Impact of social media on small businesses during economic downturn in the UK

This dissertation explores the impact of social media on small businesses during economic downturn in the UK. It examines how social media can assist small businesses in managing their operations effectively. The research methodology includes qualitative research through interviews and online questionnaires. The findings indicate that social media has a significant impact on small businesses during economic downturn.

University | 2020
MSC DIGITAL
MARKETING DISSERTATION FOR MARKETING AND EVENTS

Impact of social media on small businesses during economic downturn in the UK
Student ID:
September 2020
Word Count:
2

DECLARATION
This is to certify that the thesis comprises only my original work. Due acknowledgement has
been made in the text to all the different materials used. The content of the dissertation is the
result of work which has been carried out since the approval of research programme. All the
ethics, procedures and guidelines have been followed while preparing the dissertation.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to extend my sincere and heartfelt obligation towards all the personage who have
helps me in this endeavour. So, first of all, I would like to thank my teacher and principle who
gave me this opportunity to perform the study.
Further, I would like to thank my guide for their valuable time and support for completion of this
project. I also extend my acknowledge with a deep sense of reverence to my parents and member
of my family who supported me morally and economically.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my friends who directly and indirectly help me to
complete the project report.
Thanking you.
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ABSTRACT
Keywords: Social Media, Facebook and Instagram Small Business, Economic, Internet Marketing,
Traditional Marketing
Purpose: Previous research has shown the impact of social media on small/ SMEs organizations and the
impact are demonstrated through business performance, sales and contacts with customers (Chatterjee, S
and Kar, A.K., 2020). The aim of this research is to explore the impact of social media on small
businesses during economy downturn and their effects.
Methodology: A qualitative research was accomplished, and the data were collected through interviews
and online questionnaire in focus groups. The participants answered and discussed on open ended
questions about the impact of social media on the small business at the time of economic downturn in
UK. The methodology section assisted in developing understanding for the various methods being used
for the completion of research.
Findings: The results gave a clear idea that the social media has a great impact over the business at the
time of economic downturn. The major reason behind this is that the social media has a great effect on the
working of the company. During the economic downturn the business was not flourishing and this
affected the profitability of the company. But the social media assisted the company in managing the
business in proper and effective manner.
Value: Previous research has been done so far around the thin ideal values like learning of different
skills like communication, team work, effective coordination and many others.
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Contents
DECLARATION.............................................................................................................................3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................4
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................8
1.1 Overview......................................................................................................................8
1.2 Background..................................................................................................................8
1.3 What is Marketing and Digital Marketing?.................................................................9
1.4 Social Media..............................................................................................................10
1.5 Small Businesses.......................................................................................................14
1.6 Aim and Objectives...................................................................................................15
1.7 Purpose of Research..................................................................................................15
1.8 Structure of the Dissertation......................................................................................15
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................17
2.1 Social Media Marketing............................................................................................20
2.2 Advantages of Social Media on Small Business.......................................................28
2.3 Small Businesses / Organisation................................................................................30
2.4 Measurement Economy Downturn.........................................................................42
2.5 Literature Gap............................................................................................................50
2.6 Conceptual Framework..............................................................................................51
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................53
3.1 Research Approach....................................................................................................53
3.2 Research Method.......................................................................................................53
3.3 Data Collection..........................................................................................................54
3.4 Questionnaire Design.................................................................................................54
3.5 Sampling Method......................................................................................................54
3.6 Data Analysis.............................................................................................................55
3.7 Ethical Concerns........................................................................................................55
CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS..........................................................................56
4.1 Survey Results...........................................................................................................56
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Theme 8: Is digital marketing through social media concept is understood by you?....................62
4.2 Discussion..................................................................................................................67
4.3 Limitations.................................................................................................................71
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION........................................................................................................71
5.1 Implications...............................................................................................................71
5.2 Limitation for Further Research................................................................................72
5.3 Conclusion.................................................................................................................72
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................75
Questionnaire............................................................................................................................84
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
The current recessionary period has garnered new attention to the role of small business in generating
economic growth.
1.2 Background
The definition of economy downturn, small business category, scale of companies,
How can help social media?
In the rapidly changing business environment one issue which is faced by all the organization is to defend
the competition which is offered by other organization in the market. To overcome the same issue all the
organization generally looks to build good customer base and look to satisfy them with the product
(Mohajan, 2018). Marketing activity of the organization used to help the company in performing the same
activity for the organization. Marketing generally refers to different action taken in organization to
promote and sell product or service of the company in the market. Marketing activity generally targets the
customer of the company in market, as marketing activity looks at understanding the need of the customer
and develop product according to the need in the market. This helps the company in facing the different
challenges of competition in better way. In the recent time there is good trend of digital marketing in the
market. Digital marketing generally refers to usage of different digital technology to improve the
efficiency of marketing activity which is carried out in the organization. Digital marketing help the
company in garnering the new leads, traffic and sales of the business by reaching them with the help of
product and services.
There are many types of digital marketing platform which are used by the organization to promote the
product of the company in front of consumer. Social media platform is one of the most preferred digital
marketing platform which is used by organization, Social media marketing as name suggest is the type of
digital marketing in which different social media platform are used by the organization to contact
different customer with the help of product of the company in market. Facebook and Instagram are two
most common type of social media platform which are used in social media marketing. Marketing on
Facebook is done by creating a Facebook page which is used as a communication channel to maintain
contact with customer and attract new customer towards the organization. At the same time Instagram
marketing is done by running a campaign on Instagram platform. Campaign generally includes running an
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advertisement on the platform about the new offering of organization. Purpose behind the same is to give
idea to large number of customer about the new offering of company (Fletcher, 2017).
Social marketing platform used to help small business in setting up their name in front of big and
renounced organization in the market. Social media marketing helps the small business in performing the
different marketing activity at lower cost. Also, Social media marketing used to help the organization in
managing the image of the company in Economic Downturn as well.
Economic slowdown generally used to reduce the amount of money in market, hence social media
marketing help small business in maximizing their profit at that time as well.
1.3 What is Marketing and Digital Marketing?
Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer
requirements profitably (Chartered Institute of Marketing).
The traditional view of marketing is of a team of managers inside an organization responsible for
surveying customers, communicating the brand, managing advertising and developing campaigns.
Perhaps this rather constrained remit was true many decades ago and certainly there are still organizations
yet to recognise its full potential, but the reality is that marketing is responsible for so much more:
Understanding markets, developing market insights and being the ‘eyes and ears’ for an organization, in
terms of identifying threats and new business opportunities, tracking competition and staying on top of
changing customer expectations.
Shaping an organization’s strategy in terms of the selection of which opportunities to pursue, product
portfolios to sustain, target market decisions and competitive positioning.
Managing brands and creating compelling product value propositions intended to excite customers,
attract new ones, retain those already buying from the organization and make life awkward for
competitors.
Managing customers’ experience in order to maximize revenue, retain lucrative customers and combat
competitors’ actions.
Digital Marketing formerly referred to as e-marketing or Internet marketing is at the heart of digital
business – getting closer to customers and understanding them better, adding value to products, widening
distribution channels and boosting sales through running digital mar-keting campaigns using digital
media channels such as search marketing, social media, online advertising and affiliate marketing
(Chaffey, D and Smith, PR 2017). It also includes using the web site to facilitate customer leads, sales
and managing after-sales service. As with mainstream marketing, digital marketing is a way of thinking, a
way of putting the customer at the heart of all online activities; e.g. getting different user groups to test
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your website on different browsers in different settings on different connections (Chaffey, D and Smith,
PR 2017).
There are five principal benefits to marketers of digital marketing.
(1) Digital provides additional options for marketing communications, as internet viewing, web searches
and Google become routinized behaviour;
(2) Digital gives marketers more direct and diverse channel possibilities, with many companies
developing multi-channel strate continues gies and some new entrants trading only online;
(3) Digital enables marketers to cap requiring true greater insights into consumers with immediacy and
two-way interaction as never before, with extensive profiling of customer histories and behaviours;
(4) Digital explodes the ways in which marketers build relationships, with far more direct and frequent
interactions and the bespoke tailoring of information, deals and propositions;
(5) Digital provides access to customers 24/7 as never before has been possible, wherever they are and
whenever they want to connect.
1.4 Social Media
Social media, which has shown dramatic growth over the past few years, is especially important for small
businesses because it can be utilized to break through the clutter, and connect with customers (Block,
2011). Leibovitz (2012, p. 1) found that social media had a huge influence on consumer purchasing
decisions. It is a strategic process designed to make a business and its products and services more
attractive to buyers. Of course, this has always been the goal of modern marketing (Korhan, J. 2013). The
significant difference today is that much of this is accomplished digitally— and in order to start properly,
you must respect the vital role that search plays in the process, the social marketing process is a simple
three-step progression that begins with useful and valuable content that attracts the attention of buyers,
followed by using social media to engage them further to build relationships and earn trust, resulting in
new business that is predominantly accomplished in the real world with direct selling (Korhan, J. 2013).
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There are few definitions of social marketing by different authors.
Social media also represents a virtual arrangement that unites a countless number of people to cooperate,
share and discuss thoughts (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2011). Recent statistics of internet users suggest
that worldwide there are more than 2.5 billion active users of social media and as of 2019, the usual day-
to-day social media usage amounted to 136 minutes worldwide, up from 90 minutes in 2012 (Statista,
2019). In view of their ability to associate individuals from various foundations with almost no forthright
costs, web-based social networking is quickly developing in notoriety over the world (Keitzmann,
Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011). Recent studies have also revealed that companies have grown
their social media marketing spending and are expected to continue to increase their budget for it in the
next 5 years (Moorman, 2015). Organisations also are quickly grasping social media and are trying
different things with various ways to deal with to stay connected with their clients (Tsimonis &
Dimitriadis, 2014).
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Due to the widespread use of social media in marketing, particularly in communication strategies
(Hudson, et al., 2016), this study is undertaken to demonstrate the relationship between elements of social
media marketing and small business. Social media is converting the world. Existing literature says that
social media has changed the communication and purchasing’ way and allow people to access higher
volume of information (Agnihotri, et al., 2016; Burns, Veeck and Bush, 2017; Mcfarland and Ployhart,
2015; Obeidat, et al., 2016). Another study by Andreassen, Pallesen and Griffiths (2017) state that
organizations are using social media as primary marketing for businesses over last ten years. In fact,
social media is a significant component of 21st century business, especially in marketing activities
(Bilgin, 2018; Felix,Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017; Saravanakumar and Suganthalakshmi, 2012). Social
media plays a major role in consumer’ daily lives, it reflects their attitudes, preferences, experiences and
consumption habits and communication with other customers on communication channel (Bilgin, 2018).
Organisation uses the social media platform, inexpensive access, to emerge, interact, transform and
exchange between customer and brand which provides various ways of interaction and engagement
(Tuten and Solomon, 2018).
Definitionally, social media can be thought of in a few different ways. In a practical sense, it is a
collection of software-based digital technologies—usually presented as apps and websites—that provide
users with digital environments in which they can send and receive digital content or information over
some type of online social network. In this sense, we can think of social media as the major platforms and
their features, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (Appel, G. et at. 2020). We can also in practical
terms of social media as another type of digital marketing channel that marketers can use to communicate
with consumers through advertising. But we can also think of social media more broadly, seeing it less as
digital media and specific technology services, and more as digital places where people conduct
significant parts of their lives. From this perspective, it means that social media becomes less about the
specific technologies or platforms, and more about what people do in these environments (Appel, G. et at.
2020).
A huge range of websites now leverage elements of social media to engage with their audience, and some,
including a number of the highest-profile sites to emerge in recent years (the Facebooks, Instagrams and
Twitters of this world), base their entire business model around the burgeoning popularity of online
social media, user participation and user-generated content (UGC) (Ryan, D. 2017)
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Instagram is the most popular platform of social media after facebook, It has a few goals to drive
businesses and increase product sale. Instagram is a social media platform that has skyrocketed in
popularity over the last several years and boasts a very high level of user engagement relative to other
platforms like Facebook or Twitter. Instagram is an image-based platform that uses hashtags as a way of
creating connections and community by tagging images with keywords that will appeal to niche
demographics.
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1.5 Small Businesses
The small-firm sector plays a significant role in the world economy. There were 5.8 million small
businesses at the start of 2019 in the UK. Compared with the previous year, the private sector business
population increased 3.5% (+200,000 businesses) (UK Small Business Statistics, 2020).
SMEs and the Economy:
 At the start of 2019 there were 5.82 million small businesses (with 0 to 49 employees), 99.3% of
the total business. SMEs account for 99.9% of the business population (5.9 million businesses).
 SMEs account for three fifths of the employment and around half of turnover in the UK private
sector.
 Total employment in SMEs was 16.6 million (60% of the total), whilst turnover was estimated at
£2.2 trillion (52%). (UK Small Business Statistics, 2020).
Composition of the business population:
• In 2019, there were estimated to be 5.9 million UK private sector businesses
• 1.4 million of these had employees and 4.5 million had no employees.
• The UK private sector business population is made up of 3.5 million sole proprietorships (59% of
the total), 2.0 million actively trading companies (34%) and 405,000 ordinary partnerships (7%) in
2019.
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• 2.6 million Private sector businesses as registered for VAT or PAYE, 45% of the estimated total
population.
1.6 Aim and Objectives
The main aim of this study is to explore the impact of social media on small businesses during
economy downturn.
1. To investigate the possibility of increasing revenue of small businesses during economic downturn.
2. To evaluate how much influence social media (Facebook and Instagram) could have on small
businesses during economy downturn.
1.7 Purpose of Research
The purpose of this dissertation is to search the role and economic impact that Digital Marketing
specifically Social Media have on small businesses/ organisation during economic downturn. The
objectives include investigating the possibility of increasing revenue of small business during economic
downturn.
The study also intends to establish how influence of people on social media defines the performance of
small scale businesses as far as marketing their product is concerned. This is very critical as economic
downturn is likely to affect most of these small businesses which forms backbone of most economies. The
study thus seeks to outline the impacts of social media during economic downturn on small scale
businesses.
Research Questions:
1. What is the impact of economic downturn on small /medium businesses?
2. What is the role of social media in supporting small /medium businesses during economic
downturn?
1.8 Structure of the Dissertation
Introduction
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Introduction section of dissertation will provide the brief introduction about the topic of the research.
After that Introduction section defines the reason behind selecting the topic of the study and structure of
Dissertation.
Literature Review
Literature Review section of the report will provide the secondary information collected in the research.
Literature review section will provide the point of view of different author in regard to the topic of the
study.
Research Methodology
Research Methodology section of research used to identify different methodology and technique which
