Using Digital Social Media For Innovative International Marketing Strategies

How digital social media can be used to create innovative international marketing strategies.

Ahmad, Musa and  Harun  (2016), state that marketing can be considered to be an essential part of the organization and any firm which wants to gain long term success would be required to ensure that they are successfully engage in innovating their different marketing strategies so as to be able to attract a larger audience. An innovative marketing strategy goes a long way in ensuring that a firm is able to plan in the right manner and able to present the right product in the target market at the right time and at the right price (Weinstein & Pohlman, 2015). Moreover, innovation is often considered to be the key to success and any company which aims to engage in the marketing environment would be required to compete against a large number of companies which will then become difficult if the marketing strategy applied does no seize to be innovative in nature. For this purpose, a large number of companies often conduct an external analysis so as to figure out the best way to capture the market.

Ashley and Tuten  (2015) believe that the social media is one of the growing dynamics which have changed the manner in which the different companies engage in their marketing strategy and the manner in which the message of the company is given out to the target audience. Hence, with respect to this, the main aim of the essay is to critically analyze the manner in which the social media can be used to create an innovative marketing strategy and to ensure that the firm is able to compete in the competitive business environment. The product which has been chosen for the purpose of the essay is the Uber cab services and the essay will analyze how the company has been performing with respect to social media and how has it contributed towards the firm`s success.

The Uber Transport Company is an American international transportation network company which has its headquarters in San Francisco in California. The company has the right to market and develop the Uber App which thereby allows the different consumers to book a trip request by using their smartphones and connects them to the Uber drivers who can then use their own car to complete the trip (Uber.com , 2018).  The company is widely available in various countries around the globe and several companies have launched the same business model and has been termed as a trend which is known as Uberification. As of 2015, the net worth of Uber is estimated to be around $50 billion. The company engages in marketing practices that permits it to market its products in various countries all around the globe.

The social media marketing can be defined as a marketing technique making use of which a company can gain attention or traffic by attracting the target audience through means of different social media sites. The social media marketing can also be defined as the social media platforms or website which seek to promote a product or a service which is available. Although the terms of e-marketing and digital marketing have become considerably popular, the social media has become a popular medium for researchers as well as practitioners. Tuten and Solomon  (2017), state that the special media tools have become highly popular because they have a built in data analytics tool through which the different organizations are able to track their progress and also check whether the advertisement campaigns which are being designed by them are popular or not.  Additionally, the social media also serves as a good measure to address all the stakeholders of the firm which includes the current customers as well as the potential customers. Along with this, the employees, bloggers, media, government and the general public can also be targeted easily by the organization.

Additionally, as mentioned by Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch  (2017),  with respect to the strategic goals of the organization, the firm can also ensure that they are able to manage the campaign effectively and get involved in governance which shall allow long term success for the overall scope of the firm.  The social media can be stated to be an all term for various sites which tend to provide social actions. Various examples of the social media can be taken into consideration like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. According to Chaffey  (2016), where twitter on one hand can be taken to be a social site which generally provides updates to the other followers and Facebook in this contrast can be stated to be a fully blown social networking website which allows the different account holders to share various photos, updates and other joining events.  In addition to the Facebook and Instagram, there are other social media channels which are also available like the Pinterest, Linkedin, YouTube and other sharing portals like Snapchat.

In addition to this, according to Scott  (2015), there are two different types of approaches which can be followed by the organization and these approaches are the Passive approach and the Active approach.  The social media is a useful source of market information which helps one to understand the different customer perspectives. The different blogs, content communities and forums can be stated to be the platform which helps a company to share its views or allows the individuals to provide their perception and reviews and have their voices heard from the different brands. In this way, when an individual starts a trend on the social media then they will successfully be able to engage in a marketing for the firm which can be stated to be indirect in nature (Godey et al., 2016). On the other hand, the active approach can be stated to be one where the firm will be able to make use of direct marketing tools which will allow the firm to communicate with the target audience and also interact in a direct manner by getting in contact with the different social media influencers as well as media personalities which thereby allows the firm to attain success in the long run.

According to Foxall  (2014), various social media platforms also help in avoiding costly research costs and attaining a short term description of the target audience.  The Facebook and Linkedin can be stated to be the platforms where users can hyper target their ads and gain customer information through it.

The company chosen for the present scenario is the Uber social media marketing and this section will throw light on the manner in which Uber makes use of the social media to come up with different innovative techniques which ensures the overall welfare of the firm at large. As stated earlier, social media has helped various brands to build their image over time and in the same manner, Uber has also aimed to leave a considerable mark in this field by making use of various social media stops to churn excitement and exploit the network in order to ensure that they are able to successfully engage in maximum profits. In addition to this, Foxall (2014), also mentioned that this will also lead to a satisfaction to both the suppliers as well as customers. Moreover, as the Uber networks mostly makes use of its application but has used the other platforms to engage in something profitable. The different ways in which Uber makes use of the social media to come in the form of international marketing strategies have been given as follows:

Uber makes use of extensive advertising on Uber which allows the firm to reach a wider audience as there are around 8 million followers of Uber on Facebook. The Uber`s Facebook account is used for broadcasting purposes which helps in informing the different customers about the latest deals and offers (Changer, 2016). This helps the company in maintaining a deeper connection with the target audience and allows the firm to let the consumers share their experiences. Moreover, Uber relays its deals and discounts by running certain contests as well which allows the company to remain a center of attraction (Godey et al., 2016). The company also ensures that it is able to clear customer doubts.

Hence, it can be stated that not only does Uber seek to market by making use of the social media strategies, it also seeks to improve its brand image in the market by engaging in relative moves which shall allow the firm to ensure that it is successfully able to be present for the customers at all times and build a successful network for the drivers as well as the customers (Marinchak, Forrest & Hoanca, 2018). (Refer to Appendix 1)

On twitter, Uber has a considerable strong presence whereby the firm has a large number of followers at around 689000 which makes it a popular account. Twitter as stated previously, allows the different users a better exposure than Facebook with special reference to the posting of various videos and pictures the portal which is provided by Twitter has a better interface. Moreover, these posts have a flow like that of news.  Additionally, Chernev  (2018), believes that the followers of Uber are flourished with various deals and discounts which then helps the company to create an image for themselves and along with this also allows them to ensure maximum impact. The company has made more than 14000 tweets which gets re-tweeted and thus in this manner the network has a positive impact on Uber.

The medium of instagram can be taken to be a must try for all the brands who seek to have a strong impact on the different users through the means of just photographs and videos. Moreover, Instagram has been successfully able to develop its application with the help of which it has been able to allow the different users to run various contests as well. According to Scott (2015), the new age marketing has become user interactive and allows the different users to interact with the company and given in the feedback in return of a chance to win a contest and get free rides as well as various discounts. The page of Uber beautifully showcases the customer stories, advertisements, driver tales and other such offers which increase the brand image of the firm and helps the firm n telling its stories in the form of pictures (Hajli, 2014). The Uber can be stated to be the greatest stories belonging to the 21st century and as Instagram has allowed a large number of brands to increase the level of influence they have on the users and with respect to this seeks to ensure that Uber is successfully able to generate a substantial impact on the people through the medium of social media.

The next platform which Uber makes use of is YouTube. YouTube can be stated to be one of the biggest video sharing site and comprises of its own benefits when related to marketing and ensuring customer satisfaction. Uber started its Uber account in 2017 and at present there are about 90000 followers of the brand. The company has posted close to 1000 videos and provides the latest content to the users (Stelzner, 2014). Some of these videos have gained more than 40 million views which has a considerable impact on the revenue of the firm. YouTube allows the firms to engage its customers in a better manner and with respect to this it can be stated that the videos of Uber has allowed the members of the firm to engage the customers as well as allow sufficient advertisement content.

In addition to these channels, Uber has also made use of other channels like Pintrest to showcase its advertisements and has truly been able to utilize the Social media which serves as the one stop solutions for the marketers to solve their issues with respect to customer engagement (Bresler & Lubbe, 2014). In addition to these methods, Uber also makes use of considerable Traditional advertising methods like Television advertisements, Billboard advertisements and mobile advertisements. However, Uber has understood the impact which social media has been able to make on advertising strategies and made the entire procedure of advertisement very innovative in nature and it is for this purpose that it makes considerable use of the medium in order to ensure long term success (Hollensen & Raman, 2014).

Given below are the techniques in which social media marketing has been able to make creative and innovative marketing strategies.

Ngai, Tao and Moon  (2015), the first manner in which the social media marketing has innovated the marketing strategies is by making use of customer service marketing strategy. The customer service is taken to be one of the most difficult aspects of an organization which the business finds difficult to manage and this is where the social media has made it easier for the firms to manage their marketing and the brand image by interacting with the customers on social media and also ensuring that the reputation of the firm is built. Stephen  (2016) argues that any organization which wants to maintain a quick edge needs to ensure that it responds to the different customer feedbacks as well as the complaints. As observed Uber makes use of this method to resolve potential conflicts.

The next way in which the social media has changed the manner in which marketing takes place is by making use of business intelligence. The competition in the industry is very fierce and hence, by making use of data it becomes easier for the business to find prospective clients, potential problems and solutions. The social media failures of the competitors can be converted to own company win strategies. Bresler and Lubbe  (2014), believe that this assists the firm in eliminating unnecessary failure cost. Additionally, the marketing insights which are collected in the form of data also assists the marketers by providing them with information in regard to the target markets and what the company thinks about them. This information is taken to be very vital in nature. Moreover, the social media strategies can also assist the marketers to understand the impact of their campaigns and measure the brand awareness and using this, the companies are being successfully able to craft and draft their marketing campaigns effectively (Malhotra & Peterson, 2014).

 The social media marketing domain also assists the different users to share a wide range of content options to attract the different customers with graphics, polls and other such domains which allows the companies to perform considerably well (Balakrishnan, Dahnil & Yi, 2014). Modes like snapchat can help to share live videos which are viewed by millions of people.

Therefore, from the given analysis it can be stated that social media marketing has been successful in changing the trends of social media marketing and has gone a long way in assisting the different businesses to perform well. The essay critically examined the manner in which Uber makes use of these techniques to gain a competitive edge and provides an evaluation of the manner in which social media can be used to create innovative marketing strategies. Hence, from the above analysis, it could be understood that Uber makes considerable use of various social media techniques which then go a long way in assisting the company to attract the target audience. However, it can make use of the following techniques. It can expand its technique to snapchat with live streaming which assists in building the overall brand image and moreover, invest on a public relations ambassador with a good social media following which will then allow the company to perform even better than what it is today.

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