“​IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON

RETAIL MARKET​”

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the course requirement of

post graduate diploma in management

Submitted by: External Guide

Student name: Name of guide

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COLLAGE NAME/UNIVERSITY

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 Guide’s Certificate

This to certify that report titled “​IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

ON RETAIL MARKET​” has been prepared under my guidance and supervision.
The report is partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Post Graduate
Diploma in Management ( approved by AICTE) by student name…………………,
Reg. No………… and this report /study has not formed a basis for the award of any
degree or diploma in any university/institution.

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the dissertation ​“IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING ON RETAIL MARKET” ​has been prepared under my guidance
and supervision. The report is partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of
Post Graduate Diploma in Management ( Approved by AICTE) in Dayanand Sagar
Business School is my original work has not been submitted for the award of any
other Degree/Diploma in any university/institution

Place:
Date:
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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All praise to the almighty with whose auspicious blessings I have been able to
accomplish my research project report successfully. Equal credit goes to my parents
and teachers who made me what I am today by their hard labor, devotion, support &
prayer.

My special thanks to for generic cooperation coordination and valuable support. I

pay my gratitude towards my other faculty members. I must not forget to render my
deep feelings of gratitude and thanks to all the respondents whom I visited during the
survey for valuable information, co-operation, advice and suggestion to make this
endeavor a great success.

I am grateful to my guide ​Mr. ______________________________ ​for his efforts

during my thesis work. My sincere thanks to all other who were associated with the
project directly or indirectly for providing me the excellent guidance during the
project.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6

1. INTRODUCTION 8

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 15

3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE & METHODOLOGY 42

4. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 45

5. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 67

6. CONCLUSIONS 69

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY 70

8. COPY OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE 72

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

India has the world's second highest number of internet users, with 699 million users
connected. In India, the majority of internet users are found in urban areas, as there is
less access in the rural areas of the country. Like China, the primary link between the
population and the internet is mobile smartphones. The Social media websites in
India are growing by almost 100% year after year. The Top sites Indians visit are
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube, Linkedin and Instagram.

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable
publishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn
communication into interactive dialogues. Social media is a group of Internet-based
applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,
which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Businesses also
refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread
running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social
interaction for the co-creation of value.

Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that
attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social networks. A
corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is
coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself. Social
media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet access,
opening doors for organizations to increase their brand awareness and facilitate
conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively
inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.

Social media is a great tool to help the business reach untapped, potential customers
and stay connected to current ones. Traditional marketing tactics such as advertising,
referrals, and public relations are still very important, but social media tactics have

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now become a part of everyday marketing’s fabric and need to be considered at the
strategic level of your marketing decision-making process.

With the growing acceptance of the social media space in India, brands have accepted
social media as an important part of their marketing communication strategies. Social
media in the recent past has played an important role in helping brands to reach out to
their audience in the most effective way for both existing and prospective customers.
Especially Facebook with millions user in India itself has the maximum reach, as it’s
the most understood and used platforms. Facebook today is a platform used by brands
to engage with their audience and build a personal connect with their audience. The
engagement on social media works in similar lines to that of human relationships.
Most brands are highly active online during the festive season and telecom brands
lead the chart of being the most active brands on social media during this period. The
reason for this being dynamic and highly competitive nature of the telecom industry
where one of the most important factors driving the business is visibility.
Madworkers Technologies ranks among the top three brands which defines the
influence of a brand on Facebook.

Social media brand pages can play an important role for telecommunications
providers from a customer acquisition and retention perspectives, as well as to gain
valuable insights informing product development and communications strategies.

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 CHAPTER 1 

INTRODUCTION 

Social media itself is a catch-all term for sites that may provide radically different
social actions. For instance, Twitter is a social site designed to let people share short
messages or “updates” with others. Facebook, in contrast is a full-blown social
networking site that allows for sharing updates, photos, joining events and a variety
of other activities.

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable
communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile
technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and
Michael Haenlein also define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications
that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows
the creation and exchange of user-generated content." Businesses also refer to social
media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all
definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the
co-creation of value.

Social media marketing is a recent component that has impacted the way
organizations communicate with their customers. In the emergence of Web, the
internet provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business
connections, share information and collaborate on projects online. Social media
marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention,
generates online conversations, and encourages readers to share it with their social
networks. The message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it
is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.

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Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet
access, opening doors for organizations to increase their brand awareness and
facilitate conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a
relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.
Organizations can receive direct feedback from their customers and targeted markets.

Social media may have been integral to the Arab revolutions and revolts of 2011. As
one Cairo activist succinctly put it, "“We use Facebook to schedule the
protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world." However, there is
some debate about the extent to which social media facilitate this kind of change.

Social media, marketing, and “social authority”:

One of the key components in successful social media marketing implementation is

building "social authority". Social authority is developed when an individual or
organization establishes themselves as an "expert" in their given field or area, thereby
becoming an influencer in that field or area.

It is through this process of "building social authority" that social media becomes
effective. That is why one of the foundational concepts in social media has become
that you cannot completely control your message through social media but rather you
can simply begin to participate in the "conversation" in the hopes that you can
become a relevant influence in that conversation.

Thus, using social media as a form of marketing has taken on whole new challenges.
It is most effective if marketing efforts through social media revolve around
the genuine building of authority. Someone performing a "marketing" role within a
company must honestly convince people of their genuine intentions, knowledge, and
expertise in a specific area or industry through providing valuable and accurate
information on an ongoing basis without a marketing angle overtly associated. If this
can be done, trust with, and of, the recipient of that information – and that message
itself – begins to develop naturally. This person or organization becomes a thought

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leader and value provider - setting themselves up as a trusted "advisor" instead of
marketer. "Top of mind awareness" develops and the consumer naturally begins to
gravitate to the products and/or offerings of the authority/influencer.

Of course, there are many ways authority can be created – and influence can be
accomplished – including: participation in Wikipedia which actually verifies
user-generated content and information more than most people may realize; providing
valuable content through social networks on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter;
article writing and distribution through sites such as Ezine Articles and Scribd; and
providing fact-based answers on "social question and answer sites" such
as EHow and Yahoo! Answers.

As a result of social media – and the direct or indirect influence of social media
marketers – today, consumers are as likely – or more likely – to make buying
decisions based on what they read and see in platforms we call "social" but only if
presented by someone they have come to trust. Additionally, reports have shown
organizations have been able to bring back dissastisfied customers and stakeholders
through social media channels. This is why a purposeful and carefully designed social
media strategy has become an integral part of any complete and directed marketing
plan but must also be designed using newer "authority building" techniques.

Marketing has always been a crucial part of a business. Good companies have
become great on the sheer basis of effective marketing strategies. In the era of huge
competition, organizations are going great length to advertise and promote their
products and earn valuable customer loyalty. The concept of marketing has kept
evolving with the passage of time. Companies are forced to adopt new changes in
their marketing strategies to remain relevant. If there is one factor that has really
affected the way marketing plans are being defined then it must be technology.

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In the new century, the marketing tools of earlier years were rendered obsolete. Those
who manage to anticipate the changes and adopt them quickly have better chances of
survival. Social media marketing is one such great change that many companies have
started to accept in a big way. Though, it is still in a nascent stage but canny
marketing strategists are already harping onto the next big marketing revolution
taking place in form of social media marketing.

