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EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A MARKETING TOOL: AN EMPIRICAL

STUDY
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International Journal of Marketing, Financial Services & Management Research
Vol.1 Issue 11, November 2012, ISSN 2277 3622
Online available at www.indianresearchjournals.com
Name :- Himanshu Kesherwani

Roll no. :- 49
EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A MARKETING TOOL: AN
EMPIRICAL STUDY
ABU BASHAR*; IRSHAD AHMAD**; MOHAMMAD WASIQ***
* Assistant Professor, Brown Hills College of

Engineering & Technology, Faridabad
** Assistant Professor, Brown Hills College of
Engineering & Technology, Faridabad
*** Lecturer, Al-Falah School of engineering
& Technology
ABSTRACT
In an era where technology prevails, entrepreneurs as well as marketers see the need to keep up
with the fast pace of change or risk being outdated. Gone are the days when a pure-bricks
business model will thrive well in current market scenario. It is practically impossible to design a
marketing strategy without considering social networks. Social media had become really
important gradient in today’s marketing mix in general and in promotion mix in particular.
Adapting some form of marketing online through social media is a key node for all businesses,
especially in an industry where trends constantly change such as fashion and handicrafts. The
paper carries out empirical research to understand the effectiveness of social media as a
marketing tool and an effort has been made to analyze the extent social media helps consumers
in buying decision making. In addition strategies have been suggested for maximizing the
effectiveness. Various statistical tests have been applied to support the research hypothesis.
KEYWORDS: Promotional tool, marketing strategy, SNS, Social Media, Online branding
INTRODUCTION
Over the past 40 years, we have experienced a radical shift in how business is conducted and
how people interact. The introduction of personal computers, the Internet, and e-commerce have
had a tremendous impact on how businesses operate and market. The introduction of social
media technology is accelerating and we can expect it to have a similar impact on businesses
now and into the future. As new technologies became available, businesses that learn to use new
technologies gain great benefits. Some of the best-known examples include technology-driven
companies such as Microsoft, eBay, Amazon and Google. In a short span of time, social media
has become one of the most loved mediums for the Indian youths today. Social Media Marketing
is the hottest new marketing concept and every business owner wants to know how social media
can generate value for their business. People are social by nature and collect or share
information that is important to them. Social Media Marketing is about understanding how
technology is making it easier for people to connect socially with their social networks and how
88
your business can profit from that understanding. More and more of your customers, whether for
personal use, business-to-consumer or business-to-business reasons use social media in every
aspect of their daily life. There is a common misconception that social media and social
networking sites (SNS) are two synonymous terms. Social media are tools for sharing and
discussing information. It can be described as a kind of online media which encourages every
member for feedback and contribution. It is a social instrument of two way communication
facilitating the sharing of information between users within a defined network via web 2.0
(O'Reilly, 2005). It involves online activities in which the user contributes to content creation.
This
media encourages user involvement which can be as simple as posting comments or giving votes
or as complex as recommending content to other user on the basis of preferences of people with
similar interests and lifestyle. Thus social media can be described as a broad term inclusive of
activities where people create content, share it, bookmark it and network at a phenomenal rate.
On the other hand social networking sites are a place where in one forms communities of interest
to connect to others. Social networking sites utilize social media technology to connect with
people and build relationships. Social networking sites allow individuals to construct their profile
within a bounded system, share with other users and view and traverse their list of connections
and those made by others within the system (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). It can be thus concluded
that social networking sites are a form of social media. The increasing dependence on technology
for basic communication highlights the importance of analyzing how these networking sites are
affecting daily processes. Anyone including teens and young adults, women, men, affluent
consumers, and older individuals can join a social network site. Once registered the person can
begin to socialize and create his/her own network of friends with common interests or goals.
Sites like Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn are influencing the way users establish, maintain and
cultivate a range of social relationships, from close friendships to casual acquaintances.
Consumers today want to be more informed about products before they make the purchase. Most
importantly, social networks are extremely capable of informing and influencing purchase
decisions, as many users now trust their peer opinions more than the marketing strategists.
Customers now have the power to talk back at the brand and broadcast their opinions of the
brand. Therefore, marketers have no choice but to treat them differently and with greater respect.
Scope of the Study

The scope of the study has been limited to social media marketing only. The study has been
confined to Delhi & NCR region as this area has greater internet penetration and plenty of social
Network Sites users.
Objective of Study
A) To examine the extent, social media that helps consumers in buying decision making
B) To study the gap between consumer expectation from Social media and its performance
C) To suggest strategies to bridge the gap between expectation and performance to improve
its effectiveness
Research Methodology
89
The study is based on descriptive research design. A questionnaire has been designed, to know
the point of view of respondent regarding the extent of social media that helps consumers in
buying decision making. First part of the questionnaire contains information regarding
demographics and usage pattern of social media of the respondent. Second part has series of
close-ended indirect questions which are based on impact of social media in making consumer
buy a product and expectation from such media. The survey was conducted online through social
networking sites and responses of 150 social networkers were collected. The instrument
(questionnaire) was put over Google docs and the link was sent to users to fill the instrument
through various social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, LinkedIn, Hi5, Bebo etc.
The respondents and other people on different social networking sites were also requested to post
the link from their profile. So the sampling technique used was non-probability convenience
sampling. We used regression analysis for testing of hypothesis. For visual representation of
finding and results bar charts, pie charts and tables etc. ahs been used.
Table 1.1 Profile of respondent
Total N
Variable* Classification (%)
Gender Male 71
Female 79
Age Less than 18 0
18-24 68
25-39 72
40-60 10
*at 95% the two variables are significantly different

Analysis
Fig 1.1 Facebook top the chart
90
Facebook is the most popular social networking site for the respondents. Orkut and twitter have
got the second and third positions respectively.
Table 1.2: Motivation behind following a brand or joining a brand page
Variable Total N
Motivation
to follow a Brand
Brand or invitation/Advertising 68
Join a Brand
page Friend’s invitation 52
Personal research 32
Loyalty towards the

brand 44
The motivational factor for people joining/ following a brand page/ brand on social networking
platforms vary from person to person. The main reason fans come to join a brand page or brand
following is through brand invitation/ advertising followed by a friend invitation. The search
factor (personal
Research) plays an important role, thus it is crucial for brands to be found if consumers search
for them. Brand loyalty also plays a role in motivation towards brand following on the social
networking platforms. Brand loyalists are consumers who will market a certain brand and talk
positively about it among their friends/ peers. This is free word-of-mouth marketing for the
brands and is often very effective.
Social networking sites are a new CRM (to receive exclusive deals and offers, exclusive content)
tool where the consumer wants to feel exclusive. The attachment to brand is a key motivator to
advocate the brands. Demonstrating appreciation for the brand, showing what you like, and
supporting the
Brand’s values play an active role in generating advocacy. The desire to engage with the brand
either through dialog with the
brand’s representatives or with other consumers reaches an interesting level.
91
Fig 1.2 Time dedicated for socializing
Social networking is now an important aspect of the day. With most people spending more than
hour online ! The above chart depicts very clearly that how much it is important for the marketers
to exploit the situation by making workable marketing strategies.
Fig 1.3 Purpose for using social media platform
Social media helped people connect with long lost friends. This is evident with 58% respondent
in the survey using such platform to connect with friends. While 24% respondents believe in
exchanging their views and experiences on various products/Services and others apart from just
playing games and participating in contests (16%). So, here marketers have plenty of opportunity
to communicate with their targets and offer them their products/service to persuade them to
92
transact and become loyal customer for them. It is a fast growing platform for brands in all the
sectors. It acts as an effective tool as it is the best way to reach out market segment without
incurring huge cost.
Fig 1.4 considering social media in buying decision
It is evident from the above bar chart that most of the respondents are using social media
networks are considering social media before starting of buying decision making process. More
than two third of users are always considering social media networks at the time of getting into
purchase decision. So, it is of enormous importance for the marketers to put information on the
social sites where there is huge probability to come into the eyes of consumers and if successes
into pursuing the customers’ then positive word of mouths will automatically get started. This
will eventually gives rise to multiple impacts and conversation will get started on the web.
93
Coefficientsa
Standardized
Unstandardized Coefficients Coefficients
Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.
1 (Constant) -18.312 .000
To get Information About

.622 .000 .979 .334. .739.
Product Service
To Find Friends Review 1.474 .000 2.629 -2.030. .044.
To Get Exclusive Offers .679 .000 1.308 1.416 159.
To Interact With Brand -1.097 .000 -2.338 -2.030 . .044
a. Dependent Variable: Buying Decision
Residuals Statisticsa
Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation N
Predicted Value 15.0000 45.0000 32.0000 12.04159 5
Residual .00000 .00000 .00000 .00000 5
Std. Predicted Value -1.412 1.080 .000 1.000 5
Std. Residual . . . . 0
a. Dependent Variable: BuyingDecision
94
Regression Analysis was performed where in Buying Decision - the motivation factor why
individuals joined brand page or followed a brand was taken a dependent variable and the
suggestions that explain why individuals follow a brand on social networking sites were taken as
independent variables.
In a regression line, y = a + bx, b represents the slope of the regression equation, y represents the
independent variable and x is the dependent variable. Only two factors are showing a positive
slope. It shows that the independent variable “To get information about product/Service”
Shows 0.62 variations on the dependent variable “Buying Decision ‟. Hence it indicates the more
the companies should instigate individuals to talk about their brands/ products the more the
chances that consumer will get persuaded towards the products/brands and will make purchase
decision accordingly.
95
Figure 1.5 Not a grievance redressal platform
96
It is pretty evident from the above figure that Social Media Networks are not a very good
grievance redressal platform. It means that consumers do not get what exactly they perceive
about Social Media Networks. At the same time it has been found during surveys that they
(consumers) are not getting the response of the questions they post on the brand page. In some of
the cases very inappropriate and implicit information are being provided.
Findings
There is almost no variability among the social media network users on the basis of gender. It
has been found that younger people are adopting social media like anything and with a pace that
was never before in the past. It has also been found that almost every social media users who
were respondent in this case use to go to brand pages to learn more about the product/services, to
learn about the exclusive offers, to find the reaction of their friends and peer on the selected
brands. The effectivity of social media as a marketing tool will only be possible when
organisation having their presence on social media provide the concrete and timely information
needed by the consumers . The main way fans come to join/ follow a brand page/ brand on social
networking sites is through advertising followed by a friend invitation.
Buying Decision also plays an important role in motivation towards brand following on the
social networking platforms. The desire to engage with the brand either through dialog with the
brand’s representatives or with other consumers (business to consumer + consumer to consumer
communication) leads to advocacy and loyalty towards the brand and such consumer starts
working as a brand ambassador of the product/service. The brand following over the social
networking sites is converted into brand purchase either through offline or online buying channel
if the marketing strategies would be designed by keeping in mind the perception and
expectations of the consumers.
Consumer does research with search engines to locate their product/service and brand of intrest.
With more networks are more likely to gather opinions through their online network, read blogs
and query the Twitter channel as early steps in the decision making process .
There is a gap between consumer expectations and actual delivery at social networking websites;
Consumers don not get the information timely and adequately. The questions are not being
answered by the brand pages in the speculative time frame of consumer. The consumers also do
not perceive social media networks in general and brand pages in particular as a grievance
redressal platform. Because the brands are not promptly respond to the issues raised by the
consumers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, business today is being transformed from a transactional relationship to a social
relationship. It is now more critical than ever that successful businesses use Engagement
Marketing principles to plan for successfully engaging their prospects and customers before,
during and after their purchase cycle, and that the basis for this engagement is high-quality and
relevant information. Information which are demanded by target market at a time and place of
their choice (24/7 and 365 days/year). Marketer’s job is to provide this information in such a
manner that you are viewed in a positive light, create a positive brand and product reputation,
and are selected as their brand of choice. With the present growth and scale of social networking,
we would even be able to buy products and services through the social medium. The medium is
growing very fast and holds huge potential but is still in its nascent stage in India. Therefore, it is
97
time for the companies to make effective strategies and execute them to win larger share of
business through this revolutionary medium and become the innovative firm of coming future.
Recommendations
Social media channels have a remarkable ability to attract customers with very brief statements,
and they can lead your prospects and customers to valuable content located on your website. On
the other hand, your website can encourage visitors to engage with your company by
prominently linking to your social media channels. In order to accomplish this goal the following
steps may be followed,
1. Modify your website to complement your Social Media Strategy.

2. Identify the Actions you want your Customers and Prospects to take
3. Implement your Conversations
4. Provide the Content your Visitors Want.
5. Maintain a consistent Communication Style
6. Send Advertisements.
7. Use your Web Properties to drive people to take the actions you are targeting
In order to influence your prospects and customers, your sales effort must follow a process
that captivates and transforms your prospects by implementing these steps, which must be
integral part of Social Media Marketing strategy.
a) Develop the proper context of your message

b) Create an appropriate draw.
c) Create the proper content that engages
d) Provide a sample offering
e) Ensure you follow-up.
f) Request they share.
REFERENCES
□ Aaker. (1991).Managing Brand Equity:
Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name. New York: The Free Press.
□ Adrian Palmer, N. K.-L. (2009). An experiential, social network-based approach to direct
marketing. International Journal of Direct Marketing, 162 - 176.
□ Bulmer, D. and V. DiMauro, "The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks: Social Media’s
Impact on Business and Decision-Making," The Society for New Communications Research,
2010, at URL
http://sncr.org/wp-content/uploads/2010 /02/NewSymbiosisReportExecSumm.pdf
□ Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social Network Sites: Definition, History and
Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 210–230.
□ Conroy, P., &Narula, A. (2010). A new breed of brand advocates - Social networking
redefines consumer engagement. Delloite.
□ Curtis, A. (2011). The brief history of social media. Retrieved from
http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html
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□ Jason Fitzpatrick, “Establish and Maintain Your Online Identity,” Lifehacker (blog), May 5,
2010, http://lifehacker.com/5531465/establish-and-maintain-your-online-identity.
□ Khanna, R. M. (2010, August 6). Aircel Enters Punjab.The Tribune.

□ McKinsey. (2007).How companies are marketing Online: A McKinsey Global Survey.
□ O'Reilly, T. (2005, April 6). What is web 2.0? Retrieved June 12, 2011, from
www.oreilly.com:http://oreilly.com/lpt/a/6228
□ Power, D. J. "What is social media?" DSS News, Vol. 11, No. 9, April 24, 2011.
□ TNS, TRU & Marketing evolution. (2007). Never Ending Friending - A Journey into Social
Networking. Fox Interactive Media, Inc.
□ Social media, from Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia,URL:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
□ Vogt, C., &Knapman, S. (2008). The Atanomy of social networks. Market leaders, 40(3), 46-
51.
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Social Media Marketing: A Literature Review and Implications: IMPLICATIONS

OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Article in Psychology and Marketing · December 2016

DOI: 10.1002/mar.20936
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Social Media Marketing: A Literature
Review and Implications
Helena Alves
University of Beira Interior and NECE
Cristina Fernandes
Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco and NECE
Mário Raposo
University of Beira Interior and NECE
ABSTRACT
This study carries out content analysis and systemizes articles on social media marketing in the Web
of Science database. Forty-four studies were analyzed in accordance with a variation on the
systematic review approach, involving synthesis- and interpretation-based assessment. The results
demonstrate how most of the studies analyzed focus on the consumer perspective in terms of usage,
share, and influence of social media on consumer decisions, and perceptions. The studies focusing on
the firm’s perspective centered not only on the usage of social media, but also on their
implementation, optimization, and measurement of results. The majority of studies are quantitative
and published in recent years. This study not only reached certain conclusions for both theory and
practice, but also defined future lines of research according to the gaps detected by the study’s
results. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The emergence of new information and communication According to Mangold and Faulds (2009), social me-
technologies, particularly the Internet and social net- dia enables firms to communicate with their customers
works, has changed market dynamics, threatening the and also allows customers to communicate with each
competitive positions of firms (Porter, 2001) and in- other. Communications between firms and their cus-
creasing the power of consumers (Urban, 2005). tomers help build brand loyalty beyond traditional
The Internet- and online-based social media have methods (Jackson, 2011; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010),
changed consumer consumption habits by providing which concede to the promotion of products and ser-
consumers with new ways of looking for, assess- vices as well as the setting up of online communi-
ing, choosing, and buying goods and services (Albors, ties of brand followers (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).
Ramos, & Hervas, 2008). These developments influ- Furthermore, conversations between customers pro-
ence how marketers operate and affect marketing prac- vide firms with new means of increasing brand aware-
tices in terms of both strategy and tactics by present- ness, brand recognition, and brand recall (Gunelius,
ing marketers with new challenges and difficult choices 2011).
(Thomas, 2007). Researchers such as Castronovo and Huang (2012)
We understand social media as including all maintain that marketing strategies involving market-
Internet-based technological applications, in accor- ing intelligence, promotions, public relations, product
dance with the principles of Web 2.0 and providing and customer management, and marketing communi-
the creation and exchange of user-generated content, cations should begin exploring and leveraging social
while also facilitating interaction and collaboration be- media, not only because there is a growing interest
tween participants (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Such among consumers in Internet usage, but also due to
applications also include blogs and microblogs (such as the fact that consumers consider information shared on
Twitter), social networking sites (such as MySpace and social media as more reliable than information issued
Facebook), virtual worlds (such as Second Life), collab- directly by firms (Constantinides et al., 2010).
orative projects (such as Wikipedia), content commu- According to eMarketer (2013), firms have increas-
nity sites (e.g., YouTube, Flickr), and sites dedicated ingly adopted social media for various marketing ac-
to feedback (e.g. online forums; Chan & Guillet, 2011; tivities such as branding, market research, customer
Mangold & Faulds, 2009). relationship management, service provision, and sales
Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 33(12): 1029–1038 (December 2016)

