Literature Review On The Use Of Social Media In Business

Summary

Write a literature review on the use of social media in business.

Social media is being used across the world in a rapid pace. As a result, from personal sphere of life to business sector, the existence of social media is prominently visible. Digital media marketing or social networking marketing is a form of marketing strategy, by which business individuals  promote their service as well as products over the social media sites. This method of marketing consists of online advertisement through social networking sites, photo sharing, micro blogging and video sharing. One of the major advantages of social networking platform provides is that it helps the business to reach out to more customers within a short time span (Leung, Law, Van Hoof and Buhalis 2013). Therefore, it has been seen that the effect of social networking platform based marketing is significant on all business. The aim of the study is to understand the advantages of the use of social networking sites for the purpose of business thus it reviews several research articles in this regard. The study will have a close look at the small businesses who think social media marketing is a costly marketing strategy.

Profits of the usage of social networking sites for the business purpose have been a research topic over the years. Many researchers have been carried out in order to figure out the connection among social media and business. For instance, one research has been done on uses of social networking sites in business (Jussila, Kärkkäinen and Aramo-Immonen 2014). One of the major benefits of social networking sites is that it provides a platform by which business can reach out to the targeted audience which traditional way of marketing strategies fail to do (Kasemsap 2014). According to another research Ryan (2016), social media can be an effective way of drawing the attention of new customers by introducing more engaging contents.

  The role played by social networking in business is growing in rapid speed (Tiago and Veríssimo 2014). Efficiently using the social media sites in order to promote products have become essential marketing strategy for both small and big business. However, still some organizations rely only on traditional mode marketing, while using social media based marketing, they can be doubly succeed. Done effectively, social networking marketing can increase the sales margin of any business. It has been observed that social media marketing are generally thought complicated and most business individuals are still unaware of the benefits social media in business.

Common themes within the articles

Traditional way of marketing and its challenges

As per Leeflang, et al. (2014), traditional way of marketing strategy mainly focuses on mass marketing and it is unable to do one-on-one marketing. The language of the content for social media marketing is generally more attractive while language of traditional media based content follows formal language and is less attractive. Another study states that the traditional media marketing is very expensive (Laroche, Habibi and Richard 2013). The other drawback of traditional marketing is cost. Often start-ups cannot afford the money of traditional marketing. Traditional media marketing does not allow customers give feedback, which is nowadays have become the essential demand of most customers. The study show that social media based marketing has more success rate than traditional media marketing due to increased involvement of people with social media.

Role of social media marketing in declining of traditional media marketing

According to Leung, Law, Van Hoof and Buhalis (2013), social networking marketing plays an integral role for the decline of traditional media marketing. The research stated certain reason behind the fall of traditional marketing and rapid growth of social media usage has been marked as one of them. Another study Royle and Laing (2014) discovered that people are switching to two-way interaction medium like social media platforms instead of one-way interaction mode of traditional media marketing. Most people these days, especially young generation are the users of more than one social networking site. Therefore, they prefer visiting those networking sites in their free time. The study said that in this fast paced life, people feel disturbed when the watch advertisements over television, but when those advertisements aired over social media platform, they read or watch the content.

In order to evaluate the pattern and strength within the variables, the articles have different methods to collect the data and the process of conserve it like recording, storing and reducing and transforming to statistics such as percentage and numeric. In regard to the themes of the articles, the articles researched on different aspects. For example while Leeflang, et al. (2014) elaborates the traditional way of marketing and its challenges, Leung, Law, Van Hoof and Buhalis (2013), focuses on the role of social networking marketing in declining of traditional networking marketing. Similarly, Ryan (2016) lights upon on the fact that how social media can be an effective way of drawing the attention of new customers by introducing more engaging contents.

Dissimilarities among the articles

However it must be mentioned that the articles are not free from limitations. The articles which have been reviewed collected and examined primary and secondary data resources in order to give the response to the research problem and to assess the research outcome (Leeflang, et al. 2014). The primary data of the papers included both quantitative and qualitative methods. In order to make the comparisons of findings, quantitative data collection method of the articles consisted of close-ended questionnaires, regression and correlation methods, and mean, mode and median. On the other hand qualitative method involved interviews with close ended questionnaires, observation, focus groups and case studies Ryan (2016). To identify the difference between variables, secondary data of the articles included all the data that have already been published in the form of books, journals, news articles, and journals. Author credential, depth and quality of the content were considered while analyzing secondary data. The entire process of the collection of the data was too long to present in the form of the articles. Thus lack of clarity was seen in the reviewed articles.

  In order to carry out the research, guidelines regarding ethics were not strictly followed in the articles. During the collection of primary data, participants were not welcomed willingly and they were not given freedom to contribute Leung, Law, Van Hoof and Buhalis (2013). While collecting secondary data, the some of the research papers did not include every essential reference in order to maintain their credibility.

The study intends to give a clear analysis of social media and its usefulness in business. The study initially addressed why there is a lack of awareness regarding the usage of social networking platforms and the reason behind business individuals hesitate using social media platforms through reviewing the articles. Along with that, one research also highlighted the essential requirements of social media marketing so that it can be done effectively. The review is beneficial for the further researches in future. The review is also beneficial for them who are still unaware of the benefits of social networking in business and for them who do not know the essential requirement of effective implementation of social networking tools in business. The advantages of using social networking tools for the sake of business, which is the main focus of the study, has been discussed by reviewing relevant article in the study. Beside these points, discussing the advantages of social media tools in business, the research pointed out the core issues regarding the social media marketing

References

Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H. 2014.Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 606-613.

Kannan, P. K. 2017. Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1), 22-45.

Kasemsap, K. 2014. The role of social media in the knowledge-based organizations. Integrating social media into business practice, applications, management, and models, 254-275.

Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R. and Richard, M. O. 2013. To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information Management, 33(1), 76-82.

Leeflang, P. S., Verhoef, P. C., Dahlström, P. and Freundt, T. 2014.Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era. European management journal, 32(1), 1-12.

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), 3-22.

Royle, J., and Laing, A. 2014.The digital marketing skills gap: Developing a Digital Marketer Model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information Management, 34(2), 65-73.

Rutsaert, P., Regan, Á.,Pieniak, Z., McConnon, Á., Moss, A., Wall, P. and Verbeke, W. 2013. The use of social media in food risk and benefit communication. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 30(1), 84-91.

Ryan, D. 2016. Understanding digital marketing: marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation.Kogan Page Publishers.

Schaupp, L. C., and Bélanger, F. 2013.The value of social media for small businesses. Journal of Information Systems, 28(1), 187-207.

Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., and Veríssimo, J. M. C. 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.

Tsimonis, G., and Dimitriadis, S. 2014. Brand strategies in social media. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 32(3), 328-344.