will be used to carry out the outcome of the research. Research methodology section will present the
justification behind selecting the specific research tools and techniques.
Findings
The findings chapter will include the analysis section of report will present the primary data which has
been collected in the report. Also, Data analysis section will analyse and interoperate the information
collected in a way that it used to provide clear understanding to reader.
Conclusion and Implications
Conclusion and Implications section of report provide the brief concluding statement in regard to
outcome which has been derived of the study. On the basis of same statement implications are made to
improve the area which is lacking.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
The main purpose of this review is to identify the relevant studies that have been conducted in the
areas of social media marketing and how the use of social media marketing has impacted on small scale
businesses. The purpose of literature review is also to identify the gap that exists between subject matter
and areas that requires further studies about subject under study. It also helps the researcher to
acknowledge and appreciate the numerous works of other authors that have been done relevant to the area
of study.
To understand more about the role of social media (Facebook and Instagram) on small
organisations, a brief overview of social media marketing will be presently firstly, followed by
identifying the advantages of social media on businesses, pros and cons, activities. Furthermore,
researcher demonstrates the facebook, instagram engagement and how to measure engagement in context
of social media.
After reviewing many related articles regarding social media, small businesses and economy
downturn, the literature review has been found about the research direction of this study. This chapter
divided into five sections. It will provide theoretical support and guidance for the analysis and research in
the following chapters.
The literature review is a detailed analysis and study relating to the topic of the research. This is very
essential because of the reason that the literature review assist the researcher in developing in- depth
knowledge relating to use of social media at the time of economic downturn. The review of different
helps the researcher in developing good knowledge relating to the different theories and models relating
to the research topic. This section of the research assists the scholar in dealing with the different types of
information relating to the research area and try to develop the knowledge and understanding relating to
the area of research. In addition to this the literature review section assist in finding out the answers to the
research question and try to attain the aim and objective of the study.
Marketing generally refers to the group of the activity performed in the organization to promote the
product of the company in better way in front of consumer. There are seven different marketing activity
that is related to product, price, place, promotion, packaging, physical evidence and people. This most
studies have generally referred to as marketing mix.
Marketing Mix is a marketing approach that allows the company to distribute different types of
goods based on the knowledge collected concerning each particular market. The strategy allows the
company to develop unique products, prices and promotional incentives. Its four main P’s include
Promotion, Place, Price and product. The product has to be the right item for the market at the right time.
It also involves assessment of a product with competitors. As an organisation selling a product/service,
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assessing the price of a product to ensure that it is still into terms with the market realities is very
important. Price dictates how a product will fair in the market. Promotion will entail all information about
your products, adverts to get more people to buy your idea like changing a headline or name of a product.
Place determines how well you will sell your product in the market. Having the right market is important
business. Other P’s include packaging, positioning and people.
The traditional marketing mix strategy (4P) is widely accepted and many businesses used this strategy in
their marketing plan (Van Waterschoot and Van den Bulte, 1992). Promotion, the last step in the
traditional marketing mix, is a communication process and there are various communication tools, social
media is one of the communication tools that several brands have used (Hollensen, 2017). Advertising is
one of the most visible forms of communicative activation that uses the mass or new media such as social
media to create customers awareness, provide product or service information and persuade the customers
into the purchasing process (Terkan, 2014).
Figure 1: 4Ps of marketing Mix
This gap in existing literature is needed to be addressed as findings from India would also be
generalizable to other similar emerging economies.
Literature review is generally regarded as a secondary data collection source to collect
different information from the source whom have collected the information for their usage in
past for their usage. Literature review generally assists in testing the theoretical concepts within
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the research. Literature review section generally used to gather the variety of different type of
the information which is generally published by the author in regards of variety of different
information which is collected by researching in regards of the topic of the study as well..
Literature review sections of the study are generally used to assist in finding out question and
concepts which can be used once primary data has been collected and analysed data to test the
viability of conceptual ideas.
Marketing generally refers to the group of the activity performed in the organization to
promote the product of the company in better way in front of consumer. There are seven
different marketing activity that is related to product, price, place, promotion, packaging,
physical evidence and people.
“Knowledge about digital marketing”
Digital marketing, as the name suggest is one of emerged form of marketing. It is main
stream form of marketing communication which is used to connect to larger audience as compare
to traditional forms of marketing. (Chaffey, 2019) in the article highlights that digital marketing
is generally regarded as an approach in which different platforms and channels are used to
promote the offering of the company in a way that it is able to reach a larger number of
consumers in the market. Looking at the significance highlighted by (Chaffey, 2019) is that this
form of marketing can be accessed 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, as compared to other
forms of marketing which can be accessed in a specific time only. Digital marketing is
performed by the help of variety of way such as email marketing, content marketing and social
media marketing.
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Content Marketing
Organizations uses a variety of different kinds of digital marketing tool to get in touch
with the customer to offer variety of different offering. As Chaffey, (2019) highlights that Email
marketing is a form of marketing communication in which different messages are sent to the user
with the help of the email. The reason for choosing this sort of marketing tool is that it helps
promotes the professional image of the company to the user. At the same time author also
highlights that to present the clear understanding of the product or service to the consumer in the
market, all the organizations uses content marketing as a part of the marketing communication
tool. It is the in which different content are being created and shared by the way of different
platform. Content is created in the form of video and blogs. This sort of marketing is in good
trend for new start-ups in the market (Christodoulides, Michaelidou and Siamagka, 2018).
2.1 Social Media Marketing
Social media is becoming an integral part of everyday life for communicating and sharing
information and other media. It is mainly free and easy to use and therefore can provide businesses with a
relatively quick and low cost method of connecting with customers (Fischer and Reuber, 2011). This is
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especially beneficial to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that may not have the
financial backing or technical expertise required for other, more traditional, technical solutions
(Stockdale et al., 2012; Zeiller and Schauer, 2011; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; Dyerson et al.,
2009) and require short term and tangible value in any new endeavours (Stockdale et al., 2012;
Mehrtens et al., 2001). However, to ensure that social media is used effectively, businesses must
have a clear plan indicating how it will be used and what it will be used for. Without this,
businesses cannot determine its usefulness or effectiveness.
Social media are considered interactive media (Sahayet al., 1998), because they let businesses move
from simply providing one-sided information to letting consumers engage and interact with the content
(Doolinet al., 2002)
According to Pick (2013), 93 percent of marketers use social media for business, and with the
continued growth of social media, 75 percent of marketers plan to increase this usage. Social media are
normally defined as internet-based applications that carry consumer-generated content which involves
“media impressions created by consumers, typically informed by relevant experience, and archived or
shared online for easy access by other impressionable consumers”(Blackshaw, 2006). Simply, they can be
defined as “sites based on user contributions”(Agichteinet al., 2008). Social media can be classified into
three categories according to Grewal and Levy (2013): social network sites (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn),
media-sharing sites (e.g. YouTube, Flickr), and thought-sharing sites (e.g. Blogs).
Social Media Marketing may be defined as ‘a secured generation of web development and design, that
aims to facilitate communication, sources information sharing, interoperability and collaboration on the
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World Wide Web’ (Paris, Lee, & Seery, 2010; p.531; Elbanna, Bunker, Levine, & Sleigh, 2019). On
average, consumers are used to have spent more than 330 min/day with participation in social media
platform. These platforms have already become easy instruments for the creation of online
communication between the consumers and enterprises, or between consumer and consumer around the
World at any moment, especially for Indian SMEs. This is because of their limited resources (fund,
technical know-how and so on) (Harris, Rae, & Grewal, 2008; Rana, Barnard, Baabdullah, Rees, &
Roderick, 2019).
Through social media, an enterprise may build its brand easily for improvement of its business activities
(Walsh & Lipinski, 2009). It will help to improve the business activities of SMEs (Harris et al., 2008).
Thus, SMM helps the SMEs in India to induce them to invest more in digital marketing.
Social Media is the umbrella term for web-based software and services that allow users to come together
online and exchange, discuss, communicate and participate in any form of social interaction. That
interaction can encompass text, audio, images, video and other media, individually or in any combination.
It can involve the generation of new content: the recommendation of and sharing of existing content;
which in most cases promotes the 4p which are the general principles of marketing.
Social Media marketing, as the name suggest is main stream form of marketing communication
which is used to connect to larger audience as compare to traditional forms of marketing.
(Chaffey, 2019) states that digital marketing is generally regarded as an approach in which
different platforms and channels are used to promote offering of a company in ways that it is
able to reach large number of consumers in the market. Looking at the significance, this form of
marketing can be accessed 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year, as compared to other forms of
marketing which can be accessed in a specific time only. Digital marketing is performed through
a variety of ways such as email marketing, content marketing and social media marketing.
Figure 2: Elements of digital media
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Text: original writing of words either printed or written in opposition to condensed, revision and
translation. It is vital as it aids browsers navigation and location of web pages.
Graphics: information presented in visual mode. It acts as the attractive part of a webpage as they help
consumers in remembering. It is key to communicating to the audience.
Audio: acoustic range sound that can be tapped by human audible sensory. It creates a deeper mode of
communication between clients and consumers it can be used to get intimate and person with consumers
Video: a structured system where moving visual images are recorded, reproduced and broadcasted. It is
the most effective way to be used by marketers nowadays to sell products.
However, its full potential has not yet been identified.
Animation: a simulation of motion pictures that depict drawn objects movement. It simplifies
communication by communicating ideas in a more simplified way making it easy to perceive for both
kids and adults.
Social media are Internet-based communication and collaboration channels that have been used widely
since about 2005 (Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Parameswaran and Whinston, 2007; Kaplan and Haenlein,
2010). From an information systems (IS) perspective, social media tools and their surrounding
organisational and managerial structures constitute ‘social information systems’ (Germonprez et al., 2011;
Schlagwein et al., 2011) or ‘enterprise social systems’ (if used in an enterprise; as defined in the call for
papers for this special issue). Although social media were initially used only for leisure activities, they
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have been increasingly embraced for organisational purposes (Andriole, 2010; Kaplan and Haenlein,
2010; Leonardi et al., 2013).
Social media channels such as Instagram now play a dominant role not only as entertainment and
interaction tools but also in business (Wally and Koshy 2014). According to AlGhamdi and Reilly, 83 %
of marketers place a high value on social applications because of their important role in reaching and
retaining customers, and most importantly in creating new business opportunities. Instagram is one of the
social media platforms that female entrepreneurs exploit to start up small companies in the emerging
economy of Saudi Arabia. It is ranked the fourth most popular social network application in the country,
with 15 % of the Saudi population considered active users. For instance, with the popularity of Instagram,
Saudi women have started using their accounts to create online stores, mainly to sell their own products,
often handmade. Such online stores provide many advantages for these women, especially given the
restrictions to Saudi women entering the labor market, due to the cultural characteristics of Saudi society
(AlGhamdi and Reilly, 2013). The use of an Instagram account as the only presence for a small business
allows the owner to remain physically close to her family so as to maintain the integrity of the household.
Another benefit for these women is the low or negligible cost of starting a business in this way, as
creating and maintaining an Instagram-based small business is less expensive than running a professional
website. Among the different social media platforms, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Instagram
was found to be the most effective tool for reaching customers and marketing a business (Miles, 2013).
(Kannan, 2017) explains that social media is regarded as a platform which enable the different
users throughout the globe to create and share variety of the content and also participate in
variety of social networking. Social media is also been regarded as a communication which help
the user in connecting with more than one user at the time. There are good number of social
media platform which is used by organization on the basis of their requirement. Facebook is one
of them, this platform has largest number of the user and this platform provide easy and largest
social networking platform. Twitter is another social media platform which generally help the
company in promoting different blogs over the platform. This platform assists in fixing up a
good sort of communication with consumer in market. There are many other social media
platform as well such as Instagram and whatsapp. This is the most common feature which has
diverted the interest level of different organization toward using the social media as a form to
market product or service of company in market. As social media platform only does not help the
company in reaching the larger number of the consumer it also help the company in saving the
cost of promoting the variety of product in the market, as this form of marketing used to ask less
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amount of cost to be invested by the company to attract the eye of customer. This type of the
marketing is generally performed by using different type of social media platform. Two most
trendy and preferred social media platform are Facebook and Instagram. (Chaffey and Smith,
2017) highlights that Facebook is the platform which is having better number of user as compare
to Instagram in the current scenario. Instagram generally used to provide more attractive way to
present the product of the company in the market as compare to the Facebook. On the same note
Facebook do not restrict the business in context of size of the content as compare to Instagram
who do not allow the user to post the video of one limit.
How does Social media marketing works?
This is one of the most important questions which arises. In order to understand the concept of
digital marketing (Kingsnorth, 2019) highlights that, all the business in the current scenario used
to create the page in the name of the company at different social media platform. All the user and
consumer are generally invited to follow the page or the account of the company in the market.
After that different business used to post the different feed on the social media platform and the
entire consumer used to get the idea of the new content at a click on the social media platform.
(Hanlon, 2019) explain that all the business used to ask the different user in the nation to
communicate with them with the help of the social media platform as all the social media
platform generally provides the feature to the consumer in the market to communicate or touch
with different companies way easily in the market. Company in the market used to ask the
individual to also provide us with the valuable feedback so that the company in the market can
improve their level of offering in the market in a better way. (Hanlon, 2019) another way through
which digital marketing is performed in the organization with the help of social platform is by
organizing the variety of the different type of the contest in the organization and asking the
different individual to take participate in that contest. Organizing these sort of concert in the
market used to help the company in touching more number of the consumer at the same time it
also help in presenting the image of the company in more presentable and attractive way. So
these are two common way through which the organization used to market the product of the
company in the market with the help of different social media platform in general.
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The Power of Instagram to sell products
Among the different social media platforms, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Instagram was found
to be the most effective tool for reaching customers and marketing a business (Miles, 2013). Instagram
was basically designed for mobile phones, and since smartphones help to connect people to social media
on the move, it makes it easier for a business to reach its customers wherever they are, which explains
why more than 50 % of businesses use Instagram to market their products and services (Miles, 2013).
Wally and Koshy studied the use of Instagram as a marketing tool by Emirati business women in 2014.
They found seven main factors making Instagram a powerful marketing tool. The two main reasons for
women entrepreneurs to use Instagram are that it is a user-friendly application and that it allows them to
reach more people. Other reasons given are that Instagram is free to use, that its use in not restricted by
regulations, that users are engaged through comments and likes, and finally, that the process of sharing
pictures makes an Instagram account into an interesting type of online catalog. Another recent study,
found that women and especially Saudi entrepreneurs used Instagram to sell their products because it can
provide them access to the market while helping to maintain their privacy, confidentiality, and safety.
There is no issue of start-up costs, as the application is free of charge (AlGhamdi and Reilly, 2013).
How Social media marketing works
This is one of the most important questions which always come up while talking about social media
marketing. In order to understand this digital marketing concept, we look at (Kingsnorth, 2019)
publishing that highlights all businesses in the current scenario used to create a page in the name of a
company in different social media platform. All users and consumers are invited to follow the page or the
account of the company in the market. After that different businesses post different feeds on social media
platform and consumer get an idea of new content through notifications on social media platforms.
(Hanlon, 2019) explain that businesses ask their social media followers in various nations to communicate
with them through these social media platforms as these social media platforms generally provide features
to consumers in the market to communicate or be in touch with a company’s way easily. Company are
able to ask individuals to provide them with valuable feedback so that the company can improve its level
of service in the market. (Hanlon, 2019) Another way through which digital marketing is performed in the
organization with the help of social platform is by organizing variety of different types of contest in
organization and asking individuals to participate in it. Organizing these sorts of concert in the market
help the company in getting in touch with more numbers of consumers at a time. It also presents the
image of the company in a more presentable and attractive manner. These are two common ways through
26

