Discuss about the Traditional Business Process On Social Media Platforms.
Traditional business process has taken by storm with the increasing popularity of different social media platforms. It has not only changed the way people lead their daily lives but also has made significant impact on overall operational process of the businesses (Rapp et al. 2013). Social media network has provided two-way communication platform for the businesses in order to create maximum impact on the market. In the present time, almost all the prime organizations like Adidas, Tesco, Samsung, Microsoft and many others have selected different social media platforms for reaching out to all the targeted customers in an appropriate manner. Social media also has provided small businesses to break the geographical boundaries for fulfilling all the business aims and objectives. On the other hand, social media practices also have created different types of challenges like cyber crime, online harassment, cyber bullying and hacking for the organizations to deal with on regular basis (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang 2012). In this study, the focus will on assessing all the positive and negative aspect of using social media platforms on competitive business environment.
In order to identify all the benefits and disadvantages of using social media in the business platforms, the research project will focus on following objectives:
Primary objective:
Secondary objectives:
The research project has concentrated on assessing different aspects of using social media platforms in an in-depth manner. Now, inclusion of social media in business practices is relatively a new thing (Laroche et al. 2012). Therefore, many organizations are still searching the best possible way to use social media networks for maximizing the profit level in a consistent manner. For that reason, the social media utilization practices are changing continuously over the certain period of time. It has provided the research project many opportunities to explore different areas associated with the social media practices for accomplishing all the aims and objectives in an appropriate manner.
As per the article by Gil de Zúñiga, Jung and Valenzuela (2012), social media refers to applications or websites that enables users to develop and share content publicly. It provides a forum for the people to express their thoughts and believes about a particular incident in an effective manner. Over the past few years, social media has gained huge amount of popularity all across the globe. Specifically, it has become an integral part of the younger generation, as they spend majority of the time accessing different social media platforms. As illustrated by Lee and Ma (2012) social media networking provides two-way communication opportunities for the businesses. Therefore, it has allowed businesses to understand the exact needs and wants of the customers from different geographical and cultural background in an effective manner. Many organizations have also used social media platforms as a feedback tool to collect data about a particular product or services. Now, Stephen and Galak (2012) have mentioned that increasing opportunity of direct communication between customers and businesses have allowed organizations to keep the satisfaction level of the customers in a major way. As a result, proper utilization of social media platforms has helped businesses to enhance the overall brand loyalty in a significant manner. Social media platforms have also allowed businesses to reach beyond global boundaries with minimum investment and risks. Therefore, it eventually induces all organizations regardless of their sizes to use different marketing techniques like blogging, video, article and other promotional tools for maximizing the profit level in a significant manner.
On the contrary, Kim and Ko (2012) have mentioned that utilization of social media can also create different several adverse impact on the overall business practices. For instance, utilization of social media has allowed many people to share their negative views and thoughts about a specific product or service. It has also increased the probability of cyber bullying practices in a massive way. Businesses of many organizations have been affected by the utilization of cyber bullying practices. On the other hand, small size organizations does not have the capability to surpass the marketing activities conducted by multinationals, which affects the overall profit level in a significant manner (Valenzuela 2013). Secondly, social media practices have also increased the possibility of information hacking largely. Over the years, several organizations have faced challenges associated with confidential information hacking that damaged overall profit in a major way. Moreover, organizations are facing challenges in order to differentiate their products and services from their competitors, as all the organizations are using similar types of strategies (Laroche et al. 2012). As a result, it has raised question mark over the effectiveness of the social media practices for maximizing the growth in competitive market.
The study will concentrate on following research questions:
Primary question:
Secondary questions:
As per the article by Walter and Andersen (2013), research instruments indicates to all those resources that a particular research project use for fulfilling all the aims and objectives. Here, the study will concentrate on utilizing only quantitative data collection procedure for understanding the benefits and drawbacks of using social media platforms. For that reason, the research project will use quantitative questionnaire, which will include close-ended questions.
The study will concentrate on quantitative analysis procedure, as it will help to include different statistical tools in an effective manner. Here, the study will use online survey procedure technique for capturing required level of quantitative data. The study will use likeart scale for developing close ended questions, which eventually help the research project to understand trend related with research topic (Choy 2014). Here, the study will use different tables and graphs to show the collected data systematically. The study will also use different advanced statistical tools like regression and ANOVA to add value to the overall quality of the project.
Sampling refers to a process of selecting a small group of individuals from the entire population of the research topic. Sampling has two different types including probability sampling and non-probability sampling that allows studies to select proper respondents (Mackey and Gass 2015). Here, the study will use non-probability sampling strategy to select 50 executive levels of employees from different organizations that are using social media tools. The study will select non-probability sampling to choose only those respondents who are capable of providing details about the social media usage strategies. Therefore, it eventually will help to add value to the overall quality of the research topic.
