1.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Social media is changing traditional marketing communication. Customers are increasingly
using social media to search for information and turning away from traditional media such as
Television, Magazines, radio, etc. Companies need to create effective online advertising
strategies to capitalize on current market segment by incorporating effective features in online
advertising. especially in social media. This study offers theoretical contributions and conceptual
model to existing research on social media ads and consumer's purchase intention. This study
provides a new set of consumer's response towards social media ads with respect to purchase
intention. Social media reviews are one of the key areas that have emerged from social media.
Customer reviews are widely available for products and services, generating great value for both
consumers and companies. In fact, consumers are actively encouraged by firms to rate and
review products and services online. These activities produce electronic word of mouth. This
word of mouth, produced through social media advertising helps consumers in their purchase
decisions.
Online advertising is one kind of digital advertisement that has become an effective means of
marketing communication because internet access is widespread. It is the newest and fastest
growing way to advertise. The internet now provides everything from link on sites, to banner ads
on sites, to small ads on sites, to pay per click advertising, internet advertisements are unique in
the way that consumers visit the advertisements, when compared to traditional print and
Television media, where advertisements are placed in front of the viewers.
This study focuses on understanding the influences of social media advertisements that have the
primary goal of enticing customers to buy products and services. It would be valuable to know
whether the influence of social media advertisements leads to purchase of the advertised products
and services. In todays technology driven world, social networking sites have an avenue where
enterprise can extend their marketing campaign to a wider range of consumer. The tools and
approaches for communicating with customers have changed greatly with the emergence of
social media. Therefore, business must learn how to use social media in a way that is consistent
with their business plan.
Social media offers different values to firms such as enhanced brand popularity, facilitating
word- of mouth communication, increasing sales, sharing of information in a business context
and generate a social support to consumers. These are mainly through social media advertising
Therefore the popularity of social media or social communities helps to wider the concept of
marketing and it also helps to sell the marketing products at reasonable cost. So this study has
greater importance in the modern era. Marketing through social media sites is an innovative
marketing technique in which a company will create a page or group those users can choose to
join and it is also called online marketing.
Social media has occupied an important position as a communication tool. People across the
world use social media to connect with other people or organization. As customers, people share
product reviews, information about a service, warnings about a product and several information
regarding the product in the market. People have a lot of connections on social media therefore
information is consumed by many people. This information becomes a source of influence on
consumers and their buying behavior.
Research studies have shown that many people rely on the information and reviews on social
media as a guide for planning their future purchases. Social media has grown in terms of its
reach and impact. It is a huge influence on customers when they are attempting to build
awareness about a particular product. It has resulted in the evolution of social proof as a greater
force for buying decisions. Social proof has emerged due to the tendancy of people to imitate the
behavior of people around them or who have influence over them.
Marketers are making social space more transparent by showing reviews and comments which
lead to generate brand trust to the customers and thereby increasing the buying behavior of them.
Thus, social media is an inexpensive platform that gives brands instant reach to the ultimate
customers over the world. Attractive and informative content can lead the customers to the brand
effectively. Therefore it is essential to have a prominent online presence on various social media
platform. The power of social proof cannot be undermined when social media has an integral
part of buyers and sellers. Social media which includes contents, visuals, promotions has the
ability to influence the buying behavior of the consumers. The aim of every business is to
influence consumer behavior and social media advertisement is considered as an important
opportunity to influence the consumer buying behavior.

1.2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

Gordhaner (2009) has related social media marketing to the relationship marketing were firms
need to shift from "trying to sell" to "making connection" with the consumers. This explanation
of social media marketing takes us to the other side of marketing, were building relationships
with the potential consumers is the key to repeated purchases and enhance brand loyalty.
In the words of Jan & Khan (2014), social media is an innovative tool that organisations use for
creating a very strong public relation with the customer on the virtual network. Today's
consumers are more powerful and busy, therefore companies should be reachable and available
in every social media communication channel such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Blogs,
Forums at any time (Gordhamer, 2009). Exploiting the opportunities provided by the social
media communication channel is important for every organisation.
Dash (2011) explore the relevant factors applicable for online market awareness, purpose of use
and usage of social networking and concluded that college students are well aware about
different social networking sites and their use and popularity is increasing hence it is serving as a
very good medium to connect students. Therefore, marketing with the help of these sites can lay
an important role for online marketing but it is necessary to ensure product quality since user
groups reeducated.
Gurav (2008) the online marketing environment raises a series of opportunities and also
challenges for social media marketing practitioners. The audience become more fragmented and
proactive, but on the other hand the company has the possibility to combine various modes and
categories of information in a complex message. Social media also permits the enterprises to
collect, register, analyse and use customer data and feedback for better targeting online audiences
and customising the messages.
Silva et al.(2017) conducted a survey on "Advertising on social networking sites" with the
objective of ascertaining the effectiveness of users towards advertisements messages. It also
aimed at assessing the influence of social networking sites on the consumer buying behavior. An
amount of 39% increase in advertising spends on social networking sites have been forecasted
for result 2016. Result from the analysis indicated that social media is very important tool for
networking among youngsters.
Hindshaw, (2016) has studied on “Effectiveness of advertisement in social networking
sites with aim to measure both the positive and negative aspects of advertisements. He
concluded that the advertisement creators must concentrate moron the information and
social aspects in any advertising and must avoid for harm products. A questionnaire
measuring motivation, knowledge and effectiveness of advertisements
Bashar etal., (2016) have done an empirical research to understand the effectiveness of social
networking sites as a marketing tool and an effort has been made to analyze the extent social
networking sites helps consumers in buying decision making. Results of paper suggested that the
medium is growing very fast and holds huge potential but is still in its nascent stage in India.
Therefore, it is time for the companies to make effective strategies and execute them to win
larger share of business through this revolutionary medium and become the innovative firm of
coming future.
Roland Rust, Christine Moorman & Gaurav Bhalla, (2010) explored that companies uses
powerful technologies such as social media for understanding and interacting with customers as a
medium. The change in shift from the firms focused that was from profitability of products to
profitability for customer this can be measured by metrics of customer lifetime value and
customer equity.
Yadav, (2015) has made an attempt to set up the significance of social networks as an advertising
medium and evaluated the existing advertising methods that are in trend via certain case studies
and concluded that social websites are not just a tool to interact with the different people but also
medium to reach the prospective customers.
Priyanka P. (2015) studied that social media can be used for increasing customer loyalty. With
the help of continuous customer support services leads to improvement in customer retention.
New applications and social platforms will flourish and allow even greater personalization and
real- time, location-based engagements in media.

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Now a days, Social media becomes a part of person's life. Social media generally consist of face
book, WhatsApp, twitter. It has a large number of users and keeps growing everyday. It is
estimated That over 4000 million people are interacting with social media. People generally use
these social networks for chatting, sharing videos or photos etc. But sometimes they notice some
sales advertisements on these social media platforms. Big corporate spent a portion of amount on
social media advertisement. Consumers usually look forward for lot of reviews and
recommendations regarding the product and their purchases. Social media has the power to
influence potential customers from the initial stage until the stage of a purchase and beyond as
well. The problem of this study was the consumer behavior on the marketing method and the
trust and intention to buy products through social media.

1.4 RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY:

Social media marketing is a group of terms that are used to describe various forms of
online marketing that focus on social networking sites. One of the most incredible result
of social media is to add clarity to understand exactly what the consumer wants. Social
media is guide to understand what is most valued by todays consumers. Social media
marketing thus represents communication opportunities for marketers to reach wider
audience and allow for marketer to access valuable information which affects building and
maintaining consumer relationship.

