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IntroductionSocial media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift inthe way we communicate. (Qualman, )

Communication is truly changing as a result of social media utilisation and thus the dynamics of human relationships take on a new perspective.The rules of relationship marketing have beenredefined. Indeed social media platforms allow consumers to form a sort of tribal community around a product or brand. However, businessesthat adopt social media as a strategy must acceptthat they are losing an element of control to theconsumer. For many businesses today social media is their largest web presence, overtaking theircompany websites and email programmes (Neff,). Thus social media has mutated how busi-nesses interact and communicate with their cus-tomers as well as how they establish and imple-

ment their customer relationship management(CRM) policies. The main difference between tra-ditional CRM and social CRM is that the latterinvolves the customer proactively. The customer isempowered and improving the customer experi-ence is a central goal (Morgan, ).

Social media channels represent a huge opportu-nity for marketers in terms of word of mouthreferrals. It was found that % of under yearolds in the UK post comments or online reviews(Mintel, ), which will in turn impact signifi-

cantly on the opinion of potential customerssearching for product information via searchengines. The internet and social media remove thebarriers that existed in the past in traditional wordof mouth such as location, time and access.

However, the social media revolution brings a new set of concerns and challenges relating to user pri-vacy and the impact of user generated content. Infact Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, warns thatyounger generations today do not comprehendthe impact that the internet can have on their

futures, suggesting that they will have to takeextreme measures such as changing their names toescape their digital past in order to secure a job(Hanlon, ). Internet savvy generations today must realise that it is nearly impossible to fully erase something from the World Wide Web, andfurthermore employers now scour the web forinformation on potential candidates (Hanlon,).

Literature Review Due to the infancy of social media utilisation forbusinesses, most literature in the area of social

media concerning relationship marketing is of very recent publication or in the process of being published. Furthermore there is a lack of literatureon the topic and thus the author focused on theapplication of traditional CRM, and relationshipmarketing strategies in the context of social media

with other areas of relevance to the topic, such asconsumer empowerment and word of mouth mar-keting.

The internet has become ‘an enabler of globalmarketplace’, overcoming issues such as time and

distance and empowering consumers to commu-nicate with peers, quickly form and change theirown opinions and ultimately to define brands by themselves (Pires et al., : ). The digital era has redefined contemporary consumption, trans-

THE EMERGENCE OF THE SOCIALMEDIA EMPOWERED CONSUMER

Clodagh O’Brien

The emergence of user-generated content (UGC) via social media channelsfrom the Web 2.0 era has had a dramatic impact on the current commercialenvironment. Businesses can no longer simply publish content they wishpotential customers to see; the social media landscape has instigated apower shift from the business towards the consumer. The qualitativeresearch in this study investigates how these platforms have impacted ontraditional relationship marketing concepts and how this has affectedconsumer expectations of the conventional business–consumer relationship.Building upon traditional relationship marketing literature, andincorporating areas of relevance such as word of mouth and consumerempowerment, the research highlights areas of potential for development intheory and practice as a result of social media empowerment.

© Mercury Digital Publications

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forming consumers from their former passive rolesinto an active group (Law et al., ). Thischange is a direct result of the Web . era in

which internet savvy consumers have unlimitedaccess to information as well as the ability tointeract freely with other consumers as well asbrands and businesses. The recently coined ‘Web.’ is a concept that describes the evolution of the internet from a static environment to an inter-active community (Brennan, ). It views the

internet as a space where web content and applica-tions are constantly modified and adapted by users through collaboration and participation(Kaplan and Haenlein, ).

Daugherty et al. (: ) define user-generatedcontent (UGC) as ‘media content created or pro-duced by the general public rather than by paidprofessionals and primarily distributed on theinternet’. An increasing number of businessestoday are actively utilising social media and UGCto encourage consumers to share their experiences

online with other users, a trend which is dramati-cally redefining the relationship between a busi-ness and its consumers (Harris and Rae, ).Vitberg (: ) opines that social media hasled to an age of consumer-to-consumer driveninformation creating awareness and credibility and establishing relationships with prospectivecustomers.

Social media has truly altered the consumer land-scape, described by Smith (: ) as a ‘revolu-tion in user generated content, global community and the publishing of consumer opinion’. It is

about engaging with current customers, potentialcustomers and critics at every level of modernsocial communication (Fisher, ).

Motivations to Contribute on SocialMedia PlatformsDaugherty et al. () measure three functionalperspectives in online contribution; () the egodefensive relating to self importance and self esteem, () the value-expressive function, relating to respondents’ agreement with content in termsof their own moral beliefs and finally () the social

function which relates to the act of forming friendships and bonds and belonging to a com-munity. These factors determine attitude forma-tion which in turn influences an individual’sbehaviour (Daugherty et al., ).