which an organization use to market its products to the market with the help of different social media
platforms in general.
Out of all the ways mention social media marketing is one of the most preferred by the current generation
of people as life has been shifted online. This means a lot of activities happen in the online world and
getting people in large numbers is way easier social media digital platforms like twitter, facebook,
Instagram etc. Organizations use a variety of different digital marketing tools used to contact customers in
different ways. As Chaffey, (2019) highlights, Email marketing is a form of marketing communication in
where different messages are sent to the user with the help of the email. Reasons for choosing this sort of
marketing tool include helping promote professional image of a company to the user. The author
presented a clear understanding of the product or service to the consumer in the market. Organizations use
content marketing as part of the marketing communications mix. It is where different contents are created
and shared through different platform. Content is created in form of videos and blogs. This sort of
marketing is very much a trend for new start-ups in the market (Chaffey, 2019).
Social Media marketing brings out a variety of significance for the organization but at the same time it
also comes with limitations for the business as well. (Rizomyliotis, Konstantoulaki and Kostopoulos,
2017) explain that digital marketing helps a company touch large number of consumers at low cost in the
market. According to Casagrande (2018), revenues used by the company in marketing have highly been
reduced in the long run due to social media aids in marketing.
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2.2 Advantages of Social Media on Small Business
According to research from Technorati Media, Facebook and blogs are most likely to influence a
consumer's purchase, with retail (shopping) sites and brand sites considered to be the most influential. 1
Consumers consider blogs, which are also part of the social networking landscape, to be among the top
five most influential and trustworthy of all online resources (Belew, S. 2014). From the sheer number of
active users to wielding influence over buyers, there are lots of reasons that make Facebook, blogs, and
other online communities beneficial to your social selling strategy.
To understand how to operate a business in this social media-influenced environment is to recognize and
appropriately respond to social media’s humanizing qualities. It is a fact that it is arguably more important
to understand the influences of social media than to necessarily be using it (Korhan, J. 2013).
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Significance of Social media marketing
Social Media marketing used to bring the variety of significance for the organization but
at the same time it also used to bring the variety of the limitation for the business as well
(Rizomyliotis, Konstantoulaki and Kostopoulos, 2017) explain that digital marketing generally
helps the company in touching the large number of consumers at very low cost in the market but
at the same time digital marketing in the organization creates issues for the organization in
regards of targeting the specific customer base of the company in the market. As it has been
highlighted different marketing which is performed by the organization in the market is generally
used to target the whole customer group of the company it does not used to help the company in
targeting the specific targeted group of the company in the market. On the same note Casagrande
(2018) highlights that digital marketing help the company in investing the less amount of
resources in the marketing activity of the company in the long run. At the same time it has been
also highlighted by the author that using digital marketing in the organization used to create the
29

