NTCC REPORT

ON
A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON
CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR
SUBMITTED TO:
AMITY SCHOOL OF BUISNESS
in partial fulfilment of requirement of the degree of

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION(BBA)

BATCH: 2018-2021
SUBMITTED BY:
ANANYA GHOSH
BBA 3 RD SEMESTER
A90606418021
 content

1. INTRODUCTION
2. SOCIAL MEDIA
3. DEFINITION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
4. THE RISE OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
5. BIRDS EYE VIEW LANDSCAPE BY SOCIAL MEDIA
6. HISTORY OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
7. EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
8. FUCTIONS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
9. TYPES OF USER ON SOCIAL NETWORK
10. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
11. BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
12. EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
13. SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
14. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TECHINQUES
15. ADVANTAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
16. LIMITION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
17. CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
18. FACTORS EFFECTING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
19. PURCHASE DECSIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA
20. STAGES IN CONSUMER BUYING DECISION PROCESS
21. USES AND SINGNIFICATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
22. SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
23. OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
24. SCOPE OF STUDY
25. HYPOTHESIS
26. CONCLUSION
27. SOURCE OF MATERIAL
28. WEBSITES
ABSTRACT
Social media marketing is very important and it is among the most successful tool and technique in websites and
techniques can be increased as numbers of selling articles are the main aim of every businessman. No doubt it can raise
the profit of various companies exponent. The main aim of this study is to examine how social media marketing will
affect the final consumer behaviour among person who mostly uses social media in websites and also to find out the
forecasted relationships among various social media marketing activities, consumer activities and behaviour of the
consumer.
The implementation of social media websites is emerging continuously to give satisfaction of the social needs of
websites users, at the mean while time it has also increased the opportunities’ for corporate to advertise their product and
services in a personalized way. Organizations can’t underestimate the growing importance of social networking sites with
reference to consumer buying behaviour and how it’s affecting the consumers. The social media have changed the power
structure at the place of where the goods sold and purchased online. Internet and electronic marketing adoption or
rejection is based on rational consumer behaviour.
Social media has changed the organizations do business with the help of computers online over past few years, and as a
result social media marketing has created its own name in the business world. There are many online networking sites
which affect consumer behaviour. Like LinkedIn, YouTube etc. Now-a-days social media is using by almost all ages of
consumers like college students, working class and even old age people too. Today we are living in 21 st century; it is very
difficult for consumers to spend time on purchasing the product because of busy schedule. Now a days user are acquiring
followers and subscribers giving information by social media how to purchase the goods online without wasting time to
go personally. Through social networking sites consumers can get information not only about the companies but also for
the companies too. Even social media is helping consumers to buy products through engagement that means consumers
and various stakeholders like company, consumers, society, and businessman are participants rather than viewers. So,
consumers can change their mind before purchasing any product through online.
There are various social media marketing tools are available for the consumers some of them are:
1. Social media monitoring
2. Social media
3. Blog marketing etc.
INTRODUCTION
People were communicating with other people without a language in olden
Days. There is a massive change in the method of communication in modern
Days. Social Media have become a convenient way to communicate among
all age clusters. The Internet and particularly social media have modified the
Shoppers and marketers communicating medium. The Internet has
Characteristics such as - the power to inexpensively store huge amounts of
data at different locations - the powerful search engines, organizing and
disseminating of data - the power to function a physical distribution medium
as software - relatively low prices. With the help of net and the presence of
various social media sites it is now possible for business people to meet
worldwide customers at single click of the button. Thanks to the internet
technology, which helps the consumer to search the product on the web, view
the review and ranking of existing customers for the product before he
purchased the product. Consumers use the technology now a days too much
as computer is used by many consumers so use of online marketing.
Consumer purchase decision is influenced by social media through group
communication. The web platform is a new method for developing the
business. Social media modifies the communication methods between sellers
and buyers. E commerce influences the consumer in their purchase decision.
Communication through social media is a new platform to exchange
information about product and services. The analysis of consumer behavior is
the core activity for selling product and service since most consumers are
using the internet and on-line social media tools. Social media become
an important media to introduce and market products and also to do surveys.
Nowadays Social media is an important marketing tool for promotional
activities. Hence it becomes necessary to perceive how Social media
is affecting consumer behavior.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING 
It is termed as the collection of online communication of various inputs which 
may be community-based or individual, interactions, intercommunications, 
contents sharing, websites and many more among different users”. Whereas 

various social media specialists define the term Social Media and their 
definitions on the various points: it's 
➢ An on-line medium powered by the net for social communication. 
➢ A two-way communication medium. 
➢ A medium that permits creation and exchange of information. 
➢ A medium that is supported by web technology services. 
➢ Are platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Social Gaming, Blogs, Social 
Bookmarking,

