Research Report: Impact of Social Media on Customer Buying Behavior

This report investigates the impact of social media on customer buying behavior, examining how platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter influence purchasing decisions. The research problem is identified as the potential negative impact of social media on customer behavior, balanced by the positive influence on buying choices. The study includes a literature review that explores e-marketing, search engine marketing, and the role of social media in business operations, referencing academic sources to support its findings. Two research methods are employed: qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews to understand customer perceptions and motivations, and quantitative analysis using online surveys to gather statistical data. The report details the advantages and limitations of each method, highlighting the challenges of data collection and analysis. The conclusion summarizes the findings, emphasizing the complex relationship between social media and consumer behavior, and the need for businesses to adapt their strategies to leverage these platforms effectively. The report also discusses the relevance of the research and its audience, and how the research will be disseminated.

Business Research
Methods
1

Table of Contents
Section 1: Comparing two research methodology......................................................................3
1.1 Research Problem.................................................................................................................3
1.2 Literature review...................................................................................................................4
1.3 Two appropriate research methods.......................................................................................6
Section 2: Instrument and Conclusions....................................................................................11
2.1 Instrument...........................................................................................................................11
Data collection Instruments......................................................................................................11
2.2 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................15
Section 3: Research Dissemination..........................................................................................16
3.1 Relevance and audience......................................................................................................16
3.2 Communication of research................................................................................................16
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................18
Appendix...................................................................................................................................20
2

Title- Impact of Social Media on buying behaviour of customers
Section 1: Comparing two research methodology
1.1 Research Problem
Globalization has made the customers integrated and independent to the purchasing
behaviour and they have more options from the national marketers. It has made the world a better
place by helping the customers communicate with different people with the help of social media
like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and twitter. The brands will be able to promote and make
products according to the needs of customers, communication and pricing strategy of the
organisation (Anderson, 2015). The social media is impacting the organisation because they will
make the plans to attract the customers.
The social media is the low cost promotions that will help in communicating with the
customers and giving them products. The Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and twitter are the social
media that are used by the organisation to attract customers and they will be analysing the
performance of the organisation. Experience in conducting promotional plans on social media such
as setting up a website, pay per click marketing for search engines, A/B monitoring will help the
organisations in increasing the performance. The aim of the research is to investigate the factors
that will help in increasing the impact of social media on buying behaviour of customers. The
research problems in this research is that there is a there is a negative impact of social media on
customer behaviour. As customers are more becoming abusive and becoming criminals. So this can
create harm to other users. However, there can be positive impact of customer buying decisions as
customers should know about the online products ad services and they can be aware about the
company also.
Research Objectives
 To evaluate about the concept of social media as a vital tool of e-marketing.
 To determine the impact of social media on the buying behaviour of the customers.
Research questions
 What is meant by the concept of social media as a vital tool of e-marketing?
 What are the various factors that are increasing the impact of social media on the buying
behaviour of the customers?
3

1.2 Literature review
Introduction- The literature review is helping the organisation in secondary research where
they are focusing on the factors that will help in the research. The topic of the research is impact of
social media on buying behaviour of customers and the literature review is helping in increasing the
performance.
According to Cooltrack (2016), The social media is helpful in creating internet content
marketing with peers as well as decisions. There is no need of investing a real budget or risk
damaging for a brand. There is a competition consisting of part of teams. Each and every
promotions includes new set of conditions as well as challenges for responding to creative thinking.
All the marketing is cleared and the team receives the results after every round. E-marketing
consists of optimising and creating content and these are essential as it improves results and there is
comparison done on the basis of skills. It is operating in different scenarios of content marketing
varies from business to business (How does social media influence consumer behaviour? 2021).
The search engine marketing is defined as a term which includes different techniques of internet
marketing. There is need for managing the online campaigns in order to develop and enhance ways
for improving the integration of the businesses. The designing and development of online
advertising strategy is used for enhancing metrics of overall performance. This is involved in
promoting various methods such as pa per click, contextual advertising, search engine result pages,
etc. the digital asset of optimisation is also used within the process for managing the system. There
is need to monitor different search rankings and other pages.
The learning e-marketing within marketing on social media which leads to manage the
potential damage as well as financial risks. There is a game recommended for learners and this is
initiated for tracking the online campaigns. There are also certain ways in which company do
marketing. At can be online marketing or it can be physical marketing that is direct marketing.
Social media will helps the customers in making aware about the products and services company is
selling to them. Social media helps the company in maintain good contact with customers and
interacting them and solving their problems and issues.
According to Nick Hajli (2019), In context of online environment, there is increase of
business operations on online basis. There is revolution managed at high pace and adopters are
managing highest market share. There is competitive e-commerce market where website is having
the successful guarantee. It is an efficient way to manage the integration of website and not having
4