The concept of social media marketing basically refers to the process of promoting
business or websites through social media channels. It is a powerful marketing
medium that is defining the way people are communicating. It is one of the
significantly low-cost promotional methods that provide businesses large numbers of
links and huge amount of traffic. Companies manage to get massive attention and that
really works in favor of the business. Social media marketing is a potent method
applied by progressive companies for selling their products/services or for just
publishing content for ad revenue.

Social media is an extremely useful tool using which companies can get their
information, product descriptions, promotions all ingrained in the chain of networking
world. Considering the newness of this marketing method, organizations are coming

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up with innovative ways to develop their marketing plans. New platforms are being
created to approach potential clients. A large number of business organizations are
allocating budget for online business development using social media marketing. It is
a booming sector which is going to redefine the way marketing strategies are being
formed and promoted.

While much of today’s attention is focused on popular recreational social media

platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, the future of corporate social
media will facilitate collaboration and knowledge management in large, decentralized
environments. Companies that jumped into social media early have been developing
guidelines and standards ad hoc, but it makes sense to analyze their progress. The
rules those companies develop likely will shape the best practices for social media in
the future, and there is much to learn from their successes and mistakes.

Creative use of new technology is a common method of creating competitive

advantage, so it does not surprise Hoffman that social media platforms are now
deployed in ways their creators never envisioned. Salesforce.com recently launched
Chatter, its own social media platform that fuses its customer relationship
management databases, staff profiles and status updates, and outside Twitter feeds to
improve teamwork among sales staffs. Microsoft encourages its employees to blog
about the details of new software releases. JetBlue keeps its customers informed and
engaged with humorous banter via Twitter. When social media first emerged, much
industrial and other business-to business enterprises saw the technology as applicable
only in the mass market. They are quickly learning that this technology can be a
powerful Component of their overall business operations.

Benefit of social media marketing:

In just a few years, social media swiftly has involved into a legitimate platform for
corporate communications. Established companies such as IBM and Microsoft are
marketing social media solutions for business use, and they are likely to have

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competition as more organizations seek effective methods of collaboration across
global networks. These are simple and powerful computing tools, yet social media
remains a mystery to many executives. As a result, some organizations have been
hesitant to adopt its use formally, even as others are already establishing best
practices. In every decade new technologies emerge that create business value and
therefore move from bleeding edge to leading edge, and then into the mainstream of
enterprise technology. In the 1990s, it was the World Wide Web and ERP (enterprise
resource planning) systems. More recently, it was tools for cost management and
operational innovation. In the decade ahead, social networking strategies will be
“must haves” for chief executives and their key leadership staff.

Much of the skepticism surrounding corporate social media results from a mistaken
belief that all social media platforms perform the same function. And yet there are
substantial differences between the applications used by high school kids to share
party photos and the applications used by large decentralized business organizations
to facilitate collaboration among global teams. Reid Hoffman, one of the leading
visionaries of the social media revolution, sees the tendency to equate one platform
with another as a hurdle that must be cleared before social media can be fully
embraced by business users. Many people still think that Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter are “pretty similar to each other. In fact, they support very different uses,”
says Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and a founding board member of PayPal.
Facebook, for example, is mainly a platform for recreational socializing within a
defined group. Twitter, on the other hand, is a tool for micro broadcasting bits of
information. LinkedIn is a highly customizable search engine for networking with
professionals anywhere in the world, and while those three platforms are the best
known.

Role of social media in brand building:

Social media is now increasingly becoming an ingrained aspect of political

campaigns, national defense strategies, public policy, public relations, brand

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management and even intra company communication. Since the major task of
marketing as tool used to inform consumers about the company’s products, who they
are and what they offer, social marketing plays an important role in marketing.

● Social media can be used to provide an identity about the companies and the
products or services that they offer.

● Social media helps in creating relationships with people who might not otherwise
know about the products or service or what the companies represent.

● Social media makes companies "real" to consumers. If they want people to follow
them they need not just talk about the latest product news, but share their
personality with them.

● Social media can be used to associate themselves with their peers that may be
serving the same target market.

● Social media can be used to communicate and provide the interaction that
consumers look for.

Tune in to your target audience:

The user-friendly brands cutting across domains invariably source their strength from
a community of users who make each other aware of the practical value of it. They
share a common bond or needs that the particular product or service meets.

Let me simplify things for you by breaking down the process into four simple albeit
pertinent steps:

● Connect with the people

● Build a brand image

● Leave an impact

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● Follow up to understand the aftereffects

The first stage involves figuring out how to build bridges with your customers. No
need to say, this involves considerable research – both offline and online, qualitative
and quantitative!

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

Social Networking:

Social networking is the vital pert of social science that utilizes to a broad extent of
human being corporations, large otherwise small. The learning of SN (social
networking) offers a consideration of the sharing relationship with one person to
further supports assess the communal capital of that person and is able to assist
discover initial parts and groups. Social capital is the combination of the capability to
magnetize on the sources of the system associates. Through this unparalleled
progression of Information Technology and the Internet throughout the previous time
age, the globe has observed the entrance of online SNS for example Facebook,
MySpace, Bebo and several social networking sites. SNS are an alternative of social
media f​ orm example YouTube, Wikis, Blogs et cetera with exclusive traits, creating
them famous to diverse user segments. Social networking sites are area which enable
persons to contact and interact with more persons with ordinary attentions for
example friends, heartening them to frankly contribute, give criticism and join to
other social sites and connects. They offer a broad extent of jobs for example fast
messaging, send emails, blogging, and networking through teams and occasions. To
link a communal system, one has to offer knowledge employing their email addresses
therefore that information is able to be sent to him/her on his email address. Some of

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these systems show detailed information of their users comprising their attention,
hobbies and dislikes. Though, associates are able to be choosy in selecting who they
desire to interact and share knowledge with. SN is the greatest rising action on the
new users over Internet, Web2.0, which has developed to SNS of every sizes, and are
“more and more entwined as stages unlock”, and where everybody can change
everybody else’s job openly. A lot of businesses look these SNS as ‘should have’
instruments. Whereas conventional mass advertising looks for to increase consumer
reach employing print media and broadcast, social media allows an extra potential
move through looking for great marketplaces and advertising expressly to them
employing an innovative modern approach. The process of data mining through these
SNS gives advertisers straight entrance to their aimed customer segments. This move,
which is able to be furthermore explained through the Long Tail Business Model, has
supported social networking to generate instruments for advertisers that are being
employed for managing marketing attempts to exact marketplaces.

Different types of social network advertising:

Social Network Advertising contains three major types which are given below:

● Straight advertising that is depended on their friend’s network - This is able

to be the very useful style other than furthermore stokes the great criticism. The
recent instance of this controversy is the Facebook beacon plan. Depended on an
activity of their friend has applied, they cloud see a note in their news blog which
denotes that 'Bob has just bought a 'RadioHead CD from MusicWorld'. This is
able to be a very successful way as frequently persons take decisions to buy a
little otherwise act amazing depended on their nearer community of friends.
Though, there is furthermore much disagreement nearby this because it is able to
be understood developing the individual connections they have with their buddies
and furthermore increases solitude worries.

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● Direct Advertising placed on your social networking site - This is a further
conventional style of marketing through web. For example they see banner
advertisement on several different websites; also this is the same method, apart
from on a social marketing by social networking sites. Users are able to see these
– such as- Like as block in the peak right of MySpace site, otherwise like a poster
on the left side of Facebook pages. There is much dissimilarity though – and these
are that these social networking sites is able to be receiving benefit of personal
information on their demographic and therefore aimed the advertisement
straightly to them. Next, these kinds of advertisements are able to be furthermore
situated through human beings on their request pages by advertisement systems
for example Offerwall, AdParlor. They have entrance to the similar information
and is able to be create revenues for request developers providing them extra
inspiration to make requests and offering marketers a further comprising mode to
access to these SNS users.

