Patan Pragya (Volume: 10, Number: 1, 2022) ISSN 2594-3278

Received Date: April 2022 Revised: June 2022 Accepted: July 2022
Doi-[Link]

Consumer Perception towards Social Media

Marketing in Kathmandu
Gunja Kumari Sah* 10

Shiva Prasad Pokharel* 11

Abstract
Social media advertisement has a great influence on the consumer's perception. The research aims
to understand the perception of customers toward social media marketing. Customers consider
Facebook the finest social media, preferring it to Youtube,Whatsup, Instagram, and Tiktok for its
interesting social media advertisements. Businesses and digital marketers require a deep
understanding of how consumers interact with social media marketing to appreciate the consumer
view of social media truly. The research goals were accomplished using a descriptive research
methodology. The research sample was composed of 250 Kathmandu valley residents utilizing
convenience sampling. It demonstrated that most respondents concurred that social media
marketing offered consumers enough information. The least responders disagreed that the
information wasn't clear and ineffective. However, the majority of respondents agreed thatsocial
media advertisements provide adequate information to customers.
Keywords: Consumer perception, marketing, social media
1. Background of the Study
The use of social media, a form of computer-mediated information technology, facilitates
the creation and dissemination of various kinds of information, including ideas,
suggestions, and other types of interest. In this cutthroat 21st century, social media has
become one of the most popular channels for communication on the planet(Padival et al.,
2019).Social media is defined as a collection of web-based tools that support the
production and distribution of user-generated content and are founded on the conceptual
and technological underpinnings of the Web. Therefore, scalable communication channels
and social media are available and feasible.
Consumer perceptions are changing as social media is utilized more frequently to connect
people and enable the transfer of information (Gupta & Chopra, 2020). As information
technology has emerged, print and electronic media paradigms have shifted to social
media. Social media marketing is an entirely new method of interacting with customers.
Traditional print and internet marketing consumers have adopted an alternate social
lifestyle. The use of social media networking has been replacing written and oral mass
communication (Neupane, 2020).

10 * Principal author, Mrs. Sah is an Assistant Professor of Management, Patan Multiple Campus, TU, Nepal.
Email: [Link]@[Link], orchid id 0000-0003-2461-1394
11 * Corresponding author, Mr. Pokharel is an Associate Professor of Management, Patan Multiple Campus,
TU, Nepal. Email: pokhrelshivaji@[Link]

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Social media enables people who may live in various regions of the world to exchange
thoughts, opinions, stories, and information. Nepal's most admired social media sites are
Facebook, Instagram, Viber, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Tiktok. Individual
profiles and user-generated material are frequently available on these networks. A brand
can reach this enormous audience and produce large leads by employing social media,
which has 3.78 billion active users worldwide(Murtaza, 2021; Padival et al., 2019).
Facebook advertising allows users and customers to actively engage with the
advertisements on their page by allowing them to "like" and "share".It also facilitates
seeing who else or which friends shared identical advertisements (Dehghani & Tumer,
2015).The popular social media website YouTube was introduced in 2005. It allows users
to exchange things, watch them, and comment on them. 100 hours of videos are posted to
YouTube every minute. This website receives more than a billion visits per month. These
visitors watch around six billion hours of video each month, liking, sharing, and
commenting on various videos(Ashraf et al., 2021).WhatsApp was established on
February 24, 2009. WhatsApp was founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton, who had
previously worked for Yahoo. Purchase decisions of customers are most significantly
impacted by WhatsApp Ad Recall(Achmad & Adhimursandi, 2020).The mobile
photography app Instagram was created in 2010 by Systrom and Krieger and was later
purchased by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012. According to research, Instagram was the
fastest-growing media among mobile-savvy people(Negi & Pabalkar, 2020).Tiktok is an
audio-visual medium that combines sound and vision. TikTok user base today teenagers
make up a large portion of the. Teenagers enjoy using TikTok to pass the time or amuse
themselves because there are numerous TikTok videos available that cover topics like
entertainment, clothing, and skincare, which can influence users to make purchases of
these products even online (Erizal, 2021).
Marketing through social networks can improve customer journeys and experiences. It
connects with customers easily at lower costs. It allows advertisers to communicate with
millions of customers concurrently. As a result, social network marketing will become
more widespread worldwide. It is not unexpected that social media is the most crucial
platform for promoting product usage (Neupane, 2020).
In Nepal, most customers spend close to a quarter of each day surfing their social media
networks, and social media is being used continually for various communication purposes.
It greatly aids in maintaining good perception, which accounts for why it is currently the
most preferred promotional method. Benefits include a sizable user base and affordable
account creation for social networking sites. Customers can interact with businesses
directly through social networking sites and form their own opinions. On the other side,
businesses are utilizing social media as a marketing strategy because it is so well-liked and
is seen as a new advertisement channel. As a result, the company interacts with customers
on social media to understand their [Link], this study rigorously addresses
significant research questions, which are as follows.
 What elements influence the effectiveness of social media advertising?
 How much do the elements affect the consumer's intention to buy?

