From social networks to mobile social networks: applications in the marketing evolution

Digital marketing has put mobile and social into the center of the vision. Mobile and social interactions have transformed marketing activities and imposed a new paradigm on consumer behaviors based on real-time customer relationship management, peer-to-peer social influence and idea co-creation with consumers. Extensive research has been conducted in both mobile and social media domain, however few research has led a systematic approach by illustrating the marketing evolution and identifying mobile and social features. In this chapter, we fill this research gap through a literature review approach by first presenting the new marketing paradigm created by social networks, and then analyzing the marketing evolution from web-based social networks to mobile social networks. The mobile and social features are identified to guide marketers for application design. Finally, four case studies are presented to show how these features are distributed in applications to lead a better consumer experience. This chapter brings both theoretical and practical implications in this new trends.