Eight social media challenges for marketing managers

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www.elsevier.es/sjme

SPANISH JOURNAL OF MARKETING - ESIC

AGENDA FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Eight social media challenges for marketing managers

C.F. Hofacker

^a^,∗

, D. Belanche

^b

aFormerEditoroftheJournalofInteractiveMarketing,CollegeofBusiness,FloridaStateUniversity,Tallahassee,FL23206-1110, USA

bFacultaddeCienciasSocialesyHumanas,UniversidaddeZaragoza,CiudadEscolar,s/n,44003Teruel,Spain

Received15January2016;accepted30July2016 Availableonline14September2016

KEYWORDS Socialmedia;

Marketingpractice;

Customerbehavior;

Engagement

Abstract Consumersincreasinglyusesocialmediaforavarietyofconsumption-relatedtasks suchascomplainingaboutabrandorsharingpurchaseexperiences.Socialmediagrowthrepre- sentsanopportunityforbusinessbasedoninformationsharing,butalsocomplicatesthework ofmarketingmanagerswhoneedtobereadytodealwithcurrentissuesinthisfield.Thisarticle highlightseightareaswithinsocialmediamarketingthatcreatedifficultchallengesfor mar- ketingpractitioners.Basedonpractitionerreportsandacademicfindingsaboutonlinesocial networks,wepreviewemergingthreatsandopportunitiesderivedfromchangesinconsumers’

behaviorandfromchangesinbusinessmodelsaswell.Inadditiontodiscussingeachchallenge, weposeresearchquestionsformarketingacademicsinordertoinspirebroaderresearchand betterunderstandingofthisevolvingﬁeld.

PALABRASCLAVE Mediossociales;

Prácticadel Marketing;

Comportamientodel cliente;

Compromiso

OchoretosdelosmediossocialesparalosDirectoresdeMarketing

Resumen Losconsumidores utilizancadavezcon másfrecuencia losmediossociales para diversastareasrelativasalconsumo,talescomolasquejasacercadeunamarca,oelinter- cambiodeexperienciassobrecompras.Elcrecimientodelosmediossocialesrepresentauna oportunidaddenegociobasadaenelintercambiodeinformación,aunque tambiéncomplica eltrabajoalosDirectoresdeMarketing,quienesnecesitanestarpreparadosparamanejarlas cuestionescorrientesenestecampo.Esteartículodestacaochoáreaspertenecientesalmarket- ingdelosmediossociales,quecreanretosdifícilesalaspersonasquesededicanalmarketing.

Basándonosenlosinformesdeestosúltimos,yenloshallazgosacadémicosenrelaciónalas

∗Correspondingauthorat:CollegeofBusiness,FloridaStateUniversity,Tallahassee,FL23206-1110,USA.

E-mailaddresses:[email protected](C.F.Hofacker),[email protected](D.Belanche).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sjme.2016.07.003

creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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redessocialesonline,prevemosamenazasyoportunidadesemergentesderivadasdeloscambios deloscomportamientosdelosconsumidoresydeloscambiosdelosmodelosdenegocio.Además detratarcadareto,planteamoscuestionessobreinvestigaciónalosacadémicosdemarketing, aﬁndeinspirarunanálisismásamplioyunamejorcomprensióndeestecampoenevolución.

Socialmediaremainin continuousgrowthandbysome accountshave becomethemain channelfor costumers to experienceandinteractwiththeworld.Tohelpattaintheir goals,peoplejoingeneralormorespecializednetworksand search,share,participate,consumeandplay(Boltonetal., 2013).

Thesocialmediaphenomenoncouldbeapproachedfrom severalperspectives.First,fromsociologyoranthropology, networksfavorinteractionbetweenpeopleallaroundthe world.FacebookandYouTubereachedmorethan1000mil- lion users, aspresented in Fig.1. That means that more thanonethirdofallInternetusersintheworld,andmore thanone sixth of theglobal population, areactive mem- bersofsuchnetworks.Second,fromaneconomicapproach, socialmediahaveanimportantvaluefortheﬁrmsthatown them,although oftenusers donotpayfor theseservices.

