Social Media Marketing – lecture 1 – 08-04-2025
Social media marketing: introduction
Social media marketing: introduction
Social Media Marketing
Social media…
Enable firms to communicate with their customers (not one-way anymore)
Allow customers to communicate with each other (user-generated content)
Goal:
Build brand loyalty (there is no better marketing than your own customers)
Increase brand awareness, brand recognition and brand recall
Dove campaign example
The face of 10
Let people engage by using a hashtag
Effective campaign
User-Generated Content (UGC)
Internet as a source of information about products/services
Consumers share experiences with products/services among each other
Consumers trust other consumers
Word-of-mouth (WOM) and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) are forms of User-
Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content = content generated and delivered by consumers online
RyanAir on TikTok
Important campaign elements:
Inexpensive and highly scalable (can go really far without resources)
Allows RyanAir to piggyback on the success of other people’s videos
Complements RyanAir’s reputation for affordability and no-frills service
Enables RyanAir to shift the narrative when people make negative comments
Real-time marketing
, Companies jump on something that is going on right now (e.g., April fool’s day)
Shein “on the road”
Campaign was about influencers that were joining the Shein factory, to let Shein show
society that they were an ethical brand
Fake campaign; backfired with failed influencer trip
After this, Shein had crisis communications, some influencers still have trouble with their
imago regarding this influencer trip
Chairman from Shein said sorry, people accepted it
Van Dijck (2009): Six groups of UGC participants
1. Active creators (post content, read/comment): 13%
2. Critics (not necessarily post content, but their react to existing content in a critical way):
19%
3. Collectors (collect all content that is available): 15%
4. Joiners (don’t necessarily post/react, but you just join; passive people): 19%
5. Passive spectators (read/comment; not post anything, not actively contributing): 33%
6. Inactives (they don’t do anything): 52%
You want active creators, so you want to play into that group
The positive impact of social media
There are also examples of situations where people come together through social media
LA wildfires: people donate, people help each other
Non-profit organizations can boost donations via social media
What is/are social media?
TikTok = a social media app dedicated to short-form videos created for and consumed by
users
TikTok challenges can be good or bad
BeReal = photo-sharing application that allows users to post one photo per day to show
their followers what they are doing in real-time
The importance of audio
Audio advertising is redefining marketing in 2025 (and beyond)
In-car ad placements
Contextual targeting (= driving in your car, nice song comes up and an ad comes up that
fits the song really well)
Dynamic creative optimalization (DCO) (= optimization of content/ads based on your
preferences; pregnant women get ads about babies and baby stuff)
DCO versus contextual targeting
,Social media use in the Netherlands (Newcom Research & Consultancy, 2025)
WhatsApp is the largest platform in 2025, followed by YouTube and Facebook
Social media daily use: mostly WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram
Agree/disagree?
Social media pose a danger to mental well-being
My social media use gets in the way of real social contacts
I feel less happy due to the use of social media
People agree more with the statements in 2025 compared to 2024
Newcom (2025): Conclusions
The use of social media remains high, but the Dutch are becoming more critical of which
platforms they use daily
X is losing users significantly, with a decline of nearly half a million users; BeReal use is
also declining
The number of daily users is increasing on (virtually) all major platforms
Dutch people increasingly perceive social media as negative for their well-being, and
parents are more often concerned about social media and their child
Following Australia’s example, we see that nearly 6 out of 10 Dutch people support a
social media ban for children under 16
Social media definitions
Social media = web applications on which people can share information, experiences
and perspectives throughout community-oriented websites (Weinberg, 2009)
Social media = group of internet-based applications that build on ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of UGC
(Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010)
, Social media = online means of communication, conveyance, collaboration and
cultivation among interconnected and interdependent networks of people, communities
and organizations enhanced by technological capabilities and mobility (Tuten & Solomon,
2018)
Social media: all definitions combined
Social media = internet applications for social interaction where users can add content to
share, inform and create
Mass media vs. personal media
Mass media = capable of reaching many people through communication (TV, radio,
newspaper)
Personal media = channels through which interaction is possible, but on a smaller scale
(e-mail, telephone, chat, FTF)
But: social media can be both!