a proper acquisition of targeted traffic. There is management of multifaceted phenomenon of
complexity and terminology that is involved in a specific field or area. There is great competition
within the innovation and there is need for increasing examination of complex problems.
The social media is defined as an effective learning technique that is involved in active
learning technique. There are advantages of using online business and representing improvement in
the buying behaviour of the customers. There is increase in adaptability of various constraints
associated with virtual business. According to the closer simulation planning and process, there is
need to evaluate the actual environment of learners and maintain a positive work culture. When
retention is greater then safe environment is enhanced. The search engine marketing is known as
the managing of different dashboards involved in placing as well as managing the paid
advertisements. There is development of online marketing which allows the learners for pulling
expensive equipment services. As per the views of Salas, it is concluded that social media provides
a beneficial training for managing the business. There is need to manage the effectiveness of
working experience and development of all business processes (A study of the impact of social
media on consumers. 2021).
5

1.3 Two appropriate research methods
Further, in next step analysed that there are various types of different brands and it is
essential to target proper brand for example- Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and twitter are to be
known as top brands within marketplace (Chatzoglou and Chatzoudes, 2016). To figure out this
properly, at initial level all brands were targeted but the primary research will be done and will
checked the results and then with help of feedback it become easy to target which brand will be
effective for the campaign.
In qualitative analysis of research in digital business, it is essential to have appropriate
knowledge about using of info graphics so that customers easily visit to websites do not feel flick
when landing to pages. With help of these info graphics, it is easy to engage visitors towards
websites easily. These help in improvement and developing interest of customers towards a
particular websites, products or brand. In the quantitative analysis the organisation should have the
6

employees who will be handling the campaigns and will be communicated to the campaign
manager as they can provided a list of keywords, which are potential for the ad campaigns. Thus,
with help of this it will assists in simplifying of process keywords & they analysed that of use less
relevant keywords such as keywords like android tablet review tablet or iPod as because of their
less effectiveness in campaign. Without use of keywords, it is difficult to attract customers or
visitors. Keywords are to be known as phrase which is used by visitors whenever any search is
made (Dowell, Morrison and Heffernan, 2015). There are two types of keywords that are used in
the research and they are qualitative and quantitate analysis. Qualitative analysis is the method in
which searcher is conducting research through literature review and quantitative research is used by
researcher in conducting online survey.
Interview on the impacts of social media on customers
The semi structured interview is explained as process of analysing organisation vision and
mission on the basis of non-quantifiable information which includes management reports, expertise,
research and development, labour performance etc. The interview depends on intangible data rather
that depending on statistical data. This approach is used to understand image of brand, customer
satisfaction, cultural shift etc. The semi structured interview is used to understand organisation
operations and help in understanding opportunity for expansion in market. It help in understanding
culture and people associated with organisation.
The semi structured interview is conducted to understand customers perception and
motivations. It has small number of participants. This research is so small so findings cannot be
accurate sometimes. In this research impact of social media is customers is conducted. Qualitative
analysis uses subjective judgements that can analyse company value based on non- quantifiable
information. This analysis deals with intangible and inexact information that can be difficult to
collect and measure by researchers. It is understanding of company culture are central to interview.
This method is deals with kind of intelligence that machines cannot do, customer satisfaction and
competitive advantages and cultural shifts that can comes in numerical terms. But it is a process
which consumes much time as compared to quantitative analysis. This research includes knowing
about company management, that involves professional and educational backgrounds. It is
important to know about the employees and company working in the business organisation
(Trkman and et.al., 2015).
7

