Creating more familiarity with target audience with Social Media : Instagram & YouTube etc. ( case study: Telkomsel)

 

The term “social media” refers to the wide range of internet-based and mobile services that allow users to participate in online exchanges, contribute user-created content, or join online communities (Dewing, 2012). According to (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) social media is “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. (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) take the definition of social media from Wikipedia "Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) also state that At FredCavazza.net (2011) divided the Social Media landscape into10 categories: 1. publish (Wikia); 2. share (YouTube); 3. discuss (skype); 4. social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn); 5. microblog (Twitter); 6. Lifestream (FriendFeed); 7. live cast (justin.tv); 8. virtual worlds (Second Life, HABBO); 9. social games (pogo) and 10. massively multiplayer online games (World of Warcraft, Happy Farm).

Advances in internet technology and high internet penetration in Indonesia encourage the massive use of social media in Indonesia. Based on (We Are Social & Hootsuite, 2021) internet usage rate is 73,7% of the population (202,6 Mio) and penetration of social media can be reflected in the high daily time spent on media, for Indonesian People, the average time spent is  3 hours and 14 minute/day.

High penetration and time spent on social media indicate that social media becomes a communication medium that is intentionally and massively used by the people of Indonesia. In Indonesia, the most widely used or commonly used social media are YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. This can be seen in the report of  (We Are Social & Hootsuite, 2021) as follow:

Social media's strength in conveying information and its effectiveness and efficiency as communication media is a real manifestation of the power that can be offered by new media that have digital, interactive, hypertextual, networked, virtual, and simulated characteristics. (Duncan, 2008) also identified the strong internet is Mass and addressable, can be personalized, extremely low cost, and can be interactive.

Social Media likes Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and others are representation of the new media platform with these six main characteristics of new media and considered as the effective and efficient media to leverage more familiarity of the product to target audience and it help build brand preference for the product. The reach of social media communication is very wide because it is easily accessible without the limitations of place and time, and at the same time can be personalized because of its interactive nature. 

Telkomsel case:

Social media can be one of the effective and efficient customer touch points for Telkomsel to increase brand awareness and build brand preference. The power of social media as an internet-based media that is very broad and easy to access without the limitations of time and place, making marketing communication in building brand awareness and building brand preferences is very reliable as long as it uses it with the right combination of strategy and integrative.

Telkomsel can convey marketing communication thru 3 media channels or customer touchpoints, such as Paid, Owned, and Earned (Belch & Belch, 2018) :

In Paid Media, Telkomsel can build and convey marketing communication to Social media Ads, while for owned media Telkomsel can develop websites, microsites, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.

Telkomsel also can utilize the spread of marketing communication in earned media thru maximizing Public relations activity or encouraging word-of-mouth which can be optimized by social media (social media mentions, comments, shared videos, pictures, online reviews, etc.). And word-of-mouth we know has a high impact on conveying the marketing message. It can be described in the model below: 

Word-of-Mouth is an unexpected touch point. Therefore, the impact is higher than other touch points. Research generally supports the claim that WOM is more influential on behavior than other marketer-controlled sources (Buttle, 1998). According to Sheth (1971), WOM was more important than advertising in raising awareness of innovation and in securing the decision to try the product. WOM has been shown to influence a variety of conditions: awareness, expectations, perceptions, attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behavior (Buttle, 1998). Currently, word of mouth medium is digitalized by social media. The message conveys thru internet media as the mouth.

References

Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2018). Advertising and Promotion. An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective. 11 ed. . New York: McGraw Hill Education.

Buttle, F. A. (1998). Word of Mouth: Understanding and Managing Referral Marketing. JOURNAL OF STRATEGIC MARKETING 6, 241-254.

Duncan, T. (2008). Principle of Advertising & IMC 2nd Edition. Irwin: McGraw-Hill.

We Are Social & Hootsuite. (2021). Digital Indonesia 2021. We are Social & Hootsuite.