THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS IN THE PURCHASING DECISION PROCESS OF STUDENTS OF THE BACHELOR DEGREE IN ADMINISTRATION OF IFES CAMPUS COLATINA

Abstract

Social networks represent a medium that has exerted a growing influence on the way people establish connections and relationships, in order to approximate and simplify everyday tasks, aiming at saving time. In addition, social networks play an important role in the sales and purchasing landscape, providing a platform for displaying products to customers, resulting in increased sales and greater proximity to those who wish to make purchases over the internet. The purpose of this research is to analyze the importance of social networks and the internet, including platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, in people’s lives. It seeks to understand if people use the internet to make purchases and how they evaluate products online. To achieve this goal, we conducted a data collection through the application of a questionnaire. The survey results reveal that the social networks most used by participants were Whatsapp and Instagram. Therefore, it is our goal to encourage companies to take advantage of social networks as a tool to promote their products. This provides significant benefits to businesses as most people spend most of their time browsing social media. An effective social media marketing strategy can attract more customers and consumers.