Impact of Social Media on Brand Loyalty: With Special Reference to Western Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

This research study is one that closely contributes to previous research studies on the impact of social media towards brand loyalty. This study empirically investigates social media and to brand loyalty in today’s changing business landscape. The aim objective of this research is to understand the impact of social media towards brand loyalty the western province of Sri Lanka, to analysis the various dimension through the relationship between social media and brand loyalty can be understood. In the outset of this research describes the development of Internet in Sri Lanka as a project initiated to the academic research community operated by the University of Moratuwa and interconnected among other institutes such as Colombo and Open University. As a result of this development SMEs were able capitalised on the low tariff connectivity to Internet. Moreover, it is highlighted an overview of various social media planform in Sri Lanka and found that there are 5.90 million Facebook users, 990 thousand Instagram users, and 264.5 thousand Twitter users in Sri Lanka. The data technique used for this study is the convenient sampling and a population of 250 respondents was selected to participate in the questionnaire formulated. 152 was considered as the sample size and it was determined from the sample size calculator used in determining the sample size for this study. The data collected from the structured questionnaire was analysed using SPSS 24.0. Descriptive statistics is adopted and Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis conducted were applied to analysis data collected from the questionnaire. The finding of the study revealed a positive significant relationship with brand loyalty (r = 0.767 p, <0.5). Findings revealed that social media brand-engagement, social media brand trust, social media brand image and social media perceived brand quality had a significant positive relationship with brand loyalty. The research concluded that Social media has a positive impact on brand loyalty in the western province of Sri Lanka.