The Impacts of Social Media Marketingon Gen Z During the COVID-19 Period

Abstract

Gen Z, as digital natives, has caused a shift to e-commerce and promoted further development of social media during the pandemic, so that has become the most promising group of customers. The marketers plan to design social media marketing strategies collaborating with two trending topics, social issues and influencers, which were further exposed and developed during the pandemic for Gen Z. This research tells marketers, merchants and educators how to utilize trending topics during the pandemic to attract Gen Z. The questionnaire, which contains 16 specific questions, states change in consumption habits of 336 Gen Zs before and after COVID-19. Its results demonstrate the increase of e-commerce overall and in specific fields which actively interact with social issues and influencers during the pandemic. Furthermore, it concludes that trending topics, such as social issues, influencer marketing and live commerce, profoundly affected Gen Z's view of the world and caused consumption behaviour variation, generating either positive or negative word-of-mouth.