This book responds to calls for a systematic approach in understanding the transformations in the social media marketing landscape. To narrow the focus, the book takes a developing economy perspective and presents a comprehensive understanding of social media practices and how these can be integrated in firms’ operational activities to create a competitive advantage.

In emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), social media provides a technological solution to the economic challenges faced by governments, firms, and people at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Social media is often considered to be fundamentally changing the business paradigm and is increasingly integrated into the marketing function, and EMDEs seem to be quickly finding out that it offers them a relatively low-cost opportunity to potentially leapfrog the competition in developed markets.

By using social technology to reach users in different market segments in ways that were impossible before, social sites such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) create tremendous new growth opportunities for businesses. As businesses embrace social media solutions however, some challenges emerge in the adoption, utilisation, integration, and implementation of social media systems and tools in EMDEs— hence the need to provide pathways to better integrate social media into the marketing activities of emerging market institutions.

This book provides practical guidance on the use of social media in marketing management. It provides contemporary perspectives on social media marketing, and while it is aimed primarily at practitioners, it could also serve as teaching text for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programmes.