THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON PURCHASE INTENTION: THE CASE OF REAL ESTATE COMPANIES, ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of social media marketing activities on customer purchase intention in the case of real estate companies in Addis Ababa. An explanatory research design along with quantitative research approach were utilized within this research, where self-completed questionnaires were distributed online. It considered five social media marketing dimensions namely Interaction, Trendiness, Customization, electronic Word of mouth and Trust. A sample size was selected using convenience sampling technique. The data were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The analyses had been done based on the primary data collected through self-administered questionnaires from a total of 328 respondents. The major findings revealed how social media marketing dimensions affect purchase intention of real estate companies’ customers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The research found that social media marketing activities positively affected customer purchase intention in the context of real estate industry. Electronic word of mouth, trust and interactivity had relatively the highest effect on purchase intention. Whereas, trendiness and customization had also positive and statistically significant effect but relatively lower impact on purchase intention. Finally, all the five proposed hypotheses were supported as all the five dimensions of social media marketing activities had statistically significant effect on the purchase intention. The marketers of the real estate companies should facilitate access for customers to share their positive word of mouth to their social media mates. Besides, it needs to post and share reliable and trustworthy information to the users. Further research could investigate how social media marketing activities influence other industries and also investigate other different consumer groups.