View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mar
© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/mar.20936
1029
promotion alongside various studies that are putting ticrew & Roberts, 2006). Its aim is to identify, assess,
forward evidence of the positive implications of de- and summarize all relevant studies using a replicable
ploying social media in marketing strategies. However, and transparent process (Tranfield, Denyer, & Smart,
many firms have yet to incorporate social media into 2003). We explained the criteria for the bibliographi-
their strategies (Chan & Guillet, 2011) despite the cal research, for admission and exclusion, and the an-
existence of diverse studies providing empirical evi- alytical processes, thus providing a means to audit the
dence of the benefits to companies (see, e.g., Alhabash, processes.
McAlister, Quilliam, Richards, & Lou , 2015; Kozinets, As the field of research in social media market-
Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010; Kumar & Mirchan- ing proves quite recent and diverse, we here apply
dani, 2012; Kumar et al., 2013; Luo & Zhang, 2013; Yu, a variation of systematic review, involving synthesis-
Duan, & Cao, 2013), as well as detailing the means by and interpretation-based assessment, in order to com-
which social media marketing strategies may be im- bine the best evidence based management practices
proved and leveraged (see, e.g., Guo, Pathak, & Cheng, (Macpherson & Holt, 2007; Thorpe, Holt, MacPherson,
2015; Liu & Park, 2015; Lorenzo-Romero, Alarcón- & Pittaway, 2005; Tranfield et al., 2003).
Del-Amo, & Constantinides, 2012; Qazi, Raj, Tahir,
Cambria, & Syed, 2014; Tang et al., 2015).
Given the limited scope of research into the differ-
ent aspects of social media, as well as their specific
significance to company marketing activities, this arti-
cle carries out a review of the literature on social media CONDUCTING THE REVIEW AND
marketing. The purpose of this article is also to identify ANALYSIS
the fields of marketing where social media marketing
strategies have been applied and studied, the results In the first phase of gathering references for our study,
found, the types of research developed, and what im- we began by researching the Web of Science for all
plications might be drawn from these studies for both titles containing the words “social media marketing.”
management practice and theory. Following this, we then excluded books, book chap-
To the best of our knowledge, there has been no ters, reports, and conference proceedings due to the
generic review of social media marketing, and thus this variability in their respective peer review processes
article makes a relevant contribution to this field of re- and more restricted availability. In contrast, journal
search. Hence, our aim involves contributing to deepen- articles were deemed to have been duly validated
ing and systemizing the study of social media market- (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Bachrach, & Podsakoff, 2005).
ing by surveying the most prominent lines of research Thus, we did not restrict the research to periodicals
as well as those requiring further study. In addition, with the greatest impact on their fields but rather in-
by systemizing the conclusions of various social me- cluded all the articles from journals indexed by the Web
dia marketing studies, we also deepen the knowledge of Science containing the expression “social media mar-
firms require in order to either take their first steps or keting.” We did not define any time frame for publi-
strengthen their recourse to social media for strategic cation and our initial search returned 108 articles. In
purposes. the second phase, we carried out analysis in order to
verify whether the studies already identified were ap-
propriate to the purposes of this research. In this phase,
METHOD we retained only those articles from English language
publication and that were neither proceedings nor
Within the scope of our objective of providing a sys- commentaries. Following this procedure, we excluded
tematic review of literature on the “social media mar- 63 articles and maintained 44.
keting” concept, we put forward two stages in this sec- The third phase of this study involved individual-
tion: (1) planning the review, which describes the way ized and independent analysis of the articles by two
in which we planned our systematic approach along- researchers through recourse to a predefined evalua-
side references to those authors following a similar tion grid that incorporated the analysis of the social
methodology; (2) conducting the review and analysis, media marketing concept applied along with the re-
where we set out a description of the various phases spective methodology, study type, sector, and the social
of the review and the systematization of the selected media channel utilized in the study along with the main
literature. conclusions. This grid was subsequently compared and
refined.
In the fourth and final phase of our study, we com-
PLANNING THE REVIEW pleted content analysis and systematized the 44 arti-
cles, and to this end making recourse to NVivo (version
To ensure replicability for future researchers, we fol- 11.0) software. Based on these results, we extracted
low a systematic review process. This is generally summarized information on the subject to analyze in
understood as an overall perception of trust in the terms of the type of study, type of analysis, conclusions,
scientific research existing in any field or topic (Pet- scope, and similarities among the studies.
1030 ALVES, FERNANDES, AND RAPOSO

Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar
Figure 2 presents the results of the cluster analysis
that enabled the grouping of the analyzed articles in
terms of the similarity of the words used based on the
Pearson correlation coefficient. As observed, the cluster
analysis allows for the identification of various groups
of articles that prove more similar to each other when
the figure is read from right to left. Analyzing Figure 2,
we understand how there are clearly two main and mu-
tually distinct clusters. The first article cluster (iden-
tified at the top of Figure 2) above all spans articles
studying social media marketing as a means for man-
aging relations between clients and for fostering cus-
tomer engagement. While the cluster containing the
rest of the articles, although more diverse in nature,
above all, contains articles approaching the manage-
ment of marketing content and the social media and its
respective implications.
Our analysis also confirms that social media market-
Figure 1. A representation of the 100 words (with more than ing has been approached across rather diverse fields as
four letters) most used in the articles analyzed. reflected in the distance between some of the articles
analyzed, for example, the article by Ubeda, Gieure,
De-la-Cruz, and Sastre (2013) (in the extreme top left)
AN OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH ON SOCIAL focusing on usage of social media by technology-based
MEDIA MARKETING firms and the articles by Hoffman and Fodor (2010)
and Kumar and Mirchandani (2012) (in the extreme
top right) focusing on measuring the return on invest-
The Concept of Social Media Marketing ment in social media marketing campaigns.
Our first analytical stage consisted of trying to system- This project also considered whether the empir-
ize the concept of social media marketing based on the ical studies analyzed focused more on consumer or
definitions appearing in the articles. However, we found firm/organization perspectives, the subject studied, and
only the article by Chan and Guillet (2011) actually pre- their respective key conclusions (Table 1). As observed
sented a definition of the social media marketing con- in Table 1, the greatest number of studies focuses
cept based on the AMA (American Marketing Associa- on consumer perspectives. Of the studies focusing on
tion) definition of marketing in 2006; a definition that firm/organization perspectives, those describing the
was reviewed and updated by the AMA in 2013. Hence, degree of use and facility of using social media by
in terms of systemization, we may only state that prac- firms/organizations predominate alongside the results
tically all these studies approach the concept of social of social marketing strategies and also unethical usage
media marketing as a transposition of the marketing of social media marketing strategies, in this specific
concept applied to social media with no author high- case, by alcohol brands directed at adolescents.
lighting any particularities to applying the marketing In regards to studies focusing on consumer behav-
concept in this domain. ior, four major lines of research stand out: (a) studies
of the influence of social media on increased consump-
tion by consumers, (b) studies of the usage, searching,
Areas of Study and sharing of information by social media consumers,
(c) studies of the influence of social media on consumer
The next stage deployed exploratory analysis of the con- attitudes toward brands, and (d) studies of how the in-
tent of the various studies analyzed. Figure 1 sets out fluence among consumers gets processed through social
the results in a representation of the 100 words with media.
more than four letters that were most frequently men- These studies in turn reveal how microblogs and
tioned in these articles. social networks are the social media most commonly
As Figure 1 demonstrates, the most prominent adopted by firms, specifically Facebook (17 studies)
words are social media marketing, in agreement with and Twitter (12 studies), with Myspace and YouTube
the area of study but appearing interrelated with others also encountered in three and two studies, respectively.
on a secondary level in which the words Facebook, on- However, these studies also reported that in some sec-
line, information, and brand stand out, which to some tors, for example, in health, tourist destination man-
extent anticipate the content of these articles as we agement, and in the B2B context, their usage still re-
demonstrate further on in the article. After analyzing mains limited. The studies also conclude that social
the dates of the articles, which vary from 2010 to 2015, media marketing actions impact company market val-
the majority appear in the last two years, conveying the ues, their sales and word of mouth; above all, opin-
growing importance of this subject. ion leaders use and share information on social media
IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 1031

Figure 2. Article grouping based on the similarity of their words.
and that their influence on other consumers depends predominance of quantitative techniques in the study
on their characteristics and overwhelmingly conveyed of social media marketing. In the quantitative studies,
by their communication networks rather than through the majority apply quantitative statistical and econo-
their contact networks; the messages and content of metric techniques such as linear regressions, structural
social media cannot be the same for utility and he- equations, and stochastic analysis, while in qualita-
donic products; these are perceived differently by in- tive studies content analysis predominates. Analysis of
dividuals with different levels of trait reactance; the Table 2 confirms that qualitative methodologies still
more personalized applications are, the greater their remain scarce in this field even if these open up un-
success; and social media marketing actions and cam- derstandings of the meanings to the phenomena under
paigns contribute to improving consumer attitudes to- study (Patton, 2002).
ward brands similar to that proposed by Kaplan and
Haenlein (2010), Gunelius (2011), and Jackson (2011).
IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE LINES OF
RESEARCH
Type of Study
Finally, the typology of studies was analyzed regard- From the results presented by the various different
ing the type of analysis carried out. As Table 2 sets studies, we may identify various implications both for
out, four studies are purely theoretical, 39 are empiri- theory and for practice. One of the conclusions reached
cal and, of those, 29 are quantitative, 5 are qualitative, by the studies refers to how microblogs and social net-
and 5 apply mixed methodologies and demonstrate a works, such as Facebook and Twitter, constitute the

Table 1. Analyzed Study Focuses.
Focus of Study Subject Analyzed Main Conclusions Studies
Firm/organization Degree of use and facility - Microblogs and social networks are the Ashley and Tuten (2015), Chan
of using social media most commonly used means and Guillet (2011), Enli and
- Sites managed by the firm itself have Skogerbø (2013), Hays, Page,
better results and Buhalis (2012), Keinänen
- The use of social media is still and Kuivalainen (2015),
restricted in some Koumpouros, Toulias, and
sectors/organizations, such as health, Koumpouros (2015), Mackey
tourist destination management and Liang (2013),
organizations, and in B2B, where this Michaelidou et al. (2011), and
often depends on the individual and Ubeda et al. (2013)
private use of social media by
professionals in these
sectors/organizations
- It is very easy to begin using social
media
Optimization, - Social media sentiment has a stronger Kozinets et al. (2010), Kumar
measurement, and impact on firm stock performance than and Mirchandani (2012),
impact of social media conventional media Kumar et al. (2013), Luo and
marketing strategies - Word-of-mouth messages are adapted Zhang (2013), and Yu et al.
by the senders according to the (2013)
receiver
- Consumer buzz and online traffic
explain part of the company’s value
- Social media can be used to generate
increased sales, return on investment,
word of mouth, and spread
information about brands
Abusive/unethical use Communications made by firms on social Nicholls (2012)

media can lead to risk behaviors by
consumers
Consumer Increased consumption - Messages on social media contribute to Alhabash et al. (2015), Hoffman
increased consumption of the products et al. (2014), and Hong (2012)
targeted
Use, search, and share of - Opinion leaders search for and share Bilgihan et al. (2014), Chang
information more information in social media et al. (2015), Lorenzo-Romero
- Participation and sharing of et al. (2012), Özgüven and
information varies according to the Mucan (2013), Schulze et al.
demographic and behavioral (2014), La Torre, Miccoli, and
characteristics of social media users Ricciardi (2014), and
- Strategies of social media marketing Workman and Gupta (2013)
for utility products cannot be based on
the same mechanisms as hedonic
products
- The most popular smartphone
applications are those that allow the
uploading of photos and their
personalization
- The popularity of a post influences its
sharing
(Continued)
social media, so far, most commonly deployed by com- Kumar et al., 2013) and companies should therefore en-
panies (Chan & Guillet, 2011; Enli & Skorgerbo, 2013). sure their presence in these channels but, on the other
Furthermore, these are the means that prove able to hand, leaving open the scope for company recourse to
return the best results in terms of attitudes toward the other social media platforms. According to Mangold and
brand (Kim & Ko, 2012; Kumar & Mirchandani, 2012; Faulds (2009) and Chan and Guillet (2011), there are

Table 1. Continued.
Focus of Study Subject Analyzed Main Conclusions Studies
Attitude toward the - Messages on social media contribute to Cambria, Grassi, Hussain, and
brand improved attitudes toward the brand, Havasi (2012), Chen et al.
increased word of mouth and customer (2015), De Vries et al. (2012),
equity Kim and Ko (2012), Lee et al.
- Positioning the brand post on top of (2015), Lee, Xiong, and Hu
the brand fan page enhances brand (2012), Leung, Bai, and
post popularity Stahura (2015), Rishika et al.
- Vivid and interactive brand post (2013), Smith, Fischer, and
characteristics enhance the number of Yongjian (2012), and Zadeh
likes and Sharda (2014)
- The share of positive comments on a
brand post is positively related to the
number of likes
- People with different levels of trait
reactance respond differently toward
the same marketing attempt
- Twitter and Facebook seem to be the
best means to improve consumer
attitudes toward the brand
- - The time and the number of followers
of a brand post are determinant in
measuring the post’s popularity
Influence among - It is more reliable to forecast the Guo et al. (2015), Liu and Park
consumers influence on individuals through their (2015), Qazi et al. (2014), and
network of effective communications in Tang et al. (2015)
social media than through their list of
friends
- The usefulness of an assessment
depends on the characteristics of the
message but also on the characteristics
of the individual making the
assessment
- The SVM ranking model can help to
determine which users recommend to
other users
SVM = support vector machine.
various means of social media, among them, in addi- light how this extends beyond simply maintaining the
tion to the aforementioned social network sites, virtual presence in social media. Obtaining success from com-
worlds, content community sites, and sites dedicated pany social media marketing strategies requires elic-
to feedback. This points to the need to analyze the be- iting strong feelings among users (Chen, Kim, & Lin,
haviors of consumers in these different channels, the 2015; Lee, Gallagher, Liebman, Miller, & Marlenga,
differences in consumer behaviors across the various 2012). This may result not only from vivid and inter-
channels, and the contribution of these other means active brand posts, by positioning the brand post at
that have not been studied yet, the similarities that the top of the Web page (Chang, Yu, & Lu, 2015; De
occur between Facebook and Twitter, moving toward Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2012), among other mar-
increased sales, word of mouth, and profits. keting techniques, but also from the involvement of
Another conclusion with major implications for com- consumers in social media initiatives and campaigns
panies derives from how social media marketing strate- (Rishika, Kumar, Janakiraman, & Bezawada, 2013).
gies hold the capacity to impact the market value of Our results also stress how opinion leaders channel
firms and businesses. Social media enable and empower and share the greatest amount of information on so-
word of mouth (Luo & Zhang, 2013; Yu et al., 2013) as cial media (Bilgihan, Peng, & Kandampully, 2014) and
well as the capacity to generate added sales (Kumar should correspondingly constitute the preferential tar-
& Mirchandani, 2012). However, these findings high- gets of any social media marketing strategy. Through

Table 2. Analyzed Article Systemization of Objectives and Types of Analysis.
Type of Study Type of Analysis References
Theoretical Hoffman and Fodor (2010), Jara, Parra, and

Skarmeta (2014), Lee et al. (2012), and
Malthouse, Haenlein, Skiera, Wege, and
Zhang (2013)
Empirical study Quantitative Experimental analysis Alhabash et al. (2015) and Chen et al. (2015)
Structural equation analysis Bilgihan et al. (2014), Chang et al. (2015),
Keinänen and Kuivalainen (2015), Kim
and Ko (2012), and Leung et al. (2015)
Descriptive statistics Chan and Guillet (2011), De Vries et al.
(2012), La Torre et al. (2014), Michaelidou
et al. (2011), and Ubeda et al. (2013)
Regression analysis Guo et al. (2015), Hoffman et al. (2014), Hong
(2012), Liu and Park (2015), and Schulze
et al. (2014)
ANOVA analysis Koumpouros et al. (2015) and Okazaki,
Navarro, and López-Nicolas (2011)
Several analyses and indexes Kumar and Mirchandani (2012), Kumar
et al. (2013), and Rishika et al. (2013)
Latent segmentation analysis Lorenzo-Romero et al. (2012)
vector autoregression with exogenous Luo and Zhang (2013)
variables (VARX) model
Web search analytics Mackey and Liang (2013)
Ranking SVM model Tang, Ni, Xiong, and Zhu (2015)
Econometric analysis Yu et al. (2013)
Stochastic analysis Zadeh and Sharda (2014)
Qualitative Content analysis Ashley and Tuten (2015), Enli and Skogerbø
(2013), Nicholls (2012), and Kozinets et al.
(2010)
Semantic Web analysis Cambria et al. (2012)
Mixed Content analysis and counts Hays et al. (2012)
Semantic analysis and experimental study Lee et al. (2015)
Machine learning, Content analysis, Logistic Qazi et al. (2014)
regression, etc.
Content analysis, Poisson regression, and Smith et al. (2012)
log-linear analysis
Content analysis and counts Workman and Gupta (2013)
SVM = support vector machine.
these opinion leaders, such strategies prove to gener- The results also convey how the majority of studies
ate buzz words about the company and its products. focus on understanding the aspects related to consumer
However, in terms of future lines of research, there is behaviors in social media, and so more studies, focus-
still a need to better understand just how online sharing on firms, their various facets, especially barriers to
ing of information takes place, which in turn shapes social media usage, measuring returns on investment,
the co-creation of value by consumers and to this end ways to optimize strategies, among others, may prove
making recourse to social network theories, for exam- future paths for research.
ple, to better grasp the relationships and the spread of In addition, firms need models to analyze the returns
information across human online networks. on investment in social media. Some studies already
The results also demonstrate how companies are not take this approach, for example, we would highlight
able to deploy but a single strategy for social media those by Hoffman and Fodor (2010) and Kumar and
marketing because, on the one hand, individual charac- Mirchandani (2012). Nevertheless, more studies are
teristics such as different levels of trait reactance end necessary both to confirm the results found by these
up influencing the ways in which consumers react to authors and also to analyze the models developed by
these strategies (Lee, Kim, Lim, & Kim, 2015; Özgüven other, less studied, social media.
& Mucan, 2013) and, on the other hand, because the Regarding recourse to the usage of social me-
characteristics of products, for example, with hedonistic dia in the B2B context, this proves still limited in
versus functional appeals, also condition the respective scope (Keinanen & Kuivalainen, 2015; Michaelidou,
social media marketing strategies (Schulze, Schöler, & Siamagka, & Christodoulides, 2011; Ubeda et al., 2013)
Skiera, 2014) and require different approaches to en- and hence more studies in this area are necessary,
sure the deployment of effective and efficient strategies. particularly targeting possible utilizations of some

social media that displays a more professional orien- Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social
tation, by which firms can obtain resources for the cre- media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social
ation of value, for example, LinkedIn. content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Market-
Another line of research that does not appear in the ing, 32, 15–27.
Bilgihan, A., Peng, C., & Kandampully, J. (2014). Generation
articles analyzed encapsulates the formation of social
Y’s dining information seeking and sharing behavior on
capital by consumers through their participation in so- social networking sites. International Journal of Contem-
cial media and the implications for creating value from porary Hospitality Management, 26, 349–366.
firm products and services. As mentioned by Akaka, Cambria, E., Grassi, M., Hussain, A., & Havasi, C. (2012).
Vargo, and Lusch (2012), the focus on value creation Sentic computing for social media marketing. Multimedia
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integrate the resources they access through their social Castronovo, C., & Huang, L. (2012). Social media in an alter-
networks in the meanwhile enhanced and increased by native marketing communication model. Journal of Mar-
social media. Finally, the results demonstrate how the keting Development and Competitiveness, 6, 117–134.
majority of studies adopted quantitative approaches Chan, N. L., & Guillet, B. D. (2011). Investigation of social me-
dia marketing: How does the hotel industry in Hong Kong
and thereby indicating the need for more qualitative
perform in marketing on social media websites? Journal of
approaches to understand consumer social media be- Travel & Tourism Marketing, 28, 345–368.
haviors. Chang, Y., Yu, H., & Lu, H. (2015). Persuasive messages, popu-
larity cohesion, and message diffusion in social media mar-
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sumer attitude formation. Journal of Consumer Behaviour,
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tion conveyed by the research done thus far on the field Constantinides, E., Alarcón del Amo, M. C., & Lorenzo
of social media marketing, we carried out this system- Romero, C. (2010). Profiles of social networking sites users
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show that the majority of studies have hitherto focused Firms Conference, HTSF, 25–28 May 2010, Enschede, The
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media marketing in an attempt to perceive how they De Vries, L., Gensler, S., & Leeflang, P. S. H. (2012). Popularity
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Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (2020) 48:79–95
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00695-1
CONCEPTUAL/THEORETICAL PAPER
The future of social media in marketing

