Impact of Social Media on Business Operations

This assignment explores the impact of social media on business operations, focusing on Continental Consulting Limited as a case study. It employs qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, including thematic analysis, to analyze the data. The report highlights the benefits of social media marketing in promoting services at a larger level in the industry and provides recommendations for organizations to enhance their services.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................3
LO 1......................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Establishing project aims and objectives for a chosen project within your chosen Business........3
P2 Producing Project Management Plan............................................................................................4
P3 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart.....................................................................7
LO 2......................................................................................................................................................9
P4 Applying qualitative and quantitative research methods for meeting project aims and objectives9
LO 3....................................................................................................................................................13
P5 Analysing research using appropriate tools and techniques........................................................13
P6 Communicating appropriate recommendations..........................................................................20
LO 4....................................................................................................................................................20
P7 Reflection on the value of undertaking the research to meet aims and objectives......................20
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
It is very important for any organization to have an effective business project plan
which can help them in increasing their performance in their respective industry. It can have a
huge impact on their business activity which can assist in enhancing their sales and
production. Present report will focus on topic-“To evaluate the effectiveness of social media
marketing on business operations- A case study on Continental Consulting Limited”. This
will help in analysing the impact of digital market on small businesses. Continental
Consulting Limited is a research and business consultancy company which works on
technology.
Present assessment will focus on determining aim and objective for the organization
which can help them in analysing the impact of digital technology on their business. Further
this report will produce a management plan which will include factors like, cost, scope, time,
quality, communication, risk and resources. It will also develop a work breakdown structure
(WBS) and Gantt chart with respect to it. A small-scale research by applying qualitative and
quantitative research methods is also described in this study. In the last section, appropriate
recommendation is explained.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1 Establishing project aims and objectives for a chosen project within your chosen Business
Digital technology is a process which uses technology to perform activities. Digital
technology has revolutionised the way any business is conducted. From the past years, it has
been intensely changed and transformed business activities to a large extent. The use of social
media marketing technology has provided businesses with a wealth of choice and
opportunity. This has enabled existing products to become more profitable and innovative
new products to be developed, leading to increasingly diverse product portfolios (Hillson,
2017).
Marketing plays an important role for any business in order to increase their
efficiency and performance as well. Now-a-days there are various application that is available
for the organization to promote their services and products. Continental Consulting Limited
can use Facebook, Twitter, etc. to put advertisement of their organization’s products and
services. Other than performing promotional activities, social media marketing can be used in

making effective communication with customers as well. This will help in making a good
relationship with them. For Continental Consulting Limited, it is very crucial to maintain a
good and stable relation with their clients in order to enhance their overall revenue (Nicholas
and Steyn, 2017).
Digital technology can help Continental Consulting Limited to improve their work
which can assist them in competing with their competitors as well. It can help in various
departments, such as, in administration, in storage and distribution section, in production,
etc (The Evolution of Social Media, 2017).
Following is the project aim and objective, respectively;
Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of social media marketing on business operations- “A
case study on Continental Consulting Limited”.
Objective: There are various objective which has to be achieved in this project, such as;
 To study the impact of digital marketing on small businesses.
 To analyse the effectiveness of social media on business communication of
Continental Consulting Limited.
 To investigate the importance of social media marketing on operational activities of
Continental Consulting Limited.
 To recommend Continental Consulting Limited about the importance of digital
technology and use of social media marketing.
P2 Producing Project Management Plan
For any business organization it is very important to have a good and effective project
management plan which can help them in analyse all the key factor which is required in the
business project. It helps in analysing the key elements that has a huge impact on their
business. Various elements of an effective project management plan includes, cost, scope,
time, quality, communication, risk and resources (Baumann and et.al., 2015). All these
factors are explained below in detail:
 Cost: This is the most important factors which has a huge impact on any business
activity, respectively. It is very important for the organization to evaluate the cost
factor which is required to fulfil all the requirements of the organization. This has
to be managed effectively by Continental Consulting Limited in order to perform
their task properly. Working in a set budget can have a huge positive impact and

