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The Impact of Social Media Usage
on Companies’ Customer Relationship
Management (CRM)
Abdallah AlShawabkeh, Mohammed T. Nuseir , and Sarah Urabi
Abstract This study examines the possibility of enhancing Customer Relationship
Management through Social Media. As Social Media is a trending topic in compa-
nies’ strategies, the aim of this research is to find a possible link between the use
of Social Media, and its impact on Fashion retails’ Customer Relationship Manage-
ment in both UK and Germany. The use of Social Media platforms was explored
by using a semi-structured survey. Significant differences were found in the usage
of social media by age group and sex. The results revealed that using Social Media
in marketing strategies for fashion retailors would be most effective when targeting
younger demographics, offering companies the benefit of longer customer lifetime
value when enhancing their Customer Relationship Management through Social
Media.
Keywords Social media ·Social media networking platforms ·Social media
marketing ·Customer relationship management ·CRM tools
1 Introduction
For the recent times, it is an undeniable fact that the evolution of social media
has revolutionized the way customer relationship is managed (Malthouse et al.,
2013; Almazrouei et al., 2020; Kurdi et al., 2021). Social media has changed the
A. AlShawabkeh · M. T. Nuseir (B
)
Department of Business Administration, College of Business, Al Ain University Abu Dhabi
Campus, Abu Dhabi, UAE
e-mail: mohammed.nuseir@aau.ac.ae
A. AlShawabkeh
e-mail: Abdallah.alshawabkeh@aau.ac.ae
S. Urabi
Abu Dhabi Vocational Education & Training Institute (ADVETI), Abu Dhabi, UAE
e-mail: sarah.urabi@adveti.ac.ae
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
M. Alshurideh et al. (eds.), The Effect of Information Technology on Business
and Marketing Intelligence Systems, Studies in Computational Intelligence 1056,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12382-5_8
147
148 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
way by which individuals communicate, interact, create content and share infor-
mation including the effective and competent customer relationship management
(Khasawneh et al., 2021a, b). The excessive and increasing usage of social media
has affected every walk of life including the effective maintenance of the customer
relationship management (Aljumah et al., 2021; Cretu & Brodie, 2007).
The use of technology and specifically the use of social media applications have
made a significant change in the field of business (Al-Maroof et al., 2021; Alshurideh
et al., 2019a). Firms and organizations of the current era have transformed and
reallocated their budgets from traditional media of marketing and advertising to
online platforms (Al Dmour et al., 2014; Brekke, 2009). Research has shown that the
use of social media has much positive effect on the customer relationship manage-
ment and the effective utilization of social media services can help organizations to
achieve priority and preference of consumers over the offerings of their competitors
(Alemán & Wartman, 2009; Palmer & Koenig-Lewis, 2009; Rodriguez, et al., 2015;
Swarts, 2014).
In this regard, the most prominent social media applications include Facebook,
YouTube and Twitter (Abuhashesh et al., 2021; Al Kurdi & Alshurideh, 2021). The
customers can receive regular updates about the upcoming products of their preferred
companies which explain how the use of these platforms play a leading role in helping
the companies retain their current consumers as well as to attract new consumes
across different walks of life (Soares et al., 2012; Alshurideh et al., 2019b, 2021).
Moreover, the use of social media services helps in generating a positive word of
mouth among the customers which additionally helps the organization to maintain
a good reputation regarding their products and services (Abu Zayyad et al., 2021;
Alshurideh, 2022; Buss and Begorgis, 2015).
Although many of the researched articles have indicated that there is a connec-
tion between Social Media and the positive outcomes of the implemented marketing
strategies (Alshurideh et al., 2016; Katona et al., 2011), this research will investigate
this apparent connection further. Moreover, the possibility of this connection posi-
tively influencing the companies’ acquisition of new customers and the maintenance
of the existing customers has also been examined (Alkitbi et al., 2020; Alsharari &
Alshurideh, 2020; Alshamsi et al., 2020). Through finding a possible connection
between these different factors, the research problem of ‘why companies should be
using Social Media to enhance their Customer Relationship Management’ has been
examined.
Therefore, the aim of this research is to detect if the use of social media can
positively influence the companies’ Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
As there are still companies refusing to exploit new media technologies within their
strategies, this research aims at looking at social media from a different perspective
to highlight their importance on the marketing outcomes of the company. Therefore,
the research question that this study aims to answer is; can companies enhance their
CRM by using Social Media?