1.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The main objectives of this study are:
• To study the concepts of social media advertising.
To identify the different factors that influence the customer to depend social media advertising
for making buying decision.
To verify the level of influence of social media on purchase decision of consumers.
To study the level of satisfaction of consumers relying on social media advertisement for making
buying decision.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 1. DATA COLLECTION
PRIMARY DATA: Information obtained from the original source by research is called
primary data. They offer much greater accuracy and reliability. The primary data for the present
study was collected from the respondents through the questionnaire

SECONDARY DATA: In means data that are already available ie, it refers to the data which
have already been collected and analyzed by someone else. The secondary data for the present
study was collected from the websites and journals

TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION

Questionnaire was used for collection of data

SAMPLING
The study is conducted in kottiyam town. The study covers a sample of 120 units and was
collected using convenience sampling method.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Primary data are processed and analyzed manually for preparing the report. Tabular form of
statements has been used for presentation of data. For the interpretation of data percentages has
been used.

1.7 LIMITATIONS
Mobile phone has become most necessary commodity/service, so it was difficult to define the
population in a particular place.
120 respondents cannot represent in population as a whole. So, findings may be biased.
Time plays a havoc role in data collection. So, the sample s restricted to 120.
Chances of biased responses from the customers.

1.8 CHAPTERISATION
CHAPTER 1-INTRODUCTION
It includes Introduction, Review of literature, Statement of problem, Relevance of the study,
Objectives of the study, Research methodology.
CHAPTER 2-THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK PART A:- It includes meaning of social media,
definition of social media, origin of social media, popularity of social media, many forms of
social media, features of successful social media app, advantages of social media, social media
profiles, effectiveness of social media are categorized, Advertising
PART-B:- Social media advertising-meaning, concept, best uses, benefits, characteristics,
advantages and disadvantages. Consumer behavior- types, social networks influence, online
consumer buying behavior, major factors influencing consumer buying behavior, influence of
social media advertising on consumer buying behavior
CHAPTER 3-DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
On the basis of data have been collected from users of social media through questionnaire are
used to analyse their satisfaction with social media advertising and their buying behavior.
CHAPTER 4- FINDINGS SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION
Based on the analysis and interpretation of data, certain findings and suggestions are arrived.
BIBLIOGRAPHY & APPENDIX
 CHAPTER-2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
 PART-A

A 2.1 INTRODUCTION
Social media can be defined as “a group of immes-hased spplications that build on the
ideologiest and technological foundations and thet allow the creation and exchange of generated
content. Moreover, Social Media Advertising can be defined as “An neline Ad ther incorporates
user interactions that the consumer has agree to display and be shared. The resulting Ad displays
these interactions along with the user’s persons (picture sedor name) within the Ad content”.
Advertising is very important tool in promotion mis for all kind of organizations usually it refers
to one-way communication in any mass media. The American Marketing Association define it as
the placement of announcement and persuasive messages in time or space purchased in any of
the mass media by business firms, non profit organizations, government agencies, and
individuals who seek to inform and/or persuade members of particular target market or audience
about their products, services, organizations, or ideas However, with the development of the
internet and online world especially social media environment, a lot of changes happened in
advertising, in its capabilities and functions which require a new paradigm. Regarding to L.
Tuten, there are many differences between traditional advertising and social media advertising.
First difference is the form of media, while traditional advertising tied with the “mass media”
include television, radio, print, or outdoor, advertising by social media might mean both one-to-
one advertising through permission-based, and targeted messages, or it could be mass coverage
using a display ad, when defining advertising for online media, the size of the audience should
not be used as a defining factor of advertising Second, traditional advertising must be paid
communications, it is the fact in each definition of advertising since this concept appears, on the
other hand social media advertising could be totally free and unpaid or it can be indirectly paid as
the case in some aspects of social network advertising like paid ads on Facebook. Third,
traditional advertising has been viewed always as on-way communication from the marketers to
the target audience through some traditional media, but with the world of web 2.0 it is become
truly enable for two-way or even multi-way communication between firms and consumers, and
this is the case in social media advertising and online advertising in general. Forth, traditional
advertising relied on a model of interrupting consumers lives, but consumers accepted this
interrupting sometimes because it represent a free tool to know about brands via television or
radio ads.

Α 2.2 MEANING OF SOCIAL MEDIA:-

Social media is computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and
information through the building of virtual networks and communities. By design, social medis is
internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content. Content includes
personal information, documents, videos, and photos. Users engage with social media via
computer, tablet or smartphone via web-based software or web application, often utilizing it for
messaging. While social media is ubiquitous in America and Europe, China and India now lead
the list of social media usage. Social media originated as a way to interact with friends and
family but was later adopted by businesses which wanted to take advantage of a popular new
communication method to reach out to customers. The power of social media is the ability to
connect and share information with anyone on Earth, or with many people simultaneously
Globally, there are more than 3 billion social media users. Social media is an ever-changing and
ever-evolving web-based platform.

A 2.3 DEFINITION OF SOCIAL MEDIA:-

According to Evans (2008), social media relates to self generated, authentic conversation
between people about a particular subject of mutual interest, built on the thoughts and
experiences of the participants. Therefore, social media is all about sharing and aiming at a
collective vision, often intending to other a more- appropriated or informed choice at the end.
Furthermore, social media changes over time as it allows people to generate the content in a
participative way whenever they want to add any additional piece of information. Social media
are also evolving constantly as they are part of internet high technologies, which are modified
regularly with additional or replacing features. Social media covers a wide variety of “online and
mobile, mouth-of-mouth forums including social networking websites, blogs, company
sponsored discussion boards and chat rooms, consumer to consumer e-mail, consumer products
or services rating websites and forums, internet discussion boards and firms and sites containing
digital audio, images, movies or photographs to name a few. Social networks or social media
sites, which are the Major among the social media medium, can be defining as online
communities of people who typically share a common interface or activity providing a variety of
ways of for users to interact and having the ability to facilitate communication. Social media has
gained a lot of popularity or the past few years and as a result of the popularity, other traditional
media have experienced decline in both business and popularity. Palmer and Lewis (2009)
argued that the main stream media channel have faced many challenges in recent times.That have
led to closure with TV facing down turn in their profit levels. Palmer and Lewis controlling the
performance of those traditional channels to the rise of social media in marketing and brand
managemem. As a result of completion and through economic environment, companies have
tightened their budget especially advertising budget which has shifted to online channels.
According to Forrester research study (2011) by Ernest. J. David and Coorper stern, Dernoga M,
found that companies (branch) are gradually shifting their advertising priorities to align better
with today’s buyers. Today’s buyers are tech savvy and social media maniacs. Therefore it is the
proliferation of the social media network services in brand management and marketing that bring
attention of the social media networks. In the last couple of years, different kinds of social media
networking services have emerged and currently these are innumerable social media channels
that connect people to each other. The most popular social network sites that are widely used are,
Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp etc. According to the Pew Research Center, social media users
tend to be younger. Nearly 90 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 used at least one
form of social media. Further. These users tend to be better educated and relatively wealthy, or
earning over $75000 per year.
A 2.4 ORIGIN OF SOCIAL MEDIA:-
In the year 1979, Usenet was created by Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott from Duke University, a
platform which allowed Internet users from across the world to post public messages. The period
of Social Media started 20 years earlier when Bruce and Susan Abelson founded “Open Diary” a
social networking site developed in the very initial years and which brought together all the
online diary writers into one community. The term “weblog” was first used at the same time and
was truncated to “blog” a year later. The growing availability of high speed Internet access added
to the popularity of the concept, leading to the formation of social networking sites like
MySpace(in 2003) and Facebook (in 2004) and coining of the term “Social Media”.

