THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BUYING

BEHAVIOUR. A STUDY ONIBINDE STORE JOS.

BY

AGADA MAYANN ENE 17/122672

SUNDAY FAITH 17/123953
ZAILANI BAPTETE JEFFERSON 17/124540
SARAH STEPHEN ADIMAH 17/123901

A PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF

MARKETING, SCHOOL OF BUSINESS STUDIES, FEDERAL
POLYTECHNIC BAUCHI, BAUCHI STATE

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR

THE AWARD OF HIGHER NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN
MARKETING.

DECEMBER, 2019

i
 DECLARATION

This is to declare that this project titled “The Impact of Social Media on Consumer
Buying Behaviour. A study of Onibinde store Jos” was carried out by Agada
Mayann Ene, Sunday Faith, Zailani Baptete Jefferson and Sarah Stephen
Adimah under the supervision of Mal. Shehu Zakari Sarki. This project is an
original work carried out by us and no part of it has been presented elsewhere for
degree or Diploma. The studies of other investigators are duly acknowledged and
referenced in this presentation.

AGADA MAYANN ENE ____________ ___________

FPTB/MKT/HND/17/122672 Signature Date

SUNDAY FAITH ____________ ____________

FPTB/MKT/HND/17/123953 Signature Date

ZAILANI BAPTETE JEFFERSON ____________ ____________

FPTB/MKT/HND/17/124540 Signature Date

SARAH STEPHEN ADIMAH ____________ ____________

FPTB/MKT/HND/17/123901 Signature Date

ii
 CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that the research work for this project by Agada Mayann Ene,
Sunday Faith, Zailani Baptete Jefferson and Sarah Stephen Adimah was
carried out by us under my supervision.

Mal. Shehu Zakari Sarki _____________ ______________

(Project Supervisor) Signature Date

iii
 APPROVAL PAGE

This project has been read and approved for the award of Higher National Diploma
in Marketing having met the requirements of the Department of Marketing, Federal
polytechnic, Bauchi.

____________ ____________
Mal. Shehu Zakari Sarki Signature Date
(Internal Examiner)

________________________ ____________ ____________

Signature Date
(External Examiner)

____________ ____________
Mal. Husseini Yaro Signature Date
(Project Coordinator)

____________ ____________
Mr. Vincent Eke Signature Date
(Head of Department)

iv
 DEDICATION

This project work is dedicated to God Almighty, the author and finisher of our
faith, and for his grace, and mercies upon our life.

v
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Our gratitude goes to God Almighty and all those who helped us in the course of
this project through financial assistance, prayers and support. We are grateful to
Mal. Shehu Zakari Sarki our Project Supervisor for his contribution towards the
success of this project.

Furthermore, we are sincerely grateful to our parents and to our entire family,
friends and course lecturers and our mates for their financial and moral support,
prayer and encouragement to have made our dream a glorious fulfillment.

vi
 ABSTRACT

Social Media have given plenty of opportunities to consumers in

adapting different aspects in life. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
have played significant roles in expanding consumers' online
purchases. Though Nigeria and other African countries are facing
shortage in utilizing these sites efficiently, we still have substantial
evidence of its use. This project aims to understand which consumers
are mostly influenced by online purchasing, reasons that tempt
consumer to purchase online, types of products that are mostly
purchased using Social Media and types of Social Media that are
mostly used by consumers. To achieve these objectives, the
researcher conducted two primary research methods, questionnaire
and interview to investigate the impact of Social Media sites on
users’ changing behaviour who aim to purchase online. The findings
of the study revealed that, social media has be identified to be very
important for increases in consumer buying behavior. The study
concludes that Onibinde stores has been able to use effective use of
social media to some extent.

vii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION......................................................................................................ii
CERTIFICATION....................................................................................................iii
APPROVAL PAGE.................................................................................................iv
DEDICATION..........................................................................................................v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT........................................................................................vi
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................viii
LIST OF TABLE......................................................................................................xi
CHAPTER ONE........................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY...................................................................1
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM...................................................................3
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY..............................................................................4
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION...................................................................................4
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY...................................................................................5
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY.................................................................5
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERM.................................................................................5
REFERENCE............................................................................................................7
CHAPTER TWO.......................................................................................................8
LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................8
2.0 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................8
2.1 THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK................................8
2.1.1 What is Social Media..................................................................................10
2.1.2 Social Networking Sites.................................................................................12
2.1.3 Social News and Bookmarking Sites.............................................................13
2.1.4 Media-Sharing Sites.......................................................................................14

viii
2.1.5 Blogs...............................................................................................................14
2.1.6 Microblogging................................................................................................15
2.1.7 Social Media Marketing..............................................................................16
2.1.8 What makes social media marketing special..............................................17
2.1.9 Social Media: The New Mindset................................................................19
2.2 THE IMPACT OF USING SOCIAL NETWORK IN EDUCATION..........20
2.3 SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONSUMER..........................................................22
2.4 THE INFLUENCES ON DECISION MAKING PROCESS........................28
2.5 THE CONSUMERS......................................................................................30
2.6 CONSUMER DECISION PROCESS...........................................................30
2.7 CONSTRAINT OF SOCIAL MEDIA...........................................................31
2.8 SOLUTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA................................................................34
2.9 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.....................................................................36
2.10 EMPIRICAL REVIEW...................................................................................41
REFERENCE..........................................................................................................50
CHAPTER THREE.................................................................................................57
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................57
3.0 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................57
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN.......................................................................................57
3.2 POPULATION OF THE STUDY.....................................................................57
3.3 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING PROCEDURE...................................................58
3.4 INSTRUMENT OF DATA COLLECTION.....................................................58
3.5 JUSTIFICATION..............................................................................................58
3.6 ADMINISTRATION OF RESEARCH INSTRUMENT..................................59
3.7 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS...................................................................59
REFERENCE..........................................................................................................60
CHAPTER FOUR...................................................................................................61

ix
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS.........................................................61
4.1 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................61
4.3 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS...............................................................................65
CHAPTER FIVE.....................................................................................................70
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS....70
5.1 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................70
5.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS.........................................................................70
5.3 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................71
5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................71
5.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY.................................................................72
BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................73
APPENDIX A........................................................................................................81
APPENDIX B..........................................................................................................84

x
LIST OF TABLE

xi
Table 1: Gender
Table 2:Age
Table 3: Marital status
Table 4: Educational Qualification
Table 5: How long have you been working with Onigbinde Stores
Table 6: Does Consumers’ have any perception towards
shopping online?
Table 7: Does any factors motivate Consumers buying or
shopping behaviour through social media platforms?
Table 8: Does social media channels have any effect on
buying behavior of Onigbinde Stores Customers?
Table 9: Is there any negative attitude towards online shopping
among the Customers of Onigbinde Stores?
Tabel 10: Is there any significant relationship between social
media channels and buying behavior of Customers in Onibinde
stores?
Table 11: Does the impact of social media has any impact on
consumer buying behaviour?
Table 12: Are you satisfied with the knowledge of online
marketing among Consumers of your organizations?
Table 13: Are you satisfied with the performance of Consumers
towards social media perception?

xii
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

New technological inventions can have a great impact in organizations

through its contributions to change the social environment while expediting

sharing of knowledge and the development of new ideas, Kling et al, (2005).

Social Media will come in handy as a good example of new technological

innovation that is making a great impact in the organizations of today.

In time past, the social media inspired technologies were seen as a chapter. But

time has proven that wrong. We have seen the world being transformed daily by

these new collective technologies, which is giving a new hope to organizations

with impacts which were never considered to exist initially.

Today, most organizations are mainly interested in incorporating social

media into the business structures of their organization, but do not have a proper

know-how of what social media is all about. They also don’t have a tangible

channel to ascertain the gain that these technologies hold for them. In a survey

carried out in 2009 by McKinsey and Company, it was discovered that with the

appropriate use of the social media a lot of organizations were able to benefit from

each other in ways such as sharing of ideas, communication becoming better and

the workplace environment becoming enhanced. The value that social media adds

1
in organizations is huge as an increasing number of organizations are already

endorsing and exploiting the various opportunities in social media technological

innovation. This is to enable them find support for their various organizational and

business practices Starmark, (2008;).

Social media hold a lot of interesting opportunities, but it is important to

understand how to utilize it with its accompanying impact in an organizational

context beside where it is applicable in real ‐life projects. The present day

organizations should ask questions like how can employees use social media

technologies to do their work and what impact these have on employees. These

should be pivotal questions for modern day organizations.

Brands and consumers have a changing role to play in the organization’s

strategy given the choices made available to consumers and the prominent role of

social media marketing being that they now have an impact on the economy

Mayfield (2004), Lindeman, (2008). Brands have huge influence on customer

choice and customers influence other customers. Affecting repurchases are these

series of events, which goes on to affect earnings in the future and long term

organizational continuity Oliveira and Sullivan, (2003).

Thus, consumer’s buying behavior is often influenced by a leading brand.

