Post on 02-Feb-2023
Abhishek Singh
SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES-A NEW INTERMEDIARY?-A STUDY
MARKETING CHANNELS
Project Report
on
Submitted By:
AcknowledgementWe would like to place on record our deep sense of gratitude to
Prof. H K Dangi for his generous guidance, help and useful
suggestions. We are thankful to him for his continuous
encouragement and supervision throughout the course of present
work.
We also wish to extend our thanks to the respondents of survey
for our study who helped us in building the concept in a better
way by sparing their time and filling the form for our study
purpose. We are grateful to them for their insightful comments
and constructive suggestions to improve the quality of this
project work.
We are extremely thankful to our classmates and friends for
supporting and guiding us throughout the project work and helping
us in all possible ways without which this work would not have
been possible.
Signature(s) of Students
Vinita Hatadia || Abhishek Singh || Aashima Dhankhar || Abhijeet
Singh || Arpit Maheshwari || Asif Muhammed || Brij Singh ||
Chandan Kumar || Deepanshu Yadav
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary....................................................4Objective............................................................5Scope of the project.................................................5Introduction.........................................................6Literature Review....................................................7The history and evolution of social media............................9Social Media-Its Reach and significance.............................11REACH OF VARIOUS PLATFORMS.........................................11
Research Methodology................................................14Results and discussion..............................................15Takeaways from project.............................................15
Conclusion..........................................................16refrences...........................................................19Appendices..........................................................20Appendix 1: Social Media Usage Pattern: Secondary Research.........20
Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire...................................21Appendix 3: survey responses.......................................22
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
There are total of 1.06 billion users on Facebook and 1 out of
every 3 person in the world is using one of the social networking
sites. On an average a person spends 1.5 hours daily on these
sites. Keeping these statistics in reference SNS have been
considered as one of major marketing channel by the marketers to
effectively communicate and reach out to the target customer
group. These sites have data about the users which can also be
used by the marketers to efficiently concentrate their marketing
promotions on the target group. The LinkedIn has redefined
process of hiring. The twitter has fuelled revolution in
political communication, entertainment and democratic movements
around the world. Online networks display in general a rich
internal structure where users can choose among different types
and intensity of interactions. The project is focussed towards
the evolution of SNS as marketing channel and how the marketers
can use these as opportunity to communicate with their target
segment effectively and efficiently with respect to product and
service marketing.
Research methodology consists of primary research through
questionnaire designed to reveal consumer behaviour of SNS users.
Consumers insights from conclusion has helped to predict
trends with Social Media Sites as new intermediary like Invest
the resources required to implement a measurement strategy that
defines the cause and effect, Treat social media as a cost of
doing business like customer service and maintain status quo .
From a promotional point of view, Social Networking Sites have
become a very important aspect which means no marketer can
neglect it now. However on an aspect regarding sales, it still
has to evolve in a country like India and is evolving slowly. The
cost involved is the major reason why marketing companies are
really looking for social media marketing as a potential tool.
The maintenance and updation of say a Facebook page will cost
much less than the margin you are paying to a single distributor
for a typical firm. Hence companies want to leverage on full use
of it. However tracking of ROI is still an issue. Secondary
research consists of literature review and data from internet
with respect to consumer behavior over internet.
OBJECTIVE
To discover the attitudes of customers towards brand and
their social media interaction
To find the impact of SNS on customers
To explore the perception of customers towards SNS
To predict the trends involving SNS in service and product
marketing
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
The project tries to explore the concept of social media sites as
new intermediaries between consumers and brands. Though we have
e-retailing giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Groupon etc. Yet,
Facebook and Twitter has disrupted the way consumers perceive and
interact with brands. Almost all FMCG, white goods and electronic
brands etc also have selling platform on their website, yet they
are forced/ cajoled to have their presence on Social networking
sites. BPO units in developing countries have started to take
care of social media presences of brands.
INTRODUCTION
On an average a person spends 1.5 hours daily on social
networking sites. There are total of 1.06 billion users on
Facebook and 1 out of every 3 person in the world is using one of
the social networking sites. Keeping these statistics in
reference SNS have been considered as one of major marketing
channel by the marketers to effectively communicate and reach out
to the target customer group. These sites have data about the
users which can also be used by the marketers to efficiently
concentrate their marketing promotions on the target group. The
LinkedIn has redefined process of hiring. The twitter has fuelled
revolution in political communication, entertainment and
democratic movements around the world.
