B2C MARKETING STRATEGIES ON SOCIAL

MEDIA

Shrawani Priyadarshini
HPGD/AP16/XXXX
SPECIALIZATION:E-COMMERCE

WELINGKAR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT

DEVELOPMENT & RESEARCH
Year of Submission:March 2018

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 UNDERTAKING BY CANDIDATE

I declare that project work entitled “B2C MARKETING STRATEGIES ON SOCIAL

MEDIA”is my own work conducted as part of my syllabus.

I further declare that project work presented has been prepared personally by me and it is not
sourced from any outside agency. I understand that, any such malpractice will have very
serious consequence and my admission to the program will be cancelled without any refund
of fees.

I am also aware that, I may face legal action, if I follow such malpractice.

XXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXX

Place:HYDERABAD
Date:10-03-2018

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to this opportunity in expressing my sincere thanks to the people, I am obliged to them
for their encouragement and inspiration that lead me through this project. I express my deep
sense of gratitude to my project guide GOPIKA NAIR.

I would also like to thanks all my friends and family members, who had directly or indirectly
given their kind co-operation and encouragement. I admit that co-operation and morality are
keyword to success.

XXXXX XXXX XXXXXX

Place:HYDERABAD
Date:10-03-2018

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 CERTIFICATE FROM THE GUIDE

This is to certify that the Project work titled“B2C MARKETING STRATEGIES ON

SOCIAL MEDIA”is a confide work carried out by XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXX
(HPGD/AP16/XXXX) a candidate for the /Post Graduate Diploma examination of the
Welingkar Institute of Management under my guidance and direction.

SIGNATURE OF GUIDE:
NAME:Ms. GOPIKA NAIR
DESIGNATION:Assistant Manager (DR. REDDYS FOUNDATION)
ADDRESS: 6-3-655/12, Somajiguda,
Hyderabad-500082, Telangana – India

DATE: 10-03-2018
PLACE: HYDERABAD

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................7
1.1 Need for the study .........................................................................................................................7
1.2 Limitations of the study ................................................................................................................8
1.3 Scope of the study .........................................................................................................................8
1.4 B2C and B2B Marketing...............................................................................................................9
1.5 Different between B2C and B2B Marketing ...............................................................................10
1.6 Introduction to social media marketing: .....................................................................................11
1.7 Social media marketing-Company perspective ...........................................................................13
1.8 Social media marketing –consumer perspective .........................................................................18
CHAPTER 2 : SOCIAL MEDIA IDUSTRY OVERVIEW ..................................................................25
2.1 Social media marketing tools: .....................................................................................................25
2.2 Different Methods of Social Media Marketing ..........................................................................26
2.3 Social networking websites and blogs: .......................................................................................27
2.3 Implications on traditional advertising: ......................................................................................29
2.4 Social Media Sites and Marketing Strategies: ............................................................................30
2.5 Social Media Statistics ................................................................................................................36
2.6 Social Media Market Size: ..........................................................................................................38
CHAPTER 3 - FRAMEWORKS AND THEORY ...............................................................................40
3.1 Literature Review........................................................................................................................40
3.2 Social Media Sites.......................................................................................................................42
3.3 Advantages and limitations of social media B2C marketing .....................................................45
3.4 SWOT analysis social media B2C marketing: ............................................................................47
CHAPTER 4 - ANALYSIS OF B2C MARKETING AND SOCIAL MEDIA SITES ........................50
4. 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................50
4.2 Social media ................................................................................................................................51
4.3 Research Methodology ...............................................................................................................52
4.5 Results of the analysis .................................................................................................................65
CHAPTER 5 - FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSION ..................................................66
5.1 Findings: .....................................................................................................................................66
5.2 Suggestions .................................................................................................................................67
5.3 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................68
REFERENCES ...................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

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 ABSTRACT

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through
social media sites and social bookmaking sites. Global marketers are moving at a fast speed to
tap the ‗new normal‘ opportunity. Social media has gone mainstream. And for businesses it
represents an unprecedented marketing opportunity that transcends traditional middlemen and
connects companies directly with customers. Customer acquisitions remain to be the prime
goal of GlobalSocial media marketers. According to leading International marketers, the top
three online investment channels for 2014 are Social media, Email marketing and Search
marketing. 65% of the top marketers said that it is extremely important to integrate email
marketing and social media.This is why nearly every business on the planet is exploring
social media marketing initiatives.

The focus of marketers is shifting from ‗sending the message out‘ to ‗start engaging with
customers‘. In this context, the role of a marketer is changing from ‗batch and blast‘
processing to creating ‗listening posts‘ and ‗dialogue hubs‘ in customer communities. A shift
from isolated pure play traditional platforms to an integrated multi-channel approach is
helping the marketers address the challenge of new consumers‘ expectations across many
devices and channels. GlobalSocial media marketers are leveraging the power of various
communication channels and technologies- be it Email, SMS or Social Media in their
portfolio. Here we will see the main trend of International Social media marketing,The scope
of it, The future and will undergo a research to follow the Customer perception About Social
media for Brand management.

Social media is today and established B2C marketing technique. Originally sold as a
marketing 'silver bullet', we've seen a bit of a backlash against social media in recent years
because expectations have failed to live up to reality. However, it is now an established part
of brand and marketing communications and is only going to become more important with
time.

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 CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION

1.1 Need for the study

Social Media is the current big buzzword in the world of Internet Marketing, and with good
reason. It is already such a big part of the Internet culture. In B2C marketing, the process for
managing the content lifecycle is built around driving a single consumer to a quick, impulse
purchase Social media is today and established as an important B2C marketing technique. It is
here to stay and should be ignored by marketers, or indeed anybody, at their peril. It is
important to understand WHY people use these websites, as there is a broad demographic on
these sites.

Some people use them for business purposes, to network and find new deals. Then there are
others who use social networking sites for purely personal reasons and are totally oblivious to
the fact that there is a business presence in the social networking environment at all.It is
fascinating to see that there are so many different things going on in one place, and even more
incredible that they seem to all work in harmony.

Objective of this study are:

 How diversesocial networking community could be?

 Are we reaching the right audience, and if so, are we reaching them effectively
through social media marketing?

 To know the effectiveness of branding and communicating through social media and
Internet.

 To know the effectiveness of B2C marketing through social media sites.

 To identify customer perception and opinion about various social media sites.

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1.2 Limitations of the study

 Market research is conducted to various respondents so biases such as mood, feelings

act on research settings.

 The responses from the respondents could be biased which ultimately affects the
results shown by marketing research.

 This study limits to Mumbai cityonly.

1.3 Scope of the study

 The study would help in gathering the opinion of people for social networking sites
and social media sites. how do they use it, what are the things that they do on social
and professional networking sites and how these sites help them in socializing with
their personal and professional contacts.

 The study further helps in analyzing the benefits of promoting and marketing B2C
business through social media, bookmarking sites identifying the benefits of branding
and promoting via SNS.

 The study will help to formulate and implement B2C Marketing strategies for
Branding, Promoting and communicating the information to the customers through
SNS.

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1.4 B2C and B2B Marketing

Most businesses sell to other businesses or to consumers, and the acronyms B2B and B2C
represent these relationships in abbreviated form. And there are exceptions, as a courier
service could takeparcel from single customer as well as corporatehouse for bulk delivery of
letters. Whom you sell to makes a difference in what marketing methods are effective.

Business to Business (B2B) - The products and services of the business are marketed to
other businesses. Examples include advertising agencies, web hosting and graphic design
services, office furniture manufacturers and landlords who lease office and retail space.
Business to business relationships are developed and ongoing, and the sales processes
involved take longer than business-to-consumer relationships. B2B decision making may take
place at more than one level. For instance, the salesperson meets with the departmental
manager, who then has to get approval from the business owner before the sale is closed.
Emotions have no place in B2B sales.

Business to Consumer (B2C) - The final customer is the consumer with a B2C business.
Housecleaning services, restaurants and retail stores are examples of B2C companies.
Websites that offer consumer products are B2C. The B2C sales cycle is shorter. The
consumer is encouraged to buy the product immediately. For example, a mother is looking for
educational toys. She finds the site, reviews the product and buys the toy. Purchases are made
on an emotional basis as well as on the basis of price and product. It gets a little confusing
when the product is marketed to consumers but goes through several steps to get to the
customer.

B2B and B2C - An industry may include both B2B and B2C companies. The book-
publishing industry is a good example. Authors market their manuscripts to book publishers.
Both the author and the book publisher are in a B2B relationship. The publisher prints and
markets the books to booksellers, both online and in retail stores. This relationship is B2B as
well. However, the bookstores sell to the final consumer and are in a B2C relationship.
Another example is food. Food products are marketed to consumers but are sold by grocery
stores. Both the manufacturer of the food product and the store target their promotions to the
final consumer.
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Marketing Strategies - Different marketing tactics are used in B2B and B2C, although the
methods of advertising, promotions and publicity are the same. If the final customer is a
business, it won't help increase sales by advertising in consumer magazines or the general
media, such as television and radio. Marketing is done through avenues that the business
customer will use. For example, industry publications, business magazines, trade shows and
tech shows would be more appropriate. The marketing message is based on value, service and
trust. B2C marketing is focused on price and the emotional satisfaction of obtaining the
product.

1.5Different between B2C and B2B Marketing

It‘s no secret that B2C and B2B marketing are critically different. In B2C marketing, the
process for managing the content lifecycle is built around driving a single consumer to a
quick, impulse purchase. But in B2B, marketers must address multiple stakeholders, each
needing specific information and proof of value across a lengthy buyer‘s journey.

It‘s not that there aren‘t any similarities between B2B and B2C, but many of the tactics at
play differ—including how to engage buyers on social media channels. The differences
between B2C and B2B social media marketing start with their platforms they use, their
voices, and the types of content they utilize.

The purpose of social media is to connect people with each other and to stories. When looking
into platforms, it‘s important to understand who is connecting on a specific platform, and for
what reason.

For B2B marketing, it‘s especially important to get into the mindset of your target audience so
you can authentically share your company‘s story across each channel to drive traffic and
build brand awareness.

The major social media platforms are used for B2B and B2C Marketing are:

 Facebook
 Twitter

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  LinkedIn
 Instagram
 YouTube
 Pinterest

Social Media Examiner recently did a study comparing the social media platforms currently
used by marketers, and the results show that B2C marketers are more focused on Facebook,
whereas B2B marketers are more focused on LinkedIn.

