SOME-Q: A Model Development and Testing for Assessing the Consumers’ Perception of Social Media Quality of Small Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Abstract

Social media has been happening recently as one of the primary essential media to communicate between consumers and companies. At this point, interaction in social media generates an evaluation process made by consumers toward the quality of social media service delivered by companies. Therefore, social media quality becoming a critical point to discuss. This current research primarily focuses on developing SOME-Q Model for assessing the consumer perception social media quality of Small Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The exploratory factor analysis by using PLS-SEM was performed to analyze the 398 collected data from consumers of SMEs in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Surabaya who had ever made a transaction through social media, especially Instagram. The findings formulated that the four-dimensional scale of SOME-Q consisting of clarity, attractiveness, interactive and relevance enables to examine the quality of social media usage by SMEs. In building the robust model of SOME-Q, the model was also tested by examining the influence of SOME-Q toward brand awareness and brand image, in which the results showed that the SOME-Q model has a significant impact in improving both brand awareness and brand image. Finally, the present research provides a managerial application for SMEs in developing content management to maintain good online interaction with their consumers through social media.

Keywords:

• Electronic service quality
• Instagram
• marketing
• SMEs
• social media quality
• SOME-Q model

SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION CODES:

• M30
• M31

Acknowledgement

The present research is funded by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia with contract number 5179/Pk.20300/04/19 and 050/SP2H/LT/MULTI/L7/2019. Additionally, the authors also would like to thank the Center for Research and Community Services of Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Perbanas Surabaya, Indonesia, for helpful guidance.