In this research, it is shown that there can be positive or negative impact of social media on
customers. Customers are asked to share there experiences through questionnaire, interviews or
sampling methods etc. This research identifies the positive impact of social media on customers,
negative impacts of social media on customers. Sometimes company or researchers uses open
questions and give the opportunity to the customers to discuss their answers and topics with each
other. This helps the customers in sharing their views with other participants and this will allow
people to express their thoughts and views freely with any other person. Accordingly they make
conclusions after taking interviews from customers. This allows the researchers to translate and
interpret the data that can results in most meaningful and relevant information. When analysis this
research its is interesting to finds attractive answers. So that is why it becomes little bit difficult to
verify the answers and conclude them.
In addition, customers highlights there work and this sample research is very small so that
is why it makes difficult for the researchers to conclude all results regarding customers answers
regarding impact of social media on its viewers. In this research there can be a risk because lack of
participants or false answers is very high. So this type of research is introduced in the first section
of the work and thus it requires to conducts this analysis on large scale. Answers of this research
includes everyone's opinion and experiences of all the participants. And that is why it does not
target all populations. In last this approach identifies individual experiences and answers. There
might be some people who are interested in giving in this answers and some people who are not
interested in participating this research programme. Although, qualitative research helps the
researcher in analysing all the answers of the customers. This contains commercial content and
deep knowledge about the social media sites and there impacts on its viewers.
Online survey
Online survey is explained as
analysing mathematical and statistical data which help in measuring and assist in research to
understand performance of organisation. It help in analysing performance of organisation as well as
financial performance of organisation. It help in analysing data related to finance such as debt ratio,
earnings per share etc. Online survey help in decision-making process and help in calculating
complex statistical data. Organisation uses online survey to evaluate and understand sales figure of
organisation and profit margin of organisation. It help in growth of organisation and assist in
8

growth of organisation profit and functioning which help in maximizing productivity and
profitability of organisation.
In recent days social media has becoming more popular and necessary tool for all
consumers online. There is no doubt all the businesses had turned to social media to connect with
network of peoples and also to target market. There are number of millennial generations those
spend most of their time on online. There is 47% of purchases which are influenced by social
media. The main motive of social media is to influence consumers mind and attract them to buy
their products, because every social networking sites provides different kinds of products and goods
which are belong to highly new brands.
There are few factors which influence consumers;
There are large number of factors which influence on consumers behaviour.
 Psychological – this defines dragging an attention of customers for e.g. perception,
motivation, learning, attitudes and beliefs.
 Personal – are occupation, life- cycle stages and economic circumstances, personality and
self concept these are categories of given personal.
 Social- it refers to family, groups, roles and status.
 Culture – It is all about subculture and social class system
The usage of social websites or social networkings are increasing day by day and leaving
extensive effects on consumer minds in a different ways, there are many sites available which are
rapidly affecting consumers behaviour social websites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, you tube
etc. Nowadays social media had become a platform to promote their products and goods, and it is
also very strong and useful tool for the consumers for buying. Networking websites and social
media both are most successful techniques and are very important in the field of advertising, due to
this reason number of selling articles are increasing everyday and this is the important aim of all
businessman.
Social media providing lots of opportunities to interact with customers with the help of
internet or media platform companies are reaching out prospective and customers. Usually internet
have modified marketers and shoppers communicating medium, thus it is very helpful for business
staff to find worldwide customers at a single click of button in this way this is very useful
technology, it is a great platform to exchange informations.
9

Online survey is explained as process of analysing organisation vision and mission on the
basis of non-quantifiable information which includes management reports, expertise, research and
development, labour performance etc. Qualitative analysis depends on intangible data rather that
depending on statistical data. This approach is used to understand image of brand, customer
satisfaction, cultural shift etc. Qualitative analysis is used to understand organisation operations and
help in understanding opportunity for expansion in market. Qualitative analysis help in
understanding culture and people associated with organisation.
Stages in consumer buying process
 Need recognition- In this stage consumers realize their needs and this is very helpful
opportunity with the help of marketing strategies recognizing or evaluating own needs.
 Information search – This stage defines when a customer searching for more information
about the product they want to purchase.
 Evaluation of alternatives – It is seen that there are many different products which address
their needs, in this stage, marketing strategies try to convince and match a product strengths.
 Purchase decisions – This stage is that where customer decide to purchase a product, while
looking at multiple items then decide to purchase.
 Post purchase behaviour – this stage explains about sharing an experience of product which
is purchased by consumers whether they are satisfied or not because buying process doesn't
10