Our project shall be focussed towards the evolution of SNS as
marketing channel and how the marketers can use these as
opportunity to communicate with their target segment effectively
and efficiently with respect to product and service marketing.
Social media marketing is the most cost effective channel and
convenient element a company can use for marketing. It also helps
in building a brand image by positive comments and consumer
approach on social media.
Using Social networking sites as marketing channels in company’s
business strategy has tremendous advantages, be it low setup
costs, lesser resource wastage, freedom of choosing any location,
faster and wider reach, affordability to do business 24 hours or
the opportunity to go global. In fact, whenever history will be
written, the creation of Internet will be ranked alongside
printing press and radio as one of the major advancements in
human communication.
Next we present the literature review, where we examine the
contribution made by other researchers in this field. The
literature review is followed by our research methodology and
design. The findings of the research and the analysis are
presented after that, which are followed by the conclusion of
this study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Social networking sites are an emerging platform for people to
build their social networks/relations among people who, for e.g.,
share interests, real-life connections, backgrounds or
activities. Social networks operate under an autonomous business
model, in which social network's members usually serve dual roles
which are suppliers as well as consumers of content. This is in
contrast to a traditional business model, where the suppliers and
consumers are different entities. Revenue is typically gained in
the autonomous business model via advertisements, but
subscription-based revenue is possible when membership and
content levels are sufficiently high (Flor et al, 2000).
Now, discussing the aspect of social networking sites as an
intermediary; it can be observed that nowadays more and more
brands, products and even companies with their complete portfolio
are moving towards social networking sites. Taking the e.g. of
Facebook; even banks, telecom providers and well-known brands are
creating their Facebook page to engage with consumers.
Applications for social networking sites have extended toward
businesses and brands are creating their own, high functioning
sites, a sector known as brand networking. It is the idea that a
brand can build its consumer relationship by connecting their
consumers to the brand image on a platform that provides them
relative content, elements of participation, and a ranking or
score system. Brand networking is a new way to capitalize on
social trends as a marketing tool (Fraser et al, 2008). Companies
are using their brands in brand networking to create special
communities which serve as an interactive platform to leverage
and incentivize brand participation online.
Several companies are already using social networking sites to
support the creation of brand communities (Muniz & O’Guinn, 2001)
or for marketing research (Kozinets, 2002). To promote the movie
“Fred Claus,” a 2007 Christmas comedy film, Warner Brothers
created a Facebook profile via which visitors could watch
trailers, download graphics, and play games. Likewise, the Adidas
custom soccer community on MySpace allows visitors to associate
themselves with one of two brands of elite soccer cleats produced
by the German sports apparel manufacturer, and to access product
reviews and information on professional soccer players who play
using “their” shoes. Some firms even go one step further and use
Facebook as a distribution channel. For example, U.S.-based
florist 1-800-Flowers .com, which offers a widget on Facebook
called “Gimme Love” whereby users can send “virtual bouquets” to
friends or, with a click of the mouse, be directly transferred to
the company's website to send real flowers(Andreas M. Kaplan et
al, 2010). This level of user participation with the brand
creates strong relationships with consumers & leverages sales and
generates fan equity. Companies are investing heavily on Digital
media especially social media to be in the minds of consumers all
the time and be available with just one click. Creating brand fan
pages on social networking sites fosters relationship with
customers. The customers liking and commenting on brand posts
reflects brand post popularity. The positioning the brand post on
top of the brand fan page enhances brand post popularity. The
most important factor here is that the interactive brand post
characteristics is responsible for likes and number of comments
(Lisette et al, 2012).
Research have also been done to find out the brand loyalty of the
customers towards these brands which was found to be positively
affected when the brand appears on various platforms and offers
applications on social media. Apart from following their brand,
customers do prefer to share music, technological-related
contents on social media platforms (İrem Eren Erdoğmuş et al,
2012).
Social networking sites can be used as a marketing communication
tool in areas where people are less aware. For example, National
governing bodies(NGB) of sport which are not-for-profit
organizations and therefore seek alternative methods to increase
brand awareness and reach fans and stakeholders. Their fan base
grew as the fans started following their favorite teams on social
networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It overcomes
previous challenges - low interest levels from fans in non-
Olympic years, less media coverage during non-Olympic years,
lower marketing budgets than other sport organizations (Andrea N.
