How does social media affect consumer buying decisions?

In general, we know that the consumer purchase process is divided into five stages, as follows: production needs → information collection → selection assessment → purchase decision → After the behavior, they are corresponding: Need products → understand products → select products → buy products → evaluation products (or after the purchase of services, etc.)

the way to understand products in non-network age

In this five phase, social media has changed a lot in the phase of "information gathering", or "understanding products". In the past, that is, the network period, the way to understand a product, that is, to obtain product information from the following sources:

Personal Source--family, friends, neighbors, colleagues business source-Retail terminal salesperson, Distributor, http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/8164.html "> Product packaging instructions, various fairs public sources- -A variety of advertising, mass media, government, consumer organizations experience source-the user's own observation, use of the experience, etc.

Traditionally, "business sources" and "public sources" have been the dominant source of these four types of "information gathering", because at that time companies and their use of media were the main sources of information, and consumers were only "attentive". But to be honest, the transparency of this information is not high, such information, the majority of enterprises from the talk. Consumers get information "personal source" and "experience source", although more trustworthy, but too little information, authority is far from enough.

social media's influence on consumers is increasing

In the internet age, consumers have changed the means to collect information. "Business source" and "public source", because the information one-way and enterprise's marketing is excessive, by the consumer thinks is the Wang Po sells the melon puff, the trust degree has already dropped greatly. and "personal source" and "experience source", then through the network to start a big way, is for "network sharing" and "Network Word-of-mouth."

The "personal source" and "source of experience" of the purchase-related information, mostly via IM, the trading community and social media, consumers are more likely to believe those who buy things. As the saying goes, look at advertising, see curative effect. The effect is the consumer's own experience.

When more and more "personal source", "experience source" of information converge to the network, its original amount of less information, authority is not enough problems, has changed. And the amount of information and authority once established, its product selection and the impact of purchasing decisions, it is self-evident.

The search engine has played a decisive role in the gathering of the information of "personal source" and "experience source". We know that the power of IM communication is very large, but the IM circle small, the amount of information is not enough, im a few friends experience, but also not enough authority. There is also a point, IM information, also can not be the search engine aggregation. And social media is almost all the focus of search engine capture, a large number of users on social media, such as SNS, blogs, microblogs to share their shopping experience, these experiences are directly browsing or being searched for aggregation, information gathered in large, its authority and influence will continue to increase, so , simply from the point of view of product information, the importance of social media is a little more than IM.

We look at a practical story: There is a girl, she wants to change a cell phone, she is in IM with friends consulted a basic situation. Then she went to search engine refinement to get the basic information in IM, she felt that the information is not enough, she consulted the trading site, the evaluation blog, and so on, to see the relevant comments, now she has a point, she went back to her often play that SNS, continue to search for related keywords in SNS, Search related shopping sharing and experience information, and finally, the number of her favorite models listed, directly in the SNS launched a vote, she hoped that everyone can help her decision-making.

After fully understanding the information received from various sources. She bought her favorite cell phone. She also put her shopping experience into the blog, while also sharing the SNS and Weibo. There were other people to consult her, and she told everyone about the experience she actually used on the phone. These experiences include advantages and disadvantages.

The story above is not what is going to happen in the distant future.

Summary

"Business sources" and "public sources" of information rarely tell consumers the real-life experience, especially those with negative product information. Even governments and consumer groups are simply exposing some of the more influential product quality incidents, and they are unable to offer reasonable advice on every product. In fact, consumers have long known that any product, both advantages and disadvantages. When the pros and cons are present, we say that the information is transparent. Information transparency is the beginning of building trust. Consumers ' purchases are trade-offs and trade-offs, and they may be impulsive, but in reality, no one pursues the perfect product advertised. What they do before they buy is to know what they think they need to know.

We said that consumers will of course look at the traditional media ads, see a variety of merchandise exhibitions, also look at product packaging instructions, also listen to the introduction of the guide. But companies may now be aware that consumers ' buying decisions will increasingly be influenced by the spread of the web, influenced by other consumers in social media, and that the interplay between consumers, ultimately, may determine the fate of the business.

Source: http://www.socialbeta.cn/articles/impact-of-social-media-on-consumer-behavior.html