Social Media Impact on Businesses

This assignment delves into the profound impact of social media on businesses. It examines the role of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in shaping consumer purchase intentions and analyzes how businesses leverage social media analytics to understand user behavior. The significance of content marketing strategies within the social media landscape is also discussed, alongside various research methods employed to study social media's influence.

RESEARCH METHODS

Table of Contents
TOPIC..............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Aims & Objectives.................................................................................................................3
Rationale.................................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Theme 1: Concept of social media in event industry.............................................................4
Theme 2: Benefits and drawbacks of social media................................................................4
Theme 3: Identify social media influence on Facebook and recommend ways to mitigate
drawbacks...............................................................................................................................5
RESEARCH METHODOLGY.......................................................................................................6
Research Philosophy..............................................................................................................6
Research Approaches.............................................................................................................6
Research Strategy...................................................................................................................7
Research Design.....................................................................................................................7
Time Horizon..........................................................................................................................7
Data Collection.......................................................................................................................8
Data Analysis..........................................................................................................................8
Timeline..................................................................................................................................8
Gantt Chart.............................................................................................................................9
Research limitations...............................................................................................................9
Ethical Considerations..........................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

TOPIC
“The benefits and challenges of social media in the event industry as a communication
tool- A case study on Facebook”
INTRODUCTION
Social media acts as a powerful tool which helps organisation in targeting numerous end
customers with one click. The use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and many more
websites are increasing which helps businesses in gaining benefits by communicating regularly
with target customers. Event industry focuses on including social media tool in its marketing
strategy so that it may help organisers for building event and creating brand awareness
effectively (Erkan and Evans, 2018). The use of social media such as Facebook may also lead to
bring many challenges and risk for the event industries. The research will focus on identifying
the risk and challenges of managing communication with the help of different tools of social
media. The research study finds ways for mitigating the risk related with the communication tool
Facebook.
Aims & Objectives
Aim: “ To assess the benefits and challenges of Social media in the event industry- A case study
on Facebook”
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of social media in the event industry
 To analyse benefits and drawback of social media in the context of Facebook.
 To Identify social media influence on Facebook and recommend ways to mitigate
drawbacks
Research Question:
 What is the concept of social media?
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media in context of Facebook?
 What are the ways to mitigate the drawbacks of social media in context of Facebook?
Rationale
This topic is chosen as the researcher has personal and professional interest in the same
area. The reason for choosing this topic is that use of Facebook and other social networking site
is increasing and it influences on every business industry. The event industry and many other

industries focus on making use of this as a communication tool for getting various benefits and
advantages. The research study focuses on identifying the benefits and challenges of social
media in the event industry and also recommend different ways for mitigating the challenges and
risks associated with it. Research topic may help in contributing to the professional development
of another researcher as well.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: Concept of social media in event industry
According to Kietzmann and et.al., (2018) social media is one of the powerful tools that
allow business to reach a large group of customers. It is the marketing tool that helps an event
industry to gain traffic to a website, generating potential customers and overall benefited to the
company. Therefore, it is one of the powerful and free online tools that is available to anyone in
order to meet the business goals. While on the other side, Mangold and Faulds, (2019) states that
social media is one of the most effective way to engage with the potential events attendees and
gain a media exposure for a particular event. This is a tool in event industry that helps to
promote, enhance and sustain any event. Further, the social media are an interactive computer
mediated technology that facilitate sharing of information, some ideas and career interest via
virtual communication.
In the same way, Couldry, (2018) stated that in the modern era, it is quite essential for
every company to use social media to sustain their brand image in the competitive market and it
also helps to gain highly competitive advantages as well. For example, Facebook is one of the
popular free social networking websites that allows variety of users to promote their event on
this such that the company post their new event or services on it so that they can reach to large
group of people in single way. Thus, it shows that it is one of the most important marketing tools
that helps a business to grow at further level of success.
Theme 2: Benefits and drawbacks of social media
As per the view of Perrin, (2015) social media platforms offers free and useful tool that
can be effective for firm for managing interaction with buyers. Therefore, in context of
Facebook, it helps to generate extra business and also improve the brand reputation using social
proofing. On the other side, for an event industry. Even one of the biggest benefits of make use
of social media for Facebook is that is a time saving and one of the most advanced marketing

