A Review of Social Media Marketing Activities in Promoting E-WOM and Enhancing Revisit Intention via Brand Image

Social media marketing has become very important in this era of social media for many scholars from various fields of study to investigate its effectiveness, as well as for marketers aiming to implement an effective marketing plan. However, there are few studies in the services literature, particularly in the Sabah tourism context, that have investigated the effectiveness of Social Media Marketing (SMM) Activities on tourist behaviors, although Sabah is one of the most visited states in Malaysia and among the major contributing industries to the Sabah income. Additionally, brand image plays an important role in tourism as it can affect a company's future revenue, long term fund, price sensitivity, affect decision making, stock prices, competitive advantage, and marketing achievement. Yet, the relationship between SMM activities and brand image remains hazy. Even though SMM activities is identified as an important factor in building a strong tourism brand image. Therefore, to clearly understand the relationship between these variables, this conceptual paper makes a review on the brand image as a mediator on the influence of SMM activities on tourist response particularly e-WOM and intention to revisit tourism provider social media sites. This article adds to the expanding body of knowledge regarding social media marketing and customer behavior in developing countries by emphasizing the importance of every social media marketing activity in the tourism sector.