Intl. Conference on Economics, Finance & Business, Paris

DO SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEWS MATTER? SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ACTIVITIES EMPIRICAL STUDY

MATEA MATIĆ ŠOŠIĆ, MARIJA BEČIĆ, PERICA VOJINIĆ

Abstract:

In recent years, social media platforms have been increasingly utilised and have become an indispensable communication tool for companies and users. Nowadays, user-generated content is rapidly increasing and users are becoming the main actors by creating and uploading reviews of products and services. The aim of this study is to identify differences between users’ motives in relation to their attitudes towards reviews on social media. The data was collected using a questionnaire with a sample of 207 respondents. The questionnaire was created using the Google Forms tool and distributed via social media, Facebook and Instagram. The study was conducted in April and May 2022. Multivariate statistics, factor analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used. In the factor analysis of the SMMA measurement scale, three factors were extracted: the interactivity factor, the informativeness factor and the experiential factor. The analysis of variance showed that there are significant differences between the factors and review intention and the number of reviews posted on social media, which are expected between the informativeness factor and the number of reviews. The results show the influence of reviews and the number of reviews on consumers’ purchasing decisions. Further recommendations and implications are discussed.

Keywords: social media, SMMA scale, purchase behaviour, intention to review