A STUDY ON IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CUNSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

Companies throughout the world are constantly seeking new ways to reach consumers. Just a few decades ago, television and print advertising were the fundamental components of marketing strategies. In the current era, these traditional marketing streams are just a small segment of the varied approaches used to market and brand products. The increasing focus on social media shaped state of the art advertising and shifted the way companies interact with their target groups. As a result, the effective use of social media has become an essential part of creating and maintaining a competitive advantage. Subsequently, companies now place considerable value on the way in which social media can be used to shape consumer brand perception and influence their buying intention. Companies integrating a strategic approach to the use of social media will have advantages over those that do not. In assessing the impacts of social media on branding and marketing approaches, an exploration of the existing literature on social media use and brand perception can help identify emerging and successful strategies for improving consumer engagement through social media. In recent years the online environment is viewed by users from a new perspective, in a commercial way. Its development and the emergence of online stores have turned users into consumers. Also the most important role of social media has changed the way consumers and marketers communicate. (Hennig-Thurau T., Gwinner K., Walsh G. & Gremler D., 2004). Informational society influences affect the consumer buying decision and product evaluations. Social media provides a new channel to acquire product information through peer communication, (Kozinets, 1999). However, with the aid of information and modern communication technologies, consumers are able to shop via Internet using several Social Media and different websites (Toomey and Wysocki, 2005). This type of shopping mode can come in several names such as online shopping, online buying behavior and Internet shopping. All names of shopping mode refer to the process of purchasing and buying products or services via the Internet using several Social Media and different websites (Li and Zhang, 2002). Social Media (SM) are web-based services which are also known as "Social Networking Sites". Social Media (SM) refer to network of relationships and interactions among different users (groups or individuals) (Kempe & Chin, 2003). Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter enable users to maintain great connections among themselves as well with others (Ellison & Kozinets, 2007) by achieving more than one task and facilitating the way of communicating and sharing different information (comments,

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thoughts, videos and images) (Kietzmann, 2011). Social Media is playing significant roles in different aspects of our lives. What is interesting in SM is that it supports users in several sectors, such as, business, marketing, advertising and education (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). From business perspective, businesses and buyers can interact directly by SM with each other, and thereby find whatever products and services they are looking for (Parson, 2013). Consumers today are progressively utilizing technology and particularly Social Media as an effective tool in their online shopping process. This process can be defined as is an electronic process that allows consumers to deal with business people and meet their purchases' needs. Pookulangara and Koesler (2011) in their study of social media marketing indicated that SM enable 25% of all consumers to post links about products and services information in their retail sites to update other users about the purchase process. Another study of Miller (2010) stated in his research of online marketing that social marketing has made very important role in persuading consumers to buy online. He found that 70% of consumers are visiting Social Media to get useful information, 49% of them made the decision to buy certain product and 60% of consumers prefer to share their information about the products with others online. However, the actual transactions of purchasing processes occur for only 7% of consumers (Miller and Lammas, 2010). Online shopping is growing everywhere and different categories of consumers are influenced by this phenomenon. For instance, the percentage of online buyers is increasing in India, China, Japan and Australia for about 87%, 85% (North Asia and Europe), 83% (North America), 81% (South and Latin America) and 53% (Africa and Pakistan) (Solorzano, 2011). The overall online purchasing process has enabled 875 million consumers to boost the percentage of other online shoppers to 40% in the recent two years due to the recommendations posted in different SM about products. The research aims at studying how the Social Media is influencing the customer behavior. The Social Media marketing tools which are useful in influencing the customer on this digital era. The second Aim of the study is to identify the factors that motivate consumers to buy online through social media.