International Journal of Business Management & Research (IJBMR) ISSN 2249-6920 Vol.

2 Issue 3 Sep 2012 106-121 TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,

A REVIEW ON THE STUDY OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MINING BUSINESS STRATEGIES (PRODUCT INNOVATION, POSITIONING AND ADVERTISEMENT AND SALES PROMOTION)
SUPRAJA. S B.Tech., (Information Technology), Coimbatore Institute of Technology Coimbatore-641 014, India

ABSTRACT
Social Media in its application as a source of data base for mining strategies for business can be perceived in terms of Crowd Sourcing, Crowd Servicing, Crowd Engagement, of any business. Social shopping brings buyers and sellers together in a social network environment. The Web site offers features found in social networking sites. Social Media can be considered as a Data Source for information sharing without inhibition of the zone of privacy and the information is in its elemental form with least bias .Thus this huge data base platform is available which could be analyzed from the dimensions of Geographic, Demographic , Socio Psychographic ,Cultural ,Sub cultural and Cross Cultural perspectives that are useful to business in strategizing product innovation, positioning and advertisement and sales promotion The results of analysis does give surprises of insights and perceptions and a hoard of treasure of Demographic Dividends. The applications of strategies by mining this extensive database gives complex integrated solutions but does not limit to derive dividends on specific perceptions/objectives of business. Its applications are all pervasive that includes product innovations, Advertising and Sales Promotions, Perceptual analyses like value shopping Market potentials, launching new products, Positioning, De-positioning, Repositioning of Products and the like in the various domains of business. Its applications are limitless and to every field of business which involves consumers, customers perceptions and value considerations. Social Media is explained Social Media is nothing but Intrusions of InternetSocial Media for Business is explained as

KEYWORDS: Social Media, Mining Business Strategies, Product Innovation, Positioning

Advertisement, Sales Promotion.

INTRODUCTION
Communication has always been a social phenomenon, stretching back through time since before written language. But the rise of the internet has created new forms of media for memes to travel through, accelerating their spread and changing the selection pressures applied upon them. Each type of contagious media has its own criteria for success that are largely determined by the evolutionary pressures applied on it. Written language allows those individuals and organizations with the tools and

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infrastructure for distribution to broadcast ideas to masses of people, but average people seldom had access to the same mechanisms. The only source of authoritative information was from the mainstream media. This means that even after written language was developed, peer-to-peer (truly social communication) occurred almost exclusively by speech. Chain letters are one form of contagious, pre-web, written, peer-to-peer media. But the postal service is a slow and limiting broadcast machine. We did not see the real power and reach chain letters were capable of until email came along. Instant messaging is another new media that has changed the face of social communications by allowing for two-way, real-time, written dialog. A more informal and personal method than email, memes that succeed through IM are often those that remind one person of another and will start or continue a conversation between the two people. Blogging has its own set of more subtle social proof indicators. Readers take into account everything from the design and grammar of a site to the number of comments on each post and the number of subscribers to the blogs feed into account when deciding if it is authoritative enough to spread. This paper is going to discuss about various aspects of Social Merchandising, Social Product Sharing, Social Commerce, Viral Marketing,Issues & Challenges of the Social Media Marketing etc.,

Social

Media

For Business
The Dynamics of Internet Can be Explained As

Data

Information

Transaction

Interaction

Transformation

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Before the birth of social media say 1990 it could be measure as

Media & Measurement, 1990

TV Print OOH Radio WOM Mail Telephone Survey Focus groups Warranty Card Credit/ Payment Info Sale!

When the data were digitalized the dynamics was altered as

Measurement, 2000
Online Ads Search TV Print OOH Radio WOM Mail Telephone Survey Focus groups Warranty Card Credit/ Payment Info Sale! Clicks Page Views Sessions Register Optin

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But The Birth of Social Era Transformed From Knowledge Acquisition Era to Knowledge Management Era to Knowledge Share Era Like

Measurement, 2000
Online Ads Search TV Print OOH Radio WOM Mail Telephone Survey Focus groups Warranty Card Credit/ Payment Info Sale! Clicks Page Views Sessions Register Optin

It facilitated the people to communicate their perception and share the knowledge with freedom but without fear of disclosing identity. It decentralized the control, from one to many and Introduced the communications from many to many a sea change from a traditional concept, It gave the new dimension from a rigid fixed format to fluid and flexible format. There is a paradigm shift in media that it is changed from text to multi media. Every body owned the press and every one took the shoes of editor. Social Media gained the ground in Business because 1. 2. It finds you customers and builds clientele It gives businesses the ability to find out what people are saying about them (and others) in their industries 3. 4. 5. 6. It introduces the brand It gives feedback about brand It provides a test audience (vs. focus groups) Solidifies reputation as a valuable and knowledgeable resource

