Dissertation - Social Media Marketing: Consumers' Perception

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Indian Urban social Media consumers & their perception of social media marketing
MBA 2009 Dissertation
The University of Sheffield Management School
SUMIT JANMEJAI 2/2/2010
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Executive Summary/ Abstract
Purpose: To determine the Indian Social Media consumer profile and to evaluate the effectiveness of Social Media as marketing communication channel Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative research was conducted among Indian urban social media users through an online questionnaire. Findings: The profile of Indian Urban social media consumers was discovered. Also their usage patterns were identified. Hypotheses regarding usability of social media as a marketing communication channel were proven. Research limitations/implications: This research should specially interest small and medium scale enterprises as it provides interesting insight about social media: important tools, strategic framework, implementation and measurement, rules of communication and others. It gives an overview about how other SMEs are taking on social media and identifies Indian Urban Social Media consumers & their usage patterns. Originality/value: The conducted study provides academic as well as practical information about social media marketing and thus tries to fill in the gap in academic literature about social media marketing. Keywords Social media, Web 2.0, Social Media Marketing, social media optimization, Marketing Communications, socio-technographic profile
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I acknowledges the help and support of companies, experience with whom, led the foundation of this research. Experiencing social media marketing with UK SMEs- Mydeco and Quba New Media gave a basic understanding of the requirements of a small company and challenges faced by them. Researcher also shows gratitude to Indian Urban social media consumers who took time out of their schedules to take part in the research and provided useful insight by leaving comments to the survey questions. I am deeply indebted to my supervisor and MBA Director, University of Sheffield, Dr. John Kawalek, whose help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement have been instrumental in completing this research work.
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Contents
Executive Summary/ Abstract .............................................................................................. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Rationale for the research .......................................................................................... 5 1.2 Aims & Objectives of the research ............................................................................... 7 Chapter 2: Literature Review................................................................................................ 9 2.1 Internet: where from it came, where is it going? ......................................................... 9 2.2 E-commerce and online interactivity ...................................................................... 12 2.3 Web 2.0 ................................................................................................................. 14 2.4 Social Media.......................................................................................................... 16 2.5 Social media marketing.......................................................................................... 18 2.6 Social media and Enterprises ................................................................................. 22 2.6.1 Social media strategy for marketing communication........................................... 25 2.6.2 Application of 4 way cyclic strategical framework (Using Twitter) .................... 27 2.6.3 Integrating social media pltforms: Social media optimization (SMO) of Blog ..... 30 2.7 Benefits of using social media marketing .................................................................. 33 2.8 Adoption of social media by enterprises ................................................................ 33
Chapter 3: Methodology ..................................................................................................... 36 3.1 Description and justification of the methods.............................................................. 36 3.2 Research design........................................................................................................ 37 3.2.1 Primary and secondary data ............................................................................... 37 3.2.2 Questionnaire design .......................................................................................... 38 3.2.3 Target population and sampling design .............................................................. 39 3.2.4 The pilot survey ................................................................................................. 40 3.2.5 Validity, Reliability and Practicality ................................................................... 40 Chapter 4: Research process and findings ........................................................................... 42 4.1The consumer profile of Indian Urban Social Media Users ........................................ 42 4.1.3 Where and how frequently SMPs are being used in India? ..................................... 44 4.2 The Techonographic profiles of Indian social media consumers ................................ 45 4.3 The Influence of Social Media on Indian Consumers ................................................. 48 Chapter 5: Theorization ...................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 6: Critical Reflection ............................................................................................. 56 Chapter 7: Conclusion and further implications .................................................................. 57 4
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References and Bibliography .............................................................................................. 58
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Rationale for the research
Past decade has been a golden period for communication technology development. With the widespread of internet, people have almost instant access to all the information around the globe. New technologies are evolving everyday and shaping the way world communicates; Web 2.0 is one of them. It has given people power to communicate, express opinion and mold the information flow the way they want. In words of Lee and Bernoff (2008, p.1)Customers are writing about your (companies) products on blogs and re-cutting commercials on YouTube. Theyre defining you (company brand) on Wikipidia and ganging up on you (company) on social networking sites like Facebookthat has created a permanent shift in the way the world works. Here it is worth mentioning that technology is just an enabler and ever-changing but the key elements which will always remain dominant are people and their urge to socialize. It gives rise to another media- Social Media, which though have some similarities with traditional mass media, is different in many aspects. In past few years social media has become the hottest topic in marketing arena. Big companies like IKEA, IBM, Hyundai, HSBC, Ford, Dell, BskyB, AT&T, Apple and many more along with American President Barack Obama himself, have produced success stories of harnessing power of social media for communication and marketing purposes (Kim, 2008). For small businesses it is said to be a boon as most of the social media itself is free of cost for use and if utilized effectively can prove to be sales driving goldmine for small businesses. But, unfortunately there is a clear shortage of academic literature defining social media and answering questions like how it can be used in marketing? What should be the strategy? How to implement?
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How should a company communicate on social media? What could be the measuring instruments or Key Performance Indicators? Some research has been done about consumer perception and socio-technological profile of consumers of social media, but that too is limited to US market. Still there is no finding of the technographic profile of Indian Urban Social Media users and how effective social media marketing is in Indian landscape. This research project will try to fill the gap between limited academic literature and practical information needed about strategic implementation and measurement issues in social media marketing. It will try to discover profile and general usage patterns of Indian Urban social media consumers. It will find out how effective social media marketing is in Indian landscape. The interest in the topic Social Media Marketing was influenced by working first with a digital agency as an external consultant for business development plan of social media marketing services and then as a Social Media Marketing consultant with a leading UK e-retailer.
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1.2 Aims & Objectives of the research

Constantinides and Fountain (2008) suggested that Social Media Properties could be included in the corporate marketing strategy, only when following three areas are researched in detail: (1) Effects of Web 2.0 applications on consumer behavior (2) Effectiveness of different SMPs (3) Relationship of different SMPs with traditional mediums This research work concentrates over marketing communication strategy only, thus two main aims are identified as follows: Aim 1 - To determine the Indian Social Media consumer profile:
Aim 2 - To evaluate the effectiveness of Social Media as marketing communication channel:
outcomes for the company. via SMPs generates positive word of mouth. -technographics) prefer different channels for marketing communication.
Statements of Hypotheses
In order to realize aim 2 following hypotheses were made and tested against the primary data collected via the survey: Hypothesis 1 Marketing communications done through social media generates outcomes for the company. H0: There is a connection between SMPs used for marketing communication and actions taken by customers after the communication.
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H1: There is no connection between SMPs used for marketing communication and actions taken by customers after the communication.
Hypothesis 2 - Different SMPs have to be used for different communication purposes. H0: There is a significant relationship between the SMP used for marketing communication and communication desired by customers. H1: There is no significant relationship between the SMP used for marketing communication and communication desired by the customers. Hypothesis 3 Communication through social media generates positive word of mouth for the company/brand. H0: There is a significant relationship between those who start communication with company through social media and positive word of mouth generated about the company. H1: There is a significant relationship between those who start communication through social media and positive word of mouth generated about the company.
Hypothesis 4 - Different type of consumers (on the basis of socio-technographic profile), prefer different channels for marketing communication. H0: There is a significant relationship between the socio-technographic profile of social media consumer and marketing channel preferred by him/her. H1: There is no significant relationship between the socio-technographic profile of social media consumer and marketing channel preferred by him/her.
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Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1 Internet: where from it came, where is it going?
Internet is no doubt the most revolutionary invention of last century. It began in 1968 as an initiative by Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPAnet) of Department of Defense to connect different university computers. Today NSFnet (a broken wing of ARPAnet) and commercially available backbone services together form what we know as Internet. (Westphal and Towell, 1998). It is the worlds largest collection of decentralized computer networks which is made of millions of private and public networks scoping from government, business, academics and others. This system uses standard protocols (TCP/IP) for data transfer, authentication and error detection. According to (Westphal and Towell, 1998) it is the most democratic part of the cyberspace which is relatively open, low cost and provides information on everything imaginable. In last one decade Internet has shown tremendous growth worldwide, much more than any other sector or technology. According to latest Internet World Stats (June 2009 data), today 1.6 billion people use internet, which is 24.7% of the world population. Following bar chart from the same source shows the penetration rate of internet in different geographic region-
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Image 2.1.1: World Internet Penetration Rates Source: Internet World States 2009- http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Talking about India in particular, there are 81,000,000 Internet users as of Nov/08, 7.0% penetration, per ITU (Internet world states, June 2009 data). Although this penetration rate is quite low as compared to other western nations, it is growing at fast pace. In urban cities like Delhi much higher is this rate and consumers (especially youth) spends hours on internet (Delhi-TCS Survey). Reasons of such rapid acceptance of internet differ from time period to time period. Factors which used to encourage people to use internet in 1996 would be obsolete by 2010, but then there would be different driving forces pulling new users towards fascinating world of internet. eTForecast lists the driving forces then and now. (Table below)
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Table 2.1.1 Internet User Driving Forces in 1996-2004 and 2005-2010

