Strategic Uses of Social Media for Improved Customer Retention

Wafaa Al-Rabayah Independent Researcher, Jordan

Rawan Khasawneh Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan

Rasha Abu-shamaa Yarmouk University, Jordan

Izzat Alsmadi Boise State University, USA

A volume in the Advances in Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, and E-Services (AMCRMES) Book Series Published in the United States of America by IGI Global Business Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global) 701 E. Chocolate Avenue Hershey PA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.igi-global.com

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Ahmed Al Zyoud, Yarmouk University, Jordan Yaser Jararwah, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan Table of Contents

Foreword;...... xv;

Preface;...... xvii;

Chapter 1;

Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing;...... 1;

Rawan T. Khasawneh;, Jordan University of Science and Technology,

Jordan;

Chapter 2; Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media, Customer Relationship, and Knowledge Management;...... 11;

Olayiwola W. Bello;, University of Ilorin, Nigeria;

Modupe Folarin;, City University London, UK;

Nasir Faruk;, University of Ilorin, Nigeria;

Chapter 3; Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM): A Strategy for

Customer Engagement;...... 45;

Ameen Al-Azzam;, Technical College in Tai’f, Saudi Arabia;

Rawan Khasawneh;, Jordan University of Science and Technology,

Jordan;

Chapter 4;

Marketing on Tumblr:;...... 59;

Kristen Smirnov;, Whittier College, USA;

Chapter 5;

The Effect of Social Networks on Branding: A Factorial Analysis Approach;..... 84;

Meriem Nouala;, Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria;

Marwa Imene Mekki;, Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria;

Abdelmadjid Ezzine;, Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria; Chapter 6; Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool: Case of

Jordan Medical Directory;...... 108;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

Chapter 7;

Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites;...... 124;

Kaan Varnali;, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey;

Vehbi Gorgulu;, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey;

Chapter 8;

The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks;...... 154;

Arturo Haro-de-Rosario;, University of Almería, Spain;

Laura Saraite;, University of Almería, Spain;

Alejandro Sáez-Martin;, University of Almería, Spain;

María del Carmen Caba-Pérez;, University of Almería, Spain;

Chapter 9; Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions and

Current Customer Loyalty;...... 173;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

Chapter 10; Opinion Mining: A Tool for Understanding Customers – Challenges and

Approaches...... ; 193;

Rawan Khasawneh;, Jordan University of Science and Technology,

Jordan;

Izzat Alsmadi;, Texas A&M University - San Antonio, USA;

Chapter 11; Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer .

Retention;...... 207;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

Ahmad Al-Zyoud;, Yarmouk University, Jordan;

Chapter 12; Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family to Grow Successful Family-Owned Businesses? The Usefulness of Social

Media in Growing a Family-Owned Business;...... 224;

Mambo Governor Mupepi;, Grand Valley State University, USA;

Patience Taruwinga;, Saint Joseph’s College, USA;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan; Chapter 13;

Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers: Cases and Tips;...... 246;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

Compilation of References;...... 264;

About the Contributors;...... 302;

Index;...... 307; Detailed Table of Contents

Foreword;...... xv;

Preface;...... xvii;

Chapter 1;

Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing;...... 1;

Rawan T. Khasawneh;, Jordan University of Science and Technology,

Jordan;

During the fast growth of social media, the ways companies usually use in their marketing are changed; social networks became a great approach for companies to improve their communication with customers. The wide usage of social networking sites and tools by individuals makes companies want to think carefully on how they can benefit from such usage in rebuilding their relationship with customers and increasing their engagement level. Such companies found that social media marketing is the solution through which companies and their customers will become much closer. This chapter covers three main sections where traditional marketing and electronic marketing concepts are reviewed in the first section. Then a detailed exploration of social networks and their distinct features is presented in the second section. Finally a discussion of social network marketing tools and its related technologies is explored in the third section.;

Chapter 2; Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media, Customer Relationship, and Knowledge Management;...... 11;

Olayiwola W. Bello;, University of Ilorin, Nigeria;

Modupe Folarin;, City University London, UK;

Nasir Faruk;, University of Ilorin, Nigeria;

Academic concepts such as customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) are well established concepts today. Integration between these two concepts has been established with the term customer knowledge management. Social media (SM) is now fast growing and has an intrinsic nature hence reducing barriers of varying concepts. It has been integrated with CRM through the term social CRM (SCRM). From the above it appears that there is interdependency between the concepts. It is on this basis that this work proposes a process model integrating SM, SCRM and KM. Through data collected from expert interview and extensive literature review, this study explored the possibility of interdependency between these concepts to make a case for the process framework for business organisations. The framework, leaning on the CKM model was able to identify strategy, mindset and engagement management, including knowledge context as crucial additions to the existing model towards integrating the three concepts. ;

Chapter 3; Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM): A Strategy for

Customer Engagement;...... 45;

Ameen Al-Azzam;, Technical College in Tai’f, Saudi Arabia;

Rawan Khasawneh;, Jordan University of Science and Technology,

Jordan;

The organizations reach to their objectives by adopting an effective customer management strategy. Today, organizations have become aware that to reach their objectives its must focus on customer relationships, engagement and retention, not only to increase their market share. The development of information and communication technology (ICT) and in particular social networks enables an important communication tool with customer. Improving customer relationship by using social network is called social customer relationship management (SCRM). SCRM focused on establishing new channels with customers for better understanding of customers needs and build a long-term relationship with them. This chapter explores social customer relationship management and its general concepts including social media and customer relationship management. Also, it reviews the context of SCRM that aims to enhance customer relationship and make customers much more engaged. Conclusions and proposed future work are stated at the end. ;

Chapter 4;

Marketing on Tumblr:;...... 59;

Kristen Smirnov;, Whittier College, USA;

Despite many demographic, behavioral, and technical features that should make it an appealing destination for social media marketers, the Tumblr platform has lagged in marketing adoption. This chapter discusses the site features that drive its potential, while also acknowledging the challenges that Tumblr presents. Contrasts are offered between the limited flexibility but easier adoption curve of other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, with the phenomenon known as choice overload discussed as a possible explanation for non-Tumblr preferences. Three Tumblr case studies are presented in depth to illustrate best practices (Denny’s diner chain and the musician Taylor Swift) and to warn against certain common pitfalls (Nordstrom). The chapter concludes with potential future research directions to pursue on this growing but underutilized platform. ;

Chapter 5;

The Effect of Social Networks on Branding: A Factorial Analysis Approach;..... 84;

Meriem Nouala;, Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria;

Marwa Imene Mekki;, Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria;

Abdelmadjid Ezzine;, Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria;

The Internet is currently the largest computer network in use. Because everyone can use it, and join the network. The main role is that the internet allows to exchange information freely. Corporate communication modes jostled following the advent of the internet and more specifically social networking. Many victims of online business communication crisis affecting sustainably their brand. A real challenge for today’s companies needs to understand the characteristics of these new media and to establish an effective communication strategy in order to maintain and improve its image among its customers. This research looks at whether social networks have an effect on the brand image. Several dimensions for assessing this concept will be identified through an empirical study.;

Chapter 6; Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool: Case of

Jordan Medical Directory;...... 108;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process of managing a business’s interaction with current and future potential customers. This instrumental case study aims to study and explain the role of social media as Electronic Customer Relationship Management tool (ECRM) in health care and tourism context by using Jordan Medical Directory company as a case study, we identified how using social media in communicating and managing customer’s requirements as eCRM technique affects institution efficiency, the result proved the significant positive role of social media in managing customers relation starting from acquisition, passing by retention, and finally termination, data collected through personal and phone interviews in a time frame of one month.;

Chapter 7;

Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites;...... 124;

Kaan Varnali;, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey;

Vehbi Gorgulu;, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey; This research aims to contribute to the understanding of how brand impressions in social networking sites influence brand recall. Further, the relationship between the built-in metrics offered by social networking sites and brand recall are also examined to assess the validity of these metrics as measures of advertising effectiveness. Results indicate a positive relationship between brand recall and self-brand congruence, tie- strength with, trust toward, and perceived popularity of the profile associated with the post, and clicking a link embedded in the post / ad in which the brand appears. On the other hand, there is not a significant difference between the levels of brand involvement, homophily with the profile associated with the post / ad, like-count, and four types of built-in user-interaction options including liking, sharing, posting a comment and tagging among the brands that were successfully retrieved from the memory and those were not. ;

Chapter 8;

The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks;...... 154;

Arturo Haro-de-Rosario;, University of Almería, Spain;

Laura Saraite;, University of Almería, Spain;

Alejandro Sáez-Martin;, University of Almería, Spain;

María del Carmen Caba-Pérez;, University of Almería, Spain;

This chapter has two main aims. First, to investigate the Facebook practices used in the U.S. banking sector with the aim of enhancing customer engagement; second, to perform a comparative analysis of the use of Facebook in this respect, among different U.S. banks. In this comparative analysis, we apply the Federal Reserve charter classification (Nationally chartered member bank, State-chartered member bank and State-chartered nonmember bank). The findings of this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the influence of social media in enhancing customer engagement. Banks, and their community managers in particular, can make use of the conclusions drawn in this study to develop future strategies to foster citizen engagement via Facebook.;

Chapter 9; Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions and

Current Customer Loyalty;...... 173;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

Social networks are fundamentally changing the way we communicate, collaborate, consume, and create. They represent one of the most transformative impacts of information technology on business and daily life. This chapter will explain set of social network concepts and its influences in social interaction and decision making, and to determine whether individual’s decision to consume a product, service, or attend an event are influenced by their interaction on social network, by studying three characteristics: Contagion, Connection, and Virtual Word of mouth. The results of this research can be used by business to enhance their relation and opportunities with their current and potential customers. ;

Chapter 10; Opinion Mining: A Tool for Understanding Customers – Challenges and

Approaches...... ; 193;

Rawan Khasawneh;, Jordan University of Science and Technology,

Jordan;

Izzat Alsmadi;, Texas A&M University - San Antonio, USA;

In recent years social media sites become very popular communication tools among Internet users where a significant amount of information is exchanged via computers, smart phones, etc. Internet now is not only a source of information for users to search for; regular users are now a major source of Internet information; where now regular people post daily life activities, share online pictures, and express their opinions about products, news, political debates, etc. Such noticed growing of opinion-rich resources along with user-generated content makes it worthwhile to use information technologies to collect, analyze, and understand human factors and behaviors. This chapter covers three main sections where the first section introduces the field of opinion mining in general along with a detailed exploration of its definitions and goals. Then a discussion of opinion mining related challenges is presented in the second section. The last section explores opinion mining available approaches along with possible future directions.;

Chapter 11; Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer .

Retention;...... 207;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

Ahmad Al-Zyoud;, Yarmouk University, Jordan;

Sentiment analysis is a process of determining the polarity (i.e. positive, negative or neutral) of a given text. The extremely increased amount of information available on the web, especially social media, create a challenge to be retrieved and analyzed on time, timely analyzed of unstructured data provide businesses a competitive advantage by better understanding their customers’ needs and preferences. This literature review will cover a number of studies about sentiment analysis and finds the connection between sentiment analysis of social network content and customers retention; we will focus on sentiment analysis and discuss concepts related to this field, most important relevant studies and its results, its methods of applications, where it can be applied and its business applications, finally, we will discuss how can sentiment analysis improve the customer retention based on retrieved data. ; Chapter 12; Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family to Grow Successful Family-Owned Businesses? The Usefulness of Social

Media in Growing a Family-Owned Business;...... 224;

Mambo Governor Mupepi;, Grand Valley State University, USA;

Patience Taruwinga;, Saint Joseph’s College, USA;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

The objective of the study was to collect data from family owned enterprises to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of social media as a strategy to grow the useful business and to determine the subscription of family owned entities to social networking. The methodology included data collected from a total of 68 family owned firms 30 in the USA and 38 in Africa SADC countries. Monkey survey tools were deployed to collect data. Results show that those companies that subscribed to social media were more successful than those that did not. Certain social networks were much more useful than others and that it was not always important to have a website but useful to have a social network. The debut of the popular Facebook was received with mixed views by many organizations but its subscription by many organizations demonstrate its usefulness as a tool to grow a business. The recommendations are that it is important for a family owned business to subscribe to a social network as a strategy to advance productivity.;

Chapter 13;

Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers: Cases and Tips;...... 246;

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah;, Independent Researcher, Jordan;

Customer retention is the process of keeping your current customers’ set satisfied and loyal to your product, successful customer retention is not only related to the applied product or services, but strongly related to how the organization provide the services and the reputation it creates within and across the marketplace. This chapter mentions four different cases of using social media to achieve customer retention. Cases will be named based on services provided by the firm, theme park, personal care business, food business, and suppling athlete tools. Also set of tips and guidelines about planning social strategy presented, finally suggested tools support different platforms were mentioned.;

Compilation of References;...... 264;

About the Contributors;...... 302;

Index;...... 307; xv

Foreword

The world has change dramatically since the advent of the Internet, where information and communication technology (ICT) and the Internet converged to make the world a small village and open doors for exchanging information. Still, information exchanged was a product of businesses and individuals who accessed such systems. In the last ten years, social media in all its forms like online social networks (OSNs), blogs, wikis, and many other applications changed our lives and influenced individuals on both the business level and personal level. Social networks content blurred line between business and personal matters. It generated huge amount of information that can be utilized by both businesses and individuals (customers). The posts, reviews, images, and videos make online social networks and rich environment for marketing products and services and interacting with customers. OSNs generated data and information that can influence customer relationship management (CRM). OSNs can have a substantial influence on all stages of CRM: select, acquire, retain, extend. The world is full of potential customers, where acquiring a new customer costs more than retain existing one. The new applications like data analytics and data mining enable businesses to target potential customers in an efficient and effective manner. Questions that need to be answered are all available on social media like who do we target? What is their value to us? What might be their customer life cycle? And where do we reach them? Customer behavior on social media can reveal if businesses are targeting the right customer, and thus minimize the acquisition cost, and optimize the quality of interaction. Businesses using social media can reach their customers and overcome time and place restrictions. Social media is now in all houses, on all phones and open for all segments. It is enriching the retention process where firms understand their customers’ needs, maximize service quality, and also use the right channel for them. The richness and variety offered by social media and specially OSNs can open doors for diverse and rich marketing strategies. Retaining customers means being where they are, targeting their needs through their preferred channel and send the relevant offers and promotions. xvi

The last CRM process is customer extension, where social networks enable businesses to sense what their customers want and respond by offering the suitable cross-sell or up-sell strategy. Businesses are utilizing OSNs to be a major tool and source of information that can be easily transferred to knowledge that help in the decision making process. The richness and influence of such knowledge influence the CRM process and eventually will add value to both businesses and customers. The use of OSNs adds value, but also adds some risks that are reported by previous research and cases. This book will explore issues related to strategies for using social media for marketing and how to utilize data mining and big data analytics to understand customer needs and put forward solutions on how to select, acquire, retain and extend customers. Knowledge will be the ultimate defining factor for such process, where OSNs are the source of such important resource. Terms like customer knowledge management (CKM) and social customer relationship management (SCRM) are trending in new research and can be of much importance in the future. Finally, OSNs will an important source for branding strategies, marketing mix strategies, Crowdfunding and sourcing channel, and finally, a customerization direction. The importance of this topic entails a careful review of this valuable work, and put forward to the library a diverse content that offers concepts, experiences, and cases on the topic. This book is an enjoyable reading that opens channels for readers from both businesses and individuals to be able to build more effective customer relationship strategies. The international diverse authorship also adds more value to the book and gives better insights to the topic from all perspectives.

Emad Abu-Shanab Yarmouk University, Jordan

Emad A. Abu-Shanab earned his PhD in business administration, in the MIS area from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, USA, his MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, and his Bachelor in civil engineering from Yarmouk University (YU) in Jordan. He is an associate professor in MIS. His research interest in areas like E-government, technology acceptance, E-marketing, E-CRM, Digital divide, T project management, and E-learning. Published many articles in journals and conferences, and authored four books. xvii

Preface

Online Social Networks (OSNs) continue to evolve and take a significant role in current human societies. OSNs are the most popular and top ranked websites based on popularity and traffic. Additionally, they also clearly mark and identify the current Internet where regular users are involved in Internet information uploading. As public and private companies and business start to realize the richness and the value of users’ uploaded information, they continue evaluate tools that can understand their clients or customers and plan their future business decisions based on knowledge extracted from OSNs. Jobs and research areas in information science grow significantly in the last decade beyond the classical Natural Language process (NLP) or Information Retrieval (IR) tasks. In this scope, this book integrated a collection of chapters with subjects and case studies related to how business can understand their customers based on information from OSNs. In this book, several chapters are introduced within the scope of our book subject. In the first chapter, Rawan Khasawneh presented a chapter on how OSNs are used recently as business marketing tools. The chapter introduces concepts related to social media marketing. The amount of information users upload through OSNs and the nature of such dynamic interactions are two major factors to consider and utilize for marketing purposes. In the second chapter (Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media, Cus- tomer Relationship, and Knowledge Management) by Olayiwola W. Bello, Modupe Folarin and Nasir Faruk, authors discussed a framework; through data collected from expert interviews, on how to integrate social media concepts and knowledge in particular with Customer Relation Management (CRM). Their framework extended an already existing customer knowledge management (CKM) framework. Ideas were also used from the business framework for CRM and Social CRM. The framework also presented key themes to consider for a successful integration between social media and SRM. In the same scope of the relations between social media and CRM, Chapter 3 (Social Customer Relationship Management [SCRM]: A Strategy for Customer En- xviii gagement) By Ameen Al-Azzam and Rawan Khasawneh is presented. The chapter elaborated on tools and methods used in Social media CRM (SCRM) in comparison with classical or traditional CRM. In a focused study on one OSN (i.e. Tumblr), Kristen Smirnov presented the chapter: Marketing on Tumblr: Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird). Tumblr, recently own by Yahoo, is a microblog website that allows users to post short text or comments. Three Tumblr case studies are presented in depth to illustrate best practices (1: Denny’s diner chain and 2: the musician Taylor Swift) and 3: to warn against certain common pitfalls (Nordstrom). The chapter discusses also some of the strategies (e.g. paid advertisements, gradual customers’ interactions, etc.) that businesses use to be more involved with their customers in OSNs. OSNs and interactions with users can also impact business names and brands. This is the subject of Chapter 5, “The Effect of Social Networks on Branding: A Factorial Analysis Approach,” by Meriem Nouala, Marwa Imene Mekki and Abdelmadjid Ezzine. Classically users tend to like to buy always from the brands that they used to buy from. They trust them or are loyal to them based on either previous self-business interactions or based on general public trust in such known brands. OSNs represent new channels for business to be more known or visible. Nonetheless, some companies may have a better success be more visible in OSNs in comparison with other businesses that have been very successful in classical methods. The words of mouth about positive and negative product aspects in OSNs can spread very quickly and can have serious impacts on businesses. For example, several case studies about customer’s negative interactions with airlines got very popular through OSNs and prompted a serious business response to those incidents. Wafaa Al-Rabayah, introduced Chapter 6, “Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool: Case of Jordan Medical Directory.” The chapter focused on Social media CRM in one business or domain sector: Medical section in the country of Jordan and one company in particular: Jordan medical directory (JorMedic) which is involved in medical as well as health-related tourism. JorMedic as a click-mortar business type, heavily depends on web presence and OSNs. One of the interesting challenges introduced in the chapter is related to how we can effectively collect data from OSNs and also how we can, reasonably, make rational findings based on the collected data. This is considered one of the major challenges in the analysis of data from OSNs. In the subject of OSNs impact on business brands, Chapter 7, “Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites,” by Kaan Varnali and Vehbi Gorgulu is introduced. Businesses vary in their level of involvements in OSNs. For example, for some businesses, a Facebook or a Twitter page is considered as one of the main pages for the business website. On the other hand, some other business use those OSNs just for the cause of being present, as all others, in those social media websites xix without much activities in those pages. In other examples, some businesses allow users to post, respond and interact with the business website and all its activities, services, products. They also allocate a significant number of customer services to be involved in those pages and respond to users. In the brand recall, which is the focus of this chapter, results showed that users’ trust on the brand and its product and services is an ongoing and a continuous process. Businesses should be heavily involved with their customers to understand their feedback and act accordingly. Arturo Haro-de-Rosario, Laura Saraite, Alejandro Saez-Martin and Maria del Carmen Caba-Pérez introduced in Chapter 8 (The impact of Social Media on Cus- tomer Engagement with U.S. Banks) a case study related to US banks. Facebook was the OSN website which was used in this chapter evaluation to show how customer engagement can be enhanced. Several metrics related to: popularity, commitment and virality are used to measure customer involvement or engagement. Results showed that focusing only on one metrics (e.g. number of fans) can be misleading if considered in isolation from some other metrics. In Chapter 9, “Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Deci- sions and Current Customer Loyalty,” three characteristics: contagion, connection, and virtual word of mouth are used to evaluate customers loyalty and interactions with businesses. Studies showed that users, recently, depend heavily on the Internet in general and OSNs in particular in their decisions to buy a product, a service or attend an event. There is of a course a possibility that users can be possibly mislead by some sort of spam in OSNs where such public information may not be precise or accurate. Rawan Khasawneh and Izzat Alsmadi introduced in Chapter 10 (Opinion Mining: A Tool for Understanding Customers – Challenges and Approaches) the subject of opinion mining and sentimental analysis. As we mentioned earlier, one of the most significant challenges in knowledge extraction from OSNs is what data to extract and how to use and utilize such data. This is why goal-oriented approaches are more important than data-driven approaches as the collection of a large amount of data without early or initial specific goals can be useless and time consuming. Authors showed some tools and techniques to conduct opinion mining and possible future trends. In the same opinion mining or sentimental analysis scope, Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah and Ahmad AlZyoud introduced Chapter 11: (Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention). With focus on customer retention, the paper focused on challenges of final extractions of customer opinions on the business products or services (i.e. positive or negative). The amount of false positive and false negative cases can be very large in many cases specially as users typically use slang language, expressions, images, strange symbols, sarcasms, etc. xx

Mambo Governor Mupepi, Patience Taruwinga and Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah introduced Chapter 12 (Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family to Grow Successful Family-Owned Businesses? The Usefulness of Social Media in Growing a Family-Owned Business). The chapter focuses on one type of businesses (family-owned businesses) and how to utilize OSNs in this type of businesses. What can be possibly unique in many family-oriented business is their small-scale in general and their dependence on a focused local sector of customers where loyalty is built largely based on words of mouths. The studies showed that in the current global and connected world and environments the terms family, small, local can be different as the Internet and OSNs make the whole world as a small connected, local town. In the last chapter, 13, Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah presented “Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers: Cases and Tips.” Customer retention and loyalty are important goals for CRMs. Deep understanding, communication and interaction with customers are important tools and methods to assess and improve such loyalty. Perhaps nothing like OSNs can be useful and valuable to empower such factors between business and their users or customers. 1

Chapter 1 Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing

Rawan T. Khasawneh Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan

ABSTRACT During the fast growth of social media, the ways companies usually use in their marketing are changed; social networks became a great approach for companies to improve their communication with customers. The wide usage of social networking sites and tools by individuals makes companies want to think carefully on how they can benefit from such usage in rebuilding their relationship with customers and increasing their engagement level. Such companies found that social media marketing is the solution through which companies and their customers will become much closer. This chapter covers three main sections where traditional marketing and electronic marketing concepts are reviewed in the first section. Then a detailed exploration of social networks and their distinct features is presented in the second section. Finally a discussion of social network marketing tools and its related technologies is explored in the third section.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, social media has exceeded its existence as a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, to become a favorite communication channel for a large number of people. Such shift changes the relationship between

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch001

Copyright ©2017, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing companies and their customers which lead to a tremendous impact on the way companies conduct marketing. Companies, using social networks, can build closer and more profitable relationship with customers along with better understanding of their needs (Nezamabad, 2011). Social network marketing is very advantageous for companies; it can be represented as a great tool for finding talent, building brand awareness, finding new customers, and conducting market research (Bolotaeva & Cata, 2011; O’Brien, 2011). There are wide ranges of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and many others. Each site has its distinct features, but all of them share some common features. They are global, free and easy used (Suneetha & Kumar, 2012). Facebook, for example, is one of the fast growing social network sites; according to Das and Sahoo (2011), it has the first rank in the list of the ten most popular social networking sites in the world with M550 estimated monthly unique visitors compared with Twitter which has M95.8 and LinkedIn which has M50. Facebook was launched in 2004 with easily used interface and a wide range of features that are helpful for both individuals and companies (Khasawneh & AbuShanab, 2013); these features enable companies to create: a profile page to prove their existence on the Internet, group to make discussions: this feature is limited because it will be useful only for people who joining it, and a fan page where a large number of people share the same interests (Khasawneh & AbuShanab, 2013; Farooq & Jan, 2012). Conducting marketing over the Internet and other electronic media has several advantages; Internet is fast, cheap, flexible, and comfortable with no time restrictions. It enables two-way relationship through easily used interface that helps customers make purchases wherever and whenever they want. The Internet is also considered as a friendly environment or platform of ordering, paying, and delivering products and services which guarantee that customers will be satisfied and loyal to their brands (Yazdanifard, et. al., 2011). This chapter shed the light on the important role that social networks play in electronic marketing area by focusing on the ways through which companies can benefit from the services provided by social networks to gain real-time engagement with customers, to adopt new and creative way of interaction, and to get more insights on customers’ perceptions and opinions on their products and services.

TRADITIONAL AND ELECTRONIC MARKETING: DEFINITION AND GENERAL CONCEPTS

Marketing, in general, is a collective process where products/services can be exchanged between individuals based on what they want/need. This collective process is going

2 Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing around the following four main factors; which called in literature the marketing mix theory or the 4ps: product, price, place, and promotion. Traditional marketing is one of the most recognizable marketing techniques that have several strategies; print, broadcast, telephone, and direct mail are the most traditional marketing strategies where print marketing is the oldest strategy that includes advertisements in magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and any other printed material. Broadcast marketing includes radio and television advertisements. Telephone marketing or telemarketing is based on delivering sales messages to the consumers over the phone. And finally direct mail, which sends printed materials such as catalogs and postcards through postal mail to attract consumers. Mainly traditional marketing tries to discover, find, and satisfy customers’ needs and wants using the traditional channels and strategies explained. More and more people nowadays are choosing to get their advertisements, promotions, and news online rather than through newspapers or magazines. So most businesses have added or fully replaced traditional marketing methods with new and innovative techniques mainly based on the Internet where companies can use social networks, create their webpages and blogs and become much closer with people/ consumers (Khattri & Sharma, 2013). Electronic marketing can be defined as using electronic media, specifically the Internet, to conduct marketing activities that mainly focused on attracting new consumers, retaining current consumers, and developing brand identity (El-Gohary, 2010). Online marketing, Internet marketing, and eMarketing are often considered synonymous for electronic marketing. Dehkordi and his partners mentioned in their research (2012) that Internet marketing is limited to Internet things only such as electronic mail and world wide web while electronic marketing includes Internet marketing tools in addition to mobile phone, intranet, extranet, and many other tools. Compared to traditional marketing, electronic marketing helps in increasing marketing efficiency and effectiveness, omitting unnecessary transaction costs, adding more value to customers, freeing customers from time and place constraints, increasing services quality, adding extra value to products, providing a platform for businesses to understand their customers’ needs better, and last but not least creating strong relationship between companies and their customers (Dehkordi et. al., 2012). The Following lines describe four main tools of electronic marketing:

1. Mobile Marketing: It is a huge marketing tool that creates significant opportunities for firms and marketers to communicate with their customers and increase their brands awareness. It helps marketers serve and reach customers anytime anywhere easily. 2. E-mail Marketing: It is an attractive tool of electronic marketing that helps companies reach huge number of customers with almost zero cost. Good email

3 Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing

marketing message helps in rising sales communication and conversations with customers, reducing sales cost, notifying customers about their new products and services, receiving feedback from customers easily, and pushing customers to purchase (Salehi, et. al., 2012). 3. Web Marketing: Compared with other tools and platforms, Internet is a cheaper tool that has great capabilities in distributing information and promoting services and products in the global market. Banner ads and pop up ads are two examples of web marketing tools. 4. Social Media Marketing: It refers to promoting products and services over social media sites. It is explained in details in the third section of this chapter.

Electronic marketing is a win-win situation for both customers and companies; it can effectively reach the target customers, it helps in conducting direct marketing campaigns much faster and less expensive, its success is measurable (identifiable and repeatable), and finally it is a cost effective tool in the long run. Electronic market is less appropriate for products that customer needs to touch, smell, or physically try. It is highly dependent on technology, security, and privacy issues (Gangeshwer, 2013).

SOCIAL MEDIA: AN OVERVIEW

Social media is all about networking; it is about sharing and discussing information among people via Internet based tools and online platforms. It is where users can share their opinions, content, and views using highly accessible publishing techniques. It consists of user-driven websites where they usually have a specific focus or feature; it transfers people from being passive content readers into active content publishers involved in decision-making process. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are some of the popular social media sites (Neti, 2011). There is no agreed upon definition of social media; it can be understood as a platform that has several online resources used by people to create and publish creative content and real time feedback. Compared with traditional media, social media enables online interaction, discussion, collaboration, and digital content creation and sharing. Following is a simple exploration of some of the most popular and high profile social media (Chan-Olmsted, Cho, & Lee, 2013):

• Social Networking Sites: Where people can create their personal pages and profiles and then start communicating with online friends and sharing whatever they want (Ex. text, videos, pictures, etc.).

4 Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing

• Blog: It is an information sharing technology available online. It has the same function as online journal regarding tone, topic/issue, and ease of subscription and inserting links. Usually, it has a clear owner for maintenance purposes. • Wiki: It is a collaborative website where users can create, modify, and disseminate web based content easily. • Forums: It can be called online message boards. It is developed with specific topics and interests where administrator is responsible for deleting inappro- priate content and spam.

Social media can be classified into the following mentioned categories/outlets based on its applications and uses; sites for online publication of opinions and information (ex. blogs and wikis), content sharing sites (ex. YouTube), sites allowing real time discussions (ex. Facebook), tools for micro-blogging and publishing (ex. Twitter), tools for social networking (personal ‘livecast’ platform), virtual networking platforms, and networked games sites (Erragcha & Romdhane, 2014). There are five general characteristics that all social media sites and applications share; participation: social media encourages all people/users to engage with each other. It is represented as an enabler for action oriented interactivity. Conversation- ality: social media is a two-way communication environment where the capacity and speed of conversations/dialogues are enhanced. Connectedness: social media helps interpersonal relationships to stay forever using available communication technologies. Community and commonality: social media is an effective mechanism for building communities consisting of people with different nature and goals but they have something in common regarding specific posts, videos, or any shared online content. Openness: it is highly related to allowing feedback and is mainly based on three types of behavior which are requesting/giving information, receiving information, and acting on information received (Chan-Olmsted, Cho, & Lee, 2013). For businesses and companies, social media is considered as a low-cost platform for reaching large number of customers and increasing their engagement level. It mainly helps in cost reduction by decreasing staff time and supporting revenue generation by increasing the probability of reaching more prospected customers. It is a key enabler for knowledge and expertise sharing where customers can help customers directly; it can increase brand reach and awareness. It is a necessity that each company should have a social media strategic plan that has 3 C’s: a Compa- nywide strategy for engagement which implies Conversation with customers that Causes user loyalty (Neti, 2011).

5 Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: DEFINITION AND TECHNOLOGIES

Social medial is a very good platform for marketers where new marketing initiatives can be effectively implemented; marketers can promote, share, and spread their products, services, and everything with a large number of people easily and widely. Everyday more and more people starts using social media for several purposes in their daily life activities such as personal use, business to consumers and business to business interactions (Chaturvedi & Gupta, 2014). Social media facilitates the communication and interaction between consumers and companies. It provides marketers with several tools that change the nature of selling relationship to become more social; it enables them to better target their potential consumers, customize their current consumers messages and opening interactive dialogues with them (Assaad & Gomez, 2011; Miller & lammas, 2010). Social media marketing is going around how to use online communities, social networks, blog marketing, and many other things in marketing. It is all about using online platforms to engage more with customers and keep the relationship between companies and customers much closer. It is a strategic and methodological process where companies can build their online communities of their potential customers, readers, and supporters which help in establishing companies’ reputation and influence (Neti, 2011). Chary in his research (2014) listed several important social media marketing tips that should be considered by all businesses; some of these tips are: businesses should make their post more relevant including helpful and useful solutions and information for customers, utilize available tools and features to get the maximum gain from it, try to visualize marketing posts by embedding pictures, graphics, and videos, try to connect with potential/current consumers not only for sales, and learn from social media analytics and try to utilize it to leverage the expected benefits. Social media changes the way companies follow in managing their brands; it enables dynamic and real-time interaction not only between consumers and companies but also between consumers themselves. Consumers nowadays can easily share their brand experiences through social media; they are the brand stories generators (Gensler et al, 2013). Social media helps companies in managing their brand communities and influencing their consumers’ behaviors by adopting the strategy of “co-creation”; there are several models developed to guide the process of co-creation with online consumers. DART model is an example; it consists of a dialogue which is highly focused on having meaningful conversations with consumers, which implies the company’s consumers access should be provided to each other, risk-return relationship is explained as something tangible that should be offered to online

6 Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing consumers, and transparency which relates to having/creating an environment for sharing valuable information (Miller & Lammas, 2010). Social media promotion is all about knowing how technology makes people connection easier through social networks, and any business can benefit and make a profit from such a technology; it is a great tool that helps businesses being aware more about every innovative technology released and used in the society (Chaturvedi & Gupta, 2014). Miller and lammas mentioned in their research (2010) that some studies show that 70% of consumers are visiting social websites seeking for information and some other research concluded that 90% of word of mouth (WOM) still occurred face to face or by phone. Such conclusions indicated that companies should not overstate the outcome of social media marketing, and they should think very well on how to benefit from the knowledge-sharing nature of social networks in promoting their products and services. There are several social media marketing tools available for businesses; Quill Engage (https://www.quillengage.com/) is a free tool that helps businesses knowing more about their sites traffic growth or decline. It connects with Google Analyt- ics account and then generates a weekly report that summarizes your data. Post Planner (https://www.postplanner.com/) is another tool for social media marketing which helps businesses in managing and enhancing their presence on Facebook via a value-packed dashboard. Bundle Post for curated content tweets (http://www. bundlepost.com/), GitHub (https://github.com/) for open source code collaboration, Tagboard (https://tagboard.com/) for hashtag management, and Circloscope (http:// circloscope.com/) for Google+ circle management are some examples of social media marketing tools and software that help businesses to grow. Measuring the success of social media marketing highly depends on qualitative metrics more than quantitative metrics. These qualitative metrics include unique visitors, interaction rates, conversation size, conversation density, content freshness, author credibility, audience profiles and many others. While website traffic, hit rates, time spent online, and postings are considered as examples of quantitative metrics (Miller & Lammas, 2010). Successful social media marketing has several benefits for businesses; it helps in increasing traffic, decreasing overall marketing expenses, rising search engine ranking, and selling more products/services (Neti, 2011).

SUMMARY

It is too much important for any business to be really active with social media and to get involved utilizing such a great communication tool. Electronic marketing is a marketing channel that should be highly utilized by advertisers and marketers to find the best combination of marketing mix that matches their customer needs. It is

7 Social Media as a New Emerging Tool of Marketing not only a promotional tool but also informational tool that is too much beneficial for companies in developing and maintaining their competitive advantages, saving costs, and guaranteeing customers satisfaction. Social media is now the trend where businesses can find the best opportunities to connect directly with their customers. Every business nowadays explores the social media marketing initiatives and rapidly adopts it as a new marketing strategy to stay in touch with customers. Social media marketing is an important marketing strategy that each company should have, adopt, and continuously improve. It will help a lot in increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement level. Social media size, transparency, reach, branding and boost website traffic are the main reasons why businesses need to consider social media marketing services. Social media marketing is an effective tool that businesses can utilize to identify their customers’ needs and interests. It is a great opportunity that all businesses should not ignore. It is too much important for businesses to supplement their traditional marketing techniques with innovative methods which will give a great opportunity for companies to interact with their consumers, delivering special promotions, and increase the online presence.

REFERENCES

Assaad, W., & Gomez, J. (2011). Social Network in marketing (Social Media Mar- keting) Opportunities and Risks. International Journal of Managing Public Sector Information and Communication Technologies, 2(1), 13–22. Bolotaeva, V. & Cata, T. (2011). Marketing Opportunities with Social Networks. Journal of Internet Social Networking and Virtual Communities. Chan-Olmsted, S., Cho, M., & Lee, S. (2013). User Perceptions of Social Media: A Comparative Study of Perceived Characteristics and User Profiles by Social Media. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 3(4), 149–178. Chary R. (2014). Social Media Marketing-The Paradigm Shift in International Marketing. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 16(9), 11-13. Chaturvedi, S. & Gupta, S. (2014). Social media promotions – Can we restrict it under laws?. International Journal of Research – GRANTHAALAYAH, 1(1), 43-50. Das, B., & Sahoo, J. (2011). Social Networking Sites – A Critical Analysis of Its Impact on Personal and Social Life. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(14), 222–228.

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Dehkordi, G., Rezvani, S., Rahman, M., Fouladivanda, F., Nahid, N., & Jouya, S. (2012). A Conceptual Study on E-marketing and Its Operation on Firm’s Promotion and Understanding Customer’s Response. International Journal of Business and Management, 7(19), 114–124. El-Gohary, H. (2010). E-Marketing - A Literature Review From A Small Businesses Perspective. International Journal Of Business And Social Science, 1(1), 214–244. Erragcha, N., & Romdhane, R. (2014). Social networks as marketing tools. Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 19(1), 1-12. Farooq, F., & Jan, Z. (2012). The Impact of Social Networking to Influence Marketing through Product Reviews. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Research, 2(8), 627–637. Gangeshwer, D. (2013). E-Commerce or Internet Marketing: A Business Review from Indian Context. International Journal of u- and e- Service. Science and Tech- nology, 6(6), 187–194. Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Liu-Thompkins, Y., & Wiertz, C. (2013). Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), 242–256. doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2013.09.004 Khasawneh, R., & AbuShanab, E. (2013). E-Government and Social Media Sites: The Role and Impact. World Journal of Computer Application and Technology, 1(1), 10–17. Khattri, V., & Sharma, N. (2013). Evaluation of the scope and influencers’ of social media marketing. Asian Journal of Management Research, 4(1), 92–104. Miller, R., & Lammas, N. (2010). Social media and its implications for viral marketing. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, 11, 1–9. Neti, S. (2011). Social media and its role in marketing. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems, 1(2), 1–15. Nezamabad, M. (2011). The Impact and Benefits of Internet on Marketing Mix. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 5(9), 1784–1789. O’Brien, C. (2011). The emergence of the social media empowered consumer. Irish Marketing Review Journal, 21(1), 32-41. Salehi, M., Mirzaei, H., Aghaei, M., & Abyari, M. (2012). Dissimilarity of E- marketing VS traditional marketing. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2(1), 510–515.

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Suneetha, S., & Kumar, G. (2012). An in Depth Study on the New Age Technol- ogy – Social Media Marketing & its Impact on Business.Ninth AIMS International Conference on Management, (pp. 975-997). Yazdanifard, R., Venpin, M., Yusoff, W., & Islam, M. (2011). Internet Marketing: The New Era of Innovation in E-commerce.International Conference on Software and Computer Applications IPCSIT, (vol. 9, pp. 192-197).

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Chapter 2 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media, Customer Relationship, and Knowledge Management Olayiwola W. Bello University of Ilorin, Nigeria

Modupe Folarin City University London, UK

Nasir Faruk University of Ilorin, Nigeria

ABSTRACT Academic concepts such as customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) are well established concepts today. Integration between these two concepts has been established with the term customer knowledge management. Social media (SM) is now fast growing and has an intrinsic nature hence reducing barriers of varying concepts. It has been integrated with CRM through the term social CRM (SCRM). From the above it appears that there is interdependency between the concepts. It is on this basis that this work proposes a process model integrating SM, SCRM and KM. Through data collected from expert interview and extensive literature review, this study explored the possibility of interdependency between these concepts to make a case for the process framework for business organisations. The framework, leaning on the CKM model was able to identify strategy, mindset and engagement management, including knowledge context as crucial additions to the existing model towards integrating the three concepts.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch002

INTRODUCTION

Social media (SM) has come to stay as an integral part of our social lives as well as a significant element of the business world. Organizations, be it academic, government and especially businesses are gradually incorporating it into their processes. This is more evidenced as these organizations dot their website as well as other information interfaces with links to their social media platforms. Achieving success in social media does not come by accident and this may involve re-engineering and redesigning organizational processes in order to benefit from its usage (Thames, 2011). Likewise, the concept of customer relationship management (CRM) is evolving and the former traditional CRM processes are no longer sufficient (Peppers 2011; Mosadegh & Behboudi 2011). With traditional CRM having a focus on managing customers and having a holistic view of the customer (Alexander & Turner, 2001), new channels of communication especially through social media make these goals more difficult to achieve (Greenberg 2009a; Anon, 2013). The new dynamics ush- ered in by the proliferation of the new media is that, as customers are now using social media platforms as a method of communication, this makes it important for organizations to also engage with customers on these platforms. Integration between the concepts of SM and CRM is inevitable as far as data and customers are involved (Lawson, 2011). It has also been identified that research is on-going to discover and address ways to manage customers who use social media (Buchanan 2010). Knowledge, a byproduct of organizational activities and on which organizations also thrive, becomes a natural party in this relationship, thereby necessitating the inclusion of knowledge management (KM) in the triad. Knowledge management (KM) in general involves managing knowledge within the organization. Dealing with the creation, processing, storing, re-use and sharing of knowledge is the goal of knowledge management (Fanfan, 2012). Just like SM having an impact on CRM, data from social media can also have an impact on KM (Hendriks, 2011; Kotadia, 2012; Suleman, 2011). Some of these activities, will include providing data that, aid making informed decisions for organizational strategy and product development, amongst others. The data from SM can be used to manage relationships with customers and it can also be a great contribution to knowledge as data is created, stored, shared and distributed within the organization in accordance with the organizational strategy. Therefore, with SM generating the data and engaging the customers, CRM manages the engagement through relationships and analyzing customer data while KM will store, share and distribute the information gathered. This shows an underlying connection through the flow of data with the customer at the center. This shows that all these concepts that exist in their own right can be integrated on the process level for the benefit of an organization.

12 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

In order to deal with these concepts from an organization’s point of view, integration is appropriate and will enable an organization to easily complete workflows, tasks, processes, meet organizational strategic needs and goals such as giving customers the desired experience they need (All,2011). It will enable a holistic view of the activities of the organization where SM, CRM and KM are involved. Organizations will normally utilize these concepts individually and integration will possibly lead to re-engineering their processes in order to reap the benefits of these concepts combined together. This will be engaged at the process level as, processes are a means of removing the constraints of organizations appearing in the form of silos (All, 2011). This approach has the tendency to accelerate reinventing the organization when the scope of social media is extended from just marketing to product development and internal knowledge management processes. This chapter proposes a process framework that integrates the three concepts: social media (SM), customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM). Previous research has been carried out and works are still on-going to integrate SM and CRM, leading to the emergence of the term Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) (Greenberg 2009a; Kolsky, 2010; Buchanan 2010). Similarly, with regards to the integration of CRM and KM, the term Customer Knowledge Management also emerged (Gerbert et al., 2003; Gibbert et al., 2002; Madhoushi et al., 2011; Zanjani et al. 2008). There is therefore, room to establish the possibility of integrating all three concepts. To show this, the CKM process framework proposed by Gerbert and others (Gerbert et al. 2003) will be modified. Another framework, ‘business framework for CRM and Social CRM’ developed by Buchanan (2010) will be explored to identify SCRM processes. These, in addition to the findings of the study, will be incorporated into the proposed integrated process framework.

BACKGROUND

Social Media

Social Media has become a platform for numerous voices clamoring to be heard, many of which have come together to create communities. The communities, also referred to as ‘peers’, are a group of people with common interests and these groups are fast becoming (or have become) the ‘trusted source of information’ for many. It is a two-way conversation that allows for customer engagement. It provides opportunities for gathering and sharing information about the customer from and to the customer. It does not come without its challenges, like reputational damage from unhappy customers or” competition’’, outdated information and ill-advised

13 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media responses to customers (Agnihotri et al., 2012). The communities manifest on the very popular platform like facebook, twitter and the likes. The social media space has become a common place for communication, networking, and content sharing. Many companies seek marketing and business opportunities via these platforms. However, the link between resources generated from these sites and business performance remains largely unexploited (Paniagu & Sapena, 2014). More and more firms have started strategically using the online user innovation communities (OUICs) for open innovation initiatives. Dong and Wu (2015), conceptualized two OUIC-enabled capabilities. These are, ideation capability related to collecting user-generated ideas about potential innovation from OUIC, and implementation capability related to selecting user-generated ideas for innovation development and introducing developed innovation via OUIC. The research discovered that OUIC-enabled ideation capability actually does not influence firm value, whereas OUIC-enabled implementation capability increases firm value (Dong and Wu, 2015). Building on empirical research, Rydén et al. (2015) identified four mental models of business–customer interactions. The four models are “business-to-customers,” “business-from-customers,” “business-with-customers,” and “business-for-customers. The study provided a conceptual framework that enables managers to introspectively investigate their own mental models and thereby revise their sense making and use of social media. Several recent studies (Wang et al., 2016; Jiang et al, 2016; Guesalaga, 2016) have also looked into the use of SM concept in business organizations.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM has several definitions, but many agree that customer relationship management is a strategy that places the demand of customers in the center of organization’s operation so as to make a contribution to the profitability of the company and the satisfaction of customers (Bago, 2011). The most widely accepted definition can be attributed to Payne (2007), who called customer relationship management the rejuvenated form of relational marketing. With the support of technological development, maintaining a connection to many consumers is easier than ever. It is important to note the three levels of Payne’s definition: the first is the CRM designation of the project leading to the technological solution. The second is the integration of customer-centric technological solutions. The third is when customer relationship management is an emphasized strategy (Payne, 2007 as cited in Bago, (2011)). CRM involves managing all communication with a customer, including managing it through social media. With social media, the reasons for a customer communicating with an organization is more ‘personal and relational’ than transactional (Looy, 2016). Hence emotional and behavioral knowledge about a customer is now easily

14 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media made available unlike in traditional CRM which involved mostly transactional and customer personal data (Mosadegh & Behboudi 2011). With SM, the traditional relational database may not effectively manage the amount of data generated and organizations may need to use new and adequate tools to manage the organizational data (Kotadia 2012). This concept exists in organizations for reasons such as understanding customers to gain knowledge about them, identify their needs, generate profit, have a holistic view of the customer (Karakostas et al. 2005) and understand customer information. According to Alexander and Turner (2001), CRM involves delivering value and profits from knowledge of your customers’ behavior, interests, and predictions of their value to the organization which then empowers the organization to make informed decisions. Such decisions affect their strategy, goal-setting, customer engagement, choice of products or services and delivery channels. An aim for CRM is to manage communications with customers, manage business processes (Karakostas et al. 2005), manage customer information (Pep- pard, 2000) and use algorithms along with CRM strategies to achieve set CRM aims (Mosadegh & Behboudi 2011). It uses technology, through CRM software, to facilitate the achievement of its goals. Technology aids the provision of required information to employees to enable them better serve the customer thus providing great customer experience. CRM has three systems which are analytical, operational and collaborative (Mosadegh & Behboudi 2011). In another context, social customer relationship management (SCRM), is explained as the connection of social data (wherever it is) with existing customer records (customer database) which enables companies to provide new forms of customer insight and relevant context. It is a new strategy and system that integrates web 2.0 and the power of online communities with traditional CRM systems for encouraging the customers to play a part with the firm in making decisions that have an impact on a particular customer and creating meaningful conversations and high value relationships between firms and customers. (Durgam, 2011). This description gives a summary of SCRM and introduces concepts such as a new dimension of knowledge made available, co-creation, the need for a strategy and tools as well as the need to extend managing relationships from the traditional way, to customers using social media which will impact on organizational processes. It also implies that SCRM is an extension more than a replacement of CRM (Mosadegh & Behboudi, 2011; Greenberg 2009b). It surpasses traditional CRM through functionalities like “ratings, social book marking, blogs, collaborative computing” (Mckay, 2009) etc. Though there is an evolution, it is important that the key paradigm functionalities/ basics of CRM should not be discarded (Quintarelli 2010), despite CRM shifting its focus from products and services to customer engagement. Studies in the past envisaged the possibility of the evolution of CRM (Karakos- tas, et al., 2005). Traditional CRM, though still valid to a great extent, has evolved.

15 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

There is now a dynamic approach of viewing the customer which involves dealing with customer data through their profiles, characteristics and interests rather than the single holistic view (Mosadegh & Behboudi 2011). Organizational strategy which used to be to acquire, retain and develop customers through email lists etc. now needs to be done ‘socially’ i.e. engage with the customer to satisfy them while also trying to achieve organizational goals through channels which include social tools (Peppers, 2011). Social CRM fosters a never-ending relationship. It is feedback driven between brand and customer. This approach can be used to generate data that delivers “useful knowledge and content” to the customer and the organization (Looy, 2016.). The focus is now on integrating the information to better collaborate and interact with the customer thereby making the customer a partner with the organization and also an extension of the teams within the organizations. The data generated is now bidirectional and no longer unidirectional (Looy, 2016). Apart from technology – the evolution enabler – one reason for CRM evolution is the ability of an individual to be a part of the ‘social world’ where the customer lives and engages with others. In the social world, the customer’s dealings with the organization are now more towards being a partner, being heard and being recognized (Bago, 2011.).

Knowledge Management (KM)

Lin et al. (2002) defined knowledge management in the context of CRM as the process of managing knowledge from creating business value that will focus on creating and delivering innovative products or services and managing relationships with existing key stakeholders in the context of CRM. Knowledge is built gradually over time and enables action when manipulated. The figure below describes the data hierarchy through to knowledge and the relationships between them. Many times the terms, data, information, knowledge and wisdom are used interchangeably and there is no distinction between them which is not adequate however, the different levels are what gives meaning and enables usage. While information emanates from processed data, knowledge involves further processing of information to understand patterns between items of information. Finally, knowledge becomes wisdom where principles of knowledge transform it to wisdom On the organizational level, Yaghoubi et al. (2011) explain that ’Nonaka defined KM as the process of capturing collective expertise and intelligence of organizations and using them to foster innovation’. This involves processes such as creating and collecting, sorting/organizing, sharing, usage and extraction (Lin, et al. 2002).

16 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Figure 1. Data to wisdom hierarchy (Source: www.cognitivedesignsolutions.com)

Knowledge in organizations is the most valuable asset an organization has (Gibbert et al. 2002) and can comprise skills, experiences, etc. in both the tacit and explicit forms. It is important for organizations to find processes that allow them convert tacit to explicit knowledge and vice versa. This activity is explained by the SECI model which involves socialization (the social process), externalization (recording information), combination (analyzing, organizing in broader terms) and internal- ization (understanding of explicit knowledge) (Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995). For the organization, knowledge originates from the organization or the customer. An addition to the list of activities identified above was discussed by Sofianti et al. (2009), where knowledge co-creation with selected customers allows for an “interactive process”. Here, there is knowledge exchange between the organization and the customer to work together to create value and gain mutual benefits (Durgam 2011; Sofianti et al. 2009). This is also reflected in Smith and McKeen, (2005) Organizational knowledge gives employees and professionals access to data that already exists and has been compiled from several channels, with qualities such as being complete, reliable, searchable, structured, having metadata applied, updated and easily available thereby making the employees sharper, more efficient and more effective (Hendriks 2011). Though it all sounds perfect, organizations are faced with issues such as:

17 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

• The probability that employees will not want to contribute to and build on existing knowledge and colleague knowledge, • The difficulty of getting knowledge from the customer while having the same customers pay for the products created from their ideas, and • Finally, identifying appropriate knowledge extraction mechanisms e.g. ex- trinsic motivations (Gibbert et al. 2002).

Customer Knowledge Management (CKM)

Customer knowledge (CK) is key. CK as posited by (Gibbert et al. 2002; Sofianti et al. 2009; Bueren et al. 2005), comprises knowledge about customers (information from understanding the needs of customers so as to meet them), knowledge for customers (information to customers informing them on how to meet their needs) and knowledge from customers (perceptions, experiences etc. of the customer while using products and services). Yaghoubi et al. (2011) identified knowledge from customers to be vital as it provides valuable information that aids product and service improvement. Durgam (2011) explains that “CKM is described as an on-going process of generating, disseminating and using customer knowledge within an organization and between an organization and its customer” as described by Sofianti et. al. (2009). This was supported by Madhoushi et al. (2011) by showing that CKM indeed has an impact on organizations. CKM is about acquiring and using knowledge inherent in customers to achieve organizational goals such as retention, satisfaction, and loyalty for both the customer, employee and organizational evolution, innovation and growth (Lin et al. 2002; Gibbert et al. 2002; Durgam 2011). It involves partnering with the customer in the act of co-creation and making employees willing participants in the process (Gibbert et al. 2002). Online communities, internal and external to the organization can be created for knowledge sharing to enable collaboration and the focus is not on the tool but on the people contributing and involved in the activity.