For highlighting the benefits and challenges of using social media within business practices, the study will use online survey technique. The utilization of online survey process will help the respondents to share all the information as per their convenience. As a result, it will increase the probability of capturing authentic data about the research project (Arghode 2012). The study will use email to share the developed closed-ended questionnaire to all the respondents for fulfilling all the research aim and objectives. Utilization of online survey technique will help the study to compare all the provided data of the respondents in an effective manner.
Effective assessment of reliability and validity of the data is important for fulfilling research objectives and goals. Reliability reflects to the overall quality of the data collected for analysis purpose (Jensen 2013). On the contrary, validity refers to check the authenticity of the collected data provided by different respondents (Mertens 2014). Here, the study will have to use both validity and reliability test for maintaining the consistency of the overall research topic. Therefore, the research study will focus on using only authentic sources for capturing information about the benefits and drawbacks of social media networking. It will also induce the research project to select respondents who are capable of providing detailed data about the research topic.
As stated by Neuman and Robson (2014) proper understanding of research limitations is critical for accomplishing all the research goals in an appropriate manner. Here, the study will have to deal with time limitation in order to complete all the research related activities. Due to limited timeframe, the study has selected small sample size for covering all the areas associated with the selected research topic. Secondly, the allocated budget is also very limited for this research project, which can have impact on the eventual outcome in a significant manner. Here, the study has assumed that the selected research methods are appropriate for successful completion of the research project.
|
Serial No. |
Activities |
Start date |
End date |
Duration |
|
1 |
Topic identification |
01/09/2017 |
03/09/2017 |
4 |
|
2 |
Research aim and objective construction |
04/09/2017 |
05/09/2017 |
2 |
|
3 |
Literature review |
06/09/2017 |
14/09/2017 |
9 |
|
4 |
Methodology |
15/09/2017 |
20/09/2017 |
6 |
|
5 |
Data collection method |
21/09/2017 |
26/09/2017 |
6 |
|
6 |
Ethical consideration |
27/09/2017 |
28/09/2017 |
2 |
|
7 |
Research limitation |
29/09/2017 |
30/09/2017 |
2 |
Table 1: Gantt chart
(Source: As created by the author)
Conclusion:
The above illustration has highlighted the fact that businesses have no other options than to look for best way to utilize social media platforms for achieving sustainable growth in the market. Here, the study has focused on constructing in-depth literature review with the help of different previous literatures. It has also described proper research methodology for capturing detailed information about the benefits and risks of using social media platforms. Therefore, the study is expected to cover all possible aspects related with the selected research topic. It is also likely to provide effective recommendations for the best utilizations of different social media platforms.
References:
Arghode, V., 2012. Qualitative and Quantitative Research: Paradigmatic Differences. Global Education Journal, 2012(4).
Choy, L.T., 2014. The strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: Comparison and complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(4), pp.99-104.
De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S., 2012. Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of interactive marketing, 26(2), pp.83-91.
Gil de Zúñiga, H., Jung, N. and Valenzuela, S., 2012. Social media use for news and individuals’ social capital, civic engagement and political participation. Journal of Computer?Mediated Communication, 17(3), pp.319-336.
Jensen, K.B. ed., 2013. A handbook of media and communication research: Qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Routledge.
Kim, A.J. and Ko, E., 2012. Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business Research, 65(10), pp.1480-1486.
Laroche, M., Habibi, M.R., Richard, M.O. and Sankaranarayanan, R., 2012. The effects of social media based brand communities on brand community markers, value creation practices, brand trust and brand loyalty. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), pp.1755-1767.
Lee, C.S. and Ma, L., 2012. News sharing in social media: The effect of gratifications and prior experience. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), pp.331-339.
Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.
Mertens, D.M., 2014. Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Sage publications.
Neuman, W.L. and Robson, K., 2014. Basics of social research. Pearson Canada.
Rapp, A., Beitelspacher, L.S., Grewal, D. and Hughes, D.E., 2013. Understanding social media effects across seller, retailer, and consumer interactions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(5), pp.547-566.
Stephen, A.T. and Galak, J., 2012. The effects of traditional and social earned media on sales: A study of a microlending marketplace. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(5), pp.624-639.
Valenzuela, S., 2013. Unpacking the use of social media for protest behavior: The roles of information, opinion expression, and activism. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7), pp.920-942.
Walter, M. and Andersen, C., 2013. Indigenous statistics: A quantitative research methodology. Left Coast Press.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download