Abstract
This research examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on social media marketing in India. There is little research on the impact of a pandemic on consumer behaviors. To address this gap, this exploratory study surveyed Indian consumers’ social media behaviors. Observations from 313 Indian consumers were collected to compare how their social media behaviors for consumer decision-making have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic started. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to test mean differences in social media behaviors prior to and after the COVID-19 pandemic began. The findings demonstrated increased usage of social media as a tool for consumer decision-making. With the global reach of the COVID-19 pandemic, the implications of a growing prominence of social media in consumer-decision making are likely relevant to most nations. Recommendations for the use of social media as a marketing tool are provided. © 2021 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.
Highlights
In a previous study, the authors examined how the COVID-19 pandemic increased United States (U.S.) consumers’ social media marketing behaviors with regards to identifying products, collecting product information, comparing products, and purchasing products (Mason et al, 2021)
The sample of Indian consumers had a mean age of 31 years
The computed signed rank statistic (2328.5) was significant; which indicated a difference in the mean use of social media after declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
The authors examined how the COVID-19 pandemic increased United States (U.S.) consumers’ social media marketing behaviors with regards to identifying products, collecting product information, comparing products (i.e., shopping), and purchasing products (Mason et al, 2021). The current study, replicates the previous study, it examines consumer behaviors in India to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic has similar effects in different cultures. India is emerging into a significant digital communica tions market. With 1.2 billion telecom subscribers, India is the second largest telecom market and has the third largest Internet market with approximately 500 million users (Sarkar & Sarkar, 2019). With millions of Facebook and Twitter users, social media can provide Indian busi nesses with a digital medium for segmented consumer communications. India provides significant opportunity for digital marketing growth
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