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Social media marketing isn't just about posting content and hoping for likes—it's a sophisticated ecosystem that reflects fundamental shifts in how advertising operates in contemporary society. You're being tested on concepts like parasocial relationships, consumer agency, the attention economy, and the blurring boundaries between content and commerce. Understanding these trends means understanding how power dynamics between brands and consumers have fundamentally changed.
The strategies below demonstrate key advertising principles: authenticity as currency, friction reduction in the consumer journey, and the commodification of personal relationships. When you encounter these trends on an exam, don't just identify what they are—explain why they work and what they reveal about modern consumer behavior and media economics. That's where the points are.
Traditional advertising faces a credibility problem: consumers know they're being sold to. These strategies work by borrowing trust from sources that feel more genuine than brand messaging.
The underlying mechanism is parasocial relationships—the one-sided emotional connections audiences form with media figures, which brands can leverage for commercial purposes.
Compare: Influencer marketing vs. user-generated content—both leverage non-brand voices for authenticity, but influencers are paid intermediaries while UGC comes from unpaid customers. FRQs often ask you to evaluate which approach builds more sustainable brand trust.
In an environment of infinite content and finite attention, these formats compete for shrinking windows of consumer focus.
The attention economy principle: human attention is a scarce resource that platforms and advertisers compete to capture, commodify, and monetize.
Compare: Permanent video content vs. ephemeral stories—both capture attention through motion and sound, but permanent content builds long-term brand assets while ephemeral content drives immediate action through artificial scarcity. Consider which serves brand awareness vs. conversion goals.
These trends eliminate steps between discovery and purchase, reflecting advertising's evolution from awareness-building to direct transaction facilitation.
Friction reduction principle: every additional step between consumer interest and purchase creates opportunities for abandonment; successful platforms minimize these barriers.
Compare: Social commerce vs. paid advertising—both drive sales, but social commerce works through native shopping experiences while paid ads interrupt the feed. Understanding when each is appropriate reveals how brands balance user experience with commercial goals.
Modern social media marketing relies on sophisticated data collection and analysis to deliver individualized experiences at scale.
Surveillance capitalism framework: platforms extract behavioral data from users, which becomes the raw material for predicting and influencing consumer behavior.
Compare: AI targeting vs. social listening—both use data analysis, but AI targeting predicts individual behavior for ad delivery while social listening monitors aggregate sentiment for strategic insight. One is proactive and automated; the other is reactive and often human-driven.
These strategies transform social media from a broadcast channel into an interactive space where brands provide value beyond product promotion.
Brand relationship theory: sustained engagement requires brands to offer ongoing utility, entertainment, or service—not just promotional messages.
Compare: AR experiences vs. customer service—both create brand interactions beyond traditional advertising, but AR drives discovery and engagement while service channels manage post-purchase relationships. Together, they represent the full consumer lifecycle on social platforms.
| Concept | Best Examples |
|---|---|
| Authenticity/Trust Transfer | Influencer marketing, User-generated content |
| Attention Economy Competition | Video content, Ephemeral stories/reels |
| Friction Reduction | Social commerce, In-app purchasing |
| Data-Driven Personalization | AI targeting, Social listening |
| Surveillance Capitalism Tensions | Personalization, Behavioral prediction |
| Brand Relationship Building | AR experiences, Customer service channels |
| Measurability/ROI Tracking | Paid advertising, Social listening |
| Urgency/Scarcity Tactics | Ephemeral content, Limited-time offers |
Which two trends rely most heavily on parasocial relationships to achieve their marketing goals, and how do they leverage trust differently?
Compare and contrast social commerce and paid social advertising—what consumer journey problem does each solve, and when might a brand prioritize one over the other?
If an FRQ asks you to evaluate the ethical tensions in modern social media marketing, which two trends best illustrate the conflict between personalization benefits and privacy concerns?
How do ephemeral content and video dominance both respond to the attention economy, and what distinct psychological mechanisms does each exploit?
A brand wants to build long-term community loyalty rather than drive immediate sales. Which three trends would you recommend, and how do they work together to foster ongoing consumer relationships?