can make business project effective as well. There are various factors which has to
be kept in mind before planning any financial budget (Dansoh, Frimpong and Oteng,
2017). These factors can include, labour cost, material cost, resources, training
cost, etc. This will help in managing their work accordingly.
 Scope: There is a huge scope of social media marketing for small businesses. This
step involves all the specific requirements that is needed for the completion of
project effectively. This can have a huge impact on any business so it is crucial to
manage it carefully. While managing this factor, it is very critical to evaluate all
the task that is being performed in the project as this will help them in assigning
resources accordingly (Peppers and Rogers, 2016).
 Time: Having a time target helps an organization to organize their work. This is
very helpful in achieving their target and objectives on given time frame. Having
an effective time management can assist Continental Consulting Limited to
perform their duties and responsibilities on time. To manage this factors, it is
crucial to allot time to every task that is involved in the project, such as, for
research, data collection, analysis of data, etc. This will help in evaluating the
overall time that is required to complete the whole task (Sánchez, 2015). Time
management can be achieved by implementing various activities in the project,
such as, by planning a schedule of all the task, defining activities, estimating time
requirements, etc. All these factors together will help in managing time for the
project.
 Communication: To perfume any task in the project it is very important to have a
good communication between their employees. It can have a huge impact on their
business activities as well. This can be achieved by interacting with each other.
This will also assist in sharing some new and innovative ideas which can be used
in the project by the organization in order to increase their efficiency and
performance (Schwalbe, 2015).
 Risk Management: To start any new project there are chances to have risk. This
has to managed by the organization very carefully as it can affect their activities to
a large extent. Risk management can be managed by effectively analysing their
activities carefully. This ca be achieved by planning certain strategies which can
be very helpful for risk assessment. This practice will make that it will reduce the
impact of the risk on the business activity, respectively (Hornstein, 2015).

 Resource: These have a huge impact on any business activity as it can affect them
a lot. The most important resource which is very important for Continental
Consulting Limited is the Human Resource (HR) as it helps them in recruiting the
best staff or employees for them which can help them in achieving their target on
time. Having a good funding resource is also very important for them (Kerzner and
Kerzner, 2017).

P3 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a type of process which is used to take into
consideration the project aim and goal and helps to break it down into small tasks which is
organized on the basis of requirements and time required by them (Kaiser, El Arbi and
Ahlemann, 2015). For Continental Consulting Limited, it will be beneficial for them in
analysing all the business operational requirements and management of tasks that will lead
them in executing each task in this current research. It is estimated that it will require
approximately 28 days to complete the research.
Task Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Auto
Scheduled Identifying Research Project 2 days Wed 10/17/18 Thu 10/18/18
Auto
Scheduled
Preparation of Aim and
Objectives 3 days Fri 10/19/18 Tue 10/23/18 1
Auto
Scheduled Research on selected topic 5 days Wed 10/24/18 Tue 10/30/18 2
Auto
Scheduled
Application of appropriate
research methodologies 4 days Wed 10/31/18 Mon 11/5/18 2,3
Auto
Scheduled
Collection of data from
different resources 8 days Tue 11/6/18 Thu 11/15/18 4
Auto
Scheduled Analysis of gathered data 3 days Fri 11/16/18 Tue 11/20/18 4,5
Auto
Scheduled
Interpretation and analysis of
gathered data 2 days Wed 11/21/18 Thu 11/22/18 6
Auto
Scheduled Final submission of report 1 day Fri 11/23/18 Fri 11/23/18 6,7

Gantt chart:
Critical Path:
Interpretation: From this above critical path, it can be analyzed that this project will
take 28 days to complete it as it was estimated by professionals of Continental Consulting
Limited. So, according to this, every activity must be completed in the given time period in
order to complete it on give time slot.

