The Impact of Social Media Branding on Developing Brand Advocates for Start-Ups

Abstract

Organizations are realizing the importance of social media and social networking sites as a communication channel for their brands. Startups, which are new small ventures, face many challenges to prosper in today's fast-paced economy. This research focuses on the challenge of building brand advocacy against the start-ups' low brand awareness and limited financing capabilities. Brand advocacy is defined as the extent to which consumers recommend the brand to their community. It is mainly characterized by high brand loyalty and strong positive electronic word of mouth. This research aims to explore the drivers of brand advocacy on social media in case of startups. The results of the will serve as the input for the second phase which follows a quantitative approach in which a survey will be undertaken to determine first, the relationship between the variables validated in the first phase and brand advocacy mediated by brand loyalty and electronic word of mouth, and second, test for demographics differences in this relationship.