Report on Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

Background: The landscape of traditional marketing, as well as communication, has been changed by the considerations of social media. The power dynamics among the customers and their organization have been shifting along with the technology of the social media in recent years and is also offering the abilities to the customers to communicate their opinion independently towards the large audience. It also offers direct feedback for the services, distributors of the products, developers and manufacturers (Farook, 2016). The emerging generations of the consumers are engaged in accompanying the new technology that is growing up along with poses of social media. It also requires threats and opportunities for the numbers of marketers. To engaged and reached with the customers the boundless opportunities required for the providers of the social medial. The said study is particularly conducted to examine the social media effects on the customer’s engagement as well as customer expansion (Alfreðsdóttir, 2018).

The influencers of social media are continuously engaged in offering awareness related to the customer's expansion and engagement. It is considered as one of the most important aspects and perspectives of the users of social media. To promote services and products of the various brand's social media is considered as the new marketing tools. It is also contained on the various emerging communication channel by which the association among the customers and its brands can be shaped easily (Hsu, 2012). The emergence of social media has motivated consumers by changing the dynamics of conventional marketing. Social media influencers are the people that have a higher online status and are capable of influencing customers purchase behaviour of the target audience. Marketing using social media is the foundation of the word of mouth marketing. Due to the ability of the internet the particular shift in power has occurred by which the consumer’s voices can get great leverages. Due to these reasons, communication terms cannot be dictating easily. It can affect the perceptions of the consumers (Fournier, 2011)

Different consumers are increasingly using the social media platform not only to research about the different services and products but to get engaged with different other companies as well from where they purchase, along with the different other consumers who get to have to some of the valuable insights regarding all these companies. There are number of different firms that recognize the actual power of the Internet that how efficiently and effectively it plays its role. Cost effective, an open, and the omnipresent networks are the ones that contribute towards the reducing or even eliminating some of the geographical barriers along with the physical distance being a platform for the creation of co-create values with the number of different customers. This is all because of the Internet and thanks to the different abilities of an internet which includes the: interactivity, flexibility and speed, persistence and broad scope. These all are the factors that lead towards the formation of a platform for gaining the commitment of a client. (Garretson, 2008)

Out of all the ever-burgeoning variety of the different social media, Facebook is one of the most companies that can establish the different brand pages of the Facebook that provides the individuals along with the business and organizations having an information which has a particular purpose, specific audience along with the topic to market and to promote as well as inform about the different services and the products. There are number of different brand pages that allows the enterprises and the different celebrities also interact with the different community members and for this reason the visibility of different brands also get to be enhanced for the loyalty of such people. (Vivek, 2009)

Van Do orn et.al, has defined about the customer engagement that it is the behavioral manifestation of the different customers towards any of the firm or brand, resulting from the motivational drivers that includes the word of mouth activities, different recommendations, helping out the other customers and then blogging as well as writing different reviews. One of the key element to the customer engagement is the exchange of knowledge, therefore information along with the different communication technologies provide number of different opportunities to the various organizations for the exchange of knowledge and to get engaged with different other customers. (Vivek S. B., 2012)

Customer engagement in the field of a relationship marketing not just incorporates the different relations that is being established and built up between the sellers and buyers but it is also any of the possible combination that is between the potential along with the actual clients as well as all of the other stakeholders. Different social networking sites offer number of different possibilities for the participation that helps in the development of trust, goodwill and commitment to form different kind of the relations among individuals and the brands no matter whether all of the same individuals acquire them as well.

Research significance of the Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

The research study significantly contributes to the existing literature review to explores the theories and various aspect related to social media marketing as well as influencers of social media. It also significantly contributes to the customer’s engagements by offering various views related to customer's expansion.  This study also significantly contributes in the knowledge of the students to offers the new and innovative ideas related to the Social Media influencer and it also explains that how the social media influencers can be affected customer base. This study will significantly contribute to the awareness of the brands to know about the influencers marketing importance and it offers ways that can be utilized to raise and highlight the customer's engagement and loyalty.

