Volume 2 No. 8, August 2012 ISSN 2223-4985 International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Research
©2012 ICT Journal. All rights reserved

627
The Impact of Social Networking to Influence Marketing through
Product Reviews

Faraz Farooq, Zohaib Jan

SZABIST, Karachi

ABSTRACT

Online Social networking websites are very popular and have become a part of life. These sites have made significant impact in the
individual’s life. When analyzing the users’ scope of social networking, it can be concluded that the modern social communities
influence in individual’s private life, whereas the traditional networking or social communities is more interrelated to business circle.
This change has undoubtedly offered many firms an opportunity to target this new medium for marketing. In Pakistan, marketing on
social networks is not taken seriously. There are some companies who have shown interest and have created their presence yet they
are not focusing seriously. If this medium is explored intelligently then the social network medium has a potential to provide many
new ways to market the audience with the help of registered users indirectly, without knowing them. Social Network (Facebook) has
provided many tools for marketing purpose like groups, events, social ads. These all are widely used and entertaining the enterprise
organizations by all means; however these all have some limitations. Tagged based marketing on the Facebook is a new concept
inspired from the tag facility provided by Facebook. If this strategy is implemented then this would be helpful for organization in
terms of targeting audience, developing trust of the product among consumer, increase clientele etc. This paper presents a survey
based research from users and organizations for finding their views on the tagged based marketing on the social networking website

networking website? How company can target their audience
via social networks.
Facebook has offered many marketing tools for the
companies to target their audience like creating groups, pages,
social ads yet in Pakistan the way it can be used for marketing
has not be explored by most of the organizations. The basic
purpose of this research is to find the reasons of not using
Facebook platform for marketing. The research will be
conducted from users as well organizations through offline
survey.
The organization of this paper is as firstly literature
review is done. Section 3 describes the platform of study i.e.
Facebook containing the reason of choosing Facebook for my
study, marketing on Facebook and benefit of using tagged
based marketing over other tools. Research Methods is
described in Section 4 describing about the survey instruments
and participants of survey. Section 5 is the results of the survey
conducted from users and organization is described. The
findings from the results are described in the conclusion
section. Future Implications are described in section 7followed
by References, Annexure, List of Figures and Abbreviations.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review in my study has been categorized in three
aspects:
2.1 Influential in Buying

Influence of any person close to an individual has some impact
on his life and this influence can also be seen in decision

attractive user interface of the websites. In [12] the researcher
has emphasized organization to understand the user behavior
when they login to the social networking website.
Understanding user behavior would help organization in
evaluating the design and performance of the website; this
could help in placement of the advertising on the website for
better visibility with no annoyance to users.

2.2 Marketing Strategies

Every company either its small, medium or large
enterprise have their objectives, goals and plans. For achieving
their goals, these companies do have to adopt some strategies
or techniques. Most successful companies strictly follow their
objectives, goals for their survival. In new era internet has
become a basic element in individual’s life and many
companies are focusing the internet for marketing their
products. Some of the optimal strategies are described in the
paper [16]. In this paper the researcher has described about the
intelligent selling strategies that could be applied on social
networks for influential marketing and alsoemphasizes that for
increase sales, seller should provide benefits to their potential
buyers.
[4] Has described how the small and medium sized
enterprises in the Indonesia have used the social networking
sites for promoting their sales. The researcher also described
the major problems of SME in Indonesia. The researcher also
suggests that Facebook could be the solution for SMEs for
expanding their business.
In the paper [14] the researcher has described the

3. THE PLATFORM IN OUR STUDY

This chapter contains the history and features of the Facebook.
Further this section also contains the answer of some questions.

3.1 Facebook

Facebook is the social networking website founded by
Mark Zukerberg with his college and roommates in 2004. In
2012, Facebook is top ranked website with more than 500
Million users worldwide and the population is increasing day
by day. Facebook is one of the popular websites in this new era
and it is believed that there are hardly any internet users who
don’t have a Facebook account.

3.2 Why I choose Facebook as my platform of study?

When we talk about the Social networking websites,
the first website that comes in our mind is the Facebook. This
doesn’t mean that there is no other social networking website in
the world. There are several other websites that are also
popular, these websites include Orkut, Hi5, Flicker, Bebo,
Twitter, Google plus, Linkedin etc. When comparing these
websites with Facebook the results stats that Facebook has no
real competitor in terms of registered members.
In Pakistan, Facebook is growing very rapidly and
according to the statistics the number of Facebook users in
Pakistan has increased from 6 Million. This figure assures that
Facebook is very much popular in Pakistan. It is observed that
most of the people do use or open Facebook while doing

people. Mostly individuals spend their most of time using
Facebook and have created their own social world. Soif the
client oriented organizations need to grow and increase
clientele they have to penetrate into this new domain. This
could help the company in establishing trust of their brands in
consumers and is less costly than other traditional marketing
techniques.With the increase growth of member on social
media Facebook, if it could be said that future marketing would
be social network marketing then itwon’t be wrong.
3.4 Why Tagged based Marketing instead of other
marketing tools?

