Evaluating the Efficiency of Social Media Marketing in Business

The research gap in the efficiency of social media marketing is identified, with a focus on the type of business that can benefit from social networking marketing, methods for reaching target customers, and measuring return on investment. The study aims to investigate the impact of social media consumption on brand visibility, customer base, and sales, as well as explore whether there is a link between online promotions and benefits to businesses.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Project Objective..........................................................................................................................2
Project Scope................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Social Networking........................................................................................................................3
Advantages of Social networking in Business.............................................................................3
Disadvantages of Social Networking in Business........................................................................3
Research Gap...................................................................................................................................4
Research Question/Hypothesis........................................................................................................4
Primary question..........................................................................................................................4
Secondary Question.....................................................................................................................4
Research Design and Methodology.................................................................................................5
Research Design...........................................................................................................................5
Research Methodology................................................................................................................5
Secondary Method for Data Collection.......................................................................................5
Primary Method for Data Collection...........................................................................................5
Procedure for Data Collection......................................................................................................5
Sampling Method.............................................................................................................................6
Sample Size..................................................................................................................................6
Research Limitations.......................................................................................................................6
Time Schedule (Research Plan).......................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Social networking is considered to be an exciting medium that took the whole world to an extent
and level that now it has become something so crucial that no business could even afford to
ignore it. Social media platforms like Google Plus, LinkedIn and twitter have millions of users
and thus, it has relevance and importance for regular users and businesses as well. Social Media
is defined as platform for interactions among individuals where they exchange share and create
the ideas and information in virtual networks and communities (Akar, et al., 2011). Earlier,
business had to move from door to door for raising the awareness as well as grow their brands.
And many big brands had sufficient power to reach the markets by using huge budget for
advertising. In today’s dynamic environment of business, social media is getting a new tool
which is accessible for all the business which immediately creates the relationship with the
potential consumers. Social networking does not need any investment with respect to time or
money (Tuten, et al., 2014).
Project Objective
 To study influence and impact of the social media over performance of business.
 To study the impact of different activities of online promotion on the visibility of brand
 To study the performance of business after including the social networking marketing
Project Scope
The scope of this project is to study and identify how business may leverage the social media in
order to penetrate the markets of their concern, reach out to the customers and create
relationships in direct and personal manner which may catapult the brand as well as increase the
alertness as successfully as large business (Walker, et al., 2014). This report unveils impact of
social media over online decisions to purchase by customers.

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Literature Review
Social Networking
Social networking is online community which understands the group and social graph of
individuals who are active in market and have their focus over promotion ad brand only (Tiago,
et al., 2014). The nowadays are talking about business or product on Facebook, Twitter or
Snapchat and Google Plus. Social Network is a medium to communicate with organizational
society and clients and is a powerful tool of business (Aral, et al., 2013).
Advantages of Social networking in Business
Social network have the power to access and reach out to right consumer by not spending any
money over advertisement. Because of this technology, the company is able to adopt new ways
and grow as to stay in the competition (Ashley, et al., 2015). Business may upload logos and
pictures and various details that can be vibe to mutual friends and they may also post any picture
related to business leading to sales growth.
Disadvantages of Social Networking in Business
People may use this sites of social networking for preying on vulnerable and nave information
which is sensitive like jobs, marital status, addresses, and date of births (Nadaraja, et al., 2013).
Many business are shifting towards social media for customer relations and advertising but
individuals usually foresee the sites of social networking as threat (Stelzner, et al., 2012). A huge
data is present on almost every site which is shared by number of users which may make it
vulnerable to incorrect use of the data and insecurity. If good amount of precautions are taken,
using social media networking for business is good. There are various benefits involved in using
social media networking in Business while there are many cons related to use of social
networking in Business (Ghose, et al., 2009).

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Research Gap
Literature on efficiency of marketing of social media and its consummation is lacking largely.
While huge business may engage the services of firs of market research for evaluating the
efficiency of the marketing services, the businesses spend their capital which is available over
marketing activities (Gommans, et al., 2001). The following areas will be explored:
 Type of business will add value via social networking marketing (Kim, et al., 2016).
 Methods that are followed for reaching target customers.
 Effectiveness and efficiency of marketing of social media measured with respect to return
on investment.
 Impact on suing social media on brand visibility, effect over customer base, and sales
(Gregori, et al., 2015).
 It is significant for investigating the social media which is consumed via target
customers.
Research Question/Hypothesis
For this research paper the following hypothesis is being formulated:
Primary question
H1: there is no link between activities related to online promotions and the benefits it has over
business
H2: there is link between activities related to online promotions and the benefits it has over
business

