The Influence of Social Media Marketing and Electronic Word of Mouth in Increasing Brand Trust at Benny & Associates Architecture Studio
Keywords:
Electronic Word of Mouth , Social Media Marketing , Brand Trust , Digital Communication , Professional ServicesAbstract
Building brand trust is essential for professional service firms amid digital communication and competition. Although previous studies have confirmed the positive roles of social media marketing and electronic word of mouth (E-WOM) in shaping brand trust, limited research has examined their combined effects in the architectural services industry, particularly in the Indonesian context. This study investigates the influence of social media marketing and E-WOM on brand trust at Benny & Associates Architecture Studio in Medan, Indonesia. A quantitative research design was employed using survey data collected from 75 clients selected through saturated sampling. The collected data were analyzed using multiple linear regression after passing validity, reliability, and classical assumption tests. The findings reveal that both social media marketing and E-WOM have positive and significant effects on brand trust. E-WOM demonstrates a stronger influence than social media marketing, indicating that client reviews and recommendations play a more prominent role in developing trust in architectural service providers. Together, both variables explain 65.9% of the variance in brand trust. These findings suggest that integrating consistent social media communication with effective online review management can strengthen customer trust in professional service firms. This study contributes to the growing literature on digital marketing and brand trust by providing empirical evidence from the architectural services sector in an emerging economy and offers practical insights for improving digital communication strategies
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Copyright (c) 2026 Wilbert Sia, Hommy Dorthy Ellyany Sinaga, Irvan Rolyesh Situmorang, Johnny Chandra
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