The Impact of Social MediaMarketing on the Buying Decision of the Consumer

日期 : Sep 2019 - 现在

<p>By Usman Suleman</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Social Media Marketing and more particularly social networks are getting increasingly important in young consumers’ purchasing decisions, mainly because they amplify word-of-mouth. They may even become more important than advertising as a trusted source of data. However, it is important to stress the fact that, in Social Media Marketing, marketers have less control over messaging and positioning as the young consumers have taken over.</p> <p>Social media marketing (SMM) may be a sort of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking websites as a marketing tool. The goal of Social Media Marketing is to produce content that users will be exposed to and share on their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden young customers reach. It involves the use of various measures and strategies to cater to a defined target audience in order to meet a desired goal. Social Media covers  word-of-mouth forums including social networking websites, blogs, company sponsored discussion boards and chat rooms, consumer-to-consumer email, consumer product or service ratings websites and forums, internet discussion boards and forums, and sites containing digital audio, images, movies, or photographs, to call a few (Hollensen, 2011).</p> <p>Digital media has changed the way consumer extracts information and interacts with each other. Marketers and Advertisers cannot ignore the vitality of this dynamic change and have to adjust accordingly. The internet has made it a lot easier for companies to communicate their offering to the young consumers. Also, it has provided fast paced and real time insights into the consumer behavior about their offerings.</p> <p>With globalization becoming a common phenomenon, internet has allowed organizations to broadcast and publish their product all over the world in a matter of seconds which resulted in competition from all over the world that in turns improves the product at the end. Social media is a relatively recent phenomenon. Over the last decade, the planet Wide Web has seen a proliferation of user-driven web technologies like blogs, social networks and media sharing platforms.</p> <p>Social Media is a comparatively a recent phenomenon compared to other electronic mediums. During the past few years, there has been an inclination towards user driven technologies such as social networks, blogs and other media sharing platforms (Voramontri & Klieb, 2018). This has allowed the consumer to be more involved in the generation of content by means of publishing their opinions of products and creating a product or brand community (Smith, 2009). This explains the growth in the usage of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. According to Statista, Facebook has a population of 2.45 billion which is more than most countries actual population (Statista, 2019).</p> <p>The social media revolution has led to new ways of seeking and obtaining information on the multitude of products and services within the market. It has enabled young consumers to attach and discuss brands with one another quickly and simply (Powers et al., 2012). Consumer opinions on products and services are now increasingly dominated by messages in digital spaces, which successively influence opinions within the offline space (Smith, 2009). Social media has empowered young consumers, as marketers do not have any power over the content, timing or frequency of online conversations among young consumers (Mangold & Faulds, 2009).</p> <p>Social media has given young consumers the power to express their experiences and opinions of brands with freedom. They dictate the content, frequency and timing of these posts (Marigold and Faulds, 2009). Internet allows these young consumers to share this content conveniently and at a quick pace. Hence it can be deduced that social media has become the main hub of information which can be used as a tool for the launch of new product lines, enhancement of brand image, creation of brand awareness and strategizing consumer behavior (Muntinga, Moorman & Smit, 2011). With the explosion of Internet-based messages transmitted through the Social Media, they're now a main think about influencing many aspects of consumer behavior, like awareness, consideration, information gathering, opinions, attitudes, purchasing decisions and post-purchase evaluation. International marketers got to recognize the facility and important nature of the conversations being hold by young consumers using Social Media. This dissertation would study the impact of social media marketing features on the consumer purchase decision of youth.</p>