Title: Social media marketing and consumer behaviour in the new normal: the relationship between content and interaction

Authors: Ebru Çil; İsmail Erkan; Emmanuel Mogaji

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Izmir Katip Celebi University, Izmir, Turkey ' Department of International Trade and Business, Izmir Katip Celebi University, Izmir, Turkey ' Department of Advertising and Marketing Communications, The University of Greenwich, London, UK

Abstract: This study examines whether brands' changing social media marketing activities (SMMA) have an impact on consumer responses in the 'new normal' period. A new interaction-oriented model was created by combining Godey et al. 's conceptual model with Dabbaus and Barakat's social media stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model. The new model was confirmed through structural equation modelling (SEM) based on surveys of 421 participants who use the internet. Interaction plays a critical role between SMMA and consumer response. The most influential factor on content quality is found to be informativeness, in spite of entertainment being the least influential factor. Further, this study finds that the interaction has a positive influence on brand preference, brand loyalty, purchase intention, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Although SMMA has previously been researched, the lack of research on the changes that occurred during the COVID-19 period has made this research necessary.

Keywords: new normal; COVID-19; consumer behaviour; interactivity; content quality; S-O-R model; consumer response; social media marketing activities; SMMA; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2023.133315

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2023 Vol.19 No.3/4, pp.328 - 349

Received: 06 Jul 2022
Accepted: 08 Sep 2022
Published online: 12 Sep 2023 *