Why Should Companies Invest in Social Media Marketing? Parameters and Means for Performance Measurement

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Chapter 3 Social Media Channels:
3.1 Social Networks:
Since their introduction in 1995 (Zarella, 2012), social networks have gained significant popularity and are among the most popular sites on social media. These days there are hundreds of social network sites, all representing different range of interests and practices.
According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), social networking sites allow users to create a personal profile on a specific platform and connect with others. Users can choose independently what content to share on their personal profile site, be it the real name, profile picture, age. "The presentation of a user's identity can often happen through the conscious or unconscious 'self-disclosure' of subjective information such as thoughts, feelings, likes, and dislikes" (Kietzmann et all, 2011, p. 243).
Social networks are web-based services that allow individuals to connect without geographical, political, cultural, or linguistic border. Therefore, the average number of Facebook friends is 350 per user. In the United States this number had been almost twice as high with 649 friends (Statista, 2015).
This is a great opportunity for companies to use this channel for word-of-mouth, since satisfied customers are the best multipliers and can spread the message rapidly. Moreover, companies can use social networks for market research, customer relationship, recruiting, or promotion (Grabs and Bannour, 2012).
There are various platforms to use, for the general masses, but also networks can focus on a specific lifestyle, topic or a location. It depends on the target audience which applications companies should use. This target audience can be found by mean of professional monitoring programs that shows where the potential customers exactly operate.
3.1.1 Facebook:
First introduced in 2006, in the last view years Facebook developed into the largest social network, thus one of the most important platform for companies as it can be used for