Social network data as a tool for engineering consumer behavior analysis

Abstract

Social networks can be used to carefully study how people act, focusing on how they can be used to understand and change people's decisions. A mixed-method approach is used for the study, which blends qualitative results from theories of customer behavior with quantitative analysis of Phoenix-area Yelp data. Many people visit the same place more often when they have friends who use sites like Yelp. It's 64% more likely for friends to go to the same place than for people who aren't friends. Studies of demographics show that females and younger people have lower levels of social power than older people and men. To deal with endogeneity and split the different groups of customers in the study, dyadic fixed effects models are used. These changes to the way studies are done help us get a better sense of how social impact works and make the results more reliable. What happened to marketing plans shows how important it is to focus on certain groups and share social ideas through high scores. There is also discussion about moral problems that come up with keeping data safe and being open. In general, this study helps us learn more about how to use social networks to study how people behave and shape modern marketing tactics.