eMarketing

Social networks have led to a revolution both in people's habits and lives and in the professional world. Companies have the opportunity to enhance their relationship with sustainable development.

Today, social networks are a tool to promote sustainable development in companies. Women & Sustainable Development Network is an association that organizes meetings, debates and conferences in order to value both women's entrepreneurship and sustainable development. During the last meeting in 2012 different points of sustainable development were discussed.

Social networks and sustainable development

The definition of the social network is quite vague but the main idea is to share and strengthen social ties.

Today, a new style emerged: ethical and solidarity social networks. Their philosophy is “everybody can become a sustainable development actor”. Social networking websites are now adapted to integrate the values of sustainable development. And some social networks have a policy to become sustainable development actors.

Ethical and solidarity social networks:

Today, only a few ethical and solidarity social networks exist, and are rather dedicated for the average person. Causes and Jumo, American websites, both designed by the co-founder of Facebook, stand out with the new French platform reWorld.

Specialized social networks:

Many other ethical social networking initiatives have emerged, but they are dedicated to specific areas of sustainable development or smaller target audiences.

• Tinkuy

• Les Végétaliseurs, « pour voir la vie en vert »

• EnviMotion

Social networks, sustainable development and companies

Studies tend to show that many business professionals, including senior managers, have difficulties to integrate the issues, principles and objectives of sustainable development. But some of them begin to understand the issue. The companies’ social networks host communities of interest. They are initiated by employees or by the company itself, when collaborating with its teams, on topics such as sustainable development or the integration of disabled employees.

Examples:

1. Danone’s "Dawn to Earth" aims to share the company's vision and innovative experiences in the fields of sustainable development and social responsibility. This helps manage the company's reputation.
2. WiserEarth network brings together NGOs and facilitates meetings and partnerships. This is a vertical network serving the collective intelligence.
3. The Crédit Agricole’s social network "l’hanvie de faire la différence" aims to find ways of working with people with disabilities and learn to work together. It is a way to know the Crédit Agricole and attract people with disabilities.

Conclusion

For companies, social networks allow to develop their notoriety, to manage after-sales services, to federate employees and to assist in recruiting. Being on a social network means to stay tuned and to be humble and responsive. Sustainable development through company social networks allows them to show more interest and respect to their employees, customers and partners’ quality of life. And this is good for their reputation and business.

Sources :

Les Echos.fr, 2012, Les réseaux sociaux accélérateurs de développement durable et RSE.

http://lecercle.lesechos.fr/economie-societe/energies-environnement/developpement-durable/221156770/reseaux-sociaux-accelerateur

Developpement durable.com, 2011, La nouvelle vague des réseaux sociaux éthiques et solidaires.

http://www.developpementdurable.com/economie/2011/04/A5920/la-nouvelle-vague-des-reseaux-sociaux-ethiques-et-solidaires.html

Expertise en référencement.com, 2011, Les réseaux sociaux et le développement durable : une aubaine pour les pros !

http://www.expertise-en-referencement.com/referencement-reseaux-sociaux.html

Les réseaux sociaux au service du développement durable et leurs usages par les professionnels, Mars 2012.

Buzz marketing engages users as brand ambassadors. Several aspects need to be considered for social network marketing success, like sharing pertinent contents and to target the matching audience.

Methology/Research methods
Silverpop, as specialist for digital marketing, regularly publishes case studies. The following steps are partly based on this practical experience, but also on corresponding literature.

Over the last years, customers and prospects are more and more inclining towards forming online social communities, blogs and networks not just to stay in touch with friends, but also to exchange views on brands and businesses. This is a challenge that marketers have to face lately.

1. Determine Your Strategy and Find Your Key Channels

A company should elaborate a marketing strategy that matches with their overall and social media goal. Social media can be used as a sale, promotion, customer support and communication channel. The enterprise needs to locate the social networks where the real target group is active. In general, users are active on various platforms, like Facebook and Twitter. B2C marketing focuses on entertaining platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, where promotions take place and costumers get engaged. B2B marketing is more informative and uses channels such as Blogs or Twitter.