Gil Appel 1 & Lauren Grewal 2 & Rhonda Hadi 3 & Andrew T. Stephen 3,4
Published online: 12 October 2019

# The Author(s) 2019
Abstract
Social media allows people to freely interact with others and offers multiple ways for marketers to reach and engage with
consumers. Considering the numerous ways social media affects individuals and businesses alike, in this article, the authors
focus on where they believe the future of social media lies when considering marketing-related topics and issues. Drawing on
academic research, discussions with industry leaders, and popular discourse, the authors identify nine themes, organized by
predicted imminence (i.e., the immediate, near, and far futures), that they believe will meaningfully shape the future of social
media through three lenses: consumer, industry, and public policy. Within each theme, the authors describe the digital landscape,
present and discuss their predictions, and identify relevant future research directions for academics and practitioners.
Keywords Social media . Digital marketing . Future of marketing
Introduction hours a day using social media across the various platforms, it
is not surprising that marketers have embraced social media as a
Social media is used by billions of people around the world and marketing channel. Academically, social media has also been
has fast become one of the defining technologies of our time. embraced, and an extensive body of research on social media
Facebook, for example, reported having 2.38 billion monthly marketing and related topics, such as online word of mouth
active users and 1.56 billion daily active users as of March 31, (WOM) and online networks, has been developed. Despite what
2019 (Facebook 2019). Globally, the total number of social media academics and practitioners have studied and learned over the last
users is estimated to grow to 3.29 billion users in 2022, which will 15–20 years on this topic, due to the fast-paced and ever-changing
be 42.3% of the world’s population (eMarketer 2018). Given the nature of social media—and how consumers use it—the future of
massive potential audience available who are spending many social media in marketing might not be merely a continuation of
what we have already seen. Therefore, we ask a pertinent ques-
Mark Houston served as accepting editor for this article. tion, what is the future of social media in marketing?
Addressing this question is the goal of this article. It is important
* Rhonda Hadi to consider the future of social media in the context of consumer
rhonda.hadi@sbs.ox.ac.uk behavior and marketing, since social media has become a vital
* Andrew T. Stephen marketing and communications channel for businesses, organiza-
andrew.stephen@sbs.ox.ac.uk tions and institutions alike, including those in the political sphere.
Gil Appel Moreover, social media is culturally significant since it has be-
gappel@marshall.usc.edu come, for many, the primary domain in which they receive vast
amounts of information, share content and aspects of their lives
Lauren Grewal
lauren.s.grewal@tuck.dartmouth.edu with others, and receive information about the world around them
(even though that information might be of questionable accuracy).
1
Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, 701 Vitally, social media is always changing. Social media as we know
Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA it today is different than even a year ago (let alone a decade ago),
2
Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, 100 Tuck Hall, and social media a year from now will likely be different than now.
Hanover, NH 03755, USA This is due to constant innovation taking place on both the tech-
3
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End Street, nology side (e.g., by the major platforms constantly adding new
Oxford OX1 1HP, UK features and services) and the user/consumer side (e.g., people
4
Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia finding new uses for social media) of social media.
80 J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2020) 48:79–95
What is social media? capture important changes in the social media space through
the lenses of important stakeholders, including consumers,
Definitionally, social media can be thought of in a few differ- industry/practice, and public policy.
ent ways. In a practical sense, it is a collection of software- In addition to describing the nature and consequences of
based digital technologies—usually presented as apps and each theme, we identify research directions that academics
websites—that provide users with digital environments in and practitioners may wish to explore. While it is infeasible
which they can send and receive digital content or information to forecast precisely what the future has in store or to project
over some type of online social network. In this sense, we can these on a specific timeline, we have organized the emergent
think of social media as the major platforms and their features, themes into three time-progressive waves, according to immi-
such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. We can also in nence of impact (i.e., the immediate, near, and far future).
practical terms of social media as another type of digital mar- Before presenting our framework for the future of social me-
keting channel that marketers can use to communicate with dia in marketing and its implications for research (and practice
consumers through advertising. But we can also think of so- and policy), we provide a brief overview of where social me-
cial media more broadly, seeing it less as digital media and dia currently stands as a major media and marketing channel.
specific technology services, and more as digital places where
people conduct significant parts of their lives. From this per-
spective, it means that social media becomes less about the Social media at present
specific technologies or platforms, and more about what peo-
ple do in these environments. To date, this has tended to be The current social media landscape has two key aspects to it.
largely about information sharing, and, in marketing, often First are the platforms—major and minor, established and
thought of as a form of (online) word of mouth (WOM). emerging—that provide the underlying technologies and busi-
Building on these definitional perspectives, and thinking ness models making up the industry and ecosystem. Second
about the future, we consider social media to be a technolo- are the use cases; i.e., how various kinds of people and orga-
gy-centric—but not entirely technological—ecosystem in nizations are using these technologies and for what purposes.
which a diverse and complex set of behaviors, interactions, The rise of social media, and the manner in which it has
and exchanges involving various kinds of interconnected ac- impacted both consumer behavior and marketing practice, has
tors (individuals and firms, organizations, and institutions) can largely been driven by the platforms themselves. Some
occur. Social media is pervasive, widely used, and culturally readers might recall the Bearly days^ of social media where
relevant. This definitional perspective is deliberately broad social networking sites such as MySpace and Friendster were
because we believe that social media has essentially become popular. These sites were precursors to Facebook and every-
almost anything—content, information, behaviors, people, or- thing else that has developed over the last decade. Alongside
ganizations, institutions—that can exist in an interconnected, these platforms, we continue to have other forms of social
networked digital environment where interactivity is possible. media such as messaging (which started with basic Internet
It has evolved from being simply an online instantiation of Relay Chat services in the 1990s and the SMS text messaging
WOM behaviors and content/information creation and shar- built into early digital mobile telephone standards in the
ing. It is pervasive across societies (and geographic borders) 2000s), and asynchronous online conversations arranged
and culturally prominent at both local and global levels. around specific topics of interest (e.g., threaded discussion
Throughout the paper we consider many of the definitional forums, subreddits on Reddit). More recently, we have seen
and phenomenological aspects described above and explore the rise of social media platforms where images and videos
their implications for consumers and marketing in order to replace text, such as Instagram and Snapchat.
address our question about the future of marketing-related Across platforms, historically and to the present day, the dom-
social media. By drawing on academic research, discussions inant business model has involved monetization of users
with industry leaders, popular discourse, and our own exper- (audiences) by offering advertising services to anyone wishing
tise, we present and discuss a framework featuring nine to reach those audiences with digital content and marketing com-
themes that we believe will meaningfully shape the future of munications. Prior research has examined the usefulness of social
social media in marketing. These themes by no means repre- media (in its various forms) for marketing purposes. For exam-
sent a comprehensive list of all emerging trends in the social ple, work by Trusov et al. (2009) and Stephen and Galak (2012)
media domain and include aspects that are both familiar in demonstrated that certain kinds of social interactions that now
extant social media marketing literature (e.g., online WOM, happen on social media (e.g., Brefer a friend^ features and dis-
engagement, and user-generated content) and emergent (e.g., cussions in online communities) can positively affect important
sensory considerations in human-computer interaction and marketing outcomes such as new customer acquisition and sales.
new types of unstructured data, including text, audio, images, More recently, the value of advertising on social media continues
and video). The themes we present were chosen because they to be explored (e.g., Gordon et al. 2019), as well as how it
J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. (2020) 48:79–95 81
interacts with other forms of media such as television (e.g., While this current characterization of WOM appears rea-
Fossen and Schweidel 2016, 2019) and affects new product sonable, it considers social media only from a communica-
adoption through diffusion of information mechanisms (e.g., tions perspective (and as a type of media channel). However,
Hennig-Thurau et al. 2015). as social media matures, broader social implications emerge.
Although the rise (and fall) of various kinds of social media To appropriately consider the future, we must expand our
platforms has been important for understanding the social me- perspective beyond the narrow communicative aspects of so-
dia landscape, our contention is that understanding the current cial media and consider instead how consumers might use it.
situation of social media, at least from a marketing perspec- Hence, in our vision for the future of social media in market-
tive, lies more in what the users do on these platforms than the ing in the following sections, we attempt to present a more
technologies or services offered by these platforms. Presently, expansive perspective of what social media is (and will be-
people around the world use social media in its various forms come) and explain why this perspective is relevant to market-
(e.g., news feeds on Facebook and Twitter, private messaging ing research and practice.
on WhatsApp and WeChat, and discussion forums on Reddit)
for a number of purposes. These can generally be categorized
as (1) digitally communicating and socializing with known Overview of framework for the future of social
others, such as family and friends, (2) doing the same but with media in marketing
unknown others but who share common interests, and (3)
accessing and contributing to digital content such as news, In the following sections we present a framework for the im-
gossip, and user-generated product reviews. mediate, near, and far future of social media in marketing
All of these use cases are essentially WOM in one form or when considering various relevant stakeholders. Themes in
another. This, at least, is how marketing scholars have mainly the immediate future represent those which already exist in
characterized social media, as discussed by Lamberton and the current marketplace, and that we believe will continue
Stephen (2016). Indeed, online WOM has been—and, we shaping the social media landscape. The near future section
contend, will continue to be—important in marketing (e.g., examines trends that have shown early signs of manifesting,
in the meta-analysis by Babić Rosario et al. 2016 the authors and that we believe will meaningfully alter the social media
found, on average, a positive correlation between online landscape in the imminent future. Finally, themes designated
WOM and sales). The present perspective on social media is as being in the far future represent more speculative projec-
that people use it for creating, accessing, and spreading infor- tions that we deem capable of long-term influence on the
mation via WOM to various types of others, be it known future of social media. The next sections delve into each of
Bstrong ties^ or Bweak ties^ in their networks or unknown the themes in Table 1, organized around the predicted immi-
Bstrangers.^ Some extant research has looked at social media nence of these theme’s importance to marketing (i.e., the im-
from the WOM perspective of the consequences of the trans- mediate, near, and far futures).
mission of WOM (e.g., creating a Facebook post or tweeting)
on others (e.g., Herhausen et al. 2019; Stephen and Lehmann
2016), the impact of the type of WOM content shared on The immediate future
others’ behavior (e.g., Villarroel Ordenes et al. 2017;
Villarroel Ordenes et al. 2018), and on the motivations that To begin our discussion on the direction of social media, in
drive consumer posting on social media, including consider- this section, we highlight three themes that have surfaced in
ations of status and self-presentation (e.g., Grewal et al. 2019; the current environment that we believe will continue to shape
Hennig-Thurau et al. 2004; Hollenbeck and Kaikati 2012; the social media landscape in the immediate future. These
Toubia and Stephen 2013; Wallace et al. 2014). themes—omni-social presence, the rise of influencers, and
Table 1 Framework for the future of social media as it relates to marketing issues
Focal stakeholders discussed
Predicted Individuals Firms Public policy

