IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Abstract

The impacts of social media marketing on consumer behavior was studied. Five objectives were targeted, which were: to explore the history and current trends of social media marketing; to determine the impacts of social media marketing on consumer attitudes; to determine the impacts of social media marketing on consumer purchase intentions; to determine the impacts of social media marketing on consumer repurchase decisions and to offer recommendations to retailers on how to make use of social media marketing to increase their sales performance. Primary data was used, and two retail organizations with operations in Finland were targeted, namely: Lidl and IKEA. Six participants were targeted, and they were contacted through interviews. The data was analyzed using content analysis, a qualitative technique. The findings show that the respondents are well versed in the terms and trends that relate to social media marketing based on their educational backgrounds, and work experiences. As managers they acknowledge that social media marketing is relevant in today’s world, and that it affects consumer buying behavior as well as consumer repurchase behavior. Consumer attitudes are also influenced by social media marketing and thus organizations ensure that they maintain a positive brand image by constant online presence in order to ensure purchase decisions. The instruments that are used to measure the impact of social media marketing however vary from organization to organization, and aid in compiling data to measure the effectiveness of the tool. Recommendations were given to guide retail managers on how to best use social media for marketing.