Therecent acquisitionof LinkedInbyMicrosoftfor 26,200 million US$ (more than 102 US$ per user), is an example ofthepotentialvalue andhighrivalryinthesocialmedia domain.Corporation’sstrategicmergersandacquisitionsto gatherclients,suchasFacebookpurchaseofInstagramand WhatsApp, revealhowimportant is forcompaniestolead thisdigitalevolution.

Third, from a marketing approach, social media function as a marketspace in which both buyers and sellers exist(Yadav,DeValck,Hennig-Thurau, Hoffman,& Spann, 2013), along withvarious exchangefacilitators (Kaplan &

Haenlein, 2010), all interacting with each other in com- plexways(Hennig-Thurau,Hofacker,&Bloching,2013).The growthofsocialmediaanditsinformationandtechnology base are thought torepresent a great opportunity --- and threat--- for companies. Currently,ﬁrms have the chance togenerateinnovativebusinessmodelsandtoextendcus- tomerrelationshipsthroughsocialmedia.However,therise

1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0

10. VK 9. Reddit 8. Instagram 7. Tumblr 6. Google + 5. Pinterest 4. LinkedIn 3. Twitter 2. YouTube 1. Facebook

Figure1 Top10socialnetworksitesinmillionusers.

Source:OwnelaborationbasedondatafromeBizMBA(2016).

of social media has also generated a number of difﬁcult challengesformarketingmanagers.

Previousresearchhasoutlinedsomeofthesechallenges.

In an important article, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) pre- sented a classiﬁcationof social media based onthe level ofsocialmediarichness(fromstaticblogstovirtualsocial worlds or games such as Second Life) and self-disclosure (from anonymous content collaborative projects such as Wikipedia to personal presentations in social networking sitessuchasFacebook).Theyalsosuggestedthatcompanies choosetheirsocialmediaplatformscarefully,developtheir ownapplications whennecessary, involveemployees, and integrateoraligntheironlineactivity.Theyrecommended that companies be active, interesting, humble,unprofes- sional andhonest intheir social mediaactivity (Kaplan&

Haenlein,2010).

From an internal focus, qualitative research has been oftenemployedtodescribesocialmediauseinorganizations asabalancebetweenopenness,strategyandmanagement (e.g.Macnamara & Zerfass,2012).Focusing onmanagers’

use of social media, Rydén, Ringberg, and Wilke (2015) interviewedmanagers andidentiﬁed fourkinds of mental models(1)businesstocustomerswithatransactionalfocus topromote andsell, (2)businessfrom customerswithan informational focus tolisten and learn, (3) businesswith customers witharelational focustoconnectandcollabo- rate,and(4)businessforcustomerswithacommunalfocus toempowerandengagecustomers.

Focusing on Spanish retailers, Lorenzo Romero, Constantinides, and Alarcón del Amo (2013) found that ﬁrmsdemandgreateremployee abilitiestomanageonline interactive tools. Social media use highly depends on ﬁrms’size,withlargecompaniesusingsocialprimarilyfor brandingandsmallcompaniesusingitforcustomerservice (LorenzoRomeroetal.,2013).

Takingabroaderperspective,inthisarticlewediscussa setofeightsocialmediachallengesformarketingmanagers.

Theseeightchallengesareconnectedtopreviousresearch but extend and update the literature by considering the latestacademicﬁndingsandcurrentmarketingpracticein industry.Arelatedgoalistoprovidenewresearchquestions formarketingtheorists.Inthiswaytowehopetoadvance theunderstanding andmanagementof marketingin social media.