etc. 
The rise of online social networking sites. 
According to Wikipedia report, there is three hundred and more Social 
Networking Sites and 150 crore members all over the world. 
At the basic level social network is a web community 
Where people move through profiles that represent themselves to others. The 
Important reason for today’s people to browse these sites is because of the 
Emergence of Social Networking Sites major paradigms shift that has taken 
Place among the millions of people.
 The Social Networking Sites able to 
realize friends simply and form teams accruing to the interest, business, etc. It 
is very straightforward to transfer photos, share views on culture, cinema, 
sports, education and day- to-day events and happenings. 
Social Networking Sites is reuniting old friends and helps to continue the 
broken bonds. Through Social Networking Sites knowledge grows in cultural, 
social and economical aspects. The ultimate reason for the ascension of 
Social Networking Sites is, because of its user friendliness. Anybody can have 
an account and relate with anyone. Most of the content shared in Social 
Networking Sites is personal details, photos, interest etc. 
Social Networking Sites are still terribly a lot of its early stage but contains 
many software applications which are used worldwide, when it attains maturity 
stage, new applications will come into existence. Social media concentrates 
on relationship with the users by way of sharing of information and interest 
among users. There are numerous Social Networking Sites present across 
the world, ranging from Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, and Cyworld to LinkedIn 
Among the rapidly growing list of Social Networking Sites, Facebook is the 
global leader, catering to concerning 300 million registered users around the 
world. 
 The Social Networking Sites able to 
Realize friends simply and form teams accruing to the interest, business, etc. It 
Is very straightforward to transfer photos, share views on culture, cinema, 
Sports, education and day- to-day events and happenings. 
Social Networking Sites is reuniting old friends and helps to continue the 
Broken bonds. Through Social Networking Sites knowledge grows in cultural, 
Social and economical aspects. The ultimate reason for the ascension of 
Social Networking Sites is, because of its user friendliness. Anybody can have 
an account and relate with anyone. Most of the content shared in Social 
Networking Sites is personal details, photos, interest etc. 
Social Networking Sites are still terribly a lot of its early stage but contains 
many software applications which are used worldwide, when it attains maturity 
stage, new applications will come into existence. Social media concentrates 
on relationship with the users by way of sharing of information and interest 
among users. There are Social Networking Sites present across 
the world, ranging from Face book, MySpace, Orkut, and Cyworld to LinkedIn 
Among the rapidly growing list of Social Networking Sites, Facebook is the 
Global leader, catering numerous to concerning 300 million registered users around the world.

 EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA 

The first and foremost purpose of social media is to communicate; People 
were interacting even before communication tools were fancied. Discussions 
have always existed however the speed to that the connections happened 
modified eventually that gave rise to social media platforms. Traditionally 
these discussions used to unfold through Word of Mouth. Social Media has 
become part life, thoughts, culture and business world wherever folks have 
started exploitation digital technologies for networking, socializing, information 
gathering and spreading. Social media, in one form or another form has been 
presence since the 1970„s. The look and feel has modified greatly since the 
early days, the communication concept remains the same. Today technology 
permits for a larger interaction and period of communication however similar 
to its roots; social media allows people to broadcast to the lots. 
The bulletin board system began as a virtual imitation of bulletin boards found 
in schools, community halls and grocery stores. Primarily used by gamers, hackers and other net users, Bulletin Boards
were among the first on-line 
communities. Users could communicate by email, dial-up chat rooms and 
community message boards. Prodigy brought the first industrial bulletin board 
system, yanking social media up from the underground and making it 
additional thought. It was launched in 1990 it gained mass appeal due to its 
color interface. The internet existed since the late Sixties, as a network, but the World Wide internet became publically
out there on 6thAugust 1991. 
Friendster was launched in 2002. It permits the users to set up profiles, 
contact other members and share data with them. In 2003, Myspace was 
launched, and it held the title of most widespread social networking website 
for a few years. It is still a useful website for artists and musicians to push 
their work. In the year 2004, the most famous website Face book was 
established by, Mark Zuckerberg. The platform has been integral in bringing 
social media into the thought and nowadays sees over millions of active 
users. Twitter was launched in 2006 and is a popular micro-blogging website. 
Currently social networks exist for each passion, hobby, interest, industry and 
cluster. Corporations in all types of industries are developing variety of niche 
social networking sites. Social media is not just restricted alone, it includes 
sending photos, multimedia message contents etc. With the growth of social 
media, the social media websites started concentrating on developing 
technology for sharing of information in various forms like photos, audio and 
video. Photobucket was established in 2003 for sharing of photos through 
website. In 2005, YouTube was launched which was the first and foremost 
video sharing and hosting site. The advent of social news and bookmarking 
sites like Delicious, Digg, and Reddit, within the mid-2000′s caused an entire 
new way of exchanging of information in the world.

Functions of social networking sites 

Social Networking Sites help people to maintain their existing relationships 
with friends and family and interact with them with ease and rapidity. Though 
the function of Social Networking Sites was believed to fortify real-world  
relationships, users often loosen the means of friends and extend their 
networks to acquaintances and strangers. 
1. Categorizing Social Networks 
Social Networking Sites can be classified in an exceedingly variety of the way, 
with specific function. Digizen, a company categorizes the social network, 
based on different functions. 
2. Profile-based social networks 
This is based on user‟s Profile pages. www.facebook.com, www.bebo.com 
and www.myspace.com, are examples for profile based social networks. The 
webpage developed by users include a variety of ways in which they typically 
contribute to every others areas – usually text, embedded content, links to 
other contents. Some sites permit the users to post video links from various 
sites in their profile pages. 
3. Content-based social networks 
User profile plays an important role in establishing connection with others. But 
they have a very little role when compared to posting of contents. The contents are mostly in the form of photos, and
these photos are commented 
by other users in social network. 
4. White-label social networks 
They offer their users a chance to make and be a part of communities which 
implies that users can develop their own personalised small Site concerning 
to the social network with an importance to their area of subject matter of 
importance. Wet paint is a website which forms a group, where people 
become members of this site and they are permitted to create a content on 
their subject interest and communicate with others whose subject of interest is 
one and the same. 
Mobile social networks 
When people are connected through social network using mobile phones, that 
is termed as mobile social network. Currently Face Book and bebo are 
providing the service and many other sites are also working on this 
environment. 