Facebook has provided many tools for the small and
medium sized enterprise organizations for marketing their
products and increase clientele using Facebook as a domain.
Just like creating groups, events, Profile pages etc. yet they all
have certain limitations.

i) Profile Page

For penetrating any domain, the basic thing is to establish your
existence. Profile pages are the entry point for any organization
to show their presence on Facebook. The profile page is just a
page containing your information. On profile page the
organization can share the promo picture, videos, introduce
new brands to target the audience
ii) Groups

Groups are the most simplest and the oldest way for marketing
your company or any brand on Facebook. Groups allow the


Tagged based Marketing

Tagged based marketing is the extension of the
Facebook pages. This strategy will be helpful for the company
to market their product, brand. Tagged based marketing allows
the organization to tag the feedback of the product to their
customer. Once the tag has been done then this tag will then be
visible to the Friend List of the customer in the News Feed. The
benefit of the tag based marketing is: Suppose an organization
take feedback of any product from the consumer and with
his/her permission the feedback is tagged on the consumer
profile. This tag will now be visible in the News Feed of the
Friend List of the consumer, which helps in the influential
marketing; trust of the product will be increased in the
consumer circle by consumer’s influence. This is the indirect
marketing that the organization would be doing with low cost
as compared to the other marketing domain. The major benefit
of this marketing is the trust of the product which is very
important in today competitive market.

4. RESEARCH METHODSThis paper focuses on the product review of customers
on social networking website to promote marketing and uses
quantitative research methodology. To help understand the
users and organizations behavior, a survey is being conducted
from social network users and organizations. The survey
consists of separate questionnaires for users and the


In our survey we have two types of participants, users and
organizations. Therefore
our survey consist
questionnaire. Both questionnaires contains small ratio of the
similar questions and majority of the questions in the survey are
different. The age group of participants of both the surveys is in
between 20 to 40.
4.2.1 Survey for User

In this survey we gathered the information from the students of
SZABIST Karachi, Bahria University Karachi and other
professionals working in industry. The sample size of the
participants of this survey is hundred (100).Out of 100, 60% are
male and 40% are Female.
4.2.2 Survey for OrganizationIn this survey we gathered the information from the
organizations representatives. The sample size of the
participants of this survey is twenty (20).

5. RESULTS

In this section we will discuss the survey results
response got from the participants:
5.1 User

1.
Before purchasing a product what would you prefer for

questionnaire. Both questionnaires contains small ratio of the
similar questions and majority of the questions in the survey are
different. The age group of participants of both the surveys is in
In this survey we gathered the information from the students of
SZABIST Karachi, Bahria University Karachi and other
professionals working in industry. The sample size of the
participants of this survey is hundred (100).Out of 100, 60% are
In this survey we gathered the information from the
organizations representatives. The sample size of the
In this section we will discuss the survey results
against the
Before purchasing a product what would you prefer for
The purpose of this question is to know the user opinions about
the trustful medium for knowing the feedback of the products
Figure 1: Preference for product’s review (U

2.
For a product to buy, whom feedback will have greater
influential factor?

This question was asked from users in order to get their opinion
about which relation has the better influential
individual life before purchasing any product.

Figure 2: Influential factor

3.
Do you notice the social Ads displayed on social
networking site?



ication Technology Research

©2012 ICT Journal. All rights reserved 630 Figure 1: Preference for product’s review (U
-Q2)
For a product to buy, whom feedback will have greater
This question was asked from users in order to get their opinion
about which relation has the better influential
factor on the
individual life before purchasing any product.
Figure 2: Influential factor
in buying a product(U-Q3)
Do you notice the social Ads displayed on social
The purpose of this question is to ask user whether they notice
different social advertisement of the companies when they
login to the OSN websites. Social Ads are extensively used by
the organizations nowadays to target their customer.Figure 3: Noticing Social Ads (U
-Q4)

email addresses, cell phone
number for products feedback?

