Social Media Marketing

Background: Internet and social networks have evolved to become a natural part of people s life andinnumerous hours are spent every day interacting through these platforms. This evolution hasresulted in higher expectations on fast and efficient communication with retailer’s customers.Today’s customers are well informed and have instant access to information about retailers and theirproducts. Businesses have realized the potential for utilizing social media in terms of creating brandrecognition, generating revenue, gaining feedback and insight from customers and improving thecustomer relationship. Social media is no longer just an option for enterprises that wants to stayahead in today s business environment, it is necessary.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify key concepts for how eCommerce retailers utilizeRenren and Face-book page marketing in order to acquire and sustain customer relationships. Theauthors will further declare the level of ambition among the eCommerce retailers with Renren andFace-book page marketing.Method: The method used for this thesis is of qualitative and both inductive and deductive character.The explanatory approach has been used in order to provide an understanding of how eCommerceretailers utilize Renren and Facebook page marketing for customer relationship building. Primarydata has been collected through semi-structured interview with eCommerce retailers in China.Secondary data was obtained primary through literature and searches in Journals and Library ofHarbin Institute of Technology. Selection of respondents has been made by research about industriespresence in social media.Theoretical Framework: This study is based on theories within social media marketing, relationshipmarketing and communication. The theoretical framework is of both fundamental and detailedcharacter in order to give the reader a better understanding for the topic and is further the foundationfor our interview questions.Conclusion: Among the retailers that participated in our study, the positive aspects of Renren andFacebook page marketing have far outweighed the negative; however, we have identified differencesin the level of ambitions among our respondents. When weighting the evidence we can interpret thatexisting routines for publications among the respondents are undeveloped and undefined. We could further determine that our respondents are using Renren and Facebook more as a traditional one-waymarketing channel with promotion of products rather than enhancing the possibilities for dialoguebetween the organization and their group of interest. Last, it prevail doubt over the value of spendingmoney and time on Facebook page marketing, even though all of the respondents indicated willincrease their budget for marketing in this medium.