Impact Of Social Media On Marketing Strategies And Business Growth

Social Media and Business Expansion

The main aim of this research is to address the impact of social media on the business growth by considering social media marketing strategies. This report discusses the research questions of the study. Moreover, it also discusses literature review that supports to demonstrate theoretical information about the research concern. It also presents different research techniques that will be effective for gathering the feasible data about the the impact of the social media on the growth of the business. At last, it also discusses the Gantt chart that demonstrates time for accomplishing each activity of the research. 

This section supports to enhance theoretical knowledge about the impact of social media on business growth. The information in the literature review is collected from many sources like journals, articles, books, online and offline sources. Further, it supports to gain the understanding with respect to the social media. Moreover, it also discusses many marketing strategies used by a company with respect to social media (Beri, 2017).             

Lim, Cheah, and Wong (2017) argued that social media is a technique that facilitates the company to share their opinion, thoughts among the huge amount of the consumers. Further, it is stated that the social media also facilitate to directly communicate with their consumers to spread the awareness of goods and services as it would lead to obtaining higher profit in the least time by increasing the sale of the organization. It is also stated that there are certain sources that could be considered by an organization like social networking, social bookmarking, microblogging, and forums.      

In support of this, Thoma et al. (2018) explained that the social media web also permits the organization to develop online communities to share their information like videos, ideas, pictures, content, and personal email to their customers. There are certain types of users that imply the social media like an individual, organization, and non-profit organization to communicate with others. Furthermore, it is evaluated that social media could enable the firm to gain their financial growth in the least time and cost.   

According to the Agnihotri, Dingus, and Krush, (2016) online business could facilities organization to make higher competitive benefits by directly communicating with others. The social media allows to their consumers for directly communicating with specified consumes and understand their actual need. Through this, the organization could increase the satisfaction level of the consumers. It is also stated that the application of social media could offer many probabilities to the firm to gain their business and profitability in the least time. It will increase the consumer’s visibility.             

Marketing Strategies and Social Media

On the other hand, Armstrong, Kotler, Harker, and Brennan, (2015) examined that social media also permits the organization to freely converse their consumers and get feasible data about the current research concern. It is also stated that social media could directly influence ways by which consumer perceive a business brand. Before the application of social media, the consumers considered the business as impersonal entities. But now, social media enable both consumers as well as business to understand each other and make a reliable decision.

From the application of this method, the organization would be capable to increase the loyalty of consumers with respect to the company. It enables the firm to make a personal network by which the organization would be capable to accomplish their targeted task. In addition, it is also evaluated that the organization uses their social media to solve the consumer issues in the least time.

Ashley and Tuten, (2015) recommended that the company should focus on the increasing the business growth by considering different marketing strategies. The organization should use digital marketing strategy as it permits the organization to gain the awareness of products and services in least time and cost. It is stated that a company could use email method and campaign to encourage their products by discussing with their specified consumers. It could also be effective in attracting a large number of consumers. There are certain sources that could be used by the organization like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google ads, and SEO as it would lead to obtaining higher competitive benefits.

Hennig-Thurau, Hofacker, and Bloching, (2013) suggested that digital marketing strategy facilitates consumer to search for information about the organization by considering online method.  It also permits the consumer to find the information about goods and services of organization as it would be effective for increasing the awareness of goods and services. In addition, it is also evaluated organization uses search engine optimization technique as it allows the organization to make higher rank in the search engine in the least time and cost. It is also evaluated that the online method permits the organization to also improve their keyword search by considering digital marketing method as it would also allow the organization to increase the traffic of the consumers in limited time and cost. It could also be effective for getting higher competitive benefits.  

Hollebeek, Glynn, and Brodie, (2014) argued that business to consumers and business-to-business ventures used the digital marketing strategies to promote their products and services and get reliable benefits. Furthermore, it is a technique that boosts sales of the firm in the least time and cost. It is stated that consumer access the internet by considering mobile-optimized webs and smartphones as it would increase the local traffic of consumers with respect to the product and services of the consumer.

Role of Social Media in Internal Communication

In support of this, Hudson and Thal, (2013) stated that a business website is an imperative technique of e-marketing. Small and large business owner uses digital marketing strategies to attract a large number of the consumer. It is also illustrated that the organization should also use the company web by which consumers would be capable to search the information of goods and services and get higher benefits.

From the above chart, it is analyzed that there are two factors like independent and dependent factor. The independent factor is social media that consider many sources like Facebook, Twitter, SEO, and Youtube. Apart from this, the dependent variable factor is business growth that could be fluctuating by the practices of social media.

