Engagement pattern of users in digital and social media marketing (DSMM): A service industry perspective

Digital and Social Media Marketing (DSMM) could simply mean digital marketing communications and activities using social media and social network. The combined effect of internet as a technology based infrastructure and inter-activeness of the participants (consumers and service providers) gives rise to this dynamic, vibrant and collaborative system called DSMM. The context of Social media marketing rallies around digital technology and internet based channels of communication. This is probably because internet has become all pervasive and web based chat exchanges through sites/applications like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Skype, YouTube etc. are so much taken for granted thatwheneverany mentionof Social Media isdone, onedoes not have toclarify thatreference to such activities and interactions are being meant. For that matter, normal traditional advertising on Radioand TVarenot counted asdigital& socialmedia marketing. Subsequenttothereview of literature and identified gap analysis, a set of research objectives were noted to be taken up for investigation. The interactions between consumers and marketers may throw up interesting findings related to services of different level of involvement.

Based on the literature review and the perspectives mentioned above, following objectives of the study were set for further investigation: 1. To understand the demographic, socio-economic and psychographic dimensions of the users of DSMM in the service industries perspective. 2. To understand the engagement level and depth of involvement in various social media platforms in the context of different typesof services. 3. Toexplore the perceptions of users towards different social media platforms and towards the different types of marketing communications and interactions happening on these platform. 4. To explorethe possibilityof creating amodelof DSMM engagement pattern that ultimately leads to positive end-results like, online purchases, sharing of experiences and influencing decisions of peers, family and others social group members. 5. To take a perspective from service providing organizations and companies in terms of their vision of DSMM and adoption of process.

The sampling method generally followed a convenience-sampling type. At the same time, through emails and other social media, the link to Google form survey was sent to friends and acquaintances who, in turn helped in getting more responses from their network members, thereby giving it the added advantage of snow-ball sampling effect also. Two independent surveys were conducted (consumer survey and organizational survey) to collect the primary data. As per the sampling plan 600 eligible respondentswere initially contacted, out of which, finally, 467 ‘fully-complete, acceptable’ responses were received. As the topic is about DSMM and online activities, the questionnaire could be sent online in Goggle Forms for survey as email and also as link on Email, Social Media share, and on WhatsApp, with necessary briefings and instructions. It was carried out through a structured questionnaire with close ended questions covering the aspects mentioned in the research hypotheses and theconceptual model. Google formssurveyresulted into 164completedresponses. Simultaneously physical forms survey was conducted in Bhubaneswar and Mumbai yielding 303 completed forms. Thus a total of 467 completed responses formed the basis for our analysis. Primary data analysis was done in three stages. Firstly, uni-variate analysis was done for frequency percentage. Prominent and relevant perception maps were created. Subsequently, Cross-tabulations (Chi-Square test) for relationship association were carried out to check for significant association, if any. Further multiple regression and Factor analysis was done involving multiple variables to help us to study any association of dependent variables with contributing variables. Some of the major results are presented in this synopsis. Based on the Pearson Chi-Square results between two variables, significant relations or associations have been observed as follows:

It is noteworthy that“Age Group'does havesignificantassociation/relationwitheachof the following variables: ‘Online Review of specific things’, ‘Private/Public Status in Social Media’, ‘Social Media paid Advt. Credibility’, ‘Social Media Peers/Friends shared Advt. Credibility’, ‘Better Brand Image Perception in Social media presence’, ‘Usefulness of Social media’, ‘Entertaining value of SM platform’, ‘Value For Money in SM platform’, and ‘Overall Experience of SM platform. Through the multiple regression analysis, verysignificantand strong equation model could be found between the dependent variable (credibility of individual social media platforms) and the independent variables (enlisted seven parameters/criteria pertaining to features and functionalities) with linearity assumption. (Rsquare = 88.2%).form’. Based on thedetail findings, following conclusionscan bedrawn in thecontext of DSMM engagement patterns.

Age does impact/influence on DSMM-engagements. It appears tobe the most major demographic variable in the DSMM engagement pattern.