Challenge 1: The liquiﬁcation of the economy

Muchofthevalueproducedbytheworldeconomyshifted fromagriculturetomanufacturinginthe19thcentury,from manufacturing to service in the 20th century, and from

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Table1 GlobalInternetinformationtrafﬁcbyconsumeruseinExabytesperyear2015---2020.

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Increase

Internetvideo 337.1 446.7 591.9 776.5 1016.1 1288.0 282.0%

Web,email,anddata 88.6 107.5 129.6 149.4 164.8 199.3 125.0%

Filesharing 69.9 69.6 68.6 67.3 66.2 70.0 0.2%

Onlinegaming 1.0 1.5 2.2 3.4 4.9 6.7 592.7%

ALL 496.6 625.2 792.4 996.7 1252.0 1563.9 215.0%

Source:OwnelaborationfromCiscoVisualNetworkingIndexForecast(2016).

servicetoinformationinthe21thcentury(Martin&Midgley, 2003).AccordingtoLambrechtetal.(2014)companiespur- chaseandselldigitalinformationasaproductbecauseof itsuniquecombinationoftraits:Informationis(1)not-rival, meaningthatconsumptiondoesnotdecreaseavailabilityto others,(2)ithasnearzeromarginalcostofproductionand distributionevenoverlargedistances,(3)ithaslowercost ofsearchthanproductssoldinofﬂinestores,and(4)reduces transactioncosts.

Thus, contrary to goods and services, information is highly liquid, meaning that it ﬂows easily in our era of ubiquitous digital networks. It makes formerly important barriers,likenationalborders,permeable,complicatingthe webregulations,forinstanceintermsofcontentcopyright orinternationaltradelicenses.Buttheborderoftheﬁrmhas becomemorepermeableaswell,andsometimesthisisprob- lematic. There arefrequent database trades or theftsby hackers,withmajornetworksattacksbyorganizedgroupsor governments(Fernandes,Soares,Gomes,Freire,& Inácio, 2014).

Firm border permeability also enhances the possibil- ities to establish closer relationships with customers. It is frequently the case that companies allow and moti- vate customers to create advertising and participate in firm’sactivities. In general, firmsmust organize carefully in this new and open environment (Weinberg, de Ruyter, Dellarocas,Buck,&Keeling,2013).Theymustalsocometo gripswiththeconsumerpowerthatthisliquificationimplies (Labrecque,vordemEsche,Mathwick,Novak,& Hofacker, 2013).

Thefollowingresearchquestionsarise:

RQ1a: What types of marketing organization fares best underliqueﬁedconditions?

RQ1b:Howdoesmarketingstrategychangewhenmuchof theaddedvalueinofferingsisderivedfrominformation?

RQ1c: Does the marketing function gain within the ﬁrm underconditionsofpermeableﬁrmborders?

RQ1d:Doesthemarketingfunctiongainunderconditions ofincreasedconsumerpower?

Challenge 2: Adjusting to reactive marketing management

The presence of massive amounts of data and the above mentionedconsumerpowerrequirethatbusinessesbecome morenimble,morereactive;wearenotinchargeanymore.

Thanks to Internet accessibility, users both demand and provide information continuously, anywhere, anytime and

throughplentyof devices(Belanche& Casaló,2015). The popularizationofinformationusebynumerousstakeholders leads to an exponential grow of Internet trafﬁc. Table 1 presentstheevolution ofonline informationexchangefor theperiod2015---2020.

TheEnglishverbusedtodescribeonlineactivity;theverb tonavigate;neatlycapturestheideathattheconsumeris nolongerpassivelywatchingmediabutisinsteadincharge oftheirpre-andpost-purchaseexperience.Althoughmost of user-generated content cannot be controlled, compa- niesmaystimulate,driveormonitorbrandrelatedcontent (Araujo,Neijens,&Vliegenthart,2016).