In order to reach the stated aim and to answer the mentioned research question,
the objectives are as follows:
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 149
1. Analysing the medium of social media as a means of communication, by assessing
literature, journals and articles dated no earlier than 2000, concentrating more
intently on current literature.
2. Design and evaluate a questionnaire based on the framework laid out in this
research. The questionnaire will be issued to people ranging from the age of 17
to 40+. The survey collected from this target group will offer a wide range of data
to investigate the connection of social media to the marketing outcomes of the
company as well as the possible relations of social media to specific demographics
and therefore the possible effects that this may have on the companies’ CRM.
3. Compare the findings from the current literature with the survey results and gain
insight into the possible links between the two main factors, that is: social media
and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
4. Draw conclusions as to how CRM may be enhanced through the companies’
usage of social media.
2 Literature Review
The concept of social media can be understood by assessing a statement by Sterne
(1955, p. 51): “Social media is the connective tissue of social networks”. The
rise of social media as a new communication platform has enabled customers to
become active participants within markets rather than passive recipients of marketing
campaigns (Heckadon, 2010; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010; Kleinberg, 2008). This
has led to companies having to rethink their marketing campaigns, as the traditional
marketing models have become more complicated due to the on-going changes within
communication channels (Alshurideh et al., 2014; Füller et al., 2007).
Existing research by Heckadon (2010) has investigated critical success factors
when implementing marketing strategies on social media platforms. In his Master
Thesis, he defines ten critical success factors, namely “1. Having a social media
marketing strategy, 2. Integrating the social media marketing strategy into the broader
marketing strategy, 3. Social media optimization, 4. Creating a community, 5. Encour-
aging user content creation and feedback, 6. Being open and honest, 7. Keeping
content fresh and relevant, 8. Making the user feel special, 9. Identifying with a cause,
10. Measuring social media marketing performance.” (Heckadon, 2010, pp. 12–13).
Moving on, with regards to the communication strategies of companies, with
the goals of increasing sales, recruiting new customers or even staff, strengthening
the company’s brand and image or improving Customer Relationship Management
(CRM), communication between companies and customers has become one of the
most important processes a company needs to concentrate on (Alshurideh et al.,
2017; Alyammahi et al., 2020; Wallace et al., 2014).
Means of communication present a wide range of possibilities for a company
(AlHamad et al., 2022; Alshurideh et al., 2022; Ammari et al., 2017; Ashal et al.,
2021). Communication, be it from business to business (B2B) or from business to
consumers (B2C), can take place in the form of public relations, fairs or exhibitions,
150 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
direct sales, classic advertisements, sales promotion, sponsoring, event-marketing
or multimedia communication (Alzoubi et al., 2020; Felix, et al., 2017; Wang &
Kim, 2017). As the more traditional communication channels are beginning to lose
their effectiveness due to the rise of Social Media (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010), it is
important to understand why customers are so attracted to this new communication
platform.
Having understood that social media can play an important part in interacting
with customers and assessing new ideas (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010; Maklan et al.,
2008), the question at hand is, whether this can help companies enhancing their
Customer Relationship Management? Hennig-Thurau et al. (2010) introduced the
idea of a ‘Pinball-Framework’ to highlight the impact of these new social media
platforms on customer relationships. They s tate, that companies using new media
channels are merely playing Pinball. By throwing the ‘marketing ball’ into the web,
companies supply customers with a message, however in what way this message
is received or passed along is no longer in the company’s hands, as even though
they have ‘flippers’ to guide the message, the ball may not move in the anticipated
direction, which could lead to catastrophic results. So does the possibility exist of
enhancing Customer Relationship Management by using social media, or would it
rather have the opposite effect?
When reviewing the literature, it seems that there is definite potential for social
media to enhance companies’ Customer Relationship Management (Heckadon,
2010; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010; Katona et al., 2011). And so the following research
hypothesis has been formulated:
H1 Social media has a positive impact on companies’ Customer Relationship
Management.
3Method
To assess the developed research hypotheses, a quantitative approach were adopted
that made use of a self-administered questionnaire. This questionnaire was distributed
in 2016 to people from ages 17–40+ living in the United Kingdom or Germany.
This target group was selected for this study to enable consideration of the possible
influences of age, occupation status and culture on the survey results. The question-
naire had a very good response rate which is mainly because of the close contact to
University lecturers and reliable contacts throughout the communities.