The study found the ego defensive to be of partic-ular importance, whereby individuals will try toprotect themselves from external threats and elim-inate self doubts, while the social function foundthat consumers create content to increase theirsense of self importance and to connect withothers (Daugherty et al., : ). As humanbeings we have a psychological need to be ourown individual; however, we also desire the feeling of belonging to a larger social set (Qualman,

). Indeed, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs statesthat after our basic human needs we desire to beaccepted, which is one of the reasons that socialmedia has been so successful: ‘humans are socialanimals by nature’ (Qualman, : ).

Relationship Marketing Although the concept of relationship marketing is widely accepted and researched, there is no com-monly accepted definition, making application of these strategies potentially problematic for mar-keters. Berry (, cited in Berry, : ) was

one of the first to attempt to define the concept,describing relationship marketing as ‘attracting,maintaining and enhancing relationships’.Similarly Gronroos (: ) describes the emer-gence of relationship marketing as a ‘paradigmshift’ that seeks to ‘establish, maintain, andenhance relationships with customers and otherpartners, at a profit, so that the objectives of theparties involved are met.’ It is about the relation-ship between the consumer and a business creat-ing added value for both parties on top of thevalue of the products or services exchanged(Gronroos, ).

Relationship marketing is a concept that isapplicable inside a firm as well as outside; it is ‘a process, a chain of activities’ (Gummesson, :). The concept relies on the success of threevital areas: an interaction process, a plannedcommunication process that supports andenhances relationships and finally the creation of value (Gronroos, ). Evidently social media provides an ideal channel for all three elements.Indeed, Szmigin et al. (: ) believe thatthe ‘network society’ offers an area of huge

potential to marketers to develop their relation-ships with consumers. This is because relation-ship marketing is ‘underpinned through sharedcommunication’ (Harridge-March and Quinton,: ).

The Emergence of the Social Media Empowered Consumer

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online community based on three components:interactivity, technical infrastructure and servicevalue (Szmigin et al., : ). According to theauthors, these three elements embody the needs of a community and the significance of reliable sys-tems, and acknowledge that participants withinonline communities interact with each other as

well as the service provider. There are a number of managerial implications of the triangle:

• Businesses can utilise online applications tocreate and define relationship strategies

• Businesses can further develop and improveexisting relationships

• Communication strategies can be dialogue ori-ented

• Dialogue can be improved and communica-tion reach is further expanded

Thus there is clear evidence of an alteration in thedynamics of the business–consumer relationship.

CRM to CMR The aim of customer relationship management(CRM) is to combine relationship marketing strategies with information technology to createlong term relationships and mutual profit for bothparties involved (Peelen et al., ). It is a con-cept that views the customer as a valuable asset toa company that should be learned from and man-aged in such a way that they too feel valued. CRMutilises information technologies to form a cus-tomer database in order to understand the needsof customers and implement relationship market-

ing strategies. Ryals and Payne (: ) put it best when they define CRM as a process that seeks to‘provide a strategic bridge between IT and market-ing strategies aimed at building long term rela-tionships and profitability’. However, Newell

() argues that traditional CRM practices areno longer satisfactory for the empowered con-sumer and a shift towards customer managed rela-tionships (CMR) is necessary. CMR is ‘about cre-ating an experience, personalising the interaction

with individual customers in ways directed by thecustomer, and thereby developing relationships’(Newell, : ). CMR empowers the consumerto decide the level of interaction they want, andhow often they communicate with the firm, andtries to personalise interaction directed by theconsumer, thus developing relationships (Pires etal., ). See Table .

Social CRMSocial CRM is a very recent phenomenon emerg-ing from the ever increasing number of businessesutilising and incorporating social media platformsinto their marketing strategies. Myron (: )defines social CRM as a concept that ‘tries to inte-grate data from the social web with customer rela-tionship efforts’. This contemporary approach totraditional CRM recognizes the empowerment of consumers as a result of social media and how con-sumers have changed in their attitudes, behaviours

and expectations since the emergence of CRM inthe s (Rich, ). Social media renders tradi-tional CRM practices inadequate to establish andbuild relationships on these emerging channels;however, social CRM acknowledges the depth of the relationships formed on these channels (Wang and Owyang, : ).

WOMM and Social Media Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is not a new phenomenon, however, in the age of thesocial media consumer it takes on a new dimen-

sion and is an area of huge potential for mar-keters. Defined by Kozinets et al. (: ) as ‘theintentional influencing of consumer-to-consumercommunications by professional marketing tech-niques’, social media is an ideal outlet for the


Table 1 CRM to CMR

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT CUSTOMER MANAGED RELATIONSHIP

The company is in control The consumer is in control

Business is better for the company Business is better for the consumer

Customers tracked by transaction Focus on understanding unique needs

Treats customers as segments Treats customers as individuals

Customers made do what you think they want Customers tell you what they care about

Customers feel stalked Customers feel empowered

Organised around products and services Organised around customers

Source : Newell (2003: 8)

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application of the concept and is a growing con-cern. Indeed, Li et al. () describe WOMM asviral marketing that utilises electronic communi-cations to increase brand messages in a network.