A 2.5 POPULARITY OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

There is a significant rise in the use of Social Media among Internet surfers. In 2007, 56% of
Internet surfers used Social Media which grew in 2008 to almost 75%. The growth of Social
Media was not limited to teenagers, members belonging to the age group of 35-44 years old,
increasingly participate as joiners, spectators and critics. The Universal McCann tracker study I
which was conducted up to 2008, measured the usage of the main social platforms across the
World among 17,000 active weh users. The number of surfers reading blogs increased from 54%
to 77% globally in just two years. The umber of surfers who had written and created blogs
increased from 28% to 45%. The consumer-driven multimedia platforms such as video sharing,
also increased from 32% in 2006 to 83% in 2006, making social media the fastest growing
platform in the history, Asian internet users are the most active users of blogs. Particularly South
Korea and China, where blogs are accepted as a form of social coenimunity. The next most
active users are in Latin America. The well established web markets of the US and Europe
demonstrate a slightly lower levels of adoptiom and a more passive approach towards creating
and sharing content. However the ‘active participation rates are increasing rapidly (Tom Smith,
2010)

A 2.6 MANY FORMS OF SOCIAL MEDIA:-

Social media may take the form of a variety of tech-cnabled activities. These activities include
photo sharing, blogging, social gaming, social networks, video sharing, business networks,
virtual worlds, reviews and much more. Even governments and politicians utilize social media to
engage with constituents and voters.
For individuals, social media is used to keep in touch with friends and extended family. Some
people will use various social media applications to network career opportunities, find people
across the globe with like interests, and share their thought, feelings, insight, and emotions.
Those who engage in these activities are part of a virtual social network
For businesses, social media is an indispensable tool. Companies use the platform to find and
engage with customers, drive sales through advertising and promotion, gauge consumer trends,
and offering customer service or support.
Social media’s role in helping businesses is significant. It facilitates communication with
customers, enabling the melding of social interactions on e-commerce sites. Its ability to collect
information helps focus on marketing efforts and market research. It helps in promoting products
and services, as it enables the distribution of targeted, timely, and exclusive sales and coupons to
would-be customers. Further, social media can help in building customer relationships through
loyalty, programs linked to social media.

A 2.7 REAL WORLD EXAMPLE:-

While social media has its positive side, many point to the platform and call out negative
features, likening its overuse to an addiction. Some contest it contributes to inattentiveness,
stress, and jealously.
National Center five Biotechnology Informatine links heavy social media use to depression.
Also, marry times, social media may be a conduit for misleading information and falsehoods.
The 2016 American presidential election has well-documented accounts of the impact of the
ability to speed false information through the platform. Such a phenomenon leverages the power
of social media, allowing anyone to reach an audience of millions with content that lacks
oversights or fact checking
The figures for the most popular social media websites as of January 2019 are as follows

● Facebook(2.27 billion users as of January 2019)

● You tube (1.98)

● WhatsApp(1.58)

● Facebook Messenger(1.38)

● WeChat (1.088)

● Instagram(18)

● QQ(803M)

● QZone (531M)

● Douyin/TikTok(500M)

● Sino Weibo(446M)

A 2.8 FEATURES OF A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA APP:-

Social media today is an integral part of the internet, and some may even argue it is the current
climate of the internet as a whole. Think of the last time you used a mobile or PC device, chances
are you were probably on one or more of the popular social media apps, WhatsApp, Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or You Tube
The numbers are also there to support this theory, according to the Pew research center, social
media use among Americans have risen from 5% in 2005 to 69% in 2016. The Digital in 2017
Global Overview research done by We Are Social, and Hootsuite also reveal that approximately
2.80 billion people now use social media frequently, this equals 37% of the worldwide
population.
The numbers are staggering and aren’t likely to slow down anytime soon. Social media is taking
over,
And the only way for a business to remain relevant is to adapt to the climate. A strategic social
media app developed for your business can give you an edge over the competition. For svpiring
app developers. Social media app development is only in its beginning stages and has a lot of
room for improvements.
To begin, it is important to know the basics of what makes a successful social media app What
features are users looking for? What do the Big social media platforms have in common? While
this answer is not entirely straightforward and can only be answered by individual
experimenting, it still holds that the successful social media apps of today have some basic
features that app developers need to adopt in building their social media apps.

1. Ease of Connectivity:
The entire point of social media is a way to bring internet users together. Before the invention of
the concept, the internet was just one vast “planet” of sorts that everyone navigated alone. Of
course, our innate human need for connection found this to be extremely uncomfortable and ever
since have discovered new ways to create convenient and quick connectivity between users.
Social media allows you to keep in touch with friends, family, and idols all over the world.
To build a successful social media app you will need to maintain or build upon this ease of
connectivity Your app would need seamless navigation features. There should be little or no
stress in signing up, login in or socialize as it is. All the major social media apps require little
effort from users to connect, and your app would have to follow suit to attract a fanbase.

2. Ability to Extensively Customize Individual Profiles:

One significant advancement experts have come to observe in social media is the gradual ability
for users to create customized profiles in other to stand out.
Once upon a time, chat rooms allowed users only to use avatars in their image displays. Today,
apps allow and expect you to use an image of yourself on their platforms. In addition, users now
have the ability to upload image or videos of their personal lives, where they have been, what
they ate, or who they are with. Of course, the latest in this trend is live videos, Facebook live,
Instagram live, Snapchat and Twitter Periscope allow users to give live updates of what they are
doing. It seems the more ability users have to customize their social media pages the happier they
are. To this effect, it may be work in your best interest to add filters, special fonts, or other
groundbreaking effects to your app that will help users create unique and exciting profiles.

3. Ability to Expand User Following:

This is one of the primary reasons Instagram has experienced so much success with its app.
Instagram gives you the exsiest access to millions of people all over the world. As a result, it is
easy to build a Gollowing on the platform, and anyone can gather thousands of fans in a
relatively short period compared to other social media apps
Mobile app developers should take a cue or two from Instagram and make it as simple as
possible for users to find a following on their platform at least at the beginning. This will not
only enhance the social image of the app but also encourage users to post content which keeps
the app relevant.

4. Choosing the Right Platform:

Mobile app developers now have the option of launching their apps on several popular platforma
such na Windows, iOS, Android, and more. It is not exactly advisable to launch on all platforma
particularly in the beginning stages of your app development.
Choose a platform that supports your features best, especially one that affords the best interactive
medium for your social media app. Also, choose a platform that supports various devices so as to
enhance the performance of the app.

5. Easy Integration with Other Social Media Platforms:

For your social media app to quickly become popular it is important to integrate it with other top
social apps like LinkedIn, Twiner and Facebook. Outbound sharing not only increases the
popularity of your app, but also grow users organically, and drive adoption. In addition to this
user should be able to directly invite their friends to use personal messaging channels like Email,
Whatsapp, SMS, Facebook and more. Deferred deep linking should also be used to develop a
personalized experience for each invitee

6. Privacy and Security:

As much as social media revolves around interaction, without the proper level of privacy and
security lines can be crossed. People can end up losing their personal information to other users
with the wrong motives. As such, advanced levels of privacy and security must be provided to
keep user's trust. Any breach in this can completely destroy the reputation of a social media app,
especially at its beginning stages. Therefore, using the best methods for maintaining security is
highly essential.

7. Notificaton and News Feed:

Any successful social media app must have the ability to compress all of a user’s many activities
into a single view, Allow easy discovery of other user’s contents, and must be powerful fos
retention. As for news feed, it is important for any social media app to generate a constant flow
of relevant content including photos, videos, and articles to enhance discovery and interaction
between users.
There are several other important features that a social media app must have. A great example is
adequate user support and consistent updates. Updating the app will fix bugs and give users
advanced features that will keep their interests long term. Users should also be able to post
reviews, update their status, share various forms of content, leave comments, suggestions, and
feedback, and like or dislike content.

A 2.9 ADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

1. Connectivity - The first and the main advantage of social media is connectivity. People
from anywhere can connect with anyone. Regardless of the location and region. The beauty
of social media is that you can connect with anyone to learn and share your thought
Education – Social media has lot of benefits to the students and the teachers. It is very easy to
educate from others who are experts and professionals. Via the social media, you can follow
anyone to learn from him or her and enhance your knowledge about any field. Regardless of
your location and education background you can educate yourself, without paying for it.
2. Help - You can share your issues with to get help and giddiness. Whether it is helping in
term of money or in term of advice, you can get it from the community you are connected
with.
3. Information and Updates - The main advantage of the social media is that you update
yourself from the latest happenings around the world. Most of the time, television and print
media these days are biased and does not convey the true message. With the help of social
media you can get the facts and true information by doing some research.
4. Promotion - Whether you have an offline business or online, you can promote your
business to the larger audience. The whole world is open for you, and can promote to them.
This makes the business profitable and less expensive, because most of the expenses made
over a business are for advertising and promotion. This can be decreased by constantly and
regularly involving on the social media with the right audience.
5. Noble - Social media can also be used for the noble causes. For example, to promote NGO,
social welfare and donations for the needy people, people are using social media for donation
for the needy people and it is a very quick way to help such people.