● Indirect Advertising by creating 'groups' or 'pages' ​- This is an pioneering

advertising method in which an organization will make a 'cluster' otherwise 'page'
that site users are able to be pick to connect. Users will employ this to increased
'subscribers' base otherwise ‘admirers' and employ this to marketplace a
competition, a fresh product, otherwise just support raise brand identity. These
user clusters are able to be rapidly developed in amounts of users which are able
to be turn into a extremely successful advertising mode.

Working of MySpace and Facebook:

The capability of social networking sites to take on different roles are fundamentally
approaches from situating cookies on associates’ browsers, which pursues the
manners of subscribers and are generally find out all over the online marketplace.
MySpace is included in both Google's search and content networks, allowing search
network ads to appear on MySpace alongside, or above search results, and relevant
content ads to display alongside relevant content. The HyperTargeting system

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launched by MySpace in 2007 scans user profiles, gathering information about their
interests and demographics and sorting them into categories such as entertainment,
sports etc. Google’s AdWords identifies particular words searched by users and
brings up related ads on the search result page; it only involves costs for actual clicks
made, therefore marketers can ensure that they are only paying for advertisements
that are successful in attracting customers. AdSense follows a user’s behaviour by
placing related ads on visited websites.

For instance, a search for “pet care” may also include ”kitten care” or ”dog care” on
the page of a pet care information site. Facebook, in collaboration with Microsoft has
introduced Social Ads and Beacon. Social Ads enables a Facebook member with a
particular interest to be highlighted when searching for a target market. Consequently,
promotion of a brand does not remain limited to the member alone; it gets extended to
the member’s friends. Working with commercial websites such as eBay and
Blockbuster, Beacon tracks the purchases of Facebook users’ and displays them to
their friends who might be encouraged to follow suit. Given that this information is
immediately available on these networking sites, and that the behaviours of their
members can further indicate other potential customers, these are significant
innovations that can be utilized in the creation of an integrated marketing
communication plan for specific target markets, resulting in a more efficient and
focused marketing approach. Facebook also offers Insight, a service which supplies
free data to promoters, enabling them to review the activity and performance of their
advertisements as well as user demographics and trends. It assures advertisers of
trusted referrals as they are allowed to attach friend-to-friend referrals to their
advertisements. This feature offers them opportunities to take advantage of flexible
pricing and buy advertising space based on clicks or impressions. Facebook Pages -
an added feature of the network - allow rich media display, create an Internet
presence for organisations and can be easily set up. Since these are shown in member
profiles, members are able to invite their friends to join these pages, enabling
businesses to directly communicate with members. Facebook enables advertisers to

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be cost-efficient through a choice of paying either by clicks or impressions. This
enables a company to create advertisements which can best serve their promotion
objectives.

Both MySpace and Facebook retain the interest of their members by being useful to
them and providing services that are entertaining and/or helpful in expanding their
networks. With enough time and effort, it is theoretically possible to create a series of
virtual-visual web based networks of friends, starting with one individual and
extending out to others. Due to the nature of the medium, the
friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend idea underlying the development of such networks can
lead to a seemingly endless number of possibilities for interconnections. Consumers
are engaged in goal-directed behaviors. While human behavior is influenced by
personal and social goals, behavior is also a function of interaction between human
capacities to make decisions and the task environment involved. In today’s high stress
work environment, where people are forced to spend more time on work, social
networks provide a “space” where individuals can express themselves freely and
interact with others. They have empowered their users, who are also consumers,
through the exchange of opinions and information and led them to a new ‘information
democracy,’ in which the possibility of manipulating information by marketers has
been greatly reduced, since information has now tilted toward the consumer.

Measurement of effectiveness of social media

To follow on the results of what the social media do, great part of the companies,
about 71%, monitor on the number of users and visitors, while 63 % monitor on the
number of pages viewed, and 50% the visit frequency. Any activity or process
employed by a company use indicators that are regularly linked to and grouped up
with the performance of other processes in order to fill in an indicator for the area or
department, which in turn is passed on to the shareholder or the owner. The business
of an organization is usually managed by these numbers, which can be translated into
value to the company, either by the perception of the brand or the satisfaction of its

20
customers, or more importantly, by the return on investment. The brand equity
indicators, return on investment and net promoter scores are the least used by the
companies to measure the results on social media. On the Web, almost everything
performed is thoroughly traceable and measurable, although the challenge of
translating qualitative and quantitative results into financial quantitative numbers still
exists. This can be achieved through correlation and analysis of the before and after
the social media, crossing off effects of seasonality and market movements. Yet, the
task is hard and the company needs planning in order to structure the aspects to be
measured before the starting of any actions.

Marketing Implications:

The effectiveness of selling plans based not just on setting up a suitable valuable plan;
it is furthermore a job of the capability to successfully interact it to the aimed
marketplace. Innovative technology for example SN and the customer empowerment
obtaining from them have made a innovative type of customers, deriving advertisers
to understand how they contact this worth plan to this cluster and include with them.
Advertisers is not bale to depend on mass media networks to “force” their interactions
to customers in this latest client-concentrated atmosphere; they should hold new plans
if they desire to be successful. The gainful and the prospective advantages that are
able to be forced from the customer growth are two chief inspirers at the back of the
raising employ of social systems because selling instruments. Through the effective
costs engaged, investing on advertising by social systems will develop more
effectively. This has significant suggestions for advertisers. In against to website
“poster” advertising, which is same to conventional mass media marketing, social
networking sites provide advertisers the chance to marketing otherwise take on PR
actions by electronic word-of-mouth – appeared through several because the mainly
strong request of SN.

At the opening of the Facebook advertisement stage, which joints parts of

Word-of-Mouth and marketing, this system inspired regarding a innovative age of

21
force selling in which customers would willingly support the goods customers like,
where this site assists advertisers in generating most successful advertisement
operations. Real hopefulness is relied on the greatly documented information that the
influential authority of selling interactions is developed when it invents through an
unbelievable resource for example a family member. Effective study has exposed that
strangeness among the resource (for example the messenger) and the contact (for
example the matter) is able to be support for a unenthusiastic assessment of the
message in its place of a optimistic one as formerly proposed. Joint advertising and
interpersonal interactions at the similar moment and at the similar gap on numerous
online websites can enhance the incidence of real strangeness issues, as advertisers
have fewer authorities in the innovative knowledge democracy time age. A few
companies have furthermore started to integrate electronic Word-of-Mouth on their
personal social networking sites. Also this work recommends suggests that in real
frameworks the message can be observed as intentionally influenced selling
interactions and thus be fewer successful than electronic Word-of-Mouth provided by
normal social networking sites. The result of advertising on the site is that it enables
for entrance to advertisers in spite of geographic sites and therefore offers a wide
consideration of the marketplace actualities which might be valuable to advertisers.
The condition ‘web-no-graphy’ has been denoted like an effort to seem at the online
like an aim of work and to identify the deep views into the usual discussions that
happen in web debates. It is valuable that every data entered on the social networking
sites is able to be gathered and assessed in correct-time. Therefore, communal
systems are able to promote adverting using associate (users of social networking
sites) information like input to increase an exclusive viewpoint into customer manner
and their communication with an exact product name. There are several different
modes in which organizations are able to influence the propagation of social
networking sites in their advertising efforts.