For this study, a total of 325 questionnaires were distributed. From these completed
and returned questionnaires, 57 questionnaires were excluded from this study,
because of the missing data in them. Therefore, the residual 268 responses denote
an effective response rate of 82.46%, which is a fairly high rate, ensuring that the
collected data is valid and the depicted results justified. The respondents were fairly
equally divided in terms of gender, with 53.4% being female and 46.6% being male.
In addition to this, 40.3% of all respondents were over 30 years of age, while 59.7%
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 151
were under 30 years old, which enabled the author to further distinguish social media
usage in correlation to age.
3.1 Measures
The developed scales for this study were based on a 5—point rating scale (changed
from four-point rating scale to five-point rating scale after the pilot-study), using
the values (1) non-applicable, (2) strongly disagree, (3) disagree, (4) agree and (5)
strongly agree. A pilot study was undertaken to test the understandability of the
questionnaire and was handed out to ensure that nothing had been overlooked in the
design of the questionnaire. After having conducted the pilot study, the following
changes were made to the questionnaire, based on the feedback from the respondents:
•In Sect. 1 of the questionnaire, a ‘Foundation Degree’, ‘Master Degree’ and ‘PhD’
option were added to the existing options of first year, second year or third-year
student in question 5
•In addition to the options of ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly
disagree’ within Sect. 2 of the questionnaire, a fifth option (‘non-applicable’) was
added in order to allow respondents to state honestly if the stated question didn’t
apply to them
•The numbering on the questions was changed from discontinuous to continuous
numbering in order to make the later analysis easier and give each question a
definite identifier
Even though the changes made to the questionnaire were of minor nature, the
analysis having more options in breaking down the respondents’ demographics, and
further decreasing the complexity that came from the discontinuous numbering,
especially when cross-referencing the individual questions to the framework and
indicators for all factors. In order to conduct the analysis, the IBM Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used.
4 Results and Discussion
In order to test the impact of social media on the Customer Relationship Management
(CRM), the Pearson correlation was calculated (Table 1).
Tabl e 1 Correlation of social
media with CRM (Pearson
coefficient)
Factor Measurement Social media CRM
Social media Pearson correlation 10.992
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000
N268 268
152 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
Tabl e 2 Means of social
media criteria Factor Criterion Mean (in %)
Social media 54
Information technology
management
56
Communication channel 52
Collaboration (customer
engagement)
54
Building virtual
communities/Networks
56
The results show a significant relationship between Social Media and Customer
Relationship Management, which indicates that CRM can be enhanced through
Social Media. Based on these insights it is important to determine which criterion of
Social Media poses the most important, so that companies could specifically address
these criteria in order to enhance their customer performance. Table 2 depicts the
results from the conducted survey for each criterion of Social Media.
The survey results showed that the criterion ‘Information Technology Manage-
ment’ as well as ‘Building virtual communities’ scored the highest at 2.8 (56%). Even
though this poses only an average outcome, the results indicate that the strongest
link between Social Media and CRM lies within the creation of virtual communities
through Information Technology Management. This further indicates that compa-
nies’ use of these criteria would promise the best results for enhancing their Customer
Relationship Management.
4.1 How Important Is the Criterion Information Technology
Management for CRM?
The frequency analysis for the questions linked to Information Technology Manage-
ment is shown in Table 3. The most significant results are those on item 6, 9, 12,
13 and 16. Due to the choice of using a Fashion Retailers’ case study, the questions
were asked in accordance to fashion retailer interests. According to Hennig-Thurau
et al. (2010), Kleinberg (2008) and Sterne (1955) Social Media offers companies the
opportunity to perform market research at low costs, with the further ability to detect
trends and attitudinal shifts within the market. However, when asking the survey
respondents, if they discussed fashion trends with their friends on Social media plat-
forms (item 6) 42.7% strongly disagreed. Yet 12.7% agreed to the statement and a
further 1.9% strongly agreed. These numbers indicate, that fashion retailers would
be able to discover trends based on sample groups of Social Media users. In addition
to this it has been said in the literature that Social Media offers companies access
to customer data (Heckadon, 2010; Katona et al., 2011). The results to item 9, 12
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 153
Tabl e 3 Frequency analysis for criterion information technology management
Item no. Statement Strongly
agree (%)
Agree
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly
disagree
(%)
Non-applicable
(%)
6 I always discuss
fashion trends
with my friends
on social
networking sites
1.9 12.7 30.7 42.7 12
7 I always take
part in
questionnaires
issued by
companies even
if they are not
rewarded
1.1 18.4 36.8 35.7 7.9
8 I always accept
friend requests
made by
companies on
social
networking sites
1.1 14.2 34.3 40.7 9.7
9I am friends
with more than
one company on
social
networking sites
(e.g. Primark)
6.7 21.6 25.7 34.3 11.6
10 I always ‘like’
companies
social
networking sites
3.4 22.4 32.5 31.7 10.1
11 I frequently
comment on
posts made by
companies on
social
networking sites
1.5 5.6 33.8 48.9 10.2
12 On my social
networking site
profile, I always
share personal
information
(e.g. date of
birth, job etc.)