1996-2004 Email proliferation Free web browser Content explosion Under $1K PCs (1997) Intranets for business users Web hosting services Business-to-consumer e-commerce PC purchase rebates from ISPs Business-to-business e-commerce Declining & fixed ISP rates Under $500 PCs (2000) Free ISP rates in international markets Web-driven productivity gains Internet/cyber cafes Business-to-business e-commerce Cable modem & DSL connections 2005-2010 DSL & broadband connections Handsets with Internet access Home LANs for Internet access devices Wireless Internet access points Internet-enabled CE devices Multifunction handheld devices Web content for wireless devices Pre-paid Internet access cards Un-metered Internet access fees E-commerce in developing countries M-commerce for mobile devices Internet cafes in developing countries $200 PC for developing countries Internet entertainment content $50 handset with Internet access Wireless broadband (WiMax)
Source: Internet user forecast- http://www.etforecasts.com/products/ES_intusersv2.htm
Future forcasts say more and more people would be online in the coming time. Table below shows the future projection by eTforecast. Image2.1.2 Future forecast: Internet users (in Ms) in different locations
[Source: Internet user forecast- http://www.etforecasts.com/products/ES_intusersv2.htm]
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2.2
E-commerce and online interactivity
Anderson (1999) cited in Cox and Dale (2001) defines E-commerce as ``the conduct of business among e-enterprises and consumers''. Any business enterprise which has capability of exchanging money, goods, services or/and information electronically might be considered as e-enterprise in the above definition. Internet has provided companies a robust means of spreading there scope of business beyond the imagination. Linda Peters (1998) affirms that, the Web, if seen from the traditional communication channel perspective is both Market and Medium. It creates a market space for selling and also serves the medium of exchange. More and more websites are popping up every single second and new ways of conducting businesses online are being explored. Following table shows that more than 111 M websites are active presently.
Table 2.2.1 Domain Counts
Daily Changes(last 24hrs) Active 81,984,930 12,418,241 7,788,274 5,230,969 2,037,710 1,631,923 111,223,881 Deleted 305,333,820 32,123,945 20,251,682 8,639,764 1,862,171 1,480,622 370,353,581 New 90,075 12,654 7,510 8,583 1,637 1,755 122,214 Expired 42,479 6,802 3,573 7,551 1,232 754 62,391 Transferred 87,351 9,882 8,862 7,222 1,157 1,097 115,571 TLD .Com .Net .Org .Info .Biz .Us Total
Last Updated : 2009-09-02
[Source- Domain tools, September 2009- http://www.domaintools.com/internet-statistics/]
A new era of communication has emerged with Internet. Seemingly there is very less time gap between information creation, transfer, reception, notification and reaction. Internet has become the universal source of information in business and education around the globe, Information which is instant and easily accessible. Liu & Shrum (2002) accept that Internet has given birth to two sorts of interactivity: user-to-message and userto-user. Here user-to-message interaction refers to the
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extent to which users can alter the form and content of informative media (Steuer, 1992). The second sort of interactivity is between users (user to user) and according to Ha and James (1998) more the interaction resembles to interpersonal communication more interactive it becomes. Many authors have talked in detail about communication and online interactive. A concise summary is presented by Lee (2005)-
Image 2.2.1: Literature related to Online interactivity
This revolution in communication has changed the behavior of people. Internet has provided multiple ways of Communication and above all this communication is free and instant. Online people are connected to one another at all the time and can communicate their message across the globe without practically paying any money. Constantinides (2008) claims that internet has become daily reality for over a billion of users worldwide because it offers following advantages Transparency and abundant information: It provides easy, fast and inexpensive information about businesses, products, persons and services which is necessary to make informed purchasing decisions
More alternatives and choice: Buyer can choose products/services from around the world sitting in his/her home and engage in any transactional conversation
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Easy contacts and business deals: Transactions can be made with a click of mouse. The public trust in online commerce is increasing and the confidence in online payments is higher than ever before.
Control over the transaction process: The buyer has absolute control on all processes leading to commercial transactions (information search, product comparison, purchasing, delivery, payment) without intervention of
intermediaries. Furthermore, the consumer is able to influence other fellow consumers who are interested in similar products.
2.3
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 was first coined by OReilly in 2004 and in his wordsWeb
2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to
the internet as platform and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them (Musser and OReilly, 2006).
Constantinides and Fountain (2008) define Web 2.0 as follows: A collection of open-source, interactive and user-controlled online applications expanding the experiences, knowledge and market power of the users as participants in business and social processes.
Based upon above definitions it can be stated that core ability of a Web 2.0 application is to allow users to network together and facilitate them to use the content the way they want (creating, editing, sharing, and refining). Levy (2009) while
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reviewing web 2.0, points out three important factors which resulted in formation of the phenomenon called web 2.0
The Internet has matured at a fast pace in last decade.
Over one billion people are internet users and worth considering is the fact that mobile internet users are much more than those having access of internet through desktop computers.
After dot com crash of 2001 software industry attempted to build a new positive apprehension.
OReilly (2005) describes that Web 2.0 doesnt have a fixed boundary but a gravitational core and in order to be classified as a web 2.0 application, an internet based application should posses following characteristics (if not completely then to some flexible distance from the gravitational core) Web is just a platform and main emphasis of an application should be the services provided, which creates value for the customer. Content is no more authority of a sole person. Users of the content play an active role in content creation also. Service improves itself as used by more and more users. Collective Intelligence of people should be utilized. Although previous characteristics suggest that content is created by collective intelligence, but still the main content remains the core and creates most of the total value. Other users contribution should be seen as additional supplement which creates competitive advantage. (Levy, 2009) Such websites remain in perpetual Beta i.e. services are developed and released continuously. While some experts support the idea of Web2, many stand in opposition. Originator of web and director of World Wide Web consortium Tim Berners-Lee in an interview with Laningham (2006) counter attacks web2 advocates, saying it is just A PIECE OF JARGON, NOBODY EVEN KNOWS WHAT IT MEANS According
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to McLean (2007) WEB 2.0 is the catch-all descriptor for what is essentially much more dynamic Internet computing. Weinberger (2007) looks at Web 2.0 not as a revolution but rather as an evolution or already existing idea of web. As the debate on web 2.0 being something new or evolution of something already existing continues, it remains a hot topic of research and center of discussion. Articles are being written, search engines are sending new alerts and a new spirit is out on the World Wide Web. (Levy, 2009)
2.4
Social Media
Boyd
(2009)
identifies
Social
Media
as
the
latest
buzzword
in
marketing/technology arena and describes it as a software-enabled channel of

