In their book, Social Business by Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company, authors Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim consider the strategy surrounding social media marketing, stating that, “the objectives of customer acquisition, satisfaction, and retention remain, but relationship management requires fundamental rethinking” (Hinchcliffe, D., & Kim, P. 2012, pg 62). Marketing in the past consisted of analytics such as reach, response rate, and conversation ratio and were defined by a limited number of methods in which products move from the manufacturer to the distributer and then onto the end user.  Marketing in the internet age has made available a larger number of channels to facilitate the movement of product, including hundreds of social networks, communities, and blogs. At the heart of this social marketing strategy is what Thackeray, Neiger & Keller describe as, “the opportunity to create ongoing conversations and dialogue with an audience in the ‘exchange of ideas and opinions’. These conversations are the starting point for creating deeper connections and longer term relationships with audience members (Thackeray, Neiger & Keller, 2012, p.165).

This approach is evident in the research case, “Digital Marketing at Nike: From Communication to Dialogue”, as authors Purkayastha and Rao point out that Nike’s plan is to, “allocate a major share of its advertising spending on some form of service to its customers like workout advice, online communities, and local sports competitions” (Purkayastha & Rao, 2012 p. 9).  Indeed, I am part of Nike’s “Nike+” social community, and I am motivated by the shared experience to work toward improving my physical fitness.  Author Dave Evans, in his book, Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, describes a situation that illustrates how the Nike+ technology plays an important part in the company’s understanding the social media marketing feedback loop. “One of the more interesting pieces of user-generated content that I’ve seen,” Evans relates, “is the ‘How To’ on converting any brand of running shoe into a “Nike Plus” compatible shoe. The content — which includes instructions, photos (Flickr), and video (YouTube) — provides the step-by-step process to cut away a section of the inner sole of the shoe and install the Apple transponder that tracks and stores details of your last run for upload when you’re back home” (Evans, D. 2012).  Examples of this are available here http://www.instructables.com/id/Nike%2B-iPod-Nano-Shoe-Mod/ and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s5x6GiTjg8. Evans contends that most companies would have utilized legal means to stop this type of activity, demanding that the content be removed and these contributors be stopped. However, Nike has remained neutral with regard to the hacked Nike+ running shoe, neither endorsing nor condemning. Evans uses this narrative to demonstrate the value that Nike places on the social media marketing, stating that part of the challenge of today’s internet marketing environment is knowing when to get involved and when to simply stay out of the way.

 

 

Evans, D. (2012). Social media marketing: An hour a day. Sybex.

Hinchcliffe, D., & Kim, P. (2012). Social Business by Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company. Jossey-Bass.

Purkayastha, D., & Rao, A. (2012). Digital marketing at nike: From communication to dialogue. IBS Center for Management Research.

Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., & Keller, H. (2012). Integrating social media and social marketing : A four-step process. Health Promotion Practice, 13(2), 165– 168.