Social Media Marketing Impact & Strategy

This assignment delves into the profound impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty. It necessitates a critical examination of how perceived social media marketing activities influence customer loyalty, considering the mediating roles of brand and value consciousness. Additionally, students are required to research and present effective strategies for leveraging social media platforms to achieve marketing goals.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLGY
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business
Student Name
University name
Author Name

BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLGY
Executive summary
The report tries to explore the social network’s contrition in the business sector. The research is
based on the various peer reviewed articles that explored the advantages and disadvantages of the
social network in the business. Most literature discussed and analyzed through various empirical
study and theories that social media is largely contributing positively in any organizational
marketing. This is greatly improved the company’s relationship with the customers. However
there are few advantages as well, like the breach of intellectual property rights or privacy
security which should be protected and taken care of with utmost importance by the company.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project objective..............................................................................................................................3
Project scope....................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLGY
Introduction
After the digital revolution the world has experienced great change in every sector of business.
Today’s business world is highly technology driven. The retailers are utilizing the social
networking sites as an effective platform for marketing campaign to reach maximum number of
consumers. The organization’s social media integration has hugely impact the consumer
behavior. This report explores various literatures that dealt with the effect of special media has
on business and tries to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the strategy.
Project objective
The project objective is to identify and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of social
networks in business.
Project scope
The analysis of social media marketing’s benefits will identify the various techniques that the
organizations use to achieve these benefits. The investigation of disadvantages will help to
identify the problem areas and encourage finding out possible solutions. The future of social
media marketing as part of the global marketing will be explored as well.

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Literature Review
According to Asa’ad and Anas (2014) the organizations follow five dimensions of social
media marketing like building up the online communities, interaction between the organizations
and consumers, the sharing of necessary contents, consumers’ accessibility of the products and
earning the credibility. Social networks have significant contribution in reaching the consumer
fast which influences their decision making. Through the social networks the organization
establishes a community which is their product, service and business oriented. The organizations
that have successfully created a vibrant online customer base loyal communities that are engaged
in discussions which help the organizational business to improve and develop (Taprial and
Kanwar 2012). Popular social networking sites like Facebook or twitter notifies its followers
whenever some activities are happening from the organization’s side. If the organizations daily
and frequently update their activities related to product advertisements or promotions, the
customers get immediately updated (Berselli, Burger, and Close 2012).
According to Fisher and Reuber (2011) the consumer community interacts with the
company directly and simultaneously which results in greater communication. Through the
interaction the company shares its service related information and keeps their broadcasting up to
date. In the social network setting the company shares their product information and other
services to its consumers (Babac 2011). Social networks have specially proved to be beneficial
for the companies as the social media is easily accessible for the consumers and for the company
as well and it is extremely cheap. The company does not need any experts for maintaining the
social media interaction with their customers as this does not require any specific knowledge or

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special skills (Taprial and Kanwar 2012). The company earns the the customer loyalty thrugh
socal networks in a more easy and effective way. The organizations share their messages with
the customers easily and by directly communicating them it successfully establishes an
emotional connection with the customers and motivate them for purchasing their products more.
Taprial and Kahwar (2012) claims that social media has become a great platform for expanding
their business and increasing the profit by establishing the trust of their target customer base.
According Shabnam et al. (2013) the emergence of social networking emphasized the
organization’s chances to build personal and intimate relationship with their target audience.
They conducted a research among young consumers to their reaction towards the business
service of various companies. The applied Klout score to determine the result. They measured
brand association, loyalty, brand image, consciousness as independent variables and
effectiveness of social media as dependent variable. The detail interview they conducted
highlighted the organizations view on using social media and how they assert various techniques
for their brand building on the social media platform.
The research by Jati and Mohanty (2012) reflected in the research by Bhagwat and
Gautam (2013). Both of their studies highlighted the need of social media for effective business
by the organizations. They also demonstrated how the social media platforms are being used by
various companies to connect to their consumers. Jati and Mohanty concluded that social
network is extremely needed by the companies for doing a successful business in the digital era.
They investigated the origin and growth of social network in the business sector. The social
networking proves to be extremely successful in building the rand for the company. They
recommended few strategies for the companies to compete in the global market.

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Bhagwat and Gautam’s detail market analysis highlighted that Facebook is the most used social
network platform. Their empirical study and found data showed the use of social network
platforms are growing every day and the opportunities offered by the networks are being utilized
by both the organizations and the consumers. A platform like Facebook is also being used by
various companies for business purposes.
The exploratory research by Ramnarain and Govender explored the consumer behavior in
connection with the social network. They conducted a survey among 150 young students of an
African University with a well designed survey questionnaire. The survey result demonstrated
that the young consumers’ purchasing behavior changes depending upon their gender, web
browsing and life style. The improved product, important communication channel, and brand
choice are the main factors in relationship with the social media networks that influenced the
purchasing behavior of the youth. However in the context of South Africa, the organizations
need to evaluate their communication and marketing strategies to guide the young consumers;
purchasing behavior towards them.
The relationship between customer relationship and brand equity has been explored by
the research by Kumar and Singh (2013). They have focused on certain strategies that few
companies apply in a specific time to attract a particular segment of consumer. The paper
supported the previous proposals of other researchers, that social network strengthens the
relationship between the customer and the company and frequently the use social network as
brand building tool. The company’s successful campaign among the customers also extended to
its stakeholders. Kumar and Singh (2013) particularly examined the “Live the moment” social
media campaign for the Ritz car by Maruti Suzuki.

