RESEARCH PAPER

Influence and Usage of social media on marketing

Strategy
ABSTRACT
Growing popularity of social media compelled the marketers to think about this media along with
traditional functional areas of marketing. Social media is based primarily on internet or cellular
phone-based applications and tools to share information among people. The number of social media
user’s is more than the population of some of the countries today. Impact of social media on
marketing can be judged by comparing marketing before the social media and marketing after the
introduction of social media and type of technologies used in social media.
In an era where technology prevails, entrepreneurs as well as marketers see the need to keep up
with the fast pace of change or risk being outdated. Gone are the days when a pure bricks
business model will thrive well in current market scenario. It is practically impossible to design a
marketing strategy without considering social networks. Social media had become really
important gradient in today’s marketing mix in general and in promotion mix.
Adapting some form of marketing online through social media is a key node for all businesses,
especially in an industry where trends constantly change such as fashion and handicrafts. The
paper carries out empirical research to understand the effectiveness of social media as a
marketing tool and an effort has been made to analyze the extent social media helps consumers
in buying decision making. In addition, strategies have been suggested for maximizing the
effectiveness.
INTRODUCTION
Social media is primarily internet or cellular phone-based applications and tools to share
information among people. It expedites conversation and connection among people. It includes
popular networking websites, like face book and twitter; as well as bookmarking sites like Digg or
Redditt and uses web page technology.
Initially social media may have begun for social engagement, but the commercial value soon became
apparent and it has become the marketer’s new best friend too. As social media use become
popular and number of social media users has increased more than the population of some of the
countries, marketers have had to seriously alter their game plan to take this shift in the media
landscape into account. The industry is rewriting its conventional strategies and transforming the
basic campaigning structure. Social media once devoid of any commercial content has had such a
significant impact on the marketing industry. Over the past 40 years, we have experienced a radical
shift in how business is conducted and how people interact. The introduction of personal
computers, the Internet, and e-commerce have had a tremendous impact on how businesses
operate and market. The introduction of social media technology is accelerating, and we can expect
it to have a similar impact on businesses now and into the future. As new technologies became
available, businesses that learn to use new technologies gain great benefits. Some of the best-
known examples include technology-driven companies such as Microsoft, eBay, Amazon and
Google. In a short span of time, social media has become one of the most loved mediums for the
Indian youths today. Social Media Marketing is the hottest new marketing concept, and every
business owner wants to know how social media can generate value for their business. People are
social by nature and collect or share information that is important to them. Social Media Marketing
is about understanding how technology is making it easier for people to connect socially with their
social networks and how your business can profit from that understanding. More and more of your
customers, whether for personal use, business-to-consumer or business-to-business reasons use
social media in every aspect of their daily life.
There Is a common misconception that social media and social networking sites (SNS) are two
synonymous terms. Social media are tools for sharing and discussing information. It can be described
as a kind of online media which encourages every member for feedback and contribution. It is a social
instrument of two-way communication facilitating the sharing of information between users within a
defined network via web 2.0. It involves online activities in which the user contributes to content
creation. This media encourages user involvement which can be as simple as posting comments or
giving votes or as complex as recommending content to other user on the basis of preferences of
people with similar interests and lifestyle. Thus, social media can be described as a broad term
inclusive of activities where people create content, share it, bookmark it and network at a
phenomenal rate. On the other hand, social networking sites are a place where in one form
communities of interest to connect to others. Social networking sites utilize social media technology
to connect with people and build relationships. Social networking sites allow individuals to construct
their profile within a bounded system, share with other users and view and traverse their list of
connections and those made by others within the system. It can be thus concluded that social
networking sites are a form of social media. The increasing dependence on technology for basic
communication highlights the importance of analysing how these networking sites are affecting daily
processes. Anyone including teens and young adults, women, men, affluent consumers, and older
individuals can join a social network site. Once registered the person can begin to socialize and
create own network of friends with common interests or goals. Consumers today want to be more
informed about products before they make the purchase. Most importantly, social networks are
extremely capable of informing and influencing purchase decisions, as many users now trust their
peer opinions more than the marketing strategists. Customers now have the power to talk back
at the brand and broadcast their opinions of the brand. Therefore, marketers have no choice but to
treat them differently and with greater respect.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social Media Evolution:-

Social media has evolved over time and its user’s base has increased even more than the population
of some of the countries. During 1930‟s newspapers and magazines was the media choice. P&G was
the first company to use print media advertisement. 1950‟s is known as TV commercial age which
leads to marketer “s inclination towards electronic media advertisements. In 1960‟s corporate social
responsibility concept came into existence. During 1970‟s computer was born and logo, credit card
and direct marketing, media research, payroll, visa card and master cards etc. find the application.
Cable TV was introduced during 1980‟s and it has changed the landscape of advertising media. With
the launch of World Wide Web i.e. www. AT&T was first company to use modern media for
marketing.