Eagleman, 2013).
Social networking sites are highly cost effective during economic
crises. It allows anybody to become a producer of such content
and deliver it through interactive communication in the form of
pyramid based on relationship is recognized as the most
potentially powerful tool in business practice (Kazım Kirtiş et
al, 2011).
Companies have to keep few things in mind to be available online
through social networking sites. First of all, it is always
advisable to take the lead and to be active if we want to develop
a relationship with someone. Social Media are all about sharing
and interaction, so companies has to make sure that their content
is always fresh and that they engage in discussions with their
customers on regular basis. The next step would be to listen to
the customers. Companies need to find out what the consumers
would like to hear/talk about/find interesting/enjoyable or
valuable. Then, they should develop and post content that fits
those expectations (Andreas M. Kaplan et al, 2010). Last but not
least, companies should be honest and respect the rules while
being present online. Companies need to make sure that the
interface is secure enough for the customer to engage themselves
with full confidence and trust in the social networking site as
well as company’s Brand network.
THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
The history of social media is very long. It has evolved through
a lot of phases since its inception in 1979 with User net
systems. It allowed users post articles or posts to news groups.
User nets had no centralized server or dedicated administrator.
They led to the development of newsreader clients, which are the
precursor to RSS feed readers so commonly used to follow blogs
and news sites today. Group sites such as Google Groups and
Yahoo! Groups use many of the conventions established by the
original user net systems.
Next in line were the BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems). The first
BBSs came online in the late 70s. Only one person at a time could
gain access to the BBS. After BBSs came online services like
CompuServe and Prodigy. These were the first real corporate
attempts at accessing the Internet. CompuServe was the first
company to incorporate a chat program into their service. Prodigy
was responsible for making online service more affordable
(CompuServe had been prohibitively expensive for many, with
charges of $6/hour plug long-distance fees that often made the
service run $30/hour or more)
The next age was of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It was
developed in 1988 and it was used extensively for file sharing,
link sharing and keeping in touch. It was really the father of
instant messaging as we know it today. However, IRC was mostly
UNIX-based, limiting access to most people.
The next wave was of early social networking sites like dating
sites and forums. Dating sites allowed users to create profiles
usually, with photos and to contact other users. Online forums
were really descendants of the BBSs popular in the 70s and 80s,
but usually came with a more user-friendly interface, making them
easier for non-technical visitors to use various forum platforms.
Forums remain a popular part of online culture, and many have
made strides to add more social networking-type features like
profiles.
The early 2000s brought some huge developments in social
networking and social media. A lot of sites came into being and
cleared ground for the better ones. Friendster was really the
first modern, general social network. Founded in 2002Friendster
is still a very active social network, with over 90 million
registered users and 60+ million unique visitors each month. Most
of Friendster’s traffic comes from Asia (90% of it). Hi5 is
another major social network, established in 2003 and currently
boasting more than 60 million active members according to their
own claims. However, these are not very popular these days.
LinkedIn was founded in 2003 and was one of the first mainstream
social networks devoted to business. They work on the assumption
that you should personally know the people you connect with on
the site. It is the most popular professional network presently.
While Facebook started out as a Harvard-only social network back
in 2004, it quickly expanded to other schools, then to high
schools, businesses and eventually everyone
In 2008 Facebook became the most popular social networking site
and continues to grow. Facebook has added a number of features
over the past few years, including instant messaging/chat and
apps.
While we might see new websites coming up in future, one thing
remains the same, the need of such websites. This establishes the
longevity of any marketing effort directed to these channels.
SOCIAL MEDIA-ITS REACH AND SIGNIFICANCE
Social media has reached middle age. The fastest growing segment
of social media users is now adults aged 45-54%. 55% of this age
group now has a profile on at least one social network. Facebook,
Twitter and Google+ are the most popular social networks with
search engine marketers. The second-most popular tier includes
YouTube, blogging and LinkedIn. The least popular major networks
are Flickr, Tumblr and Stumble Upon. 93% of marketers use social
media for business. Marketers aren’t like ordinary people. While
86% of marketing professionals have “liked” at least one brand on
Facebook, just 58% of consumers have done so. And the gap is even
more dramatic on Twitter, where 61% of marketers but just 12% of
consumers follow at least one brand. (Thought Reach)
Furthermore 75% of social media users “object to major companies
and platforms using their personal information for commercial
purposes.” And just 12% admit to having their purchases
influenced by Facebook “Likes” or Google “+1s”.