mean that it is a end of sale, so giving negative or positive feedback about the product is
very essential.
Section 2: Instrument and Conclusions
2.1 Instrument
In this competitive era, technology has been evolving with changing period of time. In
digital business, it is crucial to improve & develop effective strategy within business sector so that
sustainability period increases for longer period of time. To properly understand the integrated
digital marketing and business strategy the research on the impact of social media on consumers is
needed at priority level. With adaption of the concept of social media, I was able to explore learning
by doing on the basis of different modules which are mapping real world practices for example-
preparing questionnaire and communicating with the people to increase the performance
(Silverman, 2015). The organisations may use primary research to fully define how social media
plans are set up and really well, everything from online advertising to online search advertisement
campaigns, though in a stress (and neutral) setting where everything revolves between learning.
The social media is used by the organisation to promote the products and they are not
biased. They will attract customers who are interested in the products of the organisation (James
and Casidy, 2018).
In this modern era, the organisations can easily improve their level of knowledge as it helps
them to improve their knowledge about how to use online digital marketing tools within broad area
of marketing area. In business sector, it is necessary for customers to be aware about how social
media promotions can benefit them in developing as well as improving their field knowledge at
larger scale. As my topic was Social media marketing which is also known as SMM and is defined
as way of online marketing in which promotion & advertising of websites is done through
improving search rating on search engine pages. I learn about PPC which is to be known as Pay Per
Click, in which it is basically advertising & promotion approach in which advertiser pay for
advertisement whenever a publisher click on ad.
Data collection Instruments
It has been analysed that there are two main method of research i.e. qualitative and
quantitative method of research under which different tools and instruments are used for data
11

collection. It has been analysed that the under the qualitative method of research, use of interview is
made as data collection instrument which facilitates in-depth and detailed information about the
behaviour and attitude of the participants. It has been analysed that the interview as a data
collection instrument comprises of a two-way communication between the researcher and
participant to effectively analysis and get understanding about their opinion in detail. Thus, making
use of interview as data collection instrument is more time consuming and complex way of data
collection. On the other hand, under the quantitative method of research use of questionnaire has
been made as data collection instrument which facilitates a most cost and time efficient way of
collecting data. It has been observed that questionnaire basically comprises of written document
that consists of a set of questions related with a specific topic. Further, the main purpose of a
questionnaire is to extract data from the selected respondents and provide a relatively inexpensive,
quick, and efficient way of collecting large amount data even when the researcher isn't present to
collect those responses first hand. Further, while design a questionnaire, the researcher must try that
questions should progress logically from the least sensitive to the most sensitive, from the factual
and behavioural to the cognitive, and from the more general to the more specific.
REFLECTION
The quantitative research supports me in realising the terms as briefly that might comprises
of every comprehensive perception of investigating keywords, letters of ad copies, that builds the
landing pages etc. For example- in week 1 of the qualitative research by which I will be inspecting
of small developments of the future to carry out activities. So, in my practicing what I sell the
products as online for example- tablets of different products. Each and every consumers or visitors
searches for diverse contented like the product description, video of product etc. It is other learning
which I have developed with the help of online marketing by which I have reflected that it is
important to be precise so that it is easy to appeal consumers. So, every advertisement that has own
detailed landing contacts. More specific the alighting page was present for ad; there were more
probabilities of maximising the traffic. So, when I am analysing the plan of actions that they have
to be utilized as careful and suitable type of movements that is desirable to be get approved out. By
an appropriately examining the quantitative research to mark it as easy to make it as effective
decisions for social media impact on the consumers and it will be easy to help in refining the
performance as effective. I have analysed that the social media is the online communication
intermediator that will committed to the local based inputs in the communication and the satisfied
12