Does Social Media Influence Our Spending?

Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, we use these social media platforms on daily basis. These social media platforms are getting popularity all over the world as they are designed to facilitate users in creating and sharing content with their friends. Social media platforms are influencing every aspect of our lives and affecting our routine lives and behaviors in many ways. People don’t even realize that how much time they are devoting to the social media platforms. This unregulated social media use exerts an adverse effect on our spending habits as well. Social media users are spending way more than their budgets and they even don’t know how to manage it.

Social media is directly or indirectly responsible for overspending. According to the researchers of business school, “social media really can influence the amount of money you spend to the point that you can’t control yourself.” It has been observed especially among millennials that social media is directly responsible for overspending. A study by Allianz Life Insurance Company suggests that “57 percent of millennials spent money they hadn’t planned to because of content on their social media feeds.”

Social Media Influence Our Spending

Social media is an easy channel to create brand awareness and businesses know it well. Businesses can’t survive without making money, and they find social media as a great source to interact with the consumers. Therefore, businesses today are spending more money to reach out to their customers and consumers are devoting more money to buy their products. As a result of that, social media spending has increased dramatically. Customers and businesses have been more connected than ever before through the presence of Internet across the globe.

Believe it or not but this social media overspending has created depression and anxiety among the people especially in the younger generation. In today’s modern life, it is very difficult to save money as we spend a great chunk of our income on paying rent and credit cards bill but now you can add social media too in that list.

How Social media influence our spending?

So many social media factors make you spend more money and carry out a significant role in hypnotization, here are few:

Social Influencer Reviews:

Here the term “social influencers” represent individuals who maintain a significant following on social media. As many people admire them and see their posts on a daily basis so they are frequently targeted by businesses for the promotion of their products. Most people are inspired by these influencers, so they trust them whatever they say. Their content has a large effect on purchasing decisions; people don’t even think for a second that the influencers’ posts might be sponsored. For example, if an influencer shares a post on any social platform about his new pair of shoes, raving about how comfortable and affordable they are, his followers will definitely take interest to learn about the new pair of shoes. These types of reviews by social influencers have undoubtedly affected our spending behavior.

These social media influencers often tag the store or brand of the products they use in their posts. This makes it easier for followers to become familiar with the brands and products which facilitate their buying behavior.

Friends and Family Review:

As we all know that social media is a great way to connect with our friends and family who are far away from us and who we don’t see on the daily basis. However, we interact with them via social media platforms, the more we use social media, the more information we share with each other.

Our friends and family notify us about new products they have discovered and vice versa. This has a significant influence on us and also on our friends. According to some researches, 80% of people are buying products recommended by friends or any their family members

The “mere exposure” effect:

Social media overspending is also caused by the long-known psychology concept known as the “mere exposure” effect. In this psychological phenomenon, the more you are exposed to something, the more you will like it. That can be an image, person, or brand. So many social media ads are designed to give favorable impressions of a brand or a product and over the long-term, the mere exposure effect will make you buy a product or service of that brand you have been most exposed to and you might ignore that best product.

The Store’s Presence on Social Media:

Further to the points above, a business’ presence on social media has a significant influence on purchasing behavior. Put it this way: Even if a brand has all kinds of attention from social influencers and customers, with a lackluster social media presence it will be difficult to convince anyone of their credibility. A consistent feed which showcases their products in use and provides value will help turn visitors into followers and into buyers.

Social marketing campaigns of businesses are affecting our spending habits. Since 2009, expenditure on these campaigns has grown 25% year over year and that is just because businesses know that social media is the modern-day word-of-mouth. It plays an important role in creating trust, amplifies the brand message, encourages a two-way dialogue, and ultimately affects the bottom line.

Social media undoubtedly influence our buying behavior and exposes us to numerous products that can make our lives easier and better. But we need to be careful and think wisely while browsing on social media. We have to act smart refrain from making impulse buys as this can lead to financial disasters. Take time to plan out your purchases to make sure you absolutely need the product. Other than that, stop assuming that more social media followers mean the product is good. More importantly, do not assume that people around you have a more exotic lifestyle and good decision making power than you. Be confident, stay happy…