1. Background of the Study

The social networking sites have developed to a great extent in the last few years. Social Media has become a major tool that helps in interconnecting people like never before. Articles and news today are coming from everywhere. The developments in the Internet from past years have brought about the changes that have transformed the nature of the advertising industry, news industry, marketing industry and many more. Internet has now changed the pattern of reading and looking at the different things with different perspectives.  Consumers are now assessing social media platforms for reading news, shopping, chatting, conferencing, etc. Advertisers are also using the platform of social media to reach maximum number of buyers and interpretation the buyer’s behavior. Facebook is one of the major examples to have in the category of social media. It is the platform where people can have paid and unpaid advertisements. Facebook makes people to stay connected for 24×7 which make them to share lot of news and advertise more and more. Hence, Facebook has provided a best platform to the advertisers to connect with their customers and gain knowledge regarding the consumers’ behavior.

2. Aims and Objectives of the Research

The aim of the research work is to find out the role of Facebook in the field of marketing and also as a social media. Also the study aims to evaluate the influence of social media on customer behavior and customer buying process. The objectives of the research work follows as:

• To study social media as a source of marketing.
• To study Facebook as the efficient tool of social media.
• To judge the efficiency of Facebook in the field of marketing.
• To elaborate the role of Facebook in influencing buying behavior of the customers.
• To research on the scope of Facebook as a tool of future growth in marketing.

3. Research Hypothesis

Hypothesis 1: Facebook – a social media platform for influencing the buying behavior of customers.

Hypothesis 1A: Facebook is more potential as a social media than any other social media vehicle.

Hypothesis 1B: Facebook is more potential in Influencing the buying behavior of the customers than any other social media vehicle.

Hypothesis 1C: Facebook as a social media provides variety of mediums through which buying behavior of the customers can be judged.

Hypothesis 2: Facebook is more potential in Influencing the buying behavior of the customers than any other social media vehicle; only when the customer is of younger generation.

Hypothesis 2A: Facebook is potential to influence the customers belonging to young generation and teenagers.

4. Literature Review

Advertising is a kind of non-personal work but also a paid form of promotion that influence buying behavior of the customers. Tuten, 2008, explains that advertising affects online scenario and hence the social media.  Facebook as a social media has an arrangement of forms like Social Graph, custom audience’s interest analysis that further help to derive the strategies of marketing that can help to influence the customers buying behavior. (Taşkıran and Yilmaz, 2015)

Facebook is a platform where a customer is provided with number of varieties and choices and a person can also come in contact with the interest of other customers who belong to their friends, family, peers etc. Ones product choice or interest makes to believe or influences the behavior of other customers. It is thus an effective medium for marketing strategies and influencing the buyer’s behavior. And it has been seen that it is younger generation which influences more by such kind of mediums and pressures.

5. Research Methodology

Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to make a report on the topic of research. Numbers of surveys were conducted among the youth, middle-aged or teenagers to know about their views regarding Facebook as a media of advertising. Interviews of social media experts were also conducted regarding the same issue.  The secondary data was collected searching Facebook advertisement data and the evaluation of campaigns that had succeeded from the platforms. Varieties of theories were applied to statistically judge the information and leads to the conclusion of the study.

References

Bullas, J. (2012). 5 Reasons Why Facebook Drives Consumer Buying – Infographic. [online] Jeffbullas’s Blog. Available at: https://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/04/02/5-reasons-why-facebook-drives-consumer-buying-infographic/ [Accessed 16 Jul. 2015].

Lamb, C., Hair, J. and McDaniel, C. (2013). MKTG 7. Mason, Ohio: South-Western.

Pride, W. and Ferrell, O. (n.d.). Foundations of marketing.

Taşkıran, N. and Yilmaz, R. (n.d.). Handbook of research on effective advertising strategies in the social media age.

Tuten, T. (2008). Advertising 2.0. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.