FRAMEWORK FORMULATION

The Existing Framework

This work is focused on proposing a framework that integrates the social media (SM), customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) concepts. For this purpose, an already existing customer knowledge management (CKM) framework developed by Gerbert et al. (2003) will be expanded with

18 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Figure 2. A conceptual framework for CKM (source: Smith & McKeen, 2005)

changes and additions being justified. Ideas will also be garnered from the business framework for CRM and Social CRM, developed by Buchanan (2010). With marketing, sales and service as primary business functions for CRM, business processes that cover these functions were identified. Business processes have interactions between the organization and the customer where information, products or services exchange occur and usually involves interaction between both parties. It can be triggered by either party (Bueren et al. 2005; Gerbert et al. 2003). Figure 4 captures the CKM framework. Six CRM sub-processes; campaign management, lead management, offer management, contract management, complaint and service management business were identified. Each of these has different goals. Two CRM activities were also identified as interaction management and channel management (Bueren et al. 2005; Gerbert et al. 2003). As discussed earlier, the aspects of CRM are operational, analytical and collaborative (Mosadegh & Behboudi 2011; Joenn 2012). Where all 6 processes impact the operational CRM aspects, analytical CRM aspects are related to the processes campaign management, lead management and offer management that manipulates data acquired to enable informed decisions. The collaborative CRM aspect is handled by interaction and channel management CRM activities (Bueren et al. 2005). According to Bueren et al. (2005), “A CRM business process involves the processing of customer knowledge to pursue the goals of CRM’’ and organizations need to

19 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Figure 3. CKM Model (source: (Gerbert et al. 2003)

focus on the three types: knowledge for the customer, knowledge about the customer and knowledge of the customer. They explain that the CKM model offers a process perspective to illustrate which KM tools can be used to the CRM sub-processes to achieve effective CKM. They also introduced 4 knowledge aspects (content, competence, collaboration and composition) that support the 6 CRM processes. The knowledge aspect as presented by Bueren et al. (2005), is captured in Table 1. A simple application of the CKM model in an organization is illustrated when an employee of an organization wishes to manage a complaint received from a customer. This will involve the utilization of the complaint management CRM business process, including the service CRM business function: the employee analyses the complaint received to extract ‘knowledge from customer’ and attempts to resolve the issue based on their own competence (tacit knowledge). If not, the employee will query the content and composition aspects for ‘knowledge for the customer’ for recorded resolutions and best practices and attempt to resolve the issue. If this is not available, the employee may use the competence aspect to identify competent skilled colleagues and collaborate with them through the collaboration aspect to seek avenues to resolve the issue.

20 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Figure 4. Business framework for CRM and social CRM Source: http://www.capgemini.com/technology-blog/2010/04/a_business_framework_and_opera/

There were no social issues when the CKM framework was developed therefore, though very comprehensive, the CKM framework does not cater for changes that have occurred since then, such as the new ‘social’ aspect of things. Bueren et al. (2005) also discuss that the framework does not illustrate the strategic and information systems aspect, and explains that they are key to the process of CKM. In addition, the framework though it discusses aspects of knowledge, does not appear to cover actual processes such as the conversion of tacit to explicit knowledge, the sharing, dissemination and re-use etc. of processes around knowledge and as such undermines the processes that focus on knowledge management. As a result, there is a need to revisit the framework to include social aspects that are captured through social media and social CRM concepts. A second framework, the ‘business framework for CRM and Social CRM’, developed by Buchanan (2010), looks at the different components of CRM and social CRM. This framework is said to be work in progress, it gives a comprehensive view of social CRM and CRM aspects that business need to look into. Whereas the main framework used for this study is the CKM framework, ideas from the other frameworks will be used to identify missing gaps in addition to the

21 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Table 1. Knowledge aspects summary

Content Competence Collaboration Composition Description •Media form of • Combination of •Creation and •Creation and Knowledge (image, implicit & explicit dissemination dissemination text etc) knowledge amongst a amongst larger •exists independently • Implicit knowledge few number number of people of individuals is embedded within of individuals such as what •also involves the individual and will amongst has been stored version control usually not be available themselves in databases or to others directly in •Ontological systems and made this form but can be knowledge view available to a large converted to explicit number of people knowledge •ontological • Explicit knowledge is Knowledge view made available to others • deals with search and can be stored and navigations •past experiences, environment perceptions, skills etc CRM aspect •Content •Expertise directories, •Email, group •Knowledge support management systems skills management information tools, mining systems, systems •document or e-learning tools instant messaging personalization, management systems systems taxonomy management systems and knowledge maps

results from the investigative methods to produce an integrated ‘process based’ framework that integrates social media, customer relationship management and knowledge management.

METHODOLOGY

Data Collection and Analysis

A combination of data generation techniques were chosen to improve the quality of the research by analyzing the data from different angles and buttressing the validity of the data and research results hence providing sufficient information to address and answer the research question (Oates, 2010). These techniques include extensive literature review and opinions of experts. For the literature review, a thorough and critical review of the various concepts was done to identify similar themes, patterns and interdependencies between the concepts. A mix of documents from journals, conference papers, white papers, reports and online resources were used to gather information about these various concepts.

22 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

These documents include a mix of recent and dated documents and a comparison between all of them was done to extract the required information. For the expert interview, a number of experts in the industry were identified and consulted via email and LinkedIn. While some responses were favorable and interviews were secured and held, attempts to contact others failed. Table 2 presents the expert interview request attempts. In the final analysis, 7 (listed in the first 7) experts were interviewed. Their area of expertise and mode of contact as well as data gathering medium is also presented.

PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

The results are summarized below with the tables and compared through triangula- tion. The key themes are discussed with main points highlighted in the tables.

Strategy

Majority of the interviewees were in agreement that it is important to have a strategy before embarking on a social media initiative. Furthermore, they implied that organizations will normally have a strategy and all other activities are to be in alignment with it.

Knowledge

The interviewees acknowledged that knowledge is valuable to the organization and it involves creating, gathering, storing, distributing and retrieving information. They also, acknowledged that with social media, knowledge is now also created and used by customers, and organizations will also have to source it from the customer. Organizations will need to share information with customers so that customers can see and know almost as much as the Organizations employees. Organizations have to harness and process the information as well as make it available to both internal employees and customers.

Data Gathering, Analysis, Transformation, and Usage

This is also a part of knowledge theme discussed above. The interviewees acknowledged there is now a large amount of data generated from within and without the organization through various channels of which social media is one. This data needs to be collected, sorted, categorized, analyzed and transformed into usable forms

23 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Expertise SCRM thoughtothers leader amongst SCRM thoughtothers leader amongst SCRM thoughtothers leader amongst SCRM thoughtothers leader amongst SCRM thoughtothers leader amongst SCRM thoughtothers leader amongst SCRM thoughtothers leader amongst KM thoughtothers leader amongst Originator Framework of CKM SCRM thoughtothers leader amongst Originator Framework of CKM Originator Framework of CKM SM & Financial ServicesSM & Financial thought leader SM & Financial ServicesSM & Financial thought leader Originator Framework of CKM Medium Data Gathering Skype & eMail Skype & eMail Skype & eMail Skype & eMail Skype & eMail Skype & eMail Skype & eMail N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Technique Data Gathering Interview, Document Interview, Analysis Interview Interview, Document Interview, Analysis Interview, Document Interview, Analysis Interview Interview Interview, Document Interview, Analysis N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Comm. Medium LinkedIn eMail eMail eMail eMail eMail eMail LinkedIn eMail eMail eMail eMail LinkedIn LinkedIn LinkedIn Applicable) Decline Reason (If Decline Reason N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A Response not received not Response Moved on from CKM field CKM on from Moved Response not received not Response not Time available eMail address incorrecteMail address Response not received not Response Awaiting further response Awaiting Awaiting further response Awaiting Connection Established? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Approach Direct Referral Referral Referral Referral Referral Referral Direct Direct Referral Direct Direct Direct Direct Direct Expert Name Paul Greenberg Paul Michael KrigsmanMichael Denis Pombriant Mark Tamis Mark Laurence Laurence Buchanan Silvana Buljan Silvana Prem Aparanji Prem Tom Davenport Tom Lutz Kolbe Lutz Michael Fauscette Michael Walter Brenner Walter Henning Gebbert Philip Calvert Claire Calmejane Claire Malte Geib S/N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Table 2. List of industry 2. List experts contacted Table

24 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Table 3. Results: Strategy

Identified Expert Interview Interview Literature and Lit. and Doc. Themes Reference Document Review Reference Strategy Strategy is important to give (Respondent 1) Organizations need (Mckay 2009) direction to organizations. (Respondent 2) to decide their wants, (Alvarado 2012) Organizational actions (Respondent 3) goals, required are tied to its strategy (Respondent 4) information, its source and dealing with each (Respondent 5) and decision types of the concepts of study Organizational strategy individually and together should be tied to the requires a strategic decision organizations brand. Social media strategy should (Respondent 1) allow for serendipity as (Respondent 6) social media is still new and being discovered

Table 4. Result: Knowledge

Literature Lit. and Identified Interview Expert Interview and Document Doc. Themes Reference Review Ref.

Knowledge Knowledge Creation: There is now more (Respondent 1) Knowledge is a (Fanfan knowledge about the customer through social (Respondent 3) source of value 2012) media. It is a good source of innovative ideas (Respondent 1) creation. (Cramers, and is generated by both the customer and the (Respondent 6) Communities 2012) organization. of employee collaboration Knowledge Distribution: This now involves (Respondent 3) contribute to sharing with both internal (employees) and (Respondent 6) the activities external customers. Channels of interaction of (Respondent 7) of knowledge both customer and organization need to link to (Respondent 1) sharing. a central database of organizational artefacts (Respondent 4) Tools enable such as compliance policies and procedures (Respondent 2) knowledge etc. A balance between what the organization management. distributes and what they know about themselves is required.

Knowledge Retrieval: This is now required on (Respondent 6) a quicker basis as demand for responsiveness is near real-time, placing a higher demand on (Respondent 2) the organization to respond to the customer. (Respondent 3) This places higher expectation of the tools and also more emphasis on access to experts (Respondent 4) (competence) where knowledge may or may not be readily available. It also involves customers searching for knowledge and the organization responding by providing it.

Knowledge gathering, storing, usage and N/A evaluation are discussed in the “Data gathering, analysis, transformation & usage management” section

Social media now provides “context” to (Respondent 6) knowledge generated giving knowledge a new (Respondent 1) aspect to the traditional knowledge aspects (Respondent 5)

25 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media such as metrics, insights, intelligence, leads, best practices etc. It should be stored and easily retrievable with circulation around the organization. Tools are available to make this process seamless but human intervention is also required.

Value Creation and Co-Creation

The interviewees confirmed that value is created from acting on knowledge that has been obtained from within and outside the organization. Organization value is different from customer value.

Mindset (Cultural Change)

The interviewees brought to light the importance of the ‘mindset’ in organizations. With the impact of social media, if the mindset is not changed within the organization, applying the concepts is not likely to work. Although cultural change was highlighted during literature review, the term ‘Mindset’ change came about as the underlying issue to be tackled that will lead to the required cultural change.

Customer Engagement

The interviewees acknowledged that engaging with the customer is key. The process involves providing the means through various channels and also going to various channels where the customer is to engage with them. It also involves empathizing with the customer. It is a continuous process as the interaction is continuous.

Collaboration

The interviewees acknowledged that collaboration is important as it enables discussions where knowledge is shared and gained. Insights and innovation is also obtained. It’s a process that can occur within the organization or outside the organization and is a form of engagement.

Customer Journey and Customer Experience

The customer experience is the path the customer takes to achieve the value they are interested in and can be mapped out as a customer journey. With social media a mix of channels or touch points is now available by which the customer can achieve the same goal. Mapping this path for organizations will have to take into consideration the various channels or touch points when creating journey maps of the customer.

26 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Table 5. Results: Data gathering, analysis, transformation and usage

Identified Expert Interview Interview Literature and Lit. and Doc. Themes Reference Document Review Ref.

It involves continuous exploring and gathering (Respondent 6) Data transformation (Durgam 2011) of data from both online and offline sources (Respondent 2) from data to (Gerbert et al. through various channels that are within or (Respondent 3) information to 2003) outside the organization and harnessing into a (Respondent 5) knowledge and (Ostrow 2009) central repository within the organization. Social (Respondent 4) wisdom is required. (Cramers, 2012) media is one of such channels (Respondent 1) Identification (All 2011) and separation of (Kotadia 2012) Interpreting and transforming from data to (Respondent 1) sensible data from (Durgam 2011) information to knowledge to wisdom is essential (Respondent 2) non-sensible data (Ostrow 2009) to make sense of the large data gathered (Respondent 3) is needed as data (Cramers 2012) (Respondent 4) is unstructured and Metrics and analytics are a good (Respondent 1) large. Organizations are producing tools description of how to do the above. (Respondent 6) that enable effective use of social media. Some of these are sentiments, (Respondent 2) Social media adds context to data. business intelligence, influence, KPIs, (Respondent 3) A central repository Balance Scorecard, CRM calculators, (Respondent 5) such as a database / knowledge base trend lines etc. Decision on the (Respondent 4) / graph databases / enterprise data

Data gathering, analysis, gathering, Data transformation & usage metrics to use is dependent on the warehouse / business process or information the CRM- specific data repository organization is interested in is needed. Data should be made obtaining. It is applied knowledge available to and applies context to data creating customers outside the organization. thereby another aspect of Gathered data needs further processing knowledge that was not previously to enable tangible decision making. available. Metrics is Technological tools are available that (Respondent 1) information that can inform produce analytics and metrics and (Respondent 6) measurement, usage and ROI. enable sifting through data. However, (Respondent 3)

Human interpretation is needed to (Respondent 2)

provide other metrics and interpret (Respondent 5)

and utilize for decision making for (Respondent 4)

both the customer and the

Organization

This processed information (Respondent 1)

/knowledge is stored and made (Respondent 2)

available to the entire organization (Respondent 3)

for usage through tools/technology (Respondent 5)

such as repositories and workflows. (Respondent 6)

Also making it available to customers

outside the organization in a timely

and efficient manner

27 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Table 6. Results: Value creation and Co-creation

Identified Expert Interview Interview Literature and Lit. and Themes Reference Document Review Doc. Ref. Value creation Value comes from acting on the (Respondent 1) They explain that (Anon, & Co- knowledge that the organization (Respondent 6) the value compass 2013) Creation has about the customer, from the (Respondent 2) is applicable to (Fanfan, customer and of the customer. (Respondent 3) the organization 2012) (Respondent 5) using knowledge (Respondent 4) to create value for customers. Organizational value is different (Respondent 2) Value creation (Anon, from customer value. Customer (Respondent 7) comes from 2012) value is what the customer wants (Respondent 3) knowledge. (Alvarad, and not what the organization gives Organizations 2012) need to realize that customers can Co-creation between customer and (Respondent 6) Determine what organization is possible and this has (Respondent 1) they consider as been proved through success stories. (Respondent 7) value themselves. It can be initiated either by the (Respondent 3) customer or by the organization and (Respondent 4) involves listening (Respondent 5)

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

The Proposed Framework

Based on the results presented above, key themes for the successful integration of social media (SM), customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) will include the following:

• Strategy. • Value creation & Co-creation. • Collaboration. • Knowledge. • Customer Engagement. • Mindset / Cultural Change. • Data gathering, analysis, transformation & usage. • Customer Journey and customer experience.

The CKM framework used as a basis for the proposed framework for this study (Figure 3) caters for the following CRM sub-processes: campaign management, lead management, offer management, contract management, complaint and service

28 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Table 7. Result: Mindset

Identified Expert Interview Interview Literature and Lit. and Themes Reference Document Review Doc. Ref. Mindset/ cultural Mindset enables effective (Respondent The intelligent (Holtham & change functionality of all 6) exploiter framework Rich, 2012) components and is today (Respondent describes that a very big challenge for 7) mindset (though organizations. comprises a metaphor) is a strong enabler for organizational success. Organizations have to (Respondent SCRM is (Quintarelli, work on mindsets to cater 6) interesting because 2010) for two aspects: Mindset/ (Respondent of its “intrinsic Cultural change is needed. 2) nature inherently Control has now shifted (Respondent disrespectful of from the organization to 7) departments, the customer and they need (Respondent business functions, to have a customer service 4) inside-outside mindset. They need to move boundaries, separate from functioning in silos to processes.” The cross-functional processes. social customer is This may also require a different type of identifying ways to motivate customer and dealing customers to contribute to with them requires benefit the organization also cultural change. · Mindsets of employees needs to be sculptured to think differently. They need to be encouraged to participate and contribute to the usage of these processes when introduced within the organizations. Organizations also need to (Respondent (Anon, 2013) manage the change process 3) and reduce risk (Respondent 5) Behavior = Motivation (Respondent Behavior = (Alvarado, + Ability + Trigger 6) Motivation + Ability 2012) Motivation has an impact (Respondent + Trigger Ability on mindset. Motivating 5) + Motivation and the employees will likely Opportunities + contribute to changing Integration. their mindsets. In addition, motivating customers to contribute in things like providing feedback, joining communities etc.

29 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Table 8. Result: Customer engagement

Identified Expert Interview Interview Literature Lit. and Themes Reference and Document Doc. Ref. Review Customer This involves opening the line (Respondent 1) Organizations (Robson Engagement of communication, listening (Respondent 6) have recorded 2012) to as any channels as possible (Respondent 2) successes in (Peppers where the customer is, collecting (Respondent 3) collaboration. 2011) responses and continuous (Respondent 4) Engagement can interaction and dialogue with the (Respondent 5) be done through customer to learn and understand multi-channels the customer, their needs and experiences in order to give them better customer experience, value and empathize with them. Collaboration is a type of engagement. This is a two-way interaction (Respondent 1) between customer and (Respondent 2) organization and may lead to (Respondent 3) customer further engagement with (Respondent 5) organization and vice versa

Table 9. Results: Collaboration

Identified Expert Interview Interview Literature and Lit. and Doc. Themes Reference Document Review Ref. Collaboration Collaboration can be (Respondent 1) Communities (Fanfan, 2012) achieved from Organization (Respondent 7) of employee & Customer collaboration (Respondent 5) and external (bi-directional) or employee (Respondent 6) collaboration & employee collaboration contribute to (unidirectional). It leverages the activities of community and workflow knowledge sharing. can be added if required. People when asked It is a strong enabler of the are willing to knowledge flows. participate. There is power in (Respondent 1) communities. People love to (Respondent 7) be asked and collaboration is a good place for serendipity.

management CRM business processes and two CRM activities were interaction management and channel management. For KM aspects, the framework caters for four knowledge aspects: content, competence, collaboration and composition. It also has a unidirectional flow from the organization to the customer.

30 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media Table 10. Customer Journey Maps

Identified Expert Interview Interview Literature and Lit. and Doc. Themes Reference Document Review Ref. Customer The journey the customer (Respondent 3) Involves the Journey & takes to add value to them (Respondent 6) process/flows that - experience is now very dynamic. (Respondent 5) is taken by the Each customer journey customer from the organization wants to one point to the map is now multi-channel end following the or has many touch points. reasons for the As such the organization users. has to cater for the possibility for these touch points and manage them adequately. Good customer (Respondent 2) - experience is what is expected however, exceptional customer experience is what makes the difference and sets the organization apart from its competition.

The TO-BE Framework

The different items of the framework are discussed under the categories CRM Pro- cesses, CRM Activities, Knowledge Aspects, KM Processes and Enabling factors

CRM Processes

• Campaign Management: The process of reaching out to individuals to market a product or service and provides a means to receive feedback (Kumar & Reinartz 2012). It deals with managing all marketing activities (Bueren et al. 2005). Social media provides another channel to facilitate this process. • Lead Management: The process that creates and identifies prospective customers that may be addressed for marketing or sales (Bueren et al. 2005; Gerbert et al. 2003). Social media tools aid the process. Communities on the web and ‘influencers’ can be explored to generate leads (Greenberg 2009a). • Offer Management: The process of creating “individualized binding offers” (Bueren et al. 2005; Gerbert et al. 2003). With social, means of concluding these offers will have to be agreed within the process, especially with the various channels on social media.

31 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

• Contract Management: The process that manages contracts for supplying products and services (Bueren et al. 2005; Gerbert et al. 2003). • Complaint Management: The process that manages customer complaints (Bueren et al. 2005; Gerbert et al. 2003). Social media increases the number of channels customers use to complain and organizations may need to go and search for the complaints on these channels to manage and resolve them. • Service Management: The process of managing the provision of services to customer and can shape the customer experience. If positive, it can easily lead to customer retention and profit for the organization. Social media provides an additional channel and has a high impact on this process.

CRM Activities

The activities in the CKM model have been greatly impacted by social media by giving them a social and deeper dimension:

• Channel Management: The activity as explained that addresses the “challenge of the configuration and synchronization of different communication channels”. It aims to “define organizational responsibilities for each channel, to avoid conflicts between channels and to ensure consistent knowledge flows across different channels” (Bueren et al. 2005; Gerbert et al. 2003). • Engagement Management: (Formerly Interaction Management) involves opening the line of communication between the organization and the customer, listening to the customer through as many channels as possible, collecting responses and allowing for continuous interaction and dialogue to learn and understand the customer, their needs and experiences in order to give them better customer experience and value. The important aspect here is the continuous engagement between the organization and the customer which is bi-directional. • Intelligence Interaction Management: The activity that involves continuous exploring/observing, gathering, harnessing and interpretation of data from various channels and transforming it to information, knowledge or wisdom such that it is available for use to better serve the customer, inform decision making, education and learning etc. It involves a mix of both human and technology activities and produces outcomes such as metrics and analytics.

32 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

Knowledge Aspects

On the knowledge management front, the four knowledge aspects content, competence, collaboration and composition presented in Table 1 are captured and described as follows. In addition to these, a new addition to the framework is proposed: Context.

• Context Knowledge Aspect: This relates to social media now providing context to data that has been generated such as reasons for the data, emotions, behaviors, customer experiences, metrics, analytics, values, interests etc. allowing organizations to gain a deeper knowledge about the data. This was not possible previously hence the knowledge aspect ‘context’ is added to the framework.

KM Processes

KM involves creating, gathering, storing, distribution, retrieval and storing. This is not illustrated on the framework directly but has a backbone on the intelligence interaction management activity are achieved through use of the knowledge aspects captured on the framework.

Enabling Factors

These factors enable the successful usage of the CRM and Knowledge Management processes:

• Opportunity and Value Creation Management (formerly Opportunity Management): This is the act of identifying viable opportunities from either the customer or from employees in the organization such that both the organization and the customer gain value. Activities here can involve co-creation, evaluating the customer experience and customer journey. • Strategy Management: Strategy is important to give direction to organizations. To define the scope, what is to be achieved, how and lots more. All other actions will be tied to the strategy and there can be many different strategies tied to an overall strategy depending on the approach an organization chooses to take. This activity is essential in the success of adopting SM, CRM and or KM. For social media, allowing for serendipity is key as SM is still relatively new. • Mindset Management: This involves managing mindsets. In this instance, it has to do with managing the cultural change that social media has brought upon the organization. The ‘mindset’ is the underlying issue.

33 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

Arrows Directional Updates

The arrows pointing in a single direction representing the flow from the organization to the customer process is updated from unidirectional to bi-directional to capture the ‘inside-out’ and ‘outside-in’ flow of knowledge and relationship between the customer and the organization. The framework now captures processes that reflect the findings of the study which integrates social media, customer relationship management and knowledge management. Based on the results from the study the framework above has been proposed to be an integrated framework of SM, CRM and KM on the process level and is demonstrated by the application described above.

FUTURE RESEARCH AND DIRECTIONS

This work has been a product of extensive literature review and analysis of qualitative data from industry experts in the different domains associated with the ideas of the authors. Further work can be carried out in the area of formalizing the framework,

Figure 5. Proposed concept integration framework

34 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media in the form of an empirical study. Though the authors have already started working on this in relation to financial institutions, such could also be done with other sectors and in different geographical locations. From another perspective, a Delphi study, for its iterative nature, could also be employed to distill the variables.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Understanding the Concepts

The literature review gave an understanding of concepts under study and to examine if there is a possibility of a link /overlap between them. A process based framework approach was adopted as processes show the cross functional integration in organizations (Gerbert et al. 2003). There were not many process based academic frameworks that integrated aspects of the concepts if not all. The process based CKM model developed by Gerbert et al. (2003) was one of the few and was used as a basis for the study. They based a number of their concepts on well-established concepts described by Nonaka and Takeuchi and Thomas Davenport who are knowledge management thought leaders. Another framework for SCRM developed by Buchanan (2010) was also investigated to inform the study though it is not process based. Expert interviews conducted gave a good perspective to this work as majority of the experts had experience on the concepts under study. They were able to explain the concepts and gave their perspectives and thoughts on the interdependencies between the concepts. A thematic coding exercise was done on the interview transcripts to check for common themes. The results were in line with the literature review findings. A few new themes were identified from the interviews and these were further investigated for deeper understanding in literature.

The Process Framework

Web 2.0 at the time of developing the CKM framework was not full blown and its impact on was not captured. In this study, social media is used to capture this evolution and impact of the web. During the study, the social dimension through identified themes was added to the framework. After which it showed that the traditional CRM processes discussed in the framework have not changed. This shows that SCRM, as discussed in the literature, is an extension of CRM and not its replacement. What makes these processes ‘social’ is that another channel of communication that has unique characteristics can be used to achieve the purpose of the process.

35 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

Mindset and Cultural Change

The findings showed that the effective use of social media in organizational processes starts with changing the ‘mindset’ of the organization. It is a continual process, and has three dimensions and this change has to be managed adequately. The mindset of the employees of the organization has to change. Having the tools and processes in place without the people is a roadmap for failure. People are the link that makes it work (Alvarado 2012). A key aspect here is the tacit and explicit knowledge. Or- ganizations need to apply the SECI model described by Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) to the management of tacit and explicit knowledge. This dimension of knowledge then feeds into the ‘competence’ knowledge aspect on the proposed framework. Outputs of this process, enrich the other knowledge aspects content, context, composition and collaboration. As a result, the organization needs not only to empower the employees but to also find ways to make them participate intrinsically. With the customer now being in control of the ecosystem, organizations need to ensure the customer is in the center of their products and service offerings if they want to remain in business hence calling for a customer service mindset. However, this change must tie in with the overall strategy of the organization. This is captured on the framework through mindset management.

Strategy Development

The findings show that strategy management is key and this is confirmed by other studies. Organizations need to first decide what they want, the business and measurement goals, type of information they are interested in collecting and decisions they would like to make based on the information gathered, etc. (Mckay, 2009). It needs the consultation of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and needs to make room for ‘serendipity’. As it gives direction, all other processes should be tied to it. Organizations are reluctant to adopt SM but a look at the competition’s engagement in SM will help in reaching a decision (Peppers, 2011) as others have recorded successes and failures (Mckay, 2009). The final strategy should be in line with the overall brand of the organization (Alvarado, 2012). This is captured on the framework through strategy management.

Channel Integration

The findings also show that social media is a channel that enables customer engagement and needs to be managed in relation to other channels used by the organization. One of such reasons is because the customer does not see different channels but has a holistic view of the organization. Now there are several touchpoints through the dif-

36 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media ferent channels used by customers to interact with the organization. The organization therefore needs to effectively manage these channels such that they are functional effectively and are available to the customer and employees whenever they are to be utilized. It also needs to provide channels that enable the employees to interact within the organization. This is captured on the framework as channel management.

Data Flows

These channels of communication generate ‘big data’ which is a mix of sensible, non-sensible data, tacit and explicit knowledge, etc. Data coming from all these channels need to be managed. Extract the relevant information such as customer needs, new ideas, customer complaints, teamwork discussions, trainings, best practices, compliance rules etc. without leaving out important things and in a short time, prioritize and act on them. It also harnesses information generated within the organization by other departments such as non-customer facing departments and derives intelligence and insight from data coming through all channels. It determines the actions required based on findings. For example, forwarding it on to relevant departments for further action or use, e.g. leads will go on to marketing and sales departments and complaints will go to customer service, innovative ideas to product development teams etc. This process involves harnessing all the data, making sense of the data, transforming it into usable forms, storing and distributing it to both the customer and the organization and discarding what is not important. The key aspects here firstly, is to ensure continuous observation of on-going happenings within and outside the organization and secondly is the involvement of both technology/tools and humans to transform this data through the data hierarchy i.e. from data to information to knowledge to wisdom as explained earlier. Although tools and technology aid the process, humans are needed as they can spot, prioritize and make practical decisions. The output here is intelligence through metrics, leads, context etc. and these outputs provide inputs for the knowledge aspects (content, context, competence etc.) and the CRM processes (lead management, strategy management, value creation management etc.) captured on the proposed framework. This is the core knowledge management process level and is captured on the framework as intelligence interaction management.

Customer Engagement

The findings show that social media facilitates and requires organizational engagement with the customer. It involves identifying a platform, listening or transmitting on the platform depending on the goal, building a repository of tried and tested common problems and solutions, responding to customers making enquiries, pro-

37 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media viding a solution, and giving an acknowledgement, value or simple thank you to the customer while ensuring the right person gets the right response. This is continuous bi-directional interaction. The output is generating sound and effective CK rather than customer transactional data. There is also the aspect of risk management where employees engage using the channels. This can be done through internal trainings, incentives, guidelines etc (Baird & Paramis 2011b; Peppers 2011). Involves collaboration and there is power through communities. It is the “building of the relationship and knowledge of the customer by analyzing the bidirectional interactions (downwards and upwards) and horizontal, collaborative, community-oriented ones, where the essential components are the experiences and emotions of users and communities” (Anon, 2013) On the framework, Interaction management activity was changed to Engagement Management. Interaction management originally meant identifying or creating “media-based communication channels” “with a goal to achieve optimal channel mix”. It is not very clear the purpose of this activity as it was somewhat similar to the channel management activity. However, taking the word interaction from the process name, it appears to mean the activity that involves managing the interaction points between the customer and the organization. With this as a basis, a deeper and meaningful term with social will be engagement hence the proposed activity. Engagement management replaced interaction management on the framework.

Value Creation and Co-Creation

Mapping the customer journey across various channels is a good way to identify what the customer considers as value. Organizations can also explore the partnership paradigm through communities and ask people to participate as they love to be asked (Mosadegh & Behboudi 2011). It is also important to note that while processes get information from the customer it is key to create processes that actually give to the customer what they value (Quintarelli 2010). For the framework, specific opportunities could be discovered locally by sales and service staff as posited by Gerbert et al. (2003). However, the issue with this description is that it is limited to the sales and service staff and the opportunities are discovered locally. With social, finding opportunities go beyond the boundaries of the organization. Now in addition to seeking opportunities, organizations must extend their search to the customer such that opportunities identified can bring value to both the customer and the organization. Hence the term ‘Opportunity & Value Creation Management’ replaced ‘Opportunity Management’ on the proposed framework.

38 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

Tools/Technology

Findings also show that all of this is possible with tools. Tools ranging from CRM systems, KM systems, analytical tools, database systems or repositories etc. are required to successfully integrate these concepts. Some of the possibilities include creating customer profiles that merge customer online data with customer transactional data (Cramers, 2012), adding textured classifications to raw unstructured data (Mckay, 2009), getting real-time updates on the user’s desktop and instant replies (Ostrow, 2009) and lots more. For the framework, this is not illustrated in the diagram as tools and technologies are not processes.

Integrated Concepts Defined

It is apparent from the study that there are interdependencies between the concepts. Academic work had established linkages between social media and CRM and coined the term social CRM and also established a link between CRM and KM and coined up the term CKM. Though linkage between all these concepts was not found that draws a reader’s attention to the interdependencies directly, literature presented the possibility. This linkage was confirmed via the expert interviews as they were able to explain in their own terms the linkage between the concepts. This lack of academic linkage or interdependency is what makes this study novel and a contribution to knowledge. Themes identified were assessed and put into the framework. The results were compared against the existing framework and modifications made. These were included into the framework as considered appropriate. The proposed process framework is the result of the study that further establishes the integration of the concepts within an organization. From the findings of the study, a definition for the integrated concepts is presented below: Integrated Social Media, Knowledge Management and Customer Relation- ship Management can be explained as the integration of social into organizational processes. This is such that, an additional communication channel with multiple platforms is leveraged, to continually engage with the customer where contextual knowledge is harnessed and exchanged between the customer and the organization. The effect is to enable the organization to provide better customer service that shapes the customers experience and creates value for both the customer and the organization. It also involves harnessing knowledge from both social and non-social media channels within and outside the organization to gain intelligence that leads to effective customer management and decision making.

39 Towards a Framework for Integrating Social Media

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Chapter 3 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM): A Strategy for Customer Engagement

Ameen Al-Azzam Technical College in Tai’f, Saudi Arabia

Rawan Khasawneh Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan

ABSTRACT The organizations reach to their objectives by adopting an effective customer management strategy. Today, organizations have become aware that to reach their objectives its must focus on customer relationships, engagement and retention, not only to increase their market share. The development of information and communication technology (ICT) and in particular social networks enables an important communication tool with customer. Improving customer relationship by using social network is called social customer relationship management (SCRM). SCRM focused on establishing new channels with customers for better understanding of customers needs and build a long-term relationship with them. This chapter explores social customer relationship management and its general concepts including social media and customer relationship management. Also, it reviews the context of SCRM that aims to enhance customer relationship and make customers much more engaged. Conclusions and proposed future work are stated at the end.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch003

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays social networks are considered as an important communication tool that should be utilized by organizations in improving their relationships with customers in order to make them more engaged and satisfied. Such usage of social networks in customer relationship management is called social customer relationship management (SCRM) which focuses on the strategies, processes and technologies organizations use to link social networks with CRM strategy. Social media evolution leads to change in the way the organizations engage with their customers; it enables customers to connect, communicate, buy, filter out advertising, compare prices with competitors, and share negative or positive opinions with a global audience. Most organizations are moving toward integrated social media with their traditional CRM programs. Social CRM is considered as a good way for organizations to build a strong relationship with customers, and increase their satisfaction level. This chapter illustrates the use and integration of social network in customer relationship management and how much this integration is important in organizational business strategy to enlarge customer engagement. An exploration of customer relationship management and social networks is presented in the chapter along with a focus on social customer relationship management and how it can be used to enhance their customer relationship management. This chapter is divided into three sections where section one reviews customer relationship management (CRM) in general; its definitions, categories, dimensions, processes and other related concepts. Social media in general, its definitions, uses and categories, is described in the second section. The third section focuses on social customer relationship management (SCRM), its dimensions, approaches, and the differences between traditional CRM and Social CRM in addition to an exploration of the role of SCRM in increasing customers’ engagement level.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM): AN OVERVIEW

CRM term refers to building a customer-oriented culture where IT applications are utilized to enhance profitability and retain customers, so basically there are three main elements of any CRM strategy/initiative which are: people, process, and technology. CRM is a strategy where the customer is the king; it is all about a strategy where the main focus is the customer (Rababah, Mohd, & Ibrahim, 2011). The literature shows that customer relationship management systems can be classified into three main categories: analytical, operational, and collaborative CRM

46 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM)

(Khasawneh & Alazzam, 2014; Rababah, Mohd, & Ibrahim, 2011; Xiong et al., 2011; Khodakarami & Chan,2011; Oghojafor, Aduloju & Olowokudejo, 2011; Jirehbandei & Pour, 2011;Troggler, 2009; Rollins & Halinen, 2005; Gebert et al., 2003).

1. Analytical CRM: It is a great tool for building and maintaining long-term relationships with customers; it analyzes customer data to generate information about customer behavior, purchase patterns and market segmentation by incorporating various tools and techniques such as data mining. Analytical CRM is also called back office CRM system. 2. Operational CRM: The main goal of operational CRM is to improve efficiency and productivity by automating traditional CRM processes and operations. These operations include data collection, transactions processing, and workflow control. It is also called front office CRM system. 3. Collaborative CRM: Another category of CRM which works at the operational level and focused on integrating and managing various communication channels that customers can use to interact with organizations. These channels include email, video and web conferencing applications, websites pages, and many others. It is a motivator for interactive learning relationship between the companies and their customers.

There are three levels of CRM processes: customer-facing level, functional level, and company-wide level. Customer- facing level includes a systematic process for managing all aspects of customer relationship starting from initiation, maintenance and ending with termination. The functional level consists of a set of processes that related to executing marketing functions such as sales force automation and marketing campaign management. Finally company-wide level or strategic level where information about customers, their behavior, and preferences has implications for the entire organization. CRM systems have several benefits for companies; these benefits include decrease recruiting customers cost, build long-term relationships with customers, reduce sales cost and marketing campaign cost, increase customer profitability, and increase customer loyalty and retention. At the same time, CRM has several barriers such as lack of guidance along with no existence of long-term strategy, and customer database need to be maintained, and that requires huge investment, and employees are unwilling to be more customer-focused. Furthermore, lack of understanding of CRM, lack of management support, and low marketing orientation highly affect the best of utilization of CRM systems (Amoako, Arthur, Bandoh, & Katah, 2012). Successful CRM program requires companies to effectively manage business process change, properly aligning business processes and IT operations and fully

47 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) understand CRM not only as business strategy and business process but also as a business philosophy and technological tool (Rababah, Mohd, & Ibrahim, 2011).

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a common term used these days; it includes video sharing sites, wikis, photo sharing sites, social network sites, microblogs, etc. It has become part of our daily activities.In light of the enormous development in social media, many companies use it to achieve the advantage for their brand, services and public relations.The term “social media” has been used in several contexts related to different technologies and what they can do. Social media can be defined as the technologies people use to communicate and interact with one another, typically online. Kupper et al. (2014) have defined social media as “group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” Chua and Banerjee (2013) have classified social media according to services provided to organizations that are used to communicate with their customers: microblogging services (MBS) are social media services that allow users to publish, share and discuss in the form of short status updates, messages or commentaries, it also permit users to organize themselves in a follower-followee, Twitter is a good example. Social networking services (SNS) allow users to build their profiles, create connections with other users sharing the same interests. SNS also enable users to perform posting comments, receiving comments from others, joining groups and fan pages, creating events, using customized applications and playing games. Facebook and MySpace are examples of these services. Location-aware mobile services (LMSs) are social media services that allow users to check in online at real-world locations and receive context-sensitive information based on their locations. Foursquare and Google Latitude are two well-known LMSs. Corporate discussion forum services (CDS) allow users to discuss products and services provided by a specific organization, Dell IdeaStorm, launched by Dell, is a prominent example of CDS. According to Ngai, Moon, Lam, Chin and Tao (2015), Social media have numerous applications: marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), knowledge sharing, collaborative activities, organizational communications, education and training. Kietzmann et al. (2011) and He and Jiménez(2015) describe seven functional blocks of social media: identity- the extent to which users reveal themselves.; Con- versations- the extent to which users communicate with each other; sharing- the extent to which users exchange, distribute and receive content; presence- the extent to which users know if others are available; relationships- - the extent to which users relate to each other; reputation- the extent to which users know the social

48 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) standing of other and content and groups- the extent to which users are ordered or form communities. For a business, users do not use social media only for publishing private information; they also use it for looking up products or services or to share recommendations and experiences with friends or other users (Alt & Reinhold, 2012). Organizations also used social media to improve operations and enhance the business profile through improved communication; greater exposure through amplifying word-of- mouth effects; getting closer to and building relationships with existing customers; attracting new customers; promoting a company’s products/services; improving brand awareness; increasing volume of traffic to web site; increasing levels of sales; improved collaboration and establishing online communities (Montalvo, 2011; Stockdale, Ahmed & Scheepers, 2012; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; McCann & Barlow, 2015). In order to make better and effective use of social networks, it is not enough for businesses to simply have a presence on social media, for example, in the form of creating a Facebook page or a Twitter account. Furthermore, the business must have a strategy for its use and consider why they are using it as well as how it can support business objectives (Stockdale et al., 2012; McCann & Barlow, 2015). Fuduric and Mandelli (2014) have suggested five postulates to be considered when managers develop a strategy for social media: social media is always a function of the technology, culture, and government of a particular country or context; local events rarely remain local; global events are likely to be (re)interpreted locally; creative consumers’ actions and creations are also dependent on technology, culture, and government; and technology is historically dependent.

SOCIAL CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (SCRM) AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

The term social customer relationship management (Social CRM) has emerged to describe measures that use social media technologies within the planning, implementation, and control of CRM activities (Ang, 2011; Woodcock, Green & Starkey, 2011), the term SCRM consists of two fields: social media and CRM. According to Alqahtani and Saba (2013), Literature does not agree on a particular definition of what social CRM means. Table 1 presents several definitions of social CRM. The integration of social media and CRM opens a wide range of potential application areas. For examples, in analytical CRM, social media provides important knowledge from posting and discussion. Data obtained from social media provides a better understanding of individual customer’s behaviors and the targeted customers’ needs. For operational CRM, interaction with the customer via campaigns, offers, requests, complaints or suggestions from customers or other users can be

49 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) Table 1. Social customer relationship management definitions

SCRM Definition Resource “The process of managing customer-to-customer conversations to engage Dutot, 2013, p.56 existing customers, prospects or other stakeholders with a brand and so enhance CRM.” “Is the business strategy of engaging customers through SM with goal of Woodcock et al., 2011, p.52 building trust and brand loyalty.” “A philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, Greenberg, 2010, p. 413 business rules, processes, and social characteristics, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment.”

done through social media tools to improve efficiency and productivity. In collaborative CRM, social media provides an additional channel to communicate with customers (Alt & Reinhold, 2012). The applications of SCRM demonstrate two main task areas of social CRM: monitoring and mining in one hand and proactive and reactive interaction on the other (Alt & Reinhold, 2012). According to Reinhod and Alt (2013); Rappaport (2010) and Alt and Reinhold (2012) the integrated view of SCRM results in five tasks and functional areas in SCRM: Social Media platform, CRM system, Analytical functionalities, Interaction functionalities and management functionalities. Table 2 summarized these tasks areas. Social CRM tools are used by the organization to collect data from social media which enables them for deeply monitoring and mapping of potential and existing customers (Wang & Owyan, 2010). Alt and Reinhold (2012) defined tools as applications that “encourage many-to-many participation among internal users, as well as customers, partners, affiliates, fans, constituents, donors, members and other external parties, to support sales, customer service and marketing processes”. Table 3 illustrates social CRM tools depending on the structure of the task areas within a social CRM. Nadeem (2012) outlines five intelligence sources where social CRM tools can be used by organizations in marketing area: Posting Envelope – the meta data of social media postings provides information about authors, topics, sources, etc.; Posting Body – content of posting, it can be analyzed and segmented by keywords, opinions, topics, etc.; Profile Body – data in users’ profiles – emails, phone numbers, interests, groups, hobbies, etc.; Profile Envelope – meta data of profile – connections, activities, other profiles, etc.; Links – interconnections between profiles and postings can provide insights about role, influence, and relations. Social CRM does not replace the traditional CRM; it can be seen as the growth of traditional CRM but with a slight change in marketing strategy (Dutot, 2013). Traditional CRM focuses on traditional ways of communication with customers such

50 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) Table 2. Tasks and functional areas of SCRM

Tasks and Description and Main Objectives Functional Area Social Media Provision and integration of Social Media services, such as forums, wikis, and communities for information distribution and collaborative creation of information. Analysis Analytical techniques for analysis and mining, e.g. evaluation, filtering, search, aggregation, enrichment, transformation, or rule-based object generation. Management Management functionalities, such as moderation, process management, reputation management, data integration, evaluations or privacy management for resource and actor management and coordination. CRM CRM process and data integration and links to CRM functions, such as lead, contact, campaign or service management. Interaction Interaction techniques, such as content delivery, dialogue development, publication, dissemination, recommendation, alarm or notification for interaction management and coordination. (source: Reinhod & Alt, 2012)

Table 3. Tools for social CRM

Tools Functional Description Examples of Systems Business Storage and analysis of structured and unstructured Social SAS (2), Intelligence Media data (e.g., interests of Facebook fans, product mentions MicroStrategy (2) in postings) in connection with existing information in a data warehouse. Community Creation and management of communities or forums, as well Lithium Technologies Management as the provision of services to external interested parties. (1;2;3;5), GetSatisfaction (1; 3; 5) CRM Integration and use of Social Media data within a CRM Cosmic (2; 3; 5), system (e.g., for team communication, master data Salesforce (2; 3; 4; 5) completion, or process initiation). Social Media Management of profiles on several platforms, and Media Funnel (2; 3; 5), Management simplifiedcommunication via posting schedulers or multi- Cisco Social Miner platform dispatchers. (2; 3; 4) Social Media Analysis of Social Media content (e.g., opinions, sentiments), Overtone (2; 3), Monitoring core topics or active users (e.g., influencers). Sysomos (2; 3), Gigya (2; 3; 5) Social Network Analysis of connections between postings and tracking of Kxen (2), Cyram (2), Analysis authors across several Social Media, with identification Sprout Social (2; 3; 4) of core topics, relationships, and the impacts of individual contents on Discussions. Social Search Blog search by keywords or topics; navigation through Social Social Search (2), Webofferings and identification of relevant content areas. Yahoo Pipes (2) Legend related to task areas: 1 = Social Media; 2 = Analysis; 3 =Management; 4 = CRM; 5 = Interaction. (Source: Alt & Reinhold, 2012)

51 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM)

as phone calls, emails, and conversation notes from conferences or live meetings, in addition to traditional ways social CRM communicates with customers via outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and online forums or reviews platforms like Yelp. Table 4 illustrates a comparative between traditional CRM and social CRM. Before the advent of the Internet and especially social networks, it was not easy to communicate with consumers as it is now, social CRM changed the way the company interact and communicat with customers. Social CRM creates two-way communication between customer and organization. It allows companies to interact and communicate through social media and improve the quality and quantity of

Table 4. A comparison between traditional CRM and Social CRM

Traditional CRM Features/Functions Social CRM Features/Functions Tactical and operational: Customer strategy is part of Strategic: Customer strategy IS corporate strategy. Corporate Strategy. The relationship between the company and the The relationship between the company and the customer was seen as enterprise managing customer customer are seen as a collaborative effort. And yet, - parent to child to a large extent. the company must still be an enterprise in all other aspects. Focus on Company <> Customer Relationship. Focus on all iterations of the relationships (among company, business partners, customers) and specifically focus on identifying, engaging and enabling the “influential” nodes The company seeks to lead and shape customer The customer is seen as a partner from the beginning opinions about products, services, and the company- the development and improvement of products, customer relationship. services, and the company-customer relationship. Business focuses on products and Business focus on environments & experiences that services that satisfy customers. engages customer. Customer facing features - sales, marketing & Customer facing both features and the people who’re support. in charge of developing and delivering those features. Marketing focused on processes that sent improved, Marketing focused on building relationship with targeted, highly specific corporate messages to customers - engaging customer in activity and customer. discussion, observing and re-directing conversations and activities among customers. Intellectual Property protected with all legal might Intellectual property created and owned together available. with the customer, partner, supplier, problem solver. Insights and effectiveness were optimally achieved Insights are a considerably more dynamic issue and by the single view of the customer (data) across are based on 1) customer data 2) customer personal all channels by those who needed to know. Based profiles on the web and the social characteristics on”complete” customer record and data integration. associated with them 3)customer participation in the activity acquisition of those insights. Resided in a customer-focused business ecosystem. Resides in a customer ecosystem Tools are associated with automating Integrates social media tools into apps/services: Functions. blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networking tools, content sharing tools, user communities. (Source: Mosadegh & Behboudi, 2011).

52 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) interactions with customers, suppliers and partners (Wongsansukcharoen, Trimet- soontorn & Fongsuwan, 2013). According to Wongsansukcharoen et al., (2013) social CRM facilitates collaborative experience and dialogue that customer values, through social CRM companies provide answers to the discussions created and generated by customers on social media (Dutot, 2013). Social CRM is not just a set of technologies, but rather a social CRM strategies give organizations a chance to be closer to the customers through the social interactions (Patil, 2014), specifically, to improve customer engagement and build strong relationships with them (Nitu, Tileaga & Ionescu, 2014). The definition of social CRM (Greenberg, 2010) implies that it designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation. Customer engagement can be defined as “a manifestation of the brand or firm that is more than a transaction or just purchase behavior and which goes beyond satisfaction, retention and loyalty” (Lipiainen, 2015; Choudhury & Harrigan, 2014). Garcia et al., (2014) defined customer engagement as “the intensity of individual participation and connection with the offers and activities of the organization initiated either by the customer or by the organization”. Dessart, Veloutsou and Thomas (2015) explicate seven sub-dimensions of customer engagement classified under three-dimensional: affective engagement: enthusiasm, enjoyment; cognitive engagement: attention, absorption; and behavioral engagement: sharing, learning and endorsing. Sashi (2012) proposed stages for customer engagement life cycle: connection- before establishing a relation between sellers and customers; they must first connect with each other. Such connection is done through offline (salespersons) and online (social media) ways. Interaction- after connection, customers interact with sellers. The emergence of the Web 2.0 enables customers to interact through texting, instant messaging, email, blogging, virtual worlds, and social networking. Satisfaction- only satisfied sellers and customers will stay connected and continue the movement toward engagement. Satisfaction is a necessary condition for customer engagement. But it is not enough for customer engagement. Retention- resulted from either overall satisfaction over time emerges from repurchase and long-term relationship; not from highly positive emotions, or highly positive emotions which do not mean that the customer has a long-term relationship with the seller. Commitment- consists of two dimensions: affective commitment is emotional and results from the trust and mutual benefit in a relationship, and calculative commitment is more rational and results from a lack of choice or switching costs. Advocacy- happy customers share their happiness with others in the social network, but loyal customers have less tendency for sharing, only if the loyal customer in long-term relationships develops emotional constraints that can be an advocate for organization’s products or services. Engagement- reached when

53 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) a happy or loyal customer shares their happy experience and loyal feelings with others via social networks and become brand advocates. Customer engagement requires affective commitment, calculative commitment and commitment between sellers and customers. Organizations that have the intention to implement the social CRM should take into consideration three issues First, organizational ones, which include culture, structure, systems, staff and strategy. Second, technological issues, comprehending incomplete technologies; poor integration of social media with traditional channels, and having no systems that support all the channels where upon people interaction. Finally, miscellaneous issues which comprise dropping prices of Social CRM systems; more empowered customers; the speed of development and information overload. (Woodcock et al., 2011). Several benefits can be derived from the organizations from the implementation of social CRM, social CRM strategy increase customer engagement and loyalty which will drive brand performance. Also, establishing a link with customers as a primary method of contact, sales will increase, and the cost of sales, customer services and advertising will be reduced. Enactment of a proactive dialogue with consumers, which lead to improving the effectiveness of a business strategy through innovation and creativity, as research and development capabilities are amplified through social customers’ initiatives.

CONCLUSION

The main goal of CRM is to help organizations build a good relationship with, and engage their customers to maximize lifetime value. Social media evolution has changed the way organizations follow/adopt to make their customers get engaged. Social media has several tools for communication, buying, filtering out advertising, prices comparison and global opinion sharing. Interactive relationships between organizations and customers make organizations moving toward integrating social media with their traditional CRM programs. Social CRM provides the organizations better way to build relationships with customers, and give the capabilities for the customers to interact with organizations in an effective way. Future work will focus on establishing a common ground that validates the concept of SCRM strategy and other concepts related to this domain such as: social media and customer relationship management. Also, focus on antecedents of engagement such as satisfaction, loyalty and brand community that lead to customer engagement.

54 Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM)

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58 59

Chapter 4 Marketing on Tumblr:

Kristen Smirnov Whittier College, USA

ABSTRACT Despite many demographic, behavioral, and technical features that should make it an appealing destination for social media marketers, the Tumblr platform has lagged in marketing adoption. This chapter discusses the site features that drive its potential, while also acknowledging the challenges that Tumblr presents. Contrasts are offered between the limited flexibility but easier adoption curve of other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, with the phenomenon known as choice overload discussed as a possible explanation for non-Tumblr preferences. Three Tumblr case studies are presented in depth to illustrate best practices (Denny’s diner chain and the musician Taylor Swift) and to warn against certain common pitfalls (Nordstrom). The chapter concludes with potential future research directions to pursue on this growing but underutilized platform.

