Effect of social media on buyer behaviour

Business Research Project

Table of Contents
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
Research Problem...................................................................................................................1
Challenges faced by companies to influence buyer behaviour through social media advertising
................................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

LITERATURE REVIEW
It is defined as paper that involves present knowledge including substantive findings as
well as the theoretical contributions to particular research area. It is critical analysis of segment
of published knowledge body by classification, comparison and summary of the prior research
related studies. The literature review should be summarise, evaluate and explain the previous
investigation. It should give theoretical base for a research and helpful in determine research
nature (Duggan and et. al., 2015). For collection of information, secondary resources has been
used through an investigator. Books, internet sources, articles and journals are the various
sources which help in gathering information regarding particular area.
Research Problem
This report is taken in to consideration on 'Effect of social media on buyer behaviour'. It
is related to providing the deep understanding regarding social media and also the behaviour of
customers. On the other hand, social media gives better opportunities to use of wood- of- mouth
marketing to widespread audience, advancing the brand awareness and supporting consumers
communications by using the social network. The main resercah problem is related with the
issues which faced through the people in using the social media and it can be related with leak
personal information, hacking consumers data and many others. Under this, there will be discuss
about the issues which are faced through the firms in order to influence buying behaviour with
the help of using social media advertisement.
Challenges faced by companies to influence buyer behaviour through social media advertising
As per the view point of MATTHEW HUDSON (2019) Social media is explained as the
interactive computer- mediated technology helps in facilitate the creation and also sharing of
information, ideas and the interests through networks and virtual communities. This is concerned
with the websites which enable users to develop and also share the content in social media
networking. This is main online channel of which dedicated to the community based interaction
and Input (Couldry, 2012). In this, modern era there are more people which using social media
technology to connect with each other or share their opinions and thoughts. It is an integral part
of life and organisation uses mainly for market the products, promotion, connect with existing
consumers and also foster the new business. In addition to this, social media marketing is helpful
in take benefits of social networking to aids an organisation for enhance exposure of brand and

reach to large number of consumers. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. are the large number of
social media networks which people mostly used. On the other hand, social medial is mainly
concept fore socialising information by social media and information flow has increased. It is
related to the practices and activities between communities of the people which collect online for
share the information and knowledge by using the conventional media. Social media networking
is related to explain the online advertising whose focus on the sites of social networking. The
main benefit of using social networking advertising site is that the advertisers can take the
benefit of information about the users (Perrin, 2015).
As per view point of Smriti Chand (2015), Consumer behaviour is explained as
psychological procedure that leads decision of consumer to purchase services or products. It is
branch which deals with various stages that customer goes by before buying services or products
for use. Consumer behaviour study anticipate that customers are the actors at marketplace. It is
related to decisions processes and actions of people which buy services and products for the
personal consumption. There is a requirement to marketers to understanding purchasing
behaviour of customers for products to do better. This is necessary for the marketers to
understand what prompts customer to buy specific goods and stops from purchasing. Under this,
it is a responsibility of an organisation to analyse the needs or wants of consumers and focus on
satisfying them through manufacturing high quality of products or services (Van Dijck, 2013).
According to opinion of Michael Pütter (2017), Social media has influenced the buying
behaviour but Duangruthai Voramontri and Leslie Klieb (2019) argues that social media
develops the negative impact on people and according to them their personal data and
information are not safe on the social media sites. So, these things develop the negative impact
on their mindset. Relationship between the customer decision making as well as social media
present that social media impacts technology effects attitudes, consumer purchasing
interventions and brand attitudes. Social media can develop brand attitude which impact
purchasing behaviour. In order to retain the customers for long time period, it is necessary for an
organisation to develop trust factor. In this modern era, there are large number of consumers
using different social media sites and some of them make perception of purchasing products on
the basis of other people review (Solomon and et. al., 2014). The reviews can be negative or
positive and it influence the mindset of people. Social media is main factor to influencing
consumer behaviour but Facebook has more influential power. The people read reviews on social

