The impact of facebook as a Social Networking Site (SNS) on the brand building efforts of four selected Philippine food retail SMES

• Main Authors: Chan, Kristine Louise, Gonzales, Charmaine Leigh V., Latosa, Lara Mae A., Nuguid, Avia Clarion D.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11002
• Institution: De La Salle University

With today's advancing technology, people not only utilize social networking sites for personal use but for entrepreneurial purposes as well. According to Mr. Ople, a social media expert, roughly 25 million Filipinos are registered on Facebook. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), specifically those in the fast food retail industry, then grabbed the opportunity to tap into this market. Facebook, according to Dutta and Fraser (2008), is an egocentric site where people create profiles and connect with friends or socialize with others. However, businesses have used Facebook in a different manner as discussed in the data analysis. Facebook has become an opportunistic site which serves as a venue for companies and/or people to join for a sensible reason such as making business connections. The group used Owyang's (2010) Eight Success Criteria for Facebook Page Marketing in evaluating the companies' Facebook pages. The study found out that the respondents use Facebook for marketing, promotions, and information dissemination. Single case and cross case analysis showed that the respondents lack awareness or knowledge as to Facebook's full capacity in building brands therefore, not being able to maximize the usage of Facebook. Based on the study, Company C scored the highest in the success criteria. However, its score isn't that high. On the other hand, Company B scored the lowest. Furthermore, all the respondents stated that Facebook indeed has an effect on their brand building efforts. All of the companies, except for Company B, mentioned it has an indirect effect on sales. Facebook helps the companies gain brand recognition, get feedback from customers, build relationship and networks, and give customers access to their product and company information which contribute to their brand building efforts. The findings showed that the businesses which use Facebook for marketing must have a balance between push and pull marketing. This means that they must interact also with their customers as well as feed them the information needed to build their brands. Overall, Facebook is an effective tool that helps companies reach a wider market at a cheaper cost. Companies must therefore invest in learning how to fully maximize the use of Facebook in order to create an effective marketing page that will help build their brands.