INTRODUCTION

From a marketing perspective, Tumblr is the dark horse of the major social media platforms. Most corporate sites link to their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If they’re especially adventurous or dutiful, one might see Pinterest or LinkedIn. Although Tumblr’s user base is valuable, it is also notably and uniquely difficult to market to. Despite having many user statistics that should put it in the same discussions as Pinterest and Instagram as a youthful social network on the rise, Tumblr is largely ignored in discussions of social media marketing.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch004

This chapter offers methods to improve customer engagement and the likelihood of successful marketing efforts on the Tumblr platform. First, an examination is made of Tumblr’s background, along with its user base and technical capabilities. Relevant academic theories about social media branding and consumer engagement are also introduced. A discussion of the marketing potential offered on the platform follows. Next, three case studies are presented with multiple supporting examples, with an analysis of two well-performing Tumblr accounts and one underperforming company. Lastly, conclusions and future research directions are offered. It should be noted that Tumblr is rarely discussed in both the commercial and academic spheres. Accordingly, theories and references used in this chapter are largely about social media platforms in general, rather than findings specific to Tumblr. Accordingly, it is hoped that this chapter will make a significant contribution to the literature about the Tumblr platform. As might be expected from this chapter’s title, Tumblr allows for more flexibility in one’s marketing presentation than many other platforms. Companies can be “weird” to stand out, to connect with an audience that distrusts typical marketing voices, or as a way to rebrand a staid image. Simply being weird, however, is not a coherent strategy. To understand how to best, promote consumer engagement and loyalty on a historically challenging platform, it’s important to first discuss those consumers and the platform itself.

BACKGROUND

In the introduction, Tumblr was referred to as one of the major social media platforms. That label would surprise many people, who often leave it out of discussions of the most important social media players. Tumblr was founded in 2007 by David Karp and Marco Arment. In 2013, Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion (Statista, 2015). Tumblr is known as a microblogging platform, and accordingly, each user is described as having his or her own blog. An early assessment of the site described it thusly:

It’s a happy medium between a tidbit posting service, such as Twitter, and a full- fledged blogging tool, such as WordPress or Blogger. Tumblr is aimed at folks who feel they may not have enough content or time to write a full blog, yet still want to write and share links and media. (Lowensohn, 2007)

This platform style, off-the-cuff but media-rich, proved popular. Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing major platforms (along with Pinterest), with nearly 100% active user growth between 2014 – 2015 (Cohen, 2015). During 2014, it registered

60 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) nearly twice Instagram’s growth rate for active users (Luden, 2014). Higher growth rates are easier for smaller companies, of course. Tumblr’s information page (http:// www.tumblr.com/about) states that it hosts approximately 260 million blogs with 122 billion posts, as of late 2015. Individual users may own multiple blogs, so the number of users would be somewhat smaller than that 260 million figure. While that is a large group of users, there are bigger platforms yet. Here stands one under- standable reason for Tumblr’s historic lack of attention compared to the even larger platforms of Instagram, Twitter, or the true behemoth, Facebook. However, Tumblr has two major appealing features beyond its growth rate that should earn it more attention from marketers: its technical flexibility and its userbase. Those same two appealing features also pose challenges to marketers. With Tum- blr’s comparatively smaller userbase, the perceived negatives have outweighed the positives for many. For companies who wish to benefit from this growing platform in the future, however, a discussion of both elements is warranted. Before that, a context for all of these challenges is offered. Paradoxically, we may say that we like flexibility but experience a paralyzing phenomenon known as choice overload when we actually encounter it. In theory, having more choice is preferable. We may feel a sense of freedom in high-choice environments, or that we are more assured of finding an optimal solution for some problem. However, larger number of options can instead lead to dissatisfaction with the decision we ultimately make, as we have now experienced a greater opportunity cost with our selection. It can even lead to a state of paralysis where we simply choose not to participate at all (Iyengar & Lepper, 2000). Choice overload is not common knowledge. People perform more creatively under restricted choice even as they perceive greater choice to benefit them (Sellier & Dahl, 2011). Users with lower knowledge in a field will also prefer greater choice, with the perception that more options must be better (Hadar & Sood, 2014). With this in mind, Tumblr would seem appealing to a novice marketer who is uncertain of how to approach social media. On the surface, its enormous flexibility looks appealing. However, these same novice marketers would be poorly equipped to manage the challenges of such a technically sprawling platform. Conversely, well- informed social media marketers may look at the range of possibilities provided by Tumblr and decide that some given amount of effort will return better results in a more constrained environment. To further make this point, a contrast is offered with another platform. Instagram gives little flexibility to its users. They may upload a user icon, pick an account name, and write a short profile description, but everything else is decided for them. Every account has the same layout; every header banner displays a selection of previous posts; every post is of a photograph or video that must be uploaded from a mobile device. All photos used to be uploaded only in square formats. Although Instagram

61 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) recently allowed for photographs that are in portrait or landscape ratios, this ratio flexibility only shows up after opening individual posts or in the feed of current posts. Looking at anyone’s profile page displays an identical layout of squares. When a marketer launches an Instagram account, they are immediately aware of these firm boundaries. Their work, then, becomes a fairly straightforward task of optimizing performance within those limits. Tumblr lies on the far opposite end of the flexibility spectrum. The only standardization comes from the “dashboard,” the default destination for seeing new posts, similar to the Facebook wall or Twitter timeline. Individual blogs, however, are wholly customizable. Unlike every other major social network, Tumblr gives full HTML code access to its users. Because of this, companies have nearly as much control over their blog’s appearance as they would with a self-hosted WordPress setup. (The only major operational differences in the two blogging platforms, in fact, are the lack of top-level categories on Tumblr and the functionalities offered by external WordPress plug-ins). With this HTML access, users can install major commercial analytics packages like Clicky or Google Analytics, add e-commerce capabilities, host external advertisements, or embed service chat windows or Google Maps on their sidebar. Users have enormous flexibility in appearance and functionality, can maintain branding consistency to unmatched levels, and yet still have immediate access to more than a hundred million existing Tumblr users. As well, the type of content posted is far more varied than on other major social networks, and is again comparable to the WordPress blogging platform. Tumblr posts can consist of text (with or without embedded graphics for illustration), images (static or animated) in any size ratio, photo sets that display all images simultaneously rather than needing to first open a gallery, formatted chats & sourced quotations, and audio and video clips (either hosted by Tumblr or through an external site like Soundcloud or YouTube). Users can even replace the default username.tumblr.com address with a custom domain. This offers the chance to integrate a Tumblr blog with a company’s online presence, or even use it as the home page for a business. A Tumblr-hosted blog could be used like a typical homepage by attaching it to yourbusinessname.com, or could be more narrowly used to post product updates and stories to blog.yourbusinessname.com. There is a surfeit of choice available to Tumblr users, and as discussed this choice can lead to confusion or paralysis. The strategic marketing questions posed by an Instagram account are kept within its strict boundaries: Do we upload videos, or only still photographs? What content do we have in our photographs? How often do we post? The questions posed by a Tumblr account are broader, and far more complex: Which blog theme should we use? Should we hire a designer to make a custom branded theme? What elements should it include? Should we add in links to all our other social accounts? Do we want to integrate this into our main website?

62 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird)

Should this be our main website? Should we make graphical posts or allow text- only posts? If we do allow text-only, what about quotes? What do our readers want among all these options? Why are they following us? What do they hope to see? Indeed, it’s much simpler to use other platforms. On Instagram, marketers can feel confident that someone is following them to see a regular feed of photographs—and the occasional video—in standard sizes, on a standard presentation. The barriers to entry are lower than Tumblr’s on every other major social network, as it’s faster and easier to gain a working knowledge of Pinterest’s technical capabilities or the user expectations on Twitter. The marketers who do try Tumblr, fascinated by the expanse of choice it offers, may become discouraged when their initially muddled efforts go unrewarded or simply unnoticed by consumers. With this in mind, Tumblr’s relative lack of popularity among marketers becomes easier to understand. Making smart, tough decisions on the company end becomes key, rather than relying on constraints provided by the platform. “Anything” is not a smart approach for any company, and on Tumblr “anything” is quite possible. It is vital to self-limit an account to a certain posting approach, or a certain type of visual, or a certain voice, and maintain that consistency and honest, believable image. Otherwise, it becomes all too easy to look like a child with an overflowing toy chest. Constructing a coherent strategy on Tumblr becomes even more difficult when the relative novelty of social media marketing, in any form and on any platform, is considered. Though even a majority of managers who do not currently place importance on social media believe it will be of future importance (Kiron et al. 2012), the precise structure of how that use will play out is unclear. The capabilities and norms of various platforms are constantly shifting and overlapping; for one example, the shift away from square-only Instagram pictures, as discussed above. There are even starker challenges that abruptly arise, such as when changes to Facebook’s algorithms limited companies’ abilities to reach their customers without paid placement (Kumar et al., 2016). However, on a more positive note, another “challenge” is the creative potential for new interaction strategies that would be impossible using traditional marketing approaches (Majchrzak 2009). This chapter deals largely with the latter. Companies who wish to try something new and innovative may be enticed by Tumblr’s technical flexibility discussed above, despite the challenge it presents. Others may need further convincing that it’s worth the effort to enter those deep and strategically complex waters. For many, Tumblr’s user base would indeed be worth the effort. Tumblr has some of the most attractive demographics of any social media site. Its userbase is young, wealthy, and well-educated (Sloane, 2014; Statista, 2015). Users’ average time spent per visit (or “dashboard session” in the company’s own terminology) is a meaty 28 minutes (Fitzgerald, 2014). These two facts dovetail into one particularly intriguing fact for marketers: Tumblr users are

63 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) the most valuable e-retail click of any major platform, spending a dollar more on average than Facebook, the next most fruitful userbase (Sloane, 2014). The young and educated userbase makes for a notably relaxed environment. Casual interactions are the norm, and quirky pop culture jokes and easy vulgarity can succeed here when they might fall flat or offend on Facebook. College students are commonly encountered, with both the passion and social awareness that entails. Tumblr is somewhat famous (or infamous) for having a liberal and socially aware outlook. Companies with socially responsible practices may find a natural, enthu- siastic fit with Tumblr’s userbase. Conversely, less socially responsible companies attempting to capitalize on these attractive consumers have met with outright hostility and sabotage. At this point, the chapter moves to examples from specific accounts, both with major case studies and shorter discussions. Popular non-corporate Tum- blrs are also discussed to identify some best practices that companies could adopt.

MARKETING CASE STUDIES ON TUMBLR

With such a flexible platform that has received relatively little formal marketing attention, it is difficult to give hard and fast rules for success. A method useful for finding appropriate strategies for the Tumblr consumer base is to critically examine success stories, as well as discuss where weaker accounts have made missteps. In this section, the chapter looks first at two popular accounts that make intelligent decisions for their brand and for the platform’s users: Denny’s and Taylor Swift. The accounts are examined with an eye toward brand strategy and consumer relationship management. Following this, another account—Nordstrom—is examined in depth to discuss its missteps, and how it and other marketers could correct these common Tumblr mistakes. Other accounts and advertising campaigns are also discussed as appropriate. Before focusing on specific accounts, a few more key points about Tumblr’s consumer base are raised. So far, this chapter has discussed facts and figures about the consumer base. Tumblr is like most social networks in that certain cultural and behavioral trends dominate. Pinterest is famous for its craft-focused, feminine, and social behaviors; Snapchat for extreme youth, humor, and a lack of pretension. Tumblr, too, has dominant trends. As one might expect on such a flexible platform with visual posts, there are many creative users and creative companies. Disney Pixar (http://disneypixar.tumblr.com), for example, typically makes one graphic- intensive post per day, which gets anywhere from several hundred to several thousand “likes” or “reblogs.” It’s also a politically aware and progressive site, where posts about environmentalism, feminism, or Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign all find easy traction.

64 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird)

However, these same playful, progressive, and curious customers reject some traditional marketing efforts with a vehemence seldom seen on other platforms. Nike recently ran a paid campaign on Tumblr with a slogan that would not have looked out of place on Facebook or Instagram posts. It encouraged readers to “embrace their uncomfort zone” and push themselves to greater athletic performance, rather than stay with what is comfortable and easy. Tumblr users reacted negatively to the new presence on their dashboard. One notable reaction (see Figure 1) overlaid the advertisement onto photography of workers in one of Nike’s factories. This was an “uncomfort zone” for Nike, indeed. The ad campaign soon ended. Jumpy, gory horror movie ads are criticized for sparking some users’ anxiety disorders without any option to hide the post. Cover Girl earned hostility for the wording of a promotional post that was perceived to favor lighter eyes over brown, with associated cries of racism. And Nike again made a misstep with a recent animated GIF post that suggested women should “earn” the right to a relaxing bath by first sweating over exercise. Poorer attempts at Tumblr marketing don’t always fail so dramatically, but they often share common themes: they are more traditional paid messages poorly suited for iconoclastic millennial and post-millennial consumers. They rely on stereotypes that progressive consumers reject, or they are offered by companies that those consumers would never embrace. There are trends to success on Tumblr as well, though.

Figure 1. Nike’s attempt to advertise to Tumblr users failed, as demonstrated by one post that overlaid their paid message on a picture taken at a Nike factory. As of October 2015, this post had more than 150,000 likes or reblogs

65 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird)

Denny’s

Denny’s (http://dennys.tumblr.com) is an account that truly lives up to this chapter’s title: it’s flat-out weird. Visiting the Denny’s Tumblr is akin to a hallucinogenic experience, filled with random text posts and surreal GIF animations. Someone familiar with Denny’s, a classic American diner known for its Grand Slam breakfast platters, might find this to be an unexpected decision for the brand. Yet, Tumblr is the showcase of Denny’s current social media strategy. They are perhaps the only corporation in America that links to Tumblr before Twitter, Instagram, or even Facebook from their homepage (http://www.dennys.com). Their Tumblr may also be visited by using a URL related to their homepage (http://blog.dennys.com), implying that it should be viewed as part of their overall corporate website. Denny’s is in the middle of a rebranding and repositioning effort, part of which focuses on attracting more millennial customers. These efforts have been successful, resulting in their biggest sales jump in more than a decade and stock price growth that outpaces the general restaurant market by more than five hundred percent (Giammona, 2015). The cited article, however, demonstrates the blinders that many practitioners have toward Tumblr as a platform. When examining Denny’s modern social media presence, Bloomberg nodded to both Twitter and a collaboration with College Humor, a humor website that produces original videos. Despite Tumblr being the first social media link on the Denny’s homepage, it went unmentioned. At this point a direct comparison between the performance of Denny’s Twitter and Tumblr accounts is warranted. The Denny’s Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/dennys) is also aimed squarely at a younger market that enjoys surrealistic humor. As seen in Figure 2, the humor is highly random. A specific call-out to college freshmen suggests the specific target audience for the social media account and demonstrates their commitment to reaching millennials. By any measure, the Twitter account is successful. The displayed tweets were all liked and shared at least a thousand times, and even their less popular tweets receive a minimum of several hundred interactions from users. However, this does not compare to the consumer engagement on their Tumblr account. Denny’s most popular Tumblr post for the same month was written in response to a structural change in how comments are displayed on the site’s dashboard. They made the following stream-of-consciousness complaint, echoing the sentiments of many site users: what in the HECK Tumblr what is this streamlined NONSENSE with the dang comments maybe we don’t want everything spick-and-span CLEAN for crying out loud give us some CHAOS give us a whole block of misaligned nonsensical reply conver-

66 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) Figure 2. Three of the most popular tweets from Denny’s Twitter from the month of September, 2015

sations just SHOVED into every which way in the bottom of a post just BURY US IN UGLY GREY LINES we yearn for bedlam, for pandemonium, for PURE BLOGGING MAYHEM got dang it the only thing we want streamlined is our menus you put the appetizers in the FRONT and the desserts in the BACK and the reblog comments ALL OVER THE FLIPPIN’ PLACE SHEESH or whatever it’s fine. (Denny’s, 2015c)

By the end of September, approximately 70,000 notes were left while liking or reblogging this near-incoherent but impassioned opinion. The next most popular posts—a graphical edit of a saxophone made of pancakes and series of puns about corn on the cob—had roughly 40,000 and 50,000 notes respectively by the end of the month (Denny’s, 2015a, 2015b). Tumblr posts have not been studied to the extent of Twitter posts, but they appear to have a notably longer shelf life than tweets. The “half-life” of a tweet (meaning the average point at which a tweet has received

67 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) half the engagement it will ever get) has been found to be only 16 minutes (Rohlfs, 2015). In contrast, Tumblr posts regularly circulate for days, weeks, months, or even years after their original publication. (This chapter’s author sees this happen on a regular basis, and in fact has made several posts which surface on occasion after months of inactivity to receive another few thousand notes.) In part, this longevity may be due to the blog structure for individual profiles, where it is easy to pull up posting archives by specific month or use the tagging system to browse old posts on any topic. It’s comparatively difficult to find older posts on platforms that rely on an infinitely scrolling profile page, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. If someone discovers Denny’s surrealistic Tumblr humor and wishes to see more, it is easy for them to browse the complete archives. Unlike on many other platforms, generating a rich cache of Tumblr content can pay long-term dividends. This also points to another contributor to the higher engagement with Denny’s Tumblr. The site culture heavily supports reposting content that was original to another user. Even a popular user like The Frogman (http://thefrogman.me), who has a large enough follower base to justify branding himself with a custom domain and offers his own merchandise for sale, has a tag specific to his own original posts. Everything else posted by this popular user, who posts dozens or even hundreds of times per month, is being shared from someone else. Tumblr is a communal culture, where users collect entertaining, useful, or appealing bits from their dashboard feed like electronic magpies. More vitally for high-engagement companies like Denny’s, it is also a platform that supports the dispersal and expansion of previous conversations when this sharing occurs. Compare this to Facebook. If a user sees a news story or video posted by another Facebook user and shares it to his/her own account, any new comments are unique to that sharing. A post by CNN’s official account may receive hundreds or thousands of comments, but those conversations do not persist away from CNN’s post on its own page. Similarly, when a pin is re-pinned on Pinterest, a new comment string begins on that new account. Re-tweeting a tweet will show any replies when the tweet is expanded, but they are hidden by default. Tumblr’s software is different. If Tumblr user A leaves a comment on a post, and Tumblr user B reblogs it from them, then user A’s comment follows along as part of the post content. Another user could eventually reblog this expanded post and leave their own input added to the bottom of the current discussion, even if they do not follow user A and have never interacted with them. Asynchronous, public, and dispersed conversations are a core part of Tumblr culture and the site’s code. This allows Denny’s to not only engage with their customers, but for their engagement to be highly visible to other users. One need not visit the Denny’s Tumblr to see the conversations being held there, or to become aware that Denny’s is an approach-

68 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) able and entertaining Tumblr personality. Another popular September post began with Denny’s asking its followers one question: “truth or dare?” Users made their decision when they reblogged the post, and Denny’s then reblogged their answer with a new reply. As the Tumblr platform is largely unstudied, these behaviors have seldom been described in formal theoretical language. Borgatti and Foster (2003) proposed an early framework for social media research that specified four key technical axes on which to examine a network’s structure. One of these areas was Contagion, or how content spreads through a network. The examples above demonstrate how Tumblr’s particular software coding promotes organic and unstructured content sharing and reuse. Posts may change markedly from their original forms, and with multiple branching versions. With a basic understanding of Tumblr’s unique technical features, companies must be prepared to be nimble and reactive on it relative to their marketing plans on other networks. Building on Borgatti and Foster’s work, Kane et al. (2014) described a dual- directional effect of the technical features of each social network. In one direction, a platform selection effect induces social homogeneity. (For a simple clarifying example, visually oriented users will presumably be more drawn to Instagram than to Twitter.) In the other direction, however, individual variation occurs based on how users chose to utilize a platform’s capabilities. (To continue the example: among the visually oriented Instagram userbase, there will be those who prefer to post exclusively videos, those who post exclusively still photographs, and those who post a mixture of both.) As discussed in the introduction, Tumblr has the greatest amount of technical flexibility of any major social media platform. Under the Kane et al. framework, there will be the greatest amount of user behavior variation, thanks to this relatively

Figure 3. Denny’s engages their customers with a game of Truth or Dare

69 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) complicated range of post options. Recalling the earlier discussion of choice overload, this may all seem intimidating to marketers, and perhaps more trouble than it is worth. Recall another earlier point, however: under the Majchrzak (2009) view, this also allows for more creativity for innovative marketers who take the time to understand the software and the individuals who are drawn to this flexible outlet. Denny’s has demonstrated that it is possible to harness the flexibility of how content spreads on Tumblr, and flourish among the platform’s highly heterogeneous user behavior rather than becoming overwhelmed. Denny’s also lives up to the other half of this chapter’s title: they’re honest. In this case, honesty equals a sense that the person behind the account uses Tumblr on a regular basis and is familiar with its cultural norms. Their posts often display a keen awareness of discussions that are being held on the site, such as the quoted example of their outrage over the change in comment structure. They act like a loyal user of the site, and that act is believable. Their surrealistic humor is also consistent in tone and appearance, giving the impression that this truly is who they are. Al- though the odd tone may have been a hard sell in the account’s early days, by this point, Tumblr knows who the Denny’s account is and accepts it whole-heartedly. It’s weird, and it’s honest. Denny’s clearly recognizes the importance of Tumblr to their social media strategy, given the link’s prominence on their home page. They are an early, surrealistic pioneer in a largely untouched landscape. Tumblr offers them unique posting opportunities and levels of engagement that cannot be duplicated on any other platform, and they have used it to see more intense and sustained consumer reactions than they receive on the larger Twitter platform.

Taylor Swift

Marketing not aimed at selling traditional goods and services is well suited for Tumblr. Causes and charities may find willing audiences in the young, socially aware userbase. A variety of media styles provide a variety of potential ways to get users engaged and excited for specific events. Perhaps the type of non-company marketing that is best suited for Tumblr, however, is for individuals. Both celebrities and politicians have made good use of Tumblr. In the time sur- rounding Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, a Tumblr account (http:// barackobama.tumblr.com) was set up to alert users to campaign news, give them glimpses into the campaign process, and humanize the candidate. The author Neil Gaiman (http://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com) uses his account to share his work, related inspirations, and anything that he finds personally interesting, inspirational, or amusing. He also responds frequently to messages from individual users (known as “asks” on Tumblr, due to the default page URL for the messaging system). Fans

70 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) may get in touch directly with an author they love to ask for insight on his novels (Gaiman, 2015a) or on broader questions of e-publishing payments (Gaiman, 2015b). Due to the general lack of nuance in relationship labels on social networks, a social flattening effect occurs. Depending on the vocabulary chosen by a platform, everyone followed becomes elevated to the status of “friend,” is a professionally distant “connection,” and so on. Everyone sharing the same social label becomes homogenized into also holding the same social status and perceived social distance (Gilbert and Karahalios 2009; Kane et al. 2014). Because of this, social media is well suited for humanizing brands. Such branding efforts for individuals can make them especially open. They are, after all, someone “friended” or “followed” like any other user. The singer Taylor Swift is a particularly popular Tumblr celebrity, and an excellent demonstration of best practices for the platform. Ms. Swift—or “Taylor,” as seems more appropriate for her deliberately approachable brand image—has a strong presence on many social networks. Her Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/taylorswift13) has over sixty-five million followers; her Instagram (http://www.instagram.com/ taylorswift), over fifty-two million. Visiting her Instagram showcases a pop star at the top of her game, in the midst of a global tour paired with one of the most successful pop albums in recent music history. Instagram posts in late 2015 are largely of scenes from the 1989 tour, whether on-stage or backstage, teasers for media ap- pearances such as her cover of GQ magazine, or glimpses into Taylor’s personal life with photos of pets and interior design decisions. Her Instagram’s popularity befits her stardom, with posts typically earning a million likes and thousands of comments. Tumblr allows for a more personal touch with her communication with fans. With the Denny’s example, there was a clear winner in consumer engagement between their Twitter and their Tumblr. Denny’s Tumblr had bigger numbers, more conversations, and a broader variety of engagement styles. Analyzing Taylor’s portfolio, however, does not reveal one clear star above all the others. Rather, Taylor’s Tumblr serves as a complement to the other parts of the social portfolio. In this, it is likely a closer example to what many companies would experience if they did properly develop their own Tumblr account: smaller raw numbers, but with greater engagement. Borgatti and Foster’s (2003) Contagion analysis method is once again relevant. The flow of information on the platforms is the key difference between these accounts and how they can be used to market her individual brand. Personal communication on Instagram generally equates to leaving a comment on someone else’s post, wait- ing to see if they reply on that post, and perhaps leaving another comment. Taylor’s Tumblr (http://taylorswift.tumblr.com) gets nowhere near the volume of engagement of her Instagram. Tumblr posts typically get engagement numbers in the thousands or tens of thousands, not over a million. However, the depth of that engagement dif- fers. When a “like” shows up on Instagram, it is a quick user engagement that only

71 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) requires a finger tap. Comments stay on Taylor’s own photos, rather than following users to their own accounts. The much smaller engagement numbers on Taylor’s Tumblr do include people who simply liked a post, but they also include all users who like a post so much that they chose to reblog it, adding it to their own blog’s content in front of all their followers. Tumblr is perfectly suited for generating electronic word-of-mouth among young consumers. One’s preferences become aggressively public, shared to every follower’s individual dashboard. In a site culture that thrives on the sharing of existing content, seeing one’s friends repeatedly reblog content from Taylor Swift’s Tumblr is a con- stant reminder that she is popular in those social circles. On Instagram, following someone who is a Taylor Swift fan means that they might occasionally post pictures of themselves captioned with her songs’ lyrics, or that they will post pictures of themselves going to their local 1989 tour concert. On Tumblr, following someone who is a Taylor Swift fan means that they will share Taylor’s own personal content with you on a regular basis. Her strategy also utilizes how reblogging a post shares not only its content, but also all captions added by the previous reblogging chain. Taylor will leave a reply to some fan, and this reply is then shared across thousands of other accounts and all the users who subsequently reblog from them. She has reblogged fans’ photos of themselves to leave encouraging comments, or even made herself into the gentle punch line for a joke. Her fans not only respond positively to this, but happily share her interactions with everyone who follows them. Although many sites are designed to make content go viral with shares and retweets, no other site is as well designed to make ongoing strings of interaction go viral, too. Despite being a global superstar, Taylor’s personal brand image is that of a quirky, approachable twenty-something who is as likely to stay in with her cats and browse Tumblr as to headline an arena concert. She often posts gentle disparage- ment of herself, appearing closer to her everyday fans in the process. Her single best Tumblr practice is to reblog posts originally made by her fans, cultivating a sense that she is practically a friend to any fans on the platform. One user directed a post to Taylor (using a notification system when an account name is used in a post) asking what she should name a pet pig, and Taylor reblogged the post to offer her a list of suggestions (Swift, 2015a). Another user posted that she had gotten the financial aid she needed to attend college and Taylor reblogged the post to add effusive encouragement:

FELICIA I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!! This is why I love coming on here, reading an update on your life and getting tears in my eyes and feeling like sometimes hard work pays off and good things happen to good people.

72 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird)

This is so amazing, babe. (Swift, 2015b)

With respect to the current literature, her account reflects an interesting conflu- ence between consumer-generated content and firm-generated content. Consumer- generated content on social networks is better studied (Kumar et al., 2016). Among other effects, it has been found to indicate product quality (Tirunillai and Tellis, 2014) and to more generally serve as positive word-of-mouth (Godes, 2011). Content generated by firms may be successfully used as part of an equity-building effort (Gensler et al., 2013). Corporate content posted on social media, if implemented well, can have a notably positive effect on consumers’ receptivity toward a particular brand (Kumar et al., 2016). Through the ability to reblog user-generated content and add her own content to these existing posts, Taylor Swift presents both of these content types in her own account. Taylor Swift has perfectly capitalized on Tumblr’s unique software features to promote consumer engagement and fierce loyalty. Though she has more fans on Instagram and Twitter, Tumblr allows her to present herself as a friend to the users on Tumblr. She’s pushed engagement one step beyond Denny’s, where she not only posts her own content, but also regularly seeks out original content from other users to share with all her followers. Her image is gently quirky, if nothing to compare to Denny’s bizarre account, but Taylor Swift’s brand image on Tumblr is as honest as one could hope for. She is accessible, relatable, friendly, and open to the people buying her albums and concert tickets. Users who once mocked Taylor’s breakup-centered lyrics now defend her, and a diner chain is cultivating a whole new generation of fans. In both cases these successful marketing strategies were open and honest, avoided hard selling and blatant advertising, and recognized both the technical and offbeat cultural aspects of the site. Innovative startups and small companies have found traction on Tumblr, as well, when users became interested in the product itself without any further marketing effort. Liftware, a company that adapted camera stabilization technology to make utensils for people with Parkinson’s disease, had hundreds of thousands of reblogs about what users saw as a valuable, interesting, and compassionate new product. (Liftware has since been acquired by Google, and the demo model Tumblr was excited about is now in active production.) The Liftware post was straightforward, socially aware, and used the multimedia capabilities of the site to make its benefits apparent. It appeared honest as it appealed to the user base, as did Taylor Swift and, in its own surrealistic way, Denny’s.

73 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird)

Nordstrom

Not all companies on Tumblr have figured out how to utilize the site properly. The luxury retailer Nordstrom is a well-viewed company, with long-term trends placing it among the most beloved retail chains world-wide (Mannes, 2012). Nordstrom’s home page links to many of their social media accounts. The typical presences of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram are all featured. So is their account on Wanelo (Want, Need, Love), a specialty social media platform centered on shopping activities. They do not, however, even link to their underperforming Tumblr account. Nordstrom seems ideally suited to match up with Tumblr as a marketing platform. Tumblr users have a high household income, and Nordstrom is an upscale retailer. Tumblr provides for valuable e-retail clicks, and Nordstrom has a large online storefront. Tumblr rewards engagement and personal connections, and Nordstrom is famous for its personal touch and service levels. Tumblr applauds socially responsible companies, and Nordstrom has its own program for socially responsible actions (Nordstrom Cares). It receives popular word-of-mouth from Tumblr users themselves around Thanksgiving, as it’s pointed to as a company that doesn’t require its workers to come in on the holiday and should thus be rewarded with shopping dollars. Yet, its account flounders. Examining Nordstrom’s account (http://nordstrom.tumblr.com) gives some indi- cations as to why they have not succeeded on the platform. From a strategic side, its mission is unclear. In some posts they showcase their products in traditional glamour shots; in others, they show behind-the-scenes shots from fashion shows; in others, they have seemingly random imagery to entice people to shop at a sale or enjoy life in a big city. A sense of randomness works for the Denny’s Tumblr, as there is a consistent visual identity and surrealistic sense of humor as one scrolls down the page there. The jokes are random, but not the strategy. Nordstrom lacks this consistency. Many posts appear divorced from those around them. Stylized, graphical ads similar to a Target commercial sit next to traditional runway shows. About the only connecting thread on the page is “these products are sold at Nordstrom,” and some posts don’t even include that. Perhaps even more damningly, the graphics are not up to the standards of the site’s users. GIF files can currently be uploaded at a maximum of 2 megabytes on the Tumblr platform. For large-scale images like Nordstrom favors, that means that the animation cycles are short and choppy. Many of their GIFs attempt to play with this as a stop-motion effect, but the short loops make for a disorienting viewing session. They also fail to show off movement in the clothes they are attempting to sell. Some posts actually actively hinder efforts to examine the products. A recent post showcasing a dress from an Ann Demeulemeester runway show at Paris Fashion Week

74 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) used an animated GIF to do so (Nordstrom, 2015). The GIF is very large and lasts less than a second. In that time it flashes back and forth between a close-up of the front of the gown and a more distant view as the model walks away. It’s impossible to get a good look at any part of the dress in that time. Only 256 colors can be used in a GIF, which causes a stippled corrective effect known as “dithering” on images that cover a wide spectrum of hues and values (such as the Demeulemeester dress). In two weeks, the post received 9 likes and only three reblogs. It was not content that people responded to positively, and did not want to post to their own blog. Nordstrom’s failings with their Tumblr account raise two different versions of the most common challenge with using the platform: with so much flexibility, it’s hard to know what to do. The first challenge has to do with the types of posts used. They have made two major decisions that help to narrow their focus here, so choice overload is less damaging on this point. One: all posts involve pictures, rather than being links, text, or public answers to customer questions. Two: all posts are original to them, rather than being reblogs. Both of these decisions are different than what is seen with the positive examples of Taylor Swift and Denny’s, who reblog other users’ content or answer questions they pose. This may suggest that the ultimate goal of a popular Tumblr is variety and direct user engagement. However, a look at other Tumblr blogs suggests that it is perfectly possible to succeed with only original photo posts. Tumblr users are well primed to respond to beautiful images, including fashion photography. A fan-run fashion blog (Fashion Runways, http://fashion-runways.tumblr.com) is used for contrast. A post of close- up images of accessories from a Dolce & Gabbana show, made just one day before Nordstrom’s Demeulemeester post, has nearly 5,000 notes in a similar time (Fashion Runways, 2015a). Dolce & Gabbana is sold at Nordstrom. The “Featured Brands” listed on Nordstrom’s online storefront include Givenchy, Chloé, Christian Louboutin, Fendi, Saint Laurent, and Valentino. The same Fashion Runways blog has a tagged category for posts about Valentino. All posts received at least a hundred notes. Many received several thousand. A few star performers passed one hundred thousand likes and reblogs from the fashion lovers of Tumblr (Fashion Runways, 2015b). This contrast points to the core of Nordstrom’s choice overload issue. Look- ing at their blog gives the impression of seeing many different companies’ visual strategies on Tumblr, and going for a grab bag version of those efforts. To use the comparison from earlier in the chapter, the Nordstrom account is an overflowing toy chest. Even though they’ve put limits on the types of content, the style of that content lacks unity. The creative, malleable Tumblr culture supports random humor, stop-motion animation, still photography, strong graphic design, and many other kinds of content. Using all of those at once, though, cultivates an image that is less “weird” than “confused.” A luxury retailer may not even wish to aim for a weird

75 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) image, but one gets the feeling looking at the Nordstrom account that they feel it’s (painfully) mandatory for Tumblr. This chapter argues that “weird” is one way to succeed on Tumblr. However, one must also be honest. Nordstrom’s Tumblr does not align with its existing brand image, as does Taylor Swift’s Tumblr. Nor does its scattershot approach suggest one clear and honest (if unexpected) voice, like Denny’s. Instead, it gives the impression of seeing a parent trying and failing to use various slang terms favored by their teenage children. “Weird” can certainly be an avenue to success on this platform, but it is not necessary. Simple commitment to an open, honest brand presentation can be strong, as well. Nordstrom did not use a variety of post types to engage their readers, such as answering customer service questions directly or reblogging posts of successful shopping trips. (Although, these approaches could certainly be tried.) While Taylor Swift and Denny’s suggest this type of interaction as a major contributor to successful consumer engagement, Fashion Runways’ success counters the idea that it is absolutely necessary. Their reader engagement indicates that Nordstrom could see much better success with strong, confident presentations of their merchandise in ways customers would enjoy seeing. Aspirational high-end luxury, collections of tortoiseshell accessories, or dream rooms are all plausible photosets they could make while staying true to their brand and aligning well with more fashionable Tumblr users’ interests. A competitor in the fashion market, Gap (http://gap.tumblr.com), paid to have a simple, static post occasionally appear on users’ dashboards. It contains two images: the elements of a man’s outfit, and then a man wearing that same outfit (Gap, 2015). Though few Internet users would say they actually like advertising, the Gap’s promotional post has been liked or reblogged more than thirty-five thousand times by fans of the look. The post is clean, classic, all-American, and slightly urban: all the markers of the Gap’s brand. The photographs aren’t exciting, but they’re attractive. This ad isn’t weird in the slightest, but it’s entirely honest. (And, unlike Nike’s simple paid slogans with no accompanying content, users didn’t feel as if their dashboards had been seized by the Gap.) Nordstrom’s first step on Tumblr should be to achieve a similar level of honesty. Weirdness, if they still wish to pursue it, can come later. A final comparison further addresses Nordstrom’s challenges with finding appropriate, Tumblr-specific content. As discussed, Denny’s and Taylor Swift found success on Tumblr by regularly engaging with the users in innovative ways. For some marketers, these particular paths to success may be used as a template if they wish to truly commit to reaching the attractive Tumblr audience. However, many marketers may be unwilling to invest this effort into their Tumblr account when they have more confidence in other social media platforms, using more traditional marketing approaches. Denny’s and Taylor are good models for committed Tum-

76 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) blrs, but for novices, the equivalent of training wheels can help avoid Nordstorm’s creative missteps. Content need not be original to the Tumblr platform. Even Taylor Swift’s account regularly cross-posts content from other sources. The same shot of her onstage at a concert is likely to appear on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. Beginning this way, with inherently appealing posts that users would actually want to engage with, can serve as a gentle introduction to the site and slowly build a follower base with little additional effort over existing social media marketing strategies. It’s not innovative or highly engaging, but it’s a reasonable first step for learning to use a platform outside of one’s comfort zone (while avoiding the pitfalls of Nike’s un-comfort zone). Once a marketer sees which sort of posts gain traction on Tumblr, they can begin to strategically customize their approach there without feeling overwhelmed by the site’s flexibility. An example: the Corcoran Group, a New York City-based luxury real estate company that also handles listings in the Hamptons and south Florida, has an established Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/thecorcorangroup). Approximately 125,000 users have liked the page and see their updates on Corcoran’s listings, the real estate market, and New York City. Despite Facebook’s much larger userbase than Tumblr, Corcoran’s 10 A.M. Special Tumblr (http://thecorcorangroup10amspecial. tumblr.com) sees generally higher engagement with users. On Facebook, Corcoran seeks out interesting articles to share, produces original content featuring a pair of French bulldogs, and links to current real estate listings. On Tumblr, they simply take existing real estate photos of one beautiful luxury house and upload them as a photoset with a short caption. The Facebook dog posts are the most popular (with several dozen to several hundred likes), but as original content, also the most time- intensive. The Tumblr photosets, on the other hand, regularly get several dozen likes and often reach triple-digit engagement numbers with no expended effort but moving the photos off their real estate website and onto social media. Non-dog Facebook posts come nowhere near the Tumblr engagement numbers, and are often not shared at all.

DISUSSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

There is no replacement for experience, and relatively few marketers have experience with Tumblr. A slow and steady approach that does not rely on original content creation can serve as an initial entry to the site, as well as staying true to a company’s existing brand image. (In other words, staying honest.) Corcoran expends much less effort to run their Tumblr than Nordstrom’s surrealistic or animated efforts, but gets better engagement numbers. Fashion Runways, which simply reposts existing

77 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) fashion photography, also gets better engagement numbers than Nordstrom. These unpaid fashion fans have developed a more consistent and popular Tumblr presence than a major retailer. Accordingly, the first step toward Tumblr success is to determine how to remain honest to one’s brand in a site that makes it easy to do anything. If marketers translate their existing content onto Tumblr, the likelihood of a confused (and confusing) account drops significantly. Later, once Tumblr becomes a regular update alongside more traditional platforms, the companies running those accounts may feel more confident about engaging with users, expanding their post types, or even generating content entirely original to Tumblr. The risks of choice overload are averted, while still receiving the benefits of choice. Just as Tumblr is underutilized by marketers compared to many other social media platforms, it is understudied by academics. Earlier, it was mentioned that the lifespan of tweets has been identified as being quite short. Although general trends on Tumblr are indicative of much longer engagement periods per post, there is a lack of similar data-driven research on the platform. Practitioners and academics alike would benefit from an understanding of how Tumblr’s synthesis of blogging organizational structure with social media sharing capabilities affects post lifespan. Tumblr’s tagging system has differences from other sites’ hashtags. On Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or Instagram, fans of the band One Direction all might check the tag “#1d” to see what others have posted about them. However, Tumblr’s tags can also be longer than on other sites, and include spaces and most punctuation. This allows for richer and more flexible communications for people interested in a topic, as they are able to use longer and more complex hashtags to talk with similarly interested users. The construction and use of these longer hashtags is essentially unstudied, as is their use in tagging content for others’ use versus when tags are used only to organize content on one’s own blog. As noted, earlier comments are carried along in reblogs in perpetuity. This feature, unique to Tumblr, has the potential to generate several fundamentally different versions of a post that then get their own reblog chains with ever-growing conversations. Consider a hypothetical photoset posted by Fashion Runways, in which one popular reblog chain is given an aesthetics-driven focus with a top-level comment of “This was my favorite runway show of the season. Such innovative construction.” Another early commenter, however, reblogs the post with a discussion of how the company used African textile inspirations in their collection, but did not source materials from any African companies nor use any non-white models. Future discussions under this particular reblog chain would likely follow with a focus on social justice. From the perspective of the site owners, their original post with a straightforward fashion photoset is getting more engagement (likes and reblogs) no matter which version is

78 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird) seen. This poses obvious questions about the process of electronic word-of-mouth on the site, or even about broader questions of communication processes. Lastly, more research is warranted on Tumblr users themselves. They pose many intriguing contradictions: young, but giving the most valuable retail clicks, Creative and progressive, yet often sharing others’ content instead of their own, able to run many different blogs (with no visible connection) under one account, offering the chance for multiple interests or even identities to flourish under a single login. Tumblr’s unique culture has served as a wall to many marketers. It’s also kept many academics off Tumblr, choosing instead to focus on the more mainstream platforms. The research possibilities for Tumblr, whether more theory or practice-driven, are therefore numerous.

CONCLUSION

In this chapter’s title, honesty was named as the first way to promote customer loyalty and engagement. It appears to be a nonnegotiable point, but there are many different ways to be “honest” on the platform. Like the Gap, one may simply showcase one’s products in beautiful ways without doing a hard sell on other brand attributes, with a strategy of reaching out to users who would enjoy sharing that appealing content. Like Taylor Swift, one may regularly interact with users and remove perceived barriers to create a feeling of approachability and friendship. Or, like Denny’s, one may construct an entirely new and different brand image for the platform, but absolutely maintain a sense of clarity and consistency for that new voice. Weirdness is optional, and not something that must be pursued if it’s a poor fit with a company like Nordstrom. Though weirdness is not mandatory, it’s still a possibility. Tumblr allows for companies to let their hair down, so to speak, and attempt new and creative marketing approaches that they would be hesitant to try elsewhere. Brands that have found the most success on Tumblr have seldom done so via direct marketing spending. Successful paid advertising, such as the Gap, has generally presented appealing imagery front and center to the viewer, rather than a branded message like Nike’s unfortunate un-comfort zone. The very top performers don’t operate via this route, but use organic growth based on engagement with users’ interests, selves, or both. They understand the platform’s culture and pursue a path of appealing content coupled with direct user interaction. They recognize the quirks and desires of this particular culture, respect that culture, and in the process gain loyal consumer advocates in wealthy, educated segments. They’ve stayed honest, and occasionally, they’ve gotten a little weird.

79 Marketing on Tumblr Where It Helps to Be Honest (And Weird)

REFERENCES

Borgatti, S., & Foster, P. C. (2003). The Network Paradigm in Organizational Research: A Review and Typology. Journal of Management, 29(6), 991–1013. doi:10.1016/S0149-2063(03)00087-4 Cohen, D. (2015). Infographic: Explosive Active User Growth for Pinterest, Tumblr. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/infographic-gwi-pinterest- tumblr/620098 Denny’s. (2015a). CORN ON THE. Retrieved from http://blog.dennys.com/ post/129381733083/corn-on-the Denny’s. (2015b). STACKSOPHONE, BABY! Retrieved from http://blog.dennys. com/post/128364753433/stacksophone-baby Denny’s. (2015c). Untitled. Retrieved from http://blog.dennys.com/ post/128214110323/what-in-the-heck-tumblr-what-is-this-streamlined Fashion Runways. (2015a). Dolce & Gabanna at Milan Fashion Week Spring RTW 2016 - Headwear. Retrieved from http://fashion-runways.tumblr.com/ post/130351439421/dolce-gabbana-at-milan-fashion-week-spring-rtw Fashion Runways. (2015b). Valentino. Retrieved from http://fashion-runways.tumblr. com/tagged/valentino Fitzgerald, B. R. (2014). Yahoo: Tumblr to Make Over $100 Million in Revenue Next Year. Retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/10/21/yahoo-tumblr-to- make-over-100-million-in-revenue-next-year/ Gaiman, N. (2015a). July 5th, 2015 at 12:43 PM. Retrieved from http://neil-gaiman. tumblr.com/post/123294903396/neil-gaiman-can-you-give-me-a-lengthy-answer- about Gaiman, N. (2015b). July 7th, 2015 at 8:40 PM. Retrieved from http://neil-gaiman. tumblr.com/post/123509154296/what-are-your-thoughts-about-amazons-decision-to Gap. (2015). New York photographer Brian Morr wears his Gap 1969 Japanese selvege denim for a day of exploring. Retrieved from http://gap.tumblr.com/ post/128736242093/new-york-photographer-brian-morr-wears-his-gap Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Liu-Thompkins, Y., & Wiertz, C. (2013). Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), 242–256. doi:10.1016/j.intmar.2013.09.004

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Giammona, C. (2015). Denny’s Revival Provides Blueprint for McDonald’s Turn- around. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/ denny-s-revival-provides-blueprint-for-mcdonald-s-turnaround Gilbert, E., & Karahalios, K. (2009). Predicting Tie Strength with Social Media. Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Human Factors in Comput- ing Systems. Godes, D. (2011). Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Dif- fusion. Marketing Science, 30(2), 224–229. doi:10.1287/mksc.1100.0605 Hadar, L., & Sood, S. (2014). When Knowledge Is Demotivating: Subjective Knowledge and Choice Overload. Psychological Science, 25(9), 1739–1747. doi:10.1177/0956797614539165 PMID:25037963 Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When Choice is Demotivating: Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995–1006. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.995 PMID:11138768 Kane, G. C., Alavi, M., Labianca, G., & Borgatti, S. P. (2014). What’s Different About Social Media Networks? A Framework and Research Agenda. Management Information Systems Quarterly, 38(1), 275–304. Kiron, D., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., & Kruschwitz, N. (2012). Social Business: What Are Companies Really Doing? MIT Sloan Management Review. Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R., & Kannan, P. (2016). From Social to Sale: The Effects of Firm-Generated Content in Social Media on Customer Behavior. Journal of Marketing, 80(1), 7–25. doi:10.1509/jm.14.0249 Lowensohn, J. (2007). Tumblr: Microblogging done right. Retrieved from http:// www.cnet.com/news/tumblr-microblogging-done-right/ Luden, I. (2014). Tumblr Overtakes Instagram As Fastest-Growing Social Plat- form, Snapchat Is The Fastest-Growing App. Retrieved from http://techcrunch. com/2014/11/25/tumblr-overtakes-instagram-as-fastest-growing-social-platform- snapchat-is-the-fastest-growing-app/ Majchrzak, A. (2009). Comment: Where Is the Theory in Wikis? Management Information Systems Quarterly, 33(1), 18–20. Mannes, T. (2012). Nordstrom, Kohl’s among most beloved retail brands. Retrieved from http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2012/may/16/poll-nordstrom- kohls-among-most-beloved-retail-bra/

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Nordstrom. (2015). Ann Demeulemeester at Paris Fashion Week. Retrieved from http://nordstrom.tumblr.com/post/130401742690/ann-demeulemeester-at-paris- fashion-week-images Rohlfs, A. (2015). The Half-Life of Social Media Posts: How to Improve Engagement on Twitter. Retrieved from http://www.pagemodo.com/blog/the-half-life-of-social- media-posts-how-to-improve-engagement-on-twitter/ Sellier, A.-L., & Dahl, D. W. (2011). Focus!! Creative Success Is Enjoyed Through Restricted Choice. JMR, Journal of Marketing Research, 48(6), 996–1007. doi:10.1509/jmr.10.0407 Sloane, G. (2014). Tumblr’s Top Draw as a Marketing Platform Is Its Wealthier User Base: Ringing up revenue for retailers. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/news/ technology/tumblr-s-top-draw-marketing-platform-its-wealthier-user-base-160103 Statista. (2015). Statistics and facts about Tumblr. Retrieved from http://www. statista.com/topics/2463/tumblr/ Swift, T. (2015a). Untitled 1. Retrieved from http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/ post/125996514805/treacherousswiftie-taylorswift-im-getting-a Swift, T. (2015b). Untitled 2. Retrieved from http://taylorswift.tumblr.com/ post/121252728745/seeyouinmywildestdreamsts-taylor-i-know-you Tirunillai, S., & Tellis, G. J. (2012). Does Chatter Really Matter? Dynamics of User- Generated Content and Stock Performance. Marketing Science, 31(2), 198–215. doi:10.1287/mksc.1110.0682

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Analytics: Software designed to track data for a site’s users, such as browsing time or geographical location, and present it as information useful to the site owner. Blogging: A method for publishing online content that is dated and archived. This content is usually longer than typical posts on most social media platforms. Blogging is a process label, rather than its own platform like Facebook or Pinterest. Choice Overload: The concept that rather that benefitting from high levels of choice, we become overwhelmed with so many options and instead become less satisfied or choose suboptimally. Microblogging: A term for content presented in a blog-like manner, but that is typically shorter than posts made on traditional blogging platforms. There may be more of an emphasis on multimedia rather than on text.

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Notes: A collective term for user engagement measures on Tumblr. It refers to both “likes” (which do not share content to another user’s blog) and to “reblogs” (which do share content). Photoset: A term used on Tumblr for a photo gallery in which all pictures are displayed simultaneously to the user in a sequential or mosaic-like arrangement. Reblog: An original post on Tumblr may be reposted to other users’ blogs, where they may add additional comments and tags. Sharing: Most social media networks have some capability for re-posting content from one user’s account to a second user’s. The name tends to be specific to each platform: reblogging on Tumblr, retweeting on Twitter, repinning on Pinterest, etc. Sharing is Facebook’s terminology and is also a general, generic descriptor for the process. Tags: An organizational feature common to blogging platforms such as Tumblr and Wordpress. Clicking on a certain tag for a post will return all other posts made using that tag. They may be used to organize one’s own blog or to find content made by others on some topic.

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Chapter 5 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding: A Factorial Analysis Approach

Meriem Nouala Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria

Marwa Imene Mekki Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria

Abdelmadjid Ezzine Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria

ABSTRACT The Internet is currently the largest computer network in use. Because everyone can use it, and join the network. The main role is that the internet allows to exchange information freely. Corporate communication modes jostled following the advent of the internet and more specifically social networking. Many victims of online business communication crisis affecting sustainably their brand. A real challenge for today’s companies needs to understand the characteristics of these new media and to establish an effective communication strategy in order to maintain and improve its image among its customers. This research looks at whether social networks have an effect on the brand image. Several dimensions for assessing this concept will be identified through an empirical study.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch005

INTRODUCTION

Being close to customers is a major challenge for companies, even if it is intangible and difficult to assess, it is the result of having a large portfolio of loyal customers. More precisely, winning that loyalty requires proximity to the business and the brand at the same time, which is increasingly difficult to obtain in a globalized business world. The main challenge for companies in the last years is to develop that emotional closeness as well as the virtual closeness, i.e. to move from a geographical proximity to a virtual proximity. The evolution of Internet has enabled the creation of new communication tools and frameworks for companies and individuals. For example, today all companies have to deal with social networks, which allow them to manage their images and brands, increase their incomes and enrich their experience on the web market which offers completely new opportunities that are previously nonexistent and absent. Creative employees present the kernel of success for the new businesses that have emerged after the advent of Web 2.0, by hiring: social media manager, community manager, web content manager, and search engine marketing specialist. The companies developed their social media strategies by focusing on two key concerns. The first concern was the control of the brand presence and image in social media, and how to respond to the opportunities that social media presents to fans to impact on the brand. The second concern was how to strike an appropriate balance between strategies that deliver short-term revenue, and those that build longer term brand loyalty (Jeff, et al., 2014), also, the companies use social networks as a true marketing tool: it is considered as a mean of communication, sales promotion, and prospecting. Today, the majority of consumers learn about products through social networks; the consumer feels closer to a company and a brand will often be true, but will also be its ambassador and presenter for other customers or potential companies and institutions (Adamy, 2013). The customer, in this case, will withstand the stresses of competitors and will defend the brand in case of an emergency or harmful rumors. There is therefore both a behavioral component and of course an emotional component to the concept of brand loyalty. These attachment and proximity phenomena are observable for both consumer and business-to-business brands. As an example, Apple implemented a client data base, where real “fans” are customers who have a thorough knowledge of Apple products and services; also, news and buyers are considered as strong supporters of the brand. And as initiative, Steve Jobs also wished to inform the fans about the evolution of his brand, by launching, in June 2011, a new web site cupidtino.com a dating site dedicated to Apple fans. First, the customer must answer a questionnaire about Apple products

85 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding they have before enrolling. The idea is to mark that attachment to Apple brand is guaranteed as the affinity between individuals. The present chapter attempt to answer the following main question: “Does the Social Networks have an effect on Brands Image?” To answer this question, two assumptions were made:

• The presence of a brand on social networks influences the purchase decision. • The brand image varies according to product groups.

