532 CHAPTER 15 E-COMMUNICATIONLearnings
The launch of Britney Spears’ ‘Hold It Against Me’ is a good example of how companies can use social media to
support the introduction of new products through viral marketing. First of all, Britney Spears and her social media
manager choose carefully the platforms they are concentrating their efforts on (YouTube, Facebook and Twitter) in
addition to her own webpage. Social media are a toolset, not a list of sites you have to have a presence on. Firms
that have a lot of information to share might prefer the interactivity of Twitter, others probably see a better fit in
Facebook, where infrequent postings are less of an issue, or in a personal blog that allows better control of the
information flow and resulting comments. You can pick an existing platform or make your own. Britney Spears used
a combination of platforms of third parties (Facebook/YouTube/Twitter) with her own webpage/blog. Although
she is still present on MySpace she did not use it because of the decreasing relevance. Google+ did not exist at that
time and her followers today on Google+ are still far below her presence on Facebook and Twitter.
Using different social media platforms needs co-ordination and substantial effort in order to ensure activity
alignment and consistency. Such activity alignment and media plan integration is an important cornerstone of any
social media strategy.
Britney Spears does not issue press releases. Instead, she communicates all information through her chosen
social media applications. This ensures consistency between data available both online and via traditional media.
The media team even collaborate closely with third-party applications to ensure this consistency. Being important
and being active are essential. By leaking demo tapes, posting teasers and spreading the product launch over a
period of several weeks this advice was put into practice by Britney Spears and her team. The Britney Spears media
team pay close attention to how they communicate with fans. The language they use for updates on Facebook and
Twitter is colloquial, and therefore consistent with the way friends would speak to each other without being over-
professional. In addition, they are honest with the fans by making it explicit that only messages signed with ‘~Brit’
are actually posted by Britney Spears herself. In the early days of her Twitter account, this was not the case and it
was heavily criticised by fans. So she listened and adopted her strategy accordingly.Media investments
More businesses are investing in social media. During February 2012, 27.5% of the 73.7 billion
UK ad impressions were display ads on social networking sites. Th e category with the highest
share of these kinds of ads was consumer goods with 40% of their total display ad impressions
being socially published, followed by media and entertainment, with 35.7%. One of the
advertisers placing the highest share of ads in the UK was KX Energy Drink with 89.3% of its
total impressions being published on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.^214
In the USA social media advertising spending may rise to $9.8 billion in 2016. In 2012 the
spending on social media was predicted to be $4.8 billion. Th e drivers for this increase are
better performance, richer formats and creative elements, like video.^215 Over the next fi ve
years, social media ad spend is expected to have a share of 19.5% of the total marketing
budget. At the start of 2012, this was 7.4% ( Table 15.4 ).^216Table 15.4 Ad revenue of social networking sitesAd revenue 2011 ($) Change vs 2010
Facebook^217 2.6 billion (85%^218 of
3.1 billion annual revenue)+69%
YouTube^219 1.6 billion +60%
LinkedIn^220 226 million +46,1%
Twitter^221 139.5 million +213%M15_PELS3221_05_SE_C15.indd 532M15_PELS3221_05_SE_C15.indd 532 6/6/13 8:55 AM6/6/13 8:55 AM