2. Create Content That Connects

A pertinent, engaging and share-worthy content is still the most important part of any campaign to evoke a two-way dialogue with the customer. However, the style and voice of the messages have to be linear and adapted to the specific channel. Articles are more detailed; Twitter on the other hand, has to catch the reader in just 140 characters. Furthermore, Tweets as well as blog post are additional inbound links that will show up in search engines and thus, using the right keywords can increase the overall site traffic through the search engines. Consistency is expected and will even increase this traffic further.

3. Engage & Monitor the Marketplace

The best scenario is seeing the message go viral, that means social network users spread it themselves. Companies need to start posting content on networks that encourages people to participate and that is related to the company’s activity without being perceived as advertisement. Monitoring people's activity in social networks will help to understand and interact with them. The more interaction, the better the viral marketing is. It can be monitored for example by measuring how often the customers share the message. The final step consists of analyzing the data obtained by social media monitoring, figuring out mistakes and eliminating them.

4. Identify and Enable Influencers

Given that social media marketing is most effective when it’s costumer to costumer, companies can use these already established connections to promote their product. Potential brand ambassadors, such as fans or bloggers have to be identified and engaged. Regular contact and special offers will increase their loyalty and as a result, will make them to believable promoters. The company should deal with criticism immediately, in public or in private, to demonstrate its awareness.

5. Conclusion

All in all, Buzz Marketing is an inexpensive and fast way to promote products in the Internet. Original and engaging content will involve users of various social networks and they will participate by spreading it. This results in an increasing visibility and further attachment to the brand.

6. References

Stokes, R. (2008). eMarketing: The essential guide to digital marketing. s.l.: Quirk eMarketing.

Silverpop (2010). Buzz Building: 7 Steps to Social Media Marketing Success. White Paper. [Online]. Available at: http://www.silverpop.com/marketing-resources/white-papers/download/social-media-success.html (Accessed: 22. October 2012)

Pelet, J. (2012) The Buzz Marketing: Electronic Word of Mouth. [Online]. Available at: http://emarketinpress.wordpress.com/buzz/ (Accessed: 10. November 2012)

Facebook (2012). Starbucks. Available at: http://www.facebook.com/Starbucks (Accessed: 08. November 2012)

Twitter (2012). Starbucks. Available at: https://fr.twitter.com/Starbucks (Accessed: 08. November 2012)

Youtube (2012). Starbucks. Available: http://www.youtube.com/user/Starbucks (Accessed: 08. November 2012)

Email marketing is one of the best ways to communicate directly with your customers and generate repeat sales. The main point of the email is to encourage some sort of action, such as buying a product or participating in a survey.
The Marketing Company Exact Target proposes five email practices to increase revenue. The following five points summarize their guidelines for successful emailing.

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The M-commerce is the new favorite way of purchasing for the shopper. Nearly 14% French have already made a purchase with their mobile phone.
But what are exactly the new functionalities of the M-commerce?


I) An expansion of E-commerce.

The E-commerce is gradually inserted in our daily life until it overcomes our mobile phones, which are used as means of payment.
The M-commerce is a new form of trade that has emerged with the development of the Internet on the mobile. An explosion of applications and services accessible everywhere took place (Such as Fnac, SNCF and Vente-privée).

II) Payments by Mobile: A multitude of potential solutions.

In figures, 74% of mobile users have purchased an app for Smartphones and 46% are for games. However, the issue of safety is essential. There are multitudes of ways of payment (e.g. Paypal, Kwixo). But there are also some other ways of payment which are little-known like the Mobile Payment (e.g. Buyster) or the Near Field Communication (e.g. Google Wallet).

III) The hyper-accessibility of Purchase: the Eldorado of "shopping addicts"

• Price comparison: Promotes the buying decision, revives the competition between stores and provides information on products.

• M-couponing:Offers discounts with push applications. However, the editor of this service will have to highlight some information.

• Discount card (loyalty actions):Tends to be replaced by applications on Smartphones. This allows the continued supply of the client, the accumulation of points etc.

• The instant shopping: Some apps are available on android to find your favorite sign and to consult their promotional offers (e.g. Plyce shopping).

• Push promotion: For some apps, you just have to localize yourself to receive the promotion of the store which are just near you (e.g. Mim or Mac Donald).

• Advertising and compulsive buying: It’s possible to take a picture of a film poster with your phone to receive information about the movie and to buy your ticket (e.g. Pixee).

