EFFECTIVENESS OF DIGITAL PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOLS ON VARIOUS CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

EFFECTIVENESS OF DIGITAL PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOLS ON VARIOUS CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

Purpose- This study aims at measuring effectiveness of digital public relations tools on various customer segments. Digital public relations, an important component of digital marketing, is gaining more and more importance in the e-commerce market, so this research is significant as it is related with this developing realm. Methodology- Digital public relations tools, social media, company forum page, e-mails, company websites, blogs, are used by most of the e-businesses to manage the organizations’ reputation in the virtual life. Structured questionnaire using Likert Scale is developed by the autohors to gather data. Customers of a well-known leading telecommunication company in Turkey are chosen as the universe of the research and we got responses from 213 participants. The data is analyzed using SPSS statistical program and ANOVA tests and frequency tables are used to make analyses. Findings- We wanted to analyze how effective the company is using such digital public relation tools. The results reveal that various tools might have different effects on specific customer segments. Conclusion- It is found out that various customer segments are affected differently from various digital puclic relations tools.Thus, it is necessary for the organizations to be aware of how these tools affect various customer segments and develop digital marketing strategies accordingly to increase their marketing performance. Moreover, as traditional public relations tools keep their importance, organizations need to adapt them with the digital ones.  

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