1.6 Introduction to social media marketing:

Social Media Marketing is the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social
media sites. Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that
attracts attention and encourages readers to share it across their social networks.

Social networking websites allow individuals and businesses to interact with one another and
build relationships and communities online. When companies join these social channels,
consumers can interact with them directly. That interaction can be more personal to users than
traditional methods of outbound marketing and advertising.

Social networking sites act as word of mouth or more accurately, e-word of mouth. Social
networking sites and blogs allow followers to ―retweet‖ or ―repost‖ comments made by others
about a product being promoted, which occurs quite frequently on some social media sites. By
repeating the message, the user's connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching
more people. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting
repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company.

Social networking websites are based on building virtual communities, that allow consumers
to express their needs, wants and values, online. Social media marketing then connects these
consumers and audiences to businesses that share the same needs, wants and values.

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Through social networking sites, companies can keep in touch with individual followers. This
personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers.
Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target
audience.

Social networking sites also include much information about what products and services
prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new semantic analysis
technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and
questions posted online. An understanding of buying signals can help sales people target
relevant prospects and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns.

In order to integrate social networks within their marketing strategies, companies have to
develop a marketing model. In a marketing model (SNeM2S) based on social networks is
provided.Internet marketing utilizes the power of electronic commerce to sell and market
products. Electronic commerce refers to any market on the internet. Internet marketing forms
a subset of electronic commerce. With the outburst of internet growth, internet marketing has
started becoming very popular. It is said that Internet marketing first began in the beginning
of 1990 with just text-based websites which offered product information. With growth in
internet, it is not just selling products alone, but in addition to this, information about
products, advertising space, software programs, auctions,stock trading and matchmaking.

A few companies have revolutionized the way; internet can be used for marketing, such as
Google.com, Yahoo.com, Amazon.com, Alibaba.com and Youtube.com. Internet marketing
has brought forth so many strategies such as affiliate marketing which consists of pay per
click,pay per view , pay per call, pay per click advertising. Affiliate marketing also includes
banner advertisements. In addition to this e-mail marketing, viral marketing, interactive
advertising, blog or article based marketing are also popular. There are newer marketing
techniques being invented all the time.

It is important to know how the trend would be. Companies are inventing new techniques to
find better ways to make revenue and establish their brand on the internet. Consumers are
becoming more and smarter. They don‘t want to be a party to the internet advertising
campaigns made by companies unless they get some incentive in doing so. They would be
quite keen in participating in campaigns provided they are compensated in someway by the

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companies. There are usually 2 or 3 parties involved in internet marketing. It is companies
and end users or companies, internet marketing companies and end users. If it is a two party
model then companies themselves directly gets revenue from the end users. If it is a three
party model then internet marketing service providers acts as intermediate revenue providers
for companies.

In order to attract end users they can share a part of their revenue which they receive from the
companies with them. Internet marketing serves three business models. They are the B2B
model, B2C model and P2P model. The B2B model deals with complex business to business
transactions and internet advertising helps bring revenue to both. B2C model involves direct
interaction between the business and customer. P2P model involves distributed computing
which exploits individual exchange of goods and services. P2P model was mostly useful for
distribution of video and data. But due to copyright problems P2P models have had troubles.

1.7 Social mediamarketing-Company perspective

Companies have to take into consideration many parameters during their presence in the
internet marketing arena. Some of the companies may be new entrants into internet
marketing. They could be driven by various factors. Companies may have to understand
which marketing channel is better for which of their products or services. On providing
products they need to keep mind how much of information and disclose and how to provide
security for information which is put up on the web to prevent hackers and malicious people
from getting access to it. They should be in a position to build confidence in the minds of
buyers so that they can make purchases without the fear of credit card frauds. They should
clearly have in mind how internet marketing can benefit them. In addition to this they need to
understand the sector which has an impact on the minds of people for example web mavens.
We found relevant literature on the following parameters that would interest companies
pursuing internet marketing.

They are as follows:

o Drivers for internet marketing

o Marketing channel preference
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 o Importance of web mavens
o How to be successful in internet marketing
o Effects on environment
o Use of internet marketing in service provision
o Catering to consumer interest
o Focus on gender

Drivers for marketing:

One would wonder what would drive firms to pursue internet marketing effectively and what
size of firms would be interested in internet marketing.When we refer to size of firms it is
important to state how firms are categorized into small, medium or big. There is lot of
existing work done in this area.(Maria Bengtsson et al 2007) provides valuable information in
her publication regarding what are the factors that would drive companies to adopt to internet
marketing. Her study is based on a survey conducted in various Swedish companies of
different sizes. They have categorized companies into different sizes depending upon the
number of employees. Their study states that different factors drive companies of different
sizes to pursue internet marketing. The drivers are willingness to cannibalize, entrepreneurial
drivers, management support, and market pressure. In addition to this their study exactly
pointed out which of these factors drive what size of firms. The authors could have considered
turnover and profit in addition to just considering number of employees to be the only criteria
for categorizing companies by size

Marketing channel preference:

(Jaeki song et al 2006) in their work compares and contrasts between companies motivation to
choose between internet channels and traditional channels. He suggests web would a serious
alternative to traditional marketing and proper pricing by internet companies is what which
attracts the consumer. I totally agree to this view. However we believe that examples are
provided only of some successful dotcoms at least failure, reasons of failure of some dotcoms
should have been taken into consideration for discussion. That would have provided some
more insight into their research. Market access, price information, Competition and pricing
policies have been used to compare between both the channels. But internet security issues

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and fraudulent practices in the internet by companies are excluded in this discussion. His
primary finding is that internet offers consumers better prices.

Importance of web mavens:

(Davidson Alistair et al 2006) have discussed how web-mavens positively influence the minds
of both consumers and companies. I fully agree with authors that web mavens come in handy
when consumers find it difficult to purchase products that are technically complex and buying
the best value products taking into consideration frequent model changes. It would be good if
we had included what extent of sophistication is required for consumers in order to
understand web mavens. It would have been good to include how useful consumers perceive
web mavens information and utility. We fully agree with the authors that constructive
criticism by the web mavens on the products can help improve the product quality by
companies quickly, improve loyalty to the product and help them gain market share. The
author could have included information as to whether companies are still able to sell well
without actually being concerned about web mavens at all. If so it would be good to see how
they manage to do it. It would also be interesting the percentage of companies that react to
web mavens and those who don‘t. This would establish more credibility of web mavens.

How to be successful in internet marketing:

(Aldridge Alicia et al 1997) in their paper discuss about what companies should consider
when operating in internet commerce space. From the author‘s point of view to be successful
in internet marketing the companies should recognize that consumer market is different,
communication with the consumer is going direct, open competition has to be faced and
market accessibility is going to be the key, net users want more control, authenticity is
important as touch and feeling is missing and security to protect consumer privacy.
I agree that these factors do play an important role. In addition to this author discusses various
strategies that could be used on the internet namely targeting, promotional strategy, product
strategy and distribution strategy. These strategies are indeed important for survival in the
internet space. If the authors had collected data to justify their claims it would be more
authentic.

Effects on environment:

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(Chen et al 2000) claim that internet marketing will bring about a greener atmosphere
(environmental protection) by reducing fuel consumption needed for regular purchase.
I totally agree to their view. Credit should be given to the authors who have looked at internet
marketing from this perspective. I also agree that Internet marketing promotes paperless office
and saves space and brings about energy savings by preventing kiosk displays. It is also true
that it promotes easy shipping of commodities which would be difficult in traditional sales.
The author could have included some information as to what drives companies to pursue a
paperless office whether it is cost savings alone or company‘s decision to protect the
environment for a social cause or other factors such as market pressure from other companies
who are doing the same. Authors could have included information about various companies in
various sectors who have considered internet marketing as an environmental friendly scheme.

Use of internet marketing in service provision:

(Kim D.J et al 2007) in their work have focused on consumer preferences on online air travel
agencies. They have considered 9 criteria which consumers consider important. They are
security, ease of use, finding low fares, useful and relevant content, design and presentation of
the website, speed of the website, ability to book all travel services in one transaction,
booking flexibility and sorting option. Considering all these attributes they conclude that low
fares was the primary motivator for consumers. Unfortunately authors have decided not to
consider direct marketing by airline companies themselves for comparison because an airline
company could be driven by the urge to provide new services to compete with travel agencies.
This comparison would have strengthened their conclusion as to whether low far alone is the
driving factor for consumers to choose a particular airline agency. This article provides
valuable input to companies who are provide services through the internet. Based onthe
service provided by the company one or more of these attributes will take more prominence
than the other. For online banking services security will become priority.

Catering to consumer interest:

(Urban Glen, 2006) in his paper emphasizes that companies should act as advocates in
promoting customer interest if they have to win business and retain their costumers.

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In the author‘s own words ―When a company advocates for its customers, the customers will
in turn advocate for the company‖. The author has cited many valuable examples ranging
from consumer products to high value industrial products and services to prove how various
companies irrespective of the size of the companies adopt techniques to satisfy consumer
interest. The author is silent about the cost factor in these approaches which could affect the
company‘s bottom-line on sustenance.

Focus on gender:

(Chiu Yu-Bin et al 2005) in their work explains how gender of consumers plays an important
role in online retailing. Some of their key findings are that female consumers tend to give a
lower evaluation than males of the effortlessness of online purchases. I agree to this view.
This means that user-friendliness is quite important for users and companies should give
importance to this. They also claim that online community based on gender and hobbies
should be established to improve the ease of purchasing as perceived by females. I am in
agreement with the view that companies should treat consumers differently based on gender
in order to win business. In the authors opinion companies should offer male consumers the
right products whenever they need them and should to respond to inquiries in a timely
fashion, which would surely strengthen the attitudes and purchase intentions of male
consumers. Similarly an online store that is targeted for only females as user-friendly could
bring forth more online visits and online purchases. They suggest that for this to be achieved
applying interactive virtual reality along with background music, companies can demonstrate
to female consumers how to use products in a fashionable manner, and can keep them busy
with surprising visual effects, and thus successfully stimulate positive attitudes and increased
purchase intentions. The customerisation of homepages is treated to be very positive for
positive by females because it increases the sense of consumer freedom and
accessibility.Valuable contribution by the authors is the suggestion of schemes which
companies have to use based on the gender.

