Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University Communication Theses Department of Communication 5-7-2016 Interactive Social Selling and Relationship Management on WeChat Ying Sun Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_theses Recommended Citation Sun, Ying, "Interactive Social Selling and Relationship Management on WeChat." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2016. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/communication_theses/115 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Communication at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INTERACTIVE SOCIAL SELLING AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ON WECHAT by YING SUN Under the Direction of Natalie T. J. Tindall, PhD ABSTRACT The thesis examined the phenomenon of micro-entrepreneurship, social selling and relationship management on WeChat. I used autoethnography as my research methodology, and the findings contribute to academic area on social selling, micro-entrepreneurship, social marketing, relationship management, and strategic communication. This paper also explored how WeChat users conduct their management strategies and relationship marketing in the common Chinese culture background. Findings revealed that WeChat is an ideal social selling and marketing approach for Chinese individual sellers to accomplish their business goal. INDEX WORDS: WeChat, Social Selling, Micro-Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Strategic, Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, Relationship Management, China INTERACTIVE SOCIAL SELLING AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ON WECHAT by YING SUN A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2016 Copyright by Ying Sun 2016 INTERACTIVE SOCIAL SELLING AND RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ON WECHAT by YING SUN Committee Chair: Natalie Tindall Committee: Ann Williams Ted Friedman Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2016 iv DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my husband Mingqi, my parents Mr. Haining Sun and Ms Jing He. Without their patience, understanding, support and most of all love, the completion of this work would not have been possible. I would also dedicate this paper to my dearest son, Alan. You bring me all the joy, and your love encouraged me through this thesis process. I love you with all my heart. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At first, I would like to acknowledge my thesis advisor and committee chair, Dr. Natalie Tindall. My previous thesis advisor left GSU right before I started this project. I was anxious at that time. I was afraid I could not find a thesis advisor to help me finish this project and even thought about quitting the program. Fortunately, Dr. Tindall agreed to be my thesis advisor without any hesitation. She kept on encouraging me to study on this project during the whole process. I am honored to have her as my thesis advisor because she is such an expert in public relations, a great mentor to guide me research on this project, and a close friend to teach me to be a great woman. Without her patience, her professional knowledge, and her great advice, my thesis completion will not happen. Thank you so much, Dr. Tindall. What I learned from you will benefit the rest of my life. I would also acknowledge my thesis committee member, Dr. Ted Friedman and Dr. Ann Williams. Both Dr. Ted and Dr. Williams gave me great advice on my thesis. I am very thankful for their commitment and their willingness to share their knowledge and time. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... x 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Significance of this Project ................................................................................. 2 1.2 Definitions ............................................................................................................ 3 1.2.1 Small business / Micro-entrepreneurship ...................................................... 3 1.2.2 Social Media .................................................................................................... 3 1.2.3 Social Marketing ............................................................................................. 4 1.2.4 Social Selling ................................................................................................... 4 1.2.5 Interactive Marketing ..................................................................................... 5 1.2.6 Personal Branding .......................................................................................... 5 1.2.7 Chinese Social Power...................................................................................... 6 1.2.8 Renqing............................................................................................................ 6 1.2.9 Guanxi (Relationship)..................................................................................... 7 1.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 7 2 Review of Literature ................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Social Cognitive Theory in Social Media .......................................................... 8 2.2 Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior ............................. 9 vii 2.3 Relationship Management from Public Relations Perspectives ................... 10 2.3.1 Relationship Marketing ................................................................................ 10 2.3.2 Social Selling and Relationship Marketing ................................................. 11 2.3.3 WeChat for Selling and Purchasing ............................................................ 11 2.3.4 Building Relationship with Stakeholders ..................................................... 12 2.4 A “Free” Market in WeChat ............................................................................ 15 2.5 The Value of WeChat for Small and Micro-entrepreneurship ..................... 17 2.6 Research Questions ........................................................................................... 19 3 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 20 3.1 Authoethnography ............................................................................................ 21 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.............................................................................. 24 4.1 An Active User on WeChat .............................................................................. 25 4.2 Commerce Everywhere..................................................................................... 32 4.2.1 Experience WeChat Commercial Model as Customer ................................ 32 4.2.2 Different Types of Small Business on WeChat ............................................ 33 4.2.3 I Joined the WeChat Small Seller Team ...................................................... 35 4.3 Why WeChat ..................................................................................................... 39 4.4 Gain/Pull Relationships (Guanxi) on WeChat ............................................... 44 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 49 5.1 Limitations and Future Research .................................................................... 50 viii REFERENCES ................................................................................................................ 53 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................. 61 Appendix A: Questionnaire ........................................................................................ 61 Appendix B: Consent form ......................................................................................... 68 Appendix C: Recruitment Letter ............................................................................... 71 Appendix D: Questionnaire (Chinese)....................................................................... 73 Appendix E: Consent form (Chinese)........................................................................ 79 Appendix F: Recruitment Letter (Chinese) .............................................................. 82 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Comparative analysis of self-built APP and WeChat (Lv & Zhou, 2014) ...................... 19 Table 2 WeChat Functions meet the needs from different types of business ............................... 41 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 WeChat Red Packet Function ......................................................................................... 28 Figure 2 Sender can prepare random amount Red Packets to group chat ...................................