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Valeecha and Reza (2013) investigated how telecom industries in Pakistan are using
social networking to let the consumers identify the factors which need to be improved by the
telecom companies in order to generate more profit. They engaged 5 telecom companies, 8
media agencies, specialized in social networking and 108 social media users for collecting
empirical data for evaluating the case. The survey result explored all of the three perspectives
which reflected in a similar result. The consumers expect the companies to be actively present on
social media. The telecom organizations also apply social media integration by interacting with
their customers directly and whenever they need.
Bajpey et al. (2012) explored the social media network’s viral strategy that helps the
small enterprises to grow rapidly. Various social media marketing are also powerful in deciding
the consumers’ effective purchasing. The compared the traditional marketing strategies with the
social media marketing by various companies and concluded how the social media possesses
more potential to change consumer purchase behavior. Pandey and Bajpai (2012) in another
research examine viral marketing adaptability by various organizations as an effective business
tool. They also focused on the most powerful social network Facebook. They examined how
various marketers are using Facebook strategically and achieving success. They have also
highlighted the offers by Facebook for the marketers to increase their profit. However they
concluded that the marketers have to go a long as their utilizing of the social network is still at its
primary stage.
According to Castronovo and Huang (2012) social network is an effective alternative
marketing model for business communication. They mainly focused on the relationship between

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word of mouth publicity and social network as part of their market communication integration.
After analyzing Castronovo and Huang suggested a different conceptual model based on
alternative marketing strategies particularly for the industrial practitioners to increase their
product sales, enhance customer awareness and finally customer efficiency.
The empirical study conducted by Bashar et al. (2012) highlights the social media
marketing’s effectiveness as a marketing tool. The non probability sampling method and the
online survey in India’s capital city involving many social networkers help them to come up with
an accurate result. The result suggests that if the social network successfully offers timely and
precise information to its customers, then only it be effective. Basically the gap between the
expectation and satisfaction of the customers should be bridged. The authors suggested that the
company should implement a business based on social relationship rather than transactional
relationship.
In their study Ranjhita and Sinnor (2012) explored the relationship between social
network usage pattern and people’s preference. They selected 360 samples focusing on
profession and 120 samples based on age to determine the customers’ usage of Facebook for
social communication. They have designed and applied a research method named
communication tracking. Their result highlighted that Facebook is the easiest and cheapest
platform for the companies to promote their brand and products. The companies can increase
their market share through their potential platform by offering the customers in depth description
of their products and directly interfering with the customers. Through the eay communication via
Facebook the company gets to know about the customers’ needs and desires and they can apply
strategies accordingly.

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Barefoot & Szabo (2010) describes that the transparency of the social network marketing
makes the company information to everyone (Ismail 2017). The company has to be really careful
and consistent before implementing the social media marketing. The social network between the
consumers and the companies takes commitment. Most companies focus on building long term
relationship through social network marketing. Therefore the management team of the company
has to monitor the activities carefully, respond to the customer queries responsibly and post the
information without any mistakes. If the company fails to manage social network marketing such
a way it will lose its competitive advantages. The company cannot merely be present on various
social media platforms and expect that it will bring huge profit, is just fanciful. In a way
mishandling and ill handling of the social media networking may cause harm for the company’s
reputation and profitability.
Steinman and Hawkins (2010) have highlighted another significant disadvantage of the
social network marketing for the companies. When dealing with social networking the
companies have to protect their copyrights and trademarks. The intellectual properties of the
company are equally valuable for them as the products. The communication over social network
is easy and transparent. It often becomes informal and real time service. There is always a chance
that some third party of hackers might attack the system and abuse the company’s intellectual
properties. Their copyrights or trademarks should be regularly monitored by the management to
ensure that no one else is misusing their properties. They can use such systems like screening
services or internet tracking in the monitoring process. If the company fails to check the IPR
breaching can damage the reputation and brand severely. The company must design and
implement own regulations in various social network outlets. The effective policies will protect
the company from disclosing their data or information. Failing to collect, store and use data

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responsibly will affect the company privacy of service and data security. The trust is also related
to the service security. The brand trust should be built as the consumers can not have tactile
experience what they get in traditional practices.
Conclusion
Internet has a great effect on people’s lives, the consumers behavior has transformed because of
the social networks. Social media marketing is an effective tool that should be used for
marketing, advertise and promoting their products and services by every company. Today an
active consumer’s does not just purchase a product passively he contribute actively by
contributing in the brand and reputation building and eventually company’s decision making.
Apart from the advantages there some advantages which the companies must consider so that
those do not affect their productivity, profitability and customer efficiency.

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Reference
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BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLGY
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