BUSHOR-881; No. of Pages 9 We’re all connected: The power of the social media ecosystem Richard Hanna a , Andrew Rohm a , Victoria L. Crittenden b, * a College of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, U.S.A. b Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, U.S.A. 1. Marketing myths revealed Consumers are no longer merely passive recipients in the marketing exchange process. Today, they are taking an increasingly active role in co-creating everything from product design to promotional mes- sages (Berthon, Pitt, McCarthy, & Kates, 2007). The rise in interactive digital media has catapulted company and consumer contact from the traditional Web 1.0 model to the highly interactive Web 2.0 world, where consumers are dictating the nature, extent, and context of marketing exchanges. As Garretson (2008, p. 12) so aptly observed, ‘‘Con- sumers increasingly use digital media not just to research products and services, but to engage the companies they buy from, as well as other consum- ers who may have valuable insights.’’ Dramatic developments in interactive digital me- dia are revolutionizing marketing, and social media has fundamentally altered marketing’s ecosystem of Business Horizons (2011) xxx, xxx—xxx www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor KEYWORDS Social media; Traditional media; Online ecosystems; Marketing communications; Marketing metrics; Consumer engagement and interaction Abstract Consumers are adopting increasingly active roles in co-creating marketing content with companies and their respective brands. In turn, companies and organiza- tions are looking to online social marketing programs and campaigns in an effort to reach consumers where they ‘live’ online. However, the challenge facing many companies is that although they recognize the need to be active in social media, they do not truly understand how to do it effectively, what performance indicators they should be measuring, and how they should measure them. Further, as companies develop social media strategies, platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are too often treated as stand-alone elements rather than part of an integrated system. This article offers a systematic way of understanding and conceptualizing online social media, as an ecosystem of related elements involving both digital and traditional media. We highlight a best-practice case study of an organization’s successful efforts to leverage social media in reaching an important audience of young consumers. Then, we conclude with several insights and lessons related to the strategic integration of social media into a firm’s marketing communications strategy. # 2011 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: r.hanna@neu.edu (R. Hanna), a.rohm@neu.edu (A. Rohm), victoria.crittenden@bc.edu (V.L. Crittenden). 0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2011 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.007