This value is created by generating demand (via repurchases) and securing of

2
future earnings for the organization Sullivan and Oliveira, (2003). Therefore social

media marketing serves as opportunities for communication and depends upon new

and unusual thought patterns Heinlein and Kaplan, (2010)Kweskin, (2008). This

helps customer’s product and brand experience.

This new era of digital communication and social engagement is preeminent

for strategizing in business. Therefore as organizations are becoming more

competitive globally, it is pertinent for them to explore marketing strategy in a

more compelling and innovative way so as to attract larger number of customers,

(Rockendorf, 2011).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The coming of the internet and its acceptance by the public, have altered

quite a lot in the way organizations promote their services and products as well as

channel of communication between them and their customers. This is seen in the

way they market communicate their brands and products nowadays which is

becoming a challenging project.

Customers are overwhelmed by marketing commercials and promotional

events. The sensitivity of customers to get excited is fading out on promotional

events and consumers are beginning to resist the efforts of some companies.

3
 Basically, the promotional focus of some organizations is on the

conventional mass media advert style which includes commercials on TV, radio

jingles and social Medias in print formats such as newspapers and magazines along

with billboard placements. It is now on a record that as the internet is fast

advancing across the global market place, the effectiveness of traditional mass

media is fast on the decline.

Despite, the growth in internet usage, organizations fail to use social media

as marketing tool to enhance consumer buying behaviors. This study is aim to

identify the impact of social media on consumer buying behavior in an

organization.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of social media on

buying behavior of consumers. Specific objectives of the study are:

i. To examine Consumers perception towards shopping online.

ii. To examine factors that motivate Consumers/buyers to shop through

social media platforms.

iii. To examine how social media channels have affected buying behavior of

Onigbinde Stores.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

4
The following research question were formulated to guide the study;

i. What are consumers’ perception towards shopping online?

ii. Does social media platforms motivate Consumers/buyers to shop online?

iii. Does social media channels affect consumer buying behavior of

Onigbinde Stores?

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study is social media and consumer buying behaviour. It is

limited to Onigbinde Stores Jos. The period under review is from 2012-2018.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study shall be significant to the management Onigbinde Stores as the

findings would help in addressing social media on consumer buying behaviour.

It will also serve as a source of knowledge to Consumers and for researchers

who might use it to carry out further studies.

The study has become part of everyone life and it is something that influence

their daily life, social media has played a vital role with how people interact

with each other and it’s something that is not slowing down.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERM

Social Media: Social media facilitate the development of online social

networks and relationships by connecting a user's profile with those of other

5
individuals and/or groups, or offering tools that enable the user to seek out other

users with compatible interests

Social Networking Sites: Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are platforms where

individuals are able to connect with others, for instance Facebook and MySpace.

Media-Sharing Sites: Media-Sharing sites (e.g. Youtube and Flickr) are outlets

where individuals can upload, store, and share their multimedia files, for instance

photos, videos, and music, with other users.

Micro blogging: Microbloggingis a real-time information network, which shares

similarity to blogging, yet it limits the size (number of words) of each post and

encourages a faster mode of communication.

Social Media Marketing: Social Media Marketing is an umbrella term that can be

described as the utilization of social media platforms as marketing tools.

Consumers: Consumers are actors on the marketplace stage. Consumers, in

general, can be referred as individuals who purchase or consume products and

services; however, in terms of buyer and consumer, there is a slight difference.

6
 REFERENCE

Kling et al, (2005). “Exploring educational and cultural occupation through social
networking site”, Journal of Information Technology Education, Vol. 10: pp
1 – 16.
Starmark, (2008;).Librarian and Social media as catalyst for National development
in Nigeria (forthcoming) library philosophy and practice.

Mayfield (2004), Lindeman, (2008). Law of the internet. 2nd ed. Online Aspen
publishers.
Oliveira and Sullivan, (2003).Critical media Literacy: Research theory, and
practice in “new times”.

Kaplan, (2010) Kweskin, (2008). Distress, coping and blogging: comparing new
MySpace users by their intention to blog. Community College Research
Centre, Teachers College, Columbia University.

Rockendorf (2011). Social Media soars higher-ed experiments and reevaluates its
use of new communications tools. Cyber psychology and behavior.

7
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the theoretical framework on which this research

study was based and reviews relevant literature from various sources with

reference to the thematic areas of this study. It looks at issues such as social media,

consumer buying behaviour and Onigbinde Stores as well as challenges faced by

Onigbinde Stores with reference to social media and consumer buying behaviour.

2.1 THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK

Many researchers have come across the interchangeable usage of the terms

“social media” and “Web2.0” Safko and Brake (2009) Kaplan and Haenlein (2009)

however, Safko and Brake (2009) have stated out that these two terms are closely

related yet not exactly synonymous, and they differ in terms of usage. For the

purpose of this research, and in order to avoid any confusion, the above mentioned

terms will be defined, despite the fact that social media is the central gravity of the

research.

In regards of the term Web 2.0, Tim O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly media,

has coined that "Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry

caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the

rules for success on that new platform." He has further provided a general business

8
aspect in relations of Web 2.0 as the “harnessing of collective intelligence”, in

which Web 2.0 provides platforms and fills the Web with user-generated content

where all individuals – the former audience are able to take part in instead of

important decisions made by a few people. O'Reilly (2006.) Alternatively, Web 2.0

is a platform whereby content and applications are continuously modified and

exchanged by all users in participatory and collaborative manner, and no longer

merely created and published by individuals Kaplan and Haenlein, (2009).

There are still many ongoing debates and discussions regarding social

media’s universal definition; as social media has been transforming and merging

into the evolving development of New Media Solis (2010). Regardless of what the

standardized definition per se would be, many of the existing studies and articles

have stated out the common core purpose of social media.

According to Dann (2011) have demonstrated how social media is formed

based upon the interconnected elements – social interaction, content, and

communication media. Social media has created a new landscape in supporting the

socialization of information Solis (2007), as a result it has facilitated and enhanced

communication flow by making it easier and to more people, and to spread useful

information with potentially vast online audiences Smith and Zook (2011) in which

the conversation may be taken place on media locally but lead to a global impact.

9
 Safko and Brake (2009) have supported the concept proposed by Kaplan and

Haenlein (2009), as they have referred social media to “activities, practices, and

behaviors among communities of people who gather online to share information,

knowledge, and opinions using conversational media”. Nonetheless, social media

expedites the flow of communication by encouraging contributions and feedback

from everyone who is interested, and it is a two-way conversation when comparing

to the traditional media because social media outlets are open up to feedback and

participation Mayfield (2008).

At its essence, social media describes the powerful new ways individuals are

engaging with content on the Internet, and vice versa; that is, as many have

observed, social media is user-centric in which it emphasizes and facilitates the

process of creating, commenting, editing and sharing. More importantly, social

media is the democratization of content. Solis (2007)

2.1.1 What is Social Media

Social media are computer-mediated websites and mobile websites that

allow people, companies, and other organizations, including non-profit

organizations and governments, to create, share, or exchange information, career

interests, ideas, and pictures or videos in virtual communities and networks,

(Hartman, 2017).

10
 The variety of stand-alone and built-in social media services available in the

2010s introduces challenges of definition; however, there are some common

features:

1. Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications

2. User-Generated Content (UGC) such as text posts or comments, digital

photos or digital video posts are the lifeblood of the social media organism

3. Users create their own profiles for the website or app, including their real

name (or a pseudonymous username), demographic information, and

information about their interests; this profile is inputted by the user onto a

standardized template that is designed and maintained by the social

media organization, and

4. Social media facilitate the development of online social networks and

relationships by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or

groups, or offering tools that enable the user to seek out other users with

compatible interests.

Types of Social Media

In the discussion regarding different categories of social media, five distinct

types of social media outlets are focused on:

i. Social networking sites

ii. social news

11
iii. media sharing

iv. blogs, and

v. microblogging.

Some of the most popular social media websites are Facebook (and its

associated FacebookMessenger),

WhatsApp, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, BaiduTieba and Snapchat.

Each of these social media platforms has provided unique features and

experiences to individuals and entities, for instance marketers and consumers, in

the social media sphere.

2.1.2 Social Networking Sites

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are platforms where individuals are able to

connect with others, for instance Facebook and MySpace. Social networking sites,

as Weinberg (2009) states, “are generic terms for sites that are used to connect

users with similar backgrounds and interests”.

These platforms, generally, have few common elements across most of

them:

i. Users are able to create interactive and customized profiles, either a public

or a semi-public, within a bounded system,

ii. A list of suggested “friends” with whom they share a connection, and

12
iii. View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within

the system Boyd and Ellison (2007).

To consumers, they are the outlets, which present wealth opportunities for

establishing a closer relationship with the brand via several functions – fan pages,

plug-in applications, and groups. Recently, Empathica have conducted a survey

about the U.S. consumers’ usage of social media to make shopping decisions.

The survey population is more than 6,500 U.S. consumers, of these

consumers, over half (55 percent) have “Liked” a brand’s Facebook page, and 73

per cent have claimed that their choice of recent store visit is influenced by a social

networking site Dugan (2012).

2.1.3 Social News and Bookmarking Sites

Social News sites and Social Bookmarking sites, for instance Digg, Reddit,

and Scoop are fairly similar, and are very much in the trend of online community.

