Question:
Discuss about the Social Media Strategies and Destination Management.
Social networking sites are playing the significant role in the expansion of the businesses as the public get to know about the latest offerings of the business. This networking is serving as the strong tool of the marketing whereby the company can save its significant cost and time that is devoted to the promotional activities. The social media sites are aiding companies in contacting their clients and customers that leads increasing both profitability and productivity at the rapid speed (Leung and et. al., 2013).
Furthermore, social media marketing strategies enable organisations to get the prompt reply or response from the customers or any other clients. It has a favourable impact on the profitability and productivity because it is used for several purposes; hiring the personnel, marketing of products and services and conducting the market research. This proves to be effective for the success of the business and continuous growth in the international marketplace (Davis and et. al., 2012).
Despite several benefits, the limitations of social media are unforgettable so businesses should shed light on the same for constant growth in the marketplace. It is crucial for the businesses to look over these issues whereby they can apply right kind of strategies and boost its sales turnover (Zeng and Gerritsen, 2014). The present research proposal is based on the social media marketing that how it is helpful for the business and what negative aspects are associated with the same in the context of the hospitality sector. It will help the corporation to find the issues which might occur in the future time span and ruin the reputation of the business. Thus, the study under consideration provides in-depth analysis of the strong marketing tool as the social media market strategy. For this purpose, the research under investigation provides the insight of benefits and challenges associated with the social media network for the businesses.
This research aims to assess the usage of social media network in the context of business. In this regard, both favourable and unfavourable aspect associated with the same has been evaluated. It is because no doubt social media assists companies in gaining the attention of public but it possesses severe harm for the company during the promotional activities. Owing to this, study shed light on future prospects of social media network tools also in the context of the corporate world (Leung and et. al., 2013). This facilitates to present the scenario of social media network effectively and enables a business to maintain the same with the use of effective strategies. Furthermore, several strategies to apply the social media network effectively are highlighted in the paper.
Social media network is rapidly increasing in the several fields; education, business world and personal life but the scope of the current study are limited to the business world only. For this purpose, the findings derived from the study can be used in several sectors such as retail, fashion and food sector. This will help management to understand the pros and cons of using social network sites. It will also provide the information related to the potential strategies that ensure the best use of social networking sites and derive the overall benefits for the businesses. Furthermore, many small businesses can also get the idea related to an effective tool of social networking site to explore the business as advantages of the same will be showcased in the study.
The social media is being popular for marketing of products and services of the businesses due to the addition of new policies that tend to increase sales turnover (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013). The rationale behind using the social media to a great extent is that huge amount of cost is saved as other modes such as radio, hoardings and television etc consume a large amount of cost. Leung, and et. al., (2013) stated that social media marketing is beneficial for the business for the purpose of saving the time and cost. This facilitates companies to post their marketing campaign via suitable tool so as to gain the attraction of customers. However, the challenges associated with the social media are not negligible and that need the keen attention of organizations.
There are different types of social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook which approach a large number of people at a time. All these mentioned tools have several users per month such as Twitter has 313 million users whereas Facebook has over 2 billion subscribers. It manifests that companies can easily approach the large population by using these different social networking sites (Ukpere, Slabbert and Ukpere 2014). This platform makes it possible for companies to get to know regarding the issues which are being faced by the customers. This helps in modifying the current strategies of business as per the feedback of consumers and retain them for longer time span (Sashi 2012).
Hays, Page and Buhalis (2013) stated that some tools of social media are paid which might contain additional feature for the promotion whereas most of the tools are free of charge which provides advantages for the business. On the other hand, Young (2012) asserted that social media network help in increasing the customer loyalty by offering them timely information and addressing their issues in the right manner. Yet, it is crucial for the companies to update their sites or pages from time to time for grabbing the attention of viewers. For example, discount and the special offer on the product and services can be posted to make new customers and satisfy the existing one (Lefebvre, 2012). It indicates that social media will help businesses only when management remains active in updating the sites. For this purpose, attractive pictures and videos can also be uploaded for increasing the traffic. This ensures the profitability of the business because a large number of customers approached at a time.
According to Sashi (2012) social media is an effective tool that can help in conducting the market research for different organisation. For instance, a new product can be introduced after getting the views of customers over the social media. Therefore, it serves as the imperative aspect to explore the opportunities for the growth and development of the business.
Social media networking sites are not far from its disadvantages because it imposes several types of challenges for the business. Hays, Page and Buhalis (2013) stated that social media networking sites affect the reputation of the business due to negative comments posted by the users or other parties. It will have the direct impact on the new customers and overall business performance as such kind of events creates psychological impact in the mind of customers. Munar (2012) explained that it is important to make the social networking site interactive and attractive otherwise attention of customers cannot be grabbed. This procedure takes extensive time of the business where the requirement of expert personnel is also mandatory. This reflects that company has to incur cost in hiring the new employee who can maintain the promotional site. In this manner, indirect cost is incurred by the business which might have the indirect impact on the profitability.
It is an obvious fact that in case appropriate social marketing strategies are not implemented then a company will have to suffer from the lower rate of return. This merely increases the cost of production and affects the performance of the business to a great extent. On the other hand, social networking sites provide full freedom for viewers to post any kind of comments. Owing to this, some organizations get affected from their rivalries because of such kind of negative comments (Lefebvre 2012).
