Social Media Engagement as a User Experience Strategy for Business Cynthia Chong DePaul University 1 E. Jackson, Chicago, IL, 60604 cynthiacchong@gmail.com ABSTRACT
Technology and mobile trends are developing rapidly in recent years, and social media has become an important marketing tool in brand communities and human interaction in modern times. As social media plays an important role in online marketing, this project attempts to study how social media marketing strategies help a business to engage with users. The findings will discuss what strategies are being used to define the values of the strategy’s approaches. Not only both quantitative and qualitative researches will be explored in this study, but also implications for future opportunities. KEYWORDS
UX strategies, social media strategies, social media, social media engagement, user engagement, web analysis, key performance indicators, brand communities, user experience, user-brand relationship, online marketing, methodologies and technique. INTRODUCTION
Social media is a popular online tool that allows users to share, communicate, and participate in different activities. Because the number of users in social media is increasing, business owners are expected to transform their marketing strategies into social media. According to 2019 Social Media Industry Report (Stelzner 2019) [13], it reported that 93% of marketers believe that social media efforts are important components to generate more exposure to their businesses. Marketers have utilized social media to develop brand engagement opportunities. To begin with addressing the exploratory study of how social media strategies influence the business owners and engage with users, the following are some of the research questions: • • •
What social media channels are being used for the business owners and users? What social media strategies are being used in the market? How are users engaging the brand with social media?
• • •
How do the uses of social media strategies benefit the users and business owners? How do business owners measure and define the success with social media strategies? What is the future implementation of social media strategies?
To answer each of the questions, the paper is structured to include a review of relevant reports, literature, and findings. BRANDING AND SOCIAL MEDIA
In order to effectively build a positive user-brand relationship and gain a higher user engagement, social media is used to increase the brand awareness of customers. Branding activities that associate with social media include customer services, display advertisement, and sales promotion, etc. According to the literature of the “Creative Strategies in Social Media Marketing: An Exploratory Study of Branded Social Content and Consumer Engagement” [4], financial performance was positively correlated by branded social activities. This statement is reflected accurately in 2019 Social Marketing Industry Report [13], as one of the benefits in social media marketing is to improve sales, which increased 19% of sales overall compared from 2018. In addition, business owners find that the longer the years of social media experiences, the better it helps them improve sales. SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
Social media serves as a marketing channel between brand and users. Social media channels include brand communities, discussion forums, blogs, social networking sites and social publishing sites. According to 2019 Social Media Industry Report [13], commonly used social platforms by the business owners are as the following: Facebook (94%), Instagram (73%), Twitter (59%), LinkedIn (58%), YouTube (54%), Pinterest (28%), Messenger bots (14%), and Snapchat (6%). Facebook and Instagram are the main two social media channels for business owners overall.
Table 1: Commonly used social media channels for business owners Reference: Michael A. Stelzner. 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, p.11
The data of commonly used social media channels reflected the most important social media platform for the business owner. There was a positive correlation relationship between them. In the same report, the findings revealed Facebook is still the most important social platform, followed by Instagram.
Table 3: Commonly used social media channels for U.S. adults Reference: Pew Research Center
Based on the results reported in 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report [13] and Pew Research Center [1], Facebook is the primary social media channel shared by both of the business owners and users. SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
According to the survey conducted by Pew Research Center [1], they surveyed five age’s group who have used social media, including 18-24 years old, 25-29 years old, 30-49 years old, 50-64 years old, and 65+ years old. The result showed that ages in 18-24 used social media the most, and they are the main targets of business owners.
Table 2: Important social media platforms for business owners Reference: Michael A. Stelzner. 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, p.15
On the other hand, according to the survey of Pew Research Center conducted in 2019 [1], the commonly used social media channels for U.S. adults are as following: YouTube (73%), Facebook (69%), Instagram (37%), Pinterest (28%), LinkedIn (27%), Snapchat (24%), Twitter (22%), WhatsApp (20%), and Reddit (11%). YouTube and Facebook are the main two social media channels for U.S adults overall.
Table 4: Social media users’ age groups of U.S. adults Reference: Andrew Perrin, Monica Anderson. (2019). Share of U.S. adults using social media, inlcuding Facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018.
Table 5: Social media users ‘gender groups of U.S. adults Reference: Andrew Perrin, Monica Anderson. (2019). Share of U.S. adults using social media, inlcuding Facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018.
