Social media and human need satisfaction: Implications for social media marketing

Yu-Qian Zhu and Houn-Gee Chen

Business Horizons, 2015, vol. 58, issue 3, 335-345

Abstract: U.S. companies spent $5.1 billion on social media advertising in 2013, but a recent Gallup survey revealed that these advertisements had no influence on the majority of U.S. consumers’ buying decisions. For social media marketing to be effective, we argue that social media marketing efforts need to be congruent and aligned with the different needs of social media users. To this end, this article presents a typology of current social media services using the following categories: relationship, self-media, collaboration, and creative outlet. We further elaborate on how each type of social media caters to basic human needs, and provide implications for social media marketing based on the need-congruence lens.

Keywords: Social media; Need satisfaction; Social media typology; Social media marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:3:p:335-345

DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2015.01.006

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