Impact of Pervasive Use of Social Media Advertising on Youth - A Study on College Going Students in Tiruchirappalli District

The impact of social media on adolescents has created opportunities for corporate brands and advertising agencies to target and engage with young audiences in unprecedented ways. The use of traditional media by youth has its positive and negative sides, but the impact of social media is less understood. The present study focuses on the exposure of the college going students towards the promotion and marketing of products in the social media platforms. The respondents are youth under the age group of 17- 24yrs. The theory taken in this study is Uses and Gratification theory. Online survey is administered for data collection. Purposive sampling method was chosen to reach the actual respondents and also to minimize error. Social media platforms were mainly accessed through smartphones among the youth. The study revealed that there is relation between internet exposure and social media advertising and rely on social media advertisements for information about a product that is trending in the market. The youth prefers advertisements in Facebook, Instagram, Amazon site, Nykaa, Myntra and the most significant aspect in these platforms that draws their attention is visual design, headline, title and the product itself. The youth feel that Facebook, Instagram triggers them to buy the advertised products. They also felt that Facebook and Instagram as the medium for sharing comments after purchasing and help in pre judgement of products hence leading to the change in the attitude of buying products after reading the comments. The youth also felt that these medium act as the forum for voicing out their opinion about the products. The male users have more impact on the purchase behavior when compared to the female users who are exposed to social media advertisements. The study also concluded that energy dense food advertisements attract the youth and these social media platforms proved to be their ideal medium where they post picture of what they eat.