Impact of Social Media on Consumer Buying Behavior

Shakshi Kumari

Enrollment Number- 24020272981

School of Business Management

Under the Supervision of

Dr. Om Prakash

Associate Professor

NOIDA UNIVERSITY

April / MAY - 2026

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION

Social media has occupied an important position as a communication tool. It is all about facilitating people to express and share ideas, thoughts and opinions with others. People across the globe use social media to connect other people or organisations. The latest trend in marketing is the introduction of social media. Now-a-days Social media had became very strong tool in influencing buying decisions of consumer. Social media has the power to influence potential customers from the start until the stage of a purchase and beyond as well. There are four ways in which social media influences consumer behaviour. They are : social media(a) builds product awareness,(b)social proof as a greater force of buying decisions, (c) promotions discounts and deals on social media,(d)social media influencers.

Social media is a huge influence on consumers when they are attempting to build awareness about a particular product. A large section of the audience gets to know your brand through the content that is distributed on social media, in this way people get to know about your product. Social proof has emerged due to the tendency of people to imitate the behavior of people around them. Happy customers tend to go about praising the products with likes, shares, reviews and comments on social media.

When consumers see promotions, discounts and deals on social media, it influences their buying behavior. Consumers are more likely to buy when they get recommendations from a person they trust. Celebrities and popular people inspire their audience and influence their buying behavior. Social media which includes

the content, visuals, promotions, discounts and influencers has the ability to influence the buying behavior of consumers.

In the modern era the using of social networking websites has extensively effect on the consumers in various ways. There are many online networking sites which affect consumer behavior. They are Google+, LinkedIn, You tube etc. Now-a-days social media is used by almost all the ages of consumers like college students, working class and even old age people too. The main aim of this study is to examine how social media will affect the final consumer behavior among person who mostly use social media websites. Consumer referred to here is general public. The study has also undertaken to analyze how social media will affect buying decisions of general public and the factors that motivate general public to shop through social media platforms.