On the stage of Retention online brand community providing technical support for customers and giving them a platform to express their opinions and to communicate with each other is appropriate.

Loyalty

As I have already said there are different types of loyalists. In my point of view, it makes sense to consider active and passive loyalists separately.

Talking about active loyalists, I believe that this stage requires brand community which makes this type of customers feel themselves as a part of community. Probably, active loyalists will join this group and show others their preference to the brand, for example, by making reposts to their personal pages.

Moreover, loyal customers will probably want to discuss the products with like-minded people, therefore, it is necessary to organize a platform (for instance, a brand community) where people can meet. Discussing products of the brand and other related topics will be associated with a brand, which can stick person for the brand emotionally. What is more, after discussing of the brand people can share their experience about using the product and advice each other how to use it better.

Furthermore, loyal customers can be not only in using existing products of the brand but in developing them. They can be asked to help in creating new products for the brand which correspond with their personal needs. Moreover, active loyalists usually know all the pros and cons of the company and their advice and opinions can give a company the understanding where to move and which products to develop according to customers' needs.

On the other hand, I believe that this stage does not require reviews from people who are not experts in this sphere. For example, bloggers activities are not appropriate on this stage. Moreover, there is no point in advertising since loyal customers probably know all the specifics of the product better that it can be demonstrated in advertisements.

Considering passive loyalists it is possible to make a conclusion that they probably will not take part in brand communities and special polls because they are not passionate about developing a product and feeling a part of community. Therefore, I can assume that passive loyalists need the same SMM activities as people on previous stages (for example Consideration and Evaluation). It is necessary to emphasize that the methodology I am going to use considers the problem from customers' point of view. Passive loyalists sometimes cannot define and confirm their loyalty since they do not feel themselves a part of a brand. Taking into account this limitation I decided not to analyze passive loyalists separately in my research as another type of analysis is required to get representative results.

On the stage of Loyalty social media brand community providing customers with opportunities to express their opinions about their favorite brands and their possible development (such as polls and surveys or other activities) and giving loyalists an opportunity to chat with like-minded people are suggested to be appropriate.

Overall, the brief description of suggested social media marketing activities on each stage of customer journey is demonstrated in the Table 1.

Table 2. SMM activities which are suggested to be appropriate on each stage of customer journey

	A stage of customer journey
	Awareness	Consideration	Evaluation (Preference)	Purchase (Action)	Retention	Loyalty
Singh, Diamond (2012) - approriate activities	Promo videos	Appreciating customer reviews	Giving information about a product (blog and videos)	-	Making a community for loyal people
	General hashtags	Platform for customers to communicate
	Online brand communty
	Loyal customers reviews
My suggestions - appropriate activities	Advertisement	Online brand community (as a source of reviews and opinions)	An opportuniy for making purchases in social networks	Technical support in a brand community	Polls and surveys for customers aimed at developing new products
	Opinion leaders (to attract new customers)	Opinion leaders (to persuade customers to buy exact product)	Encouraging customers to create content for special offers and discounts in the moment of purchase	Platform for customers to communicate (brand community)	Platform for customers to communicate (brand community)
	Direct messages	Content created by customers (to persuade customers to buy exact product)		Giveaways and contests	Giveaways and contests
	Giveaways and contests (gamification)
	Reposts and sharing from customers
	Content created by customers
	Hashtags
	Content created by company

2. Studying consumers' reaction on different SMM activities on different stages of customer journey

2.1 Methodology of the research

This part of my work explains the methods were used in carrying out the research. I used a combination of secondary data to study existing theory about the investigated problem in detail. Nevertheless, the analysis of relevant sources was not enough because the research is aimed at studying customers' attitude and their perception of different SMM activities on different stages of customer journey. Due to this fact, I have chosen a field research as an appropriate method for studying this problem. During the field research I would like to study customers' opinions and experience connected with different SMM activities. Choosing between qualitative and quantitative methods I came to the conclusion that quantitative one is more appropriate for the study as SMM activities are supposed to reach a broad target audience, thus, a large sample is required to receive relevant results. Among the different quantitative methods I decided to use online questionnaire since I suppose that this method suits better as a process of collecting the information from users in social network can be carried out more easily online than offline.

