A STUDY ON IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

AMONG YOUTH WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO

TRIVANDRUM CITY

Shameema R, Research Scholar, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and

Research

&

Dr.G. Anandhi, Research Supervisor & Guide, Department of Commerce, Bharath

Institute of Higher Education and Research

ABSTRACT

Social media advertising is type of digital form of marketing that uses the different social Medias
like Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, twitter etc. to provide advertisements in order to reach the
target people. It has a greater influence among people as today’s youth spend their most of the
time in social Medias. The main aim of this paper is to understand the impact of social media
advertising among youth in Trivandrum city, the effectiveness of social media tools and to
suggest various measures to improve social media advertising. Both primary and secondary data
are used for this study.

Key words: Social Media, Advertising and Youth.

1. INTRODUCTION

In today’s world, social media places a greater influence in the new generation people. Social
media advertising is that form of digital advertising that uses social media as a medium of
providing advertisement. As the youth are spending more of their time in social media in order to
watch, read and post different matters, this form of advertising creates a greater impact in the
people especially in the youth. Social media advertising provides relevant information and also
have a mass reach to the target youth consumer. Facebook, Instagram, You tube, Twitter etc are
the most commonly used social media platforms in our country. Thus this study aims to analyse
the impact of social media advertisement among youth as they contribute their most of the time
in these mediums.

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Lempert (2006) reveals that customers prefer modern sources of advertising rather than
traditional sources. They usually prefer information through a convenient source than traditional
methods that uses newspaper, television etc. Most of the customers choose product online from
the social media which they spend more of their time and depending upon the information from
the media concerned they take their purchasing decisions.

Hensel and Deis (2010) advised that in order to improve marketing facilities the advertiser
should use social media in a positive way. For ensuring the brand value of a product social media
can be used as an effective marketing media. It also helps in ensuring the presence of business in
cyber world also. Here requires a prior analysis and identifications of the pros and cons of the
social media in which the business are going to give their marketing strategies. This will help in
selecting a better and suitable social media for providing advertisements.

Ates Bayazıt Hayta (2013) studied the influence of social media among the youth as a consumer
and how it affects their buying behaviour. The study concluded that the social media have a
direct influence in the youth in purchase behaviour as per their educational qualifications and
their dependence among social media

3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

One of the important trends in digital advertising is social media advertising. Most of the
businesses choose social media advertising as an effective platform for providing their product
information’s. This form of advertising is mainly focuses on the young people especially the
youth as majority of the youth people are addicted to social media. Thus the study got relevance
here to analyse the impact of social media advertising among the youth.

4. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Today’s youth have a habit of ignoring advertisements while watching programmes in the
television. Now as a digital marketing tool social media advertising gains much more importance
in today’s world as the youth spend more time in the social medias. Thus, through this paper a
study is conducted to analyse the impact of social media in providing advertisements in the youth
and their purchasing behaviour.

5. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To study about social media advertising.
 To study the impact of social media advertising among youth in Trivandrum city.
 To suggest the various measures to improve social media advertising.

6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

6.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

The present study is analytical and descriptive in nature. For the study both primary and
secondary data were used.

6.2 SOURCES OF DATA

Primary data was collected from 50 respondents using judgemental sampling method and the
data was collected through structured questionnaires and secondary data were collected from
articles, websies etc.

6.3 TOOLS USED FOR DATA ANALYSIS

The collected data was entered, processed, classified, tabulated and analysed using simple
percentage method through the Microsoft excel application.

7. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

 The study covers youth in Trivandrum city only.
 The study was completed within limited time frame.
 The research is limited to college students as they are the representatives of youth.
 The study only covers limited number of persons as representatives of youth.

8. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

8.1 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

Social media is one of the most important medium of providing advertisement in today’s world.
Social media advertising is a type of digital advertising that uses social media as a medium for
providing informations about the product. Face Book, Instagram, you tube, Twitter etc. are the
different kinds of social media most commonly used for advertising purpose. As the social media
have a greater influence among the youth in today’s world, social media advertising can be used
as an effective tool for providing product informations by the marketers. Social media can be
used for passing product informations very fast.