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The dynamics Social Media for mining strategies for Business could be explained as follows

Social Media in its application as a source of data base for mining strategies for business can be perceived in terms of Crowd Sourcing, Crowd Servicing, Crowd Engagement, of any business. Social Media can be considered as a source of information sharing without inhibition of encroaching the zone of privacy or the information from the source in the elemental form with least bias. The dynamics/keys to social media success could be explained as : 1. 2. 3. 4. Crowd Engagement Crowd Listening Crowd Interaction and Crowd Connection

Added to the above it also identifies the crowd/target customers of the business Thus this huge data base platform is available which could be analyzed from the dimensions of Geographic, Demographic , Socio Psychographic ,Cultural ,Sub cultural and Cross Cultural perspectives. The results of analysis does give surprises of insights and perceptions and a hoard of treasure of Demographic Dividends. The applications of strategies by mining this extensive database gives complex integrated solutions but does not limit to derive dividends on specific perceptions/objectives of business. Its applications are all pervasive that includes product innovations, Advertising and Sales Promotions, Perceptual analyses like value shopping Market potentials, launching new products, Positioning, Depositioning, Repositioning of Products and the like in the various domains of business. Its applications are limitless and to every field

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Social Media impact on the business value chain

Social Media impact on the business value chain

Product Research Collaboration especially with distributed teams Innovation Operations/ Delivery Customer influenced offerings Expert communities shape product ideas

Marketing Listening Sharing Conversing Responding

Co-creation of brand Insights from social conversations

Employee engagement Recruit through social channels

HR

Sales Mining social conversations New tools for persuasion Building stronger relationships

Customer service Real-time responses New tools for customer connect

SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGES THE DIMENSIONS OF MARKETING

The main difference between the traditional and social media marketing is of Shouting vs. Sharing. In Conventional marketing wisdom the satisified and dissatisfied customer propels his

perceptions to tens of people which is outdated by social media, as the customers the tools to tell their perceptions to 10 million in few seconds as recalled by - P. Gillin (2007) in The New Influencers. In the age old era where advertising the Paid Ads effecting the promotion and Brand Content propagation which is replaced by social media by Blogging and Independent party blogging Social Media gives a new dimension to viral marketing Word of Mouth to World of Mouth It gives a new dimension to viral marketing from a Word of Mouth to World of Mouth Which could be expressed as

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Social media changes the game

78% of
consumers trust peer recommendations Only

People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services, than how Google ranks them

34% of bloggers post

opinions about products and brands. Do you like what they are saying about your brand?

25% of search
results for the Worlds Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content

14% trust

your advertisements

From word of mouth to world of mouth

Source of quotes: Social Media Revolution

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A DATA BASE TO MINE POSITION STRATEGIES OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

Taking into consideration to a specific field like Educational Sector the results of data analyses revealed an absolutely an unexpected dimension of finding that stressed the need of Socializing the Faculty to the dynamic Technology era to cope up with the ever changing world which nobody would have thought off. The other finding gave a root shock that age and experience is only a number and for the faculty to be an effective teacher and to gain moral respect from heir students the faculty has to update and upgrade himself with the technology and its use to prevent himself to the fall of its abuse against him. The students perception through Social Media is unadulterated, fair and the perceptions stand justice to truth by value. It can be monitored through ghost presence which can be even used to the benefit of the Institution by the ethical hacking of the perceptions of the Students, Public, Parents and initiate corrective course and take corrective initiatives to take advantage of positioning and Branding strategies. Social Media as A Data Base to Mine Strategies for Social Shopping and Social Commerce In Trading it can be used in the Dimension of Social Shopping and Social Commerce.

SOCIAL COMMERCE A FUTURE TREND

Social Shopping through web site which that one that brings buyers and sellers together in a social network environment to facilitate retail sales. Social shopping brings buyers and sellers together in a social network environment. The Web site offers features found in social networking sites

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SOCIALMERCHANDISING
Social Merchandising is nothing but to personalize the shopping experience for web site visitors with social profile data and also show the other people they may know and the products from the product host site they like. This creates an implicit endorsement and helps the shoppers to discover new products driving up both conversion rate and average order value.

SOCIAL PRODUCT SHARING

Social Product Sharing allows shoppers to spread the word about products to drive traffic back to the product host site using Facebook Like buttons, including in Quick View pop-ups on category pages. To site such examples could be Ask Friends (via Facebook Wall Posts, Twitter, email, chat).Publishing products to a Wishlist shoppers friends can see on Facebook.