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 Do the perceptions toward social media marketing are different?

Based on research questions, the research objectives are as follows:
 To examine the elements that influences the effectiveness of social media advertising.
 To evaluate the elements that affect the consumer's intention to buy.
 To examine consumers' perception of social media marketing.
2. Literature Review
Hajli (2014) studied the impact of social media on consumers usingamultidisciplinary
model to explore the relationship between social media and [Link] were gathered from
300 respondents; however, 237 responses were usable. The result revealed a strong direct
relationship between social media and trust. The results also showed that trust had a
significant direct impact on the intention to purchase.
Dehghani & Tumer (2015)examined the effectiveness of social media on Facebook
advertisements in enhancing consumers' purchasing intention in 2013. Data were gathered
from 320 students from Cypriot Universities and analyzed by the parametric statistical
method of t-test and the non-parametric Friedman test. The study's results showed that
Facebook advertising significantly affected brand image and equity.
Toor et al.(2017)examined the impact of social network marketing on consumer purchase
intention. It also identified the mediating role of consumer engagement. Data were
collected from300 existing users of social network marketing websites in Pakistan.
Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the model.
Bhuvanesh et al.(2018) identified the influence of social media on consumer
buyingbehavior. Data were gathered from 265 students undergoing the postgraduate
program. A descriptive research study was used to analyze by Tam model. The result
revealed a significant relationshipbetween perceived usefulness, value, and risk. All three
dimensions were significantly influenced by purchase intention.
Padival et al.(2019) examined the perception toward social media advertisements. Data
were gathered from 217 respondents from the semi-urban city of Karnataka State, South
India. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling. They found that the two
dimensions, creativity and informativeness,significantly influencedconsumers' perception
of social media advertisements.
Neupane(2020) examined how social media networks influence consumer purchasing
decisions. Structured questionnaires were utilized to collect data from 75 customers of
Baneshwor, Kathmandu. The result showed that males and females preferred online
services such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, etc., for social connectivity.
Shahpasandi et al.(2020)studied impulse buying behavior on Instagram. Data were
gathered from 635 Iranian. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling. They
found cognitive and affective positive experiencespositively influence impulse buying
behaviour.
Murtaza (2021) examined the impact of social media marketing on consumer buying
behavior. Thestudy revealed social media was being used to effectively market products
and services and attract a broad audience. The result explained that social media's

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accessibility and transparency have changed how consumers present with a new marketing
mindset.
Upadhyay (2021) researched to identify factors influencing brand loyalty and entertaining
social media advertisement. Data were gathered from 90 [Link] study utilized
both descriptive research [Link] the views of consumers, best social media is
FaceBook rather than Instagram, and Messengers most liked advertisement is Coke due to
its entertaining advertisement in social media.
Hu & Zhu(2022)investigated how social media usage influences users' purchase intention
on social commerce websites. The study considered a survey research design that
identified the roles and responsibilities of social media marketing buying intention on
social commerce websites in a culturally diversified environment. The data were gathered
from 2,058 international students from 135 countries and analyzed using structural
equation modeling. The cultural distance was foundto attenuate the effects of social media
usage on cultural intelligence.
Ebrahimi et al.(2022) aimed to demonstrate how social network marketing (SNM) might
influence consumers' purchasing decisions (CPB). Using convenience sample procedures,
this study gathered 475 responses. The findings revealed that Facebook Marketplace's
customer purchase behavior (CPB) had been positively and considerably influenced by all
social network marketing aspects, including entertainment, personalization, engagement,
WoM, and trend.
Sawaengha (2022) intended to critically assess and investigate the connections between
online purchase intent and consumer personal factors toward social media advertisements,
technical acceptability, and behavior theory in Bangkok, Thailand. An online survey based
on quantitative research was conducted to answer the study questions and objectives. A
total of 400 people responded. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data that were collected.
The study discovered significant connections between five factors. This study will help
businesses, and digital marketers better understand how today's customers are affected by
social media advertising.
The consumer's perception of social media marketing has been the subject of numerous
empirical researches. Few studies have looked into the impact of social media advertising
on purchasing intention in a country like Nepal, despite the constant rise in internet
participation in these regions of the world and several studies in this area. However, the
general characteristics of social media advertising that might significantly influence a
consumer's perceptionof purchasing a product are not included in the literary works
discovered in Nepal. It is essential to examine the effectiveness of advertisements since it
shows whether the enormous sums of money marketers spend on their creation and
distribution positively impact them. This work attempts to advance the field as a result.
3. Methodology
The study was conducted using a quantitative research method based on the survey. A
descriptive research approach was used to achieve the research aims. The study's
populations were consumers of Kathmandu [Link] research sample contained 250
consumers from the valley by convenience sampling method. Sekaran and Bougie (2016)

