On (10, September 2018), (Nermeen Ahmed Sayyad) published a new study in (International Journal of Managerial Studies and Research (IJMSR)) titled (Importance of Social Media in Business Firm in Palestine & its effects). The article aimed to study (Social media, it has provided new opportunities to businesses to engage customers through social interaction while creating leads and generating sales. No study has been conducted to identify the importance of social media and how social media has affected the marketing strategies of business firms in Palestine. 80 social media marketing experts were surveyed through a closed ended questionnaire in Palestine to find out the impact of social media on customer relationship building and sale volume of the businesses firms. Through regression and Pearson Correlation analysis, it is found that type of social media has insignificant correlation with social media for network building (r = .010), to attract potential customers (r = .003), and to engage customers (r = .069), whereas it has significant positive correlation with social media to communicate with customers (r = .104). Similarly, type of social media has a significantly positive correlation with the variables i.e. high sale (r = .215) and high rate of return on investment (r = .180)). The results of this study demonstrated that (The study aimed to find out the impact of social media on the businesses firms in Palestine. For this purpose, the author developed and tested two hypotheses constructed out of one independent and two dependent variables. The findings of the study has confirmed the findings of the previous researches that found the positive relationship between social media and customer relationship building and high sales of the companies. Pearson correlation analysis and regression model estimation showed that companies using social media in Palestine are able to use social media for building relationship with customers. In this way, they are getting the benefit from comment and inbox features of social media where customers can easily contact the company to inquire about the products and services or submit their feedback and complaint. These findings of the first hypothesis match with the findings of studies including (Aral, Dellarocas, & Godes, 2013) (Fue, Li, & Wenyu, 2009) and (Hanna, Rohm, & Crittenden, 2011). On the contrary, the findings of the study rejected the idea that Palestinian companies are using social media for branding and networking. A number of studies such as (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011), (Patrick, 2008) and (Qualman, 2010) have found that businesses through networking and sharing are able to reach to customers. The results of the current study, however, have rejected the idea. This raises further question if companies are not using social media for networking or branding, how they are able to promote their brands. According to Naylor, Lamberton, & West (2012) one of the significant challenge that today’s businesses face concerns with how to get followers to go from looking at a photo to going to their website and buy product or service. For this purpose, it is important to have strong network through a number of followers who share the post of the companies. In the case of Palestinian firms, the results show that they are not networking on the social media, but using it for communication purpose only. It indicates that they are not approaching new and potential customers and have social media for dealing with only existing customers. The finding of the second hypothesis also confirms and matches with the previous researches that found positive relationship between social media and increase revenue or sale of the company. According to Scott (2017) due to various features of social media, companies are able to increase their sale. He found that social media is an effective source of generating leads and if promoted adequately, leads can be converted into sales. Similarly, Li, Zhou, Kashyap, & Yang (2008) indicated that social media has recently launched e-commerce features such as Instagram, which has resulted in an ease for customers to make a purchase without going to the website. In the case of Palestinian business firms, the findings confirmed high and increase sale due to social media. However, it is not identified what factors are involved that prompt customers to make a purchase. As identified by Naylor, Lamberton, & West (2012) there were certain actions that must be taken by companies to ensure that customers prompts to buy the products and services including responsiveness, offers and promotion, informative content, interesting visuals, and exclusive content.
For more information about the study, please contact the main author at (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
