SAJMR

Spectrum:AJournalofMultidisciplinaryResearch
Vol.1Issue3,June2012,ISSN22780637

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INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITES ON PROMOTION OF

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AMONG THE USERS:
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

G. P. RANJITHA*; GANAPATI B. SINNOR**

*School of Business Studies,
Central University of Karnataka,
Gulbarga, Karnataka.
**Assistant Professor of Management,
School of Business Studies,
Central University of Karnataka,
Gulbarga, Karnataka.

ABSTRACT

Social media today is growing at an explosive rate where it has become a phrase on each and
every street, penetrated even into semi urban and rural areas too. No wonder it is the cheapest
source of connectivity, information and channel for promotion. The companies have realized the
very requisite of their existence on social media websites. But to what extent is it really making
sense or reaching the need with which the companies are being. As one size does not fit
everybody, it is not the only platform where all the marketing entities feel that it is the best
channel of promotion. No doubt the companies get a true, direct, one to one interaction with the
customers. But are the users really on social networking sites for these activities if so, what are
those areas of products and service promotions? Or are they for something else? If it is for
something else then what are they? This paper aims at finding the existence of a significant
relationship between the usage pattern of users of social media sites such as mainly face book,
and their influence on brand preferences towards products and services.

KEYWORDS: E-marketing, Social Media, Online Advertising, IMC, Reverse Ranking.
______________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION
With the growing importance of internet day to day urban life, social media has gained rapid
acceptance in the minds of youth. Most of the companies ensure to have their presence felt on
social media websites to attract large number of potential customers. Social Media is a popular
mode for social communication. The 21st century uses social media networking in their day to
day life. In the busy urban life, people dont have time to meet or even call up their near and dear
ones. Social media helps to bridge this gap. Millions of youngsters use social media websites to
search their friends online and communicate with them, chat, share information, videos and
photos. People seek to meet new people through social media, who share common interests and
aspirations. Visiting a social networking site has become a habit for most youth, one which they
cannot easily give up. This growing importance of social media has translated into its increasing
use in marketing also. In todays competitive world, brands are fighting for space in the minds of
SAJMR
Spectrum:AJournalofMultidisciplinaryResearch
Vol.1Issue3,June2012,ISSN22780637

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consumers. Though the traditional modes of advertising and marketing like television, print
media and outdoor media still contribute to a major chunk of the advertising budget, they cannot
be solely relied upon to ensure reach to the target audience. Because today marketers are going
for integrated marketing communication rather than fragmented communication. Using social
media like blogs and networking sites for marketing of products is fast increasing its importance.
Social media marketing is the latest fad and here to stay. With sites like Face book, Orkut,
LinkedIn, Twitter, You tube, etc. attracts more than 5 million users every day. Having a presence
on these sites is a must for all marketing organizations. Besides attracting a large number of
prospective customers, the cost of social media for advertising is comparatively much lower than
the other mass media options. Hence it is a value for money proposition.
Social media websites help generate interest in the brand and also to build trust in the company.
This goes a long way in the brand building exercise. Besides, one can reach the relevant target
audience and avoid clutter. It helps the company stay in constant touch with its customers, know
their preferences and upgrade their products and services accordingly. It gives them enough
room to receive prompt feedback from them. It thus leads to one to one interaction, leading to
customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer spreads positive word of mouth for the brand and
thus enhances the brand equity. All in all, it helps a company increase awareness of its brand,
generate leads, build its customer base, improve sales and market share. If planned and executed
properly, social media becomes a very cost effective mode of online promotions.
LITERATURE SURVEY
1. Influence of Social Media Marketing on Brand Choice Behaviour among Youth in India: An
Empirical Study; Bernadette DSilva, Roshni Bhuptani, Sweta Menon,K.G and Stephen DSilva.
This paper gives an overall idea about the behavior of youth in India towards the brand choice
and comes out with a positive conclusion in terms of relationship with the social media and
marketing activities. It has concentrated only on the youth and urban areas of India.
2. Trends in Social Media: Persistence and Decay; Sitaram Asur, Bernardo A. Huberman and
Gabor. This paper enlightens the reader with the current trends of social media websites and
gives a very systematic, statistical and mathematical approach towards the topic. It also
concentrates on the youth segment of the place and has come out positively with their hypothesis
and its proof.
3. Measure for Measure: by Chitra Narayan, Business Line-Brand Line, analyses the
measurement of visitors to social medias by Nielson and comScore. It gives the industry experts
opinion about the effectiveness of the social media. And this article concludes "with Well,
there's no end to the numbers game, it seems.
4. The Faceook Farmer: by Harish Bijoor, Business Line-Brand Line, he says social networking
sites hold immense potential for a range of applications. These applications need not necessarily
be for urban educated folk alone. The opportunity is ripe for the rural farmer as well. And he
continues and says farmers can use social media to empower themselves with information on
their crops and weather as well as trends, practices and pricing from around the world, cutting
SAJMR
Spectrum:AJournalofMultidisciplinaryResearch
Vol.1Issue3,June2012,ISSN22780637

