The effects of bank presence in social networks on brand trust and loyalty(Case study: Bank Melli Iran East Azerbaijan Province)

Many analysts and experts in economics, business, and business believe that social media provides a unique opportunity for brands to strengthen their relationships with customers because today's societies are dependent on the Internet. Banks, as financial institutions, or in other words, a kind of business, are no exception to this in the sense that they compete with each other over customers. In this study, the effects of Bank Melli Iran's activities on social networks on customer trust and loyalty to the brand in East Azarbaijan province have been investigated. In this regard, first a sample of 384 people from the unlimited community of Bank Melli customers in the province for research was estimated through Cochran's formula, 400 questionnaires were distributed relatively in the available cities and finally 388 questionnaires were collected, then the data were collected. They entered SPSS and Smart PLS software through descriptive and inferential analyzes through a questionnaire. After analyzing the data using structural equation method, the results showed that active brand communities in social networks have a positive effect on four variables: Customer/brand, customer/bank, customer /service and customer/customer relationships that these four variables ultimately have a positive effect on the dependent variable, which is brand trust and loyalty. The results of this study showed that the presence and activity of the bank in the social networking space has a positive effect on customer trust and loyalty to the bank brand.