4IpaUJbnm

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Muhammad SOHAIL
Vilniuas Kolegija / University of Applied Sciences,
Faculty of Business Management, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Abstract
Todays, consumer engaged themselves with internet much more as compare to a decade ago. The most
important of these tools are social media. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn has a
numeral number of the users and keeps growing every day. Consumer(s)can not only access the information
about their needed goods and services but also can share their knowledge, opinions, and experiences with one
other due to the online social networks provided features and may have an impact on consumer's behavior in
terms of communication and purchasing.
This is an exploratory research to determine how social media affecting the purchasing behavior of consumers
in Republic of Lithuania. For this study, we took a sample of 120 Lithuanian aged 16-50 years old, using social
media platform having an account with any social media networks. Questionnaire was used to collect
information for study. After analysis, result shows that there is a huge impact of social media on consumer
behavior in Lithuania.
Keywords: social media, decision- making, consumer behavior, Lithuania.
Introduction
Social Media is the hottest topic to discuss nowadays. Over the past decade social media is
playing an important role in different aspects of consumer's behavior, the internet and its
related technologies make what we know today’s as a social media possible and prevalent.
Everyday social media expands, more and more people join online community (Dryer, 2010).
Republic of Lithuania is most populous country in Baltic States, after restoring independence
on 11 th March 1990; Lithuania has become member of European Union on 1 st May 2004. On
1 st January 2015, Lithuania adopted the euro as the official currency and became the 19th
member of the Eurozone. According to World Bank report 2014, the total internet users are
72.1% per 100 people [28].
According to Thompson (2005), social media have provided new opportunities to consumers
to engage in social interaction on internet and the growth of Internet technology has
enormous potential as it reduces the costs of product and service delivery and extends
geographical boundaries in bringing buyers and sellers together.
"It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. TV took 13 years to reach 50 million
users. The internet took 4 years to reach 50 million people. In less than 9 months, Facebook
added 100 million users" (Tuten, Solomon, 2015).
Above stated data shows that social media offers synchronous interactions and
spontaneous connection in real time. Consumers use social media, such as online platform,
to generate contents and to network with others active users. Social media provides
facilities to consumers to interact and contact with each other's without any physical
174