To achieve this perspective, this chapter starts by reviewing the state of the art that defines the main features of social networks. Then, we discuss the branding and its characteristics. And finally, we propose our factorial analysis approach and show its effectiveness that measures the effect of social networks on the brand image. The results of these studies are presented and discussed, then, the future research directions are discussed in the conclusion section.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social Networks

By the arrival of the Internet, virtual world and technologies emerged have completely changed our life style: Internet users spend more and more time behind a screen looking for information, follow general news, share passions, disseminating creations and communicate with family, friends or strangers in communities, and sharing the same interests (games, sports, technology, hobbies, studies, profession, etc.). These are the main activities that integrate digital technology, social interaction, and content creation. And generally, they do these activities through social networks supported especially by the second version of the web (WEB 2.0).

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 does not have a real definition yet. The first person who has used this new expression was Tim O’Reilly in 2005 (O’Reilly, 2005), making him its ‘founder’. O’Reilly declined to define formally what Web 2.0 is, and he was content to give examples of who was and what was not, at first, brainstorming with Medialive Inter- national. Simply, Web 2.0 is intended as a new way of conceiving the Internet, which would not be realized by specialists but where everyone, in a spirit of cooperation, would participate in the establishment of an information.

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Mainly, the term Web 2.0 serves to designate an evolution of the Web, a kind of a second generation which can leave some essential characteristics. Web 2.0 is initially characterized by technological developments. In version 2.0, the web becomes more dynamic. So the Web 2.0 applications support the creation of informal users’ networks, facilitating the flow of ideas and knowledge by allowing efficient generation, dissemination, sharing and editing/refining the content (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014) of information. This means that contrast of the web at the beginning, which brought together static pages, Web 2.0 pages utilize programming languages that allow a developer/ a user to query databases or create events based on actions of users. More than that, the technological revolutions have advanced the characterization of the Web 2.0. These are intended to focus on the Internet and simplify the user experience on the web. This change allows the user to have a much more important role in the creation of content in the web pages. Web 2.0 also corresponds to a change of use: users interact and participate in creating content on the Internet by a joint construction of information over the social web (Ben Farhat, 2014).

What is Social Media?

Dupin defined social media as “All online platforms creating a social interaction between different users around digital content (photos, text, and video) and to varying degrees of affinity. They are the center of attention, their audience is growing, and they have a craze louder from businesses or institutions that they represent a turning point in the dissemination of information and answer new mechanisms of marketing and communications” (Dupin, 2010). Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, two professors from ESCP Europe defined social media as: “A group of online applications that rely on the ideology and the technology of Web 2.0 and allows creating and sharing the generated content of users” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). For Frédéric Cavazza, the French specialist in social media, he considered social media as “a set of services for developing conversations and social interactions on the internet or on the mobility situations” (Cavazza, 2009). So social media is a term commonly given to the Internet and mobile-based channels and tools that allow users to interact with each other and share opinions and content (Abaidi et al.,2013) As the name implies, social media involves the building of communities or networks and encouraging participation and engagement.

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What is Social Network?

The term “social network” appeared for the first time in 1954, employed by John A. Barnes, the British anthropologist. A social network is a group of individuals or social organizations linked by social interactions. In recent years, the Internet brings another dimension to the “social networking”, and defines it more as a community of individuals and organizations connected through new communication technologies according to their interests (music, cinema, etc.) or professional life. Further, Boyd and Ellison (Boyd & Ellison, 2007) define social network sites as “web-based services that allow individuals to:

1. Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, 2. Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and 3. View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system”.

As part of a marketing approach, the term “social networks” generally refers to all websites that build up a network of friends or professional knowledge and providing their members with tools and interaction interfaces, presentation, and communication. The best known social networks are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Viadeo, and YouTube that can also be viewed partially as a social network to the extent that the service has developed tools of interaction between its members. Especially, the rating success of the main social networks has made marketing and advertising media more attractive The online social network is characterized by a matchmaking website where members qualify and advise one or more facets of their personality in order to make contact with other people who have similar or complementary profiles. The social network also allows a user to edit multiple content types (private or public messages, comments, opinions, photos, videos, hyperlinks to websites, articles, and games) and exchange them with other members of the same or different network. The advent of Web 2.0 makes social networks considered as essential communication tools for businesses at all levels of the famous purchase funnel: the promotion of new products in search of new customers through the customer loyalty or simply gain notoriety. Social networks have also become essential elements for human resources and recruitment strategies or for seeking new business partnerships. On the media side, social networks are also fully integrated within the editorial strategies. Most of them, whether on TV, the press or radio, have developed their network through existing social networks or creating within their website a dedicated space for their hearing. Similarly, thanks to Web 2.0, media websites make avail-

88 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding able to their audience the tools to facilitate the publication and distribution of their content to the community of their readers (RSS feeds, Twitter son, like button, etc.). Finally, social networks are now involved in all spheres of social life. The world of politics is strongly affected by this phenomenon. The use of social networks has punctuated the US presidential campaign in 2008 to recruit new voters or raise funds. Political life is happening as much in the virtual sphere (social networks, blogs, and microblogging platforms) than in the real economy.

Difference Between Social Media and Social Network

We use everyday terms of media and social networks, and we tend to believe that this is more or less the same. Indeed, social media includes social networks, blogs, forums and platforms questions, and answers. In other words, social networks are only part of social media. The advent of the internet technology, particularly its implications for real-time interaction and marketplace crowding, has, however, made branding more complex and dynamic (Ibeh et al, 2005) . The term “e-branding” generally refers to a logical marketing or advertising campaign that seeks to position a brand in the consumer’s mind and mainly, it includes the cover-branding naming (the choice of name to promote), hosting, references, deployment or the actual branding on the network. The naming: The charters naming and addressing are used by the IT departments of companies or organizations to codify and assigning email addresses to the employees and the other Internet users. Some providers are recessing and identifying corporate naming charters to be able to reconstruct an unknown email address from the name, first name, and the company. The accommodation (accommodation of a site on a server): To allow Internet users were accessing a site easily, it should be posted on specific computers called “servers.” These servers will store documents for publication on the web and allow users to access it, and it is called a server because it hosts the website and its contents. To visit the site, a particular computer, so-called “client”, establishes communication and ensure security with the server for which information will be exchanged between them. Flowing information from the server to client, and vice versa, this communication occupies a certain amount of bandwidth when more clients are connected to the server. A problem may arise in case of several computers access simultaneously to a server. In this case, if the bandwidth requirement is beyond the capabilities of the server, some visitors cannot get access to the site. That is why it is important to know the characteristics of the hosting offer (what are the limits) and choose depending on the objectives, in terms of visitors, the site, and its features. Referencing: The term “referencing” when interacting with a website, has several definitions:

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1. It may be the registration of the website in search engines and directories (= index) which therefore will be the “reference” in their results pages. 2. The referencing also corresponds to the set of actions and techniques to improve the position of the website in the search results (= positioning) and maximize visibility.

The referencing is a process to rise the visibility of a website on search engine (Andrieu, 2008), generate traffic to the website and influence the number of visitors. They are classified as follows:

1. The Natural Referencing: Also called organic referencing, includes all the techniques to optimize the positioning of a website in search engine results. All these methods are found under the acronym SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In SEO, we mention natural links (or organic) that are to say from the heart of links engine (provided by the relevancy algorithm) without the intervention of a commercial or monetary system. 2. Paid Referencing or Paid Search: Also called SEO sponsored, organic or not, refers to all actions to position your website in Google top by buying sponsored links. These methods are found under the term SEA, Search Engine Advertising. This is all in place commercial advertisements on search engines with mainly commercial SEO Google Adwords. 3. International Referencing or International SEO: In the case of a foreign website, if you want a proper position on the international market, you will work internationally the referencing of this site. So, how to implement an SEO strategy internationally and act on multilingual sites? The actions to implement will vary according to linguistic areas and local targets: so you do not reference a website in English for an Italian public for example. The simple transposition (mirror SEO) of a site from one language to another is not enough to hope to position themselves in this market. 4. Local Referencing (Local SEO): If you have a website whose business depends largely on local business, you cannot do without a local SEO strategy. A good ranking in Google Maps is a must especially through Google services and Google + Local Addresses. These free tools are very useful for SEO (display local results at the top of Google’s results pages) and for users who specifically will locate your business on a map and can obtain a link to the access plan.

In addition, the brand content means that a brand creates or edits the content. This can be informative, cultural, practical, fun, or entertaining. Branded content provides value (a service, information, entertainment): it is interesting in itself,

90 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding irrespective of product purchase. It comes as a gift addressed to a person, which exceeds the commercial function and seeks involvement in a rewarding experience. Traditional advertising essentially obeys a different logic: focused on one element of the product or brand, consisting of short messages to be repeated and memorized, it is primary to buyers. With digital, advertising tends to logic of content and dis- tinctions fade (Jamet & Altman, 2013) For Emmanuel Derieux and Agnes Granchet (Derieux & Granchet, 2013), social networks or online social networking are web-based platforms, meeting places and information of any kind exchanges between registrants (like a participant, contact, relationship, “friend”, “follower”) to the same group or claiming to belong to the same community. And for Kaplan and Haenlein (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010), social networking sites allow users to create profiles on the support, to post and share information, and communicate with other members of this network. Also defined by Nair (Nair, 2011) as “tools of the content, opinions, ideas and media-media that can be shared”.

BRANDING AND REPUTATION ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

Branding

Traditionally, a brand is thought to evoke, in the customer’s mind, a certain personality, presence and product or service performance (Doyle, 1998). Branding is endowing products and services with the power of the brand (Kotler & Keller, 2006). Branding is more than indispensable to survive, especially when the competition is tough. The presence of brand on social networks is radical to reflect the positioning of the brand, i.e. the image that a business it wants for the consumer to have. Another aspect is using social networks to improve the reputation of a business can help to strengthen its global reputation. For a long time, companies are advertising their products, services or brands, but, only recently that they are interested in their image and brand. Branding is the personality cleared by a company with its various components. Branding is always comparative and analog. For example, if one mentions the name of Carrefour, one thinks immediately to its major competitors’ markets: Auchan, Leclerc, or Euromarché. Also, branding is always reductive and simplistic. And, we retain only a few plots of the elements of a brand, like it is an expensive product, but solid; it is beautiful, but not so reliable, etc. So, branding is how the public representation of a company is and how it has been created from the feedback that it receives. Hence, four classes exist to distinguish the different branding types: The desired image: that corresponds to the company’s communication objective.

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• The possible image: linked to the context in which the company operates. • The projected image: that depends on the past and the current communication activities. • The perceived image: internally and externally, for example in Algeria or abroad.

Also, there are other similar concepts in branding such as (Debourg, et al., 2004):

• The attachment to the brand. • Sensitivity to the brand. • Brand identity.

Role of Branding

The Need for a Strong Identity

It seems that the name brands gradually lose their power of attraction. Some even report that the marks are dying. They rely on the fact that people buy more and more “unbranded” products and explain notably by consumer awareness of the products are almost identical in quality plan, questioning the price gap. But do they exist at present unbranded products? If this is the case, how many people can they buy? The products are presented as fools brand are not! They may have no product brand, but they benefit from a service mark. In short, they have a brand and without it, their sale is compromised. Take the example of “first prizes” that are found in supermarkets. Would you buy if they were not sold by a supermarket with a good image and reliability that guarantee them? That said, it is likely that you prefer to buy products with a strong identity. At present, the “consolidated” brands account about 93% for the market. Despite a higher price and characteristics similar to the brands one in terms of quality, and 13 from 14 products sold are belonging to the same family that has a strong identity (Beckwith, 1997). A brand allows customers to direct its choice towards a product. Any business can and should create a brand. Therefore, the money greatly facilitates this task, but it is mostly a problem of imagination. Moreover, it depends largely on the quality of the positioning. The importance of branding is true in all areas: sales of products or services, business to business, e-commerce, etc. It is true, however, that its role is more or less important depending on whether such services or products. You can see the product

92 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding and test it. However, the service represents a promise to do something, and the customer is not always able to assess the result. In this case, nothing is more important than the brand. When it comes to e-commerce, it is easy to imagine how a strong identity plays an important role: it encourages coming to the site and reassures that must provide information to the customer that cannot touch the product. The need for a strong identity lies in two functions: generate interest and inspire confidence.

Generating Interest

In a world where the consumer has a multitude of options, where the offers are so numerous that it can never all be tested, branding can “stand out”. The company, in fact, allows to its potential customers a reason to buy what they know. Moreover, being competent is not enough: we must also know, many people hear by chance speak well of a little-known company. But they might forget the name or ask why a respectable business is not known, people often making a very questionable relationship between merit and reputation. But on the Internet, the most visited shopping sites are those that have been opened by reputable companies in the “real” world or have created an online reputation, and, this requires a major promotional campaign. Building a brand requires the meeting of two elements: visibility and credibility. In other words, it is necessary to develop the product and make it known. In addition to attracting prospects, the brand may encourage them to make the purchase.

Inspire Confidence

A brand is not a luxury but a guarantee that all companies should offer their potential customers, they are often afraid of being wrong. On the Internet as elsewhere, customers usually make the choice with the least amount of inconvenience rather than the one with the most advantages. Branding is the best way to reassure them. This guarantees that the site will keep its promises. In addition, Advertising plays a vital role in building a brand image. Customers choose indeed what is their most familiar. It is, therefore, necessary to be known in all possible ways. The company will also consider all means to reassure customers: transparency, availability, customer service, etc. Of course, the company should keep all its promises. In other words, we must inspire confidence to build a brand image and this, in turn, helps to inspire more confidence. Thus, the brand promotes and can even accelerate a purchase decision. That is why we must choose the name with a particular attention.

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Distinction Between Brand Image, Reputation, and Notoriety

• Brand Image: Lendrevie and Levy defined branding as: “A set of mental representations, subjective, stable, selective and simplistic in respect of a mark” (Lendrevie & Levy, 2013). • Reputation: Reputation is «an intangible asset of a company and one of the essential components of the whole company.” (Adamy, 2014). It is the more appropriate external assessment of a brand than image (De Chernatony, 1999): ◦◦ The use of the term brand reputation is usually referenced to what is said about a brand by consumers and opinion leaders. Thus, reputation has two aspects: the perception of someone or something by a “public” (that is to say a community of people seen as an individual) (Adamy, 2013), and the result of the cognitive process leading to the formulation of an opinion. Further, the reputation can be seen; as a result, more than a cause. The result of actions by “someone or something” on the perception that individuals have of that person or thing. So, what is the way and how intensely the audience consider the signs and messages sent by someone or thing? This scale value idea is confirmed by the Latin ety- mology of the term reputation “reputation,” meaning of “evaluation.” ◦◦ Profit for the interpretation of signs perceived by the individual (thus becomes an opinion, that is to say the result of the “evaluation” done, consciously or not elsewhere).

The individual thus receives signs that interpreter. These signs are sent voluntarily or not (you cannot communicate). The receiver of these signs then creates an image of what the receiver perceived, and the assessment was made by its scale of values. Indeed, the brand is a name (a commercial and legal perspective mainly), term, sign, symbol, or other item used to identify a product or service and differentiate it from other competitors. This term applies when organizations, which have a “brand”. For example Renault, whose name is a brand, what is commonly called the “trademark” that allows to differentiate it from its competitors. The brand becomes the receptacle of the projected reputation, that is to say, it helps differentiate and name the object to which we project a name, for which one has an opinion. More specifically, it is rare to hear that cars, in general, have a bad reputation, but rather that such a model or another producer (designated by a brand) was a good or bad reputation (Camille, 2009). Generally, with the development of Internet, brand reputation depends more and more on its online reputation (e-reputation). This term is recent, synthesizes everything related to the reputation of the added “e” Internet (Adamy, 2013).

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NOTORIETY

The notoriety measures the presence of mind, spontaneous or assisted, the brand name. The only quote from the brand name is not enough to describe its notoriety. We need a brand name that can be associated with a product or a major area of brand activities.

Example

I know the Sony brand. I know the Sony manufactures electronic products. The notoriety does not prejudge the degree of knowledge of the activities or the history of the brand and value judgments about the brand (Lendrevie & Levy, 2013). The notoriety measures brand for the fact of being known by consumers. It was essentially evaluated by measuring unaided awareness, aided awareness, and of a top of mind. And, the gain awareness is a key objective of advertising. In summary, we can define the different concepts as follows:

• Branding Image: The projected image. • Reputation: The image perceived by the public. • Notoriety: The result of projection and appropriation that the public is done.

EFFECT OF SOCIAL NETWORKS ON BRANTING IMAGES

The Study Objective

The main objective of this work is to study the key role between branding and social networks. We achieve this objective by taking into consideration the following two assumptions:

• “The presence of a brand on social networks influences the purchase decision”, and, • “Branding varies by product category.” • These issues make our work quantitative based on the factorial analysis.

Methodology

First, the used survey questionnaires were administered via social networks. Data collection was conducted through a questionnaire of 25 questions.

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The sample was based on building social networks attendance statistics; this is the main reason we opted for convenience sampling method. And for this study, 157 people were kind enough to answer this questionnaire. The data was processed by the software Sphinx (Ganassali, 2014) in two phases. The first phase was devoted to the descriptive analysis or Frequency table where the second one is for the hypothesis testing by using the factorial analysis or Cross tabulation which means a percentage of calculation performed by crossing several variables.

RESULTS

Descriptive Analysis

The descriptive analysis provided by Sphinx showed the following.

• Sex proportion: 44% of respondents were women and 56% were men.

Questions 3: Do you use the social network? If yes: at which frequency? What is your favorite social network? ◦◦ The usability of the social network, frequency and favorite social network: From the results sows in Figure 1, 100% of respondents are users of social networks, 80% use more than once a day. Unsurprisingly,

Figure 1. The usability of social network

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Facebook is the most used social network (94%), and YouTube comes in a second position (63%). The usability of the social network has been given by Figure 1. Question 4: What the purpose of using these social networks? ◦◦ Concerning the purpose of using social networks, the results showed that 83% use the networks to communicate with their families, 68% share pictures and videos with their friends while 35% was looking up on the news of brands. Question 5: In what media do you keep informed about brands news most of the time? ◦◦ Concerning the most used media that keep a customer updated, we find that 67% of customers use online media “social networks” to be updated about their favorite brands while 57% use the offline Medias. Question 6 and 7: Do you visit the page of brands on social networks? And, do you evaluate brands on social networks? And Question 8: Why have you “liked” the brand on Facebook? ◦◦ The factorial results produced by Sphinx showed that 95% of users have already looked at a brand on social networks, and 93% of them have “liked” the brand on the social network, especially, “Facebook”. In addition, 53% of them adhere to the Brand’s Facebook pages to know the novelty of the brand. Question 9: On which products or services belong the brands that you prefer? ◦◦ Concerning the different categories of goods and services that interest users, the statistical results show that the most users like pages of fashion and wears, also, pages of health and beauty, jewelry and watches, sports and cars. Further, the statistic results show that the most users believe that the presence of a brand on social networks is very important. Question 10: Do a brand that communicates through social networks is a good one? ◦◦ The statistic results show that the most of the users believe that a brand communicating through social networks is a modern brand, innovative, and more popular. Question 11: Is a brand must maintain the dialogue with Internet users on social networks? ◦◦ The statistic results show that the social network users think that a brand must maintain the dialogue with Internet users on social networks where 38.2% of users agree about that and 38.9% strongly agrees. Question 12: Are the content distributed by the brands on social networks (news, promotions, etc.) influence your buying decisions? ◦◦ As shown by the statistic results from Figure 2, the most respondents believe that the content published by brands influence their buying decisions, and only 10.8% of answers are strongly disagree about this claim.

97 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding Figure 2. The statistic results of question 12

Question 13: Are the comments and the feedbacks from users on fan pages influence the image you have about them? ◦◦ As shown by the statistic results given in Figure 3, about half of users find the comments and feedbacks about those pages influencing the image that they have about it. Question 14: Is the number of subscribers (or “fans”) for a brand on social networks reflects its notoriety?

Figure 3. The statistic results of question 13

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◦◦ As shown by the statistic results from Figure 4, more than half of respondents find that the number of subscribers on a page is proportional to the brand’s notoriety. Question 15: Do you follow the news of the brands? ◦◦ As shown by the statistic results from Table 1, around 45% of users occasionally consult the Fan pages to follow the news of brands. Question 16: Do you want to be informed about promotions? ◦◦ As shown by the statistic results from Table 2, 42% of respondents are occasionally consult Fan pages to find out about promotions. Question 17: Do you dialogue with the brand? ◦◦ As shown by the statistic results from Table 3, 61% of respondents never interact with the brand via the page on the social networks.

Figure 4. The statistic results of question 14

Table 1. The statistic results of question 15

News # % Never 23 14.6 Occasionally 72 45.9 Frequently 43 27.4 Very often 19 12.1 Total 157 100

99 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding Table 2. The statistic results of question 16

Promotions # % Never 29 18.5 Occasionally 66 42.0 Frequently 43 27.4 Very often 19 12.1 Total 157 100

Table 3. The statistic results of question 17

Dialog # % Never 97 61.8 Occasionally 46 29.3 Frequently 9 5.7 Very often 5 3.2 Total 157 100

Question 18: Do you share your opinion on a product or service within other users via social networks? ◦◦ As shown by the statistic results from Table 4.67% of users share their opinion about a product on social networks. Question 20 and 21: Do you criticize the brand on the social network? And do you recommend a brand’s page to your friends? And Question 22: Have the comments and feedbacks from users on a brand already influenced your purchasing acts for a brand to which you were not yet a customer?

Table 4. The statistic results of question 18

Dialog # % Never 50 31.8 Occasionally 75 47.8 Frequently 20 12.7 Very often 12 7.6 Total 157 100

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◦◦ The descriptive analysis results show that64% of respondents, they never criticized a brand via the brand’s page, and, 60% they have recommended a brand’s page to their friends. And a little more than a half believe that the comments and feedbacks about a brand have influenced their act of purchase for a brand to which they were not yet customers.

Factorial Analysis or Bi-Variate Analysis: Confirmation and Validation of the Study’s Hypotheses

Testing Hypothesis 1: The Presence of a Brand on Social Networks Influences the Purchase Decision of Internet Users

We conducted an FCA (Factorial Correspondence Analysis) between the presence and influence of social network. And as it shown in Figure 5, the presence on the

Figure 5. Factorial correspondence analysis (FCA) between the presences of the brand on social network and influence of social network

101 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding social network is represented in the table on the vertical column and the figure by the axe n 1. Further, the influence of social network is represented in the table on the horizontal column and the figure by axe n 2. As a conclusion, since:

P = 0.6% < 5% for Khi2=33.58 and ddl=16

Then: Authors accept the first hypothesis H1.

Results: There is an attraction between the modalities. Then, the presence of a brand on social networks influences the purchase decision of Internet users. This conclusion is illustrated by the blue and purple circles in the center of the axes.

Testing Hypothesis 2: Branding Varies According to the Product Categories

After conducting a FCA (Factorial Correspondence Analysis) between the category and the brand image, we found that the category of a product on the social network is represented in the table on the vertical column and the figure by axe n 1. And, the Brand image in the social network is represented in the table by the horizontal column and in the figure by axe n 2. Since:

P = 100% for Khi2=12.04 and ddl=36,

Then: Authors reject hypothesis H2.

Results: Branding does not vary according to the product categories.

RESULTS DISCUSSION

From the descriptive analysis, we observe that all respondents use social networks is the most uses for communication, exchange, share and monitoring the information. It is also noted that the presence of a brand in these networks is important to the user’s eyes and the content posted by its influences their purchasing decision. From the analysis FCA, we observe that the presence of a brand influences purchasing decisions of users, if a brand publishes content, promotions, and news

102 The Effect of Social Networks on Branding Figure 6. Factorial correspondence analysis between the category and the brand image

regularly; this has a direct effect on the purchase decision of internet users, it represents for them a trustworthy source of information. We also found that the brand image does not vary according to the product categories but according to the brands themselves. In addition, heir e-reputation produced a new conversational mode of communication when the consumer becomes conso-actor because he is simultaneously the transmitter and the receiver of the information.

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FUTURE WORK

The aim of our future work will be to design a model, and using the modeling approach structural equation to measure the effect of social network on image branding. The question that could be asked is: Do social networks are prominent in terms of customer relationship management or are they doomed to remain mere tools of neutral and lucid communication?

CONCLUSION

Social networks have transformed the way of communication between people as well as between people and businesses. We went from a one-way message from traditional media to a multidirectional dialogue, where everyone can express his feelings. Based on these phenomena, the user or the customer gains in sources of information, personalized help and can disseminate his creations, comments, emotions. And further, he can influence the future of products and services of companies. From a business side, the company meanwhile, has direct access to its clients and prospects and can turn this advantage into considerable commercial and social gains. The brand can target customers, reach new segments of the population through social networking tools each by attracting different consumer profiles. The company must take advantage of this opportunity and get more adapted to these new media. It must include in its overall strategy of communication, strategies that involving efficiently social networks. The possibilities offered by social media, who embarks on this new challenge, bring benefits to the enterprise in many ways: increasing the brand awareness, controlling a brand with one or more significant competitive advantages. Also, they can influence through their networks and the networks of the other users, or to live the marks become “sellers”. However, one must take into account basic rules for listening, preserve communities and attract new clients: to be genuine, honest, and transparent, be open-minded and a little originality. Engage is a social being and not do social. Social networks also seem to be a good way of communicating in a crisis or to prevent negative rumors since at the time these networks today are still neutral and playful tools, and the speed of propagation of information on these networks can reach astounding speeds. They arouse less suspicion among consumers as more traditional channels.

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Further, social media is a constantly changing ecosystem services are created; others disappear, and most are transformed. These spaces are evolving rapidly adapt- ing one hand the needs of users through the creation of new functions and partly because technological development enlarges the range of possibilities. In addition, the results presented in this study were obtained by applying a factorial analysis by using Sphinx, and well detailed and discussed. The result of this research shows that social networks affect the brand image, and the user/customer can be influenced positively or negatively by the content published by a brand. Also as future work, we intend to extend the presented study to support more brand and by applying more statistical analysis techniques.

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Chapter 6 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool: Case of Jordan Medical Directory

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah Independent Researcher, Jordan

ABSTRACT Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process of managing a business’s interaction with current and future potential customers. This instrumental case study aims to study and explain the role of social media as Electronic Customer Relationship Management tool (ECRM) in health care and tourism context by using Jordan Medical Directory company as a case study, we identified how using social media in communicating and managing customer’s requirements as eCRM technique affects institution efficiency, the result proved the significant positive role of social media in managing customers relation starting from acquisition, passing by retention, and finally termination, data collected through personal and phone interviews in a time frame of one month.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch006

INTRODUCTION

Medical tourism is the concept applied on travelling people from their country to another country for medical treatment purposes, either due to cost problems or to achieving a better experience either through better doctors or medical centers that are not available in their own communities (Horowitz, Jeffrey, & Christopher, 2007). Based on IMTJ Medical Travel Awards, Jordan present a wise and smart choice to rely on, due to their Private Hospitals Associations, highly qualified doctors and highly efficient equipped medical centers, Jordan attracts up to 250,000 international patients in 2012, with total revenues exceeding 1B US$, and won the Medical Destination of the year award in 2014, and was nominated to the position of International hospital of the year (IMTJ, 2014). Medical tourism reflects a wide range of concepts and areas, where the main objective of the process is to gain medical care in all forms, either as routine checks, attending regular appointments, applying tests and simple surgeries, or more serious processes; patients still intended to gain more benefits of their travels by visiting tourism sites. Recently, this has created an evolutionary trend in Jordan, where an increasing number of licensed private businesses applied these services, where it creates huge benefits: economic wide, tourist wide, and social wide. To insure success in this domain, decision makers and managers should distinguish their services among other competitors, hence customers “patients” are the leader power of this business; then creating sustainable, robust, and efficient relationships with customers create main dimensions in any strategy. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can be defined as the process of building a long sustainable relationship with current customers, encourage them to retain to business, and to attract new customers, by providing extra benefits and attention to customers and getting back extra revenue for the business (Injazz & Popovich, 2003). Information technology had provided a revolution in managing business in general including managing customer’s relationships, to manage this process electronically (Winer, 2001), creativity utilization of eCRM will enable institutions to: collect and analyze customer pattern data, customer behavior interpretation, products/services delivery to customers, and development of service-level increase models (Winer, 2001; Bahrami, Ghorbani, & Arabzad, 2012; Godfrey, Seiders, & Voss, 2011), customers and suppliers satisfaction can be enhanced by the following marketing and supply management tools (Hüttinger, Schiele, & Veldman, 2012):

1. Collecting extensive volumes, long-term commitments, and exclusivity agreements. 2. Sharing internal information and broad communication.

109 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool

3. Display a readiness to change behavior in the purchasing organization. 4. Respond quickly to requests from suppliers.

CRM focuses on applying a full service with a fruitful experience through three different levels, pre-process, in-process, and post-process. Where it is essential to encourage new potential customers through pre-process activities such as providing a higher expected value through lower price to the potential customers, in-process provides a flexible honest process, and added value to the introduced product/service, while post-process activities include providing extra effort, to serve customers who have purchased. Retaining current customers require putting your attention on all three phases and focus particularly on the in-process and post-process phases, eCRM, as one of information systems in organizations, combines IT, marketing, and services to be capable to fulfill informative and communicative needs of an organization (Bahrami, Ghorbani, & Arabzad, 2012), eCRM systems have mainly three components: an interface, a workflow management system, and OLAP tools, these systems allow cooperation and data sharing between the supply chain partners with the ability to accomplish business transactions, generate reports, and dynamically update information. The essential feature of this model “using Internet environment” is to provide both customer support and customer segmentation functions for the customer required value and the customer return value. eCRM play an essential role in tourism too, (Sigala, 2011) have mentioned five styles of CRM and web 2.0 practices in eCRM within tourism context, like: Pro- sumerism: where customers can create and share videos, reviews, etc., Team based co-learning: opportunity to create travel guides collaboratively, Mutual innovation: collaboration of firms and customers, Communities of creation: like Social networking websites and blogs, and Joint intellectual property: Mash-up applications that combine resources from different partners for developing new business models and customer value. Managing customers for maximum value, requires institutions to clearly understand drivers of customers acquisition, retention, and growth over time. There are three key areas where institution can influence and may affect customer acquisition and retention decisions: value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity. Value equity is the customer’s objective valuation of the institutions offering based on his opinions of what is given up for what is received. Key drivers of value equity are: features and benefits of the product or service, overall quality, customer’s convenience factors, and all elements of pricing. Brand equity is the customer’s subjective opinion of the institutions offering. Key drivers of brand equity include marketing strategies which influence brand awareness and brand perceptions (like promotion, advertising, and social media) and corporate citizenship efforts. Rela-

110 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool tionship equity is the customer’s opinion of the customer-institution touch points. Key drivers of relationship equity are: customer loyalty programs, direct interaction between customers and the institution, customer communities, and the knowledge developed by the institution (Verhoef & Lemon, 2013). Customer selection is one of the eCRM techniques used efficiently in Targeting Customer Segments (TCS) which is known as a group of customers that shares similar preferences or activities for products and services. These groups are segmented based on their Recency- Frequency-Monetary behavior, or other characteristics and needs. This technique of customer categorization insures that standards clustering for customer values and TCS are more objectively based on Recency-Frequency-Monetary attributes than being subjective (Chen, et.al., 2012). Rising social technologies shifts the control to the hands of customers; and the brand slogan has moved from “customer push” to “customer pull”, apart customers have bargain power and possibility to affect brand image through social networks channels. Businesses’ strategies need to be modified to adapt to the new interaction channels between customers and organization, where social channels need to be included into the existing CRM strategies. Next we will discuss previous CRM literatures and how IT plays a role in affecting CRM and converting it into eCRM, and other issues.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Researchers have questioned the effectiveness of several CRM strategies. eCRM practices show that organizations need to address three issues mainly to increase their current utilization levels of web 2.0: enhance the technological skills and competencies of their staff and/or outsource; integrate web 2.0 responsibilities into e-marketers’ job descriptions; use more suitable CRM metrics that can be used for customer segmentation, targeting and reward strategies; and use tools to identify and eliminate the cruel usage of web 2.0 in order to ensure the reliability of UGC (Sigala, 2011). Managers should be aware about differences between relationship established with customers and product/service offered to customers. Where relationship value is different from product value: relationship value includes the extra possible benefits and concessions arising from the communication between customers and suppliers. Customer-perceived relationship value is defined as the customer’s view of the trade-off between the benefits and concessions of a business relationship with a given supplier. Functions of relationship can be characterized as direct: which implying direct, immediate effect on customer profitability and can be called “operation related” functions, and indirect: which implying indirect,

111 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool delayed effect depend on changes to be made in the customer firm, this function can be called “change related” functions. Indirect functions represent: Innovation function, Information function, Access function, and Motivation function (Ritter & Achim, 2012). A multichannel relational communication research to create and sent personalized messages were done by authors in (Godfrey, Seiders, & Voss, 2011); they examine three communicational effectiveness factors over three years: communication volume, communication channels mix, and the alignment of these channels with customer’s preferences. Their research revealed that customer’s react negatively when the communication level is exceeded, and that mix of multichannel communication can drive customer’s away rather than closer to a company. Using social media as eCRM technology is another dimension of eCRM (Ros- man & Stuhura, 2013; Malthouse, et.al., 2013; Jekimovics, Wickham, & Danzinger, 2013; Ahuja & Yajulu, 2010). Social media affects core activities of CRM, which are: acquisition, retention, and termination, also it support different business areas such as: IT, people, performance evaluation, and marketing strategy; yet, using social media as CRM application has several pitfalls, like: big and unstructured data, privacy and data security issues, measuring ROI, and content managing (Malthouse, Haenlein, Skiera, Wege, & Zhang, 2013). Another research on using blogs as eCRM proved efficiency and success of this approach, where consumers are more likely to be engaged and exposed to a wide range of brand content with firms have instant and active blogs, the exploratory research deduced the importance of content typologies: organizational, promotional, and relational; in building a relationship with customers, consumer’s engagement is positively dependent on the number and volume of organization’s posts (Ahuja & Yajulu, 2010). A longitudinal content analysis of Australia’s largest firm’s Facebook pages revealed that transparency of contents and interaction volume with users help in creating and implementing effective eCRM, the same research recommended three strategies to improve results of applying social media as eCRM, which are: enabling trilogies, designing tailored e-CRM strategies for SNSs, and creating enthusiasm in user communities (Jekimovics, Wickham, & Danzinger, 2013). Analyzing the dynamic effects of social influence and direct marketing of Dutch mobile telecommunication operators, shows that encouraging customers’ adoption of a new product requires extensive information gathering from different sources represented by different platforms of social media (Hans, Peter, & Bijmolt, 2014). A survey of 975 insurance customers over three years records shows that attachment styles are better in predicting customer’s preferences than established marketing variables do. Also these attachment styles affect loyalty intentions, cross-buying behavior, and control for antecedents. This research helps in creating guidelines to

112 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool follow for segmenting customer’s, tailoring relationship marketing activities, and allocate resources effectively to match customer preferences (Mende, Bolton, & Bitner, 2013).

JORDAN MEDICAL DIRECTORY: BACKGROUND

Jordan Medical Directory (JorMedic) is a comprehensive visible and readable medical Jordanian reports guide, provides counselling, mental health, and physical therapist advices and arrangements, it is a click-and-mortar business type, where managers depends on both website and social networks presence, alongside with physical appointments and arrangements in both healthcare sectors and tourism activities. Visible directory content represented by the institution portal (JMD, 2014) “main communication tool”, which is electronic medical and treatment location, launched at the beginning of 2011, followers of the site range from local Jordanian into national Arabian and foreign customers, by the end of 2011 up to 3.5 million visitors assigned to this visual directory 58% of them are not Jordanian. Readable directory content is periodic medical journal publisher once every three months under the name of (Al-Shafi guidance for medical treatment and tourism in Jordan), distributed for free locally in Jordan, on board the Jordanian airline, and Arabian country specially the Gulf countries. JorMedic aims to deliver accurate, consistent, up-to-date, and fully medical information either to Jordanian or foreign customers through visible and readable directory, in an easy and flexible manner. Another perspective of JorMedic is to encourage medical tourism in Jordan by attracting patients from outside the kingdom for treatment by securing all means of comfort by JORMEDIC team such as: apart- ments, transports, and appointments with doctors, hospitals, medical laboratories and more. JorMedic seeks to provide main health and tourism services either by readable or visible tools, such services include: providing diverse comprehensive medical information, with flexibility and ease of access to the largest portion of customers, enrich JorMedic with rigor medical articles and researches, and announcements about different healthcare areas.

RESEARCH METHOD

Data Gathering Technique

Data for this case study were collected from multiple sources, JorMedic websites first navigated and analyzed, archival records were requested from the CRM depart-

113 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool ments like: marketing strategy plans, customers’ descriptions files, and institution profile; records such as annual reports and emails were requested and analyzed too, social media pages also were studied and examined, to study JorMedic activities and energy in contacting and collaborating with their clients. Direct observation technique also applied to monitor real activities in the organization with current and potential customers. After studying the website, documentations, and collected data, a list of proposed questions were listed to be asked for CRM manager through an interview. Figure 1 presents data collections sources:

• Direct Observation: Applied in the normal field work environment “any work day in organization”, focusing on human actions, physical environments, or real-world events; and taking field notes about all situations. Using direct observation, researcher notes that most customers’ interaction applied online using web based tools and social media communications tools to ap- point treatments and tourism dates and arrangements, for potential new customers or current customers, some post-process services are applied both online and offline, where medical reports are sent via emails and traditional mail. • Interviews: Open ended “non-structured” interviews were conducted, which offer richer and more extensive material than traditional surveys or close ended interview. Interview took place on the organizations offices, conducted with the CRM manager, list of questions include: ◦◦ What are the eCRM techniques followed by your organization? ◦◦ Why did you decide to focus on social networks pages as a main dimension of your CRM strategy? ◦◦ What is the role of Social Networks in enriching and improving the implemented CRM? ◦◦ What are the challenges or weaknesses that faced you when you decided to apply social media as a part of CRM strategy? • Archival Records: Information stored in existing electronic and traditional channels such as computerized files and paper files, researchers retrieve in-

Figure 1. Used sources to collect data

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formation about customers profiles and gain a rigor image about customers’ trends and needs based on the archival records. We can build a trend based on this data to be able to predict future potential customers’ set. • Online Observations: Represented in browsing website and following social networks’ pages to continuously track activity of the organization and monitor their communications with their customers. • Documents: Represent up-to-date data and reports created by firms, any files or extra data that were not requested by the researchers, or created after the interview where conducted, and the CRM manager feels it could provide any benefits.

ANALYZING DATA e-CRM Techniques

JorMedic provides convenient secure communication tools like: direct phone, Skype call, and e-mail contact. A high qualified teamwork to build personal relationship through sending personalized mails contains proper information and advices important for the customer, which contact customers directly either during or after providing the services. Simplicity in contact and providing services is essential purpose of JORMEDIC, where it encourages customers to select the firm as their preferred choice and improve efficiency of the employees at the same time. Customers can register their emails in the site to receive direct and update medical information that’s benefits them and response to their questions.

• Segmentation Technique: JorMedic mainly target foreign customers either Arabian or from other nationalities, then using segmented technique customers are segmented into either Our guest, Consultation, or extra care programs which involve: Infants, Elderly people, or Disabled customers. • Our Guest Program: Improving process value of the customers by taking care of all three phases values “pre-visiting, in-visiting, and post-visiting” level, where JORMEDIC teams work on travel reservation “arrival and de- parture”, staying, transparent, doctors and laboratories appointment, arrange tourism schedule, and following up patient status after travelling by testing results and any new recommendation that can be helpful in his/her case. • Consultation Program: Clarifying vague conditions and minimizing any hesitation from patients or his/her partners by providing specialists doctor’s opinions from either inside or outside Jordan, if it’s a necessity, about some cases where patients can’t make definitive decision of complete treatment due

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to lack of trust of medical department, or weakness op capabilities. In this case patient existence is not necessary, where laboratories testing results can be received by JORMEDIC team through e-mail or fax and doctor consultation can be delivered to the patients as immediate as doctor give his opinion and recommendations. • In-Our-Eyes “Extra-Care” Program: Special features program offered to specific segments of customers like: infants, elderly, and disabilities peoples, by providing qualified attendant to provide needed treatments, personal supplies, and arranging entertaining activities inside or outside sanatorium.

JorMedic also manage customer’s relationship through the website, main features available in the site that support customers are:

• Comprehensive content that covers all context related to JORMEDIC vision and objectives • Search property availability: where customer define research content to articles, directories, connection contacts, groups, sections, or news feeds, and to choose mechanism of retrieving search result according to: newest, oldest, most visited, alphabetically, or based on category. • Connected into social networkswww.facebook.com, and www.twitter.com where content of social pages is monitored, controlled, and updateable. All www.jormedic.com contents and advertisements are uploaded directly to Facebook page and Twitter page. • JORMEDIC website providing diverse groups of pages describe: Jordan as country from different perspectives like location, weather, currency, - tour ism locations and other criteria, pages about treatment in Jordan with lists of available hospitals, pharmacies, physicians, nurses, medical centers, and any other related healthcare services. • “Dr. Sad” page is communication tools which discuss general issues in comic manner and provide advices for customers. • Other than medical page: provides advices, recency, accuracy, and up-mind news from all over the world as tool to build stronger bonds with customers, and encourage them to re-visit the site.

JorMedic works on keeping a connection with its current customers and build relationships with them, as soon as the guest receives services asked for, a satisfying questionnaire is filled by him/her to be used by JorMedic team for measurement purposes, it helps to identify customer’s satisfaction, future expectations, avoids unnoticed problems, and respond effectively to opportunities. Most gusts keep in touch with JorMedic teams especially CRM manager, either by phone, e-mail,

116 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool visiting personally, or gifts and souvenir which sent to JorMedic in occasions and holidays. This motions and bonds make customers more loyal to the firm and encourage them to come back or recommends by the JorMedic as services provider for future potential customers.

Affiliate Marketing

JorMedic deals with affiliate marketer like Arabic Center, Ebn Al-Haytham hospital and others where a commission by 15% is received for each patient, Chinese Treatment Center also use another strategy with JorMedic where patients treated at the Chinese Treatment Center directly and JORMEDIC is responsible for tourism services only. Marketing strategy is used in combination with both discrimination strategy where JorMedic considered as one of the first companies in the medical tourism context firms, and tried to provide special and new services for its customers, and competitive strategy where tourist agents and offices providing similar activities and services. Social media proved its powerful role in affecting client’s attitude and activities based on what and how they are treated using these applications. Using Facebook as a part of the marketing strategy is new strategy; which is followed by different types of companies and organizations to improve their relations with clients and create an up-to-date communication and instance response to any emergent situation. Other social media used to deliver any promotions or news in real time cases, and to create more personalized relationship.

Social CRM

Applying social network as a tool to manage customers’ relationship depends on many factors such as: management inside/outside relation and sponsorship, and having clear vision of how social networks will improve organization relations with customers, social CRM is defined as the process of managing customer-to- customer conversations to engage existing customers and prospects with a brand and so enhance CRM. JorMedic apply sufficient and up-dated social strategy, where all required information are available online, contact details, support team available 24/7. Consultation and frequent questions are answered through social networks’ platform either through public posts or using private messages. Providing reserving options requires more reliable communication through phone calls and exchange required papers and information through fax and emails. Creating a social CRM needs a step by step approach, include:

117 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool Table 1. steps of creating social CRM

Step JORMEDIC Case Customer service and support, and encourage customer engagement. Defining the objective of Provide full version of detailed information about important and relevant applying social CRM information, and apply open channel to interact and serve customers. Preparing for and Involving and training employees from different departments for various benchmarking internal social social networks platforms. Taking into consideration required set of web readiness browsing skills and social networks searching and communications. Be aware about available hardware and softeware JORMEDIC needs to Understanding the achieve its goals, which hardware and software are available in house and technological landscape which to purchase, keeping in mind JORMEDIC security guidelines. Keep all channels active, use traditional CRM to aggregate and analyze customers’ data and automate workflows for business process optimization, Integrate social CRM with empower this process by applying eCRM tools, social network platforms traditional CRM are activated with qualified team to manage and proceed activity efficiently and continuously. Follow customers feedback by creating online short surveys, call back regular customers to take note about their experience, and any comments Rate periodic results to improve any shorting in the process, activate automatic email to enhance personal one to one interaction with customers.

While JorMedic exist on multiple social platforms, which are: Facebook, Twit- ter, YouTube, and Google+, but the social CRM focuses on Facebook and Twitter in particular. Facebook page created on January, 2011, and it provides updated clinical and cosmetic reports, where it provides related information about each occasions, such as summer activities, fasting times, holidays behaviors, etc. new emergent clinical information and inventions also available on JorMedic page. Twit- ter account has been created on June 2011, and it focuses more on rewetting doctors, clinical centers, medical labs, and followers. Twitting and rewetting provide updateable medical information and reports, contents on Twitter and Facebook are very similar, which considered as weakness point in social CRM technique. JorMedic channel on Youtube contains television interviews with doctors and about medical facilities. JorMedic provide application available on Google play, to exchange information and updated notifications with user on real time. Medical parts are free to connect with social pages and webpage, where users can communicate with any parts connected to JorMedic through social media or webpage.

CHALLENGES OF APPLYING SOCIAL CRM

The top three challenges JorMedic face in implementing an effective social CRM:

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• How can we measure success of our adopted social CRM? • How can we organize huge amount of online data? And how to find relevant accurate data? • Diversity of social network platforms, and the continuously growing and improving in their features, rises the challenges of keeping employees skilled and qualified, and create ambiguity about which to adopt and what to share in a way that did not redundant contents and create disinterest customers. • Getting promising results need patience, and no one know the exact time to have successful reaction from customers.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Through navigation of JorMedic websites some features were not available that could significantly affect customers attention to the site, features like: FAQs that could help customers to get direct information about certain issue without needs to contact with JorMedic teams, and providing information immediately (24/7), neither call center number were available. Researcher also noticed that JorMedic site provides its content only in Arabic language, unavailability of English language content could cause the institution losing some potential customers who didn’t use Arabic language. We also recommend JorMedic to focus on implementing factors that plays essential role in social CRM success, including supporting social CRM plans with right technologies. JorMedic’s team should take into consideration that each step and activity of social CRM should be supported with at least one appropriate technology, either, email, phone calling, social media, or any other technology. Other factors are to develop customer-centric strategy, redesigning workflow systems, and to reengineer work process to gain best possible benefit of applying social CRM technologies. Social application could be implemented to announce regular and related information on customers’ wall and accounts. Managers and decision makers should pay attention to social CRM tools, many tools can be found either for free or with a reasonable price, Jive Engage Platform is a social collaboration tool used to encourage and facilitate interaction between customers and organization’s members on social networks, it allows customers, employees, and partners to create viral communities to connect via social media, which will create new opportunities for internal collaboration, customer care, social marketing and sales. Another available tool is Nimble, which allow organizations to monitor and enhance their relationship with their customers and improve opportunities of retaining customers by integrating and unifying all points of contact and

119 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool social communication, it gather data from various online sources, where it merges and unifies contacts, calendars and communications from Google, IMAP, Skype and social. Therefore, one platform created to use for read and response on communication with customers. Another key feature of Nimble is the ability to automatically crawling social networks to identify relevant connections and rank them in relevance. Important information can be shared among users; also Nimble’s API allows users to create their own social CRM widgets. SugarCRM is a CRM open source tool, organizations can improve online collaboration by integrating social networks feeds with their email marketing, document sharing and sales intelligence from the get- go. Users can get up-to-date information on customers and prospective, and find feedback from different social networks, such as tweets from twitter. SugarCRM provides sets of social CRM applications to create additional functionality, such as Sugar Studio, Sugar Cloud Connectors and Module Builder.

CONCLUSION

JorMedic has adopted several procedures and techniques to enhance relationship with their customers, such as: applying loyalty programs, direct one to one interaction with their customers, and enhance knowledge base to build interactive customer community, it achieved many benefits by applying these techniques, the most important benefits were: improved service quality, establishing personal relationships, customer satisfaction, customer’s commitment, and enhance reputation of the institution. JORMEDIC used list of eCRM techniques, create ad-hoc CRM system presented in communication technologies like email and smart devices technologies, powered with analytics tools. Ad-hoc systems used to generate reports in real time to provide accurate information, in multiple report’s forms such as tables and charts, simple and easy to understand figures; and can be saved in another files’ types, achieved, and edited. Ad-hoc reports provide efficient, cost effective, customized, and channel to share updated information. It also used social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and WhatsApp to interact and communicate with current and candidate clients, another trend was customizing and personalizing clients information, by creating client’s profile directory based on historical proceedings, finally JORMEDIC provide interactive communication section in “contact us” page, which allows clients to interact and ask about different types of consultation and view previous comments and questions from another clients. eCRM ad-hoc tools, such as frequent up-to-date reports and dashboards, has a direct impact on the institution performance by implementing major characteristics such as: reliability of the service as it promised to the customer, by provision

120 Social Media as Social Customer Relationship Management Tool the service correctly, accurately and timely at first time and every time the service provided. Make JorMedic’s customers feel comfortable and permanent safety when dealing with JorMedic employees, since employee’s have high level of communications skills and have the ability and knowledge to respond to customers’ inquiries and questions efficiently, in addition to creating confidence and security between JorMedic and commercials institutions. Tangible benefits for both JorMedic employees and customers through availability of new equipment to communicate, provide visual facilities to make process of communication more easy and effective, other modern appliances are assured to be used in the next step of JorMedic process through medical institutions or tourists centers. Empathize with customers through availability of qualified functional crew and giving customers individual attentions and cares based on their situations. Responsiveness is another dimension of improved service’s quality, where highly readiness employees from JorMedic are available to inform customers directly about time and details of services, and working on development of these services, these employees are fully prepared to response customers’ needs and demands. Sustaining personal relationship either with current customers or other partnership (medical and tourisms) affects positively on managerial business by increasing opportunities of customers retention based on their emotional and personal experiences. Customer satisfaction is almost highly obtained since they achieve expected service and even better, reputation of the institution is highly improved through its partnership and customer’s descriptions and word of mouth advertising, these expressions and statements will build a brilliant mental image about JorMedic for potential future customers.

REFERENCES

Ahuja, V., & Yajulu, M. (2010). Corporate blogs as e-CRM tools–Building consumer engagement through content management. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, 17(2), 91–105. doi:10.1057/dbm.2010.8 Bahrami, M., Ghorbani, M., & Arabzad, M. S. (2012). Information technology (IT) as an improvement tool for customer relationship management (CRM). Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 41, 59–64. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.04.008 Chen, Y.-S., Cheng, C. H., Lai, C. J., Hsu, C. Y., & Syu, H. J. (2012). dentifying patients in target customer segments using a two-stage clustering-classification approach: A hospital-based assessment. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 42(2), 213–221. doi:10.1016/j.compbiomed.2011.11.010 PMID:22177941

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Godfrey, A., Seiders, K., & Voss, G. B. (2011). Enough is enough! The fine line in executing multichannel relational communication. Journal of Marketing, 75(4), 94-109. Hans, R., Peter, V. C., & Bijmolt, T. H. (2014). Dynamic effects of social influence and direct marketing on the adoption of high-technology products. Journal of Marketing, 78(2), 58–62. Horowitz, M. D., Jeffrey, R. A., & Christopher, J. A. (2007). Medical tourism: Globalization of the healthcare marketplace. Medscape General Medicine, 9(4), 33. PMID:18311383 Hüttinger, L., Schiele, H., & Veldman, J. (2012). The drivers of customer attractiveness, supplier satisfaction and preferred customer status: A literature review. Industrial Marketing Management, 41(8), 1194–1205. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2012.10.004 IMTJ. (2014). Retrieved 2016, from the IMTJ Medical Travel Award Winners in 2014: http://awards.imtj.com/results/2014-winners/ Injazz, C. J., & Popovich, K. (2003). Understanding customer relationship management (CRM) People, process and technology. Business Process Management Journal, 9(5), 672–688. doi:10.1108/14637150310496758 Jekimovics, L., Wickham, M., & Danzinger, F. (2013). Revolution or e-business as usual? Social Networking and e-CRM, 1, 153-162. JMD. (2014, April). Jordan Medical Directory. Retrieved 10th, May 2016, from http://www.jormedic.com/ Malthouse, E. C., Haenlein, M., Skiera, B., Wege, E., & Zhang, M. (2013). Managing customer relationships in the social media era: Introducing the social CRM house. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), 270-280. Mende, M., Bolton, R., & Bitner, M. J. (2013). Decoding customer-firm relationships: How attachment styles help explain customers’ preferences for closeness, repurchase intentions, and changes in relationship breadth. JMR, Journal of Mar- keting Research, 50(1), 125–142. doi:10.1509/jmr.10.0072 Ritter, T., & Achim, W. (2012). More is not always better: The impact of relationship functions on customer-perceived relationship value. Industrial Marketing Manage- ment, 41(1), 136–144. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.11.020 Rosman, R., & Stuhura, K. (2013). he implications of social media on customer relationship management and the hospitality industry. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 14(3), 18.