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out middlemen and retaining larger margins for their produce. Social networks can give
agriculturists a real-time feel of the market, prices, customers et al.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
1. The basic objective of the research is to understand the usage pattern of social media
among various age groups and professionals.
2. The study also explores the preference of the people regarding various social media web
sites.
DATA COLLECTION
Primary data was collected through tracking the accounts of people on facebook and their
relative existence in other social media websites. Secondary data was collected from various
sources viz... news papers, magazines, books, online journals, etc.
SAMPLE SIZE
1. BASED ON AGE
a. Each category of sample size 30
b. 4 categories: 15-20 years, 20-30 years, 30-40 years, above 40 years
c. Total sample size of 120 face book accounts
2. BASED ON PROFESSION
a. Each category of sample size 30
b. 12 categories: students, scientists, academicians, musicians, dancers, doctors,
engineers, fashion designers, media people, artists, business men/ entrepreneurs
and actors/actress.
c. Total sample size of 360 face book accounts
3. Duration of communication tracking: 1 month
RESEARCH METHOD
This research is basically focused on the understanding the usage pattern of people and their
preference towards various social media websites. An exploratory and descriptive research
design is followed. The research method used is Communication Tracking of face book users
accounts for one month.
SAJMR
Spectrum:AJournalofMultidisciplinaryResearch
Vol.1Issue3,June2012,ISSN22780637

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FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

HYPOTHESIS
H1: There is no significant relationship between the usage pattern and preference of brands on
social media websites.
H2: There is a significant relationship between the usage pattern and preference of brands on
social media websites.
DATA INTERPRETATION
1. BASED ON MOST FREQUENT/ PREFERRED ACTIVITY ON THE SOCIAL
MEDIA I.E FACEBOOK BY REVERSE RANKING METHOD
10: most preferred/ frequent activity
1: least preferred/ frequent activity

Sl.
No

Variables
Based on Age group( in years)
Reverse ranking from 1-10

Weighted
average
15-
20
20-
30
30-40 >40
01 Sharing photos and videos, chatting,
games
10 10 7 5 8
02 Discuss about Movies, media and songs 9 9 5 2 6.25
03 Products/services/ advertisements/ 1 4 2 1 2
04 Social awareness 8 7 9 8 8
05 Health and hospitality 4 3 1 4 3
06 Fashion/ trend 7 5 3 3 4.5
07 Tourism 6 6 8 7 6.75
08 Politics/current affairs 2 8 6 9 6.25
09 Education/ academics 5 2 4 6 4.25
10 Connectivity 3 1 10 10 6

From the above observation we can see that there is no significant relationship between
the usage pattern of people on social media websites and the preference of brands. The
most frequent and preferred activities are sharing photos, videos, chatting and gaming.
But services like media, movies, tourism and social awareness are ranked higher relative
to other activities. So, film industry has a great source of promotion channel by which
word of mouth, buzz marketing is versatile.
SAJMR
Spectrum:AJournalofMultidisciplinaryResearch
Vol.1Issue3,June2012,ISSN22780637

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Tourism and social awareness are the aspects which have a great potential for their
promotion on social media websites if it is utilized in a prominent way.
From the weighted average, we can see that, service oriented brands are more preferred
than other product oriented brands where activities 1 and 4 has greater preference
followed by tourism, media, movies etc., and education sector is least preferred.
2. DISTRIBUTION OF USERS ON FACEBOOK ON VARIOUS ACTIVITIES ON
PREFERENCES WITH RESPECT TO THEIR PROFESSION
sl
.
N
o
Variables

Based on Designation/ Profession of the people Reverse ranking from 1-10
Weigh
ted
avera
ge
Stud
ent
Engin
eers
Doct
ors
Arti
sts
Me
dia
Academi
cians
Musici
ans
Danc
ers
Business
men
Actors/ac
tress
scient
ists
1 Sharing
photos and
videos,
chatting,
games

