STRATEGIES SMEs IN RNM USE TO ACHIEVE VIRAL MARKETING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
VALBONA ARIFI¹
KEYWORDS: Strategies, SMEs, Viral Marketing.
Objectives
1.
Seen as the act of establishing new businesses, entrepreneurship is a supporting pillar of an economy.
New businesses create new jobs, increase government tax revenues, which results in higher
government spending on public projects, higher exports, and productivity at the state level.
Viral marketing is currently one of the most desired strategies of marketing. It is a form of word-ofmouth marketing that aims to result in a message spreading exponentially to the targeted audience. It
takes its name from a virus because of the similarities that marketers aim to emulate, it is easily passed
on and the number of people who have been “infected” grows exponentially.
The main objectives of our research are:
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What is the extent of use and impact/effect of viral marketing strategies through social
networks by small and medium enterprises in the Republic of North Macedonia?
What are the goals that SMEs try to achieve through viral marketing strategies as one of the
most current forms of non-traditional marketing?
Does Viral Marketing through Social Media help SMEs increase the brand recognition?
2. Theoretical Background
Viral marketing includes both positive or negative evaluations on a brand or service to be transmitted
on the internet to many people or organizations by potential, former or current costumers. The
prominence of both digital technology and social media has increased the importance of viral
marketing with its cost efficiency and enabling companies to reach wide audiences at a very short time
frame.
The effectiveness of viral marketing depends on how quickly the messages are spread voluntarily to a
sizable audience. When used as a form of word-of-mouth advertising in a virtual setting, it quickly
becomes effective by expanding its reach (Kalpaklioglu & Toros, 2011). Viral marketing uses
communications that move swiftly from person to person to increase interest in a brand or product
as well as possible sales. The idea is that people decide whether or not to share content. Social networks
are the ideal environment for this type of marketing due to their speed and ease of sharing. Viral
marketing spreads its influence quickly and in a short amount of time by operating on the same
principles as a virus. Through a multiplied network of connections, viral marketing enables a website
to quickly spread over the globe. And once a company maintains its momentum and accomplishes its
goal, it undoubtedly gets a number of advantages over its rivals. Viral marketing is enticing current
and potential clients to spread the word about a business goods and services to others in their
networks, who in turn will tell additional peopleabout it (Manjrekar, 2011). Viral marketing essentially
relies on online word-of-mouth. (Li et al, 2015). This kind of marketing & its target audience with an
advertisement, which is then spread from one audience member to the next like a contagious flu virus.
In contrast to word-of-mouth marketing, true viral marketing places a direct relationship between the
value of the virus to the initial user and the number of other users it draws (Singh, 2021). Although
social media and word-of-mouth are seen as less expensive and more efficient than traditional media,
their value depends on users spreading information that increases brand visibility. The value of social
transmission is lost if no one shares a firm material or if customers share content that negatively
reflects the company. This could also harm the company & reputation and cause a reduction in
customer base. Because of this, firms may prevent customer backlash and create contagious content
that would go viral by understanding what motivates people to share (Berger and Milkman, 2011).
3. Methodology
This paper presents a descriptive research based on the primary data collected with the interview as
the main data prepared specifically for this paper.
To gain a better insight into the use of social media to produce viral marketing, in-depth interviews
were conducted with 10 randomly selected SMEs in RNM. More than 20 companies were approached
for this study and only 10 of them agreed to be part of it. An SME was defined as a small to middle
sized company which operates RNM regardless of the industry. We used in-depth interviews to gather
research data.
4. Findings
Most of the interviewees, 80% belonged to the age group 25-35 with only two of them being older
than 50. While 4 of them are the founders of the companies, 2 of them are having partner/cofounder
status and the rest 4 are employed in managerial positions. Nearly all the interviewed people, 90%, in
our study declared they were using social media for advertisement purposes. 6 of the businesses are
established in the 90s, one is 12 years operating in the market and the rest 3 are operating for 3 years.
Two companies were operating in the education and training industry, two others in electrical energy,
a manufacturing company of soft drinks, a recently established marketing agency, an artisanal jewelry
shop, construction company, online clothing store, and a well - known local fabrics store. While two
of them counted 50+ employees, 4 fall on the range of small companies with slightly over 9 employees,
and the rest 4 are micro companies with less than 9 employees.
5. Conclusions
The market in North Macedonia, and the SMEs which are driving economic changes have been no
exception of the digital shift and the continuous change in the business climate. More and more
companies are embracing social medias as part of their marketing strategies. According to the data
publishes by Datareportal, 2021, we can say that almost half the population of our country is present
in social media, therefore SMEs operating in RNM must take advantage of their power. 90% of the
SMEs that were part of our study, were heavily relying on the power and spread of social media to
reach their marketing objectives and aim of going viral. While most of them are using social media to
market their products and services, boost sales and to increase brand recognition, there are also
companies who take advantage of social media to attract talent.
Bibliographic References
BERGER J., and MILKMAN, K. L. (2011). ‘’What makes online content viral?, American marketing
association’’. Journal of marketing.
SINGH, R. (2021). ‘’Offline Viral Marketing’’. SCRIBD.
MANJREKAR, P. (2011). ‘’ Viral Marketing: A Study of drivers of Viral Marketing and factors that
influence the receipt and forwarding of viral messages’’.
KALPAL;IOGLU, N.U., TOROS, N. (2011). ‘’Viral marketing techniques within online social
network’’. Yournal Yasar.