IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR. Sushoveeta Sahu, P.Chandini, I B.Com.(A&F),SSS Jain College for women

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1 IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR Sushoveeta Sahu, P.Chandini, I B.Com.(A&F),SSS Jain College for women Abstract During different time era s different methods of communication has developed and changed the day by day life. Social media has become the method of statement in the 21 st century, enabling us to express our belief, ideas, and manner in an absolute new way. The meteoric growth of community websites, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn etc have usher the world into a new era of social media. Social media has transformed research methods. This allows brands to communicate better with their consumers. Social media is seen by marketers today as a great opportunity to boost market share figures. Keywords: Social Media, Buying behavior, Consumer Introduction Social media marketing primarily covers activities involving social sharing of content videos and images for marketing purposes. By utilizing the social aspect of the web, social media marketing is able to connect and interact with the consumers on a much more personalized and dynamic level than through traditional marketing. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organization to implement marketing campaigns. In recent years, social media has emerged as a powerful new marketing tool. It continues to be an integral part of marketing strategies across various industries. The central aim of the research is to explain social media s impact on consumer decision making process.

2 Objective To find out the effectiveness of social media marketing, how social media marketing influences consumer buying behavior, strategies of social media marketing, Trends of social media marketing in India, challenges faced in social media marketing and future and growth of social media marketing in India. Literature Review With the advance in the internet, the interconnectivity between individuals has expanded on the internet. This development enables consumers and business to collaborate on the internet- Palmer & Koenig-Lewis, Online communities offer an opportunity to organizations to have a better customer relationship management system-ridings &Gefen, Social networking sites are considered the core of network resource for organizations that link strategic value and business performance-zhou, Wu & Luo, Research Methodology A survey was carried out as a research to determine the perceptions of the consumers regarding social media marketing. The survey was conducted in the form of web-based personal structure questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered to 125 respondents who use internet regularly. Percentage analysis tool is used to interpret the data. ANALYSIS TABLE S.no Questions No. of respondents Yes No Don t Know 1. Do you notice any offers/ads for products/services on social networking sites? Do you like to receive information on new products/services/offers via ads on social networking sites? 3. Have you ever purchased any product /services on the basis of information received through a social networking site? 4. Do you share information received via ads regarding interesting offers with your friends and families?

3 According to you the advertisements on social networking sites are: Options Informative Convenient Intrusive Short in Unnecessary details No. of response Trends of Social Media Marketing in India 1. Personalized content is the key: We Indians are conservative by nature and often not as open. Brands have realized that social media s not only about posting brand updates but also about driving engagement by creating meaningful conversations. Our country of diverse culture, language and practices, brands are developing customized content, which is both relevant and appealing. Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and E-Commerce brands like Amazon, Flipkart andsnapdeal are blending their platforms across to tap into customers preference. 2. Catchy content: Images and short format videos are gaining transaction in India. Visual rich media content clearly dominates the social media space and gains the majority of engagement with Indian audiences as more people than ever. 3. Reaching the rural: The soul of India lives in villages. With 60% of population residing in villages. To reach the under-penetrated areas, Face book has initiated the Internet.Orgproject with a vision to provide basic mobile internet services for free. Facebook is by far the social networking platform with the widest reach. Twitter has specialized its services for the Indian audiences with hashtags in regional languages. Twitter in India takes centre stage for breaking news and special events, bolstered by its partnership with broadcasters and media distributers. 4. Focus on social mobile: As Indians continues to gain success to cheaper smartphones and data plans, it is imperative that brands shift focus on social media communication to reach out to an audience that are always on the go.

4 5. Do good, tag a friend and help spread the words: Many social tagging campaigns sprung up following the huge social media success of the #ice bucket challenge#. The challenge was carried forward by tagging social connections. Back in India we had #rice bucket challenge# that involved the sharing rice with someone needy. On the other side PM Narendra Modi took a cue from this for his #swatchchbharatabhiyan# and launched a cool tagging campaign that involved cleaning up your locality, taking pictures and tagging up your friends to do the same. Suggestions to help the marketers to overcome the challenges 1. Develop a solid media strategy with well defined and realistic goals. 2. Develop and distribute content that addresses the individual need of your customers. 3. Have a clear policy on how to address negative comments. 4. Make your audience s experience on your social platforms as interactive as possible. 5. Measure your social media marketing success more by the level of engagement of your audience, your reach and your conversations and not so much by the number of fans and followers you have. Conclusion: Social media isn t about money or institutions. It s about ordinary people taking control of the world around them and finding creative new ways to bring their collective voices together to get what they want. Social media marketing is the way of promoting a website, brand or a business by interacting with or attracting the interest of current or prospective customers through the channels of social network. Consumers use social media to provide feedback about the products and services they use. It is agreed that social media is more informative, interactive and more reliable than traditional market tools. Public image of a company is also

5 build through social media. The digital world has brought the change in every sphere. Its impact on consumer s buying decisions cannot be nullified. References: Social media marketing: India trends study- Ernest & Young Research. Study of impact of social media on consumers- M. Nick Hajli. Social media marketing: Challenges in social media marketing: Social media strategy: Articles from Google scholar.