Impact of Social Media on STC Telecom

This assignment examines the influence of social media on STC Telecom Company's operations and success. Students will delve into how social media platforms shape STC's marketing strategies, customer interactions, and overall brand image. The analysis should encompass both positive impacts, such as increased reach and engagement, and potential challenges, such as managing online reputation and navigating cultural sensitivities in Saudi Arabia.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON BUSINESESS IN SAUDI ARABIA
Please paraphrase all the red lines in better way
by using simple language please
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Abstract
This research highlights the use of social media on worldwide businesses
and particularly discusses the context of small and medium sized
enterprises in Saudi Arabia. Social media networking sites such as
Facebook twitter Instagram and many more to name are getting
worldwide popularity compared to traditional method such as TV, Radio,
Newspapers and other old Media’s.
Saudi Arabia has adapted fast growing technologies rate in the Middle
East, which allow businesses to utilize social media for advertising and
promoting their business. The concerning aim of this research is to
evaluate how Saudi Arabian large companies use social media for
enhancing their customer interaction. This can be considered as a part of
their marketing strategy. The research further revealed the impact of
social media for Saudi society completely by keeping its aim toward
businesses. Second part of methodology discusses data collection for this
research, which is qualitative approach, done among two chosen
companies Alhokair group company resembling small business and STC a
large business in Saudi Arabia. The findings states that the large
businesses acknowledge the importance of social media and the
networking sites for promotion and they have active involvement in
customer interaction. However, small businesses are still unaware of the
profit that social media will provide them. Businesses face many
challenges in Saudi Arabia such as confidentiality, alterations, defense,
liabilities and lost productivity. Study also revealed that the Hierarchy
pyramid can be useful for small businesses to initiate and develop their
marketing strategies.
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Acknowledgment
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................. 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................3
LIST OF FIGURE..........................................................................4
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS............................................................4
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.......................................................5
1.1 OVERVIEW OF SOCIAL MEDIA..................................................................5
1.2 1 RESEARCH AIMS, OBJECTIVES..............................................................7
1.2.1 Aims...........................................................................................7
1.2.2 Objectives..................................................................................7
1.2.3 Research Questions...................................................................7
1.3 RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION.....................................................................7
1.4 OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION..............................................................8
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................9
1.5 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................9
1.6 DISCUSSION ON IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON BUSINESSES........................10
1.6.1 Communication........................................................................11
1.6.2 Marketing.................................................................................12
1.6.3 Decision making.......................................................................13
1.6.4 Gain valuable customer insights..............................................14
1.7 THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN SAUDI ARABIA..........................................14
1.8 CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IN SAUDI ARABIA....................17
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1.9 COMPARISON BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS AND TRADITIONAL BUSINESS
17
1.10 CHAPTER SUMMARY.........................................................................18
CHAPTER3: RESEARCH METHODLOGY.......................................19
1.11 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW..........................................................19
1.12 RESEARCH SAMPLE..........................................................................20
For this study, it was important to find a sample size comprising only
organizations.......................................................................................20
that use social media. Two organizations were selected; Saudi
Telecom...............................................................................................20
Company (STC) and Alhokair Group company. More details about
these two.............................................................................................20
chosen companies are included in the Findings and Discussion
Chapter................................................................................................20
1.13 OVERVIEW OF INFORMATION NEEDED..................................................21
1.14 RESEARCH DESIGN OVERVIEW...........................................................21
1.15 DATA COLLECTION METHOD..............................................................22
1.16 DATA ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS........................................................22
1.17 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS.................................................................23
1.18 ISSUES OF TRUSTWORTHINESS...........................................................23
1.19 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY...............................................................24
1.20 CHAPTER SUMMARY.........................................................................24
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS & DISCUSSION.......................25
1.21 INTRODUCTION................................................................................25
1.22 SECTION 1: A DETAILED ILLUSTRATION OF RESEARCH CASE STUDY..........25
1.22.1 Saudi Telecom Company (STC)................................................26
1.22.2 Alhokair Group Company.........................................................29
1.23 SECTION 2: ILLUSTRATION OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS WITH THEIR
ANSWERS..................................................................................................31
1.23.1 How do social media support businesses in the KSA to make a
better sale nowadays than in the past when there were no social
media?31
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1.23.2 Why do businesses in the KSA use social media and do they
use it effectively?................................................................................32
1.23.3 What are the challenges of the use of social media by an
organization?.......................................................................................34
1.24 SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER...............................................................35
LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 4.1: The STC Twitter Page..............................................................31
Figure 4.2: The STC Facebook Page..........................................................32
Figure 4.3:Alhokair Group Facebook page................................................36
List of Abbreviations
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
multi-national corporations(MNC)
small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
Saudi Telecom Company (STC)
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1 Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Overview of Social Media
This research focuses on discussing the impact of social media in Kingdom
of Saudi Arabian Businesses. Social media has become an innovative and
effective medium that combines technologies and marketing strategies.
Social media is often used to increase brand awareness and in promotion
of the products. The social media offers the market with the opportunity
to contact with the peers and the customers by personalizing their brand
(Lenhart et al 2015).
Social media tools such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter offer an
opportunity for corporate brands to connect with their customers on a
personal level. It is also useful in getting feedback and reviews about
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products. Similarly, online review services help an enterprise whilst at the
same time having the potential to make or break their business (King et
al. 2014). The ability of a company to leverage user review helps in
obtaining knowledge about their customer base and their product or
service perceptions. It consequently helps in building client relationship
and identifying the brand’s value-added offering from the user’s
perspective. The most important platform is the company website to show
case the brand product or service to the world (Brynjolfsson et al. 2013).
Social media marketing reaches to a larger number of customers and
using social media in marketing can bring great success to business.
Presently, the importance of social media is realized as it enhances the
process of connectivity with the customers. Both multi-national
corporations (MNCs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) implement
strategies to engage their customers using the online platform, which
helps them in promoting the products and building trust among customers
(Fuchs, C., 2017). Social media offers two other important benefits, which are
cost reduction and revenue generation opportunity. For marketing social
media helps in evaluating the prospects of business by introducing
customer interaction and help in receiving customer feedback. Excluding
this, using social media for marketing helps the business in acquiring
information about the competitors and helps in implementing the business
strategies to expand their business (Goud, 2016).
Using traditional marketing tools for building a brand image is a
time consuming process. using social media, communicating with the
customers is easier. About 47% of the world population are using internet
and among them, the buying through Smartphone has rapidly increased
with the demographic use of internet (Taylor 2017). To be more precise,
this research focuses on the use of social media in Saudi Arabian business
by highlighting the aims and objectives of the research in the following
sections.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the research
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1.2.1 Aims
 The primary aim of this research is to conduct a primary research in
the literature review section and discuss the use of social media for
Saudi Arabian business to acquire the knowledge about how to
promote the products.
 Another aim of this research is to how expanded the media crusade
are in online networking and in which way the SME’s can take up
their suggestion for introducing advertising and branding
techniques.