Word of mouth marketing empowers the mar-keter rather than the consumer as a result of thetransparency, accessibility and breadth of theinternet (Kozinets et al., ). It is generally believed that WOM influence is instigated by a small number of elite individuals; however, Smith

et al. () discover that influence is something that all individuals share, stimulated by thehuman need to be helpful by providing advice andthe enjoyment of searching for information.

Indeed, social media represents a redefinition of relationships that is rapidly increasing (Harridge-March and Quinton, ) and as Kozinets (:) states, ‘as markets change, marketing theoriesmust also change to accommodate them’. Thedevelopment of brand relationships through socialexperiences and delivering persuasive messages to

content creators and online users represents thefuture of marketing (Daugherty et al., ).

Exploratory Research andMethodology Due to the infancy of research in the area inIreland, the researcher adopted a triangulationapproach. This involved examining the topic frommultiple perspectives and different sources withindifferent time frames and locations in order toreduce the level of uncertainty in data interpreta-tion. In order to obtain maximum perspectives onthe topic, the researcher utilised depth interviews

with industry professionals, consumer focus groupsand netnography. The researcher carried out an ini-tial focus group consisting of seven respondents

which uncovered some interesting areas of poten-tial interest and inspired the author to initiate anin-depth investigation of the topic. Consequently the author selected two female respondents fromthe initial focus group for participation in depthinterviews having demonstrated an interesting per-spective on the subject matter. Furthermore twomale respondents were requested to participate in a dyad focus group as the researcher was eager to

build further on their insights and the dynamics of their relationship.

Focus groups were used to gain an insight intohow consumers perceive businesses utilising social

media platforms and to gauge their level of empowerment as a result. Dyad and triad focusgroups were utilised, selecting participants thathad already established close social bonds on theseplatforms with one other. The depth interview

was utilised by the researcher in order to gain anindustry perspective from professionals working

within the social media landscape on behalf of businesses. According to Kozinets (: ), innetnography ‘the unit of analysis is the relation-

ship, and what it finds interesting in relationshipsare their patterns’. With this in mind, a purely observational netnography was carried out by theresearcher.

In both the focus groups and the interviews theresearcher selected a low structure approach, keep-ing moderation involvement to a minimum andasking a minimal number of questions. Thisapproach was selected as the topic is very currentand an issue that the participants encounter on a daily basis. The researcher felt it more appropriate

to encourage self moderation in order to gain fur-ther insight into the attitudes behind the phe-nomenon of social media.

Analysis and DiscussionFrom the data analysed the author concluded thatthe relationship between the consumer and a business has changed significantly as a result of social media. These platforms facilitate the forma-tion of relationships in terms of customer acquisi-tion, but they are more useful and regarded asmore appropriate for relationship maintenance asa customer retention platform. Furthermore, the

researcher concluded that social media has indeedaffected consumer expectations of their relation-ship with a firm. The social media empoweredconsumer has emerged.

. MotivationsSocial media utilisation by contemporary con-sumers has become a daily ritual and a normalpart of their daily routine. Thus it is of criticalimportance that businesses today establish a socialmedia presence in order to reach their target mar-kets. Furthermore marketers can potentially reach

a wider audience than traditional mediums of communication as social media is so frequently viewed and for some consumers the internet hasfully replaced their use of traditional communica-tion mediums.

Irish Marketing Review Volume Number

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Users experience a sense of guilt for excessive useof these channels. Social media offers users theopportunity to interact with others, but it alsoallows the participants to observe individuals onthese platforms without revealing their presence.This anonymous observation has very negativeconnotations for the respondents. These feelingsof guilt allude to a perception of social media asan addiction that must be controlled. Participants

were found to be hugely reliant on social media asa means for both interacting with social connec-tions and feeling included and aware of what theirfriends are doing. In the network society in which

we live today, an individual’s sense of belonging and thus sense of self are inextricably linked tosocial media. This has created a type of virtualpeer pressure to consume social media as usersseek out activities that are favourable to others.

Users feel pressurised to interact with businesses by their online peers very much succumbing to thesocial functional aspect of motivation (Daugherty et al., ). The opinion of their online peers isvery important to them. Social media consumersfeel a degree of peer pressure to accept businesseson these platforms as suggested by a contact. Thisoffers a business a window of opportunity as thereis a short period of time in which consumers willembrace a brand name and associate their personalpage with the business. Furthermore a business canappeal to the social function motivations of the

consumer by creating and encouraging close socialbonds among participants, increasing their feelingsof belonging. In doing so they form a tight com-munity without which they feel at a loss as well asincreasing their susceptibility to advertising on

these platforms. Daugherty et al. () arguedthat marketers can increase brand value by actively engaging the consumer in media experiencethrough the provision of an online space wherethey can create their own content.

