Reflective Journal: Impact of Social Media on Buyer Behavior

This reflective journal examines the influence of social media on buyer behavior. It details the student's process of topic selection, literature review, and research methodology, including qualitative research and thematic data analysis. The journal highlights the challenges faced, such as team communication issues and time management, along with the support received from team members and mentors. The student's personal experience includes a literature review focusing on consumer behavior, social media's impact, and the use of social media by businesses to influence customers. The journal emphasizes the crucial role of social media in business promotion and market expansion, offering valuable insights into the topic.

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

Table of Contents
REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS.............................................................................................................1
Personal Contribution to Topic Selection, Problem, Research Question ..................................1
Contribution & Learnings from Literature Review.....................................................................1
Contribution in Research Methodology.......................................................................................2
Challenges faced and Personal Experience..................................................................................2
Section that I wrote & it's experience..........................................................................................3

REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS
Personal Contribution to Topic Selection, Problem, Research Question
First I went through the process of writing research paper. I studied how a research paper is
made, what things need to be included in the project. Then I searched about some different
industries about what topic I should be selecting for my research project. I found some topics
wrote them and start searching on them, but somehow I was not convinced by those topics. Then
it came to my mind about the trend of social media and it's impact on daily activities of people.
Social Media is one of the most influential tools in today's world for businesses, how they can
influence purchasers mind and attract them to but those products that they don't even need at that
particular hour. So this manner I choose my topic 'Effect of social media on buyer behaviour'.
Then I got the approval of the topic from my mentor and started searching about it, it made me
more excited to know that social media is impacting buyers in so many ways. For example a
simple advertisement on social media applications influence customer's and attract them towards
those products or latest to it is celebrity endorsement. An advertisement showing some celebs
promoting a product for a brand makes people go crazy after it. As I headed in searching more
about the topic I analysed some problems such as security issues, connectivity, delay in services
and I managed to write all these issues as my research problem. On the basis of these problems I
constructed research question that states “What are the challenges faced by companies to
influence buyer behaviour through social media advertising?”
Contribution & Learnings from Literature Review
After choosing topic and constructing questions, I started searching for similar research papers
by different authors to get some idea that how they have written it, what things they mentioned,
what can be improved, what new I can bring to contribute to the topic and how my research
should be different and more progressive than others. After studying various author's research
paper I got the idea how they constructed it and how will I make it more presentable and useful
for the public. I learned that different people do have difference in opinions for every point
mentioned has it contradictory statement. Like if one author has said something positive about
the social media impact on consumer behaviour, on the other hand other authors have mentioned
that it negatively affects consumer's. I did some literature review on consumer buying behaviour
and what are the factors that affect their decision. Then some on how social media influence their
consumer's behaviour. I learned that social media has some positive impact such as it improves
1

brand recognition, enhance market share as maximum people can be targetted, reduced
marketing cost but on the other hand some authors have mentioned that there are negative
outcomes as well like time-consuming, negative feedbacks can ruin the reputation of the
businesses and people have security issues that hold their hands back to trust on such social
media applications. It took me almost 2-3 weeks to develop this part of the project.
Contribution in Research Methodology
I studied and learned about research methodology and things are included in this part. First is
research type, I learned about different types of research such as qualitative and quantitative.
Conducted a detailed analysis of both the type and chose qualitative research for my project. As,
I will use theories to know more information about how social media influence the consumer's
buying behavior. Second is research philosophy, I acquired the knowledge on this part as well
that I previously have no idea about. I learned that it to have various types such as positivism,
interpretivism etc. For my present study I chose interpretivism philosophy to examine the
problems occur to companies in influencing consumer's behavior through social media
promotions. Third is research approach, I used inductive research approach in my research
project. The aim behind choosing this approach is to generate the meaning from the data
collected that will further help in designing research questions using all the theories. Fourth, is
design of the research I used descriptive research design. As I conducted a detailed analysis of
the topic and I have described about each and every part in detail. Fifth, I used primary
(questionnaire) and secondary data for collecting information. To gather more in-depth
knowledge I used questionnaire method and asked questions to the respondent and secondary
data like information from books & journals. From all these methods I learned about the topic in
detail and was able to find answer to my research questions. Report is qualitative in nature, so I
used thematic data analysis, I searched and learned about this technique online and I came to
know about how it works.
Challenges faced and Personal Experience
I faced many challenges and issues while writing this research project. In the starting it was
difficult for me to adjust with the team as everyone as different opinion. So there was a
communication gap between me and teammates. This is cause many problems in the staring
couple of weeks. My opinion is different from that of team members, we don't agree on common
terms and this was affecting our project. The second issue that I faced was of time management
2

as I didn't know about the such research project earlier so it took time for me understand certain
things and write it my own way and the time I had to complete the project was comparatively
less than I need. So I was not able to manage my time and it could affect my project but so much
I managed to cope up with that problem. The topic was also an issue I didn't know that much
about it that I can complete my project, so I have study about it in detail and it also consumed
much time. Above all issues I experienced some amazing things like great support from team
members and mentor. They were really cooperative with me and understand my situation. They
give me innovative ideas that help me to complete the project. The members also motivated me
to not give up, help me to manage my time issue and communication barrier. My overall
experience was good and I like working with in team and build good relations as well.
Section that I wrote & it's experience
The section that I personally wrote was literature review as to gain the primary knowledge about
the topic and it's influence I have to study about the topic. I reviewed various research papers
written by various authors and analyze that what they have written in their articles and what are
their key findings from the study. After knowing what they have found I got the idea of starting
my research as well. I wanted to make it different from others, so I thought of distributing it in
parts. First I acquire the knowledge on consumer's behavior and how it is influenced, then about
social media and then how it can be used by businesses to influence customer's. I experienced
that the social media is a crucial tool for businesses these days to promote their business and
expand their market share. The overall experience was good I gained much knowledge about
social media advertisement influencing consumer's behavior.
3

4

5

6

7