I used a non-probability sample, which means that the selection on this sample is not random. Among non-probability samples I have chosen convenient sample for the several reasons. This method allows collecting the information fast and easily. There is no doubt that convenience sample has also some drawbacks. This type of sample has a risk of misrepresenting the data and, as a consequence, biased results, which should not be ignored. However, it is necessary to notice that people of different age and different countries of living were presented in the sample. As a result, an online survey was conducted. 321 people completed a questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part included 25 questions about uses' attitude social network activities. The second part contained of four questions about social demographic data. There were several scales used in the questionnaire to test different aspects of consumers' relations to SMM activities. All the questions are closed in order to get standardized answers which are easier to process.

As I have already noticed, the survey conducted by me is a way to study the problem from the customers' point of view. Nevertheless, I believe that it is only the first step in investigating which SMM activities are required on different stages of customer journey. The further research from the side of a company is required to be conducted. During the internship I had an opportunity to investigate such SMM activity as sending direct messages from the company's perspective.

2.2 Results and discussion

As I have already said there were 321 respondents who took part in the research. There were two main clusters of people. The first cluster includes only Russians, who filled the survey in native language. The second cluster includes people from different countries. These respondents were asked to complete the survey in English.

There were 88 males and 231 females who took part in the survey. The age of respondents, and a number of people from each country participated in the survey are presented on the Diagram 1 and Diagram 2 respectively.

Diagram 1. The age of respondents.



Diagram 2. Countries presented.

It is noticeable that people from different countries filled the questionnaire. There is no doubt that all these countries have their own specific features and further research is required to analyze the appropriate SMM activities for managing customer journey for each country separately, nevertheless, the conducted research allows to make general outlines and compare Russia and other countries. In total 245 Russians and 76 people from other countries participated in the survey.

The most popular occupation among respondents was studying (44,7%) due to the chosen type of sample and active participation of young people in social networks. However, there was a diversity of occupations among respondents as there were different spheres like IT, Marketing, Army, Education, Housekeeping and others.

Talking about mostly used social networks, I will discuss them for Russians and foreigners separately, since there are some sites which popularity is highly dependent on country. Among Russians the most popular social networks are Vkontakte and Instagram. Considering people from other countries, they prefer Facebook and YouTube. The whole situation can be seen on Diagrams 3 and 4.



Diagram 3. Social networks which people from Russia use

Diagram 4. Social networks which people from other countries use

2.2 Results and Discussion

First, it is necessary to say that the survey has proved the world statistics that overwhelming majority of respondents (94%) uses Internet every day.

Diagram 5. How often people use social networks

In the following paragraph, I will analyze each stage of the customer journey separately, as it is important to outline specifics for each stage, in particular, Awareness, Consideration and Evaluation, Purchase, Retention and Loyalty.

Awareness

As I mentioned previously, following SMM activities were suggested on this stage “On the stage of Awareness advertisement, promotion from opinion leaders, direct messages, giveaways and contests, reposts and original content made by customers, hashtags, and content created by a company сan be appropriate.”

The widest range of SMM activities is used on the stage of Awareness in comparison with other stages. The questions 4, 5, 6, (advertisement); 14 (opinion leaders); 7, 8 (direct messages); 9, 12, 13 (giveaways and contests); 9, 11, 23 (reposts and content created by customers); 10 (hashtags); 9 (content created by a brand) were created to estimate SMM activities on this stage (Appendix).

High percent of respondents (35,5%) is neutral to advertisement. However, it is necessary to notice that quite many people have negative (26,5%) and very negative (20,6%) attitude to it. Talking about promo videos, it is possible to see that the situation is slightly better for companies because more than a half of respondents (56,2%) watch till the end videos which they like. Nevertheless, there are few people enjoying watching promo videos (5 Russians and no foreigners). Thus, I came to the conclusion that Diamond's recommendation to upload videos on YouTube is irrelevant. It is noticeable that foreign people like advertisements and promo videos less than Russians, since for foreign respondents the proportion of people who have negative or very negative attitude to advertisements in social networks and always skip promo videos is higher. Considering advertisement as a SMM tool, it is necessary to pay attention to how many people use advertisement blocker. The results show that 56,6% respondents from other countries and only 28,6% Russians use it. Overall, it can be seen that currently advertisement is becoming more irritating for people. However, Russians have better attitude to advertisement and promo videos than foreigners.

