Social Media

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about 90% of artists, musicians, playwrights, dancers, and poets were murdered, banished, or fled the country during the reign of the Khmer Rouge (Mar, 2005).

For this research, I argue that NGOs and social enterprises have the ability to use social media to share and archive intangible heritage. Though YouTube has the ability to share video content that can show live footage of performance or be shot as an informational piece, other social media platforms can show intangible heritages through written posts, images, or in other video formats. PPSA and PPSE effectively preserve and share intangible heritage by publishing videos and photography of Apsara, dance, shadow puppets, Cambodian folk tales, traditional music, the circus, etc.

2.7 Social Media

Social media is an Internet-based application that enables the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media has drastically changed the media landscape from being a one-to-many monologue to now a many-many dialogue. Users are able to upload images, videos, texts, photos, and gifs in order to share their thoughts, experiences, feeling, ideas, and opinions with other members on the web. Because social media is popular on a global scale it has become a powerful force of democratization, enabling communication and collaboration of people in an instantaneous and widespread manner (Lai & To, 2015).” For the purpose of this paper social media is defined as the various ways in which internet users collaborate and connect with each other online, involving actions such as contributing comments, creating blogs, sharing links or content, communicating with friends or family all via social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Wordpress, Reddit, Youtube, Flikr, and Tumblr (Kirtis & Karahan, 2011).

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Social media is comprised of content that made of texts, pictures, videos, and networks (Berthon et al., 2012). Moreover, web2.0 is defined as “ the technical infrastructure that enables the social phenomenon of collective media and facilitates consumer generated content (Berthon et al. 2012, pp. 262).

According to Kazim Kirtis and Filiz Karahan (2011, pp. 260), “social media is used because it has time, audience, relations, and cost advantage.” First, using social media as a marketing tool is cost effective because the costs for distribution are cut, and setting up a profile and page is free. Additionally, the costs of advertising and promotional materials is cheaper on social media than traditional advertising outlets (Kirtis & Karahan, 2011). Second, the audience being a part of social media is of utmost importance because the marketers are able to capitalize on the audience members through their comments and feedback on the social media site. Social media offers an array of channels where interaction can exist between individuals and

organizations. Through these interactions information is quickly facilitated and disseminated (Berthon et al., 2012).

For NGOs and social enterprises social media and ICT are advantageous because they can increase the timeliness of communications, leverage the networks of target audiences, expand an organization’s reach, personalize and reinforce messages, facilitate interactions, and influence desired behaviors. In Lee and Kitler’s (2016) book, Social Marketing, they reference Criag Lefebvre, a well-known social media marketing expert; he states that to use social media successfully, “we must become collaborators, conveners, facilitators, brokers, and weavers (pp.

588).” By collaborating, social marketers must work within sites that others have created such as existing blogs and social networking rather than static dissemination websites sites in order to produce a platform for group participation. As conveners, social marketers should consider

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innovative ways to bring people with a common purpose together to achieve a goal. However, being a convener is not simple, as it takes great effort to influence the behaviors of collaborators.

Lefebvre’s notion of being a broker means that the social media and ICT sites should be a dynamic resource center where users can exchange ideas and information, solicit creative work, and comment on works in progress. Finally, Lefebvre’s notion of weavers means that

organizations should use social media and ICT as tools for networking and connection (Lee &

Kitler, 2016).

There are multiple ways in which an organization can utilize social media for social marketing purposes. Lee and Kitler (2016) provide definitions for the tools used for social media social marketing. These tools and their definitions are as follows:

1. Badges- small graphic elements that include an image, a call to action, and a link for more information

2. Image Sharing – involves posting images such as photos and artwork to websites 3. RSS feeds- provided the ability to aggregate and update information and provide links

from many sites in one place.

4. Podcasts - a convenient way to listen to or view digital media files by downloading on a portable media device or computer when and where convenient.

5. Online video sharing - posting videos on online sites such as YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo

6. Widgets- provide interactive information and fresh content on a subject and can be accessed on an organization’s website or downloaded to personal websites.

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7. e-Cards - electronic greeting cards sent to personal email accounts, often with a colorful greeting and some message that promotes or reinforces a desired behavior 8. e-Games - interactive electronic games played through applications such as the

Internet, video game consoles, or mobile phones

9. Mobile Applications – such as texting, are the most portable and are quickly becoming a vital tool for timely and personalized communications

10. Blogs- regularly updated online journals with one or a team of regular authors 11. Microblogs – such as Twitter, are brief text updates of 140 or fewer characters 12. Social networking sites- such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are online

communities where people can interact with friends, family, coworkers, and others with common interests. They provide social marketers with timely and personal ways to deliver products and personal communications.

13. Virtual worlds- are online environments providing users and opportunity to create a virtual persona, or avatar, and then interact with other avatars in an online virtual environment (pp. 589-590).

Though there are numerous communication channels for social marketers, Lee and Kitler (2016) propose eight different factors for considering which outlets to chose. The first is the campaigns objectives and goals, because different social media channels are suited for different targets. The second factor is determining the desired reach and frequency. In this case, reach means “a measure of the percentage of people in the target audience who are exposed to the ad campaign during a given period of time” and frequency is the “ measure of how many times the average person in the target audience is exposed to the message (pp. 601).” The third factor is

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about determining who is the target audience. When considering the target audience, marketers should consider the demographics, psychographics, geographics, and the consumer’s media habits. The fourth factor to consider is being timely. Next, Lee and Kotler (2016) state that the fifth factor is being present during an event or when something is happening. Basically, what this means, is that if something important is going on, the organization should prepare for an event that would likely motivate target consumers to pay attention, learn more, and thus alter their behaviors. The sixth factor states that organizations should have integrated marketing campaigns.

Consistency is of utmost importance, so an organization should strive to use the same slogans, images, colors, fonts, and key messages in all media platforms. By doing so the public can better recognize and remember the company’s messages. Factor seven is recognizing and knowing the advantages and disadvantages of media types. Finally, the organization needs to allocate a budget because resources are the final determinant for establishing communication channels.