The report also found that different genders have different choices of social media platforms. The social media platforms that have more male users were YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Reddit. Instagram and Pinterest were the only two among all social media platforms that have more female users. Snapchat have the same amount of male and female users. In general, men used more social media than women. BRANDING ENGAGEMENT
In the literature of the “Creative Strategies in Social Media Marketing: An Exploratory Study of Branded Social Content and Consumer Engagement” [4], a quantitative study was conducted by a social content hosting company based on the scores of brand activities associated with the social media channels. There are four categories to define branding engagement with users in social media channels, including (1) Mavens; (2) Butterflies; (3) Selectives; and (4) Wallflowers. Mavens mean that the brand has a lot of channels and high engagement. They are very active in social media and have more than seven channels. Basically, Social media is their main marketing strategy with having a team focus on it. Butterflies mean that the brand has a lot of channels but low engagement. They are very active in social media and have seven or above channels. However, they lack engagement due to the limitation of resources for the current customers. Selectives mean that the brand has a few channels but high engagement. They are not active in social media and have less than seven channels. However, they engaged customers deeply with what the channels they have.
Table 6: Correlations between social media channel, social media engagement, and social media strategies Reference: Christy Ashley, Tracy Tuten. 2014. Creative Strategies in Social Media marketing: An Exploratory Study of Branded Social Content and Consumer Engagement
From the collected quantitative data, brands that owned the highest numbers of social media channels have the highest numbers of followers and engagement scores. It was not surprising that the number of social media channels had the most significant relationship of brand engagement with users. The user image appeal and exclusivity appeals had a notable relationship with the numbers of Facebook Fans. Resonance, animation, experiential appeal, social cause an incentive to share content had a remarkable relationship with a brand’s Klout scores. The only negative social media engagement score from the table was an emotional appeal, which means some brands did not use emotional appeal to improve their engagement. In order to measure the engagement between social media channels, such as entertainment, social interaction, positive and negative emotions to content, and positive and negative emotions to the platform, etc., the authors of the literature of the “Engagement with Social Media and Social Media Advertising: The Differentiating Role of Platform Type” [7] suggested another measurement method. The instrument used to measure social media engagement included the twelve items listed below.
Wallflowers mean that the brand has a few channels and low engagement. They are not active in social media and have less than seven channels. Besides, they engaged less with the channels they have. This research method is useful to business owners for brand management in order to increase their brand’s awareness in engaging with users. The engagement scores and the metrics for social popularity and social influence were obtained from Klout (www.klout.com) and Engagementdb. The following table was the example of correlations between social media channels, social media engagement, and social media strategies. Table 7: Instrument used to measure engagement
Reference: Hilde A. M. Voorveld, Guda van Noort, Daniël G. Muntinga & Fred Bronner. 2018. Engagement with Social Media and Social Media Advertising: The Differentiating Role of Platform Type, Journal of Advertising
From the examination of the above method, it showed that Facebook scored highest in most of the social engagements, especially social interaction since it is the most flexible platform that allows the user to share and respond. YouTube scored highest in entertainment as users gained happiness and positive emotions from watching videos. LinkedIn and Google+ scored highest in topicality as they provided up to date information to users. Snapchat scored highest in entertainment and social interaction as it allows users to share and interact with friends. Lastly, Pinterest scored highest in stimulation as they provide tips and ideas to users.
celebrities as an influence model, brands tend to use the relative type of promotional model that can effectively be related to the users. For example, Adidas launched a microinfluencer program that included a lot of young athletes to engage their users through social marketing. Storify Social Media Strategy
A lot of social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat offer the latest news feed function called “story”, which is a new sharing method nowadays. According to the report of the Social Media Trends 2019 [9], 64% of users implemented Instagram stories into their social strategies. Instead of text-based sharing, videos or images enable users to capture real-time experiences. Storify social media strategy allows users to feel more realistic and personal. Statistically, 4/5 brands are adopting the strategy of posting stories and this trend is growing 15 times faster than the traditional sharing method. For example, Dunkin Donuts was one of the first brands that developed stories to create specific content to attract users. They used stories to promote their brand and interact with users.