Social News enables users not only to be in control of their news streams, but also

allows individuals to “submit and vote on content around the Web” but the core

value of the latter one is to allow users “to collect and interesting links they have

discovers and may wish to revisit.” Zarrella, (2010)

In other words, individuals get to control and customized their news streams;

this special attribute of social news site facilitates the democracy which creates

values to users. These sites allow individuals to discover websites that a large

13
number of people have already discovered; some say social news sites have

changed the concept of newspaper nowadays and are governed by the “wisdom of

crowds” Weinberg (2009), due to the fact that the contents personal and targeted

news and they empower users by putting the audience in the center via active

discussions and which reacts on how readers interact, Baekdal, (2009).

2.1.4 Media-Sharing Sites

Media-Sharing sites (e.g. Youtube and Flickr) are outlets where individuals

can upload, store, and share their multimedia files, for instance photos, videos, and

music, with other users. There are myriad opportunities through the engagement to

these websites, because these certain platforms within the social media segment

has always been a stronghold to online societies, as they provide users

opportunities to create their own podcasts with affordable technology and to

propaganda their identical “channels” via subscriptions.

One of the major elements of these media-sharing sites has to be highlighted

is the tag. “A tag is a word assigned to a piece of content that helps describe it”,

which means that businesses have to acknowledge the importance of the search

words on the search engines, (Zarrella, 2010)

2.1.5 Blogs

A blog is an online journal which is as refer to a type of content management

system (CMS), typically maintained by individuals or groups, and featured

14
commentary and ideas for a larger group of audience Safko and Brake (2009).

Blogs create good hubs for other social media marketing tools (videos, hyperlinks,

pictures, and so on), because they can be integrated into the platforms and posts;

besides, blog software provides a variety of social features such as comments,

blogrolls, trackbacks, and subscriptions (Zarrella, 2010). On the other hand,

Weber (2009) has pointed due to the fact that blogs allow everyone to publish and

to join multithreaded conversations online, in which some of the bloggers have no

editorial restrains and have access to the entire Web; as a result, their posts can

impact personal, products, or brand reputation harmfully.

2.1.6 Microblogging

Microblogging is a real-time information network, which shares similarity to

blogging, yet it limits the size (number of words) of each post and encourages a

faster mode of communication. Microblogging allows users to spread their short-

texted messages via instant messages, mobile phones, e-mails, or the Web.

For instance, Twitter, launched in 2006, is one of the primal and leading

microblogs that currently has over 140 million users as of 2012 and handles over

1.6 billion search queries per day Twitter. Obviously, Twitter provides companies

with leverage via Internet traffic by creating a buzz on online communities, as

users get the essence and concise information through short-texted posts. Many

companies have been using Twitter to tap into the business prospects, influencers,

15
and customers; by doing so, businesses are able to take advantage in relationship

building, achieving on-line and offline marketing objectives, and brand building

etc.

Weinberg (2009). Retweet is one of the most powerful mechanisms to

marketers, in which individuals can copy and paste what others have posted onto

their Twitter stream. Consequently, the certain tweet gets to spread virally in a

furious speed Ingram (2012).

2.1.7 Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing is an umbrella term that can be described as the

utilization of social media platforms as marketing tools. According to Weinberg

(2009), he refers social media marketing as leveraging the ‘social’ through the

‘media’ to ‘market’ businesses’ constituents; in other words, it is a process in

empowering individuals to promote their websites, products, and/or services

through online social channels, to interact with and to tap into a much larger

community that may not have been available via traditional advertising channels.

It is no longer a striking fact that most of the social Medias via mass media

are not as efficient as in the past, because by advertising through the mass, the

message is generally reaching far more people than the potential customer intended

to reach Weber and Weinberg (2009).

16
 Social web is where people with a common interest can gather to share

thoughts, comments, and ideas; hence, instead of continuing as broadcasters,

marketers should become aggregators of customer communities; that is, the Web

should not be considered as a mere advertising channel, it is a place where

marketers can listen and respond to communities, review contents, as well as

promote a particular piece of content within the vast social sphere (community

building) Weber (2009).

2.1.8 What makes social media marketing special

Upon the insufficient advertising budget that companies oftentimes

encounter via the traditional channels, social media marketing might be,

particularly, easier and more effective for small and medium-size companies to

take maximum advantage of it. While social media marketing is an evolving

technology with much potential, yet marketing’s role still reminds the same –

defining the target market, communicating with prospects, building loyalty,

customer engagement and so on. Weber (2009)

Weinberg (2009) has proposed few reasons to tap into a solid social media

strategy in addition to (or instead of) the traditional ones, which are – facilitation

in natural discovery of new content, boost up in traffic numbers, strong

relationship building, as well as a cheap alternative to traditional marketing.

Unlike the traditional advertising, individuals in the social media era have access to

17
contents that are not necessarily associated with commercial intent (neutral);

consequently, if a person like a content, he/she is likely to pass it on to their peers,

families, and so on via social sites, then content will be spread out quickly without

interfering with traditional marketing.

Weinberg (2009.) Social media offers opportunities to achieve communities,

once company has established its presence as a community participant worth

following, eventually others will be likely interested in what it shares and pass to

the relevant ones Weber (2009). Besides, in the phase of the new marketing era,

bringing the brand to alive depends solely upon the engagement within

communities (Weber 2009; Silverman 2001), as a result if company is genuinely

paying attention to the members of the community, a strong relationship can be

built upon investing time in responding on feedbacks and concerns. Weinberg

(2009)

‘Mass media audience become more and more difficult to buy,’ said Martin

Sorrel (1996) of WPP see (Smith and Zoo, 2011). The fortunes of advertising have

grown alongside with the growth of mass media, however this growth has stopped

these years, (Smith and Zook, 2011).

In fact, there are many sport brands in the marketplace are taking social

media marketing as a vital component in their businesses, in which they look at

effective ways to gain a more detailed understanding of their social media fan base.

18
Nike has been putting more marketing muscle behind its digital initiatives, for

instance by taking social media marketing in-house, claiming that online channels

are more valuable to its business strategy than traditional advertising, (Joseph,

2013).

2.1.9 Social Media: The New Mindset

In order to gain a better position in the transition from traditional marketing

approach to social media marketing, marketers will have to, firstly, change their

marketing mindset. Social media platforms has radically changed the approach of

segmentation in implanting marketing strategy, instead of easily identified

demographics, such as age, gender, or income are relatively less important, it

groups people by what they do, think, like, and dislike, and more importantly by

their behaviors, also known as behavioral targeting, (Weber, 2009)

Many marketing experts Drury (2008) Mayfield (2008) Weber (2009)

Weinberg (2009) have always emphasized that since marketing via social media is

rather about receiving and exchanging perceptions and ideas, which makes social

media marketing no longer one dimensional but a two-way process engaging a

brand and an audience Drury (2008) as well as a creation of increasingly visualize

contents Weber (2009).

19
 Oftentimes, content is a critical factor in achieving an effective marketing

via social media; however, according to Curata’s “B2B Marketing Trends Survey

(2012) Report” Marketing Profs (2012), companies seem to encounter challenges

in creating original content, having time to create it, and finding high-quality

content see Jacobs (2013).

Drury (2008) has argued that with social media in particular, the content of

advertising and branding must be provided as relevant value-added content that is

more about consumer, rather than brash product placement. When companies help

their customers through social media outlets, it is more likely to build a long-term

relationship, which will in turn propel and leverage the brand awareness and

growth Young Entrepreneur Council (2012)

Besides, with social media, company is able to create the platform of true

interactivity; the American Express’ OPEN Forum is undoubtedly an outstanding

case, which has surly surpassed customer expectations when it comes to putting a

customer first; because instead of heavily promoting their traditional financial

offerings on the community, the company has considered its consumers and their

concerns and needs while providing information about their services Weinberg

(2009).

2.2 THE IMPACT OF USING SOCIAL NETWORK IN EDUCATION

The following are the benefits/impact of using social network in education:

20
1. Continuous learning environment:- it enables Consumers to learn online

at their own pace by means of listening to video blogs, podcast, lectures and

webcasts. At the same time, it enhance the Consumers and faculty

interaction with the classroom.

2. College admission:- social network helps institution to recruit prospective

Consumers and faculty.

3. Industry partnerships:- it helps institutions to connect with industry for

nurturing the partnerships and identifying experts in the field of interest.

4. Brand-building platform:- it presents wholesome opportunities for higher

education institutions to communicate and promote its online brand image

among its key state holders.

5. Real-time alumni engagement:- an active presence in social media sites

will help institutions to nurture a strong online relationship with its former

Consumers i.e. Alumni. It also provides an opportunity to find and reconnect

with international alumni as well.

6. Accessibility: Consumers can access the educational sites for online

teaching or learning from anywhere in the world. All that they need is access

to internet and a computer to support usage of the required learning

software.

21
7. Flexibility in learning:- These site allows learners to select learning

materials that meets their knowledge and interest. In addition, Consumers

are taught courses through different learning styles and are involved in

varied activities across chat rooms in discussion forums where they can give

in their views on the topic at any hour and also during class time Consumers

can interact with instructors by chat or audio usage.