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defined a sample higher than 30 and lower than 500 as sufficient for the research. Cooper
and Schindler (2014)also recommended sample size of at least 385 for the study is
adequate for analysis. Data were gathered bya structured questionnaire called five-point
Likert Scales designating "5 – strongly agree" to "1 – strongly disagree" equipped in
Google [Link] were entryird in the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS
20) and descriptive statistical approach was utilized to analyze data.
4. Data Analysis, Results, and Discussion
The study includes consumers' perceptions of Kathmandu Valley's social media
marketing. Figure 1 illustrates consumers' perception of the social media marketing status.

Figure 1
Consumers' Perception of Uses of Social Media Marketing
Figure 1 demonstrates that most consumers used Facebook media for marketing, followed
by youtube, WhatsApp, Tiktok, and Instagram. Facebook advertising gives users and
customers a chance to actively engage with the advertisements on their page by allowing
them to "like" and "share" them and see which friends or other users have done the same
(Dehghani & Tumer, 2015).YouTube is also considered one of the major social media
subscribed to by millions ofusers. The above social media status confirmed that all
societies had become attractive mediums for marketing.
The study includes Table 1 illustrates the demographic status of the respondents based on
social media marketing. Table 1 shows the results of the survey questions onthe
demographic level of gender, age group, qualification, occupation, and district with social
media marketing based on Facebook, Youtube, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Tiktok.

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Table 1
Demographic Profile of Respondents based on Social Media Marketing
Demographic Status Social Media Marketing Total
%
Facebook YouTube WhatsApp Instagram TikTok

Gender Male 46 37 26 10 5 49.60

Female 39 23 17 16 31 50.40
Total 85 60 43 26 36 100
Age Group 16-25 9 11 5 4 11 16.00
25-35 22 15 17 5 10 27.60
35-45 25 22 17 7 12 33.20
45-55 20 10 2 5 1 15.20
Above 55 9 2 2 5 2 8.00
Total 85 60 43 26 36 100
Qualification High School 12 14 4 5 12 18.80
Intermediate 20 15 11 6 7 23.60
Bachelors 28 23 17 5 12 34.00
Masters and 25 8 11 10 5 23.60
above
Total 85 60 43 26 36 100
Occupation Student 18 18 16 6 13 28.40
Housewife 5 12 2 3 2 9.60
Business 16 16 15 7 9 25.20
Private Job 29 9 9 1 7 22.00
Government 17 5 1 9 5 14.80
Job
Total 85 60 43 26 36 100
District Kathmandu 30 22 29 8 13 40.80
Lalitpur 34 18 0 11 16 31.60
Bhaktapur 21 20 14 7 7 27.60
Total 85 60 43 26 36 100
Source: Online Survey, 2022
Table 1 shows the survey respondents' demographic profilesbased on social media
[Link] majority of consumers were females with 50.40% using social media
marketing than male consumers. Most consumers between the ages of 35 to 45 with
33.20%, bachelor-degree holders, 34%were interested in online marketing. According to
occupation, most students and businesspersons of Kathmandu valley were interested in
social media marketing. According to the district, most respondents were from Kathmandu
district at 40.8%, followed by Lalitpurat 31.6% andBhaktapurat 27.60%.Figure 2 displays
consumer opinions on social media marketing's [Link] social media
marketing, most respondents used Facebook as their favorite site for social media
marketing, followed by youtube, WhatsApp, TikTok, and Instagram, respectively.

