Pages: 14

Social media marketing has evolved tremendously and has become an essential element of modern marketing strategy. This chapter examines the most recent patterns and challenges surrounding the subject. Current trends involve the growing significance of video content, temporary content, and collaborations with influencers. Video services such as Instagram Reels have become increasingly prominent, indicating a trend towards material that is more dynamic and captivating. Ephemeral content, exemplified by Instagram Stories and Snapchat, provides marketers with chances for immediate interaction and exclusivity, cultivating a feeling of urgency among customers. The field of influencer marketing is experiencing ongoing expansion, with micro-influencers gaining popularity due to their perceived genuineness and superior rates of audience interaction in comparison to conventional celebrity endorsements. Nevertheless, these technological improvements present numerous obstacles. Furthermore, the complexity of digital interactions makes it challenging to measure return on investment (ROI) and accurately attribute sales to social media activities. Although there are challenges, the combination of social media marketing with artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics offers possibilities for creating targeted and efficient campaigns, indicating a promising future for the field.

Pages: 20

Businesses in the luxury sector have recently adopted social media strategies to better engage with customers and stakeholders. Social media engagement is a multifaceted phenomenon as social media display different characteristics. This research aims to introduce the reader to some of the strategies that luxury brands employ on social media. The chapter starts with an overview of the topic, moves on to address luxury brands’ reasons for social media engagement nowadays, discusses engagement models and practices, and then presents a case study. The chapter concludes with recommendations for business.

Pages: 17

Digital content marketing has revolutionized the marketing landscape, and influencers have emerged as powerful drivers in this realm. Digital content marketing (DCM) is marketing information that is valuable for consumers, which is created, distributed, and managed in a virtual space to engage current and potential consumer bases. An influencer is an individual who influences a broad segment of the target audience. They shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and videos using social media. This demonstrates the power of an individual where an influencer markets the product/services of a particular firm via digital platforms. DCM exhibits the power of the content where the content is marketed via digital platforms. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of influencers on facilitating digital content marketing. This study employs the exploratory research synthesis method to gain insights into the current body of research concerning influencers and digital content marketing. Additionally, a case example is employed to shed light on how influencers play a role in driving digital content marketing.

Pages: 20

This chapter examines business-to-business (B2B) social media usage, the opportunities and challenges for B2B social media, the development of B2B social media strategy, and the impact of social media in the B2B sector. The chapter provides practical suggestions on social media strategy and usage for B2B firms. This chapter also provides case examples that highlight the effective usage of social media by B2B firms. The chapter’s discussions can serve as a framework for industry managers as they design and develop social media programs for their firms. The chapter’s discussions also can provide insights for academicians who are planning a B2B social media research agenda. Key issues such as the effective measurement and assessment of social media programs are addressed. The chapter highlights social media’s ability to provide B2B firms with an avenue to better understand their clients. Overall, the chapter advances our understanding of social media applications in the B2B sector and offers insights on how B2B firms can strategically use social media to create value and engage with the markets they serve.

Pages: 14

In the realm of social media, while its primary use has been for commercial branding, its potential for social marketing—using marketing strategies to promote a social cause and thus advance public interest—remains underexplored. This chapter delves into the potential employment of social media in social marketing, particularly in resource-constrained public and not-for-profit sectors. Focusing on TikTok, an emerging short video platform, the chapter explores its unique features such as ‘For You Page’ and duet, utilised by influencers to generate publicity and foster engagement. The discussion centres on leveraging TikTok for promoting a social initiative targeting food waste reduction in alignment with the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This interactive and creative platform holds promise for educating the younger generation on global food waste issues. Through an illustrative example featuring a TikTok influencer advocating for sustainable living, this chapter provides insights into harnessing the social media affordances—including compelling content creation, long-term relationship building with followers, and dynamic peer and social learning—to effectively advance social marketing objectives.

Pages: 17

Consumer behaviour and communication have been completely transformed by social media, which has increased demand for visually stunning and user-centric digital experiences. This chapter explores the symbiotic relationship between social media, user interface/user experience (UI/UX) design, and successful brand strategies. It examines how businesses leverage well-designed interfaces and engaging content to enhance user engagement and conversion rates. Using examples from leading brands such as Apple, Samsung, and Nike, the chapter illustrates how effective UI/UX design influences consumer perceptions and fosters brand loyalty. By delving into the dimensions of UI/UX design and its impact on social media marketing, the chapter underscores the importance of creating seamless and satisfying online customer journeys in today’s digital landscape.

Pages: 16

Everybody’s life is starting to depend on the social media map. In the era of technology, it is critical to take initiative in order to maintain connections with the outside world. Social media platforms are beneficial to individuals, but they also have a significant impact on businesses. Understanding a person’s demographic profile as a social media user is the main topic of this chapter. It also highlights how a firm’s followers can become brand ambassadors; and, at the end, it concentrates on comprehending how various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter operate. Exploring the techniques used to improve the effectiveness of customers’ social media journeys is also one of the main aims of this chapter. All social media platforms have various target audiences, but, ultimately, they aim to change people’s perceptions so they may utilize them to advance in their respective industries. The chapter also covers the use of social media platforms by brands to achieve their objectives.