One more source from which customers become aware of the product is a promotion from opinion leaders like celebrities and bloggers. It is necessary to say that 49,4% of Russians and 38,2% foreigners follow opinion leaders. What is more, 12,2% and 32,9% respondents from Russia and abroad respectively visit famous people's pages, although, they are not subscribed. It means that opinion leaders can be a good source of Awareness for potential customers.

Another way to make customers aware of your product is to send them direct messages. This method is less commonly used abroad as 80,3% respondents have been never sent those messages. In Russia sending direct messages to promote products is more popular. There are 46,5% and 30,60% people who received these massages in Vkontakte and in Instagram respectively. The further analysis has shown that few people (3,4% Russians and 11,8% foreigners) were interested in the messages while most respondents were never interested in direct messages containing advertisement or did not pay attention to it. Overall, this method is not as popular as advertisement and the proportion of people who were interested in these messages is low. However, sending direct messages is the one of few ways among methods considered on the stage of Awareness, which is free. This fact definitely should be taken into account.

One more SMM activity which is considered to be used on this stage of customer journey is giveaways and contests. It can be seen that only 11,2% respondents would visit unknown brand page in order to win a prize. Moreover, almost 70% Russians and people from other do not participate in any kind giveaways and contests and, what is more, Russians who take part in such king of SMM activities prefer goods and services which they have already use and like (12,2%). Among foreigners the situation is different since most respondents are ready to take part in giveaways and contests of products have never used before (13,2%). Thus, if a foreign company enters Russian market, it should consider that on the much less people will take part in giveaways and contests of unknown product. It means that this type of SMM activity is not appropriate for the stage of Awareness especially for Russian market.

Next SMM activity I am going to consider for the stage of Awareness is reposts from existing customers or original content generated by them. Talking about reposts on the stage of Awareness it is necessary to say that overwhelming majority of both Russian and foreigners (almost 90%) do not do promo reposts at all or unless they were asked by their friends or relatives t do that. Posts from existing customers are also not appropriate as few people prefer posting their purchases. Only 8,6% Russians and 5,3% not Russians would post a text or a photo of a product in social networks in case they like it. However, it can be noticed that approximately 70% of all the respondents would tell their friends and relatives about product they like and recommend. It means that in general people are ready to share their opinion and recommendations about goods and services and they can post it in social networks under some conditions. Thus, I can suppose that it is possible to stimulate them to do it by giveaways and contests. As I have already said, that this kind of SMM activity is not appropriate for attracting new customers. Nevertheless, much more people (approximately 30% of all the respondents) are ready to take part in a giveaway or a contest if a product is familiar or interesting for them. Consequently, these 30% are ready to post something in their social networks in order to win a prize. The post can attract people who are not familiar to the product. One more proof of this statement is the fact that almost a half of respondents (43,9%) will visit an unknown brand page in case they see it in news feed. It means that giveaways and contests for customers asking to repost some information or to create their own content are appropriate at the stage of Awareness.

Using hashtags is one more SMM activity which is suggested on this stage. Obviously, hashtags are fast and easy to put. On the other hand, it is a very convenient way for customers to find information they are interested in. These two facts can be a reason to use them. Nevertheless, it is necessary to take into account that most respondents do not use hashtags to find any brands. The whole situation is slightly different for Russians and people from other countries, which can be seen on the Diagram 6.



Diagram 6. How often people use hashtags to find any brands

Talking about content created by a company on the stage of Awareness, I would like to analyze this content on the base of social network brand community. Obviously, there are different types of content and further investigation is required to consider all of them, however, in this work I will focus on a social media brand communities. 40,4% and 55,3% Russians and foreigners respectively told that they would visit a brand page in social networks in case they see an interesting post. Thus, this proportion is quite significant and a brand community in social networks which contains all the relevant information such as description of products, possible discounts, giveaways and contests, customer reviews etc. can influence the purchase decision for a few customers.

All things considered, the suggestion about appropriate SMM activities on the stage of Awareness has been submitted partially. Advertisement in social networks is still useful for making customers aware of goods and services even quite many respondents have negative attitude to it. Nevertheless, new ways which can be used for this purpose should not be ignored. Thus, direct messages, information posted by opinion leaders, existing customers and company itself is appropriate SMM activities on this stage are useful. Giveaways and contents are not appropriate, however, they can motivate existing customers to make reposts and create their own content about the product. Hashtags can be used as they do not require much efforts while an online brand community on this stage is not necessary.

