Business Research for Social Media Marketing - MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theBusiness Research for Social Media Marketing. Answer: Introduction Social media marketing is gaining a lot of popularity in every industry lately. A large number of organizations are using this platform to introduce and promote their products, conduct consumer behavior analysis and generate effective feedback in order to constantly improve their products and services. Social media allows the organizations to target a wider customer base than any other marketing platform due to its wide usage. Even though social media is becoming a very popular platform for marketing, its impact on consumer behavior has yet not been completely identified. The number of people using social media is increasing every day, but how many people are actually using social media to actually gain product knowledge before buying it yet unknown. Therefore, the basic objective of this project is to conduct research on the impact of social media marketing on the purchasing behavior of the consumers. The research proposal sets a project objective, summarizes the literature review o n the topic of social media marketing, identifies the research questions, defines the research methodology and provides the conclusion. The aim of the project is to get a clear insight into the effect that social media marketing has on consumers and other relevant issues (Li, 2007). Project Objective The objective of this project is to identify the gaps in the literature review of social media marketing. Even though in-depth research and studies have been conducted by a number of researchers regarding the usage of social media for marketing purposes, its actual impact on the buying pattern of consumers is yet not identified accurately. While marketing is one of the basic factors in expanding the profitability of any association, it is critical to ensure that the right channels are used to capture the buyers. While the current situations and extensions for the advertisers to use the online networking for affecting the objective clients have been given, what stays missing is the variable that the handy usage of these ideas has not been contemplated in subtle elements. What's more, it can be seen that most of the writing are composed with the advertisers' perspective. Therefore, the conduct of the customer is enormously accepted as latent. The viewpoints of the purchasers are requir ed to be contemplated and investigated more to infer an adjusted conclusion. It can, consequently, be said that the necessity of more extensive viewpoint rises while concentrate the effect of online networking showcasing on customer conduct (Huang Boh, 2011). Literature Review Fuchs (2013) describes that the web-based social networking is a stage where the content of the web is modified and shared by the clients at any given time. The mind boggling parts of the online networking have been clarified in this given writing which explains on the positive and negative parts of the web-based social networking stage. The prerequisite of data in regards to the media has been set up with contextual investigations on Facebook, Google, WikiLeaks and Wikipedia. Therefore, the power of the media scene in this new stage is clarified. One might say that the different parts of the online networking has been clarified with suitable contextual analysis. Be that as it may, the viability of the same on the conduct of the standard clients is clarified in a constrained way (Fuchs, 2013). Then again, another part of the web-based social networking as a showcasing device has been clarified too. It can be found in the review embraced by Hays et al. (2013) that the online networking is one of the intense devices which can ensure that any business can achieve a more extensive number of target clients with usage of restricted assets. The noticeable quality of these stages as the appropriate components of a goal promoting association has been expounded too. The goal showcasing associations of the main 10 most went by nations are contemplated with the assistance of semi organized meetings. It can see from the review that the use of the online networking among the DMOs is as yet not that pertinent. Nonetheless, different trial systems are directed which can be powerful in guaranteeing that the valuable business methodologies are actualized to witness significant development for the business (Hays Page, 2013). Tuten and Solomon (2014) depict that with a specific end goal to ensure that the online networking showcasing can procure the set targets and ready to achieve any business towards impressive objectives, it is essential that the appropriate utilization of procedures are finished. It is fundamental that the most fitting technique is chosen for any given organization and it is connected such that it suits the business. What's more, it has been illustrated in the review that how the esse4ntial hypotheses of promoting can be essentially connected in the viable circle and how the most helpful business results are obtained appropriately (Kjellnas, 2014). In any case, it has been clarified by the creators that catching the consideration of the clients is insufficient to guarantee the control of client conduct. It is essential that the consideration is changed over into intrigue. In this manner, the prerequisite of connecting with into the correct correspondence channel can said to be a powerful way. The acknowledgment of the shopper towards an item is critical to ensure that the association can get the standard notoriety in the market. Subsequently, understanding their prerequisites and viewpoints has been perceived by the creators too. In this manner, the vitality of systems to impact the customer acquiring conduct has been perceived and explained by the creators. While web-based social networking is considered as a noteworthy instrument in showcasing nowadays, the insightful energy of the buyers with respect to the same has been clarified by Solomon (2014). It has been seen by the creator that so as to ensure that the shopper conduct is influenced by the online networking advertising, it is vital that proper estimations should be possible. The general sentiment any shopper with respect to a specific situation of promoting in any commercial center is required to be considered. Thus, the idea of the customer's slant toward Marketing (CSM) has been recorded by the creator as a strong device to decide if they are persuaded enough to buy a specific item or administration which is being promoted on the online stage (Solomon, 2014). Research Questions The research questions in this report revolve around social media marketing and its impact on consumer behavior. The questions have been divided in two categories namely, primary research question and secondary research question. The primary question will be the main focus of the research proposal and the secondary question will consist of other relevant questions related to the topic. Primary Question What is the impact of Social Media Marketing on consumer behavior? Secondary Question Why do social media have an impact on the purchasing behavior of the consumers? Research Design and Methodology Research Approach The main aim of the research is to analyse the impact of online social media networks on the buying behavior of