2. Social Media Marketing: Evolution and Change

Social media refers to the online media that allows multi-directional conversations and real time interactions. This includes social networking sites (SNS), blogs, discussions forums, content sharing, social bookmarks, wikis, and so on. Social media is creating waves on the Indian marketing scene. It is acting as an enabler to shift the marketing focus from awareness to advocacy. With the advent of the Internet and social media, communication has evolved from a mass model with the consumer having no role in the production, to a customized model with consumer as the focal point However, the extant literature remains largely fragmented and despite a proliferation of academic work, crucial questions pertaining to consumer engagement on social media remain unanswered. This paper charts the evolution of social media research and attempts to identify the underlying themes from the communication perspective. An analytical organization of the extant literature will illuminate the gaps present today and provide structure and direction for future research. This paper examines social media from the communication perspective and research in marketing communications was also reviewed. Six underlying themes within the body of existing social media research are examined and identified. The thematic classification and retrospective analysis highlight the need to further explore the role of social media in brand-consumer relationships. The study also suggests evaluating consumer engagement as a key factor in increasing the effectiveness of marketing communication through social media. A model with integrated perspective on communication through traditional and social media is proposed. Also, the research paper is the first to identify the six underlying trends in social media research. The research further identifies four key areas for academic research in social media.