The Impact of Social Network Media on Brand Equity in SMEs

Abstract

Given the virtual world’s controlling role in everyday life, no one can ignore its crucial impacts on the physical world. In this term social network media play a considerable role in peoples’ daily lives and business by information sharing and the impressions of friends’ comments on own view. Dealing with change, continuing to develop in the dynamic marketplace furthermore, access to information on a level never experienced before are possible benefits to companies;Social media influences companies’ strategies because of the wealth of information that customers yield while interacting on platforms; In this story Facebook with 1.55 billion monthly active users is the prominent social network among businessmen, consumers and clients. This paper aims to analysis the impact of electronic word of mouth marketing (EWOM) in social network on brand equity of “Kia gallery†contemporary jewelry design company in Iran. Thus, 350 clients, was defined as study population and their behavior in Facebook was investigated. The result of the research described in this article illustrate that the EWOM has a positive effect on brand awareness and brand image in addition they influence the consumer attitude which has impact on customer purchase intention and value of the brand.

 Key words: social network; word of mouth marketing; consumer behavior; brand equity, Social network-facebook-EWOM- brand awareness- brand image-consumer attitude-consumer behavior, SMEs