The effects of social media user attitudes towards political marketing on voter bond and behavior : The mediating role of voter satisfaction and loyalty

In recent years, political parties have been making great use of marketing science to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. In today's marketing science, it is observed that many new approaches applied in virtual environments have emerged in parallel with the technological advances experienced. New approaches emerging in marketing are developing intensively towards social media . This is because a significant proportion of society spend a lot of time in social media channels and interact with each other in those channels. Social media-based political marketing practices specifically target voters who are active social media users and they are targeted to interact with and be persuaded. But when studies in the literature are examined, it appears that the factors that influence the behavior of social media users voters are not adequately studied. This situation constitutes a significant gap in the literature. In order to fill this important gap in the literature, the main aim of the study is to examine whether the attitudes of active social media users towards political marketing have an impact on voter engagement and whether voter engagement has an impact on voter behavior, voter satisfaction and voter loyalty. For this purpose, the data needed to test the hypotheses developed were obtained by conducting surveys on 400 voters residing in Erzurum province and active social media users. In order to test the developed hypotheses, the data obtained by using hierarchical regression analysis were mediated tests. The research found that the attitudes of social media users towards political marketing had an effect on voter engagement, while voter engagement had an effect on voter behaviour. Finally, it was concluded that voter satisfaction and voter loyalty mediated roles in the impact of voter bonding on voter behavior