Social Media

There is a lot to be said for social media and the ability that it has to link people, businesses and communities. The social media channels available to the Brand Manager these days are vast and many sucessful campaigns are being structured around the use of social media. Facebook for one has changed the way we communicate with each other, it has opened up a universe of opportunities for all to get in touch with people, businesses and places that we may like to visit. 

If you have a strong following, are a celebrity or managing an event and you would like to keep your target market updated – then Twitter is the thing for you with on the minute news of general happenings and the continual onslaught of updates for the Brand guru or groupie. I myself would find the continual updating and attention laborius, but then I am not Paris Hilton en route to the Moulin Rouge with an entourage of adoring devotees.

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein also define social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content.”^[1] Businesses also refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value. (definition of social media taken from wikepedia)

Google Trends certainly shows that Facebook is dominating when it comes to a South African audience, with more than 2.4 million South African users.