Social Media Micromarketing and Customers’ Satisfaction of Domestic Airlines in Nigeria

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate the effect of social media micromarketing on customers' satisfaction in the domestic airline industry in Nigeria. Specifically, the study measured the effect of social media micromarketing on customers' willingness to recommend service to others (word of mouth communication), customers' loyalty and retention and lastly determined if overall customers' satisfaction differ with the type of social media technology. A stratified sample of 391 travelers drawn from two domestic airlines operating in two states (Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State) in the South-South Geo-graphical Zone of Nigeria were used for the study. Three hypotheses were formulated to guide the research and the statistical significance of the variables in the three hypotheses were tested using simple regression analysis and one way analysis of variance. The study revealed significant relationship between social media micromarketing and the customers' satisfaction variables: customers' willingness to recommend service to others, customers' loyalty and retention. It also shows that overall customer's satisfaction differs with the type of social media technology. It was therefore suggested that in order for airlines in Nigeria to benefit maximally from their customer orientation philosophy, their social media platforms should be upgraded to include other technologies that are not currently in operation.

Customer retention and the mediating role of perceived value in retail industry

“…Social media has nowadays become very attractive to many individuals due to its strengths and benefits as a communication tool in helping both companies and their customers to establish long-lasting relationships (Hanaysha, 2016;Sano, 2014). Social media is defined in the literature as a group of communication networks and mediums that are online in nature and created in order to facilitate information sharing among different users in an interactive way (Esu and Anyadighibe, 2014). Edosomwan et al (2011) also conceptualized social media as a method of online communication in which social networks and blogs are used to increase the efficiency of interaction, communication, and sharing of information and contents among individuals.…”

Impact of Social Media Marketing, Price Promotion, and Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Satisfaction

“…Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, Watson, and Seymour (2011) defined social media marketing as a means of online communication through which individuals share and exchange information with each other irrespective of their locations. Social media was described in the literature as a set of channels and mediums of communication that are web based or operated online which were primarily designed for facilitating information exchange among individuals/users in an interactive way (Esu & Anyadighibe, 2014).…”

Determinants of Consumer Attitudes Towards Social Media Advertising: Evidence from the Turkish Airline Industry

“…There is a large body of literature that has addressed marketing activities on social media in the context of airlines. Some of these can be listed as follows: social media usage of airlines (Hvass & Munar, 2012), social media user groups (Punel & Ermagun, 2018), social seating acceptance (Koch & Tritscher, 2017), brand awareness and brand image (Seo & Park, 2018), customer satisfaction (Esu & Anyadighibe, 2014), consumer perceptions (Knoblich, Martin, Nash, & Stansbie, 2017), organizational performance as an outcome (Parveen, Jaafar, & Ainin, 2015), social media strategy (Spil, Effing, & Both, 2016), purchase intention (Alnsour, Ghannam, Al-Natour, & Alzeidat, 2018) and customer loyalty ( Lee et al, 2018). Punel and Ermagun (2018) stated that social media research on airlines is divided into three main streams: creating strategies to involve customers in social media, examining the potential of social media as an information source, and measuring customers' perceptions of social media.…”