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

It is a method by using social media site to attain the attention of people. 
These programs concentrate on developing a content which will attract the 
attention of the readers in social media and make them to share the contents 
in their social networking site. 
Any statement that is shared in the social networks, which included short 
messages, information about a product or service, brand or a company is 
termed as electronic word of mouth. When the information about a product / 
service / brand / company is shared in a social media by a user, it is reshared 
by many users in other social networks and when the information is shared by 
a trustworthy source, it becomes appositive promotion for the product than the 
promotion done through paid sources. This shows the power of social media 
marketing. 
What the major search engines seek for in terms of social media signals are 
the source's authoritativeness and trust. Authoritativeness is different from 
Authorship. Authorship is a function released by Google in 2011, which 
permits authors and publishers to add varied parts, including photos, ratings 
and more details to search engine results pages. Trust is fundamental to 
social signals being read by the search engines. Those people, whose social 
media profiles have a trust score, are called as influencers. 
As per consumer socialization theory, communication with customers plays an 
important role and its influence the psychological feature of customer. It also 
has an impact of attitude of the customer. Social media networking sites 
provides an environment that enables the consumers to communicate in the 
web which will have an important impact on consumer socialization concept. 

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

1. Increased exposure: 
Now a days the importance of Social Media Marketing have increased. 
Consumers and Marketers are using the Social Networking too much. The 
exposure increased now a days which is showing 92%. 

2. Increased Traffic: 
With the introduction of web based marketing the users are increasing day by 
day. The research says that consumers and even marketers using social 
networking sites too much and due to that sites the traffic has increased day 
by day which is showing the research that traffic increased up to 80%. 

3. Develops Loyal Fans: 

Brand Loyalty is the another is most important advantage of social networking 
sites. Taking an example if a consumer is satisfied with any product he or she 
will never go to any other company to buy the product. This creates brand 
loyalty. 

4. Provided Marketplace insight: 

Social networking sites provides information about product and is available 
clearly. That means its Features, Functions, Price etc. Consumers will get full 
information about product only on websites and customers don‟t have to go to 
anywhere. The result shows that 72% customers agreed that social 
networking sites are providing marketing insights. 

5. Generated Leads: 
There are various different ways to lead generation. Most of the social 
networking sites generate leads for product and services. For example A blog 
give as hub for customers engagement. No doubt Face Book is also 
important source, so in short it is generated leads. 

6. Improved Search Rankings: 

Most of the customers are now spending hours even more than watching 
television too. And what curiosity they get as social networking sites are the 
search engines. With the help of social networking the ranks is given to 
products on the basis of feedback given by the customer online. 

7. Growing Business Partnerships: 

As a Trading form of selling and purchasing is now replacing with Social 
Media in the same idea of business is also changing. After taking many years 
now Binch Box wants beauty obsessed Instagram followers to join them. 
 Now a days growing partnership are also important advantage of social 
networking sites too. 

8. Reduced Marketing Expenditure: 

Trading method of selling the product is too costly. As business man needs 
salesman, office and many more requirement. But now a days social 
networking sites are user friendly and anybody can use the social media at 
any time and even businessman can do the advertisement on social media 
site very cheaply. 

9. Improved Sales: 
In the present scenario where 4600 photos are shared, 600 websites are 
created every day. 1,00,000 tweets are sent. Now a days different social 
networking sites are created so differently as customers can purchase the 
goods online at any time. No doubt now a days revenue has increase online 
as compare to earlier days. 

10 Effects of social media marketing on consumer behavior. 

Daily more than one lacs different types of tweets are sent, nearly Seven 
lakhs contents are posted on facebook, millions of information are searched in 
google, thousands of photos are sent through instagram, six hundred 
websites are hosted. There were lot of business opportunities due to 
development and advancement of social media. In the business environment, 
consumers become the focal point because of the powerful presence of social 
media. Several studies were conducted to find out the influence of social 
media and results of these studies helps the firms to maintain a good position 
in the market with the help of social media. 

11 Social media platforms 

1 Social networking websites 

Social media helps the people to establish communication with each other 
and build a good relationship with others. It enables the firms to directly 
communicate with their customers. This strategy makes the consumers to feel 
more better than the traditional methods of selling and advertising. Social 
media permits the users to share information, post comments on products 
which others can see and repost them to others. When a message is shared 
by many users of social media it reaches more individuals. When a 
information about product / service are shared more through social media  
websites it brings huge traffic to the product / service. If the information 
retweeted is positive and from a original source then there are more chances 
that the users of social media becomes a prospective customer for that 
product. 

1. Mobile phones 
Mobiles phones with social networking facility are a powerful platform for 
selling products. With the help of mobile phones people came to know about 
the recent changes, happenings and discussions in the social media. Mobiles 
phones enable continuous connection with social networking sites and firms 
are using this chance to update their product and services to their customers 
through social sites. Firms are using QR codes to make easily available to 
their customers about their websites and other services. Smart Phones are 
enabled with QR code readability with helps the customer to know the 
information in an easier and quicker way. 

2. Engagement 
When the customers of the product become the participant in social media for 
promotion of the product, then it is termed as engagement. With the help of 
social media, user can post or comment on a product or service. With the 
concept of engagement, the client of the company promotes the product by 
way of posting a comment, whereas the viewers will see the comment. By 
engaging the existing customers for marketing the product through social 
media, selling becomes more successful. 

3. Twitter 
Twitter permits the users to post one hundred forty characters to advertise 
and promote about their product or service. This message can be a text, 
website link, photo etc... 

4. Facebook 
It helps to post information about a product and enables to post comment on 
the post. It facilitate the user to like the page r post and also share the page or 
post to other users in the facebook. The information posted includes text, 
audio, video and website links. Facebook is designed in such a way it will 
connect with twitter page. 

5. Google+ 
Google + contains some of the features of facebook and is associated with 
google adwords and maps. Google + includes location based search, 
navigation services, location based selling etc.. Google+ helps in marketing 
activities. 

6. LinkedIn 
It is a social networking site which enables the firms to develop for 
professional and business profiles to network with people. Twitter can be 
merged with linkedin page. It helps the users by providing opportunity by way 
of generating leads. The pages are similar to facebook pages which can be 
used to promote their product and services. 

