PROJECT REPORT ON:

“IS PRESENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IS IMPORTANT

FOR FIRMS?”

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTATION

SEMISTER 5TH

(2019-2020)

SUBMITTED TO:
CHANDIGARH UNIVERSITY

FOR THE UNDER GRADUATE DEGREE IN BBA

SUBMITTED BY

MR. PRAJJWAL

UID- 17BBA1371

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

PROFF . ANIL CHANDHOK

UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS (CU)

 Certificate

This is to certify that, MR. PRAJJWAL of BBA, Sem.-V (Roll No. -

17BBA1371), has successfully completed the project titled “ IS
SOCIAL MEDIA IMPORTANT FOR FIRM? ” under my guidance
for the Academic Year 2019-2020. The information submitted is true
and original as per my knowledge.

(Project Guide)
Prof. Anil Chandhok
 DECLARATION

I, MR. Prajjwal Student of Chandigarh University, University School of

Business course of BBA (Semester V) hereby declare that I have completed
the project in academic year of 2019-2020 on

“IS SOCIAL MEDIA IMPORTANT FOR FIRMS? ”

The information provided is true and original to the best of my

knowledge.

PRAJJWAL

(BBA )

(ROLL
NO.17BBA1
371)
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Many have contributed to the successful completion of this project, I would like to
place on record my grateful thanks to each of them, and report would be incomplete
without giving due credit to them.

I feel extremely exhilarated to have completed this project under the able
and inspiring guidance of PROF. ANIL CHANDHOK. His guidance and timely
encouragement has infused courage in me to complete the work successfully.

In the end I sincerely thank all the respondent, friends and all others who helped
me in completion of this project.

( SIGNATURE)
 INDEX

Contents

1. INDUSTRY OVERVIEW………………………………………….............08
2. SWOT ANALYSIS: SOCIAL MEDIA……………………………………24
3. A STUDY ON EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION STRATEGEY IN
DEVELOPING BRAND COMMUNICATION ………………………… 27
4. LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………..31
5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY…………………………………………..33
6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………….................36
7. RESULT OF THE ANALYSIS………………………………….................42
8. NEED FOR THE STUDY…………………………………………………43
9. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY…………………………………………44
10. SCOPE OF THE STUDY…………………………………………………..45
11. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………46
12. SUGGESTION………………………………………………………………48
13. QUESTIONNAIRE…………………………………………………………51
14. BIBLOGRAPHY…………………………………………………................53
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention
through social media sites. Indian marketers are moving at a fast speed to tap the
‘new normal’ opportunity. Social media has gone mainstream. And for businesses it
represents an unprecedented marketing opportunity that transcends traditional
middlemen and connects companies directly with customers.

Customer acquisitions remain to be the prime goal of Indian marketers (59%).

According to leading marketers of India, the top three online investment channels for
2011 are Social media, Email marketing and Search marketing. 52% of the top
marketers said that it is extremely important to integrate email marketing and social
media. This is why nearly every business on the planet is exploring social media
marketing initiatives The focus of marketers is shifting from ‘sending the message
out’ to ‘start engaging with customers’. In this context, the role of a marketer is
changing from ‘batch and blast’ processing to creating ‘listening posts’ and ‘dialogue
hubs’ in customer communities. A shift from isolated pure play traditional platforms
to an integrated multi-channel approach is helping the marketers address the
challenge of new consumers’ expectations across many devices and channels.

Indian marketers are leveraging the power of various communication channels and
technologies- be it Email, SMS or Social Media in their portfolio. Here we will see
the main trend of Social media marketing in India, The scope of it, The future and
will undergo a research to follow the Customer perception About Social media for
Brand management.
 1.INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Social media marketing:
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
appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as opposed to the brand or
company itself. Hence, this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, meaning
it results in earned media rather than paid media.

Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet
access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand awareness and
often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media serves as a relatively
inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.

Social media marketing tools:

Besides research tools, various companies provide specialized platforms and tools for
social media marketing:

 Social media measurement

 Social network aggregation
 Social bookmarking
 Social analytics
 Automation
 Social media
 Blog marketing
 Validation

Different Methods of Social Media Marketing

Social network marketing is popularly called as Internet marketing. Today you can
find many ways for internet marketing. Many people who enter this online marketing
are less worried because of its guaranteed success. If you see in Internet totally all
types of products has been marketed online without much effort. Internet attracts
many business people to promote their business online. Social network marketing is
grown to such a height that today many people can't earn without it.

Some of the most recognized network marketing tools are Face book, My Space and
LinkedIn. Twitter became regular place for people who have newly entered the field
of social network marketing.

1. Blogging: When you start Blogging or posting your data about any product, you
can see less response from clients. Later it will become big business via blog.
Websites and blogs are most powerful tools for social network marketing when
matched with other networking tools. Blog is an amazing tool which provides many
other facilities in addition to just marketing your business. It also helps you to
communicate with other clients in case if you have any problems.

2. Personal website or blog: It is important to have private website if you are a

freelancer. Your website will help your clients to know about you and it will make
them clear that you are a serious freelance marketer and help to make huge revenue
via online marketing.