8.2 POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK USED FOR ADVERTISING PURPOSE

There are a lot of social media that can be influenced by the young people. Here are the some of
the important social medias that can be most commonly used for providing advertisements
digitally.

8.2.1 FACEBOOK
Facebook is the one of the largest social media network platforms in the world. Through
Facebook a marketer can trace the age, gender, location etc wise classifications and they
can reach their target customers. It is one of the visual platforms and most of the people
in the world uses this platform that make the advertising more effective one and can
ensure wide spreading of informations.
8.2.2 INSTAGRAM
Instagram is a social media that is commonly used by the youth in the present generation.
Like facebook, here also we can trace and finding out our target customers by classifying
the age, location, gender etc. As Instagram is owned by fakebook we can control
advertisements in facebook as well as intagram by a single controlling application like
Facebook ads manager.
8.2.3 YOU TUBE

You tube is the one of the most important video platforms in the world. As majority of
the people uses you tube in order to watch videos of their interest, it can be used as a
most effective medium for providing social media advertising. Here advertisements are
provided while watching videos so that the customers will passes through the
advertisement in order to watch the remaining videos.
 8.2.4 TWITTER
Since 2006, twitter is the most common platform for providing advertisements. It is more
used for reading news and interacting with influencers. Promote and Twitter ads are the
most common advertisement options provided by the twitter platform.

9. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

TABLE 9.1

SOCIAL MEDIA - BENEFICIAL FOR GETTING PRODUCT INFORMATION

RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE
STRONGLY AGREE 33 66
AGREE 6 12
NEUTRAL 3 6
DISAGREE 5 10

STRONGLY DISAGREE 3 6
TOTAL 50 100
Source: Primary data

FIGURE 9.1

BENEFICIAL FOR GETTING PRODUCT

INFORMATION
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
STRONGLY AGREE NEUTRAL DISAGREE STRONGLY
AGREE DISAGREE

RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

Source: Primary Data

Interpretation: From the above table, most of the respondents are of the opinion that social
media is benefit for getting product informations through advertising method. Only a minority
have a negative opinion about social media for getting product information.

TABLE 9.2

SOCIAL MEDIA HAVE POSITIVE IMPACT ON YOUTH

RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE
YES 38 76
NO 12 24
TOTAL 50 100
SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

FIGURE 9.2

SOCIAL MEDIA HAVE POSITIVE IMPACT

ON YOUTH

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
YES NO

RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

SOURCE: PRIMARY DATA

Interpretation: The above table reveals that most of the respondents are of the opinion that
social media have a positive impact among youth rather than negative impact.

10.FINDINGS
 All the respondents selected are aged between 18 – 23
  Out of the total respondents, Majority of the respondents, that is 66% have the opinion
that social media is beneficial for getting product information.
 Out of the 50 respondents, 76% of the respondents have the suggestions that social media
have some positive impact on youth.
11.SUGGESTIONS
 Since majority of the respondents have the opinion of social media is beneficial for
getting product information, the advertisers should focus more on social media platforms
as well.
 Since majority of the respondents upheld the positive impact of youth on social media,
the misleading advertisements through such plat forms will affect the positive attitudes of
the social media users, especially the youth.
 Even advertisements are provided in the social media, the advertisements have to follow
their ethics among consumers as well as general public.
12.CONCLUSION

The study was mainly conducted to assess the impact of social media advertising among youth
with special reference to Trivandrum city. For the study fifty college students were selected from
some of the colleges in Trivandrum city as a representative for the youth. It can be inferred from
the study that majority of the respondents are agreeing with that the social media have a greater
positive impact in providing product informations as they spend their most of the time in social
media as an entertainment. The youth cannot expect a life without social media in today’s world.
That much influence is placed by the social media among youth. Obviously, through social
media advertising the marketer can reach their target and prospective young customers. In a
nutshell, the social media have a positive impact in providing informations about the product
through social media advertising method among the youth in Trivandrum city.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 WEBSITES:
 https://www.sprinklr.com/cxm/social-media-advertising
 https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/advertising/articles/what-is-social-media-
advertising
 https://www.cyberclick.net/numericalblogen/what-exactly-are-social-ads-types-and-
examples-of-advertising-on-social-media