7. YouTube 
Youtube permits the users to upload videos. Youtube is used to upload 
advertisements for target their customers by firms. The taste and style of the 
customers can be reflected in the commercial developed by the 
companies and it can be used as medium to market the products by way of 
advertisements. Youtube videos cabn be downloaded anytime on request. 
Sponsoring of video is possible on youtube. 

8. Delicious, Digg and Reddit 

These are well liked social sites used for marketing activities. These sites are 
the targets of social media marketers to advertise their websites and to share 
the links to their customers. 

9. Blogs 
Blogs are webpages developed by companies that contains information about 
products and allows consumers, employees to post comments, view and 
share information to others. 
There are some positive impacts as well as some negative impacts are there 
of social websites which are doing the job of marketing. Some of them are as 
follows:- 

Positive Impacts:- 
1. Social media which is doing the marketing helping to businessmen to 
understand their customers by understanding their likes and dislikes. 
2. It helps various firms to understand how different types of activities can be 
done.
3. Social websites are helping to make not only to old customers but also to 
many new customers to attract them. 
4. it increases awareness for consumers how to use branded goods and 
services. 

Negative Impacts:- 
1. Social websites are not fully protected. Anybody can misuse the websites 
information like Facebook anybody can take the image of any person can 
create problem for consumers. 
2. Social websites are sending many advertisement mails, messages to 
customers due to those customers are thinking as unsought goods. 
3. Wrong type of brand advertisement can create a big problem for the 
company. 
4. Many companies are not getting feedback from the customers though it is 
a free of cost. But still consumers are reluctant to share ideas and 
thoughts. 

Social media marketing techniques 

The main purpose of social media marketing is communicating about the 
product to the consumer and makes them accessible to people who doesnt 
know about the product. Social media is used by companies to promote the 
product to the prospective customers. Social media marketing helps the 
consumers at a various stages of buying process. 
A research indicates that of thee ten factors for effective marketing , Social 
media is one amongst them , which indicates if any brand is in operative on 
social media, then the result will be less chances of the brand to be present 
on google searches. 
There are large no of users in facebook, Twitter and Google and there is huge 
exchange of information which made the business firms t use the social 
media to interact with prospective customers. 
Instagram has hundred thirty million users monthly and twitter has two 
hundred ten million monthly users and the average communication rate 
ranges from 1.46 percent on Instagram and 6.03% in the case of twitter.. The 
cost involved in social media marketing is very less when compared to ancient 
modes of advertisements using TV/Radio/Print channels. Infact there is no 
price involved when using social networking site, it also covers wide range of 
people. 
Many firms are now changing their approach for interaction with customers 
they are using online platforms for better client interaction and visibility. 
Social media are used as a platform by customers to post reviews, 
recommendations, ratings, raise queries to the firms. 
Companies are employing people to handle social media communication with 
the customers and they are working as online community managers. The job 
of these managers are to handle social media communications in an effective 
manner and win the trust of customer. Firms are taking steps to manage client 
issue, identify various modes of social media marketing, engage the 
customers to influence the new and prospective customers to market their 
product/service. 

Targeting, COBRAs, and Electronic Word of Mouth 

To successfully advertise online, social media marketing is used which 
includes consumer COBRA & e-wom. The comments post by users of 
facebook , that is likes and dislikes are shared with advertisers. When there 
are more likes for a product/service, then business people will more advertise 
for the product. COBRA will help to market their product with the consumer. 
Consumer to consumer interaction in the social media will help the firms in an 
cost free advertisement. Product review, Ranking, recommendation are 
examples of e-wom . On the other hand, if there is a negative review by 
customers , which will have a negative impact on the marketing of the 
product. 
Companies like Dell and Sony have got experience that use of social 
networking sites have increased their sales. In the second month of the 
calendar year Sony had made declare through Twitter. They have earned a 
surplus of Dollars one point six million in sales. After that in the sixth month of 
calendar year the US based company Dell announced through Twitter 
accounted for dollars three million risen in sales. It is very clear today that 
internet is a treasure of knowledge and information. Social networking sites 
are playing a very important and crucial role in the life of many people. How 
social media is working it is very clear. First of all we have to do formation of 
Attitude that how and what social media have knowledge and it could be 
monitored and how it can use. Not only one type of social networking site is 
important but some like Blogs are important for many companies as they can 
increase the reputation of business and many organizations very easily. 
Social media which are doing the job of marketing is now also known as 
social media marketing too. Social media marketing a new concept of brand 
building and image which is generated by many marketers. Attitude the 
behavior of any person is a part of overall personality. It is part of all of us. No 
doubt there are millions of people are here in this world and all of them are 
different from each other in one way or other. It is very clear now that how 
people are using mobiles phones for using of social media. with the help of 
web pages through using of internet the consumer are changing their attitude 
towards pattern of consumption. Nowadays, websites are using in different 
areas like communication, business and many more fields. Even many 
literatures showed that social marketing has a great impact on many and 
varied consumers. Nobody cannot denied in the light of the present situation 
where communication plays a very important role and in this process internet 
in particular which changes the decision power of many consumers. With the 
invent of third generation not all smart phones but tablets, mini laptops and 
various notebooks are also used to attract the many and different types of 
consumers. The study clearly showed that are consumer is always effected by 
another consumer who might be his friend. The reason behind that people like 
to share ideas, thoughts, feelings either directly or indirect. These behaviors 
describe how the behavior of one person can change the other individual. 
With the help of social media people means consumers can build social 
relationship, ask and reply any kind of question and answer. Friends can 
distribute information is the form of many photos, videos, audios and even 
tweets and retweets too. The question arises why people and many friends, 
consumers are using social media the reasons are like to stay touch with 
friends, find partners, find those people who are having same kind of interest, 
reconnect with old friends, even stay touch with family and there are many 
more reasons are there where people can take the help of these kind of social 
networking sites. Again question arises why people share any kind of 
information with others and the research concluded that there are many 
reasons like efficiency, personal gain community interest, social interest, 
reputation, etc. 