media about specific product and make their decision to purchase. In this, time spends through
customer on social media is directly proportional to how much social media impacts behaviour
of customers to purchase goods. Impact of the social media will strong in future as change in the
social media will impact directly the purchasing pattern of customers (Schütte and Ciarlante,
2016). Social media helps in provide appropriate information regarding services or product
which firm can manufacture. It aids in develop the better relations with consumers. In this
present time, consumers take their time to find information to make decision and not to be based
on information that provided through advertisement offline or online.
The social networks have become place where the stone cutters flock to show loyalty
towards lifestyle and brands which they represent. The organisations have Facebook pages and
communicate with the customers as people. It is rise of the social network which has made
intimate connections among people and organisations (Gössling and et. al., 2012). Through using
social media technology, consumers can able to get the information about effectiveness or
benefits of products and make their purchasing decisions at large. On the other hand, enhancing
focus on the global develop and also use of expansive marketing technology, promotion and
advertising have lead to the shifts in way under which the firms focus on customers. The main
focus of promotion and advertisement is on emotional, social and psychological factors which
influencing the behaviour of consumers and components which should be incorporates in to the
technology- based marketing. The social media gives better opportunity for use the word- of-
mouth marketing in order to widespread the audience advancing the brand awareness and
supporting consumer- to -consumer interactions by large social network. On the other hand,
positive posts or comments on the social media can develop positive effect but the negative
comments should be controlled through the controlled through organisations using social media
for the marketing purpose, at similar time, the customers participate in discussion as well as
exchange branding process (Cohen, Prayag and Moital, 2014). In addition to this, relationship
among the consumer decision making and social media shoes that it effects on purchasing
intention of customers as well as advertising attitudes. The social media can create the brand
attitudes which impact on buying behaviour. Better reputation of product or brand can lead
customers to make the better decisions on purchases. When friend or known person of
consumers share on social media about product or service then it influence the buying decision.
Under this, advertisement on social media is given through commercial sources impact buying

intention and the consumer brand attitudes. For organisations, it is easy way to interact with the
customers. The social media permits the consumers to interact to the representative of brand
directly. Development of use of social media impact the behaviour of customer since there is a
consumption that concerned with interactions in the platforms (Fotis, Buhalis and Rossides,
2012). The social media have transformed the marketing through shifting measurability of
impact and methods under which the customhouses share, examine and also select information.
Social media for an instance online forums, networks and blogs becomes more stronger and the
firms realise that marketing through social media advertising driven customers to engage in to
two way communication.
There are some negative and positive effect of social media advertisement on customer
behaviour mention below:
Positive impact
Improve brand recognition- The advertising by using social media helps in enhance
brand recognition. The continuous posting on different platform of social media permit
organisations to communicate with customers (Goh, Heng and Lin, 2013). This kind of
interaction develop credibility and listen to consumers.
Reduced marketing costs- As comparison to conventional marketing, social media does
not need more monetary resources. With internet connection, firm can reduce the marketing cost
through specific margin. Through using social media to market, the services and products is
efficient manner to minimizing operational cost of an organisation.
Better targeting- The large number of consumers using the social media to reach at right
audience through giving roughness to the targeting with no traditional medium of advertising.
Through using the social media advertisement, an organisation can make connection with the
people and target the new market (Balakrishnan, Dahnil and Yi, 2014).
Negative impact
Negative feedback- The one negative feedback can hit business and it develop the
negative impact on business. It is most necessary factor to include for the business owners. In
addition to this, everything on social media is shareable and each negative feedback can effect on
everyone (Wang, Yu and Wei, 2012).
Time consuming- The social media advertising needs patience and more time. It is
gradual procedure and also needs the high consistency for known business.

Security breach- Some of the social media websites and applications are more protected
but there is a risk of security breach from the online hackers. Through this, consumers fear from
hacking their personal and financial information. It develops the negative impact on business and
create the negative impact on the mindset of people ( Rishika and et. al., 2013).
According to Hitesh Bhasin (2019) Social media is one of main elements that
revolutionized way the operations of business are to be carried out as contradictory Dan Shewan
(2019) that social media advertisement is costly for the business as it contains many different and
innovative concepts. On the other hand, some of the people do not believe on social media
because of the fake news so it is a big issue that reduce productivity of business. It takes practice
and savvy to run the successful social media campaign. The social media has mainly used for the
business purpose while interaction with the consumers and also promoting the new services or
products (Alalwan and et. al., 2017). Under this, there are some of the challenges given below
which faced through organisations to influence consumer behaviour by social media advertising:
Not able to determine the buyers characteristics- Through using the social media, firm
can only provide information about its products or services. Company can make interaction with
the consumers and give the products about existing or new products through using social media
advertisement. But there is an issue that company can unable to identify the characteristics of
consumers. It does not know about the tastes and preferences of all consumers. So, it develops
the negative impact on mindset and also on their buying behaviour. Along with this, it has also
been identified that there are large number of competitive or rival companies available at the
marketplace which affects the overall profitability of the company in a negative manner.
No face to face interaction- In social media, there is one to one interaction. The
customers and sells both are unknown to each other (Ashley and Tuten, 2015). It is complex for
consumers to develop their trust on company and make the better buying decisions. In this
manner, it impacts on purchasing behaviour of customers and are unable to purchase goods in an
easy manner. In case of physical shopping, organisations will be able to know about the
customers requirements and needs as they easily communicate with their customers. Therefore,
by promoting goods and services on the social media highly impacts buying behaviour of
consumers.
More options to consumers- In this present time, almost many of the organisations uses
the different social media tools to advertise their products or services at large scale (Kumar and