8. Development of new Information and Communication Technology

(ICT):- by learners using the software involve in the educational sites they

develop computer and internet skills that they can apply outside the

educational setting, for instance in the workplace.

2.3 SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONSUMER

Having explained the possible components involved in the consumer

decision process, the nature and the essence of social media, as well as having a

brief discussion of the prominent features in different social media outlets, the

researcher believes that social media is an essential touch point in today’s

consumer decision process, from stage quo to the stage of post purchase; likewise,

companies are engaging with the purpose of creating brand awareness, engaging

their existing customers, driving traffic to other marketing properties and growing

channel number, (Smith and Zook, 2011).

22
 The following section discusses on how consumers are affected by social

media, and identify which would be the considerate phase of the purchase process

that marketers should tap into.

Regarding the information processing theory of consumer choice, it is

mentioned that there are vast amount of social medias competing with each other

in order to grasp individuals’ attention Fennis and Stroebe(2011) and the fact that

human beings have an obvious limited brain capacity in processing information;

therefore, it is a challenge for each discrete message to get heard above the din

(extraneous factors that distract or distort the message), even if marketers have the

right message, (Silverman, 2001).

Each of the social media platforms plays a role in giving out, receiving, and

exchanging information without any boundary limitations, and as mentioned

previously that social media enables two-way flow of information.

Since the flow of communication does not merely impact how companies

can access their targeted groups, but also it influences throughout the entire

decision process, from interpreting the message, searching for available

alternatives, as well as actions carried out in the after the purchase; thus, It is

important to denote that message rejection, misinterpretation, and

misunderstanding are the possible pitfalls in the flow of communication, (Smith

and Zook, 2011).

23
 In relating to social media marketing, the biggest fear of companies and

brands is to give up the control over the content, and the frequency of information;

however, it is essential for marketers to realize that reviews and discussions, as

user-generated contents, serve to demonstrate a company’s transparency. Weber

(2007)

When Zagat and Amazon started inviting individuals (such as consumers

and users) to give their opinions, there was no stopping the trend Weber (2007);

that is, the communication in present-day has drastically altered into a medium that

is composed of millions of people who can actually contribute or detract from a

marketing message.

Consequently, comparing to offline traditional marketing channels (such as

television, newspaper, magazines, and so on), word-of-mouth solely relies on

social media outlets in this digital age Knowledge Wharton on Forbes (2012), due

to the fact that websites allow users to create their own virtual spaces in which

fosters and ignite the word-of-mouth, (Weinberg, 2009)

Conversation in traditional media is one-way: the company spoke, an

audience listened. Mass messages are filtered through opinion leaders to the mass

audience, in which opinion leader is very hard to be identified since they are not

formal experts and do not necessarily provide advice but have a certain degree of

influence on consumers, ( Katz and Lazarsfeld, 2000).

24
 In the notion of communication models theories Goldenberg, Han and

Lehmann (2010), the findings Katz and Lazarsfeld (2000), Bulte and Wuyts(2007)

have provided that opinion leaders are those initially exposed to certain media

content who interpret the message based on their own opinion, and are more active

than others both in seeking information and in conveying it to others, (Wuyts,

2010).

According to Lazarsfeld and Katz’s hypothesis (2000), the information is

channeled to the masses through opinion leaders, who have a more literate

understanding of media content, explain and diffuse the content to others.

Listeners, in turns, subsequently feed back to the opinion leaders, (Smith & Zook,

2011).

“Customer are screaming to be more engage with the companies that affect

their lives,” is how Diane Hessan, president and CEO of Communispace, describes

the change of social media has brought to consumers. She further addresses that

“Blooming trends like blogging, online communities, flash mobbing, buzz agents,

and MySpace show that customers have a lot to say – they want to be asked and

they want to be involved.” (Communispace, 2013).

As it is said, social media has put consumers back to the center by enabling

them to engage in conversations, and neither decisions are no longer to be made by

few individuals nor the message being sent to the masses by the brand owner.

25
Smith and Zook (2011) have pointed out that customers, first, talk to each other

(C2C) with the online platforms came the easier facilitation of customer

communities, and secondly back to the company (C2B).

Mangold and Faulds (2009) has presented a new communication paradigm,

indicating that the independency of social media platforms has amplified

consumers’ ability to communicate with one another, in which has profoundly

affected consumer behavior, and has bestowed consumers with power they have

not previously experienced in the marketplace, (Mangold and Faulds, 2009).

The New Communication Paradigm Mangold and Faulds(2009). Eventually,

information and feedbacks are constantly circulating among the online

communities and individuals are able to access to the information easily. Besides,

considering that an average Internet user has 669 social ties Hampton et al. (2011),

as a result, word of mouth undoubtedly works much quickly online comparing to

offline.

Most of the diffusion modeling (describes the process of how new products

get adopted in a population) associated with marketing have suggested that the

process in which a social system adopts an innovation is largely based on

interactions among potential adopters; in this regard, consumer’s decision to

perform an action may be influenced by the decision of those around them Hui et

al. (2012).

26
 During the phase of information acquisition in the decision process,

consumers are influenced by external and internal source of information,

Glodenberg, Han, and Lehmann see Wuyts et al (2010, 284) have explicated that

internal sources of information are previous adopters of the innovation who can

influence potential adopters by digesting, analyzing, filtering, customizing, and

spreading word-of-mouth and functioning as role models in the market.

Individuals were likely to use the same traditional media channels to read

about bad products or great ones from others who had firsthand experience,

however, the advent of social media has changed the situation in nowadays; that is,

with cheaper and faster technology, the extent of communication travels farther,

(Weinberg, 2009, 12).

He further explicates the proposed situation with an example of a search for

a company (Comcast) on Google between different time period, in 2001 and in

2008. During the phase of mass communications, marketing guru Philip Kotler

says, ‘Bad news travel faster than good news’ see (Smith and Zook, 2011),

therefore, it is not hard to picture the speed of bad news travel in present-day is in a

formidable fast speed, as social media offers everyone an opportunity to their own

message delivery systems, in which enables individuals to share and link stories to

one another.

27
 If the negative press is highly visible, consumers may likely to look to a

competing brand that is not facing a bad press while marking the purchase

decision. As a result, social media platforms have added more dimensions to the

communication, rather than having most of the messages flowing from the

organization, (Weinberg, 2009)

As a matter of fact, the proliferation of social media is a double-edge sword.

While social media has empowered the consumers due to they have access to

information which previously was not available for them, has accelerated

information flow, as well as has allowed discussions happened globally, yet social

media has also offered marketers with the tools to better target their consumers

more efficiently, to cultivate relationship among groups of consumers, as well as to

exploit new opportunities, (Constantinides and Fountain 2009).

Indeed, the accessibility and availability to information has resulted changes

in individuals’ attitudes changes, which eventually leads to new needs and buying

behavior; it will be further discussed.

2.4 THE INFLUENCES ON DECISION MAKING PROCESS

As the business world re-centers around serving and delighting customers,

CMOs are confident that social media impacts sales, brand awareness, and loyalty

(Olenski 2012); as a result, social media data impacts their decisions while making

predictions or forecasts.

28
 According to social media marketing industry report, the social media realm

is not a mere fad in which marketers are increasingly attracted and 83% of them

place high value high value on social media of their businesses, (Stelzner, 2012).

Social media, as a new component, has further complicated the time-

honored buying behavior process theory wherein the buying attitudes are not

impacted merely by the traditional channels but extend to the online platforms.

Preferences and decision marking are prompted depend upon the inputs

provided by parties beyond the control of online marketers, such as peer reviews,

referrals, blogs, social networks, and other forms of user-generated content.

Regarding the phase of marketers tapping into the purchase process with

social media, Evans (2008) has presented the classic purchase funnel model as an

indicator of how social media has impacted on consumer decision making process

in different stages.

Consideration links the buying process activities by connecting awareness

and purchase, thus all considered factors, such as brand reputation, applicability,

Classic Purchase Funnel Evan (2008) performance, and so on, trigger a potential

purchase. In comparison to traditional media, since social media connects with and

involves consumers from awareness all the way through consideration in which

simultaneously tackles awareness and consideration instead of inciting a purchase

from the awareness perspective.

29
 Google (2012) conducted a research in U.K, U.S, France, Germany, Japan,

Canada, and Brazil associating with the customer journey to online purchase, the

research has shown different marketing channels influence the customer at

different points in the path to purchase. In all the targeted countries, social media

serves as an assisting channel in which to build awareness, consideration, and

intent earlier in the purchase funnel.

Sliverman (2009) has also stated that there are many brands competing for

attention, therefore an interesting blog post or a compelling video on YouTube can

be the stage quo in which a prospect pays attentions and gains awareness of a

product or a service. During the stages of consumer decision process, social media

is applicable as both a prompt (awareness) and as a validation (support the

purchase decision takes place), (Evans, 2008.)

As indicated previously, one of the most valuable aspects of social media is

in building and maintaining a feedback loop, as the conversations are more

dynamic and flow in two-way. The difference that social media has impacted on

the purchase funnel is the accessibility and transparency of experiential data

generated by current customers for the benefit of the next wave of shoppers and

prospects.