Bigdatadescribes largevolumes ofhigh-velocity,com- plexandvariableinformationassetsthatdemandadvanced techniquesandtechnologiestoprocessforenhancedinsight anddecisionmaking(Gandomi&Haider,2015).Inthepres- enceofsuchdatatheroleofmarketingisdevolvingtoward identifyingtriggereventsthatcanthenbeleveragedusing one-to-one CRM communication (Hofacker, Malthouse, &

Sultan,2016).

Asaresult,scholarsshouldfollowcurrent trendsinthe industryandsolvethefollowingquestions:

RQ2a:Whichdataeventsimplytheconsumerislookingto switchbrands?

RQ2b:Canwesensethattheconsumerisabouttobuy?

RQ2c: What are the ﬁrm antecedents of effective data monitoring?

Challenge 3: How to manage customer creation and engagement

Marketershavelongacknowledgedthenotionthatthecus- tomer co-creates value (Vargo & Lusch, 2004). Marketing is a process of performing acts in interaction with the customer, who is an operant and essential resource for thefirm. Customerparticipationmay includelabor, information, service specification, quality control, knowledge sharing and specific competencies (e.g. design) (Mustak, Jaakkola,&Halinen,2013).However,inmanyprototypical newbusinessesthecustomercreatesnearlyallofthevalue.

Examples of this are platform businesses like Facebook, AirBnb,andUber,companieswithmodesthumanresourceor otherassets.ThisisconsistentwiththeviewofGrönroosand Voima(2013)whoemphasizethecustomerroleinvaluecre- ationsinceco-creationisnecessarilybasedontheincreased valuecreatedduetobuyer---sellerinteraction.

We can therefore say that marketing practice is shifting away product management and toward platform

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management.As suchwe may ﬁnd that knowledge about ofﬂine platform management will be adaptable toonline platforms. In the online setting, technology reliability, interfaceusability andreduced costs becomesevenmore crucial(Mikkola&Skjøtt-Larsen,2006).Inthisshifttoward platforms,keymarketing capabilities includeencouraging engagement(Hollebeek,Glynn,&Roderick,2014),andthe ability to deal with two-sided markets, discussed below.

Activewaystoengagecustomersthroughsocialmediamay comprise using traditional marketing instruments online, suchas customerservice, customizing the offer, reaching social mediainﬂuencers and employing customercreativ- ity to innovate together with customers (Constantinides, 2013).Additionally,thereisfrequentlyaneedtofosteruser- generatedcontent(Smith,Fischer,&Yongjian,2012)andto identifyinﬂuentialusers(Trusov,Bodapati,&Bucklin,2010).

In order tomove forward onthese issues, researchers shouldfurtherinvestigate:

RQ3a:Whatmanagerialpracticesencourageconsumercre- ativity?

RQ3b: What practices encourage consumer content creation?

Challenge 4: How to manage multi-sided markets

Information and communication technologies represent a disruptionin businessmodels and labor markets. Indeed, theDavosWorldEconomicForumpredictsthanmorethan ahalfofallnewjobsinthenext5yearswillberelatedto mobileInternet,cloudtechnologyandbigdataprocessing (WEF,2016);andthat65%ofchildren currentlyinprimary schoolwillworkinjobsthatdonotexistyet.

New businessmodelsbased oninformationsharing are spreading globally, as can be seen in the case of multi- side markets. A multi-sided market is one in which each sidedoesnotinternalizethecostsandbeneﬁtsoftheother side(Parker&vanAlstyne,2005).AirBnb(rentersandten- ants)orUber(driversandpassengers)areexamplesofthe phenomenon. These companies are rapidly growing their numberof clientseachyearandarechallengingthehotel andtaxiindustries,respectively(Cusumano,2015).Forcom- paniesoperatinginmulti-sidemarkets,creatingamarketing mixthatworksforbothsidesispotentiallyquitecomplex.

