Harnessing Social Media Commercial Potential - Identifying Corporate Strategies to Monetise a Brand's Fanbase

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, grade: 72.96, The University of Surrey (Business School), course: MBA P/T, language: English, abstract: There is a need for academic research that determines the factors that influence purchasing decisions or trigger word-of-mouth (WOM) endorsements amongst consumers on social media (SM) channels; with the aim of identifying critical components of an effective digital communication strategy. This research focuses on exploring these factors through studying consumer engagement motives behind connecting with brands via SM during purchasing decision lifecycle phases. The researcher was able to discover misalignments between engagement motives of consumers and the current corporate approach in exploiting SM opportunities. The quantitative empirical research captures the opinions of 335 UK respondents. This acts as the primary data to accompany the full literature review of journals, academic studies, and web resources acting as secondary research material. The main findings reveal that a corporate needs to treat SM platforms as two-way communication channels. Trust and relationships are built over time between a corporate and the target audience through valuable content and identifying the behaviour of top influencers on the right channels. Factors like gender, age group, level of experience, use of wireless devices and different personality types all directly affect consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-brand engagement on SM channels. To fully exploit the commercial aspects of SM, effective SM engagement strategy is needed to build conversations and fulfils the ranges of needs of different consumers. Research shows consumers are interested in sharing tips relating to their stage in the cycle. Furthermore, consumers indicated that marketing messages can be perceived as an interruption to the natural consumer-to-consumer communication flow. The research also distinguishes between propensities to engage with a brand, and purchasing or WOM advocacy that might not be directly related. Consequently, many engagement barriers are created as a result of this misalignment between corporate assumptions and actual consumer engagement motivations that unnecessarily lead to loss of opportunities. If identified and studied carefully, corporates could adapt their digital communication strategies to fully harness SM potential, and thereby monetise a brand fanbase. The researcher has developed a number of strategic frameworks that could help marketers understand the dynamics of this complex ecosystem in order to align their goals with real-life consumer expectations.

Commercially driven customer-obsessed digital marketing strategy leader with solid hands-on experience in digital marketing, video content, paid social, PPC and ecommerce activation. Works closely with brands to drive online revenue growth and conversion through innovative strategies. Crafts user experiences that ensure a seamless journey from discovery to conversion while raising consumer engagement across all channels. Solid understanding of direct response, media planning, customer insights and analytics. Leads media planning and creative execution for online campaign activation while monitoring key metrics. Deep knowledge of digital content, multichannel campaigns including paid social media, display, video virals, organic, native and SEO. Experienced in stakeholder management in complex matrix environments with deep passion for the latest digital trends. Takes ownership and moves quickly to deliver measurable results, while owning campaigns performance and driving P/L in an ecommerce environment. Known for simplifying the complex with strong ability to come up with innovative and boundary pushing creative concepts and solutions. Worked on both client-side and agency-side managing profitability while influencing different cultures up to C-suite level through a light touch collaborative approach and working closely with business and technical teams as well as experience managing relationships with media and creative agencies. Adopts an insight-driven performance marketing approach focusing on persona targeting, journey mapping with proven high conversion rates. MBA focusing on social media monetization strategies for multinational brands, Mo is also a speaker in conferences and is passionate for photography, videography and latest technology trends. Retail, Telecom, FMCG, Luxury Goods, Automotive, Tech, Energy and Apps.