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Sigala, M. (2011). eCRM 2.0 applications and trends: The use and perceptions of Greek tourism firms of social networks and intelligence. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(2), 655–661. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.03.007 Verhoef, P. C., & Lemon, K. N. (2013). Successful customer value management: Key lessons and emerging trends. European Management Journal, 31(1), 1–15. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2012.08.001 Winer, R. S. (2001). A framework for customer relationship management. California Management Review, 43(4), 89–105. doi:10.2307/41166102

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Chapter 7 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites

Kaan Varnali Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey

Vehbi Gorgulu Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey

ABSTRACT This research aims to contribute to the understanding of how brand impressions in social networking sites influence brand recall. Further, the relationship between the built-in metrics offered by social networking sites and brand recall are also examined to assess the validity of these metrics as measures of advertising effectiveness. Results indicate a positive relationship between brand recall and self-brand congruence, tie-strength with, trust toward, and perceived popularity of the profile associated with the post, and clicking a link embedded in the post / ad in which the brand appears. On the other hand, there is not a significant difference between the levels of brand involvement, homophily with the profile associated with the post / ad, like-count, and four types of built-in user-interaction options including liking, sharing, posting a comment and tagging among the brands that were successfully retrieved from the memory and those were not.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch007

INTRODUCTION

Today, consumers are more than passive buyers and audience members; they are also creators and distributors of media content (Vanden Bergh et al., 2011). Social network sites (SNS), which are sets of individuals, organizations and social entities connected by a set of social relationships such as friendship, co-working or information exchange (Garton, Haythornthwaite, & Wellman, 1997) also take part in the distribution of marketing information by allowing users to actively engage with branded-content delivered to them via sponsored stories, stories about friends, page publishing or ads coupled with social connotations. Since consumers typically judge information regarding the marketplace provided by other consumers to be more trustworthy and credible (Pornpitakpan, 2004), leveraging user-generated or -distributed content in social media is imperative for marketers (Liu-Thompkins, 2012; Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2014). The value of these practices has been well documented in the context of word of mouth, or referral effects (Chu & Kim, 2011; Keller & Fay, 2012; Lee & Youn, 2009). More recently the breadth of the domain of inquiry expanded to include more detailed issues such as the antecedents of consumer perceptions and responses toward advertisements on social networks (Soares & Pinho, 2014), motivations for consumer engagement with brand pages (Kabadayi & Price, 2014; Logan, 2014), the effects of likes and friends’ likes on Facebook brand pages in influencing brand related outcomes (Phua & Ahn, 2014; Tsai & Men, 2013), and development of a typology of Facebook fans (Wallace, 2014). However, despite the managerial relevance, the impact of delivering brand impressions [i.e., exposure to the brand elements in a manner that strengthens overall brand evaluation (Dillon et al., 2001)] in social media on the state of brand-related knowledge stored in the memory (i.e., brand awareness) has been largely missing in the relevant literature. The main reason for this conspicuous lack of researcher interest on this issue conceivably lies in the practical difficulties of employing a full-scope experimental research (preferably live on platforms such as Facebook) capturing the essential components of social media experience, which constitutes the dominant approach in assessing brand awareness in the literature. One of the most interesting researches on this area was conducted by Alves and Antunes (2015), who found out that consumers expect to personal advantages through proximity to the brands on the Internet and that the activity of following brands on social networks impacts on purchase decision processes of customers. Thus it can be stated that as this new marketing medium unfolds, brands enthu- siastically race to establish a presence in SNs (Malhotra et al., 2013; Rohm et al., 2013), however with a very limited understanding of the true impact of their activities on brand-awareness. Today, the key metrics developed to measure effectiveness of

125 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites brand communications in SNS are based on simple interaction counts and talk-about (e.g., the number of mentions, likes, shares, comments, views, re-tweets), saying very little about the extent to which these incidences positively contribute to brand awareness (Lipsman et al., 2012; Phua & Ahn, 2014). Over-reliance on such metrics adds to the difficulty of grasping the full promise of social media marketing. As such, current practice and research lacks evidence to what extent brand impressions delivered via social media influences brand recall. Facebook is a useful platform to conduct such practice, which is the dominant social networking site with more than 1 billion monthly active users. An important attempt to build a reliable method for calculating the engagement rate of the Face- book brand pages was carried out by Vadivu and Neelamalar (2015), who aimed to identify the extent to which the moderators’ post influences the engagement rate of its audience in terms of its content, frequency and the number of fans present for a particular brand page. Through observing and probing Facebook users as they are being exposed to branded content while spending time in their own Facebook accounts, the present study aims to provide exploratory insights for the following questions:

• Can users retrieve the brand impressions delivered via SNs from their memory? • What factors associated with delivering brand impressions in SNs facilitate the retrieval of brand name from memory? • Does engaging with a branded content encountered in SNs enhance the retrieval of the associated brand name from memory? • Can SNs-provided simple interaction counts be used as reliable indicators for the impact of brand impressions on brand awareness in SNS?

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Brand awareness denotes a state of brand-related knowledge stored in the memory of the consumer (Hoyer & Brown, 1990). Memory affects brand consideration and thus influences choice (Nedungadi, 1990). The expectation is that awareness will keep the brand in the consumer’s consideration set, thereby increasing the probability that the brand will subsequently be purchased (Hoyer & Brown, 1990). Especially in low involvement decisions, even a minimum level of brand awareness, such as the mere familiarity with the brand name, may be sufficient for product choice, even in the absence of a well-formed attitude (Bettman & Park, 1980; Keller, 1993; Park & Lessig, 1981).

126 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites

The memorability of a brand name, therefore, is critical for the success of a brand impression (Jungsun & Ferle, 2008). A brand’s accessibility in memory is strongly associated with the strength of activation of the brand node, which is a function of the frequency, recency, and salience of brand instantiation and of brand evaluation (Barsalou, 1985; Kintsch & Young, 1984). In theory, a brand node is activated, or primed, by a direct reference to the brand name. Therefore, the true potential of an SNS brand impression depends on its ability to prime the brand and cue retrieval. Recall, which refers to the ability to reproduce previously presented items, occurs when memory is searched and a word is independently retrieved (Jungsun & Ferle, 2008; Lerman & Garbarino, 2002). Recall is often used as a measure for memorability (Gillund & Shiffrin, 1984; Lerman & Garbarino, 2002; Lowrey, Shrum, & Dubitsky, 2003). As such, in the present study it is conceived as the indicator of the extent to which an SNS brand impression succeeds in enhancing the accessibility of the brand in memory. Items that are attended are more likely to be stored in memory and recalled at a later time (Greenberg, 2012). Building upon the decades of research on the effect of task and context congruity on advertising effectiveness (e.g., Norris & Colman, 1992; Novak et al., 2003), we focused our attention on two theoretical accounts in explaining the selective attention toward advertising messages in SNS. First, at the core of any message that aims to prime a brand lays the brand itself, and hence, as in all types of ads, brand-related characteristics (i.e., brand involvement, self-brand congruence) may account for the differences in brand recall in SNS. Second account is related with the inherent nature of SNS use, in other words the effect of the context in which brand impression is delivered. The primary motivations of SNS use stem from social needs, such as self-expression, belongingness, seeking meaningful relationships, identity formation, impression management, and subjective norms (Acquisti & Gross, 2006; boyd, 2007; Christofides, Muise, & Desmarais, 2009; Donath & boyd, 2004; Zuckerberg, 2008). Therefore, as an inherent characteristic of SNS use, users should be highly aware of their surround- ings and their actions in terms of how they relate to their social agenda. In a similar vein, a recent survey-based study demonstrated that social influence captured by group norms and social identity do indeed influence group intentions and perceived ad relevance in online social networks (Soares & Pinho, 2014). Accordingly, we conceive that social connotations of the post / ad (perceived characteristics and the identity of the profile associated with a post) may also influence observers’ attention and information processing motivations in SNS. Drawing upon the framework of social network theory, tie strength (Brown & Reingen, 1987), homophily (Gilly et al., 1998), trust (Nisbet, 2006) and popularity (Tong et al., 2008) are explored as focal dimensions that characterize the perceived social characteristics of the person

127 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites whose profile is associated with a post / ad in SNS, and consequently influence brand recall. Additionally, following prior research on this domain (i.e., Phua & Ahn, 2014) the impact of two medium specific factors is also examined. SNS enable observers to interact with the messages (clicking the links within a post, liking or sharing a post, tagging, posting a comment underneath a post). Interaction is a type of conscious behavior, hence by definition requires a user to at least notice a particular content and engage in some level of cognitive processing to be able to take a deliberate action. A deeper processing of information enhances recall of the information (Muter, 1984). Therefore, interaction, although in most of the cases in SNS involve a minimal level of cognitive effort, may enhance the impact of a brand impression. Accordingly, the potential influence of users’ interaction with posts / ads in SNS on brand recall is assessed. Furthermore, “like count”, the coefficient representing the number of people who clicked the “like” button underneath a post, may serve as a behavioral cue regarding the popularity of the post (not the person who owns the post). As such, it may influence selective attention processes, thus is also considered as a potential predictor of brand recall. In case of Facebook, brand impressions are delivered to Facebook users through four channels. First, marketers can acquire and engage “fans” through establishing Fan pages and deliver unpaid brand impressions by page publishing. Facebook users become “fans” by clicking the “like” button on these pages. Then, brand related content published in these pages appear on the Fan Page wall and may also appear in the News Feeds of the fans, which is a constantly updating list of stories from people and Pages that users follow on Facebook. Second, when a user actively engages with a brand, the story of this engagement becomes visible either on the user’s wall or in the Newsfeeds of the friends of that user as stories about friends. These unpaid impressions, therefore, may reach Fans and friends of Fans. Third, as a paid brand impression type, sponsored stories can be actively distributed more broadly to Fans and friends of Fans to appear not in the Newsfeed but in the right hand column of Facebook interface. Fourth, ads with social cues (i.e., the ad includes the name of a user’s friend) that come directly from advertisers can also be delivered to friends of fans (Lipsman et al., 2012). A study by Nielsen revealed that Facebook ads, both paid and unpaid versions, were successful in increasing brand awareness on average by 4%, and purchase intention by 2% between exposed and control audiences after exposure (Nielsen, 2010). Further, a study by Mariani and Muhammed (2014) demonstrate, rather relying on descriptive data that people notice brand communication on Facebook and friends’ likes influence future purchasing intentions. Although these findings provide some evidence on the positive impact of Facebook ads on brand awareness, it provides no explanation on how this influence occurs. Drawing on advertising and sociology

128 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites literatures, the present study attempts to contribute to the understanding of how SNS brand impressions might be influencing brand recall. Further, the relationship between the metrics offered by SNS and brand recall will also be explored to assess the reliability of these metrics as measures of advertising effectiveness. Next, we discuss these accounts in detail and develop propositions.

DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH PROPOSITIONS

Brand Related Characteristics

Brand Involvement

The most pervasively used brand-related characteristic in the brand recall literature is the concept of involvement. The concept of involvement characterizes a state of motivation and of interest specific to an individual, which involves individual characteristics (e.g. needs, interests, goals), situational factors (e.g., purchase occasion or perceived risk associated with the purchase decision), and characteristics of the stimulus (e.g. the type of media or the product class) (Andrews & Shimp, 1990; Laurent & Kapferer, 1985; Zaichowsky, 1986). Although there exist many different conceptualizations of involvement in the relevant literature, they all relate to the feeling of self-relevancy. This study adopts a perspective on involvement similar to that of Celsi and Olson (1988) and Broderick and Mueller (1999), conceptualizing involvement as a consumer’s subjective experience or feeling of personal relevance towards a brand. Advertising is apt to have more general relevance for those perceiving the brand as personally important. As such, those who are highly involved with a brand should be more selectively attentive and willing to process information included in a brand- related post / ad (Cohen, 1983; Mitchell, 1979), which would consequently increase the likelihood of a successful brand prime.

Proposition 1: Brand involvement positively relates to brand recall in brand impressions delivered via Facebook.

Self-Brand Congruity

The motivation to express one’s own self is among the primary forces that drive consumers to purchase goods or services (Sirgy, 1982). Self-congruity theory proposes that consumer decision making is determined, in part, by the congruence resulting from a psychological comparison involving the user image of a brand and

129 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites the consumer’s self-concept (Escalas & Bettman, 2003; Sirgy, 1986). User-image of a brand reflects the stereotype of the generalized users of that brand and is determined by a host of factors such as advertising, price, and other marketing and psychological associations (Sirgy, 1982; Sirgy, 1985). Consumers perceive high self-congruity when the product-user image matches that of his or her self-image. Self-brand congruity affects consumer behavior through self-concept motives such as the need for self-consistency, self-esteem, and self-expression (Escalas & Bett- man, 2005; Sirgy, 1982). Facebook’s basic site structure is deliberately designed to gratify self-disclosure behavior (Zuckerberg, 2008), which is significantly driven by the need to convey self- image to other people (Buss & Briggs, 1984). In line with this argument, deliberate and strategic self-disclosure has been recognized as one of the core SNs behaviors (Acquisti & Gross, 2006). People, specifically young people, ‘‘write themselves into being’’ through their actions in SNs (boyd, 2007, p. 129). From this perspective, strategically associating one’s profile with posts /ads involving self-congruent brands in SNs, may serve as a carefully calculated way to brand oneself and impress others (boyd & Ellison, 2008), as part of a larger social phenomenon of using social media instrumentally for self-conscious commodification (Marwick & boyd, 2011). Taylor et al. (2011) found that self-brand congruity is an important factor in facilitating greater attitudinal acceptance of advertisements designed to appear in the SNs context. We posit that people would actively seek posts / ads involving self-congruent brands in SNs and spend more time and cognitive resources to evaluate such posts / ads in order to identify content that by associating with their own profiles they can strategically benefit from the brand user-image to emit desired identity signals about themselves. Altogether these processes would underlie the positive relationship between self-brand congruity and enhanced brand recall in SNS.

Proposition 2: Self-brand congruity positively relates to brand recall in brand impressions delivered via Facebook.

SOCIAL CONNOTATIONS

Tie-Strength

The strength of an interpersonal tie (i.e. strong, weak, or absent) is a linear combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy, and the reciprocal services, which characterize each tie (Granovetter, 1973). Strong-ties, such as family and close friends, constitute stronger and closer relationships that are within an individual’s personal network. Strength of a tie helps formation of trust and provides

130 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites social motivations to be cooperative (Hansen, 1999; Reagans & McEvily, 2003), hence strong-ties are more likely to be activated for the flow of referral behavior and influence interpersonal decision making within small groups and dyads (Brown & Reingen, 1987; Chu & Kim, 2011). Weak-ties on the other hand, consist of less personal social relationships that are composed of a wider set of acquaintances and colleagues, and facilitate dissemination of information across wider networks (Brown & Reingen, 1987; Pigg & Crank, 2004). As such, tie strength indicates ‘the potency of the bond between members of a network (Mittal, Huppertz, & Khare, 2008: 196), and even in an online context, influences behavior (De Bruyn & Lilien, 2008). Facebook shows each user a customized News Feed in which stories related with stronger ties (determined by the frequency of past interaction) are prioritized and appear on top their feed. However, other criteria such as the number of likes a post receives, recency of a post, or the promoted status of a post also enable posts associated with weaker ties to be shown to a user, sometimes located at the very top of their feed. Since social motives (i.e., to keep track of activities of significant others and preserve the status as a close friend) precede utilitarian motives (i.e., searching for marketplace information) in driving Facebook use, we put forth that people would be more attentive toward posts associated with strong-ties. It has also been documented that information shared by a strong-tie in an online context is more likely to be noticed (De Bruyn & Lilien, 2008). Therefore, we conceive that brand impressions embedded in the posts associated with strong ties will be more effective in terms of priming brands in memory, when compared to those embedded in posts associated with weak ties.

Proposition 3: The strength of the social tie between the observer and the person associated with the brand impression positively relates to brand recall in brand impressions delivered via Facebook.

Homophily

Source similarity or homophily refers to the degree to which individuals are similar in terms of certain shared social characteristics (Rogers, 1983). Festinger’s (1954) theory of social comparison may provide a theoretical ground explaining how perceived source similarity may influence effectiveness of brand impressions in SNs. This theory proposes that people tend to compare their attitudes and capabilities with those of others. According to Festinger (1954), the tendency to compare oneself with another person increases as that person is seen to be similar to oneself, because individuals assume that similar people have similar needs and preferences. Several

131 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites studies have found a positive relationship between homophily and persuasiveness and credibility of the information transmitted in the online contexts (Brown, Brod- erick, & Lee, 2007; Prendergast, Ko, & Yuen, 2010). Following this logic, a post / ad that is associated with a person whose personal characteristics are perceived as similar to the viewer should draw more attention and trigger a higher level of cognitive processing than a post / ad associated with a person who is perceived as dissimilar, hence result in higher brand recall performance.

Proposition 4: Homophily between the observer and the person associated with the brand impression positively relates to brand recall in brand impressions delivered via Facebook.

Trust

The literature in a variety of fields from philosophy to sociology and marketing is replete with studies on trust (Morgan & Hunt, 1994; Sullivan & Transue, 1999; War- ren, 1999) and numerous definitions of trust have been offered (Corritore, Kracher, & Wiedenback, 2003). The unifying theme has always been the expectation that one can rely on the words or promises of another (Rotter, 1971). It is a mechanism for reducing complexity and for dealing with uncertainty (Luhmann, 1988). As such, trust is usually regarded as a catalyst in general consumer-marketer relationships, especially in online relationships (Lee, 2005), and influences message processing and attitudes toward advertising (Palka, Pousttchi, & Wiedemann, 2009; Sternthal, Dholakia, & Leavitt, 1978). Trust in the context of SNs facilitates users’ reliance on the usefulness of information attained from other registered SNs members to justify and evaluate personal decisions (Pigg & Crank, 2004; Ridings, Gefen, & Arinze, 2002). In situations where individuals do not yet have credible and meaningful information about the other party, initial trust formation occurs (McKnight, Cummings, & Chervany, 1998). Gradually through experience and familiarity knowledge-based and respect-based trust develops and it offers the highest form of commitment in relationships (Koehn, 2003). SNs friendships often involve such parties with whom trust perceptions are at the initial stages of formation, and thus are goal-based or calculative-based that rely on assessments of benefits versus costs. Drawing on the literature on motivations of SNs use, benefits and costs associated with trusting the other party in the context of SNs should be largely perceived and assessed with respect to the social agenda of the user, driven by impression management needs. Therefore, we posit that, in order not to risk missing important pieces of information that may have social value (social

132 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites statuses of people, places, brands, ideas) and to minimize the risk of associating one’s profile with content that may inflict undesired effects on the delicate matter of impression management, a post / ad associated with a more trustworthy Facebook friend should be given priority in attentive and cognitive processes.

Proposition 5: Trust toward the person associated with the brand impression positively relates to brand recall in brand impressions delivered via Facebook.

Perceived Popularity

Both the source-attractiveness model of McCracken (1989) and the law of attraction of Byrne (1971) suggest that message effectiveness depends chiefly on the perceived attractiveness of the source. Receivers can better identify with and understand sources that are perceived as more attractive and therefore perceived source attractiveness increases the persuasiveness of the information transmitted. Extant research in interpersonal judgments suggests that there exists a positive and reciprocal relationship between perceived popularity and perceived attractiveness in terms of a variety desired characteristics, such as self-confidence, social appeal, and extraversion (Berry & Miller, 2001; Eagly et al., 1991). This reciprocal relationship also implies that perceived popularity may contribute to perceived source attractiveness. In Facebook, the network size of an individual is revealed by a coefficient showing the number of friends. This coefficient may well serve to establish how well-liked an individual is, and also to provide clues about the profile owner’s social status, physical attractiveness, or credibility, consequently serve as an indicator of popularity (Tong et al., 2008). In line with this argument, Ellison, Steinfeld and Lampe (2007) found that “Friending” large numbers of people is one of the (if not the) main activities of Facebook. The fact that behavioral residues (i.e., posts left on the wall, ratings) generated by friends on Facebook are used by observers in impression formation processes has already been documented by Walther et al. (2008). Accordingly, it seems plausible an individual who appears to have lots of friends in Facebook is likely to be seen as a more attractive source, and hence his or her posts or ads associated with his or her profile would draw more attention from viewers and trigger a higher level of cognitive processing, consequently resulting in an increased brand recall performance.

Proposition 6: Perceived popularity of the person associated with the brand impression positively relates to brand recall in brand impressions delivered via Facebook.

133 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites

METHODOLOGY

Procedure

The algorithm of Facebook uses several factors to determine top stories relevant for each user, including the number of comments, who posted the story, and what type of post it is. Accordingly, each user receives a different set of stories in their News Feed. Therefore, generating and using experimental stimuli (e.g., delivering users’ stories about fictitious brands via fictitious friends) and establishing a factorial design (which would have been the preferable experimental setting for the overarching research goals) were not attainable. In our pilot studies, which involved in-depth interviews and observations, we saw that users feel a sense of embeddedness within their social networks and experience medium-specific instant gratifications while using Facebook. Therefore, conducting the research live in Facebook was crucial for the realism and the applicability of our findings. We designed the following data collection method to reconcile our goals and limitations. Subjects, in groups of 20 (the maximum number of people the computer lab could accommodate at a given time), were individually seated in front of personal computers in a computer lab. Once all the subjects were seated, they were asked to log in to their Facebook accounts. They were informed that a study will be conducted about their Facebook use, and no personally identifiable information will be collected or recorded. They were specifically asked not to leave Facebook, and if they somehow are directed to other landing pages via clicking links in Facebook posts, they should return back to their Facebook News Feed. They were allowed to spend 5 minutes freely on Facebook unsupervised. At the back of the lab, three research assistants carefully observed the screens of the computers to ensure that subjects were doing what they were instructed. Following the 5 minute period (the duration of the experiment), the subjects were asked to shut-down their screens and to write down all of the brand names they could recall in 4 minutes for the brands they saw during the time they spent using Facebook. The research assistants asked participants to randomly select 3 of the brands from their list of recalled brands. Then, they were asked to turn-on their screens and scroll-up to find the posts related to these 3 brands they randomly selected from their lists. Subjects answered all the questionnaire items for each of these three specific posts / ads (i.e., brand-related characteristics, social connotations, like count, and interaction). Then, participants were asked to search for posts / ads in their News Feeds that: 1) involve brands that are not included in the recalled brands list, and 2) they remember paying attention to. Among the list of non-recalled brands the participants again randomly selected 3 brands. Finally, they answered the same set of questions for each of the 3 specific posts / ads which involve a randomly selected non-recalled brand. Summated scores

134 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites were calculated for each of the questionnaire items for both brands that were recalled and brands that were not recalled. In order to avoid potential response biases, we tried to ensure that subjects did not know the purpose of the study prior to their participation.

Sample

The sample of the study consisted of 291 university students, recruited by banners posted on both public boards and on a variety of online media used by university students. Applicants were filtered based on their familiarity with SNs and Facebook in particular. Those who are active users of Facebook were included in the sample. The subjects were primarily urban youth, of which 149 were male (51.2%) and 142 were female (48.8%). Their ages ranged from 18 to 26. Subjects’ number of friends on Facebook ranged from 52 to 2217, with an average of 540.

Measures and Measurement Validation

Following the procedure employed by Jungsun and Ferle (2008) and Lerman and Garbarino (2002), brand name recall was measured by providing the subjects with a four-minute time period in which to write down all of the brand names they could recall for the brands they saw during the time they spent using Facebook. Brand involvement (α = .92), self-brand congruity (α = .85), tie-strength (α = .91), homophily (α = .90), and trust (α = .91) were measured by using 5-point Likert scales adapted from the relevant literature. Scale items and their sources are shown in the Appendix. The number of Facebook Friends coefficient is used as a proxy for perceived popularity of the profile associated with a post / ad. The number of Likes coefficient provided the like-count of each post. Finally, five Yes/No questions were used for the interaction options provided in Facebook: clicking a link within the post, Liking, sharing, tagging, and writing a comment. Additionally, a set of control variables were also recorded to capture individual Facebook behavior during the experiment to aid interpretation of the results: the number of posts seen, number of brands available for recall in posts reviewed, number of posts with multiple mentions of a brand name, number of brands that are mentioned in multiple posts. A confirmatory factor analysis involving all multi-item constructs is conducted in order to assess the psychometric properties of the measures. The fit statistics indicated a good fit for the measurement model (chi-square = 1301.76; df = 620; IFI = 0.93; TLI = 0.92; CFI = 0.93; RMSEA = 0.062) (Hu & Bentler, 1999). All standardized factor loadings were significant (p < 0.001) and higher than .60 (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988), average variance extracted estimates for all factors

135 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites Table 1. Reliability and validity

Constructs Α CR AVE 1 2 3 4 5 1. Brand Involvement 0.92 0.92 0.61 0.78 2. Self-Brand Congruity 0.85 0.90 0.59 0.57 0.77 3. Tie-Strength 0.91 0.76 0.82 0.16 .019 0.91 4. Homophily 0.90 0.90 0.75 0.29 0.34 0.67 0.87 5. Trust 0.91 0.83 0.77 0.22 0.19 0.69 0.59 0.88 Notes: The analysis was performed with maximum likelihood method. Diagonal elements in bold are the square root of AVE. Off-diagonal elements are correlations between the constructs. α, Cronbach’s Alpha, CR, composite reliability; AVE, average variance extracted. were well above 0.50 and composite reliability figures for all factors were above

0.75 (CRInolvement = 0.92, CRSelf-Brand Congruence = 0.90, CRTie-Strength = 0.76, CRHomophily =

0.90; CRTrust =0 .83). These figures provide evidence for the convergent validity and internal consistency of measurement items (Hair et al., 2006). In addition, for all constructs the variance extracted values were higher than squared correlations with other factors, providing evidence for discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Data Analysis

Before attempting to assess the differences between the means of the theoretical predictors of brand recall in SNs between the brands that were successfully recalled and were failed to be recalled, the potential effects of several confounding factors are controlled for. First, the effect of recency and primacy of exposure was controlled by examining the vertical positions of the post in which the brand appeared within the News Feed for both recalled and non-recalled brands. Only 22 percent of the recalled brands were located in the top five posts and the last five posts reached by the user by scrolling down in the News Feed. Further analyses showed that the effect of vertical position in the News Feed on brand recall was not statistically significant. Second, we have regressed the number of posts seen, number of brands available for recall in posts reviewed, number of posts with multiple mentions of a brand name, number of brands that are mentioned in multiple posts on brand recall. None of the factors were significant. It was also interesting to see that in none of the cases there were more than 3 posts that mention the same brand. Our research design limits the available options for subsequent data analysis to only paired-sample t-tests and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests (associated drawbacks are discussed in the limitations section). A series of paired-sample t-tests were conducted to assess the differences between the mean values of the theoretical predictors of brand recall in SNS. Next, a series of Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests are

136 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites conducted to assess the differences between the levels of “Like count”, “Number of friends / fans” as a proxy for popularity, and five interaction options offered by Facebook among recalled and non-recalled brands.

RESULTS

The number of brands recalled ranged between 1 and 12, with a median of 4 brands. The frequency of number of brands recalled is shown in Figure 1. 81.4 percent of the recalled brands have appeared within the News Feed, while 18.6 percent appeared in the side bar embedded within ads with social and sponsored stories. Among the recalled impressions occurred in the News Feed, 39.2 percent came from page publishing (i.e., the owner of the post was a Fan Page, not a personal account), and the rest (60.8%) were in the form of stories about friends. The mean values, paired-samples correlations, and associated t-values are shown in Table 2. Although all the mean differences were in the expected direction, only

Figure 1. Frequency of number of brands recalled

137 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites Table 2. Comparison of group means

M M t Construct df Recall No Recall Paired -value Correlation Brand Involvement 290 3.11 3.01 0.25 1.20 Self-Brand Congruence 290 3.14 2.92 0.13 2.67 ** Tie-strength 290 2.97 2.76 0.10 2.18 * Homophily 290 2.82 2.71 0.17 1.28 Trust 290 2.88 2.66 0.21 2.60 ** * p < 0.05 ** p < 0.01 the levels of self-brand congruence (t = 2.67; p < 0.01), trust (t = 2.60; p < 0.01), and tie-strength (t = 2.18; p < 0.05) differed significantly between the recalled brands and non-recalled brands. In order to reduce the chances of obtaining false- positive results (type I errors), a Bonferroni correction is performed, which revealed that with a more conservative error-rate only self-brand congruence and trust significantly relates to brand recall. As shown in Table 3, Wilcoxon Signed-rank tests revealed that, although with relatively small effect sizes, popularity (Z = -3.36, p < 0.05, r = 0.20) and clicking a link in the post / ad in which the brand appears (Z = -2.29, p < 0.05, r = 0.13) significantly effects brand recall. On the other hand, the effects of “Like count” (Z = -0.29, p = 0.78, r = 0.02), and the other four engagement options including Lik- ing (Z = -0.84, p = 0.40, r = 0.05), Sharing (Z = -0.63, p = 0.53, r = 0.04), posting a comment (Z = -0.63, p = 0.53, r = 0.04), and tagging (Z = -0.82, p = 0.41, r = 0.05) were insignificant. Overall, findings supported propositions 2, 3, 5 and 6, whereas propositions 1 and 4 were rejected.

Table 3. Results of the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test

Construct Z R Popularity -3.36 * 0.20 Clicking a Link -2.29 * 0.13 Like Count -0.29 0.02 Liking -0.84 0.05 Sharing -0.63 0.04 Posting a Comment -0.63 0.04 Tagging -0.82 0.05 * p < 0.05

138 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites

LIMITATIONS

There are several limitations of the present study. In line with our exploratory intentions, we collected data while respondents were live on their Facebook accounts, experiencing their regular Facebook screen. This approach not only reduced our ability to control the effects of many unrecognized factors [see a detailed discussion on the effects of unobserved heterogeneity (Becker et al., 2013)], but the practical impossibility of delivering experimental stimuli to predetermined groups of people (i.e., employing a factorial design) also constrained the scope of statistical analyses available and forced us to use a series of paired-sample t-tests and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests (instead of more stringent statistical tests to examine effects such as ANOVA). Therefore, from a theoretical perspective, the exploratory nature of the analyses in the present study precludes us from offering causal explanations for the observed relationships. Acknowledging this major drawback of the present study, we believe the study is capable of contributing substantially to research in the domain of advertising on online social networks. Another limitation relates to the issue of attention paid to the posts. We were unable to record how much attention, if any, was paid to the posts, specifically where the non-recalled brands appeared. Direct observation would have jeopardized the realism of the experiment and retrospective self-report questions would have been misleading. The sample characteristics (291 university students) also limit the generalizability of the findings to other demographic groups. Lastly, it is important for marketing that a brand is recalled when the actual decision to buy is being made. The ability to retrieve a brand during the decision process depends on how strongly the brand is linked in memory with the need. Unfortunately, since each user receives a different set of stories in their News Feed, we were unable to use an experimental stimulus and hence had to measure recall independently of the need. Future research may adopt a scenario approach to overcome this weakness, which will inevitably jeopardize the external validity of the empirical setting.

DISCUSSION AND AVENUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Results of the present research indicate a positive relationship between brand recall:

1. Self-brand congruence, 2. Tie-strength with, 3. Trust toward, and 4. Perceived popularity of the profile associated with the post, and 5. Clicking a link embedded in the post / ad in which the brand appears.

139 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites

On the other hand, we failed to find a significant difference between the levels of brand involvement, homophily with the profile associated with the post / ad, like- count, and four types of built-in user-interaction options including liking, sharing, posting a comment and tagging among the brands that were successfully retrieved from the memory and those were not. The findings of the present research, although exploratory in nature, provide interesting insights regarding the four overarching research questions. Regarding the first research question, the fact that each of our subjects successfully retrieved at least one brand impression freely from their memory, suggests brand impressions in Facebook have the potential to affect short-term memory. This finding when combined with the results of the survey-based study conducted by Mariani and Mu- hammed (2014) in which 87% of every-day Facebook users reported noticing brand advertisement in Facebook, supports the practice of advertising in social media. Regarding the second research question, our findings provide exploratory evidence regarding how an array of literature-based theoretical predictors of brand awareness in social media relates to brand recall in a realistic setting. Self-brand congruence, tie-strength with, trust toward, and perceived popularity of the profile associated with the post, and clicking a link embedded in the post / ad in which the brand positively relate with brand recall. On the other hand, we failed to find a significant difference between the levels of brand involvement, homophily with the person associated with the post / ad, like-count, and four types of built-in user- interaction options including liking, sharing, posting a comment and tagging among the brands that were successfully retrieved from the memory and those were not. Although the exploratory nature of our research design forbids us to make strong generalizations, these findings may have interesting theoretical and practical implications for marketing in SNs. The theoretical foundation of the hypothesized relationships between self-brand congruence, tie-strength, trust, and popularity and brand recall rests on the assump- tion that SNS use is primarily driven by social needs such as self-expression and impression management (boyd, 2007; boyd & Ellison, 2007; Marwick & boyd, 2011). When people are highly involved with a task, their attention can be directed toward an item because it is relevant to the task at hand (Jessen & Rodway, 2010). Driven by their preoccupation with impression management, it may be plausible that SNs users orient themselves toward or process information from only those posts / ads that may in the future serve as desirable identity signals when associated with their profiles. Brands that are congruent with users’ desired self-images, may serve as excellent aids for identity construction; hence those posts that involve such brands may be selected for deeper processing. These findings resonate well with the findings of the study conducted by Soares and Pinho (2014), in which they found that group norms and social identity significantly and positively influences perceived

140 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites advertising relevance in online social advertising. When coupled with results of the Soares and Pinho (2014), our findings indicate that brand communication in social media may aid the motivation to publicly announce social identity and group memberships. Perceptions regarding trustworthiness and popularity of the person associated with a post/ad are also found to relate positively with brand recall. It seems that the task-at-hand, strategic impression management, not only influences how SNs users select the content they interact with, but may also affects to whom they tune-in to. It is plausible that in order not to miss important chunks of socially important and social identity-relevant information, people seek for and carefully evaluate the posts / ads associated with popular and trustworthy sources. Conversely, brand involvement was not associated with brand recall in SNs. In accordance with the logic presented above, a possible explanation for this outcome may be grounded on the fact that people do not search for brand-related information on SNs, instead they are attentive toward socially-relevant cues and behavioral residues. SNs users are more concerned with the content associated with the people they are involved with, not the brands. They are more involved with the brands to the extent that the associations of the brand cater to their desired self-images. In drawing this explanation we also relied on the notes we took during the in-depth interviews. Many of the respondents either directly or indirectly stated that interacting with brands on social media is actually a social act full of cultural meanings and values. They emphasized that interaction with branded content is actually a form of consumer-to-consumer interaction that occurs around sharing of brand-related values. This inference fits well with Kozinets’ (2014) definition of social brand engagement as “a meaningful connection, creation and communication between one consumer and one or more other consumers, using brand or brand-related language, images and meanings” (p. 10). Cumulatively, this outlook suggests that targeting and segmentation of users in SNs should focus on social needs and gratifications, instead of utilitarian needs or interest-based characteristics. Further, the results suggest that the meaning of “being a Fan” in SNs may diverge from conventional settings, because perceptions related with image-related congruency of a brand seems to weigh heavier than other dimensions of brand involvement (i.e., personal interests, goals, product category) in the context of SNs in influencing cognitive processing of brand-related messages. Regarding our third research question, among the four built-in interaction options provided by Facebook examined in the present study (liking, sharing, tagging, and posting a comment), none could cognitively engage our subjects enough to facilitate brand recall. Our results showed that only clicking a link placed within a post is

141 Determinants of Brand Recall in Social Networking Sites associated with brand recall, which is probably due to the fact that clicking a link takes the user away from the Facebook News Feed and lands the user to a more brand-focused page. When the Facebook-specific interaction options are considered, the actions of liking, sharing and tagging can be enacted by a single mouse click, which often do not require elaborate cognitive processing. The comments underneath a post may sometimes be totally unrelated with the original content. People converse via posting comments underneath posts, and the topic of the conversation quickly shifts away from the post itself. Similarly, liking and tagging a particular content may serve as means to interact with the owner of the post, not the post itself. All these provide potential explanations as for why the relationship between these actions and brand recall was insignificant. Therefore, marketers should be cautious when relying on the ability of the number of the incidences of these actions associated with their content in assessing the true marketing impact of their activities in SNs. Finally, “Like-count”, a frequently used success metric in the industry, does not seem to qualify as a reliable measure for brand awareness. Our failure to find a relationship between brand recall and Like-count raises an additional issue: What is the meaning of ‘like’ is in these environments? It can be speculated that the meaning of ‘like’ is broader than conventional understandings. It seems that the Like button serves many purposes. Thus, the meaning of a ‘like’ in SNs remains a mystery, which calls for future research. The study of marketing communications in social media is still in an early stage. The present study provides insights regarding the impact of brand impressions in SNs on brand awareness and probably produces more questions than it elucidates concrete answers. There also exist many other relevant and important questions yet to be answered associated with brand impressions in SNs. For example, since our findings suggest that trust toward and tie-strength with the profile / page associated with the post are important predictors of brand recall, it a strategic imperative to shed light on the processes through which trust toward and tie-strength with a Fan Page are enhanced in SNs? Does media format (i.e., video, picture, text-based posts) affect brand recall in SNs? Is it possible to create new kinds of built-in interaction options that can improve the accessibility of brands in memory? Similar to the marketing effects of product and brand placements (Balasubramanian, Karrh, & Patwardhan, 2006), can brand impressions in SNs exert an influence on implicit memory? How do the four different methods of delivering brand impressions on Facebook (i.e., sponsored stories, stories about friends, page publishing, and ads with social) differ in terms of their marketing impacts? Each of these issues is practically significant to advertisers, media planners and marketing theorists, yet remains untapped in the relevant literature and hence points toward an interesting direction for future research.

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APPENDIX

Final Items Used in Testing and Analyses

Brand Involvement: (Jungsun & La Ferle, 2008; Cho, 2003)

1. The brand is important to me. 2. I get involved with the brand. 3. The brand is relevant to me. 4. I am going to use / buy a product of the brand in the next six months. 5. I am interested in the brand in general.

Trust: (Chu & Kim, 2011)

1. I trust the owner of the profile / page associated with the post / ad. 2. I have confidence in the owner of the profile / page associated with the post / ad. 3. I can believe in the owner of the profile / page associated with the post / ad.

Self-Brand Congruence: (Sirgy et al., 1997)

1. The brand is consistent with how I see myself. 2. The brand caters to people like me. 3. The brand reflects who I am. 4. The typical customers of the brand are very much like me.

Homophily: (McCroskey et al., 1975)

The owner of the profile / page associated with the post / ad …

1. Thinks like me. 2. Behaves like me. 3. Similar to me. 4. Is like me.

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Tie-Strength: (Chu & Kim, 2011; Brown & Reingen, 1987)

1. I frequently communicate with the owner of the profile / page associated with the post / ad. 2. Overall, the owner of the profile / page associated with the post / ad is important for me. 3. Overall, I feel close to the owner of the profile / page associated with the post / ad.

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Chapter 8 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks

Arturo Haro-de-Rosario Alejandro Sáez-Martin University of Almería, Spain University of Almería, Spain

Laura Saraite María del Carmen Caba-Pérez University of Almería, Spain University of Almería, Spain

ABSTRACT This chapter has two main aims. First, to investigate the Facebook practices used in the U.S. banking sector with the aim of enhancing customer engagement; second, to perform a comparative analysis of the use of Facebook in this respect, among different U.S. banks. In this comparative analysis, we apply the Federal Reserve charter classification (Nationally chartered member bank, State-chartered member bank and State-chartered nonmember bank). The findings of this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the influence of social media in enhancing customer engagement. Banks, and their community managers in particular, can make use of the conclusions drawn in this study to develop future strategies to foster citizen engagement via Facebook.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch008

Copyright ©2017, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks

INTRODUCTION

Social media, based on Web 2.0 technologies, have elevated online communications to a new level (Constantinides & Fountain, 2008). According to Mitic and Kapoulas (2012), social media are becoming an integral part of consumers’ lives and can enhance the understanding of their needs and preferences, on the basis of shared information. Therefore, social media could help organisations build up brand awareness, visibility, reputation, knowledge sharing and customer acquisition and retention (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Bolotaeva & Cata, 2010). The fast rate of Social Media adoption, and their rapidly growing popularity, encourages speculation on the potential goldmine that lies within the complex network of user commentaries, testimonials and communities (Eccleston & Griseri, 2008; Hardey, 2009). In this respect, Mitic and Kapoulas (2012) observed that social media have quickly escalated to become a global phenomenon where connectedness to Facebook or Twitter is everything and the ability to acquire “follows”, “likes” or “shares” means power. In consequence, inspired by the power of social media to engage users, organisations have begun to seek ways to learn to leverage these “likes”, “shares” and “comments” for profit making (Andriole, 2010; Culnan et al., 2010). In a banking context, social media allow customers to engage, collaborate and interact, and present an opportunity for those banks which strategically adopt Web 2.0 technologies into their organisation structure. Thus, social media provide a perfect platform for customer relationship management (Chikandiwa et al., 2013). Moreover, according to Bonsón and Flores (2011) and Gritten (2011), social media could enable banks to regain the customer trust that had been lost due to the recent economic crisis. The most popular social media used by banks, for the purpose of communicating with their customers, are Facebook and Twitter (Chikandiwa et al., 2013; Goi, 2014). Samuels (2013) observed that banks are now using social media like Face- book far more intensively, as it affords them more space in which to post images, information and private messages. Similarly, Logvinov (2013) argued that banks are turning to social media to build and rebuild their customer relationships by inviting their customers to participate in the business, such as helping other customers and designing new products and services. Taking the view that the appropriate use of social media can raise levels of customer feedback, loyalty and engagement (Beuker, 2009; Gallaugher & Ransbo- tham, 2010), pioneers in social media are emerging in the banking sector (Mitic & Kapoulas, 2012). In the U.S., banks such as Citibank, Bank of America and ING Direct now have an active presence in social media, oriented toward creating rap- port with customers and providing interactive online service support (Stone, 2009; Cohen, 2010). However, according to Klimis (2010), European banks appear to be

155 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks more reserved, and there are fewer examples of their presence in the social media. Therefore, although social media implementation in banking is emerging (especially in the U.S.), the sector is still at an early stage of establishing a social media presence and using Web 2.0 technologies to enhance engagement with customers (Cocheo, 2009; Hardey, 2009; Klimis, 2010). The literature on the banking sector has abundant references to online and electronic services (e.g. e-banking), but has paid relatively little attention to the adoption and use of social media (Mitic & Kapoulas, 2012; Chikandiwa et al., 2013; Goi, 2014; Murray et al., 2014). Furthermore, most previous studies in this field have used interviews or questionnaires, although it has been argued that metrics measuring the effectiveness of social media engagement and its impact on customer relationships are still vague, and to date no hard evidence has been produced to prove the benefits of social media for the banking sector (Jaser, 2010; Vemuri, 2010). Therefore, there is a need to investigate, based on social media profiles, how certain banks adopt social media, why others resist the trend, and what could be learned from their practices and approaches. Taking these considerations into account, this chapter has two main aims. First, to investigate the Facebook practices used in the U.S. banking sector with the aim of enhancing customer engagement; second, to perform a comparative analysis of the use of Facebook in this respect, among different U.S. banks. In this comparative analysis, we apply the Federal Reserve charter classification (Nationally chartered member bank, State-chartered member bank and State-chartered nonmember bank). The findings of this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the influence of social media in enhancing customer engagement. Banks, and their community managers in particular, can make use of the conclusions drawn in this study to develop future strategies to foster citizen engagement via Facebook. In addition, by exploring the differences among U.S. banks regarding their adoption of social media to increase customer engagement, we gain a better understanding of the possibilities of social media and their implementation in this sector of the economy. As a more general outcome, we hope that this research will spur reflection on the benefits offered by the adoption of social media in this sector and related industries.

Web 2.0 Technologies and Social Media in the Banking Sector

Due to increased competition, the greater homogeneity of financial products and services, globalisation and the recent economic crisis, financial institutions have had to increase the level of services provided in order to improve customer satisfaction, increase the degree of differentiation from the competition and, ultimately, involve the entire organisation in customer satisfaction (Liebana & Muñoz, 2013). This shift, known as Customer Relationship Management, has produced a transforma-

156 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks tion in financial institutions, both in their organisational model and in their business management model (Liebana et al., 2011). Thus, new technological solutions have been introduced into the banking sector via the internet, leading to the creation of ‘electronic banking’ (Gerrard et al., 2006;. Suriya et al., 2012; Liebana & Muñoz, 2013). Electronic banking is defined as the combination of online banking activities (e- banking) and relational marketing through the internet (Mukhtar, 2015). E-banking allows services to be offered at lower cost, by eliminating intermediaries, and makes them easily accessible (Ozdemir & Trott, 2009; Flavián et al., 2006). Moreover, the internet provides an alternative marketing channel, one that banks can use to attract and maintain new customers (Mukhtar, 2015). Banks’ rising interest in retaining customers and strengthening their engagement has evolved in parallel with the growth of the internet (Wirtz et al., 2010). The social media, arising with the development of Web 2.0 tools, are considered the “next milestone” in the evolution and analysis of corporate information (Bonsón & Flores, 2011). The new possibilities of social interaction are considered a key aspect of achieving customer engagement and entering into close relations with stakeholders (Sashi, 2012). Social media also facilitate the creation of value between the company and the customer (Harrison & Barthel, 2009). Therefore, this new phase of the internet, in which users of social media are no longer restricted to consulting online information, but can actively participate in its creation, has opened the way to the quick and easy communicating, collaborating and sharing of information online (Bonsón & Rathaki, 2013). Mitic and Kapoulas (2012) identified four possible ways in which banks can engage with their customers via social media: by creating up-to-date, interactive content; by encouraging customers to interact with the bank through social media; by encouraging customers to actively contribute ideas to improve the banks’ offer of services and products, for mutual benefit; and by collaborating with the online community to raise awareness about social media programs. Chikandiwa et al. (2013) and Goi (2014), among others, have shown that Facebook and Twitter are the most commonly used forms of social media, while Samuels (2013) observed that Facebook offers the most space for the publication of images and information.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Numerous theories have been proposed to explain how and why organisations implement their strategies and actions through social media. Thus, Wattal et al.

157 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks

(2010) referred to agency theory, noting that the social media have reshaped the relationship between stakeholders and organisations, offering the latter incentives to disclose information that enables their actions to be monitored. In accordance with the theory of rumour transmission, first proposed by Buckner (1965), it has been suggested that companies can improve their methods of promotion through the analysis of social media and organic word-of-mouth (Kazienko et al., 2011). In this line, too, and following stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984), Bonsón and Ratkai (2013) examined how stakeholders’ moods in the social media can change in response to companies’ actions. Referring to the theory of legitimacy, Bonsón and Ratkai (2013) suggested that society is a broader category than that of stakeholders because it contains entities that are not stakeholders in the company. Accordingly, a company must conduct its activities both through the social media and apart from them, in order to be considered socially acceptable. In other words, they must not only meet the expectations of, for example, present-day investors, but also those of future ones and of possible clients. In any case, the impact and benefits of social media can only come after acceptance, adoption and continued usage. According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) and Clemons (2009), social media should be viewed as a tool for improving customer engagement, and therefore strategies should be determined to promote the adoption of social media. The literature in this field classifies models of social media adoption into two main groups (Chikandiwa et al., 2013). On the one hand is the social organising model (SOM), based on the strategic framework of the organisation. According to Owyang (2010), companies may be organised for social development in any of five ways: centralised, distributed, coordinated, multiple hub and spoke, and holistic. The second group consists of four models based on the level of maturity in terms of the adoption of social media: the social media strategy learning curve (SMSLC), the social media adoption curve (SMAC), the social engagement journey (SEJ) and the social media maturity model (SMMM). The SMSLC model describes the emergence, tactics, integration and development of the process by which social media are adopted (Smiciklas, 2011). The SMAC model is composed of six successive steps: learning, observation, broadcast, participation, relationship and collaboration (MiXT Media, 2008). By means of the SEJ model, Carfi (2012) describes the five scenarios that an organisation must experience to become completely connected socially: traditional, experimental, operational, measurable and fully engaged. Finally, the SMMM model comprises the following phases: ad-hoc, experimental, functional and transformation (Luxembourg, 2011). In addition to the above, the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1989), which identifies the factors that lead people to accept or reject the use of technologi-

158 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks cal applications, has been used by authors such as Curtis et al. (2010) to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media in the clear, precise disclosure of information, and in obtaining real-time feedback from stakeholders. All of the above-mentioned theories and models are important, but the dialogic communication theory proposed by Taylor and Kent (1998) has been the most widely used over the last decade to explain the importance of the use of social media as a strategic tool for promoting communication and dialogue (Waters et al., 2009; Bortree & Seltzer, 2009; Rybalko & Selzter, 2010; McAllister, 2012; Bonsón & Ratkai, 2013; Bonsón et al., 2014; Sáez-Martín et al., 2015). This theory highlights the use of Web 2.0 technologies via the social media as a key element in improving organisations’ interactivity and communication and in enhancing stakeholders’ satisfaction and engagement. Thus, through increased transparency and participation, trust is reinforced between organisations and their stakeholders (Bonsón & Ratkai, 2013; Bonsón et al., 2014). In relation to previous studies of banks’ use of social media, an important paper was presented by Chikandiwa et al. (2013), who examined patterns of adoption of social media by banks in order to conduct marketing by this channel of communication. In this line, too, Mitic and Kapoulas (2012) investigated banks’ requirements for adopting social media, and concluded that social media are more appropriate for smaller or younger banks that wish to use innovative ways to increase their market share. Goi (2014) examined the impact of social media on banks with respect to aspects such as conversation, exchange, publication and participation, all of which are also relevant to market share. With regard to the acquisition and retention of customers, Murray et al. (2014) suggested that social media are used primarily to improve customer participation in the affairs of the bank. Despite the importance of these studies and the relative absence of research into the use of social media in the banking sector, the metrics used previously have been criticised as using only surveys and interviews to investigate the effectiveness of participation in social media and their impact on relations with customers (Jaser, 2010; Vemuri, 2010). Therefore, there is a need for further research, to analyse bank profiles in the most popular forms of social media, such as Facebook. For this purpose, Bonsón and Ratkai (2013) provide a useful introduction. On the basis of dialogic communication theory, these authors propose a set of metrics with which to evaluate reactivity, dialogic communication and engagement through corporate profiles on Facebook (popularity, engagement and virality). These metrics provide a better understanding and measurement capability of social media, and thus can help improve the management of online communication between banks and their customers.

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METHOD

Sample

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is the U.S. government agency that protects customer deposits, has recorded the existence of 7,836 banking groups in the country. Most are State or local banks, while a few are nationwide banking giants, and play a major role in the economy. According to the Federal Reserve, the U.S. banking system is composed of three types of banks: Nationally chartered member banks, which operate on the authority of Federal law and are members of the Federal Reserve; State-chartered member banks, which operate in accordance with the provisions of the banking laws of each State and are also members of the Federal Reserve; and State-chartered nonmember banks, which are private banks operating within a given State and which do not participate in the Federal Reserve System. In general, nonmember banks are less regulated than member banks, being subject only to the laws of the States in which they are chartered. Our analysis is focused on the Facebook profiles of the largest U.S. banks. The study sample was obtained taking into consideration the Federal Reserve database, which compiles data on domestically chartered insured commercial banks that have consolidated assets of $300 million or more. We selected the 150 largest U.S. banks as the initial sample. The approach used to determine the official Facebook page of the 150 banks was, first, to examine the official website of each bank. If no link was found to an official Facebook profile, “Facebook” was used as a search term on the bank’s own website. If this approach failed to obtain a Facebook profile, a search was conducted in Google, specifying “Facebook” with the title of the bank. By conducting this procedure, of the 150 banks analysed, 83 were found to have an official Facebook page (37 Nationally chartered member banks, 25 State-chartered member banks and 21 State-chartered nonmember banks). Therefore, these 83 U.S. banks constituted the final study sample. The study was conducted during the month of August 2015. The period of one month is considered an acceptable timeframe in which to analyse the information present in social media (Nah and Saxton, 2013). Altogether, 1,825 Facebook posts were analysed, together with 16,834 comments, 389,789 likes and 33,693 shares.