REACH OF VARIOUS PLATFORMS
There are now over 1.15 billion active Facebook users. That is
the main fact you need to know. This is a 21 per cent increase in
12 months. Facebook is still the social media network of choice
and its numbers are huge no matter where you look.
Google+
Google+ has become the second biggest network during the last 6
months and continues to grow rapidly. It seems to have reached a
tipping point in consciousness and people are curious about how
to use it. It is based upon the crowd voting with retweets,
shares and traffic. The latest statistics indicate that there are
343 million active monthly users.
Twitter is a platform that is bridging the mass media and social
media gap. Television is using the social network to obtain
feedback and comments. Its power lies in its simplicity, real
time feed and news breaking capabilities. The latest numbers on
Twitter indicate that it has over 288 million monthly active
users. This is according to Global Web Index Study. The number
registered currently sits at over 500 million.
LinkedIn has been working on making its platform more social and
is social media’s quiet achiever. According to some reports it
has now reached 238 million users.
YouTube
YouTube is the giant of online video and this social media giant
now has over 1 billion unique visitors every month.
How big are these networks?
As of January 2013, the five largest social networks based on
ACTIVE monthly users were: Facebook (1 billion), YouTube (800
million) and Google+ (343 million) followed by Twitter and
LinkedIn with 200 million active monthly users each.
Social media users are more social than non-social-media-using-
internet-users in real life too. Social networkers are 18% more
likely to work out at a gym or health club, 19% more likely to
attend a sporting event, and 26% more likely to give their
opinion about politics and current events. Half of all social
media users are under age 35 follow their online friends’ product
and service recommendations.
Three-fourths of marketers planned to increase strategic efforts
on social media and social networking sites this year, with 68%
also focusing more on SEO and 63% on blogs. As universal as
business use of social media can seem to be, 26% of companies
still block access to social media sites in their workplaces and
31% have no social media policy in place. 54% of consumers say
that “smaller communities have greater influence on a topic than
larger ones.”
70% of brand marketers (and 60% of agency professionals) view
social media advertising as more valuable for building brand
awareness than for driving direct response. But contradicting the
statistic above 66% of brand advertisers want to see a measurable
sales bump from social media advertising.
Here are some findings that help in benchmarking the impact of
social media on Ecommerce.
Looking at the volumes of traffic from these 3 sources shows the
dominance of direct (not shown) and search with Social and Email
as a relative low proportion. The apparently declining proportion
of social and search traffic may be partly explained by increased
use of mobile devices where visitors clicking through from apps
may not be tracked from these apps.
Amongst social media services, Facebook delivers much higher
conversion rates than Pinterest or Twitter in terms of social
commerce sales, but the average order value is highest for
Pinterest users. The Top 3 referrers by conversion rate are AOL
Search, Bing and Yahoo for e-commerce sites.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Our research methodology required gathering relevant data and
compiling databases followed by analysis in order to find out and
understand the scope for a Social Networking Site as a new
intermediary or marketing tool.
The research carried out consisted of primary research and
secondary research both. An online questionnaire was floated to
collect the responses from the users of social networking sites.
Total 108 responses were collected. The questions asked in the
survey tried to gather responses from users about the following
parameters:
1. The level of engagement of users with the products/brands
via social media
2. The frequency of these engagements
3. The reliability and credibility of such engagement
4. The differential impact of social media impact compared to
other media
Via Secondary research, we tried to find out the penetration of
social media, the relative importance and market share of the
popular social media, the demographics of usage pattern and also
the growth prospects of these social networking websites. Some
research papers and published analytics results were consulted
for the same. Our research methodology required gathering
relevant data and compiling databases followed by analysis in
order to find out and understand the scope for a Social
Networking Site as a new intermediary or marketing tool.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After completion of our primary and secondary study, thefollowing results are obtained:
TAKEAWAYS FROM PROJECT
From our research, we found that consumers spend 83% of their
social networking time on Facebook. The average visitor to the
social network spent only 6 minutes 47 seconds on Google+
compared to 6 hours and 44 minutes on Facebook. Clearly, this
establishes Facebook as the leading medium. The penetration of
social media usage is the highest (92%) in the age group 18-29.
