How Online Celebrities are Born

he constantly growing number of social media platforms enable the growth and progression of online celebrities. With the assistance and accessibility of social media websites people have the freedom to verbalize, illustrate and communicate their views on various matters. From anonymous information-seekers, through virtual community experts to online influencers, people become heard and more powerful. Thanks to regular participation in a co-creation process, many social media users manage to build their own fandom and decide to share with others their personal experience and knowledge, in the end becoming digital influencers or even online celebrities.

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When Sharing isn’t Sharing Anymore aka A critical view on the sharing economy

This paper starts with an explanation about what the sharing economy is defined as. The sharing economy has been there for a while but recently become more spread because of the internet. We trust people more than companies, however the intermediaries such as Airbnb, who actually facilitate transparency, infrastructureand regulation are capitalizing the share economy. Then the paper discusses more critical issues regarding the sharing economy - which was from an original utopian point of view meant as social commerce, rather than monetary incentives. Making it question whether the sharing economy is really as romantically as it is mentioned sometimes. All services are being commercialized while some should maybe not be shared or should remain non-commercialized. The sharing economy may even lead to exploitation on some ends. The paper is concluded with critical and philosophical questions for future thinking. 

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How does eWOM within social media affect you as a consumer?

People have through all times expressed their views on current events and the latest trends. This article will look into how word of mouth travels in the modern day era of constant social media exposure. How are you as a consumer affected by other people and are you aware of the mechanisms that lies behind your buying decisions? Marketing professionals are well aware of how you make these decisions, but are you? The effect can be different depending on the type of products and brands in question, and we will see that what type of consumer you are, whether you are a novice or an expert for a specific product, will also have an impact. Lastly, we have reviewed a case that tells us more about whether the information that we receive via for instance via Instagram is authentic or not. 

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5 reasons why vloggers are the ultimate marketing tool for tweens: The need for advertising ethics and regulation on social media

Social media is fundamentally transforming marketing through consumer-generated content and the all-powerful practice of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Young vloggers, often referred to as YouTubers or creators, with vast numbers of dedicated followers, utilize their celebrity status and social media channels to spread marketing messages for products directed to even younger audiences. Though not all videos and images are sponsored, it is difficult to recognize which ones are, especially for gullible tweens ages eight to twelve. How ethical is this practice and what should we as marketers do about it?

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Are Social Media Marketer’s Claims of the Health Benefits of Exercise Accurate?

Social media has emerged as one of the most prominent, if the most prominent, forms of marketing and advertising today. Although nearly every conceivable product that is manufactured is also sold over social media, clearly some products have been more heavily promoted through this channel. In this way, thousands of exercise institutions such as gyms, yoga centers, or at-home fitness programs are in operation that have used social media to advertise the health benefits of their systems. However, because of conflicting opinions on exercise and the growth of a significant amount of questionable exercise practices, it is not easy to exactly determine just how truthful and ethical the issue of social media in this context of exercising is for improving health conditions.

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Reactive Viral Marketing

“Word of mouth marketing” may sound familiar to you, but have you ever heard of the term “e-word of mouth marketing” or “word of mouse marketing”? It is related to the term “viral marketing” which is a phenomenon due to digitalization and modern forms of communication. Nowadays more and more companies and brands are engaged in creating viral marketing campaigns in hopes that their content will create a buzz and go viral (Kostić et al., 2015). Dove and Evian are best examples for brands that have undoubtedly created viral marketing success stories. With over more than 200 million views the first month both companies have done a great job in using that modern marketing technique (Ankeny, 2014).

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The manifestation of the ROPO-trend in the travel industry - How to successfully incorporate e-commerce strategies to perform offline

ROPO – research online, purchase offline – a trend, you might be familiar with. It is seen as the result of the development of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Since the 21st century the web space has become more dynamic and is characterized by its user interactivity as well as network connectivity, highly affected by the rise of social media and content-sharing initiatives (Bell et al., 2014; Berthon et al., 2012). In a business context, companies experienced a shift from presenting themselves solely on their websites (used for information sharing) to a more customer-centric approach - being omnipresent and mediating between product and consumer – welcome in Web 2.0 (Bell et al., 2014). 

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