Figure 5: Feel concern when org: ask your personal information
(U-Q8) 6.
For which type of product, tagged based marketing on
social networking sites will be effective?
Figure 6: Product Type suitable for T
agged based
(U-Q9)

In question 7 and 8 we asked user about whether they
allow the organization to use and share information for the
marketing campaign or revealing their purchase information on
Facebook. the response we got we
re for Q6 are 39% peoples
responded with the option “depends on the product we buy”,
32% people responded with the “Never”, 13% responded with
“Often”, 10% with “Rarely” and 6% with “Always”. For Q7
the response we got were 40% people responded that the
sh
International Journal of Information and Commun
ication Technology Research

©2012 ICT Journal. All rights reserved
Figure 4: Influenced by friends (U
-Q5)

Do you feel concerned when organization asks your
email addresses, cell phone

Figure 5: Feel concern when org: ask your personal information
For which type of product, tagged based marketing on
social networking sites will be effective?agged based
Marketing
In question 7 and 8 we asked user about whether they
allow the organization to use and share information for the
marketing campaign or revealing their purchase information on
re for Q6 are 39% peoples
responded with the option “depends on the product we buy”,
32% people responded with the “Never”, 13% responded with
“Often”, 10% with “Rarely” and 6% with “Always”. For Q7
the response we got were 40% people responded that the

duct purchased”, 18% responded with “Rarely”, “14%”
responded with “Always” and “5% responded with “Never”.
The response of Q17 we got from users were; 28%
responded with the option “Depends on the product
Always
Most likely
Likely
Less Likely
Never
Most likely
Less Likely
Tangible
Intangible
6
13
39
4
13
40
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Always often

reason of asking this question was to be familiar with the
tagging any photos on Facebook. 40%
like tagging becaus
e it exposes their
current location. 34% don’t like because of their social image.
23% don’t like because it display their activities to their

: Reasons for untag (U
-Q10)
The purpose of asking Q11 and 12 was to
know their
view about providing their feedback to the organizations for
tagging and will they allow their friends to view their purchase
information. the responses for Q11 we got were; 32%
responded with “Often”, 31% responded with the “Depends on
duct purchased”, 18% responded with “Rarely”, “14%”
responded with “Always” and “5% responded with “Never”.

The response of Q17 we got from users were; 28%
responded with the option “Depends on the product
10
32
40
24
40
Depends
rarely never
Will you allow organization use and share your
personal information for marketing campaign of the
Will you allow sharing (revealing) your purchase

marketing strategies.

Figure 3
: recommending tagged based marketing to Org: (U
14)
14
32
31
18
5
10
24
28
18
20
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Will you provide feedback If
organization asks you to provide
feedback of the product for tagging
on the social networking website?
Do you allow your social network
friends to view your purchase
information via tagging?

with “Never” and 18% responded with “Rarely”.: Providing feedback to organization (U
-Q 11, 12)
The purpose of asking question 13 and 14 is to know the
user’s view about recommending the tagged based marketing
for organizations and will it beneficial than other marketing
The responses we got for Q13 were, 51% users agreedon
recommending tagged based marketing to organization, 33%
responded negatively, 16% responded with “don’t know”.

Q14 is 54% people agreed that Tagged
based marketing will be more beneficial that other internet

: recommending tagged based marketing to Org: (U
-Q13,
5.2 Organization

1. Company existence on
social networking websites?

The purpose of this question is to ask organization whether they
have any fan page or any group in OSN that could be used for
marketing purposes.

Figure 4
: company existence on social network
In Q2, 3 and 4 we asked organizations if they have their
presence on social networking websites, are they using it for

0
0 20
Yes
No
Don’t know
20
0
0
10
0
0
30
0
0
20
0
0
20
0
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120

ISSN 2223-4985


For Question 4, the response is: 42% responded with
“Most likely”, 32% responded with the “Likely”, 16%
responded with the “Less likely”, 11% responded with the

: combined figure of O
-Q 2, 3 4)
75
40 60 80
0
35
0 0
11
0
20
0 0
42
0
20
0 0
32
0
15
0 0
16
0
10
0 0
0
Never
Less Likely

6.
If you haven’t used social networking websites for
marketing, what are the reasons behind that? Select all
that apply. Figure 7
: Purpose of not using social network marketing (O
Q6)
7.
For reviewing a product to buy, whom feedback will
have greater influential factor?
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
8
9
27
31
16
20%
0%


: Purpose of not using social network marketing (O
-
For reviewing a product to buy, whom feedback will

Figure 8
: Influential Factor (O

8.
Will your organization is ready for offering benefits for
convincing consumers to give feedback of products?

Figure 9
: Benefits to customer (O

9.
Do tagged based marketing on social networks is
beneficial for organizations?

Figure 10
: Tagged based Marketing for org: (U
10.
Should tagged based marketing be implemented by
organizations in Pakistan?

Figure 11
: Implementation of TBM in Pakistan (U

11. Marketing on social
networking will increase overheads

Don’t know

ISSN 2223-4985

ication Technology Research

©2012 ICT Journal. All rights reserved 633

: Influential Factor (O
-Q7)
Will your organization is ready for offering benefits for
convincing consumers to give feedback of products?
: Benefits to customer (O
-Q8)
Do tagged based marketing on social networks is
beneficial for organizations?: Tagged based Marketing for org: (U
-Q9) Should tagged based marketing be implemented by
organizations in Pakistan?
database, hiring new resources etc.) Is your
organization ready for this?