Advantages of social media 

1. Increased Brand Recognition 

Social Media is a new platform for promoting the brand. Social Media helps 
the companies to attain new customers and also have quick access to 
customers. When a particular brand is familiar and available in multiple social 
media sites, It increases the brand recognition to the customers and also 
attract new customers. When the brand is tweeted frequently in the social 
media, then the company‟s brand image will get increased, there by 
increasing the growth of the company business. 

2. Improved brand loyalty 

A research work published in US, indicated that when there is higher level of 
interaction about a brand in social media, then there exists higher level of trust 
about the brand among customers. It also suggest that companies can take 
the benefit by using social media tool to connect with its customers. 
The study also suggests there should be some strategic plan for use of social 
media to influence the customers. Another study indicates that fifty three out 
of hundred in American population are following their brands in social media 
and also they found to be loyal to their brands. 

3. Chances to Convert 
There is chance that each and every comments, post, sharing, likes in social 
media will become a sale and bring customer. Every comments, post, website 
links, video, tweets will make the viewers to visit the page and view the 
product and thereby there is a chance for conversion into sale. Though all the 
comments may not get a chance for conversion into sale but every good 
comment about the product will get a chance for conversion into sale. 

4. Conversion ratio 
The conversion rate of conversion of discussion in a social media into sales is 
high. It is the important element as seen by business people nowadays. The 
brands and the reviews about the product started to speak like individual 
salesman in the social media channels. Due to this effect business people 
want to improve and increase their business with various people in social 
media than with firms. 

5. Brand Authority 
Continuous communication with the customers will bring a faith about the 
product among the customers. People are searching and viewing the 
comments in the social media about products and services, whenever they 
are planning to buy a product or avail a service. Every new post about a 
product in social media by a user will attract many users in the social media 
and they follow the page for information update. When there is more talk 
about a product in social media, there it becomes more attractive brand. 

6. Reduction in selling price 

Due to the presence of social media, the advertising cost is getting reduced 
by way of advertising through twitter, face book etc... Hubspot research 
concludes that six hours of spending in the net in a week by a seller for social 
media will bring more number of viewers to the product in social media. In 
order to get more customers, sellers can spend one hour a day in the social 
media which will definitely bring more customers and thereby reducing the 
cost on advertisement which in turn seller can reduce the price of the goods. 

Limitations of social media:

As we know that there are always two coins of the same coin. In the same 
way no doubt there are many advantages of social media in the same way 
there are some limitations too. 
Some of them are as follows: 

1. Not enthusiastic: 
Think of the situation where consumers do not seem to be completely depend 
on online purchasing. Delayed shipping, improper packing, complicated 
cancellation process these are the important points which consider by the 
consumer and he is believing not enthusiastic. 

2. Issues related with security: 

There are many problems are related with security. Privacy concerns have 
hampered the thinking of consumers towards purchasing of online goods. 
Consumers is worried about transection frauds. 

3. Still traditional better: 

Still there are certain consumers who are thinking that as compare to online 
purchasing, better option is traditional as no problem of changing, fraud, 
deduction of money without successful transection. 

4. Financial risk: 
There is big risk of financial risk involved in online purchasing which is 
thinking by consumers. The level of uncertainty surrounding is also affecting 
online buying by the consumers. 

5. Lack of physical approach: 

This is the important limitation of social media. As consumers are purchasing 
the goods only online and consumers have no idea or not in a position to see 
the goods physically and in turn consumers will not ready to buy the goods 
online. 
We have seen the various advantages and limitations of the social media but 
in reality these are not full fledged limitations we can say them as partial 
negative limitations. 

Consumer behaviour 
It is the study about individual, group of individual and the method people use 
to purchase and use the product or service to satisfy their wants. The study 
combines various subjects which include economics, sociology, psychology 
and marketing. Consumer behavior will make an attempt to find out the 
various factors which are behind the consumer decision making process for 
purchase of product. It also studies the demographic and psychological 
characteristics of consumers and how consumers are influenced by various 
factors such as friends, relatives , members in the family, co-workers, people 
living in the society. 
Consumer behavior, also known as client behavior, provides information 
concerning client and his/her consumption patterns. An organization will still 
survive if it will offer client desires and demands with a comprehensive 
understanding of them. This shows the importance of studying client behavior. 
This requires understanding client behavior that isn't thus easy. 
A group or individual in a group can make an influence on the behavior of 
consumer. The group can be small or large in number. Some of the groups 
which will make on influence over an individual behavior are members belong 
to family, workers in the organization, individuals living close to the consumer. 
Other group which may affect the individual consumer behavior are workers 
union, associations, trusts, community group etc.. These groups do not have 
regular communication with the individual customer. 

Various factors that affects consumer behavior 

The factors that affect consumer behavior are as follows:- 

Various Marketing Factors:- 

There are various marketing factors which affecting consumer behavior that is 
product, price, promotion and place of distribution. 

1. Product:- 
Product plays a very important role. There are various features of product like 
in which affect market behavior. 
➢ Physical Appearance. 
➢ Packing and Packaging. 

2. Pricing: Price is also important factor which affect consumer behavior 

that is 
➢ Target customers 
➢ Price sensitivity 

3. Promotion:- 
There are various elements components of promotions that are advertising, 
publicity Which affect consumer behavior. There are various elements 
components of promotions that are advertising, Publicity etc, which affect 
consumer behavior. 

4. Place:- 
The channel of distribution are mainly of two types that is direct channel and 
indirect channel which affect marketing behavior, marketers make an attempt 
to select proper channel of distribution. 

