THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN PERSONAL SELLING

Abstract

  The article shows that the global network, Internet, is socializing at a very high speed, and this is one of the main trends in the modern online system.  The audience of social mеdia growing rapidly both in the world and in Georgia. This growth was facilitated by the fact that social media went beyond teen entertainment. Social media today is a platform for communication, study and work where people of different generations began to join.
  This article explores the importance of social media for marketing. It is noted that nowadays social media marketing has become an important component of online marketing, which has shown its effectiveness for companies targeted at the target audience. Social media marketing applications and platforms drive customer engagement, collaboration, and content sharing. The role of social media marketing in personal sales is also analyzed and the main problems associated with it are identified. With social media technology, sellers have a unique opportunity to build, influence and manage individual relationships with customers. Social media technologies help sellers engage customers through information sharing, interactivity, and problem-solving. Social media is an essential tool for salespeople to use to build customer relationships. However, there are not enough criteria for determining the effectiveness of the use of social networks by sales personnel.  In this regard, studying the role of social media marketing in personal sales is one of the most pressing issues. Although some work has been done recently in the area of consumer behavior in Georgia, the issues of consumer behavior concerning personal sales in the Georgian market are still poorly understood and requires proper scientific development. Based on the above, the purpose of this work was to determine the attitude of Georgian consumers to social media marketing activities carried out by personal sellers, for which marketing research was conducted.
  The research was carried out in two stages based on qualitative and quantitative research methods. At the first stage, a qualitative study was carried out, which included a focus group and in-depth interview methods. At this stage, hypotheses were formulated and priorities were set for further research. In the second stage, we used the customer survey method, and as a research tool, we chose a questionnaire consisting of several structured questions. The survey was conducted using electronic and personal interview methods. A systematic random sampling method was used.  The confidence interval is 95% and the margin of errors is set to be equal to 4%. The survey was carried out with   1022 respondents aged 18 years and more, which represent 0.03% of the total population of Georgia.  The study area was different cities of Georgia: Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Batumi, Rustavi, Sachkhere, Ambrolauri, Gori, Zugdidi, Senaki, Poti, and Kvareli. Based on this the survey results were analyzed using statistical software SPSS (version 21.0) for windows.
  Marketing survey showed that the majority of respondents (70%) actively use social media for personal sales. In this regard, Facebook is the leader among the most used social media platforms.  The survey showed interest, reliability, and satisfaction of the respondents from the information provided by the websites related to personal sales. Marketing research has shown that the social media activity of salespeople is a very important factor for consumers when making a purchasing decision. Based on the analysis of variance, statistically significant values were obtained, which reflect the influence of consumer interest, awareness, trust and satisfaction on social networks associated with personal sales on their purchasing decisions.