imminence
Immediate future Omni-social presence The rise of influencers Privacy concerns on social media
Near future Combating loneliness and isolation Integrated customer care Social media as a political tool
Far future Increased sensory richness Online/offline integration Social media by non-humans
and complete convergence
trust and privacy concerns—reflect the ever-changing digital movies is often deliberately designed to be Bgifable^ and
and social media landscape that we presently face. We believe meme-friendly (Bereznak 2018). BMade-for-Instagram
that these different areas will influence a number of stake- museums^ are encouraging artistic content and experiences
holders such as individual social media users, firms and that are optimized for selfie-taking and posting (Pardes
brands that utilize social media, and public policymakers 2017). These examples suggest that social media’s influence
(e.g., governments, regulators). is hardly restricted to the Bonline^ world (we discuss the po-
tential obsolescence of this term later in this paper), but is
Omni-social presence rather consistently shaping cultural artifacts (television, film,
the arts) that transcend its traditional boundaries. We believe
In its early days, social media activity was mostly confined to this trend will continue to manifest, perhaps making the term
designated social media platforms such as Facebook and Bsocial media^ itself out-of-date, as it’s omni-presence will be
Twitter (or their now-defunct precursors). However, a prolif- the default assumption for consumers, businesses, and artists
eration of websites and applications that primarily serve sep- in various domains.
arate purposes have capitalized on the opportunity to embed This omni-social trend generates many questions to probe
social media functionality into their interfaces. Similarly, all in future research. For example, how will social interactivity
major mobile and desktop operating systems have in-built influence consumer behavior in areas that had traditionally
social media integration (e.g., sharing functions built into been non-social? From a practitioner lens, it might also be
Apple’s iOS). This has made social media pervasive and interesting to explore how marketers can strategically address
ubiquitous—and perhaps even omnipotent—and has extend- the flatter decision-making funnel that social media has en-
ed the ecosystem beyond dedicated platforms. abled, and to examine how service providers can best alter
Accordingly, consumers live in a world in which social experiential consumption when anticipating social media
media intersects with most aspects of their lives through dig- sharing behavior.
itally enabled social interactivity in such domains as travel
(e.g., TripAdvisor), work (e.g., LinkedIn), food (e.g., Yelp), The rise of new forms of social influence (and
music (e.g., Spotify), and more. At the same time, traditional influencers)
social media companies have augmented their platforms to
provide a broader array of functionalities and services (e.g., The idea of using celebrities (in consumer markets) or well-
Facebook’s marketplace, Chowdry 2018; WeChat’s payment known opinion leaders (in business markets), who have a high
system, Cheng 2017). These bidirectional trends suggest that social value, to influence others is a well-known marketing
the modern-day consumer is living in an increasingly Bomni- strategy (Knoll and Matthes 2017). However, the omnipres-
social^ world. ence of social media has tremendously increased the accessi-
From a marketing perspective, the Bomni-social^ nature of bility and appeal of this approach. For example, Selena
the present environment suggests that virtually every part of a Gomez has over 144 million followers on Instagram that she
consumer’s decision-making process is prone to social media engages with each of her posts. In 2018, the exposure of a
influence. Need recognition might be activated when a con- single photo shared by her was valued at $3.4 million (Maxim
sumer watches their favorite beauty influencer trying a new 2018). However, she comes at a high price: one post that
product on YouTube. A consumer shopping for a car might Selena sponsors for a brand can cost upwards of $800,000
search for information by asking their Facebook friends what (Mejia 2018). However, putting high valuations on mere on-
models they recommend. A hungry employee might sift line exposures or collecting Blikes^ for specific posts can be
through Yelp reviews to evaluate different lunch options. A somewhat speculative, as academic research shows that ac-
traveler might use Airbnb to book future accommodation. quiring Blikes^ on social media might have no effect on con-
Finally, a highly dissatisfied (or delighted) airline passenger sumers’ attitudes or behaviors (John et al. 2017; Mochon et al.
might rant (rave) about their experience on Twitter. While the 2017). Moreover, Hennig-Thurau et al. (2015), show that
decision-making funnel is arguably growing flatter than the while garnering positive WOM has little to no effect on con-
aforementioned examples would imply (Cortizo-Burgess sumer preferences, negative WOM can have a negative effect
2014), these independent scenarios illustrate that social media on consumer preferences.
has the propensity to influence the entire consumer-decision While celebrities like Selena Gomez are possible
making process, from beginning to end. influencers for major brands, these traditional celebrities are
Finally, perhaps the greatest indication of an Bomni-social^ so expensive that smaller brands have begun, and will contin-
phenomenon is the manner in which social media appears to ue to, capitalize on the popularity and success of what are
be shaping culture itself. YouTube influencers are now cultur- referred to as Bmicro-influencers,^ representing a new form
al icons, with their own TV shows (Comm 2016) and product of influencers. Micro-influencers are influencers who are not
lines (McClure 2015). Creative content in television and as well-known as celebrities, but who have strong and
enthusiastic followings that are usually more targeted, influencer’s characteristics, the type of content being posted,
amounting anywhere between a few thousand to hundreds of whether content is sponsored or not, and so on, are all relevant
thousands of followers (Main 2017). In general, these types of concerns for companies and social media platforms when de-
influencers are considered to be more trustworthy and authen- termining partnerships and where to invest effort in
tic than traditional celebrities, which is a major reason influencers. In addition, research can focus on understanding
influencer marketing has grown increasingly appealing to the appeal of live influencer content, and how to successfully
brands (Enberg 2018). These individuals are often seen as blend influencer content with more traditional marketing mix
credible Bexperts^ in what they post about, encouraging others approaches.
to want to view the content they create and engage with them.
Furthermore, using these influencers allows the brand via first Privacy concerns on social media
person narration (compared to ads), which is considered
warmer and more personal, and was shown to be more effec- Consumer concerns regarding data privacy, and their ability to
tive in engaging consumers (Chang et al. 2019). trust brands and platforms are not new (for a review on data
Considering the possible reach and engagement influencers privacy see Martin and Murphy 2017). Research in marketing
command on social media, companies have either begun em- and related disciplines has examined privacy and trust con-
bracing influencers on social media, or plan to expand their cerns from multiple angles and using different definitions of
efforts in this domain even more. For example, in recent con- privacy. For example, research has focused on the connections
versations we had with social media executives, several of between personalization and privacy (e.g., Aguirre et al. 2015;
them stated the growing importance of influencers and men- White et al. 2008), the relationship of privacy as it relates to
tioned how brands generally are looking to incorporate consumer trust and firm performance (e.g., Martin 2018;
influencer marketing into their marketing strategies. Further, Martin et al. 2017), and the legal and ethical aspects of data
recent conversations with executives at some globally leading and digital privacy (e.g., Culnan and Williams 2009; Nill and
brands suggest that influencer marketing spending by big Aalberts 2014). Despite this topic not seeming novel, the way
brands continues to rise. consumers, brands, policy makers, and social media platforms
While influencer marketing on social media is not new, we are all adjusting and adapting to these concerns are still in flux
believe it has a lot of potential to develop further as an indus- and without clear resolution.
try. In a recent working paper, Duani et al. (2018) show that Making our understanding of privacy concerns even less
consumers enjoy watching a live experience much more and straightforward is the fact that, across extant literature, a clear
for longer time periods than watching a prerecorded one. definition of privacy is hard to come by. In one commentary
Hence, we think live streaming by influencers will continue on privacy, Stewart (2017), defined privacy as Bbeing left
to grow, in broad domains as well as niche ones. For example, alone,^ as this allows an individual to determine invasions
streaming of video game playing on Twitch, a platform owned of privacy. We build from this definition of privacy to specu-
by Amazon, may still be niche but shows no signs of slowing late on a major issue in privacy and trust moving forward.
down. However, live platforms are limited by the fact that the Specifically, how consumers are adapting and responding to
influencers, being human, need to sleep and do other activities the digital world, where Bbeing left alone^ isn’t possible. For
offline. Virtual influencers (i.e., BCGI^ influencers that look example, while research has shown benefits to personalization
human but are not), on the other hand, have no such limita- tactics (e.g., Chung et al. 2016), with eroding trust in social
tions. They never get tired or sick, they do not even eat (unless platforms and brands that advertise through them, many con-
it is needed for a campaign). Some brands have started explor- sumers would rather not share data and privacy for a more
ing the use of virtual influencers (Nolan 2018), and we believe personalized experiences, are uncomfortable with their pur-
that in coming years, along with stronger computing power chases being tracked and think it should be illegal for brands
and artificial intelligence algorithms, virtual influencers will to be able to buy their data (Edelman 2018). These recent
become much more prominent on social media, being able to findings seem to be in conflict with previously established
invariably represent and act on brand values and engage with work on consumer privacy expectations. Therefore, under-
followers anytime. standing if previously studied factors that mitigated the nega-
There are many interesting future research avenues to con- tive effects of personalization (e.g., perceived utility; White
sider when thinking about the role of influencers on social et al. 2008) are still valued by consumers in an ever-changing
media. First, determining what traits and qualities (e.g., au- digital landscape is essential for future work.
thenticity, trust, credibility, and likability) make sponsored In line with rising privacy concerns, the way consumers
posts by a traditional celebrity influencer, versus a micro- view brands and social media is becoming increasingly nega-
influencer, or even compared to a CGI influencer, more or less tive. Consumers are deleting their social media presence,
successful is important to determine for marketers. where research has shown that nearly 40% of digitally con-
Understanding whether success has to do with the actual nected individuals admitted to deleting at least one social
media account due to fears of their personal data being these topics impact the stakeholders we mentioned when
mishandled (Edelman 2018). This is a negative trend not only discussing the immediate social media landscape.
for social media platforms, but for the brands and advertisers
who have grown dependent on these avenues for reaching Combatting loneliness and isolation
consumers. Edelman found that nearly half of the surveyed
consumers believed brands to be complicit in negative aspects Social media has made it easier to reach people. When
of content on social media such as hate speech, inappropriate Facebook was founded in 2004, their mission was Bto give
content, or fake news (Edelman 2018). Considering that social people the power to build community and bring the world
media has become one of the best places for brands to engage closer together... use Facebook to stay connected with friends
with consumers, build relationships, and provide customer and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to
service, it’s not only in the best interest of social media plat- share and express what matters to them^ (Facebook 2019).
forms to Bdo better^ in terms of policing content, but the onus Despite this mission, and the reality that users are more
of responsibility has been placed on brands to advocate for Bconnected^ to other people than ever before, loneliness and
privacy, trust, and the removal of fake or hateful content. isolation are on the rise. Over the last fifty years in the U.S.,
Therefore, to combat these negative consumer beliefs, loneliness and isolation rates have doubled, with Generation Z
changes will need to be made by everyone who benefits from considered to be the loneliest generation (Cigna 2018).
consumer engagement on social media. Social media plat- Considering these findings with the rise of social media, is
forms and brands need to consider three major concerns that the fear that Facebook is interfering with real friendships and
are eroding consumer trust: personal information, intellectual ironically spreading the isolation it was designed to conquer
property and information security (Information Technology something to be considered about (Marche 2012)?
Faculty 2018). Considering each of these concerns, specific The role of social media in this Bloneliness epidemic^ is
actions and initiatives need to be taken for greater transparen- being hotly debated. Some research has shown that social
cy and subsequent trust. We believe that brands and agencies media negatively impacts consumer well-being. Specifically,
need to hold social media accountable for their actions regard- heavy social media use has been associated with higher per-
ing consumer data (e.g., GDPR in the European Union) for ceived social isolation, loneliness, and depression (Kross et al.
consumers to feel Bsafe^ and Bin control,^ two factors shown 2013; Primack et al. 2017; Steers et al. 2014). Additionally,
necessary in cases of privacy concerns (e.g., Tucker 2014; Xu Facebook use has been shown to be negatively correlated with
et al. 2012). As well, brands need to establish transparent consumer well-being (Shakya and Christakis 2017) and cor-
policies regarding consumer data in a way that recognizes relational research has shown that limiting social media use to
the laws, advertising restrictions, and a consumer’s right to 10 min can decrease feelings of loneliness and depression due
privacy (a view shared by others; e.g., Martin et al. 2017). to less FOMO (e.g., Bfear of missing out;^ Hunt et al. 2018).
All of this is managerially essential for brands to engender On the other hand, research has shown that social media
feelings of trust in the increasingly murky domain of social use alone is not a predictor of loneliness as other factors have
media. to be considered (Cigna 2018; Kim et al. 2009). In fact, while
Future research can be conducted to determine consumer some research has shown no effect of social media on well-
reactions to different types of changes and policies regarding being (Orben et al. 2019), other research has shown that social
data and privacy. As well, another related and important di- media can benefit individuals through a number of different
rection for future research, will be to ascertain the spillover avenues such as teaching and developing socialization skills,
effects of distrust on social media. Specifically, is all content allowing greater communication and access to a greater
shared on social media seen as less trustworthy if the platform wealth of resources, and helping with connection and belong-
itself is distrusted? Does this extend to brand messages ing (American Psychological Association 2011; Baker and
displayed online? Is there a negative spillover effect to other Algorta 2016; Marker et al. 2018). As well, a working paper
user-generated content shared through these platforms? by Crolic et al. (2019) argues that much of the evidence of
social media use on consumer well-being is of questionable
quality (e.g., small and non-representative samples, reliance
on self-reported social media use), and show that some types
The near future of social media use are positively associated with psycholog-
ical well-being over time.
In the previous section, we discussed three areas where we Managerially speaking, companies are beginning to re-
believe social media is immediately in flux. In this section, we spond as a repercussion of studies highlighting a negative
identify three trends that have shown early signs of manifest- relationship between social media and negative wellbeing.
ing, and which we believe will meaningfully alter the social For example, Facebook has created Btime limit^ tools (mobile
media landscape in the near, or not-too-distant, future. Each of operating systems, such as iOS, now also have these time-
limiting features). Specifically, users can now check their dai- anywhere and anytime, and solutions to customers’ problems
ly times, set up reminder alerts that pop up when a self- will be more accessible and immediate, perhaps even pre-
imposed amount of time on the apps is hit, and there is the emptive using predictive approaches (i.e., before a customer even
option to mute notifications for a set period of time (Priday notices an issue or has a question pop into their mind).
2018). These different features seem well-intentioned and are Even today, we observe the benefits that companies gain
designed to try and give people a more positive social media from connecting with customers on social media for service-
experience. Whether these features will be used is unknown. or care-related purposes. Customer care is implemented in
Future research can address whether or not consumers will dedicated smartphone apps and via direct messaging on social
use available Btiming^ tools on one of many devices in which media platforms. However, it appears that firms want to make
their social media exists (i.e., fake self-policing) or on all of it even easier for customers to connect with them whenever
their devices to actually curb behavior. It could also be the and wherever they might need. Requiring a customer to down-
case that users will actually spend less time on Facebook load a brand specific app or to search through various social
and Instagram, but possibly spend that extra time on other media platforms to connect with firms through the right brand-
competing social media platforms, or attached to devices, ed account on a platform can be a cumbersome process. In
which theoretically will not help combat loneliness. those cases, customers might instead churn or engage in neg-
Understanding how (and which) consumers use these self- ative WOM, instead of connecting with the firm to bring up
control tools and how impactful they are is a potentially valu- any troubles they might have.
able avenue for future research. The near future of customer care on social media appears to be
One aspect of social media that has yet to be considered in more efficient and far-reaching. In a recent review on the future
the loneliness discussion through empirical measures, is the of customer relationship management, Haenlein (2017) describes
quality of use (versus quantity). Facebook ads have begun Binvisible CRM^ as future systems that will make customer
saying, BThe best part of Facebook isn’t on Facebook. It’s engagement simple and accessible for customers. New platforms
when it helps us get together^ (Facebook 2019). There have have emerged to make the connection between customer and
been discussions around the authenticity of this type of mes- firm effortless. Much of this is via instant messaging applications
sage, but at its core, in addition to promoting quantity differ- for businesses, which several leading technology companies
ences, it’s speaking to how consumers use the platform. have recently launched as business-related features in existing
Possibly, to facilitate this message, social media platforms will platforms (e.g., contact business features in Facebook
find new ways to create friend suggestions between individ- Messenger and WhatsApp or Apple’s Business Chat).
uals who not only share similar interests and mutual friends to These technologies allow businesses to directly communi-
facilitate in-person friendships (e.g., locational data from the cate via social media messaging services with their customers.
mobile app service). Currently there are apps that allow people Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are in the process, or
to search for friends that are physically close (e.g., Bumble have already released early versions of such platforms
Friends), and perhaps social media will go in this same direc- (Dequier 2018). Customers can message a company, ask them
tion to address the loneliness epidemic and stay current. questions, or even order products and services through the
Future research can examine whether the quantity of use, messaging system, which is often built around chatbots and
types of social media platforms, or the way social media is virtual assistants. This practice is expected to become more
used causally impacts perceived loneliness. Specifically, un- widespread, especially because it puts brands and companies
derstanding if the negative correlations found between social into the social media messaging platforms their customers
media use and well-being are due to the demographics of already use to communicate with others, it provides
individuals who use a lot of social media, the way social quicker—even instantaneous—responses, is economically
media works, or the way users choose to engage with the scalable through the use of AI-driven chatbots, and, despite
platform will be important for understanding social media’s the use of chatbots, can provide a more personalized level of
role (or lack of role) in the loneliness epidemic. customer service.
Another area that companies will greatly improve upon is
Integrated customer care data collection and analysis. While it is true that data collec-
tion on social media is already pervasive today, it is also
Customer care via digital channels as we know it is going to heavily scrutinized. However, we believe that companies will
change substantially in the near future. To date, many brands adapt to the latest regulation changes (e.g., GDPR in Europe,
have used social media platforms as a place for providing cus- CCPA in California) and improve on collecting and analyzing
tomer care, addressing customers’ specific questions, and fixing anonymized data (Kakatkar and Spann 2018). Furthermore,
problems. In the future, social media-based customer care is even under these new regulations, personalized data collection
expected to become even more customized, personalized, and is still allowed, but severely limits firm’s abilities to exploit
ubiquitous. Customers will be able to engage with firms consumers’ data, and requires their consent for data collection.
We believe that in the future, companies will be able rec- and engage voters on social media (Carr 2008). Indeed, Bond
ognize early indications of problems within customer chatter, et al. (2012) have shown that with simple interventions, social
behavior, or even physiological data (e.g., monitoring the sen- media platforms can increase targeted audiences’ likelihood of
sors in our smart watches) before customers themselves even voting. Social media is considered one of the major drivers of
realize they are experiencing a problem. For example, the 2010 wave of revolutions in Arab countries, also known as
WeWork, the shared workspace company, collects data on the Arab Spring (Brown et al. 2012).
how workers move and act in a workspace, building highly While social media is not new to politics, we believe that
personalized workspaces based on trends in the data. Taking social media is transitioning to take a much larger role as a
this type of approach to customer care will enable Bseamless political tool in the intermediate future. First evidence for this
service,^ where companies would be able to identify and ad- could be seen in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as social
dress consumer problems when they are still small and media took on a different shape, with many purported at-
scattered, and while only a small number of customers are tempts to influence voter’s opinions, thoughts, and actions.
experiencing problems. Customer healthcare is a pioneer in This is especially true for then-candidate and now-President
this area, where using twitter and review sites were shown to Donald Trump. His use of Twitter attracted a lot of attention
predict poor healthcare quality (Greaves et al. 2013), listen to during the campaign and has continued to do so during his
patients to analyze trending terms (Baktha et al. 2017; Padrez term in office. Yet, he is not alone, and many politicians
et al. 2016), or even predict disease outbreaks (Schmidt 2012). changed the way they work and interact with constituents,
Companies, wanting to better understand and mimic human with a recent example of Congresswoman Alexandria
interactions, will invest a lot of R&D efforts into developing Ocasio-Cortez that even ran a workshop for fellow congress
better Natural Language Processing, voice and image recogni- members on social media (Dwyer 2019).
tion, emotional analysis, and speech synthesis tools (Sheth 2017). While such platforms allow for a rapid dissemination of
For example, Duplex, Google’s latest AI assistant, can already ideas and concepts (Bonilla and Rosa 2015; Bode 2016), there
call services on its own and seamlessly book reservations for are some, both in academia and industry that have raised eth-
their users (Welch 2018). In the future, AI systems will act as ical concerns about using social media for political purposes.
human ability augmenters, allowing us to accomplish more, in Given that people choose who to follow, this selective behav-
less time, and better results (Guszcza 2018). ior is said to potentially create echo chambers, wherein, users
For marketers, this will reduce the need for call centers and are exposed only to ideas by like-minded people, exhibiting
agents, reducing points of friction in service and increasing the increased political homophily (Bakshy et al. 2015). People’s
convenience for customers (Kaplan and Haenlein 2019). preference to group with like-minded people is not new.
However, some raise the question that the increased depen- Social in-groups have been shown to promote social identifi-
dence on automation may result in a loss of compassion and cation and promote in-group members to conform to similar
empathy. In a recent study, Force (2018) shows that ideas (Castano et al. 2002; Harton and Bourgeois 2004).
interacting with brands on social media lowered people’s em- Furthermore, it was also shown that group members strongly
pathy. In response to such concerns, and to educate and incen- disassociate and distance themselves from outgroup members
tivize people to interact with machines in a similar way they (Berger and Heath 2008; White and Dahl 2007). Thus, it is not
do with people, Google programmed their AI assistant to re- surprising to find that customized newsfeeds within social
spond in a nicer way if you use a polite, rather than a com- media exacerbate this problem by generating news coverage
manding approach (Kumparak 2018). While this might help, that is unique to specific users, locking them in their purported
more research is needed to understand the effect of an AI rich echo chambers (Oremus 2016).
world on human behavior. As well, future research can exam- While social media platforms admit that echo chambers could