Analysis Procedure

The research for this chapter is structured in two phases. First, a descriptive analysis was conducted to determine the level of customer engagement through the Facebook

160 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks profiles of U.S. banks. In the second phase, an analysis of differences of medians was performed to identify significant divergences between customer engagement in nationally chartered member banks, State-chartered member banks and State- chartered nonmember banks. In the descriptive analysis, we examined the popularity, commitment and virality of U.S. banks’ Facebook pages, following the metrics developed by Bonsón and Ratkai (2013) to measure the level of customers’ engagement. In the financial world, the popularity of Facebook has led the majority of banks to create their own profiles, containing lists of other users, enabling them to scan and search through their connections (Boyd and Ellison, 2008). The effectiveness of a bank’s Facebook page can be measured as the number of “likes” it obtains. Commitment reflects a more interactive engagement with customers, and is measured by the number of “comments”. The virality parameter reflects the effectiveness of viral posts on Facebook, and thus customers’ involvement in the active disclosure of posts. It is measured by the number of “shares”, i.e., how many times a wall post is shared with others. As shown in Table 1, the numbers of posts, likes, fans, comments and shares were collected for each Facebook profile in order to calculate the proposed metrics. The data were compiled manually by three researchers working independently. An initial meeting was held to specify the strategy to be adopted for each metric. At the end of the process, the results were reviewed to resolve any differences and to overcome possible bias.

Table 1. Metrics used to measure customers’ engagement

Sign Formula Measures Popularity P1 Posts with likes/ total posts Percentage of the total posts that have been liked P2 Total likes/total posts Average number of likes per post P3 (P2/number of fans) * 1000 Popularity of messages among fans Commitment C1 Posts with comments/ total Percentage of the total posts that have been posts commented on C2 Total comments/ total Average number of comments per post posts C3 (C2/number of fans) * Commitment of fans 1000 Virality V1 Posts with shares/ total Percentage of the total posts that have been shared posts V2 Total shares/ total posts Average number of shares per post V3 (V2/number of fans) * Virality of messages among fans 1000 Source: Bonsón and Ratkai (2013)

161 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks

In the second part of our analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test was applied to determine whether there are significant differences in customers’ engagement among the three groups of U.S. banks, following previous research on social media and online information disclosure (Pfeil et al., 2009; Roblyer et al., 2010; Syhu & Ka- poor, 2010). This test is considered the nonparametric equivalent of the t-test, and it is well suited for the analysis of two independent groups when the sample is small, when the assumptions of normality and homoscedasticity cannot be made, and when the discriminant variable for the two groups is ordinal (Sheskin, 2011). The hypotheses for this test are defined as follows:

• H1: There are differences between customer engagement in Nationally- chartered member banks and State-chartered member banks. • H2: There are differences between customer engagement in Nationally- chartered member banks and State-chartered nonmember banks. • H3: There are differences between customer engagement in State-chartered member banks and State-chartered nonmember banks.

In all three cases the null hypothesis is that there is no difference between the medians.

RESULTS

Tables 2 and 3 show the data obtained in the comparative analysis for customer engagement in the U.S. banking sector. It can be seen that the form of participation that is most commonly used by these banks’ customers is related to the popularity of the Facebook profiles analysed, measured by the “likes” received (see Table 2). The second commonly most used way of participating in Facebook is to “share” the publications of the bank, in what is known as virality. These data are consistent with the findings of other, similar studies (Wright, 2009; Bonsón & Ratkai, 2013), in which it is argued that these results can be explained by the fact that it is faster and easier to click “like” or “share” than to write a comment. Therefore, the least used form of interaction is that of commitment, which is measured by the comments made in response to the posts of each bank. In general, however, bank customers present low levels of commitment, an outcome that can be explained by reference to the models referring to the adoption of social media. According to these models, banks are in the early stages of social media adoption, and therefore it is difficult to perceive or quantify the positive outcomes associated with their use, because these can only be generated after the adoption, integration and prolonged use of social media by U.S. banks.

162 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks Table 2. Customers’ engagement in U.S. banks: Descriptive statistics

Mean Std. Dev. Min. Max. Nationally Popularity P1 0.9420 0.1185 0.4615 1.0000 chartered member P2 239.9860 725.4367 3.0000 4261.4444 banks P3 3.2077 4.3867 0.0325 18.7140 Commitment C1 0.4433 0.3239 0.0000 1.0000 C2 17.4956 44.0756 0.0000 199.0000 C3 0.1470 0.2285 0.0000 1.0273 Virality V1 0.4682 0.3031 0.0000 1.0000 V2 15.6709 37.0223 0.0000 169.8889 V3 0.2149 0.2504 0.0000 0.9144 State-chartered Popularity P1 0.9617 0.0840 0.6250 1.0000 member banks P2 200.4301 384.3458 2.8750 1680.8750 P3 9.6377 11.2069 0.2325 40.1146 Commitment C1 0.3986 0.2972 0.0000 1.0000 C2 7.3869 13.5653 0.0000 53.0625 C3 0.3053 0.4336 0.0000 1.4705 Virality V1 0.4861 0.3190 0.0000 1.0000 V2 18.4879 36.7003 0.0000 142.4583 V3 1.1488 2.4383 0.0000 11.1524 State-chartered Popularity P1 0.9658 0.1090 0.5000 1.0000 nonmember banks P2 112.5027 318.1018 1.1875 1456.8571 P3 3.2655 3.1600 0.0408 9.8534 Commitment C1 0.3992 0.3321 0.0000 1.0000 C2 5.1765 12.3240 0.0000 55.6000 C3 0.6415 2.5748 0.0000 11.8753 Virality V1 0.3858 0.3241 0.0000 1.0000 V2 5.5938 12.7592 0.0000 57.7857 V3 0.2297 0.3306 0.0000 1.3029

With respect to the level of engagement achieved by each type of bank, the descriptive results reveal the existence of differences depending on the type of metric used (Table 2). Thus, the overall data indicate that U.S. customers are more engaged with State-chartered member banks than with the other types. Nevertheless, each measure should be analysed separately.

163 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks

Table 3. Comparative analysis of customers’ engagement in U.S. banks: Mann- Whitney U test

Hypotheses        Nationally banks   Nationally banks   State member banks         vs   vs   vs  H1   H2   H3         State member banks State nonmember banks State nonmember banks

Z Statistic Z Statistic Z Statistic P1 -0.613 -1.030 -0.460 P2 -0.380 0.607 1.202

Popularity P3 -3.121*** -0.526 2.194** C1 0.460 0.502 0.177

C2 0.301 0.817 0.695

C3 -1.794* 0.089 1.621 Commitment

V1 -0.287 1.174 1.269 V2 0.022 1.141 1.092

Virality V3 -1.880* 0.283 1.820* * Significant at the 0.10 level. ** Significant at the 0.05 level. *** Significant at the 0.01 level.

Beginning with the levels of popularity (P) of each Facebook profile, it appears that customers favour the State-chartered banks, whether member or nonmember banks (P1=96%). However, in terms of the average number of “likes” per post (P2), the Nationally chartered member banks outperform the rest (P2=239). If popularity is measured by the number of fans, i.e. the number of “likes” per post and per fan (P3), we see that the State-chartered member banks are the most popular of those studied. However, the values obtained when this metric is used are very low, and so, following Bonsón and Ratkai (2013), they are shown multiplied by a thousand in the table. The data for levels of customer commitment (C) (see Table 2) indicate that 44% of the posts of Nationally chartered member banks receive at least one comment (C1), with an average of 17 comments per post (C2). In this respect, the two types of State-chartered banks performed more weakly; on average, 39% of posts received at least one comment, and there were an average of 7 comments per post for member banks, and 5 for the nonmember banks. On considering the number of fans of the Facebook profiles of each bank (C3), we see that the State-chartered nonmember banks have a higher level of customer commitment (0.64) than the others.

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In the metrics that measure customer virality (V), the State-chartered member banks obtain the highest values. Thus, 48% of the posts made by these banks are shared at least once (V1), and each post is shared on average over 18 times (V2). With respect to fans (V3), too, the profiles of the State-chartered member banks are the most viral (see Table 2). These results show that, whatever the form of participation (likes, shares or comments), the level of engagement presented by customers on the Facebook pages of U.S. banks is relatively low. Therefore, the banks’ policy should be aimed at acquiring customer engagement via their social media. In this regard, banks should focus on their customers’ engagement in terms of the comments made, an approach that will allow banks to interact directly with customers and to determine their preferences or complaints regarding the services provided. The results of the Mann-Whitney U test are summarised in Table 3. As can be seen, the tests performed between pairs of types of banks (Nationally chartered member banks, State-chartered member banks and State-chartered nonmember banks) only reveal significant differences in the metrics that focus on fans to measure popularity, commitment and virality (P3, C3 and V3). Thus, the State-chartered member banks differ from the others, while there were no significant differences in terms of customer engagement between the Nationally chartered member banks and the State-chartered nonmember banks. Therefore, although these tests indicate that the use of Facebook, both by customers and by banks, varies from one type of bank to another, the results obtained only partly corroborate the descriptive differences detected between the levels of engagement for the three types of U.S. banks.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The social media play an increasingly important role in the development of communication strategies in the banking sector, and make a decisive contribution to strategies, to attract and retain customers. In addition, social media offer many possibilities for promoting dialogic communication and thus for building up brand awareness, enhancing the bank’s reputation and increasing customer engagement. In the present study, we investigate the practices of U.S. banks in Facebook, from the perspective of the theory of dialogic communication, in order to measure the level of customer engagement. Descriptive data indicate, firstly, that popularity is the most widely used form of customer engagement and, secondly, that this engagement is more strongly present in State-chartered member banks. Some authors, such as Mitic and Kapoulas (2012), have suggested that banks should develop strategies to encourage customers to actively contribute to the social media by providing ideas to improve the supply of products and services. Neverthe-

165 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks less, our results show that the implementation of this type of strategy is still at a low level. Moreover, few customers actually participate in banks’ concerns by making comments in response to social media posts. Accordingly, banks are failing to take advantage of a unique opportunity to obtain the views of their customers. Therefore, in line with Mitic and Kapoulas (2012), we recommend that banks should undertake actions to encourage active participation and customer commitment, and to overcome the greater effort required for customers to write a comment. Regarding the comparative analysis, the Mann-Whitney U test shows that customer engagement for State-chartered member banks is only significantly different from that for the other types of banks in the metrics that include the number of fans. Although these results are consistent with the descriptive analysis, it is strange that no significant differences were found in levels of engagement between National banks and State-chartered nonmember banks, since, in general, these are banks with very different characteristics. All National banks belong to the Federal Reserve, and so they are more highly regulated than nonmember banks, private banks that constitute what has been termed ‘shadow banking’, and which are only subject to the laws of the State in which they conduct their activity. The United States, together with China, is one of the countries where this type of banking is most widespread. In 2014 alone, shadow banking operations to a value exceeding 71 billion dollars were recorded in the United States. Therefore, the results obtained may be related to the size of the banks; both National banks and State-chartered nonmember banks are usually very large, while State-chartered member banks are generally smaller. This difference may account for the differences observed in customer engagement via Facebook. It should also be noted that State-chartered nonmember banks do not operate nationally because they would then be regulated by the Federal Reserve, while State-chartered member banks do not do so due to their small size. In any case, these results help us to better understand the role played by the social media in increasing customer engagement. Consideration of these findings might help community managers to develop future strategies to encourage participation, and to attract and retain customers, through Facebook. However, it should be borne in mind that customer engagement through Facebook is not achieved simply by creating a Facebook profile; in addition, banks must define strategies to facilitate customer feedback (Bonsón & Flores, 2011). Moreover, the fact that a Facebook profile has a large number of fans does not automatically mean that the bank will have a highly engaged body of customers in this respect (Bonsón et al., 2014). As areas for future research, it would be interesting to extend the study sample to other countries and to make comparisons between them. The present analysis is limited to measuring the level of customer engagement through interactions in the social media. It would be useful to extend the scope of analysis, by performing a

166 The Impact of Social Media on Customer Engagement with U.S. Banks content analysis of banks’ Facebook profiles. This could be done taking as a starting point the previous research conducted in this field by authors such as Bortree and Seltzer (2009) and Rybalko and Seltzer (2010). Finally, in line with Stieglitz and Dang Xuan (2013), it would be interesting to analyse the mood of customers through social media, as this may influence their degree of engagement. The outcome of such an analysis could also be used to improve the online strategies and actions currently applied by banks.

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Chapter 9 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions and Current Customer Loyalty

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah Independent Researcher, Jordan

ABSTRACT Social networks are fundamentally changing the way we communicate, collaborate, consume, and create. They represent one of the most transformative impacts of information technology on business and daily life. This chapter will explain set of social network concepts and its influences in social interaction and decision making, and to determine whether individual’s decision to consume a product, service, or attend an event are influenced by their interaction on social network, by studying three characteristics: Contagion, Connection, and Virtual Word of mouth. The results of this research can be used by business to enhance their relation and opportunities with their current and potential customers.

INTRODUCTION

During the last decade, web has evolved to become one of the most popular means not only for searching and sharing information but also for developing online communities, which results in transforming the Web technology environments from Web

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch009

Copyright ©2017, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions

1.0 (read only) to web 2.0 (read and write), (Darwish, 2011). Web 2.0 can be defined as Internet applications that enable users to communicate and collaborate through creating and uploading new content, commenting on existing content and sharing content with other users, by using discussion boards, web blogs and social media websites (Betsch et. al., 2012; Pegoraro, 2010). Shifting people from being content readers to content generators and publishers distinguishes the web 2.0 as modern media from those classical media like newspapers, television and first generation Web (Alonso, et. al. 2013). According to Darwish (2011), Blogs, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), video sharing, podcasting, wiki, video conferencing and Social Networks are examples of the main web 2.0 personal activities tools. Social Networks has become a pervasive phenomenon that is not limited to a specific age range or particular gender, and that plays a major role in every life activity. The literature shows that Social Networks user’s decision process is affected by multiple attributes and factors, this chapter will study and measure the impact of Social Networks characteristics (Contagion, Connection, and Virtual Word of Mouth) on individual’s buying decisions, by analyzing available features and techniques used in Social Networks like contagion mechanism represented by “News Feeds”, “Like” button impact, and activities horizons. Therefore, a better view of customer’s perception will be available for organizations and decision makers about what really affect their customers’ hanging to their products, the last section will contain a set of advices to improve and strengthen the relation with customers.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social networks technologies are vital in promoting collaboration and represent a flexible source of information and knowledge in the latest innovation, therefor it is crucial to efficiently use it in the modern social and business environment in order to create and consolidate the competitive advantages of modern-day businesses (Garrigos-Simon, et. al., 2012).

Social Networks

Social networks have become more reliable during the last decade and it has changed how people interact, navigate websites; make daily decisions, and daily lifestyle activities (Christakis & Fowler, 2011). It can be described as an Internet based real time communication tool which supports real world processes and activities by its users, and allow them to collaborate, communicate, share information and so on (Alonso, et. al. 2013). Social networks can take any shape including: offline social networking, online social connections, social bookmarking, and content

174 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions sharing (Phulari et. al., 2010). There are several channels through which users can communicate utilizing the immediate discussion options, e-mail for longer term, synchronous elaboration of issues with document exchange and sharing, and other various forms of text messages, photos, comments, and streaming audio and video conferences (Betsch et. al., 2012; Sutcliffe & Alrayes, 2012). An online social networking service, accessed by both computers and smartphones to help people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family, coworkers, it provides opportunities to communicate and share information, unlike the conventional media, Social Networks area living system that changes constantly, it is “user-driven”; the collective communication activity of its millions of users’ lives, updated continuously, it’s a large area of the wired and wireless social web that increasingly mirrors all of human life (Phulari et. al., 2010). Businesses which do not involve in Social Networks marketing activities lose a lot of opportunities, since Social Networks provide a potential audience of 1 billion people, competitors already use Social Networks and gaining competitive advantage, it’s the most cost effective and easy to use communication way to share information about brands, products and services, new events, and finally this information gets passed on by a company’s followers to their followers creating a multiplier effect which increases audience, so for users if businesses are not available on Social Networks they may as well not exist at all (khan & khan, 2012). Businesses prefer to be at the heart of a community, many companies have developed advertisement pages using Social Networks tools for this purpose, these pages present the opportunities for companies to get close to their consumers, including observing and collecting information; hosting or sponsoring communities; and providing content to communities (Palmer & Koenig-Lewis, 2009). There have been many examples of companies who used Facebook to position themselves at the center of community, like Pizza Hut –middle east branch- with more than 26 million likers, and Modanisa – an online shopping and retail page- has more than 2 million likers in 2015. Businesses and key decision makers need to recognize that cultural change is needed to embrace social networking (khan & khan, 2012).

Social Networks as Decision Support Tool

Organizations apply direct marketing using low-cost internet access and communication tools like Social Networks to promote their brands and open up opportunities to deal with thousands or millions of customers (Palmer & Koenig-Lewis, 2009), and to develop more targeted and customized strategies (Khan & Khan, 2012). The Society for New Communication Research (SNCR) administered an online survey (2012), involved 356 participants either as decision makers or influenced the decision process from 25 countries, results proved that professional decision-making

175 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions is becoming more social, LinkdIn, Facebook, and Twitter have emerged as leading professional networks, professional networks are emerging as decision-support tools, professionals trust online information almost as much as information gotten from in-person, reliance on web-based professional networks and online communities has increased significantly over the past 3 years, and social media use patterns are not pre-determined by age or organizational affiliation. Answering the question “what are the top online steps you typically take to inform your decision making?” Three quarters of respondents said they conduct research via search engines, and close to three quarters visit a company website to inform decision-making, while 40% seeking peer referral, reading blogs, gathering opinions through an online network, and looking the company up on a Social Networks. This indicates how traditional decision making process is supplemented by Social Networks. Researchers in the area of Social Networks like Christakis and Fowler (2011) presented several variables that affect customers’ decision making, like contagion, connection, and virtual word of mouth.

Social Networks Contagion

The concept of contagion has increasingly expanded from its original foundation in epidemic disease to describe a vast array of activities that spread across network users, notably social phenomena such as fads, political opinions, the adoption of new technologies, and financial decisions. For example, researches indicate that the decision of joining Facebook is more depending on the type of friends signed up more than the number of friends; as when the ties being stronger we trust more in informants (Centola & Macy, 2007; Schoenebeck, 2013; Ugander, et. al., 2012). This phenomenon in which texts, photos, and videos flow through the network, and how it does go from one participant to another and affect their decisions called Social Networks contagion (Centola & Macy, 2007; Christakis & Fowler, 2011), contagion theories are used to explain network members’ attitudes and behaviors and tend to involve decision-making on the part of the affected individuals. Taking network structure into account provides important further insights into how contagion takes place. The underlying mechanisms are present at the level of whole populations, and also at a local level in the network, between an individual and his or her set of friends or colleagues. In many cases you care more about fit- ting your own behavior with the behavior of your immediate neighbors (“neighbor” refers to any type of social or physical contact and is not limited to a residential neighbor) in the Social Networks, rather than with the population as a whole, when individuals have incentives to adopt the behavior of their neighbors in the network, we can get cascading effects, where a new behavior starts with a small set of initial adopters, and then spreads radially outward through the network (Centola & Macy,

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2007; Easley & Kleinberg, 2010). Social contagion models were based on physical analogies with biological contagion, in which the probability that an individual is affected by the contagion grows monotonically with the size of his or her “contact neighborhood”—the number of affected individuals with whom he or she is connected to (Ugander, et. al., 2012). Social contagion may occur in many conceptually distinct mechanisms, like: contagion may operate through spreading awareness and interest, or through social learning about the new product’s risks and benefits, also through social normative influence increasing the legitimacy of the new product, another mechanism is through concerns that not adopting may result in a competitive or status disadvantage, and finally through direct and indirect “network” or installed base effects (Iyengar, Bulte & Choi, 2011). Aral and Walker (2010) studied the effect of “passive broadcasting” and “active personalized referrals” as main contagion factors. Passive broadcasting refers to user’s activities (e.g. update status, change profile picture, like page) which are broadcasted as notifications to user’s friends’ walls, these notifications build awareness among friends about new activities a user is engaging with and can encourage those friends to eventually adopt themselves. While active personal referrals allow users to select a list of their friends to invite them to adopt the product or service with attached personalized message to the invitation. Passive broadcasting drove 246% increase in adoption of the activity where active personal referral increase only 98% in adoption of the activity. Aral’s study also revealed that broadcast forms were up to 10 times more effective than banner ads in converting users and around twice as effective as email advertising, another important feature is “Like” but- tons it shows a powerful increase in referrals on Facebook, for users the idea is to be engaged as easy as possible while making an automatic broadcast. The “Like” button remains the core tool for encouraging fans to spread the word, after adding just the “Like” button, Levi’s had a 40% increase in referrals while Giantnerd.com had a 100% increase.

Social Networks Connection

Social networks impact the way people communicate and connect with each other, it gives users a place to share their opinions, experiences, and photographs through their connections, it helps people learn more about events, parties and other social functions. Ultimately, the purpose of a Social Networks areto facilitate social interaction and connection (Karl & Peluchette, 2011; Manner, Blakley, Lawrence, O’Neill, & Raines, 2011). Users also benefit from using Social Networks relationships and interactions through resources such as emotional support, exposure to diverse ideas,

177 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions and access to non-redundant information (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2011). However, it is important to acknowledge that there are difficulties like gender, racial, and socioeconomic lines that may stand against technology adoption and use, often referred to as the digital divide (Junco, 2011), in their research, Duggan and Brenner (2013) indicated that women are more likely than men to be on Social Networks sites; also those living in urban settings are also significantly more likely to use social networking than rural internet users. Previous research indicates that the variables influencing the connection are various in two main dimensions which are: bridging social capital with sub dimension (Outward looking, broader groups, and meeting new people), and bonding social capital with sub dimension (individual benefits, and collective action) (Jung, et. al., 2013), since bridging social capital provides benefits such as increased information and opportunities. Ellison and her partners (2007) have studied the different connection strategies of Facebook users, they identified specific Facebook enabled behaviors that contribute to users ability to access various perspectives, novel information, deepen relationships, and garner social support based on Facebook related factors like: time on site, numbers of Facebook friends, and “Cultivation of Social Resources” behavior, their 450 random samples has revealed that only social information-seeking behaviors contribute to perception of social capital, and reporting more actual friends on Facebook is predictive for social capital, they believe that explanation of their findings may be that the identity information in Facebook serves as a social lubricant, encouraging individuals to convert latent to weak ties and enabling them to broadcast requests for support or information. In February 2013, Melissa conducted a research to study the phenomenon of moms and media 2013, the research results has indicated that moms in 2013 are: connected, mobile, multi-taskers, and decision makers. Mothers are more aware of the importance and benefits of new technology, and they use it to navigate through their busy day. In fact, retailers and marketers want to be “liked” by moms; where moms like, follow, and respond to brands and retailers who are authentic. Following are some of their results:

• Mothers give more than one third of their day to media, where 75% of moms connected using Wi-Fi networks in household. • Mothers blend traditional and modern media habits. • Mothers use Wi-Fi to the fullest, where 41% of moms indicate they have five or more devices connected to the Internet in their home. • 72% of mothers have social media accounts, 47% of mothers using it several times per day (in average 5 times). • 50% of mothers shops online.

178 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions

• Mothers use various ways to access social network accounts: 86% use desktop or laptop, 72% use cell phones, and 37% use tablets. • 83% of mothers are using Social Networks to follow brands and connect with products.

Virtual Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth (WoM) has traditionally been defined as face-to-face information exchange about a product or service, where it involves a real time communication by the sender and the receiver, allowing for body language and facial expression observations (Kapp, 2011). WoM can be characterized by focus, valence, timing, solicitation and degree of management intervention, WoM research tends to focus more on customer-to-customer perspective, even though WoM is found in other contexts such as influence, and employee and recruitment markets (Buttle, 1998). WoM has been shown to influence a variety of conditions: awareness, expectations, perceptions, attitudes, behavioral intentions and behavior (Buttle, 1998). Traditional WoM has evolved into a new form of communication named Virtual Word of Mouth (VWoM) (Cheung & Thadani, 2010). Just as the traditional WoM could affect consumer’s purchasing decisions (Voyer, 1999), it was shown that VWoM could also influence the consumer’s decisions (Tabbane, 2013; Chu & Kim, 2011). The big difference between WoM and VWoM is that in VWoM, recommendations are typically from unknown individuals, so social world community users have difficulty in using source similarity to determine the credibility of information (Lange-Faria & Elliot, 2012), VWoM refers to any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, and former customers about a product or a company via the Internet (Cheung & Thadani, 2010; Hennig-Thurau, et. al., 2004). People read Virtual Word-of-Mouth (VWoM) to make purchasing decisions. Researches show that social factors affect the acceptance of VWoM (Fan & Miao, 2012), also expertise and involvement can help customers determine VWoM quality (Tabbane, 2013). Customers acknowledge that Social Networks user’s reviews help them to determine VWoM credibility and to make purchasing decisions, VWoM can be found in Social Networks communities and can affect consumer’s purchasing decisions, (Fan & Miao, 2012) VWoM gives users more information about choices they have, which may serve as valuable input in their decision process (East, Hammond & Lomax, 2008). Social networking depends very much on the VWoM, which involves user’s comments about products and services posted on the Internet, Social Networks community influence user’s decisions where they generally participate in these communities to find information, for social interaction, as well as, for personal enjoyment (Lange- Faria & Elliot, 2012), Tucker (2011), and (Lange-Faria & Elliot, 2012) go on to say that VWoM may in fact be even more influential than WoM given its characteristics

179 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions of global reach, the speed with which it travels, ease of use, and anonymity, absent of direct face-to-face pressure. Companies should recognize the need to engage in Social Networks. Social Networks offer companies numerous opportunities to listen to their consumers, to engage with them, and to even influence their conversations, by bringing like-minded consumers together and give them the opportunity to talk about brand-based topics, that’s why, companies should view Social Networks as an essential component of their marketing communication mix as VWoM marketing tool since it has the more potential impact than any other communication channel (Bruhn, Schoenmueller, & Scha¨fer, 2012; Godes & Mayzlin, 2004). Focus-related utility is the utility Social Networks users receive when adding value to the community through their contributions; this includes providing previews and commentary on products and services of interest to other users. Four motives fall under the umbrella of focus-related utility are: concern for other consumers, helping the company, social benefits, and exerting power (Hennig-Thurau, et. al., 2004). Research on VWoM communication is broad and fragmented; there are two main levels of analysis: Market-level analysis and individual-level analysis. In this chapter, authors focus on the individual-level analysis. Many researchers have studied the influence of VWoM on individual behaviors and purchasing decisions, Tabbane (2013) study the impact of VWoM on the Tunisian consumer attitude towards the product, the results have confirmed that the VWoM has a significant influence on the attitude towards the product of the Tunisian consumer, and it can play an important role in the development of a positive or a negative attitude towards a product. Fan & Miao (2012) have used surveys and multiple regression analysis in their research “Effect of Electronic Word-Of- Mouth on Consumer Purchase Intention: The Perspective of Gender Differences” to describe the relationship between customer expertise involvement, and connection to the acceptance and use of VWoM in making purchasing decisions, the study focuses on the cultural effects of gender on purchasing decisions in e-commerce virtual communities. Their results show that involvement has the most significant effect on perceived VWoM credibility; VWoM credibility has a significant effect on VWoM acceptance and intent to purchase, and also show the male customers have different e-commerce shopping behaviors than female customers. Previous research studied various factors that affect the VWoM, this chapter focus on cultural factors: gender, educational status, age, and geographical location.

DISCUSSION

This chapter has proposed and empirically tested a model of factors influencing the Social Networks impacts on buying decision, three hypotheses were proposed. The

180 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions data show that the Social Networks impact on making buying decisions is directly and significantly affected by the information and media contagion, relationship connection, and virtual word of mouth. All three supposed hypotheses were supported and all factors remained in the model, the following table shows the hypothesis: The objective of this chapter concerned with proposing a model to study Social Networks impact on organization-customer relationship, where organizations and companies can use the results of the study to build their economic plans and strategies to enhance their possibilities to gain satisfaction and loyalty of their customers. The results indicated that Social Networks media and information contagion has the highest influence on individuals buying decision making process, followed by virtual word of mouth, and lowest factors affecting the decision is the relationship connection.

Sample Descriptive Statistics

Authors used a statistical research to measure impact of contagion, connection, and virtual world of mouth on customers-organization relationship over the social media, they use a questionnaire to collect data from 563 respondents. A two forms of questionnaires were used, an online form was distributed using Facebook messaging feature and posted into groups walls; and papered questionnaire was distributed to Al-Yarmouk University students and employees. A questionnaire was distributed on a convenient sample of Social Networks users from various backgrounds, it was written in Arabic language to make it easy for respondents to understand the items, it contained a comprehensive sections covers all model’s factors. A 5-point Likert scale used for measuring the variables with:

1 = Strongly Agree; 2 = Agree; 3 = Neutral; 4 = Disagree; 5 = Strongly Disagree.

Table 1. Research hypothesis

Hypothesis # Hypothesis Supported or Not? In Social Networks community, contagion of videos, H1 photos, and text positively affect individual’s buying Supported decisions In Social Networks community, connections negatively H2 Supported affect individual’s buying decisions In Social Networks community, the virtual word of H3 Supported mouth positively affects individual’s buying decisions

181 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions

Demographic characteristics of overall respondents show that female respondents percent where more than the male respondent percent (49.6%, 48,9% respectively), majority of the sample aged between 20-30 and that is consistent and convenient with questionnaire distribution among Al-Yarmouk University students at both bachelor and master level, overall sample either as students or employees bachelor education level was dominant with 67.9% while the remaining four levels (high school, diploma, master, and PHD) weighted 32.1% of the sample. The empirical test shows that the highest item to affect the relationship between organization and its customer over the Social Networks was “I trust ads, commercial pages, and comments which I see on Social Networks”, therefore organizations should focus more on their contents and ads. Results of the research indicate the importance of each variable in predicting Social Networks impacts on customers’ relationship with the organization. An empirical test was conducted and resulted in high means regarding 5 major constructs and they are: social media impacts on buying decision (mean= 3.09), Social Networks impact on Individuals (mean= 2.76), Social Networks Contagion (mean= 2.6), Social Networks Connection (mean= 2.6) and finally, Virtual Word of Mouth (mean=2.8). The empirical test shows that the lowest item used was “‘News Feed’ helps you learn about the activities and news of your friends more easily” (Mean of Q9=1.91), and the highest item was “I trust ads, commercial pages, and comments which I see on Social Networks” (mean of Q5=3.31). Table 2 shows descriptive statistics related to the research variables including the means of the items and the summated means of the four variables.

Implications

Research Implications

Social networks can be an ideal alternative to telemarketing and marketing research due to inefficiency of such researches made through call centers, Social Networks features researches can provide immediate and direct answers to managerial questions and problems within the least time period. Researchers can focus on one dimension and study its impacts on both consumers and organizations deeply, also social network researches are not exclusive to marketing fields, and it can be held and benefits all types of works and at different levels like administrational level, strategic managers, and decision maker’s processes. Therefore, researchers from different backgrounds and with various interests can study social network features and its impacts on different ways and for different purposes. This chapter can be used as general framework to study each of the tested features solely, and concentrate on the impacts of each of these features on both individuals and organizations.

182 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions impact on impact Mouth= 2.8 Mouth= Decision = 3.09 Contagion= 2.6 Social Networks Social Networks Social Networks Social Networks Social Networks Social Networks Virtual Word of Word Virtual Connection= 2.6 impact on Buying impact Individuals= 2.76 Total Variable Mean Variable Total .948 .877 .970 1.315 1.149 1.228 1.014 1.099 1.107 1.129 1.148 1.136 1.088 1.159 1.275 1.082 1.140 1.155 1.095 1.089 1.178 1.215 1.193 1.176 1.057 Std. Deviation Std. 2.88 2.41 2.47 2.12 3.23 2.36 2.53 2.94 2.92 3.02 3.31 2.59 2.96 2.85 1.91 2.02 2.79 2.90 2.87 2.94 2.51 3.24 2.99 3.03 2.18 Mean 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Maximum 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Minimum N 516 520 517 513 522 521 517 524 520 525 516 522 515 519 522 520 524 522 523 520 518 526 524 520 519 Item I feel out of touch when I haven’t logged onto Social Networks for a while for Social Networks onto logged when I haven’t out of touch I feel and services. about products search information clarity on my get to I use Social Networks I feel I am part of the Social Networks community I am part of the Social Networks I feel fun are Connecting and communicating on Social Networks life. in real as trustworthy as people met not are on Social Networks met People friends. your closer to feel you make wall friends’ or videos on your comments, pictures Posting ideas and products on new research my for of reference source area Social Networks comments about it on social network. a specific negative to according product cancel a buying decision for I may information seek more another site to link to a Social Networks followed I have helps me in taking the right buying decisions. My social community on Social Networks I trust ads, commercial pages, and comments which I see on Social Networks and comments which I trust pages, ads, commercial I express myself more freely on Social Networks more than more actual world on Social Networks freely more myself I express than life. in real on Social Networks a relationship form decide to It is easier to and telling me about theproducts latest buy by to advise me about what I want My friends on Social Networks through Social Networks services knew they with talk to topics with you statusdistant and sharingfriends. videos and links pictures, Posting provide the followers by is affected page commercial My decision of following influences decision. pages on commercial purchase of “Like” Number my influence comments about products decision. My friends’ purchase my contents opinion of pages’ friends’ my by My buying decision is affected activity part are everyday of my Social Networks ‘News Feed’ helps you learn about the activities and news of your friends easily. of your more learn helps you about the Feed’ activities and news ‘News I purchased a product after I saw it on Social Networks after a product I saw I purchased I intent to buy a product based on what I see Social Networks buy a product I intent to people communicate with to likeminded I prefer Social networks affect my daily life style and purchasing decisions and purchasing style life daily my affect Social networks Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q# Q16 Q22 Q17 Q18 Q19 Q20 Q21 Q23 Q24 Q25 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Table 2. Descriptive statistics related to instrument items to related statistics 2. Descriptive Table

183 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions

Practical Implications

Social networks offer companies numerous opportunities to listen to their consumers, to engage with them, and to understand their attitude and behaviors through advertisement pages and posted activities. Companies should recognize the need to engage in Social network and to carefully define a clear strategy for their engagement. Social networks create a platform that companies could use to bring like-minded consumers together and give them the opportunity to talk about company-based topics. Therefore, companies should view Social networks as an essential component of their marketing communication mix, and integrate it in their marketing communications in order to increase company’s reputation. Social network communities’ users are relevant for marketers, through these communities, marketers are able to identify consumer tastes and likes, which is essential in helping to create market segmentation and targeting and positioning strategies. The strategic implementation of Social network offers marketers an added advantage in being relatively low in investment costs compared to traditional marketing communication tools. Companies are challenged to respond to these changes and to successfully integrate Social networks communications in their marketing mix in order to enhance their consumer-based loyalty and engagement. This chapter describe and prove that companies can affect their consumers’ attitude through the company-related media contagion, consumer’s relationship connection with their friends, family, coworker or others, and virtual word of mouth ability to convince possible consumer of their products and services. Marketers can gain valuable information on Social network user’s profiles and from the news feed statements that users post on their walls and pages. This information can then be used for direct marketing purposes. The benefits for companies of marketing on Social network are: lower communication costs, personalized and directed advertising, immediate feedback from customers, virtual word of mouth referrals and positive influence on buyer behavior, while in contrast Social networks users may simply ignore Social networks marketing for many reasons, privacy violations and abuse of information by third parties and sellers’ domination of communities are possible; there is no proper measure of the return on investment in Social network marketing and organizations still have to invest time, effort, and personnel costs into Social network marketing.

Recommendation

It is obviously clear now that the importance of Social network as a marketing tool to affect and impact consumer’s buying decisions, authors can recommend a number of Social networks tools to be used to achieve marketing objectives, like:

184 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions

• Social Networks profile: an organization profile with its vision and mission statement stated and clearly defined. • Social Networks groups: with an attractive group name, group topic, and group image, companies can attract consumers to keep follow the companies’ activities in Social network. • Fan pages: the organization can regularly post information on the fan page on upcoming events, articles, games, blogs, podcasts, videos and links. • Sharing events: The organization can advertise its upcoming events on Social network. • Social ads: Social ads can be placed on Social network according to the age, sex, location, workplaces and education level of the users. • Social Networks messages can be tailored and sent to individual users.

These tools can serve as contagion phenomena among Social Networks users, strengthen connection relations, and create a virtual word of mouth power.

LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH

Studying impacts of Social Networks on individual’s decision making process through their purchasing activities is challenging for multiple reasons; Social Net- works are highly dynamic and updated environment, what we consider as fact and feature now, it might turn into obsolete characteristics in very near time; we can discuss this limitation in term of time where frame time of any Social Networks related research should be short and applying as quick process as possible. Another important point is the variety of features available for each single Social Networks, which create challenge of choose most related and reliable features to study. Another limitation lie in the scope of the sample, it is concentrated “but not exclusive” on students both at bachelor and master levels so it should be replicated with more comprehensive sample.

CONCLUSION

Social Networks has become a well-established area of research in information systems. In the near future, Social Networks will be a complementary part of organization structure. It will be used to improve the organization overall performance through enhancing the organization image, keep customers in touch, and getting immediate and updatable information particularly in decision making process. Social Networks in general and Social Networks specifically contribute in affect-

185 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions ing individual’s behaviors and purchasing decisions in multiple ways, that is why organizations need to study and focus more in this research area. The rules of marketing and competitive nature have changed, the web becoming a proven catalyst in making changes and amplifying the scale of integration, collaboration, and collectivism. The emergence of web 2.0 marketing techniques demands complementary approaches, brands and firms are exploring the scene that Social Networks create for marketers. These techniques are allowing much deeper drivers in social change to be released with a profound influence on planning of customer choice selection in the making of the decision. Previous researches have confirmed that Social Networks has strong implications on consumer selection of products or services, and this represents a unique paradigm of communication and decision making influences. By understanding the Social Networks contribution in affecting individual’s decision making process, marketers can learn how to respond and address the market in different, value adding manner.

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APPENDIX: USED SURVEY

Part One, Respondent Detail

Gender:⬜ Male ⬜ Female Age: ⬜ 20-30 ⬜ 31-40 ⬜ 41-50 ⬜ more then 50 Educational level: ⬜ Primary education ⬜ Secondary/High School ⬜ Bachelor/Diploma ⬜ Master/PHD Work place: ⬜ Public Sector ⬜ Private Sector ⬜ Student ⬜ Unemployment Income: ⬜ Less than 200 JD ⬜ 200-500 JD ⬜ 501-1000 JD ⬜ More than 1000 JD Living Place: ⬜ City ⬜ Village Do you have Facebook profile? ⬜ Yes ⬜ No Are you married? ⬜ Yes ⬜ No Do you have children? ⬜ Yes ⬜ No When did you create your Facebook page? ⬜ Less than month ⬜ 1-6 months ⬜7-12 months ⬜ 1-2 years ⬜2-4 years ⬜ More than 4 years How often do you visit your Facebook page? ⬜ Once a week ⬜ Once a day ⬜ More than once a day On average, approximately how many hours per day do you spend on Facebook: ⬜ Less than 2 hours ⬜ 2-4 hours ⬜ 4-6 hours ⬜ More than 6 hours About how many total Facebook friends do you have? ⬜ Less than 50 ⬜ 51-100 friends ⬜ 101-200 friends ⬜ More than 200 friends When do you browse your Facebook account more? ⬜ At work ⬜ At home

Part Two: Facebook Impacts on Individual Decision Making Process

To which extent do you agree with the following statements? (Table 3)

190 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions

Table 3.

# Strongly Strongly Question Agree Normal Disagree Agree Disagree 1 Social networks affects my daily life style and purchasing decisions 2 I purchased a product after I saw it on Facebook 3 I intent to buy a product based on what I see on Facebook 4 I prefer to communicate with likeminded people 5 I trust ads, commercial pages, and comments which I see on Facebook 6 I express myself more freely on Facebook more than actual world 7 It is easier to decide to form a relationship on Facebook than in real life. 8 My friends on Facebook advise me about what I want to buy by telling me about the latest products and services they knew through Facebook 9 ‘News Feed’ helps you learn about the activities and news of your friends more easily. 10 Posting status and sharing pictures, videos and links provide you with topics to talk with distant friends. 11 My decision of following commercial page is affected by the followers 12 Number of “Like” on commercial pages influences my purchase decision. 13 My friends’ comments about products influence my purchase decision. 14 My buying decision is affected by my friends opinion of pages contents 15 Facebook is part of my everyday activity 16 I feel out of touch when I haven’t logged onto Facebook for a while 17 I feel I am part of the Facebook community 18 Connecting and communicating on Facebook is fun

continued on following page

191 Social Networks Impact on Potential Customers’ Buying Decisions

Table 3. Continued

# Strongly Strongly Question Agree Normal Disagree Agree Disagree 19 People met on Facebook are not as trustworthy as people met in real life. 20 Posting comments, pictures or videos on your friends’ wall make you feel closer to your friends. 21 Facebook is a source of reference for my research on new ideas and products 22 I use Facebook to get clarity on my information search about products and services. 23 I may cancel a buying decision for a specific product according to negative comments about it on Facebook. 24 I have followed a Facebook link to another site to seek more information 25 My social community on Facebook helps me in taking the right buying decisions. Any note:

192 193

Chapter 10 Opinion Mining: A Tool for Understanding Customers – Challenges and Approaches

Rawan Khasawneh Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan

Izzat Alsmadi Texas A&M University - San Antonio, USA

ABSTRACT In recent years social media sites become very popular communication tools among Internet users where a significant amount of information is exchanged via computers, smart phones, etc. Internet now is not only a source of information for users to search for; regular users are now a major source of Internet information; where now regular people post daily life activities, share online pictures, and express their opinions about products, news, political debates, etc. Such noticed growing of opinion-rich resources along with user-generated content makes it worthwhile to use information technologies to collect, analyze, and understand human factors and behaviors. This chapter covers three main sections where the first section introduces the field of opinion mining in general along with a detailed exploration of its definitions and goals. Then a discussion of opinion mining related challenges is presented in the second section. The last section explores opinion mining available approaches along with possible future directions.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch010

INTRODUCTION

There are several recent indicators that show the importance and the significance of web information. While classical web information can be broadly classified under “pure science” where the Internet was more like a large open library, the current face of the Internet is largely seen as a major “social science” source of information. Online Social Networks (OSNs) are by large the current most popular websites through the Internet. The number of users in those OSNs is overwhelming. For example, Figure 1 shows that more than one-third of the world population are active OSN users. Statistics showed also that those numbers are continuously rising. Enti- ties, individuals, young or adult are all trying to have their visible presence in those OSNs. Users post details and information related to their own daily life activities. In addition, they interact with activities posted by their peers or friends. The classical “mining” term is used in two main categories: Data mining for structured data and text mining for unstructured data. While there are many com- monalities between those mining categories, there are also some unique attributes. Based on techniques and algorithms used, opinion mining can fall within text mining in general where the data in opinion mining is also unstructured. Nonetheless,

Figure 1. Active OSN users (http://devriesblog.com/)

194 Opinion Mining the containers that opinions are extracted from are typically heterogeneous and dispersed in comparison with text mining sources. Text and data mining typical goals (e.g. clustering, classification, association, or prediction) are also relevant in opinion mining. However, opinion mining is concerned with a specific type of clustering related to opinions. For example, typically such classification can take one of two possible cases or classes (e.g. with or against, positive or negative, like or dislike, pro or against, democrat or republication, etc.). This is why opinion mining is also called polarity or sentimental analysis. In some cases, a third neutral class is also suggested to have a balance classification model (i.e. positive, negative and neutral). Many research papers showed that if algorithms are not precise, the majority of opinions will fall in this middle neutral class. This can reduce the value of the final findings of the opinion mining process. In several earlier published papers (e.g. Khasawneh et al 2015, Al-Kabi et al 2014), researchers collected and evaluated different datasets collected from OSNs in Arabic language, they proposed automatic methods and developed tools to automate the process of collecting opinions, preprocessing data and finally make the final sentiment judgement on each post whether it typically represents a positive, negative or neutral opinion. Researchers described some of the challenges usually associated with such automatic based tools. While some of the challenges that face all languages can be similar, nonetheless, there are some challenges that can vary or be different from one language to another. For example, in the case of Arabic language, researchers noticed that in OSNs it is a trend for users to use slang languages that vary from one country to another and even in the same country. Users mix slang with standard languages. They also mix Arabic with English terms. Further, they heavily use icons, symbols, figures to express special opinions. All those issues can make the final automatic judgement of the sentiment harder or can lower the overall accuracy in such systems. In order to improve accuracy for sentiment detection systems in general researchers recommended two broad recommendations. The first one is that this is an evolutionary process that should be repeated and extended frequently to improve the quality of future predictions. The size and the scope of the evaluated dataset is also important where it is important to have large datasets that consider different domains. Researchers should also mix automatic detection with manual verification or annotation. Authors also evaluated new trends in opinion mining such as the possible tampering of public opinions (Alsmadi et al 2013). Spam typically refers to spreading a message to a large number of unsolicited users (i.e. not known to the sender before) with typically marketing or advertisement purposes. In this paper, authors introduced a new concept or usage of spam in social networks. This is the intentional tampering of public ratings or assessments that are estimated based on users and their opinions

195 Opinion Mining in OSNs. It is believed that this will continue to grow in future as measuring and finding the general public opinions and trends continue to be an important political, business or commercial factor.

OPINION MINING: DEFINITION AND GOALS

Sentiment analysis is considered as interdisciplinary field that crosses artificial intelligence, natural language processing (NLP) and text mining. It is a kind of text classification that classifies text based on the sentimental orientation of the opinions they contain. Sentiment analysis has several techniques and approaches that can be applied on different types of data reviews (ex. Movie reviews, music reviews, product features reviews), news articles, and web discourse (ex. social websites, news groups) (Singh, Paul, & Kumar, 2014). Jagtap and Dhotre added in their research (2014) that opinion mining has been studied in different domains such as travel destination review, social networking, e-learning and many others. In general machine learning approach and lexicon based approach are the two main approaches for determining polarity of a given text (Duwairi & Qarqaz, 2014). Opinion mining, which is also called sentiment analysis, focuses on detecting and identifying positive and negative opinions which will help social science inves- tigators understand the human factor and attributes in evaluating products, events, etc., opinion analysis falls under the scope of subjectivity analysis where detecting and extracting subjective information in text documents is the main goal where the writer sentiment about specific aspect or the whole document is determined (Pad- maja & Sameen, 2013). Nasukawa and Jeonghee in their study (2003) illustrated the automatic extraction of sentiments associated with polarities for a specific subject in a whole document instead of classifying it into either positive or negative. They indicated that it is highly important to identify the semantic relationship between the sentiments and the subject. Their system is built based on syntactic parser where the manual development of sentiment lexicons is required. Opinion mining can be referred to using NLP, linguistic computation and text mining techniques to extract others opinion in a given source (text). They distin- guished between facts and opinions as two kinds of textual information; facts related to the objective statement about the nature of a product, and opinions refer to attitudes, appraisal and emotions extraction of a product, service, etc. (Singh, Paul, & Kumar, 2014). Padmaja and her colleague explained in their research (2013) that opinion is the subjective belief that presents the judgment of the majority of people formed about a particular thing based on emotion interpretation rather than facts or knowledge interpretation.

196 Opinion Mining

Opinion mining can be seen as a technique for determining a user/ a group of users response on a specific topic and categorize their opinion as positive, negative or neutral. It can be performed at three levels: phrase based level where the focus is on single phrase sentiment, sentence based level where the whole sentence sentiment is calculated, and finally document based level in which the aggregated sentiment of the whole document is taken into consideration (Kaushik, & Mishra, 2014). It is highly noticed that most websites nowadays describe their items/products (ex. Cars, books, movies) in some details and ask people/clients to evaluate them as favorable/unfavorable, good/bad. Such collected reviews need automated categorization by sentiment which is based on a property other than a topic to indicate whether they recommend or don’t recommend a particular item/product (Govindarajan, 2013; Singh & Husain, 2014). Sentiment can be defined as the writer’s opinion, attitude, or emotion expressed in a specific topic which mentioned as abstract concept in a specific document (Padmaja & Sameen, 2013). Effective automated categorization by sentiment has several applications and benefits; it makes the classification of online reviews of products or services much easier and quicker, and it helps businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations know their clients feedback for free and then analyze such feedback to know as example the percentage of happy/ satisfied clients (Govindarajan, 2013). Opinion mining has several applications in several fields; it is so much helpful in marketing area, it helps in finding the general opinion about the currently trending topics, it enables them knowing their customers response towards a new product or service. It provides good information helps manufacturers in deciding the strategies they should follow in lunching new products or providing new service (Kaushik & Mishra, 2014). Rahmath stated in her study (2014) eight major applications of opinion mining explained as following:

1. Utilizing opinion mining techniques, people can easily know and evaluate other’s opinion about specific product or service they want to purchase. 2. Manufacturers can improve the quality of their products and services utilizing opinion mining technique capabilities in opinions collection (critics and favorable opinions). 3. It can be used in marketing research in order to analyze the recent trend of customers toward specific product or service. 4. It can be used as a recommendation system based on people opinion classification (positive and negative). 5. It can automatically analyze the arrogant words used in emails, forums, social media, and newsgroups.

197 Opinion Mining

6. It can work as opinion spam detection system to classify Internet content into spam content and not spam content. 7. It helps policy makers in building citizen friendly policy based on citizens opinions toward existing policy, public services, and political issues. 8. It can be effectively used in decision making process utilizing the analyzed people opinions.

Research in the area of opinion mining analysis is continuously evolving in terms of analysis depth and technique/approach sophistication; it is moving toward content, concept, and context based analysis of text. It has a wide range of scope includes, but not limited to, the following major areas: spam detection sentiment analysis, sentiment analysis on short sentences, generation of highly content lexicons, fully automatic analysis tool development, and word identification algorithms improvement.

OPINION MINING RELATED CHALLENGES

Opinion extraction is considered as one of the basic problems in the area of opinion mining; knowing the linguistic terms and then getting the idea from the content of the document to classify the text into positive/negative and subjective/objective terms identified by syntactic features is required, so text classification highly depends on opinion extraction (Padmaja & Sameen, 2013). There are four indexes that can be used to evaluate the performance of sentiment classification which are: accuracy (the portion of all true predicted instances against all the predicted instances), recall (the portion of true positive predicted instances against the all actual positive predicted instances), precision (the portion of true positive predicted instances against the all positive predicted instances), and F1 score (it considers both recall and precision to calculate their harmonic average). Following are examples of used tools in opinion mining that could help in determining/extracting the polarity of user generated contents: Review Seer tool which use Naïve Bayes classifier approach, Web Fountain which extracting product features using the beginning definite base noun phrase heuristic approach, Red Opal which determines opinion orientations of products depending on their features, and Opinion Observer tool which helps in analyzing and comparing opinions on the web using generated contents (Angulakshmi & ManickaChezian, 2014). Rahmath listed in her research (2014) six main challenges that might be faced by opinion mining; they will be explained in the following lines: detecting spam and fake reviews and eliminating them before processing, reducing the limitation of classification filtering, making opinion mining software available for everyone

198 Opinion Mining is relatively difficult since such software is highly expensive and nowadays it is limited to be used only by big organizations and governments, integrating opinion words with implicit data which represents the actual behavior of the words is difficult, domain dependence is considered as one of the biggest challenges (Varghese & Jayasree, 2013), and finally natural language processing overheads such as inference and ambiguity. Named entity extraction is too much vital for effective opinion mining as mentioned by Varghese and Jayasree in their research (2013). They defined named entity as “definite noun phrases that refer to specific types of individuals such as organizations, persons, dates, and so on” (page 313). Varghese and Jayasree mentioned other major challenges involved in opinion mining including information extraction which is too complex and difficult, since information comes in different shapes and sizes, sentiment determination which focuses on determining the polarity of a word, a sentence, or a document that is traditionally done based on sentiment lexicon, and co-reference resolution is a very important task that should be handled for effectively producing correct results in opinion mining, and relation extraction which relates to finding the syntactic relation between words in a sentence. Developing opinion mining tools for social media in particular is faced by several challenges such as relevance, target identification, negation, contextual information, volatility over time, and opinion aggregation and summarization. Following lines describe some of these challenges (Maynard, Bontcheva, & Rout, 2012):

• Relevance: Building a crawler restricted to specific topics and correctly finding related pages is not enough for having effective opinion mining especially that discussions and comments in the social media rapidly diverged into unrelated topics. • Target Identification: There is no connection between the opinion mentioned in the comment/tweet and the search keywords where the polarity identification of the opinion is correctly determined but the topic is something totally different. • Negation: Some sentiment classifiers can’t handle negation well.

Considering same word as positive in some situations and negative in others; is one of the main challenges in opinion mining. Also, expressing opinion toward the same thing in different ways makes the task of opinion mining much more challenging and complex (Vinodhini & Chandrasekaran, 2012; Sharma & Chitre, 2014). Vinodhini and Chandrasekaran mentioned in their research some of the problems that are predominating the area of opinion mining including handling negation, feature based classification, and sentiment classification.