Social media marketing is essential:

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Gone are the days when social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook were
hangouts for teens only. Now a lot of adults are using these sites. All social media
help in promoting your brand irrespective of what it is. Let me elaborate why social
networking sites are beneficial for your online advertising.

Social media marketing offers various benefits:

Most of the social networking sites are free. There is no fee of any kind. Some of the
free networking sites are Facebook.com, Twitter.com etc. Unlike search advertising
based on pay per click that not only consumes time and money, social networking
sites consume time only.

Make your online advertising effective by targeting specific group of people:

You can target specific audience for advertising your product. Join groups in
Facebook and other such networking sites. These groups consists of like minded
audience which may be very to audience you are targeting for your brand promotion.
Unlike in PPC or search marketing where it is difficult to tell much about your
audience, socially advertising your brand is very cheaper. For example if your are
selling books for engineering students, you can join any community that consists of
engineering students. In social media such as Facebook it is very easy to know the
members of community.

Make a community to increase your audience:

Once you become member of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. You can create your
own groups and community and send invitations to fairly a large group of members.
Once you make the community, people joining your community who are really
interested in your community or product becomes obvious. There is no limit no of
members that join your community or group. You can spread your message with just

23
few key strokes. The best thing is that you need not any well planned hi-fi strategy to
promote your product.

Establish your expertise and relationship with your audience:

Share your knowledge with people you are targeting. By sharing your knowledge and
expertise on any particular subject, you will not only establish your expertise about
subject but will also develop a sort of relationship with your audience/clients. Once
you win trust of people your chance of doing online business will increase
tremendously. People like to do business with experts they know. You can establish
your brand by mixing with people in social networking sites. Online advertising on
social media can get you name more quickly than any other form of online marketing.
People visit sites related to person they know more often than any other site. That is
why traffic of social networking sites is doubling each year.

Use social media to partner with your Competitors.

Inspite of throat cut competition, in social networking sites you can team up with
your competitors to reach interested audience. This spirit of co-operation develops
because advertising on social media is free and you do not lose anything as in PPC
marketing. People are ready and even your competitors are ready to share their
experience to promote their brand. There is more emotional touch in social media
than any other platform of online marketing. The number of customers/audience on
these social networking sites is fairly large, so there is room for almost everyone.

Updating your activities and sharing new message is very easy and fast:

Modifying information on social networking sites take only seconds. Meeting with
fans, friends, society associates and further relationships is very simple in social
networking. There are many open online requests that enable them to modify their

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position all over the numerous of their social networking sites accounts at the same
time. There are several further causes why they must employ SNS for online
advertising. And also marketers will expand their plans once they are executed it.
Performing great business, endorsing their product name and magnetizing and
approaching to perspective customer/consumers are very simpler on social
networking than some more different style of online marketing. Currently large
businesses for example HCL, Wipro and further major IT business players are taking
support of social networking to endorse their product and approach to persons who
invest mainly of their times on these SNS. In ending, if they are not marketing on
social networking, they are great perspective clients and furthermore losing cash on
costly explore advertising otherwise some more online marketing.

Brand Intelligence:

First, businesses have an advantage of brand intelligence conducted on social

networks.

Businesses cannot dismiss the amount of traffic generated by social networks. She
continues to say that social networks used to appeal more to the young audience.
However, they are now gearing to other demographic groups, such as "career-based
social networks, shopping-based social networks, and employee groups." Thus,
businesses can collect consumer feedback, establish a brand presence, or, perhaps,
just observe the way their brands are discussed and perceived. Moreover, it gives a
business capability to develop a trusting relationship with a customer by direct
interaction via Web 2.0 features, address their needs and concerns, or even conduct
market research. In fact, the main advantage of having a social network presence is
"the amount of information an organization can gain about its customer base." He
continues, saying that information can be mined regarding all sorts of trends,
including product development, customer feedback, loyalty management, and
customer segmentation, among others.

25
Social Media Marketing on Retail Market

Nowadays, social media is playing a more and more important role in people’s daily
life; it has become one of the media that people use most frequently. As a result, more
and more businesses have realized the importance of social media marketing. In order
to win a position in today’s market, no company can afford to fall behind in this
social-media war. Thus, we can see that many companies are trying hard to be active
in large social-media platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram
(e.g., DeMers, 2014). Retail-food brands are great examples. These brands update
videos, tweets, and pictures every day, hoping to be more exposed to customers, so
that they can achieve superior sales performance (Jackson, 2016). They believe that
utilizing social media as a promotional and collaborative tool can successfully build a
relationship with their customers by enhancing the level of communication,
increasing brand awareness, and stimulating their consumers to actually purchase
their products.

However, is that really the case? Is it true that the more active the companies are in
social-media platforms, the better their sales performance? Is there any possibility
that their efforts in social media platforms provide no sales benefit?

In order to consider this question, we examined this topic to see if there is actually a
relationship between companies’ social-media activity and their sales performance. In
this paper, we selected three social-media platforms - Twitter YouTube and Instagram
and considered 13 brands in the retail-food industry as examples. These brands
include McDonald’s, Duckin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Chipotle, Wendy’s, Shake Shack,
Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Tim Horton, Burger King, Jack-In-The-Box, Sonic-Drive In,
and Domino’s. Specifically, we took a quarter (3 months) as a period, and collected
brands’ quarterly data of Twitter, YouTube and Instagram activity - including the
number of tweets, number of Twitter followers, YouTube video-view ranks,
YouTube subscribers, Instagram followers, and Instagram posts, as well as quarterly

26
revenue data from the brands’ financial statement. The goal was to study whether the
social-media activity was related to the sales revenue.

Social Media Influence in Food-Retail Industry

When it comes to the retail-food industry, large numbers of companies have heavily
invested in social media and have expanded their social recognition and have enjoyed
increasing sales revenues due to this revolution.

Starbucks is a worldwide traditional brand with a long history since 1971, known for
lots of things: great coffee, friendly baristas and what ​seems like a​ near-complete
takeover of practically every street corner in America. However, it’s also the most
successful example of the retail-food industry overwhelmingly benefiting from
investment in social media.

Huff (2014) discussed Starbucks investment in social media. He said that Starbucks’
social-media team is great at offering customer service of local coffee shops on a
grand scale over its social-media channels. Although Starbucks is a huge company,
customers can still get individual attention on social media. What’s more, he noted
that one of the reasons behind Starbucks’ social-media success is that drinking coffee
is a social activity. People love to meet over coffee, bring each other coffee, swap
stories about coffee, and build coffee acquisition into their morning routines. By
extension, sharing the coffee-drinking experience is a natural fit for platforms like
Twitter and Facebook. Starbucks posts unique content on Twitter and also uses
Twitter as a service to reach out to customers, talking about their in-store and product
experiences. All tweets are directed at specific Twitter users who have spoken to
Starbucks in their own timeline - sometimes with a complaint or negative feedback.
Figure 1 illustrates some examples on personalized responses by Starbucks.

27
Social Media And The Retail Industry

For a few years now, social media has completely changed the business environment
and redefined the way businesses communicate. Retail is a social activity, so it comes
as no surprise that the retail industry was one of the first adopters of social media to
help market and promote their brand to attract new customers. According to
a McKinsey Global Institute Study, 85% of consumer and retail companies are using
social media for marketing purposes, compared to the 66% of companies in other
industries.