2.5 THE CONSUMERS

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 Consumers are actors on the marketplace stage. Consumers, in general, can

be referred as individuals who purchase or consume products and services;

however, in terms of buyer and consumer, there is a slight difference. Buyers are

the people who are acting either as ultimate, industrial, or institutional purchasers.

The latter one, consumer, refers to individuals who purchase for merely ultimate

use, which is more restrictive in terms of meaning Sternthal and Craig (2001); that

is, the end-users for whom the products or services are ultimately designed for.

2.6 CONSUMER DECISION PROCESS

Inevitably, businesses encounter bottlenecks where the message is not

reaching their consumers and prospects, with the fact that, at times, consumers and

prospects are facing significant blocks in their decision process. If not, each of

them should be fully committed, loyal, enthusiastic, repeated consumers; however,

this is not the case.

Today the accessibility and transparency of information has profoundly

influenced the decision making process; therefore, it is important to examine what

are the hurdles and fiction points that hold prospects becoming consumers, or

keeps consumers hesitating from repurchasing, (Silverman, 2001).

2.7 CONSTRAINT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

There are several negative effects to social media which receive criticism,

for example regarding privacy issues, information overload and Internet fraud.

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Social media can also have negative social effects on users. Angry or emotional

conversations can lead to real-world interactions outside of the internet, which can

get users into dangerous situations. Some users have experienced threats of

violence online and have feared these threats manifesting themselves offline.

Studies also show that social media have negative effects on peoples' self-

esteem and self-worth. The authors of "Who Compares and Despairs? The Effect

of Social Comparison Orientation on Social Media Use and its Outcomes found

that people with a higher social comparison orientation appear to use social media

more heavily than people with low social comparison orientation. This finding was

consistent with other studies that found people with high social comparison

orientation make more social comparisons once on social media. People compare

their own lives to the lives of their friends through their friends' posts. People are

motivated to portray themselves in a way that is appropriate to the situation and

serves their best interest. Often the things posted online are the positive aspects of

people's lives, which makes other people question why their own lives are not as

exciting or fulfilling. This can lead to depression and other self-esteem issues.

Terri H. Chan, (2012) the author of "Facebook and its Effects on Users' Empathic

Social Skills and Life Satisfaction: A Double Edged Sword Effect, claims that the

more time people spend on Facebook, the less satisfied they feel about their life.

32
Self-presentational theory explains that people will consciously manage their self-

image or identity related information in social contexts.

According to Gina Chen, (2012) the author of Losing Face on Social Media:

Threats to Positive Face Lead to an Indirect Effect on Retaliatory Aggression

Through Negative Affect,when people are not accepted or are criticized online they

feel emotional pain. This may lead to some form of online retaliation such as

online bullying.

In addition, Trudy HuiHui Chua and Leanne Chang (2004) expose in their

research article, "Follow Me and Like My Beautiful Selfies: Singapore Teenage

Girls' Engagement in Self-Presentation and Peer Comparison on Social Media, that

teenage girls manipulate their self-presentation to achieve a sense of beauty that is

projected by their peers. These authors also discovered that teenage girls compare

themselves to their peers and present themselves in certain ways in effort to earn

regard and acceptance, which can actually lead to problems with self-confidence

and self-satisfaction. HuiHui Chua and Chang went on to add that the striving to

reveal a superior self-appearance on the Internet by teenage girls is caused by their

deep-seated aspiration to understand who they are as a person. According to writer

Christine Rosen in "Virtual Friendship, and the New Narcissism," many social

media sites encourage status-seeking.

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 According to Rosen, (2009) the practice and definition of "friendship"

changes in virtuality. Friendship "in these virtual spaces is thoroughly different

from real-world friendship. In its traditional sense, friendship is a relationship

which, broadly speaking, involves the sharing of mutual interests, reciprocity, trust,

and the revelation of intimate details over time and within specific social (and

cultural) contexts. Because friendship depends on mutual revelations that are

concealed from the rest of the world, it can only flourish within the boundaries of

privacy; the idea of public friendship is an oxymoron." Rosen also cites Brigham

Young University researchers who "recently surveyed 184 users of social

networking sites and found that heavy users 'feel less socially involved with the

community around them.'"

2.8 SOLUTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA

In the book Networked – The New Social Operating System by Lee

Rainie and Barry Wellman, (2001) the two authors reflect on mainly positive

effects of social media and other internet based social networks. According to the

authors, social media are used to document memories, learn about and explore

things, advertise oneself and form friendships. For instance, they claim that the

communication through internet based services can be done more privately than in

34
real life. Furthermore, Rainie and Wellman (2007) discuss that everybody has the

possibility to become a content creator. Content creation provides networked

individuals opportunities to reach wider audiences. Moreover, it can positively

affect their social standing and gain political support. This can lead to influence on

issues that are important for someone. As a concrete example of the positive

effects of social media, the authors use the Tunisian revolution in 2011, where

people used Facebook to gather meetings, protest actions, etc.

Rainie and Wellman (2007) also discuss that content creation is a voluntary

and participatory act. What is important is that networked individuals create, edit,

and manage content in collaboration with other networked individuals. This way

they contribute in expanding knowledge. Wikis are examples of collaborative

content creation.

A survey conducted 2011, by Pew Internet Research, discussed in Lee

Rainie and Barry Wellman's Networked – The New Social Operating System,

illustrates that 'networked individuals' are engaged to a further extent regarding

numbers of content creation activities and that the 'networked individuals' are

increasing over a larger age span. These are some of the content creation activities

that networked individuals take part in:

35
i. writing material on a social networking site such as Facebook: 65 percent of

internet users do this

ii. sharing photos: 55 percent

iii. contributing rankings and reviews of products or services: 37 percent

iv. creating tags of content: 33 percent

v. posting comments on third-party websites or blogs: 26 percent

vi. taking online material and remixing it into a new creation: 15 percent of

internet users do this with photos, video, audio, or text

vii. creating or working on a blog: 14 percent

Another survey conducted (2015) by Pew Internet Research shows that the

internet users among American adults who uses at least one social networking site

has increased from 10% to 76% since 2005. Pew Internet Research illustrates

furthermore that it nowadays is no real gender difference among Americans when

it comes to social media usage. Women were even more active on social media a

couple of years ago, however today's numbers point at women: 68%, and men:

62%.

Social media have been used to assist in searches for missing persons. When

21-year-old University of Cincinnati Consumers Brogan Dulle disappeared in May

2014 from near his apartment in the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, his

friends and family used social media to organize and fund a search effort. The
36
disappearance made international news when their efforts

went viral on Facebook, Twitter, GoFundMe, and The Huffington Post during the

week-long search. Dulle's body was eventually found in a building next door to his

apartment.

2.9 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This research builds upon Prahalad and Ramaswamy’s (2004) model of co-

creation in the service sector and adapts this model to create a parsimonious

theoretical framework to explain SME. Originally built as a model of interaction

between a user and organization, we extend this model to focus on the social

interactions among users that are supported by the social media platform provided

by an organization.

We build upon Prahalad and Ramaswamy’s (2004) work by applying a

socio-technical systems perspective to first address why the user experience

influences engagement and subsequently usage. Central to this model is the

concept of user engagement. Within the context of IS research, the term

engagement is applied inconsistently and results in many different conceptual

models that lack clear definition and measurement (Hwang & Thorn, 1999;

O'Brien & Toms, 2008; Ray, Kim, & Morris, 2014).

Although researchers implicitly agree that user engagement matters, exactly

how to define engagement and clearly delineate engagement from similar concepts

37
such as the user experience and actual usage is needed to advance research in this

area. To accomplish this, the SME theoretical model outlines distinctions

separating the factors that form the user experience, user engagement, and usage.

First, SME theory accounts for the role of technology as the underlying platform

needed to facilitate social interactions among users that are globally and temporally

distributed. Clearly, the rise of social media comes in large part from the evolution

of technology to provide a unique user experience that enables users to connect in

new ways that were never before possible.

The user experience referred to in this research applies the definition of

experience as the content of direct observation or participation in an event. When

experience is defined as a noun, referring to the content stemming from direct

participation, there are two critical factors that form the user experience in social

media: the experience derived from the social interactions and the experience

derived from the technical features. Social interactions are defined as the

communication among users through social media (Prahalad & Ramaswamy,

2004).

Social interactions form the user experience by fostering a personalized

relationship among users, by serving as a transparent means of communication, by

providing access to social resources including friends, acquaintances, and family

members, and by defining the potential benefits and costs to engaging within social
38
media (Jensen & Aanestad, 2007; Kettinger & Lee, 1994; Prahalad &

Ramaswamy, 2004; Wixom & Todd, 2005). Social interactions among the users

are what provide meaning and guide the user in evaluating how intensely involved

they wish to be (Barley, 1996; Jensen & Aanestad, 2007). Technical features are

defined as the perceived capabilities of the technology. Technical features provide

users with the tools to enable interactions, and to impact the direction, magnitude

and scope of benefits for individual users and the organization (Brown & Magill,

1998; Simon, 1991).