Early pioneers of social media were

User net (1979)

Bulletin Board System (1979)
Online Service (early to mid 1980‟s)
CompuServe (1980)
AOL (1983)
Genie (1985)
Internet Relay Chat
(1988) ICQ (mid 1990)

Early Social Networks were

 Dating Sites
Online Forms

1. First true social networks were

Six Degrees (1997)
Asian Avenue, MiGente, Black Planet (1997-2001)
2. Live Journal (1999)
3. Massive Multiplayer Online, Role Playing Games (MMORPGS) (Early 2000)

Social network marketing has been found as one of the most effective tools used in businesses today.
The enormous growth of Internet and its reach has drawn the attention of many researchers to the
concept of marketing on social media. There is an existing literature available on usage of social media
for large organizations. There is very limited literature on use of social media as a marketing tool for
smaller organizations.
Peter Drucker (1991) described the future economy (new economy) as “network society” which states
that main social elements and activities are going to be revolving around information processing.
Boyd and Ellison (2007) described social media sites as a web-based service which allows organizations
and individuals to “1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, 2) articulate a
list of other users that share and connect together, and 3) view and traverse their list of connections
and those made by others within the system.” Glen (2010) advices that before a company opens an
account and becomes active on the website, it is important to consider what each site offers and how
the company can benefit. Some research had been carried out in Pharmaceutical, restaurant and
construction companies on the use of social network marketing as a way of integrating business to
consumers (Kevin, 2009, Gupta and Udupa, 2011). One of the first pharmaceutical companies to adopt
social network marketing in the United States, in 2008, was Merck. Merck created a page on Facebook
for promoting a vaccine named Gardasil followed by GlaxoSmithKline, which also made use of
YouTube, a prominent video sharing site to start a promotional campaign for their products and
services (Gupta and Udupa, 2011). According to Nickson (2009), social networks started from a
Bulletin Board System (BBS) at Friendster. A BBS is an online meeting place for people of the same
interest. Six Degrees was the first web-based social network site, and it was launched in 1997 (Dick
Stroud, 2008). It allows users to create profiles, invite friends, organize groups and search for other
users (Boyd and Ellison, 2007).
LinkedIn, introduced in 2003, is a networking platform for business community for connecting different
professional across globe (Nickson, 2009). Facebook began in 2004 as Harvard-only SNS’s (Cassidy,
2006), became a world’s leading social network site. It has the ability of developers to build
“Applications”, which allow users to personalize their profile and perform other tasks. Internet
advertising is of 2 types, namely, intrusive advertisement and non-intrusive advertisement (Winer,
2009). Intrusive advertisement is where consumers are interrupted like pop-ups, banners and spam
emails or messages. In a non-intrusive advertisement, a consumer has to activate his/her account
before participating in such communication. It includes internet presence sites, e-mail, and social
network applications.
:

Role of Broadband and Android mobile: -

Social media has advanced from the direct electronic informational exchange into virtual reality in
just a matter of time, from creating social bonding into a trading platform. It has become the
number one choice for marketers, small business owners, artists, and other professionals.
Pre-Internet Roots
Social media’s birth dates back to the 24 th of May 1844, when the telegraph machine was invented.
Samuel Morse sent a message from Baltimore to Washington D.C. The rise of social media began in
1969 when the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) has emerged. This newly
emerged digital network allowed the scientists from four renowned universities to interconnect and
share their software, hardware, and other resources at the ease of sitting at their offices. While in
1979, social media became more robust when NSF launched a vibrant, fast, and more digital
network named NSFNET. A decade after, the first true social media platform was launched.

The emergence of social websites

Due to the emergence of faster and reliable internet, a new path was paved by CompuServe,
Prodigy, and America Online. These services introduced digital communication in its true essence to
the users. They allowed them to send mail through the internet, i.e., email, online chatting sessions,
and bulletin-board messaging services. After that, in 1977, the early period of new social media
networks started with the short spanned “Six Degrees,” followed by Friendster in the year 2001.
Then began the uprising enabling millions of users to register for email accounts and online chatting.
After that came the era of digitalized social communication (Blogs) when in 1999, “LiveJournal”
came into existence at its core, a publishing site. Along with its emergence came another blogging
platform launched .While in 2002, the real game began when LinkedIn was found solely to
provide career-oriented users convenience. According to a report, now it has over 700 million
active users worldwide. Then came Myspace in 2003, which became the most visited website
ever in 2006 and allowed the users to share music directly on their profiles. After two years, in
2008, Facebook eclipsed Myspace and became the first website to gain popularity in so little time.
Google also elbowed its way in the social media landscape by launching Google+ in 2012. By now,
everyone was aware of social media, its importance, and its benefits.

