Abstract

The current dissertation is a collection of three essays in the context of social media challenges. As social media (SM) has become an essential tool for businesses, it has also brought new possibilities for marketers to connect with their customers. Social media marketing (SMM) has gained increasing importance in recent years, but it also poses several challenges for individuals and organizations.
Essay 1 presents a comprehensive review of the challenges of SMM by examining more than 80 publications from 2007 to 2021, categorizing them based on different metrics, and extracting a theoretical framework of common SMM challenges. This research highlights the need for decision-makers to identify and assess these challenges to better allocate resources and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of SMM.
Essay 2 focuses on the beauty industry in Iran and identifies the main SMM challenges faced by companies in this sector. Drawing on the theoretical framework developed in essay one, this study uses a Delphi survey to gather data from eight marketing and SMM managers and practitioners from various Iranian beauty companies. The findings highlight the most challenging aspects of SMM in this industry, including coordination across different company functions engaged in SMM, maintaining security and privacy of company channels and customer data, and limited IT resources of some companies in adopting SMM. The results of this study provide practical implications for beauty industry practitioners and contribute to the academic domain of SMM and business marketing practice in the beauty industry.
Essay 3 focuses on the key factors influencing the selection of social media influencers (SMIs) for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study uses interviews and survey methodology to identify and evaluate the key factors influencing the selection of desired SMIs for SMEs. The findings indicate that engagement, SMI traits, content relevance, compensation, and SMI workstyle are the most significant factors that positively influence SMEs' choice of SMI. This study provides a framework for future work to assess, compare, and select the most influential SMIs in different organizational contexts and helps marketers choose SMIs who resonate well with designated customers to enhance poFsitive brand association and increase product sales.