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:
Web site:
Copyright © 2017 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, without written permission from the publisher.
Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the
names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the
trademark or registered trademark.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP Data Pending
ISBN: 978-1-5225-1686-6
eISBN: 978-1-5225-1687-3
This book is published in the IGI Global book series Advances in Marketing, Customer
Relationship Management, and E-Services (AMCRMES) (ISSN: 2327-5502; eISSN: 2327-5529)
British Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in
this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.


Advances in
Marketing,
Customer
Relationship
Management,
and E-Services
(AMCRMES)
Book Series
Mission

ISSN:2327-5502
EISSN:2327-5529


Business processes, services, and communications are important factors in the
management of good customer relationship, which is the foundation of any well
organized business. Technology continues to play a vital role in the organization and
automation of business processes for marketing, sales, and customer service. These
features aid in the attraction of new clients and maintaining existing relationships.
The Advances in Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, and
E-Services (AMCRMES) Book Series addresses success factors for customer
relationship management, marketing, and electronic services and its performance
outcomes. This collection of reference source covers aspects of consumer behavior
and marketing business strategies aiming towards researchers, scholars, and practitioners in the fields of marketing management.

Coverage

• B2B marketing
• Mobile services
• CRM strategies
• CRM and customer trust
• Text Mining and Marketing
• Telemarketing
• Web Mining and Marketing
• Customer Retention
• Data mining and marketing
• Database marketing

IGI Global is currently accepting
manuscripts for publication within this
series. To submit a proposal for a volume in
this series, please contact our Acquisition
Editors at or
visit: />

The Advances in Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, and E-Services (AMCRMES) Book
Series (ISSN 2327-5502) is published by IGI Global, 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, PA 17033-1240, USA,
www.igi-global.com. This series is composed of titles available for purchase individually; each title is edited to
be contextually exclusive from any other title within the series. For pricing and ordering information please visit
Postmaster:
Send all address changes to above address. Copyright © 2017 IGI Global. All rights, including translation in other
languages reserved by the publisher. No part of this series may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means –
graphics, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information and retrieval systems
– without written permission from the publisher, except for non commercial, educational use, including classroom
teaching purposes. The views expressed in this series are those of the authors, but not necessarily of IGI Global.


Titles in this Series

For a list of additional titles in this series, please visit: www.igi-global.com

Analyzing Children’s Consumption Behavior Ethics, Methodologies, and Future Considerations
Jony Haryanto (President University, Indonesia) and Luiz Moutinho (Dublin City University, Ireland)
Business Science Reference • copyright 2017 • 278pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781522509936) •
US $165.00 (our price)
Handbook of Research on Leveraging Consumer Psychology for Effective Customer
Engagement
Norazah Mohd Suki (Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia)
Business Science Reference • copyright 2017 • 374pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781522507468) •
US $230.00 (our price)
Handbook of Research on Strategic Retailing of Private Label Products in a Recovering
Economy
Mónica Gómez-Suárez (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain) and María Pilar MartínezRuiz (University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)
Business Science Reference • copyright 2016 • 625pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781522502203) •
US $330.00 (our price)

Handbook of Research on Consumerism and Buying Behavior in Developing Nations
Ayantunji Gbadamosi (University of East London, UK)
Business Science Reference • copyright 2016 • 565pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781522502821) •
US $235.00 (our price)
Managing Public Relations and Brand Image through Social Media
Anurag Singh (Banaras Hindu University, India) and Punita Duhan (Meera Bai Institute of
Technology, India)
Business Science Reference • copyright 2016 • 353pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781522503323) •
US $195.00 (our price)
Handbook of Research on Promotional Strategies and Consumer Influence in the Service
Sector
Upendra Singh Panwar (Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science, India)
Raj Kumar (Banaras Hindu University, India) and Nilanjan Ray (Netaji Mahavidyalaya, India)
Business Science Reference • copyright 2016 • 492pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781522501435) •
US $335.00 (our price)

701 E. Chocolate Ave., Hershey, PA 17033
Order online at www.igi-global.com or call 717-533-8845 x100
To place a standing order for titles released in this series,
contact:
Mon-Fri 8:00 am - 5:00 pm (est) or fax 24 hours a day 717-533-8661


Editorial Advisory Board
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, tiestrength 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, Customer 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 Customer 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 Decisions 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):
•

4

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.).