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A DATA BASE TO MINE STRATEGIES FOR PRODUCT INNOVATION

In product innovation. The consumption pattern and perceptions of customers are hacked for effective use of customer oriented Product Innovations. -eg. Analytic function in Mobile phones service Industry.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAN SERVE A DATA BASE TO MINE STRATEGIES FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATION TRAFFIC
Indices of Mobile communication Traffic can be measured. A qualitative information indicate that on an average six billion information are exchanged in a day

SOCIAL

MEDIA

AS

DATA

BASE

TO

MINE

STRATEGIES

FOR

ARCHITECHTURE OF COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES

It can be used in rating the products and architecture Competitive Strategy as the perceptions is real time and realistic.

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Social Merchandising

Friends become visitors

1

Visitors become active shoppers

Social Product Sharing

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A DATA BASE TO MINE STABILITY STRATEGIES FOR PRODUCT POSITIONING PRODUCTS
Visitors who Connect with Facebook and engage with social shopping features on retailer sites have been shown to have 3-5 times greater conversion rates than others. Product Abuse, and Technology Abuse, by which CAPA Corrective and Preventive Actions can be initiated

MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES TO MEASURE SOCIAL MEDIA AS A DATA BASE TO MINE STRATEGIES

Adobe Social Analysis for Business utilizes signal capture techniques through the social platforms to have Face Book Applications Measurement, Virtual Video Measurements, and Twitter Measurements to measure any of the strategic Social issues like policies of Government, This is used as one of the powerful feedback system.

SOCIAL MEDIA AS A DATA BASE TO MINE SOCIAL METRICS

The Major Metrics that Could be Considered are 1. Time spent 2) Video installs 3) Relevant actions taken (custom to widget or application creative execution) Action examples 4) Conversation Reach 5) Latest Post Date 6) Mean-time Between Posts 7) Conversation Reach 8) Latest Post Date 9) Mean-time Between Posts 10) Installs Applications 11) Active Users/Fans 2. Time Spent (section, microsite, community)

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The amount of elapsed time from the initiation of a visit to the last user activity associated with that visit. Time spent should represent the activity of a single cookied browser or user for a single access session to the web site application or other property. Most publishers consider a session continuous if and only if not broken by more than 30 minutes of inactivity. 1. Video installs

Number of Video players that have been placed by a user onto their page. Also called embed, grab or post. A video player is a type of widget. Relevant Actions Taken (Custom to Widget or Application Creative Execution) Action Examples 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Contest/Sweeps Entries Coupons downloaded/redeemed Games played Videos viewed Uploads (e.g. images, videos Poll votes Messages sent (e.g. Bulletins, Updates, Emails, Alerts) Invites sent Newsfeed items posted

10. Comments posted 11. Friends reached 12. Topics/Forums Created 13. Number of Group Members or Fans 14. Reposts (Shares) CONVERSATION REACH The number of unique visitors (monthly) across sites in the conversation. Latest Post Date The most recent post date for content . Mean-time Between Posts The average (mean) time between . Installs Applications Total installations of application .

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Active Users/Fans Total users interacting with application over a specific time frame, usually day/week/month . Many

applications have rapid growth but lose activity over time Audience Profile User demographics from self reported profile information . Growth Average number of users within a specific time frame . Influence Average number of friends among users who have installed application . Longevity/Lifecycle Average period of time for which an application or widget remains installed by a user. By Quantitative terms it can be used to measure Social Metrics like 1) Gross Views 2) Connectiveity/Network 3) Audience Engagement(Prospective Business Customers /Prospective Migrant) 4) Self Engagement with Audience (Individual/Instauration Image/Brand /Positions in Industry) SOCIAL MEDIA AS A DATA BASE TO MINE BRANDING STRATEGIES The branding strategies is much the same as other media and it could be formulated as

Brand Building Through Social Media can be Effected through i) Real-time Advertisement

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ii) iii) iv) v)

Campaign Polls Virtualization Appreciate your followers and increase your customer base

For effective objective oriented branding the Five things to keep in mind 1. Mental Health History What the manufacturer is willing to reveal and what has been revealed online? Which is more a personal decision. 2. Privacy Settings Be aware of privacy settings on social networks as the social media prempts privacy 3. Who is Watching? If family, friends or a pastor should be prohibited to know the perceptions it is better that online is avoided. 4. Employers Many employers now research their applicants online to learn as much as possible. This is another reason to be cautious about anything before it is posted. 5. The Internet is Permanent So give thought before posting it to a blog, social network or other site as social media is real time. 6. In nut shell "It is better to keep the mouth closed and let people think as a fool than to open it and remove all doubt and become a person of centre of talk ." Some of the corporate use Social Media in the following way: 1. McDonald's began using social networking after an internal study showed that employees were often looking for colleagues with expertise. 2. Northrop Grumman has created what it calls "communities of practice," groups focused on a topic or technology, from the guts of systems engineering to a community of new hires. These communities contain documents associated with the community and a listing of group members with their professional profiles. 3. Wachovia, the nation's fourth largest bank is rolling out a social networking service for 110,000 employees over the next several months, giving workers a sophisticated knowledgemanagement platform

FROM HIRING TO RETIREMENT

1. Aerotek Staffing Agency, uses Facebook's messaging system to keep in touch with new hires because it's "less formal" than work e-mail. 2. Procter & Gamble employees use Facebook to keep interns in touch and share information with co-workers attending company events.