7.5 36.2 26.5 21.3 8.6
(continued)
154 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
Tabl e 3 (continued)
Item no. Statement Strongly
agree (%)
Agree
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly
disagree
(%)
Non-applicable
(%)
13 I don’t mind at
all letting
companies see
my personal
profile
1.9 24.0 31.8 35.2 7.1
16 I strongly prefer
sending direct
messages
through social
networking sites
to friends than
posting
something on
my wall
28.8 39.3 12.7 10.1 9
Average 5.99 21.6 29.42 33.4 9.6
Mean (in %) 56
and 13 verify this fact, as for each of these questions more than 20% of respondents
agreed.
According to Wallace et al. (2014) Social Media users prefer more personalized
advertising efforts by companies, which is emphasized by the fact, that the majority
of respondents (68.1% in total) strongly preferred sending personal messages to their
contacts on these networking platforms than openly displaying their interactions with
others.
The comparison of respondent’s answers with their age (see Fig. 1)showeda
significant difference to the overall outcome for the criterion Information Technology
Management. The respondents of under 30 years of age were far more willing to
interact with companies as well as display their personal information on Social
Media sites. Furthermore the respondents’ answers to items 9 and 10 demonstrated
that younger Social Media users are very interested in interacting with companies
on Social Media sites, which emphasises companies’ ability to engage customers as
co-creators of value through using Information Technology (Füller et al., 2010).
The results of the survey furthermore depict that the possibilities for compa-
nies to use Social Media as a market research system (Kleinberg, 2008) are given,
which means Information Technology Management should play an important role
in Customer Relationship Management (Alshurideh et al., 2019a, b; Svoboda et al.,
2021), as the amount of data available to companies can help improve customer
services and company offerings (Aburayya et al., 2020; Al-Khayyal et al., 2021;
Odeh et al., 2021).
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 155
Fig. 1 Comparison of means between age and ITM
4.2 How Important Is the Criterion Communication Channel
for CRM?
Companies using Social Media generally have the aim of communicating the compa-
nies’ offerings and benefits to a broad audience, in order to reach a large crowd
through the same mean. Within the survey, respondents were questioned on their
behaviour when encountering advertising on social media platforms (Table 4).
This was done in order to determine the significance of Social Media as a commu-
nication channel. Interestingly enough, 43.3% of respondents strongly disagreed with
reading advertisements on social media platforms. This confirms what Soares et al.
(2012) have stated within their research. They say that Social Media users pose a new
type of cyberspace consumer, who perceives advertisements on Social Media sites
as intrusive and furthermore disruptive to their online activities. According to Sterne
(1955) however, Social Media as a platform for communication is more important in
terms of customers spreading the advertisements or messages of companies. In regard
to this, respondents’ answers to items 20 through 24 showed that on average 20%1
had forwarded advertisements to friends or received advertisements from friends.
This means that customers only find advertisements on Social Media sites inter-
esting, when they appeal to their own individual needs in addition to delivering an
important message.
1 (2.2 + 18.7 + 2.6 + 15.4 + 3.4 + 13.8 + 2.2 + 21.7)/5 to evaluate the percentage of respondents
that agreed with the statements.
