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Engaging Social Customers – Influencing New Marketing Strategies for Social Media Information Sources

  • Conference paper
Contemporary Research on E-business Technology and Strategy (iCETS 2012)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 332))

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Abstract

A global, online quantitative study among 300 consumers of digital technology products found the most reliable information sources were friends, family or word of mouth (WOM) from someone they knew, followed by expert product reviews, and product reviews written by other consumers. The most unreliable information sources were advertising or infomercials, automated recommendations based on purchasing patterns or retailers. While a very small number of consumers evaluated products online, rating of products and online discussions were more frequent activities. The most popular social media websites for reviews were Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and e-Bay, indicating the importance of WOM in social networks and online media spaces that feature product reviews as it is the most persuasive piece of information in both online and offline social networks. These results suggest that ‘social customers’ must be considered as an integral part of a marketing strategy.

* This research was carried out as part of the activities of, and funded by, Smart Services Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) through the Australian Government’s CRC programme (Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Barbara Gligorijevic & Edwina Luck

  2. Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove Campus, K Block, Office 414, 130 Victoria Road Park, Brisbane, Australia

    Barbara Gligorijevic

Authors
  1. Barbara Gligorijevic
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  2. Edwina Luck
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CeBA Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Vasil Khachidze

  2. ITSB, PWGSC, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Tim Wang

  3. Algonquin College, Woodroffe Campus, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Sohail Siddiqui

  4. Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau

    Vincent Liu

  5. Nationan Research Council, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Sergio Cappuccio

  6. Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canda

    Alicia Lim

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Gligorijevic, B., Luck, E. (2012). Engaging Social Customers – Influencing New Marketing Strategies for Social Media Information Sources. In: Khachidze, V., Wang, T., Siddiqui, S., Liu, V., Cappuccio, S., Lim, A. (eds) Contemporary Research on E-business Technology and Strategy. iCETS 2012. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 332. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34447-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34447-3_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-34446-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-34447-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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