Pages: 15

Influencer marketing is increasingly being integrated as a part of a firm’s overall marketing communications strategy. Despite the many opportunities this relatively new marketing strategy provides, such as the ability to reach a wider audience, grow brand awareness, and encourage engagement and conversion, several challenges persist, from finding influencers who are a good fit for the brand to pricing arrangements, co-creation of content in different media formats, evaluating campaign success, and contractual agreements. Developing a collaborative influencer marketing relationship can be an overwhelming undertaking. This chapter explores the role of influencer marketing from a social media context, and describes how influencers are categorized according to their follower count and level of influence. The benefits and drawbacks of engaging in influencer marketing are highlighted. The agency’s role in bridging the gap between both parties, the influencer and the brand, is explored from the perspective of the Irish Blogger Agency, a third-party marketing agency that specializes in influencer marketing. This agency serves as an important intermediary between brands and influencers, and describes how they facilitate influencer marketing collaborations through an online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace platform. The chapter closes with practical managerial recommendations.

Pages: 18

The digital age has provided customers with the strength of knowledge and immediate access to information. Companies have also made use of the opportunity to create new ways of engaging customers to enlighten them about their market offerings as well as gaining insights about their preferences. The growing use of digital media among consumers has evolved as an imperative marketing platform for companies in business-to-consumer (B2C) domains. The prospects of using digital tools such as blogs, video content, online communities, 24/7 online support, influencer marketing, Q&A forums, professional networks, etc. for better customer engagement are open to business-to-business (B2B) companies as well. Many industry leaders are harnessing digital tools to obtain more relevant information about the customer journey that helps them provide more targeted efforts leading to successful outcomes. This chapter draws attention to a few cases of companies that have successfully used social media for comprehending and aiding the customer journey in the B2B domain at various stages.

Pages: 19

In today’s world, social media platforms have overtaken traditional channels in influencing how consumers make purchasing decisions. Young individuals who have grown up in the internet age are notably engaged with platforms such as Douyin, forming a significant audience for fashion brands aiming to strengthen their market presence. This conceptual chapter aims to investigate the impact of virtual influencers on social media platforms, particularly interacting with Douyin. Taking an innovative approach, the chapter leverages insights from established theories such as the Source Attractiveness Model and the Theory of Persuasion to dissect the relationships followers maintain with virtual influencers, who are digital representations in the online space. Through an in-depth analysis of interactions with the well-known virtual influencer Yexi Liu, the chapter unravels the nuances of how these digital personas are reshaping followers’ brand perceptions and purchasing habits.

Pages: 27

As digital technology transforms business practices, the shift from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to Social CRM is becoming increasingly important in the healthcare industry. This chapter explores the significance of CRM in healthcare, emphasizing its role in building trust between healthcare providers and patients regarding healthcare products. It also examines social media strategies used by various healthcare organizations and the rise of Social CRM (CRM 2.0) as a progressive approach. The chapter assesses the feasibility of integrating social media data into traditional CRM practices to enhance Customer Relationship Management in healthcare. By exploring these dimensions, it hopes to shed light on the strategic importance of embracing Social CRM in healthcare and provide insights into how healthcare organizations can use digital technologies to improve customer engagement and satisfaction.

Pages: 19

Ample evidence exists that the trend for using chatbots in the business sector will accelerate further within the coming years. This dynamic has inspired various researchers to investigate the determinants of the effectiveness of interactions between consumers and chatbots in the recent past. However, the scope of published studies into the impact of chatbot communication is large and fragmented. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the current status of scientific knowledge within the domain of chatbot communication research. By doing so, we consolidate the earlier findings identified in our literature analysis and develop an integrated model for the impact of chatbot communication on key consumer outcomes – including consumers’ willingness to adopt chatbots and being influenced during purchases. By applying the classic framework for social communication, we identify five critical components for our model: communicators, stimuli, receivers, responses, and contextual influences. Our review shows that, within each component, various factors (e.g., message quality, message personalization) are critical to the success of chatbots in business settings. Our review gives practitioners and scholars alike a first understanding of the main persuasive factors affecting consumer responses while interacting with a chatbot.

Pages: 20

This chapter aims to explore the influence of generational differences on target audience identification in social media marketing. With each generation exhibiting distinct behaviours, preferences, and communication styles, understanding these generational nuances becomes vital for effective audience targeting. The chapter examines the implications from both the consumer and the managerial perspective, providing insights for identifying and engaging with different generational segments on social media platforms. Through behavioural analysis, managerial strategies, and case studies, this chapter will equip marketers with practical guidance to optimize their marketing efforts in the dynamic landscape of generational diversity.

