Persuasiveness of Social Media and Traditional Word of Mouth

Running Head: Social Media and Traditional Word of Mouth
Social Media Network and Traditional Word of Mouth
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Persuasiveness of Social Media and Traditional Word of Mouth 2
Executive Summary
A large number of consumers in Australia and across the world tend to purchase goods
and services through the impact of the social media. The intense nature of the social media has
risen in the past few years undermining the traditional word of mouth. However, this has not
been adopted by some small business that is still using the usual word of mouth. The robust
nature of social media is described through the attribution theory that explains the consumer’s
behavior. The research propels aims at understanding why the social media is more persuasive
than traditional word of mouth through carrying research to collect views from both the customer
and business owners. The data will be collected through both qualitative and quantitative data
collection method, and later analyzed through various techniques such as descriptive, correlation
and regression to bring a clear understanding of the data.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Problem Statement.................................................................................................................................5
Research objectives and questions..........................................................................................................6
Justification of the Proposal...................................................................................................................6
Expected Research Outcomes.................................................................................................................6
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................7
The Traditional word of mouth marketing concept.................................................................................8
The modern concept of Marketing..........................................................................................................8
Attribution Theory...................................................................................................................................9
Social media versus Traditional Word of Mouth over Consumer’s Decision Making Process................10
The speed of Social media versus the traditional word of mouth.........................................................12
Methodology.............................................................................................................................................12
Qualitative Research..............................................................................................................................12
Quantitative Research...........................................................................................................................12
Data collection instruments...................................................................................................................13
Qualitative data.................................................................................................................................13
Quantitative data...............................................................................................................................14
Measures...............................................................................................................................................14
Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................................14
Qualitative data analysis....................................................................................................................14
Quantitative data analysis.................................................................................................................15
Data presentation..................................................................................................................................15
Organizational Study.................................................................................................................................15
Gantt chart................................................................................................................................................16
Appendices................................................................................................................................................17
Proposal Budget and Justification..........................................................................................................17
References.................................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
During the past few years, both business and consumers behaviors have changed as a
result of the tremendous increase in the use of internet across the globe. A large number of
people tend to communicate through the social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and YouTube among others more than the traditional conversation(Hur, Kim,
Karatepe & Lee, 2017). These social and technological changes have affected not only the
people’s lives but also the marketing industry. In the past, face-to-face marketing was the best
strategy that every company applied, however, in the recent developments has seen it losing the
persuasive nature to the current social media marketing.
Research indicates that as much as about 70% of the conversation takes place offline
Australia, 20% of consumers account for one-third of the social media conversation and is
increasing tremendously. Research shows that many consumers are currently relying on the
social media to learn on the availability of new product, many rely on the social media
information, comments and views from the friends and relatives to make purchase decisions on
particular products(Chang, Yu & Lu, 2015). Other marketing research shows that the new ads on
the social site are the major stimulator to purchase a product and services. From these previous
researchers, it is a clear indicator that social media is now becoming more persuasive than the
traditional word of mouth that marketer relied on.
The Traditional WOM communication has been recognized as past compelling method as
a result of the shift of marketing strategies towards social media that have the capability of
reaching a large number of people providing opinions, reviews, prices and images of each

Persuasiveness of Social Media and Traditional Word of Mouth 5
product. These aspects have been recognized as essential factors that have contributed to the
persuasiveness nature of the social media over the traditional Wom. The typical social media
marketing tools are categorized as viral marketing, referral programs, and community marketing.
Therefore, this paper mainly focuses on determining the significant reasons that are behind the
persuasiveness of the social media over the traditional word of mouth, with focus on the
Australian Market and consumers.
Problem Statement
All business organizations are formed with one aim; to prosper, that is only achievable
through the volume sales of the products and services leading to large market command. The
large volumes of transactions are always achieved after extensive marketing that creates
awareness of the product and promotions that entice consumers to make purchases over the other
competing products (De Vries Gensler & Leeflang 2012). Most of the organizations focused on
the traditional word of mouth as a form of marketing that is currently losing focus on the social
media platforms that are not well popular with most of the organizations.
Marketing research shows that the social media platforms have a significant impact on
the consumer behavior that determines the purchasing intention and trend of a customer than
traditional marketing (Lamberton & Stephen, 2016). About 60% of Australia customers rely on
blogs for directions before making purchases. Therefore; many organizations find it difficult in
changing their marketing strategy from traditional word of mouth to social marketing to capture
the number of customers. This can only be achieved when organizations understand the reasons
that are behind the persuasiveness nature of the social media over the traditional word of mouth.

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Research objectives and questions
The purpose of this research is to investigate the reasons behind the persuasiveness nature
of the social media over the traditional word of mouth in today’s marketing sector in Australia.
The objectives will be realized through addressing the following primary question: Is Social
Media more persuasive than the traditional Word of Mouth in marketing sector? The minor
issues will be:
I. How many Australian are using social media tools?
II. How many Australians make purchases as a result of social media impact?
III. What are the factors that drive the Australians consumers to use social media as product
information and purchase intentions?
IV. Why Australians are companies use social media as a marketing tool for the traditional
word of mouth?
Justification of the Proposal
Today, the world has technologically changed in almost every aspect. These changes
have a direct or indirect impact on various sectors of organizations, therefore use, and role of
social media in marketing is vital to the companies. Australians business organizations will,
therefore, stop applying the traditional marketing and embrace the social media marketing
strategies to remain relevant in the market.
Expected Research Outcomes
At the end of the study, the research proposal is expected to have the following outcomes:
 The number of Australians that are using social media