The Role Of Social Media Marketing In Building Brand Equity: The Mediating Role Of Para-social Relationship

Social media plays an important role in developing the reputation and profitability of many businesses.It has become an important tool for companies and brands to reach consumers,interact with them,and receive their feedback on the company’s products and services.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of social media marketing forms(firm-generated content and user-generated content)on building brand equity(brand awareness and perceived quality).In addition,this study reveals if para-social relationship mediates the relationship between social media marketing forms and brand equity(brand awareness and perceived quality),and if demographic data(age and gender)moderate the relationship between para-social relationship and brand equity assets(Brand Awareness and Perceived Quality).An online questionnaire has distributed to a convenience sample of 120 Yemeni male and female.Data has collected and analysis was carried out.The findings showed that content that generated by firms and users have a positive effect on para-social relationship,para-social relationship has a positive effect on brand awareness and perceived quality,para-social relationship mediate the relationship between social marketing(firm generated content)and brand equity,para-social relationship do not mediate the relationship between social marketing(user generated content)and brand equity,and age and gender have not have a positive moderate effect on para-social relationship and brand awareness.At the same time,age and gender have not have a positive moderate effect on para-social relationship and perceived quality.These findings suggest that companies should focus in both firm-generated and user-generated content to enhance brand awareness and perceived quality,and should also focus on building para-social relationships with their customers to further strengthen these effects.