Factors of communication mix on social media and their role in forming customer experience and brand image

Abstract

Building a brand is a long-term process and it also applies to the world of social media. It is said that building a good brand reputation takes years, but it can be ruin in a moment. Therefore, it is important to look responsibly at all the aspects that have a role in building a brand on social media. The actual experience with the brand on social media is able to significantly affect brand building. The study focuses on exploring brand-building relationships in the social media environment. We selected a set of factors to predict customer experience with the brand in a social media environment and then we examined the relationship between this customer experience and the perceived brand image. 476 respondents filled out the electronic questionnaire. The study puts the greatest emphasis on respondents aged 20 to 35 years. We used correlation analysis to investigate the relationships in this issue. Out of the seven investigated relationships, up to two cases with medium dependence were confirmed by the strong relevance of relationships. The results support the importance of using social media tools for branding purposes, because these tools are the ones with the greatest ability to influence the people's perception and attitude. It is also the fastest and one of the most personal ways to communicate with the customer. It happens in real time and it can convey the real emotion if performed right which all together help to trigger the user action. The findings of this study can guide marketing activities for companies to make the return on investment in social media as high as possible. The research offers a new perspective on selected factors and their role in creating social media experience and subsequently a brand image.