From what publications we considered for our literature study, value contributions made by
authors are mainly centered on what companies have to focus on in order to be successful in
internet marketing. The authors discuss drivers for internet marketing and various market

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channels and preferences and how companies can be successful if their approach is customer
centric. Even benefits from an environmental perspective are elicited by them. Companies
should also have knowledge about security which authors in these publications have
addressed. Many times companies are not aware of security risks and face problems once
their campaigns are lost. In my opinion companies must take efforts to have full knowledge
about security related issues before entering into internet marketing.

1.8Social media marketing –consumer perspective

Having looked at what are the parameters that influence the minds of companies which pursue
internet marketing, it would be useful to see what influences consumers to actually use the
internet for either shopping purposes or for some particular service. We found relevant
literature on the following parameters that would interest consumers pursuing internet
marketing. The parameters are as follows.

o Consumer privacy
o Consumers decision making process in buying a product or using a service
o Consumer interaction and role of personalization in internet marketing
o How consumers evaluate companies in the internet
o Factors preventing consumers from indulging in internet marketing
o Effects of consumer gender differences on internet purchases

Consumer privacy:

(Chung W et al 2002) based on their study of New Zealand consumers suggest that companies
must have a privacy policy statements under their website. This would assure consumers that
the company would not misuse the information gathered from them. This publication
interestingly discusses arguments for and against internet privacy concerns. Though this
approach is good I think the author could provide input on whether some cookies do steal user
information or not. The authors make valuable contribution in this paper by providing
solutions that can be used to protect privacy of users. I agree with authors view that only a

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combination solution i.e. combination of legislation, self regulation and technical solutions
will protect user privacy.

Consumers decision making process in buying a product or using a service:

Many times, consumers are caught up in a situation where there are too many factors involved
in deciding what type of product they have to purchase.

(George Joey F, 2002) in his publication explains what could actually influence consumers
behavior in deciding whether to make purchases or not. His contribution is quite innovative
because of his taking assistance of theory of planned behavior in conceiving his research
model. I agree with his view that intent, attitudes and prior experience largely influence
consumer behavior. He has extensively focused on privacy concerns and provided valuable
conclusions on the same. He says that users gain confidence only after they have made a few
purchases. Some of the users are very privacy conscious and don‘t want their private
information to be sold or disclosed without their consent. Unless they are confident about the
company they would not wish to make purchases online.

(Davidson Alistair et al 2006) in his paper typically describes this scenario and how users
would react to them. Consumers may be caught up with various factors that influence
decision making such price, feature, technology etc. This influences them to seek advice from
web mavens who provide product information to them. In such situations consumers would
use the internet for purchase with web maven reviews influencing their mind set. (Urban
Glen, 2006) in his paper quotes examples of how people are making automobile purchases
today. He says that buyers get complete information about the product online before visiting
the automobile showroom, which in turn gives them advantage over the dealer. He also claims
that customers of today are very aggressive in expressing what they like and what they don‘t
like. Some of the customers do not want to purchase any product from companies that are too
aggressive in marketing them i.e. who don‘t care about what customers really want but try to
dump their marketing material.

Having looked at how consumers purchase products it is also important to know the mindsets
of consumers involved in service usage. A typical service on the internet is the online travel
agency service. (Kim D.J et al 2007) based on survey studies provides input on how online

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travel agencies are perceived by consumers. Their study states that lowest price was given
first priority by customers. Security was treated to be next in line. Ease of navigation of the
website and less wait time on the website is viewed as also important. I agree with the
author‘s view that human intervention is less when doing online booking so customers would
naturally expect good support from sites.

(Fang Chen-Ling et al 2006) from his survey based on leisure farming industry tried to
provide information on what the mindset of customers would be when indulging in leisure
farming. He from his survey and cluster analysis on the data collected concludes that
customers tend to look for unique offerings, differentiation of websites, service quality,
adequate information on websites and strategic alliances. The most valuable contribution by
the authors is that they investigated the power of internet marketing even in less known
sectors such as leisure farming.

Consumer interaction and role of personalization in internet marketing:

(Tianyong Wang et al 2005)in their publication provide information the importance of

interactivity and individualization in customer decision making process. In their view
interaction refers to different methods used by companies to establish a proper two way
communication between them and the consumers. Some of the interaction mechanisms
provided by companies are chat rooms, forums and interactive platforms. Individualization
refers to specialized information exchanged between company and consumer.
Individualization mechanisms involve gathering specific information about consumers and
their preferences and providing with what they need. In our opinion these factors are very
vital as lack of touch and feel of the product is absent in internet marketing. These two
techniques can build trust in the consumers mind about the product and the company and
drive internet marketing in a personalized fashion.

How consumers evaluate companies on the internet:

(Cheung Christy M K et al 2006) have done extensive work on trying to understand how
consumer trust works in the internet shopping area. Their approach on trying to consider past
approaches from a social and psychological perspective and then build on it is quite
innovative. They have used students for gathering survey data. I think it would have been

20
better if authors in their data collection had included people of different ages because my
belief is that students would possess better knowledge of internet usage than people from
older generations. Younger generation being tech savvy does not reflect the entire population
of internet users. From their empirical study they show that consumers would evaluate
internet merchants based on integrity, competence through professional websites and security.
I also agree to their view that external factors such third party recognition also plays an
important role. For example any merchant could have an electronic seal from a third party
which says that the site is secure. This builds trust in the minds of consumers. Companies
could offer a money back guarantee and clearly mention on their website guarantee rules for
their products.

Factors preventing consumers from indulging in internet marketing:

(Liebermann Yehoshua et al 2002) in their publication identify some of the key factors which
would prevent users from participating in the internet and ecommerce. The key identified
factors are internet credit card stealing, fear of supplying personal information, pornography
and violence, vast internet advertising, information reliability, lack of physical contact, not
receiving internet products purchased, missing the human factor when internet purchases are
made, internet usage addiction. I find that their most valuable contribution comes from the
fact that they have considered demographic traits such as gender, younger/older age,
married/unmarried, high/low education and also considered usage behavior variables such as
internet user/non user, bought online/not bought online, heavy/light internet user to arrive at
their model. Their conclusions support the fact that consumers consider credit stealing and
fear of supplying personal information as risky. From the authors results one can conclude
that in the perception of risk gender and age usage patterns and buyer or non buyer play an
important role.

Effects of consumer gender differences on internet purchases:

(Chiu Yu-Bin et al 2005) in their work discuss how different genders perceive internet
marketing. Their empirical model is a direct modification of technical acceptance model.
They use four antecedent constructs namely personal awareness of security, personal
innovativeness, and perceived ease of purchasing and perceived usefulness. Some of the key
gender based findings are as follows. Improving the usage speed of the site is a driver for

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males to do shopping. Male consumers are more goal oriented in their approach towards
shopping. Male consumers will make purchases when they are confident that their sensitive
information is safe regardless of the security provided on the website. They claim that females
use word of mouth broadcasting to help other females overcome the barrier in internet
shopping at least during the initial stages. The most valuable contribution from this author is
bringing out the differences in what each gender perceive about internet marketing. In the
publications we have considered the value contributions have been importance of consumer
privacy, role of web mavens, consumer‘s preference in the selection of internet services,
building consumer trust with companies, consumer behavior in internet purchasing, and
gender differences. I consider protection of consumer privacy and trust to be most significant
for consumers to indulge in internet marketing. Without these factors internet marketing
cannot grow.

1.9 Internet marketing-3rd party perspective

There are several techniques provided by 3rd party service providers to help companies
promote their products such as affiliate marketing, search engine marketing, and email
marketing, viral marketing schemes etc. No matter what technique is followed it is important
that the 3rd party agency is customer centric in its approach. (Tianyong Wang et al 2005) in
his publication provides a model based on 2Is i.e. interaction and individualization. The
market space matrix model maps product, prize, communication, community, distribution to
different consumer relationship stages such as awareness, exploration, commitment and
dissolution. This model is similar to marketing models used in traditional marketing. 3rd party
agencies can use this model before launching their internet marketing campaigns for the
companies. In addition to the above we also found some relevant literature on the following
paramters that would interest 3rd party agencies pursuing internet marketing. The parameters
are as follows.

o 3rd party marketing techniques

o How ISP‘s affect 3rd party marketing campaigns

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3rd party marketing techniques:

Search engine marketing, email marketing and viral marketing:

(Bonello Deborah, 2006) in her publication discusses different 3rd party marketing approaches
used currently. For instance she explains how search engines actually helps establishing brand
image for the company. I totally agree to her view that search engines bring about maximum
revenue thus driving internet revenue. Companies bid for the words, which people use when
they search for products. When ever the user clicks on that particular link, search engine
charge the companies. This technique is efficient because users use search engines to search
for products and don‘t type links always on the browser. Some of the other schemes discussed
by the author are email marketing and viral marketing.Email marketing offers companies the
chance to reach customers thru targetting and helps in branding and acquires customers.. It
helps generate quick responses that are the more targeted and helps achieve all this in an
inexpensive way. The marketing channel being specific and helps cater to interests of the
consumers based on their interests in products or services. Traditional companies have hired
SEO‘s to actually understand keywords and redesigns the website if necessary. Email
marketers offers advertisers the chance to reach out to individuals with targeted
communications. It can be helpful for customer acquisition and aid brand image building. It
helps generate immediate responses. This is possible only when it is targeted to the right set
of consumers. The author could have stated the costs which are incurred in these marketing
campaigns. This will give us a better picture as to whether small firms can afford 3rd party
internet marketing campaigns or not.

Affiliate marketing:

(Duffy Dennis L, 2005) in his publication discusses how affiliate marketing can be a win-win
relationship for both the company and the affiliate. I agree to the authors opinion that affiliate
don‘t have to spend a lot on infrastructure and inventory. In his opinion the win-win situation
is possible only when both the company and affiliates are happy. The consumer has to be
satisfied with the commission percentage offered to him on generating a suitable lead. I think
it would have been better if the author could have provided more information (some
examples) on whether companies wish to do affiliate marketing themselves or they wish to
use 3rd party junctions for the same. Some of the 3rd party affiliate junctions are Linkshare,

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Commission junction (cj) and Performics. The advantages and disadvantages in the
companies using them will give us a realistic picture of affiliate marketing.

