Social Media Marketing Strategies Used by Small Retail Businesses

part of their SMM strategy. The time of day was a factor in effective customer 
engagement. Posting social media content during early morning hours or late at night 
had 20% higher engagement rates (Sabate, Berbegal-Mirabent, Cañabate, & Lebherz, 

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2014). Lo et al. (2016) found that restaurant deals posted on Thursdays had the highest 
rates of return than any other day of the week. P4 expressed that posting at specific times 
of day was key in capturing the most attention by saying, “I try to post at the right time 
on each of the platforms. Instagram is definitely at night; between 5 and 7 o’clock. So I 
really try to remember to post to Instagram during that timeframe. Facebook is in the 
middle of the day.” Peak times for maximum effect for Facebook and Instagram were 
between 12 pm and 4 pm, while most responses to postings on Twitter occurred between 
4 pm and 8 pm (Srinivasan et al., 2016). All study participants developed successful 
content creation and delivery strategies that allowed them to maximize customer 
engagement. 
Emergent Theme 3: Customer Engagement and Retention 
Google searches for the phrase customer engagement went from 0 prior to 2007 to 
over 6 million by 2017; however, research in customer engagement is lacking 
(Harmeling, Moffett, Arnold, & Carlson, 2017). With the increased usage of social 
media, marketing experts changed communication methods and included social 
networking sites in their business strategies (Dijkmans et al., 2015). Marketers must 
understand how to leverage social media platforms to engage customers. P5 stated that 
engagement strategies should be adaptable to meet the changing needs of customers.
Marketers should pay close attention to customer responsiveness to certain engagement 
strategies to determine effectiveness and adjust accordingly.
Retailers used social media in-application messaging and notifications as another 
method to communicate and engage with customers (Zhu et al., 2014). Benefits of 

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customer engagement included brand loyalty, trust, and satisfaction (Zheng et al., 2015).
Customer engagement improved value co-creation (Jaakkola, & Alexander, 2014) and 
business leaders created engagement strategies that leveraged and maximized this 
phenomenon. There was a positive correlation between customer engagement and 
product knowledge (Keng et al., 2014). Marketers should design strategies that focus on 
improving customer relations and that involve heavy engagement within multiple online 
communities (Yap & Lee, 2014).
The goal of customer retention was to forge long-term relationships with active 
and new customers that were mutually beneficial (Alshurideh, 2016). Table 3 shows the 
study participant’s Instagram followers, who represent a variety of existing and 
prospective customers. Study participants were concerned with customer retention 
strategies such as providing excellent customer care and positive interactions. P1 noted 
that customers’ needs changed over time and it was important to reevaluate business 
practices to account for those changes and to incorporate new customer preferences.
Koosha and Albadvi (2015) concluded that retaining existing customers and acquiring 
new customers were both important to long-lasting businesses. A strong social media 
presence increased brand awareness and trust and positively affected the ability of 
businesses to retain customers (Srinivasan et al., 2016).
Srinivasan et al. (2016) concluded that SMM and brand trust positively influenced 
customer retention, which had a strong influence on market share. Repeat customers 
shared their positive experiences with others and were thought of as trustworthy by their 
peers (Alshurideh, 2016). Satisfied customers were more likely to have brand loyalty and 

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recommend business through positive word of mouth (Biedenbach, Bengtsson, & Marell, 
2015). P4 had more face-to-face interaction with customers and developed engagement 
strategies that created brand trust, credibility, and customer loyalty. Referred customers 
had higher contribution margins and retention rates than customers acquired using other 
strategies (Van den Bulte, Bayer, Skiera, & Schmitt, 2018). All study participants 
explained that word-of-mouth advertising generated business from prospective 
customers. P4 offered incentives to existing customers when they made referrals and saw 
a significant increase in new customers and revenue. Customer retention was critical to 
business survival (Alshurideh, 2016). Study participants agreed that long-term customer 
relationships were an important part of their business strategy.