Influence of socialization agents on individual social media behaviour

This study tries to review the good empirical work done, by examining the present state of research on socialization agents and their influence on social media behavior. It also builds up on theoretical aspects of behavioral approaches related to social media usage by individuals from the diverse backgrounds. Efforts have been made to present things related to socialization agents in a more pragmatic way. The researchers in their studies have found that maximum use of social media is for seeking information, for trading, and for social purposes. Few studies also point towards use of social media due to emotional and reinforcement reasons. This study is an attempt to check how various socialization agents influence these kind of information seeking etc behaviors.

Exploratory and causal research employed to understand then in-depth elements associated to socialization agents followed by field study consisting of a validated sample of 384 regular online users undertaken by a structured questionnaire.

The analysis of research study delivered the following results. First, information seeking behavior is influenced by all the four socialization agents considered in the study. The use of social media for social purpose is influenced by majority of the socialization agents considered here. Secondly, sellers should be in synchronization with most users who use social networks-for commercial purposes.

The study is original and the results of the work presented in this paper give new opportunities for research as well as suggestions for socialization agents management issues for social media providers and users.