Development of Social Orientation Trend in Social Networks

<p>Our research deals with quite a new trend in marketing and advertising &ndash; <strong>social orientation</strong>. An increasing amount of publications in the marketing sphere signify the expanded role of social orientation as a new successful approach in marketing and advertising, especially in social media. The theme is quite new for the marketers and admen; it is highly discussed in relevant sources, such as AdvertisingAge.com, Buzznet.com and Trendwatching.com. There are also a few recent books published on the topic, for example: &laquo;Marketing 3.0&raquo; by F. Kotler, &laquo;Start something that matters&raquo; by B. Mycoskie, &laquo;Lovemarks&raquo; by K. Roberts.</p><p><strong>The main problem </strong>that we state in this research is that too many brands treat social media as a one way, broadcast channel, rather than a two-way dialogue through which loyal and trustworthy relationships with consumers are built. <strong>The choice of the theme</strong> is motivated by its topicality: trend of brands&#39; social orientation has highly increased in the last couple of years and is successfully developing in social media. Moreover, due to the fact that the theme is quite recent for marketing and advertising sphere, there are still a lot of uncovered questions connected with the topic. That is why we believe that the topic requires a further investigation and research.</p><p><strong>The aim </strong>of the research is to prove that social orientation is not just a one-day trend, but it is a successful marketing strategy that is mostly effective in social media, which is a really strong, progressive and powerful platform.</p><p>We can name <strong>several objectives</strong> of the research:</p><p style="margin-left:14.7pt;">&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; to analyze how the trend of social orientation has affected advertising</p><p style="margin-left:14.7pt;">&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; to explore how the trend is developing in social media</p><p style="margin-left:14.7pt;">&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; to analyze the cases that demonstrate the effectiveness of socially oriented brands in social media</p><p>Our <strong>research project consists of</strong> introduction, 2 chapters and conclusion. In the introduction we present the topic of our research, the topicality, the aim, the practical usefulness of the paper, theoretical and methodological basis if the study, and a hypothesis. <strong>The first chapter</strong> is devoted to the theoretical aspects of our research. First of all, we have to define what we mean by social orientation of brands and why it is so important in todays marketing and advertising. Here we are going to present different opinions of experts in advertising and marketing, who share the same interest on the topic and have their view on social orientation in business. On the other hand, we have to identify the role of social media in terms of marketing effectiveness, classify different types of social media and decide which of them will be useful for the further research. <strong>The second chapter </strong>we examine instruments that help brands to build social oriented relationships in social media, such as social listening, content strategy planning. <strong>The third chapter</strong> is going to be concentrated on the case &ndash; study analysis of effective socially &ndash; oriented brands that have found the key to consumers&rsquo; loyalty, trust and support via social media. In the conclusion we summarize the obtained results of our study.</p>