Consumer behavior in the age of Social media

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the highly-complex domain of consumer behavior within the vortex of social media. While it reflects a deeper understanding of how social media platforms affect the process of consumers’ discovery, product research, evaluation and finally buying behavior, it goes beyond the recognition of the impact and analyzes the precise mechanisms that are responsible for the transformation. The research will be mainly focusing on the subtle factors that form a basis for individual decisions with the phenomenon of social proof being one of them, which in turn is the perception of the public that creates influential power and pushes individual decisions. It will analyze the emergence of the influencer marketing where a well-placed advertisement from trustworthy online personalities can be a game changer in making one choose one product over many others. Furthermore, the research will elaborate on the reality of usergenerated material which usually presents genuine customer experiences published on platforms like: Instagram, YouTube or Facebook that is equally powerful to attract or deter a buyer