The research methodology section plays an imperative role in selecting an appropriate technique for collecting the feasible information with respect to the research matter and the accomplishment of the research goal and objectives. There are different kinds of techniques like research design, data collection, and data analysis (Hudson, et al., 2016). These are discussed as below:            

The researcher design will aid the researcher to select an appropriate design with the favor of research matter. In research, different research design methods are used like qualitative and quantitative research design. The qualitative research design supports to pool non-numerical data with respect to current research matter. Apart from this, the quantitative research technique facilitates to obtain numeric data about the impact of social media on the business growth. For this study, qualitative research design will be used by the researcher as it would allow the researcher to collect theoretical information about current research dilemma. This research design would be effective to collect reliable information in the favour of current research dilemma (Hyder, 2016).     

Data collection method is an effective method for collecting appropriate data in the context of research issue. The data collection method considered two methods like primary and secondary data collection method (Scott, 2015). The primary data collection method allows the investigator for collecting fresh information by considering the observation method. The secondary data collection method facilitates to collect information from available sources like a journal, articles, books, magazines, company websites, and online & offline (Kumar, Bhaskaran, Mirchandani, and  Shah, 2013).

For this research, the researcher will use secondary data collection method to pool the data in the context of research concern. This research is an effective technique for collecting feasible data about research matter. Consequently, investigator will be capable to accomplish the task of research.           

Research Questions

The data analysis technique could also play an imperative role in the accomplishment of the desired goal. In the research, there are many methods that are considered to evaluate the collected data like content analysis, literature review, case study analysis, and quantitative data analysis techniques (Leung, Law, Van Hoof, and Buhalis, 2013).  For this report, the researcher will use the content analysis method to evaluate the collected data and get a reliable outcome with respect to the impact of social media on the business growth. Further, this method will permit the researcher to obtain feasible information with respect to the research matter (Kumar, Bhaskaran, Mirchandani, and Shah, 2013).                

The time frame for this research is discussed by following table and chart:

Activity name	Start Day	Last Day	Duration (Days)
Selection of research aim and objectives	21-08-2018	21-09-2018	31
Literature review	22-09-2018	22-10-2018	30
Data collection method section	23-10-2018	23-12-2018	60
Research writing and proofreading	24-12-2018	24-01-2019	30
Final report submission	25-01-2019	25-02-2019	31

With respect to above table and chart, it is analyzed there are many research activities that will be accomplished by the investigator like the research aim and objectives development, literature review, data collection method section, research writing and proofreading, and final report submission. It is also examined that the data collection technique is time consuming as compared to other methods.

Conclusion 

As per the above discussion, it can be summarized that this social media aid the organization to directly communicate with their consumer as it would be effective for gaining an understanding of consumer’s needs. Moreover, it can also be concluded that research methodology enables the researcher to use the appropriate method for gathering realistic data in the context of research matter.

References

Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M. Y., & Krush, M. T. (2016). Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, 172-180.

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. USA: Pearson Education.

Ashley, C., & Tuten, T. (2015). Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1), 15-27.

Beri, N. (2017). Impact of Social Networking Sites on Adolescence: A Review. International Journal of Research Culture Society, 1(5), 19-23.

Hennig-Thurau, T., Hofacker, C. F., & Bloching, B. (2013). Marketing the pinball way: understanding how social media change the generation of value for consumers and companies. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), 237-241.

Hollebeek, L. D., Glynn, M. S., & Brodie, R. J. (2014). Consumer brand engagement in social media: Conceptualization, scale development, and validation. Journal of interactive marketing, 28(2), 149-165.

Hudson, S., & Thal, K. (2013). The impact of social media on the consumer decision process: Implications for tourism marketing. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), 156-160.

Hudson, S., Huang, L., Roth, M. S., & Madden, T. J. (2016). The influence of social media interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing behaviors. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), 27-41.

Hyder, S. (2016). The zen of social media marketing: An easier way to build credibility, generate buzz, and increase revenue. USA: BenBella Books, Inc.

Kumar, V., Bhaskaran, V., Mirchandani, R., & Shah, M. (2013). Practice prize winner—creating a measurable social media marketing strategy: increasing the value and ROI of intangibles and tangibles for hokey pokey. Marketing Science, 32(2), 194-212.

Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media in tourism and hospitality: A literature review. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), 3-22.

Lim, X. J., Cheah, J. H., & Wong, M. W. (2017). The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Purchase Intention and the Mediation Effect of Customer Attitude. Asian Journal of Business Research, 7(2), 19.

Scott, D. M. (2015). The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Thoma, B., Murray, H., Huang, S. Y. M., Milne, W. K., Martin, L. J., Bond, C. M., … & Chan, T. M. (2018). The impact of social media promotion with infographics and podcasts on research dissemination and readership. Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine, 20(2), 300-306.