Table 7: Social Media Engagement with the different platforms Reference: Hilde A. M. Voorveld, Guda van Noort, Daniël G. Muntinga & Fred Bronner. 2018. Engagement with Social Media and Social Media Advertising: The Differentiating Role of Platform Type, Journal of Advertising SOCIAL MEDIA STATEGIES
Business owners tend to use social media strategies to enhance users’ engagement and motivation. It is a communicational bridge between the business owners and the users. Strategies are defined into two categories: functional and emotional, and both of them benefit the brand in different ways. According to the Social Media Trends Report 2019 conducted by Hootsuite [9], there were five new social strategies and trends on social media, including (1) Trust building social media strategy; (2) Storify social media strategy; (3) Advertise social media strategy; (4) Commerce social media strategy; and (5) Message social media strategy. Trust Building Social Media Strategy
According to the report of the Social Media Trends 2019 [9], 60% of people no longer trust social media networks, 50% of people think that personalized content and user experience are important, and 71% of people agree that social media should focus more on high-quality journalism. In order to build users’ trust, business owners used social media as a platform to generate transparent engagement with their internal experts or employees. Instead of using
Table 8: Stories active users on social media channels Reference: Hootsuite’s annual report on the latest global
trends in social media. 2019. Social Media Trends Advertise Social Media Strategy
Paid advertisement, also known as “sponsors”, are increasing significantly in social media. According to the report of Social Media Trends 2019 [9], 78% of marketers responded that they have invested in social advertising. Some brands that are willing to invest heavily in an advertisement in order to create a memorable advertisement and make a great impression on the audience, such as Spotify and Netflix. Spotify won the Ad Age’s 2018 InHouse Agency of the Year award and they are the leadingcreative campaign. Besides advertisement, they also partnered with Instagram to created meaningful hashtags to promote songs or artists. Netflix promoted advertising geographically and localized the preferences of audiences and has successfully adopted this social media strategy in different countries. The only drawback of this strategy is it required a lot of money and it might be not cost-effective since there are many tools on the internet that can block advertisements.
only selecting a time, date, and location. An instant confirmation email will send once the appointment is made. BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES
Table 9: social media advertisement platforms Reference: Michael A. Stelzner. 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, p.35
The transformation of marketing strategies from traditional to social media brings several benefits to the business owners. According to the report of 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry [13], 93% of brands increased exposure by using social media. Social media allows brands to publish their profile, establish a branding style, and gain more attention from users and followers. Besides, 87% of brands increased traffic, which using social media strategies help them drive users to their website or social media. Other benefits of social media strategies included generated leads (74%), improved sales (72%), developed loyal fans (71%), provided marketplace insight (58%), increased through leadership (57%), and grew business partnerships (56%).
According to the report of 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry [13], among all of the social media channels, 72% of business owners used Facebook as their primary platform for advertisement, followed by Instagram (38%). Commerce Social Media Strategy
Many social media networks now allow users to shop and buy products immediately from the marketplace or on popup windows from advertisements. According to the Social Media Trends 2019 [9], 70% of users buy directly from social media, 74% of users will make a purchase after watching a social video, and 800 million people use Facebook’s marketplace in over 70 counties. Skincare or cosmetics are one of the particular industries that used a lot of the Commerce social media strategy through live stream or visualized social media content. A beauty brand called Glossier shared videos and photos to promote their products to their followers on social media. They showcased products on models and used social media platforms to reach more users. Most of their sales were from followers, without an in-store experience. Message Social Media Strategy
Facebook Messenger is the top social media messenger app that has most of the users from all around the world. A lot of people text more than talk nowadays because of the advanced development of technology. According to the Social Media Trends 2019 [9], messaging is the most preferred channel for customer service and 69% of U.S. users responded that direct messages to a company helped them reflect on their opinions more realistically. Not only messaging apps, but some of the brands used AI-powered messaging platform, such as chatbots, to initiate conversations with users. Sephora launched a “Sephora Assistant” in Facebook Messenger to help users make appointments more easily. They provided a new booking experience for the users by cutting down all the steps to
Table 10: Benefits of social media marketing Reference: Michael A. Stelzner. 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, p.7 MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES
To measure the success of social media strategies, here are a list of the possible social media KPIs: •
The numbers of followers
•
The numbers of likes and shares
•
The frequency of publishing posts
•
User engagement
•
Traffic Generation
•
Lead Generation
•
Customer Service
Apart from KPIs, business owners also used Facebook Analysis and Google Analysis to define the effectiveness of social media strategies.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE IMPLEMENTATIONS
CONCLUSION
Due to the limitation of time, the collected data was not first-hand and inconsistent. Since the trend of social media is developing rapidly, this study may not reflect the latest information and subject to change in the future. Some marketers already planning the new social media strategies on different channels, and the survey responses included increase the use, stay the same, decrease the use, and no plans to use.
It is important to study how social media strategies help business owners better understand users and contribute to the online market. By taking the advantages of social media strategies, business owners have the opportunities to discover potential customers and turn existing users into loyal customers. In conclusion, social media networking is a new trend to influence business owners and users. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am thankful to DePaul Writing Center (loop) for helping me to improve English writing, which has improved the structure of the paper to a higher extent. REFERENCES
Table 11: Changes of social media advertisement use
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Reference: Michael A. Stelzner. 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, p.36
Table 12: Changes of social media advertisement use (continued) Reference: Michael A. Stelzner. 2019 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, p.37
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