Consideration and Evaluation

The next stage I would like to consider is the stage of Consideration and Evaluation with the following suggestion “On the stage of Consideration and Evaluation online brand communities, opinion leaders and existing customers' reviews are suggested to appropriate.”

Questions 3,15 were asked to define appropriate activities on the stage of Consideration and Evaluation.

It is necessary to notice, that the most popular source where people find information while choosing goods and services is friends or relatives' advice, with 80,0% for Russians and 86,8% for others. Reading reviews on special websites and forums is also popular as approximately 73% of all respondents use it. Social network brand community is the least popular source of information since less than 20% respondents use it. Overall, the suggestion, that online brand community as a source of information about a product is appropriate on the stage of Consideration and Evaluation, is not confirmed. Probably, it is more effective use other ways to promote products on this stage.

Diagram 7. Sources of information people use choosing a product.

However, it is necessary to take into account the fact that friends and relatives' advice is a very important source of information. Needless to say, that people can get this advice not only talking to each other directly but also by social networks. It means that the scheme which was suggested on for the stage of Awareness is also appropriate for the stage of Consideration and Evaluation. It happens due to the fact that loyal customers can post positive reviews or some other thing for a giveaway or contest, which will be draw attention from their friends in social networks and, probably, become an important factor in making purchase decision for them.

As I suggested, one more appropriate activity for the stage of Consideration and Evaluation is using opinion leaders in order to persuade customers. However, more than a half of respondents (58,0% Russians and 67,1% foreigners) told that celebrities' and bloggers' opinion about goods and services is not important for them at all. However, 38,3% respondents said that they consider celebrities' opinion, which means that this SMM activity still can be appropriate.

In conclusion, the suggestion about SMM activities on the stage of Consideration and Evaluation is confirmed partially. A brand community in social networks is a least popular source of information. Using opinion leaders to persuade customers does can be used on this stage. One more activity which can be appropriate is encouraging customers to create their own content as on the stage of Awareness.

Purchase

“On the stage of Purchase encouraging customers to create content for special offers and discounts and giving them an opportunity make purchases in social networks are suggested to be appropriate”.

To find evidence for confirming or rejecting the suggestion questions 18, 19, 20, and 21 about how many people make purchases in social networks or with a help of them and the reasons for this were asked. The results of the survey demonstrate that overwhelming majority of respondents (78,8%) do not buy anything online. It is noticeable that more Russians (26,1%) than foreigners (5,3%) have made purchases through social networks. It can be seen that in Russia the most popular items people buy are clothes and shoes (67,1% of Russians who make purchases in social networks) while abroad people choose to buy different things online (the category on which they make slightly more purchases is travelling). The probable reason of this situation is connected to the fact that in Russia there are some individuals who sell clothes and shoes as a business, while in other country this activity is not that popular.

Furthermore, Russians are more ready to buy goods and services in social networks. The main condition to make a purchase in social networks which is necessary for almost 60,8% of Russians is a trustworthy seller. Moreover, only 17,6% Russians are not ready to make purchases in social networks in any condition while for people from other countries this number reaches 48,7%.

Thus, I suppose that the suggestion claiming that making purchases in social networks can be right as 82,4% of Russian respondents are ready to make online purchases under several conditions. The main condition, a trustworthy seller, can be reached, for example, by organizing a brand community. For people from other countries this proportion is significantly lower, nevertheless, more than a half of respondents are ready to make purchases in social networks. On the other hand, there is a significant threat for brands organizing purchases in social networks as there are very popular online sites like Amazon, AliExpress and others which can be much more convenient, trustful, and familiar for customers.

In addition, there is one more aspect which should be considered about SMM activities on the stage of Purchase. Some companies offer customers to make a repost or post a photo with location and hashtags for a discount or for a small prize. This special offer is popular especially among cafes and restaurants. However, few respondents participated in those tasks. Only 14,7% of Russians and 7,9% of foreigners have ever done it. The fact that there were no respondents who took part in this activity regularly can be an evidence of the fact that customers are not interested in this kind of special offers as it is can be useless or inconvenient for them.

In conclusion, few customers make purchases in social networks. Most foreigners are not ready to buy goods and services through social networks, while Russians would make purchases online if several conditions are met. However, it is necessary to remember that there is a high competition between sites selling goods and services online.

Retention

On the stage of Retention online brand community providing technical support for customers and giving them a platform to express their opinions and to communicate with each other is appropriate.