156 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
Tabl e 4 Frequency analysis for criterion communication channel
Item no. Statement Strongly
agree (%)
Agree
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly
disagree
(%)
Non-applicable
(%)
17 When I receive
advertisement
on social
networking sites
I always read
them
1.1 11.2 35.1 43.3 9.3
18 Iamalways
interested in
special offers by
companies
10.2 27.8 30.8 25.9 5.3
19 I frequently
follow posts on
social
networking sites
by companies
0.8 14.7 38.0 37.2 9.4
20 When I like an
advertisement
on social
networking sites
I always respond
(e.g. by ‘liking’
the comment)
2.2 18.7 29.2 40.8 9.0
22 When I receive a
post or message
IlikeIalways
forward it to my
friends or post it
on my wall
2.6 15.4 40.4 32.6 9.0
23 When I find an
interesting
advertisement I
always post it on
my wall or
forward it to my
friends on social
networking sites
3.4 13.8 29.9 42.5 10.4
24 I always receive
posts by my
friends when
they find
interesting
advertisements
2.2 21.7 32.6 33.0 10.5
(continued)
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 157
Tabl e 4 (continued)
Item no. Statement Strongly
agree (%)
Agree
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly
disagree
(%)
Non-applicable
(%)
46 Advertisement
on social
networking sites
always makes
me purchase
merchandise
1.1 4.5 36.6 47.8 10.1
Average 2.95 15.98 34.08 37.89 9.13
Mean (in %) 52
Therefore the average outcome of 52% for Social Media as a communication
channel indicates that this criterion is less important than the other criteria for
Social Media usage in companies’ marketing strategies in order to enhance Customer
Relationship Management.
4.3 How Important Is the Criterion Collaboration for CRM?
The results for the criterion ‘collaboration’ showed only an average outcome with
an overall mean of 2.7 (see Table 5). This means that the respondents viewed this
criterion as less important than ‘Information Technology Management’ and ‘Building
virtual communities/networks’, answering the research question ‘What role does
collaboration on Social Media play within CRM?’. When looking at the results, there
were significant opinions expressed. The majority of respondents (41.2%) agreed
to always commenting back on comments made by their friends on social media
platforms, which correlates to Herrmann, et al. (2000) research, where it was stated
that companies would be able to use customers’ need to share to their advantage.
However, when asking the respondents whether they had used social media plat-
forms to praise or complain to companies 50.6% strongly disagreed to writing
complaints and 49.6% strongly disagreed to writing praise. This diminishes compa-
nies’ ability to improve their services by using customers as co-creators of value,
which was stated as critical factor in the literature (Hennig-Thurau et al, 2010; Maklan
et al., 2008). In order to distinguish whether this was true for all users of Social Media,
a mean comparison was undertaken, to correlate the importance of collaboration with
age (see Table 6).
The results show that younger users found collaboration on social media platforms
more important (62%) than older users (46%). Even though this outcome is still
fairly low, it indicates that companies using Social Media would be able to engage
more effectively with younger customers than older customers on these platforms,
158 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
Tabl e 5 Frequency analysis for criterion collaboration
Item no. Statement Strongly
agree (%)
Agree
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly
disagree
(%)
Non-applicable
(%)
15 Ialwaysshare
everything that
happens to me
with my friends
on social
networking sites
311.2 38.2 39.7 7.9
25 When a friend
posts something
on my wall I
always
comment back
13.9 41.2 23.6 11.6 9.7
26 When I have
ideas on how to
improve
products or
services I
always contact
companies
through their
social
networking sites
1.1 7.1 35.1 46.3 10.4
27 Ihavewritten
many
complaints to
companies
through social
networking sites
1.5 3.7 32.6 50.6 11.6
28 Ihavewritten
many praise to
companies
through social
networking sites
0.4 6.8 30.8 49.6 12.4
29 Iamdefinitely
active in more
than one group
on social
networking sites
11.7 29.7 24.4 25.2 9.0
Average 5.27 16.62 30.78 37.17 10.17
Mean (in %) 54
Tabl e 6 Mean comparison between age and criterion collaboration
Criterion Age
17–21 21–25 25–30 30–40 >40 Tot al
Collaboration (Customer engagement) (%) 62 54 60 56 46 54
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 159
by integrating them into their strategies and encouraging them to interact with the
company.
4.4 How Important Is the Criterion Virtual
Communities/networks for CRM?
Based on Heckadon’s (2010) research, companies using Social Media should have the
main aim of creating online communities in order to benefit from customers’ social
capital (Alemán & Wartman, 2009; Herrmann, et al., 2000). Therefore respondents
were asked questions on their behaviours towards their online Social Media to come
to conclusions of companies’ ability to benefit from these.
The majority of respondents (35.6%) agreed to have friends from all over the
world on their Social Media platforms. This indicates that companies could address
large customer bases in order to acquire new customers even on an international basis.
Surprisingly only 28% of respondents agreed to appreciating companies responding
to inquiries, which indicates that the majority of Social Media users prefers to keep
their platforms in a private environment. The high number of respondents disagreeing
with question 33 (40.7%) shows that peer pressure, in this case to always have the
same interests as friends, was not essential for the respondents’ behaviour on these
platforms, depicting the differences in social structures on Social Media sites (Ansari
et al., 2011; Kleinberg, 2008). Based on this, companies would be able to access data
on customers with more diverse interests, increasing the companies’ ability to assess
a broader range of perceptions (Table 7).