Technical features include: the extent to which users can retrieve

information and interact, the flexibility to use features for multiple purposes, the

ability to integrate content, and the evolvability of the features to meet users’

specific needs as they become more proficient with the platform.

When organizations support the creation of the user experience to meet

user’s needs, higher user engagement occurs. To date there has been much

discussion about how to define user engagement (Hwang & Thorn, 1999; O'Brien

& Toms, 2008; Ray et al., 2014). O’Brien and Toms (2008) define user

engagement as a category of user experience while several other scholars define

user engagement using a more traditional approach of involvement (i.e engaging)

(Hwang and Thorn, 1999) and participation (i.e, the act of being engaged)

(Claussen, Kretschmer, & Mayrhofer, 2013; Lehmann, Lalmas, Yom-Tov, &

39
Dupret, 2012) suggesting engagement is both a psychological state and behavior.

More recently, Ray and colleagues (2014) define engagement as “a holistic

psychological state in which one is cognitively and emotionally energized to

socially behave in ways that exemplify the positive ways in which group members

prefer to think of themselves.” (Ray et al., 2014, p. 531). Thus, a clear definition

of user engagement still remains elusive for scholars as engagement is defined as a

portion of user experience, a psychological state, and user behavior. Given this

contradiction, this research defines user engagement as a user’s state of mind that

warrants heightened involvement and results in a personally meaningful benefit

(i.e., involvement to fulfill a need). It is the antecedent that shapes user

engagement and subsequently causes an individual to act. In this way, our

definition of user engagement differentiates between the psychological state and

behavior that Hwang and Thorn (2008) discuss through involvement and

participation, as well as distinguishes between the experience environment and

engagement as a mental state discussed by O’Brien and Toms (2008). This

separation aligns with the recent work of Ray and colleagues (2014) to suggest

engagement is a holistic psychological state of involvement to derive personal

meaning. Therefore, user engagement is divided into two psychological

components: 1) individual involvement and 2) personal meaning. Individual

involvement is defined as the intensity with which a user perceives his/her role

40
within the social media platform (Barki & Hartwick, 1994; Debats, 1998; Hwang

& Thorn, 1999; O'Brien & Toms, 2008; Ray et al., 2014; Zaichkowsky, 1985).

Individual involvement denotes a user’s perception that his/her role is important to

meet his/her needs (Barki & Hartwick, 1994; Zaichkowsky, 1985). Individual

involvement has been found to increase arousal and motivation to participate

(Muson & McQuarrie, 1987; Zaichkowsky, 1985). Personal meaning is defined as

the degree to which a user perceives the fulfillment of his/her needs and interests

(Battista & Almond, 1973; Debats, 1998). Fulfillment is derived when user

interests are satisfied by the user experience (Battista & Almond, 1973). The

central premise of SME theory is that higher user engagement leads to greater

usage of the social media platform. Usage is defined as the frequency of a user’s

contribution, retrieval, and/or exploration of content within a social media site

(Kankanhalli, Tan, & Wei, 2005; Li & Bernoff, 2008). The more frequently users

take part in a variety of activities, the more valuable the social media platform

becomes to the organization and fellow users, resulting in the co-creation of value,

(Kankanhalli et al., 2005; Li & Bernoff, 2008).

2.10 EMPIRICAL REVIEW

Social media provides a virtual network place where people can enjoy

expressing and exchanging opinions, disseminate and control messages (anywhere,

anytime). There is a wide variety of social media, ranging from social sharing sites

41
such as YouTube, MySpace through social networks such as LinkedIn and

Facebook etc. With the introduction of the World Wide Web, the internet became a

global network and with the increased usage of internet, social media emerged and

got popular; especially after 2003. Social Media Marketing (SMM) also picked up

all over the world by the end of first decade of 21st century. India is not an

exception (Vij, 2012).

Research on social media is in its infancy as yet. There is great interest in

exploring the issues related to social media nowadays. Over the last few years,

researchers and practitioners have written on variety of issues related with social

media and social media marketing. Some studies have explored the effectiveness

and measurement issues related with word of mouth in social media (e.g. Smith et

al, 2007; Trusov et al, 2008; and Fogel, 2010). Researchers have explored the

consumer behaviour and attitude toward social media sites and implications for

marketers (e.g. Chung and Austria, 2010; Hensel and Deis, 2010; Kyle and

Michael, 2010; and Diffy and Kearns, 2011). Some authors have studies the social

media in the context of promotional mix (Mangold and Faulds, 2009; Markus and

Markus,2010;Spiller, 2011 and Vij, 2012).

Others have focused on issues like measurement of return on investment on

social media investment (Hoffman and Fodor, 2010; and Weinberg and Pehlivan,

2011), predicting the product performance with social media (Asur and Huberman,

42
2010; and Lica and Tuta, 2011), effectiveness of Blogs (Singh et al, 2008;

Colliander and Dahlen, 2011), social media mix (Lewis et al, 2008; Kaplan and

Haenlein, 2009; and Weinberg and Pehlivan, 2011), Mangold and Faulds (2009)

are of the view that social media is an element of the promotion mix because in a

traditional sense it enables companies to talk to their customers; while in a

nontraditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The

content, timing, and frequency of the social media-based conversations occurring

between consumers are outside managers’ direct control. This stands in contrast to

the traditional integrated marketing communications mix whereby a high authority

of control is present. Therefore, managers must learn to shape consumer

discussions in a manner that is consistent with the organization’s mission and

performance goals. The purpose of social networking sites is to facilitate the talks

between biggest fans of the organization. Methods by which this can be

accomplished include providing consumers with networking platforms, and using

blogs, social media tools, and promotional tools to engage customers. Providing

information to the consumers regarding product of their company closely bounds

the customer to the company.

Hensel and Deis (2010) have suggested that marketers must consider all

possible avenues to positively use social media to increase advertising and improve

marketing. There are benefits, drawbacks, and challenges associated with any

43
social media strategy, and these must be addressed before a specific social media

strategy is implemented. Businesses need to assist in facilitating the social media

inputs and discussions. In addition, social media strategies should also be used to

track a business presence online, and to make sure that clients are not degrading

the branding value.

The Internet-based social media has made it possible for one person to

communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people about products and

the companies that provide them on web. Thus, the impact of consumer to

consumer communications has been greatly increased.

Colliander and Dahlén (2011) have compared the effects of brand publicity

in social media advertising (blogs) and traditional media. Consumer responses

towards a brand have been studied in seven popular blogs and seven popular online

magazines. They have demonstrated the greater publicity effectiveness of social

media and underlying factors behind it. They have examined the effects of

perceived writer– brand relationship, effects of writer credibility and publicity

effectiveness and the variables taken into account to compare magazine with a blog

are brand attitudes, purchase intentions and social interactions. They found that

blogs generated higher brand attitudes and purchase intentions. This was due the

fact that blogs have higher ParaSocial Interaction (PSI) with its users than

traditional magazines. Given that readers perceive the blogger as a friend, it would

44
seem likely that a blog would be evaluated differently than a magazine. Unlike

online-magazines readers, who have a one-way relationship with content, blog

readers socialize with bloggers besides reading their posts. This study displayed

clearly how the writer–brand relationship and writers’ credibility affected readers’

perceptions of brand publicity on blogs.

Elizabeth et al (2010) have explored social media trends, including social

media opportunities and mobile marketing, and the potentially lasting effects that

these trends have on advertising.

In a survey of 3300 marketers conducted by Stelzner (2011), it has been

found that 90% of the marketers agree that social media is important for their

business. One third of the marketers want to know how to monitor and measure the

ROI of social media marketing activities. The majority 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. 77% of marketers are planning to invest in video marketing

like YouTube. 70% of the marketers want to learn more about Facebook and 69%

want to learn more about blogging. 72% marketers have increased traffic and 62%

marketers have improved their search rankings by using SMM. According to these

marketers, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogs were the top social media sites

used for SMM.

45
 Allocating marketing budgets in the most efficient way is one of the key

challenges for any marketing executive. The executive has to choose from

traditional or classic advertising (radio, television, newspaper) and online

advertising (online advertising and search engine marketing) such as to create the

right impact among the masses. In practice, online channels are often being

favored for their direct accountability in terms of cost per click. To prove the actual

value of various channels, Markus and Markus (2010) conducted a study to

observe the business impact of various communication channels and the role of

other external factors that influence usage of the website. They have used research

model such as SEO (search engine optimization) which ensures a top position in

search results, and show how the Internet has opened up new opportunities for

companies to raise awareness and relevance with target groups of similar needs.

It has also been observed that SEM shows approximately three times the

conversion success from a registration to a paying membership than TV leads do.

However, they suggest that the brand alone cannot be build online you have to go

offline as well.

Chung and Austria (2010) have conducted a study to determine the factors

related with social media gratification and attitude toward social media marketing

messages. The results of the study show that attitude toward social media

marketing messages are strongly related to social media usage gratifications such
46
as interaction and information, but not entertainment gratification. Asur and

Huberman (2010) have demonstrated how social media content can be used to

predict real-world outcomes. Their study demonstrates how sentiments extracted

from Twitter can be utilized to improve the forecasting power of social media.