I proposed that on the stage of Retention technical support is required. The question 22 was aimed at determining how often people ask for technical support. It is necessary to say that this indicator is quite low. However, in Russia it is slightly higher as 1,2% people often use technical support while there is no people from other countries at all who use technical support often. There is no doubt that technical support is not always required, nevertheless, I believe that some assistance which can help customers is beneficial for the company. According to the survey (question 16), almost 28% Russian respondents and 28,9% foreigners follow online brand communities in order to get information about products they already use. Considering the fact that approximately 41,2% Russian respondents and 31,6% foreigners do not follow any brand communities, getting new information about product is one of the main reasons to follow brand communities. I believe that technical assistance is also a way for a customer to get information about a product he or she has bought and probably it should be organized in a way which is more convenient for customers in order to attract new people to the brand community. Thus, I believe that providing convenient and helpful technical support for customers is an opportunity for companies to develop and to attract new customers.

One more SMM activity which I proposed to be important is a platform for communication for like-minded people. In social networks it can be based on online brand community since a brand community is the most convenient way to bring like-minded customers of a brand together. However, only 1,6% Russians and 4,0% people from other countries uses social network brand communities for this purpose.

Another SMM activity which was considered on the stages of Awareness, Consideration and Evaluation should not be ignored. Giveaways and contests are proposed to be a good way for sticking people to brands as they make people use more products of a brand. It is noticeable that only 12,2% Russians and 5,3% people from other countries would like to take part in a giveaway or a contest in order to win a product they already use.

To conclude, the suggestion about Retention stage is partially confirmed. Customers would appreciate technical support as they follow brand communities to get information about products they bought. Nevertheless, few people on this stage are members of social network communities to talk to like-minded people and would like to take part in giveaways and surveys.

Loyalty

On the stage of Loyalty social media brand community providing customers with opportunities to express their opinions about their favorite brands and their possible development (such as polls and surveys or other activities) and giving loyalists an opportunity to chat with like-minded people are suggested to be appropriate.

Questions 25, 26 were aimed at considering SMM activities on the stage of Loyalty. One of activities I propose for this stage is organizing polls and surveys in order to consider customer opinion. These activities can be helpful for the company. On the other hand, polls can make customers feel a part of community, which is desirable for active loyalists. Currently, polls and surveys in social networks are not popular since 59,2% Russians have never taken part in this kind of surveys. For foreigners, this proportion is lower as 36,8% have never done that. The full results can be seen in the diagram below.



Diagram 8. How often people take part in polls and surveys about developing new goods and services?

Nevertheless, when respondents were asked if they would take part in a poll about a product it turned out that most respondents are ready to take part in such kinds of polls and surveys. Only 10,2% Russians and 18,4% people from other countries told that they would never take part in such a research. Moreover, the proportion of people who would like to participate in these activities because they like a brand is 56,7% and 30,3% for Russians and foreigners respectively. Furthermore, 39,6% Russians and 31,6% foreigners from other countries are ready to take part in a poll or a survey for the reason that they want to develop a brand.

Talking about the opportunity for customers to talk with like-minded people, it is possible to conclude that the situation is the same as on the stage of Retention. Most people are not interested in this option and they follow brand communities for other reasons.

One more SMM activity which also should be regarded on this stage is giveaways and contests. As I have already said, a small proportion of people are ready to take part in a giveaway or a contest for the reason that they have already used this product. Nevertheless, taking into account fact that people are also would like to take part in these activities in case they are interested in product or heard positive reviews. It is possible to suggest that loyal customers are more likely to take part in these activities as usually they are more aware of products of their favorite brands or have read positive reviews about it. As I have mentioned above, more than 30% of all respondents are ready to take part in a giveaway or a contest. Thus, this activity can be appropriate for the stage of loyalty.

To sum up, the suggestion considering SMM activities on the stage of Loyalty is confirmed partially as polls can be a good way to interact with loyal customers while making a platform for loyalists to communicate is not necessary. Taking about giveaways and contests, it can be an appropriate SMM activity for this stage especially due to the fact that stimulating loyal customers to create their content about the brand by giveaways and contents is also helpful for the stage of Awareness.

The final results about SMM activities appropriate on different stages of customer journey are described in the table below. The most appropriate activities are marked with green, less appropriate are yellow, the least appropriate activities are red. Percentages of Russians are marked with light pink, percentages of foreigners are marked with light blue.