As the only average outcome (56%) was unexpected, the results were analysed
separately for the different age groups (see Table 8). The analysis clearly shows that
younger respondents’ answers were very high. This means that companies targeting
this demographic would have access to large and diverse communities when using
Social Media.
4.5 Testing of Hypotheses
After having analysed each criterion for the different factors thoroughly, it can be
said that there is a definite influence of age on companies’ ability to utilize Social
Media in order to enhance their Customer Relationship Management. Furthermore,
the extraordinary significance of the different factors on each other indicates a positive
confirmation of the proposed hypothesis (see Table 9).
The correlation between all factors is more than significant (as the correlation
becomes significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)). Each factor being significantly higher
than 0.01 it is indicated that Customer Relationship Management could assuredly be
160 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
Tabl e 7 Frequency analysis for criterion virtual communities
Item no. Statement Strongly
agree (%)
Agree
(%)
Disagree
(%)
Strongly
disagree
(%)
Non-applicable
(%)
21 I currently have
friends from all
over the world
on social
networking
sites
21.0 35.6 20.6 14.6 8.2
30 Ihavealways
used social
networking
sites to find new
friends
4.9 15.7 32.8 36.9 9.7
31 I feel very sad
when my
friends on
social
networking
sites do not
comment on my
posts
3.4 10.1 36.3 38.6 11.6
33 Ialwaysjoin
groups on
social
networking
sites if my
friends are in it
1.1 11.9 40.7 37.3 9.0
47 I feel very
happy, when
companies
respond to my
enquiries
7.8 28.0 15.7 26.1 22.4
Average 7.64 20.26 29.22 30.7 12.18
Mean (in %) 56
Tabl e 8 Survey results by age for the criterion virtual communities
Independent
variable
Criterion Corresponding questionnaire questions
Age Virtual
communities
(%)
Item 21
(%)
Item 30
(%)
Item 31
(%)
Item 33
(%)
Item 47
(%)
17–21 64.28 77.2 60.6 58 60.6 65.2
21–25 55.68 68 55.6 50.4 52 52.4
25–30 64.88 78.8 64.4 54.4 62.2 64.4
Tot al 60.42 73.2 58.8 54.2 56.8 59.2
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 161
Tabl e 9 Correlation of different framework factors (Pearson correlation coefficient)
Factor Measurement SM CRM Acquisition Maintenance
Social Media Pearson correlation 1 0.992 0.965 0.968
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 0.000
N268 268 268 268
Tabl e 10 One-way Anova for hypothesis
Factor Measurement Sum of squares df Mean square FSig
Social media Between groups 121.830 102 1.194 166.912 0.000
Within groups 1.181 165 0.007
enhanced through Social Media. However to fully confirm this, a one-way analysis
of variance (one-way ANOVA) has been conducted (see Table 10).
In order to test the hypotheses for this research a further one-way Anova test was
run to depict the l evel of significance of Social Media on CRM (see Table 10).
The results clearly show that there is a strong significance Social Media to
Customer Relationship Management. This is due to the significance for Social Media
is less than 0.001, which is the set-out level in the analysis of variance. This means
that the hypothesis of this research is supported:
H1 Social media has a positive impact on companies’ Customer Relationship
Management.
5 Discussion
This research analysed, whether the use of Social Media has a positive impact on
companies’ ability to enhance their Customer Relationship Management. Overall the
analysis showed that there is a significant relationship between the two factors and
that all four criterion factors of Social Media (information technology management,
communication channel, collaboration (customer engagement), and building virtual
communities/networks) are also important in this regards. These findings enabled
the verification of the proposed hypotheses.
The analysis of the positive impact that Social Media has on Customer Relation-
ship Management was verified through strong correlations between the two factors.
Also, the main criteria for Social Media to be effective in companies’ strategies were
depicted in this research as Information Technology Management, Communication
Channel, collaboration and building virtual communities. The analysis showed that
the criteria Information Technology Management as well as building virtual commu-
nities and collaboration were perceived as most significant to respondents. The results
of the research further revealed that the younger generations were the definite target
162 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
audience when using Social Media in communication strategies, which was in attune-
ment with what was stated in the literature (e.g., Heckadon, 2010; Hennig-Thurau
et al., 2010; Katona et al., 2011; Rodriguez et al., 2015; Wallace et al., 2014).