1.2.2 Objectives
 To investigate, which factors of social media impacts on the Saudi
Arabian business?
 To evaluate in which way the Saudi Arabian business uses social
media as a form of marketing strategy for developing customer
interaction.
1.2.3 Research Questions
 How do social media support businesses in the KSA to make a better
sale nowadays than in the past when there were no social media?
 Why do businesses in the KSA use social media and do they use it
effectively?
 What are challenges/benefits of the use of social media by the KSA
organisations?
1.3 Requirement of Research in Saudi Arabia and Its Contribution
According to the research of Alwagait, Shahzad&Alim (2015), Social media
is most popular media for marketing purposes as this is the tool where
customers can involve in thetwo-waycommunication process and business
can promote their products or services cheaper than traditional methods
such as TV, radio, newspaper, etc.Due to its popularity, many types of
researchhaveperformed on the effect of social media over different
countries, but there is not much information available for KSA market
impact. Therefore, the requirement of this research increases and the
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contributions of this research are as follows:
 This studyexamines the influence of social media on the business of
Saudi Arabia companies.The reason for research in Saudi Arabia
was that social media usage has affected different countries market
but there is significantly low information available for Saudi Arabian
market. This investigation emphasis on ascertaining the effect of
social mediaon the business of Saudi Arabian
companies.Aqualitative investigationmethod has been adopted for
this investigation.
 The information from organizations such as Saudi TelecomCompany
(STC) and Alhokair Group Company has been taken to understand
the influence of using social media in their business. The selection
of these companies assists in comparison to both big and small
business on Saudi Arabia towards the use of Social media.
1.4 Outline of the Dissertation
This particular dissertation is constituted with five consecutive chapters including
introduction, literature review, research methodology, findings and discussion and conclusion
and recommendation. A brief outline of the five chapters has been given below:
Chapter 1: Introduction
The first chapter covers a brief overview of the primary research issue based on which the
entire project is conducted. While identifying the research issue the chapter has focused to
cover up particular research background, aims and objective of the entire research work.
Chapter 2: Literature review
This specific chapter is the in-depth evaluation of concepts as well as theories of research
study. In order to establish the overall concepts the point of views of some of the eminent
scholars has been discussed critically.
Chapter 3: Research methodology
This specific chapter provides detailed analysis of using methodological tools, data collection
method, research design and process. Various relevant sources of data collection along with
its proper sampling size are discussed in the chapter of research methodology.
Chapter 4: Discussion and findings
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This particular chapter is the outcome of applying appropriate research methodologies.
Discussion and findings actually evaluates the response of the participants based on which
the researcher makes a conclusion on the entire research issue.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation
This particular chapter presents the entire scenario of above four chapters. Based on the
process of work as well as research issue some of the major recommendations have also been
given.
2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
According to the research of Gerbaudo (2012), Social media are
platforms established on internet sitesthat allow users to communicate
and share content between users. They are a method of electronic
communication by which members can create online societies to create
and share a new content or ideas.Social media has evolved from a tool of
personal interaction into a vibrant marketing channel for businesses of
different sizes. Under the global competitive environment, it becomes
challenging to predict and control the factors that impact firms’
performance. It is now a requisite for all business in order to compete in
the competitive business environment. However, it is difficult to
determine the impact of social media with the deluge of technology. The
literature review section delves deep into studies conducted on the impact
of social media on businesses. A research conducted by Hughes, Rowe,
Batey& Lee (2012) concluded the usage of Twitter and Facebook for
personality prediction of customers. The research proved the difference in
personality of customers and how companies can use them to enhance
their growth.While many studies have been conducted on social media
and business, only a few studies focus on businesses in Saudi Arabia
(Hudson &Thal, 2013). This makes it necessary to research on the impact
of social media on businesses in the context of Saudi Arabia.A research
conducted by De Choudhuryet al. (2010) over North American and Asian
countries provides the change in data sampling strategy of organizations
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by usage of Social media. In particular, they find that the impact of social
media on business is highly dependent on a range of factors rather than
the mere use of social media. As a result, there is scarcity in studies that
investigate the impacts of social media on businesses which justify the
objective of this study. There is a need to add to the literature on social
media use in Saudi Arabia by focusing on businesses located in the
country. This study will examine the impact of social media on business in
Saudi Arabia.
The layout of this chapter is organized as follows: it starts with an
introduction to the research study which presents a general scope and
purpose of the undertaken research. Then, the second section provides a
discussion on impact of social media on businesses. Common themes are
developed and discussed in this chapter. Different studies conducted on
the impact of social media are also discussed in this chapter. The last
section is a summary of thechapter which narrows down the topic of
research and also outlines the discussion of the literature review.
2.2 Discussion on Impact of Social Media on Businesses
The 21st century has embraced social media as one of the driving
forces behind increased business growth. Social media is an essential
ingredient for business strategy and globalization. It is evident that social
media has brought immense improved and advanced ways of conducting
business in a fast manner in the different economies. According to
Qualman (2010), today, the use of social media by businesses is no longer
an added advantage but the actual cause and driver of business strategy.
As a result, they have become effective tools for business operations
today. This means that businesses are increasing using social media
platforms for publicity and advertisement purposes.
The adoption of social media in businesses has influenced many
aspects of organizations including people, processes and business
strategies. As per the research of Gallaugher&Ransbotham (2010),
improved access to information is possibly the greatest impact of social
media on customers. The huge increase in access to information
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pertaining to products has increased with the growth of the social media.
Small and large businesses have adopted the use of social media
applications for various reasons. Those reasons are in depth detailed in
the following sub-sections:
2.2.1 Communication
Social media has moved from a general communication tool to a
valuable tool with a considerable impact of the competitiveness of the
business. Some positive aspects of increased access to information are
the ability to form relationships and the ability to make contacts with
business stakeholders. Using social media, businesses easily
communicate with customers and suppliers. Social media communication
has allowed businesses to change operations and created a competitive
advantage. Hajli (2014) provided that, the adoption of social media in
communication by businesses provides the opportunity for rapid access to
data, dissemination, processing and assessment of large data volumes. As
a consequence, those businesses with social media have an advantage in
reaching wider markets. Such businesses remain competitive despite the
challenges of globalization.
Social media communication technologies have therefore helped
businesses to achieve higher business performance and increase their
productivity. Another impact of social media communication in businesses
is on decisions making. Social media has altered the decisions making
processes (Goh et al., 2013). Today’s business environment is complex
and exceptionally dynamic interminable. The environment is also
characterized by significant changes in customer needs and wants
(Mangold &Faulds, 2009). This requires businesses to meet these needs in
an accurately and timely if they have to guarantee the growth and
survival of their business activities. Social media communication is an
important tool that today’s businesses are using to cope with the complex
and changing environment.
The research of Courtney (2013) provided the rewards of
implementing social media strategy for communication in health and
medical institutes in different countries.This means that most businesses
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market growth strategies are influenced by the communications obtained
in social media platforms. For example, a request for a company’s
products from a certain country may influence the country to establish an
international business oversees where the market demand is high. Thus,
social media communication is an integral part of commercial landscape
and a mainstream business platform (Safko, 2010).