Personal Factors:- 
There are various factors which affecting consumer behavior that is. 

1. Age :- 
Age is the most important factor which affect consumer behavior for example 
when consumer is younger that is teenager he may prefer trendy cloths where 
has an office executives may like to were formal clothing. 

2. Gender :- 
Gender is also important factor which affecting consumer behavior like girls 
may prefer certain favorable color like pink, purple peach where as boys may 
like blue, black, brown and so on. 

3. Education :- 
The consumer who are educated may like to spends on book, personal care 
products and so on. 

4. Income level:- 
Income is also an important factor which affect consumer behavior. Highly 
income person wants to spend more and vice- versa. 

.2 Psychological Factors: 
There are various Psychological Factors also which affects consumer 

1. Learning:- 
Learning means change in individual behavior when a consumer by product 
online or way like perform and if he satisfied then he will always follow 
different social media Marketing. 

2. Attitude:- 
The response given by an individual during a given situation. There exists a 
positive attitude to a consumer. 

3. Beliefs:- 
It is a thought about a product/ thing by a person. If there is strong belief 
about a product/person/ thing/method then it will have an impact on the 
behavior of the customer in buying the product. 

3 Social Factors:- 
Social factors are also affecting Consumer behavior like:- 

1. Reference groups:- 
It may be small or big team which contains coworkers, friends and others. 

1. Family:- 
Members of the family will influence the behavior of the individual consumer 
and their contribution will be more when compared to others. 

Cultural Factors:- 

1. Culture. 
Culture is also an important factor which affecting consumer behavior. For 
Example the culture of South Indian is different from North Indian. Where as 
The culture of Indian is different from other countries too like. 

2. Sub-culture 
Sub-culture is yet another factor which affecting consumer behavior. 

Purchase decision and social media 

Social media permits the users to post comments, give reviews about product 
and services, put status for the product or service which includes likes and 
dislikes, tweet about the products. When a customer is satisfied with the 
product, he might recommend the product to different users of social media by 
passing the message with the help of various available social media tools. In 
earlier days, consumer digest was used to put the reviews about the products, 
but nowadays social media is slowly taking the position for placing the product 
reviews, ranking and recommendations. Ten years before, people rely on the 
opinion of the retails shop owners and specialists for purchase of new 
product, but today consumers rely on the opinion and advice of the people in 
social media. 
Companies are reducing their budget for paid advertisements and 
concentrating on social media advertisements. Ernst & Young surveyed forty 
eight firms that have strong social presences and implied that Eighty three 
percent of the firms have presence in social media and out of this forty two 
percent of the firms using social media to post advertisement, conduct webcontest about their product. They have also
used social media tools to build 
their brand. Buying decision can be defined as the method by which 
customers pass through various stages of buying decision process. 
 Stages in consumer buying - decision process 
The various stages involved in consumer buying decision process are 
➢ The problem recognition stage: the identification of product a client 
desires. 
➢ The search for info: which suggests search for data bases or external data 
sources for information on the merchandise. 
➢ The possibility of different options: which means whether or not there's 
higher or cheaper product offered. 
➢ The choice to purchase the merchandise and 
➢ The actual purchase of the product. 
➢ The below given is the diagram which is showing the various stages. 
➢ figure -4 -Stages in Consumer Buying - Decision Process 

This shows the complete process that a client can possibly, whether 
recognizably or not, go through after they move to buy a product. When 
creating a purchase decision, social media influence take part a necessary 
role. When a customer decided to purchase, then he prepares a list of options 
for deciding the proper product. Even though e commerce sites are offering 
various tools for browsing, searching for the product, proving product 
specifications, it is continuous to be a difficult task for the customer. Nearly 
eighty percent of users of the internet are not using the e-commerce sites 
because they could not find the right product which they need. Individuals are 
looking for reviews, recommendations and ranking from the existing 
customers and from trusted people which includes workers in the 
organisations, members from family, relatives and friends. Most of the times 
these trusted people may be out of reach for discussion. 
Social media sites provides quick access to the friends, relatives and trusted 
people through web and also permits the customer to view and access to their 
post and comments in an easier way. This technique helps the consumer to 
know about the product information shared and posted by others in social 
media and also this can be viewed in offline also. 
In any way the most important part of any organization is Consumer. Without 
consumer there is no value any firm and business organization. It is the duty 
of business organization whether online or offline to build the relationship with 
consumers. There are various points which clearly explain why there is a 
need to maintain consumer relationship. 

1. Better consumer perception: 

Consumer is the king of market. Every consumer is expecting the good quality 
of goods and services at cheap and reasonable rates at most important duty 
of suppliers to sell the goods at reasonable price and does not change 
exorbitant price. This will increase the sale of the goods and services of the 
business firm. 

2. Consumer Satisfaction:
Consumer satisfaction means how consumers are satisfied with the current 
product and services which is going to be provided by the supplier. In this 
modern world where completion is too much customer satisfaction playing a 
very important role. It will be very clear that if customer is going to satisfied 
the sale will increase. 

3. Customer loyalty: 
It means repeat purchase. When consumer will get good quality of goods he 
never will go to any other shop or any other business to purchase the goods 
from other way. 

4. Customer retention: 
Customer retention means not a loosing of customer or consumer. Consumer 
is the focal situation of any business. Usually a loyal customer will never leave 
your shop and go to any other shop and purchase the goods. 

5. Increase in revenue: 
With the increase in the number of consumers the revenue generation to 
increase at a faster rate. For Example, we can see that Flipkart has cross the 
sale of rupees Fourteen hundred crores in a single day which is an extra 
adding thing. 

6. Low cost: 
If consumer will purchase that means there is brand loyalty he will never shift 
to any other business. And for the expenditure of advertisement which is the 
most important expenditure will be low and automatically the cost will be low. 