ine how consumer generated data can help companies pre- pose a problem, a solution is not clear (Fiegerman 2018). One
emptively predict consumer distress. Another interesting path reason that echo chambers present such a problem, is their prone-
for research would be to better understand the difference in ness to fake news. Fake news are fabricated stories that try to
consumer engagement between the various platforms, and the disguise themselves as authentic content, in order to affect other
long-term effects of service communications with non-human social media users. Fake news was widely used in the 2016 U.S.
AI and IoT. elections, with accusations that foreign governments, such as Iran
and Russia, were using bots (i.e., online automatic algorithms), to
Social media as a political tool spread falsified content attacking Hillary Clinton and supporting
President Trump (Kelly et al. 2018). Recent research has further-
Social media is a platform to share thoughts and opinions. more shown how the Chinese government strategically uses mil-
This is especially true in the case of disseminating political lions of online comments to distract the Chinese public from
sentiments. Famously, President Barack Obama’s victory in discussing sensitive issues and promote nationalism (King et al.
the 2008 election was partially attributed to his ability to drive 2017). In their latest incarnation, fake news uses an advanced AI
technique called BDeep Fake^ to generate ultra-realistic forged and SnapChat for short videos). These shifts have had demon-
images and videos of political leaders while manipulating what strable consequences on social media usage and its conse-
those leaders say (Schwartz 2018). Such methods can easily fool quences as some scholars suggest that image-based posts con-
even the sharpest viewer. In response, research has begun to vey greater social presence than text alone (e.g., Pittman and
explore ways that social media platforms can combat fake news Reich 2016). Importantly however, a plethora of new technol-
through algorithms that determine the quality of shared content ogies in the market suggest that the future of social media will
(e.g., Pennycook and Rand 2019). be more sensory-rich.
One factor that has helped the rise of fake news is echo One notable technology that has already started infiltrating
chambers. This occurs as the repeated sharing of fake news by social media is augmented reality (AR). Perhaps the most
group members enhance familiarity and support (Schwarz and recognizable examples of this are Snapchat’s filters, which
Newman 2017). Repetition of such articles by bots can only use a device’s camera to superimpose real-time visual and/or
increase that effect. Recent research has shown that in a per- video overlays on people’s faces (including features such as
ceived social setting, such as social media, participants were makeup, dog ears, etc.). The company has even launched fil-
less likely to fact-check information (Jun et al. 2017), and ters to specifically be used on users’ cats (Ritschel 2018).
avoided information that didn’t fit well with their intuition Other social media players quickly joined the AR bandwagon,
(Woolley and Risen 2018). Schwarz and Newman (2017) state including Instagram’s recent adoption of AR filters (Rao
that misinformation might be difficult to correct, especially if 2017) and Apple’s Memoji messaging (Tillman 2018). This
the correction is not issued immediately and the fake news has likely represents only the tip of the iceberg, particularly given
already settled into the minds of users. It was also shown that that Facebook, one of the industry’s largest investors in AR
even a single exposure to fake news can create long term effect technology, has confirmed it is working on AR glasses
on users, making their effect larger than previously thought (Constine 2018). Notably, the company plans to launch a de-
(Pennycook et al. 2019). veloper platform, so that people can build augmented-reality
Notably, some research has found that exposure to oppos- features that live inside Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and
ing views (i.e., removing online echo chambers) may in fact Whatsapp (Wagner 2017). These developments are supported
increase (versus decrease) polarization (Bail et al. 2018). by academic research suggesting that AR often provides more
Accordingly, more work from policy makers, businesses, authentic (and hence positive) situated experiences (Hilken
and academics is needed to understand and potentially combat et al. 2017). Accordingly, whether viewed through glasses or
political extremism. For example, policy makers and social through traditional mobile and tablet devices, the future of
media platforms will continually be challenged to fight Bfake social media is likely to look much more visually augmented.
news^ without censoring free speech. Accordingly, research While AR allows users to interact within their current en-
that weighs the risk of limited freedom of expression versus vironments, virtual reality (VR) immerses the user in other
the harms of spreading fake news would yield both theoretical places, and this technology is also likely to increasingly per-
and practically meaningful insights. meate social media interactions. While the Facebook-owned
company Oculus VR has mostly been focusing on the areas of
immersive gaming and film, the company recently announced
The far future the launch of Oculus Rooms where users can spend time with
other users in a virtual world (playing games together,
In this section, we highlight three emerging trends we believe watching media together, or just chatting; Wagner 2018).
will have a have long-term influence on the future of social Concurrently, Facebook Spaces allows friends to meet online
media. Note that although we label these trends as being in the in virtual reality and similarly engage with one another, with
Bfar^ future, many of the issues described here are already the added ability to share content (e.g., photos) from their
present or emerging. However, they represent more complex Facebook profiles (Whigham 2018). In both cases, avatars
issues that we believe will take longer to address and be of are customized to represent users within the VR-created space.
mainstream importance for marketing than the six issues As VR technology is becoming more affordable and main-
discussed previously under the immediate and near futures. stream (Colville 2018) we believe social media will inevitably
play a role in the technology’s increasing usage.
Increased sensory richness While AR and VR technologies bring visual richness, other
developments suggest that the future of social media might
In its early days, the majority of social media posts (e.g., on also be more audible. A new player to the social media space,
Facebook, Twitter) were text. Soon, these platforms allowed HearMeOut, recently introduced a platform that enables users
for the posting of pictures and then videos, and separate plat- to share and listen to 42-s audio posts (Perry 2018). Allowing
forms dedicated themselves to focus on these specific forms of users to use social media in a hands-free and eyes-free manner
media (e.g., Instagram and Pinterest for pictures, Instagram not only allows them to safely interact with social media when
multitasking (particularly when driving), but voice is also said recent years with more research examining offline conse-
to add a certain richness and authenticity that is often missing quences to omnichannel strategies (Lobschat et al. 2017;
from mere text-based posts (Katai 2018). Given that podcasts Kumar et al. 2017).
are more popular than ever before (Bhaskar 2018) and voice- Considering the interest in integrated marketing strategies
based search queries are the fastest-growing mobile search over the last few years, numerous strategies have been utilized
type (Robbio 2018), it seems likely that this communication to follow online and offline promotions and their impacts on
modality will accordingly show up more on social media use behavior such as the usage of hashtags to bring conversations
going forward. online, call-to-actions, utilizing matching strategies on
Finally, there are early indications that social media might Btraditional^ avenues like television with social media.
literally feel different in the future. As mobile phones are held While there is currently online/offline integration strategies
in one’s hands and wearable technology is strapped onto one’s in marketing, we believe the future will go even further in
skin, companies and brands are exploring opportunities to blurring the lines between what is offline and online to not
communicate to users through touch. Indeed, haptic feedback just increase the effectiveness of marketing promotions, but to
(technology that recreates the sense of touch by applying completely change the way customers and companies interact
forces, vibrations, or motions to the user; Brave et al. 2001) with one another, and the way social media influences con-
is increasingly being integrated into interfaces and applica- sumer behavior not only online, but offline.
tions, with purposes that go beyond mere call or message For brands, there are a number of possible trends in
notifications. For example, some companies are omnichannel marketing that are pertinent. As mentioned ear-
experimenting with integrating haptics into media content lier, a notable technology that has begun infiltrating social
(e.g., in mobile ads for Stoli vodka, users feel their phone media is augmented reality (AR). In addition to what already
shake as a woman shakes a cocktail; Johnson 2015), mobile exists (e.g., Snapchat’s filters, Pokémon Go), the future holds
games, and interpersonal chat (e.g., an app called Mumble! even more possibilities. For example, Ikea has been working
translates text messages into haptic outputs; Ozcivelek 2015). to create an AR app that allows users to take photos of a space
Given the high levels of investment into haptic technology (it at home to exactly, down to the millimeter size and lighting in
is predicted to be a $20 billion industry by 2022; Magnarelli the room, showcase what a piece of furniture would look like
2018) and the communicative benefits that stem from haptic in a consumer’s home (Lovejoy 2017). Another set of exam-
engagement (Haans and IJsselsteijn 2006), we believe it is ples of AR comes from beauty company L’Oréal. In 2014 for
only a matter of time before this modality is integrated into the flagship L’Oréal Paris brand they released a mobile app
social media platforms. called Makeup Genius that allowed consumers to virtually try
Future research might explore how any of the new sensory on makeup on their phones (Stephen and Brooks 2018). Since
formats mentioned above might alter the nature of content then, they have developed AR apps for hair color and nail
creation and consumption. Substantively-focused researchers polish, as well as integrating AR into mobile ecommerce
might also investigate how practitioners can use these tools to webpages for their luxury beauty brand Lancôme. AR-based
enhance their offerings and augment their interactions with digital services such as these are likely to be at the heart of the
customers. It is also interesting to consider how such next stage of offline/online integration.
sensory-rich formats can be used to bridge the gap between AR, and similar technology, will likely move above and
the online and offline spaces, which is the next theme we beyond being a tool to help consumers make better decisions
explore. about their purchases. Conceivably, similar to promotions that
currently exist to excitse consumers and create communities,
Online/offline integration and complete convergence AR will be incorporated into promotions that integrate offline
and online actions. For example, contests on social media will
A discussion occurring across industry and academia is on advance to the stage where users get to vote on the best use of
how marketers can appropriately integrate online and offline AR technology in conjunction with a brand’s products (e.g.,
efforts (i.e., an omnichannel approach). Reports from industry instead of users submitting pictures of their apartments to
sources have shown that consumers respond better to integrat- show why they should win free furniture, they could use AR
ed marketing campaigns (e.g., a 73% boost over standard to show how they would lay out the furniture if they were to
email campaigns; Safko 2010). In academia meanwhile, the win it from IKEA).
majority of research considering online promotions and adver- Another way that the future of online/offline integration on
tisements has typically focused on how consumers respond to social media needs to be discussed is in the sense of a digital
these strategies through online only measures (e.g., self. Drawing on the extended self in the digital age (Belk
Manchanda et al. 2006), though this has begun to change in 2013), the way consumers consider online actions as relevant
to their offline selves may be changing. For example, Belk discourse (as mentioned earlier), steal personal information,
(2013) spoke of how consumers may be re-embodied through and spread misinformation (Ferrara et al. 2016).
avatars they create to represent themselves online, influencing Of course, social bots are not only a problem for so-
their offline selves and creating a multiplicity of selves (i.e., cial media users but are also a nagging concern plaguing
consumers have more choice when it comes to their self-rep- marketers. Given that companies often assess marketing
resentation). As research has shown how digital and social success on social media through metrics like Likes,
media can be used for self-presentation, affiliation, and ex- Shares, and Clicks, the existence of bots poses a growing
pression (Back et al. 2010; Gosling et al. 2007; Toubia and threat to accurate marketing metrics and methods for
Stephen 2013; Wilcox and Stephen 2012), what does it mean ROI estimation, such as attribution modelling (Bilton
for the future if consumers can create who they want to be? 2014). Similarly, when these bots act as Bfake
In addition, when considering digital selves, what does this followers,^ it can inflate the worth of influencers’ audi-
mean for how consumers engage with brands and products? ences (Bogost 2018). This can also be used nefariously
Currently, social media practice is one where brands encour- by individuals and firms, as shown in a New York Times
age consumer engagement online (Chae et al. 2017; Godes Magazine expose that documented the market used by
and Mayzlin 2009), yet the implications for how these types some influencers to purchase such Bfake^ followers to
of actions on the part of the brand to integrate online social inflate their social media reach (Confessore et al.
media actions and real-life behavior play out are unclear. 2018). As discussed above in relation to influencer mar-
Research has begun to delve into the individual-level conse- keting, where it has been commonplace for influencers to
quences of a consumer’s social media actions on marketing be paid for posts at rates proportionate to their follower
relevant outcomes (Grewal et al. 2019; John et al. 2017; counts, there have been perverse incentives to game the
Mochon et al. 2017; Zhang et al. 2017), however much is still system by having non-human Bfake^ bot followers. This,
unknown. As well, while there is recent work examining how however, erodes consumer trust in the social media eco-
the device used to create and view content online impacts system, which is a growing issue and a near-term prob-
consumer perceptions and behaviors (e.g., Grewal and lem for many firms using social media channels for mar-
Stephen 2019), to date research has not examined these ques- keting purposes.
tions in the context of social media. Therefore, future research However, there are instances when consumers do know
could address how digital selves (both those held offline and they are interacting with bots, and do not seem to mind. For
those that only exist online), social media actions, and if the example, a number of virtual influencers (created with CGI, as
way consumers reach and use various platforms (i.e., device mentioned earlier) seem to be garnering sizeable audiences,
type, app vs. webpage, etc.) impact consumer behavior, inter- despite the fact they are clearly non-human (Walker 2018).
personal relationships, and brand-related measures (e.g., well- One of the most popular of these virtual influencers, Lil
being, loyalty, purchase behaviors). Miquela, has over 1.5 million followers on Instagram despite
openly confessing, BI am not a human being... I’m a robot^
(Yurieff 2018). Future research might try to understand the
Social media by non-humans underlying appeal of these virtual influencers, and the poten-
tial boundary conditions of their success.
The buzz surrounding AI has not escaped social media. Another category of social bots gaining increasing atten-
Indeed, social bots (computer algorithms that automatically tion are therapy bots. These applications (e.g., BWoebot;^
produce content and interact with social media users; Ferrara Molteni 2017) aim to support the mental health of users by
et al. 2016) have inhabited social media platforms for the last proactively checking in on them, Blistening^ and chatting to
decade (Lee et al. 2011), and have become increasingly per- users at any time and recommending activities to improve
vasive. For example, experts estimate that up to 15% of active users’ wellbeing (de Jesus 2018). Similar bots are being used
Twitter accounts are bots (Varol et al. 2017), and that percent- to Bcoach^ users, and help them quit maladaptive behaviors,
age appears to be on the rise (Romano 2018). While aca- like smoking (e.g., QuitGenius; Crook 2018). Interestingly, by
demics and practitioners are highly concerned with bot detec- being explicitly non-human, these agents are perceived to be
tion (Knight 2018), in the vast majority of current cases, users less judgmental, and might accordingly be easier for users to
do not appear to recognize when they are interacting with bots confide in.
(as opposed to other human users) on social media (Stocking Finally, the Internet of Things revolution has ushered in
and Sumida 2018). While some of these bots are said to be with it the opportunity for a number of tangible products and
benign, and even useful (e.g., acting as information interfaces to Bcommunicate^ via social media. For example, in
aggregators), they have also been shown to disrupt political what started as a design experiment, BBrad,^ a connected
Table 2 Suggested directions for future research
Time Theme Brief description of theme Suggested research directions and example research
questions
Immediate Omni-social presence Consumers now live in a world in which most aspects of • How will social interactivity influence consumer
future their lives can potentially intersect with social media behavior in areas that had traditionally been
and this digitally enabled social interactivity is non-social?
shaping culture itself. • How might marketers strategically address the flatter
decision-making funnel that social media enables?
• How might service providers best alter experiential
consumption when anticipating social media
sharing?
The rise of influencers Prominent social media actors are leveraging their • What drives the appeal of live influencer content?
influence to collaborate with brands. Companies • How can marketers strategically identify and employ
incorporate influencers into their marketing mix and influencers as part of the marketing mix?
are creating Bvirtual influencers^ of their own. • How virtual influencers affect consumers’ perception
of brands?
• Is there a difference between virtual and real
influencers in their effect on consumers?
Privacy concerns on social Consumer trust in social media is on the decline. • Who and what is trusted on social media? What makes
media Consumers worry about the privacy of their data, and this trust higher or lower?
this worry and distrust is transferring from just the • What can be done to win back consumer trust on the
platforms to brands and companies. part of the platforms and brands?
• Is there any way for consumers to feel as though losing
some data privacy is worth it due to benefits?
Near Future Combating loneliness and There is conflicting research that exists regarding social • What about social media impacts loneliness
isolation media’s role in causing consumer loneliness and perceptions (e.g., quantity of use, use type,
isolation, leading to calls to revolutionize how social platform)?
media is used. • Are there individual characteristics correlated with
social media use and loneliness?
• Are there ways for social media platforms to
encourage more meaningful connections vs. social
comparison?
Integrated customer care Social media, using improved analytics tools, and • How can marketers preemptively predict and respond
unprecedented knowledge on consumers will allow to consumer distress?
for an almost Binvisible^ customer care. Customers • Do customers engage and perceive customer service
will be able to interact with firms seamlessly from differently on different platforms (e.g., AI assistant,
almost any device. chatbots, mobile messaging)?
• How will the increased interaction with AI and IoT
affect consumer behavior?
Social Media as a Political Social media is used by politicians to directly engage • What can be done to reduce polarization in social
Tool with voters, evoking series of new challenges for media?
policymakers, such as increased polarization, echo • What is the effect of eco chambers on long term
chambers, and fake news. behaviors?
• How can we successfully identify and negate the
effects of fake news?
Far Future Increased Sensory Richness A plethora of new technologies, including augmented • How might these new sensory formats alter the nature
reality, virtual reality, voice activation, and haptic of content creation and consumption?
integration market suggest that the future of social • How might practitioners use these tools to enhance
media will become increasingly sensory-rich. their offerings and augment their interactions with
customers?
• How might such sensory-rich formats be used to
bridge the gap between the online and offline spaces?
Online/Offline Integration The lines between what is offline and online are • How is tech like AR going to change the way
and Complete blurring, changing how consumers interact with consumers interact with brands, social media
Convergence other consumers, companies, and products and platforms, other consumers, and offline experiences?
experiences. • What are some repercussions of digital selves
considering consumer behavior and brand-related
measures?
• How do digital selves that differ from offline personas,
impact consumer attitudes and behaviors?
Social Media by Artificial intelligence in the form of bots, virtual • How will the presence of non-humans change the na-
Non-Humans influencers, and IoT devices will increasingly ture of content creation and conversation in social
permeate the social media sphere. media?
• What is the underlying appeal of virtual influencers?
• How should companies account for the presence of
non-humans in their attribution models?
toaster, was given the ability to Bcommunicate^ with other interest to marketing academics and practitioners. Thus, we
connected toasters, and to tweet his Bfeelings^ when neglected urge scholars to not be overly enticed by the technological
or under-used (Vanhemert 2014). While this experiment was Bshiny new toys^ at the expense of considering the behav-
deliberately designed to raise questions about the future of iors associated with those technologies and platforms.
consumer-product relationships (and product-product Finally, while we relied heavily (though not exclusive-
Brelationships^), the proliferation of autonomous tangible de- ly) on North American examples to illustrate the emer-
vices does suggest a future in which they have a Bvoice,^ even gent themes, there are likely interesting insights to be
in the absence of humans (Hoffman and Novak 2018). drawn by explicitly exploring cross-cultural differences
Going forward, we believe the presence of bots on social in social media usage. For example, variations in regula-
media will be more normalized, but also more regulated (e.g., tory policies (e.g., GDPR in the European Union) may
a recent law passed in California prevents bots from lead to meaningful differences in how trust and privacy
masquerading as humans; Smith 2018). Further, consumers concerns manifest. Further, social media as a political
and companies alike will be become increasingly interested tool might be more influential in regions where the main-
in how bots communicate and interact with each other outside stream media is notoriously government controlled and
of human involvement. This brings up interesting potential censored (e.g., as was the case in many of the Arab
research questions for academics and practitioners alike. Spring countries). While such cross-cultural variation is
How will the presence of non-humans change the nature of outside the scope of this particular paper, we believe it
content creation and conversation in social media? And how represents an area of future research with great theoreti-
should companies best account for the presence of non- cal and practical value.
humans in their attribution models? In reviewing the social media ecosystem and considering
where it is heading in the context of consumers and marketing
practice, we have concluded that this is an area that is very
Future research directions and conclusion much still in a state of flux. The future of social media in
marketing is exciting, but also uncertain. If nothing else, it is
This article has presented nine themes pertinent to the future vitally important that we better understand social media since
of social media as it relates to (and is perhaps influenced by) it has become highly culturally relevant, a dominant form of
marketing. The themes have implications for individuals/con- communication and expression, a major media type used by
sumers, businesses and organizations, and also public companies for advertising and other forms of communication,
policymakers and governments. These themes, which repre- and even has geopolitical ramifications. We hope that the
sent our own thinking and a synthesis of views from extant ideas discussed here stimulate many new ideas and research,
research, industry experts, and popular public discourse, are of which we ultimately hope to see being mentioned and shared
course not the full story of what the future of social media will across every type of social media platform.
entail. They are, however, a set of important issues that we
believe will be worth considering in both academic research Acknowledgements The authors thank the special issue editors and re-
viewers for their comments, and the Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative
and marketing practice.
for supporting this research. The authors contributed equally and are
To stimulate future research on these themes and related listed in alphabetical order or, if preferred, order of Marvel superhero
topics, we present a summary of suggested research direc- fandom from highest to lowest and order of Bon Jovi fandom from lowest
tions in Table 2. These are organized around our nine to highest.
themes and capture many of the suggested research direc-
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative
tions mentioned earlier. As a sub-field within the field of Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://
marketing, social media is already substantial and the po- creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
tential for future research—based on identified needs for distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appro-
priate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the
new knowledge and answers to perplexing questions— Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
suggests that this sub-field will become even more impor-
tant over time. We encourage researchers to consider the
kinds of research directions in Table 2 as examples of
issues they could explore further. We also encourage re- References
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IRJC
International Journal of Social Science & Interdisciplinary Research
Vol.1 Issue 7, July 2012, ISSN 2277 3630
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: STRATEGIES & ITS IMPACT
VIVEK BAJPAI*; DR. SANJAY PANDEY**; MRS. SHWETA SHRIWAS***
*Assistant Professor & Head,