issue of understanding the customer in better way, as it is not possible that all the customer to
post the review upon the social media site these eventually used to create the issue for the
organization in understanding the customer need in the better way in the organization. Author
also concludes that digital marketing is never depended upon any of the marketing activity of the
company but at the same time other form of marketing activity in the organization is somehow
depended upon the outcome of digital marketing to perform variety of different activity in the
field.
Usage or Need of Social Media marketing
Looking at the digital marketing usage it has been seen that all the organization in the
current scenario uses the same to build good image of product and service. In the article
published by Giovannoni (2020) explain that generally the organization who are into the
manufacturing business uses the digital marketing more as compare to the service providing
organization. Reason may be because it always get very difficult for the manufacturer
organization to save good amount of the resources and invest same toward the marketing of the
product. As a result they are more attracted toward Digital media or rather can be said social
media marketing. For example, for the company producing the product has to invest into the cost
and after that also investing toward different marketing function used to increase the price of the
company product in the market. So it get difficult for them to perform that sort of marketing
activity to be competitive for the same reason organization are more attracted toward social
media platform in general. Kingsnorth (2019) elaborates that using digital marketing in the also
used to bring good sort of the benefit to the Small business in the long. As it has been identified
that it used to help the company in building good brand awareness of the company in the market.
As it really get difficult for SMEs to create that sort of brand awareness that customer generally
find it easy to reach them in the market.
2.3 Small Businesses / Organisation
Social media use by organisations:
Using a concept-centred approach (Webster and Watson, 2002), we reviewed the literature on
organisational social media. Specifically, we analysed the current literature on social media use by
organisations with a specific focus on identifying organisational impacts resulting from social media use.
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The use of social media by organisations is a global phenomenon, with more than two-thirds of the
Fortune Global 500 organisations having embraced the systematic use of social media within a five-year
period (Barnes et al., 2012; Schlagwein and Prasarnphanich, 2014). Why do so many organisations use
social media? How does the use of social media impact on organisational performance? Scholarly
knowledge regarding such questions is rather fragmented. In fact, we are not aware of any academic
paper that would propose an answer to such difficult but relevant questions about the overall impact of
social media use on organisations. The total effect of social media use on organisations may be difficult to
study for several reasons. Firstly, social media are certainly what could be considered ‘ontologically
unstable’ (Kallinikos et al., 2013). That is, social media undergo permanent mutations, are in ‘perpetual
beta’ and are ‘continuously deployed’. Secondly, social media encompass a wide range of different tools
and content. These tools differ in dimensions such as external vs internal location (e.g., LinkedIn vs
Confluence) (Leonardi et al., 2013) or textual vs immersive content (e.g., Twitter vs Second Life)
(Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Thirdly, social media are very versatile in their use (Schlagwein et al.,
2011). That is, even the same social media at the same time can be used for very different organisational
purposes. Such difficulties (among others) may explain why the totality of social media uses by
organisations has not been linked to organisation-level theories of performance and competitive
advantage.
At the same time, the wide adoption of social media by organisations across countries and industries
suggests that there are substantial advantages for organisations through using social media.
Organisational uses of social media:
Various different types of social media are used by organisations. For example, organisations use internal
social media (i.e., social media hosted by, and accessible only to members of, an organisation) for
communicating and managing knowledge (Paroutis and Al Saleh, 2009; Gray et al., 2011). In fact, social
media have their conceptual roots in knowledge management and share core abilities (such as storing and
retrieving information) with knowledge management tools (Levy, 2009; Mueller et al., 2011). A typical
case of the use of internal social media is that of using an Intranet wiki for knowledge management
(Wagner, 2004; Arazy and Gellatly, 2012). However, there are many other uses of internal social media
(Leonardi et al., 2013).
Organisations also use external social media (i.e., social media hosted outside, and used by non-members,
of the organisation) to gauge marketplace reactions (Jansen et al., 2009), to engage their user
communities (Lipsman et al., 2012) or to effectively manage customer relationships (Michaelidou et al.,
2011). External social media are also used for marketing new products or services (Trusov et al., 2009;
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Rui et al., 2010; Li and Du, 2011) or for selling products and services via social commerce (Stephen and
Toubia, 2010). In suitable projects and processes, external social media also provide a way to collaborate
and co-create with customers and consumers (Wagner and Majchrzak, 2007; Haefliger et al., 2011). A
typical example of the use of external social media is that of using Facebook for viral marketing (Schulze
et al., 2014).
Impact of Social Media marketing on Small Scale organizations
Marketing is one of the primary activities which need to be performed by all the
organization. Especially all the small scale enterprises generally used to invest good sort of
resources to promote their product in the market in a way that it used to help the company in
getting good brand awareness in the market. Islami, Wahyuni, and Tiara, (2020) explain that all
the small scale business in the current scenario takes help of variety different platform in the
digital market circuit to promote the product of the company. Author also highlights in the article
that Social media marketing is one of the most preferred type of digital marketing which is used
by all the SME in the current scenario as a role of digital marketing function of the company.
There are variety of different social media platforms used by different individuals to promote the
product of the company to the market. Such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. Out of
all social media platform Facebook and Instagram are two most commonly used platform in
Social media marketing. Reason behind these two platform seeing that sort preference is that
Facebook and Instagram are two of the most easiest and largest social networking platform
which help the organizations in reaching better number of the consumer in the market. This
platform also help the company in fixing good sort of communication with the consumer in the
market as well. As with the help of this platform organization is able to understand the
characteristic of different user and on the basis of same they can target them with the help of
different message of the company these will help the company in fixing up good sort of
communication with consumer. As one of the main reason behind selecting the social media
platform in the market is to improve the marketing communication in the market.
Marketing communication with the help of social media marketing
By using social media marketing all the organization generally promotes the interactive
model of the communication in the organization. As using social media platform help company
in fixing up the marketing communication in both the way as. As company used to pass on their
message by the way of different content which is posted by the medium of the platform and on
the basis of same consumer used to pass on their feedback with the help of the same medium or
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channel. As sender, receiver and medium are three element of communication. Social media
marketing help the company in fixing the marketing communication with consumer in market.
Positive impact of using social media marketing in SMEs
 There is variety of different type of impact which is seen by all the SMEs in the current
scenario due to usage of social media platform to promote the product of the company in
the market. Impact can be in the negative as well in positive manner as well Starting from
the positive impact, Omondi (2017) Explain that social media platform help small
organization in maintaining competition in the market in an efficient way, as it has been
identified that all the SMES who used to enter into the market has to face good amount of
the competition in regards to the variety of the competitive forces which is offered by
already establish company.
 For the same reason social media marketing used to give the market for the new firm to
select the target base which they can serve successfully and on the basis of same try to
serve the same product to the target customer base of the company in the market. These
will eventually help the company in making a name of the company at the lower cost as
compare to the firm who are already establish there in the market. For example, a
company like Tesco has to pay expenses of stores, wages of marketing individual to
promote the product of the company in the market.
 At the same time any small scale organization who is looking to enter into the market
has a good sort of opportunity to use the variety of the benefit which will be offered by
the social media to promote and sell the product of the company in the market, as they
have to not pay any of store expenses or good sort of employee wages expenses in the
market, these eventually used to help the company in getting good sort of benefit in
context of the competition and organization can easily defend the company in regards of
competitive force which is offered by different organization in the market. As Small
enterprise can attract the eye of the customer in the market on the basis of price of the
product on which price of the product is being offered to the individual in the market.
 Another positive impact which is passed on by Onyango, (2016) in the market is that it
helps the small enterprise in deciding the target market area of the company before
physically entering into the market. As author explain that 98.2% of the start-up generally
used to shut down in the first year of incorporation only and one of the reason behind the
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same is that it used to get really tough for the organization to select the target customer
base of the company in the market and offer the product to same but Social media
marketing generally help the individual or SMEs in getting idea about the same very
easily.
 As Social media platform generally help the company in understanding the need and
preference of company as social media platform used to help the company in organizing
variety of different type of the survey in the market which eventually assist the company
in finding out the market information and on the basis of same it help Small scale
organization in planning the variety of different sort of the function of the company in the
better way. So it can be said that Social media marketing in the organization used to play the role of
planner as well as organizer in the organization in context of organizing the interest of the
individual in the market and also planning the different alternative on the same course so
that different need of the individual can be maximised in the organization in long run.
 This is all very general. How about a model or a figure and then you can apply your
series to it talking about the basic principles of communication
 At the same time Banerji, (2018) explain that social media marketing only not help the
company in improving the performance of the company in the market, it also used to help
the company in improving the working environment of the company as well.
 As author highlights that using social media marketing in the market used to assist the
company in coordinating variety of different sort of the activity of the organization in the
long run. As identified that using social media marketing of the company used to bring
good sort of the clarity in the organization also it used to reduce the amount of
information amalgamation in the organization.
 For example using other form of marketing in the organization used to depend upon the
operation of the human being in the organization. For example employee in the
organization used to collect the survey from the customer, these sometime may create the
situation in which employee used to change the information as per their need in the
market, these eventually may create the situation in which organization find it hard to get
the proper outcome which is generally expected by the individual in the market.
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 At the same time Digital marketing in the organization used to create the situation in the
organization in which all the information which is gather from the market is directly
received by the organization. This eventually used to fix good sort of coordination in the
organization which help the company in maintaining a good sort of working environment
in the organization, these eventually means that using digital marketing in the
organization will help the company in managing good working environment in the
market.
 Molchanov (2019) there are varieties of different type positive impact which also may be
seen by SMEs in the market. Author highlights that it used to help the company in
understanding the customer need in the market in a better way which eventually may help
the company in building the variety of different type of product or the offering of the
company in the market in a way that it used to help the different consumer in the market
to overcome the variety of different type of the issue in the organization.
 As Social media platform used to allow all the individual in sending their
recommendation or suggestion to the individual directly with the help of comment
section, also social media platform used to allow the individual to communicate with the
individual directly these eventually used to create the situation in the market where
organization generally find it very easy to understand the need of the customer in the
market, so that on the basis of same different product of the company can be made in a
way that it used to help the company in attracting the individual in better way in the
organization.
 Another positive impact which is seen by Digital marketing is that it used to help the
company in understanding the future situation which can be faced by the organization in
the coming scenario and on the basis of the same organization can understand the activity
which will be helping the organization in the coming future. As Digital marketing
generally help in forecasting variety of future activity very easily in the market.
Negative impact of using social media platform in SMEs
 There are variety of different type of negative impact which also be seen by the
organization in the future if organization is over depended on the performance of
Social media marketing as there are variety of different benefit of field marketing
as compare to using social media marketing. As per Fjellström and Osarenkhoe
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(2019) biggest negative impact of digital marketing which can be seen by all the
small sector organization is that it used to get very difficult for the organization to
trust on the Digital marketing alone, it may eventually sometime drive the
organization to use any other marketing platform as well in the organization.
 This eventually used to increase the cost of the company in the long run. As
identified by the author is that digital marketing eventually get difficult for the
company in targeting the customer base directly in the market and it used to get
very difficult for the company to memorize or recognize digital marketing as a
specific form of marketing which can be used by the company, hence they look
for variety of different alternative which generally used to increase the cost of the
company in long run.
 For example, Social media platform used to target all the individual by digital
form as an advertisement or the blog this eventually used to create the situation in
which organization is not able to target the interested customer base of the
company in more proficient way as compare to reality. This eventually used to
drive the company to look at some of the alternative in the form of the personal
selling or door to door selling.
 This eventually used to help the company in making the personal relationship
with the consumer. Using this both type of marketing tool in the organization
eventually used to increase the cost of the company in the long run.
 Marketing is generally over depended upon the variety of the information which
has been derived from variety of different type of marketing platform, as
identified above as well marketing information used to assist the company in
making the variety of different type of decision in the organization.
 Sinha and et.al., (2017) Authors explain that variety of the information which is
generally presented by digital marketing platform in the market is not that trust
worthy as compared to the other marketing platforms which are available in the
market.
 It has been identified that there are variety of different type of competitor who
also operate in the digital marketing platform in general, which sometimes results
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in the competitor using the wrong tactic in the market to promote the wrong
information, this impacts the organization in the negative way.
 These are the issues which may have to be faced by the company in the market.
there are variety of different type of negative impact which have to be faced the
working environment of the organization as well.
 Dash and Sharma (2019) highlight that some time, give a specific example social
media marketing used to create good sort of uncertainty in the mind of the
employee in the organization, this eventually used to create the situation in the
organization in which there is good sort of conflict in-between the different
employee in the organization, as identified by the organization that digital
marketing in the organization opened up the free communication in the market,
these eventually created the situation where different consumer passed on the
different point of view, as result some of the employee in the marketing
department are with the other point of view and another are with the other point of
view in the organization, these eventually used to create the situation in the
market in which there are variety of different type of conflict used to take place in
the organization, eventually it used to get very tougher for the organization to
manage the working environment of marketing department.
 For example, A survey was conducted in the company to find out the feedback of
consumer, out of 50 respondent 27 said Quality was not up to the mark, 23 said
customer service was not up to the mark, these eventually has created good sort of
uncertainty in the mind of the employee and these has eventually resulted in
dispute in marketing team as some are in favour of Quality and some are toward
the customer service.
Conceptualisations and categorisations of social media
How can ‘social media use’ be conceptualised and categorised? Most scholars would agree that
conceptualising social media as a single technology or measuring its use as single construct (i.e., ‘system
use’) is over-simplifying the issue inappropriate for an understanding of social media (see also Burton-
Jones and Straub, 2006). The reason is that social media are a broad, dynamic and versatile and class of
social platforms, services and technologies. As such, social media support quite different organisational
(and individual) uses and purposes. Some scholars have suggested categorising social media based on
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‘technological features’. One such classification (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010) considers the ‘richness’
(Daft and Lengel, 1986) of social media content. This is a possible option for classification. However,
technologically different social media tools might achieve the same organisational purpose, or
technologically similar social media tools might achieve very different organisational purposes (McAfee,
2009). For example, the purpose of using social media for marketing the organisation might be the ability
to support viral recommendations for new products. Whether such viral marketing is based on Twitter ‘re-
tweets’ (low media richness), Facebook ‘likes’ (medium media richness) or Second Life interactions
(high media richness) is rather irrelevant in regard to the use of viral marketing for the organisation. This
is why categorisations of social media based on technological features considered as being of limited
value for the purpose of existing paper.
Social Media from the Organizations’ Perspective
Looking at digital marketing usage, it has been noticed that all the organization use the platform to build
good image of product and service. In an article published by Giovannoni (2020) organizations that are
into manufacturing business use digital marketing more as compared service providing organizations.
Reasons may be attributed to the difficulty involved in making good profits for service industry compared
to their manufacturer’s counterparts. Manufacturers are also able to cover for the cost of marketing by
increasing production which is not the case for service providers. As a result, manufacturers tend to be
more attracted towards Digital media or rather can be said social media marketing. A sample example
includes a company producing products has to invest into cost and thereafter invest in different marketing
function by in turn increasing the price of the company product in the market. Since manufacturing
organisations have these two advantages compared to the service industry, they have no trouble adapting
to the online platform as their planning require little effort. Kingsnorth (2019) elaborates that using digital
marketing also has a lot of benefits to small growing and upcoming businesses since as branding or
building the name of a brand is way easier using these digital media platforms as creating awareness is as
easy as a single entity using his/her friends to markets the brand and therefore sensitize his or her
products. In as much as sometimes it might be difficult for SME’s to create brand awareness; it is the
easiest way to get in roads into the market. Omondi (2017) explains that social media platform help the
small organization in maintaining competition in the market in an efficient way, as it has been identified
that all the SMEs who used to enter into the market has to face a good amount of the competition in
regards to the variety of the competitive forces which is offered by an already established company.
In the light of their prevalence and leverages, most organisations worldwide have started thinking
strategically how they can benefit from social media to make sure they reach their customers as well as
contributing to their customers’ experience (Leeflang et al., 2014, Leung et al., 2015, Tuten and Solomon,
38

