The Effects of Social Media Marketing on Online Consumer Behavior in Digital Era

Dear Colleagues,

Social media have experienced unparalleled growth worldwide in the past decade. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Youtube are increasingly being used not only to connect with friends and acquaintances but also to interact with companies and brands. More and more companies have decided to actively include social media in their marketing strategy by creating brand pages, developing content and promoting it. Product and brand decisions as well as communication and promotions need to adapt to the dynamism of social media and more research is needed to know how to effectively communicate through these platforms. As social media evolve, it is interesting to better understand what types of content (enriched content, co-creation, promotions, …) are still attracting customer attention and engagement. Influencers are also being increasingly used to promote products and brands on social media. Moreover, social media have also changed dramatically customer support services, since customers are the key element around which social media are articulated.

Encouraging consumer participation has also become a focal point of many companies and brands that wish to succeed in social media. Obtaining likes, shares and comments has become almost an obsession for many social media managers. However, companies have not yet completely understood what motivates consumers to participate in brand pages. Gaining social recognition may be an important driver of participation. Consumers are increasingly sharing product-related experiences through social media but companies have failed to incorporate these experiences into their brand pages. Understanding the selfie phenomenon may be also very useful for improving social media marketing decisions. In general, most self-related concepts (self-image, self-definition, self-disclosure, self-concept, self-brand connection) can increase our understanding of consumers’ motivations and behavior on social media.

Both original research and review articles with the objective of improving our understanding of social media marketing are encouraged. Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Social media advertising and promotions
• Effectiveness of different types of posts on social media
• Effectiveness of promotions on social media
• Integration of communication efforts through social media
• Co-creation through social media
• Encouraging positive eWOM through social media and brand pages
• Influencer Marketing
• Social recognition and self-related motivations on social media.
• The role of selfies in social media marketing
• Customer service and complaint management through social media
• Managing online firestorms on social media

Dr. Maria Sicilia
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• online engagement
• online consumer behavior
• social media marketing
• social recognition
• brand pages
• post content
• selfies
• eWOM
• integrated communication
• advertising
• promotion
• customer service