Department of Commerce & Management
Dr. C. V. Raman University,
Kargi Road, Kota, Bilaspur, C.G., India.
**Associate Professor & Head,

Department of Management,
Chouksey Engineering College,
Lal Khadan , Bilaspur, C.G., India.
***Assistant Professor,
Department of Commerce & Management,
Dr. C. V. Raman University,
Kargi Road, Kota, Bilaspur, C.G., India.
ABSTRACT
Today, we are in 21st century and people do not find time to come & interact with each other.
Social media helps in connecting themselves with social networking sites through which now
people can stay far and yet remain connected. Apart from this media like Facebook create a loyal
connection between product and individual which leads to large advertising opportunities.
Similarly, other social media like Blogs create a platform to post comment on any event which
needs to be publicized also can be utilized as a promotional technique for customer’s adoption as
well as for promotions. Now users are acquiring followers & subscribers and directing them to
your social networking page. These media has an competitive edge over other popular public
media like Television because there is a time gap between social event occurrence and the time it
is being broadcasted. This research paper emphasizes on the strategies which can take this viral
marketing mode beyond the normal social media at present. As a result it can also help in
building your community strong enough to make your marketing effective & initiative buying.
www.indianresearchjournals.com
KEYWORDS: Social Media, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Social Advertising.
______________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social
media sites. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that
attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate
message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a
trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.[citation needed] Hence,
this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather
than paid media.
214
IRJC
Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access.
Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved
customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for
organizations to implement marketing campaigns.
SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS/PLATFORMS
TWITTER, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE+, YOUTUBE, BLOGS
Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build
relationships. When products or companies join those sites, people can interact with the product
or company. That interaction feels personal to users because of their previous experiences with
social networking site interactions. Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google
Plus, YouTube, Pinterest and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet” or “repost”
comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the users
connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking sites
act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is
getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company.
Through social networking sites, products/companies can have conversations and interactions
with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers
and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a
very narrow target audience.
CELL PHONES
Cell phone usage has also become a benefit for social media marketing. Today, many cell phones
have social networking capabilities: individuals are notified of any happenings on social
networking sites through their cell phones, in real-time. This constant connection to social
networking sites means products and companies can constantly remind and update followers
about their capabilities, uses, importance, etc. Because cell phones are connected to social
networking sites, advertisements are always in sight. Also many companies are now putting QR
codes along with products for individuals to access the companies website or online services
with their smart-phones.
ENGAGEMENT www.indianresearchjournals.com
In the context of the social web, engagement means that customers and stakeholders are
participants rather than viewers. Social media in business allows anyone and everyone to express
and share an opinion or idea somewhere along the business’s path to market. Each participating
customer becomes part of the marketing department, as other customers read their comments or
reviews. The engagement process is then fundamental to successful social media marketing.
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CAMPAIGNS
ADIDAS
In 2007, Adidas, and their agency Carat, created a social media experience for soccer players.
Adidas pitted two different cleat types against one another and asked people to “choose your
side.” The content focused on fostering an environment of friendly discussion and debate of
Adidas’ two models of elite soccer cleats/boots, Predator and F50 TUNIT. Visitors to the
community had the opportunity to align themselves with one product “team” and offer comments
in support of their preferred model. The community included content about professional Adidas
soccer players on each “team,” rotational product views, downloadable graphics, forum
discussions, a link to additional product information, and a link to the adidas Mexico Fútbol
profile page.
BETTY WHITE
Social networking sites can have a large impact on the outcome of events. In 2010, a Facebook
campaign surfaced in the form of a petition. Users virtually signed a petition asking NBC
Universal to have actress Betty White host Saturday Night Live. Once signed, users forwarded
the petition to all of their followers. The petition went viral and on May 8, 2010, Betty White
hosted SNL.
2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
The 2008 presidential campaign had a huge presence on social networking sites. Barack Obama,
a Democratic candidate for US President, used Twitter and Facebook to differentiate his
campaign. His social networking site profile pages were constantly being updated and interacting
with followers. The use of social networking sites gave Barack Obama’s campaign access to e-
mail addresses, as posted on social networking site profile pages. This allowed the Democratic
Party to launch e-mail campaigns asking for votes and campaign donations.
LOCAL BUSINESSES
Small businesses also use social networking sites as a promotional technique. Businesses can
follow individuals social networking site uses in the local area and advertise specials and deals.
These can be exclusive and in the form of “get a free drink with a copy of this tweet”. This type
of message encourages other locals to follow the business on the sites in order to obtain the
promotional deal. In the process, the business is getting seen and promoting itself.
TACTICS
TWITTER
Twitter allows companies to promote products on an individual level. The use of a product can
be explained in short messages that followers are more likely to read. These messages appear on
followers’ home pages. Messages can link to the product’s website, Facebook profile, photos,
videos, etc. This link provides followers the opportunity to spend more time interacting with the
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product online. This interaction can create a loyal connection between product and individual
and can also lead to larger advertising opportunities. Twitter promotes a product in real-time and
brings customers in.
FACEBOOK
Facebook profiles are more detailed than Twitter. They allow a product to provide videos,
photos, and longer descriptions. Videos can show when a product can be used as well as how to
use it. These also can include testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages
for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product’s Twitter page as well as send out event
reminders. Facebook promotes a product in real-time and brings customers in.
As marketers see more value in social media marketing, advertisers continue to increase
sequential ad spend in social by 25%. Strategies to extend the reach with Sponsored Stories and
acquire new fans with Facebook ads continue to an uptick in spend across the site. The study
attributes 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. Today,
brands increase fan counts on average of 9% monthly, increasing their fan base by two-times the
amount annually.
BLOGS
Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services. The
longer description can include reasoning and uses. It can include testimonials and can link to and
from Facebook, Twitter and many social network and blog pages. Blogs can be updated
frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers. Other promotional uses are
acquiring followers and subscribers and direct them to your social network pages.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TOOLS
Besides research tools, there are many companies providing specialized platforms/tools for social
media marketing, such as tools for:
Social Media Monitoring
Social Aggregation
Social Book Marking and Tagging
Social Analytics and Reporting
Automation
Social Media
Blog Marketing
Validation
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IMPLICATION ON TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING
MINIMIZING USE
Traditional advertising techniques include print and television advertising. The Internet had
already overtaken television as the largest advertising market. Websites often include banner or
pop-up ads. Social networking sites don’t always have ads. In exchange, products have entire
pages and are able to interact with users. Television commercials often end with
a spokesperson asking viewers to check out the product website for more information. Print ads
are also starting to include barcodes on them. These barcodes can be scanned by cell phones
and computers, sending viewers to the product website. Advertising is beginning to move
viewers from the traditional outlets to the electronic ones.
LEAKS
Internet and social networking leaks are one of the issues facing traditional advertising. Video
and print ads are often leaked to the world via the Internet earlier than they are scheduled
to premiere. Social networking sites allow those leaks to go viral, and be seen by many users
more quickly. Time difference is also a problem facing traditional advertisers. When social
events occur and are broadcast on television, there is often a time delay between airings on
the east coast and west coast of the United States. Social networking sites have become a hub of
comment and interaction concerning the event. This allows individuals watching the event on the
west coast (time-delayed) to know the outcome before it airs. The 2011 Grammy
Awards highlighted this problem. Viewers on the west coast learned who won different awards
based on comments made on social networking sites by individuals watching live on the east
coast. Since viewers knew who won already, many tuned out and ratings were lower. All the
advertisement and promotion put into the event was lost because viewers didn’t have a reason to
watch.
5 ADVANCED SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR SMALL

BUSINESSES
The definition of an advanced social strategy is a technique that goes beyond the normal social
media presence. It introduces or reinforces a marketing message while pushing a user to another
profile or business site. Before moving forward with an advanced strategy, it’s important that
your business understands social marketing, has experience engaging consumers, and that you
possess a basic understanding of online marketing.
STRATEGY 1: MULTIMEDIA USAGE
The term “A picture is worth a thousand words” has never been truer. Consumers are now using
the web to look for product pictures and videos; they want more information and want to see
what they’re considering buying. The good news is that it’s easy for a company to create and
publish videos and pictures. In addition to taking photos of products, you can also take pictures
at office events as a way to highlight company culture. This not only helps convince others to
work with you or to buy from you (consumers see that you are down to earth and one of them,
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instead of a stuffy company), it also helps your HR department recruit new employees. Who
doesn’t want to work for a company that celebrates birthdays and has a good time? Videos are
useful for explaining complex how-tos or concepts. Showing step by step directions can have a
greater impact than even the most well written article. Businesses don’t have to invest huge sums
of money to create good videos, either. I highly recommend the relatively cheap Flip camcorder,
which takes great videos and is easy for even a non-technical marketer to use. Multimedia can
break down the faceless business-to-consumer sales flow and make your company appear
friendlier. Use videos and images to show that your business is fun, you care about your
employees, and most importantly, that you care about your customers.
EXAMPLE: WORLD MUSIC SUPPL.COM
WorldMusicSupply.com, an online retailer of musical instruments and accessories, has used

YouTube to build a strong online community. Their channel has built over 7,000 subscribers and
has over 260,000 views.
STRATEGY 2: INTEGRATE OFFLINE AND ONLINE ADVERTISING
Many small businesses do some sort of offline advertising, whether it be radio, print, or cable.
Social marketing allows a business to extend their offline sales pitch. Including your Facebook
Page or blog URL in offline ads act as social proof, inviting potential consumers to see your
community and increase trust in your business. Not only can integrating online and offline
advertising help the conversion process, but it can also help build your community. Introducing
potential consumers to your social profiles means they may join your community now and buy
later.
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STRATEGY 3: MESSAGE ADAPTATION
As businesses start to become more sophisticated with social media they are starting to leverage
more online platforms. However, most deliver the same message over multiple platforms instead
of tailoring communications for each individual site. Social platforms each have an ecosystem of
their own. What might be acceptable on Tumblr might be considered spam on Facebook. A
specific style of writing might spread on Twitter but fail on FriendFeed. Understanding that each
site is different and then customizing your message ensures they do well on each respective site.
Not only does customizing messages across sites help the message spread but it keeps users from
receiving multiple identical communications. Be sure to maximize your potential by sending a
user that follows the business on Twitter and Facebook two different messages, instead of the
same thing.
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STRATEGY 4: LOCAL SOCIAL NETWORKS, BEYOND YELP
For a small business, local search can be a big win. Being visible to consumers looking for a
business in their area is extremely important. Make sure your site is included in local business
directories in order to help ensure that consumers find you when they need you. Sometimes
finding that many sites can be difficult, however. First, make sure you check your competitors.
Where are they listed? Check their inbound links to check for business directories you can add
yourself to. Also, make sure your business has been added to Google Maps, using the Local
Business Center. Take the time to include all the information you can and update any old news.
For many consumers, this will be their first interaction with the business.
Example: Bella Napoli in Ne�York Bella Napoli is a small pizzeria in New York that has done a
great job of making sure they appear in as many local searches as possible.
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STRATEGY 5: CONTESTS AND DISCOUNTS
Building a community is only the first part of social marketing. Using that community to drive
sales, propagate marketing, or crowdsource operations is the true power of social media. One
way to excite the community is to collectively do something to create a contest or offer an
exclusive discount (i.e., the contest can create competition between users). Not only does a
contest build buzz organically but if contestants need to, for example, publish an article that gets
the most comments in order to win, the contest itself becomes viral. A good social media contest
should include some sort of sharing or virality as a requirement for winning. Discounts are also a
great way to connect with your community. By giving exclusive coupons to your social
community, you’re rewarding and reminding them that you are not only a brand to engage with,
but also to buy from.
EXAMPLE: NETFIRMS.COM
NetFirms.com decided to make it easier to register a domain by allowing people to do it via

Twitter. Those who participated or spread the word by tweeting, were also entered into a prize
drawing.
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CONCLUSION
Social platforms each have an ecosystem of their own. Creating a basic social media presence is
easy enough, getting your community to actually do something is more difficult. Make sure your
site is included in local business directories in order to help ensure that consumers find you when
they need you. Customizing messages across sites help the message spread but it keeps users
from receiving multiple identical communications. By giving exclusive coupons to your social
community, you’re rewarding and reminding them that you are not only a brand to engage with,
but also to buy from. Taking advantage of these strategies can help you build your community,
make your marketing more effective, and incentivize buying.
REFERENCE
[1] Social Media Marketing by www.wikipedia.com
[2] 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for small business by Samir Balwani.
[3] Lazer, W., Kelley, E.J. (1973). Social Marketing: Perspectives and Viewpoints. Homewood:
Richard D. Irwin
[4] Michael A. Stelzner (2010), Social Media Marketing Industry Report, “How Marketers are
using social media to grow their businesses”, Social Media Examiner, April 2010
[5] Nora Ganim Barnes, Eric Mattson, “Still Setting the Pace in Social Media: The First
Longitudinal Study of Usage by the Largest US Charities”, University of Massachusetts
Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, 2008
[6] Social Media in India – An Overview by techiedevil on June 11, 2010 in Social Media
http://www.internetmarketingjournal.org/social-media-india/
[7]http://www.zitzsolutions.com/internet-marketing-services/social-media-
optimizationmarketing/
[8] http://www.analectic.org/social-media-marketing-brands-india/
[9] http://www.analectic.org/brand-engagement-on-social-media-industry-perspective/ www.indianresearchjournals.com
[10]http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-new-studies-prove-social-media-marketinggrowth/#
more-2583
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International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research (IJMSR)
Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2016, PP 14-28
ISSN 2349-0330 (Print) & ISSN 2349-0349 (Online)
www.arcjournals.org
The Impact of Social Media as a Marketing Tool on Purchasing

