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applications built on the philosophical and technical foundations of the Web 2.0 that make it
possible to create and easily transmit content (Safko and Brake 2009; Kaplan and Haenlein 2010).
The text, pictures, videos, audio fi les, etc. created and shared through social media are called user-
generated contents (UGC) (Gillin 2007) or consumer-generated media (CGM). The latter term
is somewhat problematic in that it does not recognize the growing amount of content generated
by corporate users. Both terms however stress that, in contrast to websites based on Web 1.0
technologies, social media contain contents produced by individuals other than the immediate
owner/publisher of the site. Social media are all about people sharing opinions, experiences,
expertise, interesting links, etc. (Gillin 2009).
It is important to recognize that the term social media encompasses a large array of specifi c
types of media such as blogs, message boards, review sites, social networking sites, etc. Safko
and Brake (2009) describe the phenomenon as a social media eco-system. This recognizes
that social media do not represent a uniform species of technology applications but rather a
multitude of channels and platforms that are interlinked and perform different functions.
According to Constantinides and Fountain (2008), there are fi ve main categories of social media,
which include:
1 blogs;
2 social networks;
3 content communities;
4 forums/bulletin boards; and
5 content aggregators.
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) classifi ed social media into six types based on the degree of social
presence/media richness and the degree of self presentation/disclosure. Their classifi cation of
social media includes blogs/microblogs (e.g. Twitter), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook),
virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life), collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia), content
communities (e.g. YouTube) and virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft). The social media
ecosystem is dynamic in that new social media types constantly emerge (e.g. Pinterest), some
types become extinct (e.g. Friendster) and the prominence of a specifi c medium can change (e.g.
MySpace evolving from a dominant social networking platform to a niche medium). Some of
them even live in symbiosis, e.g. tweets can be displayed on Facebook pages.
The various social media types provide unique affordances in terms of the type of content
that can be created and shared as well as the way of sharing. They have also developed their own
conventions of what is appropriate and desirable. The different social media attract very different
users (Gretzel, Fesenmaier, Lee and Tussyadiah 2011) and are characterized by specifi c cultures.
Moreover, they provide marketers with varying options in terms of presenting and promoting
content, interacting and forming relationships with existing and potential customers, and
obtaining market intelligence.
The social media marketing paradigm
Social media marketing can be defi ned as using social media channels to promote a company and
its products (Barefoot and Szabo 2010). The main difference is that the audience of the marketing
messages not only consumes but also actively creates marketing contents (Evans 2008). Step 2 of
the interactive marketing process (engaging users' interest and participation) (Parsons
et al
. 1998)
is therefore critical in social media marketing campaigns. Engagement is indeed one of the
buzzwords often used in social media marketing. Evans (2008) sees it as one of three pillars:
