Social Media Marketing in Pakistan Trends and Impact Dedication To Allah The Most Merciful

In social media marketing, attention is gained by using social media. Social media marketing is an emerging and rapidly growing concept. This study aims to investigate the awareness and usage trends of social networks in Pakistan. Additionally, it attempts to determine which age group spends the most time on the internet, their knowledge of social media, and the primary reasons for using social networks. Last but not least, this study analyzes how Pakistanis perceive social media advertisements, what types of communication appeal to them and how this influences their behavior. 

Social media marketing in Pakistan trends and impact
Dedication
To my parents and teachers who supported me at every stage of my life.

Acknowledgement
All praises to Allah the most merciful. First of all I would like to thanks my
respected supervisor who helped me throughout my thesis course. His guidance
helped me more in my thesis writing. It was a very difficult task but due to a
proper guidance of my supervisor I completed my work easily. At the end I would
like to thanks my parents, my teachers and my friends who supported me
spiritually throughout writing my thesis.
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Table of Contents
Dedication.................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgement...................................................................................................iii
Table of Contents.....................................................................................................iv
Abstract.....................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1...................................................................................................................2
Introduction...............................................................................................................2
1.1 Background of the study..................................................................................2
1.2 Problem Statement...........................................................................................5
1.3 Research Questions..........................................................................................6
1.4 Objectives of the study....................................................................................6
1.5 Significance of Study.......................................................................................6
1.6 Organization of the study.................................................................................7
1.7 Limitations of the study...................................................................................8
Chapter 2...................................................................................................................9
Literature review.......................................................................................................9
2.1 Small Business Definition...............................................................................9
2.2 Marketing Opportunities of Small Business....................................................9
2.3 Marketing Challenges of Small Business......................................................10
2.4 Relationship Marketing/One-to-one marketing.............................................11
2.5 Social Media..................................................................................................12
2.6 Social Media Marketing................................................................................13
2.7 Empirical studies on the Topic......................................................................15
Chapter 3.................................................................................................................20
Research methodology............................................................................................20
3.1 Sources of Data..............................................................................................20
3.2 Research Instruments.....................................................................................20
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3.3 Sampling Design............................................................................................20
Chapter 4.................................................................................................................22
Analysis...................................................................................................................22
4.1 Age & Time spent on SNS............................................................................22
4.2 Age & Awareness about SNS........................................................................23
4.3 Usage Pattern of SN.......................................................................................24
4.4 Detail of Accounts on SN..............................................................................24
4.5 Reason Behind Using SN..............................................................................25
4.6 Kinds of Ads Encountered.............................................................................26
4.7 Type of ads users find well communicated...................................................26
4.8 SN Regarding Better Ad................................................................................27
4.9 Satisfaction with the appearance of ads.........................................................28
4.10 Accessing ads...............................................................................................29
4.11 Impact of ads................................................................................................30
CHAPTER 5............................................................................................................31
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................31
5.1 Conclusion.....................................................................................................31
5.2 Recommendations..........................................................................................32
5.3 Future Research.............................................................................................34
References...............................................................................................................35
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Abstract
Internet is the rapidly grown and emerging technology closing the gaps of
distances between the people all across the globe and effectively replacing the
traditional ways of advertising. Social Media are new emerging trends. Due to the
high rush of audiences this media is being targeted by the various advertisers.
Social media marketing is the emerging and rapidly gown new concept in which
attention is gained by the use of social media. Purpose of this study is to explore
out the awareness and usage trends of social networks in Pakistan. Also it tries to
identify what age group spends how much time on internet, their awareness about
social media, and primary reasons for using social networks. Finally this study tries
to explore out the understanding of the Pakistanis towards social media
advertisement, what types of communications attract them and their influence on
their behaviors. Primary data was collected through adapted research
questionnaire. Questionnaires were floated online; Google Docs, emailed and were
also filled by person. Analysis has been done using cross tabs and frequency tables.
Findings suggest that Facebook is the mostly used social network having well
communicated and very effective ads. Results show that there is great opportunity
to use Facebook as a new medium to aware customers about the new products.
Findings also suggest that there is an increasing trend of social networks usage in
Pakistan. Not only among the age group of 18-25 but also in the adults of 50 and
plus. This study can help to understand and design the effective communication
strategy to reach the target market in Pakistan, using social media networks.
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Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
Internet is the rapidly grown and emerging technology closing the gaps of
distances between the people all across the globe and effectively replacing the
traditional ways of advertising (Jothi et al, 2011). Internet is something that can be
used for as a source of communication and since its emerging use in business, one
of its basic reasons is to do a marketing (Jothi et al, 2011). According to the David
Aaker (1996) due to the development of new media it is becoming way more
difficult for the companies to create awareness about their brands and the only
thing important is to manage their message and marketing efforts effectively across
all the media.
Social Media or networks are new emerging trends, due to the high rush of
audience, are being targeted by the various advertisers (Jothi et al, 2011). Social
Media defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2009, p. 61) is “group of internet-based
applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web
2.0, and that allow for the creation and exchange of user generated content.” Web
2.0 is a web application on which social media networks are based (Rothschild,
2011; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009). Growing importance of social media raised the
concept of social media marketing. Social media marketing defined by
searchengineland.com “refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through
social media sites.” Pakistan is a country which has the fastest growing social
media population in the world, with more than 4 million Facebook users (Martin,
2011).
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This paper tries to explore out the awareness and usage trends of social networks
of Pakistani people. It tries to identify what age group spends, how much time on
internet, their awareness about social media, and primary reasons for using social
networks. At the same time this paper tries to explore out the understanding of
the Pakistani people towards social media advertisement, what types of
communications attract them and their influence on their behaviors.
Due to the emerging importance of social media a lot of work is being done on it.
But a very few work has been done in the context of Pakistan. This paper, so far,
tries to help in understanding the behavior of Pakistanis towards social media. This
study can help to shape up the communication strategy to reach the target market
in Pakistan over social media networks.
In today world social media is used to create relation and do advertisement.
Especially small business are using social media as a tool of advertisement.
Because of no proper understanding of the platform many small businesses do use
social media as an advertisement tool but missed to engage customer. In a result
they suffer great loss in term of sale and grabbing customer to the business. The
study is aim to understand the basics for small business related the use and
engaging the customer through advertisement in their advertisement.
It is the most significant industrial sector of economy as it not only contributes
46% of total manufacturing in Pakistani Industry, employed 40% of industrial
workforce but also shares around 10.20% in Pakistan’s growth domestic product
(GDP). Pakistan comes fourth as cotton producer worldwide, still contributes a
small share in exports (The Garment Industry of Pakistan, 2015). However,
Pakistan has a huge garment market; middle class is ready to pay high price for
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durable & high quality apparels (Arifeen, 2017). Apparel industry in Pakistan has
gone through many changes from tailor’s stitched dress to readymade dresses
(Ghani, 2010). Although still most of the sales are accomplished by the physical
outlets of fashion brands, at the same time online sale of fashion brands are gaining
ground in Pakistan as youth typically prefer e-commerce instead of physical outlets
(Arifeen, 2017). The term e-commerce means that a business which is executed
electronically, that is exchange of product, services or information. Kuker-Kinney
rather simplifies the term and suggests that buying of any good or services on
internet are e-commerce (Adnan, 2014). Consumers now can not only seek
information but can also share it with other consumers. Yet it can be equally
beneficial for marketers as social media has provided them an alternate media to
interact directly with individuals (Lee, 2013). This revolutionary two-way
communication has created ties between marketers and consumers which
eventually provides opportunities within trade and commerce (Husnain & Toor,
2017). This modern approach let brands and consumer interconnect with each
other, regardless of time and locations. It facilitates two-way communication that is
participation of both buyer and seller instead of conventional one-way that was of
sellers only (Kim & Ko, 2012).
Today’s consumer is more lively, participating and manipulative than a
submissive one before social media era (Kozinets et al., 2008). In research
conducted by Marketing Science Institute (MSI), customer engagement was
concluded as the main factor in customer buying decision making process (MSI,
2016). Later on, it was highlighted in researches that consumer engagement is the
main driver that eventually helps in building trust, loyalty whose outcomes are in
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the form of customer satisfaction. In Social Media Marketing (SMM) customer and
stakeholders both participate and every participating customer eventually becomes
component of marketing department. Social Network Marketing (SNM) as a subset
of SMM is the most successful tool of advertising and it enables marketers to
initiate bilateral relationship with customers without restriction of time or place
(Ahmed, 2015). Correlation between social network marketing and ecommerce of
women apparels has not wide been studied yet.
1.2 Problem Statement
Due to the emerging importance of social media a lot of work is being done on
it. But a very few work has been done in the context of Pakistan. This paper, so far,
tries to help in understanding the behavior of Pakistanis towards social media. This
study can help to shape up the communication strategy to reach the target market
in Pakistan over social media networks.
The primary objective of the research is to recognize the strategies that help
SME`s to build strong relationship and interact with its consumer using social
media. As a whole the following study is covering two major objectives which are;
marketing strategy and social media. Maximum of academic research focus on
strategy of social media in large organization. However, the weakness of such
literature is that the same strategies may not work in small businesses.
This paper tries to explore out the awareness and usage trends of social
networks of Pakistanis. It tries to identify what age group spends how much time
on internet, their awareness about social media and primary reasons for using
social networks. Finally this paper tries to explore out the understanding of the
Pakistanis towards social media advertisement; what types of communications
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attract them and their influence on their behaviors.
1.3 Research Questions
Keeping in view the research problem following are the research question
to be observed in the study:
This paper tries to explore out the awareness and usage trends of social
networks of Pakistani people. It tries to identify what age group spends, how much
time on internet, their awareness about social media, and primary reasons for using
social networks. At the same time this paper tries to explore out the understanding
of the Pakistani people towards social media advertisement, what types of
communications attract them and their influence on their behaviors
1.4 Objectives of the study
To answer the above questions following are the study objectives:
 To identify the age group aware about internet and social networks
(SN)
 To identify the mostly used SN and the primary reason of use
 To identify the kinds of ads users are aware of and which one are
communicated well
 To identify SN regarding best communicated ads
 To identify response towards those ads.
 To identify the impact of ads appearing in SN on users
1.5 Significance of Study
Social media is an essential part of human life. As it reduces the physical
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existence of person, yet it creates millions of business opportunities of earnings.
Therefore, it is important for small and medium industry to get full utilization of it.
Because small business plays its vital role in the economy therefore it is important
to understand the strategies of success used by them. In this case we will be finding
out the successful strategies of small business in using social media.
1.6 Organization of the study
This study will consist of the following sections/Chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction: This chapter will state the background of the
study, problem statement, questions raised during research, main objectives to
attain and the scope of the study.
Chapter 2: Review of literature: it consists of different reviews of previous
literature of different authors and also explains different variables of the study with
its theoretical framework and hypothesis to be test.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology: How the study will be conducted is
included in that chapter. All information about Sample size, population, data
collections, instruments for the study, and sources of data and model of the study
will include.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis: It will contain all the analyzed results from the
research instruments and their evaluation & Interpretations.
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Chapter 5: Conclusion & Recommendations: that part of research will
conclude the study and summarize the analysis portion. It will also suggest
different recommendations.
1.7 Limitations of the study
The following research is based upon the findings of social media
implementation by Pakistan regulations. The study scope cover the companies
based in Peshawar. My contribution to this study is related to the study of factors
which has an impact on the success of small business using social media as a tools
of marketing and interacting with customers.
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Chapter 2
Literature review
For the success and survival of any business marketing is of critical
importance. Now business has more marketing techniques then before (Bresciani
& Eppler, 2010). Words of mouth is the most common marketing strategy used in
small business (Stokes & Lomax, 2002). While today marketing is distinguishing
by technology, favors and networks etc. (Walsh & Lipinski, 2009). Social media is
a medium where customer and companies not only interacts but companies
advertise their products to potential buyers and maximize their customer base
(Halligan et al, 2009).
2.1 Small Business Definition
There is no common definition available on defining the small business.
Different attempts have been done so far using employee numbers, asset value,
capital in the business etc. to describe the small business. According to the
definition of European Commission SME`s are those entities whose employees are
less than 250 (Gilmore et al, 2011). While in the US small business are considered
those whose employees are less than 500 (SBA, 2012).
Doing marketing in SME`s means informing customers about the products
and services of the business, and maintain the relationship (Reijonen, 2016). There
are various marketing opportunities available for small and medium businesses.
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) define social media as “a group of Internet
based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of
Web 2.0, and allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.” Sinclaire
and Vogus (2011) cite O’Reilly’s (2005) definition: “social media is a broad term
9

that describes software tools that create user generated content that can be shared.”
However, there are some basic features necessary for a website to meet the
requirements as a social network website: the site must contain user profiles,
content, a method that permits users to connect with each other and post comments
on each other’s pages, and join virtual groups based on common interests such as
fashion or politics. (Gross & Acquisti, 2005; Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007;
Lenhart & Madden, 2007; Winder, 2007; Boyd & Ellison, 2007 as cited in Cox
2010).
Social media has advanced from simply providing a platform for
individuals to stay in touch with their family and friends. Now it is a place where
consumers can learn more about their favorite companies and the products they
sell. Marketers and retailers are utilizing these sites as another way to reach
consumers and provide a new way to shop. “Technology related developments
such as the rise of powerful search engines, advanced mobile devices and
interfaces, peer-to-peer communication vehicles, and online social networks have
extended marketers’ ability to reach shoppers through new touch points” (Shankar
et al. 2011).
According to Shankar et al. (2011), shopper marketing can join forces with
shoppers to improve products, create clear messages, identify promoters, and serve
as a connection to in-store activities, thus demonstrating the importance of social
media within a retailer’s marketing plan. Advancements within social media sites
have created consumer communities that are defining new ways in which
companies and customers can interact with one another to share information on
brand products. For example, virtual brand communities are creating a computer-
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generated space for consumers and retailers to connect with one another via
marketing.
2.2 Marketing Opportunities of Small Business
There are several marketing opportunities available for SME`s. some very
common are the personal networking and words of mouth, where manager of the
businesses not only rely on their personal links but customer’s networks as well.
Words of mouth help business owners to talk with new customers about the
products and services they offer.
Networking in SME`s is counted of critical importance in development,
establishment and growth of the business (Walsh & Lipinski, 2009). Rather
relaying on manager’s personal contacts, business also do rely on customer’s
words of moth which now turn into the electronic word of mouth. It is being
confirmed by various studies that new customer is attracted to the business by the
existing customer of the business (Stokes & Lomax, 2012).
Word of mouth marketing means what is been said by an individual for
marketing purpose, or the involvement of an individual in brand related
discussions (Womma, 2013). All word of mouth marketing is based on the
customer satisfaction and transparency in conversation (Marketing Association,
2014). Association further added that the best way to do word of mouth marketing
is to educate people about your products and services. A survey conducted by
Linkdex in 2017 shows that 81% of the marketing of the businesses are done
through word of mouth Straw, 2011). Because of the small size of the business it is
easy for SME`s to get closer to customer to get their valuable feedback (Gilmore et
al, 2011).
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2.3 Marketing Challenges of Small Business
Compare to large organization it is tough to do marketing in small
businesses (Coviello et al, 2010). In small business marketing strategies are
developed to cover immediate needs (Stokes, 2011). For customer satisfaction and
support sales plays its function (Walsh et al, 2012). Due to non-affordability of
sales staff it is hard for small business to carry out marketing functions (Berthon et
al, 2008).
According to Moss et al. (2009) in their research discuss that the issue lies
because small business owner does not know the concept and importance of
marketing. In large organization separate marketing department are there to carry
on marketing activities. Where in small organization there are limited resources
like finance, knowledge and time etc. which fails in performing the function of
marketing (Gilmore et al, 2011).
Reijonen (2017) in his study discussed that in SME`s marketing is often
considered as general selling. Moreover, the term marketing strategies commonly
known the 4 P`s are unknown to the small business owners (Stokes, 2011). The
tactics of the marketing are only known in large business which is not known to the
small business and cause trouble in doing marketing.
Another big challenge faced by SME`s is the use of social media by social
media enablers who give trouble to large business in competition with limited
budget, and expertise. Small business does not know the use of social media for
their business success (Gilmore et al, 2011). There are several marketing models
available for business survival but it cannot be generalized for small businesses
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(Gilmore et al, 2011). As a result of this small business are happier to adopt and
carry the conventional marketing practices towards more affordable prices.
Social media is a website or application that allows its users to create and
share content while engaging with other users (Hudson, 2020). Kotler and
Armstrong (2018) defined the concept of “social media” as, independent and
commercial online social networks where individuals gather to interact and share
messages, ideas, images, videos, and other content. The phrase "social media" is
divided into two parts: "social" since we are social beings, and "media" though it is
published on the Internet. (Coles 2015) In other words, it is a communication
platform that allows people to communicate with a large number of individuals at
once, and the internet has accelerated the process. Social media consists of Web
2.0 Internet-based software that promotes the creation and sharing of user-
generated content and is developed on ideological and technological rudiments.
(Kaplan & Haenlein 2010).
Blogs, Microblogs, Social Networks, Media-Sharing Sites, Social
Bookmarking and Selection Sites, Analysis Sites, Forums, and Effective Worlds
are some of the most common examples of social media. (Saravanakumar &
Lakshmi, 2012) To put it simply, social media allows individuals and
organizations to share personal messages, ideas, and other media such as videos.
(Merriam-Webster, 2018; Tuten & Solomon, 2018). Social networking, photo
sharing, blogging, reviewing, and online communities featuring user-generated
content are examples of social media activities. (Charlesworth, 2018).
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2.4 Relationship Marketing/One-to-one marketing
This is type of relationship develop by establishing learning relationship
with one another, and not only doing sales (Peppeers et al, 2019). This type of
relation took far with the provision of value to both customer and the business.
Because the customer is known in personal to the owners therefore in return
customer shows its loyalty towards the business. As proven fact that small
businesses have the ability of quick response to the customer needs but the strategy
are for short time (Coviello et al, 2015).
Social media marketing has been used to facilitate communications and
interactions between customers and brands and is considered as the effective driver
to influence the customers’ buying behaviours and loyalty. Since its emergence in
Vietnam market, Samsung smartphone brand has secured a considerable market
share in this country and has activated some social media platforms to stay
connected with its customers. Though the social media marketing activities and
their impacts on brand loyalty have been studied by a number of researchers, the
specific case of the smartphone industry has not been eyed enough.
Kotler and Armstrong (2018) discussed about the surge in internet usage
has resulted in a rash of online social media and other digital communities. Nearly
45 percent of internet users said that they use social media networks to search for
brand information about products or services. (We Are Social, 2021) These smaller
communities are made of like-minded individuals who have at least one similar
interest, opinion, or background. (Kotler & Armstrong, 2018; Hajli 2015) They
also pointed out that there are more beneficial for brands to target specific groups.
An example of niche site, Goodreads is an online community where 55 million
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readers can “Meet your next favorite book” and share their thoughts.
FarmersOnly.com offers online dating services for “country folks” who
enjoy nature, peace, and countryside life, “because city folks just don’t get it.”
(farmersonly.com) (Kotler & Armstrong, 2018) With a proper marketing strategy,
social media can benefit both brands and users in an interactive way.
There are several social media platforms are continuing used and developed
among different ages, preferences, and geography. Social media is part of daily
routines of many users. Regarding the Americans, with seven-in-ten Facebook
users, about six-in-ten Instagram and Snapchat users visit these sites at least once a
day. (Pew Research Center, 2021) Evans (2012, 168) proposed that, each of the
social media sites has a potential effect, for example, Facebook is commonly used
for a personal network, while Linkedin is used for professional purposes.
Nowadays, almost everyone is being active on Facebook, checking out photos on
Pinterest or Instagram, or videos on Youtube as a part of their daily lives.
According to “We are social” (2021), as shown in figure 3, the number of global
social media users reached approximately 4.2 billion at the start of 2021, an
increase of 13% over the previous year. In 2020, the typical person spent 2 hours
and 25 minutes per day on social media, a significant increase due to the COVID-
19 epidemic. (Hootsuite, We are social, 2021) Undoubtedly, marketers will not
ignore this opportunity to follow their customers and ride an enormous social
wave. (Kotler & Armstrong, 2018).
2.5 Social Media
Social media is defined as internet based application built on the
ideological and technological foundation to create and exchange content, and
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allows the two-way communication (Fournier & Avery, 2011). Social media now a
days are used by both the consumer and business in their routine life where,
business introduce and advertise their new brands and listen to the customer needs
(Fournier, 2011). There are bundle of services offered by social media app on
internet which is not known to the small businesses which and how to use. The
type of social media commonly in use are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn
etc. on Facebook there is 2.60 billion of active user making it biggest social app of
the decade with an 10% increase every year (Facebook). Twitter have 300 million
active users per month (Twitter). Therefore, every business wants to get
opportunity to provide and advertise their services here (Taylor, 2020). Social
media apps allow businesses to engage consumers in their business with low cost
and high efficiency. This make social media apps popular not only in large but in
small and medium businesses too (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2014).
Application such as Facebook and twitter let consumer like their brands and
questions about it which is used as an engagement survey. Through this business
can track consumer needs and can directly communicate with customers to satisfy
their needs (Reynke et al, 2014). Consumer can spread word of mouth and also
promote the brand they like on social media, which is of critical importance for
SME`s. Communicating with customers on social media let business advertise their
products and use social media as a tool of marketing (Reynke et al, 2014).
Unfortunately many business owners find it hard to reach the right customers
(small business trend, 2019).
Social media marketing has been used to facilitate communications and
interactions between customers and brands and is considered as the effective driver
16

to influence the customers’ buying behaviours and loyalty. Since its emergence in
Vietnam market, Samsung smartphone brand has secured a considerable market
share in this country and has activated some social media platforms to stay
connected with its customers. Though the social media marketing activities and
their impacts on brand loyalty have been studied by a number of researchers, the
specific case of the smartphone industry has not been eyed enough.
Nowadays, social media has become much more popular among people
around the world, and nearly 1.73 billion people use social media network sites. By
2017, the global social network audiences were estimated to be around 2.55 billion
people. (Schivinski, Christodoulides & Dacpbrowski, 2016). Social media is also
defined as a way of communication between individuals or people where they
create, share, and exchange information and ideas through computer- generated
groups and networks and is used as a way of boosting interaction among
individuals, organisations, and communities (As' ad, & Alhadid, 2014; Andreas,
Kaplan, Haenlein Michael, 2010). People have actively used social media platform
to search and share product information, as well as work and play (Aksoy et al.,
2013; Aljamal, 2018; Al-Afifi 2019; Mohamed Hessian, 2018; M. Nassar, and
Battour, 2020). Prior studies show that many businesses introduced social media
into their marketing activities so as to take advantage of the opportunity to interact
with customers in a faster and direct way, at a relatively lower cost and higher
level of efficiency compared to using the traditional medium of interacting with
customers and marketing practices (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Hutagalung, &
Situmorang, 2018).
The According to Zhung (2017), consumers has started shifting from
17