3. Article selling: It is also best and cheap internet marketing method. It is a mode of
advertising our trade just by writing articles and attracting endless number of users
across world. We usually sell our articles to different article database websites and
article directories. Today it provided free business to many advertisers and publishers
and they are really benefited through their articles.

4. Email sending: Electronic mail sending is the best way to marketing. Collect list
of email addresses through portfolio websites and email about your business to all
internet users. Your Email should be attractive in such a way that your recipient will
be impressed to get back to you.

5. Use social networking websites: Social networking websites like Twitter, face
book can be used to promote your sales. These provide best platform for all who are
thinking of online marketing.

6. Video promotion: Use several video distribution websites for your marketing.
These websites uploads your service to the whole world. All that you need to do is
film a video about marketing and send it to video uploading sites like You Tube. It
seems it is the easiest way of marketing than any other modes since many people will
be interested in view videos rather than word form of advertisement.
7. Press Release or media release: It attracts several public clients and increases
relationship among them.

8. Search Engine Optimization: It improves the traffic to your website by

providing quality web content. It uses RSS feeds and many SEO techniques.

Social networking websites and blogs:

Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another and build
relationships. When products or companies join those sites, people can interact with
the product or company. That interaction feels personal to users because of their
previous experiences with social networking site interaction

Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to “retweet” or “repost”
comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the message, all of the
user’s connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people.
Social networking sites act as word of mouth. Because the information about the
product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the
product/company.

Through social networking sites, products/companies can have conversations and

interactions with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling
of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow
on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience.

Engagement
In the context of the social web, engagement means that customers and stakeholders
are participants rather than viewers. Social media in business allows anyone and
everyone to express and share an opinion or idea somewhere along the business’s
path to market. Each participating customer becomes part of the marketing
department, as other customers read their comments or reviews. The engagement
process is then fundamental to successful social media marketing.

Example-

2008 Presidential Election

The 2008 presidential campaign had a huge presence on social networking sites.
Barack Obama, a Democratic candidate for US President, used Twitter and Facebook
to differentiate his campaign. His social networking site profile pages were
constantly being updated and interacting with followers.

Kony 2012
A short film released on March 5, 2012, by humanitarian group Invisible Children,
Inc. This 29 minute video aimed at making Joseph Kony, an International Criminal
Court fugitive, famous worldwide in order to have support for his arrest by
December 2012; the time when the campaign ends. The video went viral within the
first six days after its launch, reaching 100 million views on both YouTube and
Vimeo.

Implications on traditional advertising:

Minimizing use
Traditional advertising techniques include print and television advertising. The
Internet had already overtaken television as the largest advertising market. Websites
often include banner or pop-up ads. Social networking sites don’t always have ads. In
exchange, products have entire pages and are able to interact with users. Television
commercials often end with a spokesperson asking viewers to check out the product
website for more information. Print ads are also starting to include barcodes on them.
These barcodes can be scanned by cell phones and computers, sending viewers to the
product website. Advertising is beginning to move viewers from the traditional
outlets to the electronic ones.

Leaks
Internet and social networking leaks are one of the issues facing traditional
advertising. Video and print ads are often leaked to the world via the Internet earlier
than they are scheduled to premiere. Social networking sites allow those leaks to go
viral, and be seen by many users more quickly. Time difference is also a problem
facing traditional advertisers. When social events occur and are broadcast on
television, there is often a time delay between airings on the east coast and west coast
of the United States. Social networking sites have become a hub of comment and
interaction concerning the event. This allows individuals watching the event on the
west coast (time-delayed) to know the outcome before it airs.
Social media marketing mishaps

Social media marketing provides organizations with a way to connect with their
customers. However, organizations must protect their information as well as closely
watch comments and concerns on the social media they use. A flash poll done on
1225 IT executives from 33 countries revealed that social media mishaps caused
organizations a combined $4.3 million in damages in 2010.The top three social media
incidents an organization faced during the previous year included employees sharing
too much information in public forums, loss or exposure of confidential information,
and increased exposure to litigation

An example of a social media mishap includes designer Kenneth Cole's Twitter

mishap in 2011. When Kenneth Cole tweeted, "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo.
Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at [Kenneth
Cole's website]".This reference to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution drew objection from
the public.

General Social Networking Statistics:

 62% of adults worldwide now use social media
 Social networking is most popular online activity, with 22% of time online
spent on channels like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest
 65% of the world’s top companies have an active Twitter profile
 90% of marketers use social media channels for business, with 93% of these
rating social tools as “important”
 43% of marketers have noticed an improvement in sales due to social campaigns
 72% of marketers who have worked in social media for three or more years
said that they saw a boost in turnover due to social channels (the longer you’re
working in it the better you get)
 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social
media campaigns and 79% are generating more quality leads.
 The average time spent by marketers on social media is 1-5hrs per week for
those just getting started and 6+ hours per week for those with 3+ years of
experience
 The most popular social networking tool for marketing is Facebook – being used
by 92%, followed by Twitter (84%), LinkedIn (71%) and blogs (68%)
 LinkedIn is 4X better for B2B lead generation than Facebook and Twitter
 Only 10% of marketers are actively monitoring social media ROI
 Only 22% of businesses have a dedicated social media manager
  23% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog
 58% of Fortune 500 companies have an active corporate Facebook account,
62% have an active corporate Twitter account
 47% of customers are somewhat likely to purchase from a brand that they follow
or like.

