The Role of Social Media in the Purchase of Books: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam’s Publishing Industry

Abstract

The remarkable growth of social media has proven to influence the publishing industry. Social media has become an important marketing tool for publishers and booksellers, and it has been increasingly used by customers and readers. The objective of this paper is to explore the role of social media in the customer decision-making process with regard to the purchase of books. Data were obtained from 313 customers of major bookstores in Vietnam. The results demonstrate that the majority of customers use social media to gather user-generated content, such as customer reviews and comments, and information about promotions. They also reveal that social media provides the buyers emotional values including fun and the feeling of engagement with the related buying community. Moreover, customers believe that social media plays an important role in the post purchase stage as its allow customers to share their opinions and experiences with others. The findings of this study provide important implications for publishers and book distributors both domestically and internationally. These findings would assist them in developing and implementing effective social media marketing strategies.