traditional buying to digital buying. But unfortunately, popular trend is sometimes
overlooked by marketers and rather emphasize on traditional marketing platforms.
In previous years, businesses relied on one-way communication which is the
traditional media. Without the notice of social media but rather focus on traditional
media only, which will harm their business in the future. In today’s marketing
sphere the communication setting has been transformed by the social media. Social
media has turned out to be an effective vehicle for attracting people to shop for
their product or service. It has been suggested that social media has considerably
impacted marketing communication and created ties between consumers and
marketers. This evolution has brought many novel opportunities and potentials
within the trade and commerce and increased the accessibility of a variety of
products and brands (Zyoud, 2018).
Moreover, the global economic downturn drives have changed the apparel
fashion business. Thus, the social media and their application to the field of
marketing had a significant impact on business structures. According to
Noorshella, Abdullah, Noorul and Rajennd (2019), social media also one of the
famous platform for student entrepreneur to sell their products and service and
used the platorm to communicate with the consumers.
Therefore, the apparel fashion industry needed to make a deep
transformation models and make changes with marketing dynamics on their
organizations (Wu, 2016). Further, the fashion retailer does not just only rely on
brand symbol, but must also focus on value equity, relationship equity, and brand
equity to be successful. In fact, less studies have been focused on customer equity
on apparel fashion and this open to the threat to the business especially in the
18

highly competitive environment. Furthermore, social media-based marketing is
needed for monitoring, and companies must be aware of how consumers respond
to their marketing activities because this can impact the value of that brand-related
content (Laroche, Habibi, & Richard, 2013).
Likewise, businesses must recognize that the process of brand-related
content in social media requires a close monitoring of the content and not only on
brand-based community building (Laroche, Habibi, & Richard, 2013). Most prior
studies on social media marketing activities have focused on customer satisfaction
and the effect on customers' behavioral intentions, brand awareness, brand image
and brand loyalty in other businesses (Sano, 2014; Simona & Tossan, 2018; Bilgin,
2018). There are however little or scarce studies related to student’s engagement in
social media marketing, which this study seeks to bridge the gap.
The use of students or young people since students constitute huge market
in the use of the social media for business transactions especially the generation Y
and Z people who use social media for most of their activities (Aksoy, et al, 2013;
Joshua Stowers, 2020) This novel study therefore seeks to examine the effect of
social media marketing as a way of enhancing customer equity on fashion apparel
brand in the apparel fashion sector. The study specifically examines the effect of
social media marketing on customer equity of customers, by examining the effect
of social media marketing on brand equity of customers, the effect of social media
marketing on relationship equity of customers and the effect of social media
marketing on value equity of customers in buying fashion apparels online among
students of university.
19