 Social media and consumer behavior 

In the last 5 years, social media grow with leaps and bounds and become an 
important platform for communication among people. The social media tools 
also advanced due to technological improvement. Social sites are engaging in 
continuous research to improve communication methods in social media sites. 
Many websites are providing various tools to advertise and sell products to 
the customers, but social media provide not only selling tools but also 
provides tools to network the people. A nowadays social media network 
becomes the important marketing tool for companies. 
Social media is a place for interaction and communication where millions of 
individuals meet daily and it became an important market place for firms to 
advertise and sell their product and services. Social media is the best place 
for posting marketing information, advertising the product, illustrating the 
product etc., 
Many professionals and small retailers and giants retailer and big business 
houses ignore the importance of social marketing. They not understand how 
social marketing are increases its path in many different types of business 
and services too. Taking an example Linkdin which was started in the year 
Two thousand and three a present there are many users of this websites over 
one hundred and twenty million are there. Linkdin gives you an updated 
professional identity online. Another way of changing way of thinking is 
Facebook. Nowadays everyone hears about Facebook. Not only business 
class people and consumers but also many college students are using the 
Facebook marketing. Facebook is an extra ordinary way of doing the 
marketing and can attract as many as customers. Facebook has open the 
door of many types of professionals, students and even housewives. The 
basic role for doing marketing on Facebook is increase your network. Every 
person can create Facebook for page and can do the marketing over that. 
Each and every marketer must encourage to do community interaction over 
that. There are many common mistakes are doing by many people on 
Facebook like broadcasting, don‟t put more advertisement as if you don‟t have 
many social connections. Doing advertisement on Facebook does not means 
just post it. You have to give the time to your social contacts. Another 
important mistake people are doing that is validating rates of Facebook and 
immediately your page will be blocked. Do that kind of work that not you but 
Facebook do work for you. 
Twitter can be used for business purpose. Twitter is also a very important 
social networking sites like other websites. Say example YouTube, Whatsapp 
and many more. The maximum limit of character of Twitter is around one 
hundred and forty characteristics at a time and not more than that. Twitter 
allows you to share your thoughts with many people around you or those who 
are far away from you. In SMS the word SMS means Short Message Service 
is the same way in Twitter the message what you sent is known as tweet. 
Twitter can be used to develop a business as well as relationship with many 
people as you need it. 

Another type of business online services can be used is Google plus. In the 
year Two thousand and four the Google company expanded its activities to 
Google plus. This is a new avenue created by the company to may online 
users. If anyone can use Google plus in proper way with proper guideline it 
will help to change the way of doing the business. No doubt Google is founder 
of Google plus so anyone can use the benefit which is providing by this type 
of organizations to many users. To do the business on this website is damn 
easy as compare to traditional way like the advertisement, banners for wall 
and many more. Many social websites are doing advertisement and earning 
lot of money over that. Social media is using the help of internet and is highly 
scalable as well as accessible to anyone mean individuals in particular and 
public in general. It clearly shows that social websites have many users, 
Television, radio are very much outdated in modern world. Many 
advertisement clearly showing that how the various apps are helping to read 
the news instead of sitting in house and watch the television. To watch the 
television and listen to radio is an old and traditional way, now people are 
reading all such kind of stuff on YouTube, times.com and many more social 
websites. Social media is not a monologue like radio or just a television it is 
dialogue between one to one and one to many. Many different sellers can 
contact and instantly get back of consumer on various social web site. 
Traditional method of advertising are not helping to build relationship with 
many consumers but social media is helping to build not only relationship but 
brand image also. 
Some companies are using social media not only with other parties but 
internally too. As it is very cost effective of doing communication among 
various employees, peers so many companies are preferring nowadays even 
start up business and small size of business too doing this kind of 
communication. No doubt there are many ways to reach to various types of 
consumers through online companies are helping too many consumers to do 
brand awareness about the product and various types of services too. The 
research made in this regard and it shows that around seventy seven percent 
of marketers are using social networking sites to attract many and useful 
customers. Total users of Facebook are one point fifteen billions users are 
there and out of that around fifty five percent are females where as Forty six
percent are males. Those who are age of sixty five to hundred the users are 
twenty three approximately. While in case of YouTube the users are nearly 
eight hundred millions are there in the whole world and two hundred and thirty 
eight are LinkdIn and in case of Twitter it reaches to five hundred millions. 
There are other websites too which are using by many marketers and 
consumers too that is instagram , pinterest, foursquare and many more. 
In modern times the role of technology in general and internet in particular is 
increasing day by day. Internet is source where people, community, society 
are connecting in different ways and allow them to share there thoughts, 
feelings, ideas and emotions. And the most famous way to connect with each 
other is social media websites. There provide users friendly platform which is 
going to change the mind and behavior of many consumers. According to 
Krishanan in the year two thousand and one now the main focus of marketing 
is to maintain and create the image building in the mind of consumers. With 
this not only brand image but brand equity is increasing everyday. We know 
that the behavior of consumer is ever changing and at any time he can 
choose his mind to purchase the goods and services. In modern world the 
electronic marketing is developing. This kind of marketing are focus on 
consumer too much. Due to increase in the value of digital age, the 
responsibility of marketers are increasing to much. Hoffman in the year Two 
thousand writes that the internet has played s very dynamic role and due of 
vast amount of numbers of consumers the role of business id increasing to 
provide good quality of not only goods but the services too. 
Golden in the year Two thousand Eleven listed the following features of social 
media marketing which are as follows:- 
TONE: Honesty is the most important feature of social media marketing. Even 
every business in social websites must be not only honest but more of above 
is authentic. Always market should remember that whatever the message  is 
going to the audience and consumers must be reliable. 
CONVERSATION: it is not a one way communication like traditional way of 
communication of doing the advertisement. But it is two way of 
communication or we can say it is a multiple way of communication. 
Now a days people are spending more time on the web and the penetration of 
media into society has an impact on the business. Due to this impact, the 

consumption trends have modified. The traditional methods of marketing such 

as use of magazines, catalogs, brochures are entirely replaced by email 
marketing, social media marketing etc., Due to the effective presence of 
social media, people are spending more time in the web.
Because of the social media, the consumer decision making methods have 
changed and the behavior of the consumer also modified, the impact of social 
media in the decision process and behavior of consumer is unpredictable 
which is big issue to the business firms to decide on the market strategies. 
Consumers are influenced by Social media where different users were 
present. The impact of social media on behavior of consumer are split into 3 
groups. 
Behavior which affects consumption pattern. 
Behavior affected by others regarding consumption. 
Behavior affected by social media. 

