Abstract In social media marketing, it is common practices to leverage social ties to promote business. However, whether do social ties matter for buyers' purchase behavior? Combining the transaction utility theory with the motivations of social interaction, we conducted an empirical study by using the trading data of a large social media platform (i.e., WeChat). The following conclusions are reached: the buyers with strong social ties with sellers reveal higher purchase frequencies than those with weak social ties. However, such marketing effects of social ties can be attenuated by buyers’ attitudes towards social media marketing, for buying higher-priced goods. Finally, we also provide suggestions for social media marketing practice and insights for future research.

中文翻译：

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社交关系对购买频率有影响吗？买家对社交媒体营销态度的作用

摘要 在社交媒体营销中，利用社交关系来促进业务是常见的做法。然而，社会关系对买家的购买行为是否重要？我们将交易效用理论与社交互动的动机相结合，利用大型社交媒体平台（即微信）的交易数据进行了实证研究。得出以下结论：与卖家社交关系强的买家比社交关系弱的买家显示出更高的购买频率。然而，社会联系的这种营销效果可能会因买家对社交媒体营销的态度而减弱，以购买价格更高的商品。最后，我们还为社交媒体营销实践和未来研究的见解提供建议。