Theoretical Conceptual Framework

Theoretical/Conceptual Framework
Social Network Sites
Social networks have been around the offline world for hundreds of years. However, in recent
times, more and more social networks have switched from offline to online environment. Since the
launch of the first social network sites in 1997, these online communities have gained millions of
users because users tend to share their lives, opinions, and experiences with other users. Most social
network sites offer their users three main activities. First, users can create a public or semi-public
profile within a limited system (Ellison, 2007). Second, users can create a list of other users on the
network they have identified. Users can also access their friends information and their list of
connections, but the ability to access and search other private profiles varies significantly across
networks.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is still in its infancy and social networks are still small players
compared to large portals and search engines in terms of audience and revenue. However, social
network sites are the fastest growing online sector and they are likely to be the most important tools
in online marketing and surpass the traditional online marketing sites and portals (Traver, 2008).
Basic marketing is social media marketing for building brand awareness, identifying opinion leaders
known on social media as influencers, driving traffic to brand Web sites, spreading a specific
message virally, building customer databases, building credibility and trust in one brand, and
enhancing the image of one brand, among others (Tuten, 2008).
Marketers need to realize that marketing is changing and following new rules. According to
Tuten (2008, p. 175), today's social marketing is "characterized by user control, freedom and
dialogue." These new characteristics have significantly changed the competitive environment that has
become clearer and makes companies react to these changes. Today, organizations are defined by
their published content and customers want real content (Laudon & Traver, 2008; Scott, 2007; World
Tourism Organization, 2008). Social media has changed the process of brand building. Previously,
marketers were in a position to determine the appearance of a brand and then simply copy their
offline strategy into the online environment without any adaptation to the needs and preferences of
customers. However, organizations are no longer in control and need to consider new consumer
strengths. Users tend to interact both with organizations as well as with other users and participate in
marking a product or service. In addition, it is important to empower consumers to encourage
interaction and collaboration in product development (Christodoulides, 2009 & Darmody, 2008).
Traditional forms have been business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C), whereas
new forms are customer-to-business (C2B) and customer-to-customer (C2C) (Smith, 2005).
Social media marketing should be understood as a direct two-way communication between
brands and customers and not as the passive consumption of advertisements. The goal of social media
marketing is not to create traffic nor to interrupt the community but to create brand value and a
relationship between the brand and the consumer. In social media, it is crucial to pay attention to the
consumer and their opinions. Organizations need to interact and communicate with their customers,
encourage participation, share stories and become a part of the community based on trust and a
mutual relationship. Trust is established by providing honest information and quality content,
however, organizations need to understand that social media marketing is a slow transaction as it
takes time to build up trust (Chaffey & Smith, 2005).

Effectiveness of Facebook Live Selling and Post Selling
Facebook is one of the largest and fastest growing social network sites, formed on a global
network. Their goal is to become an internet operating system and make the world more open and
transparent by giving everyone the right to share and connect (Facebook, 2010). The products offered
by Facebook can be divided into key products, applications and features. The two elements of
Facebook where each user interacts most are the Facebook homepage with a news feed and own
profile, which is accessible to other users on the network (Veer, 2008). Facebook’s marketing system
is based on three elements and on the concept of a transparent client because organizations can access
users ’published personal information to target the exact audience. (Williams, 2008).
The first elements are ads, taking into account the personal information and online behavior of
users. Each ad includes a line of text, a title, and an image, limited in length and size respectively.
Depending on the budget, ads can be displayed in the news feed, which is more effective, or in the
advertising space of each site. When a user clicks on the ad, the user is directed to a website or to a
site within Facebook. Facebook’s ad system is based on the possibility of targeting the exact audience
marketers want to approach. Filters can be used for targeting are the country, state, city, gender, age,
any keywords of interest, education status, workplace, relationship status and interests (Facebook,
2008). Except for the location of the filter, which is based on the address of the internet protocol used
for the latest login, all other filters are provided by the users. Facebook defines profile interests and
preferences as keywords, which are used for matching social ads to users' social actions. However, in
order to use these keywords for audience setting at least 1000 users need to have this particular
keyword in their profile. Interestingly, advertisers cannot specify individual keywords but they have
to choose from the options provided by Facebook. In addition, most of the offered keywords target a
younger target group (Holzner, 2009).
Secondly, is the pages, which are company profiles free. Organization pages offer more
features than regular profiles. Users can interact with organizational pages and can be a fan of a page
instead of being friends with other users. Users interact with brands through pages because they are
looking for incentives and to build a relationship with a company (Facebook, 2007; Veer, 2008).
The last element of Facebook’s marketing system is the social graph. The social graph is a
free word-of-oral system, which allows users to inform other users about their favorite products and
services. This so-called friend-vertising is the biggest advantage of Facebook marketing because
organizations can use this system of connections through social graphs to reach as many users as
possible. Friend-vertising is successful because consumer behavior always reflects their network and
users are more likely to copy the behavior of their friends and opinion leaders because they trust
them. The overall goal is for users to include a brand message in their conversations with their
friends. The news feed is the most important feature for viral marketing. An example is Facebook.

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Theoretical/Conceptual Framework

Social Network Sites

Social Media Marketing

enhancing the image of one brand, among others (Tuten, 2008).

marking a product or service. In addition, it is important to empower consumers to encourage

Social media marketing should be understood as a direct two-way communication between

takes time to build up trust (Chaffey & Smith, 2005).

younger target group (Holzner, 2009).

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