The purpose of asking this question from organization is to
know whether the organizatio
n is serious in taking the
penetrating this domain and if that cost extra overhead, will the
organization is ready for it.

Figure 12
: Overheads for Organization (U12.
Does tagged based marketing on social networks will
affect the organization’s profit? Figure 13
: TBS in comparison to traditional marketing (U13.
How you quantify social influence in terms of
organization sales? Figure 14: Social Influence for


International Journal of Information and Commun
ication Technology Research

©2012 ICT Journal. All rights reserved


database, hiring new resources etc.) Is your
The purpose of asking this question from organization is to
n is serious in taking the
penetrating this domain and if that cost extra overhead, will the

: Overheads for Organization (U
-Q11)
Does tagged based marketing on social networks will

: TBS in comparison to traditional marketing (U
-Q12)
How you quantify social influence in terms of

org: (U
-Q13)

Why tagged based marketing can be beneficial rather Figure 15: TBM Advantages
over traditional marketing (U

15.

50
No effect
Increase sales
Increase sales
Decrease sales rapidly
Not good for company
14
48
0
20
40
60
Increase
clientele
influential
marketing
0
50
100
Yes
68
30
0
20
40
60
Tangible
Intangible
17%
34%

marketing on
social networking sites will be effective?
: product type beneficial for TBS (U
-Q18)
What could be barriers in Pakistan which the
organizations have to face while m
arketing? Select all

6: Barriers in Pakistan (U
-Q15)
Which goals you think will be achieved by marketing
networks?Select all that apply?

38
0
influential
Minimum
cost
Other
No
Depends
11
21
10
55
5
Intangible

tagged based marketing on Facebook and large population has
suggested it’s beneficial for organizations (Refer Fig: 30). For
tagged based marketing, providing feedback is very critical and
from the stats it can be seen that majority of the populati
already providing feedback to organizations, but most of them
are concerned about the revealing of their personal information
to others.
The research finding from the organization suggests
that approx. 75% of the organization have their presence on t
Facebook (Refer Fig: 31) but only 20% of them are seriously
using it for marketing(Refer Fig: 32).The finding further
suggests that currently around 35% organization take feedback
from their consumers (Refer Fig: 32),with reference of the
findings, the
major reason behind this is mostly people don’t
provide feedback, and the large number of organizations are
thinking of providing some benefits to consumer to get
feedback. most organizations that are doing marketing on
Facebook,defends their existence by
describing that it’s helps
In influential marketing, helps analyzing target audience,
increases the trust of the product among consumers and also
increase the sales and profit. Tagged based marketing is
supported by majority of organization and large popul
suggested that it should be implemented in Pakistan. Around
50% of organization has also agreed to manage the overheads
but also suggest that privacy concern and trust among in
between the organization and users are some big barriers in
successfu
l implementation of the tagged based marketing in

conducting survey from users, we found that most of the people
support marketing on Facebook, and more than 70% people
agreed that the friends have much influence in purchasing
(Refer Fig: 29). 51% people recommend organizations
to use
tagged based marketing on Facebook and large population has
suggested it’s beneficial for organizations (Refer Fig: 30). For
tagged based marketing, providing feedback is very critical and
from the stats it can be seen that majority of the populati
on is
already providing feedback to organizations, but most of them
are concerned about the revealing of their personal information
The research finding from the organization suggests
that approx. 75% of the organization have their presence on t
he
Facebook (Refer Fig: 31) but only 20% of them are seriously
using it for marketing(Refer Fig: 32).The finding further
suggests that currently around 35% organization take feedback
from their consumers (Refer Fig: 32),with reference of the
major reason behind this is mostly people don’t
provide feedback, and the large number of organizations are
thinking of providing some benefits to consumer to get
feedback. most organizations that are doing marketing on
describing that it’s helps
In influential marketing, helps analyzing target audience,
increases the trust of the product among consumers and also
increase the sales and profit. Tagged based marketing is
supported by majority of organization and large popul
ation has
suggested that it should be implemented in Pakistan. Around

Yes
No
Don’t know
0
20
40
Always
Most
…
Likely
Less Likely
20
10
30
20
35
20 20
15
51
33
16
54
28
0
10
20
30
40
50
60

implementation of the tagged based marketing which we have
discussed above, due to this we can propose a future
implication. A further study can be carried out in detail by
4
11
4
75
40 60 80
Less Likely
Never
20
20
15
10
Use social
networking
websites for
marketing?
Do you take
feedback of
products from
consumers?
16
18
Don't
know
Recommend
organizations
to use TBM on
social

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