Development of Digital Marketing in Civil Aviation
The most important power source and popular aspect of
social media is that users share quick and easy information about their daily
lives with other people. But the same power comes with a great risk of sharing
sensitive information with the wrong people. According to Christopher Null, the
biggest cause of this risk is due to the network effect and the expansion of
the circle of friends (Null, 2009). Therefore, users or companies should check
their social media accounts and prevent the wrong flow of information. On the
other hand, social media networks, which can roughly be defined as tools that
turn one-way communication into an interactive dialogue through mobile and
web-based applications, are becoming more and more popular. According to the
research conducted by Business Insider in 2014; In the social media pool,
including blogs, wikis and forums, people around the world spend 3 hours or
more per day. (Business Insider, 2014) The study of Pew Research Company shows
that the majority of these people are young adults (PewResearch Center, 2013).
While social media usage rates are increasing day by day, social media
companies should also be able to measure the recycling of their investments,
transform the social media platforms they use to create a competitive
advantage, and at the same time, they can renew their social media accounts
more interactive and solution oriented.
One of the most important features of the internet is
that it has become both a new channel for companies and consumers to bring
their products together with consumers and an alternative way of communicating
with consumers. In this way, consumers can access new products, make orders and
follow up their orders, and compare their product features and report their
complaints to the manufacturer. While the internet also provides a number of
advantages for the service industry, it also allows customers to compare and
learn about the services. In this way, the Internet helps users to obtain
information and receive services in a wide range from online banking services,
travel reservations, news tracking to product inquiries (Rose, Hair, Clark,
2011: 24). Today, such online transactions continue not only to web-based
applications but also to blogs, mobile phone applications, social networks and
other online communities. Although there are various opinions that the internet
is not a new generation communication channel, the point that most researchers
agree is the development of web 2.0 technology. According to media theorist Dan
Laughey, web 2.0 has enabled ordinary users to write, send and publish content
without the need for any special software. As such, all popular social networks
of today are web 2.0 products. (Laughey, 2010: 163) After the web 2.0
revolution in 2002, Friendster went live first and then many social networking
sites with similar content and more popular were met with the users. The
emergence and spread of Web 2.0 paved the way for the development of social
networks, creating a new interactive and participatory social community. Thanks
to Web 2.0 technologies, companies and users have been able to use an
interactive dimension of communication such as participatory content creation
(wiki), content sharing (text, video, and photo), social networks (Facebook,
Twitter, etc.) (Thackeray, Neiger, Hanson, McKenzie, 2012: 339).
Social networks built on the Web 2.0 infrastructure
allow individuals to create a general or semi-public profile within a
restricted system, to talk to those on the list of other users who share the
link, to look at their list of links, to make cross transitions from there, and
to make other individuals within the system do so, based services. According to
Miletsky, social media is an umbrella term that includes all of the tools and
applications used to socialize in a virtual environment. These tools are social
networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Wikipedia, YouTube, blogs, wikis,
podcasts) online forums, photo and video sharing, instant messaging, content
communities, etc. It can be listed as (2010: 16). What makes social networking
sites unique is not that it allows individuals to meet foreigners, but rather
to make users visible on social networks and allow them to connect. This can
result in connections between individuals, which otherwise would not have been
possible. But mostly this is not the goal. In many of the broader social
networking services, participants do not have to network or try to meet new
people. Instead, the participants communicate primarily with people who are
part of their broad social network (Boyd, Ellison, 2008: 211). A node in social
networks, the more links, the more chances to add new links. The growth of the
social website depends on the structure of the network. For the network to
grow, adoption of the network in a viral manner must be supported or the
network must be maintained. Every new user of a network is potentially a new
port of that network. Therefore, the network participation of new
"real" people should be supported in order for the network to grow.
On the other hand, an activity that brings new people into the network is an
important connection tool for ensuring the vitality of the network. In this
sense, the vitality of the network depends on the person or activities that
bring new members (Akar, 2010; 113). With the emergence and popularity of
social networks and social media, it has become easier for thousands of people
to communicate with each other as if they were a single individual (Owen and
Humphrey, 2010: 3). In addition, social networking sites can classify and label
according to criteria such as age, religion, political view, hobbies and
interests. With this classification and labeling, it is possible to investigate
how interactions occur between groups (Maranto & Barton, 2010: 36). One of
the most innovative features of social media networks is that it has a function
that emphasizes and even cares about users' likes, wishes and expectations.
