In the Web 1.0 era, users were passive consumers of a read-only Web. However, the emergence of Web 2.0 redefined the way people use information and communication services—users evolved into prosumers that actively participate and collaborate in the ecosystem of a read-write Web. Consequently, marketing is one among many areas affected by the advent of the Web 2.0 paradigm. Web 2.0 enabled the global proliferation of social networking, which is the foundation for Social Media Marketing. Social Media Marketing represents a novel Internet marketing paradigm based on spreading brand-related messages directly from one user to another. This is also the reason why Social Media Marketing is often referred to as the viral marketing. This chapter will describe: (1) how social networking became the most popular Web 2.0 service, and (2) how social networking revolutionized Internet marketing. Both issues will be elaborated on two levels—the global and the Croatian level. The chapter will first present the evolution of social networking phenomenon which has fundamentally changed the way Internet users utilize Web services. During the first decade of 21st century, millions of people joined online communities and started using online social platforms, about 1.5 billion members of social networks globally in 2012. Furthermore, the chapter will describe how Internet marketing provided marketers with innovative marketing channels, which offer marketing campaign personalization, low-cost global access to consumers, and simple, cheap, and real-time marketing campaign tracking. Specifically, the chapter will focus on Social Media Marketing, the latest step in the Internet marketing evolution. The three most popular Social Media Marketing platforms (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare) will be described, and examples of successful marketing case studies in Croatia will be presented.
Social Media as a Tool for Digital Marketing