Social media platforms give retail businesses the capability to personalise the
consumer experience; however, many retailers are still in the mind-set that social
media is purely a marketing and sales tool. Retailers who use social technology to
simply push advertisements and promotions could be potentially damaging their
long-term goal by failing to act on the other benefits of social media. If implemented
properly, social media is now a great way for retailers to boost sales, gather more
customers and develop their business;

● In 2014, the top 500 retailers earned £3.3 billion from social sales

● 46% of web users look towards social media when making purchase

● 91% of e-commerce retailers saw a lift in their SEO rank due to social
referrals

● 53% of users recommend companies and products on Twitter

● 50% of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation through

social media

Retailers participating in social media need to develop a content strategy that puts the
customers at the forefront of the campaign. Posting content too often or content that is
irrelevant to your consumer base is the digital version of cold calling. With a

28
carefully thought-out social strategy, retailers can gather a wealth of knowledge about
their customers, build a rapport and help shape an online community thus allowing
the business to gain a greater insight of their customers’ wants, needs and trends. The
key word in ‘social media’ is ‘social’; businesses need to be able to engage with their
customers in a meaningful way without becoming a social nuisance. Customers will
appreciate this and feel they are being listened to, helping you learn more about them
and build a reputation as a business that cares about its customers; after all, “a happy
customer is the greatest advertisement”.

In summary, social media is a great marketing tool for retailers in boosting sales,
growth and engaging with customers, but what are the benefits for consumers? They
engage with brands online for specific reasons; the top five being:

1. To take advantage of promotions and discounts

2. Information on the latest products

3. Customer service

4. Entertaining content

5. To offer feedback

Retailers need to take on board these five customer behaviours when developing their
social media strategy. Use social media for what it is there for; take full advantage of
its benefits and its growing community. Social media has progressed from just being
another advertising channel; it is now a much larger, mature platform which is here to
stay. As a retail business, it is down to you to either evolve with it or be left behind.

29
Influence of Social Media in Retail Industry

The social media has created a revolution in all the industry by improving the channel
for communication. Among the many industry that have benefited with the social
media, the retail sector has experienced notable advantages. The social media such as
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and GooglePlus have helped to create a community that
is helping the retail industry to promote the business.

Some of the main advantages of social media for retail are listed below.

1. Direct contact: The social media provides an environment where the customer
gets an opportunity to directly contact the merchant. The queries, complaints,
and enquiries can be attended easily and directly.

2. Instant Messaging: The social media gives a constant contact which allows to
pass information quickly even at any cases of crisis. The Twitter is one such
application that can quickly spread the latest information within 140

30
 characters. The other social media also help to communicate the important
message quickly.

3. Promotional activities: The social media has become one of the best medium
to promote the products and services since it can reach the public quickly. It
can be used for campaigning or marketing promotion. The social network is
built systematically such that the message is communicated properly.

4. Customer loyalty: The main advantage of social media is earning customer

loyalty. The brand established by the promotion through social networks can
be compelling for the customers to become a loyal customer for your products
and services.

5. Understanding market: The social media helps to understand the success and
failure of the product or services in the markets along with knowledge of
rivalry market which helps to enhance the business.

Importance to mark presence: The social media reserves its importance for the retail
industry since people tend to use the social networks for seeking recommendations
for the products and services. So, it is highly essential for today’s retail market
players to make their presence in social media too. The retailers can keep track on the
needs of the customers and read their mind. The social media can be used to locate
the niche market by searching using the right keywords. The retail brands can be
watched for its importance in the market by following the industry conversation in the
market.

The social media can be one of the friendly media for following the customers as well
as get followed by the icon customers in the retail industry.

How Social Media impacts Retail Businesses

Why use social media for your business?

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Business owners, bу now, аrе nо strangers tо thе fact thаt social media hаvе what іt
takes tо hеlр thеm іn the areas оf thеіr business. Whіlе mоѕt retailers hаvе аt lеаѕt
dabbled іn web marketing аnd realized thе benefits оf e-commerce, some аrе ѕtіll
struggling tо find thеіr legs wіth rеgаrdѕ tо social media marketing. And wіth еасh
passing day, іt bесоmеѕ mоrе аnd mоrе important thаt thеу do.

How Businesses are Impacted

It presents business owners wіth thе opportunity tо connect wіth consumers іn а wау
thеу hаvе nеvеr bееn аblе to. Uѕіng а typically free service tо ignite word оf а sales
initiative thаt mау іn turn spread itself. It’s fueled bу consumer endorsement, whісh
business owner’s hаvе nеvеr fоund аѕ accessible аѕ thеу dо nоw wіth social media’s
capabilities.

Frоm а pure branding standpoint, utilizing social media іѕ important bесаuѕе it’s
simple аnd cost-effective. Creating а presence оn а social platform nоt оnlу increases
thе chances thаt potential clients wіll find уоu аnd уоur contact information, but аlѕо
thаt they’ll pass уоur information аlоng tо friends аnd acquaintances simply bу
indicating thаt thеу lіkе whаt уоu do. Its thе power оf word-of-mouth thаt business
owner’s hаvе long sought, but mаdе mоrе convenient fоr consumers – аnd easier tо
track fоr retailers. Wіth technology, business owners аre ablе tо easily track their Key
Performance Indicators bу viewing hоw mаnу people viewed уоur web page, аnd tо
whісh part оf уоur marketing plan thеу responded.

Othеr​ benefits у​оu stand tо gain are wеll explained below:

Tо stay competitive

Wіth social media monitoring tools, уоu саn gain key information оn уоur
competitors, thеrеfоrе improving уоur market intelligence. Thіѕ kind оf Intel wіll
аllоw уоu tо mаkе strategic business decisions іn order tо stay competitive wіth уоur
competition. Fоr example, уоu саn create search streams tо monitor mentions оf уоur

32
competitor’s nаmе оr product. Based оn уоur search results, уоu саn improve уоur
business tо offer ѕоmеthіng уоur competitors аrе missing.

Increase brand awareness

Impact of social media hаѕ significantly increased the brand awareness аnd reach аt
lіttlе tо nо cost. Thе costs аѕѕосіаtеd wіth thеѕе strategies аrе а lot higher wіth
traditional advertising methods. Recently, marketing department’s асrоѕѕ companies
started hiring community managers tо increase brand awareness аnd reach thrоugh
social media. Community managers foster relationships wіth online audience’s іn
dіffеrеnt regions.

Increasing uѕе оf mobiles tо shop online

Thе flexibility оf social media асrоѕѕ devices hаѕ giving іt thе opportunity fоr аn
increase accessibility thrоugh mobile devices. Whісh hаѕ іn turn helped ecommerce
store tо increase sales bу driving traffic thrоugh social media tо thе product pages.
Yоu саn nеvеr gеt іt wrong whеn social media іѕ uѕеd rightly fоr уоur business.

Reduce cost whеn set uр online

Whеn уоu compare thе cost tо setting uр а social media page fоr уоur business аnd
subscribing tо оthеr forms оf advertisement, уоu аrе gоіng tо realize thаt social media
setup іѕ thе bеѕt bet fоr уоur business. It dоеѕnt оnlу save уоu cost but hеlр уоu tо
reach thе rіght prospects іn а vеrу short period.

33
34
Top 20 countries of the world –internet users

India figures at number 2 ahead of several developed as well as developing countries.

35
36
Demographics

There are 40 million internet users in India, representing 3.5% of the population. This
represents a 700% growth rate in users since 2000. The Internet and Mobile
Association of India (IAMAI) says internet adoption is growing in India, and predicts
there will be 100 million by end 2007. In June 2006, India passed Japan as the second
largest mobile services market in Asia Pacific in terms of subscribes, after China.
India currently has 142.7 million mobile subscribers – which is only a mobile
penetration rate of 13%.

