Evaluation Essay on Zappo's Social Media Marketing Plan

Introduction

For the success of every business, a marketing plan must be sketched so as to meet the sales target of services or products offered. However, a marketing plan is a document that is comprehensively written highlighting various steps and marketing strategies efforts for a period of time ahead. A Social Media marketing plan is a description of some business activities that Zappo Company plans to achieve guided by a set of objectives through social media interactions (DiStaso & Brown, 2015).

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Zappos’s Social Media Marketing Plan

Social media is a platform that offers tools or other services with the support of the internet in facilitating communications. Zappos’s social media marketing plan is targeting clients using various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn among others (Tuten & Solomon, 2014). According to Zappo, online marketing through social platform interaction can attract more clients to their services compared to other means. Zappo intends to social networks, blogs, microblogs, and media sharing sites like social media tools and platforms. For instance, marketing a new shoe model will need a classy graphic portray that will attract social media users to inquire into it (Stelzner, 2012).

As Zappo’s social media marketing plan schemes to target the social media users as pro-customers, a marketing plan is designed to engage at its basic level where clients exchange information via conversation hence building collaboration. However, it is within Zappo to make decisions on their marketing plan on whether to engage in the customers’ conversations will be essential as well as making decisions on the effective mode of engaging profitable conversation. Zappo’s social media marketing plan involves listening to the users, setting their objectives on the use of social media, defining good strategies, and identifying the audience to be targeted. Zappos has to select respective tools to use on specific platforms then implement the strategies and monitor its progress (Deepa & Deshmukh, 2013).

Targeted clients use social media for various purposes hence the marketing plan should have a strategy on tapping profitable resources on major platforms, Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo are social media platforms for social interacting whereas youtube and Flickr are meant for sharing videos and photos consecutively (Evans, 2012). The other platforms such as Twitter and technorati targeted by Zappo are meant for communication and blog tracking. The social commerce that Zappo is planning to be involved in will build loyalty to their brands as well strengthening consumers. Alternatively, targeted users will enjoy shared opinions as well as connecting with new users. Zappos Social Media Marketing plan targets aligned with the Millennials, delivering Wow through media service in driving change. A passionate and determined with a little creation of weirdness and fun will boost the company’s sales (Boone & Kurtz, 2013).

Types of Social Media Platforms for Marketing

There are three types of social media platforms that are being used by marketers to interact with consumers on social media, own, earned, and paid media. Leveraging through these media platforms relies upon the marketer’s decisions on whether to engage with a profitable interaction. Owned media is used to create some digital touchpoints beyond the websites that exist. On earned media platforms, the marketer will learn to respond to their stakeholders as well listening to them. However, paid media in this platform acts as the catalysts in driving engagement with the customers. In this case, Zappos inclines to adopt owned media whereby they intend to interact with the millennial group (Baetzgen & Tropp, 2015). It is true that the millennial groups of social media platforms interact and prove loyal to companies that are funny and relatable. However, Zappos will intend to strategies to engage and interact with the millennial group of people through social networking media. Zappos uses a very good example of how they can prove their loyalty and humbleness to their clients, for instance where customer posts on Twitter that, I did not get my package or My delivery was late as agreed. The Zappos expect a humble interactive full of assurance. For example, We are sorry for the delay or We are making arrangements that you get in time (Kesavan, et al., 2013).

Social media marketing is very sensitive hence needs a good relationship between the employees and the clients on a social conversation. For instance, the last social media marketing campaign that was circulated by the Coca-Cola Company on Share coke blasts with lots of followers attracted high sales of coke drinks. Apple saw a rise in the sale of their laptops on the marketing that was rolled out on youtube platforms. However, Zappos Company will make use of youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking platforms to interact with their clients effectively (Tuten & Solomon, 2014).

Engaging in social media marketing relies on a number of metrics that a successful marketer is tasked with. Some of these metrics include the buzz, the interest in social media, participation and influence strength, and rankings of marketing sites on search engines. As Zappos targets social media users, they should consider the various categories. We have creators, joiners, critics, collectors, spectators, and inactive users. Inclining to a specific group of users might affect the sales due to changes in perceptions of individuals (Tonev, et al., 2016).

If social media lost its luster, can Zappos change its social media plan and use other forms of media or promotion?

Social Zappo is still able to change the strategy that they would use in the marketing and make an alternative of the one that is popular and most effective at that particular time. Zappo will still be able to make use of the new channel that the clients will be comfortable using for the benefit of the marketing. In view of the social media strategy that has been seen to be useful in this case, it is possible to note that the channel that has been used by Zappo is that one which is popular with the populace. They ensure that they have all it takes to have all the users, in this case, come on board on the marketing and communication strategy that is being used in this case.

Employees and communication with social media is the main concern of Zappo. They ensure that they have a Word of Mouth that is popular with employees. They will invest in the popular media of communication in order to reach the customers. They are ready to invest in the channel of communication that is popular by then. They are willing to change the strategy.

Conclusion

According to Zappos company change in social media marketing could affect the sales and growth of the company hence it’s worth initiating separate plans apart from interrupting an initiated social networking. Alternatively, Zappos will not suffer the loss of the clients who already know and have interacted with their products but will suffer a big loss from new customers willing to engage and know Zapposproducts (Evans, 2012).

Reference

Baetzgen, A., & Tropp, J. (2015). How Can Brand-Owned Media Be Managed? Exploring the Managerial Success Factors of the New Interrelation Between Brands and Media. International Journal on Media Management, 17(3), 135-155.

Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2013). Contemporary marketing. Cengage learning.Deepa, N., & Deshmukh, S. (2013). Social media marketing: The next generation of business engagement. International Journal of Management Research and reviews, 3(2), 2461.DiStaso, M. W., & Brown, B. N. (2015). From Owned to Earned Media: An Analysis of Corporate Efforts About Being on Fortune Lists. Communication Research Reports, 32(3), 191-198.

Evans, D. (2012). Social media marketing: An hour a day. John Wiley & Sons.Jiang, Y. (2014). Reversed agenda-setting effects in China Case studies of Weibo trending topics and the effects on state-owned media in China.Journal of International Communication, 20(2), 168-183.Kesavan, R., Bernacchi, M. D., & Mascarenhas, O. A. (2013). Word of the mouse: CSR communication and social media. International Management Review, 9(1), 58.Miller, P. (2013). Social Media Marketing. The Social Media Industries, 86-104.

Stelzner, M. A. (2012). 2012 social media marketing industry report: how marketers are using social media to grow their businesses. social media examiner.

Tonev, G., Tsai, W., & Pinault, E. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 20,160,165,001. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Tuten, T. L., & Solomon, M. R. (2014). Social media marketing. Sage.