Indian Market:
 India’s Internet economy is expected to reach Rs. 10.8 trillion by 2016, as the
country’s growth rate in this segment is far ahead of many of the developing
nations, reported by BCG.
 According to BCG, the India Internet economy contributed to 3.2 trillion rupees
to the overall economy in 2010, 4.1% of the country’s GDP, & could triple
in 4 years’ time.
 More than 39 million Internet users who form 86% of the total Internet audience,
visited social networking sites in July 2011.
 The total Indian social networking audience grew 43 percent in the past year,
more than tripling the rate of growth of the total Internet audience in India.
 India now ranks as the seventh largest market worldwide for social networking
India is adding Internet users at the rate of almost 5-7 million a month, and at
the current pace it will surpass the US, which has about 245 million users, in
less than two years.
 Active user base per month in India is close to 30 Million marks which is still a
pretty large market but not as big as portrayed by some consultants.
 India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30%.
 India e-tailing market in 2011 was about $600 Mn and expected to touch $9
Bn by 2016 and $70 Bn by 2020 – esti the country the third-largest Internet
market in the world after China and the United States.
 There are more Internet users in towns with a population of less than 5 lakh than
in the top eight metros put together.
 “About 2 billion people worldwide access the Internet and 25% of them are
from China. India contributes about 6% to the world's Net population and the
US 12.5%.
 The survey found that more than 75% of Internet usage is among school- and
college-going students and those who have recently graduated.
 Mumbai has the highest number of Internet users (6.2 million) followed by
Delhi/NCR (5 million), Kolkata (2.4 million) and Chennai (2.2 million).
 The percentage of companies using social media in top 5 markets is:
  China: 82%
 USA: 71%
 India: 70%
 Brazil: 68%
 Canada: 51%

E-Marketer estimates advertisers will spend $3.63 billion in the US and over $4
billion more in the rest of the world on social networking sites this year. And
that’s just paid ad spending. When the Association of National Advertisers
(ANA) surveyed US marketers this year, 90% said they were using social
networks for their efforts— about even with last year, at 89%. While this
percentage has risen dramatically since 2007, when just 20% of marketers used
social media, growth has platitude—and shifted to other new digital media
platforms instead
 Company Overview:-

Lofty Ventures Private Limited is a Private company incorporated on 25 January

2017. It is classified as Non-govt company and is registered at Registrar of
Companies, Delhi. Its authorized share capital is Rs. 3,500,000 and its paid up
capital is Rs. 3,500,000. It is involved in Real estate activities with own or leased
property. [This class includes buying, selling, renting and operating of self-owned
or leased real estate such as apartment building and dwellings, non-residential
buildings, developing and subdividing real estate into lots etc. Also included are
development and sale of land and cemetery lots, operating of apartment hotels and
residential mobile home sites.(Development on own account involving construction
is classified in class 4520).]

Lofty Ventures Pvt. Ltd., under the brand name YourShell, provides rental
accommodation in and around universities that invite applications from all over
India.
The student homes developed by YourShell are equipped with numerous housing
auxiliaries like carefully crafted decor, four time meal system, regular
housekeeping and permanent caretaking. The residents also get free access to
their central library and gaming zone, receive special discounts at cafes, gyms
and coaching institutes and are served with a robust redressal pattern.

Currently operational in North Campus of Delhi University, the company is a

home to 500 students and runs 16 distinct properties spread across various
localities within campus.

Key Offerings of ApnaCircle.com:

 Real estate activities with own or leased property.

 Buying, selling, renting and operating of self-owned or leased real estate

such as apartment building and dwellings, non-residential buildings,
developing and subdividing real estate into lots etc.

 Development and sale of land and cemetery lots, operating of apartment

hotels and residential mobile home sites.
  Provides rental accommodation in and around universities that invite
applications from all over India.

FOUNDER & CEO:

 Shaifali Jain
 Vishesh Khunger,
 Gaurav Verma and
 Sunny Garg.

Organization Vision:

The vision of the Company is to achieve the highest possible standards of the
real estate market while establishing our agency as the premier and preferred real
estate company in India.

Organization mission:

The mission of the Company is to provide an outstanding level of service and

expertise in the real estate market that is innovative and ambitious. The
Company is dedicated to the highest standards, systems and performance
necessary to fulfill all of your real estate dreams.
Indian Online Market-

ASIA INTERNET USE, POPULATION DATA AND

FACEBOOK STATISTICS

Internet Penetration Users

Population Internet Users Facebook
ASIA Users, (% %
( 2011 Est.) 31-Dec-2011 31-Mar-2012
(Year 2000) Population) Asia