2.6 Social Media Marketing
Social media brings changes in the strategies used by companies to
communicate with their customer (Mangold and Faulds, 2019). Companies have
limited control over the content the share on social media and ignoring user’s
comments on it is possible (Mangold and Faulds, 2019). It is necessary for any
business to address both the positive and negative perception about their brands in
the surroundings. To build better understanding with the customer social media
plays its pivotal role in the business growth (Mangold & Faulds, 2009).
Marketing, according to the American Marketing Association (n.d.), is the
activity, set of institutions, and methods for creating, communicating, delivering,
and exchanging value-added offerings to consumers, partners, and public at large.
Whereas social media is a significant setting for marketing due to its accessibility
to people and functionality. (Tuten, 2021, 19) She also underlines that "social
media marketing" is the use of social media technologies to create, communicate,
deliver, and trade value-added offerings to company's stakeholders. In the
digitalization age, the concept of social media marketing is diverse and constantly
updated. Some authors propose social media marketing as an effective tool for
networking and interactions between brands and their customers. (Vinerean, 2017;
Yadav & Rahman, 2017; Tuten & Solomon, 2016).
Furthermore, they also emphasize the importance of using social media
platforms to achieve business objectives, such as increase customer engagement,
loyalty, and purchase intention. Digital advancement and its impact steadily
20

emerge. According to current trends, more and more people are becoming actively
on social media, and businesses should not neglect this fact.
According to a Pew Research Center survey (2020), due to the impacts of
the COVID-19 epidemic, a vast majority of Americans are more likely to get news
via digital media. Two-thirds of U.S. adults stated that they acquire news
occasionally from websites or apps (68%) or search engines like Google (65%).
More than 53% of respondents in the United States said they get news from social
media "often" or "sometimes," while only 22% said they acquire news from
podcasts "at least sometimes." (Shearer, 2021; Pew Research Center survey, 2021)
Facebook comes out on top of a list of 11 social media sites when it comes to being
a frequent source of news, with about a third (36%) of Americans using it on a
regular basis. While Instagram (11%), Reddit (6%), Snapchat (4%), LinkedIn
(4%), TikTok (3%), and other social media sites are less likely to be regular news
sources (Shearer, 2021).
In the digital age, individuals can interact virtually with information,
people, and businesses across the globe at almost any time. (Kotler & Armstrong,
2018) The "Internet of Things" facilitates this connectivity through various digital
platforms in terms of speed, convenience, cost-effectiveness, services, and brand
engagements. The rise of the internet and digital technologies, according to Kotler
and Armstrong (2018), has a significant impact on both marketers and shoppers in
the market. As a result, during COVID-19 lockdowns, new online shopping trends
have increased substantially. In 2020, around 77 percent of internet users aged 16
to 64 reported they make at least one monthly online purchase. (We Are Social,
21

2021) According to Statista (2021), the Fashion & Beauty market accounted for the
largest share of global B2C e-commerce revenues, with over US$665 billion.
Researching and analyzing the history of social media has provided the
foundation for social media marketers today and the effective practices in today’s
industry. Although I am excluding some mediums, the biggest players in the social
media marketing sphere today are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, SnapChat, and
Google My Business. For the purpose of this study, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, and
Google Plus were excluded due to their declination of usage rates and marketing
capabilities compared to the powerhouses previously listed. Each platform
provides marketers with a unique way to reach target audiences, pin point key
performance indicators (KPIs), display call to actions, and ultimately present
distinct messages. It is important to note that I will be mentioning both organic and
paid strategies that today’s social media marketers use in their campaigns. In
addition to elaborating on the social media giants of today, this section will also
address takeaways from the past along with the importance of social media
management/automation programs.
Before diving into the particular mediums and their unique marketing
techniques, it was extremely important to research social media practices from the
previous years and find quintessential takeaways. There was a very insightful
article I came across from AdWeek written by Lauren Johnson, which pointed out
numerous social media takeaways from the past year in 2017. One overarching
takeaway involved Facebook’s usage rate remaining massive. Facebook announced
that “17 billion video chats were sent via messenger in 2017, which doubles the
number in 2016. There were also an average of 1.7 billion emojis sent on a daily
22

basis in 2017” (Johnson). Moreover, Facebook is dominating the modern day
social media industry in many aspects and this trend will most likely continue in
the future. A second takeaway touched on the According to Solomon and Tuten
(2018), marketers use metrics to examine and compare results that are aligned to
certain goals. Using metrics, a marketer can measure the performance of a
marketing strategy. Without using metrics, it is challenging for marketers to
evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. Activity metrics,
interaction metrics, and return metrics are the three types of metrics typically
utilized in social media marketing. (Solomon & Tuten, 2018).
First, "activity metrics" track the actions taken and the amount of effort put
into social media marketing by the marketer. This helps the marketer to see how
the marketing approaches have performed and how they might be used in the
future. Quantitative statistics such as summary views of content type mix and post
rates, and qualitative assessments, are examples of activity metrics. Activity
metrics can be used to examine the effectiveness of sponsored media in
comparison to organic brand activity. (Solomon & Tuten, 2018).
Second, "interaction metrics" reflect how the target market reacts with the
social media content that has been published. This indicator analyzes how social
media users connect with the marketed brand, form relationships, and retain them.
Quantitative measures of interaction include the number of followers, comments,
"likes," and shared posts or content. Engagement, brand buzz, and referral are
examples of qualitative criteria. (Solomon & Tuten, 2018). Third, "return metrics,"
like return on investment, average new revenue per customer, and earned media
23

values, are focused on the performing outcomes and results which support the
brand's success. (Solomon & Tuten, 2018).
2.6.1 Impact of Social Media Marketing
Unique roll played social media is let customer talk about the business with
each other (Mangold & Faulds, 2019). As companies do not have any direct
influence over the conversation yet they can benefit the ongoing conversation with
the addition of fruitful information about the brand (Mangold & Faulds, 2019).
The term “artificial intelligence” or “AI” gets thrown around quite often,
yet what exactly does it mean and how does it apply to social media marketing?
Oktopost Technologies defines artificial intelligence as “the ability of computers to
understand certain aspects of the world, and use that understanding to complete
tasks that normally require human intellect and effort” (Kushner). Artificial
Intelligence is a reality in the twenty first Century and has made significant
impacts in the world of social media marketing. Figure Six projects how much
money is going to be invested into artificial intelligence based on recent data. It is
predicted, “Over $3.5 billion will be invested into content distribution on social
media alone over the next ten years” (Armstrong).
Customer service is one major area that artificial intelligence has already
entered. According to a blog post from Rocks Digital, “42 percent of customers
who complain in social media platforms expect an answer from brands within 60
minutes” (McGrath). Therefore, because of this issue many organizations have
started to implement AI integrations into their social media accounts that deliver
automatic responses. Text mining and marketing automation is an area that AI can
be credited for creating. Rocks Digital describes text mining as the “analysis of
24

structured and unstructured data across various social media platforms to discover
buyer preferences, which helps predict customer behavior” (McGrath). This means
that businesses are now able to develop personalized social media marketing
strategies because of the important information text mining can derive. Ultimately,
although artificial intelligence has its drawbacks, it is evident that the integration of
AI and social media marketing can help brands reach new heights that were once
unheard of.
2.6.2 Strategy of Social Media Marketing
One among five small business have no marketing strategies (SMB Group,
2012). Absence of strategy cause business unaware of the gain they are getting out
of their business. Businesses with no marketing strategies are found unsatisfied
with the social media ability to generate new business (SMP Group, 2012).
Business use social media to tract customer mindset regarding the brand
etc. (Business.com, 2010). The social media helps companies to interact with the
customer which in turn help them to grow long turn relationship. Companies use
social media forum to survey their business and in turn customers also get to know
the business and brands.
To reach the customers businesses needs to go for a place where customers
are hanging despite having their own website. Social media app provide them with
the opportunity to advertise the brands and reach to the potential customers
(Halligan, et al, 2008). Marketers recognize the different purposes or ways to use
specific social media for specific purposes (Weinberg & Pehlivan, 2012).
25