6. Awareness - Social media also creates awareness and innovate the way people live It is the
social media which has helped people to discover new and innovative stuffs that can enhance
 person's lives. From farmers to teachers, students to lawyers every individual of the society
can benefit from the social media and as an awareness factor,

7. Helps Govt. and Agencies to Fight Crime - It is also one of the advantages of the
social media that it helps governments and security agencies to spy and catch criminals to
fight crime.

8. Improve Business Reputation - Just like it can ruin any business reputation, it can also
improve business sales and reputation. Positive comments and sharing about a company can
help them with sales and goodwill. Since people are here to share whatever they want in the
social media, it can impact positively when good words are shared.

9. Help in Building Communities - Since our world has different religions and beliefs,
social media helps in building and participating community of own religion and beliefs to
discuss and learn about it. Similarly people of different communities can connect to discuss
share related stuffs.

A 2.10 SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES :-

There are different kinds of social media are used. The most commonly used social media
networks are as follows,

● FACEBOOK:-
Facebook was launched in 2004 and have over 800 million active users (active in September
2011) of which 350 million users access Facebook through mobile devices. An average
Facebook user is estimated to have at least 130 friends and is connected to 80 community pages,
group and events. There are more than 70 languages available on the site. It's main use is to
establish and maintain relationship in work related situations, in political affiliations or just
among friends and families. Facebook has become the most powerful tool for marketing today.
In April 2011, the company launched a new service for marketers and interested creative
Agencies which is a form of online platform (portal) that allows marketers and creative design
agencies to build brand promotions on Facebook. Facebook is now a direct competition in online
advertising and this new service has made if possible for companies such as financial times and
ABC News to create dynamic graphics or advertisement.

● TWITTER:-
Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dossey and launched that same year in July. Unlike
Facebook where one can have friends, to share different things, with twitter one has to get
connected to the latest information on what they find interesting. One has to find the public
stream that interest them and follow in the conversations. Each tweet is 140 characters in length.
One can still follow the tweets regardless of whether they do not tweet at all, and also there is no
limit as to how many tweets one can send within a given day. Through twitter business now
share their information or news faster to a larger audience large audience online following the
company. And from a strategic stand point, this has helped that uses twitter to position their
brand and also gather business insight through feedback to boost market intelligence in order to
accelerate target customers with relevant services and products or enhance business relationship
marketing (CRM) and also improved direct sales by reaching out directly to the engaged
audience on the platform.

● WHATSAPP:-
WhatsApp messenger is a freeware and cross-platform messaging and voice over IP (VOIP]
service. The application allows the sending or text messages and voice calls, as well as video
calls, images and other media, documents and user location. The application runs from a mobile
device though it is also accessible from desktop computers; the service user’s standard cellular
numbers, originally users could only communicate with other users individually or in groups of
individual user but September 2017 WhatsApp announced a forthcoming business plat form
which will enable companies to provide customer service to user at scale. By February 2018,
WhatsApp has a user base of over one and a half billion making it the most popular messaging
application at the times. WhatsApp has grown in multiple countries, including Brazil, India and
large parts of Europe.

● INSTAGRAM:-
Instagram is a free, online photo-sharing application and social network platform that was
acquired by Facebook in 2012. Instagram allows users to edit and upload photos and short videos
through a mobile app. Users can add a caption to each of their posts and use hashtags and
location-based geotags to index these posts and make them searchable by other users within the
app. Each post by a user appears on their followers' Instagram feeds and can also be viewed by
the public when tagged using hashtags or geotags. Users also have the option of making their
profile private so that only their followers can view their posts. Instagram was started in San
Francisco by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who initially tried creating a platform similar to
Foursquare but then turned their attention exclusively to photo sharing. The word Instagram is an
amalgam of "instant camera" and "telegram." Instagram is not only a tool for individuals, but
also for businesses. The photo-sharing app offers companies the opportunity to start a free
business account to promote their brand and products. Companies with business accounts have
access to free engagement and impression metrics. According to Instagram's website, more than
1 million advertisers worldwide use Instagram to share their stories and drive business results.
Additionally, 60% of people say they discover new products through the app.
 ● LINKEDIN:-
Linkedin is the world's largest professional network on the internet. You can use Linkedin to find
the right job or internship, connect and strengthen professional relationships, and learn the skills
you need to succeed in your career. You can access LinkedIn from a desktop, LinkedIn mobile
app, mobile web experience, or the LinkedIn Lite Android mobile app. Despite the professional
focus, LinkedIn is quite similar to social networking sites like Facebook. It's based on principles
like connecting to friends, posting updates, sharing and liking content, and instant messaging
other users. LinkedIn also puts a professional spin on ideas you know from Facebook. Your
profile, for example, becomes a resume, complete with work experience, accomplishments,
recommendations, and referrals from colleagues. The site also offers things you won't find in
other places, like a full-featured career board, where you can search for and apply for jobs.

● PINTEREST:-
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and
discovery of information on the internet using images and, on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and
videos, in the form of pinboards. The site was created by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and
Evan Sharp and had over 400 million monthly active users as of August 2020. It is operated by
Pinterest, Inc., based in San Francisco. The development of Pinterest began in December 2009,
The platform has drawn businesses, especially retailers, to create pages aimed at promoting their
companies online as a "virtual store from".
In 2013, Pinterest introduced a new tool called "Rich Pins", to enhance the customer experience
when browsing through pins made by companies. Business pages can include various data.
topics, and information such as prices of products, ratings of movies or ingredients for recipes, In
June 2015, Pinterest unveiled "buyable pins" that allows users to purchase things directly from
Pinterest. In October 2018, the buyable pins feature was replaced by "Product Pins" In March
2019, Pinterest added product catalogs and personalized shopping recommendations with the
"more from [brand]" option, showcasing a range of product Pins from the same business.

● YOUTUBE:-
YouTube is the world's most popular video site. In the year 2005 there were a lot of content and
photographs sharing sites and there were a lot of ways of capturing photos. However there was
not a single site through which one can share the videos. That's when YouTube was invented by
Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. Chad Hurley had studied design at Indiana
University in Pennsylvania and Steve Chen was a computer science student at the Illinois
University at Urbana Champaign. After graduation both of them started working at Pay pal in
San Jose, California. In Feb. 2005 the logo and domain of YouTube was registered by Hurley
and three months later the beta test site www.YouTube.com was launched in May 2005.
YouTube received its funding from Sequoia Capital in November 2005 and in the month of
December 2005. YouTube officially became a corporation with its office in California. The first
video which flashed on the site was "Me at the zoo" which was a 19 seconds long video. Google
identified the growing potential in YouTube and YouTube was acquired by Google for
$1.65billion in October 2006.

A 2.11 EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ARE CATEGORIZED

INTO THREE PREDOMINANT DIMENSIONS:-
• Economic measures Four components are determined are Project Management,
Promotional Budget, Marketing Budget and Co-ordination of functional groups
• Influence to Good Planning: In order to influence good planning, selection of distribution
channels, training for marketing executives and decision making are inevitable
components that influence on marketing plan.
• Ease to perform market analytics: The influence of product analysis, market analysis,
product performance, product design and performance evaluation makes convenient to
perform Market analytics

A 2.12 ADVERTISING:-
Advertising is a marketing tactic involving paying for a space to promote a product, service or
cause. The actual promotional messages are called advertisements, or ads for short. The goal of
advertising is to reach people most likely to be willing to pay for a company’s products or
services an entice them to buy.
Advertisement has become an integral part in today’s marketing scenario. In earlier times,
advertisement was not given as much emphasis as it being given today. The institute of
practitioners in advertising defines the term as, “advertising presents the most persuasive
possible selling message to the lowest possible cost. Here we have a combination of creativity,
Marketing research and economic media buying.
According to William J. Stanton, advertising consists of all the activities in presenting to a group
a non-personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored message regarding a product, service or idea.
The word advertising is a Latin word which means, “to turn attention of people to a specific
thing”. It is a paid publicity. According to Oxford Dictionary the word to advertise means to
make generally or publicity known, describe publicity with a view to increasing sales.