Afganistan 29,835,392 1,000 1,256,470 4.2 % 0.1 % 257,440

Bangladesh 158,570,535 100,000 5,501,609 3.5 % 0.5 % 2,520,680

Bhutan 708,427 500 98,728 13.9 % 0.0 % 65,660

50.5
China * 1,336,718,015 22,500,000 513,100,000 38.4 % 447,460
%

11.9
India 1,189,172,906 5,000,000 121,000,000 10.2 % 45,048,100
%

Indonesia 245,613,043 2,000,000 55,000,000 22.4 % 5.4 % 43,523,740

Japan 126,475,664 47,080,000 101,228,736 80.0 % 10.0% 7,684,120

Korea,
48,754,657 19,040,000 40,329,660 82.7 % 4.0 % 6,376,160
South

Malaysia 28,728,607 3,700,000 17,723,000 61.7 % 1.7 % 12,365,780

Nepal 29,391,883 50,000 2,031,245 6.9 % 0.2 % 1,396,800

Pakistan 187,342,721 133,900 29,128,970 15.5 % 2.9 % 6,412,960

Sri Lanka 21,283,913 121,500 2,503,194 11.8 % 0.2 % 1,235,080

TOTAL 100.0
3,879,740,877 114,304,000 1,016,799,076 26.2 % 195,034,380
ASIA %

NOTES: (1) The Asian Internet Statistics were updated for December 31, 2011, the
Facebook subscriber data was updated for March 31, 2012. (2) CLICK on each country
name to see detailed data for individual countries and regions. (3) The demographic
(population) numbers are based on data contained in Census Bureau. (4) The usage
numbers come from various sources, mainly from data published by Nielsen Online , ITU ,
and other
 2.SWOT ANALYSIS: SOCIAL MEDIA

Strengths:

Large market reach or penetration and it’s Very useful if you are setting up a
digital engagement strategy (to new people, young people).Social media builds a
conversation and converse with others and build close networking bonds which share quick
information exchange.It Lets you follow and connect with people/groups that interest you
but are not necessarily your friends (as with Facebook). Authors, celebrities, co- workers,
colleges, organizations etc.The campaigns are generally Cost-effective in the sense most of
the platforms are free. They just demand time,there is a Human factor: Your “brand”
becomes more HUMAN.Media exposure can be another strength of this.While Twitter is in
a strong market position in micro-messaging. Facebook is the only real competitor here –
and they attract users for different reasons.It helps to Build strong, long term relationships
through online social networking, at a faster pace than just relying on traditional face-to-
face networking and Gets tons of publicity.The industry Has developers creating hundreds
of applications around its API. It is totally RSS-enabled.

Weaknesses:
Tough to train or convince management team/group members on social media
principles as A lot of “Why Bother” from most mainstream (i.e. Facebook users)
people are there.The industry has low retention rate. Only 40%.Lacks tools or
resources to track and monitor social media campaign results.There is concern about
information leakage, liability, security, and management also.

Effort vs results: Even if it is more measurable than other channels, it is difficult

(especially for small business operations) to balance the effort put on social media
against the results obtained

Consistency: Engaging with your audience at a direct level means more efforts in
terms of keeping a consistent message/ corporate image

Making up for mistakes: The time-frame to correct errors that affect your audience is
less. Because you are heavily exposed, your company has to take action more
promptly than if you weren’t (especially if people are having conversations about
your brand, you will have to engage and clarify)

Blocked at many work sites: management sees it drops productivity; hurts bottom line.
 Opportunities:
 Creating/joining online presence on sites where the company currently
doesn’t exist, Great opportunity for individuals and organizations to connect
and exchange information. It opens a New target or niche markets that are
untapped: students, the public.
 Partnerships with other groups, organizations, schools, government, etc
 Penetration into a new geographical market quickly
 Recruitment of interested new members, students, public support and allows
you to build short and long term relationships with prospects. It humanizes
the ‘brand’ and makes the recruitment process more personal.
 Can gain deep insights into real-time trends, news, and all of us; “be the pulse of
the internet” as said by Founder Biz Stone
 Integration into real-time games, media, and apps. We’ve barely scratched the
surface so far on what’s possible. Twitter as real time infrastructure.
 It may become the dominant way for businesses to communicate with their
customers as quick delivery, branding opportunities, and enhanced marketing
opportunities are there.
 Being present where stuff happens: People research for info/products/services
online and value more the opinion of other individuals than whatever a
company may say about their own offer. If your company is present in an
interactive environment like social media, the opportunities for engagement,
conversion and most importantly clarification of doubts regarding your brand,
are countless.
 Developing a following/ audience those auto-nurtures itself: Your efforts in Social
media, together with the effort of your following may mean that your
audience becomes your best sales people
 Talent coming your way effortless: Because of the possibilities of exposure that
Social Media allows for, interacting here may mean that future talent (in the
shape of employees, partners or, you-name-it) will come your way through
the power of connecting online!
 Reach out to certain groups that traditional media didn’t allow you to: Because
Social media is for everyone, sooner or later you’ll come across people you
never thought of as your client. This opens the doors to building new
relationships but also to valuable feedback that can help you develop your
products or services more intelligently
 Threats:
Competitor is going after the same space or same audience with similar campaign
and the question also arises whether the current campaign sustainable, can it
continue? There can be threat of Attitudes on privacy: while lately it seems everyone
is willing to share the most intimate as well as mundane details of their life – there
could easily be a backlash against this trend. We’ve all heard of a few embarrassing
stories about over-sharing online, and a few high-profile examples might make
people rethink their habits. Micro- messaging may just be a fad. There’s nothing
inherently awesome about 140 characters. It got too much publicity in a short time.
May get burned out and getting dangerously spammy/porn spammy.The market
doesn’t have solid revenue model (future advertisements?)

