Mobile Internet has changed the media, users and channels that were the key elements of traditional marketing. Traditional marketing methods can no longer adapt to the current era. In particular, the role of users has become active, spontaneous and personalized. They are no longer passive and one-way recipients of publishers’ information, but can communicate with publishers and other netizens in a two-way manner. Sharp marketers have realized that social media can greatly improve the breadth and depth of information dissemination, and the cost is very low, so they apply it to marketing information dissemination, and social media marketing has emerged.
The concept of social media first appeared in the e-book “What is Social Media”. Author Antony Mayfield (2006) believes that social media is a new type of online media that gives users a lot of room for participation, and summarizes the six characteristics of social media: participation, openness, communication, dialogue, community, and connectivity. In 2009, Daniel Scocco believed that social media is a collection of various forms of user-generated content (UGC) and websites or applications that enable people to communicate and share online. Also in 2009, Ron Jones proposed that social media is a type of online media where people talk, participate, share, communicate and tag. In 2010, Susan Ward also gave her own definition: social media is an online media that promotes communication, which is the opposite of traditional media. Traditional media provides content but does not allow readers, viewers and listeners to participate in the creation and development of content. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein also defined social media in 2010 as “a group of Internet-based applications that are built on the concepts and technical foundations of Web 2.0 (content creation and communication from user-generated content)”.
In the Internet environment covered by social media, information aggregation, decentralization and interactivity are extremely strong, and information is highly shared. Network communities are generated according to different interests, and the preservation and dissemination of information are more convenient, which makes a properly constructed social account not only a “media”, but also can achieve the purpose of “marketing” through appropriate interaction based on the fan base.
Social media marketing is a way of marketing and maintaining customer relationships by using social networks, online communities, blogs, encyclopedias or other Internet collaborative platform media. Since the process of social media marketing mainly relies on the attention of “online communities”, the costs required for this marketing method are relatively low, and some content, due to the nature of advertising, often caters to the latest reading habits and is close to the latest hot topics. Combined with the functional optimization of the application itself, social media marketing can achieve extremely fast dissemination speed, accurate marketing positioning, cleverly reflect real hot spots and combine with products, and maximize the added value of attention.