communication where individuals and communities together- communicate, share, and in some cases collaborate or play. Topic of web 2.0 and social media is relatively new and full of conflicts. Limited literature is available and there seems to be a clear lack of agreement among writers. Terms web 2.0 and Social Media are often used interchangeably, but are not entirely same. From marketing perspective Social Media should be seen as a new means of communication with customers which has some similarities but many unique features when compared to traditional mass media channels (television, newspaper etc.) while web 2.0 technologies should be perceived as the enabler or facilitator of Social Media. Social media is where sociology meets technology. Li and Bernoff (2008) assert that people are the key players in this phenomenon while the technology just an enabler. Technology only provides a platform for activities, it is people driven by their own urge for socialization, information or recognition, who participate and make this phenomenon so strong. With evolution of web 2.0 technologies, a new trend has emerged. Technology has provided people a free, fast and strong medium to stay
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connected with people they might not even know. They are the most important player in this phenomenon as affirmed by Constantinides & Fountain (2008) as they are both- content generators and content consumers. Li and Bernoff (2008) identify this new trend; which they name Groundswell as a spontaneous movement of people using online tools to connect, take charge of their own experience, and get what they need- information, support, ideas, products, and bargaining power from each other rather than from traditional institution. They further claim that this phenomenon is strong, self evolving, ever growing and unstoppable. Bowman and Willis (2003) apply Moslows Need Theory on online community and present a deep insight about the motivating factors of those participating in social mediaImage 2.4.1: Online community needs
Source: Bowman and Willis (2003)
Drury (2008) recognises that with the popularity of social media a new age of dialogue instead of monologue has emerged. Instead of shouting advertisement messages now marketers tend to deliver content which is relevant and customized (if possible) to receiver and leads to a discussion between the company and customer.
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Marketing Gurus like Kotler(2003) recognize the strength of two-way marketing for advertisement, sells, market research and customer relationship Management. Social Media by taking user interaction to a new level provides an environment for two-way marketing. Hoffman and Novak (1996) recognize this shift in the marketing communication model as one-to-many to many-to-many. This clearly signifies the empowerment of customer in marketing communication in current environment. Consumers are talking about brands and companies and have potential to influence others behaviour. Peters (1998) agrees to it and identifies the ability of consumers to control both contact and content as the key feature of new electronic communication media.
2.5
Social media marketing
Constantinides and Fountain (2008) suggest five different categories of Social Media as1. Blogs- (web logs) short online journals. Examples: www.blogger.com, www.worldpress.com, www.blogspot.com
2. Social networks- Applications allowing people to build and access personalized acquaintances. www.ning.com pages, exchange information and stay connected to
Examples:
www.facebook.com,
www.myspace.com,
3. Content communities- Websites designed for organizing some typical contents like photo, video or social bookmarking or encyclopedia. Examples: www.flickr.com, www.youtube.com, http://del.icio.us, www.wikipedia.org.
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4. Forums- Websites for sharing ideas and information about any specific interest. Examples: www.epinions.com, www.python.org.
5. Content aggregators- Applications allowing users to customize web content according to their interest. These applications make use of technique called RSS (Real Simple Syndicate). Example: www.google.com/reader
Basically all these are different platforms to connect, communicate and share content with people and thus provide marketers a powerful means of reaching customers. In social media marketing above mentioned venues are used for different marketing practices by leveraging the power of consumer itself instead of paying for advertisement. It makes consumers more powerful as they the main actors in any marketing campaign on social media. Core of any social media marketing practice is to create a content that creates buzz in public, making relationship with customers and encouraging and empowering them to promote the message among peers. Basic motivation for people generating content in social media is their need of self actualization as per Trendbureo (2008). They may generate content (free generally) to
interact with others or to get recognition or admiration by others. This content can have high level of viral/word of mouth effect. Promotional Campaigns in social media if handled carefully can help companies progress swiftly and persuasively in niche communities. As research reports (RazorFish, 2008; Internet Consumption Report, 2008) say that consumers are highly affected by what other consumers talk about the company or product. Li and Bernoff (2008) suggest that companies can make use of Social Media Properties for five purposes (p. 69) Listening: To understand consumers and their behavior better (Research). Talking: To spread message about company or product (Marketing). Energizing: To generate word of mouth effect (Sales). Supporting: To enable customers help each other (Supporting). Embracing: To work together with customers to come up with ideas for product/service improvement (Development)
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Lee and Bernoff (2008) suggest that its a common myth among professionals that social media is NOT for B2B organizations while it does affect every one as business people are people, too and social media provides them a platform to connect, communicate and share content/opinion. However, the extent to which a specific platform or social media as a whole could be beneficial for a company varies depending upon companys goal and techno-graphic profile of companys target customer. Another kind of segmentation is logical to understand the level of involvement of customers in social media. Li and Bernoff (2008) categories participants of social media in 6 groups and present them as a Social Techno-graphic Ladder with level of participation increasing upwards. This categorization is as follows-
Category
Activity
Creators: Publishing blog, webpage, uploading self-created audio/video, post selfwritten stories Critics: Comment/review someone elses content online; contribute on forums/wikis, Collectors: Use RSS Feeds, add tags to web pages or photos, Vote for websites online Joiners: Visit and maintain profile on social Networking websites Spectators: Read blogs, watch videos from other users, read online forums, read customer review Inactive: None of these activities
With time both number of internet users and the percentage of online users active on social media are increasing. According to Forrester research (2008) year after year a shift is evident from bottom to top of social techno-graphic ladder (Image 2.5.1). A similar shift can be noticed in India and other countries with social media websites gaining popularity with time. Web 2.0 sites like- Orkut, Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, Wikipedia, Wordpress are among top 20 Indian websites (Alexa data, 2009) It is evident that social media websites are attracting people from all walks of life. As a marketers job is to understand, contact or communicate to customers, social media
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becomes an important phenomenon with many of the potential customers spending time there.
Image 2.5.1: North American Techno-graphics
Source: www.forrester.com
In past few years numerous social media platforms have poped up and the number is still increasing. The picture below lists and categorizes some of the most famous platforms:
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Soure : social media landscape, flickr.com Image 2.5.3: Social media landscape
2.6
Social media and Enterprises
How social media could be used by enterprises? This question could be answered in numerous ways depending upon the enterprise and its goals. Not a single strategy or plan could work for all; social media it self may be very effetive for one enterprise while not that useful for other. An organisation considering to have presence on certain social media platform must ask following questions before moving ahead with it Whats the goal? How are we going to achieve it with the help of social media? Who is the target? How is the target consumer is going to react? What are the social media activities they are already engaged in?
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Which social media platform is best suited for a speific goal? Who is the incharge? How are you going to measure your efforts? Is it going to affect any of your existing operations; to what extent? Is your company and employees ready for this change?Who is the encharge for social media project? Could anything go wrong? Whats the contingency plan?
Lee and Bernoff (2008) give a four step planning process for building a social media strategy- POST. People: access how your customers will engage based upon what they are already doing i.e. analyse your customers and determine their social technographic profile. Objectives: What you want to use social media for? (As discussed before- listening, talking, energizing, supporting or/and emberacing) Strategy: what changes you want? How are you going to implement and how to measure? Technology: what web2.0 technology you are going to use or build?(applications, wiki, blog, twitter, social network etc.)
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Rules of Communication on social media Jim Tobin (2008) calls social media a cocktail party and affirms that communication on social media has to be just like one. Social media is not for shouting messages or telling your customer rather it is for talking. Technologies are many and ever evolving, but still are just enablers, CONVERSATION is the essential human element.
So how to talk on social media? Following rules applyo Relationships first, business second. o Contribute to the conversation. Engage! o Be helpful, sincere, and authentic. o Tasteful humor is always a plus. o Brand as story tellers... let your customers talk, empower them o Encourage conversation, invite ideas, comments, sharing o Create empathy, understanding and openness o Use different mediums to touch your customers o Have a clarily definened social media strategy
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2.6.1 Social media strategy for marketing communication

