THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of social media on consumer behaviors. The study will be guided by the specific objectives; to establish how social media influence the consumer behavior, to investigate various tools of social media that directly influence the buyer behavior and to establish how social media target customer identification within consumer behavior.

A descriptive research design was accorded into this study. The sampling frame was obtained from Britamwith the approval of the management to access their customers who interact via the social media with the company. The study used stratified sampling technique. At 95% confidence level was used to determine a sample size of 95 respondents from a target population of 2000 customers.Questionnaires were used to collect primary data after a pilot test. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data. The data was described using means, frequency distribution and percentages. Inferential statistics such as correlation analysis was used to discover if two variables are related.

Findings from the correlation analysis denoted absence of significant  relationship between influence of social media on consumer behaviour and channels of social media that directly affected consumer behaviour due to the fact that P-value = 0.126 which is higher than the recommended P-value of 0.05.In addition, findings offered coefficient of determination (R square) = 0.039. This designated that 3.9% of the variation in consumer behavior are explained by influencing factors, social media channels and social media marketing. Since, R-square = 0.039, it entailed that the goodness of fit of the model is very weak since R-square is less than 0.1.Hence a conclusion was drawn that there is a significant linear relationship between factors influencing consumer behavior and consumer behavior as P-value is less than 0.05.

Findings from the study revealed lack of significant relationship between social media channels and social media targeting consumers since P-value = 0.437 which is way higher than the standard 0.05.Findings from linear regression analysis which involved three essential variables including influencing factors, social media channels and social media targeting demonstrated that there is a significant moderate positive linear relationship between influencing factors social media channels that affect consumer behavior and

social media targeting as an essential element of digital marketing. This is due to the fact that it’s P-value = 0.036 and correlation coefficient = 0.197 which shows existence of a significant relationship.

Findings from the study revealed that the correlation analysis revealed that there is no relationship between consumer behavior and social media targeting because P-value

=0.065 is greater than the recommended 0.05. However, findings from linear regression analysis which involved three essential variables including influencing factors, social media channels and social media targeting demonstrated that there is a significant moderate positive linear relationship between influencing factors social media channels that affect consumer behavior and social media targeting as an essential element of digital marketing.

In conclusion, the studyrevealedthat there is no significant relationship between influence of social media marketing and consumer behavior.The findings revealed lack of significant relationship between social media channels and social media targeting because of P-value = 0.437 which is way higher than the standard 0.05.However,further findings from linear regression revealed that the linear regression model, Y= Y= 5.714 - 0.002IF

+ 0.005C - 0.071T at 95% level of confidence demonstrated that there is a significant relationship between influence of social media marketing and consumer behavior due to the fact that P-value = 0.036 which is less than the recommended 0.05. The study concluded that influencing factors, social media channels and social media targeting play integral roles in influencing consumers behavior in all directions either positively or negatively over the traditional means of communications.

The study recommends integration of social media marketing communication tools and consistency in the message communicated via social media tools. In addition, recommendations for further study should include involvement in marketing research with a core purpose of delivering per consumer needs, as well as gaining an understanding of trending social media activities so as to meet demands of changing technological world.