Modern Social Media Outlets

In today’s modern world, various social media websites offer numerous services in multiple niches.
They have grabbed the attention of a record 5 billion cell phone users from all over the world. Here
are some of the eminent social media platforms of 2021.-Facebook, reddit,Twiter ,Instagram,
pinarest, snapchat and Tiktok .

Most people access social media on mobile devices

The use of social media usage, especially on mobile devices, can’t be overstated. In 2014, it was
found that 71% of social network users accessed those networks through a mobile device. In
response to this trend, all of the major social networks are reinventing themselves for smaller
screens. The most successful marketing efforts will reflect social platforms as presented via mobile
technology.
There are a few effective ways to use the mobile formatting of social networks to your advantage:

mobile apps are replacing static landing pages

In 2015, your app, instead of a static landing page on your website, can lead directly to a sale. And
Such “niche apps” are an exciting development in mobile marketing, particularly because they offer
several distinct advantages:

 They are focused on a specific vertical, product or event. Because they’re not intended to
target a broad swath of your market, you can develop a mobile app to reach very specific
leads. For example, those willing to attend a seminar where you can demonstrate product
benefits in person or primed by your content marketing to make a purchase.
 They are not made to compete with big apps –and they don’t have to. You’re not looking to
build the next Facebook or LinkedIn with a niche app. You’re simply reaching prospects who
are already interested in very specific information.
 They offer all the marketing advantages of mobile apps in general. You still get to track user
interactions with your app and make use of push messages.
 News is being consumed more via mobile technology and social media than ever
before
The days of the almighty newspaper are well behind us. 63% of Twitter users and the same
percentage of Facebook users say that the social networks are major sources of news extending
beyond their personal lives.Consumers are willing to engage on social networks with news
sources that they’ve come to trust. And brand is a respected source of industry-related news
among prospects, you can benefit from this trend in mobile and social news-reading.
Social network users’ choice of platform equals natural market segmentation
While younger people move away from Facebook and Twitter for newer platforms such as Instagram
and Snapchat, older executives and managers can be found in a higher percentage on LinkedIn and
Google+. Furthermore, the younger the user, the more likely they are to be viewing social media on
their mobile phone.
“Interactive” and “native” ads offer better user experience and greater ROI
Social media is all about choice-driven connectivity: people engage with other people they like and
the brands they trust. And, as far as mobile technology is concerned, the average premium
smartphone is a Swiss Army knife of entertainment and productivity tools. Put all of that together,
and the message is: B2B mobile ads should be built on the backbone of connectivity and intuitive
usage.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: -

Most businesses use online marketing strategies such as blogger endorsements, advertising on social
media sites, and managing content generated by users to build brand awareness among consumers
(Wang and Kim, 2017). Social media is made up of internet-associated applications anchored on
technological and ideological Web 2.0 principles, which enables the production and sharing of the
content generated by users. Due to its interactive characteristics that enable knowledge sharing,
collaborative, and participatory activities available to a larger community than in media formats such
as radio, TV, and print, social media is considered the most vital communication channel for spreading
brand information. Social media comprises blogs, internet forums, consumer’s review sites, social
networking websites (Twitter, Blogger, LinkedIn, and Facebook), and Wikis (Arrigo, 2018).
Social media facilitates content sharing, collaborations, and interactions. These social media platforms
and applications exist in various forms such as social bookmarking, rating, video, pictures, podcasts,
wikis, microblogging, social blogs, and weblogs. Social networkers, governmental organizations, and
business firms are using social media to communicate, with its use increasing tremendous.
Governmental organizations and business firms use social media for marketing and advertising.
Integrated marketing activities can be performed with less cost and effort due to the seamless
interactions and communication among consumer partners, events, media, digital services, and
retailers via social media.
According to Liu et al. (2021), marketing campaigns for luxury brands consist of main factors such as
customization, reputation, trendiness, interaction, and entertainment which significantly impact
customers’ purchase intentions and brand equity. Activities that involve community marketing accrue
from interactions between events and the mental states of individuals, whereas products are external
factors for users (Parsons and Laskowski-White, 2018). But even though regardless of people
experience similar service activities, there is a likelihood of having different ideas and feelings about an
event; hence, outcomes for users and consumers are distinct. In future marketing, competition will
focus more on brand marketing activities; hence, the marketing activities ought to offer sensory
stimulation and themes that give customers a great experience. Now brands must provide quality
features but also focus on enabling an impressive customer’s experience (Beig and Khan, 2018).