Similarly, Lica and Tuta (2010) show how social media can be used for predicting

the success of a product or service.

Kaplan and Haenlein (2011) have illustrated the six steps executives should

take in order to dance the social media/viral marketing waltz. They suggest viral

marketing as electronic word of mouth whereby some form of marketing message

related to a company, brand, or product is transmitted in an exponentially growing

way-often through the use of social media applications. They suggest three

conditions that are required to be fulfilled to create a viral marketing epidemic (i.e.,

giving the right message to the right messengers in the right environment) and

present four different groups of social media viral marketing campaigns

(nightmares, strokes-of luck, homemade issues, and triumphs). They conclude with

five points of caution that managers should notice when trying to launch their own

viral marketing campaign – (1) Viral marketing is only as good as the remaining

marketing, (2) Viral Marketing needs to be backed up by traditional forms of

communication, (3) Excessive planning and intervention kills any viral marketing

47
campaign, (4) Highly proactive and edgy messages are tricky business, and (5)

Successful viral marketing requires a little bit of luck and gut feeling.

Kunz and Hackworth (2011) studied the use of social media marketing

(SMM) by top retailers (top 18 retailers using five of the social media sites were

taken). The number of subscribers to each retailer’s social media platforms was

tracked for some weeks; and a significant change was found in sales during that

period. The study also found that customers respond more favorably to marketing

when they have control and consumers are happier being a part of community,

rather than the target of a marketing campaign. The usage of social media has

increased significantly and a large percentage of social media networking users

want companies to interact with them using social media applications. Based upon

the usage rate and statistics, retailers are quickly incorporating the use of social

networking sites into their marketing communication strategy.

Retailers created events to encourage customers to visit their online sites in

order to take advantage of special promotions and sales during a festive season and

for some retailers this appears to have helped boost their seasonal sales.

Spiller (2011) has examined the social media and its role in direct and interactive

integrated marketing communication. The study briefly explores the evolution of

direct and interactive IMC's and its more recent advances in digital and interactive

48
channels. The most recent development is of social direct IMC, the direct and

interactive marketing communication applications made possible through social

CRM. The study explores how the marketers approach the social media as

awareness and branding tool, rather than direct response channel; and also

identifies the opportunities to use social media as relationship and sales channel.

Diffley and Kearns (2011) studied focused groups of different age groups for

their perception about social networking sites. They suggest that companies must

seek to integrate advertisements and engage consumers rather than disturbing on

their privacy or irritate customers. Noisy ads, pop up’s and roll over’s not preferred

by users as they are primarily using social networking sites to engage in talks with

their friends. If a company can engage consumers, they will choose to listen to the

messages that are being told and potentially pass these messages on to others. The

potential of social networking sites (SNSs) to be utilized as an effective marketing

tool is in involving consumers to participate in marketing on social networking

sites. A different approach is required by companies that ‘pull’ consumers in rather

than ‘push’ marketing messages onto them. Consumers are using social networking

sites to be social and make them heard.

Customers can use the internet to tell marketers what they want. The

customer specifies the needs and the business delivers. Thus, the customer changes

roles from ‘consumer’ to ‘prosumer’.

49
 Nowadays, consumers are co-creating marketing content with companies

and their respective brands. Organizations are looking to online social media

marketing campaigns in an effort to reach consumers where they live online so that

they can easily engage their customers with their marketing activities. But the

major challenge facing many companies is that although they recognize the need to

be active on social media, they don’t understand how to do it effectively, what

performance indicators they should measure and how should they measure them.

Further, as companies develop social media strategy platforms such as YouTube,

Facebook and Twitter, these are too often treated as standalone elements rather

than part of integrated system. Hanna et al (2011) have suggested a systematic way

of understanding and conceptualizing online social media as an ecosystem of

related elements involving both digital and traditional media. They have shared

several insights and lessons related to the strategic integration of Social media

marketing into a firms’ marketing communication strategy.

50
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57
 CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 INTRODUCTION

This chapter begins with introduction and followed by research design, population

of the study, sample and sampling procedure, instrument of data collection,

Justification of instrument used, administration of research instrument and method

of data analysis were all discussed in this section chapter.

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

Ebubechukwu (2012) observes that a research design gives details on the most

suitable methods of investigation, the nature of research instruments, the sampling

plan and type of data to be used. He further noted that a research design forms the

framework of the entire research process. This is a master plan or model for the

conduct of the investigation, (Eboh, 2009). The research design used in this study

was descriptive survey which seek to describe the existing status of what is being

investigated and also help the researcher to know where the variable are gotten and

how the objectives could be achieved.

3.2 POPULATION OF THE STUDY

Any research work is directed at a particular group of people called the

population. The target population of any study must be defined to give the

researcher sense of direction.

58
 In regard to this work, which case is Onigbinde Stores Jos. The population

of the study is to capture the staff of Onigbinde Stores Jos.

3.3 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING PROCEDURE

A sample is that part of the population that conveniently represents the variation in

the population; it is selected from the population for generation of data. For this

study, the sample method will be used due to the small size of the population;

therefore the entire 25 staff will be adapted by the researcher to form the sample

size of the study.

3.4 INSTRUMENT OF DATA COLLECTION

The research instrument that will be used for data collection is the questionnaire.

The researcher will adapt a questionnaire from Benjamin (2016) to collect data for

the study. The questionnaire will have a lot of questions designed to collect

information on aspect of research problems from the respondents. The

questionnaire will be divided into two sections; the first section covers

demographic information of respondents while the section two of the questionnaire

entails psychographic information which covers the main questions related to the

topic.

3.5 JUSTIFICATION

The researcher will use questionnaires as instrument for data collection. The

rationale for the use of questionnaires is to collect quality responses from the

59
sampled respondents. The use of questionnaire by the researcher were to gather

information on the topic of the study and subjecting such data to statistical analysis

for the purpose reaching conclusion on subject-matter of the study and providing

solutions to identified research problems.

3.6 ADMINISTRATION OF RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

Drop and pick method was used in the administration of the questionnaire. The

questionnaire was given to respondents and collected after two weeks. This was to

give respondents time to study the items before completion and to ensure that the

rate of return of completed questionnaire is high.

3.7 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

The data collected from the questionnaire used in this research work was analyzed

using simple percentages and was presented with the aid of tables as well as

explanations made. These will form the basis of data analysis and interpretation as

will be presented in the preceding chapter.

60
 REFERENCE
Eboh, E. (2008). Research Methodology: A Practical Treaties for Students (second

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Benjamin, H. (2016). The Impact of Social Media on Consumer Buying Behaviour

using Onigbinde Stores. Unpublish thesis.

61
 CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

The main objective of this study is to analyze, interpret and present

the data collected by the use of questionnaires from the respondents.

The researcher designed 10 questions and administered to members of

staff in the company as well as consumers of their products. A total of 30

questionnaires were sent out and 25 were fully answered and returned.

4.2 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Table 1: Gender:

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

Male 10 40.0 40.0 40.0

Valid Female 15 60.0 60.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 1. Above showed that, 40% of the respondents are male and 60% are
female.

62
Table 2:Age

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

18-25 Years 13 52.0 52.0 52.0

26-30 Years 9 36.0 36.0 88.0

Valid
31-35 Years 3 12.0 12.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 2 showed that, 52% of the respondents are between the ages of 18-

25, 36% of the respondents are between the ages of 26-30, 12% of the respondents

are between the ages of 31 – 35. This implies that majority of the respondents are

between the ages of 18-25.

Table 3: Marital status

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

Single 22 88.0 88.0 88.0

Valid Married 3 12.0 12.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 3 showed that, 88% of the respondents are single while 12% are
married.

63
Table 4: Educational Qualification

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

ND/NCE 10 40.0 40.0 40.0

Valid HND/B.SC 15 60.0 60.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on showed that, 40% of the respondents are ND/NCE holders while 60% of

the respondents are HND/BSC holders. This implies that majority of the

respondents are HND/BSC holders.

Table 5: How long have you been working with Onigbinde Stores

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

1-5 YEARS 18 72.0 72.0 72.0

6-10 YEARS 6 24.0 24.0 96.0

Valid 11 YEARS AND
1 4.0 4.0 100.0
ABOVE

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 5 showed that, 72% of the respondents have work between 1-5 years,

24% of the respondents have worked between 6 – 10 years and 4.0% have worked

up to 11 years an above.

64
Table 6: Does Consumers’ have any perception towards
shopping online?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

NO 5 20.0 20.0 20.0

Valid YES 20 80.0 80.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 6 showed that, consumers have perception toward online shopping as

the table indicated that, 80% of the respondents agreed to the question.

Table 7: Does any factors motivate Consumers buying or

shopping behaviour through social media platforms?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

NO 3 12.0 12.0 12.0

Valid YES 22 88.0 88.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data in table 7 showed that, 12% of the respondents said know while 88% of the

respondents said yes there are factors that motivate consumers buying or shopping

behavior.

