SOCIAL MEDIA TECHNIQUES AND CONSUMER PATRONAGE OF BODY CARE PRODUCTS IN RIVERS STATE

SOCIAL MEDIA TECHNIQUES AND CONSUMER PATRONAGE OF BODY CARE PRODUCTS IN RIVERS STATE

Background Of The Study

In the past decade, the World Wide Web has seen a significant increase of user-driven web technologies known as social media, which has led to the establishment of online communities, enhanced debates, opinion-sharing, and user-generated content (Voramontri & Klieb, 2019). The vast majority of social media and computer-mediated communication occurs on social networking sites. According to Statista (2019), social network sites are web-based services that allow users to create profiles and display user relationships. Social networking represents simply a single layer of Social Media Technology (SMT). This phenomenon led to the immense popularity of social networking sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, which have more than 4 billion monthly active users in aggregate (Tankovska, 2021; Statista, 2021b; Statista, 2021f). Individuals may connect and network with a large number of people from across the world, as well as explore, generate, and exchange photographs, thoughts, and news about themselves, pertinent themes, issues, or products (Voramontri & Klieb, 2019). In a short amount of time, social media has revolutionized the way internet users communicate and connect with one another. In addition to connecting with friends, family, and acquaintances, social networking is also utilized for commercial promotion. Social media marketing and its uses are expanded to various sectors in order to improve company operations. The viral nature of social media creates the ideal environment for marketers to promote their brands, as well as its products and services, to numerous dynamic groups and enables them to reach a far wider audience than would be feasible through traditional marketing methods (Tankovska, 2021). (Simi et al., 2019) Businesses are increasingly incorporating social media into their marketing strategies, which provides them with multiple benefits, including generating awareness, expanding their reach, enhancing customer relationships, community- and reputation-management, monitoring, and referral marketing. As a result of the development of digital technology, customers have grown more self-reliant and vocal about their thoughts on various items (Maslowska et al., 2017). According to Erskine (2017) and Unni (2020), between 81 and 90 percent of consumers seek for online reviews prior to making a purchase, and 67.7 percent of consumers' purchasing decisions are impacted by online reviews. In recent years, social media evaluations have become an important component and information source for products. Online reviews have become an element of the marketing mix and a tool for businesses to gauge consumer sentiment (Elwalda et al., 2016). In today's environment, social media evaluations have become a key determinant for purchase intents and play an important part in moulding consumers' perceptions and knowledge of services and goods (Li et al., 2019). In modern cultures, customers may quickly evaluate products and services based on product quality and brand reputation (Tankovska, 2021), and influencers can be used for comprehensive marketing.

Influencers are users on social networks who have a big number of followers and are seen as trustworthy figures in a certain field, such as fashion, beauty, travel, gaming, or health and fitness (De Veirman et al., 2016). In addition to online reviews, influencer marketing is also classified as eWOM (De Veirman et al., 2016). Due to the virality, extensive reach, and powerful impact of influencers, many businesses seek to engage with extremely popular producers that align with their brand and have a large network of followers that includes their target customers in order to market their products and services (Statista, 2019; De Veirman et al., 2016). Companies get into these partnerships with the intention of enhancing their brand recognition, conversions, and engagement in order to boost their brand image (Statista, 2019). The more the popularity of these influencers, the more a business may take advantage of the widespread impact of eWOM (Talavera, 2015). Additionally, major cosmetics businesses have utilized social networking platforms and influencers to reach their target demographic. According to Dalziel & De Klerk (2021), the cosmetics business has a robust yearly growth rate and is expanding. One of the causes is customers' greater awareness of their appearances on a daily basis (Dalziel & De Klerk, 2021). The most prevalent method of obtaining beauty items has traditionally been in-store purchases. One possible explanation is that people like to sample things before purchasing them (Kestenbaum, 2019). According to Kestenbaum (2019), the globe and the beauty business have grown more computerized. According to Morgan (2019), 70% of businesses either have or are creating a digital transformation plan.

The worldwide cosmetics industry was valued at roughly 507.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 and is anticipated to increase gradually over the next years (Statista, 2020). Cosmetics play a significant part in society, and as a result of technology advances, beauty formulations are always evolving, allowing individuals to enhance or alter their physical look (Binwani & Ho, 2019). Aware of the potential of social media, cosmetic companies are increasingly displaying their goods on these channels (Binwani & Ho, 2019). Prior research has demonstrated that a social media presence increases brand recognition and generates favorable WOM (Barreda et al., 2015). Aspects such as artificial intelligence, graphics, and social media communication play a significant part in the cosmetics sector and have transformed the industry as they boost brand recognition, combine cheap marketing costs, and let businesses to target more refined niches (Mwaisaka, 2017; Binwani & Ho, 2019).

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