AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON WHETHER FACEBOOK PROMOTION CAN DELIVER VALUE TO INDIAN START-UPS?

Startups face challenges in investing large amounts of money in business promotion due to resource constraints and operational size. Hence, business promotion strategies like advertising, public relations, sales promotions, billboards, and event sponsorship are generally avoided by startup companies. Instead, Startups tend to employ social media strategies to run promotional campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, among others. However, there is a paucity of research to understand whether such promotional campaigns are delivering the desired value and able to achieve the objectives set by the startups. The present study makes an endeavor to explore whether promotions through social media are effective in delivering significant outcome to startups. Therefore, this study aims to empirically investigate whether Facebook Promotion is delivering value to Indian startups. To conduct the research, cross-sectional data has been collected from 100 startup located in different cities in India. The data has been analyzed following the “Partial Least Squared-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM)” technique. The findings from this study may contribute towards the literature on understanding the importance of social media strategies in marketing campaigns for startups. Furthermore, this study may enhance clarity about the value obtained by startups, particularly during the early stage of their existence. Consequently, the study findings may help startups plan their investments in promoting their products and services on social media, in general, and Facebook, in particular.