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oundaries through email, Facebook and Twitter (Gruzed et al., 2011). This engagement is
increasing day by day, people are not just joining social communities but they are
contributing too. According to Youtube statistics [21], YouTube users upload more than 100
hours of video every single minute of every day. Similarly, according to (Protalinski, 2011),
Facebook has more than 1.2 billion active users around the globe; approximately 4 billion
pieces of contents are shared on Facebook daily.
An infographic created by Leverage [23], to highlight the facts about some of most popular
social sites: (infographic in words): "Pinterest has 70 million users; users are 20% male and
80% female. Twitter has 289 million active users, Microblogging social site that limits posts
to 140 characters, 9100 tweets happen every second. Facebook has 1.5 billion monthly
active users, Mobile is Facebook’s cash cow – 1.31 monthly active mobile users, Mobile ad
revenue makes up 76% of all ad revenue ($2.9 billion in Q2 of 2015) and users share 1
million links every 20 minutes Instagram has 300 million active users, Social sharing site all
around pictures and now 15 second videos. Google+ has 300 million active users, Social
network built by Google that allows for brands and users to build circles. LinkedIn has
380 million users worldwide, Business oriented social networking site, Brands that are
participating are corporate brands giving potential and current associates a place to
network and connect, 79% of users are 35 or older".
Social media is an open world for all consumers; traditional marketing channels are become
clutter and ineffective as compare to social media platforms, thus social media has several
advantages. Firstly, accessibility, user can get easily online access through social media
channels, and this accessibility and connectivity can be in real time with friends, family,
communities or companies. Secondly, on social media users can spread words fast as
compare to traditional marketing channels, thanks to web 2.0 technology, spreading of
information is fast now. Thirdly, social media encourages taking part in news and views,
which means the communication on social media, is two-way direction. Additionally, Social
media is one of the beneficial elements of promotion mix, which can help companies to
increase their revenue and sales. Finally, traditional marketing become expensive today as
compare to social media marketing and social media platforms are cheap for companies and
free of charge for consumers.
This is clearly indicates that customer involvement through social media is a key factor in
marketing (Do-Hyung et al., 2007). Carrying on this viewpoint, social media is no longer just
a tool for companies, but also a tool for personal marketing. It is gradually changing the way
people live and touches upon many industries. A study titled," Social Networking Sites as
Advertisement Environment conducted by Hacıefendioğlu (2011), suggested that consumers
are influence by social media on their buying decision, while friend's comments lead them
to buy particular product from particular firm.
By considering the above stated statistics, this study has objectives to explore that how
prospective consumers are receiving, processing and deciding to choose the information on
social networking sites prior to make a final buying decision whether opinions provided by
social media communities affect consumer’s behavior or not among the different age,
gender and education groups in Republic of Lithuania.
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