Not one strategy can tailor-fit all enterprises and their different objectives. Specific strategy should be defined depending upon enterprises goal, resourses, brand and targeted customer; but some building blocks will remain same and applicable in all contexts. Below is a discussion on the such generic strategy for social media marketing advocated by Shaw (2009), social media strategist of Vignette. Model discussed below is inspired by Vignettes external web2 strategy Stacy and Linda both fall under same traditional customer segment (age, income, location etc.), but not necessarily they are same when looked from Influential Marketing perspective. Stacy may just like the product and purchase it. Linda may like the product, purchase it and recommend it to friends. Linda creates more value for the company. Is it possible to convert Stacy in to Linda?
Social Value Tunnel Advocate Participant Searcher Lurker
New Visitor
4-Way cyclic strategical framwork for Social media marketing communication

technology technology
Listen
Learn
Share
technology
Interact
technology
MEASUREMENT & IMPROVEMENT
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KPIs, techniques, processes Social Value Tunnel: Social media marketing leaverages the power of consumers to influence peers. In contrast to traditional marketing communication where focus is on reaching as much customers as possible through mass communication channels like TV, billboard, newspaper etc., the social media marketing tries to build relationship with consumers and uses them as a carrier of marketing message to other customers. Customerner itself becomes a messanger and spreads the word of mouth. It is influential marketing where power of internet is used to spread the word with the help of web 2.0 technology. A customer depending upon the socio-technological profile and extent of engagement with company can create different value for company from social marketing perspective. Concept of Social Value Tunnel categorieses the customers on the basis of value creation for social media marketing. Vlaue increases from tail to head along the tunnel. At each point company should facilitate the customer and encourage advancement to next point towards head thus leading to stronger relationship. Category Companys push
New Visitor: attracting new visitors to the communication platform (blog, social network etc.) Lurker: facilitating easy discovery Searcher: Facilitating transcation (it could be any- fiscal, informational, social) Participant: Facilating contribution (ease the two way communication, encourage comments, uploading content, mash-ups, question-answers etc.) Advocate: Empower customers to share the content, encourege them to influence others perception
4-Way cyclic strategy for social media marketing

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Listen: identify your customers,what are they talking, which platform they are using, monitor brand mentions on social media Learn: who is already influential, understand tone of conversations, understand brand sentiment, understand tone for competitors, how can you start Interact: build relationship, create content that customers value, respond to customers, solve problems, be authentic, encaurage participation, acknowledge sincere suggestions Share: Share remarks, comments, mesh-ups, content created by Advocates with others, empower customers to share the content/companys message with their network on the platform of their choice Measurement and improvement: Performance measurement is necessary in all above discussed four directions to ensure progress in right direction. Key Performance Indicators are to be set inorder to insure ROI. Improvements are to be made wherever and whenever required. Depending upon the function for which social media is being used there could be different sets of KPIs. Enterprises also need to look at which technology is appropriate for the measurement purposes.
2.6.2 Application of 4 way cyclic strategical framework (Using Twitter)

Twitter Quick Intro: A micro-blogging platform composed of 140 character answers (known as tweets) to a simple question: What are you doing?These text based posts answer are shown on authors profile and delivered to authors subscribers known as followers. Quick facts: Launched in 2006, it is highly popular among celebs, executives and media persons. It has gained tremendous growth in number of visits in last one year. With around 5M unique visitors a month this surely is a potential medium for both reaching customers and attracting customers.
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Image 2.6.2: Twitter traffic growth
Source: Compete.comhttp://siteanalytics.compete.com/www.twitter.com/?metric=uv According to Nielsen Online report (April 28th, 2009 Posted in Nielsen News, Online And Mobile) 60% of first time users of twitter dont use it again Sysomos Report (2009) analyzed 11.5 million Twitter accounts and concluded that the top 10 percent of Twitter users produce 86 percent of the Tweets.
Depending upon the brand, product and industry there could be several ways twitter can be useful for a company. Following is a generic list of marketing functions it is being utilized
Customer Relations Crisis Management Corporate Reputation Management Event Coverage Product Promotion & Sales Issue Advocacy
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Following is the representation of strategic approach of using twitter as an effective platform for business purposes. Useful tools in each phase are also mentioned.
search.twittersearch keyword mentions TweetBeep- email alert ExecTweets- follow executive TwitterHolic- Find your interest
Twittergrader- learn who can be influential TweetVolume- which keywords to use TwitScoop, Tweetmeme: What's hot
Listen
Learn
Share
Interact
Hootsuit: multiple user, pre-scheduled tweets, stats Bit.ly- shorten URL, analyze click through TwitPic- share pics
TweetLater, Co Tweet: time your tweets Tweetdeck: organise followers Twhirl- centrally manage activities
Measurement
KPIs: # followers, # positive mentions, # RTs, Hits, Click through rate, Rate Of Conversion, Average Order Value, Customer Lifetime Value. Analysis: Google analytics, additional plug-ins enabling analytics to follow social media mentions and report like Tealium social media measurement, bit.ly, Hootsuit,
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2.6.3 Integrating social media pltforms: Social media optimization (SMO) of Blog
Objectives of SMO: Blog: Quick Intro: Web Log or Blog is a frequently updated website generally written in personal style. These entries could be commentary, description of events or reports in form of text, graphics, images, videos or combination of all posted in reverse chronological order. Dearstyne (2005) mentioned a definition of Blog by Microsoft which goes like: Blogs are frequently updated personal web journals that can dramatically help both small and large companies communicate their product messages. They increase people's ability to share ideas and information exponentially and on a worldwide scale. Increasing traffic to the site (new qualified traffic as well as return visits) Improved on-site experience Improved customer relations product/service improvement promotion/advertisement Increasing authenticity of site
With functions like blogrolls, comments, linkbacks and backlinks it provides a means to connect and network with others.
Quick Facts:
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Since 2002, 133 million blogs are indexed by most popular Blogosphere search engin Technoratti. (Singer, 2009). Worldwide 346 Million people read blogs regularly. (ComScore, 2008) So far 3.4 Million readers have subscribed to most famous technology blogTechcrunch. (techcrunch, 2009)
Brief: Marketing objectives are diverse, so are the ways a blog could be used. Blogs are being used by companies in sales, customer relations, advertisement, promotions and many more. A blog should be seen as a central point for social media marketing efforts that, with the help of new technologies and APIs (Application Programming Interface), incorports features of all above discussed social media platforms. SMO helps unlock the potential of a blog by empowering customers to share the content (with hidden company message) with peers and thus bringing more qualified traffic to site. Rules of SMO Although the content of a blog is the prime factor and only if creates value for the customers, they will be reading or sharing but SMO helps unlock the real potential of blog content. Bhargava (2006) founder of digital influence group coined this term and laid down 5 rules of social media optimization as1) Increase your linkability 2) Make tagging and bookmarking easy 3) Reward inbound links 4) Help your content travel 5) Encourage the mashup Owyang (2006) strategy consultant at Altimeter Group added two more rules6) Be a User Resource, even if it doesnt help you 7) Reward helpful and valuable users
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This could be achieved by adding following features to blog. Technology required is also discussed and most of these are free of cost and readily available Subscription: Clearly visible subscribe via RSS and Subscribe via email could make blog more readable and increase repeated visits.
Use feedburner (www.feedburner.com) it helps in managing feeds and measurement
Sharing: So that viewers can post and share with their network on social media
use plugins from www.gigya.com , www.addtoany.com , www.addthis.com
RT & Tweet button: Adding these buttons along the blog post posts, allows and encourages readers to directly re-tweet to their followers about the blog
entry. Use Tweetmeme: http://tweetmeme.com/about/retweet_button
Feature/allow Rankings for blog posts Comment Box: Simple and effective comment aggregator
consider Disqus (disqus.com) it aggregates and shows all reactions about any post on any platform. Use widgetbox to design widget to aggregate videos, twitter feed and all other channels
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Use card.ly to make e-card containing all the channel info. (Paid service, 2.5 $/ month) place it on blog.
2.7 Benefits of using social media marketing
Marketing Executive Networking Group conducted a research among US marketing professionals in 2008 to know the perceived benefits of using social media marketing. Below are the key findings:
Image 2.7: benefits of using social media marketing