2.2.2 Marketing
In general, social media has improved marketing activities and
generated new virtual intermediaries for businesses in the global market
to utilize. Social media networks have allowed businesses to engage with
key audience across different social media accounts (Väyrynen et al.,
2013). While it is necessary to engage all audiences, determining the
characteristics of the audience help businesses formulate marketing
messages that appeal to different market segments. Consistent
marketing messages can be delivered on social media platforms. This
helps in building a client’s brand with persuasive user-generated content
(Sigala et al., 2012). The User-generated content that accompanies social
media channels helps in boosting effectiveness of marketing activities.
Additionally, businesses can track customer related interactions so as to
target and optimize marketing activities.
Social media is a preferred marketing platform because it provides it
provides a number of marketing benefits. The first benefit is that social
media platforms present various kinds of conveniences to the consumers
and business (Agnihotri et al, 2012). Potential and existing customers can
search for product information, evaluate the use products and make
purchases online. Hence, social media is an effective and efficient
marketing channel. Secondly, social media has the capacity to leverage
the consumption of product related information (Erdoğmuş&Cicek, 2012).
Therefore, it saves the business and customers the costs and effort
associated with information access. Another benefit of social media as a
marketing tool is that it provides a platform where image, sound, text and
visual tools can be utilized by users.
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A research conducted by Chan &Guillet (2011) over the hotel
industry of Honk Kong to ascertain how they use social media for
marketing. The researched proved that hotels in Hong Kong generally
failed in determining their customers demand through social media
sites.The substantiality of marketing information is predominantly evident
as customers continue to place more emphasis on value. On the other
hand, some products and services are heavily information dependent
(Okazaki & Taylor, 2013). Additionally, the current knowledge based
society enables businesses to jump on their competitors particularly if
they can deploy, develop and manage powerful new marketing
information systems with the ability to convert knowledge in real time into
customer value (Yu & Cao, 2013). However, value can only be realized
when businesses develop and scale up marketing roles. As a result,
attaining a competitive edge relies on the ability of a business to utilize
the comprehensive, flexible and highly interactive social media platforms
to convey product information to audience across the globe. Social media
marketing provides all these capabilities to the business (Hennig et al.,
2010).
2.2.3 Decision making
Social media provides virtually instantaneous reactions. Utilizing
data generated from social media interactions enables businesses the
access to immediate actionable insights. Taking advantages of data and
insights affects competitiveness. Data from social media is a potential
goldmine of information on prospects, customers, products and
competitors (Marshall et al., 2012). Before social media analytics, brands
only participated in social media without utilizing available data. Social
media has moved from a general communication tool to a valuable tool
with a considerable impact of the competitiveness of the business.
Businesses no longer ignore the resulting data. Today, more businesses
are capitalizing on the capabilities of social media analytics
(Kirtiş&Karahan, 2011). Essentially, utilizing data generated through
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different social media interactions enables businesses to tap into a
treasure that results from products, customers, and competitors.
The research conducted by Bertot, Jaeger & Hansen (2012) over the
government of the United States, provided that, government implement
social media policy to enhance the speed of decision making and problem-
solving process.For marketing professionals, social media analytics tools
are theimportant building business online presence or improving its online
reach online. Some analytic tools have numerous functions that are
integrated into one tool. Manifold tabs provide a general look at popular
posts, a display of the photos on feed, and a range of statistics including
post history, engagement rate, and post-distribution (Kumar
&Mirchandani, 2012). Social media analytics can help markets determine
to what extent social media audiences are sharing its content as well as
what content they are sharing. Creating content that is interesting and
relevant to target audience helps the business spread its message and
increase marketing reach (Andzulis et al., 2012). Paying close attention
different types of content helps the businesses develop messages that
audiences are more likely to connect with and share.
There are various elements through which businesses can obtain
insights. These include mentions, impressions and reach, location,
follower growth and sentiments. These elements can be used to measure
whether business social media activities are boosting its brands
(Humphreys, 2013). Impressions and reach track how often a post has
been viewed or the number of times it appears on people’s feed. Reach
measures the number of users that see a particular post. Mentions
measures how often the name of the business has been mentioned on
social media. Sentiment measures audience’s feelings about the
business or product offered by the business. Determining users’ location
in social media helps in gathering insights to that help businesses
determine marketing activities.
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Tracking follower growth on social media helps businesses create
messages that are relevant or are likely to attract a particular group of
followers. Hence, businesses gain more insights into how people feel
about its products and services on social media. They use the information
to improve product offerings or marketing activities. Thus, social media
makes it possible for business to effectively make informed decisions. It
also helps the business recognize who its audiences are and what they
prefer (Fuchs et al., 2013).
2.2.4 Gain valuable customer insights
Social media allows businesses to get real time data. Feedback from
social media platform is virtually immediate compared to other commonly
used data sources such as surveys, customer telephone, point-of-sale and
transaction reports that are time delayed. Businesses take advantage of
the real time data provided by social media platforms to determine the
success of services, products, and launches. Its immediacy provides feed
back into existing business initiatives that help adapt and fine-tune
current offerings or to the planning process (Agarwal &Yiliyasi, 2010).A
research conducted by He, Zha& Li (2013) over the different companies of
pizza industry provided how enterprises use social media to enhance pizza
booking experience for customers. The company uses social media data
to determine the location for next outlet and ascertain the places where
most people book pizza. This allows companies to enhance their sales and
future growth.
Social media analytics help businesses determine how to target
customers. As a result, businesses gain the capacity to go outside the
regular confines by looking at their target audience. These can be
obtained by asking various questions. How many target users does the
business reach? What links do audience like best? Do business activities
carry out online even matter? Measuring and analyzing the effectiveness
of social media outreach, activities and initiatives are as important as
engaging in different social media efforts (Marshall et al., 2012). The
benefit is that social media has different tools that can be used to
measure the impact of business activities. There are diverse social media
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tools that can be used to form in-depth analytics about the business. They
are flexible and authentic tools that can be used by businesses to
measure diverse factors (Wang & Wei, 2012).
2.3 Challenges of Social Media Marketing.
The wide adoption of social media by businesses shows that it is a
valuable tool today. However, businesses that use social media are faced
by various challenges that accompany the use of internet. The research of
Ghannam (2011) provided that, the first challenge is that social media
management necessitates careful planning. The most significant factor for
business to consider in planning is whether to implement a local or global
strategy. There is no one size fits all approach. Therefore, the best
strategy can be difficult to determine. Some businesses benefit from
global strategies while others benefit from local strategies. Like
technology, social media crosses the realm of important social issues
including privacy. As a result, there is increasing the cost of compliance as
governments often step in and introduce regulations. These regulations
are often costly. Social media has also led to liabilities and Lost
Productivity.
Social media use which is endowed with cost, privacy, autonomy
security and confidentiality. These kinds of issues continuously emerge.
