MARKETING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA: A PREFERRED TOOL FOR NASCENT ENTREPRENEURS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Purpose of the study- The core purpose of this study is to find out the factors affecting the choice of entrepreneurs for preferring social media as tool to market their business rather than traditional marketing mediums of operating and promoting businesses. These factors include mass audience reach, high customer involvement, cost effectiveness of social media and increase in the trend of online shopping in Pakistan since the last decade. Research method/sampling- Deductive approach was followed. Quantitative data is collected through questionnaires on a five point Likert scale. Convenience sampling technique is used. Data of 100 questionnaires was used in the analysis. The data was analyzed using SPSS. Pearson correlation test is used. Findings of the research- The findings of this research advocate that the selected four factors have a significant relationship with entrepreneur’s preference for choosing social media over traditional mediums for marketing purposes. Marketing through social media is found to have a strong positive relationship with mass audience reach and cost effectiveness whereas customer involvement and increase in trend of online shopping have a moderate relationship. Practical implications of the research- This research can provide marketers with a detailed understanding of the factors which are affecting the choice of the nascent entrepreneurs for preferring social media as a major tool of marketing their businesses. This shift from traditional media to social media is now a new trend not just preferred by small businesses trying to set their mark in the market but now large firms are also adopting this medium to reach out to their customers. Limitations of the research- This research only targets nascent entrepreneurs who have started their business using social networking website specially Facebook.