37
38
39
40
41
Social media is now increasingly becoming an ingrained aspect of political
campaigns, national defense strategies, public policy, public relations, brand
management and even intra company communication. Since the major task of
marketing as tool used to inform consumers about the company’s products, who they
are and what they offer, social marketing plays an important role in marketing.

● Social media can be used to provide an identity about the companies and the
products or services that they offer.
● Social media helps in creating relationships with people who might not
otherwise know about the products or service or what the companies
represent.
● Social media makes companies "real" to consumers. If they want people to
follow them they need not just talk about the latest product news, but share
their personality with them.

42
 ● Social media can be used to associate themselves with their peers that may be
serving the same target market.
● Social media can be used to communicate and provide the interaction that
consumers look for.

The Future

In the last year or so, Google has certainly received its fair share of criticism.
PageRank is almost useless in relation to ranking in search results. At the time of this
writing, PageRank hasn’t worked for three days, which means a change, shuffle,
dance or whatever you want to call it is coming.

On the competition front, things are a bit murky. It seems a week doesn’t go by
without a patent lawsuit being filed against the company. MSN and Yahoo have
started to raise the level of competition and more will be coming. Google’s reliance
on AOL as a traffic source is also a bit troubling given the continual loss of market
share by the company that nearly brought Time Warner down. Gmail is dogged by
patent issues, not to mention questions about violations of the privacy of users. All
and all, things are not as rosy compared to a few years ago, but they can hardly be
called bad.

Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to predicting if Google will become just
another search engine. Personally, I think it will, but not because of any of the above.
Instead, the evolution of the Internet suggests there will be a next “big thing.” Who
knows, maybe Google will get a Grub [Grub.org] in its Nutch [Nutch.org].

How Does Google Work

Google is the undisputed king of the search engines. This leads to the question of how
does Google work?

43
How Does Google Work

Google was originally known as BackRub when it started in 1998. It represented a

new approach to ranking sites on the web. Prior to Google, the dominant searches
didn’t make much of an effort to improve their ranking systems. This led to a variety
of bizarre results when people searched for something and the results were not
particularly relevant. Google sought to overcome this problem.

Google works by focusing on relevancy. You will hear a variety of comments about
how Google ranks sites, but in the end it all comes down to this term of art.
Relevancy can simply be defined as a web page that is most relevant to the terms
search for by a user. The trick, of course, is for Google to figure out how to determine
relevancy.

Google works by focusing on the content of web pages. It tends to mostly ignore
Meta tags as too many search engine optimization people learned how to tweak their
sites to get results. Since these tweaks were often shortcuts, the search results were
less than great. To circumvent this, Google now focuses on the overall text of the
page as well as the site as a whole. The exact Google formula, known as the
algorithm, is not public information, but issues such as keyword density, flow of the
text, amount of code, registration length of domain and how long visitors stay on a
site all seem to be used. In truth, there are probably a couple hundred factors involved
in the evaluation.

Google also determines relevancy and rankings by looking outside of a site.

Specifically, it looks to see what other sites are linking to the site in question. In
theory, the more sites linking to you must be an indication that you are offering
highly relevant content on your site. For instance, the website for the IRS is
consistently ranked highly for tax terms because thousands of sites link to it.
Logically and practically, this must mean the IRS offers highly relevant information
on taxes and of course it does.

44
As you might imagine, this linking factor led to the growth of an entire industry
dedicated to trading links. This process is known as reciprocal linking. In the last
year, Google has devalued such links because it no longer represents a measurement
of relevancy. Instead, it just represents a measure of how many links a site can trade.
Google now looks more at the type of links being traded and gives high value to links
which are inbound only. This means someone is linking to your site without you
linking back to them.

Asking how does Google work is a complex question. Part of the answer is unknown,
but the parts we do know allow for the manipulation of search rankings. This, of
course, leads to lots of traffic on a site.

Google Pagerank - Search Engines

Google likes to offer all kinds of neat little tips and clues regarding how it views sites.
Google PageRank for sites on search engines is one such tool.

Google Pagerank - Search Engines

Google is a highly secretive search engine. If you are trying to optimize your site to
obtain high rankings, Google will provide you with little or no information. It even
fails to show all of the links it is counting to your site, a negative step that no other
search engine takes. What Google does provide, however, is the Google PageRank
for sites.

In my opinion, Google PageRank is a bit of red herring. I don’t believe it tells you
much about how Google views your site. Instead, it is a bit of bait designed to get you
to download the Google Toolbar. Yes, you can only see your PageRank if you
download a Google program on to your computer. And you thought Microsoft was
bad!

45
Assuming you have downloaded the toolbar, the PageRank is the little bar in the
middle that should be partially covered in green. The green represents your PageRank
and is out of ten. You can run your cursor across it and the actual PageRank number
will appear. Most sites have a PageRank of 3 unless new. If your bar is grey, it means
you have been banned by Google for doing something they don’t like in your
optimization efforts. If the bar is blank, it either means your site has not been indexed
yet or Google is updating its rankings.

So, what does the Google PageRank mean when it comes to search engines? Not
much. Originally, it was thought to be a measure of value compared to other sites.
Google still touts the tool as this, but it is a crock. In reality, the PageRank tool
doesn’t mean much of anything. You can see the truth of this statement by doing a
search and then looking at the PageRank of the sites in the top 10. You will see
PageRank of three or four with much higher placement in the search results than a
site with a PageRank of six or seven. This, of course, renders the tool useless since it
is not indicative of anything other then some amorphous value Google is assigning to
your site.

Google PageRank for search engines is an interesting tool in a very general sense.
Just keep in mind that it does not actually mean much of anything when it comes to
search engine rankings.

46
 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & METHODOLOGY

Research Objectives

a. To evaluate the current usage and effectiveness of social media based marketing
and Branding

b. To analyze the effective communication strategy through socialnetworking sites.

c. To study the effectiveness of brand communication through socialnetworking sites

from its users and communicators.

d. To find the impact of interaction through these communication among Indian users
(with reference to Face book, Twitter and Orkut).

e. To find out the perception of people about social media.

Research Methodology

SOURCES OF DATA

Primary data
Secondary information

Primary Data

The information gathered out of the blue through perception and meeting strategy.
The data is gathered by watching the working of different divisions and furthermore
by interviewing the directors of the considerable number of offices. It is additionally
gotten by the assistance of staff individuals.

47
Secondary Data

The information is gathered by optional sources too. The information is gathered

through company manual, item leaflet, organization site and yearly report

EXAMINING DESIGN​:

The accommodation Inspecting is done on the grounds that any probability sampling
strategy would require itemized data about the universe, which is not easily accessible
further, it being an exploratory research.

RESEARCH DESIGN: -

The examination work is exploratory in nature, and is intended to give the

fundamental data required by research targets. It is a fundamental report dependent on
essential information and the discoveries can be united after a nitty gritty conclusive
study has been completed.

A swot investigation is done to know the qualities, shortcomings, openings and

dangers of any organization. This examination will clarify about the qualities,
shortcomings, opportunities and dangers of company.

SAMPLING:-

Sampling refers to the method of selecting a sample from a given universe with a
view to draw conclusions about that universe. A sample is a representative of the
universe selected for study.

SAMPLE SIZE:-

Large sample gives reliable result than small sample. However, it is not feasible to
target entire population or even a substantial portion to achieve a reliable result. So, in

48
this aspect selecting the sample to study is known as sample size. Hence, for my
project my sample size was 100.

