THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A PLATFORM FOR E-COMMERCE

Over the past quarter century there has been a shift from the traditional way of marketing to a new electronic age. This research looks at the role of social media as a platform for e-commerce. The research objectives are to determine the awareness and usage patterns of social media tools to users, to establish if social media has reduced firms operating cost and to analyze the impact of social media on customer relationship. The goal is also to show that social media has numerous benefits to the marketer if adopted in one’s marketing strategy. The primary source of information was a questionnaire. The population of this study was students of Vaasa University of Applied Sciences and employees of the marketing department of Vodafone Ghana (Head Office). A questionnaire was used to obtain information from selected sample on the research topic. A purposive sampling technique and convenience sampling technique are used. Through the analysis of the questionnaire it became clear that social media was used daily and awareness was high; This has reduced operating costs for firms in establishing and maintaining customer relationship. This information is likely to impact the marketing strategy of companies to customers and suppliers. In addition, The research revealed that e-commerce has brought about a reduction in distribution costs through the elimination of intermediaries. It also revealed that the multi-media nature and real-time capabilities of the internet have fostered an environment that is conducive for relationship building between firms and their customer