PART-B
B 2.1 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING:
Social media advertising is defined as a form of digital advertising that serves paid ads to your
target audience using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin,
and Pinterest. Social media advertising, or social media targeting, are advertisements served to
users on social media platforms. Social networks utilize user information to serve highly relevant
advertisements based on interactions within a specific platform. In many instances, when target
market aligns with the user demographics of a social platform, social advertising can provide
huge increases in conversions and sales with lower cost of acquisition
Β 2.2 MEANING: The term social media advertising refers to different forms of online
advertising carried out on the most common social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest,
Twitter or YouTube. High levels of user engagement and the possibility to use segmentation to
address a target audience, are the major benefits of social media advertising. Social media ads
can reach a large audience and social media advertising can be used to implement different
strategies and reach numerous goals. For instance, existing customers or guests can be informed
about special offers and promotions and social media channels can be used to engage with new
customers. Moreover, businesses can use their social media reach to increase brand awareness,
sell products and services, or generate requests and reservations.

B 2.3 CONCEPT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING:

Social media advertising, or social media targeting, are advertisements served to users on social
media platforms. Social networks utilize user information to serve highly relevant advertisements
based on interactions within a specific platform. In many instances, when target market aligns
with the user demographics of a social platform, social advertising can provide huge increases in
conversions and sales with lower cost of acquisition. The goal is to produce content that users
will share with their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden
customer reach. Social media websites allow marketers to employ a broad range of tactics and
strategies to promote content. Many social networks allow users to provide detailed
geographical, demographic, and personal information, which allows marketers to tailor their
message to what is most likely to resonate with the user. Traditional marketing channels,
companies can ensure that they are focusing their resources on the audience that they want to
target. A major strategy used in social media marketing is to develop messages and content that
individual users will share with their family, friends, and coworkers. This strategy relies on word
of mouth, and provides several benefits. First, it increases the message's reach to networks and
users that a social media manager may not have been able to access otherwise. Second, shared
content carries an implicit endorsement when sent by someone that the recipiem knows and
trusts

B 2.4 BEST USES OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING:

Provides either branding, response or a combination of both. Ads on these platforms serve three
primary purposes. They are
1. Promote the business brand.
2. Promote the business social media presence:
3. Send social media users to the business’ Web site. The ultimate goal of course is
generating new clients and new revenue. So it is up to the business to decide if a social
media advertising campaign is beneficial. Then the business must decide how the
campaign should be used to get the best return on investment for the expenditure. When
you have more funds to grow your social media marketing, an area that you can consider
is social media advertising. Social media ads allow you to reach a wider audience than
those who are following you. Social media advertising platforms are so powerful
nowadays that you can specify exactly who to display your ads to. You can create target
audiences based on their demographics, interests, behaviours, and more. When you are
running many social media advertising campaigns at once, you can consider using a
social media advertising tool to make bulk changes, automate processes, and optimize
your ads. The relationship between businesses and customers is changing with the
introduction of Social Media. Various aspects of consumer behaviour are being
influenced by Social Media. The businesses are required to develop their marketing
strategies in order to generate a genuine relationship with its customers. According to a
study Face-book had a higher amount of influence; than Twitter, on the buying behaviour
of social media users. A variety of new ways and sources of online information, that are
created, circulated and used by consumers with the intention of educating each other
about products, services, personalities and issues have been thrown open by Social
Media. Just as consumers are becoming social, the products they purchase and the
organizations they interact with have to be social as well. The companies mere presence
on the Face book or Twitter is not going to increase it’s turnover, the companies should
use the Social networking sites to change the traditional purchasing process.

B 2.4 BENEFITS OF ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS:

Social media advertising is the best advertising because of: Most channels require significant
lead time to yield an ROI (Return on Investment). For example, content marketing works best
over time after it has been able to yield backlinks and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
traction.
Some channels yield quick results but not day in and day out. For example, influencer marketing
can earn you quick results in terms of sales for low effort (though high cost). But those results
don’t continue occurring over time. Instead, you earn sales on a per post basia, and often less
each time it is posted.
Some channels are consistent but time consuming to dial in. For example, AdWords can produce
consistent results for your brand, but it takes a while to master and carn specific placement.
With social media advertising, you can have consistent sales coming in from the first day your
website is live.
For modern ecommerce sites, the ability to immediately and consistently bring in new customers
is a HUGE deal. Even if you can’t achieve net positive revenue on the initial sales referrals,
email marketing and customer retention can pay off extensively with every marginal customer.

B 2.5 CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING:-

● Tone: Social media is about honesty and being authentic. Marketers need to ensure that
the messages to the audience are credible and reliable.
● Conversation: Social media marketing generates two ways conversation where the
customer is an integral part of the marketing department. Customer opinions matter and
impact on marketing strategy.
● Validation: Buyer and consumer reviews are influential as the marketer’s claim of the
Brands features and benefits. This sets the stage for the brand to meet consumer’s
Expectation.
● Reach: Social media marketing allows marketers to reach a wider audience with more
dramatic results in far less time and lower costs.
● Control: Control is the single biggest challenge in social media marketing. The internet
allows the entire world to report what they see as they see it (in real time). All
testimonies, opinions, customer experiences (positive and negative) and customer
Messages are able to go live at any time. These messages are not always accurate nor are
they in control of the marketer and the challenge to the marketer to respond to these
messages in a professional manner.
B 2.6 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING: ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES:

● ADVANTAGES

o Cost related: The main advantage of social media marketing is cost related. The
financial barriers to social media marketing are quiet low compared to others. The
majority of social media sites are free to access, create profile and post information.
Whereas traditional marketing campaigns can cost millions of dollars, many social media
tools are free even for business use. Businesses can run highly successful social media
marketing campaigns on a limited budget. The advantage of reaching your targeted
market for little or no cash investment is substantial, and the audience wanting your
information voluntarily joins or follows you. Pay-per-click advertisements on sites such
as facebook are “geo-targeted” according to specific criteria, to reach the correct
audience. The viral nature of social means that each person who reads your post has the
capability to spread the news within his own network, so information can reach a large
number of people in a short time.
o Social Interaction:- Once the most notable phenomena of new media is how it has
increased and created new forms of social interaction. People spend more than a quarter
of their time online involved in communication activities (e.g.: e-mails, IM chats and
social networks), which is equivalent to the total time spend online for the general leisure
and entertainment. Social networking sites have become more pervasive that they are the
most popular internet destinations. Not only has new media demonstrably altered how
often people communicate online, but it has also enlarged the pool of individuals they
communicate with, and led to new ways for behaviours to be influenced. Consumer
behaviour studies reveals that individuals give great consideration to advise and
information shared online, spending more time with websites that provide third party
evaluation, and other studies indicate such information can directly influence buying
decisions, even if received from purely “virtual” sources.
o Interactivity:- Unlike watching TV or listening to the radio, the interactivity of new
media lets consumers become more than just passive recipients of stimulation.
Interactivity can be broadly described as the extent to which users participate in
modifying the form and content of a mediated environment in real time. Interactivity is
one of the defining characteristics of new media technologies, giving greater access to
information as well as supporting increased user control of and engagement with social
media content. In an online networking context, interactivity refers to a user centred
interaction with machine, messages, or other users, focusing on the experiential aspect of
networking process while interactivity can be simple in certain context (eg.: simply
filling of forms, clicking links), it can also be more involved and elaborated, such as
allowing individuals to develop online content. Studies shows that increased levels of
interactivity can lead to higher involvement and more positive attitude towards websites
 along with higher source credibility. This user interactivity enables consumers to
participate in personal social networking by selecting the content, timing and
communication act specific applications of social media empowers consumers, such that
they can take active control and perform to a communications. Active control takes place
in a social networking context and requires attention and participation from all
participating parties including individual users, group of networked people or
communities, and brands.
o Targeted Market:- Social media provide marketers with ability to target audience and
consumers based on site users personal interest and what their friends like for e.g.. list of
country music as one you interest on social networking sites; you will most likely be seen
ads about country music constructers and artists. Some sites advertising will also
highlight which country artists your friends like to provide a personal connection. With
such ‘smart’ marketing, and advertising, marketers effectively reach the people who are
most interested in what they have to offer. Furthermore, social networking earnable
word-of-mouth to promote products beyond what advertising along does.

