Exploring the Impact of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Behaviour: With Reference to Ernakulam District

Sreelakshmi Mohanachandran

Abstract: Social media marketing is the contemporary style of marketing as it concentrates on opening new horizons for marketers in order to promote a product or service as compared to conventional media. In recent times consumer behavior and satisfaction has become an important asset for any organization to attain its position in the market and to increase its profitability. For this purpose, organizations are employing social media technique. Social media marketing has given organizations new way of dealing and changing the buying behavior of consumers. People use social media to share their experiences, reviews, information, advice, warnings, tips and any kind of issues that are interesting to their "connection" or friends. Face book, google, twitter, instagram, whatsapp, yahoo, pinterest are the most commonly used social networking tools. Social media has a great impact on marketing which affects the brand and consumer relationship. Social media is also extensively used by almost all companies to advertise and promote themselves. Big brands also make use of the social media to convey their strong animation and friendly relationship. Consumer socialization theory predicts that communication among consumers affects their cognitive, affective and behavioral attitudes. Also, the advertising on social media page has built new consumer's behavior Consumer tend to make purchases or conduct business on social media. Objective: To analyse level of satisfaction of different consumer groups in terms of gender, usage of social media, availability of information and attitude of the consumer.

Keywords: Reach, Social networking sites, Level of satisfaction, Convenience, SME, SMM