Pages: 22

This chapter aims to evaluate the effects of user-generated social media content quality and firm-generated social media content quality, and social media attachment to the retail customer experience and its loyalty outcomes. Using two surveys (N = 2,156 and N = 2,565), an experiment (N = 659), and in-depth consumer interviews (N = 17), we show how a retailer’s participation in consumers’ social media discussions affects consumer responses and loyalty outcomes. The results indicate that user-generated content quality has a positive effect on customers’ cognitive response, and that firm-generated content reduces the harmful effect of negative user-generated content on loyalty intentions. In addition, social media attachment strengthens the impact of emotional responses on loyalty intentions (e.g., purchase intention and word of mouth). The results also indicate that consumers’ content preferences are linked to the type of product. Rational decision-making requires informative support, whereas emotional content is linked to impulse-purchasing behavior. Thus, this study provides implications for more effective social media marketing.

Pages: 18

In today’s interconnected world, where billions of individuals regularly engage with social media platforms, an abundance of data is being created. This makes social media a virtual gold mine of data, revealing trends, opinions, and behaviours of individuals and communities. However, amid this vast sea of information, it is difficult for decision makers to make sense of it. Therefore, there is a need to address this challenge. This is where social media analytics comes in. Social media analytics involves gathering, examining, and interpreting information from social media platforms to acquire valuable insight and drive informed decision making. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) can also enable organizations to understand user sentiment to optimize marketing campaigns and encourage significant connections with customers. The chapter focuses on the use of AI tools to analyse social media data, outlining how these tools can help us understand and extract meaningful insights into large-scale social media data. The chapter covers various AI-based techniques use by researchers, and explains how AI algorithms can help cope with complex data generated by social media.

Pages: 17

In the current business landscape defined by socially aware customers, cause-related marketing (CRM) has emerged as a powerful tool for companies to serve customers and positively impact the causes that matter to them. CRM represents a firm-level strategy that may transcend into profit, focusing on leveraging social change to connect with consumers on a deeper level. The success of a CRM campaign hinges on the strategic selection of partners who share a common vision and enthusiasm to bring a positive impact using their initiatives. This study proposes an approach that employs a construct-specific dictionary and Euclidean distance to empirically measure the degree of alignment between the various attributes of brand campaigns. Further, this work demonstrates the use of Aaker’s brand personality attributes, and the validity of the result is assessed through case studies of brand campaigns. The proposed approach, grounded in empirical data, offers a robust framework for evaluating the viability of CRM partnerships. The chapter also discusses the utility of the proposed approach using real-time case studies, underscoring the practicality of data-driven strategies in fostering mutually beneficial collaborations.

Pages: 14

Audio content is fast emerging as a real asset for the content marketing industry, with items such as audio books, catalogues, podcasts, music and social media audio. Audio content marketing is a fairly untapped territory, with little research dedicated. Brands are opting for personalization of content through audio formats to give a vanguard to already established digital marketing strategies. This study aims to contribute to and enrich the limited literature on branded audio content in an effort to build a deeper understanding of the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) contexts, and provides an overview to benefit brands interested in opting audio content. The case in point is a company named Earshot Digimedia Private Limited, based in India’s Delhi National Capital Region. The case assesses how Earshot used audio content in combination with other digital marketing strategies for the personalization of content. The study establishes audio content as a futuristic approach for customer engagement in the business-to-business market.

Pages: 18

This chapter investigates marketing strategies employed by social media influencers on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, focusing on consumer engagement, product promotion, and audience response. The study evaluates the effectiveness of various tactics such as humor, polls, storytelling, and question/answer sessions used by influencers in their posts and videos to engage their audience. Additionally, it examines how influencers promote products and services, considering factors such as brand endorsements, product demonstrations, links provided, and discount offers. The analysis extends to assessing audience comments, categorizing them as positive, negative, or inquiries. The results suggest that influencers predominantly use humor, question/answer sessions, and storytelling to engage consumers. Lifestyle influencers frequently also employ live product demonstrations and brand endorsements, and educative influencers tend to deliver content through animations that enhance the learning experience, while healthcare and fitness influencers prioritize demonstrations and brand loyalty. The study reveals positive feedback from audiences, highlighting the effectiveness of influencer marketing in building consumer trust, loyalty, and satisfaction.

Pages: 22

The rise of social media and digital influencers has significantly impacted consumer brand perceptions across industries globally. Social media influencers (SMIs) now play a crucial role in shaping these perceptions. However, academic research has lagged in exploring the mechanisms behind SMIs’ influence, especially across different cultures. This study investigates the relationship between SMI credibility and followers’ brand attitudes, using survey data from India and the United States. It examines the dimensions of SMI credibility and compares how they influence brand attitudes in both countries. The empirical analysis, including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), reveals that, in India, SMI goodwill is positively related to followers’ brand attitudes. In contrast, expertise and trustworthiness are more significant in the US. These results align with Hofstede’s cultural theory, highlighting the critical role of culture in influencer marketing. The study discusses both managerial and theoretical implications.