Dueto cross-side externalities, sellers preferto compete withasmallnumberofothersellersbutwouldliketohavea largepotentialbuyerbaseavailable.Buyersprefertocom- pete witha smallnumber of other buyers but wouldlike tohavea largepotentialsellerbaseavailable. Preference differences alsoextend toprice, product,promotion and product.Thusunderstanding buyerand seller preferences insuchtwo-sidedmarketsseemsessential.

More precisely the following questions should be addressed:

RQ4a:Whatmarketingmixvariablescreatetensioninthat twoormoresideshavedifferentpreferences?

RQ4b:Whatconceptualmodelsareusefulforunderstand- ingthetensionandoptimizingaccordingly?

Challenge 5: Adjusting to the changing customer purchase journey

Traditionally marketers have thought of consumer behavior as a problem-solving activity comprised of ﬁve steps (Blackwell, Miniard, & Engel,2001).The traditional steps havelongbeen(1)problemrecognition,(2)search,(3)eval- uation,(4)purchase,and(5)post-purchaseevaluation. At this time the act of consumption is playing out publicly on social media and needs tobe explicitly included as a step.This is, perhaps, notsurprising. Weknow that sharing consumption experiences (either positive or negative) createspositiveemotion(Kim&Fesenmaier,2015).Ubiqui- tousmobiledevicesandsocialmediafacilitateexperience sharingbehaviors(Shankaretal.,2016);forinstance,four outofeveryﬁveshoppersusemobileinphysicalstoresfor consumptionrelatedissues(Google,2013).Thinkaswellof allthe photosofrestaurantmealsthatget uploaded onto FacebookoralloftheunboxingvideosweseeonYouTube.

Likewise,post-purchase engagement is becomingsufﬁ- cientlycriticaltobeconsideredastep(Hofacker,Malthouse, et al., 2016). For our purposes, we deﬁne post-purchase engagementasanypublicuserbehaviorthatcreates user- brand interactionor which is directed toward the brand.

Post-purchase engagement frequently takes the form of sharing(asinwritingareview,forexample),anditalsohas animpactonotherconsumers’decisions,speciﬁcallywhen ithelpstoanticipatetheevaluation,andconsequencesof, purchase (Kladou & Mavragani, 2015; Bagozzi, Belanche, Casaló,&Flavián,2016).

Wemaysummarizebypointingoutthatsocialnetworks havebecomeaconsumptionandpost-consumptionchannel, achannelthatneedstobeintegratedwithothertraditional channelsinordertocreatebettermanagementinamulti- channel world(Flavián,Gurrea, & Orús,2016).Doing this willleadtohigherproﬁtability,butnotbeforeweanswer thefollowingquestions:

RQ5a:Howcanmarketingmanagersleveragepubliccon- sumptiontoproduceadvantagefortheirbrands?

RQ5b:Howdoesthepsychologyofconsumptionalterwhen itbecomespublic?

Challenge 6: Understanding the dynamic C2C sender---receiver system

Word-of-mouth, now powerfully ampliﬁed by digital networksandsocialmediaplatforms,representsacomplex seriesofsenderandreceiverinteractions(King,Racherla,&

Bush,2014).Asadiscipline,wehavemostlybeguntoexplore the impact of word-of-mouth on the message receiver’s purchaseintent,butthatisjusttheinitialstageofunder- standingthe phenomenon. Wemight also thinkabout the antecedentsand consequencesofposting areview onthe reviewer.Thereareavarietyofmarketingoutcomesforboth messagesenderandreceiver: memory,knowledge,belief, attitude,andpurchasebehaviortobeunderstood.

We should also continue to learn the relationship between C2C communication and ﬁrms’ performance in terms of sales, revenue and value creation (Pauwels, Aksehirli,& Lackman,2016).Ingeneral, socialmedia can

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Marketing management

in social media Gamified interaction

Liquidification of economy

Reactive marketing management

Customer creationand engagement

Multi-sided markets Changing

customer purchase journey Changing marketing skillset

DynamicC2C sender- receiver system

Leadingforce: The economy Consumers Firms

Figure2 Frameworkofsocialmediachallengesformarketingmanagers.

