CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice
“Advancing Our Understanding of the Theory and Practice of Social Media Marketing”

The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice (JMTP) is positioned as a high quality journal internationally that is devoted to the publication of peer-reviewed articles addressing substantive, managerial issues in marketing. In the context of developing, enhancing, and disseminating marketing knowledge, JMTP values both conceptual and empirical work by academicians so long as the work is theoretically sound and also provides strong implications for the managerial practice of marketing.

SPECIAL ISSUE GUEST EDITORS:

• Tracy Tuten, East Carolina University
• Alma Mintu-Wimsatt, Texas A&M – Commerce

BACKGROUND:

The use of social media is now ingrained in our everyday lives. It has become common practice for businesses and consumers to use social media as a tool to connect, build, and develop relationships. This is evident from recent statistics on social media usage where approximately 75 percent of businesses reported having a social networking site while 74 percent of Internet users use at least one social media outlet. Social media marketing is of value globally due to its ability to cross and even share screens. It is already considered a requisite component of any brand’s promotional campaign and provides real-time customer care value for companies utilizing social media channels. Until recently, social media marketing has largely been driven by branding objectives. But, a shift is emerging as B2B marketers embrace social media marketing to meet lead generation, relationship marketing, and conversion objectives.

OVERVIEW:

Social media marketing is the utilization of social media technologies, channels and software to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offerings that have value for an organization and its stakeholders. It is made possible by the digital infrastructure, utilizing social media vehicles such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. Social media engages participants on any connected digital device.

Though the realm of social media is vast and complex, it can be organized using the Zones of Social Media Marketing Framework (Tuten and Solomon, 2015):

Zone 1: Social Community describes channels of social media focused on relationships and the common activities people participate in with others who share the same interest or identification. While all social media channels are built around networked relationships, the interaction and collaboration for relationship building and maintenance in social communities are the primary reasons people engage in these activities. The channels in the social community zone include social networking sites, message boards and forums, and wikis. All emphasize individual contributions in the context of a community, communication and conversation, and collaboration.

Zone 2: Social Publishing aids in the dissemination of content to an audience. Social publishing may be user-generated, editorial, and/or branded. Channels of social publishing include blogs, micro sharing sites, media sharing sites, social bookmarking, and news sites. Social publishing has been closely connected to content marketing and B2B marketers have excelled in this zone.

Zone 3: Social Entertainment encompasses channels and vehicles that offer opportunities for play and enjoyment. These include social games, social television, social art, social music, and social sport.

Research in this zone primarily has focused on gamification.

Zone 4: Social Commerce refers to the use of social media to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services. Social commerce serves to influence stages of the consumer-decision-making process. Social commerce channels include reviews and ratings, deal sites and deal aggregators, social shopping markets and social storefronts. While some advances have been made with conversion technology in social channels, the aspects of social commerce that are best understood relate mainly to reviews and ratings.

Despite the exponential growth of social media, research on each of the four zones noted above has been sporadic in the extant marketing literature. While there is a wealth of social media articles in practitioner-oriented publications, a cursory investigation of key marketing academic journals and conferences yielded the opposite. Although social media and social networking may be fairly recent developments, they are now emerging as critical areas of research. Based on this situation, JMTP is devoting a special issue to advancing the understanding of theory and practice in social media marketing.

Given our focus on the strategic foundations of social media marketing, the special issue will consider rigorous empirical as well as conceptual papers that offer sound theoretical bases, create integrative frameworks and models, offer important reviews, or debate key ideas within the field. We are interested in papers that make their own original and constructive contributions and we welcome research that explore, investigate and advance our understanding of the dynamic role of social media in the practice of marketing.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION:

The due date for submission of manuscripts is October 15, 2016. Only original papers not currently under review or published in other journals may be submitted. The Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice website (www.jmtp-online.org/) provides information about the journal’s positioning (i.e., aims and scope), instructions for authors (i.e., style and formatting guidelines), and information about the review process. Please precisely follow the guide for authors and submit all manuscripts electronically via the ScholarOne Manuscripts site located at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jmtp. Clearly indicate that the paper is for the Special Issue on Social Media Marketing by selecting the “Special Issue” submission type. Before being placed into review, each manuscript will initially be screened for adherence to JMTP style guidelines and if not properly formatted it will be returned to the author.

QUESTIONS AND FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the Special Issue Guest Editors directly

Tracy Tuten

East Carolina University
tutent@ecu.edu or tracytuten@gmail.com
252.328.6599 (o), 252.495.0328 (mobile)

Alma Mintu-Wimsatt
Texas A&M University – Commerce
Alma.Wimsatt@tamuc.edu

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