et. al., 2016). So, consumers have the more number of options to buy the products or services
and it impact on their buying decision. Along with this, it has also been identified that there are
ample number of competitive companies which affects the profitability as well as performance of
the company. Apart from this, market share of the companies might affects due to availability of
large number of options at the marketplace.
Complex to track misleading or negative comment- On the social media, there are some
people which post the negative impact on various social media sites about the specific product. It
influence the mindset of people and they will not make the mindset to purchase products. It
develops the negative impact on reputation of firm along with buying behaviour of consumers
(Chu, Kamal and Kim, 2013). It is very essential for companies to identify negative comments
available on their companies profile as it highly affects the reputation of organisation. Therefore,
it becomes one of the major challenge which highly influence consumers behaviour in a negative
manner. This as a result reduce their revenue share at the competitive marketplace.
Not able to gain long term attention- In this, company is unable to gain the attention of
consumers for long time period. It is complex for an organisation to determine preferences and
needs of each and every consumers to satisfy their need and wants. So, it is difficult for company
to gain the long term attention of customers (Lee and Hong, 2016). There are ample number of
customers in the world who do not use social media therefore, it affects the long term
profitability of the company in a negative manner.
Negative perception of customers towards customers: It has been identified that another
major challenge faced by company of using social media platform for promoting goods and
services is negative perception of customers. For instance, a company promote its fairness cream
for influence the interest of people so that the more consumers are attracted towards product. But
on other hand, there are high chances that people who have dull complexion might get the
promotional strategy in a negative manner (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2016). This as a result
affects the buying behaviours of customers. Therefore, it has been concluded that buying
behaviour of consumers highly affected by the promotional strategies.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above literature review that the social media
advertisement is helpful in attracting the large number of consumers. It is beneficial for business
to target the new market. There has been studied about the impact of social media on consumer

behaviour. Negative and positive impact both studied in this research part. For collection of
information, secondary method of data collected gas been studied by using the contradictory
statements. The different authors give their statements or opinions about the specific subject
area.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Alalwan, A. A. and et. al., 2017. Social media in marketing: A review and analysis of the
existing literature. Telematics and Informatics. 34(7). pp.1177-1190.
Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing.
32(1). pp.15-27.
Balakrishnan, B. K., Dahnil, M. I. and Yi, W. J., 2014. The impact of social media marketing
medium toward purchase intention and brand loyalty among generation Y.Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences.148. pp.177-185.
Chu, S. C., Kamal, S. and Kim, Y., 2013. Understanding consumers' responses toward social
media advertising and purchase intention toward luxury products. Journal of Global
Fashion Marketing. 4(3). pp.158-174.
Cohen, S. A., Prayag, G. and Moital, M., 2014. Consumer behaviour in tourism: Concepts,
influences and opportunities. Current issues in Tourism.17(10). pp.872-909.
Couldry, N., 2012. Media, society, world: Social theory and digital media practice. Polity.
Duggan, M. and et. al., 2015. Social media update 2014. Pew research center. 19.
Fotis, J. N., Buhalis, D. and Rossides, N., 2012. Social media use and impact during the holiday
travel planning process (pp. 13-24). Springer-Verlag.
Goh, K. Y., Heng, C. S. and Lin, Z., 2013. Social media brand community and consumer
behavior: Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated content.
Gössling, S. and et. al., 2012. Consumer behaviour and demand response of tourists to climate
change. Annals of tourism research. 39(1). pp.36-58.
Information Systems Research. 24(1). pp.88-107.
Kumar, A. and et. al., 2016. From social to sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social
media on customer behavior. Journal of Marketing. 80(1). pp.7-25.
Lee, J. and Hong, I. B., 2016. Predicting positive user responses to social media advertising: The
roles of emotional appeal, informativeness, and creativity. International Journal of
Information Management. 36(3). pp.360-373.
Perrin, A., 2015. Social media usage: 2005-2015.
Rishika, R. and et. al., 2013. The effect of customers' social media participation on customer
visit frequency and profitability: an empirical investigation. Information systems
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Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social media communication on consumer
perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications. 22(2). pp.189-214.
Schütte, H. and Ciarlante, D., 2016. Consumer behaviour in Asia. Springer.
Solomon, M. R. and et. al., 2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10).
Toronto, Canada: Pearson.
Van Dijck, J., 2013. The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford
University Press.
Wang, X., Yu, C. and Wei, Y., 2012. Social media peer communication and impacts on purchase
intentions: A consumer socialization framework. Journal of interactive marketing.
26(4). pp.198-208.
Online

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