Scope of the study of the Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

The research will include the study on the role of social media influencers on increasing the customer base and motivating customer engagement. The study will be mainly centred to the social media influencer marketing by evaluating its impact of the degree of loyalty and commitment of the customer with the brand.

Research objectives of the Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

It is considered essential to focus or pay attention to communication management as well as active online participation. In the brand activities, the curiosity would be created that will ultimately have positive impacts for creating a trust for the various brands. There are several objectives if this research but few of these are a highlight in this study. These are;

·         To investigates the media type, channel, content and post to encourage customer engagement.

·         To examine the various factors by which the customer’s online engagement can be influenced.

·         To examine the association between customer engagement and social media influencers

·         To identify the relationship between the Social Media influencer and Customer’s expansion

Research Questions of the Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

The research questions are developed to highlight the major and important point of the research study. The most important and major question is; How the use of social media influencers have been the best way to expand the customer base and encourage customer engagement?

·         What are the media type, channel, content and post to encourage customer engagement?

·         What are the major factors by which the customer’s online engagement can be influenced?

·         How the association between customer engagement and social media influencers can be examined?

·         What is the relationship between Social Media influencer and Customer’s expansion?

Directions of the Research of the Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

The research study will be contained on major five-chapter the first one is related to the introduction of the research in which the topic will justify with the appropriate background, objectives and research question. The second chapter of the study explores the major themes in which related works of the previous authors include. This section discusses the numerous authors on a particular topic. The third section of the research study is related to the implications and critical reflections. This section will explore who this study will implicate for practice, policy, academic research. Section four of the research explains the research plan in which the materials and methods will be discussed that is adopted to conduct this research study. At the end of the study, it will conclude the major outcomes of the study.

Major Themes (Literature Review) of the Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

This section introduces different major themes, the connection of research questions and how it helps and some evidence that supports the argument. The major theoretical model consists of three regions whereas the first region of social media influencer can be further distributed in two categories such as customer engagement and customer base expansion. The framework work on the particular motive to demonstrate as well as analyze the relationship between the study variables. Our proposed question is to find the impact of social media influencer over different conditions. The working of models depends on dependent and independent variables. Therefore, the present work also considers dependent and independent variables such as social media influencer is the independent variable and the customer expansion and customer engagement can be distinguished as dependent variable (Farook, 2016; Alfreðsdóttir, 2018).

Social Media Marketing, over the past few decades there are multiple organizations that have been successfully recognizing the potential of the social media impact on the reputation, corporate image, reputation and the relationship with different stakeholders through introducing the different platforms of social media into their marketing strategies to get engaged with the different customers through different ways. Social media is the platform that is changing the platform for the organizational communication along with the public relations as well. According to Parveen, Jaafar and Ainin in year 2016 all of them pointed out social media is the platform that opens up the two way communication, it also enables the organizations to understand the needs and desires of customers and how effectively there should be a response to all these desires. In fact, if different organizations have to use out the different as well as new technologies along with the methods as well for increasing the organizational performance and make it better then all such methods have to be applied appropriately according to the directions. As the digital environment is growing so rapidly and the high impact of the social media also have had a monumental effect on the behavior of customers, marketing and different practices for e-business. Paul Aregenti in year 2006 also makes an argument that every kind of the facet for cooperate communication is getting altering being the consequence of the social media. There are many companies that have a very less control over the number of different communications while on the other side different consumers as well as competitors have a much greater access towards the information than ever before. However these communications have become much more dynamic and less static. In these days, technology easily accommodates the real time dialogue between the companies along with the consumers, replacing the more static, formal and at times reactive cooperate messages. (Parveen, 2016)

Social media is way different than the other technologies that are available these days. There are different scholars as well that have argued that this social media through easy-to-use, different tools related to the customer faced have a more as well as direct effect upon the performance as compared to the different kind of the marketing channels. Social media draws on the mobile along with the web-based technologies for creating the highly interactive platforms that empowers different individuals along with the different groups as well for sharing. Different other scholars have also highlighted the different qualities of this social media for enabling of fast, efficient exchanging of an information, low cost and the potential greater access to the customer information by social media in both ways, directly as well as indirectly through customer-customer association. (Penni, 2017)