How ISP’s affect 3rd party marketing campaigns:

(Cara Garretson,2006) in her paper claims that ISP‘s provide help to prevent email spams.
She provides information as to what size of the companies would be willing to tackle spam
themselves or outsource the same. From the facts provided by the author it seems that
majority of the employees don‘t prefer outsourcing of security functions. On the other hand,
some companies are keen in outsourcing and some are not keen. In my opinion 3rd party
marketers in particular email marketers have to get smarter otherwise they would be treated in
the same way as phishers would be.

The authors have mainly contributed in building awareness and exposure to the companies as
to what 3rd party internet marketing techniques are available so that companies could select
the same. The companies should have a model in mind before they launch any of these
campaigns so that they can be more customer centric. They should also have in mind 3rd
party agencies could generate junk data or spam. As authors have suggested companies could
outsource their security services or have their own security division to tackle these problems.

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 CHAPTER 2: SOCIAL MEDIA IDUSTRY
OVERVIEW

Social media marketing programs usually centred on efforts to create content that attracts
attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A corporate message
spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it appears to come from a trusted,
third-party source, as opposed to the brand or company itself. Hence, this form of marketing
is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media.

Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access.
Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and often, improved
customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for
organizations to implement marketing campaigns.

2.1 Social media marketing tools:

Besides research tools, various companies provide specialized platforms and tools for social
media marketing:
 Social media measurement

 Social network aggregation

 Social bookmarking

 Social analytics

 Automation

 Social media

 Blog marketing

 Validation

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2.2 Different Methods of Social Media Marketing

Social network marketing is popularly called as Internet marketing. Today you can find many
ways for internet marketing. Many people who enter this online marketing are less worried
because of its guaranteed success. If you see in Internet totally all types of products has been
marketed online without much effort. Internet attracts many business people to promote their
business online. Social network marketing is grown to such a height that today many people
can't earn without it.

Some of the most recognized network marketing tools are Face book, My Space and
LinkedIn. Twitter became regular place for people who have newly entered the field of social
network marketing.

1. Blogging: When you start Blogging or posting your data about any product, you can see
less response from clients. Later it will become big business via blog. Websites and blogs
are most powerful tools for social network marketing when matched with other
networking tools. Blog is an amazing tool which provides many other facilities in addition
to just marketing your business. It also helps you to communicate with other clients in
case if you have any problems.

2. Personal website or blog: It is important to have private website if you are a freelancer.
Your website will help your clients to know about you and it will make them clear that
you are a serious freelance marketer and help to make huge revenue via online marketing.

3. Article selling: It is also best and cheap internet marketing method. It is a mode of
advertising our trade just by writing articles and attracting endless number of users across
world. We usually sell our articles to different article database websites and article
directories. Today it provided free business to many advertisers and publishers and they
are really benefited through their articles.

4. Email sending: Electronic mail sending is the best way to marketing. Collect list of email
addresses through portfolio websites and email about your business to all internet users.
Your Email should be attractive in such a way that your recipient will be impressed to get
back to you.

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5. Use social networking websites: Social networking websites like Twitter, face book can
be used to promote your sales. These provide best platform for all who are thinking of
online marketing.

6. Video promotion: Use several video distribution websites for your marketing. These
websites upload your service to the whole world. All that you need to do is film a video
about marketing and send it to video uploading sites like You Tube. It seems it is the
easiest way of marketing than any other modes since many people will be interested in
view videos rather than word form of advertisement.

7. Press Release or media release: It attracts several public clients and increases
relationship among them.

8. Search Engine Optimization: It improves the traffic to your website by providing quality
web content. It uses RSS feeds and many SEO techniques.

2.3 Social networking websites and blogs:

Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build
relationships. When products or companies join those sites, people can interact with the
product or company. That interaction feels personal to users because of their previous
experiences with social networking site interaction.

Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to ―retweet‖ or ―repost‖
comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the user‘s
connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Social networking
sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the product is being put out there
and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company.

Through social networking sites, products/companies can have conversations and interactions
with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into
followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products
can reach a very narrow target audience.

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Engagement
In the context of the social web, engagement means that customers and stakeholders are
participants rather than viewers. Social media in business allows anyone and everyone to
express and share an opinion or idea somewhere along the business‘s path to market. Each
participating customer becomes part of the marketing department, as other customers read
their comments or reviews. The engagement process is then fundamental to successful social
media marketing.

Market on Social Bookmarking Sites

There are a number of websites that specialize in social bookmarking. When you register with
the service the service will collect and organize the sites that you choose to bookmark and
allow you to share them with other others. The social concept allows each service to create
content-specific directories of user-selected content; which states (theoretically) the content is
of a high quality.

 Stumbleupon is a discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its
users. In April 2012, StumbleUpon announced that it had over 25 million registered
users of the service.
 Digg was rebuilt from the ground up in July 2012 to improve the user interface and
overall experience. There is now increased support for sharing content to other social
platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
 Reddit offers user generated news links that rank by votes. As of June 2012,
commentary is particularly active, often running into the hundreds on some
submissions
 Delicious Originally founded in 2003 as a social bookmarking service, Delicious was
acquired from Yahoo! in early 2011 by AVOS. The site was rebuilt from the ground
up and re-launched in fall 2011 with a new focus on curation and discovery.

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2.3Implications on traditional advertising:

Minimizing use
Traditional advertising techniques include print and television advertising. The Internet had
already overtaken television as the largest advertising market. Websites often include banner
or pop-up ads. Social networking sites don‘t always have ads. In exchange, products have
entire pages and are able to interact with users. Television commercials often end with a
spokesperson asking viewers to check out the product website for more information. Print ads
are also starting to include barcodes on them. These barcodes can be scanned by cell phones
and computers, sending viewers to the product website. Advertising is beginning to move
viewers from the traditional outlets to the electronic ones.

Leaks
Internet and social networking leaks are one of the issues facing traditional advertising. Video
and print ads are often leaked to the world via the Internet earlier than they are scheduled to
premiere. Social networking sites allow those leaks to go viral, and be seen by many users
more quickly. Time difference is also a problem facing traditional advertisers. When social
events occur and are broadcast on television, there is often a time delay between airings on the
east coast and west coast of the United States. Social networking sites have become a hub of
comment and interaction concerning the event. This allows individuals watching the event on
the west coast (time-delayed) to know the outcome before it airs.

Social media marketing mishaps

Social media marketing provides organizations with a way to connect with their customers.
However, organizations must protect their information as well as closely watch comments and
concerns on the social media they use. A flash poll done on 1225 IT executives from 33
countries revealed that social media mishaps caused organizations a combined $4.3 million in
damages in 2013.The top three social media incidents an organization faced during the
previous year included employees sharing too much information in public forums, loss or
exposure of confidential information, and increased exposure to litigation.

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2.4Social Media Sites and Marketing Strategies:

Facebook

Both B2C and B2B companies can benefit from using Facebook to promote their company,
but this platform is more geared toward a B2C company. when marketers were asked which
platforms they use, Facebook held a more significant value to B2C companies.

B2B companies can use Facebook to promote the ―human‖ side of their brand and connect
with customers in a less formal way. This means that the content produced on your Facebook
page should mainly be focused on company culture in order to represent your company‘s
brand and image. This space provides a great place for the company to humanize itself.

B2C companies should be posting at least once a day. Since Facebook is their best platform,
they need to make sure they‘re staying up to date and keeping their fans engaged. However,
this doesn‘t mean post several times a day: unlike Twitter, Facebook‘s timeline is much
slower. It can—and will—cloud your fans‘ feed.

B2B companies don‘t have to put as much time into Facebook as B2C companies, but this
doesn‘t mean they should ignore it. Facebook is a great way to show who your brand is in
order to gain and support customer trust.

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Twitter

Twitterplatform applies to both B2B and B2C companies—both audiences actively interact
on Twitter. For B2B companies, consumers go here to get a mass stream of informative
articles and information.

B2C companies should be posting content that is entertaining and easy to consume. They
should push out content that is lighthearted and relative to their audience. In order to engage
users, B2C companies should participate in contests or tweet chats.

B2B companies should also share content that informs and educates their audience. This
means reusing content already produced by the company or finding curated content to post.

Engagement is a huge part of Twitter. It‘s a conversation-based platform where companies

can talk to prospective clients as well as ones who are already onboarded. Companies need to
make sure that they‘re aware when people are talking about their company. It is vital to the
company‘s success on this platform to respond to direct messages and engage in
conversations about the company accordingly. Furthermore, B2B companies should retweet
and like posts created by their customers, industry influencers, and employees.

Content produced should include facts, links back to a blog post, and information about
upcoming events or product releases and updates.

Twitter‘s timeline is constant and fast-paced. Because of this, tweets can get lost in the mix.
So what does this mean for B2B and B2C companies? You need to post all the time. Does
that mean staying up until 1 a.m. to post something about your business? The short answer is
no. There are tools you can use to schedule content.

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest network of professionals on a single social media platform. Therefore,
it‘s the perfect way for B2B companies to target their audience and deliver relevant,
informative content.

To fully leverage LinkedIn, post unique pieces of content to entice readers. This is a great
space to promote the educational content that your team is producing, but don‘t limit yourself
to that. Explore some of the other features LinkedIn has to offer, like showcase pages and
industry groups.

Showcase pages are a great way to segment your company so your audience can find exactly
the type of content they‘re interested in, quickly. A prime example of a company using this
tool well is IBM. They have IBM Cloud, IBM Security, IBM Analytics, and more. Through
these showcase pages they provide content pertaining to that specific category, and have
different followers according to interest.

Another way to expand LinkedIn usage is through industry pages. Building your brand isn‘t
limited to your company‘s page. Your leadership team‘s influence also highly reflects your
company, especially on LinkedIn. Your leadership should strive to become thought leaders in
the industry. A great way to begin this process is by joining a LinkedIn group. By having
members from your company post in industry spaces, you can start to create a name for them
as well as your company.

Because LinkedIn is a professional networking site, it stands to reason that professionals will
most likely not be on it frequently during the day. The best times to post on LinkedIn is
during lunch breaks or before 9 a.m.so commuters can read your content on the way to work,
or after 5 p.m. as they‘re catching the bus or the subway home.

