The Role of Culture in Social Media Marketing. A Systematic Literature Review

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,7, University of Bamberg, language: English, abstract: This present master thesis examines the role of culture on "Social Media Marketing" being a form of modern marketing and a bundle of marketing-related activities using social media. With the help of a systematic literature review, answers are sought to the question as to which extent cultural differences influence the effectiveness of social media marketing. The main objective is to adequately present the state of research on the interdisciplinary topic and to identify research gaps. The findings from peer-reviewed journals ascribe an indispensable value to the cultural component and illuminate the topic from different contemporary relevant perspectives. The results indicate that social media marketing is generally covered from a cultural point of view. Moreover, the insights provide valuable knowledge from both consumers research perspective and from applied social media practices in multicultural settings. However, the findings also reveal extant research gaps in several directions that need to be addressed in the near future to provide theoretical approaches and scientifically proven evidence on successful utilization of social media marketing in multicultural settings. The fact that social media plays an extremely important component in the worldwide dynamic technology development is an irrefutable fact. Companies are forced to integrate social media in the most diverse areas in order to be lucrative in the long term, to save costs and to survive in competition. Typical fields of application include all departments that deal with external corporate communication, e.g. HR for recruiting and talent acquisition, PR for professionally maintaining a favorable public image or in the marketing department as revolutionary marketing and sales platforms. According to a new study, 69% of marketing employees stated that marketing activities on social media helped to increase important marketing indicators and strengthen customer and brand loyalty. Nevertheless, social media offer great opportunities, but also hold challenges. A major challenge is to choose the right medium which depends to a great extent on the target group.