Other social networking sites (MySpace, Tagged, Friend feed, identi.ca, others) may grow
and steal market share and Acquisition by a bigger player (Google) may disappoint early
adopters and loyal users
 3.A STUDY ON EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY IN DEVELOPING BRAND
COMMUNICATION

Internet is the emerging information technology with the credibility of immediacy

and fastness, thus, it brings globalization in every aspects of communication.
Communication through internet is more specified, with effective interactive strategy
among its users. In recent days, internet advertising has taken new forms which have
more advantages over the traditional mediums like print media, television and radio.
Marketing communication is becoming precise, personal, interesting, interactive and
social. Different strategies of communication are followed in various social
networking sites like Face book, Twitter and Orkut. They not only create impact over
the audience but also make them interact with the marketing statistics created. People
get attached to brand communication in social networking sites than usual banner and
pop up ads. These networking sites bring more interactive communication with
advertising. Social networking sites will become the primary arena for highly
targeted marketing and advertising. Therefore, it is necessary to study the
effectiveness of brand communication strategy followed in social networking sites
which are mainly accessed by Indian users. This research attempts to find the
effectiveness of brand communication strategy in promoting and advertising their
brand in social networking sites. The effectiveness is determined with the help of
survey from people who use these sites, and the content of three social networking
sites is analyzed.

INTRODUCTION
In its current form, internet is primarily a source of communication, information and
entertainment, but increasingly, it also acts as a vehicle for commercial transactions.
Since the explosion of the web as a business medium, one of its primary uses has
been for marketing. Soon, the web could become a critical distribution channel for
the majority of successful enterprises. One among them is marketing and spreading
brand communication through Social networking sites (Thompson, 2002).

Social networking websites are online communities of people who share interests and
activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.
They typically provide a variety of ways for users to interact, through chat,
messaging, email, video, voice chat, file-sharing, blogging and discussion groups. As
 World Wide Web grew in popularity, social networking moved to web-based
applications. In 2002, social networking era really started. In 2006, anyone with an
email address could sign up in social networking sites (Zarrella, 2010).

Now advertisers target more over to these media due to high rush in varsity of
audiences. So they hire this as the ideal platform to communicate their brand and
create an effective brand identity through highly effective and interactive
communication strategy. Most of the advertisers present their ads in interactive form
so that people tend more to check them and gain a little knowledge about the product.
There are various forms of brand communication available in social networking sites.
The effective way of brand communication present in these networking sites would
be the main aim of the study.

Social media:
Social media advertising is a paid form of brand, service or business promotion and
requires a proper and planned communicative message and budget. Advertising is
customer centric in nature. Customers play an important role in any major or minor
communication because they are the one who are going to decide the fate of the
advertising communication. Some benefits of social network advertising include:

1. Popularizing your brand, idea or service to the target group.

2. Informing target audience about your brand or service’s presence in the market.

3. Encouraging healthy competition in the market.

4. Providing social benefits for the brand.

5. Making the audience to interact and keep them intact with the brand.

Advertising in internet provides a major contribution to brand competition in the

market. Advertising here not only provides information about a product or service
but also promotes innovation. Besides it also facilitates consumer satisfaction. Big
and small companies, individuals of all walks of life, major and minor events,
concepts, etc., nowadays lay their base on social network advertising to get
recognized in the market (Zarrella, 2010).

With over 200 million active users, Face book, Twitter and Orkut have become a
personal, product and corporate branding hub in India. 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 and much more (Eric, 2008). The
effective brand communication strategies are analyzed to find the impact among the
users.

Social networking sites:

A social networking site creates network communication among the user community.
Though social networking site serves for communication purposes among special
interest groups, the marketing strategy has also entered this medium for its reach.
People get exposed to various kinds of brand communication through this media.
They tend to interact with the brand and also get awareness about the brand and its
service in an interesting way (Nicole, 2007). Hence, there is a need to study the
effective way of communication in branding the product in social networking sites
and analyze its reach among the people and their perceptions in this research.

In recent trend of marketing in social networking sites, various brand

communications are widely used to attract targeted leads. So, this study would help
to know the effectiveness of communication and strategy done through social
networking sites which make the target audience to participate in this kind of
advertising. This is mainly studied on networking sites which are popular among
Indian users were Face book, Twitter and Orkut. This study would help the
advertisers to understand the effective communication strategy to communicate their
brand among the users.
 Objectives of the study:

 To identify the presence of social media in firms.

 To convert Social Media users into Qualified Leads.

 To study the role of phygital marketing.

 To identify the importance of content marketing, blogs, videos on social media

with respect to sales conversion.

 To study the effectiveness of brand communication through social networking

sites from its users and communicators.

 To find the impact of interaction through these communication among Indian users
(with reference to Face book, Twitter and instagram).
 4.LITERATURE REVIEW

Scott (2009) states the reasons for brand promoters preferring online web for
marketing is that the tools, techniques and content are constantly evolving. The
buyers reward creativity by responding to the online efforts like:

“If you are open to trying out new things, you can be first in your industry to use
something new to communicate to your buyers”.

Marketing in some social networking websites are still the most popular in their
niche. Shih (2009) says that there are hundreds of millions of active users across sites
like Face book, Hi5, Orkut and MySpace. 2.6 billion min are spent on Face book
each day. These websites are enabling brands to engage the right people in the right
conversation at right time. Marketing the brands through social media is becoming
precise, personal, interesting, interactive and social.

