An Examination on the use of Social Media and Social Media Influencers as a Strategy for Customer Retention

In recent years the marketing industry has been facing a new challenge on how to market to the Generation Z and Millennial generation. These digital natives have grown up in the age of social media and no longer respond to traditional channels of communication. With the advent of Social Media Influencers, a new form of communication has been formed that has captivated the digital natives and influenced their purchasing behavior, redefining the brand customer relationship as these Influencers have become third party endorser who says public opinion. This paper examines the effectiveness of social media and social media influencers as a strategy for customer retention. This has been done by looking at models and statistics that give us insights into the mind of the Millennial and Generation Z consumer of today. It has been found that, they utilize social media for knowledge acquisition, status, entertainment, and business. While their purchasing behavior is based on trust, perceived authenticity of both the brand and Social Media Influencer and that these lead to an intention to buy resulting in customer retention. Tatenda Primrose Mamhare | Fan Mingyue "An Examination on the use of Social Media and Social Media Influencers as a Strategy for Customer Retention" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-4 , June 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd31218.pdf Paper Url :https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/marketing-management/31218/an-examination-on-the-use-of-social-media-and-social-media-influencers-as-a-strategy-for-customer-retention/tatenda-primrose-mamhare