It is necessary to notice that this classification is subjective and can vary for different companies and countries. Moreover, there are more activities which also can be used. It is necessary to notice that not all the possible options of answers are listed in the table but only ones that are connected to the each suggestion. The full questionnaire and possible answers are presented in Appendix.

Table 3. SMM activities appropriate for each stage of customer journey

	SMM activity	Question №
Awareness	Advertisement	4	Do not like advertisement (1)	2	3	4	Like it as it is useful (5)
			19,59%	23,68%	24,08%	34,21%	39,59%	22,37%	14,29%	17,11%	2,45%	2,63%
		5	Usually like and watch promo videos	Often skip them	Always skip them
			2,04%	0,00%	58,37%	50,00%	39,59%	50,00%
		6	Use advertisment blocker	Do not use it
			28,57%	56,58%	71,43%	43,42%
	Opinion leaders	14	Follow	Do not follow but watch their pages	Do not follow
			49,39%	38,16%	12,24%	32,89%	38,37%	28,95%
	Direct messages	7	Received messages with advertisement	Have never received them
			60,40%	19,70%	39,60%	80,30%
		8	Never interested in direct messages	Not interested in most cases	Interested in most cases	Always interested	Do not pay attetion to these messages
			37,67%	17,65%	28,77%	32,35%	3,42%	11,76%	0,00%	0,00%	30,14%	38,24%
	Giveaways and contests	9	Would visit a brand page if there is a giveaway or contest
			11,84%	9,21%
		12	Often take part in giveaways and contests	Rarely	Never
			4,08%	0,00%	28,16%	31,58%	67,76%	68,42%
		13	Want to win any products	Products they used	Products they heard positive reviews	Products that just seems interested	Would never take part in these activities
			4,49%	11,84%	12,24%	5,26%	8,98%	6,58%	4,49%	13,16%	69,80%	65,79%
	Reposts and content generated customers	9	Would visit a brand page if they see it in a friends' news feed
			40,40%	55,30%
		11	Do not do any advertisements reposts	Do an advertisement repost if friends ask them
			31,02%	81,58%	58,37%	6,58%
		23	Would make a post if they like a product	Would tell friends if they like a product
			8,57%	5,26%	69,80%	69,74%
	Hashtags	10	Often use hashtags to find a brand	Rarely	Never
			2,86%	5,26%	26,12%	15,79%	71,02%	78,95%
	Content created by a brand	9	Would visit a brand community page in case they see an interesting post
			40,40%	55,30%
Consideration and Evaluation	Online brand community (as a source of reviews and opinions)	3	Online community as a source of information while choosing a product	Friends and relatives' advice	Review websites and forums
			19,18%	18,42%	80,00%	86,84%	73,88%	73,68%
	Opinion leaders (to persuade customers to buy exact product)	15	Crucial to make decision	Taken into account	Do not pay attention
			1,63%	38,16%	40,41%	32,89%	57,96%	28,95%
	Content created by customers (to persuade customers to buy exact product)	like in Awareness stage
Purchase	An opportuniy for making purchases in social networks	18	Make purchases in social networks	Do not make purchases
			26,12%	5,26%	73,88%	94,74%
		20	Trust a seller	Know the product	The product seems interesting	The purchase is cheap	Would never buy anything
			60,82%	28,95%	32,24%	15,79%	33,88%	19,74%	23,27%	17,11%	17,55%	48,68%
	Encouraging customers to create content for special offers and discounts in the moment of purchase	21	Regularly make posts to get a discount	From tome to time	Never
			0,00%	0,00%	14,69%	7,89%	85,31%	92,11%
Retention	Technical support	22	Often apply for technical support	Rarely	Never
			1,22%	0,00%	26,53%	7,89%	72,24%	92,11%
		16	Use brand communtiy to get information about products they bought
			27,76%	28,95%
	Platform for customers to communicate (brand community)	16	Use brand communtiy to chat with like-minded people
			1,63%	3,95%
	Giveaways and contests	13	Products they used
			12,24%	5,26%
Loyalty	Polls and surveys for customers aimed at developing new products	25	Often take part in surveys	Sometimes	Never
			5,31%	3,95%	35,51%	59,21%	59,18%	36,84%
		26	Would never take part in a survey	Would take part as they like a brand	Would take part as they want a brand to develop
			10,20%	18,42%	56,73%	30,26%	39,59%	31,58%
	Platform for customers to communicate (brand community)	16	Use brand communtiy to chat with like-minded people
			1,63%	3,95%
	Giveaways ans contests	13	Want to win any products	Products they used	Products they heard positive reviews	Products that just seems interested	Would never take part in these activities
			4,49%	11,84%	12,24%	5,26%	8,98%	6,58%	4,49%	13,16%	69,80%	65,79%

2.3 The analysis of sending direct messages as an SMM activity on different stages of customer journey from the company's perspective

Previously different social media marketing activities were considered. In this paragraph I would like to focus only on sending direct messages I had an opportunity to investigate this type of SMM activities in detail.