It is interesting to note that even among the age group 65+
years, the penetration is 38%. For a detailed statistic, please
refer to the tables and graphs in the appendix.
a) From a promotional point of view, Social Networking Sites
have become a very important aspect which means no marketer
can neglect it now. However on an aspect regarding sales, it
still has to evolve in a country like India and is evolving
slowly.
b) Even though, it is taking time, we can see a positive trend
among customers as many customers (especially in metros and
Tier I cities) really looking forward for the same. Maybe
because of the lifestyle changes or higher income they are
having nowadays, but the winds are getting stronger.
c) The cost involved is the major reason why marketing
companies are really looking for social media marketing as a
potential tool. The maintenance and updation of say a
Facebook page will cost much less than the margin you are
paying to a single distributor for a typical firm. Hence
companies want to leverage on full use of it. However
tracking of ROI is still an issue.
d) The authenticity of the information or the customer
perceiviance of the authenticity of the authenticity of the
information is a big headache. Since this is an evolving
channel in India and thanks to the dubious mentality of
Indians we still don’t trust the customer reviews and all
fully. However as the market and economy develops this is
surely gonna change.
CONCLUSION
Five years ago, corporate social media was in the early adoption
stage. A few forward thinking companies were testing it. The rest
were watching from the sidelines, skeptical about anything that
wasn’t proven to generate revenue and profitability. The economy
was presenting tough challenges. Investments needed to deliver
revenue. The first impression of the baby channel wasn’t good.
Anyone who dared to mention a return on investment was chastised
for not understanding that it was “all about the conversation.”
This made people who understood business uncomfortable.
However things have changed. Social media is increasingly
becoming a cost of doing business. And, measuring the return from
social media is similar to measuring the return from customer
service. It isn’t easy or simple but it can be done. Companies
participating in social activities have three choices when
considering quantification. They are:
Invest the resources required to implement a measurement
strategy that defines the cause and effect.
Treat social media as a cost of doing business like customer
service.
Maintain the status quo.
The conclusions which came out from out survey also suggest the
same.
Dig 1: PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW ATLEAST 1 COMPANY/PRODUCT
Percentage of people who follow atleast 1 company
or product: 77%
Percentage of people who dont follow any company
or product : 23%
A staggering 77% people say that they follow some product/company
through social media which indicates the penetration levels of
the media.
And out of this 77%, a further 64% suggested that they are
potential buyers and wants to know more about the product for
their consumption. This suggests the importance of the media and
highlights the fact that a majority (almost 2/3rd) of the persons
who follows the product/brands pursue social media as a tool to
analyze the product. So it poses a very great area for
opportunity as well as a threat for the marketing geniuses of
various brands. They have to be very proactive and clear customer
queries regarding brands & products as a lot of potential
customers are always looking into them. Also any
unwanted/biased/negative opinion about the product severely
hampers not only the product alone but also affects the entire
brand-line as such. Hence it is of utmost priority by any of the
marketer who handles the social media with maximum care.
Dig 2. PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO ARE POTENTIAL BUYERS FROM THE
PEOPLE WHO FOLLOW PRODUCTS/BRANDS
Potential Buyers: 64%
Non- Buyers: 36%
However another issue which comes here is that the number of
persons who believe in the authenticity of the information. In
much evolved economies (read developed economies), where the role
of social media is very high, owing to the fact that the
awareness levels are pretty high due to improved education
facilities, the authenticity of information is very high. People
used to post excellent reviews and comments about each and every
aspect of a newly launched product which very much helps the
brands. Moreover there have been instances (eg, the you tube
videos regarding making of burgers in McDonalds), who
successfully tackled the negative campaign against them. So, in a
less-developed country like India, the authenticity of
information is a question mark. There were many issues in the
past where companies who deliberately cooked up and posted
stories about themselves to gain that extra advantage in
customer’s mindset. Maybe because of a reflection of this,
majority of the people in our survey said the belief levels are
quite normal as against the word-of mouth.