tool as compared to other promotional tool. Apart from this, promoting the products by using
social media helps to increases the customer base and also helps to keep interacting with variety
of people at different locations. Therefore, it has been analysed that using social media as a
marketing tool helps to reduce the marketing cost and raise sales by improving the ranking on
search engines.
On the other side, it has been critically evaluated by Guy (2018) that using social media
also creates negative impact upon business such that if the quoted firm uses it, without having a
clear marketing strategy then it may result in reduce the benefits for a business. In addition to
this, it has been further analysed by the author that the social media accounts are also prone to
security breaches and it may damage the brand image of the firm also. Jacsó, (2015) critic that
for a company it is not easy to cope up with the sudden change on regular basis. This happens
because things change at fast. Also, new social media platform is also launched which helps in
targeting different type of segmented buyers. Thus, it is considered one of the greatest challenges
for Facebook. Risk of negative publicity is another disadvantage of using social media in the
marketplace, such that without proper management, the company may damage its reputation.
Moreover, marketing has their own goals and also find out the ways that helps to improve
customer base as well. In the same time, due to thigh range of customers followers in social
media, this marketing tool also takes long time before showing the return on investment.
Theme 3: Identify social media influence on Facebook and recommend ways to mitigate
drawbacks
It has been analysed that social media creates both positive and negative impact upon the
Facebook. But on the other side, it has been stated by Lieb (2018) there are different ways
through which the company can mitigate the drawbacks of using social media such that the
quoted firm should first acknowledge the issues whenever getting any negative feedback. Firm
should also hear their customer feedback and if these are actual then try to make strategies in
order to overcome from the issue. Apart from this, sometimes it is good to have a basic
messaging strategy for the negative comments on social media channels as this helps to creates
trust among peoples.
In addition to this, according to the Tuten and Solomon (2017) to mitigate the breaches of
security in the workplace, company should also use Data Protection Act in order to keep the data
confidential. This helps a business to run smoothly and maintain confidentiality as well. Further,

it is quite necessary for the firm to use some advance technologies into the working area so that it
will help to cope up with the sudden change on regular basis. Facebook keep developing new
strategy in order to mitigate various problems and drawback to manage effective social media
connection.
RESEARCH METHODOLGY
Research methodology is the process which is used for gathering information regarding
the purpose of making important business decisions. Research methodology can also be defined
as the philosophical framework through which research study is conducted and foundation upon
that research is based (Kasemsap, 2019). This includes research philosophies, methods,
approaches, types, methods of data collection, designs and also ethical considerations which are
used in the practical study research. The research type which is chosen by the researcher for
conducting present study underpins the research work and methods that are used for collecting
important and relevant data. In order to conduct the present study, subjectivist method is used as
it is based on the analysis and interpretation of reality (Lee, 2018).
Research Philosophy
The research philosophy can be stated as the belief regarding the different ways through
which research data is gathered, analysed and used. There are four types of research philosophies
such as Pragmatism, Realism, Positivism and Interpretivism. For conducting the present research
study, positivism philosophy is used as highly structured and it focuses on explaining and
predicting effectively. It can be used in qualitative and quantitative research methods (Nyaribo
and Munene, 2018).
Research Approaches
This refers to the plan and process which consists of different steps regarding broad
assumptions of data collection methods, data analysis and also its interpretation. There are three
different types of approaches which can be used in research study, such as deductive, inductive
and abductive (Colicev and et.al., 2018). The deductive research approach is based on the theory
falsification or verification, inductive approach is based on theory generating and building
whereas, abduction approach is based on theory generation and modification. The present
research topic is identifying the benefits and challenges of social media in the event industry
used as communication tool which requires qualitative research method and inductive approach

