HI6008 Business Research: Social Media Advertising and Buyer Behaviour

This report examines the effects of social media advertising on buyer behavior, focusing on how marketing strategies influence consumer decisions. The student explores this topic through a literature review, which includes an analysis of consumer behavior, the role of social media in marketing, and relevant theories like consumer socialization. The report also details the research methodology, including the use of surveys to gather data on the impact of social media advertising on consumer choices. The findings highlight the significant influence of social media on consumer decision-making processes. The student also reflects on the learning outcomes from the research methodology and the impact that social media advertising has on the consumer's mindset. The report also includes a discussion on the importance of consumer behavior in marketing and how social media helps marketers to interact with consumers. The student also acknowledges the guidance received from Dr. Philip Booth and provides references to support the analysis.

Running head: EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ON BUYER BEHAVIOUR
Effects of Social Media Advertising on Buyer Behaviour
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ON BUYER BEHAVIOUR
Marketing through social media is a way that puts the customers to a centre of
business world and gives the marketers new equipment so that they can have interaction
with the consumers in an innovative way. When I saw the contemporary style of marketing
that social media has brought along, I started to identify an interesting research topic
which is the effects that this type of social media advertising can possibly have on the
behaviour of the buyers (Barhemmati and Ahmad 2015). The advent of social media has
not only opened up new ways of dealing with the consumers, but it has also created a
whole new space where the behaviours of these buyers can be analysed and appropriate
actions can be predicted for a profitable business. The only question that remained was
how to predict a profitable business through the analysis of the buyer’s behaviour on the
effect that social media advertising has imposed (Stephen 2016). After looking through a
couple of empirical documents and doing some research on the topic online, I decided to
carry on the analysis of the buyer’s behaviour myself through a report, where I will note
down the behaviour pattern and try to deduce the path to a profitable business prediction.
While drafting the assignment there were a lot of things that I learned about which were
useful in the processing of the report. For instance, I came to know that social media is
such a platform where consumer interaction is processed easily than any other platform
and this is a beneficial fact that gives both the consumers and the marketers convenience
to attain whatever they are looking for. It is a two-way process where both the parties are
gaining from the action done in the social media (Hutter et al. 2013). Dr Philip Booth
provided me with feedbacks on my draft and guided me to a standard path following which
I can get the research question analysed from every aspect and angles as well as provide
the readers with the best possible answers.
The literature review framed by me had to be done through a lot of research on
Social Media Marketing as well as on Consumer Buying Decision Making (Goh, Heng and
Lin 2013). I had to thoroughly go through the technical revolution that took place in the
history of commerce and changed the whole approach that was traditionally followed by
the marketers; this technical revolution in the form of social media advertising or even
social media marketing brought the marketers to a new era that taught them innovative
ways of integration and interaction with the buyers (Vinerean et al. 2013). The importance
of the consumer behaviour was also discussed upon by me in the literature review in the
aspect of marketing, since this behaviour assists the marketers in forming strategies to run
their business robustly. In the world where social media is dominating in the fields of
marketing, marketers have found a way to employ social media technique so that the
consumer’s loyalty could be won and its behaviour can be altered (Lee and Hong 2016).

2EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ON BUYER BEHAVIOUR
There are also relevant articles that were needed to be summarised in order to prove the
statements that I had to make for justifying the validity of my research question.
Whilst writing up the draft and conducting the literature review, more notions about
the consumer behaviour emerged. There are more than 500 million people who are active
in social media world and this growth in the number of users of the social media is what
that attracted the marketers to influence their consumer’s choice over this particular
platform (Watne, Brennan and Winchester 2014). This interaction has turned out to be the
most important part of marketing strategy in the aspect of communication with the
consumers. Only through direct interaction -like it can be possible through social media
platform- can the marketers determine what their customers need and what they want
(Haugtvedt, Herr and Kardes 2018). This is how they can estimate the key products that
should be launched in the market. However, this communication has shown some visible
impacts on the decision-making process of the consumers. I have also included the
implication of Consumer Socialization theory in my literature review in order to provide
strength to my arguments about the long-term impact I am analysing about (Labrecque et
al. 2013). It was Dr Philip who advised me to consider the theory of Consumer
Socialization to put in my work and analyse the statement keeping this theory in mind. He
advised me to look for the empirical gaps that exist in study of the Social Media Marketing
influence upon the Consumer Buying Decision Making process.
After receiving the valuable feedback from Dr Philip, I got a path to follow my
research work and my proceedings were in accordance to that advise. I researched the
relationship that exists between the social media and the consumer’s decision-making
abilities and from that notion I went forward to process the mediating effect that the
advertising in social media imposes on the minds of the media users and the decision-
making ability of the consumers in the social media (Solomon et al. 2014). After
composing my work together in a place and jotting it down in an appropriate sequence, I
was finally able to submit my individual assignment.
Setting the theory aside, the tricky part of the project is the execution of the
methodology used to conduct the research and base the statement on the outcomes of the
surveys, interviews and other forms of data collection method. Being an individual
assignment, I had to look after every type of data analysis method, including the sampling,
questionnaire, surveys and others. For the survey, few of my friends contributed and I
made an estimate of the impact that is imposed by the social media advertising on the
users. However, there are more than 500 million users of social media as mentioned

3EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ON BUYER BEHAVIOUR
before and the sample size I used is very small, about 500 of people contributed in the
survey. Therefore, the estimation may not be precise, yet the readers will have an idea
about the concept. The best research method according to me was the survey method,
since it was a primary source of data though in a limited sample size, yet the information
gathered was first hand and accurate. Based on the topic of my research and my research
question, most of the data were of quantitative type and the data analysis method was
mixed; it contained both secondary type of data and quantitative data. The learning
outcomes from the research methodology were enlightening; the impact that was imposed
on the respondents according to their own opinions were very precise. It also showed the
potentiality of the social media advertising that can change the attitude of the consumer’s
mindset in his or her decision-making system. It was also seen that this same social media
has in fact helped the juries to have an open mind for a case, thus influencing even their
ability to decide something. Dr Philip gave the feedback on the sampling size and advised
me to keep the sample size of the survey small, yet include people from all aspect of
occupation, life style and more. In this way I could gain a diverse and wide idea of the
impact that this advertising imposes on a global level. The project was really enlightening
in terms of knowledge and I got to know about the topic in a wider perspective, following
which my research questions were answered.

4EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ON BUYER BEHAVIOUR
References:
Barhemmati, N. and Ahmad, A., 2015. Effects of social network marketing (SNM) on
consumer purchase behavior through customer engagement. Journal of Advanced
Management Science, 3(4).
Goh, K.Y., Heng, C.S. and Lin, Z., 2013. Social media brand community and consumer
behavior: Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated
content. Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp.88-107.
Haugtvedt, C.P., Herr, P.M. and Kardes, F.R. eds., 2018. Handbook of consumer
psychology. Routledge.
Hutter, K., Hautz, J., Dennhardt, S. and Füller, J., 2013. The impact of user interactions in
social media on brand awareness and purchase intention: the case of MINI on
Facebook. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 22(5/6), pp.342-351.
Labrecque, L.I., vor dem Esche, J., Mathwick, C., Novak, T.P. and Hofacker, C.F., 2013.
Consumer power: Evolution in the digital age. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4),
pp.257-269.
Lee, J. and Hong, I.B., 2016. Predicting positive user responses to social media
advertising: The roles of emotional appeal, informativeness, and creativity. International
Journal of Information Management, 36(3), pp.360-373.
Solomon, M.R., Dahl, D.W., White, K., Zaichkowsky, J.L. and Polegato, R.,
2014. Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Toronto, Canada:
Pearson.
Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer
behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.17-21.
Vinerean, S., Cetina, I., Dumitrescu, L. and Tichindelean, M., 2013. The effects of social
media marketing on online consumer behavior. International Journal of Business and
Management, 8(14), p.66.
Watne, T.A., Brennan, L. and Winchester, T.M., 2014. Consumer socialization agency:
implications for family decision-making about holidays. Journal of Travel & Tourism
Marketing, 31(6), pp.681-696.