Various eminent scholars opine that investment for the purpose of
security of user information is highly important. As a result, social media
use has enhanced the business operation cost. Businesses have already
received threats because the need for data security has remained in the
fore front of social media adoption. In order to protect personal
information some of the laws and regulations should be maintained. The
breach of data is having a major impact on publicized lawsuits (Van Dijck
2013).
2.4 Comparison between Social Media Business and Traditional
Business
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Social media has turned to an effective and efficient conduit for
small and large businesses leading to global market expansion. Compared
with traditional company marketing channels, social media platforms have
various benefits. The first opportunity availed by social media is the ability
to have real time interactions between the business and its stakeholders.
Social media users can directly interact with the business unlike in
traditional media. The connections in social media are based on networks
established in reality (Macnamara&Zerfass, 2012).
This means that social media platforms enable users to establish a
certain level of trusts based on comments and reviews. Additionally, social
media interactions and conversations are two–way unlike conventional
channels utilized by businesses. Users also enjoy rapid responses to
queries and questions. Consumers are easily attracted by close business.
In addition to its communicational capabilities, Social media also has
transactional capabilities. More precisely, business have increased their
penetration to international markets and developed entirely new markets
with the help of social media.
Today, social media has become the source of information for
businesses in Saudi Arabia. Video streaming is slowly replacing
conventional TV and mobile is everything. Trade show attendance is also
going virtual (Aral &Godes, 2013). Social media has basically become the
source for product information as well as a platform to meet new
customers. The smartest marketing investment is utilizing social media to
build and continue to reach an important audience. Social media
marketing strategies are likely to change over coming years. Social media
also improves consumer learning and aids people in selecting products
that can best satisfy their needs.
Traditional media has a narrow reach compared to social media. Social
media reaches millions of users around the world. Social media also has
the ability to accurately target a particular group often in a specielocation
unlike traditional media. Social media is low cost or free unlike traditional
media. Social media is also fast and easy to use. With social media, a
business can communicate on a personal basis with individual customers.
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It is thereforemore personal than traditional media. For these reason,
social media has tended to replace traditional media and has evolved as a
channel with much potential.
2.5 The Use of Social Media in Saudi Arabia
Businesses in Saudi Arabia have increasingly adopted the use social
media. Many businesses use social media for publicity and advertising.
Followers give opinions and suggestions in improving the business.
According to BBC News2016, Saudi Arabia is one of the largest social
media markets in the Middle East and Saudi social media users ranked 7th
in the world.
Based on studies by various researchers, small businesses have
adopted social media platforms for use in marketing, advertising,
branding, and communication. With clear goals and the right approach,
businesses can easily reach their target customers.
Using the right approach, businesses in Saudi Arabia have built a
long-term relationship with customers. Social media has provided the
opportunity to businesses to communicate effectively. Small businesses
have spread out their operations using a range of weak ties. This means
that social media has had a positive impact on businesses. It also requires
the minimal budget to run and create interactions with customers and
other stakeholders. Social media posts are the equivalent of newspaper
ads or fliers. They have helped businesses in Saudi Arabia increased
brand awareness (Malthouse et al., 2013).
They have built name recognition and helped businesses in the
creation of brand identity. Social media networks now act as gateways for
businesses to profit and grow in the industry. Businesses are increasingly
keen to use social media for communication, recruitment and marketing
strategy. Social networking is now a daily practice in business’s lives.
According to Stephen &Galak (2012), it does not only offer extensive
opportunities for businesses but also for customers. Companies use social
media applications to spread their businesses by taking advantage of
existing weak ties.
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The role of weak ties is to gather information about business by
business owners. Social media applications are important in maintaining
the connection with weak ties. It helps in creating a good reputation and
leverages essential communication between customers in term of
customer support, feedback, product definition and development and
customer service. As a result, social media platforms are viewed as some
of the easiest ways to improve productivity (Leung et al., 2013).
Many businesses now take into consideration the usage of social
media in public relations activities. It is clear that we are in the age of
Data-Driven PR. In this age, there is an abundance of data insights at our
fingertips. Today, it is easier to analyze data in many ways to help the
public relations department in organizations to accomplish their goals,
from customer preference and advocacy to awareness building and
audience engagement. The key to data success is having the right
platform and system in place. With these platforms, it becomes possible
for businesses in Saudi Arabia to can accurately gather and filter the
information to glean valuable insights.
There are numerous social media platforms available to businesses
in Saudi Arabia. For example, through Google Analytics, businesses can
carve out necessary data insights, create smarter communication and
allow managers to make better-informed decisions. Additionally, the
business marketing campaign is an ongoing process. But unless the
business knows whether it is on the right track, it could possibly be
heading to the opposite direction (Manovich, 2011).
Social media data is used in this area to understand what works
and what does it and also ensure that Saudi Arabian businesses invest
money and time in optimizing right activities. Additionally, by looking at
audience reports, businesses can be able to identify gaps and also identify
perception (Rodriguez et al., 2015). This way, large and small businesses
can determine where to invest further budget. Many businesses have
implemented social media plans. The objective of the social media plan is
to establish strategic and beneficial relationships with the amplifiers to
improve engagement on social media sites (Rodriguez et al., 2012).
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Amplifiers are significant in keeping the conversation flowing and
enhancing interactions with conventional online mainstream media and
corporate media. Establishing a relationship with amplifiers is likely to
have more people interacting with the business.
The strategy involves finding a niche of social media followers.
Followers are likely to follow amplifiers who keep the conversation flowing
and promoting interactions with conventional online mainstream media
and corporate media. Amplifiers determine what to like, share or retweet
and what not to. Thus, they will be useful in enhancing engagement of
social media followers (Chung & Austria, 2010). Another strategy used by
businesses in Saudi Arabia is engaging social media users through
valuable and relevant Content. Social networking is all about sharing
valuable information and content. Customers are only interested in
relevant and valuable content. Businesses require relevant and quality
content. Creating relevant content and focusing on getting influencers to
engage with it can make it go viral incredibly fast as more people can
discover content through organic and social search.
More time is spent thinking about the levers necessary to generate actual
engagement and step up interaction with messaging and content. Sharing
valuable content is one of the easy ways to connect with customers.
Finding photos to share is one way to improve engagement through
images. Based on survey results, researchers have found that adoption of
social media by businesses is inclined more towards communication,
branding, lead generation and public relations.
2.6 Chapter Summary
Social media has numerous positive impacts on businesses. The
most obvious opportunity is to generate revenue. This is done by
advertising business products or services or building a community within
the social media platform. The second impact is brand development.
Using social media allows businesses to connect and interact with users at
a more personal level. It also attracts and retains customers. These
impacts are evident in growth and profitability of businesses. More
22

importantly, this chapter discussed in depth the important aspects of
social media on business with giving more focus on business on Saudi
Arabia and how they use social media as this research is intended to
address the challenges that affect the business there as well as to study
and analyze the impact of social media on their business. In addition,
more details about how this research is conducted and which Saudi
business were chosen for the purpose of this research are provided on the
Methodology Chapter of this thesis.
