A study on blogshops and the effectiveness of their social media marketing communication strategies.

• Main Authors: Chan, Hui Yun., Ong, Yi Fang., Lee, Canida Kai Ning.
• Other Authors: Ulrike Marianne Murfett
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51558
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study outlines how blogshops use social media platforms to communicate with blogshoppers and investigates the effectiveness of these communication strategies via social media. The use of three social communication strategies will be explored: Facebook “like” or “share” functions, blog advertorials and microblogging via Twitter. A new distinction of blog advertorial style was also proposed: the subtle style and the overt style. The effectiveness of each of these three social communication strategies was analysed through simulations and surveys. Analysis of the responses revealed that the Facebook “like” or “share” functions, the subtle blog advertorial style, and microblogging via Twitter are all effective in enhancing brand recall, blog involvement and customer satisfaction respectively, which are antecedents of purchase intentions. This study concludes by providing recommendations to blogshop owners who are currently employing or who are intending to employ these three social communication strategies to engage their customers and effectively influence purchase intentions indirectly. They include posting more prominent and bigger product pictures and having an overt blog advertorial after the subtle blog advertorial to reinforce the advertising element after positive feelings are invoked from the subtle blog advertorial. Last but not least, more Facebook followers can also be converted to Twitter followers to create another customer service touchpoint for blogshops.