Unit 10 · Session 1
Digital Marketing and the Digital Economy
Today's focus
- Social Media & Digital Marketing
- Digital Economy
🎯 Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- ✅ Define social media and its role in Web 2.0.
- ✅ Define digital marketing and identify its main channels.
- ✅ Differentiate between key digital marketing strategies like SEO, Content Marketing, and Social Media Marketing.
Social Media & Digital Marketing
What is Social Media?
Social Media: Websites and applications designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real-time.
It's a core part of Web 2.0, focusing on user-generated content and online interaction.
The Social Media Landscape 🌐
A diverse ecosystem of platforms, each with a unique purpose:
Connection & Community
- Twitter (X)
Visuals & Creativity
- TikTok
Professional Networking
From Socializing to Selling
How do businesses leverage these powerful social platforms?
Enter: Digital Marketing ⚡
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing: The component of marketing that uses the internet and online-based digital technologies to promote products and services.
🎯 The Goal: Reach customers where they spend their time – online!
📰 Traditional vs. Digital Marketing
| Traditional (newspaper, TV, billboard) | Digital (search, social, email) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | Everyone in an area, wanted or not | Targeted by age, place, interest |
| Cost | High fixed cost up front | Start small, pay per click or view |
| Measurement | Hard to know who saw it | Clicks, views and sales tracked live |
| Direction | One-way message | Two-way: comments, shares, replies |
| Changes | Printed once, fixed | Edit or pause a campaign in minutes |
Most businesses now use both. Digital wins on targeting and measurement.
Advertising in 1959
Key Channels of Digital Marketing 📊
Digital marketing is a collection of strategies. The three main pillars are:
🔍 SEO
Search Engine Optimization
✍️ Content Marketing
Creating Valuable Content
📱 Social Media Marketing
Engaging on Social Platforms
📬 More Channels: Paid Search, Email and Influencers
💰 Paid search (PPC)
Ads above search results. You pay only when someone clicks (pay-per-click).
📧 Email marketing
Newsletters and offers sent to people who signed up. Cheap, personal and easy to measure.
🤳 Influencer marketing
Paying trusted creators to show a product to their followers.
SEO earns free (organic) traffic slowly. PPC buys traffic instantly but stops when the budget stops.
Channel 1: SEO 🔍
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The process of improving your website to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in Google, Bing, etc.
It's about being the top result when a potential customer is looking for you.
🎬 How Search Engines Work
Channel 2: Content Marketing ✍️
Content Marketing: Creating and sharing valuable online content (like blog posts, videos, and infographics) to attract and retain an audience.
The focus is on providing value first, not just selling.
- Builds trust and authority
- Educates potential customers
Channel 3: Social Media Marketing 📱
Social Media Marketing: Using social media platforms to connect with your audience to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.
This is where our two topics meet! It's about building a community around your brand.
🧪 Activity: Name That Channel
1. A café writes a blog post, "10 best momo spots in Kathmandu". → Content marketing (and SEO)
2. A shop pays each time someone clicks its ad on Google. → Paid search (PPC)
3. A gym sends members a monthly newsletter with a discount code. → Email marketing
4. A clothing brand gifts outfits to a TikTok creator who posts them. → Influencer marketing
5. A hotel improves its site so it appears first for "hotel in Pokhara". → SEO
🧮 Worked Example: Is the Ad Worth It?
An online shop spends Rs 10,000 on social media ads. (Illustrative figures.)
- The ad is shown 50,000 times (impressions).
- 2% click it: 50,000 × 0.02 = 1,000 clicks. Cost per click = Rs 10.
- 3% of clickers buy: 1,000 × 0.03 = 30 orders.
- Each order earns Rs 800 profit: 30 × 800 = Rs 24,000.
- Return on ad spend: 24,000 ÷ 10,000 = 2.4×. Worth it! ✅
Try it: if only 1% buy, is the ad still profitable? (10 orders × 800 = Rs 8,000, a loss of Rs 2,000.)
Practical Application in Nepal 🇳🇵
Case Study: A Local Restaurant in Pokhara
📱 Social Media Marketing: They post daily videos of their lakeside view and food specials on Instagram and TikTok, run giveaways for a free meal, and respond to all comments.
✍️ Content Marketing: They write a blog post: "Top 5 Must-Try Foods in Pokhara," featuring one of their own dishes.
🔍 SEO: They optimize their Google Maps listing to appear when tourists search for "best restaurant near Phewa Lake."
🌍 Real Case: Dollar Shave Club (2012)
- A small US start-up selling razors by subscription made a funny, low-budget YouTube video: "Our Blades Are F***ing Great."
