Abstract
Small and medium-sized enterprises – including those in the business consulting sector – are strategic for the growth of the South African economy and for the growth of marginalised economies by creating jobs and generating profits. However, the survival of SMEs is challenged by competitive pressure from international consulting firms such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, McKinsey and KPMG [8]. Small and medium-sized business consulting firms must adopt innovative survival strategies. Effective use of social media strategies is one strategy that SMEs should follow to influence brand awareness and brand loyalty and create a competitive advantage. An inability to use social media as a business strategy results in poor brand awareness, reduced sales and a closure of business. It is against this background that this study aimed to assess customers’ perceptions of social media strategies employed by the small and medium business consultancy firm, investigate the relationship between social media strategies and brand awareness, and evaluate the relationship between brand awareness. A quantitative descriptive research methodology, using a structured questionnaire was employed to collect data from a sample of 231 customers at the business consultancy. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 was employed to conduct descriptive and multivariate analysis, including mean, standard deviation, correlation and regression analysis. Overall, the findings show that social media strategies had a statistically significant positive relationship with brand awareness. The research findings hold major implications for theory and practice.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 4-22 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 20 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Social media
- brand awareness
- business consultancy competition
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science Applications
- Computer Networks and Communications