2015). In fact, in comparison with traditional communication platforms (i.e. TV, radio, newspaper), social
media represents a more innovative and cost-effective communication channel providing customers with
high interactivity and individualisation as mentioned before (Leeflang et al., 2014).
Companies, especially small businesses, must pay close attention to how they offer their products/services
so they are competitive and/or unique, easily obtainable, and able to meet the demands of society,
technology, and day-to-day operations. With rising costs of advertising, social media has become the
number one channel for small businesses to reach clients and consumers. Social media provides a more
cost effective way for small businesses to keep an active presence and build brand awareness (Benwell,
2014). Bendror (2014) provided a list of benefits of social media:
• Increased exposure
• Increased traffic
• Developed loyal fans
• Generated leads
Activities of Small Businesses: Marketing is one of the primary activities which need to be performed
by all the organization. Especially all the small-scale enterprises generally used to invest good sort of
resources to promote their product in the market in a way that is used to help the company in getting good
brand awareness. Islami, Wahyuni, and Tiara, (2020) explain that all the small-scale business in the
current scenario takes the help of different platform in the digital market circuit to promote the product of
the company. The author also highlights in the article that Social media marketing is one of the most
preferred types of digital marketing, which is used by all the SME in the current scenario as a role of the
digital marketing function of the company. There are a variety of different social media platforms used by
different individuals to promote the product such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. Out of all
social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram are the two most commonly used platform in Social
media marketing.
The small-firm sector plays a significant role in the world economy. There were 5.9 million private
businesses in the UK at the start of 2019 – more than 99% of which are small or medium-sized businesses
(SMEs) according to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (Savvy,M. 2020).
SMEs, which are defined as businesses fewer than 250 employees, accounted for 60% of all private sector
jobs in the UK, a total of 16.6 million. Make no mistake about it, SMEs are crucial to the UK’s economy
and their contribution is increasing every year (Savvy,M. 2020)..
With over 5.85 million private enterprises employing fewer than 250 people, 99.9% of all private sector
businesses in the UK are SMEs. Which means only 0.1% of the country’s entire business population
employs more than 250 people and, within the SME bracket, the vast majorities are small businesses, too.
39

Government data shows there were more than 35,600 medium-sized businesses in the UK at the start of
2019 (0.6%) and a further 7,700 large businesses (0.1%). At the same time, there were 5.82 million small
businesses, making up 99.3% of the total business population.
Delving further into that small business niche, we can also see that more than 76% are single-person
enterprises with no employees (4.458 million). Add this to the 1.155 million micro-business (1-9
employees) and it turns out more than 95% of businesses in the UK employ fewer than 10 people.
That’s quite a lot of statistics we’ve just thrown at you so let’s just have a quick recap of the key figures:
 99.9% of all UK businesses are classed as SMEs (0-249 employees)
 0.6% are medium-sized businesses (50-259 employees)
 Less than 4% are small businesses (10-49 employees)
 More than 95% are micro-businesses (0-9 employees)
The chart below shows the change in company numbers by business size since 2000. As you would
expect there are many more non-employers given it is much easier to start as a freelancer or contractor.
However, what is interesting is the growth in the number of medium sized businesses (50-249 employees)
has exceed the growth in small (10-40 employees) and micro (1-9 employees) companies. Let’s see if that
orange line in the chart above can stay above the green and red in 2020 .
https://www.merchantsavvy.co.uk/uk-sme-data-stats-charts/
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Key Management Factors
Several factors, which change in importance as the business grows and develops, are prominent in
determining ultimate success or failure.
Eight factors identified in previous study, of which four relate to the enterprise and four to the owner.
The four factors that relate to the company are as follows:
1. Financial resources, including cash and borrowing power.
2. Personnel resources, relating to numbers, depth, and quality of people, particularly at the management
and staff levels.
3. Systems resources, in terms of the degree of sophistication of both information and planning and
control systems.
4. Business resources, including customer relations, market share, supplier relations, manufacturing and
distribution processes, technology and reputation, all of which give the company a position in its industry
and market.
The four factors that relate to the owner are as follows:
1. Owner’s goals for himself or herself and for the business.
2. Owner’s operational abilities in doing important jobs such as marketing, inventing, producing, and
managing distribution.
3. Owner’s managerial ability and willingness to delegate responsibility and to manage the activities of
others.
4. Owner’s strategic abilities for looking beyond the present and matching the strengths and weaknesses
of the company with his or her goals.
Articles of internet
Characteristics of small businesses
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Before attempting to characterize KM in SMEs, it is appropriate at this point to first understand their
inherent characteristics. Essentially, a proper understanding of a small business will lead to a better
comprehension of its KM issues. Ghobadian and Gallear (1997) listed some major features of SMEs with
regard to aspects such as structure, behavior, processes and procedures. Adopting their work together with
those of Yusof and Aspinwall (2000), Spence (1999), Haksever (1996), and d’Amboise and Muldowney
(1988) enabled the authors to compile a list of characteristics for SMEs in areas which can have a direct
bearing on the design and implementation of Knowledge Management. As can be seen in Table I, these
have been categorized as ownership and management, structure, culture and behavior, systems, processes
and procedures, human resources, and customers and market (Yew Wong and Aspinwall, 2004).
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Measurement Economy Downturn
Casagrande (2018) explain that economy slowdown used to create the situation in the market
where organization used to not has that sort of money in their bank to carry out the different day
to day operation of the business that smoothly in the market. As a result all the organization
always looks for cutting the different cost of the company and supporting activity are the one
who has to face a heat of the same in the market. Marketing is one of such activity which is
always considered.
An economic downturn is a general slowdown in economic activity over a sustained period of time. It can
happen in a specific region (e.g. the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s) or on a global scale (e.g. the
global financial crisis in the late 2000s). The main features of an economic downturn include rising
unemployment, falling share and house prices, low consumer confidence and declining investment.
Although you may not be able to completely protect your business from an economic downturn,
understanding how it could affect you will help you develop a plan to minimise its impact. (Queensland,
B. 2020) https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/protecting-business/risk-management/
surviving-downturn
Hanlon, (2019) highlights economic slowing down the value of assets owned by a company in the market.
This in turn results to slow market share growth of company shares in the market. Digital marketing also
boosts the efficiency of a company in terms of opportunity growth in the market. Digital marketing will
boost companies marketing on top of getting feedback from its customers on ways to improve a product.
Marketing strategies include digital media that are used by the company in making decisions thus
ensuring a variety of products to satisfy the needs of a customer.
Impact on Social Media at the time of Recession
What does Recession means?
A Recession is generally regarded as a point in the market in which there is generally
decline in the economic activity. (Yagan, 2019). This generally occurs in the market when there
is fall in the amount of the spending throughout the economic. Giovannoni (2020) explains that a
recession is a situation in the market which forces all the business in the current scenario to look
at the different alternative to adopt a variety of different cost saving activities in the market or
adopt the attitude of optimum utilization of resources which is being used by the organization.
This is the time Social Media plays the role of stalwarts for organizations in a recession.
Positive aspect of using Social media marketing at the time of recession
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Kingsnorth (2019) explained that in the current scenario a company has to go through
variety of different situations. First situation is reducing in the sales of the company in the long
run. As it has been identified that consumer in the market are less interested toward investing the
good amount of the money in the market these eventually force the company in reducing or
minimizing the amount of the production as sales of the company used to reduce in the market.
For the same reason digital marketing in the organization used to help the company in touching
the larger number of the consumer in the market as compare to the other form of marketing. This
may help the company in increasing the sales of the company in the effective way. This will
eventually help the company in getting the competitive advantage in the long run of the business.
Main reason behind the recession may be economic slowdown in the nation, Hanlon
(2019) highlights that result economic slowdown used to create the issue of lower down the
value of assets price of the company in the market. As it has been identified that stock of the
market and price value of different value of the company used to see a down fall. This eventually
used to lower down the growth prospect of the company in the market. At the same time digital
marketing used to help the company in improving the efficiency of the work which are carried in
regards of growth opportunity in the market. As digital marketing used to help the company in
communicating with the individual very easily and also used to help the company in getting the
variety of the feedback in regards of the product of the company very easily. These eventually
used as a basis of the company in the market and on the basis of same different decision are
being taken in the organization. In regards of different offering which has to be offered to the
consumer in the market so that they are happy with the offering of the company.
Casagrande (2018) explain that economy slowdown also used to create the situation in
the market where organization used to not has that sort of money in their bank to carry out the
different day to day operation of the business that smoothly in the market. As a result all the
organization always looks for cutting the different cost of the company and supporting activity
are the one who has to face a heat of the same in the market. Marketing is one of such activity
which is always considered. For the same reason adopting the digital marketing in the market
used to help the company in reducing the amount of the cost incurred in different marketing
activity of the company in the market. As digital marketing generally demands the less amount
of the money to be invested as compare to another form of marketing.
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As explained economic slowdown used to bring the variety of the impact on the
organization these eventually used to create the situation where there is no that amount of money
left with the government in the market. These eventually used to create the burden on the
company to provide some sort of help to the government as well. As a result digital marketing
generally help the company in forecasting variety of future activity and on the basis of same
organization can plan the future activity as well this help the company in getting ready with
variety of the issue related to recession which eventually used to assist the company in
managing the economic slowdown in the market.
Negative aspect of using Social media marketing at the time of recession
 There are variety of the different type of negative impact which is also seen by the
organization by using the Social media in the organization Giovannoni (2020) highlights
that it get very difficult for the company in attracting the consumer toward the product of
the company by social media marketing in economic slowdown.
 As all the consumer generally used to hesitate to invest or make any purchase decision at
that time. As a result it is very difficult to assume that the entire consumer will able to
understand the need of the product by just an advertisement on the social media. It is the
situation in the market in which all the organization looks at personal marketing is a
better option as it is very much important for the business to educate the different
consumer in the better way so that they can make the variety of the decision more easily.
So using digital marketing will create the issue in regards of building the brand value of
the company in the market.
 Rizomyliotis, Konstantoulaki and Kostopoulos (2017) in the published paper explain that
Social media marketing generally some time also create the negative goodwill of the
company in the market.
 As there are variety of the competitor or individual who can post the negative feedback
on different social media platform of the company, these may impact the reputation of the
company in the market and will eventually reduce the name of the company in the
market. As at the time of economic slowdown it is very important for the business to
maintain a good sort of the reputation in the market, as consumer generally prefer to use
the services of reputed firm only in the market.
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 So using social media marketing in economic slowdown may create the situation in the
market in which it eventually used to get tougher for the company in maintaining
customer base of the company in the market.
 Chaffey and Smith (2017) economic slowdown in the organization used to increase the
inequality in the market and also forces the company in looking for the different
employee in the market who are well known for multitasking function in the
organization. So it is very important for the business to invest good sort of the resources
toward the recruitment function of the organization as compare to the digital marketing
function of the company in the marketing. As a result it can be said that digital marketing
in the organization can create the issue of not having the better resources invested toward
the marketing of the company in the market.
 Giovannoni (2020) at the same time used to create the situation in the organization where
organization do not has that sort of the business to be performed and there is good sort of
poverty in the market. In that time all the organization used to take the help of different
social media platform to promote the product of the company. All the individual
generally used to get confuse about the offering of the company, as a result there are
many individual who still does not believe on variety of online advertisement, as a result
investing that high on to the digital marketing platform is not that good idea in economic
slowdown period.
Methods of measurements:
During recession social media can be considered as the best tool and the marketing
strategy for dealing up with the situation. It is the part of the strategy in which the social media
can be utilized. There is much more than just posting up the ads to the target market segment. It
is the one of the platforms which will help in finding the way to the heart of the millions of users
anywhere which can be Facebook, twitter, snapchat and so forth which has become an important
part of the modern communication and interaction. As defined by Sareen, Kidney and Cooney
(2020),people now a days uses these platforms in order to engage with the one another which
results into more sharing of the content, views and the emergence of new ideas and the user’s
needs and wants. Through this, companies get an idea about the consumer’s perception during
46

