The Era of Catalytic Marketing: Social Media Networking Versus Attitudes of Young Students

Abstract

This project deals with the attitudes govern by youth in Bahria University in the area of social media marketing. An innovative approach has been applied by examining young university students’ attitudes with regards to the usage of social media. A well designed questionnaire is used in this survey and executed among 120 participants having age group ranging from 18 to 26 years. The study shows that youth in Bahria University takes social media as a preferred media to facilitate information sharing, communication, socializing and catalyzing marketing initiatives from respective platforms of their interests. In this research, it is discovered that 95% of the participants acknowledge ‘sturdy social media presence’ of brand in its marketing mix. ‘Facebook’ has been categorized as the preferred social networking tool by 95% of the students in Bahria University. Additionally, 85% of the participants go with the information sharing through peers, 72% of the participants are of the view that social media increase brand awareness and 64% are of the view that social media keeps catalyzing brand loyalty. In Pakistan the field of social media with all its dimensions is expanding. Universities around the globe are utilizing this as a preferred medium to build awareness and loyalty among students through SMART [Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time bound] communications. This research will be a helpful contribution for Bahria University and could be considered as a pioneering step in proposing the effective utilization of social media marketing for university itself.