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3.

Dow Chemical building social networks to stay connected with retirees.

~ Mark Twain Mantras to use Social Media effectively can be listed as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Go in with a plan Be yourself, but remember that you represent your brand Social media gives others a snapshot of you: What does your picture look like? Listen to the tone of each site before engaging Creating a mix of content: about you, sharing articles/ideas, conversation Regularly clean up your profiles Stay for the marathon, not the sprint, to build relationships

Social medias impact on Public Relations & the media can be listed as : 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Focus on the social capital of the journalist, not the outlet News is consumed differently and on the go Niche sites available to everyone More direct-to-consumer Communities, not audiences

ISSUES AND CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM

Rising Cyber Crime Based on Popularity of Social Media Today With the rising popularity of the social media and networking websites today, it would be found that many Cyber crimes where adults impersonate children, becoming friendly, and then coaxing children to meet face-to-face. This is a serious problem today with youth as young as 13 years having sanctioned access to these social media and networking sites. Few Examples of Social Media ROI

ADIDAS
Used social networks to do guerrilla marketing on mobile (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, SMS) in and around NBA All-Star Game and increased retail sales 20X goal in Las Vegas (where All-Star Game occurred)

COCA-COLA
Achieved strongest global marketing integration ever with Expedition 206, a social media promotion where a small group of travel ambassadors went to 206 countries over 365 days to generate happiness and published on social networks. It enabled global promotion execution among 3,500 Coca-Cola marketers around the world.

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GENERAL MOTORS
Launched FastLane, one of the first blogs personally written by senior executives. Customer feedback given through a blog saved the company $180,000/year versus traditional focus group research not to mention the enormous good will of company executives responding to consumers, not a focus group moderator

EMC
B2B social media effort that achieved business transformation by creating a global companywide social community, EMC ONE. This connected and increased collaboration resulting in doubledigit revenue growth in more than 60 countries.

COLGATE
Launched Wisp, disposable toothpaste, through Be More Kissable social media video

campaign (+30 more involvement) that ran on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. It achieved reach of 10,000,000+ rivaling mass advertising at small fraction of the cost.

COMMON PROBLEMS BROWSING PRODUCTS ONLINE

Online Shoppers are often Frustrated by 1. 2. Losing their place and forgetting what they already saw. Noticing an interesting product but continuing to see if there is something better and then regretting because they cant find the original item any more Coming back at a later date and having to start all over. Adding to Wishlist that requires registration, and for apparel, a specific color and size selection first. 3. Not being able to easily compare items side-by-side visually.

While progressively narrowing down choices, being slowed down by having to constantly go back and forth to different product pages or getting lost in multiple browser tabs. The tentative possible Solution could be 1. Pin Choose Shopping Assistant Toolbar & Quick Pins Make shopping on your site more enjoyable and fun with improved usability, faster and richer user interface. 2. Delight the shoppers with the engaging and time-saving experience of QuickLook and Pin Choose Toolbar solutions and see more traffic, more returned visitors, more items in the cart and more orders.

TIPS TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA EFFECTIVELY

1. 2. Think before it is posted!!!! Never know who is watching!!!!

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3.

Always remember that once something is posted on a third party site (regardless of the companys privacy declaration), the control on information is lost forever!!!

4. 5.

Know the companys social media policy. Give them innovative features that improve their shopping experience and a persuasion path that provides good reasons for the shopper to connect.

CONCLUSIONS
The huge platform of data base of any dimension, for any product, any social and cultural issues created which has a Global population with exceptional representation of Geographic Demographic and Socio Psychographic values will represent true perceptual value with near zero bias ,with least

encroachment of privacy of respondents and a high degree of dependence certainly need to be exploited to the benefit of society and guide Corporate to the Social Orientation in Business and a few can be summarized as follows Social Media as A Data Base for Mining Strategies in Different Areas of Business

REFERENCES
1. Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social Networks Analysis: Methods and Applications. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

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2.

The University of Melbourne, Department of Psychology, Major centre for social networks research: Pip Pattison, Garry Robins

3.

Cross, R., & Prusak, L. (2002). The people who make organisations go or stop. Harvard Business Review, 104-112

Websites 1. http://www.humax.net/teams.html (easy introduction into networks as applied to teams) 2. Baker, 1995 www.humax.net/teams.html

Example Datasets 1. 2. 3. http://vlado.fmf.uni-lj.si/pub/networks/data/UciNet/UciData.html Netdraw (free software for drawing social networks) UCINet (30 day trial; provides information about properties of social networks)