Source: Marketing Ececutive Networking group, Social media marketing (2008)
2.8
Adoption of social media by enterprises
Its not very late since marketers started looking seriously at social media. Rollyson (2009), MD of a leading management consultancy firm for web 2.0, talks about adoption social media by government and commercial enterprises in Global Human
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Capital Journal. He points out that following the hype and experimentation phase of Social media in 2009 there will be a steep fall in perceived value of social media as most social media marketing efforts will fall short of exptation. Thereafter, with continued experimentation and learning, companies will gradually start deploying technologhy in right way and curve will go up slowely untill it achieves a sustainable value.
Image 2.8 Web 2.0 adoption curve 2006-20115

Source: Web 2.0 adoption curve 2006-2015 (http://globalhumancapital.org/)
Initial Discovery (2006-2007) - While some enthusiasts recognized the value of web 2.0 in marketing, others wrote off social media as something for kids. Skills were limited and most of the work related to deploying social media for marketing was outsourced.
Hype & Experimentation (2008-2009) - During this phase marketers grasp some key fundamentals of social media and realize the potential. Some of the efforts get success and organizations keep experimenting. According to Rollyson, by 2009 this reaches the apex of immature adoption as shown in the graph and market would be flooded by web 2.0 service providers and
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agencies advocating social media who barely know more than client leading initiatives which often fail.
Failure & Disappointment (2010) - Most web 2.0 initiatives will fail because of limited knowledge of implementation and measurement but over expectation and falls assumptions. This will bring a decline in perceived value of social media among practitioners. Most will sit on sidelines while some visionaries will keep investing and learning. As per Rollyson (2009)This gap can be a significant competitive advantage to those who manage their risk and plan to invest throughout the period.
Triumph of Determination (2011-2013) - Determined few will continue experimenting and learning. They will lift the curve up towards sustainable perceived value.
Pervasive Adoption (2014-2015) - This will be a phase of mass adoption when organizations will follow the path set by leaders in previous phase.
Above discussed theory is based upon Rollysons personal experiences with leading organizations worldwide and no substantial reasoning or proofs are given in support. It could be hypothesized out of the above discussed theory that presently enterprises are failing in their web 2.0 initiatives and social media marketing. They believe that it is useful but fail to realize the full potential of social media as they lack in strategic expertise required for successful implementation and measurement. But these remain just assumptions unless they are validated by large sample of enterprises trying to deploy social media marketing.
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Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1 Description and justification of the methods

There are broadly two ways of approaching any research: Scientifically and Ethnographically. Both types of researches have their own merits and demerits. Which method is to be used depends upon the objective of the research itself. Blackmon and Maylor (2005) assert that Scientific Approach is suitable for generalizing and analyzing patterns in behavior of people, organization and social system, while in contrast an Ethnographic approach is good for analyzing practices more in depth and often at individual level.
Scientific approach for research often uses deductive logic to reach new knowledge. In deductive logic a given set of rules are applied on data to prove a hypothesis. As long as reasoning is sound it allows reaching a more definitive result. In contrast the Inductive logic helps reaching a conclusion that is believed to be true but not guaranteed. It is used to observe a particular case and make generalizations thus creating knowledge in the process of research.
This research could be seen as theory-led scientific research since it verifies whatsoever limited views are given by various writers about the changing marketing landscape with the widespread of social media. Earlier these kinds of researches have been conducted in US market, so this research could be taken as an extension of those in Indian market. Further to some extent, this research uses ethnographic inductive logic approach as it tries to build a strategic framework for implementation and measurement of social media marketing efforts. Blackmon and Maylor (2005) explain that when not enough secondary data is available during research, it is permissible to use both above mentioned research approaches in one study. Social media marketing in itself is a new field and lacks proper strategy, measurement and implementation related theories. A very limited work has been done in the field and that too is not properly justified or supported with empirical evidences. Out of those limited literature this research tries to extract key points and writer tries to express a practical approach that could be used by marketers for social
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media marketing. The main objective of research is twofold, first to identify the profiles and usage patterns of Indian urban social media users and secondly to check how effective is social media marketing in Indian landscape.
Blackmon and Maylor (2005) assert that there are merits and demerits of both quantitative and qualitative research. Which method works best for certain research work depends upon the purpose and nature of research itself. Quantitative method is used for answering questions like what, how, how much, which etc. while qualitative method is more suitable for in depth analysis and answering Why. As this research is Scientific in nature quantitative method of data collection and interpretation is used. Another reason of choosing scientific paradigm for research is its cooperation with quantitative research method.
Success of quantitative research is very much dependent over the validity and statistical significance of data. According to Maylor and Blackmon (2005), most common way to verify research hypotheses and capturing opinion, behavior and attitudes is conducting a survey. A self administered online questionnaire is used for data collection because it is regarded as one of the best ways of collecting authentic data from large sample base within a short time frame.
3.2 Research design
3.2.1 Primary and secondary data
Data can be classified in to two types: primary and secondary. According to Ghauri et al. (1991) Primary data is the fresh data collected by researcher himself during the research while secondary data is the one that has already been collected and analyzed by other researchers. Secondary data sets the ground of further research. As this work
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has already done by others it saves time and cost of researcher, thats the reason it is often proposed that this set of data should be collected prior of conducting research for primary data. Ghauri et al (1991) states that collection of primary data along with secondary data is necessary sometimes as the secondary data in itself doesnt provide the answer of all questions. Both primary and secondary data are used in this research. While secondary data serves as the foundation of early hypothesis, primary data verifies the hypothesis and answers the questions arrived during study of secondary data. This secondary data was collected from a range of academic and professional resources. As mentioned earlier, because of limited academic literature in the field of social media; established practitioners blogs, companies white papers, web stats, journals, websites and reports were analyzed and data collected from them became basis of some of the key hypotheses. While collecting data from these sources the researcher has been critical and only authentic information has been included in the literature review. In order to find the answers of key questions and to verify the hypotheses made in review of literature, an online survey is used to collect the primary data.
3.2.2 Questionnaire design
When resources are limited and large scale data is to be collected in short time frame; a self-administered questionnaire is best tool to collect authentic data (Easterby-Smith 1991). Sekaran (2003) claims that three aspects are vital while designing a questionnaire- wording, categorization of variables and general appearance. Therefore, simple and generally accepted terms were used in order not to confuse responders. Where ever necessary, definitions or additional description was provided to make responders understand exactly what is meant by any question. Questionnaire was designed using the already available templates of Survey Gizmo (www.surveygizmo.com). Questionnaire was made on the patterns of questionnaires used for similar research in US by Forrester Research Group. This questionnaire is made of 11 questions and can further be divided in two sections- Perception and Application. Question number 1-6 i.e. Profile Section is determined to define the profile and usage pattern of Indian social media consumers. Question number 6- 11 i.e. Action Section takes a deeper view and tries to find out
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about the stimulus/effect generated by social media marketing communication among Indian urban social media consumers. Close-ended questions are asked in both sections as they are best suited for getting defined answers.
3.2.3 Target population and sampling design
Malhotra (2003) emphasizes on the importance of 5 aspects in sampling design: target population, sampling frame, sample size and sampling process. As the aim of this research is to identify Indian urban social media users, their usage patterns and their perception of social media marketing, clear target population of research are Social media users in Urban India. Population of the Delhi, the capital city of India is around 13 million, out of which 2.66 Million are internet users. Out of these internet users, target audience of the survey is the population that uses social media. In order to reach them social networking website Facebook was used. Facebook is the most popular social networking website in the world and has all functions/properties imaginable of social media. In India it is the second most popular social network after Orkut. (Alexa data, 2009) Blackmon and Maylor (2005) state that sampling error could be minimized by choosing appropriate sampling frame and sample size. Therefore above mentioned sample frame was used and the sampling size was defined accordingly. According to Malhotra & Briks (2003) sample size of one research differs from other depending upon the particular research objective, target population and data collection method. Keeping the limited time frame in mind 400 messages were sent randomly to Facebook users of Delhi with a hope of getting 100 responses (sample size). A logically justified assumption was made here that facebook users of Delhi represent social media users of urban India. Facebook though considered as a social network, contains all SMPs imaginable (micro blog, blog, content community, RSS etc.). Random sampling method was used to send questionnaire so as to mitigate
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any error because of biased sampling. Random selection was made possible because of Facebooks inbuilt function- network selection.
3.2.4 The pilot survey
Malhotra and Brick (2003) while advocating pilot study, state that it helps a researcher identify potential problems associated with the questionnaire. It helps identify any problem with wording, layout, and sequence of questionnaire and helps estimate response rate and time taken by responders. (Veal, 1997).
Chisnall (1997) suggests that the size of pilot survey should be at least 10% of actual survey size. Thus pilot survey invitation was sent to 10 random Delhi Facebook users. This pilot survey was sent 1 month before the planned starting date of actual survey and was left open for two weeks to collect responses. Out of these 10 professionals only 4 responded, giving a response rate of 40 %. Two of whom filled correctly and also left comments on survey questionnaire while one did not answer 3 of the questions. Learning from these experiences questionnaire was amended. Some questions were reframed and additional notes were added with questions to make them clearer to understand.
3.2.5 Validity, Reliability and Practicality
Bhojanna (2007) asserts that validity, reliability and practicality are the three essential attributes of a survey design. Validity here refers to the extent, to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure. Reliability means that the measuring instrument should give consistent results and by Practicality the author means that the measuring method has to be economical and in accordance with the resources available to the researcher.
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Research could be slightly affected by the method of survey distribution, as a social networking website Facebook was used for the purpose. But still, as facebook is the standard social media site containing all possible social media features (social networking, blogging, content sharing, RSS etc.), quite realistically it could be assumed that users of this particular website represent social media users.
Maylor and Blackmon (2005) state that ANOVA method guarantees reliability to a great extent so this method was used to test hypotheses. Reliability coefficient was assumed to be 5% and P & F values were used as main factor for checking significance.
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Chapter 4: Research process and findings