I worked for the marketing department of a company specializing at implementing client and corporative portals, involving people in community and managing it. My main responsibility was to send direct messages suggesting to implement one of the platforms company specializes in. For this purpose a social network LinkedIn was chosen for the following reason: LinkedIn is oriented on business and employment, which corresponds with the product of the company.

The people were chosen by looking for second-tier connections using filters like intranet, client community and others in Moscow or Russia as a company is located in Moscow region. All the people found were sent a friend request. Those who approve it were put in a database and were sent a message asking to recommend a person in a company who is responsible for implementing those client communities.

During the month 4255 friend requested were sent. As I have already said the people were found by the requests searching for people who can be helpful for the company. The list of requests can be seen below.

Table 4.The number of friend requests sent

	Russia	Moscow
Интранет	178
Intranet	1165
Личный кабинет	140
SharePoint		838
Digital workplace	69
Программа лояльности	290
Клиентские сообщества	6
Client service		400
Quality managemet		400
Marketing		400
Маркетинг		369

1463 people approved those requests.

Next stage of the process is sending private messages with a description of exact products. It is necessary to say that many people who approved friend requests were competitors, therefore, they were not sent anything. This fact requires attention as this proportion of competitors was quite significant and equals 22,5%.

Thus, only 1134 people were sent private messages. It is necessary to emphasize that these people are on the stage of Awareness in customer journey as soon as they read the message. 90 people replied that they are not interested in the product. Only 11 people told that they would like to discuss the issue more in detail or asked some additional questions since they consider the company product as a possible solution for a company. Overall, less than one per cent of people who approved a friend request was interested in the service. It means that they moved to the stage of Consideration and Evaluation of customer journey.

The whole this process is demonstrated on the Table 5 and Diagram 9.

Table 5.The number of people on every stage of the promotion by direct messages process

	Number of people
Friend requests sent	4255
Friend requests approved	1463
People replied	106
People interested	11



Diagram 9. The percentage of people on every stage of the promotion by direct messages process

It is necessary to say that those numbers are not final since some people will accept friend request and answer messages later. Moreover, some people who were not interested in the service will probably be interested in it later. There were a few people who told that they would need these products in some time and would write. Thus, it is impossible to name a final result yet.

After the detailed investigation of this method I can conclude that it has several advantages. First, it is necessary to say that traditional advertisement causes irritation from customers since currently media are overloaded with it. Sending direct messages is a method which is different from advertisement even it serves for the same purpose. Most people who were sent direct messages consider it not as promotion letter but as a cooperation offer. There was only one negative reply to the direct message. Therefore, this SMM activity is an opportunity not only for promotion products but for networking and cooperation also. Obviously, the text of the message should be formulated in a right way. It should not look like advertising message. It is better to make in in a form of suggesting cooperation or asking for help.

One more advantage is collecting a database. LinkedIn gives an opportunity see not only the company and a position but also emails and sometimes phone numbers of your contacts. This database can be useful for the future promotion or for other purposes.

In addition, it is necessary to notice that this type of SMM activity is cheap especially in comparison to usual advertisement in social networks or in the Internet. There are some chargeable opportunities such as premium account and special services like LinkedIn Helper, which can fulfil some basic tasks automatically and save the time; however, it is possible to work without using it.

On the same time sending direct messages has several disadvantages. To start with, sending direct messages is time consuming. Advertisement requires creating message and design once and after that it is supposed to reach many people. In contrast, direct messages are sent to every person separately. Thus, one more disadvantage becomes obvious.

There is a limited range of people who know about promoted goods and services. It is necessary to pay attention to this fact as usually social networks have limits of sending friend requests, direct messages and other options. These limits should be considered as otherwise an account will be blocked. As I have already said, there are some official services such as premium accounts in LinkedIn, which allows to overcome this limitations. However, the fact that some services are not officially appreciated by the social network should be taken into account since users who do not respect the limitations are usually blocked.