10

9

9

10

7

8

10

10

7

10

6

8
2 Discuss
about
Movies,
media and
songs

9

7

4

9

10

2

9

9

2

9

2

6
3 Products/ser
vices/
advertiseme
nts/

1

5

3

2

4

1

2

1

10

1

7

3
4 Social
awareness
7 6 8 8 8 7 5 5 9 5 8 6.3
5 Health and
hospitality
4 3 6 4 2 3 1 3 3 2 5 3
6 Fashion/
trend
5 10 7 7 6 1 8 8 4 8 1 5.4
7 Tourism 6 8 5 6 5 6 7 6 8 7 4 5.6
8 Politics/curr
ent affairs
2 4 1 3 9 9 4 4 6 4 3 4
9 Education/
academics
3 1 10 1 1 10 3 2 1 3 10 3.75
1
0
Connectivit
y
8 2 2 5 3 5 6 7 5 6 9 4.8

From the above data distribution, we can infer that profession influences the usage
pattern of social media websites. Sharing of photos, videos, chatting and gaming is a
most preferred activity in the segment of students, engineers and other trend oriented
professionals.
The preferences of activity with products/ advertisements/ services are more predominant
with businessmen, scientists and to some extent with engineers.

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SAJMR
Spectrum:AJournalofMultidisciplinaryResearch
Vol.1Issue3,June2012,ISSN22780637

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user with various networking applications that makes them hooked on to these social media
websites. Unique features of social media websites like Facebook, Twitter etc., have created
huge impetus on the communication platform. Social media is also used as a marketing tool in
creating social awareness, for media word of mouth, buzz marketing, tourism, and fashion
trends. Social media is the cheapest medium for seeking and spreading information. Hence it is
widely used by majority of users for service oriented aspects, where word of mouth, opinion
plays a major role.
There is an increasing trend among youngsters to buy products online through these websites.
Marketers have realized the importance of social media website as an essential component of
integrated marketing communications. Every company aims to have their presence felt on these
websites for the sheer reach to the target customers. Companies with their promotional strategies
advertise their brands on social media websites so as to influence the brand preference among the
youth.
In recent times it has become a street phrase to be on social media sites, social marketing etc.,
but As we could infer from the findings that, social media is not the only platform for marketing.
One size does not fit everyone. Service oriented brands are more existent and versatile in
achieving their marketing communication than other products promotions. Social media does
not suit for all kind of promotions, but very much gels up for services.
But it is not able to actually realize the core reason of marketing. It can actually encourage
constant interaction with the customers, gaining an insight on their likes and preferences and
problems associated with the product. This helps the companies to take corrective measures in a
timely manner and modify their products as per the customer needs. It can be used as a growing
platform for launching new products. This ultimately can lead to higher sales and helps in
increasing the market share. Thus these factors can prove to be useful to the media websites to
attract maximum users for joining their sites.
REFERENCES
1] Trends in Social Media: Persistence and Decay Sitaram Asur sitaram.asur@hp.com,
Bernardo A. Huberman bernardo.huberman@hp.com Gabor Szabo gabors@hp.com
Social Computing Lab HP Labs Palo Alto, California, USA Chunyan Wang Dept. of
Applied Physics Stanford University California, USA chunyan@stanford.edu
2] How Marketers Should Use The Internet & Social Media For Promotion AER
Comments At The FDA Hearing Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence Rohit Bhargava,
SVPhttp://blog.ogilvypr.com/tag/pharmaNovember 13, 2009
3] Influence of Social Media Marketing on Brand Choice Behaviour among Youth in
India: An Empirical Study Bernadette DSilva Roshni Bhuptani Sweta Menon
bernadette.dsilva@gmail.com bhuptaniroshni@yahoo.com s_sweta@hotmail.com K.G.
Mittal Institute of Management & Research Stephen DSilva st.dsilva@gmail.com
J amnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
SAJMR
Spectrum:AJournalofMultidisciplinaryResearch
Vol.1Issue3,June2012,ISSN22780637

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4] http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2011/
5] https://www.facebook.com
6] https://www.twitter.com
7] http://www.youtube.com
8] http://www.linkedIn.com
9] http://www.thehindu.com/businessline/brandline/socialmarketing.html
10] Measure for Measure: Chitra Narayan, Business Line, Feb 12, 2012
11] The Faceook Farmer: Harish Bijoor;
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/brandline/article2942968.ece
12] Too many social Contacts? : R Dinakaran, March 5 2012
13] Blame Social Networking for falling employee productivity: T E Raja Simhan, March 14
2012
14] Social media outcry over Facebook blackout. March 13 2012
15] Travel and Hospitality sector ramps up Social media marketing: Niveditha Ganguly,
March 19