media still depends
in many cases on the commitment of the given marketing expert towards the use
of social media.
The selected sectors are the automotive and retail sector. This paper presents
the result of the research in the automotive industry; the brands examined are
BMW, Opel, Nissan, Citron and Suzuki. The automotive industry is made suit-
able for the analysis of social media activities by several factors. The brands in-
clude very conscious firms showing good examples for the right use of social
me- dia, and also companies that are still looking for their places. The survey of
CMO Council (2014) revealed that there is a strong potential in social media for
the automotive industry companies. Their research found that 38% of the
potential car buyers rely on social media as a source of information before the
purchase of the car. Twenty-three per cent of the customers share their purchase
experiences on social media platforms. Of all car buyers, 84% are on the
Facebook. Forty per

4
The Neticle system does a real-time examination of the whole of the Hungarian web, in-
cluding blogs, news portals, forums and social media platforms. The software automatically
analyses the texts appearing on different platforms and examines not only the quantity of the
mentions of key words but also their quality.
5
The three experts were Richrd Lvai of RG Stdi Ltd.; Pter Szekeres of Neticle and Balzs
Ofczianka of Erste Bank.
cent of the customers in the next 10 years will come from the Millennium
genera- tion who primarily use online sources of information (CMO Council
2014).
As a preliminary study I analysed 19 car brands and compared them on the
basis of simple parameters like appearance on popular social media, the size of
audience reached, the number of operating sites, and the frequency and form of
presence. The findings of the comparison show that these media are used with
uneven efficiency. Of the 19 brands I chose 5, of which one (BMW) is definitely
strong and outstanding, 3 (Citron, Opel and Nissan) are medium strong and
one (Suzuki) is very weak in social media usage, on the basis of the parameters
exam- ined. The five brands also allow the comparison of international and
Hungarian social media presence.
About the purpose of the use of social media we can get information from the
analysis of profiles, activities and notes, but the real objectives will be revealed
by the answers of the deep interviews. The analysis of the contents show that all
five companies use social media for branding, connections, or getting new
clients when introducing certain models, and BMW even has an application
(allowing the design of cars and the dissemination of the results in a playful
form) that pre- sumably serves product development and the collection of the
customers ideas. The analysis of the level of use was done by the simple score-
based comparison of market and social media activities for the international
official profiles of the five brands.
The following aspects were evaluated on a scale from 1 to 5:

Market role: the approximate average market share of the brand owner com-
pany (i.e. in the case of Opel it was the share of General Motors). The market
share of the mother company (possibly with many brands) on the average,
on the basis of 201415 data (1: around 0%; 2: 0.53%; 3: 35%; 4: 510%;
5: above 10%)
Brand value: brand value in the 2015 order of http://brandirectory.com. (5:
position 110; 4: position 1120; 3: position 2130; 2: position 3140; 1:
posi-
tion 4150)
Facebook popularity: the number of fans of the site compared to the site that
has the largest number of fans
Number of Instagram specific followers, i.e. the number of followers per one
remark (=number of followers/number of notes).
Frequency of appearance: average frequency of appearance (publication of
notes) on the major social media platforms. (1: less frequently than once a
week; 2: weekly; 3: every 3rd or 4th day; 4: every day or 2nd day; 5: several
times a day)
Table 4. Summary table for the comparison of the international social media activity

of social
Frequency of ap-
of the five car brands examined

platforms
Instagram popu-
Facebook popu-

pearance
Scores

Scores
Market role

Brand value

Scores

Scores

Scores
larity
Scores

Number
larity
Brand

media
BMW 3 3 2 5 19,039,498 5.00 2,283.56 5 5 5 8 5
Suzuki 1 1 7 3 1,968,795 0.52 171.35 0.38 2 2 7 4.38
Citron 4 4 22 3 9,062,912 2.38 39.85 0.09 4.5 4.5 8 5
Nissan 5 5 25 5 13,951,740 3.66 455.55 1.00 4 4 6 3.75
Opel 5 5 40 2 2,981,988 0.78 78.55 0.17 4.5 4.5 6 3.75
Source: Author.