Source:Ownelaboration.

be thought of as a catalyst for the interactive inﬂuence between individuals and groups of individuals. No doubt therearecomplexandinteractiveeffectsontheseoutcomes forword-of-mouthsendersandword-of-mouthreceivers.In additionresearchshouldalsofocusonthesocio-politicaland economicvalueofonlineinformationsharing(Bechmann&

Lomborg,2013).

Thefollowingquestionsremainyetunresolved:

RQ6a:Does posting areview change theposter’s prefer- encehierarchyinsomeway?

RQ6b:Howmemorableareproductreviews?

RQ6c: What review characteristics lead to higher brand recall?

RQ6d:Whatisthetypicaldynamicfeedbackandcausality structureofproductreviews?

RQ6e:Whatfactorsmoderatethetypicalstructure?

Challenge 7: Creating compelling and proﬁtable gamiﬁed interaction

Theeconomyiscreatingmoreandmorecurrencies,which istosaywearewitnessingnumerousﬁrm-generatedpoint systems that compete with money for the attention and desireof consumers.Examples of thesearecryptocurren- ciessuchasBitCoin,butalsomoresubtleexchangemethods involvingdisclosingcustomerinformation(e.g.inexchange for Web access or app use), opt-in advertising formats (Belanche, Flavián, & Pérez-Rueda, 2016), or reciprocity behaviors as in Wikipedia (Schumann, von Wangenheim,

& Groene, 2014). We believe traditional CRM will morph into a practice whereby interacting with a ﬁrm becomes

game-like. Successful using of game elements in a non- gaming context tends to create a hedonic and enjoyable experience,with immediatefeedback, clear goals, social comparisonsandastate offlow(Hamari,2013).Gamifica- tionisoftenlinkedtouserengagementinmanydisciplines suchase-learning,social causefundraising,andcustomer loyaltyprograms.But gamifyingfirm-customer interaction hasbeenpoorlyappliedandlacksabasisinfundamentalpsy- chologicalinsights(Hofacker,deRuyter,Lurie,Manchanda,

&Donaldson,2016).

Thefollowingquestionsstillneedanswers:

RQ7a:Whatistheoptimallevelofdifﬁcultyfor gamiﬁed interaction?

RQ7b: What types of game elements function best in a marketingcontext?

Challenge 8: Adjusting to a changing marketing skill set

Digitaldatadonotarrivetousasasimple,cleanrectangleof datareadyforANOVAorSEM.Digitaldatafrequentlyconsist oftextand images,or evenvideo, aspresented abovein Table1.Thismeansthatbothacademicsandpractitioners needdifferentmethodologicalskillsetsthanthatwhichwe currentlyteach,aspredictedbylaborstudies(WEF,2016).

Whileverbaltextmininghasbecomecommoninthemar- ketingliterature(e.g.,Schweidel&Moe,2014),thebillions ofvisualimagesuploadedareanuntappedresourceformar- keters(Vilnai-Yavetz&Tifferet,2015).Specializedsoftware hasbeendeveloped fortextdataprocessingusingseman- tic and syntactic knowledge. Automated extracting and

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understandingofinformationfrompicturesandvideoswill likelybemorecomplex,although importantadvances are appearingeveryday;considerforinstancefacerecognition toolinFacebook.

However,socialmediadataalsocomeinnewanddiverse structuralformats,suchasgraphsornetworks.Theanalysis on the interactions between members of a social net- workareoftenusefultoidentifythedifferentrolesplayed bymembers, but many other analyses maybe performed (Wilson,Sala,Puttaswamy,&Zhao,2012;Guinalíu&Jordán, 2016).Inadditiondatafromseveralsourcesmaybecom- binedtoprovideﬁrmswithdetailedinformationtobetter adaptmarketingactionstospeciﬁcusersandlocations(e.g.

geolocationofcredit-cardsuse).Aseachyeargoesby,the InternetofThingswillbegintoaddgeolocationtothemix ofdatatypesthatmarketerswillneedtodealwith.

