Social Media Marketing Impact on Consumer Behavior

In recent times, the term social media has emerged as a catchall expression (Zarrella, 108). It is a new form of marketing that concentrates on opening new horizons for marketers in order to promote a product or service. It differs from the conventional media as it mainly emphasizes on consumer generated content rules (Zarrella, 109). It incorporates the use of wide ranging applications that are based on Internet, which are based on the Web 2.0 technology. Consumer behavior is an important aspect of marketing as it assists marketers to devise strong and robust marketing strategies and techniques. For instance, organizations launch new products or services, which are generally bought by few customers in the initial phase and gradually, there is an increase in the users.

It is essential for an organization to devise a strong and robust marketing strategy that would ensure commercial success. The satisfaction of initial consumers is dependent on the marketing strategy as their satisfaction and contentment would make an impact on the subsequent brand choices of the consumers. (Kim, Fiore, and Lee, 96) Today, organizations are employing social media technique in order to change consumers behavior and to win their loyalty. The aim of this paper is to study the impact of social media marketing on consumer behavior in the lights of broad and diverse academic resources (Kim, Fiore, and Lee, 97).

Overview

Social media marketing is the form of marketing which consists of internet based applications such as social networking sites, podcasts, blogs, microblogs, etc and have become part of the marketing strategy in order to promote a product or service, improve efficiency of the organization and to attain new customers. From research, it is evident that social media marketing has been adopted by different organization in order to target wider audience and to influence consumer behavior(Zarrella, 115).

In the new era of marketing, organizations no longer depend on traditional forms of marketing in order to interact with the consumers. Similarly, consumers have power the raise their voices and opinions. The contemporary consumer can voice his or her opinion in a louder and clear manner as he or she has access to Twitter, Facebook, blogs, websites, microblogs, YouTube, etc. therefore, it has become necessary for companies to utilize social media marketing in order to change the way they conduct their business. Social media marketing plays an important and significant role in changing the buying behavior of the consumers. A study conducted by Kim, Fiore, and Lee , concentrated on studying the importance of social media marketing and its impact on consumer behavior (Kim, Fiore, and Lee, 99). The research demonstrated that more than fifty percent companies in the United States have adopted social media marketing in order to target new markets and to win new customers. The same research revealed that more than seventy percent of the users used social media in one form or another and it gave them the power and control to do things their way (Kim, Fiore, and Lee, 101).

Study conducted by Chiang and Dholakia, concentrated on studying consumer behavior and social media marketing(Chiang and Dholakia, 177). For this purpose, three hundred participants were interviewed. Eighty percent of the users agreed that social media made an impact on their purchase decision. The same study revealed that users of social media are most likely to trust social media more as compared to traditional form of product advertisement and promotion (Chiang and Dholakia, 179). This clearly demonstrates that social media marketing plays an important role in influencing the purchase decisions of the users and therefore, it is important the company employs a strong and robust social media marketing strategy in order to win the loyalties of the new customers.

Koufaris, Kambil, and Labarbera conducted a study, in which two hundred marketers were surveyed. Sixty percent of the marketers had employed social media marketing in order target and win new customers (Koufaris, Kambil, and Labarbera, 115). Their study demonstrated that the connection between social media marketing and consumer behavior is directly proportional (Koufaris, Kambil, and Labarbera, 120). A strong, well planned and well structured social media marketing strategy to promote a particular product or service is most likely to win the attention of the consumer. Social media marketing changes and influences the buying behavior of the consumer. The same study demonstrated that the chances of recommending a brand or product by means of social media marketing is higher as compared to traditional forms of marketing (Koufaris, Kambil, and Labarbera, 125). The study demonstrated that more than sixty percent of Facebook fans show the possibility of recommending the brand they use and more than fifty percent of the fans are most likely to buy the product.

Conclusion

Social media marketing is the contemporary style of marketing as it concentrates on opening new horizons for marketers in order to promote a product or service as compared to conventional media. In recent times, consumer behavior and satisfaction has become an important asset for any organization to attain its position in the market and to increase its profitability. For this purpose, organizations are employing social media technique. From research, it is evident that companies are employing social media marketing in order to interact with the consumers. Social media marketing has given organizations a new way of dealing and changing the buying behavior of the consumers.

Work Cited

Zarrella, Dan. The Social Media Marketing Book. O’Reilly Media, November 2009.

Kim, Jihyun, Ann M. Fiore, and Hyun-Hwa Lee. “Influences of online store perception, shopping enjoyment, and shopping involvement on consumer patronage behavior towards an online retailer.” Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 14 (March 2007): 95-107.

Chiang, Kuan-Pin and Ruby R. Dholakia. “Factors Driving Consumer Intention to Shop Online: An Empirical Investigation.” Journal of Consumer Psychology 13 (2003): 177-183.

Koufaris, Marios, Ajit Kambil, and Priscilla A. Labarbera. “Consumer Behavior