Social Media Marketing Part of organizations

Question: Discuss about the Social Media Marketing Part of organizations. Answer: Introduction Over years, social media marketing has emerged to be an integral part of organizations of all nature and sizes around the world. There have been plenty of studies conducted to ascertain the influence of social media activities on the purchasing decisions. As marketers have jumped into the growing digital marketing space, consumers are bombarded with information to make better decisions. As traditional marketing is taking a back seat, businesses are left with little options to learn using social media in an effective manner which is in sync with their business aspirations (Mangold Faulds 2099). In the past decade, the internet services have grown at incredible speed in the industry with online communities developing across social media being an ideal example (Lu et al., 2010). Social media helps organizations in many ways including brand promotion (de Vries, Gensler Leeflang, 2012), improving sales (Agnihotri et al., 2012), mutual exchange of information ( Lu Hsiao, 2010), and supp orting marketing through word-of-mouth (Chen et al. 2011b). As consumers have increased access to vital information resources including the online communities, marketers are increasingly targeting the social media space to influence and gain consumers confidence and trust. Do-Hyung et al (2007) argued that customer participation through social media interaction is a key factor in marketing field. Aims and objectives Social media marketing has crucial role to play in changing the perception of people about products and services. The research intends to explore the role of social media marketing activities in influencing consumers purchasing decision. The objectives formulated are mentioned below: 1. To investigate the popularity of social media marketing to influence consumers into purchasing products. 2. To investigate the relation between social media marketing and sales revenue from products and services. 3. To study the positive impact of social media marketing in moulding the brand image of products and services. 4. To determine the influence of social media marketing activities in building customer relationship. Research Methodology: For the research, qualitative and quantitative methods would be used to achieve the objectives set: 1. Secondary Analysis: An in-depth analysis is relevant to gather the hard core facts through studies conducted on social media marketing so far. Though there is large volume of material available, credible research studies would be selected in order to gather the valid information. 2. Consumer Survey: A consumer survey allows collection of objective opinion of respondents about the subject matter. Its a quantitative research tool to gather relevant data and information from a selected number of individuals to achieve objectives. The survey will be sent to a predetermined number of consumers to gather their opinion about social media marketing and its impact on their purchasing decisions. A sample set of respondents will be identified from a large pool of consumers and formulated survey form will be distributed to them. The collected responses will be analysed to provide legit conclusions about the research objectives. Its the combined application of secondary analysis and consumer survey that research objectives would be dealt with. References Mangold, Glynn W. David J. Faulds. (2009). Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix. Business Horizons. 52, 357-365. Lu, H.-P Hsiao, K.-L. (2010) The influence of extro/introversion on the intention to pay for social networking sites. Information Management, 47(3), 150-157 Gruzd, A., Wellman, B. Takhteyev, Y. (2011). Imagining Twitter as an imagined community. American Behavioral Scientist, 55(10),1294-1318 Do-Hyung, E, Jumin, L. Ingoo, H. (2007) The effect of on-line consumer reviews on consumer purchasing intention: the moderating role of involvement. International Journal o f Electronic Commerce, 11 (4), 125-148 de Vries, L., Gensler, S. Leeflang, E.S.H. (2012) Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: an investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal o f Interactive Marketing, 26(2), 83-91 Agnihotri, R., Kothandaraman, P., Kashyap, R. Singh, R. (2012). Bringing social into sales: the impact of salespeoples social media use on service behaviors and value creation. Journal o f Personal Selling Sales Management, 32(3), 333-348. Lu, Y, Zhao, L. Wang, B. (2010). From virtual community members to c2c e-commerce buyers: trust in virtual communities and its effect on consumers purchase intention. Electronic Commerce Research Applications, 9(4), 346-360 Chen, Y., Fay, S. Wang, Q. (2011b). The role of marketing in social media: how online consumer reviews evolve. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 25 (2), 85-94.