Effect of Social Media in B2B Marketing: Investigation of E-WOM Effect in Oil and Gas Qatar

The sweeping and drastic advancement of the Internet are an element touching diverse divisions of business, such as modifications in the marketing sector. The significance of social media communications in the advertising setting cannot go without being noticed. An essential aspect of social media communication, which significantly impacts product promotion and marketing, is electronic word of mouth, which consist of client-to-client communication concerning the brands and products that impacts the purchase decisions of the consumers. Although there exists an extensive investigation about the effects of eWOM in marketing generally, only few studies focus on the influences within the gas and oil industry and even fewer within the gas and oil industry in Qatar. The research purposes to examine the influence of social media in business to business promotion by conducting an inquiry of eWOM in the gas and oil sector in Qatar. The current research also found out that eWOM strategy affected brand loyalty more than it affected brand knowledge and awareness and brand trust. The findings from this research indicate that marketing teams need to spend much time on social media to promote eWOM with particular attention to achieve marketing goals of improving loyalty, trust, and awareness as well as knowledge of the specific brand a company deals within oil and gas industry.