Transformation of Traditional Marketing Communications in to Paradigms of Social Media Networking

Effective Communication for marketing is a vital field in business organizations, which is used to convey the details about their products and services to the market segments and subsequently to build long lasting customer relationships. This paper focuses on an emerging component of the integrated marketing communication, ie. social media networking, as it is increasingly becoming the trend. In 21 st century, the marketing communication platforms show a tendency to shift towards innovative technology bound people networking which is becoming an acceptable domain of interaction. Though the traditional channels like TV, print media etc. are still active and prominent in marketing communication, the presences of the Internet and more specifically the Social Media Networking, has started influencing the way individuals and business enterprises communicate. It has become evident that more individuals and business enterprises are engaging the social media networking sites either to accelerate the sales of their products and services or to provide post-purchase feedbacks. This shift in scenario has motivated this research which took six months (June 2011 – December 2011), using empirical analysis which is carried out based on several primary and secondary evidences. The research paper also analyzes the factors that govern the social media networking sites to influence consumers and subsequently enable their purchase decisions. The secondary data presented for this research were those pertaining to the period between the year 2005 and year 2011. The study revealed promising facts like the transition to marketing through SMN gives visible advantages like bidirectional communication, interactive product presentation, and a firm influence on customer who has a rudimentary interest. It is also important to note that sampling studies mostly dealt with fortune 500 companies. It gives promising results of providing virtual shopping experience and interactive marketing through Social media networks.