recession so they can provide them with that product or service in which they are in need at the
price that the consumers are willing to spend at the tough time. There is various tool available
which are especially crated for the businesses for measuring the performance of their social
media content like how many like and dislikes to a product or service, comments of the users,
sharing so that initiative can be taken in that areas which the consumers are liking the most.
Even companies can start creating their pages on the social media sites so that the uses
can follow their page to get all the latest and up to date information about its products.
Companies can also post their latest content in an attractive manner in order to attract the users to
have a glimpse of it which might result into final purchase. In the time of recession, it is a cost
effective way to increase and spread brand awareness. According to Kasemsap (2019), social
media also provides a channel for the brands which enables them to be transparent to their target
audience. It provides an opportunity to listen to the users and respond to their messages and
resolve their issues which results into gaining the trust and loyalty of the consumers and
presenting establishing a positive brand image in the mind set of the consumers. It should not be
considered as the branding channel but should be considered as a way to interact with the target
audience or demographics which is not possible in other modes and let them join for the
conversation. These aspects are the key consideration which every business organization should
consider while implementing any of its strategy. During recession, diverting all the marketing
budget towards social media as it is the tool which can be utilized by the organization for
establishing effective communication and integration which results into taking best possible
advantage of it.
Therefore, it is the best and the foremost strategy that can be utilized by the organization
during the times of recession can be even more fruitful for it in dealing the millions of the users
and the consumers. Thus, this is a most useful strategy from the business point of view during
the economic slowdown irrespective of the size of the business as it is beneficial for all.
Communication, what does communication mean? Communication is the process of
interacting with the other in the organization or anywhere with the purpose of passing on the
information to the other in the market and at the same time getting feedback or response in
return. These are another strategy through which impact of digital marketing can be reduced in
the long run. As identified by Prathivi (2020) in the article which was published, it was clearly
mentioned that it is very much important for all the organization to maintain a good sort of
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communication in the organization and also with the consumer in the market in the long run it
will eventually help the company in using the digital marketing in better way as compare to other
form of marketing. Author highlights that the organization has to make sure that they used to
create a good sort of the environment in the organization in which all the organization are
provided with the variety of different type of the information in regards of the action which has
to be performed by them in the market, these eventually will help the company in maintaining a
good work force of the company and also will help the company in improving the level of
variety of different type of activity which is taken in the organization. Not only that these sort of
thing in the organization would also help the company in managing good sort of coordination
between the different type of the employee in the organization, this is one of the significant thing
which is require in organization as well. For example, if organization in the market used to pass
on the clear structure in which all the employee in the market are given some or the other
authority to communicate and also having the idea in regards of the parameter which they have
to coordinate to complete the operation of the organization, will eventually help the company in
improving the efficiency of variety of different activity which has been carried out in the
organization.
To fix the good sort of marketing communication organization has to make sure that they
uses interactive model of the communication. Interactive model generally means that
communication which takes place from both the side in the market. For the same reason
organization has to make sure that they used to promote the different content on the platform but
at the same time they are very open to the different feedback of the consumer. As fixing a
marketing communication require communication to be taken place from both the side using a
medium of exchange of message.
On the same note Prathivi (2020) highlights that communication with consumer in the
market is another important sort of the thing which is very much necessary for the organization
in the long run. As identified by author is that digital marketing generally open up good sort of
the room for the consumer to communicate with different digital marketing platform. So it is
very much important that the message or the query which has been raised by the consumer in the
market, is seen by the organization and in time response has been provided for the same to the
consumer in the market, these eventually would help the company in building a good sort of
relationship with the different consumer in the market in the long run. On the critical point it has
48

been analysed that fixing communication require good sort of customer care representative
which increases the cost of company in hiring the good sort of representative in market.
It is very much important for the business to build a good sort of relationship with the
different consumer in the market which will help the company in the long run as well. This will
not only help the company, it will also help the consumer in the market as all the consumer in the
market always look for sales service at the same time after sales service is one of the another
thing which is desire by the individual in the market as well. This will eventually help the
company in improving the level of digital marketing, at the same time it would also help the
company in managing the customer base of the company in the long run and it is one of the
important thing which has to be performed by the company if they have to sustain in the market
in the long run. On the same note it has been understand that understanding need and preference
of all the consumer in the market require a good sort of the resources to be invested. This
ultimately impacts the efficiency of marketing activity carried out..
There are varieties of different technique which are also passed on by the different author in the
market, one of such strategy which is passed on by Molchanov (2019) is in regards of adopting
the different changes will be taking place in the external as well as in the internal environment in
the market. As author explain that it is very much important for the business to adopt a good
number of changes in the market on the regular basis, reason behind the same which is passed on
by the author for the same is that there is good number f the competitor in the market who used
to work at the digital marketing platform which generally used to pass on the variety of different
sort of the instruction in the market, so it is very much important for the business to adopt the
variety of different type of changes in the market on a regular basis, these will eventually help
the company in getting good response from the market in terms of using the digital marketing as
a primary marketing technique in the organization. For example: Organization is clear about
what the organisation might want to achieve in terms of its use of social media for example what
are its goals, how to the communication goals will help the company in seeing good sort of
growth in the market. .At the same time organization also has to make sure that they are going
through the variety of different aspect of the market on the same hand, after that if the
organization used to found any sort of the issue which is prevailing in the market, it is very
important for the business to make the different changes in the digital marketing platform of the
49

company on the regular basis, these would eventually help the company in managing the impact
of different digital marketing platform in the better way.
2.5 Literature Gap
The existing literature on the formation and growth of small businesses tends to focus on characteristics
of the region or location of the business. Goetz and Freshwater (2001) examine the impact of state-level
entrepreneurial climate on entrepreneurial activity. They suggest that state-level variation in new small
business formation is attributed to the level of resources or “inputs” available, including ideas and
innovation, human capital and financial capital (McFarland, C., McConnell, K. and Geary, C. 2010).
Review of literature has established a number of gaps that exist between the relevant studies that have
been conducted in the areas of digital marketing and social media and the use of social media by small
scale businesses. These includes
 Social media marketing as been used widely by renowned organizations to market their products
thus making them competitive compared to small scale organizations that have not utilised social
media fully as a way of marketing their products.
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 The review has also established that most small-scale organizations have failed to exploit the
opportunities for marketing their products on social media due to the branding that most social
media users are familiar with thus making their products less popular on the platform.
 The studies conducted on digital marketing have also shown that despite having millions of
subscribers on social media platforms, most users only view the products that meets their cost and
are attractive compares to the mainstream media marketing where products are advertised through
developed concepts.
 The studies have also shown that unlike the case where most social media users having
subscribed to Facebook and instagram, most of the marketing and likes for products of small
scale businesses are viewed in other platforms like twitter and LinkedIn.
 While most studies have focused on 4ps, social media marketing has been noted to promote the
marketing matrix as well as other marketing dimensions though most businesses have not utilised
the platform to gain competitive advantage.
Social media can increase an organisation’s ability to source new ideas and to refine products and
services based on external perceptions (Kiron et al., 2012). Hence, it has been suggested that social media
use by organisations improves their innovativeness (Standing and Kiniti, 2011).
In this study, we use and extended absorptive capacity theory to theorise about the link between social
media use and organisational performance during economy downturn. There are various definitions in the
literature, as agreed by OECD (2002) and Storey (1994), there is no single, distinct and uniformly
acceptable definition of a small firm. Qualitatively, it can be defined as an independent business,
managed by its owner or part‐owners and having a small share of the market (Bolton, 1971).A small
business is treated as a small and medium enterprise (SME) and is taken to be an organization which
employs less than 250 employees, as adopted by the European Union (CEC, 1996), the Department of
Trade and Industry, UK (DTI, 1999) and the Small Business Service, UK (SBS, 2000).
Andreasen (1994) believes that what makes a great social marketer is him or her constantly asking the
question “how will this (strategy) affect consumers:”. He therefore states that marketers must first
understand the target in order to have a successful program. Lefebvre (1988) also argues that promoting
products and services is no longer sufficient in social marketing; what is essential is that consumers
understand that they must shift their behaviour to the one promoted by the social marketer, and on way
social marketers have been achieving this is through the use of advertising campaigns.
This gap in existing literature is needed to be addressed as findings from various countries India, USA
and Russia would also be generalizable to other similar emerging economies. Small firms differ from
large ones in a variety of ways, including greater problems in building a reputation (Fombrun and
51

Shanley, 1990), informal communication patterns and lower levels of specialization (Hutchinson, 1999),
and a smaller variety of markets and products (Birley and Westhead, 1990). These differences increase
small firms’ dependence on external providers or clients and consequently affect
According to the scarce literature on ---- To explore the efficacy of social media on small
organisations in the UK (recent situation , unexpected situation, as in examples India-
demonetization of India, another example – GST difference slaves, brexit)
2.6 Conceptual Framework
The review of literature has established that there are a number of social media marketing impacts on
small scale businesses especially during economic downturn. These include increased exposure, increased
traffic, developed loyal fans and Generated leads among others.
Economic downturn was also noted to affect the social media users in a number of ways. These included
frequency of visiting the platform and number of platforms one may register at any given time. Social
media marketing thus firms the dependent variable for this study while independent variables will include
the type of social media and impacts of each one of these as far as marketing during economic downturn
is concerned.
Dependent variable
Independent variable
Social media platforms
Digital marketing
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
52

53
Use of social media on
small business during
economic downturn
Positive impact and Negative
impact
Social media platforms
Positive Negative
Increase goodwill
Increase in consumer
share
Increase in cost
Facebook
Instagram
Assist company in
economic downturn

