Social Media Marketing – from Tool to Capability

Abstract Whereas the application of social media marketing has been trending in business, the theoretical research that analyses the phenomenon of social media marketing is to some extent lagging behind. In practice, social media marketing is often viewed as a customer relationship management (CRM) tool or technique and not as a capability. This paper builds on the theories of the resourced-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities to explore the concept of social media marketing capability. The aim of this paper is to redefine the phenomenon of social media marketing capability and to contribute to the existing literature. In addition, it urges firms to look into social media marketing not only as a tool or technique, but also as an organizational capability.