65
 Table 8: Does social media channels have any effect on
buying behavior of Onigbinde Stores Customers?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

NO 2 8.0 8.0 8.0

Valid YES 23 92.0 92.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 8 above indicated that, 8% of the respondents do not agree that social

media channels affects buying behavior while 92% of the respondents agreed that,

social media channel have effect on buying behavior.

Table 9: Is there any negative attitude towards online

shopping among the Customers of Onigbinde Stores?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

NO 11 44.0 44.0 44.0

Valid YES 14 56.0 56.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 9 showed that, 44% of the respondents do not agree that there is

negative attitude towards online shopping while 56% of the respondents agreed

that there is negative attitude towards online shopping. This implies that majority

of the respondents agreed that, they have negative attitude toward online shopping.

66
Table 10: Is there any significant relationship between
social media channels and buying behavior of Customers in
Onibinde stores?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

NO 5 20.0 20.0 20.0

Valid YES 20 80.0 80.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 10 above showed that, 20% of the respondents do not agree that there

any significant relationship between social media channels and buying behavior of

Customers in Onibinde stores while 80% of the respondents agree that, there any

significant relationship between social media channels and buying behavior of

Customers in Onibinde stores. This implies that there any significant relationship

between social media channels and buying behavior of Customers in Onibinde

stores

Table 11: Does the impact of social media has any impact on
consumer buying behaviour?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

NO 3 12.0 12.0 12.0

Valid YES 22 88.0 88.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

67
Source: Field Survey, 2019
Data on table 11 showed that, 12% of the respondents do not agree that, the impact

of social media has any impact on consumer buying behaviour while 88% of the

respondents agree that, the impact of social media has any impact on consumer

buying behaviour.

Table 12: Are you satisfied with the knowledge of online

marketing among Consumers of your organizations?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

NO 3 12.0 12.0 12.0

Valid YES 22 88.0 88.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: Field Survey, 2019

Data on table 12 showed that, 12% of the respondents o not agree that while 88%

of the respondents are you satisfied with the knowledge of online marketing among

Consumers of your organizations. This implies that, they are satisfied with the

knowledge of online marketing among Consumers of your organizations

68
Table 13: Are you satisfied with the performance of
Consumers towards social media perception?

Frequency Percent Valid Cumulative

Percent Percent

NO 10 40.0 40.0 40.0

Valid YES 15 60.0 60.0 100.0

Total 25 100.0 100.0

Source: field Survey, 2019

Data in table 13 above showed that, 40% of the respondents are not satisfied with

the performance of Consumers towards social media perception wwhile 60% of the

respondents are satisfied with the performance of Consumers towards social media

perception

4.3 Discussion of Result

Data on table 1. Above showed that, 40% of the respondents are male and 60% are
female.
Data on table 2 showed that, 52% of the respondents are between the ages of 18-

25, 36% of the respondents are between the ages of 26-30, 12% of the respondents

are between the ages of 31 – 35. This implies that majority of the respondents are

between the ages of 18-25.

Data on table 3 showed that, 88% of the respondents are single while 12% are
married.

69
Data on showed that, 40% of the respondents are ND/NCE holders while 60% of

the respondents are HND/BSC holders. This implies that majority of the

respondents are HND/BSC holders.

Data on table 5 showed that, 72% of the respondents have work between 1-5 years,

24% of the respondents have worked between 6 – 10 years and 4.0% have worked

up to 11 years an above.

Data on table 6 showed that, consumers have perception toward online shopping as

the table indicated that, 80% of the respondents agreed to the question.

Data in table 7 showed that, 12% of the respondents said know while 88% of the

respondents said yes there are factors that motivate consumers buying or shopping

behavior.

Data on table 8 above indicated that, 8% of the respondents do not agree that social

media channels affects buying behavior while 92% of the respondents agreed that,

social media channel have effect on buying behavior.

Data on table 9 showed that, 44% of the respondents do not agree that there is

negative attitude towards online shopping while 56% of the respondents agreed

that there is negative attitude towards online shopping. This implies that majority

of the respondents agreed that, they have negative attitude toward online shopping.

70
Data on table 10 above showed that, 20% of the respondents do not agree that there

any significant relationship between social media channels and buying behavior of

Customers in Onibinde stores while 80% of the respondents agree that, there any

significant relationship between social media channels and buying behavior of

Customers in Onibinde stores. This implies that there any significant relationship

between social media channels and buying behavior of Customers in Onibinde

stores

Data on table 11 showed that, 12% of the respondents do not agree that, the impact

of social media has any impact on consumer buying behaviour while 88% of the

respondents agree that, the impact of social media has any impact on consumer

buying behaviour

Data on table 12 showed that, 12% of the respondents o not agree that while 88%

of the respondents are you satisfied with the knowledge of online marketing among

Consumers of your organizations. This implies that, they are satisfied with the

knowledge of online marketing among Consumers of your organizations

Data in table 13 above showed that, 40% of the respondents are not satisfied with

the performance of Consumers towards social media perception wwhile 60% of the

respondents are satisfied with the performance of Consumers towards social media

perception

71
72
 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides summary of findings, made in the course of the

study, conclusion and makes recommendations for the study.

5.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

1. The following emerged from the study of the impact of social media on

consumer buying behavior:

2. Social media has been identified to be very important for increase in

consumer buying behavior.

3. The research has revealed that the commonest mode used for social

mediaare follows.

4. It has also identified that social media influence the consumer behaviour

towards purchasing online.

5. It was discovered that most of the people don’t shop online vie the use of

social media.

6. It was also discovered in the course of this study that the Onigbinde

Storesadvertises on daily basis more often than other periods.

7. More so the findings revealed that social mediahas a position of a product as

strong in the mind of the consumer when purchase online.

73
 8. This also creates brand loyalty and product differentiation when shopping on

line.

5.3 CONCLUSION

Onigbinde Storeshas been able to use effective social media to some extent,

and in doing so, they have been able to attain the height technological

advancement about online shopping.

No matter how successful a social media market is and regardless of the

edge the vendors in the industry, social media is a must and should be a continuous

activity.

5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Having analyzed, discussed and interpreted the data collected in this study,

the researcher therefore recommends the followings:

2. Due to the competitive nature of the social media market, the Consumersof

Onigbinde Storesmust develop and formulate positive attitude towards

online shopping social networking platform.

3. Finally, it is suggested that market research and other studies be conducted

to enable Onigbinde StoresConsumers identify those gray areas where

promotional social network market can be effectively promoted by

Consumers and management of the institution.

74
5.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Due to limited financial resources, the study was carried out only in Jos,

Plateau State, Nigeria.

Again, available time within which to complete the study is short. As such,

the researcher must of necessity use an easily accessible population.

75
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 APPENDIX A

INTRODUCTORY LETTER

Department of Marketing

School of Business studies

The Federal Polytechnic

Bauchi

Dear Respondent,

RESEARCH QUESTION

We are final year students from the above mentioned institution, department

of Marketing. We are embarking on a research work, with the topic “The Impact

of Social Media on Consumer Buying Behaviour using Onigbinde Stores Jos

As a case study.

We will be highly grateful if you would respond to the question that will be

presented to you. Therefore, all the information would be treated as confidential.

Thank you, as we anticipate your cooperation.

Yours faithfully

Group 10

84
 QUESTIONNAIRE

Please read carefully and thick the appropriate answers amongst the alternatives

given, thank you.

SECTION ONE: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION OF STAFF

1. Gender: Male [ ] Female [ ]

2. Age: 18-25 [ ] 26-30 [ ] 31-35 [ ] 36 and above[ ]

3. Marital status: Single [ ] Married [ ] Divorced [ ] Widow (er) [ ]

4. Educational Qualification: ND/NCE [ ] HND/Bsc [ ] Msc [ ]

5. How long have you been working with Onigbinde Stores?

(a) 1 - 5 years [ ]

(b) 6 — 1 0 years [ ]

(c) 11 – above [ ]

SECTION TWO: PSYCHOGRAPHIC INFORMATION RELATED TO

THE TOPIC

1. Does Consumers’ have any perception towards shopping online?

Yes ( ) No ( )

85
2. Does any factors motivate Consumers buying or shopping behaviour

through social media platforms?

Yes ( ) No ( )

3. Does social media channels have any effect on buying behavior of

Onigbinde Stores Customers?

Yes ( ) No ( )

4. Is there any negative attitude towards online shopping among the Customers

of Onigbinde Stores?

Yes ( ) No ( )

5. Is there any significant relationship between social media channels and

buying behavior of Customers in Onibinde stores?

Yes ( ) No ( )

6. Does the impact of social media has any impact on consumer buying

behaviour?

(a) Yes [ ]

(b) No [ ]

7. Are you satisfied with the knowledge of online marketing among Consumers

of your organizations?

(a) Yes [ ] (b) No [ ]

8. Are you satisfied with the performance of Consumers towards social media

86
 perception?

(a) Yes [ ] (b) No [ ]

9. What can you say about the impact of social media and consumer buying

behavior in respect to Onigbinde store Jos?

………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………

10.What are your recommendation about social media and consumer buying

behavior in respect to Customer of Onigbinde Stores Jos?

………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………….

87
88