The effectiveness of social media marketing tools: The case of women-owned SMEs in Malaysia

• Main Author: Tatik Sunarwatik, Mansur
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: HF5001-6182 Business
• Online Access: https://etd.uum.edu.my/6941/2/s810262_02.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/6941/3/s810262_01.pdf; https://etd.uum.edu.my/6941/

The majority of studies conducted on effectiveness of social media as marketing tools has been conducted outside Malaysia. Hence, the purpose of this study is to address the needs for research in the relationship between brand awareness, engagement, words of mouth (WOM), conversion and the effectiveness of social media as marketing tools focusing on women owned SMEs in Malaysia. To answer research question, four hypothesis has been developed namely; (i) There is a positive relationship between brand awareness and effectiveness of social media as marketing tools, (ii) There is a positive relationship between engagement and effectiveness of social media as marketing tools, (iii) There is a positive relationship between words of mouth and effectiveness of social media as marketing tools, (iv) There is a positive relationship between conversion and effectiveness of social media as marketing tools. Quantitative method has been used in this study with questionnaires distributed to women owned SMEs involved in online marketing has been used to obtain data. A total of 150 usable questionnaire has been obtained from the survey and SPSS were used to analyse the obtained data. Relationship between dependent variable and the independent variables tested using multiple regression analysis. The findings of this study shows that three of the independent variables specifically brand awareness, words of mouth and conversion has positive relationship with the dependent variable while one independent variables specifically engagement has negative relationship with the dependent variable. Limitations of the study as well as recommendation for future research were also addressed in this study.