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
The main aim of this study is to explore the impact of social media on small businesses during
economy downturn.
 To investigate the possibility of increasing revenue of small businesses during economic
downturn.
 To evaluate how much influence social media (Facebook and Instagram) could have on
small businesses during economy downturn.
3.1 Research Approach
Research Approach is defined as a plan and procedure that consists of broad assumption in
regard to the way data can be collected, analysed and interpreted in the study. Deductive and
Inductive research approach are two type of research approach which is preferred by the scholar
at the time of conducting the research. Deductive research approach looks at starting with the
theory, developing hypotheses from that and collect data and analyse data to test already passed
theory. At the same time Inductive approach develops the hypothesis on the basis of data which
has been already collected in the study. In regard to achieve the objective of study “Role of
Digital Marketing in Recession on Small Scale Business in the UK” scholar has selected the
deductive research approach as it used to support the type of research method selected to conduct
study.
3.2 Research Method
Research is regarded as study of different material and information to find out the outcome of the
issue of study. In the field of research there are two research method which are commonly used
by the researcher namely Qualitative and Quantitative research method. Qualitative research
type, is the method in which outcome of research is generally derive by going through non-
numerical information (Mohajan, 2018). At the same time in Quantitative research type
numerical information is considered to find out the outcome of issue faced by client. In regard to
current issue faced by client, researcher has decided to opt for Qualitative research type, as it was
getting to difficult for the scholar to present the outcome of research in numerical form.
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3.3 Data Collection
Data collection generally relates to group of activity conducted in the study to collect variety of
the information, so that on the basis of same outcome can be derived in the better way. The
major two type of data collection method used is the primary and secondary source of data
relating to information in study. Primary data, is data which is collected for the very first time
from the source of its occurrence itself. Secondary data at the same time is the type of data which
is collected from the other source who have collected the same data in the past for their purpose.
In regard to current study both primary and secondary data collection tool will be used.
Secondary data will be collected by going through different articles and journal related to the
topic of the study. Along with this the primary data has been used in order to collect the data in
the way of survey. This survey was conducted on the basis of the questionnaire which includes
both open and close ended questions.
3.4 Questionnaire Design
(Attached in Appendix 1)
3.5 Sampling Method
Sampling generally refers to a process which is conducted in the study to select a sample size on
which survey can be conducted. There are two most commonly used sampling method namely
probabilistic and non- probabilistic sampling technique. Probabilistic sampling provides
opportunity for all the respondent to get selected in the sample size of study. At the same time
non probabilistic sampling size do not provide all the individual with equal opportunity to get
selected in the sample size of the survey. In regard to the current study of the scholar has used
simple random sampling method under probabilistic technique to find out the sample size for the
study. 50 individuals have been selected as a sample size to collect primary data in the research
(Ørngreen and Levinsen, 2017).
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3.6 Data Analysis
Data analysis is the process of understanding and interpreting the data collected in a way that it
used to provide the meaning full outcome or solution of the issue which is faced by client. In
regard to current study scholar has used the thematic data analysis tool in the study. By using
thematic data analysis tool different outcome in the research was presented with the help of
different themes, table and graph so that reader find it very easy to understand and interpreted the
data in the best way.
3.7 Ethical Concerns
Scholar in the study has make sure that different activity which are carried out in the study are
carried out by considering variety of different type of ethical consideration. Scholar has taken
consent of the entire participant before collecting any information from them. Also, scholar has
maintained good sort of confidentiality throughout the project by using different data base to
store variety of the data related to the study. Also, researcher in the study has made sure that the
personal information related to the participant has not been disclosed to anyone involved in the
study. Also, scholar in the research has made sure that there is no personal interest involved at
the time of analyzing and finding out the solution of research. In addition to this the researcher
has also ensured that all the data has been collected from reliable and valid sources. This is
ensured because if the data will not be authentic then this will have a great impact over the whole
research and its result. The main reason underlying this is that the whole study is based over the
evaluation of the data collected and if the data will not be good and relevant then this will have
not have appropriate interpretation of the data collected and will hamper the quality of the
research.
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CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Survey Results
Theme 1: Which gender do you identify with?
Particular Number of respondent Percentage of respondent
Female 25 50
Male 23 46
Other 2 4
Prefer not to say 0 0
Total 50 100
Interpretation: after the analysis of the data being gathered with help of primary source it
has been understood that scholar has selected diversified sample base. As scholar has selected
respondent from all the gender, there are 25 males, 23 females and 2 other gender respondents in
survey. This has assisted the scholar in understanding the point of view of different respondent
belonging to different, hence it is very important as topic of the research is very vast hence point
of view of different category employee is generally required.
Theme 2: Which age group do you belong to?
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Particular Number of respondent Percentage of respondent
18-25 18 36
26-30 4 8
31-35 21 42
36-40 4 8
Above 40 3 6
Prefer not to say 0 0
Total 50 100
Interpretation: After understanding and analysing above presented data it has been
understood that scholar has chosen respondents of all age group. This has eventually helped the
scholar in getting information and point of view of different age group individual. Out of 50, 18
belong to age group of 18-25, 4 belong to 26-35, 21 belong to 31-35, 4 belong to 36-40 and 3
belong to Above 40. Also, having individual of different age will assist the client in
understanding the difference of point of view of different age group customer in the market, it is
very important for business.
Theme 3: What is your highest education level?
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Particular Number of respondent Percentage of respondent
Secondary 0 0
Diploma 0 0
Graduate 16 32
Postgraduate 26 52
Doctoral 8 16
Total 50 100
Interpretation: Above presented data shows that almost all the respondent from which
data has been collected belongs to three categories of education. Data shows that 26 individual
belong to category of post Graduate, 16 belong to Doctoral and 8 belong to category of Graduate.
This has assisted the scholar in understanding the point of view of different category individual.
As all the category or section individual used to use social media platform for different purpose
in real.
Theme 4: What is your occupation?
Particular
Number of
respondent Percentage of respondent
Job – specify business category 23 46
Own Business 25 50
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Student 0 0
Unemployed 2 4
Total 50 100
Interpretation: Collected data help in understanding that most of the individual in
survey generally belong to two categories, job and own business. As it was identified that 25
respondents were having own business, 23 were having job in retail, medical and hospitality
sector and only 2 respondents were unemployed in the survey as well. This is very good sign for
the survey as it has been identified that there are variety of different sector respondent who will
pass on their point of view. This may complicate study at some extent but it will provide the clear
image to the scholar as well.
Theme 5: Which social media sites do you have accounts with?
Particular Number of respondent Percentage of respondent
Facebook 24 30
Twitter 20 25
Instagram 25 31.25
YouTube 21 26.25
Others( Please Name) 0 0
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Interpretation: after the evaluation of the primary data and information relating to
research topic it has been analysed that Facebook and Instagram are two platforms on which
almost all the respondent has their account. It has been analysed that out of the pool of 50
participants 24 has chosen Facebook, 25 has chosen Instagram and remaining one participant has
gone with the option of others in the survey. YouTube was chosen by 21 and twitter by 20
participants. There were respondent who has selected more than one option in the question. So
above presented data shows the number of respondent has selected the option and chart has been
presented in the same way.
Theme 6: Which media do you how often?
Particular Number of
respondent
Percentage of
respondent
Facebook 42 46
Instagram 36 40
Twitter 18 19
Others 4 5
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Interpretation: After going through the various information which was gathered by the
primary data it has been analysed that Facebook and Instagram are two platforms which can be
used by the organization in the long run. It has been analysed that out of the pool of 50
participants 42 has chosen Facebook, 36 has chosen Instagram, 18 has gone with Twitter and
remaining one participant has gone with the option of others in the survey. At the same time, it
has to be also consider by the organization that they do not overlook the opinion of 18
respondents in a survey as well. As they have selected the alternative of twitter. Hence,
respondent has to consider the same as well.
Theme 7: What do you use social media for? Please place in order of which you use most, for
which purpose
Particular Number of respondent Percentage of respondent
Keeping in touch with friends and family 16 32
Buying and selling 16 32
Inspiration 25 50
News 12 24
To meet new friends 0 0
To find employment 8 16
Other (Please specify) 0 0
Total 50 100
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Interpretation: Evaluating above presented data generally help in understanding that
there are variety of different reason for which participant used to use social media marketing in
organization. As there was no specific result which was supported by different participant. As 16
has chosen To keep in touch with friends and family their first priority, 16 participant has
selected Buying and selling their first priority, 12 as selected news option and 8 to find
employment. This data clearly used to give idea that there are variety of the different type of
benefit which used to drive the individual to use social media platform in the market.
Theme 8: Is digital marketing through social media concept is understood by you?
Particular Number of
respondent
Percentage of
respondent
Yes 46 92
No 4 8
Total 50 100
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Interpretation: After understanding the variety of the information collected from
different respondent in the survey it has been clearly understood that there is good sort of
understanding among different individual in term of Social media marketing. As it has been
understood that out of 50 participant pool 46 were with the opinion of yes in the survey. On the
same note 4 were against the same. This will good for the study as researcher is able to collect
good amount of efficient and effective data, so that on the basis of same outcome of the survey
can be find out easily. Also outcome of the research will be more effective and efficient.
Theme 9: At the time of using Social media, Is you believe on different advertisement prompted
on platform?
Particular Number of respondent Percentage of respondent
Yes 42 84
No 8 16
Total 50 100
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Interpretation: Social media platform is one of the best marketing platform which can
be adopted by the organization to advertise the goods and services of the business in front of the
other in the market. As out of the information which was gathered with assistance of primary
data i.e. survey, it has been identified that out of 50 individual pool 42 participant has gone with
the alternative of yes in the market, at the same time only 8 participants in the survey has gone
with the option of No in the survey. This ultimately shows that respondent of different gender
and age generally used to trust the advertisement which are generally prompted on the social
media platform of the participant.
Theme 10: Do you think with the help of Social media marketing you are able to get touch with
company more efficiently?
Particular Number of respondent Percentage of respondent
Yes 36 72
No 14 28
Total 50 100
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Interpretation: Collecting data as a part of primary data analysis purpose it has been
understood that Social media marketing in the market is one of the prime reason which generally
used to help the participant to get in touch with the company in more effective and efficient way.
Collected data in the survey shows that out of 50 individual pool 36 participant has gone with the
option of yes in the survey, 14 has selected the alternative of No in the survey. This shows that
Social media marketing generally help company in increasing market share in market as
consumer are able to get in touch with the respondent in the better and efficient way.
Theme 11: In the tough time (like recession, financial crises) you will believe on social media
marketing or not?
Particular Number of respondent Percentage of respondent
Yes 38 76
No 12 24
Total 50 100
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Interpretation: Social media platform can be classified as better marketing platform that
can be accessed and used by business in order to manage the influence of recession in the
economic downfall. As out of the data which has been collected by survey. It has been
understood that out of 50 individual pool 38 participant has gone with the alternative of yes in
the market, at the same time only 12 respondents have selected the option of ‘no’ from the
available option. Hence, opinion of 38 respondents are good enough for the participant to make
this sort of decision in the survey in efficient way.
Theme 12: In future if you will start a SMEs will you chose social media marketing as a
marketing tool. If yes, then please chose the reason which will drive you?
Particular Number of
respondent Percentage of respondent
Competition maintaining 4 8
Target market of company 8 16
Enhance working environment of
company 2 4
All of Above 36 72
Total 50 100
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Interpretation: the above primary set of data reflects that method shows that out of 50
individual pool 36 of them has gone with the opinion of all the above option. These certainly
means that organization used to think that Social media marketing used to help the company in
competition maintaining, select target market of the company and also help in enhancing the
working environment of the company in the long run. Other than this number of participant 8
respondent has agreed with the option of competition maintaining. 4 participants have chosen the
option of target market of company and 2 participants in the survey has gone with the alternative
of Enhance working environment in the company.
4.2 Discussion
After going through the different data which has been collected with the help of primary
data collection tool it has been understand that there are variety of different outcome which has
been derived by scholar. Some of the discussion point and outcome is as follows:
Social media marketing is one of the best Digital marketing medium which can be used in the
organization. This statement has been passed on by the scholar by evaluating the primary data
which has been collected in the survey. As different data collected shows that almost all the
gender and age group individual used to use social media marketing in the organization. As
survey shows that there are individual who generally uses more than one type of social media
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platform, so social media platform will be better option for the company to use. This is well
supported by the Author in the Literature review section as well. As author has highlighted that
social media marketing is one of the trending Digital marketing platforms in general. Author
highlights in Literature review unit that social media marketing used to open good sort of market
in front of the company, this is one of the important reason which used to assist the company in
improving the level of brand awareness in the market (Casagrande, 2018).
After that report goes on to highlights that there are more than one types of benefit which
will be seen by the organization by using social media marketing in the market. This is generally
passed on by the scholar by understanding outcome of the survey. As outcome of the survey
shows that all the individual generally used to use social media marketing for different purpose
and purpose of all the sector organization are very different in general. Author in Literature
review section highlights that social media marketing not only help the company in promoting
the product of the company, it also helps the company in understanding the customer to whom
the different product of the company need to be offered and how can be offered. As author
highlights that social media at the time of recession used to help the company in selecting the
target customer base of the company in easier way (Rizomyliotis, Konstantoulaki and
Kostopoulos, 2017). Author also highlights that Digital marketing can be defining as a sole saver
for different organization in the tough time such as recession also. This statement has been
passed on by the scholar by seeing the result of the question which has been asked by the scholar
in the survey. Hence from the survey and opinion of different author which has been pass on in
the survey, it is very much clear that social media marketing used to bring more than one type of
benefit for the organization, even in the tough times such as recession and economic slowdown.
After that analysing the survey outcome further has helped in understanding that
Facebook and Instagram platform is the best marketing platform which can be adopted by the
organization to manage the impact of recession at the workplace. As out of the information that
was assimilated and gathered by the assistance of primary data method i.e. survey, it has been
identified that out of 50 individual pool 42 participant has gone with the alternative of yes in the
market, at the same time only 8 respondents within the survey has chosen the alternative of ‘no’
from the options available. This is suggested or passed on by the author in the Literature review
section of the report as well (Hanlon, 2019). As author highlights that there are variety of
different sort of the benefit which is seen by the organization due to using this two platform as a
69