It allows for one-on-one communication as well as reaching a large number of
people
- So: can be mass media and personal media
Van Noort & Antheunis (2011): Defining SMM on the basis of five characteristics
1. All marketing communications
2. Initiated by a marketer/organization/firm
3. In order to influence a target audience
4. By means of creating a process of sharing the communicated message
5. By users of a social medium
Active presence of brands on social media
Banners/paid ads
On Facebook, Instagram (timeline + stories)
Social campaigns
Company pages
CocaCola on TikTok
Webcare
Social media vs. traditional media
Social media are used for different purposes (from the user side)
Different characteristics of the medium (medium side)
Social media have different effects (effects side)
Social media marketing: introduction
Social media marketing: introduction
Social Media Marketing
Social media…
Enable firms to communicate with their customers (not one-way anymore)
Allow customers to communicate with each other (user-generated content)
Goal:
Build brand loyalty (there is no better marketing than your own customers)
Increase brand awareness, brand recognition and brand recall
Dove campaign example
The face of 10
Let people engage by using a hashtag
Effective campaign
User-Generated Content (UGC)
Internet as a source of information about products/services
Consumers share experiences with products/services among each other
Consumers trust other consumers
Word-of-mouth (WOM) and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) are forms of User-
Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content = content generated and delivered by consumers online
RyanAir on TikTok
Important campaign elements:
Inexpensive and highly scalable (can go really far without resources)
Allows RyanAir to piggyback on the success of other people’s videos
Complements RyanAir’s reputation for affordability and no-frills service
Enables RyanAir to shift the narrative when people make negative comments
Real-time marketing
, Companies jump on something that is going on right now (e.g., April fool’s day)
Shein “on the road”
Campaign was about influencers that were joining the Shein factory, to let Shein show
society that they were an ethical brand
Fake campaign; backfired with failed influencer trip
After this, Shein had crisis communications, some influencers still have trouble with their
imago regarding this influencer trip
Chairman from Shein said sorry, people accepted it
Van Dijck (2009): Six groups of UGC participants
1. Active creators (post content, read/comment): 13%
2. Critics (not necessarily post content, but their react to existing content in a critical way):
19%
3. Collectors (collect all content that is available): 15%
4. Joiners (don’t necessarily post/react, but you just join; passive people): 19%
5. Passive spectators (read/comment; not post anything, not actively contributing): 33%
6. Inactives (they don’t do anything): 52%
You want active creators, so you want to play into that group
The positive impact of social media
There are also examples of situations where people come together through social media
LA wildfires: people donate, people help each other
Non-profit organizations can boost donations via social media
What is/are social media?
TikTok = a social media app dedicated to short-form videos created for and consumed by
users
TikTok challenges can be good or bad
BeReal = photo-sharing application that allows users to post one photo per day to show
their followers what they are doing in real-time
The importance of audio
Audio advertising is redefining marketing in 2025 (and beyond)
In-car ad placements
Contextual targeting (= driving in your car, nice song comes up and an ad comes up that
fits the song really well)
Dynamic creative optimalization (DCO) (= optimization of content/ads based on your
preferences; pregnant women get ads about babies and baby stuff)
DCO versus contextual targeting
,Social media use in the Netherlands (Newcom Research & Consultancy, 2025)
WhatsApp is the largest platform in 2025, followed by YouTube and Facebook
Social media daily use: mostly WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram
Agree/disagree?
Social media pose a danger to mental well-being
My social media use gets in the way of real social contacts
I feel less happy due to the use of social media
People agree more with the statements in 2025 compared to 2024
Newcom (2025): Conclusions
The use of social media remains high, but the Dutch are becoming more critical of which
platforms they use daily
X is losing users significantly, with a decline of nearly half a million users; BeReal use is
also declining
The number of daily users is increasing on (virtually) all major platforms
Dutch people increasingly perceive social media as negative for their well-being, and
parents are more often concerned about social media and their child
Following Australia’s example, we see that nearly 6 out of 10 Dutch people support a
social media ban for children under 16
Social media definitions
Social media = web applications on which people can share information, experiences
and perspectives throughout community-oriented websites (Weinberg, 2009)
Social media = group of internet-based applications that build on ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of UGC
(Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010)
, Social media = online means of communication, conveyance, collaboration and
cultivation among interconnected and interdependent networks of people, communities
and organizations enhanced by technological capabilities and mobility (Tuten & Solomon,
2018)
Social media: all definitions combined
Social media = internet applications for social interaction where users can add content to
share, inform and create
Mass media vs. personal media
Mass media = capable of reaching many people through communication (TV, radio,
newspaper)
Personal media = channels through which interaction is possible, but on a smaller scale
(e-mail, telephone, chat, FTF)
But: social media can be both!
It allows for one-on-one communication as well as reaching a large number of
people
- So: can be mass media and personal media
Van Noort & Antheunis (2011): Defining SMM on the basis of five characteristics
1. All marketing communications
2. Initiated by a marketer/organization/firm
3. In order to influence a target audience
4. By means of creating a process of sharing the communicated message
5. By users of a social medium
Active presence of brands on social media
Banners/paid ads
On Facebook, Instagram (timeline + stories)
Social campaigns
Company pages
CocaCola on TikTok
Webcare
Social media vs. traditional media
Social media are used for different purposes (from the user side)
Different characteristics of the medium (medium side)
Social media have different effects (effects side)