The use of social media networking not only affect the business through the negative comment and cost but unethical hacking also affects the reputation of the business. This is termed as an intentional act from the counterparty which drastically reduces the customers (Kent 2013). It shows that companies get affected from such kind unethical activities and this fear might not allow management to post the real or attractive information of the strategies implemented by the business. Moreover, in the absence of copyright, trademark, other people can easily copy the strategies which affect the rate of return of the business. Apart from this, security and privacy-related issues promote the unethical hacking (Lesidrenska and Dicke 2012). Therefore, a separate department looks after the social media market strategies ensuring the smooth operation of the business.
The study under consideration will be based on both qualitative and quantitative nature. This is because of research demands for in-depth analysis on the basis of collected numerical and theoretical data (Kumar, 2014). For this purpose, it is imperative to use mixed method analysis which will help in assessing both the advantages and disadvantages of social media networking.
In order to get the reliable and valid outcome, ethical practices will be adopted for completing the data collection procedure (Panneerselvam, 2014). The tools applied for the analysis of the data will also be effective through which fruitful outcome can be derived.
Sampling refers to the individual unit of a population that takes part in the data collection procedure of the research. There are varied methods applied for the selection of sample; probabilistic and non-probabilistic. It consists of simple random, quota, judgment, snowball and convenient as well as cluster etc. sampling. The study under investigation is based on advantages and disadvantages of social media networking site so the information will be collected from both customers and managers (Bhattacharyya, 2006). In this regard, simple random sampling will be used for selecting 20 managers and convenient base sampling will be applied for the selection of 50 customers. The rationale behind using these specific sampling design is to save the time and cost associated with the study. Also, a procedure of data collection will be easier.
The current research will be based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data will be collected by using questionnaire method that will include both closed and open-ended questions. The rationale behind not using other methods is time and cost constraint and the questionnaire method is favourable in context of both cited aspects. At this juncture, questionnaire method aids researcher is gathering the information from the large population in relatively less time whereas interviews need extensive time (Kothari, 2004). In this manner, selection of questionnaire can be justified. On the other hand, several sources such as journals, books and online articles will be used for gaining deep insight regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the social networking sites. Furthermore, journal articles will provide meaningful information regarding the negative aspect associated with the social media so that research can accordingly complete the analysis process of the current study.
The variables associated with this research are listed as follows which will be helpful in conducting the in-depth analysis out of collected data-
Completion of research activities is not easy as every research possess certain limitation which should be taken into account by the scholar. Since the study under consideration is based on the advantages and disadvantages of the social network sites so it was hard to find the detail information related to disadvantages because most of the sites were offering the information related to advantages only. However, primary data will be fruitful in which managers will provide the data that how the reputation of business gets hampered with the effect of negative comments of the customers or other parties. Apart from this, some responses might take extensive time because of the busy schedule of managers; however, questionnaire method will be adopted so that respondents can fill the questionnaire on the basis of their convenient time (Kumar, 2014).
The time schedule or research plan of the current study will be as follows which indicates that 20 weeks will be needed to complete the entire research.
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Stating the purpose of research |
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Drafting the proposal |
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Writing the introductory part of the research with the statement of aim and objectives |
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Collecting primary data |
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Analyzing the collected information |
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Addressing the feedback |
Conclusion
The aforementioned research will bring forth the outcome that social media networking site has both positive and negative impact on the performance of the business. However, management can implement suitable strategies to update the site and keep the customers highly motivated by building the good relationship with them. It can also be said that social media networking site are profitable and beneficial for the business.
Reference List
Bhattacharyya, D. K., 2006. Research Methodology. Excel Books India.
Davis III, C.H., Deil-Amen, R., Rios-Aguilar, C. and Gonzalez Canche, M.S., 2012. Social media in higher education: A literature review and research directions. Report printed by the University of Arizona and Claremont Graduate University, 8.
Hays, S., Page, S.J. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Current issues in Tourism, 16(3), pp.211-239.
Kothari, C. R., 2004. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Age International.
Kumar, R., 2014. Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. SAGE.
Lefebvre, R.C., 2012. Transformative social marketing: co-creating the social marketing discipline and brand. Journal of Social Marketing, 2(2), pp.118-129.
Lesidrenska, S. and Dicke, P., 2012. Social-media platforms and its effect on digital marketing activities. ????????? ? ?????????? ?????????, (1), pp.44-52.
Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media in tourism and hospitality: A literature review. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), pp.3-22.
Munar, A.M., 2012. Social media strategies and destination management. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 12(2), pp.101-120. Kent, M.L., 2013. Using social media dialogically: Public relations role in reviving democracy. Public Relations Review, 39(4), pp.337-345.
Panneerselvam, R., 2014. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.,
Sashi, C.M., 2012. Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social media. Management decision, 50(2), pp.253-272.
Ukpere, C.L., Slabbert, A.D. and Ukpere, W.I., 2014. Rising trend in social media usage by women entrepreneurs across the globe to unlock their potentials for business success. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(10), p.551.
Young, T.E., 2012. The Everything Guide to Crowdfunding: Learn how to use social media for small-business funding. Simon and Schuster.
Zeng, B. and Gerritsen, R., 2014. What do we know about social media in tourism? A review. Tourism Management Perspectives, 10, pp.27-36.
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