Weber (2009) says promoting a community is just like as promoting a new brand
product or service to the consumers. Social media is used to communicate people in
the promotional aspect and inclined to involve the people. Traditional advertising and
direct marketing in social media is to send people to the digital community to be
informed, entertained and heard. Users find appealing, a value high enough to
encourage them to participate.

Borges (2009) finds that today's buyers want to be engaged differently than in years
past and many traditional marketing tactics simply do not work anymore. Social
media marketing is a revolutionary way to build solid relationships with buyers. Low
cost, brand building, staffing advantages, loyalty and level playing field are key
benefits of social networking sites as a successful marketing media.

Zarrella (2010) says the roots of online social networking can be traced to the 1980s
bulletin board systems (BBS). These systems allowed the users to create personal
profiles, helps to share information by sending private messages, public messages
and post events at low speed connectivity. After emanation of social networking
technology in the internet world, it grew higher and popular among the internet user.

Lacy and Hernandez (2009) says Twitter gives the ability to share nearly 140-
characters thoughts in a split second, where user can easily share links to press
releases and stories about their business, service or product. Making tweets
interesting and diverse, there is a more possibility of increasing the followers, by
consider with news sharing and stories about the industry that they serve.

The rules of marketing had to change and the web has proved a catalyst in bringing
the changes forward and amplifying their scale. The sudden emergence of the Web
2.0 marketing techniques demand additional approaches, while most marketers are
still wrestling with the first generation, savvy brands are exploring the landscape that
social media and social networks create for marketers. These techniques are allowing
much deeper drivers in social change to be unleashed, with a profound impact on
planning customer connections. The new generation of relationship marketing
responds to the additional challenges of digital media literacy and in the right hands
can trigger a rebuild of the entire marketing mix through different strategies.
Relationship marketing for the Face book generation demands both thinking and
acting differently (Chaffey 2003).

Stroud (2007) says that the ability of social networking sites to generate these huge
volumes of web traffic is proof of their huge popularity. Google, Yahoo and News
International have bought themselves a presence in the social networking arena. The
detailed rationale for these acquisitions differs but all have a common theme of
wanting access to the enormous audiences.

Ricadela (2007) says, Coca-Cola has been running promotions on MySpace for the
past two years for brands including Cherry Coke and Fanta and has promoted Diet
Coke and other drinks on Google's YouTube.

Smith (2010) says that Face book is becoming one of the great internet
communications of people time now days. Whereas many companies have tried to
emulate Face book’s success or challenge it in one geography or another, Face book
has proven that the core asset on which all of its services are built - the social graph -
is much more defensible and powerful than many others once anticipated.

Visitors to social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit
leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as music, jewelry/luxury goods/
accessories, consumer electronics and apparel. Heavy social networking visitors are
defined as the top 20% of visitors based on time spent on social networking sites.
People typically enjoy sharing their experiences with these products, whether it is to
talk about their new iPhone or the pair of designer jeans they just bought. Social
networking sites offer the venue for those conversations to occur. Social media
advertising is ideal for promoting brand recognition, although click-through rates are
not so strong. Still, there is no doubt that advertising via social media sites is an
effective way to increase your overall revenue stream (Brinlee, 2007).
 5.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To analyze and find the effectiveness of presence of social media and its importance
for firms.
To analyze and find the effectiveness of communication strategy in developing
brand, communication through social networking sites was done with the survey
method and content analysis in the research.

Methods of data collection:

The survey method helped to identify the reach of the brand among its target
audience, ways of impact, usage of these social networking sites and access to these
form of communication. And the content analysis is another method used to analyze
the communication strategy of different social networking sites with certain
parameters among top three Indian social networking sites which are tabulated with
results.

Research design:
This research study adopted survey and content analysis in order to find the
effectiveness and the impact of communication in branding any product or the
service among the target market through social networking sites like Face book,
instagram.

Survey:
Survey was conducted randomly among Face book, and instagram user community,
by sending questionnaire through online to collect the individual opinion from the
respondents.
Sampling:
Non probability sampling technique is used to collect the opinion from the online
respondents. The total population is social networking user community, but to collect
the effective data the sampling is constrained to the target population like young
adults, graduates within the age of 18 years to 30 years. The sampling size is 20.

CONTENT ANALYSIS
In content analysis, the following two popular social networking sites were selected
to find the effective brand communication among its users

(Face book, instagram).

RESEARCH PROCESS:-
The research was carried out as per steps of consumer research process. The
figure below depicts a model of consumer research process.

STEP1: DEFINE THE O

Define the Objectives of the Research

BJECTIVES OF
G AND EVAL Collecting and evaluating secondary data

Designing a primary research study

Collection of Primary data

 Processing and Interpretation of Data

Therefore to achieve the objectives of my research I have used quantitative

method for research.

Parameters and units of analysis:

1. Target group: category of audience visiting these sites.

2. Types of advertisements: what are the types of brand communication followed by

them?