100 responses of survey questionnaire formed the survey data , which when analyzed provided following insights:
4.1The consumer profile of Indian Urban Social Media Users

First Aim of the research was to create the consumer profile of Indian urban social media users. To achieve this aim, the answers of the questionnaire were analyzed.
Analysis of first question revealed that social media is dominated by males. While 42% users reported as female, majority 58% of the responders were recorded as male.
Male Female
Figure 4.1.1: Gender of Social Media Users in India
Majority of the survey responders were from 15-24 age group, followed by 25-34 year olds. Assumption could be made that these two groups are most active users of social media properties. Although this couldnt be stated with 100% confidence as results could be affected by survey distribution method.
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9% 17%
43%
15-24 25-34 35-44
31%
over 45
Figure 4.1.2 Age group of Social Media Users in India
4.1.2 Popular Social Media Properties being used by Indian Social Media Consumers
Content Communities (36%) and Social Networks (34%) are amongst the most popular social media properties for Indian consumers. Blogs (19%) are also being used by significant number of Indian consumers. Micro Blogs (6%) and Opinion Networks (5%) are not yet much popular among them.
Content Communities Social Networks Blogs Microblogs Opinion Networks
Figure 3 Popular SMPs among Indian urban Social Media Consumers
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4.1.3 Where and how frequently SMPs are being used in India?
Social Media sites are gaining popularity in India and it can be assumed that they are becoming part of daily routine of those who consume them. Survey results show that 67% are using them at Cyber Cafes (internet surfing centers). 58% are using them at home, 25% are using in offices, 11% in school/university, while only 5% of responders are using them on mobile devices.
80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20%
10%
0% In Cyber Cafes At home In office School/Uni On the go
Figure 4.1.3 where Indian consumers are using social media
Research suggests that in India, users are spending less time on social media sites compared to US consumers. Only 6% users accepted that they spend over 20 hours on social media sites per week while 8% spend less than 1 hr.
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Less than 1 hr 1-3 hrs 4-6 hrs 7-9 hrs 10-20 hrs over 20 hrs
Figure 4.1.4 Time spent on SMPs by Indian Urban Social Media consumers
Major consumers of social media in India are Joiners (54%). This big percentage suggests that most of the Indian consumers are beginning with social media in India. On the other hand, only a small number of respondents 6% and 4% respectively stated that they consider themselves belonging to Critic and collector sociotechnographical profile. It could be deduced that in Indian consumer market social media is still a new phenomenon compared to US market. As suggested by the research carried by Li and Bernoff, 2008; similarities can be found in both the markets in regards of social media usage as both Joiner and Spectators are in majority in both the countries.
4.2 The Techonographic profiles of Indian social media consumers

Majority of the respondents accepted that Friends Recommendation (68%) plays major role in influencing them towards interacting with company. Research results suggest that an interaction with company on social media generates more interactions and recommendations to friends. Forrester research (2008) suggests the sociotechnographic profile of US social media users (fig 4.2.2). The survey data brings out the socio-technographic profile of Indian urban social media consumers (fig. 4.2.3)
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Joiner Spectetor Creator Critic Collector
Figure 4.2.3: Socio-Technographic profile of Indian Urban Social Media consumers
Analysis of research results reveals some interesting insight about these different socio-technographic profiles. Lets discuss in detail major groups and their perceptions.
Creators
Creators are of the biggest interest for marketers as they generate content on social media and are most likely to spread word of mouth. As discussed earlier only 12% of the Indian social media consumers fall in to this category. But even then they are important from marketing perspective and should be observed in details. Research suggests that creators prefer to consume and interact with company through user generated content and are more responsive to companys communication initiatives on social media. Also the research suggests that these people are more likely to recommend to peers and spread the Word Of Mouth.
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Interact more with other company
Buy from that company
Recommend that company/brnad to friends
Trust more that company
Interact more with that company 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Figure 4.2.4 Indian Creators' most likely actions after interaction on SMPs
Blog and content communities are most popular among this group. Marketers may consider targeting these two SMPs to convey their message and to strengthen relation with this group of consumers.
blogs social network content community Microblog Content aggregator Forums/Bulletin boards
Figure 4.2.5 Popular SMPs among Indian Social Media 'Creators'
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Joiners
Majority of social media activists in India belong to the Joiners category. Particularly for mass communication, this group is important for marketers. Not a surprise, Social networks and content communities are most favored social media properties among members of this group. Marketers may consider these two SMPs in order to reach this group. Its worth noticing here that no responder in this category reported to be using forums/bulletins.
blogs social network content community Microblog Content aggregator
Figure 4.2.6 Popular SMPs among Indian Social media Joiners
4.3 The Influence of Social Media on Indian Consumers