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Instagram

Instagram is geared more toward B2C, but B2B can use it to show off company culture.B2B
companies have a much longer sales cycle, and part of that cycle is gaining trust. This is
where Instagram can come in handy. This platform can be a great space to show off company
culture and brand values. This helps develop deeper connections with customers, which could
lead to a sale.

One way to go about this is to give your followers a look behind the scenes. Did you just add
a cool new space to your office? Did someone bring in their adorable new puppy? Post it!
Bring the customer into your world and show them what a day in your work life is like…the
fun parts, anyway.Instagram is a space that most people use to get away from work, so show
who your company is beyond that.

Another content piece that can be shared here is an event (attended or held): show where your
company has been. Travel is a topic that has a great following, so use hashtags in line with
that theme to feature places your company has gone.

Show the fun and exciting things your company has done in those places. Take a trip to Costa
Rica for a conference? What did your employees do during their time off? Showcase someone
taking a biplane through the rainforest or relaxing on the beaches: humanize your
company.Maybe take it a step further. For example, if you have an employee who‘s killing it
in their sport, give them a shout out. What about the employee who just wrote a novel or
climbed a mountain? There are plenty of things your employees achieve outside of work that
you can brag about.Also, introduce your Instagram followers to people who inspire you every
day: your leadership team. Highlight some of the inspiring things they‘ve said to you and
others in your company by quoting them for a post. Motivational quotes are always an
interesting thing that people love to share. Use the content you already have available and turn
it into something your followers can engage with.

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Instagram has a similar timeline to Facebook. Posting should be around once to twice a day.
When a company posts multiple times a day, it begins to cloud up a user‘s feed. Customers
aren‘t just on Instagram to follow the brands they like; they‘re there to follow their friends as
well. The more you post, the more likely they are to stop following your company.

YouTube

B2B and B2C companies can both use YouTube to enhance their social marketing.B2C
companies have quite a few ways to take advantage of this platform, but it mostly centers
around the product. Not only can you use advertisements on your company‘s YouTube page,
but you can also target your consumers by placing your ads before the videos you know
they‘re watching. Companies can also present their product through YouTube videos
featuring upcoming releases, tutorials, or a celebrity demonstrating or using their product.

For B2B marketing, YouTube is a great space for educational videos. One big category is
―how-to‖ videos. Education is a huge piece in content production for B2B companies, and
educating through visual and audio content can greatly impact how much of that information
is retained. Even if you host videos on your website, you can use YouTube to send out teasers
and drive customers to watch the rest on your website.

Case studies are another great piece to add to your video library. Here your customer can
experience firsthand the value you are providing. Another option is presenting your events.
Have you attended a conference lately or held a field marketing event? YouTube can be a
great place to highlight some of the things discussed in these places.

For B2B companies, YouTube videos should be posted about once a week. B2C companies
can have a more frequent presence, especially with advertisements on other videos.

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Pinterest

Who: This platform is B2C-centric because of the ―buy it‖ feature and the image-based
posting. However, there are a few ways B2B companies can add to the space.

Pinterest is an ideal space for B2C companies to present their products to consumers because
of its shareability. For example, if someone pins a Halloween costume your company sells,
next Halloween, that costume will still be relevant and someone may begin the cycle of
spreading it all over again.

Another way to take advantage of this platform is to use its new ―buy it‖ feature. Customers
can now buy a product straight through Pinterest. This means easy searching for the consumer
and an easy sale for the company. This platform can do a lot of work for a B2C company if
they post the right products with the right tags.

B2B has less of a following on Pinterest than other networks, but the mass shareability on
Pinterest can still be taken advantage of.

Infographics are one way that a B2B company can reach its audience. Because Pinterest is
such an image-centric platform, infographics are a great way to push out a mass amount of
easily digestible information. Posting infographics can be a great way to link back to a blog
post, leading your audience back to your website. You can also ―tease,‖ with images from a
blog or other types of content that you produce on other channels. As great as it is to show off
your company‘s knowledge, Pinterest is highly centered on entertainment. Including a board
for company culture and one for funny GIFs relating to your industry is another avenue to
pursue.

When: Pins have a similar lifetime to tweets in that people have a constant stream of posts in
their feed. However, unlike Twitter, feeds can get clouded by one type of content. This means
you can post as often as you want, as long as the types of content you produce in a day vary.

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2.5 Social Media Statistics

 72% of adults worldwide now use social media

 97 percent of online adults aged 16-64 say they have visited or used a social network
within the last month.

 Internet users have average of 7 social accounts.

 Social networking is most popular online activity, with 22% of time online spent on
channels like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest

 Worldwide, there are over 1.79 billion monthly active Facebook users, which is a 16
percent increase year over year.

 1.8 billion people log onto Facebook daily active users for September 2016, which
represents a 17 percent increase year over year.

 There are 1.66 billion mobile active users for September 2016, an increase of 20
percent year-over-year.

 Everyone on Facebook is connected to one another by an average of 57 degrees of

separation.

 The average Facebook user has 130 friends.

 65% of the world‘s top companies have an active Twitter profile

 90% of marketers use social media channels for business, with 93% of these rating
social tools as ―important‖

 43% of marketers have noticed an improvement in sales due to social campaigns

 72% of marketers who have worked in social media for three or more years said that
they saw a boost in turnover due to social channels (the longer you‘re working in it the
better you get)

 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social media
campaigns and 79% are generating more quality leads.

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 The average time spent by marketers on social media is 1-5hrs per week for those just
getting started and 6+ hours per week for those with 3+ years of experience

 The most popular social networking tool for marketing is Facebook – being used by
92%, followed by Twitter (84%), LinkedIn (71%) and blogs (68%)

 Facebook is most popular B2C marketing

 LinkedIn is 4X better for B2B lead generation than Facebook and Twitter

 Only 10% of marketers are actively monitoring social media ROI

 Only 22% of businesses have a dedicated social media manager

 23% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog

 58% of Fortune 500 companies have an active corporate Facebook account, 62% have
an active corporate Twitter account

 47% of customers are somewhat likely to purchase from a brand that they follow or
like

 Women use Pinterest at much higher rates than men. Nearly half of online women use
the virtual pinboard (45 percent), more than double the share of online men (17
percent) who do so.

 80 percent of Instagram users come from outside of the U.S.

 Instagram has over 500 million active monthly users.

 Instagram users have shared over 40 billion photos to date.

 Instagram users share an average of 95 million photos and videos per day.

 1 in 4 Instagram users share their photos on other networks.

 82 percent of Twitter‘s active users use the platform on their mobile device.79 percent
of Twitter accounts are outside the US.

 Twitter has about 317 million monthly active users.Twitter users send 6,000 tweets per
second.

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2.6 Social MediaMarket Size:

 Global Internet economy is expected to reach Rs. 10.8 trillion by 2016, as the
country‘s growth rate in this segment is far ahead of many of the developing nations,
reported by BCG.

 According to BCG, the Global Internet economy contributed to 3.2 trillion rupees to
the overall economy in 2013, 4.1% of the country‘s GDP, & could triple in 4 years‘
time.

 More than 39 million Internet users who form 86% of the total Internet audience,
visited social networking sites in July 2014.

 The total Global social networking audience grew 43 percent in the past year, more
than tripling the rate of growth of the total Internet audience globally.

 India now ranks as the seventh largest market worldwide for social networking India
is adding Internet users at the rate of almost 5-7 million a month, and at the current
pace it will surpass the US, which has about 245 million users, in less than two years.

 Active user base per month in India is close to 30 Million marks which is still a pretty
large market but not as big as portrayed by some consultants.

 India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30%.

 India e-tailing market in 2014 was about $600 Mn and expected to touch $9 Bn by
2016 and $70 Bn by 2020 – esti the country the third-largest Internet market in the
world after China and the United States.

 There are more Internet users in towns with a population of less than 5 lakh than in the
top eight metros put together.

 ―About 2 billion people worldwide access the Internet and 25% of them are from
China. India contributes about 6% to the world's Net population and the US 12.5%.

 The survey found that more than 75% of Internet usage is among school- and college-
going students and those who have recently graduated.

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 Mumbai has the highest number of Internet users (6.2 million) followed by
Delhi/NCR (5 million), Kolkata (2.4 million) and Chennai (2.2 million).

 The percentage of companies using social media in top 5 markets is:

 China: 82%

 USA: 71%

 India: 70%

 Brazil: 68%

 Canada: 51%

39
 CHAPTER 3 - FRAMEWORKS AND THEORY

3.1 Literature Review

Scott (2009) states the reasons for brand promoters preferring online web for marketing is that
the tools, techniques and content are constantly evolving. The buyers reward creativity by
responding to the online efforts like:
―If you are open to trying out new things, you can be first in your industry to use something
new to communicate to your buyers‖.

Marketing in some social networking websites are still the most popular in their niche. Shih
(2009) says that there are hundreds of millions of active users across sites like Face book,
Hi5, LinkedIn and MySpace. 2.6 billion min are spent on Face book each day. These websites
are enabling brands to engage the right people in the right conversation at right time.
Marketing the brands through social media is becoming precise, personal, interesting,
interactive and social.

Weber (2009) says promoting a community is just like as promoting a new brand product or
service to the consumers. Social media is used to communicate people in the promotional
aspect and inclined to involve thepeople. Traditional advertising and direct marketing in
social media is to send people to the digital community to be informed, entertained and heard.
Users find appealing, a value high enough to encourage them to participate.
Borges (2009) finds that today's buyers want to be engaged differently than in years past and
many traditional marketing tactics simply do not work anymore. Social media marketing is a
revolutionary way to build solid relationships with buyers. Low cost, brand building, staffing
advantages, loyalty and level playing field are key benefits of social networking sites as a
successful marketing media.

Zarrella (2010) says the roots of online social networking can be traced to the 1980s bulletin
board systems (BBS). These systems allowed the users to create personal profiles, helps to
share information by sending private messages, public messages and post events at low speed
connectivity. After emanation of social networking technology in the internet world, it grew
higher and popular among the internet user.

40
Lacy and Hernandez (2009) says Twitter gives the ability to share nearly 140- characters
thoughts in a split second, where user can easily share links to press releases and stories about
their business, service or product. Making tweets interesting and diverse, there is a more
possibility of increasing the followers, by consider with news sharing and stories about the
industry that they serve.

The rules of marketing had to change and the web has proved a catalyst in bringing the
changes forward and amplifying their scale. The sudden emergence of the Web 2.0 marketing
techniques demand additional approaches, while most marketers are still wrestling with the
first generation, savvy brands are exploring the landscape that social media and social
networks create for marketers. These techniques are allowing much deeper drivers in social
change to be unleashed, with a profound impact on planning customer connections. The new
generation of relationship marketing responds to the additional challenges of digital media
literacy and in the right hands can trigger a rebuild of the entire marketing mix through
different strategies. Relationship marketing for the Face book generation demands both
thinking and acting differently (Chaffey 2003).

Stroud (2007) says that the ability of social networking sites to generate these huge volumes
of web traffic is proof of their huge popularity. Google, Yahoo and News International have
bought themselves a presence in the social networking arena. The detailed rationale for these
acquisitions differs but all have a common theme of wanting access to the enormous
audiences.

Ricadela (2007) says, Coca-Cola has been running promotions on MySpace for the past two
years for brandsincluding Cherry Coke and Fanta and has promoted Diet Coke and other
drinks on Google's YouTube.Smith (2010) says that Face book is becoming one of the great
internet communications of people time now days. Whereas many companies have tried to
emulate Face book‘s success or challenge it in one geography or another, Face book has
proven that the core asset on which all of its services are built - the social graph - is much
more defensible and powerful than many others once anticipated.
Visitors to social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-
oriented retail site categories, such as music, jewelry/luxury goods/ accessories, consumer
electronics and apparel. Heavy social networking visitors are defined as the top 20% of

41
visitors based on time spent on social networking sites. People typically enjoy sharing their
experiences with these products, whether it is to talk about their new iPhone or the pair of
designer jeans they just bought. Social networking sites offer the venue for those
conversations to occur. Social media advertising is ideal for promoting brand recognition,
although click-through rates are not so strong. Still, there is no doubt that advertising via
social media sites is an effective way to increase your overall revenue stream (Brinlee, 2007).

3.2 Social Media Sites

1. Twitter. Perhaps the simplest of all social media platforms, Twitter also just happens
to be one of the most fun and interesting. Messages are limited to 140 characters or
less, but that‘s more than enough to post a link, share an image, or even trade thoughts
with your favorite celebrity or influencer. Twitter‘s interface is easy to learn and use,
and setting up a new profile only takes minutes.

2. Facebook. Considered to be synonymous with ―social media‖ by some, Facebook is

the one site where you‘re likely to find friends, colleagues, and relatives all floating
around. Although Facebook is mainly centered around sharing photos, links, and quick
thoughts of a personal nature, individuals can also show their support to brands or
organizations by becoming fans.

3. LinkedIn. One of the only mainstream social media sites that‘s actually geared
towards business, LinkedIn is to cyberspace what networking groups once were to
local business communities. It‘s great for meeting customers, getting in touch with
vendors, recruiting new employees, and keeping up with the latest in business or
industry news. If it matters to your company or career, you can probably do it on

4. 4Xing. Another professional networking and recruitment site, Xing has the global
presence and focus that LinkedIn lacks. Although it can be mistaken for a job search
portal, the site actually has a number of features and communities that make it easy to
develop relationships with suppliers, colleagues and even thought leaders within
industry.

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5. Renren. Literally translating into ―everyone‘s website,‖ Renren is China‘s largest
social platform. Hugely popular with the younger crowd, it works in a way similar to
Facebook, allowing users to share quick thoughts, update their moods, connect with
others, and add posts or ideas to a blog-like stream.

6. Google+. Social media‘s big up-and-comer has really arrived over the past few years.
By combining the best of Facebook and Twitter into one site – and backing it by the
power of the world‘s largest search engine, Google has given users a social site that
has a little something for everyone. You can add new content, highlight topics with
hashtags, and even separate contacts into circles. And, a G+ profile only takes a few
minutes to get set up.

7. Disqus. Disqus isn‘t actually a social media platform so much as a social engagement
platform, but it can definitely help you improve your social engagement. As a tool for
commenting, managing feedback on your own website (or other Disqus-enabled
websites), and managing spam/troll type messages, it‘s invaluable. Advanced features
allow for social monitoring and upvoting.

8. LinkedIn Pulse. Even though Pulse is technically a part of LinkedIn, it‘s big and
important enough to deserve its own entry. Serving as something between a blog and
―best of‖ outlet, it‘s the perfect medium sharing new ideas and keeping up on the
thought leaders in your industry.

9. Snapchat. This surprisingly-addictive app gives you the ability to take a picture, add
art and text if you‘d like, and then send it to recipients for a set amount of time (after
which the photo will delete itself and be removed from the company‘s servers). Lots
of fun, and potentially a good way to stay in touch with friends.

10. Tumblr. This platform is different form many others in that it essentially hosts
microblogs for its users. Individuals and companies, in turn, can fill their blogs with
multimedia (like images and short video clips). The fast-paced nature of Tumblr
makes it ideal for memes, GIF‘s, and other forms of fun or viral content.

43
11. Pinterest. Serving as a giant virtual idea and inspiration board, Pinterest has made a
huge impact on social media in the last few years. Especially popular with women and
the do-it-yourself crowd, it lets you share pictures, creative thoughts, or (especially)
before-and-after pictures of projects that others can pin, save, or duplicate.

12. Twoo. This Belgian social network site is geared for the 25 and under crowd all over
the world. Alongside normal social features like posts, updates, and photo sharing, it
also boasts online games and chat features that make it popular with younger users
who want to stay entertained while connecting with each other.

13. MyMFB. Created as a Muslim alternative to Facebook (it was previously called
MillatFacebook), this site aims to connect the faith‘s 1.5+ billion followers into a
single social platform. While that might sound ambitious, it‘s growing quickly and
offers many of the same post, update, and sharing features as the original Facebook,
and is already immensely popular in some parts of the world.

14. YouTube. As a video sharing service, YouTube has become so popular that its
catalog of billions and billions of videos has become known as ―the world‘s second-
largest search engine‖ in some circles. The site has everything from first-person
product reviews to promotional clips and ―how-two‖ instruction on virtually any topic
or discipline. Users have the ability to share, rate, and comment on what they see.

15. Instagram. If you‘re looking for a quick, convenient connection between the camera
feature on your smart phone and all your social profiles, then Instagram is the answer.
Not only will allow you to share via Twitter, Facebook, and the Instagram website,
you can choose from a variety of photo filters and invite friends to comment on your
photos or ideas.

16. Vine. This site (also available as an app) offers users the chance to share and view
brief video clips. While that theoretically offers a virtually endless range of uses, most
of Vine‘s content is entertainment-focused, with a heavy preference towards ―viral‖
and ―meme‖ clips that are easy to share.

44
 17. WhatsApp. The WhatsApp concept is simple: send text-style messages to anyone else
using the platform, but without paying data charges. That straightforward idea has
already gathered more than 700 million fans, making the app the world‘s most popular
messaging platform.

18. vk.com. Promoting itself as Europe‘s largest social media site, vk.com is essentially
the Russian version of Facebook, with the same kinds of profiles, messaging, and
games you would expect. Like Facebook, vk.com allows users to enter both personal
and professional information about themselves, and to follow or show support for
organizations and businesses.

19. Meetup. Meetup is a perfectly-named platform, because it‘s perfect for organizing
local groups around specific interests. There are meetups centered on just about
everything, from music to hobbies, and get-togethers are almost always open to
newcomers. That makes it perfect for exploring an interest and making new friends at
the same time.

20. Secret. This might be the best social media app most people haven‘t tried. The
premise is simple: join into a group of friends (or create your own), and then share an
anonymous message. It‘s great for fun interactions, idea starters, or just finally getting
something off your chest. (Editor's note, 5/13/2015: Secret has folded. Co-founder
David Byttow writes: "After a lot of thought and consultation with our board, I‘ve
decided to shut down Secret. Over time, I plan to publish postmortems so that others
can learn from the unique mistakes and challenges we faced and the wisdom gained
from such an incredible 16 months.")

3.3 Advantages and limitations of social mediaB2C marketing

Advantages

Social media marketing is inexpensive when examining the ratio of cost to the reach of the
target audience. Companies can reach a wide audience for a small fraction of traditional
advertising budgets. The nature of the medium allows consumers to research and to purchase
products and services conveniently. Therefore, businesses have the advantage of appealing to

45
consumers in a medium that can bring results quickly. The strategy and overall effectiveness
of marketing campaigns depend on business goals and cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis.

Social mediamarketers also have the advantage of measuring statistics easily and
inexpensively; almost all aspects of an Internet marketing campaign can be traced, measured,
and tested, in many cases through the use of an ad server. The advertisers can use a variety of
methods, such as pay per impression, pay per click, pay per play, and pay per action.
Therefore, marketers can determine which messages or offerings are more appealing to the
audience. The results of campaigns can be measured and tracked immediately because online
marketing initiatives usually require users to click on an advertisement, to visit a website, and
to perform a targeted action.

Limitations

Marketer will not be able to use the x-factor/personal touch factor/human touch factor to
influence the audience as the marketing is completely based on the advertisement and the
information that the advertisement might lead to [websites, blogs and other channels]

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3.4 SWOT analysis social media B2C marketing:

Strengths:
Large market reach or penetration and it‘s Very useful if you are setting up a digital
engagement strategy (to new people, young people).Social media builds a conversation and
converse with others and build close networking bonds which share quick information
exchange.It lets you follow and connect with people/groups that interest you – but are not
necessarily your friends (as with Facebook). Authors, celebrities, co-workers, colleges,
organizationsetc.The campaigns are generally Cost-effective in the sense most of the
platforms are free. They just demand time, there is a Human factor: Your ―brand‖ becomes
more HUMAN.Media exposure can be strength of this.WhileTwitter is in a strong market
position in micro-messaging. Facebook is the only real competitor here – and they attract
users for different reasons.It helps to build strong, long term relationships through online
social networking, at a faster pace than just relying on traditional face-to-face networking and
Gets tons of publicity.The industry Has developers creating hundreds of applications around
its API. It is totally RSS-enabled.

Weaknesses:
Tough to train or convince management team/group members on social media principles as A
lot of ―Why Bother‖ from most mainstream (i.e. Facebook users) people are there.The
industry has low retention rate. Only 40%.Lacks tools or resources to track and monitor
social media campaign results.There is concern about information leakage, liability, security,
and management also.

Effort vs results: Even if it is more measurable than other channels, it is difficult (especially
for small business operations) to balance the effort put on social media against the results
obtained

Consistency: Engaging with your audience at a direct level means more efforts in terms of
keeping a consistent message/ corporate image
Making up for mistakes: The time-frame to correct errors that affect your audience is less.
Because you are heavily exposed, your company has to take action more promptly than if you
weren‘t (especially if people are having conversations about your brand, you will have to
engage and clarify)
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Blocked at many work sites: management sees it drops productivity; hurts bottom line
Opportunities:
 Creating/joining online presence on sites where the company currently doesn‘t exist,
Great opportunity for individuals and organizations to connect and exchange
information. It opens a New target or niche markets that are untapped: students, the
public.

 Partnerships with other groups, organizations, schools, government, etc

 Penetration into a new geographical market quickly

 Recruitment of interested new members, students, public support and allows you to
build short and long term relationships with prospects. It humanizes the ‗brand‘ and
makes the recruitment process more personal.

 Can gain deep insights into real-time trends, news, and all of us; ―be the pulse of the
internet‖ as said by Founder Biz Stone

 Integration into real-time games, media, and apps. We‘ve barely scratched the surface
so far on what‘s possible. Twitter as real time infrastructure.

 It may become the dominant way for businesses to communicate with their customers
as quick delivery, branding opportunities, and enhanced marketing opportunities are
there.

 Being present where stuff happens: People research for info/products/services online
and value more the opinion of other individuals than whatever a company may say
about their own offer. If your company is present in an interactive environment like
social media, the opportunities for engagement, conversion and most importantly
clarification of doubts regarding your brand, are countless.

 Developing a following/ audience those auto-nurtures itself: Your efforts in Social

media, together with the effort of your following may mean that your audience
becomes your best sales people

 Talent coming your way effortless: Because of the possibilities of exposure that Social
Media allows for, interacting here may mean that future talent (in the shape of

48
 employees, partners or, you-name-it) will come your way through the power of
connecting online!

 Reach out to certain groups that traditional media didn‘t allow you to: Because Social
media is for everyone, sooner or later you‘ll come across people you never thought of
as your client. This opens the doors to building new relationships but also to valuable
feedback that can help you develop your products or services more intelligently

Threats:
Competitor is going after the same space or same audience with similar campaign and the
question also arises whether the current campaign sustainable, can it continue? There can be
threat of Attitudes on privacy: while lately it seems everyone is willing to share the most
intimate as well as mundane details of their life – there could easily be a backlash against this
trend. We‘ve all heard of a few embarrassing stories about over-sharing online, and a few
high-profile examples might make people rethink their habits. Micro-messaging may just be a
fad. There‘s nothing inherently awesome about 140 characters. It got too much publicity in a
short time. May get burned out and getting dangerously spammy/porn spammy.The market
doesn‘t have solid revenue model (future advertisements?)Other social networking sites
(MySpace, Tagged, Friend feed, identi.ca, others) may grow and steal market share and
Acquisition by a bigger player (Google) may disappoint early adopters and loyal users.

49
 CHAPTER 4 - ANALYSIS OF B2C MARKETING
AND SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
4. 1 Introduction

Internet is the emerging information technology with the credibility of immediacy and
fastness, thus, it brings globalization in every aspects of communication. Communication
through internet is more specified, with effective interactive strategy among its users. In
recent days, internet advertising has taken new forms which have more advantages over the
traditional mediums like print media, television and radio. Marketing communication is
becoming precise, personal, interesting, interactive and social. Different strategies of
communication are followed in various social networking sites like Face book, Twitter and
LinkedIn. They not only create impact over the audience but also make them interact with the
marketing statistics created. People get attached to brand communication in social networking
sites than usual banner and pop up ads. These networking sites bring more interactive
communication with advertising. Social networking sites will become the primary arena for
highly targeted marketing and advertising. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effectiveness
of brand communication strategy followed in social networking sites which are mainly
accessed by International users. This research attempts to find the effectiveness of brand
communication strategy in promoting and advertising their brand in social networking sites.
The effectiveness is determined with the help of survey from people who use these sites, and
the content of three social networking sites is analyzed.

In its current form, internet is primarily a source of communication, information and

entertainment, but increasingly, it also acts as a vehicle for commercial transactions. Since the
explosion of the web as a business medium, one of its primary uses has been for marketing.
Soon, the web could become a critical distribution channel for the majority of successful
enterprises. One among them is marketing and spreading brand communication through
Social networking sites (Thompson, 2002).

Social networking websites are online communities of people who share interests and
activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. They
typically provide a variety of ways for users to interact, through chat, messaging, email,
video, voice chat, file-sharing, blogging and discussion groups. As
50
World Wide Web grew in popularity, social networking moved to web-based applications. In
2002, social networking era really started. In 2006, anyone with an email address could sign
up in social networking sites (Zarrella, 2010).

Now advertisers target more over to these media due to high rush in varsity of audiences. So
they hire this as the ideal platform to communicate their brand and create an effective brand
identity through highly effective and interactive communication strategy. Most of
theadvertisers present their ads in interactive form so that people tend more to check them and
gain a little knowledge about the product. There are various forms of brand communication
available in social networking sites. The effective way of brand communication present in
these networking sites would be the main aim of the study.

4.2 Social media

Social media advertising is a paid form of brand, service or business promotion and requires a
proper and planned communicative message and budget. Advertising is customer centric in
nature. Customers play an important role in any major or minor communication because they
are the one who are going to decide the fate of the advertising communication. Some benefits
of social network advertising include:
 Popularizing your brand, idea or service to the target group.
 Informing target audience about your brand or service‘s presence in the market.
 Encouraging healthy competition in the market.
 Providing social benefits for the brand.
 Making the audience to interact and keep them intact with the brand.
Advertising in internet provides a major contribution to brand competition in the market.
Advertising here not only provides information about a product or service but also promotes
innovation. Besides it also facilitates consumer satisfaction. Big and small companies,
individuals of all walks of life, major and minor events, concepts, etc., nowadays lay their
base on social network advertising to get recognized in the market (Zarrella, 2010).

With over 200 million active users, Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn have become a personal,
product and corporate branding hub. Every brand that exists on social networking sites has the
same core features and benefits, such as the ability to create a page, share resources, add

51
multimedia and much more (Eric, 2008). The effective brand communication strategies are
analyzed to find the impact among the users.

A social media site creates network communication among the user community. Though
social networking site serves for communication purposes among special interest groups, the
marketing strategy has also entered this medium for its reach. People get exposed to various
kinds of brand communication through this media. They tend to interact with the brand and
also get awareness about the brand and its service in an interesting way (Nicole, 2007).
Hence, there is a need to study the effective way of communication in branding the product in
social networking sites and analyze its reach among the people and their perceptions in this
research.
In recent trend of marketing in social networking sites, various brand communications are
widely used to attract targeted leads. So, this study would help to know the effectiveness of
communication and strategy done through social networking sites which make the target
audience to participate in this kind of advertising. This is mainly studied on networking sites
which are popular among International users were Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn. This
study would help the advertisers to understand the effective communication strategy to
communicate their brand among the users.

4.3 Research Methodology

A Research Design is a frame work or blue print for conducting the marketing research
project. It details the procedures essential for obtaining the information needed to structure or
solve marketing research problems (Malhotra, 2002). The research design specifies the
details– the nuts and bolts– of implementing the approach. A research design lays the basis
for conducting the project.
A good research design will guarantee that the marketing research project is conducted
effectively and efficiently (Hooley, 2008).
There are three types of research designs,
a) Exploratory: This type of research is done to help in providing insight and understandings to
define a problem.
b) Descriptive: Descriptive research does not fit neatly into the definition of either quantitative
or qualitative research methodologies, but instead it can utilize elements of both, often within

52
 the same study. The term descriptive research refers to the type of research question, design,
and data analysis that will be applied to a given topic. Descriptive statistics tell what is, while
inferential statistics try to determine cause and effect.
c) Causal: It helps in determining the cause and effect relationships. Manipulation of one or
more independent variables is done to match with the objective of our problem.

In this project, Descriptive Research Design had been used.

To analyse and find the effectiveness of communication strategy in developing brand,

communication through social networking sites was done with the survey method and content
analysis in the research.

Methods of data collection:

The survey method helped to identify the reach of the brand among its target audience, ways
of impact, usage of these social networking sites and access to these form of communication.
And the content analysis is another method used to analyse the communication strategy of
different social networking sites with certain parameters among top three International social
networking sites which are tabulated with results.
Research design:
This research study adopted survey and content analysis in order to find the effectiveness and
the impact of communication in branding any product or the service among the target market
through social networking sites like Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Survey:
Survey was conducted randomly among Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn user community, by
sending questionnaire through online to collect the individual opinion from the respondents.

Sampling:
Non probability sampling technique is used to collect the opinionfrom the online respondents.
The total population is social networking usercommunity, but to collect the effective data the
sampling is constrained to the target population like young adults, graduates within the age of
16 years to 30 years. The sampling size is 50.

CONTENT ANALYSIS

53
In content analysis, the following three popular social networking sites were selected to find
the effective brand communication among its users(Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn).

Parameters and units of analysis:

1. Target group: category of audience visiting these sites.
2. Types of advertisements: what are the types of brand communication followed by them?
3. Ads placement: how do these sites place their ad in their pages?
4. Communication strategy: kinds of brand promotion used by them.
5. Visual appealing factors: regarding the appearance of these sites.
6. User Interaction: kinds of participation with the brand.
7. Accessibility: how legibly they present themselves.
8. User interest: the forms of expectations from users in these sites.
9. Customization: the factors that the users could create by themselves.

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4.4 Analysis and Interpretation:

1. Usage of internet by the user:

It has been found that 12% of audience use internet once a week, 19% of the respondents use
2 to 3 days a week. 30% of the respondents use 1 or 2 h a day and the remaining 39% of users
are accessing internet more than 3 h a day. It is understood that the new media and its
technology is an emerging trend in communication which attracts almost all the people, if
they have knowledge of computers. So this digital media has more snatchers towards its
communication and internet is becoming part of necessary communication among the
students and professionals, etc (Table 1).
Table 1
Usage of Internet
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Once in a week 6 12
2 to 3 days a week 9 19
1 or 2 hours a day 15 30
More than 3 hours a day 20 39
Total 50 100

Graph 1

55
2. Awareness of social media and bookmark sites:
From this result, it is observed that nearly 98% of the internet users are aware of social media
sites and only 2% of them are clueless. Although the concept of computer-based communities
dates back to the early days of computer networks, only some years after the advent of the
internet online social networks have met public and commercial in a successive manner. At
the most basic level, an online social network is an internet community where individuals
interact, often through profiles that represent their selves to others (Donath and Boyd, 2004).
Social networks have grown rapidly, and some like face book, LinkedIn, have achieved the
mass market and penetrated in a few months since their inception, such applications have
infringed their users in different strategy to interact with more people (Table 2).

Table 2
Awareness of social networking sites
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Yes 49 98
No 1 2
Total 50 100

Graph 2

56
3. Number of profiles in social networking sites:
The study found that all the respondents that is, 100% of respondents have profiles on Face
book. And also, 88% respondents of the same group have profiles on LinkedIn, 62%
respondents have connected to twitter and 37% of users have account on other social
networking sites. The users can create many accounts in different social networking site. Face
book is useful for communication, self-promotion, to know about friends‘ community and to
find the missed out school and college mates. The peers use the Face book, LinkedIn and
Twitter for the same reasons to share the information and communication. Due to this reasons,
Face book, LinkedIn and Twitter were more popular among the internet users of youth
population comparatively with other social networking sites (Table 3).
Table 3
Number of profiles in social networking sites
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Facebook 50 100
LinkedIn 44 88
Twitter 31 62
Others 18 37
Total Profiles 143 287

Graph 3

57
4. Ads in different social networking sites:
From the earlier mentioned, it is found that 45% of the users find Face book as a well
communicated social networking sites, which promotes more brands and advertisements,
gives information about product and service which is useful for the young user community in
an interactive way to learn more about the particular brands, 12% user suggests Twitter,
please follow one pattern all here small words has effective communication of
advertisements. 28% of users find LinkedIn as the second option in communicating brand
advertisements (Table 4).
Table 4
Ads communicated in these SNS
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Facebook 22 45
LinkedIn 14 28
Twitter 6 12
Others 8 15
Total 50 100

Graph 4

58
5. Exposure of different kinds of ads:
From the data, it is found that 32% of respondents have come across web banner ads in these
social networking sites like Face book, Twitter and LinkedInwhereas 8% cut across pop up
ads and flash ads in various websites and 31% of users found video ads in YouTube and in
other sites. Google, Yahoo and News International have bought themselves a presence in the
social networking arena with different communication strategy to have innovative appearance
in content and display (Stroud, 2007). The detailed rationale for these acquisitions differs, but
all have a common theme of essential access to the enormous audiences of these sites (Table
5).

Table 5
Exposure of different kinds of ads
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Web banners 16 32
Pop ups 4 8
Flash ads 15 31
Video ads 11 22
Others 4 7
Total 50 100

Graph 5

59
6.Communication creates trust on ads:
From the survey data, it is understood that 38% of user agreed and satisfied with ads
appearing in social networking sites, whereas 11% of the user disagreed and unsatisfied with
certain communication of information. Only 51% of the respondents found it neutral. The
web has proved a catalyst in bringing the changes forward and amplifying their scale in
creating trustworthiness (Table 6).
Table 6
Communication creates trust on ads
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Agree 19 38
Neutral 26 51
Disagree 5 11
Total 50 100

Graph 6

60
7.Accessibility of ads:
Only 8% of the total samples say that they have never accessed or shown interest to the ads
displayed in social networking sites, while browsing internet for other communication
purposes. And 36% of the respondents use to access often and were interested to listen to the
advertisements of various brands, 35% user says they listen to the brand communication and
also link to the brand sites to gather more information and 21% of the user access according
to the way of communication it appears, because sometimes the brand promotion could be in
the form of display ads, interactive feedback forms or as interactive games, accessing of
advertisements information differs sometimes according to the format of brand
communication . Today's customers want to be engaged differently than in years past and
many traditional marketing tactics simply do not work anymore. Social media marketing is a
revolutionary way to build solid relationships with customers long before first contact with
fun, attractive messages and interactions(Table 7).
Table 7
Access of these ads
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Often 18 36
Sometimes 17 35
Never 5 8
Depends 10 21
Total 50 100

Graph 7

61
8.Brand communication that attracts the users:
Games, quiz and updates of latest information are the kind of interactive communication
messages that attracts 28% of users. 26% of users are attracted to fan pages and posts. 20% of
users are pulled their interests towards flash ads, 14% of users listened to video ads and
remaining 12% of users are interested to traditional banner ads. Most of the social networking
websites are enabling brands to engage the right people in the right conversation at right time
(Shih, 2009). Nowadays communication on branding in social networking sites is more
personal, contentious, fascinating and influencing among the user community (Table 8).

Table 8
Brand communication that attracts the users
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Interactive fan pages 13 26
Flash Ads 10 20
Banner Ads 6 12
Games quiz or updates 14 28
Video Ads 7 14
Total 50 100

Graph 8

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9.Impact of communication:
According to the respondents, 67% of user agreed that the communication strategy used in
brand communication creates impact on certain brands effectively and also which could helps
them to recall the same often and interactively. 24% of users said that it partially creates
impact and traffic of communication, which result to confusion in users mind. The remaining
respondents almost 9%, says that it does not create much impact on ads but still effective for
other communication purpose like sharing and chatting information (Table 9).

Table 9
Impact of communication
Options No. of respondents Percentage
Agree 33 67
Neutral 12 24
Disagree 5 9
Total 50 100

Graph 9

63
Content analysis:
The three social networking sites Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn were chosen to analyze the
units of parameters and the presentations of data are shown in Table 10.

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4.5 Results of the analysis

As seen earlier, the various brand communication factors involve in these kinds of social
media advertising and day by day competition among the brands increase. So, to survive
brands, the communicators come up with more and more innovative, interactive and
interesting kinds of brand communication messages which make the users to access them and
develop closeness with the different brand communication strategy with attractive name and
its service.
1. The finding of the study states that the audiences respond more to interactive marketing

than the traditional ads followed in internet advertising.

2. Almost everyone is communicated through social networking sites.

3. Nearly 70% of the audience has impact through ads in social networking sites and half of

them access these ads e.g. games, quiz, events, etc.

4. Users remember the brand by the way they advertise. They respond to any new form of

advertising which interest them.

5. Social networking sites will become the primary arena for highly targeted marketing and

advertising. Social networking sites present an unmatched opportunity to build brand.

6. Users of Face book and LinkedIn are of same age group and category. In twitter, people do

not show much interest because it‘s just like a micro-blogging site.

7. Interaction is more in the display banners advertisements in Face book and LinkedIn.

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 CHAPTER 5 - FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND
CONCLUSION

5.1 Findings:

1. B2C Marketers place high value on social media: A significant 90% of marketers
indicate that social media is important for their business.

2. Measurement and integration are top areas marketers want to master: One third of all
social media marketers want to know how to monitor and measure the Return on
Investment (ROI) of social media and integrate their social media activities.

3. Social media marketing takes a lot of time: The majority of marketers (58%) are using
social media for 6 hours or more each week, and more than a third (34%) invest 11 or
more hours weekly.

4. A significant 77% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video
marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2014.

5. E-marketing forms the baseline for 86% of marketers.

6. Promotional communication and newsletters are the primary users of use of e-

Marketing channels in 2013

7. Customer acquisition is the largest driver of e-Marketing for 2014

8. 36% of International marketers‘ invested more than 10% of their budgets in e-

Marketing

9. 72% of B2C Marketers have plans to increase investments in e-Marketing platform.

10. After Social media, Email marketing and Search marketing are the preferred digital
channel for 2014.

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5.2 Suggestions

1. Communication should be more preferred than advertising: people do not prefer

buying products through social networking sites.

2. So, if the brand is communicated well and remembered by the audience, then it is a
greatest success to the company for their promotion through social media.

3. Promotional way of advertising is best: the usual banner ads and pop-up ads make the
users to ignore them.

4. Advertising must be interactive, promotional and in innovative form to hold the

audience. It should target the individuals than the mass.

5. If an ad is hosted for a group, then that would be no advantage in delivering specified

information.

6. Adding more multimedia elements to have more interactive factors in fan pages and
group would benefit the brand user.

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5.3 Conclusion

Communication about the product or service provides a major contribution to brand

competition in the market. It not only provides information about a product or service but also
promotes creative innovation. Besides advertising, it also facilitates consumer satisfaction.
The hidden fact is that no brand can progress without effective communication strategy to
attract their customers or users. Big and small variety of brands nowadays laid their base on
social network communication to get recognized in the target market.

Social networking sites users of Face book, Twitter and LinkedIn have become a personal,
product and corporate branding hub in International nowadays in digital era. Every brandthat
exists on social networking sites has the same core features and benefits, such as the ability to
create a page, share resources, add multimedia and much more. Social networking sites are
filled with potential users who are mainly young adults. They spend more time in these
networking sites due to heavy commercial contents, entertainment and social gathering. So,
product or service communicators throng their ads in these areas with more and more
interactive and with fascinating factors so that their brand identity is developed among the
right choice of focused audience. Advertisers and brands of B2C marketers uses social
networking sites as the major resource for their promotion and developing brand identity
among the focused market.

Different marketing tactics are used B2C, although the methods of advertising, promotions
and publicity are the same. If the final customer is a business, it won't help increase sales by
advertising in consumer magazines or the general media, such as television and radio.
Marketing is done through avenues that the business customer will use. For example, industry
publications, business magazines, trade shows and tech shows would be more appropriate.
The marketing message is based on value, service and trust. B2C marketing is focused on
price and the emotional satisfaction of obtaining the product.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Kotler, P. (2003) Marketing insights from A to Z- 80 concepts every manager needs to

know. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken: New Jersey.
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Chicago
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