LO 2
P4 Applying qualitative and quantitative research methods for meeting project aims and
objectives
It is very important for the researcher to perform its research effectively in order to
get all the relevant data or information in order to complete this project with effectiveness. In
this present research, both qualitative and quantitative research methods was used the
researcher to achieve their aims and targets effectively (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). There
are various factors or elements which has to be taken into consideration while performing any
type of research, which is explained below:
 Research Approach: In this process it helps in identifying what type of approach is
being used by the researcher to complete the project. Various approaches are there
which can be used by them, such as, inductive and deductive approach. Other than
these approaches, sources, like, primary and secondary resources can also be very
useful in this research (Apenko, 2017).
 Research Philosophy: This is a type of method in which it helps in deciding the best
possible way to the researcher in order to complete the work effectively. There are
various techniques, for example, positivism and interpretivism. However, with the
context of present research, qualitative research method will be used along with
interpretivism philosophy as it will help in gathering the best data for the research.
 Research Methodologies: This process involves all the methodologies that is being
used in the completion of this research. In this present research, researcher will use
both the processes, i.e., qualitative and quantitative as well by the researcher. With the
help of qualitative methods, researcher will collect all the relevant information on the
basis of survey and questionnaire on which a thematic analysis will be performed by
the researcher in order to get results (Research Support: Research Methodology,
2016). And in quantitative research method data will be collected with the help of
graphs and tabular presentation.
 Data Collection Methods: Researcher has used two methods to complete its research,
such as, primary and secondary method of data collection. In the context of current
research, in primary method researcher has conducted a survey and on the basis of
which a questionnaire has been made. Several questions has been asked to the
managers of Continental Consulting Limited to gather data. And in secondary
research method, sources, such as books and journals, articles, news, online, etc. have

been considered which helped in bringing observatory analysis on this issue
(Schwalbe, 2015).
 Sampling: In the context of present research, purposive sampling has been used by
the researcher. In this several questions have been asked by 20 managers of
Continental Consulting Limited in order to collect information regarding the impact
of social media marketing on their organisation and business activity as well.
 Data Analysis: In this process, researcher has analysed all the data which was
collected or gathered during the research. This collected data will help in estimating
the final result collected from survey that has been conducted by the researcher.
Proper analysis has to be done by researcher in achieving their targets and objectives
effectively for the organization (Turner and Ledwith, 2018).

QUESTIONNAIRE
Question-1: Does social media marketing helped your organization to increase your
sales and production rate?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others
Question-2: Is it difficult for you employees to understand this digital technology and
social media marketing tool?
(A) Not exactly
(B) To some extent
Question- 3: Has this technology helped your organization to improve your
performance?
(A) To satisfactory level
(B) To dissatisfactory level
(C) Neutral reaction
Question-4: Does this social media marketing technology helped your organization to
improve your business communication?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others
Question-5: Does this social media marketing helped to generate a good overall
revenue?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others

Question-6: Are your social media marketing goals integrated with your overall
business objective?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others
Question-7: Have you established metrics to track your social media marketing
efforts to your business goals?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others

LO 3
P5 Analysing research using appropriate tools and techniques
On the basis of all the questionnaire and its result, thematic analysis was performed
by the researcher, which is explained below:
Theme 1:
Question 1: Does social media marketing helped your organization to increase your
sales and production rate?
Answers Respondents Percentage
(A) Yes 12 60.00%
(B) No 5 25.00%
(C) Others 3 15.00%
Total 20 100.00%
Interpretation
From the above data, it shows that 60% of respondent agrees on the fact that social
media marketing has helped their organization to increase their sales and production rate in
industry. And only 25% of respondent disagrees with this statement. This shows that this
marketing technique can be a best option for Continental Consulting Limited.

Theme 2:
Question-2: Is it difficult for you employees to understand this digital technology and
social media marketing tool?
Answers Respondents Percentage
(A) Not exactly 15 75.00%
(B) To some extent 5 25.00%
Total 20 100.00%
Interpretation
By considering the above listed pictorial presentation of the data set, it signifies that
75% of respondents feel that it was not much difficult for their employees to understand this
digital technology and social media marketing tool. Only 25% respondents think otherwise.
Overall, it may be said that a majority of employees were comfortable using this technology
and social marketing tool.

Theme 3:
Question- 3: Has this technology helped your organization to improve your
performance?
Answers Respondents Percentage
(A) To satisfactory level 16 80.00%
(B) To dis satisfactory level 3 15.00%
(C) Neutral reaction 1 5.00%
Total 20 100.00%
Interpretation
Above graph shows that 80% of the respondents agrees to the fact that the use of this
technology has helped them to improve the performance of their organization, while 3% of
them feel that it has not really helped their organization in any way. Rest of the respondents
had neutral reaction. It can be concluded that this technology has a positive impact on the
performance of the organization.