Figure 1. Comparison of the international social media activity of the five car brands examined

Source: Author.

Number of the places of appearance: the number of social media where the
brand or company is present (this aspect will be important at the analysis of
the Hungarian profiles, as the use of social media is not complete there). See
Table 4 and Figure 1.

I demonstrate the findings of an examination of Hungarian profiles, done


with two free softwares (Quintly, Keyhole). The analyses offer professional
infor- mation as opposed to the amateur aspects mentioned above, they are
meant to
measure the efficiency of appearances in social media, but without the informa-
tion on the exact objectives it is still an outsider result that does not allow far-
reaching conclusions. The software allows the analysis of the specific indices of
the platforms, the tracking of the comments, posts and sharings, maybe even
with the identification of the sharing person.
After the analysis of the international and Hungarian social media profile of
the five selected car brands, the following important remarks can be made:
The use of social media shows considerable differences within the sector (di-
verse platforms, diverse solutions).
The market share of the respective brand is not necessarily reflected by the
popularity gained in social media.
Social media seems to be an adequate tool for the decrease of market
disadvan- tage, based on the access to a broad but well targetable audience
and the lower costs than in the traditional media.
Strong and exclusive brands have large fan communities in social media, but
this cannot be related to their activity in the social media.
The use of social media outside marketing communication (CRM, product
de- velopment) is not typical in the respective sector.
Even brands judged as mediocre can have smart and very conscious solutions
for their consumers (like Citron).
The analysis of the quality and consistency of communication in social media
was not part of the preliminary survey, due to its subjective assessment. On
the basis of the preliminary analysis of the contents, however, it is
presumable that there are significant disparities across the companies also in
this respect, which, however, changes the image made of the quality of the
use of social media. The evaluation of this field will be allowed by the
Neticle software.

In the first phase of the explorative research, after the secondary research, the
implementation of qualitative interviews and the analysis of the international
and Hungarian profiles of the selected brands, the following research questions
can be asked for the research made with the Hungarian companies:

What company functions integrate social media? Is there a difference in the


use, depending on company size, range of activities, products offered, the
char- acter of the service, ownership (Hungarian or foreign), and international
busi- ness relations?
What impacts does social media have on the respective company functions,
what indices and measurements are suitable for the examination of the impact
in the respective fields (direct, indirect, positive, negative, quantifiable, non-
quantifiable, short- and long-term effect)?
What goals do companies currently set in relation to their social media
activity and how do they measure them?
What relation does the popularity gained in social media have to the image of
the respective company and the value of the given brand?
How much is the earned media really earned, how much do visitors contrib-
ute to the communication and the value of the brand?

5. CONCLUSION

The levels of use of social media differ in respect of individual companies and
market sectors. The reason for this may be the social presence and activity of
the target audience, the features of the product or service and managements at-
titude. The need for integration is unquestionable; it is no longer an option for
companies. In order for a company to integrate social media successfully, it
must consider the following strategic issues:

Does the target market use social media? If so, how and for what purpose?
To understand the use of the different social media platforms and distribution
of resources accordingly to measure the return of the expenditure on social
media (change of client and brand value, shift in revenues).
To identify the key strategic indicators of social media marketing and to
elabo- rate the tactical steps needed to reach these objectives (use of ratings,
recom- mendations, expert validation and adequate incentives in order to
generate user content, etc.)
To establish a system for the measuring of efficiency (internal and external
measurements, definition of soft and hard indices). Establishment of the
specific measurement systems of the respective fields of use (for example, for
collecting product development ideas, or if the company wants to measure the
return of investments on community CRM system). At the same time, in the
case of social marketing communication, possibility to follow the activity of the
target audi- ence allows measurement and analysis opportunities never seen
before. There are dozens of efficiency indices available, in addition to the
classic ROI and ROMI indices. In fact, in this field businesses may find the
supply excessively large.
To adapt pioneer application of new social media solutions.
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