Social Media Consumer Behaviour
Keywords:
Social media, consumer behaviour, social commerce, consumer engagement, purchase intention, online consumer, social networking, digital marketing, electronic word-of-mouth, trustAbstract
Social media has transformed the relationship between consumers, brands and marketplaces. Consumers no longer participate only as passive recipients of marketing messages; they search for information, compare alternatives, read reviews, create content, communicate with brands, recommend products and increasingly participate in social commerce. This research paper examines social media consumer behaviour with particular attention to platform usage, information search, consumer engagement, electronic word-of-mouth, trust, perceived value, advertising exposure and purchase intention. The paper integrates insights from the literature on social commerce, consumer engagement and digital marketing and develops a structured research framework for examining how social media stimuli influence consumer responses. The methodology proposes a quantitative, descriptive and analytical research design using a structured questionnaire, supported by secondary literature. For demonstration of the proposed analytical approach, an illustrative dataset of 100 respondents is used in the Results and Discussion section; these figures are explicitly presented as model results and should be replaced with actual field data before submission as an empirical study. The analysis framework includes frequency and percentage analysis, weighted mean scores, reliability testing, correlation. The discussion indicates how platform characteristics, social interaction, perceived usefulness, trust, peer recommendations and promotional content can shape consumer attitudes and behavioural intentions. The paper also identifies research gaps related to platform-specific behaviour, short-form video, influencer credibility, privacy, algorithmic personalization, social commerce and differences across demographic groups. The study concludes that social media consumer behaviour is multidimensional and should be understood as an interaction among information, social influence, technology, emotions and perceived commercial value.
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