Theme 4:
Question-4: Does this social media marketing technology helped your organization to
improve your business communication?
Answers Respondents Percentage
(A) Yes 14 70.00%
(B) No 4 20.00%
(C) Others 2 10.00%
Total 20 100.00%
Interpretation
With reference to the above data, 70% of the respondents have said that social media
marketing has brought a considerable improvement in their business communication, 20% of
the respondents do not agree with the same. To sum up, social media marketing is a great tool
to improve business communication.

Theme 5:
Question-5: Does this social media marketing helped to generate a good overall
revenue?
Answers Respondents Percentage
(A) Yes 15 75.00%
(B) No 3 15.00%
(C) Others 2 10.00%
Total 20 100.00%
Interpretation
The graph above shows that 75% of the respondents believe that social media
marketing has contributed to their organization in terms of generating a good overall revenue,
while 15% said that it has not helped them in generating revenue. To summarize, social
media marketing has been of a great help in generating a good revenue for the organization.

Theme 6:
Question-6: Are your social media marketing goals integrated with your overall
business objective?
Answers Respondents Percentage
(A) Yes 16 80.00%
(B) No 3 15.00%
(C) Others 1 5.00%
Total 20 100.00%
(A) Yes (B) No (C) Others
16
3
1
Theme 6
Respondents
Answers
Respondents
Interpretation
Reading the above data, it can be seen that 80% of all the respondents said that their
social media marketing goals are integrated with their overall business objective, whereas,
only 15% respondents disagrees with this statement. From this data, it can be identified that it
will be a great tool for Continental Consulting Limited.

Theme 7:
Question-7: Have you established metrics to track your social media marketing
efforts to your business goals?
Answers Respondents Percentage
(A) Yes 12 60.00%
(B) No 6 30.00%
(C) Others 2 10.00%
Total 20 100.00%
(A) Yes (B) No (C) Others
12
6
2
Theme 7
Respondents
Answers
Respondents
Interpretation:
With reference to the above data, 60% of the respondents have said that they have
established metrics to track their social media marketing efforts to their business goals, 30%
of the respondents do not agree with the same. To sum up, social media marketing is a great
tool to improve performance.

P6 Communicating appropriate recommendations
For implementation of use social media marketing for Continental Consulting
Limited, there are various activities that are recommended to them in order to enhance their
performance in different activities, for example,
 Providing their employees proper training about how to use social media
marketing to save times and for faster communication with their customers.
 To make their employees aware and vigilant about the significant use and
benefits of social media platform and its advantages to the business (Mir and
Pinnington, 2014).
 For improvement of operational efficiency and upliftment of the firm will help
in assisting their employees by formation of team structure, ensuring
employees engagement etc.
 For all this a team must be developed which are given a single target to train
the employees and aid them in understanding and acquaint to the use of this
social media marketing technologies for their business.
LO 4
P7 Reflection on the value of undertaking the research to meet aims and objectives
From the above research one important factors which was understood by me is that if
organization implement this strategy in their operational management then it can effectively
increase their performance. As per my view, this will also help them in enhancing their
communication with their customers as well. This will be very beneficiary for them in order
to increase their sales and production (The Impact of Social Media Marketing Today, 2016).
Social media marketing will be very beneficiary tool for the organization according to
my opinion as this will help them in promoting their services at larger level in their respective
industry. From this research, as per my view, there is a huge impact of digital technology and
social media marketing tool on their business operations.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that having an effective business project
can help an organization to complete it on time. Present report has talked about impact on
social media marketing process on Continental Consulting Limited. This has explained about
the various research methodologies which was used by the researcher, such as, qualitative

and quantitative. Apart from this, it has also shown the data analysis on the basis of thematic
analysis with the help of graphs. In the last section of this report, it has discussed about
providing or giving some recommendation to the organization in order to enhance their
services in industry.

REFERENCES
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Dansoh, A., Frimpong, S. and Oteng, D., 2017. Challenges associated with project teams in
managing variations on construction projects.
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
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Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
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Sánchez, M.A., 2015. Integrating sustainability issues into project management. Journal of
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Online
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