Since the rise of social media, businesses have taken upon themselves to
adapt to newer marketing strategies, specifically social media marketing, for their
benefit. Social media marketing is an essential component of business in the 21st
century. Small business leaders are using this marketing strategy to promote their
business to gain visibility, viability, and sustainability to survive in the current
competitive era (Taneja 2014). Social media marketing is defined as “the process
of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites”. For social media
marketing to be effective, Zhu (2015) argued that marketing efforts need to be
congruent and aligned with the different needs of social media users. Marketing
objectives of social media marketing are awareness, brand values or reputation,
development of relationships and sales.
However, the most important objective that businesses should reflect within
their social media campaigns is effective communication and engagement with
their consumers. Taneja (2014) analyzed the importance of small businesses
incorporating social media into their marketing efforts. In order for businesses to
sell products or services through social media effectively, they must build a
relationship with their targeted audience. Effective customer relationship
management begins with properly identifying, maintaining and developing good
relationships with customers and providing value in an effort to properly allocate
marketing resources to relationship developing (Taneja, 2014). In order to build
brand loyalty, it is essential that businesses move from a product-oriented approach
to a customer-oriented approach.
26

2.6.3 Process of Social Media Marketing
Deciding the social media mangers are based on the content of interest like
promotion of brand or advertisement of any products, later identify the potential
customers for the content, then decide how to target those individuals (Weinberg &
Pehlivan, 2017). In order to build social leverage companies needs to build good
relationship with the customers as customer’s voice is more prominent on social
media (Weinberg & Pehlivan, 2017). For the reason companies needs to value
customer interest support their views and collaborate (Weinberg & Pehlivan,
2017).
Edosomwan (2011) believes that the fastest way to grow a business entity
is through social media and networking. This study discusses the history of social
media. Although there are many speculations of the birth of social networks,
earlier discoveries found written information spread by telegraphs in the late
1700s. Telegraphs were used to transmit and receive messages over long distances.
Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist and Ferdinand Tonnies, a German
sociologist, are considered the pioneers of social networks during the late 1800s
(Edosomwan, 2011).
Although the internet was not introduced until the 1990s, social networking
was utilized through telephone and electronic-mail (e-mail). It was e-mail that
changed how modern society communicated on the computer, allowing one to send
someone a message at any time of the day or night (Morrow, 2014). E-mailing
required computers that have online access and this early form of the “internet”
made connecting online possible, although it was quite expensive for most.
ARPANET, an early network of time sharing computers that formed the basis of
27

the internet, was created in 1969. Over several years, ARPANET was then
developed into the World Wide Web (WWW) which opened the door for hundreds
of viral communities. Along with the WWW, the 1980s introduced The WELL,
GENIE, Listserv, and the IRC (Edosomwan, 2011). Later, instant messaging (IM),
which was similar to e-mail but instead used real time via the Internet, had gained
popularity amongst the youth and became a distraction of many high school
students who were IMing instead of studying (Morrow, 2014).
Many social media sites were established in the 1990s and in the early
2000s, the use of social media skyrocketed. MySpace (2006), Facebook (2004) and
YouTube (2005) have become the most popular platforms for viral communication
and networking globally and have integrated themselves into people’s everyday
lives. Viral communities have created other communities such as Twitter and
Instagram, which are used for leisure activities such as microblogging and pure
entertainment. In recent times, social media has impacted many aspects of human
communication, thereby impacting business (Edosomwan, 2011).
2.7 Empirical studies on the Topic
Social Media defined by Kaplan and Haenlein (2009, p. 61) is “group of
internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological
foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow for the creation and exchange of user
generated content.” Social Media consists of many forms like social networks,
blogs, internet forums and all the socially interacting stuff (Rothschild, 2011).
Social Networks are the new emerging trends over the internet (Zhang et al, 2010).
Social networks according to Boyd and Ellison (2007) “web-based services that
28

allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded
system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and
(3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the
system.”
Statistics by Bennett (2011) Facebook is among the widely used social
network more than 800 million (845 million by Wikipedia as of December 31,
2011) users whereas more than 50% users log on daily. In these statistics twitter
has at least 200 million registered profiles. LinkedIn got 150 million users
(Wikipedia) and stated by Bennett (2011) 82% of its users have confidence in the
information they receive. According to Wikipedia Google+ has 90 million users
which by Bennett (2011) were 10 million within the two weeks of its launch.
Now a day trusted form of advertising is recommendation from another
person sharing same interests (Falkow, 2009). Social marketing has largely been
ignored by the textbooks (Andreasen, 1995; Donovan and Henley, 2003; Kotler
and Lee, 2008). Social marketing achieves social objectives by using the
commercial marketing techniques in which social marketers combine 4 Ps of
marketing, maximizing product being used by the specific population group
(United States Agency for International Development, n.d). Today where social
networks are being proven to build solid relationships with buyers and buyers want
to be engaged differently it gives the notion that traditional tactics of marketing
simply do not work anymore (Jothi et al, 2011; Borges, 2009).
Pakistan is among the fastest growing Facebook and twitter using
population; more than four million users (Martin, 2011). According to Facebook
29

ad target audience estimations there are more than 5 million Pakistani users
between the ages of 18 to 50, in which more than 3 million are males and more
than 1 million are females. Martin (2011) said 20 million Pakistanis are regularly
online.
Social media consumer buying behavior can be explained with the help of
Uses and Gratification theory (U&G theory) (Calder et al., 2009; Hanjun Ko, 2005;
Raacke, 2010; Rubin, 2009). Principally U & G theory is used on traditional media
to evaluate consumer behavior, however after the arrival of internet and social
media platforms the same theory was successfully applied on social media studies
(Ngai et al., 2015). Unlike other media theories in which consumers are passive
users, it assumes that individuals have supremacy over media usage and they
purposely seek out media to fulfill their certain needs like “socializing, relaxation
or entertainment” (Learning Theories, 2016). Few years back, online shopping was
unheard in Pakistan, people used to spend hours while doing traditional shopping.
Although late entrant, internet is flourishing quickly in Pakistan, there are almost
30 Million internet users in Pakistan, among them e-commerce is amounted to $30
million (Weekly Technology Times, 2016). Largest market share 20% goes to
electronic and mobile sector, 18% to service sector, 10% to auto and computer
accessories, 7% men’s fashion clothing and women apparels amounting to 6% of
e-commerce share in Pakistan (CISION PR Newswire, 2016). It is observed that
most of times women’s online shopping is more related to fashion, although they
prefer to shop physically but online is most convenient and one-stop solution.
Women, mostly working women opt toward it, as it not only saves their energy but
also saves their time (The Express Tribune, 2018). Now trend is changing
30

gradually, people are heading towards online shopping which is easier as we can
search product/service by one simple click. Almost all Pakistani apparel brands
now have their e-stores to spread information of their existing and upcoming
apparels. Online customers are more careful while doing buying; they evaluate the
product by reading related internet blogs, online reviews and experiences of others
(Shakeel, 2016).
According to Ecommerce Report 2015 ratio of women VS men online
shopper is 30:70 ratio which is quite low, there can be multiple reasons as for
women word of mouth plays strong role, for friends’ experience will count more
than any promotion by the brand (Times of Islamabad, 2016). With such high
profitable market share waiting, Fashion apparels should know how to build trust
through internet and cater their potential customers need (Weekly Technology
Times, 2016). Many prior researches has explained the consumers use specific
social medias for “status seeking, information hunting, socializing, and
entertainment” (Dunne et al., 2010; Lee & Ma, 2012; Husnain et al., 2016; Khan,
2016; Oliveira, Huertas, & Lin, 2016; Wang et al., 2016).
Social media help to support the existing marketing strategies of any
company. To maintain consistency across the business other function social media
marketing strategies should be managed effectively. Business can use blogging
websites or social media application for this purpose (Mangold & Faulds, 2019).
Customers feels themselves more associated with the brands about which they give
feedback. Many large companies use twitter to communicate with customer to
make them feel special and updated. Using twitter as a service platform companies
get too much benefits in shape of positive promotion, promoting the brand image
31

and in soling customer problems with less costly way (Parr, 2009). The following
research is aim to find out that how can a small business get the same benefit from
less resources.
Study shows that social media marketing is much time consuming
(Social Media Examiner, 2011). 58% of the research respondent agrees that it
took 6 hours a week while 34% agrees the involvement of 11 hours a week
on social media marketing (Stelzner, 2011). Benefit number one from social
media marketing is that it generates more business exposure followed by
increased traffic, search ranking and qualified leads. Social media overall
reduce the marketing cost of the company but overall increase the time given
to marketing (Stelzner, 2011). The only financial cost involved in social
media marketing is when it start to grow. Survey found that top most social
media marketing choices of the mangers are Facebook and twitter (Stelzner,
2011).
Customer plays a role of foundation in any business. While social
media plays an important role to build opportunities to get near to customer
and identify their need to serve them on priority basis. Social media is highly
interactive platform which let individuals and communities talk about and
share user’s content (Kietzmann et al., 2011). Business organization can use
this platform as strategic tool for their business marketing (Weinberg, 2009).
It is essential to find out how social media plays its role in consumer
purchase and marketing of products and services (Husnain & Toor, 2017).
All over the world organizations, whether Small or large, are well
aware of usefulness of social media and that is why they use Twitter to tweet,
32

Facebook to form fan pages and YouTube to post videos (Weinberg, 2009).
In Pakistan top 5 industries on Facebook are Fashion, Telecom, Ecommerce,
Retailand Service. Among these, fashion industry is on top with sum of
19,724,721 fans. But when it comes about top 5 brands by number of
interaction on Facebook, two women fashion apparel brands namely
“Sapphire” and “Sana Safinaz” come on 3rd and 5th consecutively(March
2018 Social Marketing Report Pakistan, 2018).
Whereas almost all top women fashion apparels brands like Khaadi,
Gul Ahmed, Satrangii, Junaid Jamshed, Saphire, Generation, Styloetc have
their own e-stores (Weekly Technology Times, 2016). It is important for the
researchers to determine the influence of social media on arousing “consumer
purchase” and “success of the products or services” (Smith, 2011).
33

Chapter 3
Research Methodology
The purpose of conducting this research is to answer the questions that how
the social media marketing to grow the business and get engaged with customers.
For the purpose case study methodology and qualitative approach will be used in
this study. Overall research design and data collection methods will be explaining
in this chapters.
3.1 Sources of Data
Survey method was adopted to identify the awareness, usage pattern,
mostly preferred social media regarding usage and better communicated ads, types
of ad communication regarding mostly encountered and preferred, and the
influence of communication on the behavior of Pakistanis.
3.2 Research Instruments
Primary data was collected through adopted research questionnaire.
Questionnaires were floated online; Google Docs, emailed and were also filled by
persons physically.
3.3 Sampling Design
i. Universe/ Population
The population of the study is unknown because countless people are
using social media now a day. Another reason is that after COVID 19 trends of
online marketing is boosted.
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ii. Sample Size
The study used convenient sampling technique and selected a 150
respondents to answer different questions. Sample size was 150, Similar to
Jothi et al (2011) and D’silva et al (2011). Convenience sampling is defined as
a method adopted by researchers where they collect market research data from
a conveniently available pool of respondents. It is the most commonly used
sampling technique as it’s incredibly prompt, uncomplicated, and economical.
In many cases, members are readily approachable to be a part of the sample.
Researchers use various sampling techniques in situations where there
are large populations. In most cases, testing the entire community is practically
impossible because they are not easy to reach. Researchers use convenience
sampling in situations where additional inputs are not necessary for the
principal research. There are no criteria required to be a part of this sample.
Thus, it becomes incredibly simplified to include elements in this sample. All
components of the population are eligible and dependent on the researcher’s
proximity to get involved in the sample.
35

Chapter 4
Analysis
4.1 Age & Time spent on SNS
Cross Tabs
Interpretation:
Most of the Pakistanis are involving internet in their lives. From Table 1.1
it can be seen that 56% of the respondents spend more than 3 hours on the
36

internet.37.3% uses for 1 or 2 hours a day, 4.7 % for 2 to 3 days a week use
internet and only 2% use once a week. This is clear sign of the awareness about the
internet. From table 1.2 it is clear that age group 18-25 spends more time on
internet. 40.6% respondents which fall in age group of 18-25, spend more than 3
hours on internet. 31% of the same age group spends 1 or 2 hours a day on internet.
This tells that more young adults are spending their time surfing on internet.
4.2 Age & Awareness about SNS
Interpretation:
Table 2 shows that 98% are aware about the social networks in which
74.8% fall in the age group of 18-25, whereas only 2% showed ignorance about the
social networks. 10% of age group 26-30 showed awareness about social networks.
Age group 26-30 showed 4.7%, 31-36 also 4.7% and 50+ show 5.4% awareness
about social networks.
37

4.3 Usage Pattern of SN
Interpretation:
Table 3 shows that 42% use social networks daily in which high amount of
users; 30%, fall in age group of 18- 25. 26% log in to social networking site more
than 3 times a day in which 18.6% are from the age group of 18-25. 16.6% use 2 to
3 times a day and 15.3% use social networks once a week.
4.4 Detail of Accounts on SN
38

Interpretation:
Facebook is the mostly used social network with over 800 million users.
From table 4 it can be seen in Pakistan 55.5% uses Facebook. Google+ on second
with the 17.4% of usage, Twitter 12.1%, LinkedIn 13.2% and WordPress only
1.9%.
4.5 Reason Behind Using SN
Interpretation:
51.4% use social networks to keep in touch with their family, 16.4% want
to get in touch with the fan pages they have joined, 14.7% use to keep in touch
with business contacts, 8.6% use to promote their ideas, there are 6.5 % who have
other than these reasons to use social networks and only 2.4% promote their
business through these networks. (Table 5)
39

4.6 Kinds of Ads Encountered
Interpretation:
41.1% web banners, 23.3% video ads, 19.6% flash ads, 13.8% pop-ups and
2.2% users encounter other than these in which some mentioned interactive wall
posts. (Table 6)
4.7 Type of ads users find well communicated
40

Interpretation:
Table 7 shows that 60% users consider interactive wall posts and updates
by different fan pages well communicated. 22% banner ads, 16% flash ads and
only 2% video ads.
4.8 SN Regarding Better Ad
Interpretation:
73.4% users consider facebook having well communicated ads, 13.3%
consider google+, 6.9% linkedin, 4.6% twitter and wordpress only 1.7 % is
considered having well communicated ads. (Table 8)
41

4.9 Satisfaction with the appearance of ads
Interpretation:
From research data 12% users are strongly agree and satisfied with the
ads appearing in social networks, 17.3% are less agree and large number of
users 34.7% are partially agree with the content and appearance of ads on
social networks. 12% are strongly disagree, 8.7% disagree and 15.3% are
partially disagree as they are, mostly, not satisfied with the content of ads.
(Table 9)
42

4.10 Accessing ads
Interpretation:
From the survey data 22.7% users show they have accessed ads
many times. While 45.3% users say they accessed ads sometimes, 22%
never accessed and 10% say it depend on the information ad contains.
(Table 10)
43

4.11 Impact of ads
Interpretation:
Finally from survey we tried to check the impact of ads e.g.; in recalling of brands
or information they encounter on ads appearing on social networks Analysis of
survey data showed 9.4% are strongly agree that ads appearing on social
networking sites help in recalling brands and information they contain. 24.2%
agree and 32.2% are partially agreed. Whereas 9.4% are strongly disagreed, 10.1%
disagree and 14.8 % are partially disagreed. (Table 11)
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusion
Pakistan is among fastest growing social media usage population (Martin,
2011). This study shows that many of the youngsters from age group 18-25 spend
their more than 3 hours a days on the internet. 98% of the same age group showed
awareness about the social networks. From this survey we see that age group 50+
is also aware about the social network which shows the increasing usage trend of
social networking sites in the Pakistan. Similarly a large number of users log in
daily to the social networking websites in which mostly log in more than 3 times a
day. This result proves the analysis of Martin (2011).
Among the social media networks facebook is mostly used social network
in Pakistan. Thus this result confirms the Statistics provided by Bennett (2011).
Mostly users use this to keep in touch with their family and friends. Analysis also
showed that users also prefer social networks to keep in touch with the business
contacts and some prefer to be up-to-date with fan pages they have joined.
Users encountered web banners and video ads the most on these sites. Whereas
interactive wall posts which allow users to actively engage; quiz, question or game,
are considered well communicated. Facebook is considered having well
communicated ads.
From the study a great number of users showed up in the range of
satisfaction with the ads whereas very little amount of users showed up in the
range of disagree. This shows they understand the reason of ads and trust the
45

content it displays. Also the results showed that a large number of users after
seeing the ads try to access them and very few ignore them.
Finally a great number of users agreed that ads appearing on social
networking sites helped them in recalling brands and made impact on them. And
very few disagreed with this. The above discussion clearly shows the behavior of
Pakistanis regarding social networks, internet consumption and their behavior
towards advertisements in social networks. Results clearly show that there is a
positive future for social media marketing in Pakistan. This study also identified
which group is more into social networks thus can help in shaping the marketing
strategies.
5.2 Recommendations
Recommendation 1
Plan detailed steps for social media marketing strategy:
 Identify the target audience. Based on the research study, appropriate target
audiences are males and females aged between 30-49 years of age. SNS
needs to be clear on what specifically motivates consumers on social
media. Based on the results of the research study, it is clear that real-time
customer feedback, online news letters, online competitions and a loyalty
rewards programme appeals to consumers. SNS would need to create a
dedicated social media team to manage consumer-brand engagement. SNS
would also need to ensure that there are current
newsletter, press releases and sufficient ad hoc competitions to “pull”
consumers;
46

 Develop a marketing campaign to launch social media and attract
consumers to SNS’s social media pages. The campaigns must focus on
raising brand awareness, promote a favorable brand image and create a
“buzz” in the online market place. The campaign must appeal to
consumers; and
 The campaign must be interactive to promote consumer-brand engagement
and promote consumer conversations about the brand. This in turn will
provide SNS with new insights on the targeted markets.
Recommendation 2
Identify appropriate social media platforms to launch of social media marketing:
 Based on the research analysis in chapter five, it is clear that the most
appropriate social media platforms for SNS to launch social media
marketing activities are Facebook and Twitter.
Recommendation 3
The social media marketing strategy must have sufficient budget to create, run and
promote social media marketing activities:
 SNS must ensure that there is sufficient budget available to develop
creative artwork for the fan pages (production costs) and to develop
interactive games to attract and retain social media fans; and
 Social media requires constant monitoring and real time feedback to ensure
consumer brand engagement. Therefore SNS will need to ensure that they
47

are resourced appropriately so that social media has sufficient resources
dedicated to “talking” to and engaging with consumers.
Recommendation 4
Determine metrics to evaluate the success of social media marking and assess its
effectiveness:
 Social media platforms provide users with analytics to assess the growth
and functionality of their social media pages. On platforms such as
Facebook and Twitter, this includes viewing the number of visitors per day,
the number of likes per comments and the number of comments per day;
and
 SNS must select the most appropriate analytical tools in order to asses
key performance indicators and return on investment
5.3 Future Research
After having the good understanding about trends in social media one can design
the effective strategies to exploit them. There is a great room to identify, explore
and design the effective social media strategies. This paper clearly provides the
base for the future research.
48

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