3 CHAPTER3: RESEARCHMETHODLOGY
3.1 Introduction and Overview
This research is done for purpose of studying the impact of the use
of social media on businesses on Saudi Arabia and also providing an
answer for the questions of this undertaken research (further information
about the research questions and their answers were in depth provided in
the Research Findings and Discussion chapter). In this specific study,
qualitative research approach has been used for conducting the entire
research work. With the help of qualitative research approach, an
individual gets the scope of defining the research issue analytically in
order to collect evidence. Qualitative research process tends to produce
the result that is not predetermined. This particular research approach is
used at the time of describing variations. This specific study is exploratory
in nature. When the researcher is having the lack of knowledge and
information the individual needs to conduct qualitative research study.
With the help of an effective interview method, the research can get the
scope to gather analytical point of view.
As this research aimed to focus on businesses in Saudi Arabia, a
case study of companies located in this country was used. The contents of
this chapter are organized to be as follows: a detailed discussion of the
research sample along with the required information for answering the
research questions. Then, it was followed by a full description of the
research methodology including data collection and data analysis. This
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chapter also provides some other important relevant concepts to the
methodology of this research such as ethical considerations, limitations of
this study and others.
3.2 Research Sample
For this study, it was important to find a sample size comprising only
organizations
that use social media. Two organizations were selected; Saudi Telecom
Company (STC) and Alhokair Group company. More details about these
two
chosen companies are included in the Findings and Discussion Chapter.
Purposive sampling was employed in selecting the sample. Purposive
research is also known as selective, judgmental or subjective sampling. It
is a non-probability sampling technique where the units that are
investigated are based on the judgment of the researcher. The reason
behind utilizing purposive sampling is to enable the researcher to focus on
particular characteristics of a population that are of interest. By choosing
and studying the two organizations in Saudi Arabia, the researcher has
the ability to answer the research questions (more information about the
research questions and their answers can be found in the Findings and
Discussion Chapter of this thesis).
According to Etikan, Musa &Alkassim (2016), purposive sampling as
a type of research design that necessitates researcher to take a decision
about the sample that would be more likely contribute appropriate data in
terms of depth and relevance. The choice of purposive sampling
technique was also necessitated by its ability to ensure minimum
variations by picking a narrow range of variations on dimensions in
common patterns. There are controversies between depth and breadth,
between doing something in greater depth, or in less depth, along with
limitations of time and money. The two organization that are selected as
sources of case study develop results that fill the gap of the literature
review.
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In a case study conducted by Julig (2014), over examining the
influence of social media on corporations, same approach was taken as
well. The researcher use data form different small and big companies to
analyses the influence of social media on their corporations. In the study,
Julig also collected from various social media sites for these companies, to
get better data for the research.
3.3 Overview of Information Needed
The researcher collected data on social media activities of the two
organizations. The information was used to determine the purpose of
social media engagements by the organizations and the impacts of the
use of social media on those two-chosen business. The second set of
information relates to the effects of social media engagement on the
organizations. This information was derived from various sources which
include the two company’s websites, Saudi newspapers and other
scientific published reports about social media usage in Saudi companies,
such as Arab News, Al Jazirah and Saudi Gazette.
3.4 Research Design Overview
Theresearch designs are the technique and process of collecting
and evaluating data for specific research requirements. There are
different types of research designs and researcher has to ascertain the
most suitable method for this research. The various type of research
design include descriptive, correlational, quantitative, case analysis,
qualitative, scientific and many more. The selection of proper research
design helps in improving the effectiveness and productivity of the
research.
Case analysis design was adopted for the research. According to Yin
(2013), case analysis is widely used in organizational studies as a rigorous
research strategy in its own right. Case analysis design is appropriate to
new research areas where existing theory seems inadequate. When the
research area is new, case study research design emerges as an obvious
25

option for the researchers who are seeking to conduct a modest scale
research project based on organizations. The choice of the design was
appropriate as it supports more detailed investigation of the impact of
social media on businesses. The researcher needed to conduct a study
relating to a single unit. Case study research design provided the best
approach to studying fewer units in a detailed way. The types of questions
that guided the study also determined the choice of the research design.
Case study design supports detailed analysis that is necessary for
answering why and how questions. The design is also appropriate where it
is necessary to utilize a variety of evidence from various sources such as
different social media platforms.
3.5 Data Collection Method
Data for the research topic was collected from two organizations.
The research was carried out through collecting data from company’s
websites, Saudi newspapers and other scientific published reports and
those different sources were as the tools for data collection. The choice of
those various techniques was informed by the ability of the method to
provide detailed information about the research topic.
The Case study conducted incorporates informationaboutthe
organization. Social media pages were reviewed to determine the
strategies adopted by the organizations under study. The pages were
reviewed through- out to provide a basis for the rationale. An examination
oftheorganization’s campaign, communication and marketing practices
provided insights to the benefits achieved by the organization.
According to Chan, Fung &Chien (2013), data gathering is the most
critical step in the research process as the data significantly contribute to
a better understanding of a theoretical framework. It then becomes
necessary that selecting the method of capturing data and from whom the
data will be collected should be done with sound judgment. There are
different ways of sampling data, and non-probability techniques can be as
effective as probability methods in some situations. The sampling
process used for the purpose for this study is a kind of non-probability
26

sampling that provides decisions that are based on the various criteria
and concerns the members.
3.6 Ethical considerations
Our innovative research setting relies on computers, databases and
on the Internet. Protecting the information is a big challenge. Maintaining
the confidentiality is very vital rather than rendering the information for
public good. Throughout this research, the researcher has not done an
interview or a questionnaire with the chosen organizations in Saudi
Arabia. Consequently, an ethical approval was not needed for this
research. In addition, the researcher did not collect any personal data
about those two chosen companies as the privacy of those companies was
respected and taken into consideration.
The research conducted by Gustafson & Woodworth (2014) provided
the necessity for ethical consideration while conducting research using
data from social media sites. The researcher requiresconsidering the
privacy and security of individuals and organizations, while dealing with
their personal data.
3.7 Issues of Trustworthiness
The concept of trustworthiness in relation to qualitative research
has often been questioned because the concepts of reliability and validity
are addressed in a different way from quantitative studies. In this study,
the researcher focused on satisfying four criteria. In addressing credibility,
the researcher made an effort to paint the true picture of a phenomenon
under scrutiny. The research design is also valid for the methodology
adopted, data analysis and sampling. The sample size used was to add
credibility. For this study, it was more appropriate to find a sample size
comprising only of organizations in Saudi Arabia. With regard to the
conformability, it was achieved by taking steps to show that findings
emerge from the information collected and not the researcher’s own
predispositions.