● DISADVANTAGES:-

1. Time Intensive:- As the name implies, social media is interactive and successful, two
way exchanges take commitment. The nature of marketing changes in social networks,
with the focus placed on establishing long term relationships that can turn into more
sales. Somebody has to be responsible to monitor each network, respond to comments,
answer questions and post product information the customer dreams Valuable.
Businesses without a service to manage the social networks will find it difficult to
compete.
2. Trademark and copyright issues: When using social media whether via third party
outlet or a company’s own social media platforms, marketers should regularly monitor
the use of their trademarks and copyrights. Companies should monitor their own social
media outlets as well as third party social media platforms to ensure that those providing
contents through the media outlets are not misusing their intellectual property. Internet
tracking and screening services are available to monitor the use of your business marks
and the copyrights on third party sites, including checking social media sites for profile or
user names that are incidental or substantially similar to your companies name pr brands.
3. Trust, Privacy and Security Issues:- Using social media to promote ones brand,
products or services can also implicate trust, privacy and data security issues. It is
important for companies to aware of these issues and take appropriate measures to
minimise their exposure to liability related to personal data collection, use and
maintenance. Far of online credit card fraud has been one of the major reasons customers
have not done more extensive online buying moreover, privacy concerns have led to a
public relations. Social media companies like facebook and twitter have their own
 privacy policy those gives their use of customer data and third party conduct on the social
media with respect to personal data. Marketers using third party social media outlets
should ensure that their marketing campaigns do not encourage consumers or any other
parties to engage in practices that would violate the social media company’s privacy
policy and marketers should also ensure that they are abiding by the policies as well.
Companies that administer their own blocks or other social media platforms should also
maintain comprehensive policies that disclose the companies data collection, use and
storage practices, and any responsibilities that third parties have regarding privacy and
data security. Trust, which is closely related to security, is a very important factor in the
online buying process. In general you cannot feel, smell or touch the product.. Brand trust
usually contributes to a reduction of uncertainty. In addition, trust is component of the
attitudinal component of loyalty. So it is obvious that loyalty in general and brand trust in
particular can help to overcome some of the internet disadvantages e.g. overcome
perceptions that the internet is an unsafe, dishonest and unreliable market place. In fact,
these perceptions are still stopping some potentialCustomers from doing business on the
web. A third party approval is a tool to generate trust.
4. Negative Feedback:- Social media in way converts consumers into marketers and
advertisers and consumers can create positive or negative pressures for the company, its
products and services, depending both on how the company is presented online and on
the quality of products and services presented to the customers. Consumer generated
product reviews, images and tags which serve as a valuable source of information for
customers making products choices online, have increased rapidly on the internet and
have had a great impact on electronic commerce following the emergence of Web2.0
technologies. One aspect of social networking that is especially damaging to marketing
campaigns is negative post responses. Unhappy, customers or industry competitors are
able to post disparaging or effective pictures, posts or videos and there is not much a
marketer can do to prevent these occurrences. Still, negative or other non constructive
feedbacks cannot be ignored. Social networks must be managed efficiently enough to
immediately respond and neutralise harmful posts, which takes more time
5. Discussion: The online marketing environment raises a series of opportunities and also
challenges for social media marketing practitioners. The audiences become more
fragmented and proactive, but on the other hand, the company has the passivity to
combine various modes and categories of information in a complex message. Social
media also permit the enterprise to collect, register, analyse and use the customer data
and feedback for better targeting online audiences and customising its messages. In fact,
the specific characteristics of the internet and social media applications are making the
implementations of integrated online marketing both inevitable and efficient for an online
approach. The cost related factors, social interactions, interactivity, targeted market
opportunities, and customer services are excellent features for organisations to adopt a
proactive reactive attitude and to succeed in social media marketing. On the other hand,
downside of social media marketing such as time intensive, trademark and copyright
issues, trust, privacy and security issues, user generated content (UGC) and negative
feedbacks from customers are major barriers facing bu social media marketers.
 According to designing and implementing in specific models of integrated social media
marketing can integrate these characteristics. The message communicated online should
be first infused with core corporate values, then adapted to the online strategy And tactics
of the organisation, and finally customised for a specific combination of Targeted
audience and online channel. The selection of the appropriate communication mix needs
to take into account the characteristics of social media marketing

B 2.7 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR:

Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual customers, groups or organizations select,
buy, use, and dispose ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the
actions of the consumers in the marketplace and the underlying motives for those actions. The
study of consumer behaviour assumes that the consumers are actors in the marketplace. The
perspective of role theory assumes that consumers play various roles in the marketplace. Starting
from the information provider, from the user to the payer and to the disposer, consumers play
these roles in the decision process. Consumer Buying Behaviour refers to the actions taken (both
on and offline) by consumers before buying a product or service. This process may include
consulting search engines, engaging with social media posts, or a variety of other actions.
Marketing success or failure of a company depends on target consumers’ individual and group
reactions expressed in the form of buying patterns. Since customer is the reason why any
organization exists, it is necessary to understand the customer and study the pattern of his buying
behaviour. The study of consumer behaviour is very essential in the field of marketing as it helps
firms to construct smarter marketing strategies by getting an insight about what affects the
decision making of consumers. The purpose of this post is to analyse the theoretical aspects of
consumer buying behaviour and the factors that influence it. In addition, customer relationship
management (CRM) databases have become an asset for the analysis of customer behaviour. The
study of consumer behaviour is the study of how individuals make decisions to spend their
available resources-money, time and effort-on consumption-related items. Thus, Consumer
behaviour can be defined as “the activities and the actions of people and organisation that
purchase and use economic goods and services, including the influence on these activities and
actions.”

B 2.8 TYPES OF CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR:

A consumer’s buying decision depends on the type of products that they need to buy. Consumer
buying behaviour is determined by the level of involvement that a consumer shows towards a
purchase decision. The amount of risk involved in a purchase also determines the buying
behaviour. Higher priced goods tend to high higher risk, thereby seeking higher involvement in
buying decisions. There are four type of consumer buying behaviour.

1.Complex buying behaviour

2.Dissonance-reducing buying behaviour
3.Habitual buying behaviour
4.Variety seeking behaviour
1. Complex buying behaviour:-

Complex buying behaviour is encountered particularly when consumers are buying an expensive
product. In this infrequent transaction, consumers are highly involved in the purchase decision.
Consumers will research thoroughly before committing to invest. Consumer behaves very
different when buying an expensive product or a product that is unfamiliar to him. When the risk
of buying a product is very high, a consumer consults friends, family and experts before making
the decision. In complex buying behaviour, the buyer will pass through a learning process. He
will first develop beliefs about the product, then attitudes, and then making a thoughtful purchase
choice.

2. Dissonance-reducing buying behaviour:-

In dissonance-reducing buying behaviour consumer involvement is very high. This might be due
to high price and infrequent purchase. In addition, there is a low availability of choices with less
significance differences among brands. In this type, a consumer buys a product is casily
available. Consumers will be forced to buy goods that do not have too many choices and
therefore consumers will be left with limited decision making. Based on the products available,
time limitation or the budget limitation, consumers buy certain products without a lot of research.
Marketers should run after-sale service camps that deliver focused messaging. These campaigns
should aim to support consumers and convince them to continue with their choice of their brand.
These marketing campaigns should focus on building repeat purchases and referrals by offering
discounts and incentives,

3. Habitual buying behaviour:-

Habitual Buying Behaviour is depicted when a consumer has low involvement in a purchase
decision. In this case the consumer is perceiving only a few significant differences between
brands. When consumers are buying products that they use for their daily routine, they do not put
a lot of thought. They either buy their favourite brand or the one that they use regularly – or the
one available in the store or the one that costs the least.