as it will help in bringing effective results and outcomes. Inductive research approach is chosen
as it also focuses on understanding various dynamics, individual behaviour and also on
constructing alternative futures (McNichols and Stubben, 2018).
Research Strategy
This research strategy refers to the step-by-step action plan which provides direction for
the thoughts and efforts of researcher (Chan and Leung, 2018). Research strategy enables
researcher for conducting the research study in a systematic manner and according to schedule
for producing the quality results and also detailed reporting. The research strategy helps in
gathering relevant data through relevant and authentic sources and insight answers for the
research problem, it also tests the hypothesis and then evaluate the results or outcomes.
Descriptive research strategy is chosen in order to conduct the present research study because it
will helps in supportive logical reasoning of research arguments.
Research Design
This is the framework or technique that is selected by the researcher for combining
different aspects or elements of the research study. Research design helps in combining the
various aspects of study in systematic, reasoning and logical manner thus it leads to bring
effective results and outcomes (Molinillo and et.al., 2018). There are four types of research
design such as co-relational, experimental, semi-experimental and descriptive. In order to
effectively conduct the present research study, descriptive research design is selected. This is
theory-based design that is created through gathering, analysing and presenting the gathered data
in a systematic way. Researcher can effectively provide the insights of how and why of the
research topic by implementing the descriptive research design.
Time Horizon
The time horizon is divided into two categories such as Longitudinal and Cross-sectional.
The longitudinal studies are generally repeated over the extended time-period. Whereas, cross-
sectional studies are focused in specific time period. Thus, the present research study is
conducted through using cross-sectional time horizon (Kasemsap, 2019).
Data Collection
This is the process for collecting relevant information through all the relevant sources.
Different methods of data collection method helps in finding research problem's answer. Data

collection methods are divided into two types or categories, such as primary method and
secondary method (Drummond, McGrath and O'Toole, 2018). Secondary data can be collected
through already published data from newspaper, magazines, internet, books and journal. Primary
data method can be sub-divided into qualitative and quantitative methods. For conducting the
present research study, qualitative method is chosen. This method ensures for greater level and
depth of understanding the research topic and it includes interviews, observation, case study and
questionnaire. Questionnaire and qualitative data collection methods are used for gathering the
required and relevant data for conducting the research study (Shiau, Dwivedi and Lai, 2018).
Data Analysis
The information collected through the primary methods are then inspected, cleaned and
moulded for making it useful and meaningful (Quinlan and et.al., 2019). Qualitative method are
used for gathering required information and it refers to non-numeric information which is
collected through interview, questionnaire or observations. In order to analyse the present
research study, textual data analysis is chosen. This method helps in closely examining the
meaning and contents of text and also structures of qualitative data. Researcher can effectively
describe the content and structure of the research data through the text analysis method.
Timeline
Task Name Duration Start Finish
Introduction 10 days Mon 4/15/19 Fri 4/26/19
Aims and objectives 14 days Mon 4/29/19 Thu 5/16/19
Literature review 20 days Fri 5/17/19 Thu 6/13/19
Data collection 10 days Fri 6/14/19 Thu 6/27/19
Data Analysis 13 days Fri 6/28/19 Tue 7/16/19
Conclusion 5 days Wed 7/17/19 Tue 7/23/19
Submission 2 days Wed 7/24/19 Thu 7/25/19

Gantt Chart
Research limitations
In the process of conducting the present research study, researcher faced some
limitations. The researcher faced many challenges for identifying the benefits and limitations of
Facebook as a communication tool because this very wide in nature (Kumar, 2019). But, through
using secondary data collection method and qualitative data, researcher was able to conduct the
research in an effective way. One more limitation which can hinder research is time constraint
where researcher will be bound researcher to complete research in specific time. But researcher
managed to complete the research study in given period of time i.e. ten weeks.
Ethical Considerations
This is considered as the one of the most essential part of the research study. Ethics can
be defined as norms and standards which lead to make difference between what is wrong and
what is right. Researcher needs to effectively understand this element or aspect of research study
for making the study more authentic and valid. Researcher needs to consider the following
ethical consideration while conducting the research study:
 Research participants were not subject to any risk or harm.

 The participants of the study were not forced for taking participation in the research study
and they were also given the rights for leaving the research at any time if they wanted.
 For collecting the information or data regarding the research study, authentic and valid
sources were used. Wikipedia and Investopedia were not taken in use.
 In the present research study, confidentiality level is maintained adequately.
 Researcher makes sure about the protection and privacy of data.
CONCLUSION
The study concluded about use of social media as a communication tool may lead to
bring both advantages and disadvantages for the business organisation. It discussed about
Facebook which is a social media communication tool brings various benefits and challenges as
well for the event industries. The gathered data of the research will help researcher in identifying
the various benefits and risks linked with social media websites and their implications on
business organisations. Thus, the study covered methodology which will support scholar in
collecting and analysing information to address research questions.

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