RQ8a: Will marketers, or the adherents of another dis- cipline, end up as experts in modeling customer social graphs?

RQ8b:Willmarketersendupastheexpertsforgeolocation modeling?

RQ8c:Willmarketersendupastheexpertsfortextmining?

RQ8d:Willmarketersendupastheexpertsinvideomining?

Discussion

Withthisresearchwedescribeeightsocialmediachallenges formarketingmanagersandaddanumberofquestionsthat academicresearchersshouldexploreinordertocontribute tothedevelopmentofthisﬁeld.Fig.2presentsasummary ofourframework.

The challengespresented herein shouldbetakenonin the context of increasing social media use, and specifi- cally increasing information sharing. These trends enable anddetermine a widevariety of consumer behaviorsand highlightamatchingsetofbusinessopportunities.Thewell- known benefits of digital media (low cost, ubiquity, fast diffusion, etc.) have created a liquification of the econ- omyandhavebroughttotheforethenotion ofsidedness inmarketsandplatforms.Further,socialmediaarepartic- ularlyusefulinempoweringcustomerstofreelycreateand engagewiththebrands,communitiesandfirmactionsthat theymostlike;butalsotopropagatefeelingsandopinions amongpeers.Thislatterpropagationisreshapingthepur- chasejourney,makingitmoresocial,moresharedandmore public.

As digital channels throw off millionsof data records, scholarsand practitionershave begun toanalyzebigdata asarelevantsourceofknowledgeonsocialmediause.Of coursenosingledatasourcecananswerallquestionssince experiments,surveysorqualitativestudiesarerequiredto deepen our understanding into the psychological mecha- nismsbehindconsumers’behaviorinsocialmedia(Hofacker, Malthouse, et al., 2016). Researchers will need better methods and skills to integrate different types or data.

Collaborativeresearchprojectswithﬁrm,andevenpublic institutions,might wellfavordeeper understandingofthe phenomenadescribedinthisarticle.

We hope this work advancesthe ﬁeld beyondprevious challenges on Internet usage an e-commerce by focusing

on social media issues that are still currently emerging.

Nonetheless,ourresearchhasnecessarilymissedmanyother questionsdealingwithsocialmediamarketingmanagement.

Forinstance,privacyandsecurityconcernscontinueasapri- marythreattosocialmediausebybothﬁrmsandcustomers.

Exacerbatingtheproblem,itisdifﬁculttoquantifythenum- berofuserswhoquitsocialmedia.Epidemiologicalmodels ofsocialmedia(Cannarella&Spechler,2014)andmillenni- als’preferencefornewandmorecustomizedinstantsocial media (Bolton et al., 2013) suggest that marketing managers should move forward aggressively toprotect users’

privacy andsecurity.It isalsothe casethat bothscholars and practitioners need tobe attentive to newbusinesses basedonthecombinationsoftheabovechallenges.Asan example,considerPokemonGo,abusinessmodelthatcom- bines geolocation,gamiﬁed interaction, C2C systems,and multi-sidemarkets.

Managersmustalsocopewiththespeciﬁcchallengesof socialmediaintheirownindustry.Alongthoselines,some authorshave alreadyoutlinedrecommendations for social mediamanagementinverydifferentsectorssuchastourism (Xiang&Gretzel,2010),publicmanagement(Bertot,Jaeger,

&Hansen,2012)oradvertising(Okazaki&Taylor,2013).

Finally,we believethat social mediaarein their early stages of development and that their unpredic evolution willbringonnew andevenmorecomplexissues formar- keters.Scholars andpractitioners shouldseektosolvethe challengedposedaboveif,fornoother reason,tobebet- terpreparedtodealwithnewchallengesthatarenodoubt coming.

Conﬂict of interest

Nonedeclared.

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