prime platform to carry out different activity in the organization (Islami, Wahyuni and Tiara,
2020). Hence from the outcome it is clear that Facebook and Instagram are the two type of the
platform which can be used by the organization. Outcome also used to explain the different
benefit which will be seen by the organization. Different benefit identified are Optimum
utilization of resources, building brand awareness in market and Increases market share in
market. Hence from the outcome and point of view of different author it is very much clear that
Facebook and Instagram will be two of the preferred social media platform for different
organization (Rizomyliotis, Konstantoulaki and Kostopoulos, 2017).
Looking at the positive impact of social media which will be seen by the SMEs even in
the tough time like recession it was understood that social media marketing in the recession
period used to help the company in saving their cost in the better and efficient way. This
significance was also highlighted by the different author in the Literature review unit of the
report as well. Looking at the data collected it was analysed that most of the respondent used to
believe the advertisement on social media platform in recession time as well (Kingsnorth, 2019).
So it is very much important for the business that they carry on with the social media marketing
in the tough time like recession as well. out of 50 respondent pool, 38 participants have gone
with the option of yes. At the same time looking at different option selection it was identified
that 12 participants have gone with the opinion of no in the survey. This was also highlighted by
the different author in the literature review section of the survey as well. As author highlights
that social media marketing used to help the company in saving the cost and even maintain their
composure in tough time. Hence, Social media marketing will be better option for the company
in different situation like recession as well.
After that report goes on to understand that there are variety of the negative impact which
may be seen by the organization as well. After going on the variety of the selection which has
been done by the different individual in the survey in regards of the same it has been identified
that Facebook and Instagram marketing in the organization does not guarantee the success for the
organization (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). As it has been identified that almost 80 percent of the
respondent were not sure about the information on platform as there are many fake news which
also used to govern on the different social media platform. This was also highlighted by the
Author in LR section. Not only that author also highlights the variety of different type of reason
as well such as not trustable, takes time, create negative image. Hence from all the variety of
70

different result and outcome are clear that there are variety of different impact which are also
seen by the organization in the long run as well.
There are more than one sorts of the benefit which will be seen by the different SMEs by
selecting social media marketing as a main marketing strategy of the company in the long run.
As data collected with the help of primary data collection method shows that out of 50 individual
pool 36 of them has gone with the opinion of all of the above option (Kannan, 2017). These
certainly means that organization used to think that Social media marketing used to help the
company in competition maintaining, select target market of the company and also help in
enhancing the working environment of the company in the long run. Other than this number of 8
respondents has agreed with the option of competition maintaining. 4 participants have gone with
the alternative of target market of company and 2 participants in the survey has gone with the
alternative of Enhance working environment in the company. This eventually shows that this
type of marketing not only help the bigger organization but also used to help the SMEs as well.
This is passed on by asking the respondent to assume that they are opening new business, pass on
the reason which will drive them to adopt social media platform in the organization.
From the information collected from the assistance of primary data it can be said that
SMEs in the market generally used to see good amount of success in improving the goodwill of
the company for long term. From the evaluation it was identified that data collected depicts that
from the total participant pool of 50 individual 45 participants has shown the interest toward the
same in the survey. At the same time only remaining 5 participants in the survey has shown the
interest against the same in the survey. So from the result it can be easily interpreted that Social
media marketing help SMEs in building good goodwill of the company in the market. This was
also explained by the author that good will be one of key part for SMEs to defend the challenges
of big organization and Social media marketing will help the company in providing the same as
well.
After that understanding the data in the better way and interpreting the same with the Literature
review section as well provided with the learning that Selecting multiple social media platform is
the best platform which has been highlighted by the survey. As collected data with the help of
the primary data collection tool it has been analysed that there are variety of individual who has
gone with the option of more than one type of social media platform which is used by them on
71

regular basis (Chaffey, 2019). This outcome was also highlighted by the Author in the Literature
review section of the report. Collected data shows that 42 has chosen Facebook, out of total
individual who has chosen the option of Facebook 36 has chosen Instagram, 18 has gone with
Twitter. Hence just looking at one or two type of social media platform will be not that beneficial
for the organization. They have to make sure that they used to consider the opinion of all the
different individual in the survey. Due to this fact it is advisable to the business organization that
they do not overlook the opinion of 18 respondents in a survey as well. Hence from the
discussion which has been done it is very much clear that they used to consider using more than
one type of media platforms which helps business in promoting the goods and services of
business in better and efficient way in front of the other in the market.
4.3 Limitations
In the process of carrying out the study there were many types of limitation which was identified
by the scholar in general. Biggest of all was time allotted to complete the project, as it was
identified that time allotted was not enough for the scholar to find out the outcome of the
research. For overcoming the same issue, researcher has taken help of team member to complete
the project on time.
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION
5.1 Implications
From the above study it was implied that it is very essential for the small business to mainly
focus over their marketing. In the times of economic downturn, it is very essential for the
companies to majorly focus over their marketing of the goods and services. This will assist the
small business in increasing the awareness of their product and services among the consumers by
using the latest methods of digital marketing.
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5.2 Limitation for Further Research
The major limitation was in regard to resources, as it was identified that resources available to
complete the study was not enough. To overcome the same issue, we have taken help of tutor to
understand the way through which optimum utilization of resources can be done in the study.
Further another major limitation was of the finance as the finance provided for the research was
also very limited and this hampered the successful completion of the research. But this limitation
was managed with help of optimally using the limited finance among all the activities of the
research.
5.3 Conclusion
After going through above report it has been concluded that digital marketing used to help small
organization in saving good amount of cost at the time of economic slowdown as well, as digital
marketing requires organization in investing less amount of resources as compare to other form
of marketing (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). For the same reason it has been recommended to
organization that they can reduce the price of the company product by mini zing cost of
production. This will ultimately help the company in getting competitive advantage over other
big organization at the time of economic slowdown. Hence, from the above statement it is very
much clear that with the help of digital marketing small organization can maximize the profit of
the company in the long run.
After that study concludes that there are more than one digital marketing/ Social media
marketing platform which is in front of small organization to use to promote the product of the
company in the market (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017). For the same it has been
recommended to SMEs that they have to prefer using Facebook and Instagram as two most
preferred type of different social media which assist company in promoting the product and
services of the business into the marketplace. Reason behind recommending the same is that
these are two platforms which used to see the large number of the user at their platform, also this
two social media platform used to provide better feature to the organization in context of
promoting the product of the company in the better way in front of the other in the market.
Further, from the analysis of the whole data analysis section it was identified that the
major reason behind the use of the social media was buying and selling and keeping connected
73

with their friends and family. This was majorly because of the fact that when the company makes
the use of various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and many others
then they can have interaction with the person they want. Further they also agreed with the act
that buying and selling is also an important reason for which people make use of the social media
platforms. With the further analysis of the discussion it was seen and evaluated that the use of
social media is very helpful for the company and small business in getting more result and
popularity.
The main fact behind this is that as the level of the business is small and this will assist
the companies in developing more of the consumer. The major reason underlying this fact is that
the business is already small and if they use effective digital marketing strategies then the
company can have a good impact over the profitability of the company. The major reason
underlying this fact is that when effective strategies for marketing will be used with help of the
digital platform then this will create a good image among the consumers. As a result of this the
goodwill and brand image of the company will increase irrespective of the economic position
going on in the economy.
Furthermore, with the assistance of the in- depth analysis and discussion it was outlined the use
of social media and the digital marketing is of great importance for the SMEs. The major reason
underlying this fact as per the majority of the respondent is that all of the above which includes
three major aspects relating to the benefit of using the social media. The first one is the
maintenance of the competition and digital marketing assist the company in overcoming the high
competition. Another major reason for the SME to make effective use of the digital marketing
platform is that this will assist the company in targeting the market in very easy and effective
manner. Furthermore, another major benefit of using digital marketing by the SME is that this
will increase the working environment of the company. The major reason underlying this fact is
that when the company will have effective use of the social media platforms and the digital
marketing for the management and marketing of the goods and services will have positive impact
on the working ambiance of the company.
After that report highlights that social media platform in the business also helpful in
creating the situation within the market within which it used to get difficult for the organization
to trust social media platform has primary activity. Due to this the major recommendation for the
organization is to consider variety of different type of marketing platform in the organization to
74

promote the product of the company in the market. As customer do not trust the different
advertisement which they used to see on the social media platform in general. Hence, different
small sector organization used to consider more personal selling type of marketing platform as
compare to digital marketing platform in general (Dahl, 2018).
After that report concludes that social media marketing used to assist business in
increasing number of consumer for the business within marketplace. For this the major
recommendation to the business is that they make use of various types of platforms relating to
social media in order to promote product of business. Reason behind highlighting the same is
that it will help the company in defending the variety of the different sort of competition
challenges used to offer in the market. Hence, it will be very beneficial for the company to use
the same in the long run.
Further, in the end it is evaluated that the use of the social media is very helpful and effective for
the company in the management of the business. This is pertaining to the fact that when the
company or the small business will make effective use of the social media and digital platforms
with the intention of marketing the product and services then this will improve the working
capacity and profitability of the company to a great extent. In addition to this it can also be
concluded that if the SME or the small business will effectively make the use of the digital
marketing then this will also have a great impact over the goodwill and brand value of the
company. The major reason pertaining to the fact is that when the small business will make use
of the effective digital marketing services then his will add to the proper and coordinated
working of the business. The major fact underlying this is that the use of social media also assist
in effective communication and this will improve the coordination among the different activities
of the business.
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APPENDICES
We can see that companies with no employees (freelancers, contractors, self employed etc) have
increased at a faster rate as other company sizes over 2019 after slowing their growth rate down in 2017-
2018. The upward slope of all company sizes in 2019 is encouraging given the Brexit caused from 2016.
Leaving the EU on Jan 31st 2019 has finally given some clarity on the direction we are moving and will
hopefully give more businesses the confidence to make investments they may have held off doing.
APPENDIX 2
Questionnaire
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Which gender do you identify with?
 Female
 Male
 Other
 Prefer not to say
Which age group do you belong to?
 18-25
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 26-30
 31-35
 36-40
 Above 40
 Prefer not to say
What is your highest education level?
 Secondary
 Diploma
 Graduate
 Postgraduate
 Doctoral
What is your occupation?
 Job – specify business category
 Own Business
 Student
 Unemployed
Which social media sites do you have accounts with?
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Instagram
 YouTube
 Others( Please Name)
Which media do you how often?
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Instagram
 YouTube
 Others(Please Name)
What do you use social media for? -Please place in order of which you use most, for which
purpose
 Keeping in touch with friends and family
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 Buying and selling
 Inspiration
 News
 To meet new friends
 To find employment
 Other (Please specify)
Is digital marketing through social media is understood by you?
 Yes
 No
At the time of using Social media, Is you believe on different advertisement prompted on
platform?
 Yes
 No
Do you think with the help of Social media marketing you are able to get touch with company
more efficiently?
 Yes
 No
In the tough time (like recession, financial crises) you will believe on social media marketing or
not?
 Yes
 No
In future if you will start a SMEs will you chose social media marketing as a marketing tool. If
yes, then please chose the reason which will drive you?
 Competition maintaining
 Target market of company
 Enhance working environment of company
 All of above
Any recommendation that you love to make to organization in regard of their social media post?
87