The Sample Size consists of both the Marketing Manager and Advertising Manager.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE:-

Random sampling technique was used in the survey conducted.

TOOLS OF ANALYSIS:-

Data has been presented with the help of bar graph, pie charts, line graphs etc.

PLAN OF ANALYSIS:-

Tables were used for the analysis of the collected data. The data is also neatly
presented with the help of statistical tools such as graphs and pie charts. Percentages
and averages have also been used to represent data clearly and effectively.

DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT:-

The mode of collection of data will be based on Survey Method and Field Activity.
Primary data collection will base on personal interview. I have prepared the
questionnaire according to the necessity of the data to be collected.

49
 CHAPTER 4 
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

AGE GROUP OF SURVEYED RESPONDENTS

TABLE 3.1:

Age group No. of Respondents

18 - 25 years 37
26 - 35 years 25
36 - 49 years 23
50 - 60 years 12
More than 60 3
 
CHART-3.1:

 
Analysis: - ​From the chart above we find that 37% of the respondents fall in the age
group of 18 – 25 years, 25% fall in the age group of 26 – 35 years and 23% fall in the
age group of 36 – 49 years.

50
 Therefore most of the respondents are relatively young (below 26 years of age) and
12% respondent’s age are 50-60 years and 3% respondent’s age are 60 to above
years.

GENDER CLASSIFICATION OF SURVEYED RESPONDENTS

TABLE-3.2

Sr. No. Category No. of Respondents Percentage

1 Married 70 70%
2 Unmarried 30 30%
Total 100 100%

CHART-3.2

 
Interpretation

From the table and graph above it can be seen that

70% respondents are married.

51
 30% respondents are unmarried.
EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION OF RESPONDENT’S

TABLE-3.3

Sr. No. Category No. of Respondents Percentage

1 Under graduate 25 25%
2 Graduate 40 40%
3 Post graduate 35 35%
Total 100 100%
 
CHART-3.3

 
Interpretation

From the table and graph above it can be seen that

25% respondents are under graduate.

40% respondents are Graduate.
35% respondents are Post graduate.

52
 
 

53
 PROFILE OF SURVEYED RESPONDENTS

TABLE 3.4:

Respondents profile No. of respondents

Student 2
Housewife 3
Working Professional 47
Business 24
Self Employed 12
Government service employee 12
 
CHART-3.4

 
Interpretation

From the table and graph above it can be seen that:-

54
 51% of the respondents are working professionals, 22% are into business and 11% are
self-employed, 11% of the respondents are government service employee and 3% of
the respondents are student and 2% of the respondents are house-wife.

POSITION HELD

Table 3.5

Position held No. of respondents

Proprietor 30
Managing Director 21
Partners 27
Any other 24
Total 100

CHART 3.5

Interpretation

55
From the table and graph above it can be seen that:-

29% of the respondents are Proprietor of different firms, 21% are Managing Directors
of companies and 26% are Partners, 24% of the respondents do not have any opinion.

RELIGION

TABLE 3.6

Religion No. of respondents

Hindu 60
Muslim 21
Christian 10
Any other 9
Total 100

CHART 5.6

Interpretation

56
From the table and graph above it can be seen that:-

60% of the respondents are Hindus, 21% are Muslims and 10% are Christians, 9% of
the respondents are of other religions.

Q1. For how many years you are using social media?

Less than 2 year 18%

2 to less than 4 years 37%

4 to less than 6 years 29%

More than 6 years 16%

37% respondents replied that they have been using social media from 2 to less than 6
years but 18% respondents replied that they have been using social media from less
than 1 year.

57
Q2. For what purpose do you use social media?

For Personal Use 5%

For Business Use 80%

For Both Purpose 15%

80% respondents replied that they use social media for business use but 15%
respondents replied that they use social media for both purpose.

58
Q3. How frequently do you surf internet in one month?

According to the above figure, 8% respondents replied that they visit the internet
fortnightly but 4% respondents replied that they visit the internet once a month.
Figure above shows that 24% respondents visit the internet weekly however, 64%
respondents replied that they visit the internet much frequently a month. The above
figure shows that there is big proportion of respondents visit the internet frequently.
Therefore it gives the idea of the potential to identify the segment of population who
surf internet frequently. It provides the opportunity for the company and advertiser to
define the customer segment that is using the online contextual advertising system to
promote their products.

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Q4. Have you ever seen any contextual ad of Madworkers over the internet?

As presented in above figure all the respondents were targeted who have seen the
contextual advertisement while visiting the internet. The respondents replied they
were noticed the contextual add during their last internet visit. Respondents replied
that when they searching over the internet these ads were attracted them. According
to them these ads were easy to see over the internet. Respondents replied that when
they open the website these ads were appeared on the website. Some respondents
ignore those advertisement but some of them were clicked on the advertisement.

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Q5. How do you perceive the online contextual advertisement of
Madworkers? Please select one from the following?

The above figure shows that 10% respondents replied that online contextual
advertising of Madworkers is boring and disturbing. According to them these ads
were only disturbed their searching process and they were not at all magnetized by
these types of ads. But on the other side 30% respondents think that online
advertising is informative. Respondents replied that online contextual ads were
providing them high level of information about the product. Just clicking on the ad
they can access into the all information about the product. 34% respondents replied
that online contextual advertising is misguiding. According to them these
advertisements were misguiding them in case of providing the right information about
the product. Respondents replied that these ads are providing the un-appropriate
information about the product. Respondents replied that these ads always misguide
them about the product and these ads just try making them to purchase the advertised
product. 20% respondents replied that online contextual advertisement is entertaining.
According to them online contextual ad entertain them when they click on the ad. 6%
respondents have no view about online contextual adverting. As a result the above

61
figure shows that respondents have a different view regarding online contextual
advertisement of Madworkers.

Q6. In the following which social networking site are you currently using for
marketing?

57% respondents replied that they are currently using Facebook for advertising but
20% respondents replied that they are currently using My Space for advertising.

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 Q7. Advertisement on social media is the easiest way to get the
information about the product.

53% respondents are agreeing with this statement but 23% respondents are strongly
agreed with this statement.

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Q8. ‘Social media is the best source of marketing are you agree with this
statement?

49% respondents are agreeing with this statement but 30% respondents are strongly
agreed with this statement.

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 Q9. ‘Social media marketing is more effective in case of increasing the
sales level’ are you agree with this statement?

50% respondents are agreeing with this statement but 12% respondents are neutral
with this statement.

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Q10. ‘Social media works to turn users into profits’ are you agree with this
statement?

24% respondents are strongly agreeing with this statement but 48% respondents are
agreed with this statement.

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 Q11. ‘Social media has a great potential in case of reaching huge base of
customers’ are you agree with this statement?

44% respondents are agreeing with this statement but 32% respondents are strongly
agreed with this statement.

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 Q12. ‘A business can improve their competitiveness through social
media’ are you agree with this statement?

48% respondents are agreeing with this statement but 28% respondents are strongly
agreed with this statement.

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 Q13. Which of the following problem you have ever experienced in the
social media advertisement?