The end of the commercial border?
IV) New uses and services to a revolution in a sales behavior"

Facebook :
Some enterprises make special offers on Facebook which can only be realized if enough people are interested in. Then, you can pay this product by card or with the Credits of Facebook.

Mobile Shopper :
The Mobile Shopper is an application that makes your shopping easier. You can compare products, scan items and pay with different methods (e.g.Paypal).

Other examples:
- The social M-commerce: Showing the purchase on social networks.
- The business IRL (in real life): Reproduction of the real environment completed with virtual effects.
- The mobile multifonction: Gathering of a lot of services.


Get on the phone now !
Webography:

http://www.terrafemina.com/culture/culture-web/articles/5401-m-commerce--quand-le-mobile-reinvente-le-shopping.html

http://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/lire-les-solutions-de-paiement-sans-contact-se-multiplient-49982.html

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plyce.client

http://www.lexpress.fr/styles/minute-mode/mim-fait-le-plein-de-clientes-avec-facebook-deals_995946.html?xtor=x

http://www.ithink.fr/social-media/mcdonalds-bons-plans-facebook

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Life

http://webpasco.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75:tendances-e-commerce-les-ventes-groupeesprivees-propulsees-le-commerce-social-&catid=44:nouvelles&Itemid=61

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ueZDPRchX8

Rather than making a unique format commutable for all different tools, the responsive design allow the building of chameleon website.

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• BARROT Tristan
• CRESSON Benjamin
• LE LIEVRE Alexandre
• VIOLLEAU Meriadec
• SOMMER Benjamin
• DYENS Ken

Facebook. When we hear this name, we all know what we are talking about : The most famous social network ever since. If today Facebook seems to be the greatest place to be connected with our “own community” on internet, it is also a great opportunity for brands. Every day, more than 3 billion likes and comments are made by users, called “fans” by companies. Those communities give important opportunities to attract potential customers for marketers, because Facebook pages created by brands can help them by :

• Evaluating the popularity of the concerned brand;
• Communicating with consumers and entertaining a strong relation;
• Developing the digital marketing of the brand.

In this synthesis we will try to explain shortly what the “Power of Like” on Facebook is for marketers and brands.

In the U.S., 90% of all time spent on social networking sites are for Facebook only. 27% of the activity of Facebook users is centered on the homepage and newsfeed, and 21% is centered on profile viewing. Needless to say how it is interesting for a company, especially as we know that Facebook has approximately 160 million visitors per month (about ¾ internet users) who visit the site each day for the majority.

Facebook put tools for brands in order to let them develop their digital business and marketing, for money (that is how Facebook realizes 82% of its receipts). Those tools are advertisements, called “impressions”, situated on the homepage, the newsfeed, friends’ profile or directly on a commercial fan page :

• Page publishing : Posted by the brand itself on its Facebook page, appearing in the newsfeed;
• Stories about friends : These are the famous “X.Person likes X.Brand”;
• Sponsored stories : The same as “stories about friends”, but on the right of the Facebook page (can also appear on a friend’s page);
• Ads with social : Posted by the brand itself but depending on a social context. It will appear even if we didn’t “like” the brand’s page.

Users like brand pages for several reasons : Self-expression, communication with the brand, communicating positive associations of brands to others and receiving deals and promotion. So, brand fans become “social marketing vehicles” and sources of information about products and consumers (what kind of profile(s) ) for companies, because they make ads and pages travel all over Facebook and they give their opinion about. The important thing is to entertain a dialog with consumers, and being seen and recognized by fans, friends of fans and to convert non-fans.


Moreover, we can see that a lot of famous person has been known and improve their image thanks to social networks. Indeed, the number of “Like” is currently able to reflect the notoriety of an artist/sportive and this is why famous person use that way of communication more and more. People are very active on social network, and celebrities know this. As an example, we can speak about the fan page of Shaka Ponk, the French rock band, using Facebook as a communication and marketing tool.

Sources :
http://blog.lefigaro.fr/medias/2012/04/facebook-derniers-chiffres-et.html
http://fluctuat.premiere.fr/Societe/News/Quelles-pages-ont-le-plus-de-fans-sur-Facebook-3255818
http://www.lapresse.ca/le-quotidien/actualites/201211/02/01-4589914-movember-suscite-de-lengouement.php
original paper on Power of Like