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In general opinion mining is a difficult task especially that sentiment determination is fully context sensitive and can’t be determined based only on specific keywords listed in lexicons (Pang & lee, 2008). Processing product reviews and comments written in different languages according to each language orientation, grouping synonym words where two comments for example are about the same feature of specific product but each one use different word, considering people different styles in writing, and dealing with comments written in free format using short words and abbreviations (for example. Writing cam instead of camera, f9 instead of fine, b4 instead of before) are examples of the challenging tasks that might be faced during opinion mining analysis (Sharma & Chitre, 2014). Researchers should develop opinion mining systems with broader and deeper knowledge bases where such knowledge should be more complete and combined with reasoning methods that are greatly inspired by human thoughts and emotions. This will help in overcoming the gap between structured and unstructured data and better understanding natural language opinions.

OPINION MINING APPROACHES

There are several major objectives to conducting opinion mining in general. Those include:

• Confirming existing semantic knowledge acquisition. • The discovery of new affective or semantic knowledge. • Making analogies. • The discovery of human emotions or perceptions concerning a particular context.

Approaches to design and implement an opinion mining experiment are usually related to the experiment major objective or goal. Nonetheless, there are common generic tasks or activities which all or most opinion mining experiments will go through. Those include:

• Information Retrieval (IR): In order to collect a dataset of activities from an Online Social Network (OSN), tools should be used or code should be written to parse or extract those activities (e.g. posts) from the subject OSN. Most of OSN websites offer their own either free limited versions of tools or commercial tools with more capabilities and freedom to allow users to extract data from the OSN. Recently, such tools have more restrictions on what users can parse due to privacy issues or concerns. Users can also find some open

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source tools that can be used to conduct this extraction process. Ultimately, the output of such process is a structured dataset with several possible attributes or dimensions. Some tools enable users to collect metadata information related to the collected data (e.g. data and time of the parsing process or the occurrence of the activity). There are some other tools that exist also to help collectors of data protect the privacy of the subjects. For example, such tools may change or encrypt certain attributes that can show the identities of the subjects. • Dataset Preprocessing: There are several preprocessing activities that occur in opinion mining experiments. They may vary based on the specific experiment goal. For example, activities may include text written in more than one language. It may be necessary to separate text in the dataset based on written language. In addition, it is typical that users in OSN may not write in standard language terms. They are often using slang language and terms. In fact, this is one of the most significant challenges that faces opinion mining accuracy where automatic tools can be incapable of correctly ciphering some of the terms that exist in those posts which will cause such terms to be ignored. This will eventually lower the overall process or system accuracy. As mentioned earlier, in many cases the extraction of a sentiment will not reveal a strong positive or negative sentiment (i.e. neutral sentiment). One of the main reasons for this is the existence of many terms that can’t be translated or understood by the mining engine or translator. Users in those social networks can typically repeat letters in words (e.g. to express their anger, stress on those words, etc.) this will cause also such words to be ignored or not retrieved correctly by the mining engine. Using figures and emotion icons are also popular in this regard. Many mining approaches extract those special images or icons and use certain dictionaries to retrieve or understand them correctly.

Based also on the goal of the mining process, stemming can be used in some cases. Stemming is the process of returning the roots of the subject terms or words. The stemming process can have conflicting impact (i.e. positively or negatively) on the accuracy of the overall process based on the process goals, dataset nature, language, etc. Terms extractions, typically used in data mining clustering, classification or prediction process can be also used in some opinion mining experiments. For example, dictionaries of positive and negative terms are assembled for a particular language or domain. Terms extraction is then used to check the kinds of terms that exist in the specific post and activity. Our final algorithm may depend on the number of occurrences of positive and negative terms in the post to come up with the final judgement on the post sentiment.

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• Sentiment or Opinion Extraction: As the main objective of opinion mining experiments, sentiment or opinion mining includes several sub-tasks. Typically extraction methods can be largely divided into: Rule-based or dictionary based extraction methods. Rule-based extraction methods depend on using certain rules and lexicons related to the nature of the language, its syn- tax and semantics. In addition, the rules should consider the context and the domain of the collected opinions. In dictionary based approaches, typically several dictionaries are developed part of the process including: Positive, negative and emotion or icon dictionaries. Terms in each evaluated post can then be compared for their existence in those dictionaries. A final polarity judgement is considered based on different possible formulas that include evaluating collectively all opinion terms.

In literature, lexicon based approaches (e.g. Ding et al 2008, Denecke 2008, Jin et al 2009, Gerani et al 2010, Taboada et al 2011, etc.), feature based opinion mining (Hu and Liu, 2004, Abulaish et al 2009, Peñalver-Martínez et al 2011, Zhai et al 2011, Eirinaki et al 2012, etc.), or aspect-based opinion mining (e.g. Moghaddam, and Ester 2012, Florian et al 2013, Marrese-Taylor et al 2014, etc.), and Hierarchical classification (Wei and Gulla, 2010). In Hierarchical methods or approaches, the classification system can include more than one level of opinions. For example, if our opinion mining system is interested to see the political direction of users, the first level can be: Has a political orientation or not, and in the second level, for users who answered “yes” what is the political orientation (e.g. democratic or republication) and in the third level, possibly who is their preferred candidate. Aspect and feature approaches are somewhat similar and are based on aspects or features. This is considered a goal oriented approach where classifying a post based on terms or statements is not much useful for opinion evaluators. They are usually interested to extract certain opinions, features or aspects based in a particular context. In this approach the opinion is decomposed in an entity and its relevant aspects or features. An example of an aspect in a statement is: “The overall rating of the movie was really low” is “movie rating” and the entity is “movie”. This is more to say that this current evaluation does not cover all movie aspects “e.g. classification, revenue, etc.), but only one specific aspect. In this specific example, the focus is to extract people opinions on “movie rating” as: Positive, negative or neutral. In order to conduct aspect or feature based opinion mining, one of two methods are usually employed: Supervised-learning and lexical based approaches. Supervised based approach is based on earlier or trained data. This is similar to the approach of using dictionaries or positive and negative terms described earlier by authors. The

202 Opinion Mining accuracy of opinion mining classification will largely depend on the volume and quality of the collected training data. In many research papers, users can develop their own training data or can use some of the publically available ones. In lexical based methods, language lexicons are used to detect posts sentiments. This method can be more usable in cases where there are no available training datasets or their size or quality is limited. Those approaches can be more complex if they are covering a comprehensive list of language struts while they can be more accurate. Employing a hybrid approach to integrate both supervised and lexical methods is also proposed in some research papers to improve the overall classification accuracy.

SUMMARY

Opinion mining or sentimental analysis is a recent growing field of study. This field is expanded not only in computer science or information technology domains, but also in social science domains. Many researchers in the social science are interested to evaluate, based on a large amount of information collected from Online Social Networks (OSNs) how humans response to, interact with, or perceive certain activities, accidents, news subjects, products, technologies, etc. The fact that the collected data represent a large or significant number of human beings with typically different categories, can give an important dimension or value to this data or information. Without OSNs, acquiring such volume of data from a large number of audience can be really complex and time consuming. Humans are contributing to those OSNs by their will and frequently. However, there are several challenges on utilizing such data. One of the most serious challenges is the “privacy” dimension in insuring that users or collectors are not violating individuals’ privacy. Individuals should explicitly be willing to be part of those analysis and evaluations. Many OSNs are trying to balance and accommodate between utilization this large information content while at the same time, respect individuals’ privacies. Not only OSNs can target data or utilize it, but hackers and many other marketing related entities may try legally or illegally to acquire information from OSNs. Some studies showed that some background and credit reporting agencies used tools and methods to access classified or private individual to individual conversations, pictures, videos, etc. in OSNs. OSNs should try to distinguish data that can be collected for statistical measurements from those that are used to target classified individual information. Tools should also exist to remove some attributes to hide individual identities when collecting data from OSNs.

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REFERENCES

Abulaish, M., Doja, M. N., & Ahmad, T. (2009). Feature and opinion mining for customer review summarization. In Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (pp. 219–224). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-11164-8_35 Al-Kabi, M. N., Gigieh, A. H., Alsmadi, I., & Haidar, M. (2014). Opinion Mining and Analysis for Arabic Language. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 5(5), 181-195. Alsmadi, I., et al. (2013). Video spam and public opinion in current Middle Eastern conflicts. International Journal of Social Network Mining, 1(3-4), 318-333. Angulakshmi, G., & ManickaChezian, R. (2014). An Analysis on Opinion Mining: Techniques and Tools. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 3(7), 7483–7487. Denecke, K. (2008, April). Using sentiwordnet for multilingual sentiment analysis. In Data Engineering Workshop, 2008. ICDEW 2008. IEEE 24th International Con- ference on (pp. 507-512). IEEE. doi:10.1109/ICDEW.2008.4498370 Ding, X., Liu, B., & Yu, P. S. (2008, February). A holistic lexicon-based approach to opinion mining. In Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (pp. 231-240). ACM. doi:10.1145/1341531.1341561 Duwairi, R., & Qarqaz, I. (2014). Arabic Sentiment Analysis using Supervised Clas- sification. The 1st International Workshop on Social Networks Analysis, Management and Security (SNAMS - 2014). doi:10.1109/FiCloud.2014.100 Eirinaki, M., Pisal, S., & Singh, J. (2012). Feature-based opinion mining and ranking. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 78(4), 1175–1184. doi:10.1016/j. jcss.2011.10.007 Gerani, S., Carman, M., & Crestani, F. (2010). Proximity-based opinion retrieval. Proceedings of the 33rd international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval. ACM. Govindarajan, M. (2013). Sentiment Analysis of Movie Reviews using Hybrid Method of Naive Bayes and Genetic Algorithm. International Journal of Advanced Computer Research, 3(4), 139–145. Hu, M., & Liu, B. (2004). Mining and Summarizing Customer Reviews. In Proceed- ings of the 10th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining.

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Jagtap, B., & Dhotre, V. (2014). SVM and HMM Based Hybrid Approach of Senti- ment Analysis for Teacher Feedback Assessment. International Journal of Emerging Trends & Technology in Computer Science, 3(3), 229–232. Jin, W., Ho, H., & Srihari, R. (2009). A novel lexicalized HMM-based learning framework for web opinion mining.Proceedings of the 26th Annual International Conference on Machine Learning. doi:10.1145/1553374.1553435 Kaushik, C., & Mishra, A. (2014). A scalable, lexicon based technique for sentiment analysis. International Journal in Foundations of Computer Science & Technology, 4(5), 35–43. doi:10.5121/ijfcst.2014.4504 Khasawneh, R. T., Wahsheh, H. A., Alsmadi, I. M., Al-Kabi, M. N. (2015). Arabic sentiment polarity identification using a hybrid approach. Information and Com- munication Systems (ICICS), 2015 6th International Conference on. IEEE. Marrese-Taylor, E., Velásquez, J. D., & Bravo-Marquez, F. (2014). A novel deterministic approach for aspect-based opinion mining. Academic Press. Maynard, D., Bontcheva, K., & Rout, D. (2012). Challenges in developing opinion mining tools for social media. In Proceedings of @NLP can u tag #usergeneratedcontent?! Workshop at LREC 2012. Moghaddam, S., & Ester, M. (2012). Aspect-based Opinion Mining from Online Reviews. New York: SIGIR. Nasukawa, A. T., & Jeonghee, Y. (2003). Sentiment analysis: capturing favorability using natural language processing. In Proceedings of the KCA p-03, 2nd international conference on knowledge capture. Padmaja, S., & Sameen, F. (2013). Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis –An Assessment of Peoples’ Belief: A Survey. International Journal of Ad hoc Sensor & Ubiquitous Computing, 4(1), 21–33. doi:10.5121/ijasuc.2013.4102 Pang, B., & Lee, L. (2008). Opinion mining and sentiment analysis. Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval, 2(1-2), 1–135. doi:10.1561/1500000011 Peñalver-Martínez, I., Valencia-García, R., & García-Sánchez, F. (2011). Ontology- guided approach to feature-based opinion mining. Natural Language Processing and Information Systems (pp. 193–200). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978- 3-642-22327-3_20 Rahmath, H. (2014). Opinion Mining and Sentiment Analysis - Challenges and Applications. International Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering & Management, 3(5), 401–403.

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Rill, S., Scheidt, J. D., Schutz, O., Reinel, D., & Wogenstein, F. (2012). A generic approach to generate opinion lists of phrases for opinion mining applications. Pro- ceedings of the First International Workshop on Issues of Sentiment Discovery and Opinion Mining. doi:10.1145/2346676.2346683 Sharma, N., & Chitre, V. (2014). Opinion Mining, Analysis and its Challenges. Inter- national Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science, 3(1), 59–65. Singh, P., & Husain, M. (2014). Methodological study of opinionmining and sentiment analysis techniques. International Journal on Soft Computing, 5(1), 11–21. doi:10.5121/ijsc.2014.5102 Singh, S., Paul, S., & Kumar, D. (2014). Sentiment Analysis Approaches on Dif- ferent Data set Domain: Survey. International Journal of Database Theory and Application, 7(5), 39–50. doi:10.14257/ijdta.2014.7.5.04 Taboada, M., Brooke, J., Tofiloski, M., Voll, K., & Stede, M. (2011). Lexicon- based methods for sentiment analysis. Computational Linguistics, 37(2), 267–307. doi:10.1162/COLI_a_00049 Varghese, R., & Jayasree, M. (2013). A survey on sentiment analysis and opinion mining. International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology, 2(11), 312–317. doi:10.15623/ijret.2013.0211048 Vinodhini, G., & Chandrasekaran, R. (2012). Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Min- ing: A Survey. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 2(6), 282–292. Wei, W., & Gulla, J. (2010). Sentiment learning on product reviews via sentiment ontology tree. In Proceedings of Annual Meeting of the Association for Computa- tional Linguistics (ACL-2010). Zhai, Z., Liu, B., Xu, H., & Jia, P. (2011). Clustering product features for opinion mining.Proceedings of the fourth ACM international conference on Web search and data mining. ACM. doi:10.1145/1935826.1935884

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Chapter 11 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah Independent Researcher, Jordan

Ahmad Al-Zyoud Yarmouk University, Jordan

ABSTRACT Sentiment analysis is a process of determining the polarity (i.e. positive, negative or neutral) of a given text. The extremely increased amount of information available on the web, especially social media, create a challenge to be retrieved and analyzed on time, timely analyzed of unstructured data provide businesses a competitive advantage by better understanding their customers’ needs and preferences. This literature review will cover a number of studies about sentiment analysis and finds the connection between sentiment analysis of social network content and customers retention; we will focus on sentiment analysis and discuss concepts related to this field, most important relevant studies and its results, its methods of applications, where it can be applied and its business applications, finally, we will discuss how can sentiment analysis improve the customer retention based on retrieved data.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch011

Copyright ©2017, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention

INTRODUCTION

Social network sites are rapidly becoming a standard method of communication for millions of users, by sharing their updates, users enlarge their horizons and sharing their believes and opinions, thus web has become a user-centered environment (Hays, Spiers, & Paterson, 2015). Businesses which do not involve in social media marketing activities lose a lot of opportunities, competitors already use social media and gaining competitive advantage, it’s the most cost effective and easy to use communication way to share information about brands, products and services, and new events. This massive amount of information should be interpreted into measurable attitude dictionary (Khan & Khan, 2012). Businesses prefer to be at the heart of a community; social media platforms present the opportunities for companies to get close to their consumers, including observing and collecting information; sponsoring communities; and providing content to communities (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011).There have been many examples of companies who used Facebook to position themselves at the center of community, like Pizza Hut which claimed to have more than 26 million fans in 2015, Samsung with more than 42 million fans, and television network channels MBC with more than 13 million fans (Facebook, 2015). Common rapid growing of social networks creates dynamic streams of textual unstructured information created directly from customers’ reactions and opinions on social pages, businesses need to recognize the importance of social media content created by their followers and crowd to align their position in the most successful way, where timely analysis of online information can provide businesses with a competitive advantage, by getting better understanding of customers’ preferences, having early alarms on emerging issues, and monitor competitors’ activities (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011; Culnan, McHugh, & Zubillaga, 2010). Research engines attempts to use different techniques to speed up and improve efficiency search results. Sen- timent analysis is a new emergent process to facilitate measuring the attitudes of web visitors. Sentiment analysis (opinion mining) is a sub-field of natural language processing, which analyses social media, news, and research content on the web to extract meaningful data measurements from the subjective opinions and feelings surround- ing an object (i.e. positive, negative or neutral) (Duwairi & Qarqaz, 2014). To make use of sentiment analysis results, companies must learn to prioritize the results depending on influence – digging down into an opinion to understand how it really affected other users and how did they respond to it. Sentiment analysis uses two main methodologies, the machine learning methodology and the semantic orientation, both methodologies are widely used but some new researchers suggests using a hybrid of both methodologies to get more accurate results. Sentiment analysis

208 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention aims to determine the attitude of a writer with respect to some topic or the overall contextual polarity of a document. The attitude may be his/her judgment or evaluation, emotional state, or the intended emotional communication (Abdulla, Ahmed, Shehab, Al-Ayyoub, Al-Kabi, & Al-rifai, 2013). Sentiment analysis can be used by firms and organizations to measure their influence on the market, by following their customers’ interaction through social networks’ contents; therefore managers will have a better understanding of available/new products and services. Customer retention is an important scope in any marketing plan, keeping your current customer’s loyal and interested about your business is profitable more than attracting new customers, where a survey shows that “one in three respondents followed through with a friend’s recommendation received through a social media outlet like Facebook or Twitter” (Empathica, 2010)

BACKGROUND

Sentiment Analysis Techniques

As social media become more pervasive in our life, businesses should be more aware about this new power connected to customers, where it creates a new world of dominance and control in customers’ hand, searching for services or products is developed into new domains, online information created by users of social networks and through firms presence forms on the web, create new channel to exchange experiences and information “good and bad” about specific brands, organization, business…etc. analyst need to monitor and translate this information continuously, not just information on their own social networks’ platforms, but also to check and analyze textual information on their competitors’ social networks’ platforms. Analyz- ing this amount of information with the diversity of forms, languages, and sources helps decision makers and e-marketers to create a competitive social network and transfer social network raw data into knowledge and actionable situation. A positive current customer experience revealed through social network’s platforms can encourage potential customers to become active brand advocates, increase brand loyalty and referrals and ultimately boost their revenues and profits (He, Zha, & Li, Social media competitive analysis and text mining: A case study in the pizza industry, 2013) Sentiment analysis can be applied using different techniques to extract the knowledge from unstructured data of the web. Table 1 and Table 2 might look like what a typical sentiment analysis looks like. Sentiment Analysis techniques can be classified into three main categories as follows.

209 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention Table 1. Example1 for sentiment analysis

Month 1 Month 2 Metrics Likes 2000 4000 Like Growth Followers 20887 30000 Followers Growth Post 200 300 Post Growth Comments 600 1500 Comment Growth Comments-per-Posts 3 5 CPP Growth

Table 2. Example2 for Sentiment Analysis

Platform Objective Metric Goal Alternative Metric Facebook Customer Engagement Avg. # Comment/Post 10 Avg. number of Shares/Week Twitter General Awareness Avg. New Followers/Post 5 Avg. number of RTs/Post LinkedIn Thought Leadership # Best Answers 20 Number of InRecommendations Youtube Sales/Lead Generation # Leads or Sales/View 1% Likes/View Google+ Customer Service #Hangout/Week 3 NetPromoter Score

Symbolic (Manual) Analysis

This technique depends on manually identifying a collection of words and their sentiment to form the opinion lexicon, opinion lexicon is a collection of words and phrases with information about their sentiment (Positive or Negative), a lexicon can either be created manually or acquired automatically (Ibrahim, Abdou, & Gheith, 2015). Wiebe, Wilson, & Cardie in their study (2005) have employed an annotation schema on a 100-thousand corpus of articles from the world news, the target of their study was to identify private states in context rather than judging words and phrases out of context. They defined a frame for each private state, a frame is a way to classify different words and phrases and assign specific specifications to them. Each frame shall contain the following information: source, target, properties, and attitude type. Their approach is supposed to give further insight into sentiment analysis than the usual classification of positive and negative classes. A private state as defined by the researchers is a state that is not open to objective observation or verification; it could represent opinions, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, evaluations, and judgments.

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Machine Learning Techniques

Sentiment analysis can be handled as a classification problem where supervised learning classification algorithms can be used to classify documents, or sentences into two categories (Negative, positive). It’s also possible to use unsupervised learning techniques to classify sentiments, this is usually done with a three steps algorithm that extracts phrases with adjectives, estimate their orientation, and calculate the opinion orientation of the sentence (Ibrahim, Abdou, & Gheith, 2015).

Hybrid Techniques

The main concept in hybrid techniques is combining both the manual and the machine learning techniques to get information that are more valuable from sentiment analysis; most of these techniques combine the lexicon with the supervised learning process of classifying sentiments. (Dang, Zhang, & Chen, 2010).

Sentiment Analysis Tools

Eureka, a leading enterprise speech analytics for the call center, believes in “Listen to your customer. Improve your business”, where customer power become more intense and influential. In our open market place through social media customers

Figure 1. Taxonomy of sentiment analysis techniques

211 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention can connect with each other cross the world and retrieve real time feedback about products and services of specific business. Thus, if businesses have the ability to reach to this feedback and analyze content in real time, it will help in better understanding customers, improve their services, and avoid any potential pitfalls and problems that might not be discovered in near time otherwise. There are many tools we can use to manage and analyze content of social media, such tools like: Google analytics, Meltware, Facebook Insights, and more. Here we will discuss some available tools used in sentiment analysis.

• STATISTICA: Part of Dell software, this off-the-shelf analytic solutions provide a multi-topic summary of customer sentiments on a single dashboard, with no need to learn special language where user should be familiar in using Microsoft office products and that will be enough. STATISTICA helps mangers and marketers to create ad hoc reports or obtaining details of any alarm in a an effective timely situation, provide numeric inputs for marketing campaigns, and media mix optimization, customer response models, and more. It provides solutions for many different industries across the globe it connected directly with databases and live feeds such as Facebook and twitter. STATISTIKA claimed that their products have received the highest rating in every published (independent) comparative review since its first release in 1993 (Statsoft, 2016). STATISTICA adopt a five steps solution to enhance and increase opportunities of getting benefits of sentiment analysis to sustain customers’ retention, which are: Measure the Sentiment by converting comments into a single numeric index that summarizes attitudes and views, Track Changes by receiving early notifications of customer s’ feedback, Easy Integration with Other Analysis to build predictive models and optimize marketing campaigns, Multiple Language Support to follow customers all over the globe, and Take advantage of modern hardware and software technologies. • Facebook Insights: It is a Facebook’s version of web page analysis; it allows managers to track information about users’ interaction on Facebook, such as page views, fan statistics, wall posts, photo share, video and audio play and more. Also, it helps in tracking the number of active users to better understand page performance. Effective use of this tool will help in determining the best time of day to post, the best day of the week to post and what type of content is most popular, therefore loyal customers will be managed better and follow their concerns in real time actions. • Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK): NLTK is a free, open source, community-driven project platform used to build python programs which applied on human language data, it can use over 50 lexical resources and a set of text

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processing libraries, such as classification, tokenization, stemming, tagging, parsing, and semantic reasoning, it is used by linguists, engineers, students, educators, researchers, and industry users alike (NLTK, 2016). • Google Analytics: Free web analytic service provided by Google, suitable for small and medium-sized retail websites, used to turn customer insights into real gains. Some features of Google Analytics tool include: data visual- izing tools like dashboard and scorecards to view change in data over time, create custom reports based on segmenting analysis into subsets like conversion, integrating analysis with Google products, and allowing email sharing and communication. All you need to gain benefits of Google analytic is having a Google account.

Sentiment Analysis Platforms

The evolution of web 2.0 and the social media is the number one motivation for the sentiment analysis studies and its adaption among business owners as a method to study target customers, their intentions, needs, and feedback. In a study held by Prem and his colleague (2009) they have tested applying a technique based both on a lexical and machine learning methods to analyze sentiments around specific products in blogs. The testing data used in this study was about three targets, which are Lotus IBM collaborative software, political elections and movies. The first step in their approach is to manually label a number of blog posts related to the target focusing only on the post body and ignoring its title and other details, and then use the labeled data as a testing and validation data for the machine learning algorithm. Recent surveys have estimated that a massive number of internet users turn to online forums to collect recommendations for products and services, guiding their own choices and decisions by the opinions that other consumers have publicly expressed. The trust placed on the opinion of another consumer is often much greater than that placed on advertisements for a product (Li, Sindhwani, Ding, & Zhang, 2010). On the other hand, business owners and politicians, looking to study people opinions would benefit from being able to determine not just whether a document or text snippet is opinionated but also the intensity of the opinion. Furthermore, knowing the types of attitude being expressed (e.g., positive versus negative evaluations) would enable a natural language processing (NLP) application to target particular types of opinions (Chalothom & Ellman, 2015). The researchers state that “we notice that the accuracy of sentiment classification is significantly higher for lotus than for politics. The Lotus posts originate from a small set of blogs, and there is almost a one-to-one correspondence between blogs and sentiment, i.e., each blogger either loves or hates Lotus. This conforms better with the assumptions of our generative model compared to the Politics posts, which

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Originate from many disparate sources that have positive and negative commentary about different electoral candidates. As a result, our methods perform better at classifying sentiment in the Lotus blogs compared to the Politics blogs.” A research to extract sentiment analysis from users’ reviews using an unsupervised learning method was conducted by Brody and Noemie (2010). As mentioned in their paper the reasons for using an unsupervised method is that: due to the wide range and variety of products and services being reviewed, and the nature of the data. Online reviews are often short and unstructured, and may contain many spelling and grammatical errors, as well as slang or specialized jargon.” To measure the accuracy of their method the researchers have defined an aspect-related gold standards, and worked and have used a manual method to label these standards, after that they have tested the algorithm once using the manual feed set and the other unsupervised. The manual feed set has yield more accurate results but the unsupervised method has also proven its ability to be used in this domain efficiently. In an interesting study on Twitter as a tool of sentiment analysis the researchers was trying to find out if people opinions expressed through twitter can affect the stock market (Bollena, Mao, & Zeng, 2011). Their case of study is Dow Jones In- dustrial Average (DJIA). They used two tools; Opinion Finder and Google Measure of mood to analyze text content of daily twitter posts. After that the findings were cross validated and tested using an election example back on the year of 2008. Once data is validated it was fed to a self-organizing fuzzy neural network study its impact on stock market. This method proved an accuracy of 87.6% on predicting daily up and low changes of the closing values of DJIA, and a reduction in the mean average percentage error by 6%. Table 3 summarizes samples of research methodologies used in references used to write this literature review.

SENTIMENT ANALYSIS TO GAIN BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR CUSTOMERS

Food industry presents a rich and important industry that will involve strongly in social network world, based on various features of different social networks’ platforms, Facebook and Twitter will play an important increasingly role in food industry, a survey conducted by Brandau discuss that about half of the customers had looked for a food restaurant by searching and monitoring recommendations by reading online reviews and information posted on Facebook and Twitter (Brandau, 2010). 85% of pizza-chain brands are strongly tied to promotions and discounts mostly acquired through social networks, also, many pizza brands have employed qualified staff members with responsibilities to engage customers and build an online community and employ social network as customer service tool, therefore

214 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention Table 3. Previous research in sentiment analysis field

Research Platform Method Results ( Ibrahim, Abdou, Blogs and Symbolic (manual) The experimental Help business to & Gheith, 2015 ) Twitter analysis SVM results indicate high market products, Classifiers performance levels, identify new with accuracies of opportunities and over 95% manage reputations ( Duwairi & Facebook Supervised learning show that SVM gives Qarqaz, 2014 ) and Twitter method “machine the highest precision learning approach” while KNN (K=10) The Naïve Bayes, gives the highest SVM and KNN Recall classifiers were used ( Rosenthal, Nakov, Twitter Supervised learning Build a Decision makers and Kiritchenko, method “machine comprehensive data analyst can study Mohammad, Ritter, learning approach” set over three ears weakness point from & Stoyanov, 2015 ) shows how businesses data set to identify growth and enhanced down curve area to over that period focus their efforts to avoid any potential previous errors ( Korayem, Blogs and Hybrid techniques A nuanced method Businesses and Crandall, & Abdul- Twitter (mix of manual and to build a sentiment institutions can Mageed, 2012 ) machine learning) analysis system for monitor feelings Arabic employs about their products not only language and services. Private independent, but citizens can also also Arabic-specific be able to compare features sentiments about competing products. ( Mourad & Reviews Symbolic Create a dictionary Help people to make Darwish, 2013 ) (Manually) - of processed data decisions about Unsupervised taken originally from possible reservations, learning method public comments and allow businesses and reviews of hotels to improve their and restaurants services and reservations reputations ( Bollena, Mao, & Twitter Fuzzy neural Proved a 86.7% Predicting stock Zeng, 2011 ) networks accuracy in markets ups and predicting values downs ( Brody & Noemie, Reviews Unsupervised Although it is Help individuals 2010 ) learning method less accurate than or firms make a supervised learning purchase decision methods, but this method has proven good results in measuring sentiment in reviews

215 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention customers can engage in activities of producing and enhancing pizza’s products (He, Zha, & Li, 2013) The simplest rule to grow a business’s customer base is to not lose current customers, creating good customer relationship save money and cost instead of attracting new possible customers. Let’s take an example of two companies each have a customers’ base of 10000 customers. Company A retain 80% of its customers each year, while Company B retains 70%, both companies have net growth of 20% of new customers each year, the following table represents net growth of customers’ base Number of customers = current customer *retain percent + net growth*current customer number e.g. first year: Company A → 10000*(80/100)+10000*(20/100) = 10000

Company B→ 10000*(70/100)+10000*(20/100)= 90000

Comparing previous results, we can see that despite company A customer’s base didn’t grow in 7 years, yet it create a competitive advantage over company B just by saving current customer’s base, company B lose more than half of its original customers. This create a significant hint about importance of retaining current customers for any business. Traditional suggested strategies to retain customers include:

• Reducing attrition and invest wisely in customer’s relationship, don’t waste time or effort on customers who you might abandon in any situation. Make your expenses in right place and for right purposes. • Frequent communication calendar use sequence of letters, events, special offers, follow-ups, magic moments, and cards or notes with a personal touch. Customers will feel valued and important.

Table 4. Customer retention in numbers for both companies A, and B

Company A Company B Year 1 10000 9000 Year 2 10000 8100 Year 3 10000 7290 Year 4 10000 6561 Year 5 10000 5904.1 Year 6 10000 5313.69 Year 7 10000 4782.321

216 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention

• Extraordinary customer service, extraordinary service builds fortunes in repeat customers, such services include: consider customer satisfaction a priority, provide immediate response, going above and beyond the call of duty, consistent on-time delivery, and a zero-defects and error-free-delivery process.

Beside obvious classic customers’ retention strategies, we can find a set of innovative strategies and tools that are available and created through the web, such as focusing on blogs, surveys and questionnaires, communities and groups, and social networks. Social networks represent a wealth domain of customers’ feedback, either current customers with their opinions about products/ services, or potential new customers with their needs and preferences. Potential customer searches the web for feedback in the form of comments and reviews of certain products, while current customers create these feedback through posting photos, writing comments, tweets, and reviews which describe their experience and attitude toward the products/ service, firms and marketers use these feedback to analyze current customer trends and potential customers needs and preferences to improve their services and business process to maximize benefits for all parts. As a golden standard, we can advise businesses to “always listen and hear what their customers say”; social media create an open two way interactive platform, where customers can connect to business products/ services and communicate with each other, when listening to your customers, take into account what changes your organization should make from this feedback, and then follow through. We can use the following methods to gather feedback from customers:

• Surveys. • Focus Groups. • Observation. • Point of Sale. • Customer Service. • Social Media. • Communities and Groups. • Email and Web Forms.

In a study conducted by De Beule (2015) on fast food industry in USA, including six major brands: McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, and Dunkin’ Donuts, researchers found that these brands do not interact appropriately on social networks with their customers. Where in average quarter of the interac-

217 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention tions are negative, yet 90% of the communication is from customers’ side only since these brands neglect to respond. Pizza Hut registered highest responding rate with 15% active response in just under 1.5 hour, McDonald’s took an average of 5 hours minutes to reply, and in the opposite Dunkin’ Donuts never responded to customers. A plan of simple three steps to insure customers’ retention through monitoring and analyzing online customers’ interaction is presented as follow:

• Organize All Incoming Messages and Posts: Before replying and establishing any automatic communication with customers, organization should group messages, posts, comments, and any form of interaction into specific folders by analyze social network content, this will make the process much easier to establish the tone needed for each response. Also, it guarantee to response to each customer for the right manner. • Turn negative comments into positive conversations. • Think About the Quantity: People that pass through a McDonald’s or Burger King drive-thru on a daily basis. Because there’s a much higher volume of customers than typical sit-down restaurants, there will be a higher volume of social chatter around their quality of food and service. Instead of acknowledging negative comments with a generic response, find creative and positive ways to address each situation. This not only fosters transparency on social, but also cultivates a feeling of genuine care for customers.

REAL IMPLICATIONS OF SENTIMENT ANALYSIS

Apptrace is the fastest free app analysis service around, it provides daily ranking and sentiment analysis services for applications on its website, http://www.apptrace. com/, to monitor application’s performance, type the name of the application or the application ID and start monitoring and analyzing it. Facebook application, which

Figure 2. Explanation of key words in sentiment analysis

218 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention Table 5. Feedback of customers about the application

Time Frame Positive Addictiveness Crash Negative Oct, 2014 40% 0% 60% 80% Nov, 2014 10% 10% 40% 40% Dec, 2014 28% 14% 42% 42% Jan, 2015 5% 11% 16% 50% Feb, 2015 10% 0% 20% 30% Mar, 2015 20% 0% 13% 33% April, 2015 0% 0% 25% 37% May, 2015 25% 12% 25% 50% June, 2015 0% 0% 0% 100% July, 2015 22% 11% 44% 33% Aug, 2015 17% 13% 34% 39% Sep, 2015 13% 6% 33% 26% Oct, 2015 7% 7% 46% 53% Nov, 2015 0% 0% 24% 36% December, 2015 16% 16% 16% 50% Jan, 2016 0% 11% 44% 55% Feb, 2016 16% 11% 38% 55% Mar, 2016 23% 14% 14% 38%

Figure 3. Graphic presentation of sentiment analysis

219 Sentiment Analysis of Social Media as Tool to Improve Customer Retention is available in 155 countries and has overall 453,544,178 rating with average of 3.5, is within the top 1% applications in the world. Facebook used sentiment analysis option on apptrace to measure customer satisfaction regarding the application, based on its usefulness, enjoyment, and ease of use, where results will help the firm to get feedback from customers about applications and its’ content to follow up market needs and customers’ preferences. Table 5 represents results of analyzing application’s feedback in a time frame from Oct, 2014, to Mar, 2016. Studying this table and the figure will help firms to measure effectiveness of the application to overcome any potential problems or issues and to concentrate on improving strength position (Apptrace, 2014). Figure 3 represents a line charts which display trends of user sentiments over time.

REFERENCES

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Chapter 12 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family to Grow Successful Family- Owned Businesses? The Usefulness of Social Media in Growing a Family- Owned Business

Mambo Governor Mupepi Grand Valley State University, USA

Patience Taruwinga Saint Joseph’s College, USA

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah Independent Researcher, Jordan

ABSTRACT The objective of the study was to collect data from family owned enterprises to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of social media as a strategy to grow the useful business and to determine the subscription of family owned entities to social networking.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch012

Copyright ©2017, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family The methodology included data collected from a total of 68 family owned firms 30 in the USA and 38 in Africa SADC countries. Monkey survey tools were deployed to collect data. Results show that those companies that subscribed to social media were more successful than those that did not. Certain social networks were much more useful than others and that it was not always important to have a website but useful to have a social network. The debut of the popular Facebook was received with mixed views by many organizations but its subscription by many organizations demonstrate its usefulness as a tool to grow a business. The recommendations are that it is important for a family owned business to subscribe to a social network as a strategy to advance productivity.

INTRODUCTION

Monkey survey tools were deployed to collect data which was then interpreted to inform the discussion in this chapter. The results show that those companies that subscribed to social media were more successful than those that did not. Certain social networks were much more useful than others and that it was not always important to have a website but useful to have a social network. The discussion is organized in four parts to answer the question: Can the social media usage increase the gregariousness of the family to grow successful family owned businesses? The first part introduces the topic and offers a description of some of the terms used in the debate. The second part reviews a charily selected literature to understand the sociability of families and their business interests. The third part discusses empirical evidence from Southern African and American family owned businesses on the impact of their Facebook, Twitter, Google+, You Tube, Flickr, and Skype to have clear and well-planned strategy to increase success opportunities. The fourth part draws a conclusion mentioning the limitations of the arguments presented and suggests others areas of research in other on-line and traditional social media.

Rise in Mixed Media Communication Strategy

In Bethlahmy, Popat and Schottmiller (2011), the demand for global e-commerce is expected to exceed $1.4 trillion by year end 2015. Further estimates indicate that by the end of 2016 US online shoppers will spend $327 billion, and e-retail will account for 9 percent of total retail sales (Mulpuru, 2012). Many corpora- tions including family owned businesses have seized this opportunity to adopt the

225 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family electronic way of business. One important factor critical to electronic commerce success is the website. Nacheva-Skopalik and Green (2016) assert that usability of websites impact customers’ intention to return for more. The customers’ experience on websites should be positive.

Using Social Media Platforms to Model and Simulate Performance

Dubois, Moussa, Bach and de Bonnefoy (2008) propound that interactive systems are no longer expected to be used in confined and predefined places. By increasingly taking advantage of the physical environment, interactive systems are becoming mixed, that is, merging physical and digital worlds. Dubois et al (2008) argue that interactive systems support user’s mobility and thus can be referred to as mobile mixed systems. To overcome technology-driven development processes and to take into account their physical nature and mobile dimensions, specific design approaches are required. From this perspective, Dubois et al (2008) present the interweaving of an existing design model (ASUR) for mixed systems, and a 3-D environment (SIMBA) for simulating modeled mobile mixed system. The goals are to support the investigation of mobile mixed system design through the dedicated modeling approach, and to better understand the limit of the modeled solutions through their simulation. This constitutes a first step toward an iterative method of design for mobile mixed systems, based on mid-fidelity prototyping. In Chen, Paul, Kibaru, Ma, and Saparova (2015), it is suggested that to construct a user-friendly website, it is necessary to conduct a usability evaluation by taking into consideration users’ inputs from the early stages of website development. Chen et al (2015) propound that deploying prototype testing during an iterative design can yield the following unique advantages such as making the overarching purpose of designs clearer, aid- ing communication and mutual understanding among team members; and locating main usability concerns and promoting early and fast incorporation of the desired design changes. Damont (2015) argues that social media need to be understood as more than engagement tools as they also impact an organization’s internal systems. Using sociotechnical theory as a framework, the intersection of the family business’s technical, social, and behavioral systems are brought to the fore to better understand the strategic changes the business must undergo to better utilize social media tools to align with its mission. Damont (2015) argues that a key component of effective social media use is the ability to adapt its marketing and sales for online engagement through integration of online and offline systems, so that online media align with offline messaging and the dynamic changes in the technological platforms.

226 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family

In Nacheva-Skopalik and Green (2016), the social media is described as the future of communication, a countless array of internet based tools and platforms that increase and enhance the sharing of information. Social media makes the transfer of text, photos, audio, video, and information in general increasingly fluid among internet users. Nacheva-Skopalik and Green argue that social media has relevance not only for regular internet users, but business as well. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, among others, have created online communities where people can share as much or as little personal information as they desire with other members. The Google+ platform has enabled communities that share the same interests to stay connected complete with pictures as well as instant messaging. This can be as good as talking to each other face-to-face in real-time. The result is that an enormous amount of business can be generated by communities as they cohere to advance their relationships.

Facebook

The Facebook is a computer-based platform that enables users to create pages which they can share with their friends. The user can send a message to any number of his/her friends at a time. Deleting a message from one’s inbox does not delete it from the inbox of other users, but a user can block unwanted friends from any communications with him/her. In Nicholas (2010:2), Facebook platform statistics as of May 2010 are as follows:

More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries More than 550,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications More than 250,000 websites have integrated with Facebook Platform More than 100 million Facebook users engage with Facebook on external websites every month

Google Documents

Google Docs is a web-based application in which documents and spreadsheets can be created edited and stored on-line. Google Docs help individuals to share files in word or PDF format. It is popular among students as well as faculty. It is a handy tool in shared research environments. It helps individuals to create resumes or abstracts which can be shared by member

227 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family

Interface

An I/O interface is required whenever the I/O device is driven by the processor. The interface must have necessary logic to interpret the device address generated by the processor. Handshaking should be implemented by the interface using appropriate commands (such as Busy, Ready and Wait). The processor can communicate with an I/O device through the interface. If different data formats are being exchanged, the interface must be able to convert serial data to parallel form and vice versa. There must be provision for generating interrupts and the corresponding type numbers for further processing by the processor if required (Mupepi & Mupepi, 2013).

Fidelity Prototyping

The importance of reliability in statistics is about the same in reliable protocols in the delivery of data to the intended parties. In Engelberg and Seffah (2002), there are three types of design protocols (1) Low-fidelity prototyping tools and methods are used for early design just after requirements analysis, to help conceptualize and envision the interface at a high level. These tools often support rough sketching of interface screens by freehand drawing with a mouse or tablet pen. (2) Mid-fidelity prototyping tools are used after early design, for the purposes of detailed design and usability validation. They present detailed information about navigation, functionality, content and layout, but in schematic (“wireframe”) or approximate form. (3) High-fidelity prototyping tools permit the creation of a lifelike simulation, normally for marketing purposes or sometimes for user tests, before the final version has been developed. High-fidelity prototyping tools tend to target developers, and are often general-purpose development tools. Due to the efforts required, high-fidelity prototypes are usually not “rapid”; nevertheless the expression RAD (Rapid Ap- plication Development) is widely used in the field.

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short messages called “tweets”. The Twitter Company (2015), reports that the most widespread Twitter accounts as of April 8, 2015, were:

1. Katy Perry: 68,122,294. 2. Justin Bieber: 62,528,766. 3. Barack Obama: 57,753,487. 4. Taylor Swift: 55,845,709. 5. YouTube: 50,055,731.

228 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family

6. Lady Gaga: 45,568,739. 7. Justin Timberlake: 44,094,709. 8. Rihanna: 43,553,703. 9. Ellen DeGeneres: 42,012,220. 10. Britney Spears: 41,441,514.

Schaefer (2014) propound that Twitter can be applied by all types of organization as a useful marketing tool. Behind every Twitter triumph is a well-defined success formula. This is The Tao of Twitter: a path that holds the potential to improve the organization’s daily life. It includes what could be twitted such as new product break through research, or major announcements such as mergers and acquisitions. Schaefer (2014) propounds that one can build influence, and goodwill on Twitter.

AN OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL MEDIA PRACTICES

The ontology to progress the discourse on social media is drawn from de Sa, Car- rico and Reis (2010), Nicholas (2010), Tang, Bin and Whinstone (2012), Barker (2013), Devaney and Stein (2013), Ruta, Imperatori, and Cavenaghi (2013), Mupepi and Taruwinga (2014), Aichner and Jacobs (2015), Tella and Tella (2015), Steven- Jennings (2015), Baya’a and Deher (2016), Alkhouja (2016), Hensel (2016), Guidry and Pasquini (2016), Vishwakarma and Waheeda (2016), among many others.

An Informal Learning Organization

In Guidry and Pasquini (2016), Twitter is presented as an informal learning tool. Guidry and Pasquini (2016) examine user-created Twitter chats using one specific chat, #sachat, as a case study. #sachat is a weekly one-hour chat held on Twitter and populated by higher education professionals in the field of student affairs (e.g. college admissions, advising, housing, new student orientation). Guidry and Pas- quini (2016) contrast this chat with other ways in which student affairs and higher education professionals are using Twitter. Using methods of computer-mediated discourse analysis, they then discover and elicit defining characteristics of #sachat. In conclusion the researchers suggest why this chat seems to be successful as an informal learning resource, and how it compares to other uses of Twitter by professionals, and implications for other communities interested in using Twitter or similar tools to create informal learning. The learning organization presents how its members think and interact. In an informal group, the cohesion can be enhanced by members as they continue to share their passion regardless of their location or rank in their profession.

229 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family

Creating a Customer Database

Turner and Mattson (2015) suggest that social media such as Google+ can be deployed to construct customer database. They investigate the use of social media and how Google + specifically can be implemented to understand the nature and description of customers. Turner and Mattson (2015) contend that social media can be utilized in organizational context to build capacity and enhance marketing effectiveness by the integration of Google+ into profitable operations. Appropriate databases can be exploited to advance the mission. In developing economies mass media in general is controlled by the state. For example the South African Broadcasting Corporation is controlled by the state from the day it was founded by white minority governments. In Zimbabwe the state has the majority shares in Zimbabwe Papers Ltd as well as in the radio and television broadcasting. There are similar arrangements in all Southern African Develop- ment Community (SADC) states which characterize a mixed economy where the state attempts to control the workings of supply and demand under the facades of state interests. The availability of social media via the mobile phone network has changed the fortunes of family owned businesses (Mupepi & Taruwinga, 2014). Steven-Jennings (2015) suggests that success and sustainability in African family businesses in Africa have succeeded largely due to social media such as Facebook and Skype. Using Skype the Family Owned Businesses (FOBs) is able to show products and other wares in real-time. The seller is able to conclude deals within minutes of Skyping. Other global businesses such as DHL courier services have been able to grow and expand with the growing African market. Steven-Jennings (2015) asserts that DHL has been able to take deliveries from Africa to anywhere in the world. On their Facebook pages DHL show a network of agents scattered in every city in Africa. DHL claims to know more about Africa and the African entrepreneurs than anyone else (DHL, 2015). In Mupepi and Taruwinga (2014), social media technology is quickly becoming a vital tool in personal, educational, and professional lives. However, while social networking helps the world stay connected, its use must be further examined in order to determine any possible pitfalls associated with the use of this technology. Mupepi and Taruwinga (2014) suggest that the market has also become one huge global village where multiculturalism is part of everyday life at school, shopping, church, or work. It implies that students will need to recognize accept and adjust to cultural differences in communications to succeed in their studies as well as in their future careers. In Kaplan and Michael (2010), social media are described as computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/ videos in virtual communities and networks. Kaplan and Michael (2010) proceed to

230 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family describe the users of social media technology as a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content (2010:2). At Facebook or Twitter, and many others, users from around the world are constantly connected over the global networks. On these sites the users have the ability to connect, share, and collaborate at any time. To make the most of this new environment, researchers and software developers have to understand the needs and expectations of users (Kaplan & Michael 2010:3) As the social media and networking continue to grow there are few industries that are not capitalizing on this effective development tool. Tella and Tella (2015) suggest that the concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications for any business to understand and apply to expand marketing and sales database can be drawn from data analytics generated from social media and other business information systems. As social technologies continue to evolve, it is apparent that librarians and their clientele would benefit through participation in the digital social world. While there are benefits to implementing these technologies, many businesses face challenges in the integration and usage of social media. Tella and Tella (2015) argues that most family-owned businesses situated in growing economies have taken advantage of the smartphone to join social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, among many others. Smith (2014) asserts that the smartphone has also penetrated into the Af- rican market. Smith (2014) argues that Africa’s claim to be the mobile continent is even stronger than previously thought, with researchers predicting internet use on mobile phones will increase 20-fold in the next five years – double the rate of growth in the rest of the world. People in Africa use mobiles for online activities that others normally perform on laptops or desktop computers as the technology overcomes weak or non-existent landline infrastructure in large swaths of the world’s poorest continent (2014:2). Declining prices of handsets and data, along with faster transmission speeds, mean Facebook, Twitter and cash transfer services can reach both the growing African middle class and the remotest rural areas, where villagers often find ingenious ways of keeping phones charged. Consumers in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria are increasingly using video and media services available on newly affordable smartphones (2014:4). Frith (2015) suggests that society is increasing the usage of smartphones or location-enabled phones to find our way, locate services and find one another. The providers of these smartphones offer packages which businesses including the families managed enterprises cannot refuse. Frith (2015) argues that the telephone companies offer privacy but cannot completely guarantee they can stop eaves-dropping. Individuals are much more concerned with the delivery of a reliable service to stay connected with their friends and customers than worry about eaves-dropping. Jenkins, Ito, and Boyd (2015) posit that the new digital, networked, and mobile technology

231 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family has enabled people to stay connected and participate in commerce, and discourses of interest. Jenkins et al (2015) argue that a new participation culture has developed as a result of the new social media technology. Facebook and many others can be sites to promote the things one is passionate about. Ogualesi and Busari (2012) suggest that the mobile phone has transformed the economies of many African states. Data about diseases outbreak is able to be transmitted to the urban centers where help can easily be organized to aid victims and to contain the diseases. The mobile phone has replaced the former land lines which were only a few people could afford. About 100,000 phone lines in Nigeria, mostly landlines run by the state-owned telecoms bureaucratic organization NI- TEL. Ogualesi and Busari (2012) argue that today such companies as NITEL are no longer in existence. Their demise can be attributed to a failure to articulate im- minent technological change. Nigeria has close to 100 million mobile phone lines, making it Africa’s largest telecoms market, according to statistics by the Nigerian Communications Commission. Facebook (2015) has launched a campaign to help families in Africa. Its site is used to inform communities situated in remote parts in communal areas. It is used to collect data required by traders in the rural community such as family-owned businesses. Carvill and Taylor (2013) posit that successful business organizations have been using social media to create images of themselves to the public. It is important to understand and utilize social media to advance the business. Carvill and Taylor (2013) argue that all business is a social network of entrepreneurs and customers who both have defined desires and needs. They explain how the benefits of social media can be harnessed and applied to grow a business successfully. Everything about social media isn’t just about websites and smart phones. A family business in Indiana known as Peerless Potato Chips has been in business since the end of the First World War in 1918. The company provides snacks to a defined area covering greater Chicago including Gary Indiana and has no website or a Twitter account. But it has a Facebook account which it uses to take orders of customized snacks which are then delivered door to door. McKimmie (2014) propounds that the Peerless Potato Chips organization believes in getting to know its customers including the local grocery stores. McKimmie (2014) asserts that the company generates its revenue from the local markets and cuts on nationwide distribution and advertising costs. Blogging has been a backbone of social media. Many businesses uses professional bloggers to continue to create diffuse and distribute the information stakeholders must hear, see, and talk about, all the time. Rettberg (2013) considers blogging as an important aspect of public relations and situates it as part of strategy. A website

232 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family that contains online personal reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by a writer can be a blog. Nowadays, websites and Facebook or Twitter, run concurrently resonating with each other in content, opinions, products or services available.

