Impact of Social Media on Consumer Buying Behavior

Running head: IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR 1
The Impact of Social Media on Australian Consumers Buying Behavior
Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Introduction
The advances made in the field of information technology and communication
particularly the worldwide web in the recent past have made novel systems presented to
organization particularly social media. Generally, the presence of the worldwide web it has
permitted persons the chance to use social networking sites that range from email, Twitter and
Facebook to interrelate minus the need for physical gatherings (Erkan & Evans, 2016). Indeed,
all this interactions have been made possible through the Web applications, which has
revolutionized the internet to a social setting by the advent of social networking sites where
people are able to interact and generate data content online. Certainly, some few decades ago,
individual’s shopping way has significantly improved and gone through transformation. In the
past customers used to physically avail their selves at stores and shopping malls. Nonetheless,
with the advent of information technology and new communication machineries, customers are
currently, capable of shopping online via the internet using a range of social media podiums
(Friedrich, 2015). With the intensification of social media as well as online societies, individuals
can effortlessly share and access information. Social networking sites and online communities
have become an operative web technology for social interactions and sharing of information.
Currently, Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have taken a center-stage in electronic commerce,
where consumers are able to make social consumers to take part in cyberspace. In the modern
era, shoppers have accessibility to multiple information sources as well as experiences that have
been propelled by different consumers’ recommendations and information. Accordingly, social
media has become a significant marketing platform that proactively involves customers.
Social networking sites provide a range of values to companies such as improved product
popularity, rises sales and facilitates worth-of-mouth communication Fulgoni (2015), generating

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social support for consumers and information sharing in business contexts (Godey et al., 2016).
Additionally, the interacting of persons through social media offers collective values leading to a
key influence on trust. With the progress of social media and social networking sites there is
need to study shopper’s behavior on these podiums in a study objective. Social media has the
potential to improve marketing strategies amongst organizations to build trust mechanisms and
customers’ intends to purchase online goods (Ellison, Gibbs, & Weber, 2015). The core thrust of
this research paper is to investigate the role played by social media platforms and how they
influence people’s buying intentions.
Objective
The focus of this study is on the buying perception of buyers who utilize dissimilar social
media platforms to purchase their favorite goods. The paper uses the following research
objectives to explore on the research topic:
 To find out the exact role played by social media at diverse levels of individuals’ buying
behavior and decision-making process.
 To determine the reasons as to why consumers make purchases using social media.
Research questions
The researcher will use the following questions that will act as a guide in investigating about the
study topic:
1. What role does social media at different levels of individuals’ buying behavior and
decision-making process?
2. Which reasons drives consumers in making purchases using social media?

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Literature Review
Introduction
The marketing landscape has undergone drastic transformation over the past two decades.
In the past, corporations and their clients had no straight connection to the perspective of each
other’s worlds. The advent of social media has significantly revolutionized the way in which
shoppers interact amongst themselves and their companies. Through the rising usage of social
media through the word-of-mouth, consumers have become a significant and great inspiration on
peers (Husnain & Toor, 2017). Social networking sites and social media platform are vital tools
that allow people to recommends products, share information and tell both positive and negative
experiences with different company products.
Recognize the type of consumers influenced most by social media
In the present world, consumer are playing a critical role on the marketing landscape. In
simple terms, consumers are described as persons who purchase services and products online or
offline. These are the main variables that has been described to be a key variable that influence
consumers is demographic variables. The report shows that the sum of female as well as male
consumers has extensively improved in the recent years (Khatib, 2016). In regard to online
division, there is a minor dissimilarity, whereby there exists two major online subdivisions:
“social clickers” and “online insiders”.
Consumers that browse the internet minus buying online (Social clickers)
Social clickers are defined as people who are proactive on a daily basis who have a
tendency to use the internet for a range of resolutions like sharing information, research on
different content, receiving news and communicating with friends (Vanden Abeele et al., 2018).