Social Media Communications and Marketing Strategy: A Taxonomical Review of Potential Explanatory Approaches

Abstract

The growth of social media has captured the attention of companies, which have responded by increasing their advertising efforts toward social media users. Previous studies have devoted considerable effort to developing social media marketing strategies, but minimal effort has focused on examining the types of messages presented on firms’ social media platforms to communicate with customers. Practitioners face the challenge of identifying which types of social media message content to choose. In addressing this challenge, this article provides a comprehensive framework of social media content strategy, delivery, and impact on the consumers, including a taxonomical approach that helps firms’ understanding of firm-generated content on social media platforms.

Keywords:

• Communication
• customer orientation vs. sales orientation
• firm-generated content
• frontstage vs. backstage
• informative vs. persuasive
• social media
• soft-sell vs. hard-sell