Customer engagement is one of the multidimensional concept that has number of different definitions that embrace the different concepts of the business along with communication. One of the simple interpretation for the customer engagement is a two way interaction that takes place between a firm along with a consumer. This is the kind of an interaction that can take place on different forms that varies from the simple action of purchase to the active collaboration. Different scholars have made an argument that different companies create a platform for the customer engagement but in actual customers are the ones those who get to engage themselves on their own. This is the perspective that highlights about the key feature of a customer engagement that is a positive association or relationship between the company along with a customer that fosters and emotional connection. McEachern is the one that also points out the customer engagement that it is not limited just to the interaction of the customers just with the company but it is way more when different customers get to interact with one another about a particular brand (Pick, 2016). Different researches have also reviled the link between the satisfaction of different customers, loyalty of customers, profitability of customers and increased revenue. In traditional, there are different companies that focus on improving the different products along with the services for the establishment of a favorable relationship with their customers along with ensuring the customer loyalty as well. No doubt that there attempts have not been in vain at all, but internet is the one that has made it completely difficult to stand out that completely based upon the quality of the different products and services as all of the consumers have an easy access to any of the service or product which they wish to search. This customer engagement on the social media can take on through number of different forms and it can also be defined as any of the online action which is being made by a customer in relation to the business. Online engagement is the one that can be subscribed, likes, purchases, comments, shares, blog posts and etc. one of the simple and easy function for this customer engagement is when different individuals pays a specific amount to visit the webpage of a company and therefore these companies have to focus upon the driving traffic to all of their webpages and most importantly they have to keep engaging the customers on a website for long time duration. This can be done by posting a content of their interest, entertaining content along with the customers or people that visit website to get engaged by asking them to participate in different surveys, giveaways and promotions. There are further actions that are the subscriptions or follow up on the social media. This means that all such companies have to update the content regularly that are not just designed to attract the new customers but also to make sure that they can retain the current followers as well. This kind of engagement has also increased the brand awareness along with the Electronic Word of Mouth. (Rafiq, 2017)

These days businesses can measure this customer engagement in a more cost-effective as well as timely manner. Even way more than this, these firms can measure out the customer engagement on certain different levels that is a key for the identification of the different valuable as well as invaluable customers. According to the Statista in year 2018, different organizations can get themselves engaged in different kind of the social media platforms for capturing and grabbing the attention of customers along with bringing an awareness having an aim to increase the revenue or the customer loyalty.

The in-depth understanding of these variables is necessary before taking further consideration. The social media influencer, in the present condition, can be defined as a process that is particularly developed for a credible place in the industry. The individuals can access a large number of people and even in some cases, they can successfully convince others with higher authenticity. The second consideration is customer base expansion, under the title, it means the group of people who are directly linked with the business and business sell them items, goods and services in the market or individually (Alfreðsdóttir, 2018). The expansion process is mainly spreading of the function or business with an increasing base of a brand that responds to the customer experience. It can be used for the development of services and product. Similar to all the conditions in the major framework, customer engagement also develops a link between the business and services. There are different sources and channels to reach customers. Here, the integration could be a significant response or reaction towards the overall experience of the customer and how they acknowledge the product and service (Marie, 2011).

Besides the research theories, it is necessary to consider the theme and framework for the research. Considering the research question, there is a number of themes that can address and reflect the research questions. It is important to consider different major themes of considerations and these themes include paradigm shift of social media, development of social media services, the role of influencer marketing, social media influencer and customer engagement, methods to expand the customer base, and future considerations of the social media (Shanebarker. com, 2020).  