27

3.8 Limitations of the Study
There will always be some limitations that researchers would find in
a research. For example, a limitation of this study (based on a case study
approach) is it cannot be generalized to fit a whole population. This
relates to the applicability of the research findings. Given that the study
was conducted in Saudi Arabia, the findings of the case study must be
very cautiously used to avoid more complexity or any unstructured
phenomenon while analyzing the case study. This research process took a
lot of effort to conclude as the time span for this research was too limited.
3.9 Chapter Summary
The qualitative approach was adopted given that the subject is
relatively new; the issue has never been widely addressed using the same
sample of the organization. Case analysis was adopted as the research
design. The approach is appropriate to new research areas where existing
theory seems inadequate. When the research area is new, case study
research design emerges as an obvious option for the researchers who
are seeking to conduct a modest scale research project based on
organizations. Purposive sampling was used for the purpose of the study.
Purposive sampling is a one of the types of non-probability sampling in
which the decision concerning the members in the sample taken is based
upon a variety of criteria. The research was carried out through collecting
data from company’s websites, newspapers and other scientific published
reports and those were as the tools for data collection. Additionally, an
examination oftheorganization’s campaign, communication and marketing
practices provided insights to the benefits achieved by the organization.
Given that case study research generates a large amount of data,
systematic organization of data was important to prevent the researcher
from being overwhelmed by a large amount of data and to avoid losing
focus on the original research purpose and questions. In terms of the
ethical consideration during the research, there was no need for an ethical
approval to be obtained as this research is not based on an interview or a
28

questionnaire as well as there no personal data collected from the sample
of this study. The limitation of the study would be its ability to be
generalized to other populations.
4 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS& DISCUSSION
4.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses the details of the research findings of both a
conducted study in two different companies whereby the use of secondary
research method in Saudi Arabia and research questions with their
answers. More specifically, the contents of this chapter are organized and
divided into two sections. The first section is related to a detailed
discussion of the two Saudi companies (Saudi Telecom Company and
Alhokair Company). The second section is focusing on the discussion of
addressing the research questions and then followed by the chapter
summary which was provided in the last section.
4.2 Section 1: A detailed Illustration of Research Case Study
A detailed discussion of the two chosen companies based on Saudi Arabia
and how they were impacted by the use of social media is in depth
provided in this section.
4.2.1 Saudi Telecom Company (STC)
Saudi Telecom Company operates through a number of subsidiaries
to provide information, telecommunications and media services in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Persian Gulf, Africa and Asia
It founded in 1998, the company operates in the telecommunication
services industry. It is headquartered in Riyadh. Up to May 2017, the
company had 21316 employees. It recorded a market capitalization
amounting to $37.6 Billion and $ 13.82 Billion in sales for the same period.
Khaled bin Husain bin Saleh Biyari is the current Chief Executive officer
(STC Telecom Company 2017). The following subsections are related to
the elements that were looked at during the study and analysis of this
company and how STC company deals with those elements.
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4.2.1.1 Social Media to Improve Business
The company largely uses social media to improve its businesses. Over
the last few years, social networks have become the company’s primary
place where it engages with customers about issues relating to products
and services.As provided by the research of Alwagait, Shahzad&Alim
(2015), aresourceful social media policy allowed the corporation to listen
to customers’ requirements. On twitter as shown on Figure 4.1, Saudi
Telecom Company main twitter feed has millions of followers.
Figure 4.1: The STC Twitter Page
It is an active brand on this platform and has specific pages
dedicated to products and sub brands. The brand primarily uses Facebook
(Figure 4.2) and twitter to respond to mentions, complaints, compliment
and requests. The company engages customers by posting consistently
and frequently.
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Figure 4.2: The STC Facebook Page
The brand is active throughout and attempts to get its audience
excited about upcoming products.
The research conducted by Gerbaudo (2012) shows the impact of
Facebook and Twitter over the business of different small and big
organizations. These social sites allow organizations to develop their
products according to their customer’srequirements. It helps in enhancing
their business and sustains their future growth.
The marketing strategy gives way to multiplatform conversations on
social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Online conversations
become organic as they are driven by consumers rather than the brand
itself. This has integrated the brand into the homes of its users, becoming
part of their lifestyles. The brand has provided consumers with value on a
consistent basis.
STC company views social networks as useful tools to better
understand its customers as it facilitates analysis of the discussion that
takes place online over social networks and forums. The company’s
brands are more active that the audience at the beginning of the week
than at the end of the week. On the other hand, audiences’ activity is
31

more stable throughout the week. Responding in a timely matter is vital
to the company.
Saudi Telecom Company uses social media in various ways including
brand management, customer rewarding, and collection of data,
marketing and complaint management. Of importance is how the
company treats social media as an information asset. It has been able to
derive the benefits of social media by building a modern IT infrastructure.
The approach is based on a thorough understanding of social media,
latest technologies and multi-channel customer management. The
company incorporates information from social media into a complete
enterprise information map. New technologies help the company increase
its return on investment by implementing a combination of Master Data
Management, Service-Oriented Architecture and cloud solutions.
4.2.1.2 How Social Media has Impacted the STC Company.
With an effective social media strategy, the company has been able
to improve customer loyalty, reduce operation and labor cost, achieve
greater return on marketing investment, increase IT efficiency, attain
effective business intelligence and lead discovery achieve and increase
customer lifecycle moments of value.
Saudi Telecom Company employees are able to increase response
rates on inquiries, streamline their efforts and perfect company’s
messaging for optimal performance. Social media has also allowed the
company to improve customer service by monitoring comments and
feedback on its social media pages hence strengthening customer
relationships with the brand. Social media has allowed the company to
grow because it provides a platform for an almost a one-to-one interaction
with customers. The company can listen to customers and meet their
expectations.
Social media has also allowed the company to improve marketing
activities. It can engage with key audience across different social media
accounts. Data from audience help the company in formulating marketing
messages that appeal to different market segments. Social media
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provides a number of marketing benefits for the company. The major
benefit is that present various kinds of conveniences to the consumers
and company.
The telecommunication companies of Saudi Arabia are not doing the
same mistakes as the hotel companies of Honk Kong and provided in the
research of Chan &Guillent (2014). The hotel industries of Hong Kong
were not analyzing their customer’s requirement, which was detrimental
for companies grown. The companies of Saudi Arabia are better at
analyzing their customer’s requirement which provided them benefit over
other organizations.
The User-generated content that accompanies social media
channels helps in boosting effectiveness of marketing activities.
Additionally, businesses can track customer related interactions so as to
target and optimize marketing activities. Theparadigm of P's of marketing
has beenaffected by thegrowth of social media use by the company.
Products and services are now service-intensive anddesignedaccording to
customers’ requirementsandindividualtastes. Saudi Telecom Company
has constantly innovated becausecustomers can now actively participate
in creatingproducts. Saudi Telecom Company has the advantage of
quicklyadapting to customer’srequirements as needed. Additionally,
through social media, it effectivelydetermines pricing in
thedynamicmarkets. Social media has becomeincreasinglycritical for
Saudi Telecom Company to usethe pervasive tool in one wayoranother. It
has turned out to be an influential toolthat it uses to obtain a
competitiveedge.