On the whole, these findings therefore highlight that using Social Media in
company strategies can effectively enhance company performance, even during diffi-
cult times as the recession. In order to investigate possibilities on how best to do so,
Sect. 3 of the questionnaire examined the respondents’ knowledge on companies
already using Social Media and to further gain insights into their interests in compa-
nies exploiting it. The literature had offered several activities of companies on Social
Media and so the respondents were asked to choose the activities they would like
companies to pursue most (see Fig. 2). Respondents were asked this question simply
to derive an entry gate into the medium of Social Media in order to enhance Customer
Relationship Management effectively.
The results clearly showed that Social Media users were most interested in
discounts, special offers and new products, which relates to what has been stated
within the literature in terms of increasing customers’ awareness towards company
offerings using Social Media (Heckadon, 2010; Sterne, 1955). The answers further-
more revealed that the respondents were very interested in receiving information
on companies, which they later elaborated on by requesting information on compa-
nies charity work, Corporate Social responsibility and policies. If companies were
to make this information available to customers on Social Media platforms, they
would be able to improve their reputation and therefore enhance the acquisition of
new customers and the maintenance of existing customers. The greatest possibility
to enhance Customer Relationship Management through Social Media however, was
4%
10%
20%
11%
5%
20%
20%
5%
5%
Send birthday greetings
Information on company
Discounts
Post about latest events
Party pictures from events
New products
Special offers
Retailing activities
Videos
Fig. 2 Activities that social media users are most likely to pursue
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 163
through being honest with customers. Survey respondents requested that compa-
nies openly display any critique or complaints they encountered by other customers,
so that they could make informed decisions. This reflected what Heckadon (2010)
had listed as a Critical Success Factor for implementing Social Media Marketing
campaigns.
Interestingly enough, 31.12% of respondents were already following companies’
Facebook pages which suggest that the relevant companies therefore have access to
all of their followers’ Social Media platforms, which increases the effective number
of people they can address by far. Furthermore 64% of all respondents were able
to name companies that were already active on Facebook, which confirms what
Sterne (1955) and Heckadon (2010) have stated on increasing customer awareness
using Social Media. Even if all the respondents were not following these companies
on Facebook, their knowledge of the companies’ sites displays the fact that they
were reached. This is most likely due to their friends on Facebook following these
companies and therefore coming to their attention.
Companies’ using Social Media platforms also benefit from the phenomenon of
word-of-mouth, which has come to be known online as a part of viral marketing,
which is also known as word-of-mouth marketing (Felix, et al., 2017; Wang & Kim,
2017). Social Media enables customers to act pro-actively when engaging with
companies (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010), which gives companies the opportunity
to integrate customers in their strategies and use their contributions to create greater
value in their offerings. By incorporating Social Media into companies’ marketing
campaigns, companies are therefore able to incorporate customer insight into their
strategies by engaging customers in conversations rather than simply addressing
campaigns at them (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010; Maklan et al., 2008).
However, the fact that Social Media as a communication channel (advertising)
was not well received by respondents lies within the fact that most Social Media
users feel that advertisements on Social Media site are disruptive to their personal
aims when using this medium (Soares et al., 2012). This means that advertisement
efforts on Social Media platform need to be constructive and informative rather than
overpowering.
6 Conclusions
Social Media has become one of the most talked-about platforms in today’s’ intercon-
nected world. It offers different opportunities for people to engage with each other and
share their thoughts and feelings as well as photos, videos and music. Even though
research has shown the profitability of using social media in marketing strategies,
some companies are still hesitant to enter this new communication platform. With
respect to this fact, the aim of this research was to determine whether social media
has a positive influence on companies’ Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
By doing so, it was hoped to eliminate any remaining doubts of Social Media’s
potential in companies marketing strategies especially during a time when recession
164 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
is persistent in the economic climate. By linking their marketing strategies to social
media and accordingly to Customer Relationship Management, this research aimed
at providing evidence, that social media can effectively enhance Customer Relation-
ship Management and that companies should therefore not dismiss this new medium
as part of their strategy.