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Figure 2
Consumer's Perception of the Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing
Figure 2 depicts the consumers' perception of social media marketing in the Katmandu
Valley. According to most survey participants said, social media marketing was
ineffective.
Gaining customers' attention and convincing them to purchase goods and services is
becoming increasingly challenging and crucial in today's competitive business
environment and with the rise of the internet as a strong media. Nowadays, practically all
information is available online and floating on the cloud. While trying to give information,
advertising has occasionally been called into doubt regardingits veracity. Therefore,
marketers must comprehend the idea of advertising credibility and the elements that
contribute to it(Verma, 2014).Figure 3 illustrates the content and plausibility of the social
media marketing message. The content of the message shown in social media
advertisements can be trusted.A five-point scale was utilized to determine the social media
content respondents have explained. The Rensislikert scale ranges from strongly agree to
disagree strongly.

Figure 3
The content of the message shown in social media ads can be trusted
Figure 3 demonstrates most of the respondents' social media marketing. It shows that most
respondents agree that social media advertisements provide adequate information to
customers. The least respondents disagreed that there was no clear information.
Celebrity advertising is influential in persuading customers to buy the suggested brand
through strategies that include assailing the audience's social standing, promising
happiness, limiting availability, building warm relationships, encouraging emotional
appeal, and other techniques. Furthermore, celebrity endorsements help people remember
and become familiar with the suggested brand. Similarly, customers find promoted goods
more alluring when they believe the promoter is attractive to the target audience(Kusi,

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2018). Figure 4 demonstrates the favorite celebrity is used in the social media advertisement.
The celebrity message shown in social media advertisements can be trusted.

Figure 4
A Favorite Celebrity Used in the Social Media Advertisements
Figure 4 explains thatmost respondent's considered favourite celebritiesare influenced
mainlyby social media marketing. However, 34.8% respondent's celebrities cannot
influence social media marketing, and 22.7% of respondents do not have an idea about
celebrity advertisements.
The ability of a product to tell customers of rival products so they may make purchases
that will best satisfy them is referred to as being informed. Online marketing that provides
pertinent and understandable information has the most significant and reliable effects on
consumer behavior.
Therefore, marketing managers should consider the significance of both the quality and
quantity of information while creating websites for advertising. One of the most important
components of a successful website's design is the information's quality. It has been
proposed that unreliable information could cause internet users to have less faith(Ramesh
& Jadhav, 2020). Adequate information about social websites for social media marketing
is essential in this competitive age. The Likert scale steps from strongly agree to strongly
disagree about details of social media marketing presented in table 2.
Table 2
Adequate Information is shown in the Social Media Advertisement
Adequate Information on Social Marketing Frequency Percent
Strongly Disagree 12 4.8
Disagree 14 5.6
Neutral 20 8.0
Agree 100 40.0
Strongly Agree 104 41.6
Total 250 100
Source:Online Survey, 2022
Table 2 explains the importance of the information capacity of social media marketing.
Most respondents strongly agree that adequate information influences online marketing
41.6%.
4. Discussion
One of the essential components of online content that involves social interaction is social
media, which has become one of the most widely used objects in the modern world.

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Through social media, interactive communication is made possible via web-based

technologies. Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, You-tube, Google Twitter, and blogs are some
of the most well-known social networking platforms(Erizal, 2021).
The result explained that most survey respondents claimed that social media marketing
was [Link] (2017) also found that Facebook-promoted photo advertisements and
promoted Twitter tweeter commercials impacted consumers' desire to buy. In contrast,
Facebook-promoted text advertisements with changeable wording have no such effect.
However, this user increase has prompted manufacturers, marketers, and vendors to use
social media to successfully market their goods and persuade customers to buy their
goods, services, and ideas. This has helped increase brand recognition, customer retention,
trust, and profitability (Neupane, 2020).The research also found that buyers receive
enough information from social media [Link] observation of how consumer
behavior changed in the digital age inspired the research work (Noureddine & ZeinEddine,
2018). In particular, the amount of information available through social media is growing
daily, exposing us to a wide range of information throughout the social network.
5. Conclusion
Social Media are the most popular social sites where users may connect, create, and share
[Link] media significantly contributes to understandingcustomer perception. The
advantages of having a readily accessible brand through Facebook, YouTube, and other
platforms include easy customer contact, engaging social interaction, brand building, and
widespread communication via many [Link] and digital marketers need a
thorough understanding of how consumers interact with social media to appreciate its
perception fully. This produces more innovative and effective commercials(Pattaranan
Sawaengha, 2022).
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