4.2.1.3 How STC Attracted their Customers in Social Media
The company attracts customers in social media through content
marketing. Consistent messages are delivered on social media platforms.
This helps in building a brand using persuasive user-generated content.
Today’s effective marketing entails creating high quality content and
sharing across social media platforms. Quality content means information
that is of real value to the particular target customers. Social media brings
33

all the great benefits to the business by supporting the marketing team
and leading generation of sales. Creating and distributing such kind of
valuable, relevant and compelling information can only be done through
the social media as a platform. This way, the company easily turns
prospects into buyers and buyers into loyal customers. This same
approach has adopted by the pizza companies in the research of He, Zha&
Li (2013). This allow them to gain information regarding their target
audience and it help them enhancing their businesses.
4.2.2 Alhokair Group Company
This is the second company that was looked at on this reseach and
this company operates in the hospitality and entertainment industry. It
began in 1975 under the leadership of Sheikh Addulmohsin Alhokair. It
has expanded to include more than 34 hotels and 79 entertainments in
Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (Al-Hokair Group, 2017). The
business does not fully utilize Arabia the opportunities that social media
provides. The company can go for long without posting anything.
According to Figure 4.3, it can be seen that the most current update was
made on 24th May 2015. They have just 1270 Facebook likes. The reason
could be because the brand does not operate an online store. Hence, its
social media marketing efforts are mainly focused maintaining brand
image and raising awareness of its ad campaigns rather than on driving
people to its outlets. While the company has a relatively low engagement
on social media, it engages its audience on a more personal level. Given
that it draws consumers from all over the world, the brand responds in
different languages to engage its bilingual consumers. The brand uses
many pictures and videos to capture audience’s attention. Since most
posts are videos, promotions, hashtags and quotes, it generally attracts a
few likes.
Despite this, the company has international market penetration or
developed entirely new global markets with the help of its brand equity.
This is despite the fact that social media advertising has become one of
the main forms of advertising and has increasingly attracted the attention
34

of marketers. In fact, the interconnectedness of global communities
beyond physical boundaries has led to the standardization of the web due
to the increase in the homogeneity of consumer preferences.
Additionally, the company does not have promotional or offers strategies
on its social media pages as compared to Saudi Telecom Company who
have active engagement in social media by providing the information
about their company and promoting the services and products as well.
They do so to attract millions of online users of Saudi Arabia and in
exchange, the users get the information that they need.
A good example of social media communication was provided under
the research of Courtney (2013), where the benefit of social media for
effective communication was provided. The modern technology helps
companies in enhancing their communication speed and efficiency which
is beneficial for companies grown. In this particular research, the
necessity of communication in medical and health field was discussed, but
it was provided that it is not beneficial for every company.
Despite the popularity of social media, it does not work for every
company. Also, no matter how much social media is used by competitors
to communicate, it does not make sense to some businesses. Alhokair
Company is in an industry that usessocial media to communicate.
Seemingly, the business adopts other profitable ways to market its
business including email campaigns, referral strategies and media
outreach. The company does not seem to have a mindset for social media.
As a result, it does not open itself up for customer engagement through
different social media platforms. Instead, the company uses other
communication channels. Therefore, the engagement strategies for the
business are very minimal and traditional.
35

Figure 4.3:Alhokair Group Facebook page
There is very little social media engagement and there is need for
more posts to keep people interested. In spite of having high social
visibility and the ability to provide required customer service, they still
have the opportunity to improve their social availability. Social media is a
platform that offers building of relationships and increasing the level of
holding the customers (Alkhowaiter, W., 2016). When a business
communicates with customers online, a relationship is established by
communication made. Unlike other forms of marketing, social media
would also enable the company to gain awareness by increasing reach
and traffic with customer thus increasing customer retention level. The
brand has an opportunity to control many conversations by engaging
more in social media discussions. Social media also presents the company
with an opportunity to better align its brand activities and have positive
effect.
4.3 Section 2: Illustration of the Research Questions with their
Answers
This section shows all of the research questions with a detailed discussion
of their answers.
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4.3.1 How do social media support businesses in the KSA to make a better
sale nowadays than in the past when there were no social media?
There are various ways through which social media use leads to an
increase in sales among organizations in Saudi Arabia. One of those ways
would be through brand awareness. Social media exposes organizations
to new eyes. With one click, the message is displayed to a multitude of
social media users. As a result, social media helps the business reach a
wide range of people.
Big companies in Saudi Arabia such as STC, they consider social media
marketing as part of their product promotion. According to Kim &Ko
(2012), one of the reasons why those organizations adopted brand
promotion is the fact that it led to increased brand awareness which is
definitely advantageous both in the short-term and long run. Brand
awareness increases with the adoption of social media marketing. In
addition, brand awareness can be increased by various ways. One way is
through offering deals, promos, and limited bargains through social media
platforms. The second way is through balancing content in social media.
This involved presenting content in a balanced manner. In addition, social
media platforms provide an effective way to obtain feedback, on how
customers are using the organization’s product, what their complaints are,
and what improvements they want to see in products. With a social
application integrated with organizations’ marketing automation platform,
managers easily set up referral campaigns that extend across different
social media platforms, allowing the companies to grow their customer
base fast. Lead generation is also done using discount codes and flash
deals. Doing this has helped generate leads and increase sales.
4.3.2 Why do businesses in the KSA use social media and do they use it
effectively?
Businesses in Saudi Arabia such as STC company recognize that the
customer is the one in control and therefore the business is expected to
make sure that the information available about the organization to answer
37

questions and positions is available from the sources they seek.
Accordingly, today’s effective marketing entails creating high-quality
content and sharing across social media. Quality content means
information that is of real value to the particular to target customers.
Social media brings all the great benefits to businesses by supporting the
marketing team and Leading generation of Sales. Creating and
distributing such kind of valuable, relevant and compelling information
can effectively be done through social platforms. This way, the companies
easily turn prospects into buyers and buyers into loyal customers. In
Saudi Arabia, social media is now a prominent tool aiding the businesses
in reaching millions of customers.As per the research of Ghannam (2011),
the customers of Saudi Arabia use social media to share their opinion
regarding a products quality. The organizations use such information to
enhance the quality for their product and services which help in growing
companies profitability. Now the relationship between businesses and
consumers and business to business has been redefined by social media.
Through the social media, Saudi organizations have reached all over the
world to share information regarding their services or products. There are
various reasons why the businesses have adopted the use of social media,
those are explained in the following sub sections.
4.3.2.1 Value
Today’s consumers have become difficult to reach through
traditional marketing channels. Also, trade shows, Cold-calling, trade
advertising, direct mails are all less effective and more expensive
compared to social media. Currently, it’s all about social media. A
business needs to be where its prospects are. To get found by right
prospects, the business must be visible in social media platforms. All
business in the contemporary digital world, businesses need to be on the
forefront when it comes to social media marketing. A decade past, before
being on social media was not critical for any business, there was a need
to convince businesses the value that social media offers. In today's
world, a business that is not keen on the social media aspect will find it
difficult to survive in the competitive world.According to the research of
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Harb (2011),cost is also a mainconcern in business of Saudi Arabian
companies. Social media offers outstanding value compared to traditional
media used in Saudi Arabia. A business requires no overheads or
continuous costs of renting and maintenance.