The concept of blogs and all were quite familiar with the Indian
crowd, but as the emergence of Facebook as a social networking
site, it diminished (to a very large extend). This is quite
evident from our survey as most of the people don’t trust the
customer forums and all much. And in addition, the involvement of
the customers in the sites is also very low. Almost all of the
customers never take up the pain of giving any fruitful
suggestions to the customers and just go through the earlier
comments posted by others.
Dig 3. CUSTOMER RESPONSE ON AUTHENTICITY OF INFORMATION
1 23
45
0%5%
10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%
Very Authentic : 3%
Good, not great: 19%
Average : 45%
Can't trust that much : 21%
Absolutely, nonsense: 11%
And the last but the most alarming part about the survey is that,
in our country not a single ever person ever bought anything
through social media. But looking to the fact that hardly 1 or 2
companies offer their services directly through social media
(even in worldwide), this is not an alarming statistic. We can
hope that once companies start providing services through social
media, people will have more motivation to buy them through
social media.
REFRENCES
1. Flor, Nick V. (2000). Web Business Engineering: Using Offline Activities
to Drive Internet Strategies. Addison-Wesley
2. Fraser M. &Dutta S., (2008). Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom. John
Wiley and Sons
3. Muniz, A. M. Jr. &O’Guinn, T. C. (2001), Brand Community,
Journal of Consumer Research, 27 (March), 412-32.
4. Robert V. Kozinets (2002) The Field Behind the Screen: Using
Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities.
Journal of Marketing Research: February 2002, Vol. 39, No.
1, pp. 61-72
5. IremErenErdogmus, MesutCiceka(2011), “Online Group Buying: What Is
There For The Consumers?”, Procedia Social And Behavioral Sciences
24(2011)308-316.
6. Kirtiş, A.K. &Karahan,F.K. (2011).To beornottobein Social Media
Arena as theMost Cost- Efficient MarketingStrategyafter the Global Rrecession.
Procedia Socialand Behavioral Sciences 24, 260–268.
7. deVries, L.; Gensler, S.; Leeflang, P.S.H., (2012).Popularity of Brand Posts on
Brand Fan Pages: An Investigation of the Effects of Social Media
Marketing,Journal of Interactive Marketing
APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
1. What all information do you share on social networking sites
(e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Orkut etc.)?
2. Do you put all correct information on the social networking
sites?
3. Do you follow any company/product on the social networking
sites?
4. What makes you like/follow any product or product community on
social networking sites?
5. How actively do you participate in the product/company
communities?
6. Do you believe in the authenticity of the information
given/put on the communities?
7. Do you read the reviews of the other users given on the
communities before buying the product?
8. What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Voting Questions about the product preferences]
9. What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Suggestions over product development/changes]
10. What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Comment in discussions/posts by other users]
11. What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Complaints about bad services or product failures]
12. What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Fill Survey forms]
13. Please rate the following on the scale the scale of 1 - 5
( 5 being the highest and 1 lowest) [Your complaints are taken
seriously and action will be taken on them.]
14. Please rate the following on the scale the scale of 1 - 5
( 5 being the highest and 1 lowest) [Your suggestions about a
product is considered valuable by the company]
15. Have you ever bought or ordered anything through social
media websites?
APPENDIX 3: SURVEY RESPONSES
What all information do you share on social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Orkut etc.)?
Do you follow any company/product on the social networking sites?
Analyzing the activities of users on communities
What makes you like/follow any product or product community on
social networking sites?
My interes t in product as a potential buyer.
61 74%
I already own the product. 50 61%
Want to know m ore about the product.
52 63%
Becaus e m y friends are following it.
5 6%
Becaus e lot of people are following it.
4 5%
Jus t like that!! 8 10%
How actively do you participate in the product/company
communities?
Never active Very Active
Do you believe in the authenticity of the information given/put
on the communities?
Never Perfectly Yes
Do you read the reviews of the other users given on the
communities before buying the product?
Never Always
What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Voting Questions about the product preferences]
What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Suggestions over product development/changes]
What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Comment in discussions/posts by other users]
What all activities do you participate in the communities?
[Complaints about bad services or product failures]
What all activities do you participate in the communities? [Fill
Survey forms]
Please rate the following on the scale the scale of 1 - 5 ( 5
being the highest and 1 lowest) [Your complaints are taken
seriously and action will be taken on them.]
Please rate the following on the scale the scale of 1 - 5 ( 5
being the highest and 1 lowest) [Your suggestions about a product
is considered valuable by the company]