Impact of Social Media on Consumer Buying Behaviour
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the research
The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of social media on buying behavior of consumers. Specific objectives of the study are:
- To examine students’ perception towards shopping online.
- To examine factors that motivate student buyers to shop through social media platforms.
- To examine how social media channels have affected buying behavior of Lagos state university students.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Social media are the two-way communication platforms that allow users to interact with each other online to share information and opinions. Social media are online applications, platforms and media which aim to facilitate interactions, collaborations and the sharing of content (Richter & Koch, 2007).Social media are changing the way society consumes and contributes to the creation of information. Technology now allows individuals to easily contribute their thoughts, opinions and creations to the Internet. This has radically altered the way in which information is created and disseminated (Buhalis & Law,2008Buhalis,D.andLaw,R.2008.)Understanding the role of social media in the context of marketing is critical for both researchers and managers (e.g. Fong & Burton, 2008; Kumar, Bezawada, Rishika, Janakiraman, & Kannan, 2016; Schultz & Peltier, 2013). Most existing studies focus on particular issues, such as purchase behavior (Chang, Yu, & Lu, 2015; Kumar et al., 2016; Relling, Schnittka, Sattler, & Johnen, 2016), customer relationship management (Trainor, Andzulis, Rapp, & Agnihotri, 2014), brand management (Asmussen, Harridge-March, Occhiocupo, & Farquhar, 2013), innovation management (Gebauer, Füller, & Pezzei, 2013), and employee recruitment (Sivertzen, Nilsen, & Olafsen, 2013).Safko and Brake (2009, s.6) define social media as‖activities, practices & behavior among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media‖. According to Robinson (2007) social media are the tools used for communication that have Web 2.0 attributes that is, they are participatory, collaborative, and have knowledge sharing and user-empowering tools available on theWeb. As an effective use of time and resources, social media marketing give companies‘ better communication grounds with the consumers to build brand loyalty beyond traditional methods (Jackson, 2011; Akhtar, 2011). A study by Info-graphics puts forward that at least half of Twitter and Facebook users say they have become more likely to talk about, recommend or purchase a company’s products after they began engaged with the company on social media (Jackson, 2011).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain impacts of social media on consumer buying behaviour. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of social media on consumer buying behaviour
Summary
This study was on impacts of impacts of social media on consumer buying behaviour. Three objectives were raised which included: To examine students’ perception towards shopping online, to examine factors that motivate student buyers to shop through social media platforms and to examine how social media channels have affected buying behavior of Lagos state university students. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 students of University of Lagos state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made final year students, year four students, year three students and year two students were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
Social media has considerably affected both consumers and businesses. The most important feature of SMM is that it has created a new landscape by supporting socialization of information and has thereby forced marketers to give up their old mindset in dealing with mass media marketing. SMM is more about creating high quality contents that are consumer relevant and as such more focused towards building relationships between consumers and companies. The research shows that the position of consumer in this new marketing approach is more consumers centric because consumers are empowered. Social media marketing has offered consumers tremendous amount of accessibility and transparency of relevant information, which not only has a wide range but is also available at a faster speed. There is co-creation of value & consumers have become content generators. Social media influences consumer mindsets & their intention to buy. Customers as such create additional value through social interactions & collaborations on the internet. This relationship will be one where company and consumers are on an equal footing and can engage in a proactive relationship with both the company and the consumer benefiting equally.
Recommendation
- Be active in social media and manage them right.
- Segment their consumers based on the type of social media they use.
- Use social media for more frequent exposure, in order to attract their consumer attention and increase the brand awareness.
- Be more interactive, generate ideas from their consumers (making them feel part of the brand).
- Try to be influential through the crowd, making their products go viral in social media.
- Identify and manage the opinion leaders of the digital groups, stimulating them to positively talk about their products.
- Enable consumers to express their experiences (through reviews).
- Enable and facilitate online purchasing.
REFERENCES
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