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Secondary Question
No association is there between the frequency of using social media and the advantages to
business
Association is there between the frequency of using social media and the advantages to business
Research Design and Methodology
Research Design
Exploratory research is the research which is initially conducted for clarifying and defining the
nature of problems that does not give the conclusive evidence as well as further research is also
expected (Kaur, et al., 2016). The aim of the research is to get to know the phenomenon of
marketing of social media and to get latest insights in it (Hastings, et al., 2013). The outcomes
acquired through the study may not be categorized to large population, therefore the research
design is called as exploratory research.
Research Methodology
Quantitative method for data collection are used to generate the results that are convenient to
generalize, compare and summarize (Jiaoh, et al., 2015). The collection of data is done using
secondary and primary methods.
Secondary Method for Data Collection
A lot of information is collected by making use of online journals, articles, research papers,
dissertations, research reports, newspaper articles, journals, and books.
Primary Method for Data Collection
Online questionnaires for research were developed for survey for businesses and customers’ ad
were sent to the respected participant via mails.

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Procedure for Data Collection
Online Instruments were designed for this research to get the data from sample selected which
was developed using service of google Form. New forms were put to use to data collection and
the respondent’s identity were secured. The links that were crated were uploaded over social
sites as well as sent to contacts via messengers.
Sampling Method
The population under study includes all consumers and business who use social networking and
hence it was not easy to gather the data by the census method and therefore, sampling method is
utilized for collecting information. Considering the available resources and time, non-probability
method of convenience sampling is used.
Sample Size
Sample Size Retailer Consumer Total
Collected 107 138 245
Estimated 100 100 200
(Rejected) 8 0 8
Net Collected 99 138 237
Research Limitations
Use of Online Questionnaire can exclude those people who are not in direct use of internet
(Ismail, et al., 2017). There is no reliability of correct answers being given by the respondents
due to limited resources and time. Also all tolls of engagement to social media are not
discovered.

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Time Schedule (Research Plan)

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Conclusion
Social networking marketing is significant as it brings into line with way the consumers make
their decisions related to purchasing. The studies show that many consumers are making use of
services of internet for conducting their preliminary price and product research prior to making
the ultimate decisions. Marketing via social media helps to build the relation with prospects and
customers through low cost and regular personalized communication which reflects the mass
marketing. Marketing the products using social media is less expensive as compared to its
marketing using physical outlet. Many business man use the social media networking for
building the community around their business.

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REFERENCES
Akar, E. and Topçu, B., 2011. An examination of the factors influencing consumers' attitudes
toward social media marketing. Journal of Internet Commerce, 10(1), pp.35-67.
Aral, S., Dellarocas, C. and Godes, D., 2013. Introduction to the special issue—social media and
business transformation: a framework for research. Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp.3-
13.
Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1),
pp.15-27.

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Ghose, A., Ipeirotis, P. and Li, B., 2009, September. The economic impact of user-generated
content on the Internet: Combining text mining with demand estimation in the hotel industry.
In Proceedings of the 20th workshop on information systems and economics (WISE).
Gommans, M., Krishnan, K.S. and Scheffold, K.B., 2001. From brand loyalty to e-loyalty: A
conceptual framework. Journal of Economic and Social research, 3(1), pp.43-58.
Gregori, G.L., Marinelli, L. and Temperini, V., 2015. THE USE OF DIGITAL MARKETING
TOOLS IN SMES: NEEDS, PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES AN EMPIRICAL STUDY
IN THE MARCHE REGION. ISSN 2045-810X, p.69.
Hastings, G. and Domegan, C., 2013. Social marketing: From tunes to symphonies. Routledge.
Ismail, A.R., 2017. The influence of perceived social media marketing activities on brand loyalty
The mediation effect of brand and value consciousness. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and
Logistics, 29(1).
Jiao, H. and Lu, L., 2015, December. Concerning Popularity in an Online Trust Relationship.
In Smart City/SocialCom/SustainCom (SmartCity), 2015 IEEE International Conference on (pp.
366-371). IEEE.
Kaur, K., 2016. Social media marketing: a tool to achieve competitive
advantage. ACADEMICIA: An International Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 6(4), pp.334-
344.
Kim, D.J., Yim, M.S., Sugumaran, V. and Rao, H.R., 2016. Web assurance seal services, trust
and consumers’ concerns: an investigation of e-commerce transaction intentions across two
nations. European Journal of Information Systems, 25(3), pp.252-273.

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Nadaraja, R. and Yazdanifard, R., 2013. Social media marketing: advantages and
disadvantages. Center of Southern New Hempshire University.
Stelzner, M., 2014. 2012 social media marketing industry report. Social media examiner, pp.1-
52.
Tiago, M.T.P.M.B. and Veríssimo, J.M.C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why
bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), pp.703-708.
Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2014. Social media marketing. Sage.
Walker, S., 2014. Social Media Marketing Tips: Essential Strategy Advice and Tips for Business
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Much More!. CreateSpace
Independent Publishing Platform.
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APPENDIX
Time Schedule (Research Plan)

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