4. Variety seeking buying behaviour:-

In variety seeking consumer behaviour, consumer involvement is low. There are significant
differences between brands. Here consumers often do a lot of brand switching. The cost of
switching products is low, and hence consumers might want to try out new products just out of
curiosity or boredom. Consumers here, generally buy different products not because of
dissatisfaction but mainly with an urge to seek variety.
 5. Impulsive Buying Behaviour:

This type of behaviour is exhibited by the buyer when he sees the product and cannot resist from
buying it. E.g. cloths, jewellery etc.

B 2.9 SOCIAL NETWORKS INFLUENCE ON CONSUMER BUYING

BEHAVIOUR :-

➤ Online Word-of-Mouth Communication: An informal means of communications, (such as

communication with friends, family members and co- workers), much of what you discuss is
related to products and information about different products or services. Once you ask your co-
workers where they bought their dress or recommended new restaurant to your friends, you are
involving Word-Of- Mouth (WOM) communication. Many choices of consumers are made
within different social group and even one consumer decide on their own, word-of-mouth from
other people can influence them. Word-of-mouth in traditional communication theory considers
us possessing powerful influence on consumers, purchasing decision behaviour in every steps
especially information search evolution of alternative, and product choice. Word-of-mouth is
also can be described as engagement of consumers in positive or negative communication or an
outcome of satisfaction or dissatisfaction experiences. WOM is a person-to-person
communication, regarding to brands, products, services, companies and organisations that have
an impact on consumers, purchase decision. This type of communication is more reliable from of
marketing can be an efficient tool. Past research has shown that WOM has more impact than
traditional marketing tools. Social influences for instance WOM can change people's feelings,
actions, opinions, or behaviours. Someone's direct recommendation posses power and have
impact on purchase decision. Although WOM is powerful especially once consumers are
unfamiliar with products. It can be also harmful for companies when negative WOM occurs or it
can be rumours. Negative and positive WOM is easy to spread, especially online.

➤ Consumers Interactions in Online Social Networks:- Now days, consumers have taken a role
for spreading's opinions through online social networks such as facebook rather than being
messages from markets. On the online social networks, consumers can share experiences,
opinions and knowledge therefore they can interact easily with one another through online social
network. Online interactions and recommendations influence consumer's product choices. Online
social networks provide a place for consumers where they can share their product opinions either
positive or negative with one another social interaction. It means they can share their own
recommendations, opinions and compare their experiences with other consumers.
B 2.10 ONLINE CONSUMER'S BUYING BEHAVIOUR:

This research intends to study the impact of social media advertising on online consumer's
buying behaviour. The adoption of advanced technologies have changed the manner in which
people buy a product or choose a service. The Consumer behaviour of online consumers is
posing a great challenge to the marketing managers to develop the right digital (product
promotion) strategy that meets the changing needs and retain the competitiveness in the
marketplace. Various aspects of consumer behaviour including information acquisition,
awareness, attitudes, opinions, purchase behaviour and post purchase communication and
evaluation are influenced by Social Media. Online consumers are unwilling to read large
amounts of data. They prefer brief but complete information while seeking the key benefits of a
product or service. Integrated timesaving features like pop-up descriptions, photo galleries,
product comparison etc. are always valued by the online consumers. Product/Service reviews are
more preferred over automated recommendations. Buying decisions of consumer products,
vacations and movies are more influenced by online information. It is very important for the
organizations to know online customer's expectations and reactions to advertisements, in order to
attract and to retain them (online customers). Knowledge of consumer behaviour is critical to
develop an appropriate advertising strategy. It is very difficult to understand the consumers;
rather it is a complex and multi-dimensional process. Consumers may say one thing and do
another. They may respond positively to influences or advertisements and may change their mind
at the last minute. Therefore gaining the correct knowledge about consumers is extremely
important before planning an advertising strategy. This research tends to throw a light on the
effect of Social media advertising on the various types of consumer buying behaviours like
Complex, Variety seeking, Impulsive, Habitual and Dissonance buying behaviour.

B 2.11 MAJOR FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR:-

Consumer buying behaviour is influenced by many different factors. A marketer should try to
understand the factors that influence consumer behaviour. Here are 5 major factors that influence
consumer behaviour.

1. Psychological Factors

2. Social Factors

3.Cultural Factors

4. Personal Factors

5. Economic Factors
 1. Psychological Factors:-

Human psychology is a major determinant of consumer behaviour. These factors are difficult to
measure but are powerful enough to influence a buying decision. Some of the important
psychological factors are:

i. Motivation

ii. Perception

iii. Learning

iv. Attitudes and Beliefs

2. Social Factors:-

Humans are social beings and they live around many people who influence their buying
behaviour. Human try to imitate other humans and also wish to be socially accepted in the
society. Hence their buying behaviour is influenced by other people around them. These factors
are considered as social factors. Some of the social factors are:

i. Family

ii. Reference Groups

iii. Roles and status

3. Cultural Factors:-

A group of people are associated with a set of values and ideologies that belong to a particular
community. When a person comes from a particular community, his/her behaviour is highly
influenced by the culture relating to that particular community. Some of the cultural factors are:

i. Culture
ii. Subculture
iii. Social Class
 4. Personal Factors:-

Factors that are personal to the consumers influence their buying behaviour. These personal
factors differ from person to person, thereby producing different perceptions and consumer
behaviour. Some of the personal factors are:

i. Age

ii. Income

iii. Occupation

iv. Lifestyle

5. Economic Factors:-

The consumer buying habits and decisions greatly depend on the economic situation of a country
or a market. When a nation is prosperous, the economy is strong, which leads to the greater
money supply in the market and higher purchasing power for consumers. When consumers
experience a positive economic environment, they are more confident to spend on buying
products. Some of the economic factors are:

a. Tax Rate.

b. Exchange Rate.

c. Inflation.

d. Labour.

e. Demand/ Supply.

f. Wages.

g. Law and policies.

h. Governmental Activity
B 2.12 INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ON CONSUMER
BUYING BEHAVIOUR:

Social media, which includes the contents visuals, promotions, discounts and influencers, has the
ability to influence the buying behaviour of consumers. The effects of social media on consumer
behaviour cannot be ignored by brands and businesses. Social media is a huge influence on
consumers when they are attempting to build awareness about a particular product. When people
face a problem, they start searching for a solution. Social media has resulted in the evolution of
social proof as a greater force for buying decisions.

Social proof has emerged due to the tendency of people to imitate the behaviour of people
around them or people imitate people who have influence over Happy customers tend to go
about praising the products with likes, shares, reviews and comments on social media. Marketers
are making social space more transparent by sharing reviews, comments, likes, tweets and pins
of their happy customers to generate brand trust and increase conversion rate. Many social media
users have signed up for social media groups/forums that they are interested in. When consumers
see promotions, discounts and deals on social media, it influences their buying behaviour.
Consumers are more likely to buy when they get recommendations from a person they trust.
Celebrities and popular people inspire their audience and influence their buying behaviour. The
effects of social media on consumer behaviour cannot be ignored by brands and businesses.
Consumers who are influenced by social media are 4 times more likely to spend more on
purchases. Moreover, the influence can be so high that 29% of consumers are more likely to
make a purchase on the same day of using social media. As social media continuously reaches a
wider audience, social media advertising has made it possible for hyper focused targeting and
retargeting. This allows brands to make more strategic marketing strategies that reach their
market while maximizing their resources. Social media influences consumer mindsets and their
intention to buy.
 CHAPTER-3

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

INTRODUCTION:

This chapter gives an account of the analysis followed and interpretation arrived at are explained
The main objective of the study is to know the influence of social media advertisement on
buying behavior of consumer. To fulfill the need for information both primary and secondary
data were used for the study. For the study data are collected from consumers through the google
form. The important tools used for the study are:

CODING AND TABULATION

Tabulation means a systematic representation of numerical data in columns and rows in

accordance with some features or characteristics. A table makes the data more specific and it
enables the reader to make quick comparison.