Four hypotheses were formed and tested against the research data in order to determine the influence of social media on Indian consumers. Hypothesis 1 was to determine that marketing communication on social media generates positive outcomes for the company.
H0: There is a connection between SMPs used for marketing communication and actions taken by customers after the communication. H1: There is no connection between SMPs used for marketing communication and actions taken by customers after the communication. Analysis of research showed that there is a strong relationship between the social media properties used and the actions taken by customers after the communication. Results of question number 4 were compared against with that of question 9 and Two Factor ANOVA without replication revealed that there is a significant relationship
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between SMP used and the action taken after communication as p value is quite small. Unstacked data from question number 4 and 9
Interact more Interact with that with other company companies 9 5 2 3 17 4 27 1 2 5 2 1 Recommend that Buy form Trust company/brand that that to friends company company 14 4 13 15 3 5 22 9 12 21 2 2 13 1 0 22 3 3
Blogs Micro-blogs Social networks Content communities Forums/bulletin boards Content aggregators
Anova: Two-Factor Without Replication SUMMARY Row 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 4 Row 5 Row 6 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Count 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 Sum 45 28 64 88 9 8 58 20 76 30 58 Average 9 5.6 12.8 17.6 1.8 1.6 9.666667 3.333333 12.66667 5 9.666667 Variance 20.5 28.8 48.7 74.8 0.7 1.3 109.4667 2.666667 78.26667 25.2 55.86667
ANOVA Source of Variation Rows Columns Error Total
SS 1006.667 348.5333 350.6667 1705.867
df MS 5 201.3333 4 87.13333 20 17.53333 29
F P-value F crit 11.48289 2.52E-05 2.71089 4.969582 0.006025 2.866081
To determine whether different SMPs have to be used to serve different communication purposes hypothesis 2 was tested against survey results.
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H0: There is a significant relationship between the SMP used for marketing communication and communication desired by customers. H1: There is no significant relationship between the SMP used for marketing communication and communication desired by the customers. Different answers of question number 4 and 8 were analyzed using two factors ANOVA and results showed (p value << .05) that there lies a strong co-relation. Thus rejecting H1 and confirming that different SMPs should be used for different marketing communication purposes. Social networks and blogs were found favorable for advertisement and PR. Unstacked data from question 4 and 8
Customer Market Advertising Sales Relationship Research Branding 15 12 19 16 13 3 4 3 1 5 17 12 22 11 14 23 1 2 15 2 1 24 2 2 13 1 0 22 3 3
Blogs Micro-blogs Social networks Content communities Forums/bulletin boards Content aggregators
Anova: Two-Factor Without Replication SUMMARY Row 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 4 Row 5 Row 6 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Count 5 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 Sum 75 16 76 97 9 8 Average 15 3.2 15.2 19.4 1.8 1.6 Variance 7.5 2.2 19.7 25.3 0.7 1.3
61 10.16667 87.36667 46 7.666667 36.26667 72 12 114.8 42 7 50.8 60 10 58.4
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Source of Variation Rows Columns Error Total
SS 1610.167 98.8 128 1836.967
df MS F 5 322.0333 50.31771 4 24.7 3.859375 20 6.4 29
P-value F crit 1.2E-10 2.71089 0.01756 2.866081
To determine if social media could be used to create positive word of mouth about the company/brand, hypothesis 3 was tested against the data of question 7 and 10. H0: There is a significant relationship between those who start communication with company through social media and positive word of mouth generated about the company. H1: There is a significant relationship between those who start communication through social media and positive word of mouth generated about the company. Survey data of question 7 and 10 when compared and analyzed and it was observed that those who initiate the conversation were strongly related with those who agree or strongly agree that messages received on social media stimulates them to further spread it to friends. P value was found to be very less, thus assumption could be made that social media users who communicate with company/brand after friends recommendation are very likely to spread words.
To determine whether different consumers of social media depending upon their socio-technological profile prefer different communication channels for marketing communication, hypothesis 4 was tested against research data. Responses of question 6 and 11 were analyzed and compared. H0: There is a significant relationship between the socio-technographic profile of social media consumer and marketing channel preferred by him/her. H1: There is no significant relationship between the socio-technographic profile of social media consumer and marketing channel preferred by him/her. According to two-factor ANOVA, there is a strong relation the two sets of answers, as p value was found to be very less than .05. Hypothesis H1 was rejected and assumption was made that depending upon the socio-technographic profile consumers prefer different marketing communication channels.
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TV Creator Critic Collector Joiner Spectator 9 5 2 34 19
Press 5 3 0 16 15
Radio 2 1 0 4 4
Internet (banner messages) on social media Hoarding/billboards Personal Recommendation Internt 4 2 5 8 1 1 1 4 1 0 1 2 5 7 15 27 8 5 2 14
Anova: Two-Factor Without Replication SUMMARY Row 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 4 Row 5 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6 Column 7 Count 7 7 7 7 7 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 Sum 35 16 6 108 67 69 39 11 19 15 24 55 Average 5 2.285714 0.857143 15.42857 9.571429 13.8 7.8 2.2 3.8 3 4.8 11 Variance 7.333333 2.904762 0.809524 131.619 41.61905 168.7 52.7 3.2 8.7 8.5 35.2 101
ANOVA Source of Variation SS Rows 986.4571 Columns 580.1714 Error 525.5429 Total 2092.171
df
MS F P-value F crit 4 246.6143 11.26215 2.75E-05 2.776289 6 96.69524 4.415788 0.003824 2.508189 24 21.89762 34
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Chapter 5: Theorization
The research was aimed towards analyzing the changing marketing dynamics in Indian landscape because of emergence and increasing popularity of social media in the country. It was analyzed in literature review that with the emergence of Internet in the country more and more consumers are spending time on it and social media sites are among the top few most popular websites in the country. It becomes imperative for marketers to understand usage pattern/behavior of these social media consumers. Urban population especially is among major social media consumers. Research identified the profile and usage pattern/behavior of Indian Urban Social Media consumers. Their gender, age group, time spent on social media sites, preferred social media properties, place of consuming social media etc. were discovered. This information could be beneficial for marketers to better understand their targeted consumer segment and customize marketing communication on social media sites. It was discovered that male users dominate social media in India. Social media sites are being used in Cyber Cafes and at homes primarily. Majority of social media users belong to 15-24 years age group and content communities and social networks are most popular SMPs being used. Most of the Indian urban social media users spend 4-6 hrs per week on social media websites. As described by Li and Bernoff (2008) and discussed in literature review social media users are different and can be classified in five categories. Applying the same theory, Indian urban social media consumers were asked in which category they think they belong. Characteristics of each category were also given to them, so that they could better classify themselves. Indian urban social consumers were segmented in five different social media users groups- Creator, Joiner, Spectator, Critic and Collector keeping the same terminology (literature review); depending upon their usage patterns. SMPs preferred by each group were identified. As suggested in literature review, there was found to be a great difference in usage pattern of differ categories. Majority of Indian urban social media consumers are Joiners, who maintain their profile on social media sites and consume content (images, videos, text etc.) on content communities. This is worth noticing here that Indian urban population is lagging behind US or UK population on socio-technographic ladder (Forrester research, 2008). Figure 5.1 shows the socio-technographical profile of US citizens. In
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contrast figure 5.2 shows the technographical profile of Indian urban social media consumers as per the research findings.
Figure 5.1 US social media consumers technographical profile by Forrester research (2008) Source: Li & Bernoff (2008)
Collector Critic Creator
Spectetor
Joiner 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
Figure 5.2 Indian urban social media consumers' socio-technographic profile (Research finding)
Research findings could be slightly affected by the survey distribution method, as the survey questionnaire was distributed through social networking website Facebook and evidently they were active on social network. But then again it could also be argued in defense that though Facebook is primarily a social network but it contains all other social media properties too (like blogging, micro-blogging, RSS feed and content communities). Unbiased question was asked to judge
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participants own perception of their socio-technographical profile; which type of profile defines their usage pattern best "Creator" publish your blog/site, create videos/audios/text and publish them "Critic" contribute to wikis, blog etc. by commenting/editing, write reviews "Collector" - Use RSS feeds, social bookmarking, add tags to web pages/photos; "Joiner" active on Social network, Content community; "Spectator" read blogs, watch videos, listen podcasts;
The research findings suggest that social media is quite a new phenomenon in the country compared to western nations like US. Majority of social media users are best defined as Joiners. Only a handful of users fall in to the category of Collector or Critic. Further Creator profile and its usage patterns were explored in detail. This is perhaps the most important category for any marketer because they create content on social media possibly about company/brand or product which is further consumed by other categories of social media users. Blogs and content communities are most popular among Indian creator group of social media users. Since marketers may wish to build relationship with this group of users and encourage them to spread word of mouth about the company/brand; blogs and content communities are SMPs to be focused to reach them. Further the research revealed that after a communication with company on social media they are most likely to recommend the company/brand to friends and also they are likely to talk more with company & trust more the brand. Joiner is the biggest group among Indian urban social media consumers. This group becomes of significant importance for marketers for mass communication purposes. Research revealed that Social networks and content communities are most popular SMPs being used by this group, so in order to target them, marketers should pay special attention to these SMPs in India. Hypotheses were tested to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing communication on social media channels. Survey data revealed that there lies a connection between SMPs used for marketing communication and actions taken by customers after the communication. It could be assumed that marketing communication done through social media generates positive outcome for the company. Thus it could be assumed that in Indian urban landscape social media is becoming an important communication channel and in years to come, it may be imperative for marketers to include social media marketing in to their overall marketing campaign. Research proved the hypothesis that interaction through social media leads to positive word of mouth promotion, as a significant number of respondents accepted that after a positive conversation with company/brand on social media they are likely to recommend the product/brand to their friends.
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Also the research shows that different SMPs should be used for different marketing purposes. Social networks and blogs were found favorable for advertisement and PR among Indian urban social media users. Hypothesis was proved that different consumers prefer different channels for marketing communication as per their socio-techno-graphic profile.
Chapter 6: Critical Reflection