The above figure shows that 20% respondents replied that theses online contextual
ads are distracting. 30% respondents replied that these ads are not able to make them
purchase the product. These ads are not attracting them to read the content. According
to them, these types of ads are taking their much time. 24% respondents replied that
these ads are irrelevant. Respondents replied that these ads are not relevant with the
advertised product. According to them, these ads are containing the wrong
information about the product. 10% respondents replied that they were ignored the
contextual ad during their last visit over the internet. They replied that they were not
clicked on the ad during their last visit over the internet. According to them this is a
very time taken process therefore they ignore the ad. 10% respondents replied that
these types of ads are only misleading them. According to the respondents, these ads
only provide the wrong but attractive information about the product. These ads are

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only misguiding them but try to make the eager to purchase the advertised product
because of its attractiveness.

Q14. ‘Social media is the easiest way of marketing a product through online’
are you agree with this statement?

53% respondents are agreeing with this statement but 23% respondents are strongly
agreed with this statement.

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Q15. What measure would you recommend for promotion of social media in
India?

Promotion of Internet 35%

To increase the awareness level of people 32%

An integrated promotional approach 33%

35% respondents replied that they would recommend promotion of internet for the
social media in India.

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Q16. What according to you is the future of social media in India?

Very good 38%

Good 49%

Not so good 9%

Do not have future in India 4%

49% respondents replied that the future of social media in India is good but 9%
respondents replied that the future of social media in India not so good.

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 CHAPTER 5 

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATION

Based on the research done, following are list of tips to help strategies of retail market
in this field to be successful in global business. Retailers want to more expand in
urban and rural markets should keep in mind these tips.

● Gather backing from your company’s high management to enable a seamless

cultural transformation in the various areas of the organization.

● Gather internal disseminators that can tip off other areas of the company on the
benefits the social media do to business.

● Start implementing social media step by step. First, the online monitoring
followed by an internal pilot project of the participation in online conversation,
and eventually the launching of your own initiatives on the Web.

● Today consumers are more conscious and have a lot of choices so the company
must understand those behaviors and choices before place their advertisement on
the internet.

● At present time consumer​0​is like a​0​boss, so Madworkers must do only ethical

efforts not try to misguide the consumer through fake advertisement on social
media.

● Madworkers must write the content clearly in simple form not in difficult
language because the customer can easily read it and understand it.

● The company should also place some good pictures in their contextual
advertisement which attract the customer attention quickly and make viewer to
read the advertisement.

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● In advertising on social media, content of advertisement is most significant thing
because through this text companies give its messages to their customers and
make them sure to purchase the product. So Madworkers try to make this text
more effective and write these texts in right manner.

● Increased pipeline demands require new approaches to lead generation. While a

lot depends, of course, on the target market, marketers need to create an effective
blend of online marketing tools, including email, SEO, SEM, social media and
display advertising, to reach their audiences.

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 CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

Communication about the product or service provides a major contributionto brand

competition in the Retail market. It not only provides information about aproduct or
service but also promotes creative innovation. Besides advertising, it also facilitates
consumer satisfaction. The hidden fact is that no retail brand can progress without
effective communication strategy to attracttheir custo-mers or users. Big and small
variety of brands nowadays laid their base on social network communication to get
recognized in the target retail market. Social networking sites users of Face book,
Twitter and Orkut have becomea personal, product and corporate branding hub in
India now a days in digital era.

Every brand that exists on social networking sites has the same core features
and benefits,such as the ability to create a page, share resources, add multimedia
andmuch more. Social networking sites are filled with potential users who are mainly
young adults. They spend more time in these networking sites due toheavy
commercial contents, entertainment and social gathering. So, productor service
communicators throng their ads in these areas with more and moreinteractive and
with fascinating factors so that their brand identity isdeveloped among the right
choice of focused audience. Advertisers andbrands uses social networking sites as the
major resource for their promotionand developing brand identity among the
focused market.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

● Roberts, Mary Lour, Internet Marketing: Integrating Online and Offline Strategies
● Choudhury, A.; Mallick, D. N., and Rao, H. R. “Web channels in e-commerce,”
Communications of the ACM (44:1), 2001, pp. 99-104
● Scott, David Meerman, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social
Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach
Buyers Directly.
● Brinlee D (2007). Does Internet Advertising
Work?http://www.askdeb.com/internet/advertising
● Chaffey D (2003). Internet Marketing, Strategy, Implementation andPractise. 2nd
edition, Pearson Education Limited, pp. 115-186.
● Donath J, Boyd D (2004). Public displays of connection. BT Technol. J., pp.71-82
● Eric E (2008). 2008 Growth Puts Face book In Better Position to
MakeMoney. http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/18/2008-growth-puts-facebook-in-b
etter-position-to-make-money.
● Lacy K, Hernandez M (2009). Twitter Marketing for Dummies. pp. 14-20
● Nicole K (2007). Building a Brand through Social Networks,
http:/ /mashable.com/ 2007/05/ 08/ brand-social-networks/
● Ricadela A (2007). Fogeys Flock to Facebook, Business
Week.http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2007/ tc2007085_05
1788.htm
● Scott DM (2009). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. John Wiley & SonsInc.,
pp. 135-150
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● The Times of India
● The Economic Times

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● Business Today
● Business World
● www.techgoeshome.org/small-business​
● www.socialmediatoday.com

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 ANNEXURE 
QUESTIONNAIRE

 
Q1. For how many years you are using social media?
(a) Less than 1 year (b) 2 to less than 4 years
(c) 4 to less than 6 years (d) More than 6 years

Q2. For what purpose do you use social media?

(a) Personal Use (b) Business Use (c) Both Purpose

Q3. How frequently do you surf internet in one month?

(a) Monthly (b) Fortnightly

(c) Weekly (d) Much Frequently

Q4. Have you ever seen any contextual ad of Madworkers over the internet?

(a) Yes (b) No

Q5. How do you perceive the online contextual advertisement of Madworkers?

Please select one from the following.

(a) Entertaining (b) Boring and Disturbing

(c) Informative (d) Misguiding (e) None of the

Above

Q6. In the following which social networking site are you currently using for
marketing?

(a) Twitter (b) Facebook

(c) LinkedIn (d) Bebo

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 (e) MySpace (f) Others

Q7. Advertisement on social media is the easiest way to get the information about
the product.

(a) Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Neutral

(d) Disagree (e) Strongly disagree

Q8. ‘Social media is the best source of marketing are you agree with this
statement?

(a) Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Neutral

(d) Disagree (e) Strongly disagree

Q9. ‘Social media marketing is more effective in case of increasing the sales level’
are you agree with this statement?

(a) Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Neutral

(d) Disagree (e) Strongly disagree

Q10. ‘Social media works to turn users into profits’ are you agree with this
statement?

(a) Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Neutral

(d) Disagree (e) Strongly disagree

Q11. ‘Social media has a great potential in case of reaching huge base of
customers’ are you agree with this statement?

(a) Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Neutral

(d) Disagree (e) Strongly disagree

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Q12. ‘A business can improve their competitiveness through social media’ are you
agree with this statement?

(a) Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Neutral

(d) Disagree (e) Strongly disagree

Q13. Which of the following problem you have ever experienced in the social
media advertisement?

(a) They present misleading information (b) Ads are distracting

(c)They are less likely to make me purchase (d) They are irrelevant

(e) I ignore them

(f) They do not offer a wide variety of products

Q14. ‘Social media is the easiest way of marketing a product through online’ are
you agree with this statement?

(a) Strongly agree (b) Agree (c) Neutral

(d) Disagree (e) Strongly disagree

Q15. What measure would you recommend for promotion of social media in India?

(a) Promotion of Internet (b) To increase the awareness level of people

(c) An integrated promotional approach

 Q16. What according to you is the future of social media in India?

(a) Very Good (b) Good (c) Not so good
(d) Do not have future in India

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