Impact of Social Media Marketing Strategies on Consumer Behaviour- An Emperical Study

Abstract

The digital era and unprecedented rise of Social Media have completely transformed the way marketers and customers perceived each other. Marketers are devising strategies to engage customers in their marketing activities through social media. Availability of high bandwidth internet connection across the nation, various technological developments and numerous government policies promoting digitalization have drastically increased the number of social media users. India has seen rapid growth in its digital population over past decade with over 680 million active internet users in January 2020. Number of social media users was a whooping 400 million (Statista.com). Majority of Indian population is either registered on social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. or are associated with various forums and online groups on Internet. India has worlds largest number of Facebook Users (over 300 million)  followed by Instagram, Whatsapp and Youtube. The changing dynamics have challenged the fundamental basics of traditional marketing and compelled the marketers to develop strategies to shape the modern marketing. Increased women education, changing social pattern and economic independence of women have led to drastic change to their buying behavior which is reflected in increased use of social media platforms by women for online shopping. Marketers are now willing to invest in social media marketing to reach their target market. But still there are questions to be answered like, how customers feel about social media, how they perceive social media marketing practices and how it affects their purchase patterns. In this context, this paper studies the perception of todays educated women towards emerging social media marketing practices. As social media marketing is in its initial phase in India, understanding perceptions of Indian women who constitute half of the population will definitely benefit marketers in developing marketing strategies to attain desired goals.