the customers. In order to investigate and collect data for conducting the research, proper methods of data collection need to be used. It is easy to collect general information, but collecting information that is relevant to the purpose of analysis can be be difficult.. There research type can be broadly categorized into two approaches; inductive and deductive.. A deductive research can be used to anticipate the trends in future on the basis of the theories that already exist. In case of inductive research, the theories are developed on the basis of data and empirical findings. The study to be conducted in this report is inclined on inductive research that would help to gather descriptive data and assist in obtaing empirical results. Inductive research can be used to obtain the answers for both primary and secondary question by anylzing the responses of consumers about the way they use of social media and its relevant impact on their shopping style.. Research Plan The method used to carry the anlalysis in this study is qualitative research method instead of the quantitative research method. The reason behind choosing this method is that the aim of the study to find how effective social media is when it comes to the buying behavior of the consumers, hence we need to focus more on qualitative data than on numbers. The qualitative focuses on the observations and content analysis of the data collected rather than the volume and number of data. The qualitative research tends to be more flexible and adjustable as compared to quantitative research. There are a number of different sources from which the data for the purpose of study can be gathered. The collected data can be used for various purposes, depending on the type of the information collected, hence it is very important to get the information from the right place keeping in mind the aim of the study. Primary data collection is a cost intensive process as it involves collecting the most fresh version of information mostly from people directly. Whereas secondary data is collected from various existing facts and information. For conducting analysis in this report, the method of telephonic interviews and personal interviews has been used to get a first hand version of data. Research Findings Primary Research Findings After the data was collected using interviews, the impact of social media was analyzed on the purchasing power of the buyer. The majority of the people that were interviewed said that they used social media pages of a particular company to get to know about the current promotional offers and discounts that are being offered by the company. They also revealed that even if they were not planning to visit a particular store, social media offers would push them to at least go have a look. Most of these visitors ended up buying something from the store during their visit. This clearly shows that organizations that have a social media presence can easily lure the social media users into buying something for them. This however doesnt necessarily mean profit maximization, but it definitely increases the customer base of the organization. Consumers also used social media to find out information about organization for instance, in case of retail stores, the consumers can find about the opening and closing times of the store, the product range offered by the store, the nearest located store and other features that may assist in making the customer choose to shop in a particular store. Certain stores also offer a virtual tour online that helps the consumers to get a hypothetical visit to the store. This shows that social media surely has an impact on the buying pattern of the consumers. Secondary Research Findings The secondary question in this research proposal was to find out the reasons why social media has an effect on the buying behavior of the consumers. To be more specific, Facebook has been considered as a social media platform and the interviews were conducted to find out why Facebook presence of any organization was having an impact on its customers. The first reason that was identified was that Facebook has the maximum number of users that any other social media site possesses. Additionally, people tend to spend a large amount of time on Facebook. Since the application is available on the mobile phones too, people are practically connected to Facebook all the time (Lee, 2016). A lot of respondents confessed that they do not watch tv everyday, dont read the newspaper every day but use Facebook everyday without fail. 6 out of 10 respondents said that they use Facebook and Google to find out information about the products they want to buy. The consumers also use the comments and feedba ck of other users to find out the popularity of the products among masses. This gave the users a reality check about the efficiency of the products before even buying them. The users on social media sites are genuine and reliable, who also get into discussions about a particular product or service offered by different organizations. People share their experiences and help each other with alternative options that might be unknown to someone. So, wide coverage and human interaction are the two major causes behind the effect of social media having an impact on the consumer behavior (Chaffey, 2017). Conclusion To conclude, it can be said, social medias gaining popularity is surely having an impact on the buying behavior of consumers these days. People are not only using social media to find out about new products and services, but are also using this medium to find out about the quality of these products and services even before getting their hands on them. Social media can be used by organizations in two ways; firstly to catch the attention of consumers and secondly to use consumer feedback to improve their products. Every organization which has an active social media presence tends to become more popular among the general public in comparison to organizations with no or inactive social media presence. Since, the technology is advancing every day, the importance of social media in affecting the consumer behavior is anticipated to keep getting stronger. References Chaffey, D., 2017. Global social media research summary 2017, Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/ Fuchs, C., 2013. Social Media and Capitalism: In Producing the Internet. Critical, Available at: https://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/SocialMediaCapitalism.pdf Hays, S. Page, H., 2013. Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(3). Huang, J. Boh, W., 2011. From A Social Influence Perspective: The Impact Of Social Media On Movie Sales, Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2011/79/ Kjellnas, M., 2014. Social media as a marketing tool versus strategic alliance a comparison, Available at: https://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:825909/FULLTEXT01.pdf Lee, K., 2016. Why You Should Share to Social Media in the Afternoon + More of the Latest Social Media Research, Available at: https://blog.bufferapp.com/new-social-media-research Li, C., 2007. How Consumers Use Social Networks, Available at: https://www.eranium.at/blog/upload/consumers_socialmedia.pdf Solomon, 2014. Social media marketing, Available at: https://www.docsity.com/it/social-media-marketing-t-l-tuten-e-m-r-solomon-2014/830881/