This innovative feature that distinguishes social media networks from others
allows the members of the network to express their opinions about each other
and the products and services they use, to share their experiences, and thanks
to the interaction, these comments have increased and turned into a mass /
common idea, likes or requests (Kryder, 2010: 32). It is also possible to detect
customer sentiment by following social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter,
it can provide companies with a place for fan pages. Thanks to these pages,
companies can meet consumers directly, display their products and respond to
consumer expectations online (Martinez, 2010: 33). For many people, the whole
of the comments we have mentioned above are far more valuable and reliable in
terms of real people's implications and user experiences. Because, according to
research, only 14% of internet users trust traditional advertisements, while
78% think that user comments and likes are much more reliable and believable
(Davey: 2010). The interactive structure of mobile devices, which intensifies
the prices day by day, and the social networks, bringing producers and
consumers, increases the interest in these platforms day by day. According to
ComScore's 2014 report (Comscore, 2014), 2.5 billion people around the world
use the internet, while 1.8 billion of these users have accounts on social
media networks. On the other hand, Facebook has maintained its leadership as
the platform with the highest number of users with its number of 1.184 billion
users. In Turkey, while over 35 million Internet users, 36 million active
Facebook account is remarkable. When considering why the number of users the
most widely used social media platform, Facebook in Turkey (93%), in order to
Twitter (72%), Google+ (70%) and LinkedIn (33%) followed. On the other hand,
Turkey has the youngest audience of Internet users in Europe (15-25 age range).
The country with the oldest user base is Germany (+55 years old). The
increasing interaction between firms and users today is an integration of all
the communication activities that businesses are planning to achieve and
achieve their goals; is a general communication strategy that sends messages to
the target audience by integrating communication studies such as advertisement,
public relations, direct marketing, point of purchase communication, personal
sales, and sales development (Tosun, 2014: 375). With the advent of social
media, the traditional marketing approach of businesses has undergone many
changes and social media has become a platform where companies can make their
voices heard apart from individual use. Interestingly, it is seen that users
are also very eager to communicate with brands and businesses on this platform
at any time (Alikılıç, 2011: 15). Thus, businesses can use social media; they
started using it as a marketing channel, following their brands, catching and
retaining customers, responding to customer demands, getting information
support from customers, following the market, developing new products,
publishing content, sales channels and human resources.
Thackeray, R., Neiger, L.B., Hanson, L.C., McKenzie,
F.J. (2012). “Enhancing Promotional Strategies Within Social Marketing
Programs: Use of Web 2.0 Social Media”, Social Marketing and Health
Communications, Vol. 9, No. 4, 338-343.
Boyd, D.M. ve Ellison, N.B. (2008). Social Network
Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication, Volume 13, Issue 1, Date: October 2008, 210-230.
Akar, E., (2010). “Social Networking Sites as a Type of Virtual Communities-Functioning as a Marketing Communication Channel”, Anadolu University Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 107-122.
Owen, R., Patrica H. (2010). “The structure of Online
Marketing Communication channels”, Journal of Management and Marketing
Research, pp.1-10
Maranto, G., Mat B. (2010). “Paradox and Promise: MySpace, Facebook, and the Sociopolitics of Social Networking in the Writing Classroom”, Computers and Composition, 27, pp.36-47.
Kryder, C. L. (2010). “Facebook Friend or Fan? You Decide”, Amwa Journal, Vol.25. N.1, pp.32.
Martinez, J. (2010). “Marketing to a Community”,
Customer Relationship Management, June, pp.33.
Davey N. (2010). “More Than Just Marketing: Using YouTube
for Customer Engagement”
http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/customer-experience/more-just-marketing-using-youtubecustomer-engagement/104489
Comscore, (2014) Europe Digital Future in Focus, www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers//2013_Europe_Digital_Future_in_Foc us
Tosun, N. (2014). Brand Management, Beta Publishing, Istanbul. Turkey Civil Aviation Sector Report, (2013). http://www.tobb.org.tr/documents/yayinlar/2014/turkiyesivilhavaciliksektorraporu.pdf
Alikılıç, Ö.A. (2011). Public Relations 2.0: New Stakeholders in Social Media, New Techniques, Efil Publishing, Ankara.