. PerceptionsSocial media is a realm where users are very awareof the fact that business and users within theircommunity can access their information and view their actions. This has created a sense of paranoia and many users are reluctant to accept businessesas a result. It is in the interest of a business toemphasise on its social media platforms that itrespects the privacy of its users and does not dis-tribute the personal information of its connec-tions. In this way it increases the sense of trustbetween a user and the business and in turn thiscreates a long term relationship. In contrast, con-

sumers do see the personalisation of communica-tions as favourable and are more open to market-ing that is relevant to their own personal interestsand needs.

. Consumer Control and Brand BondingThe researcher found that consumers are moredemanding than ever before and have huge expec-tations of their relationship with a business. Thereis an emerging egocentrism among social media users as a result of their empowerment and controlin the social media landscape. An inconsistency was

identified between traditional relationship market-ing literature and the relationships observed onlineas a result of consumer empowerment. This isbecause this relationship is now bi-directional andcontrolled by the consumer. The social consumer


Figure 1 Consumer Contact Cycle

Request

Decline

BRANDBONDING

OCCURS

Delete

Annoy

Accept

Communicate

Interaction

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has emerged: cynical, untrusting and highly demanding. Relationship marketing strategies mustbe adapted to accommodate this prevailing trend.

With this in mind the researcher developed theconsumer contact cycle (see Figure ).

The consumer contact cycle reflects the difficulty a business can have in establishing a relationship with a consumer on a social media platform.Initially a business requests the friendship of a user, or a user is suggested to befriend the busi-ness by another contact. However the bond canbe severed by eroding consumer trust at each warning point. This cycle recognises the power of the consumer in the relationship formationprocess and it is not until all four stages are com-plete that brand bonding occurs and the con-sumer is considered to be in a relationship withthe business. Evidently it can be a complex task tosecure a relationship with a consumer on socialmedia, however, when brand bonding takes placethe virtual value of the consumer can proveinvaluable to a business. This is because thebrand–consumer bond emulates a real life friend-ship. By virtue of being an arena originally estab-lished to facilitate friendship making among indi-viduals, consumers associate accepting a businessas a contact with a real life friendship. The bondis therefore strong; however, much like a humanrelationship trust is paramount and both parties

are expected to fulfil their side of the relationship.Brand bonding also occurs in the sense of com-munity that a business can create surrounding itsbrand or product. By appealing to the social func-tion of online users, social media utilises a groupappeal to create a strong social identity, thereby increasing consumer susceptibility to marketing as discussed by Zeng et al. ().

It is crucial that businesses allow the consumer tofeel that they are in control of the relationship inorder to gain their trust and ultimately form a

bond, as appearing too desperate for their friend-ship is considered negatively by users. Relation-ship trust, commitment and the promise concept(Morgan and Hunt, and Gronroos, )are very relevant to the social media landscape

but relationship termination costs are unrelatedto this space, which again increases consumerpower.

Although the social media empowered consumer

can be far more high maintenance than traditionalconsumers, they can also act as important sourcesof information. They can significantly influencetheir online communities in their purchasing habits and can ultimately aid a business in itsproduct and service designs by assuming the roleof co-creators. This is the highest level of value a consumer can provide to a business, as once thesesteps have been completed a business can partakein social CRM and truly satisfy its customers cre-ating long term and interactive relationships. Thisled the author to create the virtual value of a social

media consumer (see Figure

).

. Relationship Recovery and Word of MouseSocial media brings a new dimension to word of mouth marketing as consumers were found to bevery trusting of their online community in termsof intent to purchase. Furthermore consumer con-sumption patterns can be influenced by theirdesire to feel a sense of belonging to their commu-nity. Consumers today are more critical anduntrusting of marketing communications thanever before. Social media allows a business to over-

come these issues as unlike other mediums, oftenconsumers are unaware they are being marketed toand visibility alone can increase their brand aware-ness. Furthermore, businesses can target opinionleaders on these sites in order to influence a wideraudience.

. An Industry Perspective With the emergence of social media as an indus-try in itself in Ireland, the researcher was curiousto unearth whether it is indeed essential to utilisean expert in order to carry out social media mar-

keting successfully. It was found that there is a definite perception among industry professionalsand consumers alike that there is a right and a wrong way to carry out social media for business.In fact, it can be more damaging to the reputa-


Figure 2 Virtual Value Ladder

Loyalty

WOM Co-Creation

SOCIALCRM

Recovery

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