This research was aimed towards recognizing Indian urban social media consumers, their usage pattern and their perception of marketing communication on social media. Clearly the target audience for the research was urban social media users. Selfadministered web questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data upon which hypotheses were tested. Social networking site Facebook was used as questionnaire distribution medium. By the random selection method survey invitation links were sent to facebook users of Delhi (capital of India) region. Two clear limitations of such an approach could be listed as below, but again its a matter of debate that how much this kind of approach affects the purpose of research: Firstly, Facebook being a social networking site (a particular social media property), brings slight bias in the research. Vividly all participants were active on one particular kind of social media property, namely Social Network while there are other properties and related social media sites too. Apparently if the same survey is conducted on some other social media property site (like Twitter for micro-blogging, Youtube for content community etc.), results could differ. Counter argument could be given that, though Facebook is considered as a social network, it has all the social media properties like micro-blogging, blogging, content community and RSS. An active user of Facebook, apparently have access and exposure of all social media properties. Thus to some valid extent it could be assumed that a user of Facebook represent a social media user. Secondly, as the research identifies Indian urban Social Media Consumers only and not a general urban consumers social media usage habits/patterns/perceptions, the context and usability of research is limited. Only the perception of social media users was recorded and analyzed, not the perception of non-user. During the research work it was realized that if the research could have reconstructed in a way that responses of non-users could have also been collected, then the research might have given much significant and widely usable insight about the usability of social media as a marketing communication channel in Indian cities. Possibly if responses were collected from general public of Delhi, responses of both users and non-users could have been collected. In that case instead of a self administered web survey, a questionnaire could have worked better.
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Chapter 7: Conclusion and further implications
Social media is gaining popularity, with customers and with marketers. New people are joining the social media users group and are also progressing upwards on the social-techno-graphic ladder. In the form of social media they have power to influence other customers behavior. It becomes imperative for marketers to take care of this phenomenon. Negative sentiments are to be converted in to positive and positives are to be used for promotion. Marketers understand this, but real difficulty is with knowledge, experience and competence. Like any new concept or technology, social media marketing is also going through ups and downs of adoption curve. Those who will keep learning and improving with experiments will develop competitive advantage over others. This research lists academic literature available about social media and provides a strategic framework for implementation and measurement and thus tries to fill the gap between academic literature and practical information needed about social media marketing. This research had two aims: first, to identify Indian Urban Social Media Consumers, their usage patterns and socio-technographic profile and Second, to analyze the effectiveness of social media marketing in Indian landscape. Research analyzes that Indian urban population which consumes social media is very different from that of US. This research findings can be affected by two factors- first, the research methodology and second the limited sample size. Questionnaire was sent through social networking site Facebook, which is second most popular social networking site in India (after Orkut). All responders were inevitably active on one SMP- social networking. But as discussed earlier Facebook has in it all the social media properties that a blog, content community, micro-blog or RSS may have. Thus this particular method of distributing survey questionnaire is justifiable up to a fair extent. This research should specially interest small and medium scale enterprises as it provides interesting insight about social media marketing which itself has been very
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attractive for small businesses because social media comes as a free media where anyone could share ideas with others.
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References and Bibliography
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Dissertation - Social Media Marketing: Consumers' Perception

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The University of Sheffield Management School

SUMIT JANMEJAI 2/2/2010

Executive Summary/ Abstract

References and Bibliography .............................................................................................. 58

1.1 Rationale for the research

1.2 Aims & Objectives of the research

Aim 2 - To evaluate the effectiveness of Social Media as marketing communication channel:

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Internet: where from it came, where is it going?

Table 2.1.1 Internet User Driving Forces in 1996-2004 and 2005-2010

Source: Internet user forecast- http://www.etforecasts.com/products/ES_intusersv2.htm

[Source: Internet user forecast- http://www.etforecasts.com/products/ES_intusersv2.htm]

E-commerce and online interactivity

Table 2.2.1 Domain Counts

Last Updated : 2009-09-02

[Source- Domain tools, September 2009- http://www.domaintools.com/internet-statistics/]

Image 2.2.1: Literature related to Online interactivity

The Internet has matured at a fast pace in last decade.

marketing/technology arena and describes it as a software-enabled channel of

Source: Bowman and Willis (2003)

Social media marketing

Image 2.5.1: North American Techno-graphics

Social media and Enterprises

2.6.1 Social media strategy for marketing communication

Social Value Tunnel Advocate Participant Searcher Lurker

4-Way cyclic strategical framwork for Social media marketing communication

MEASUREMENT & IMPROVEMENT

4-Way cyclic strategy for social media marketing

2.6.2 Application of 4 way cyclic strategical framework (Using Twitter)

Image 2.6.2: Twitter traffic growth

Use feedburner (www.feedburner.com) it helps in managing feeds and measurement

use plugins from www.gigya.com , www.addtoany.com , www.addthis.com

entry. Use Tweetmeme: http://tweetmeme.com/about/retweet_button

2.7 Benefits of using social media marketing

Image 2.7: benefits of using social media marketing

Adoption of social media by enterprises

Image 2.8 Web 2.0 adoption curve 2006-20115

3.1 Description and justification of the methods

3.2 Research design

3.2.1 Primary and secondary data

3.2.2 Questionnaire design

3.2.3 Target population and sampling design

3.2.4 The pilot survey

3.2.5 Validity, Reliability and Practicality

Chapter 4: Research process and findings

4.1The consumer profile of Indian Urban Social Media Users

Figure 4.1.1: Gender of Social Media Users in India

Figure 4.1.2 Age group of Social Media Users in India

Content Communities Social Networks Blogs Microblogs Opinion Networks

Figure 3 Popular SMPs among Indian urban Social Media Consumers

80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20%

Figure 4.1.3 where Indian consumers are using social media

4.2 The Techonographic profiles of Indian social media consumers

Joiner Spectetor Creator Critic Collector

Figure 4.2.3: Socio-Technographic profile of Indian Urban Social Media consumers

Interact more with other company

Buy from that company

Recommend that company/brnad to friends

Trust more that company

Figure 4.2.5 Popular SMPs among Indian Social Media 'Creators'

blogs social network content community Microblog Content aggregator