Effect of social media in b2b marketing: investigation of e-WOM effect in oil and gas sector in Qatar

Abstract

The sweeping and drastic advancement of the Internet are an element touching diverse divisions of business, such as modifications in the marketing sector. The significance of social media communications in the advertising setting cannot go without being noticed. An essential aspect of social media communication, which significantly impacts product promotion and marketing, is electronic word of mouth, which consist of client-to-client communication concerning the brands and products that impacts the purchase decisions of the consumers. Although there exists an extensive investigation about the effects of eWOM in marketing generally, only few studies focus on the influences within the gas and oil industry and even fewer within the gas and oil industry in Qatar. Also, a study by Abitol, A., Meeks, J., and cummings, R. G, titled “Does Oil and Goodwill Mix?: Examining the Oil and Gas Industry’s Impact on Stakeholder Engagement on Facebook” and published in Environmental Communication in 2018 showed that the top oil companies, albeit using social media, are inept in effective engagement of stakeholders through the social media platforms. in depth knowledge has been gathered on this particular topic based on the different views of different researchers. Their different views have been discussed on existing relevant and authentic research studies. The research purposes to examine the influence of social media in business to business promotion by conducting an inquiry of eWOMin the gas and oil sector in Qatar. The potential remedies to the adverse impacts of eWOM will also be established. Consequently, the current study will present significant contributions to research as well as the management of the gas and oil sector in Qatar. The study will also provide significant alterations in the management of the oil and gas industry as it offers managers with an in depth understanding of both the merits and demerits of eWOM in the industry. This study mainly used primary sources of data based on the respondents from the Qatar oil and gas industry. The specific methods utilised to collect the data included sampling methods, observations, questionnaires, and interviews. The current study found out that the eWOM strategy promotes the acquisition of new customers as well as brand building. The study also found out that the positive results of eWOM strategy include an increase in brand knowledge and awareness, improved brand trust, and unwavering brand loyalty. The current research also found out that eWOM strategy affected brand loyalty more than it affected brand knowledge and awareness and brand trust. The findings from this research indicate that marketing teams need to spend much time on social media to promote eWOM with particular attention to achieve marketing goals of improving loyalty, trust, and awareness as well as knowledge of the specific brand a company deals within oil and gas industry. However, because of the limitations of the study, particularly in the geographical coverage, future research should increase the scope of the study by increasing the number of participants derived from other regions so that the outcome of the study can reflect the broader target population. The aims an objective of the research have been detailed. Six layers of the research onion and the entire details of the research data collection have been included here. Strong knowledge about the different observational processes as well as different data collection techniques. The detailed information about the research participants has been provided. Using the Cronbach Alpha, the reliability and validity of the entire interview sample has been tested. The process of questionnaire development, key measurement parameters and other specifications are included. It emphasized on the discussion of samples, organizations, marketing departments, size of the sample, sampling techniques adopted as well as the procedure through which the samples were recruited. It even provides insight on the control of quality in the data collection process. It establishes the validity and reliability assessment of the obtained data. Further added theoretical evidence in the light of the present findings and highlighted empirical findings dictating B2B and industrial-specific elements in the contribution of social media marketing in Qatar’s gas and oil industry.