In the case of the paradigm shift of social media, it is important to consider the difference between types of social media and services. The paradigm shift of social media can be further categorized as broadcast print radio outdoor services, banners and microsites with email search, and network communities. The traditional marketing methods are sending messages, broadcasting, and message-oriented advertainment. Tradigital marketing is an interactive methodology that supports the technology-dependent services (Hsu, 2012). The social engagement depends on different strategies that are interactive, dialogue, niche, informal and technology-dependent methods. The potential customer attraction schemes are implemented on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and other sources. Very often companies make huge mistakes by just neglecting the power of social media for the advertisement and other purposes. Social media is particularly driving a new formal communication style (Socialnomics. net, 2020). The best strategic and social media plans are based on the objectives and metrics that can be superseded to a particular social venue. The important seven steps for developing social media services are listed below,

1.      Develop a cross-functional team

2.      Set the objectives and target

3.       Identify competitors and audience

4.      Identify the potential audience

5.      Select success metrics

6.      Highlight the major services

7.      Develop proper channel plan

Influencer marketing involves different types of collaboration with the relevant and popular influencers that work to increase and promote brand awareness and increase revenues. They can be perceived as some experts that work on the recommendations and they can be followed by the target audience. Social media is a speedy and cost-effective marketing program that engage customers through social media (Customerthink.com, 2018). The marketing brand can be further realized to reach the maximum outcomes. The use of social media presence is to engage the audience with the business and brand. There are different methods to expand the customer base such as by using common business model, development of customer database, an association of clients with the services, sharing the information, keep consistency, capture leads, selection of sources of social media, and use of blogs. The future of influencers is bright as researchers identified that 63% of the marketers are intended to increase their influencers (Baer, 2020).

Critical Reflection (25%) (Literature Review part 2)

The study significantly contributes implied in the literature by analyzing and evaluating the customer’s engagements impacts and effects in the particular context of social media marketing. It also can easily extend understandings for the importance and significance of the social media marketing along with engagement of the customers. In the aspect of the practice, this study will be essentially implied in the practices of the brands to offers awareness for their particular products. Social media influencers are considered as the one most important and good source to offer the awareness program for the various products. The brand page administration can be encouraged by the findings of the study and the policymakers can use it offering the various new and innovative policies to encouraging the customers.

Use of the sponsored media has been on a continuous rise and most commonly they are also being sued for advertising through the use of social media influencers. It is pretty much evident that different kind of the social media platforms and influencers are associated with them and they have a potential to reach the wide range of the consumers on the global scale. Different marketers also release that traditional advertising is the one that is rapidly declining and forcing them out to look for the alternative channels.

There can be various challenges for the numbers of customers due to the excerpting and rejection of the products. There are the numbers of the customers who considered that social media influencers are fake participants of the brands and companies and they can be crucial for them. Customers are not satisfied with the practices of social media influencers. So it can be said that they are an all-time good source encouraging the customers.

Conclusion of the Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

With the development of technology, most of the business-related processes are becoming dependent on the use of technology. one of these major processes is the marketing and methods to engage the customers with the services. The research worked on the impact of social media influencers on increasing customer engagement and expanding the customer base. The research identified the significance of using different strategies to boost the contribution of social media in customer engagement. The research identified media types such as channels, contents, and customer engagements. The other considerations were to measure different factors, an association of customer engagement, and the relationship between customer engagement and expansion by using social media services. The research address different questions with possible solutions and alternatives. The research analysis explores and implicates for academic research, policy, and practice. for the social media influencer, seven common themes were considered such as paradigm shift of social media, development of social media services, the role of influencer marketing, social media influencer and customer engagement, methods to expand the customer base, and future considerations of the social media. The research concludes that influencer marketing is getting more acceptance over the past few years. This shows that in the coming future of influencer marketing is ripe with great opportunities for the business to use social media advertisement. Social media has become one of the permanent factor in everyday life. This has not just changed the lifestyle of people but also how the organizations need to function to be competitive. Social media is the platform that is going to stay here even if the preferences between the platforms also get to be changed.

References of the Impact of Social Media influencer on expanding Customer Base and Encouraging Customer Engagement

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