- The video went viral, and the company says about 12,000 people signed up in the first 48 hours.
- In 2016, Unilever bought the company for a reported US$1 billion.
- It competed with giant TV advertisers using content + social media + direct online sales.
Lesson: great content can beat a huge ad budget.
Summary & Key Takeaways
- Social media allows users to create and share content in real-time, building online communities.
- Digital marketing uses online channels like search engines and social media to promote products and services.
- SEO, Content Marketing, and Social Media Marketing are key, interconnected strategies for online business success.
Discussion Questions 💬
- What is the difference between traditional marketing (e.g., newspaper ads) and digital marketing?
- Think of a brand in Nepal (like Daraz, Foodmandu, or a local clothing store) that does social media marketing well. What makes them effective?
- Why is SEO so important for businesses today, even for small shops?
Digital Economy
What is the Digital Economy? 🌐
Economic activity that results from billions of online connections among people, businesses, devices, data, and processes.
It's a fundamental transformation of how value is created, exchanged, and measured — not just "doing business online."
Key Components
- E-Commerce & Digital Trade: Online buying/selling (Daraz, Amazon).
- Platform Economy: Uber, Airbnb, Facebook — connecting buyers and sellers without owning assets.
- Data as a Resource: "Data is the new oil." Companies monetize user data.
- Fintech: eSewa, Khalti, digital wallets, mobile banking.
- Gig Economy: Upwork, Fiverr — selling skills globally.
Network Effects 🌟
A platform becomes more valuable to each user as more users join it.
- Facebook is useful because your friends are on it.
- eSewa is useful because more merchants accept it.
- This "winner-takes-most" dynamic creates digital monopolies.
🎬 Why Network Effects Win
📊 Quick Poll: Which Has the Strongest Network Effect?
Raise hands for one:
A. A calculator app B. WhatsApp C. Daraz or Amazon D. A torch app
→ B is the clearest: each new user makes it more useful to everyone they can message.
→ C has a two-sided effect: more buyers attract more sellers, and more sellers attract more buyers.
→ A and D work the same whether 1 or 1 billion people use them, so they have no network effect.
Digital Economy in Nepal 🇳🇵
💳 Mobile Money
eSewa and Khalti have transformed everyday payments.
🏛️ E-Government
Vehicle tax, passport applications online.
🚀 Startup Growth
IT parks fostering tech-based businesses.
📱 Digital Marketing
Facebook & Google Ads for Nepali businesses.
🌍 Real Case: India's UPI Payments
- UPI (Unified Payments Interface) was launched in 2016 so any bank app can pay any other by phone or QR code.
- It is free for customers, so even street vendors accept it.
- By 2024 it was handling over 10 billion transactions a month (NPCI data).
- Since 2024, Nepal has also linked with UPI through NPCI International and Fonepay, so some payments now cross the border.
This is the digital economy: payments, platforms and network effects working together.
💬 Discuss in Pairs (3 minutes)
1. You run a small tea shop in Pokhara with Rs 5,000 a month for marketing. Which two channels would you choose, and why?
2. Platforms like Facebook and Google earn from your data. Is "free" really free?
3. What would the Nepali digital economy need to grow faster: better internet, more trust in online payments, or something else?
Exam Practice 📝
Short answer
- Define social media and digital marketing.
- Define the digital economy. How is it different from digital marketing?
- What is SEO? Why is it important for a business website?
- Explain the key components of the digital economy with examples.
Exam Practice 📝 (continued)
Long answer
- Explain the major channels of digital marketing with examples.
- Compare digital marketing with traditional marketing. Why are Nepali small businesses shifting to digital channels?
Revise the answers in the full notes linked on the last slide.
Image & Video Credits
Images
- Social Media App Icons On The Screen of A Smartphone: mikemacmarketing, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Vintage newspaper advertising for the Happi-Time transistor radio (1959): Joe Haupt, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- KFC food bills QR code, Choi Ming Shopping Mall, Hong Kong: Ivan Himnog Lieom, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Street food stall with a GrabFood rider: PattayaPatrol, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Videos (YouTube)
- CTRL-F: Digital Media Literacy, "How Search Engines Work" (3–71 s)
- NFX, "What Are Network Effects? (Startup Mini-Series)" (0–76 s); a venture-capital firm's view, so treat its framing as opinion
Thank You
Questions before we wrap this hour?
Next: Unit 10 · Session 2 — Data, AI, Analytics, and Business Intelligence
📖 Read the full notes: Social Media & Digital Marketing · Digital Economy
📖 Related chapter notes
Read first, then revise with this deck: