The Emergence of Social Media as a Contemporary Marketing Practice

Abstract

In this era of rapid technological change, Social Media has emerged as a key marketing practice in the ICT sector in India. In this chapter, the authors examine the emergence of Social Media as a marketing practice, its application in Relationship Marketing and Market Research and the influence of these on Customer Satisfaction in a B2B market. This research integrates Social Media with the widely prevalent Marketing Management and Relationship Marketing paradigms. A web based survey was used to collect data from a sampling frame of ICT firms in India. Factor analysis evidenced the emergence of Social Media as a unique and distinct factor. It also clearly shows the use of Social Media for Relationship Marketing and Market Research purposes by these ICT firms. Multiple regression analysis showed a significant positive relationship between the independent variables - Social Media, Relationship Marketing and Market Research and the dependent variable Customer Satisfaction.