All things considered, the internship was very useful for my study because it gave me on opportunity to understand how such a social media marketing activity as sending direct messages corresponds to different stages of customer journey. This experience contributes to the investigation of the chosen problem from companies' point of view. Moreover, the conducted analysis helped not only to deepen the knowledge how to implement existing theory about social media marketing and a concept of customer journey but also allow to apply it on practice. Nevertheless, further investigation is required in order to get more full understanding of managing customer journey through social media marketing.

2.4 Implications for managing customer journey through SMM activities

Based on the results of the conducted survey, I have suggested different SMM activities which can be appropriate for each stage of customer journey separately. In this paragraph I am going to discuss how it is possible to manage the customer journey. First, it is necessary to take into account the fact that social media marketing is only one of the possible tools to manage customer journey. It means that fulfilling different processes of managing customer experience other tools also can be required. Moreover, there are some processes where social media marketing is not appropriate (for example, on the stages of estimating costs and sales or analyzing the data in order to understand the main gaps do not require any external sources like customer activities in social networks) Thus, I focus on stages where it is possible to apply SMM activities in managing customer journey.

First, it is necessary to remember that customers' actions in social networks can demonstrate their attitude to the services on different stages of customer journey. These indicators can be useful during such stage of managing customer experience as customer assessment of the journey. Obviously, more deep marketing research is required and more complex tools should be used in order to analyze company's performance across all the interactions with customers (for example, a level of customer satisfaction). Nevertheless, sometimes high or low number of likes, positive or negative reviews form customers can be a signal of a problem which should be solved. Moreover, conducting polls and surveys among customers in social networks is appropriate. As I concluded, many customers are ready to take part in these activities. It is necessary to emphasize that SMM activities can help company to define so called “moments of truth” - special events that are the most important in interaction for customers, which is a core process on the stage of customers' assessment of the journey.

Secondly, I would like to emphasize that SMM activities are appropriate not only for the process of implementation customer experience but also after the last stage of it. After the investigation of “moments of truth” it is possible to see the gaps and the interactions where the service should be immediately improved. Obviously, it is necessary to try to implement social media marketing activities recommended for the stage which has a problem. For instance, if a company understands that it has a problem to retain existing customers one of possible measures can be organizing technical support in social networks to decrease the number of customers who have problems which are possible to be sold by a specialist consultancy.

It is necessary to notice that many social media marketing activities which a company can use during the process of managing customer journey are free or cheap. Moreover, it is possible to estimates the results of implementing some activities fast by the numbers of likes, comments or other outcomes, which are easily seen. These two facts mean that it is possible to try different social media marketing activities and analyze the result without high costs. This recommendation corresponds with one of the managerial implications made by Maklan S., Antonetti P., and Whitty S. claimimg that there is no one right way to approach customer journey and starting point (Maklan et al, 2017)

To conclude, there are several ways of implementation social media marketing in managing customer journey. There is no doubt that each company needs its own specific features which are impossible to take into account in general approach. However, my study is an attempt to outline several possible SMM activities as a possible way to fill the gaps in services during the process of managing customer experience, which can lead to reducing costs, increasing sales, improving all the processes inside the firm and interactions with customers.

Conclusion

In this paper I investigated which SMM activities are appropriate in managing customer journey. First, based on the analysis of relevant literature about social media marketing and customer journey, a theoretical framework suggesting which SMM activities are the most appropriate on different stages of a customer journey was created.

In order to confirm these suggestions, the online survey was conducted where 245 Russians and 76 people from other countries took part. Based on the results, several recommendations about using SMM for managing customer journey were given. The brief discussion of them is presented below.

· On the stage of Awareness advertisement is not the most appropriate activity as most respondents have negative attitude towards it. Instead of advertisement it is possible to organize social network page not in the way of promoting something but in the way of a page with useful information. The appropriate activities are reposts and reviews from loyal customers and promotion from opinion leaders. Talking about differences between Russians and foreigners, it is noticeable that Russians pay less attention to advertisements and to opinion leaders, more of them received direct messages. Other differences in customers' attitude to SMM activities on the stage of Awareness are less significant.

· On the stage of Consideration and Evaluation customer reviews and promotions from opinion leaders are also appropriate. There is no many differences...