Decisions (Case Study on SAMSUNG for Electrical Home
Appliances)
Walid Nabil Iblasi, Dr. Dojanah M.K. Bader, Sulaiman Ahmad Al-Qreini
Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to investigate the impact of Social Media as a marketing tool on
Purchasing Decisions; Social media becomes an important communication tool that people use to connect to
other people or organization. People use social media to share their experiences, reviews, information, advice,
warnings, tips and/or any kind of issues that are interesting to their “connection” or friends. That information
is a helpful source, which may influence consumer’s decision-making.
In order to achieve the paper purposes, the researchers collected the information from SAMSUNG customers
through designing a questionnaire according to the goals and hypotheses of the paper. The questionnaire was
distributed to a sample of (93) in 3 branches of SAMSUNG Company, and we reached the following outcomes:
 The results showed that all members of the study sample with different percentages spend long time using
social media websites which indicates that these websites are a fertile and rich place to practice E-
marketing and to influence the consumers purchasing decisions.
 The study proved that there is an impact of using social media websites as a marketing tool on the stages of
purchasing decision (need recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation, purchase decision and
post-purchase behavior) which encouraging going toward using the social media in E-marketing.
As a result, the study introduces many recommendations including:
 It is important for the company to go toward using the social media to market its products as these websites
attract a large category of the society.
 The importance of focusing on social media (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) due to its significant impact
on purchasing decisions.
 Designing the marketing strategy through social media in a way that takes in consideration attracting the
users and consumers from the different age and income groups.
Keywords: Social media marketing (SSM), Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Marketing, E-
marketing, Buyer decision process, Electronic Home Appliances Sector, Jordanian online customers.
1. INTRODUCTION
Social media is considered as one of the most recent and significant E-marketing tools in the current
time. Social media provides accessibility to customers with the purpose of knowing their interests and
needs as well as affecting their purchasing decisions. Social media is defined as the websites that
connect millions of users from different parts over the world who share same interests, point of view
and hobbies. YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are the best examples on social media that is popular
for a large proportion of consumers. So they are used for the exchange of ideas and reviews of a
particular product, service or a certain brand to gather information and ideas formation as well as
making the right purchasing decision. Therefore, social media are considered as one of the modern
electronic marketing tools which are different from other means of traditional marketing, therefore
marketing via social media nowadays is the broadest, fastest, cheapest and most effective marketing
channel where the consumer can obtain information and features of interesting goods easily with the
possibility of completing the purchasing & sale process without the buyer's need to go to goods and
items place. Social media marketing has been defined as a form of internet marketing that utilizes
social networking websites as a marketing tool. (www.whatis.techtarget.com)
It is clearly obvious that in the recent years the number of internet users is increasing where studies
indicate that 49% of Jordanian households own a personal computer, 57% of households have internet
©ARC Page | 14
Walid Nabil Iblasi et al.
subscriptions, 78% have internet access via mobile broadband (Jordan Department of Statistics) who
started to use social media sites to communicate with friends, exchange views and information. There
is no doubt that social media sites are growing and developing increasingly in a rapidly changing
world. Also, statistics indicate that number of Facebook users in the Arab countries during the year
2013 became (54.5) million users and increased to (81.3) million users by 2014 as well as the number
of users in Jordan during 2014 were (3.2) million users (study by the Governance and Innovation
Program in Mohammad Bin Rashid College for Government Management). Despite of the
tremendous development in social media websites and the increase of users number as well as using
them as a marketing tool, still the economic feasibility of these social websites needs to be more
studied and explored, thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the role of using social media
marketing (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) in consumer's purchasing decisions especially in
electrical home appliances sector that is represented in this study by "SAMSUNG Company".
2. RELATED WORK
2.1. Social Media
The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an instrument on communication,
like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of communication .In Web
2.0 terms; this would be a website that doesn't just give you information, but interacts with you while
giving you that information. This interaction can be as simple as asking for your comments or letting
you vote on an article. Social Media sites are characterized by the inherent functionality that
facilitates the sharing of information between users within a defined network. The nature of Social
Media allows for the initiation of conversation by either party.
The size of the network is primarily a reflection of the active participation of the audience, as
consumer-generated media represents that vast majority of all content. For consumers the true value
of a network is measured by the frequency of engagement of the participants. For marketers,
endorsement by consumers in the form of friending /following /subscribing validates their efforts and
activates a viral distribution of their brand across channels. (Walker, 2009)
Social media as a term is often interchangeable with Web 2.0 and social software. (Dabbagh &
kitsantas, 2011).
In general terms, social media enable users to share information and collaborate with each other to
create web content and utilize it. It refers to users’ activities, practices, and behaviors occurring
through media via sharing information, knowledge, and opinions.
These technologies are internet-based and they facilitate creativity, information sharing, and
collaboration among users indeed, social media puts great emphasis on sharing, participating, and
collaborating processes and activities. Social media, social networks and social communities provide
a new form of collaboration and communication for users.
Examples of social media websites are (Social Bookmarking. (Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Simpy)), Social
News. (Digg, Propeller, Reddit), Social Networking. (Facebook, Hi5, Last.FM), Social Photo and
Video Sharing. (YouTube, Flickr), Wikis. (Wikipedia, Wikia), and these websites are not the only
social media websites. Any website that invites you to interact with the site and with other visitors
falls into the definition of social media. (http://webtrends.about.com/ )
2.2. Social Media Tools
Networks and social networking communities are now "buzz words" blockbuster, where all non-
governmental organizations, multinational institutions and governments wish to join and participate to
reach online audience. However, this wave does not represent cope with Vogue only, but it's
considered an effective and successful field. Herewith, what is social media?
 Regular media means: is a one way Passage –in terms of reading a newspaper or listening to a
TV report, however, considered as limited opportunities to present ideas and opinions.
 Social media means: in a way, it is a two-way path on the Internet given the opportunity to
communicate and connect with people we know or who share some of your interests. Your cyber
society doesn't considered only a place to find information, but also a place to organize events,
express your opinion, share your photos, meet new people, promote your business, and participate
in campaigns and many other activities.(www.enpi-info.eu).
International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research (IJMSR) Page | 15
The Impact of Social Media as a Marketing Tool on Purchasing Decisions (Case Study on SAMSUNG for
Electrical Home Appliances)
There are differences between each type of social media (Facebook, twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn,
Instagram, Google Plus, Hangouts, Circles,..) and used in different ways for that should decide which
of them will be used based on your resources, your target audience, and what you want to achieve
from through the means of social networks.
2.3. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking
websites as a marketing tool. The goal of SMM is to produce content that users will share with their
social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach.
SMM helps a company get direct feedback from customers (and potential customers) while making
the company seem more personable. The interactive parts of social media give customers the
opportunity to ask questions or voice complaints and feel they are being heard. This aspect of SMM is
called social customer relationship management (social CRM). (whatis.techtarget.com)
Social media marketing is related to relationship marketing where the firms need to shift from "trying
to sell "to making connection" with the consumers.
Companies also need to keep away from "big campaigns" and stick with "small act" since some small
campaigns can easily reach lots of people and accomplish the objectives. (Eerdogmus, 2012).
2.4. Importance of Social Media Marketing for Business
Social media marketing is one of the most important types of online marketing where businesses are
marketing their products/services and brands on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.
A new scientific study confirmed the importance of social media networks in marketing products and
services of the small companies; it stated that 46% of today's internet users depend on social networks
to take their purchasing decisions. A new released study by (Yes to Digital) site specialized in the
digital content, emphasized that 71% of social media network users around the world buy products
they detected through these platforms that attracted hundreds of millions of internet users around the
world. [Need reference]
The estimated number of Facebook users in 2013 is almost 1.15 billion users, "YouTube" is used by
one billion visitors monthly, while "Twitter" network estimated users are around half billion users.
You can then imagine the proliferation and number of reaches that you can get to your product or
service if you considered these networks in your digital marketing combination
That your company or institution uses. Therefore, its importance comes from: (www.oasis500.com)
 Social media is effective and inexpensive
Social media marketing is very important for small businesses because of its inexpensiveness and
ability to reach large number of targeted audiences within less time and very little efforts
 Branding can be done effectively on social media
Social media marketing is the best tool for small businesses for branding. According to Social media
today, 83% of customers prefer to connect to the brand on Facebook and 53% on Twitter.
 Customer acquisition is easy on social media
With more than half of the world's population registered with different social media platforms, the
chances of acquiring customers are fairly high on social media websites. There are approximately
1.74 billion social media users according to eMarketer and social media websites play a crucial role in
acquiring customers to the businesses. In 2013, 36% of marketers acquired customers via Twitter,
52% via Facebook and 43% via LinkedIn.
 Social media enables direct customer interaction
Through social media, businesses can interact with customers directly. Small businesses can attract
customers by engaging them with some interactive methods like Question and Answers, Polls, etc.

According to Socialmediatoday, 53% of marketers are using social media as a two-way conversation
and engagement tool.
 Social media marketing can generate more leads/sales
Social media marketing plays an important role in generating leads and thus increasing sales to the
businesses. A survey by Socialmediatoday revealed that 71% of social media users are more likely to
purchase products from brands that they are connected on social media websites. A study by HubSpot
revealed that social media produces almost double the marketing leads than any other marketing
method and lead-to-close rate is 100% higher on social media.
2.5. The Characteristics of Social Media Marketing
 Tone: Social media is about honesty and being authentic. Marketers need to ensure that the
message to the audience is credible and reliable
 Conversation: Social media marketing generates two ways conversation where the customer is an
integral part of the marketing department. Customer opinions matter and impact on marketing
strategy
 Validation: Buyer and consumer reviews are as influential as the marketer’s claims of the brands
features and benefits. This sets the stage for the brand to meet consumers expectations
 Reach: Social media marketing allows marketers to reach a wider audience with more dramatic
results in far less time and at lower costs
 Control: Control is the single biggest challenge in social media marketing. The internet allows the
entire world to report what they see as they see it (in real time). All testimonies, opinions, customer
experiences (positive and negative) and customer messages are able to go live at any time. These
messages are not always accurate nor are they in the control of the marketer and the challenge to
the marketer is to respond to these messages in a professional manner.(monica,2011)
2.6. The Benefit of Social Media Marketing
1. Increased Brand Recognition
Every opportunity you have to syndicate your content and increase your visibility is valuable. Your
social media networks are just new channels for your brand’s voice and content. This is important
because it simultaneously makes you easier and more accessible for new customers, and makes you
more familiar and recognizable for existing customers. For example, a frequent Twitter user could
hear about your company for the first time only after stumbling upon it in a newsfeed. Or, an
otherwise apathetic customer might become better acquainted with your brand after seeing your
presence on multiple networks.
2. Improved Brand Loyalty
According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media
channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. The report concludes ―Companies should take
advantage of the tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their audience. A
strategic and open social media plan could prove influential in morphing consumers into being brand
loyal.‖ Another study published by Convince & Convert found that 53% of Americans who follow
brands in social are more loyal to those brands.
3. More Opportunities to Convert
Every post you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. When
you build a following, you’ll simultaneously have access to new customers, recent customers, and old
customers, and you’ll be able to interact with all of them. Every blog post, image, video, or comment
you share is a chance for someone to react, and every reaction could lead to a site visit, and eventually
a conversion. Not every interaction with your brand results in a conversion, but every positive
interaction increases the likelihood of an eventual conversion. Even if your click-through rates are
low, the sheer number of opportunities you have on social media is significant.
4. Higher Conversion Rates

Social media marketing results in higher conversion rates in a few distinct ways. Perhaps the most
significant is its humanization element; the fact that brands become more humanized by interacting in
social media channels. Social media is a place where brands can act like people do, and this is
important because people like doing business with other people; not with companies. Additionally,
studies have shown that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing,
and a higher number of social media followers tends to improve trust and credibility in your brand,
representing social proof. As such, simply building your audience in social media can improve
conversion rates on your existing traffic.
5. Higher Brand Authority
Interacting with your customers regularly is a show of good faith for other customers. When people
go to compliment or brag about a product or service, they turn to social media. And when they post
your brand name, new audience members will want to follow you for updates. The more people that
are talking about you on social media, the more valuable and authoritative your brand will seem to
new users. Not to mention, if you can interact with major influencers on Twitter or other social
networks, your visible authority and reach will skyrocket.
6. Increased Inbound Traffic
Without social media, your inbound traffic is limited to people already familiar with your brand and
individuals searching for keywords you currently rank for. Every social media profile you add is
another path leading back to your site, and every piece of content you syndicate on those profiles is
another opportunity for a new visitor. The more quality content you syndicate on social media, the
more inbound traffic you’ll generate, and more traffic means more leads and more conversions.
7. Decreased Marketing Costs
According to Hubspot, 84% of marketers found as little as six hours of effort per week was enough to
generate increased traffic. Six hours is not a significant investment for a channel as large as social
media. If you can lend just one hour a day to developing your content and syndication strategy, you
could start seeing the results of your efforts. Even paid advertising through Facebook and Twitter is
relatively cheap (depending on your goals, of course). Start small and you’ll never have to worry
about going over budget—once you get a better feel for what to expect, you can increase your budget
and increase your conversions correspondingly.
8. Better Search Engine Rankings
SEO is the best way to capture relevant traffic from search engines, but the requirements for success
are always changing. It’s no longer enough to regularly update your blog, ensure optimized title tags
and meta descriptions, and distribute links pointing back to your site. Google and other search engines
may be calculating their rankings using social media presence as a significant factor, because of the
fact that strong brands almost always use social media. As such, being active on social media could
act as a ―brand signal‖ to search engines that your brand is legitimate, credible, and trustworthy. That
means, if you want to rank for a given set of keywords, having a strong social media presence could
be almost mandatory.
9. Richer Customer Experiences
Social media, at its core, is a communication channel like email or phone calls. Every customer
interaction you have on social media is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate your customer service
level and enrich your relationship with your customers. For example, if a customer complains about
your product on Twitter, you can immediately address the comment, apologize publicly, and take
action to make it right. Or, if a customer compliments you, you can thank them and recommend
additional products. It’s a personal experience that lets customers know you care about them.
10. Improved Customer Insights
Social media also gives you an opportunity to gain valuable information about what your customers
are interested in and how they behave, via social listening. For example, you can monitor user

comments to see what people think of your business directly. You can segment your content
syndication lists based on topic and see which types of content generate the most interest—and then
produce more of that type of content. You can measure conversions based on different promotions
posted on various social media channels and eventually find a perfect combination to generate
revenue. (www.forbes.com)
2.7. The Impact of Online Social Networks on Consumer Purchase Decision
Consumers belong or admire different online groups generally and those groups are able to change
their purchasing decisions behavior. According to Evans, et al (2009) joint decision-making is defined
as; consumers are taken their decisions within the environment around them such as environment of
family, friends, and coworkers. In traditional way, consumers make their purchase decisions base on
information that they received through mass media (e.g. advertising, newspaper, television comment),
but nowadays, online social networks can have power to affect consumers’ purchase decision
(Solomon, et al, 2010).
Consumers are able to search for the information they need and share their own experiences about
products or services with other consumers. This fact(sharing opinions with others regarding previous
experiences with products or services) is one of the reasons why social media influences purchasing
decisions Consumers are also buying based on recommendations from social media. (Leon, Sebastian,
2014)
Virtual communities that affect on consumer purchase decisions:
There are different forms of virtual communities that affect consumers’ purchase decisions in
different ways:
 Multi-user dungeons (MUD): where people have social relationship with each other in terms of
game playing.
 Rooms, rings, and lists: rooms (chat rooms), rings (organizations that is related to the home
pages), and lists (group of individuals that sharing information via email).
 Board: online communities, which can be related to music, movies, cars, even restaurants that
allow individuals post messages.
 Blogs: weblogs or blogs are personal journals and are form of online communities that growing
dramatically fast. Users of common interest can follow Blogs.
Online social networks have become more credible and relevant information source than direct
information from companies, therefore consumers seek products and companies on online social
networks .Since consumers enjoy the interaction and communication with each other and like to
receive advice either positive or negative about different products or services, virtual communities
have an impact on consumers’ purchasing decision (Ayda.D& Wei Li, 2012)
2.8. Literatures Review
1. Ghania Bilal, Mirza Ashfaq Ahmed and Mirza Naveed Shahzad,(2014) "The Role of Social
Media and Social Networks in Consumer Decision"
The Study results showed that media and social networking has an impact on consumer decision
making. The consumers in Pakistan use few social media platform"e.g youtube" compare to social
network sites " Facebook and Google" along with their own personal decision making. The study
showed that social networks had a positive impact on consumers behavior, in addition to the positive
population interaction with virtual community of the social media. As a result these interactions
collaborate into the strong implications of smart companies to become smarter about their online
present. It also highlighted the importance of raising awareness, consumer loyalty and trust.
Furthermore the study covered the effect of e-marketing and online apparel business strategies on
consumer decision. In conclusion the use of these online platforms are not just away for current
existing companies to increase the awareness about their brands, but also it is an opportunity for small
business to familiarize more people about their unique product and services.
2. As'ad, H. Abu-Rumman, Anas Y. Alhadid, (2014) "The Impact of Social Media Makting on
Brand Equity"

Study Hypothesis: There is no significant impact of social media on brand equity of customers of
Jordanian mobile services. The Study results showed a strong relationship between social media and
brand equity. The definition of social media was stated as the collaboration of media and social
communication in which people create share and exchange information. The study highlighted the
social media marketing and the use of facebook as a branding opportunity. The study covered
different fields of social media marketing: Online communication, Interaction, sharing of content,
accessibility and credibility. Furthermore it emphasis on the correlation between social marketing and
brand equity. This correlation attract new costumer to the firm. In addition to reminding customers
about firm and working as an emotional tie to the firm. An example of the relationship between
marketing and brand equity is the link and interaction between the facebook page and it is effect on
the brand loyalty.
3. Ayda Darban, Wei Li, (2014) "The impact of Online Social Networks on Consumers’
Purchasing Decision"
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of online social networks (Facebook), the authors
are trying to find which steps do online social networks influence consumers’ purchasing decision
when it comes to food retailers; and why are these steps influenced by online social networks. First,
the steps are promotions and offers, company/store information, activities and services. Second, the
reasons behind online social network (Facebook) on consumers’ purchase decision: long online time,
comments and recommendations (Online Word-Of-Mouth) Individual’s interaction between
supermarket and other consumers and convenience of Facebook. So consumers’ choices regarding
food retailers can be influenced by the gathered information from different sources especially from
online social networks. Consumers the most convenient way to compare between different food
retailer. shops, products, or services is on Facebook because of its features. Consumers can express
their satisfaction or dissatisfaction about their experience to companies, about products, or services, or
share their knowledge and opinions on their online social network and share with others.
4. Bruno Schivinski, Dariusz Dąbrowski, (2013) "The Effect of Social Media Communication
on Consumer Perceptions of Brands"
In recent years, brand management has been confronting two opposite tendencies: the loss of brand
authenticity and the increasing influence of empowered consumers on brand communications. The
social Web is changing traditional marketing communications. Traditional brand communications that
were previously controlled and administered by brand and marketing managers are gradually being
shaped by consumers. This article aims to compare the effects of social media communication, as they
differ significantly in terms of company control. Thus, we form two research objectives that are
relevant for companies, brand managers, and scholars: to investigate the effects of firm-created and
user-generated social media communication on brand equity, brand attitude, and brand purchase
intentions. Juxtaposition concerning the effects of social media communication on brand equity, brand
attitude, and brand purchase intentions in different industries. The first section in this study presents a
literature review supporting the conceptual framework and the hypotheses of this study; the second
section presents the research methodology used in this study. In the third section, we introduce the
outline for the quantitative empirical analysis that is used to verify the hypotheses; the final section
provides a summary and discussion of the empirical findings with implications for managers and
executives. This study makes a significant contribution to the social media communication literature,
although this research is not without limitations. Finally, because a Central European sample was used
in this study, it may be difficult to generalize the results to other cultures, so the social, economic, and
cultural differences should be considered.
5. Monica Ramsunder, (2011) " The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Purchase Decisions
in the Tyre Industry"
The research study which investigates impact of social media marketing on a consumer’s purchase
decision in the South African tyre industry addresses traditional marketing strategies, the consumer’s
purchase decision journey and Social media marketing strategy. The research instrument used in this
study was a questionnaire which was designed specifically for the purpose of this research study. The

questionnaire was based on the literature review and specifically addressed that the main purpose of
social media is connectivity; the ability to meet new people, create new contacts and develop
networks and create new customers and business associates. If managed and maintained
appropriately, organizations can utilize the power of social media marketing to promote its brand,
gain insight into the market and assess how consumers feel about its brands. As thousands of users
visit social media platforms daily, social media marketing allows marketers to reach and talk to a
mass audience at little or no cost.
3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aims of this paper is to identify the impact of using social media marketing on purchasing
decision making for consumer through the following objectives:
 To identify the impact of using facebook, twitter and YouTube on a purchasing decision on
SAMSUNG Company.
 2- To examine the extant of social media channels that helps consumer in purchasing decision
making on SAMSUNG Company.
 3- To study the gap between consumer expectation from social media and its performance.
 4- To explore the relative importance how using social media channels: facebook ,twitter and
YouTube help company's on improving quality of services in Jordan and other developing nations.
 5- To examine the application of a theoretical model through a large investigative empirical study
involving field work to explain the social media channels facebook, twitter and YouTube that have
a significant impact on purchasing decision making.
 6- To identify the impact of using social media marketing as a marketing tool in a business on
purchasing decision making.
4. PROBLEM & QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY
The lack and rareness of studies from the researcher's point of view that are targeting the impact of
social media marketing in general and particularly its impact on consumer's purchasing decisions in
Jordan led the researcher to address this issue due to its importance in affecting the ability of social
media websites in attracting and encouraging consumers especially those who look for goods and
services with less cost and time, also in terms of the companies that are not well aware to what extent
the social media websites have the ability of supporting business contacts in effective ways, hence the
problem of the study can be summarized through the following questions:
1. Is there any significant impact of Facebook social media as a marketing channel on consumer's
purchasing decisions of home appliances sector?
2. Is there any significant impact of Twitter social media as a marketing channel on consumer's
3. Is there any significant impact of YouTube social media as a marketing channel on consumer's
4. What is the major channel of social media has a significant impact on consumer's purchasing
decisions of home appliances sector?
5. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
The importance of the study can be noticed through the stunning development of information
technology and communications in the recent times as well as its ability of affecting the consumer's
purchasing decisions through the features that are provided by these channels, in terms of time, cost
and speed of access to information.
In addition, through addressing a number of variables related to using such websites in marketing,
especially in the field of advertising and promotion via Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to various
Jordanian businesses is necessary in order to identify and bring products to the customers, and know
to what extent the client would accept this idea as well as how will the customer react and how to
create the need through the influence of this marketing channel. Finally, this is study would help

researchers, managers and marketers to consider the real value of social media when it's used as E-
marketing channel.
6. RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES
This research aims to investigate the impact of Social Media as a Marketing Tool on Purchasing
Decisions.
Because there is scarcity of the studies related to this study in our area, we start with an exploratory
phase to gain an in depth understanding of phenomenon construct and formulate the research
hypotheses.
Depending on semi-structured interviews and literature we posed the following model:
Fig1. Research model