The diagram used to represent coded data in different diagrams.

❖ PIE-CHART.

In pie diagram, different segment of a circle represent contribution of various components to the
total.

Percentage analysis is calculated by using the formula

No. of respondents/total respondents*120.

 CHAPTER-4

FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION

 FINDINGS

Based on the analysis and interpretation of data collected through questionnaire, the major
findings

a. Mostly used social media platform is Whatsapp. About 45% of consumers use whatsapp
And 25% of consumers use youtube.

b. The consumers around 62.5% partly aware about the advertising through social media.

c. Most of the consumers around 61.7% get information about social media advertisement
through Internet

d. The consumers spend 1 hour in social media around 29.2% and spend 3 hours around
29.2% people. So most of the consumers spend 1 hour and 3 hours.

e. 33.3% of consumers have two social media accounts and 29.2% uses one account.15.8%
uses more than three social media accounts.

f. The mostly watched social media account for advertising purpose is YouTube and
Instagram. 45% uses YouTube and 33.3% uses Instagram for watching advertisement.

g. The consumers around 53.3% sometimes give responses to the messages from the social
media marketers and 34.2% consumers never respond to the messages.

h. Majority of the consumers looks for a review before buying the product.

i. The consumers mostly prefers to buy clothes through social media advertisement.
j. Better price is the most attractive feature in social media advertisement.

k. The consumers around 74.2% share information from social media advertisement to their
friends, relatives etc.

l. The trust worthiness of social media advertisement is partly agreed by 58.3% of the
consumers.

m. 71.7% of consumers are being influenced by the social media advertisement on the
buying decisions.
n. Level of income is a factor which partly influence the buying behavior of consumers.
o. Around 76.7% of consumers are satisfied with the social media advertising and 23.3%
are not satisfied with social media advertising.
 SUGGESTIONS

Based on the findings of the study the following suggestions are made with a view to improve
social media advertising.

● Establish a strong customer base to build trust with online followers.

● Do not ignore any comment posted on social media because it is the feedback about a
product

● Adopt innovative techniques in social media like free downloadable files, use audio in
your content, use high resolution photos in order to gain a wider attention of the
consumers

● Strict cyber laws should be adopted; in order to protect the consumers from exploitation.

● Design advertisement which attract the customer views and ads are very much
informative to them.

● Make them beware of advertisements which are fraudulent in nature.

● Social media advertising adopts engagement strategies like share contents and comments
of customers, conduct polls and surveys etc to increase customer loyalty.

● Social media advertising should retain the existing customers and to attract new
customers.

● While conducting the study it was found that price is the major satisfaction element for
buying the product through social media advertising. Hence try to offer products at more
economical rate.
 CONCLUSION

The study titled “Influence of Social Media Advertising on Buying Behaviour of

Consumers” shows how social media advertising influence on the buying behaviour of
consumers. From this research we found out that today the majority of consumers are connected
to social media and they have huge impact upon the consumers. Their purchase decision,
shopping trend, brand trust depends on the information they get from social media advertising.
According to literature review, Information, Interaction, Entertainment and Credibility are the
common features of social media advertisements that influence consumers purchase intention.
The study concludes that consumers who frequently depend on social media platforms are more
likely to be influenced by social media advertisements while making purchase decision.
The social media advertising provides an effective and powerful platform for consumers to
communicate with each other and with the company. Social media has influenced consumer
behavior from information acquisition to post purchase behavior. Most of the customers prefer to
buy readymade garments through social media. Social media advertising provides timely and up
to date information about the products and services to a wide range of customers. The main
advantage of using social media advertising is that the people can access information from
anywhere, any time without any geographical barriers. Hope this study will be an inspiration for
future studies on Social Media Advertisements.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS & JOURNALS:

⮚ Esther Hepziba. R and Dr. Florence John, an Exploratory Study on the Influence of
Social Media Marketing Strategies on Customer Engagement. International Journal of
Marketing and Human Resource Management, 8(3), 2017, pp. 1-8.

⮚ Dr. Priya Grover and Rama Krishna Mandan, Analysing Role of Social Media In
Consumer Decision Making For Purchase of Auto brands In India. International Journal
of Management, 8(1), 2017, pp. 73-83

⮚ Dash A.K (2011). “Use of social networking sites by college students and its implications
for marketing: A case study in Tripura”. Indian journal of marketing 68-76

⮚ D’silva.B, Bhuptani R, Menon. S and D’silva S (2011) “Influence of social media

marketing on brand choice behavior among youth in India: An empirical study” presented
in international conference on technology and business management, march 28-30, 756-
763.

⮚ Armelini.G and Villanueva G.J (2011), “Adding social media to the marketing mix”,
IESE insight, no.9 pp 29-36

WEBSITES

▪ www.wikipedia.com

▪ www.facebook.com

▪ www.socialquickstarter.com.
▪ www.worldviewer.com

▪ www.shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in.

APPENDIX
 QUESTIONNAIRE

“A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

ON THE BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERS” – WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO KOTTIYAM TOWN,

Respected Sir,

As part of our project we B.Com students of M.M.N.S.S College, Kottiyam would like to gather
some information from you for the successful completion of our project work.

L.NAME :

2.ADDRESS. :

3.CONTACT NO :

4.GENDER. : □ MALE
□ FEMALE
5.EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION : □ MATRICULATION
□ PLUS TWO
□ GRADUATION
□ PG & ABOVE
6.OCCUPATION : □ SELF EMPLOYED
□ GOVT EMPLOYEE
□ PRIVATE JOB
□ PROFESSIONAL
 □ OTHER JOBS

7. AGE. : □ 15 TO 25
□ 25 ΤΟ 35
□ 35 TO 45
□ ABOVE 45
8.MONTHLY INCOME : □ <10000
□ 10000-20000
□ 20000-30000
□ 30000-40000
□ ABOVE 40000
9.Do you have any social media account?

□ Yes □ No

10.If yes, Which social media platform you use the most?

□ Facebook
□ Whatsapp
□ Instagram
□ You tube
□ Others
11.Are you aware about advertising through social media?
 □ Fully aware
□ Partly aware
□ Less aware
12.From where do you get information about social media advertising?

□ Friends
□ Relatives
□ Internet
□ Other media
13.How much time you spent in social media?

□ 1 hour
□ 2 hour
□ 3 hour
□ more than 3
14. How many social media accounts you possess?

□1
□2
□3
□ more than 3
15.Which is the social media application you watch for advertising purpose?

□ Facebook
□ Instagram
□ Youtube
 □ Pinterest

□ Others

16.If others specify?.......................................................

17. How often do you respond to the messages received from social media marketers?

□ Regularly
□ Sometimes
□ Never
18. State whether you look for reviews of product before buying product through social media
advertising?

□ Always
□ Sometimes
□ Rarely
□ Never
19. What product's advertisement you come across most frequently in social media?

□ Electronic
□ Jewellery Cosmetics
□ Clothes Others
20. Which factor that attract you to social media advertising rather than conventional
advertisements?

□ Better quality
□ Better price
□ Better presentation
 □ Convenience of time
21. Have you ever share information from social media advertisements about a product to your
friends, relatives etc?
□ Yes □ No

22.State your opinion regarding trustworthiness of social media advertisements?

□ Fully agree
□ Agree
□ Partially agree
□ Disagree
□ Fully disagree
23. State whether social media advertisements influence your purchase decision?

□ Yes □ No

24.If yes what is the level of influence?

□ Highly influential
□ Partly influential
□ Less influential
25. Are you satisfied in social media advertising?

□ Yes □ No