6.1 Practical Implications
The main aims within Customer Relationship Management are to acquire new and
maintain existing customers. Due to the boom in Internet technologies, companies’
need to enter into this platform becomes evident. Social Media as a current hot
topic in company strategies poses an effective way for companies’ to connect with
their customers with low investment costs and several opportunities to interact effec-
tively. In such a competitive environment as we live in today, companies seek every
opportunity to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The recession that
has been presiding worldwide has further led to customers switching brands, which
has made Customer Relationship Management an essential tool for companies in
order to maintain customers and avoid loss of customer loyalty.
By using Information Technology Management as part of Social Media, compa-
nies will be able to develop customer-oriented products and services based on their
close interactions with customers and the insight into customer data. The market
research that is enabled through Social Media will enable companies to benefit
further from lower costs in developing new products and services. In addition to
this, it is necessary for companies to continually update their Social Media sites in
order to show customers that they care about them and further anticipate customers’
to respond even when companies post about challenges they may be facing. This
will enable companies to increase their customer loyalty resulting in longer lifetime
value and effectively enhance their Customer Relationship Management. Therefore
companies need to effectively make use of the fact that Social Media enhances
customer relationships and can be used to improve their customer experience.
6.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
Like most research studies, this study also had some limitations. Because of the
limitations of time, data that was collected in 2016 was used for this study. There
is a likely chance that the opinions of the people have changed from back then
particularly about the marketing approaches of companies on social media platforms
since frequent changes are made on these mediums and new features are rapidly added
over time. Also, the different techniques of marketing on social media platforms also
need to be assessed to gain an insight into the particular kind of techniques that can
have the most positive influence on companies’ CRM.
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 165
Appendix
Appendix 1 Research Questionnaire
166 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 167
168 A. AlShawabkeh et al.
Appendix 2 Criteria and indicators for social media
Criteria/Value Information
technology
management
Communication
channel
Collaboration
(customer
engagement)
Building virtual
communities/Networks
Customers (ITM1)
Discover trends
and shifts in the
market; SM as
market research
system (Sterne,
1955)
(A1) Send
message from
company to
customer; build
awareness
towards company
(Heckadon, 2010;
Sterne, 1955)
(C1) Use
customers’ need
to share to
company’s
advantage (e.g.,
use critique to
improve
service) (Ang,
2011)
(ITM2) Involve
customers in the
business;
Research on
customers is
conducted in
their own
interest rather
than just being
‘researched’
(Ang, 2011;
Maklan et al.,
2008)
(A2) Reaching a
large number of
customers
(Sterne, 1955)
(C2) Interacting
with customers
to assess new
ideas (Füller
et al., 2010;
Hennig-Thurau
et al, 2010;
Maklan et al.,
2008)
(ITM3)
Integrate the
personal
information
gained from SM
into strategies;
SNS as sources
for member
data, friendship
data,
communication
data etc.;
collection &
comparison to
enhance the
customer
experience
(Ang, 2011;
Ansari et al.,
2011; Payne &
Frow, 2006)
(C3) Interactive
collaboration;
customer as
co-creator of
value (Füller
et al., 2010;
Hennig-Thurau
et al, 2010;
Maklan et al.,
2008)
(continued)
The Impact of Social Media Usage on Companies’ Customer … 169
(continued)
Criteria/Value Information
technology
management
Communication
channel
Collaboration
(customer
engagement)
Building virtual
communities/Networks
Company (ITMC1) Path
of
communication:
direct
messaging or
comment
(Ansari et al.,
2011;Zsolt
et al., 2011)
(AC1) Customer
reaction (e.g.,
passed message
along) (Sterne,
1955)
(C4) Online
relationships are
formed to forge
collaborative
relationships
(Ansari et al.,
2011:725)
(CBC1) SM helps to
build social network;
Increase social capital
(Ang, 2011; Martínez
Alemán & Lynk
War tman , 2009)
Appendix 3 Criteria and indicators for customer relationship management
Criteria/Value Social structures Relationships
Success factors depicted from
the company’s perspective
(ACQ1) Increase revenue
(Sterne, 1955)
(MAI1) Improve customer
satisfaction (Sterne, 1955)
(MAI2) Involve customers in
the business (Sterne, 1955)
(ACQ3) Getting potential
customers’ attention (Sterne,
1955)
(MAI3) Identify customer
needs (Payne & Frow, 2006)
(MAI4) Reduce costs of
gaining new customers by
satisfying existing customers
(Sterne, 1955)
(ACQ5) Convince them of the
company’s benefits (leading
them into purchase) (Sterne,
1955)
(MAI5) Response to queries
(Sterne, 1955)
(ACQ6) Interaction with
potential customers (Sterne,
1955)
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