SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE
BUYING BEHAVIOR OF
THE “SMALL STORES”
CUSTOMERS
DEANNE BREGITA BSC, PAMELA RUSCH MSC AND MONIQUE EMELINA-PIETER MBA
Social Media has been playing an important role in our lives; this is not a phenomenon that is noticed only on the
island of Curaçao, but all around the world. Everything that we do nowadays revolves around or has a link somehow
with social media.
Social Media has a powerful role and great influence around the world, and this keeps growing as
the years pass by. The presence of it is everywhere. Social Media is a very popular and influential way
to interact, share and communicate with friends or for business matters (Katona & Sarvary, 2014).
According to Mount & Garcia Martinez (2014) the use of social media to connect, communicate, and
participate with consumers has expanded in recent years (Mount & Garcia Martinez, 2014). With time
this brings new innovations and influences. All these are things that we can notice and also feel. The
question is what kind of influence this brings and what are the overall consequences.
According to Andzulis, Panagopoulus & Rapp (2012) Social Media does not have a very specific
definition. Verheyden & Goeman (2013) also agree that Social Media is a vague term with different types
of views.
Social media was defined by Zsolt & Mitklos (2014) as the way in which people interact to create, share,
and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Social media differs
from traditional/industrial media and advertising in many ways, such as immediacy, permanence,
cost, quality, frequency, and reach. Likewise, without defining social media clearly, there was an
argument about all customers now being “social customers” and every communication being part
of a new association between business and customer, an integral part of CRM (customer