3. Ads placement: how do the company place their ad in their pages?

4. Communication strategy: kinds of brand promotion used by them.

5. Visual appealing factors: regarding the appearance of the company’s promotion on social
media platforms.

6. User Interaction: kinds of participation with the brand.

7. Accessibility: how legibly they present themselves.

8. User interest: the forms of expectations from users in these social media platforms.
 6.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Social media marketing and success to company

It has found that 66.6 % audience believes that the social media as a marketing tool is
playing a tremendous role in helping the company to reach out its target customers which
leads to growth of the company.

On the other hand 14.3% of the respondent believes that social media creates chaos in
purchase decision as sometimes the actual product and the product promoted on social
media appear to be dissimilar. There also exist 19% audience which are not sure whether
social media can lead to success of a company or not.(fig.1)
Searching company’s social media for their products and services

There are various product for which a customer is not sure in a single thought, therefore
he/she takes various advices suggestion from various sources , social media is also among
those sources. A person before making a buying decision try’s to search about the company
and its product and services. 57.1% of the audience agree with the statement that they
search for the company when they like any of their product and services to get a better
insights. 14.3% of the audience says that they do the same sometimes for particular product
or services but not for every products . On the other hand there exist 28.6% audience who
do not bother to do such types of research before making any buying decision.
Social media presence helps business grow

Social media in terms of sales and marketing has grown in the previous few years. It has
been asked to the audience that wheather they believe that social media presence of a
company helps it to grow their business, 33.3% of the respondents strongly agreed with
the statement and 23.8% agreed with the statement. On the other hand 28.6% of the
population were neurtral in terms of agreeing and disagreeing with the statement.

It was surprisingly found that there was none of the respondent who said that the social
media presence cant help in growing of a business which signifies that customer also prefer
those companies nowadays which are marketing their product and services for making any
buying decision.
Changing initial purchase decision

The growth of social media marketing changed so fast that nowadays it can be seen that
sometimes it changes the initial purchase decision of the customers. 14.3% of the
respondent agreed with the statement that they always changes their purchase decision if
they find any difference in the product at social media platforms or if the review for the
product of existing customer are not as per the expectations. 28.6% also believes that they
sometime changes the decision after the social media advertisements on the basis of their
mood. The number of respondent who don’t believe that social media of the company
doesn’t made any changes in their purchase decision are only 14.3%.
Social media attracts the target audience
Company nowadays are active on various social media platforms to advertise their product
and services to attract the target audience with the help of unique contents in the form of
text blogs and videos and animation. 19% of the respondent strongly agrees with the
statement that social media gradually changing the scope of attracting the target audience.
It was found that 47.6% of the respondent agrees that target audience can be easily grabbed
if a company has a good social media reputation and they actively participate in promoting
their product and services and handles the customer grievances their effectively.
On the other hand it was only 9.5% audience who don’t believes that social media is useful
in attracting the target audience, they believe that it creates chaos in the mind of the users.
 7.RESULTS OF THE ANALYSIS

As seen earlier, the various platforms involve in these kinds of social media
advertising and day by day competition among the brands increase. So, to survive
brands, the company come up with more and more innovative, interactive and
interesting kinds of brand communication messages on their social media handles
which make the users to access them and develop closeness with the different brand
communication strategy with attractive name and its service.

1. The finding of the study states that the audiences respond more to interactive
marketing than the traditional ads followed in internet advertising.

2. Almost everyone is communicated through social networking sites.

3. Nearly 70% of the audience has impact through ads in social networking sites and
half of them access these ads e.g. games, quiz, events, etc.

4. Users remember the company and their brand by the way they advertise. They
respond to any new form of advertising which interest them.

5. Social networking sites will become the primary arena for highly targeted
marketing and advertising. Social networking sites present an unmatched opportunity
to build brand.

6. Interaction is more in the display banners advertisements in Face book and instagram.
7. Almost more than half of the respondent agreed for their searches about the firm
product and services on social media before their buying decision.

8. Appropriate content and blogs (in form of videos and text) over firms websites and
social media accounts helps in customer attraction.
 8.NEED FOR THE STUDY

Social Media is the current big buzzword in the world of Internet Marketing, and

with good reason. It is already such a big part of the Internet culture. It is here to

stay and should be ignored by marketers, or indeed anybody, at their peril. It is

important to understand WHY people use these websites, as there is a broad

demographic on these sites. Some people use them for business purposes, to

network and find new deals. Then there are others who use social networking sites

for purely personal reasons and are totally oblivious to the fact that there is a

business presence in the social networking environment at all.

It is fascinating to see that there are so many different things going on in one place,

and even more incredible that they seem to all work in harmony.

To know:

 How diverse social networking community could be ?

 Are we reaching the right audience, and if so, are we reaching them effectively?

 To know the presence of firm at the appropriate platform of social media.

 9.LIMITATIONS OF STUDY

 Market research is conducted to various respondents so biases such as

mood, feelings act on research settings.

 The responses from the respondents could be biased which ultimately

affects the results shown by marketing research.

 This study limits to the responses gathered from the frequent users who searches
for accommodation online before any physical visit and the customer gained
from social media.

 Respondent’s answers might have influence or bias.

.
 10.SCOPE OF THE STUDY

 The study would help in gathering the opinion of people for social networking
sites, how do they use it, what are the things that they do on social and professional
networking sites and how these sites help them in socializing with the product and
services of a firm.

