Introduction

Why should we study marketing management processes in social network platforms?

Today’s rapidly growing creative companies must adopt social network platforms. Indeed, the “twenty-first century’s wealth comes from platforms” Thus “those who possess platforms dominate the wealth of the future” (Hirano & Hagiu, 2010).

After the Lehman Brothers-initiated financial crisis, companies began developing platform strategies as a cutting-edge management method for assuring consistent and stable growth. Platform strategies call for gathering relevant groups of people together in a network that then creates new business. (Hirano & Hagiu, 2010)

In this study, we study a social network platform to show how marketing management processes can be applied to social network platforms.

Literature Review

Social Network Platforms
In recent years, social network platform sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and KakaoTalk have evolved to bring people together online. Social network services (SNS) are rapidly infiltrating daily lives and facilitating communications among people by means of computers (Correa et al., 2010; Powell, 2009). Users reside at the center of social platforms where they can socialize and express a wide range of behaviors.

As a force for change, social platforms are influencing marketing strategies as well. Advertising has been traditionally one-way communication from company to customers through public media and portal sites. Recently, the paradigm has changed (Yeo, 2014): companies establish relationship with customers through social platforms that allow them to talk with customers directly, exchange opinions, and share ideas. As a result, large-scale corporations, mid-sized/small companies, and one-owner companies have turned their attention to social platforms (Jhun, 2013). Moreover, the revolutionary wave has affected such diverse areas as politics, economics, society, culture, and environmental causes.

Researchers have responded to social platform developments with studies that deal with concept, construction, policy, development, spatial information, social platforms, and governmental roles (Choi et al., 2012), and that deal with social platform’s social influences and future directions (Lee & Jung, 2011).

Researchers have studied functions and utilization of social platform using web services and policies to support collaborative research (Pignotti & Edwards, 2012), sharing shopping information (Der Ho et al., 2010), customer engagement (Cheung, Lee, & Jin, 2011), and senior social platforms (Farkas, 2010). Social platforms emerged so recently that academic studies have failed to keep up with the urgent need to study the phenomena realistically (Yeo, 2013).

Method

In this study, we analyze phase 1 secretary platform by Cybermoon Co., Ltd., which has four main functions:

Product name: On-Secretary PlatformCore Services
● Phase 1. Assistant Service
● Phase 2. Vision Maker Service
● Phase 3. Collaboration and Sharing Service
● Phase 4. Social Sales Service
● Phase 5 Assistant Call Center Service

Objective
On-Secretary Platform aims to yield optimized productivity by offering secretary functions to experts working for one person-companies, small-scale companies, or small traders.
- Next generation SNS-based social secretary management service uses Twitter and Facebook.
- Online and offline secretary management service grows with users and assists them with every aspect of their lives.
- Service dispatches 90,000 online secretaries and 10,000 offline secretaries to assist clients.

Target Market
- General customers: individuals who want to establish businesses.
- Businesspersons: presidents of one-person or small companies, and the self-employed
- Experts: consultants, coaching specialists, lawyers, and professors
- Public organizations such as job-search organizations, business creation support organizations, infrastructure-expansion organizations, education centers for the unemployed, social education centers, education for retired people, and lifelong learning centers.

Customer Value Proposition
- Survey and analysis on the services needed by single entrepreneurs.
- Survey and analysis of services needed by potential entrepreneurs.
- Survey and analysis of services needed by experts.
- Survey and analysis of services needed by public organizations.

Assets and competition
- 20-years of developing IT business services and operational systems
- Patents for core techniques and experts with development abilities

Functional strategies and programs
- Secretary function: selection of AI (artificial intelligence)-type character and growth by consistent learning
- Chatting function: task reporting via letters, voices, and holograms
- Program: cloud-based social platform service
- Service method: online service and offline call-center service.

Marketing Mix(Richard & Colin, 1992)

Figure 1. Managing Marketing Strategies and the Marketing Mix

SWOT Analysis

Figure 2. SWOT Analysis

Contribution of this research

● Academic contributions
This study could contribute to understanding diverse applications and developing theory regarding platforms to help to consolidate theoretical fundamentals regarding marketing management processes for using platforms. Finding various marketing methods and studying their relationship would contribute to future platform-based management strategy.

● Practical contribution
This study could help companies, governments, society, and individuals efficiently utilize marketing management processes when using platforms for continuous growth and progress.

• Chang Suk Choi(Changwon National University)
• Kyung Hoon Kim(Changwon National University)