Social Networking Impact on Customer Loyalty: Facebook Case in Erbil-Iraq/Kurdistan

Nowadays, customers’ loyalty is a key to business achievement and due to vast changes in the marketing world, traditional methods are not enough to meet companies’ needs. Thus, this research investigates the effect of social networking on customer loyalty with a case study of Facebook. Customer loyalty is characterized as a commitment to re-purchase a particular product or service in the future, in spite of external influences. For this purpose, data were collected from 170 social media (Facebook) users in Erbil city by using simple random sampling. The study has found that experience with the product, emotional or rational attachment, promotional offers and information are important factors in terms of establishing customer loyalty on the internet and especially Facebook in the city of Erbil. Moreover, the customer loyalty in this case is very low. Since social media allows firms to engage directly with the end-consumer at a relatively low cost and with a higher level of efficiency, it’s particularly important for small business with limited marketing budgets.