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SADC AND THE USA

Data was collected among FOBs in the SADC comprising fifteen African states: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and in United State of America (USA). In North America the numbers of Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube users are constantly rising. Figure 1 illustrates the increasing numbers of Facebook users in the SADC and the USA: The data sample for this study consisted of 68 FOB randomly selected of which 30 were from USA and 38 were from SADC. Figure 1 shows a pie chart that illustrates the most frequently subscribed social media was Facebook, 27.4% and the least frequented was Flickr (0%) by the FOBs. Facebook is a popular social media and its ICT enables members to post files con-

Figure 1. N=68: Report on FOBs ’use of social media tools

233 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family taining pictures videos as well as narratives. Some of the FOBs have their family credo and logo occupying the first page. All visitors to the site can be greeted by a mission statement embedded in the logo or as part of the credo. The credo is a form of “I believe in” statement of religious belief. For example the Deseret Industries in Salt Lake City Utah, believe in serving others as part of their credo. It expands to include for example a re-edition of Love Thy neighbor Biblical Principles. The credo is appealing to those who share the same religious beliefs and values. Google+ has 21.8% of total membership from the sample population N=68. It is the second highest membership and now known as Google Hangouts. It is an instant messaging and video chat platform developed by Google. It replaces three messaging products that Google had implemented concurrently within its services, including Google Talk, Google+ Messenger (formerly: Huddle), and Hangouts, a video chat system present within Google+. Figure 2 shows pie chart that indicates that the most frequently used social media in USA is Facebook, 27.7%, and Flickr 0% is the least used by FOBs. Those companies that have been doing well because of social media suggest that Facebook page is the sizzle, and what is offered on the website should be the steak. Some of the offerings on Facebook include family reunions, high school reminiscences, whatever the FOB has to offer for sale, including new products and special discounts, among

Figure 2. N=30 USA usage of a selected social media

234 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family many other perceived goodies. Some FOBs frequent Facebook more to present their wares and what is immediately available in stock and what can be delivered right away or within a few days after one has placed an order. At the end of the day, it is all about business. Figure 3 illustrates that the most frequently subscribed social media in SADC is Facebook, 27.1%, and the least contributed to is Flickr (0%) amongst the FOBs. The chi-square test of independence of region and social media tools usage, gave a p-value of 0.1843, showing that the two variables were independent of each other. Table 1 shows that SADC dominated slightly in the subscription of Facebook, Google+, and Skype, whilst USA dominated in the deployment of Twitter and YouTube. Facebook (72.05%) was the most frequently used social media by FOBs in general Table 1 demonstrates a cross-tabulation of data between the SADC and USA. The data indicate that the SADC is ahead of the US in the use of social media. The FOBs in the SADC could be more gregarious than those in the US because of many reasons. Some of them are associated with direct impact advertising on billboards, radio, television and door-to-door bulk advertising common in the US and not very familiar in the SADC growing economies. Another example is the cost and availability of alternative advertising media in the SADC compared to the US where

Figure 3. N=38 SADC use of selected media

235 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family Table 1. N=68 cross tabulation of selected social media usage

Region Cross-Tabulation Region Total USA SADC Social media tool used Twitter Count 9 6 15 Facebook Count 23 26 49 Google+ Count 15 24 39 LinkedIn Count 15 15 30 YouTube Count 12 6 18 Skype Count 9 19 28 Total Count 30 38 68

state-of-the-art technologies exist at competitive rates. The FOBs in the SADC appear to have mastered how to use Facebook to grow their businesses out of necessity. Because television and billboards advertising are state controlled for most of the part and ridiculously priced. It is easier for FOB to share their passion on Face- book than anywhere else. The purpose of Facebook page is not to sell stuff to people but to engage them. For example a Facebook page of a rock star might contain a survey of who could have been the best drummer or guitarist supporting his or her act. Followers will get engaged while taking the survey. Many videos on the You Tube posted by FOBs in the SADC contain very entertaining acts. Table 2 shows that the age-group 35 – 44 (35.3%) dominated in the use of social media, but the two variables social media use and age group were independent of each other, p-value = 0.9053. Facebook, Google and LinkedIn dominated all the social media regardless of age. This could be the case because LinkedIn is more of a professional network as compared to Facebook. Many of the FOBs tend to be managed by individuals who are in their early 30s and mid-40s. The same age group has increased usage of Skype, LinkedIn, and You Tube. In the USA family owned businesses such as the Yoders Inc., have varied customers and are selective in their use of social media. For example on their website they advertise that they are a one-stop shopping for groceries, pharmacy, flower shop, restaurant, and craft shop. They post driving directions from the nearest freeway and emphasize how environmental friendly and accommodating they are all persons. They probably use Gmail to grow membership and keep the stakeholders informed. The bar chart above shows that in general Facebook (31.1%) was used by FOBs for business purposes and followed by Google+. LinkedIn and Skype share the same platform to champion interpersonal communications among FOBs. The advert on Skype’s website alludes to keeping the world talking and sharing about the things

236 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family Table 2. N=68 age cross-tabulation of social media users

Age Total 18 - 24 25 - 34 35 - 44 45 - 54 55 - 64 65 or Years Years Years Years Years Over Social media Twitter Count 2 3 8 1 1 0 15 tool used Facebook Count 2 15 17 7 7 1 49 Google+ Count 1 7 15 9 5 2 39 LinkedIn Count 1 8 13 4 2 2 30 YouTube Count 1 4 5 4 4 0 18 Skype Count 2 6 10 6 4 0 28 Total Count 2 16 24 12 11 3 68

Figure 4. N=68 usage social media by FOBs

they are passionate about. Google electronic mail featured more in usage than Twit- ter or LinkedIn. All the seven social media applied the ITC applications to enable exchange of files, documents, and to effectively communicate and store information. The application of ICT in Gmail accounts renders the tool versatility in mobile devices such as i-Pads, Android, and iOS, and desktops. Google+ appears more popular with researching communities or those users who need to read emails as part of their work routine.

237 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family

Figure 5 illustrates that the USA based FOBs, deployed Facebook (31.1%) for business purposes. Publishing and software engineers share most of their achieve- ments with relationships on Facebook. There are some marketing organizations that can combine all social media activities on a single and integrated software platform. The collaborative dashboard makes it easy to engage with audiences by selecting the right media to apply each time there is an announcement to make or in each time there are changes to inform customers or other stakeholders. The software allows the user to view all messages and comments in one convenient feed and route them to specific users. Figure 6 shows that for the SADC FOBs, Google+ (34.5%), and Facebook (29.3%) were frequently used for business purposes. Google+ has become the biggest social network in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe seeing its strongest growth yet in the past year – and overtaking Facebook for the first time. This study shows that Facebook has 29.3% out of 68 users which is about 50%. Google+ maintains a lead probably because it supports learning and the exchange of information. Twitter saw one of the slowest growth at 1.7% sharing the same stats with You Tube at 1.7%. Flickr as a medium for exchange is not visibly subscribed to.

Figure 5. N=30: FOBs usage of social media in the US

238 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family Figure 6. N=38 FOBs usage of social media in the SADC

CUSTOMER RETENTION IN FOBS STRATEGIES

A family owned business is a commercial organization in which managing and making decisions is influenced by multiple parts of a family who are closely identified with the firm through leadership or ownership. Where in general, the concept of family business gives an impression of small local business, but in fact some international family business brands proved themselves as entrepreneurial firms, such as: Sam- sung in electronic devices market, Ford in vehicle market, Wal-Mart in shopping market, and Mango in fashion market. Family businesses need to have a long term focus on some points such as commitment to quality where it is associated with the family name, create an organizational commitment environment to strengthen employees’ loyalty to their firms, which should be reflected in the services provided to customers and raise a care and concern theme for their customers. FOBs strongly rely on the family reputation where it might be affected in a bad or a good way on brand name in general, therefore any followed strategy should cover business and family aspects at the same time. Some general customer retention strategies are: know your customers’ needs and expectations from you, respond to their feedback, and provide better products/ services than your competitors. For family businesses it is important to note that

239 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family keeping your customers satisfied will increase brand loyalty which is strongly connected to the family name. This section focus is on presenting advices and tactics followed by family business which aimed to satisfy their customers and improve customer retentions. Achieving customers’ retention is more than planning a strict strategy, it is important to go beyond planning and adopting a strategy to effectively implement it and go for a real-time adaptations to each customer’s need. Communicating with customers on a consistent basis is the first tactic to achieve customer retention, where clients need to be fully informed about new projects and potential campaigns, phases and expected final results. This communication creates strong bonds with clients, where they feel that they are truly “part of the family”, consistent communication should not be exclusive to new projects or what to be offered, businesses should follow up their customers to get in field data about most desired services or products, and to monitor competitors’ activities whether it affect customers’ decisions or not. A family base communication will increase potential benefits, where business targets all family members. Other tactics are reflected in the responses criteria by conditioning the response time within 24 hours mostly which will create a sense of responsiveness of business, creating honest trustworthy sustained relationships among lifecycle of process (pre-in-post purchase process). After depth analysis and studying of FOBs strategies related to customer retention purposes, we can sum- marize a list of six points to take into consideration when planning/implementing customer retention strategy:

1. Educate customers about business process and products, use social media and focus on the popular social media platform in your area. Customers with strong information base about their products and services create more trust, loyal, and connected customers; both with business and with other customers through social media. 2. Distinguish your VIP customers with special promotions, and sending greeting cards on anniversaries and occasions such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and this one-to-one communication offers a strong repeat purchase conversion which lead to increasing customer loyalty. 3. Use frequent customer satisfaction surveys to track and trend customer satisfaction, listen and be near to your customers, applying these surveys help to identify unhappy customers and stop the problems causing their discomfort and prevent these problems of reoccurring on future. 4. Vary your presence on social media, use YouTube channel to provide updated relevant videos to customers. Having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and

240 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family

Blogs platforms to share video from YouTube, posts, comments, and more where a wider range of customers can be reached in this way, LinkedIn also can be used to reach professionals and building relationship by engaging LinkedIn groups. 5. Create an expert customer by using e-book guides containing details and how to lists, thus will convert your customer from a regular “buyer” customer into an expert in your domain, where they can use it to solve problems or give advices and suggestions in some situations, this leads to better customer expectations from customers. 6. Create an engaged community on Facebook, to exchange their expertise and opinions, and to create a chance for instantly asking questions and getting quick responses from the sales and support teams.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Twitter accounts can be a useful tool to make members to a chat to learn about new products and services offered for sale by a family owned business. Google + email community can also be created and set-up to generate new product offerings such as “soup of the day” or “Today’s bargain” bulletins. In capitalism competition can overwhelm those companies that are not aware of what is going on in the environment they operate. There are differences in the business environments in which businesses in the USA and SADC. The use of social media is a strategy to progress a presence in a market where everything has to do the internet technology or telephony and wireless technologies. In Hensel (2016) the video is projected to be the advertising media of the future for many reasons. YouTube and Snapchat had one of the best years of any social platform in 2015 and will continue to generate plenty of buzz in the foreseeable future. In Indiana the winner of the 22nd Annual Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards in 2013 was a family confectionary business…Albanese Confectionary in Hobart. The family promoted their enterprise on the internet on a website bearing their name and supported their products with a Facebook account. The Albanese candy-coated story is now worth more than $130 million annually. It is important for the small businesses operating in any industry to maintain presence in an environment where the World Wide Web has enabled greater competition. The research shows that this is where businesses of all types situated in varied global locations are creating wealth. In the tourism industries in growing economies it has been compelling for the FOBs to maintain Facebook accounts for the purposes

241 Can the Usage of Social Media Increase the Gregariousness of the Family of growing their brand and creating effective marketing and sales data-bases. The Safari operator in Masaai Mara or Hwange national parks has to maintain visibility among the hunters and African adventure seekers situated anywhere on planet, or the World Wide Web.

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Chapter 13 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers: Cases and Tips

Wafaa A. Al-Rabayah Independent Researcher, Jordan

ABSTRACT Customer retention is the process of keeping your current customers’ set satisfied and loyal to your product, successful customer retention is not only related to the applied product or services, but strongly related to how the organization provide the services and the reputation it creates within and across the marketplace. This chapter mentions four different cases of using social media to achieve customer retention. Cases will be named based on services provided by the firm, theme park, personal care business, food business, and suppling athlete tools. Also set of tips and guidelines about planning social strategy presented, finally suggested tools support different platforms were mentioned.

INTRODUCTION

Organizations’ structure is shifting toward customer-based structure rather than product-based structure, customer-based structure aims to consider the set of customers as the source of revenue, not the products or services, customer-base is a group of customers who purchase and get benefits of organization’s products and services repeatedly, behaviors and actions of customers can be defined and predicted

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1686-6.ch013

Copyright ©2017, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers based on market researches and previous experiences (Ryals & Knox, 2001). This strategy is followed by large companies mainly, there are many factors driving this shift, like introducing Customer Relationship Management (CRM), convergence of Information Systems (IS), and developing supporting software. Organizations concern in building strong enough strategies to insure achieving their goals. Busi- ness strategy is the process of identifying major goals, objectives, policies, plans and initiatives of that business and implementing specific techniques and tools to achieve these objectives (Teece, 2010), based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external factors represented in strength/weakness points, and threat/opportunities might face the business (Porter, 1979) Various models and frameworks were introduced to assist in strategic planning process in a competitive dynamics environment, like SWOT analysis, experience curve, and industry structure and portfolio. Figure 1 is the graphic representation of SWOT analysis (Jackson, Joshi, & Erhardt, 2003). Strategies in general aims to achieve a specific goal, i.e. increase profits, niche products, expand market. One of most important goals is managing customers’ relations, either current customers or potential customers (Teece, 2010). It is important to keep your current set of customers satisfied and loyal, at the same time to look forward to maximizing this set by attracting new customers. This chapter discusses the retention of current customers, it will contain three sections, the first section will go over the general concept of customer retention by discussing the

Figure 1. SWOT analysis matrix

247 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers concept definition, importance, and challenges. Three cases of real life companies applied social media strategies to ensure customer retention were mentioned in the second section, third section discuss social networks managing tools. And finally a set of guidelines and tips were mentioned to achieve customer retentions in the last section.

CUSTOMER RETENTION

The simplest definition of customer retention is the set of steps planned and implemented to reduce customer defections or churn rate. Keeping customers is more about keeping their lifetime value either in term of their expenses or their influence power on other potential customers, where retaining existing customers is profitable in about five times more than attracting new customers (Han & Hyun, 2015; Eid, 2011), there are four main reasons why retained customers are more profitable (Ryals & Knox, 2001; Meldrum & McDonald, 1995):

1. Acquisition of new customers could be high in cost, therefore to have profitable customers, organization should keep the relationship with the same set of customers for more than one season or year. 2. Profit stream of current customers will grow continuously after acquisition costs are covered, where customers tend to increase their purchases from places they already tried and go to it. 3. Customer retention is strongly connected to a satisfied customer, satisfied customers are more likely to become positive referrals and encourage other potential customers and enhance organization’s image in market in a cost- effective way. 4. In backward looking, customers also get benefits of customers’ retention, where they will spend less time in comparing prices against competitors so that they tend to become less price-sensitive.

The core of customers’ retention is about defining needs and desired products/ services and addressing them before losing the customer to another competitor, researchers define set of factors to ensure customer retentions such as: product and service quality, satisfaction, and commitment, (Dimitriades, 2006; Han & Hyun, 2015), senior management commitment, customer focused cultures, a clearly targeted marketing campaign and the identification of switching barriers (Ennew & Binks, 1996), these factors contribute to affect retention and loyalty of customers. The explosion of communication platforms and technologies in recent years reshape strategies and technique adopted in managing customers’ relations and processes of

248 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers retaining customers, using web 2.0 technologies provide the opportunities to instant interaction and capturing customer’s feedback adequately about provided products/ services (Sashi, 2012). Problems may face organizations regarding keeping current customers which may be raised from issues like poor employee training, lack of dedicated resources, security and privacy issues in e-commerce environment, or unaddressed customer needs regarding needed products or services (Eid, 2011). Adding value to a product will overcome a huge problem in keeping customers, there are many components for adding value to a product such as: customers’ service, quality, image, price, awareness, truth, and trust (Martisiute, Vilutyte, & Grundey, 2010). Organizations and researchers face serious challenges when analyzing and planning techniques to retain current customers, such challenges include: appropriate differentiation of customers, where each customer demand a different set of serviced and customized products. Another challenge is gaining a satisfied employee. Where the more satisfied employees are the better the quality of the job delivered and that leads to better customers’ management and retention. Self-reinforcing relationship strongly developed using internal marketing, an effective internal marketing strategy helps to strengthen customers’ oriented service culture through enhancing employees’ perceptions of their role and importance within the organization (En- new & Binks, 1996). After understanding the concept of customer retention, its importance, and challenges facing it, it is important to know the main strategies to achieve customer retention. Strategies have different goals, many strategies are developed to expand sales through market dominating, market penetrating, finding new market, and expanding the product range. Where other strategies developed to focus on employees to achieve commitment and satisfaction so that the job quality enhance and keep a pool of qualified employees, lastly strategies may be developed to concentrate on customers’ relations (Meldrum & McDonald, 1995). Customer retention strategies include building effectively committed customers using a loyalty program, sending direct mailings, provide service calls, employing sales visits, that provide economic incentives; another important points is to compete other competitors variables such as competitive loyalty programs. Organizations should adopt regular research activities to analyze their customers’ needs and study market status and competitors position (Verhoef, 2003).

Social Networks

Web has evolved from one way communication into more dynamic attractive environment. Social Networks (SNs) creates the opportunity to open communication channels between customers to share their experience and opinions regarding specific

249 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers products, service, or brand in general (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). SNs create a new phenomenon of administrating business; it contributes in enhancing and creating new strategies to bond relations with allies, competitors, and customers, where it is essential for firms to keep following online presence presented in social network to avoid lagging behind a very dynamic competitive environment, online presence should deliver a tangible value in return for customers’ time, attention, endorsement and data, so that customers will engage strongly with businesses’ social pages (Heller & Parasnis, 2011). Firms can gain benefits of SNs by designing content with value to foster more intimate relationships with current and potential customers (Nezamabad, 2011). In fact, SNs is a double edged sword, it creates social capital for firms, by opening customers’ relations, personal views, opinions, and attitudes to firms; so that analyst can follow the customers’ status, updates, followings, and interests to create more related and successful plan; where the increase in customer retention by just 5 percent, can lead to increase in the firms’ profits by 25 percent to 95 percent (Stillwagon, 2014), however at the same time SNs have increased challenges by opening the world and empower bargaining of customers, almost all information available online through SNs, so that firms should be aware of what to publish and how to communicate through SNs. This chapter will view a set of SNs implemented strategies cases from various domains and how do these cases help in changing and improving firm’s position. Keeping customer’s retention goes beyond giving the customer what they expect; it’s more about exceeding their expectations to create a loyal customers advocate for your brand. Social networks varies in its purposes and features, for example Facebook is a social network used to connect with friends and community by sharing posts, photos, and videos; organizations use it as a marketing platform, where LinkedIn is a more professional social network used to follow professionals, job opportunities and marketing qualifications of users. Whatsapp is smartphone based messenger which use the Internet to share texts, photos, videos, locations, and audio messages between contacts. Instagram is photo and video sharing stage supported by smart phones, both WhatsApp and Instagram applications started as a standalone platforms, but later on Instagram was acquired by Facebook for approximately 1 billion US$, and WhatsApp was also acquired by Facebook for approximately 19.3 billion US$. The following table presents a set of most important social networks and some of their features, important numbers related to each platform are mentioned.

METHODOLOGY

In this section, we will go over four different cases, of real businesses who integrate social network into their marketing strategy to insure customer retention objectives.

250 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers Table 1. Popular social platforms

Social Platform Features Statistics • News Feed • 12,691 employees. • Comments • 1.4 billion daily active • Friends and followers user. • Wall and Timeline • 934 million mobile daily Facebook • Like, Love, HaHa, WoW, Sad, and Angry emotions active users. • Messages and inbox • 70+ supported language. • Notifications • Networks and groups • Private/Public options • Write and read tweets (tweets and retweets) • 3,900 employees. • Messaging (only 140 character) • 305 million monthly • Adding and following content active user. • Send and receive updates via website, SMS, RSS, emails or a • 80% active users on Twitter third party application. mobile. • Private/Public options • 35+ languages supported. • Third party application to send messages like Tweetie, Twitterrific, and Feedalizr. • Messaging application with sharing photo, video, location, • 1 billion user. contact and documents options. • 55 employees. • Sound messages. • 32 languages supported. WhatsApp • Rich and unique set of emotion options. • Pinch-to-Zoom videos for iOS users only. • Save link history. • Group of 256 members. • Create personal channel and upload videos • Over a billion users. • view, pause, stop, rate, share and comment on videos, track • 50% of users are active on • Auto-start track/ Series playlists mobile. • Monetization • Launched local versions • Longer videos in more than 70 countries YouTube • Custom thumbnails in total of 76 different • Paid subscriptions languages. • Unlisted videos • Private videos • Live events • Channel customization • Marketing personal qualifications • 9200 employee. • Connecting groups: used to amplifying messages through • 414 million active user. groups and nurture network. • 24 languages supported. LinkedIn • Posting multimedia content including PDF files • Endorsements lists • Profile views report • Create posts including multimedia and location. • 275.9 million users. • Publish RSS feeds. • 155 million monthly Blog • Host your blog. active users. • Find support: either personalized assistance or answer questions. • Part of Facebook, Inc. • 13 employees. • Photographic filters. • 300 million users. • Exploring tab. • 25 languages supported. • Adding lux effect to pictures. Instagram • Uploading videos • Instagram direct: including private photo and video sharing, instant messaging, and sharing post and profiles from feeds directly to the user.

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Cases will be named based on services/products provided by the business, which are: theme park, personal care business, food business, and athlete tools supplies. In each case we discuss which social network platform is used and how.

Case 1: Theme Park

This business is considered one of the largest eldest international entertainment businesses, it has more than 650 million guests since its opening. In March 2005, reports revealed that 65,700 jobs are supported by the resort, including about 20,000 direct employees and 3,800 third parties. They used SNs for different purposes, each platform supports different goals. For example, they use YouTube to create more entertainment value videos rather than to sell their products, their videos were rich in recognizable and popular characters, thus will make their audience talk about their products. Another platform is the Facebook were they create 267 pages across different countries they are constantly posting and talking to consumers; including individual pages for their consumer products. These pages are in a never-ending selling cycle, and need to advertise and endorse products around the year. Managers create an engagement plan based on SNs features; they focused on two key principals:

• Reaching families and enthusiasts, encouraging them to share personal related content, SNs provide a sharing stage for voice, photos, and videos stories, this communication form of sharing fans’ experience and endearing itself to customers in the process does three things: promotes firm’s core values, cel- ebrates its brand advocates and invites participation, which encourage brand loyalty • Getting guests talking about the content and sharing it beyond their own profile, it is crucial for any business to have a strong expanded social media presence, it improve the opportunity to grow and ensure that consumers will be talking and passing on business related information to friends, family and peers.

Social Network’s Activities

Using YouTube creates a challenge of providing entertaining, satisfying teases the paid for content at the same time to avoid seeming like you’re providing nothing of value, provokes engagement and ultimately attract subscribers, the firm provides various channels for film trailers, music videos, and documentaries on the parks. The key for success in social media interaction is having good content, so keep your eyes open and be aware of what you post. Another important tip to consider

252 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers the online presence is valuable for both customers and the firm, is the exclusivity of the content, where the firm provides an attractive content that users won’t find anywhere else. This firm runs an excellent Pinterest page, fully with a variety of boards, which makes the page visually interesting and improve brand reach. Pinterest content offer a rich valuable mixture content such as visual splendor, informative how-to-guides, behind-the-scenes photos, vintage treats from the past, sneak peeks of the future, which separates firm’s brand identity from its competitor. The holiday board is updatable with pins relevant to the time of the year such as Christmas time, each pin contain a how-to guide on making a decoration or gift for the season. Another incredible success board is the recipes. Another used platform is the Instagram, where the firm provides a set of exclusive new content such as odd cheeky but necessary merchandise snap, and cute moments captured from around the park. Unfortunately, frim’s successful strategies failed in Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Despite these platforms are more direct one-to-one channels, and provide great and regular content, but each one is used identically to the other, therefore a redundant content is available on these channels, audience will receive the same broadcasting three times, thus decrease the engagement with the large communities. Based on this experience, what to do? Be careful of your content, and be aware of your broadcast. You don’t need to be available on all SNs, you should have to focus on the right form that support your field, managers realize that multimedia “video mainly” will add a value to its present, so focus on YouTube to create a strategic plan to reach and strength relations with customers, while using Facebook, Twit- ter, and Google + add more burden on the firm to provide the same broadcast or information in three locations, but it should appear as new unique at each platform.

Case 2: Personal Care Business

This 32 years old “earth friendly” firm makes products for personal care, health, beauty, and personal hygiene. The total manufactured products in 2007 was over 197 products for facial and body skin care, lip care, hair care, baby care, men’s grooming, and outdoor remedies, they disturbed their products in nearly 30,000 retail outlets across the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

Social Network’s Activities

In celebrating its 30th birthday, customers were encouraged to submit their happy birthday wishes into Facebook, Blog, and Twitter; these wishes were then shared and read aloud on the firm’s location. As a result of collaborating and inviting communities to celebrate this milestone the firm received wishes from people around

253 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers the globe, the support and passion from customers strengthened the relation with existent community and enlarged it, managers are eager to offer interactive and compelling content to keep relation with customers sustainable and productive. Managers employ classic products into their brand’s personality, they produced a series of six-second stop motion novellas, this campaign help the firm to earn an entirely new online audience generating more than 2,000 likes, 580 Revines, and close to 1,000 new followers. As cosmetic business, the firm introduced a new service of online tutorials into its social strategy, you can see a 20-to-30-second social media lessons which gives the customers another reason to interact with the brand without products being the main focus, also set of product viral videos about the products’ best using way, and advices of taking care in faces and hair improve relation among firm and its’ customers. The company goes beyond traditional social platforms, and added promotional messages and reminders to people’s Yahoo, Google, Apple, or Microsoft calendars. Customers are invited to click on a link that automatically added a series of eight weekly calendar items, like “Workshop of best ways of personal hygiene”, this teach us not to be afraid to experiment with new social tools or reach new audiences. The last point is using hashtags strategically; the brand doesn’t limit itself to using only campaign-related hashtags in its tweets and Facebook posts. It aims to reach a broader stage of audience; therefore it incorporates popular, existing hashtags. Take into consideration that limiting you to a specific or limited hashtag(s) set harm than good. Use keywords that your customers may use to find your brand or products and turn them into hashtags on social media

Case 3: Food Business/ Snacks

This case talks about large snack producer; the product was introduced before 100 years. Snacks market has very wide products categories; it is a challenge to keep in forefront of the market. Nevertheless this product has successfully proved its quality and dominated a wide portion of snacks market. Over the last three years it has followed an agile marketing strategies to insure its position. In total, this product has signed up to the creative direction and now has a catalogue of important online discussion topics, typically using Twitter as its vehicle.

Social Network’s Activities

Achieving success is a target, but sustaining this success is a strategy. To achieve success this brand act in agile to stay ahead of the curve by adopting flexible visions

254 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers and acting in responsive and adaptive way; the targeted platforms were Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. The following is a set of main points they focused on and working to achieve best results:

• Twitter: They used Twitter as a quick response stage, where customers’ inquiries and communications were responded to in seconds. The product was collaborate with the huge electronic game producer, Sony, to create customized PS4 controller where they integrate the product’s design into control hand, which leads to another modification of Xbox product to be introduced to support this specific brand. Thus a user watches brands and interacts with these brands in different times, therefore the personal engagement among various products at the same time increases product’s followers and brand loyalty. • Instagram: Was another support channel for the product; it knows exactly what makes its channel attractive for a user to follow. Lists of interesting images full of delicious looking food. This product was used over 100 years in same look, but the successful marketing secret lies on using the product itself as a blank canvas. A highly adaptable, moldable food stuff that the brand aren’t afraid to mess with. Combination of multi strategies including sharing regular recipes’ ideas, bizarre recipe ideas, and old school adverts, this product introduce a great entertainment. Lately, Instagram’s video functionality was adopted to create added value communication channel. • Pinterest: This platform used as main stage that contains all published materials on social channels, which creates a chance to acknowledge the brand’s loyal followers by showcasing their pictures and creativity. Being visual, different, and resourceful create the opportunity to encourage interaction, brand loyalty, and spread awareness.

Case 4: Athlete Tools Supplies

This case discuss a multinational corporation, specialized in designing, developing, manufacturing and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services. It was launched in 1964 as distributer for foreign products, now after more than fifty years, it is known as one of the most popular supplier of athlete shoes and apparel. Facebook page of this corporation has more than 23 million likes, Twitter page of main account has more than 5.85 million followers, and more than 38 million followers on Instagram. Managers design corporation’s strategy to achieve sustainable, long-term growth across its global portfolio of brands and businesses.

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Social Network’s Activities

• Instagram: This brand has the optimal exploitation of Instagram Features, from captivating, carefully shot photographs, to arty videos. Online material is always really high quality and befitting with brand image, that encourages high energy activity and adventure. They have developed a set of brand’s hashtags, including trademark hashtag. They launch feminine support campaign to empower women in sport and create hashtag for this campaign. These hashtags are frequently adopted by other Instagram users; which help in forming brand’s community to share their own fitness journeys. This encourages customers to frequently visit Instagram page to view latest updates and community events. • Twitter: This brand start with one product, with time the corporation had grown and branched out into a number of departments. To support vision and goals of each department, separated Twitter accounts have been created, the summation of followers on these accounts is more than 8 million followers. They keep their tweets brief and tend to use sentence-long motivational statements, also tweets are enriched with photos; despite the simplicity of their tweets, they generally receive a couple of thousand retweets and favorites. They encourage their customers to engage with them on Twitter by asking questions about what their favorite products are and encouraging them to send in pictures of their own brand gear. • Facebook: Facebook page not only works as a normal fan page, it also has customized tabs that link followers directly to their Instagram account and support page. In addition to this there is also a ‘Shop Now’ button that redi- rects users to their online store. Like on Twitter, they have multiple accounts on Facebook key account, and smaller specialized pages. Page’s contents tend to receive a high level of engagement and a community of keen runners has been formed, who use the page as a forum for discussing their hobby, sharing tips and finding out about new products and events. Responding rate on Facebook is high, they make the effort to reply to nearly every comment or post on the page, whether it is in response to a purchase enquiry or just a general remark about a post.

SOCIAL NETWORK MANAGING TOOLS

Social network is one of the most effective means for businesses and organizations to adopt in marketing and managing their activities, it creates an open atmosphere between organization and the customers, allows infinite ways to communicate and

256 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers deliver benefits for both sides. The complexity of creating appropriate social network strategy rises from the availability of various platforms of social networks with wide range of features and properties, where it is impossible to create fix standard strategy to follow in all social platforms, therefore it is better to plan and implement set of strategies instead of adopting one strategy. Any organization planned to measure success degree of its strategy, but it is difficult to measure exact earnings achieved based on social strategies. This section will introduce set of tools used to manage social network activities, help in implementing planned strategy, provide feedback of these strategies, and help in measuring success degree. Some of these tools available online for free, while other tools you have to pay for its services.

• CrowdBooster: Offers analytics with suggestions and tools to help improving online presence on Twitter and Facebook, it create the opportunity to schedule social media posts and offers important and relevant measurements in simplified charts (CrowdBooster, 2010), the most pros of this tool are: ◦◦ Targeted recommendations: helps in understanding whom to engage with on Twitter and Facebook. ◦◦ Clean and very intuitive user interface. ◦◦ Fast and easy to get started. ◦◦ Provide insightful and real time social media analytics ◦◦ Empower its analytical results with graphs and percentage reports • HootSuite: This tool allows managing up to 100 social profiles, scheduling up to 350 messages at a time, collaborating with others, and getting valuable, in-depth data with enhanced analytics. HootSuite provides 159 applications to facilitate managing of different social platforms, 84 free apps and 75 premium applications (HootSuite, 2008). Some of these applications are listed below ◦◦ Geopiq for Twitter: This application used to monitor posts on Twitter by location, keywords, language or username. You can use combination of search terms for powerful targeting. It allows you to monitor and engage with users that are posting in your area, or an area you choose to follow, also you can monitor events to see what is being posted, by who, and to engage with them. It costs 4.99 US$ monthly ◦◦ Tailwind for Pinterest: This free application used to manage Pinterest platform, it used to create new Pins, schedule drafts for later, or Pin to multiple boards at once. ◦◦ Crowd Analyzer: This free application used as monitoring and analytics platform. It enables you to precisely listen and engage with your customers on social media. Crowd Analyzer monitors major social channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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• TweetDeck: Is multi-platform desktop and web dashboard application, it is an effective tool for real-time tracking, organizing, and engagement Twitter accounts (TweetDeck, 2010), TweetDeck helps to: ◦◦ Use one friendly interface to monitor multiple timelines. ◦◦ Create schedule for future tweets posting. ◦◦ Keep up with emerging information through turn on alerts. ◦◦ Filter searches based on criteria like engagement, users and content type. ◦◦ Build and export custom timelines to put on your website. ◦◦ Use intuitive keyboard shortcuts for efficient navigation. ◦◦ Mute users or terms to eliminate unwanted noise. ◦◦ TweetDeck timelines stream in real-time, therefore there is no need to refreshing the page. ◦◦ Work in group to manage a Twitter account. • Audiense (Formerly SocialBro): Is a Twitter community analysis tool (Audiense, 2016), most important features of SocialBro are: ◦◦ Define famous followers: the accounts of celebrities that have been veri- fied by Twitter. ◦◦ Define and validate new followers. ◦◦ Knowing inactive friends – sort your friends by the date of their last tweet. ◦◦ Search all Twitter when building list: lists will automatically sync up with Twitter, and it will saving transfer time. ◦◦ Follower bio tag cloud: through checking out the top keywords that appear most in the bios of followers. ◦◦ Advanced search among friends or followers: search for connections from specific locations, mentioning specific keywords, or naming themselves in a specific manner. ◦◦ Analyzing your lists: analyze your own lists as well as public lists created by other users • Tagboard: Hashtag managing tool, support Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and Vine. Managers can use Tagboard to search hashtags activities, which overlap and which match social marketing plan. This tool fit when a multi-platform strategy planned, it helps mangers to find out influencers to connect with and hot topics organization can cover (Tagboard, 2016).

Following table represent a summary of used managing tools, some of these tools provide free services, while other set provide free trial almost for one month, then the user should pay for full services version, which provide an entrepreneurs and professional view of managing tools.

258 Using Social Strategy to Retain Customers Table 2. Social media management tools

Cost Managing Tool Objective Supported Platform Hyperalerts Create monitoring system Facebook TweetDeck Create a monitoring system Twitter WhosTalkin Monitor and Search social network content Multi-platform Twitter, Facebook, Free LinkedIn, Google+,… etc Mentionmapp View Twitters’ connection in tree graphical Twitter representation, contains people connections, mentioned hashtags in recent tweets. Sprout Social Monitoring and managing multiple social Multi-platform networks Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Paid Google+,… etc Visually Google Analysis tool Google Analytics Report ShortStack Add functionality Facebook Tagboard Find trending hashtags Multi-platform Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Google+, and Vine Hootsuite Managing multi account Multi-platform Twitter, Facebook, Free trial for LinkedIn, 30 days Google+,… etc Paid for Crowdbooster Analysis tool Facebook and premium Twitter. features Agorapulse Monitoring and managing multiple social Multi-platform networks Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+,… etc KnowEm Search Social Network to find if brand’s, Multi-platform trademark, or names mentioned Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+,… etc

ONLINE CUSTOMER RETENTION TIPS

Based on readings and researches, a set of important guidelines can be introduced to create solid strategy which aims to insure customer retentions, following are set of 8 main points to take into consideration:

• Be easy to find: keep consistent in user name and browsing image in all social networks, so that users will find you easily when they need you. Namech_K,

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Knowem, and Usernamecheck are example of tools used to check username availability across hundreds of online networks. • Know your loyal customer: it is very important to know you customer, through online profiles activities, even better to communicate with them based on their preferences, interests and hobbies. Proactively engage with them about their favorite sports, music, foods, and media shows. • Follow you brand on social network: use listening tools like Google Alerts, and Hootsuite, which provide immediate notifications to brand mentions and key phrases, that allow organizations to know their reputation and customer’s opinion directly, this create the opportunity to avoid any potential problems and capture available but hidden opportunities. • Keep your strategy dynamic by combining both consistent posting items and at the same time scheduling some posts to be productive, tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and TweetDeck are examples of scheduling tools for future posts. Figure 2 represents Hootsuite options for scheduling post into tow social platforms which are Twitter and Facebook. • Make each platform content unique, you can post shared information on all social platforms, but don’t make you presence on various social platforms look like multiple versions of the same copy, give your customers reason to follow you on all social platforms. As you reach your customers on various different platforms, they will be more likely to build a long-term relationship with your business. • Be close to your customers, businesses are available intensively in social platforms, you should be available all times for your customer, try to provide a

Figure 2. Scheduling option in Hootsuite tool

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real time engagement with customers, answer support questions on social platforms., where any asked question will be answered in fast time. Use a qualified employee/team “based on your business size” to follow and manage your social media presence. • Be careful of your personality and tone: customers are opening to other businesses on social networks, pay attention to how your audience engages on each specific platform. • Be aware of outside potential customers: don’t let your concerns focused only on your current customers, create a list up to 20 of people who are strangers to you and your business, use social platforms to communicate with them daily, but avoid spam unsolicited communications, contribute to their discussions and interesting’s field, until they recognize you and your business.

CONCLUSION

Social network is now real trend in business world, business strategies built based on features of social networks to achieve various goals, such as improve customer retention opportunities. Cases discussed in this chapter showed how the firms planned its strategy based on social networks features to achieve required goals and to retain their customers’, cases cover various ranges of businesses. Applying social network strategy is important and crucial step, yet managers can’t be very sure about success degree or worthiness of effort applied on this strategy; list of tools is suggested, classified based on its cost, each tool can manage one social platform or various platforms. And each tool is specified to achieve specific goal.

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About the Contributors

Wafa’a A. Rabayah, born in Irbid, Jordan in 1985, she obtained her master degree of Management Information System from Yarmouk University, Jordan (2014), and her bachelor degree in computer science from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan (2007), Wafaa has research interest in E-government, social network and decision support systems.

Rawan Tayseer Khasawneh is a full time lecturer in the department of Com- puter Information Systems at Jordan University of Science and Technology. She obtained her master degree in Management Information Systems from Yarmouk University in Jordan (2013), and her bachelor degree in Management Information Systems from Yarmouk University in Jordan (2011). Khasawneh’s research interests include: e-government, social media and sentiment analysis, E-marketing and E-CRM, knowledge management systems and group decision support systems.

Izzat Alsmadi obtained his Ph.D degree in software engineering from NDSU (USA) and his second master in software engineering from NDSU (USA) and his first master in CIS from University of Phoenix (USA). He had a B.Sc degree in telecommunication engineering from Mutah University in Jordan. He has several published books, journals, and conference articles largely in software engineering and information retrieval fields.

* * *

Ameen Kamel Alazzam is a lecturer of Information System at Technical Col- lege in Tai’f. He obtained his master’s degree in Management Information Systems from Yarmouk University\Jordan (2012), and his bachelor degree in Management Information Systems from Al- Balqa’ Applied University\Jordan (2006). Ameen has research interest in e-government topics like Trust, security issues and adoption of e-government. Also, he works on research projects in E-marketing and E-CRM, and knowledge management systems. About the Contributors

Ahmed Alzyoud obtained his master degree in Computer Information system (CIS) from Yarmouk University in 2016. Beside social networks interests, he is interested in software testing domain, and web mining researches.

Olayiwola Bello obtained his Masters´ degrees in Information Science (2008) and Business Administration (2011) from the Universities of Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria respectively. In 2010 he was employed as a lecturer at the University of Ilorin in the department of Information and Communication Sci- ence and is currently a doctoral researcher at Nova Unversidade de Lisboa, Lisbon Portugal with a focus on Information and Decision Systems. He writes and presents widely on issues of integrating information technology into work process in business, governance and academics as well as telecommunications management. He is a Transparency International award winner, beneficiary of research grants from national and international bodies and a Certified Information Professional (CIP).

María del Carmen Caba-Pérez is a Professor in public management sector and general manager at the University of Almería (Spain). Her research concerns online transparency and communication of public administrations. Dr Caba’s strong research and teaching activity have led to her being accredited as a Full Professor by Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación (ANECA), Spain’s National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation. She is author of several articles published in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) publications including The American Review of Public Administration, International Review of Administrative Science, Online Information Review, Government Information Quarterly, Voluntas, Latin American Research Review, Public Administration and Development, Public Rela- tions Review, Information Development and so on. Also, she has written more than 15 book chapters (Kluwer Academic Publishers; IGI Global, Springer, Cappelen Akademisk Forlag).

Abdelmadjid Ezzine received his Phd with honor from Sidi Bel Abbes Univer- sity. Dr. Ezzine is an assistant professor in Applied Mathematics at the Faculty of Economics, Sidi Bel Abbes University. His research focuses on Structural equation models with latent variables and applying of statics and data analysis methods in Marketing.

Nasir Faruk is a lecturer in the Department of Telecommunication Science, University of Ilorin, Nigeria since 2010. He received the PhD in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at University of Ilorin, Nigeria in 2015, Masters of Sci- ence in Mobile & High Speed Telecommunication Networks with distinction from Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK in 2010 and Bachelor of Science in Physics

303 About the Contributors with first class honors from Kano University of Science and Technology (KUST) Wudil, Kano State, Nigeria in 2007. From 2015-2016, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Communication and Networking, school of Electrical Engineering, Aalto University, Finland. He has received numerous research grants and fellowships with authorship of over 50 scientific publications. His research interests lie in the areas of telecommunication management and modeling, as well as in the use of information systems to drive qualitative management processes. He is a member of IEEE and IET.

Modupe Folarin received her MSc degree in Business Systems Analysis and Design from City University London with distinction in 2013. Before then she has been building a career in Business Analysis and IT and realized the intrinsic nature and impact social media has on organizations where she worked as a Business Analyst. She presently consults for businesses in areas of Project Management (IT and Business) as a Business Analyst.

Vehbi Gorgulu, M.A., is a doctoral Candidate in Media and Communication Studies at the Faculty of Communication, Galatasaray University and a research assistant at the Faculty of Communication, Istanbul Bilgi University. His most recent research is published by Information, Communication & Society and Third Text.

Arturo Haro-de-Rosario has a PhD in accounting and finance, assistant professor at the department of Economics and Business, University of Almería (Spain). His research interests are focused on the financial information disclosures on the Web (e-government) and on the management system and communication in the federal and local governments. He is author of numerous articles in national and international journals, including Small Business Economics, Social Science Computer Review, Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Local Government Stud- ies and so on. Also, he has written some book chapters (IGI Global and Springer).

Mekki Marwa Imane received her Master in Marketing with honor from Uni- versity of Sidi Bel Abbes. Miss. Mekki interest is studying brands in social media and applying statistical analysis techniques in marketing.

Mambo Governor Mupepi received his PH.D. in Organization Development, Business Administration, from Benedictine University. (2004), he has MBA in Strat- egy Management, Business Administration, from Davenport University, and MA in Strategy Management, Business Administration, also from Davenport University. Now he is in the position of “Visitor Professor, Non-Tenure Track, Seidman Col- lege of Business, Grand Valley State University, Michigan”. His research interest

304 About the Contributors falled in the following fields: Organization Development and Change Management, Performance Management, Diversity and Productivity Management, and Interna- tional Management.

Meriem Nouala received her Phd with honor from Sidi Bel Abbes University in 2015. Dr. Nouala is an assistant professor in marketing at Sidi Bel Abbes University, Algeria. She heads the Marketing Innovation Research group, which focuses on the application of mathematical modeling and statistical analysis for marketing innovation. Here research interests include innovation in marketing, service marketing, e-marketing, and applied mathematics for marketing analysis.

Alejandro Sáez-Martín is a researcher in government administration in the department of Economics and Business at the University of Almería (Spain), FPU/2013 grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCINN). He is the author of numerous articles in national and international journals, including Social Science Computer Review, Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, Local Government Studies, Information Development and so on. Also, he has written some book chapters (IGI Global and Springer).

Laura Saraite is a researcher in government administration in the department of Economics and Business at the University of Almería (Spain), FPU/2016 grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCINN).

Kristen Smirnov received her PhD in Marketing from the University of Alberta. She focuses on Consumer Behavior research in the area of technology and social media.

Patience Taruwinga teaches several classes in the Business Division at Saint Joseph’s College. Professor Taruwinga finds it rewarding when students acquire new skills, expand their knowledge, and learn something relevant and applicable to the real-world beyond academia. In the past he taught at IU South Bend’s Judd Leighton School of Business and Economics. Patience Taruwinga has experience in international trade and supply chain management. He is the owner and founder of Geek Investments LLC., and RPJ Truck and Equipment Sales LLC both export companies with sales in more than seven countries. He has research interests in the succession of family owned businesses

Kaan Varnali, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Marketing and the Vice Dean at the Faculty of Communication, Istanbul Bilgi University, where he teaches courses on consumer psychology, brand management, and digital product development. He

305 About the Contributors is also the founding director of the master’s program in marketing communications (MA) in Istanbul Bilgi University, known as the brand school. His current research focuses on complaint management, brand communication in social media, and configural analysis. His prior research has appeared on several highly regarded scholarly journals including Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Information Management, Information, Communication & Society, Journal of Marketing Communications, Society, and Electronic Commerce Research and Applications. He also authored 3 books: “Mobile Marketing: Fundamentals and Strategy”, published by McGraw-Hill, New York, and two others written in Turkish both published by MediaCat, Istanbul.

306 307

Index

A customer engagement 13, 15, 26, 28, 30, 36-37, 41, 45-46, 49, 53-55, 57, 60, analytics 6-7, 32-33, 42-43, 57, 62, 82, 154, 156-158, 160-162, 165-166, 171, 120, 211-213, 231, 257 262 customer engagement life cycle 53 B Customer Knowledge Management 11, 13, 18, 41-44, 55-58 blogging 53, 60, 62, 67, 78, 82-83, 232, customer relationship management 11-15, 244 18, 22, 28, 34, 39-46, 48-50, 54-58, brand impression 124, 127-128, 131-133, 104, 108-109, 121-123, 155-156, 247, 140 262-263 branding 8, 60, 62, 68, 71, 84, 86, 89, 91- customer retention 32, 207, 209, 216, 239- 95, 102, 104 240, 246-250, 259, 261-263 brand pages 125-126, 149-150 customer retentions 240, 248, 259 brand recall 124, 126-133, 136, 138-142, customers’ needs 3, 8, 49, 121, 207, 239, 148 249 brand-related knowledge 125-126 Customization 59 buzz 84, 241 C D discussion boards 174 cases 73, 115, 117, 128, 136, 162, 176, 195, 201, 203, 243, 245-246, 248, 250, 252, 261 E case study 55, 108, 113, 189, 209, 222, Electronic marketing 1-4, 7 229, 243 E-mail Marketing 1, 3 choice overload 59, 61, 70, 75, 78, 81-82 engagement 1-2, 5, 8, 11-13, 15, 26, 28, co-creation 6, 15, 17-18, 26, 28, 33, 38 30, 32, 36-38, 41, 43, 45-46, 49, 53- commitment 53-54, 66, 76, 120, 132, 161- 55, 57, 59-60, 66, 68, 70-79, 82-83, 162, 164-166, 239, 248-249, 261 87, 112, 121, 125-126, 128, 138, 141, connection 1, 7, 12, 14-15, 53, 71, 79, 88, 144, 146-148, 150-151, 154-169, 171, 116, 141, 145, 173-174, 176-178, 184, 187-188, 226, 252-253, 255-256, 180-182, 184-185, 187-188, 199, 207 258, 261-262 contagion 69, 71, 81, 173-174, 176-177, e-reputation 84, 94, 103 181-182, 184-186, 188-189 Index

F K Facebook 2, 4-5, 7, 14, 48-49, 52, 55, 59, knowledge management 11-13, 16, 18, 21- 61-66, 68, 74, 77-78, 82-83, 88, 97, 22, 28, 33-35, 37, 39, 41-44, 55-58, 105, 112, 116-118, 120, 125-126, 220-223 128-135, 137, 139-151, 154-157, 159- 162, 164-167, 171-172, 175-178, 181, M 187-190, 208-209, 212, 214, 218, 220-221, 224-225, 227, 230-236, 238, mass media 224, 230 240-244, 246, 250, 252-258, 260 medical 108-109, 113-118, 121-122, 262 factorial analysis 84, 86, 95-96, 101, 105 microblogging 48, 60, 81-82, 89 financial institutions 35, 154, 156-157 millennials 66 Mobile Marketing 3 G N Gender 174, 178, 180, 187, 190 GIF 59, 65-66, 74-75 natural language processing 196, 199, 205, Google+ 7, 118, 120, 224-225, 227, 230, 207-208, 213 234-238, 253, 258 new media 12, 84, 104, 148, 168-170, 187- graphics 6, 59, 62, 74 188, 222 gregariousness 224-225 News Feed 131, 134, 136-137, 139, 142, 182, 184 I Nordstrom 59, 64, 74-79, 81-82 notes 52, 67-68, 75, 83, 114, 136, 141, 216 ICT 45, 224, 233, 237, 244 Instagram 59, 61-63, 65-66, 68-69, 71-74, O 77-78, 81, 246, 250, 253, 255-258 integration 11-14, 28, 34-36, 39-40, 42, 46, opinion mining 193-208 49, 54-55, 106, 158, 162, 169-170, opinion-rich resources 193 186, 212, 226, 230-231, 244 interactivity 5, 43, 124, 147, 159 P interface 2, 110, 128, 224, 228, 243, 257- photoset 77-78, 83 258 Pinterest 59-60, 63-64, 68, 74, 80, 82-83, Internet 1-4, 8-10, 52, 76, 84-89, 93-94, 246, 253, 255, 257 97, 101-103, 106-107, 110, 125, 146, popularity 63, 71, 124, 127-128, 133, 135, 157, 167, 169-172, 174-175, 178-179, 137-141, 155, 159, 161-162, 164-165 188, 193-194, 198, 213, 220, 223, 227, 231, 241, 244, 250, 262 R Internet Marketing 3, 9-10 Really Simple Syndication (RSS) 174 J reblog 67-68, 72-73, 75, 78, 83 Jordan 1, 45, 108-109, 113, 115-116, 122, S 173, 193, 207, 224, 246 sentiment analysis 193, 196, 198, 204-215, 218-223 sentiment extraction 193

308 Index

sharing 4-5, 7, 12-14, 16, 18, 21, 48, 53- sponsored stories 125, 128, 137, 142 54, 68-69, 71-72, 78-79, 83, 86-87, strategies 3, 15, 33, 41, 46, 53, 56-57, 63- 109-110, 120, 124, 128, 135, 138, 64, 73, 75, 77, 85, 88, 104, 106-107, 140-143, 146, 155, 157, 171, 173-175, 110-112, 154, 156-158, 165-167, 171, 185, 208, 213, 220, 227, 236, 238, 175, 178, 181, 184, 187-188, 197, 245, 250, 252, 255-256 216-217, 222, 239-240, 247-250, 253- Skype 115, 120, 225, 230, 235-236 255, 257, 261-262 social CRM tools 50, 119 strategy 3, 5-6, 8, 11-12, 14-16, 23, 25, Social Customer Relationship Management 28, 33, 36-37, 41-43, 45-50, 54-55, (Social CRM) 11, 13, 15-16, 19, 21, 58, 60, 63-64, 66, 70, 72, 74, 79, 84, 39-43, 45-46, 49-58, 108, 117-120, 90, 104, 106, 109, 112, 114, 117, 122, 262 119, 121, 158, 161, 166, 171, 184, social media 1, 4-15, 18, 21-23, 26, 28, 224-225, 232, 239-241, 243, 246-247, 31-37, 39-46, 48-61, 63, 66, 69-71, 249-250, 254-255, 257-263 73-74, 76-78, 80-83, 85, 87, 89, 104- survey 42, 95, 112, 173, 175, 190, 205- 105, 107-108, 110, 112, 114, 117-120, 206, 209, 214, 222, 225, 236 122, 124-126, 130, 140-142, 147-151, 154-160, 162, 165-171, 174, 176, 178, T 181-182, 186-188, 193, 197, 199, 205, 207-209, 211-213, 217, 221-227, 229- tags 78, 83 246, 248, 252, 254, 257, 259, 261-262 Taylor Swift 59, 64, 70-73, 75-77, 79, 228 Social media evolution 46, 54 tips 6, 246, 248, 256, 259 social media marketing 1, 4, 6-10, 59, 63, tourism 108-110, 113-117, 122-123, 188, 77, 126, 168, 208, 242 241, 262 social network 1-2, 8, 43, 45-46, 48, 53, traditional marketing 1, 3, 8-9, 63, 65, 76, 57, 59, 62-63, 69, 88-89, 96-97, 100- 184 102, 104-105, 117, 119, 125, 127, Twitter 2, 4-5, 14, 48-49, 52, 59-63, 66-71, 143-144, 167, 169, 173, 179, 182, 73-74, 77-78, 82-83, 88-89, 116, 118, 184-185, 187-189, 200, 204, 207-209, 120, 147-148, 155, 157, 168, 170-171, 214, 218, 222, 225, 232, 238, 250, 176, 186, 189, 209, 212, 214, 221, 252-254, 256-257, 260-261 223, 225, 227-229, 231-233, 235, social networking 1-2, 4-5, 8-9, 48, 53, 84, 237-238, 240-246, 253-258, 260-261, 88, 91, 104, 110, 122, 124, 126, 144, 263 150, 167, 170-172, 174-175, 178-179, 187, 196, 224, 228, 230 U social networking sites 1-2, 4, 8, 91, 124, user-generated content 48, 73, 82, 193, 231 144, 150, 171, 187 Social network marketing 1-2, 184, 188, V 222 social networks 1-3, 6-9, 45-46, 49, 52, Value Creation 26, 28, 33, 37-38, 40, 244 54-55, 62, 64, 71, 73, 84-86, 88-89, video sharing 48, 174, 250 91, 95-102, 104-105, 111, 113-115, virality 154, 159, 161-162, 165 117, 119-120, 123, 125, 127, 134, virtual word of mouth 174, 176, 179-182, 139, 143, 145, 150, 167-168, 173- 184-185 182, 184-188, 193-195, 201, 203-204, 208-209, 214, 217, 225, 231, 248-250, 257, 259, 261

309 Index

W Y web marketing 1, 4 You Tube 225, 236, 238 WordPress 60, 62, 83

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