To test the model we posed the following hypothesize:
H0: There is no significant impact of social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) on
purchasing decision of SAMSUNG customer.
H01: There is no significant impact of social media marketing (Facebook) on stages of purchasing
decisions (need recognition, collecting information, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decisions and
post-purchase behavior) in SAMSUNG company.
H02: There is no significant impact of social media marketing (Twitter) on stages of purchasing
H03: There is no significant impact of social media marketing (YouTube) on stages of purchasing
7. STUDY DETERMINANTS
The study scope deals with the following:
 Human delimitations: The study was limited to customers of SAMSUNG
 Place delimitations: The researcher distributed the questionnaires in 3 branches of SAMSUNG
Company in Amman Governorate.
8. RESEARCH METHOD
8.1. Sample Selection and Survey Administration

We have chosen customers of SAMSUNG for Home Appliances in Jordan including three branches
located in Amman (Mecca Street, Alsalam Markets, dapooq), thirty-five questionnaires were
distributed in every single branch of SAMSUNG showrooms, the total distributed number is 105
questionnaires, ninety three questionnaires were returned back and all of them were valid for
statistical (SPSS) analysis.
9. ANALYSIS RESULTS AND HYPOTHESES TEST
According to the research study and research framework presented in the previous, this section
describes the results of the statistical analysis of the data collection for research question and research
hypothesis. The data analysis includes a description of the means and standard deviations for study
questions.
10. RESEARCH FINDINGS
10.1. First: Characteristics of Study Sample:
1. Gender
Table1. Distributing Study Sample According to Gender
Gender Frequency Percent %
Male 37 39.8
Female 56 60.2
Total 93 100%
We can notice that 60.2% of the sample are females while 39.8% males.
2. Age
Table2. Distributing Study Sample According to Age
Age Frequency Percent %
Less than 20 years old 17 18.3
20-39 58 62.4
40-60 15 16.1
More than 60 years old 3 3.2
Total 93 100%
We can notice that 62.4% of the samples are ages between 20-39 followed by 18.3% of ages are less
than 20 years, and then 16.1% are ages between 40-60 while 3.2% are more than 60 years old.
3. Educational Level
Table3. Distributing Study Sample According to Age
Level Frequency Percent %
Secondary School 11 11.8
Diploma 33 45.2
Bachelor 42 35.5
Graduate Studies 7 7.5
Total 93 100%
We notice that 45.2% of the sample educational levels are bachelor, then 35.5% diploma, 11.8%
secondary school and then 7.5% graduate studies.
4. Hours of Internet Usage
The average of using the internet:
Table4. Distributing Study Sample According to Number of Hours Using the Internet
Hours Number Frequency Percent %
<1 13 14.0
2-3 47 50.5

4-5 17 18.3
<5 16 17.2
Total 93 100%
We notice that 50.5% the average hour’s number of using the internet between 2-3 hours, then 18.3%
between 4-5 hours, 17.2% more than 5 hours while 14% less than an hour.
10.2. Second: Stability Test
Cronbach Alpha test was used to measure stability of the measuring tool as a value of ( = 97.20%)
which is an excellent rate as it is higher than the accepted one 60%.
Table (4) explains Cronbach Alpha coefficient for variables in details
Table5. Cronbach Alpha coefficient for variables
Variable Variable type Paragraphs number Cronbach Alpha Sample
Social Media independent 15 %94.23 93

Social media Facebook independent 5 %85.28
Social media Twitter independent 5 %88.1
Social media Youtube independent 5 87.61%
Purchasing decision stages dependent 25 96.09%
Need recognition stage dependent 5 87.26%
Information search stage dependent 5 88.17%
Alternatives evaluation stage dependent 5 85.06%
Purchase decision Stage dependent 5 90.24%
Post-purchase behavior stage dependent 5 89.04%
Total index - 40 97.20%
10.3. Third: The Study Results
The mean, standard deviation total index were calculated to present the responses of the sample as it
is shown below:
Table6. Means, standard deviations and degree of relative importance
Question Number Mean Std. Deviation Relative degree %
Independent Variables: Social Media
First: Facebook
1 3.9247 0.72587 78.5
2 4.0430 0.67428 80.9
3 3.9677 0.78646 79.4
4 3.9785 0.76583 79.6
5 4.0860 0.71712 81.7
Facebook Total index 4.000 0.5831 80.0
Second: Twitter
6 4.0108 0.74447 80.2
7 3.9677 0.89018 79.4
8 3.7849 0.89503 75.7
9 4.1935 0.72619 83.9
10 4.1290 0.82391 82.6
Twitter Total index 4.017 0.6741 80.3
Third: Youtube
11 4.1075 0.72924 82.2
12 4.0538 0.82575 81.1
13 3.9247 0.76948 78.5
14 3.9677 0.81363 79.4
15 3.6667 0.93638 73.3
Youtube Total index 3.944 0.6687 78.9
Dependent Variables: Stages of Purchasing Decisions

First: Need recognition

16 3,8925 0,92622 77.8
17 4,0000 0,73721 80.0
18 3,6667 0,90089 73.3
19 3,8172 0,83336 76.3
20 3,9355 0,81836 78.7
Total index of need recognition stage 3, 862 0, 6884 77.2
Second: Information search
21 3,8817 0,83209 77.6
22 4,1183 08,3207 82.4
23 4,1720 08,4215 83.4
24 3,9570 08,7121 79.1
25 3,6882 08,3378 73.8
Total index of information search 3,963 0,6940 79.3
Third: Alternatives evaluation
26 3,6129 0,93288 72.3
27 3,5591 0,99414 71.2
28 4,.0323 08,0016 80.6
29 4,0215 0,89659 80.4
30 3,9677 0,86542 79.4
Total index of alternatives evaluation 3,838 0,7121 76.8
Forth: Purchase decision
31 3,9570 0,87121 79.1
32 3,8710 0,83700 77.4
33 3,7312 0,92242 74.6
34 3,8925 0,81377 77.8
35 3,7419 0,93138 74.8
Total index of purchase decision 3,838 0,7432 76.8
Fifth: Post-purchase behavior
36 3,6989 0,94161 74.0
37 4,4194 0,66468 88.4
38 4,1183 0,77809 82.4
39 3,9892 0,82745 79.8
40 4,0968 0,80844 81.9
Total index of post-purchase behavior 4,064 0,6744 81.3
We note that the sample trends are positive towards above paragraphs because their means are greater
than the measurement average tool (3).
10.4. Forth: Hypotheses Testing
1. First Hypothesis
Ho: There is no significant impact of social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube) on
purchasing decision stages for LG customer.
Ha: There is a significant impact of social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube) on
purchasing decision stages for LG customer.
Table7. Results of first hypothesis testing
F calculated T tabulated SIG F R R2 The result of null hypothesis (Ho)
54.367 2.66 0.00 0.804 0.647 Reject
Multiple Linear Regression has been used and found that from the observation of the computer's
results in the previous table that the value of (F calculated = 54.367) is greater than its tabulated value,
and since the decision rule is: accept the null hypothesis (Ho) if the calculated value is less than the
tabulated one, and reject the null hypothesis (Ho) if the calculated value is greater than the tabulated
one. Therefore, we reject the null hypothesis (Ho) and accept the alternative hypothesis (Ha) as well
as the significance level is less than 0.05 which means that there is a significant impact of social
media marketing (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube) on purchasing decision of LG customer.
2. Second Hypothesis

Ho: There is no significant impact of social media marketing (Facebook) on purchasing decision
stages (need recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation, purchase decision and post-
purchase behavior) in LG Company.
Ha: There is a significant impact of social media marketing (Facebook) on purchasing decision
Table8. Results of Second hypothesis testing
T calculated T tabulated SIG T R R2 The result of null hypothesis (Ho)
9.769 1.9861 0.00 0.715 0.512 Reject
Simple Linear Regression has been used and found that from the observation of the computer's results
in the previous table that the value of (T calculated = 9.769) is greater than its tabulated value, and
since the decision rule is: accept the null hypothesis (Ho) if the calculated value is less than the
media marketing (Facebook) on purchasing decision stages (need recognition, information search,
alternatives evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase behavior) in LG Company.
3. Third Hypothesis
Ho: There is no significant impact of social media marketing (Twitter) on purchasing decision
Ha: There is a significant impact of social media marketing (Twitter) on purchasing decision stages
(need recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase
behavior) in LG Company.
Table9. Results of Third hypothesis testing
8.847 1.9861 0.00 0.680 0.462 Reject
media marketing (Twitter) on purchasing decision stages (need recognition, information search,
4. Forth Hypothesis
Ho: There is no significant impact of social media marketing (Youtube) on purchasing decision
Ha: There is a significant impact of social media marketing (Youtube) on purchasing decision
Table10. Results of Forth hypothesis testing
12.149 1.9861 0.00 0.787 0.619 Reject

media marketing (Youtube) on purchasing decision stages (need recognition, information search,
11. RESULTS DISCUSSION
After obtaining the data analysis and tested the hypotheses, the major findings of this study are:
 The results indicate that all members of study sample spend hours with different percentages using
social media websites, the highest rate of using these websites is 50.5% which ranges between 2-3
hours, then 18.3% ranges between 4-5 hours, while the lowest percentage is 14% which is less than
1 hour. This shows that these websites are considered a fertile place for E-marketing and for
influencing the consumer's purchasing decisions.
 The study proved that there is an impact of using social media websites as a marketing tool on the
stages of purchasing decision (need recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation,
purchase decision and post-purchase behavior) which encouraging going toward using the social
media in E-marketing.
 The results indicate that social media websites (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube) have a significant
impact on stages of purchasing decision; therefore, the firm has to consider these websites in its
marketing plans.
12. RECOMMENDATIONS
The study suggests the companies to follow some strategies in order to get the benefit of the study
results:
 The Importance Of Going Toward Using The Social Media To Market The Products As These
Websites Attract A Large Portion Of The Society.
 The Importance Of Focusing On Social Media (Facebook, Twitter And Youtube) Due To Its
Significant Impact On Purchasing Decisions.
 Conducting Field Researches To Realize The Impact Of Social Media In Every Single Stage Of
Purchasing Decision Stages And The Impact Of Every Single Website In These Stages.
REFERENCES
[1] Ryan walker, (2009)"social media ad matrices definions"
[2] Ilker yakin,(2013)"the utilization of social media tools for informal learning activities" Mersin
university"
[3] Dabbagh N. & kilsant, A (2011)"internet and higher education, Personal Learning
Environments" academy journal, George Mason University.pp2-5
[4] aysegul s. gungor andtugçe o. cadirci, ―segmenting ewom engagers on online social networks
based on personal characteristics and behavior‖,ekev academy journal,vol:17,issu:57(fall 2013)
[5] Irem E &,Mesut C,(2012)" the impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty"marmara
university, " academy journal.pp3-8
[6] http://www.bizible.com/blog/bid/343058/Importance-of-Social-Media-Marketing-Among-Small-
Businesses. 5pm
[7] Ramsunder, Monica (2011)"the impact of social media marketing on purchase decision in the
tyre industry, nelson Mandela metropolitan university business school.pp40-46
[8] Assad H& Anas Y, (2014)," the impact of social media marketing on brand equity"ampirical
study on mobile service providers in Jordan. Science private university.
[9] Kotler p (1991)," marketing management analysis: analysis, planning, implementation and
control "New Jersey: prentice-hell.

[10] Chris Y& Julie A & others. (2002)." The effects of appropriateness of service contact personnel
dress on customer expectations of service quality and purchase intention""journals of business
research PP 57-76.
[11] Davoud.f& Azim&others(2013)" Effect of Packaging on Purchase Intention of Consumer (Case
Dtudy: Date Products in Shiraz)" Semnan university ,journals of business research.
[12] Hsu, S.C. (1987), English of Management, Tunghua Publishing, Taiwan
[13] Solomon, M., Bamossy, G., Askegaard, S., and Hogg, M. (2010). Consumer Behavior: Buying:
A European Perspective. 4rd ed., Financial Times Press.
[14] Leon, Sebastian, 2014,"the impact of social media on consumer behavior towards travel
planning" national chengchi university.
[15] Ayda.D& Wei Li, 2012) The impact of online social networks on consumers’ purchasing
decision, Jonkoping international business university.
[16] http://smallbiztrends.com/2014/10/influence-consumer-purchase-decisions.html
[17] http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm
[18] http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media-marketing-SMM
[19] http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing
[20] www.wikipedia.com
[21] www.enpi-info.eu
[22] http://webtrends.about.com
[23] www.oasis500.com/arabic/46
[24] http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-
marketing/
: ‫المراجع العربية‬
1- .2006،‫)" االعالن وسلىك المستهلك" دار النهضه العربيه‬2002(,‫ سلىي‬, ‫العىادلي‬
2- . 2006 ، ‫ دار وائل‬، ‫ عمان‬، ‫ االردن‬، ) ‫ سلىك المستهلك ( مدخل استراتيجي‬، ‫محمد ابراهيم عبيدات‬
AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHY
Mr. Walid Iblasi is a certified Sales Manager and currently is a Corporate Sales
Manager at the soul agent of (L. G.) in Jordan. He also has five years of
experience as a Corporate Sales Supervisor at the soul agent of Samsung
Company in Jordan. He received his MBA in E-business from Al Balqa Applied
University in Jordan. Mr. Iblasi is officially certified as an International
Marketing Expert and as an Internet Marketing Practitioner. His educational
background and his professional experience along with the rapid progress and
development of the social media in the recent years inspired him to write about
the impact of the social media as a marketing tool and how it can be influential on the customer's
purchasing decision.
Dr. Dojanah M.K. Bader, Associate Professor, at Balqa applied university,
Amman College, Head of Management Information System Department.
Sulaiman Ahmad Al-Qurini, holds a master of business administration from

Al-Balqa Applied University, Jordan. Currently he works as a field manager at
an international humanitarian NGO serving the Syrian asylum seekers and
vulnerable Jordanians.

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EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A MARKETING TOOL: AN EMPIRICAL

Article · December 2012

Abu Bashar Mohammad Wasiq

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Name :- Himanshu Kesherwani

* Assistant Professor, Brown Hills College of

Scope of the Study

Table 1.1 Profile of respondent

*at 95% the two variables are significantly different

Fig 1.1 Facebook top the chart

Table 1.2: Motivation behind following a brand or joining a brand page

Loyalty towards the

Fig 1.2 Time dedicated for socializing

Fig 1.3 Purpose for using social media platform

Fig 1.4 considering social media in buying decision

Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig.

1 (Constant) -18.312 .000

To get Information About

To Find Friends Review 1.474 .000 2.629 -2.030. .044.

To Get Exclusive Offers .679 .000 1.308 1.416 159.

To Interact With Brand -1.097 .000 -2.338 -2.030 . .044

a. Dependent Variable: Buying Decision

Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation N

Predicted Value 15.0000 45.0000 32.0000 12.04159 5

Residual .00000 .00000 .00000 .00000 5

Std. Predicted Value -1.412 1.080 .000 1.000 5

a. Dependent Variable: BuyingDecision

Figure 1.5 Not a grievance redressal platform

1. Modify your website to complement your Social Media Strategy.

a) Develop the proper context of your message

□ Khanna, R. M. (2010, August 6). Aircel Enters Punjab.The Tribune.

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Social Media Marketing: A Literature Review and Implications: IMPLICATIONS

Article in Psychology and Marketing · December 2016

Helena Alves Cristina I. Fernandes

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Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 33(12): 1029–1038 (December 2016)

1030 ALVES, FERNANDES, AND RAPOSO

IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 1031

1032 ALVES, FERNANDES, AND RAPOSO

Abusive/unethical use Communications made by firms on social Nicholls (2012)

IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 1033

SVM = support vector machine.

1034 ALVES, FERNANDES, AND RAPOSO

Theoretical Hoffman and Fodor (2010), Jara, Parra, and

IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 1035

1036 ALVES, FERNANDES, AND RAPOSO

IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 1037

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The future of social media in marketing

Published online: 12 October 2019

Keywords Social media . Digital marketing . Future of marketing

Focal stakeholders discussed

Predicted Individuals Firms Public policy

Table 2 Suggested directions for future research

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: STRATEGIES & ITS IMPACT

VIVEK BAJPAI*; DR. SANJAY PANDEY**; MRS. SHWETA SHRIWAS***

VIVEK BAJPAI; DR. SANJAY PANDEY; MRS. SHWETA SHRIWAS