 The study further helps in analyzing the benefits of promoting through social
media, identifying the benefits of branding and promoting via SNS.

 The study will help to formulate and implement Marketing strategies for
Branding, Promoting and communicating the information to the customers
through SNS.
 11.CONCLUSION

 Although it involves strategic planning and commitment, having a

social media presence provides an array of benefits to a business.
 Because we live in a digital age where most individuals educate
themselves on the web, what your business publishes online is
essential to proving your credibility and solidifying your
reputation within the market. Therefore, your digital impression
should reflect positively through your active social media
presence.
 Online content and having an active social media presence serves
as a way to communicate, meet needs and build trust before you
establish a direct relationship. Additionally, you can connect with
clients on a personal level in an environment in which common
interests are shared.

 Communication about the product or service provides a major

contribution to brand competition in the market. It not only provides
information about a product or service but also promotes creative
innovation. Besides advertising, it also facilitates consumer
satisfaction. The hidden fact is that no brand can progress without
effective communication strategy to attract their customers or users.
Big and small variety of brands nowadays laid their base on social
network communication to get recognized in the target market.

 Social networking sites users of Face book, Twitter and Orkut have
become a personal, product and corporate branding hub in India
nowadays 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 and much more. Social
networking sites are filled with potential users who are mainly young
adults. They spend more time in these networking sites due to heavy
commercial contents, entertainment and social gathering. So, product
or service communicators throng their ads in these areas with more and
more interactive and with fascinating factors so that their brand
identity is developed among the right choice of focused audience.
Advertisers and brands uses social networking sites as the major
resource for their promotion and developing brand identity among the
focused market.
 12.SUGGESTIONS

Communication should be more preferred than advertising: people do not prefer

buying products through social networking sites. So, if the brand is communicated
well and remembered by the audience, then it is a greatest success to the company for
their promotion through social media.

Promotional way of advertising is best: the usual banner ads and pop-up ads make the
users to ignore them. So advertising must be interactive, promotional and in
innovative form to hold the audience. It should target the individuals than the mass. If
an ad is hosted for a group then that would be no advantage in delivering specified
information. Adding more multimedia elements to have more interactive factors in
fan pages and group would benefit the brand user.

The same way you prepare other aspects of your marketing plan, you need
to have a specific and intentional plan for each platform you use. Each
platform has nuances and best practices for generating engagement. Your
brand may not need to have a presence on every platform, but for your posts
to be targeted, you need to have a strategy that is specific to the platform
you’re using.

Be consistent

How consistently you post should be specific to each social media site you’re
utilizing. Some platforms like Twitter and Instagram Stories require you to be active
multiple times per day to get the maximum potential from your audience. Other post
types, like regular Instagram Posts and Facebook updates, don’t have as much urgency
and can be used less sparingly. When determining your post strategy, look at factors
such as how the algorithm works for each platform and whether content posts
chronologically or is curated based on other factors.
Focus your messaging

Each platform you use will have it’s own unique demographic. There will be overlap of the
people you’re targeting on each platform, but it’s still essential to understand
your demographics so you can tailor your message to have the most impact.

Having a focused message will help you create higher quality content that is on brand and
resonates with your audience. When you have a solid message that you don’t stray from, you can
count on your social media posts to always be relevant to your audience.

Sprout Social has a great social media targeting feature that gives you flexibility on who sees
your social media posts. Depending on the network, you can target your posts by location,
language, demographics and other criteria.

Keep an eye on what’s trending

Once you have your key messaging determined, keep an eye on popular trends
emerging on each platform. If you notice a pattern or strategy rising in popularity and it
aligns with your messaging, then it’s a great idea to capitalize on it to drive
engagement.

Be wary of jumping on board every new internet trend you see. Creating posts that
don’t align with your overall messaging to appear relevant is a quick way to alienate
your target audience. You never need to create a particular type of content just because
you see other brands doing it.

This is why it’s so essential to create a focused message that you can use as a baseline
against which to measure all of your future social media posts.

Measure & analyze results

To make sure you’re getting the best results from your social media marketing, you need to be
accurately tracking and measuring your efforts. Over 40% of businesses don’t accurately track
their social media ROI at all, which means there’s no easy way of knowing whether or not your
strategy is working.

To simplify your tracking process, identify key metrics that are important to your brand.
Some of the metrics that you want to look for include:

 Reach and engagement for Facebook

 Impressions, retweets and mentions on Twitter
 Clicks, impressions and interactions on LinkedIn
 Engagement and impressions on Pinterest
 Likes, comments and mentions on Instagram
 Views and engagements on Instagram Stories

You should track these metrics on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis so you know when and
if you need to make changes to your social media strategy.
 13.QUESTIONNARIE
1. Do you think social media marketing can help in the success of a company?
 Yes
 No
 Maybe

2. Do you ever search for a business’s social media account to research their firm and their
product and services/
 Yes
 No
 Sometimes

3. How much do you agree with this statement? “social media presence helps business grow”
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neither agree nor disagree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree

4. Do you change your initial purchase preference after searching relevant information via
social media sites?
 Always
 Often
 Sometimes
 Rarely
 Never
5. “Social media presence helps a firm to attract their target audience with the minimum
cost”.
 Strongly disagree
 Disagree
 Neutral
 Agree
 Strongly agree
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