In Emerging Markets & 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 increasingly integrated into the marketing function, and EMDEs seem to be quickly finding out that it offers them relatively low-cost opportunity to leapfrog the competition in developed markets. Social media provides enormous opportunities and challenges; the platforms can help users to share personal thoughts and experiences with friends, relations, and business partners instantly. For instance, this could provide users including owners of small or large businesses unlimited opportunities to attract new customers, maintain existing customers more efficiently, low barriers to doing business, create innovative business models, and spur economic development. Firms in EMDES are using social media to influence consumers to expand. By using social technology to reach users in different market segments in ways that were impossible before, social sites such as Facebook and Twitter create tremendous new growth opportunities for businesses. Powered by social media, the public and private sectors in emerging markets can find leapfrogging solutions and work together to reduce poverty and inequality while boosting economic mobility and prosperity. It is, therefore, not surprising to observe that many firms in EMDEs are incorporating social media metrics into their marketing communications and customer relationship management activities in the quest for reaching and engaging with customers.

In view of this, the level of creativity demonstrated in producing the content (e.g., messages, pictures, videos) coupled with the perceived understanding of the shared content are more likely to elicit varying experiences among participants. For instance, features of contents advertised or shared on social media in relation to brands are likely to result in behavioral responses on the part of the customer.

Further, the authors found that consumer engagement with brands on a firm's social media platform is more likely to influence positive user-generated contents on the part of the customer. Such practices could drive and enhance customer-brand relationship. As a result, it is essential for firms and scholars to gain deeper consumer insights on why they use social media, their motivation in participating in online social media engagement practices, and the potential effects of such practices in enhancing brand performance. In this vein, the potential role of social media in marketing management is essential to understand. In addition, the authors advocate for a need to extend research on social media to shed more light on how branded social content influence consumer engagement behaviors. Further, they call for a need to deepen our understanding on the effects of contextual support of firms' social media platforms on consumer motivations in consuming, searching, sharing, participating, contributing and playing. Also, as businesses embrace social media solutions, new challenges have emerged in the corporate adoption, utilization, integration, and implementation of social media in EMDEs. Hence, the need to provide solutions to tackle the challenges of social media in EMDEs.

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 could be integrated in the firms' operational activities in creating a competitive advantage. This book seeks to provide practical guidance on the use of social media in the firm's operations. While it provides practical perspectives by addressing contemporary issues in relation to social media marketing practices, this book will also serve as a relevant teaching text in social media marketing in both undergraduate and graduate programs as well as executive training for practitioners.