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It has been a challenge to map the efficacy of marketing communications in building stronger brands on social media. Given the paucity of research in this area, the present study offers a holistic model that maps the effect of social media marketing (hereinafter SMMEs) on consumer response via building brand equity and brand trust. This study was conducted on customers of major brands of smartphones in India. The data were collected from 318 consumers who visited fan pages of the selected brands of smartphones. The current study examines how SMMEs influence customer behavior via brand equity and trust. Additionally, the study examines how brand equity and brand trust interact during the process. The current study's findings indicate that brand equity partially mediates the effect of SMMEs on customer response. On the other hand, SMMEs do not succeed in converting brand trust into customer response. Further, brand equity fully mediates SMMEs' effect on brand trust. Finally, the results also show that the effect of brand equity on customer response is partially mediated by brand trust. Toward the end, study dwells on its practical implications and limitations.

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PurposeThis paper aims to explore the influence of e-reputation, destination image and social media marketing efforts (SMME) on the intention to visit among tourists. The relationships are examined through the lens of the stimuli-organism-response (S-O-R) theory.Design/methodology/approachThe responses were recorded from 209 domestic and international tourists who stayed in five-star hotels at Khajuraho, a UNESCO world heritage site in India. PLS-SEM was used to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe findings revealed a significant positive relationship between SMME, e-reputation and destination image. The results also indicated that destination image fully mediated the relationship between e-reputation, destination image, SMME and visit intention.Practical implicationsThe research would enables tourism organizations to develop strategies and reap benefit from the information posted and shared by tourists on various social media platforms and gain a competitive edge over competitors.Originality/valueTesting the relationship between e-reputation and destination image as a mediator between SMME and intention to visit is a relatively novel idea. Previously, no attempt had been made to measure the influence of e-reputation related to destination image and intention to visit as supported by the S-O-R theory. This study provides empirical information on destination image and e-reputation building and the role of social media. It helps tourism managers create social media marketing strategies.

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