In modern world, is the world of technology where social media 

marketing is rising too rapidly. Study show that many consumers are shifting 
from traditional way to modern way of purchasing the goods and services too. 
We have seen that social websites are rising day by day like Flipkart, Amazon 
and many more. The way of thinking of consumers and many customers are 
shifting i.e. changing. The perception of young as well as middle age and 
even old age consumers are changing and moving. Some consumers are 
thinking that it has low cost that means as compare to other ways means 
older way is relatively cheaper. So, social media and various networking sites 
are developing day by day and consumers are attracting towards them. Many 
students, housewives, working class people are changing their mind from 
traditional way to modern way. It is now really true that social networking 
which are doing the job of marketing are mean to changing the mind and 
thinking of many and various consumers. 
So researcher trying to find out how social media has changing the thinking 
and way of many consumers who are living in that district for that research 
has collected much information about that and trying to find out in part of 
social networking sites or social media marketing on consumer buying 
behavior. 
 Primary Objectives of the study: 
Following are main and primary objectives of the present study: 
1. To study the concept of social media. 
2. To evaluate the various channels preferred by consumers for buying 
decision over traditional channels. 
3. To analyse the impact of social media on consumer buying behavior. 
4. To find out which is the best social media preferred by customers. 
5. To find out impact of social media on consumers .

Scope of the study: 

1. The Scope of this research is ultimately to understand many features, 
advantages of social media marketing. 
2. Understand the behavior of the consumer, factors affecting consumer 
behavior. 
3. Traditional method of marketing like Radio, Television are considered 
Upstarts with questionable staying power. 
4. Many progressive business owners are dabbling in social media 
Marketing 
5. The long term benefit of an effective broad scope social media marketing 
campaign cannot be measured in days or weeks. 
6. Bloggs, Twitter, FaceBook fans, Digglinks, Skype are various tools 
Adopted by customers as well as marketers too. 
7. Scope is concerned with the place of the research also, for that researcher 
Has taken area in respect of thane district, a part from this researcher has 
Taken Ulhasnagar, Wada, Bhiwndi etc. 

  Hypothesis: 

Hypothesis is a predictive statement, capable of being tasted by scientific 

method that relates to an independent variable to some dependent variable. 
Hypothesis refers to any assumption or predication made by a researcher 
while doing research work. 
In simple words Hypothesis means “Hypothesis is a tentative proportion 
formulated for empirical testing it is a deductive statement combining 
concepts. It is a tentative answer to a research question. It is tentative 
because its veracity can be evaluated only after it has been checked”. 
The importance of hypothesis lies in their ability to bring direction, specificity 
and focus to research study. It clearly tell to researcher what specific 
information to collect, and thereby provide greater focus. Always hypothesis 
should be empirically testable. It must be conceptually clear. It should specific 
and explain the expected relationship between two variable that is 
independent and dependent variable. It must be logically consistent. 
The important point to be considered while prepareation of hypothesis is 
research problem. The construction of hypothesis is not easy task. The 
researcher should give importance to valid investigation. The hypothesis 
must have great importance as it give direction, particular idea and give focal 
point to research study. There are many examples of hypothesis like suppose 
if one train is late so automatically others trains too late. Here hypothesis can 
be framed that trains may be late and may not be late and researcher can do 
the research over that. So, hypothesis are always based on certain logic and 
certain assumptions. 

There are various features of hypothesis which are as follows: 

1. It must be simple to understand. 
2. It be must be specific. 
3. It must be intellectually clear. 
4. It must be easy to understand. 
5. It must be of capable of verification. 
6. It must be related to past experience. 
7. It must be made on the basis of certain conclusion. 
8. It must have objectivity. 
9. It must be related to available technique. 
10. It must have conceptual clarity.
CONCLUSION
A key issue for marketers currently is to understand how digital and social media are used in the purchase
decision process their influence on buyers and behaviour and the roles as a marketing tool. The results overall
so that the classic model of decision making is valid in describing the decision process of consumer in this
social media age. Stage characteristics positively associated with higher consumer satisfaction are easiness
enjoyment trust and confidence. Those who enjoyed the decision m,aking process had greater satisfaction in the
three stages and the final purchase. High trust and confident let you greater satisfaction with the stage and the
purchase. Sastisfiers were more satisfied with there information search while maximises had lower satisfaction.
Social media users found desicion making to be easier and enjoyed the process more, when compared to those
who use other information sources. They also had greater confidence and satisfaction during the process. Those
who perceived the information on social media to be a higher quality and greater quantity then exceptations
were more satisfied overall. This suggests that information overload didnot reduce consumer satisfaction with
social media.
Finally, the study shows that the use of social media improved satisfaction for consumers during the initial
stages of information search and alternative evaluation but didnot help much in improving satisfaction in the
purchase decision in the traditional physical store after having conducted their search and evaluation. Many
consumers are just as satisfied to reach their purchase desions in the traditional physical stores after having
conducted their search and evaluation online; which means brick-and-mortar shops have not yet lost their
significance.

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