4.3.2.2 Convenience
Social media is a convenient means for both the business and
customers. It is possible to target customers in different parts of the
world. Social media allows potential customers to browse products when
they need and more importantly at any time. According to research of
Samin (2012), it enables corporations to regulate their business for 24*7
and lower the overtime payment of marketing employees.
4.3.2.3 Customer Service and Relations
While customer communication has for long been a key point of any
great marketing strategy, the arrival of social media resulted in a huge
shift in how businesses communicate with customers. At its core, social
media is about communication. The content, social media, promotion and
landing pages work together to communicate a particular message to
business prospects. It's bizarrely allows businesses to be more personal
with each customer even though there's no one-on-one contact with
customers. In the case of the Saudi organizations like STC, social media
allows them to personalize offers to particular customers, based on their
preferences and past history. Each customer visiting the site can have
special offers specifically for them based on their buying habits.
Additionally, social media allows the companies to become friendlier with
its customers, thanking them and asking for their input or sending follow
up emails after purchase. Social media is a good platform for building
relationships with customers while increasing customer retention levels.
When a customer purchases a product from social media sites, the
relationship is established by communication made after purchase. Unlike
other channels, social media allows businesses to gain awareness by
increasing reach and traffic with customer thus increasing customer
retention level.
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4.3.2.4 Reach
Social media have helped the companies overcome barriers of
distance. According to Cottle (2011), social media has made it becomes
possible to sell goods in any location without establishing domestic stores,
broadening the target marketplace. The companies also export without
establishing networks of traders in various countries, which significantly
enhanced their profits.
4.3.2.5 Personalization
Social media is ubiquitous and pervasive. It encompasses almost
every aspect of society, supplementing or outright replacing other
methods of communication. This means that any business, individual or
nonprofit organization has an incentive to create a strong online presence.
Due to this capability, businesses can use social media tools to reach new
customers by availing easy-to-access information about their products.
The most significant element is informing the potential and current
customers about the business and its products(Ghannam 2011). To
illustrate, STC company has integrated interactive elements such as email
newsletters in their social networking sites.
4.3.3 What are the challenges of the use of social media by an
organization?
There are five major challenges that accompany the use of social
media by businesses. These include integration, governance, culture,
human resources, and measurement of value. Integration involves
becoming a social business or leveraging social media as a new form of
marketing. This can impact almost every function of the business. The
second challenge is governance. Organizations experience different types
of reactions on social media. This requires them to begin actively listening
if they have to be successful in social media activities. New rules of
engaged must be implemented in order to allow the organizations to deal
with multiple scenarios dealing with a detractor to responding to a
compliment to following up with employees who post something sensitive
or inappropriate. The third challenge is culture. Companies fall in the
spectrum of being “open” or “closed” meaning that they either hoard
40

knowledge internally or are more transparent with how they operate and
collaborate. Social media necessitates transparency which means that
organization must adapt their culture to suit this requirement. The fourth
challenge is a human resource. Saudi companies such as STC had
upgraded their Human Resource and legal protocol. They not only need to
update guidelines but also train employees to leverage social media for
the benefit of the organization as a whole. The last challenge relates to
the measurement of Return on Investment. These challenges are
identified by Kaplan &Haenlein (2010) in their research of different
companies. These are the common issue faced by various international
organizations as well, while adopting social media strategy in their
business.
4.4 Summary of the Chapter
A detailed discussion of the research outcomes of a case study
about two different Saudi companies (Saudi Telecom Company and
Alhokair Company) via the use of secondary research technique is
provided in this chapter. Furthermore, this chapter provides in depth a
discussion of the research questions’ answers. More importantly, it can be
inferred from the findings of this research that social media is a powerful
tool on Saudi companies such as STC company (which in depth studied in
this chapter). this enables them to make better sale than the traditional
way as well as it leads them to attract many customers and have very
strong relationship with them as well as make them satisfied with a
service that they are using.
5 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
This particular chapter deals with the conclusion and recommendation
found from the research. The main aim and objectives is repeated to
assess the key findings and proceed towards the recommendation and
implementation strategies. Precisely, the small businesses of Saudi
41

Arabia are recommended to adapt the social marketing strategies from
the large businesses (Boyd, D., 2014).
5.2 Thesis Summary
Chapter one introduced the main themes of the thesis and described the
inspiration for this chosen research. It highlighted the main aims in
conducting this research work. Then, the main contribution of this
research to the current research was presented.
Chapter 2 relates to exploration of the existing knowledge, which provides
a theoretical and conceptual base for the research. Many authentic and
reliable sources are considered and studied for accomplishing, the
purpose of the research.
Chapter 3 provides a detail study of the research methodology including
the research process, which is depicted for providing and gathering
information related to the data collection and research methods that were
used to gather other relevant information.
Chapter 4 presents an in depth discussions regarding the research
findings. Excluding this, data findings retrieved through various research
methods are analyzed in this chapter and interpreted as well to attain
meaningful information that derive appropriate conclusion for the
research. Additionally, this chapter in detail discusses the entire research
questions.
This final chapter provides an overview of the concluded research,
restating what the thesis aimed to accomplish. The chapter also
summarises the thesis findings, highlighting the significance of the
contribution to this master research. Lastly, some recommendations for
future work are indicated.
5.3 Conclusion
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5.3.1 A Restatement of What the Thesis Aimed to Achieve
In modern times, social media is a necessity for business
model of organisations which help them enhancing their growth.
The benefits of social media include better brand loyalty, exposure
to larger audience, higher sales and international marketing. The
social media has impacted the business of companies in different
companies, including Saudi Arabian firms. The research was focused
on to ascertaining how big and small corporations use social media
strategy for their advantages. Theinvestigation takes the example of
two Saudi Arabian companies, STC Company and Alhokair Group
Company, to analyse the social media impact. The research was
aimed at determining how these two firms use social media strategy
differently and what the key factors in their strategy are. The
campaign and advertisement conducted by companies for
enhancement of their social media impact was analysed as well. The
research also focused on the problems that Saudi Arabian
corporations faced while implementing social media strategy for
business.
5.3.2 Summary of Thesis Findings
In modern times, social media is an essential tool for companies to
reach a larger audience and target there demographic. It helps companies
to determine their customers’ requirements and enhance their brand
loyalty. The research focused on large corporations of Saudi Arabia and
their use of information technology to increase customer’s interaction with
the company which help in their product development process. Saudi
Arabia is world’s 7th in social media penetration and largest in Middle East,
which enhances small and big enterprises advertisement over social
media. According to the study, Saudi Arabia has 8 million active Facebook
users, 6.37 million Twitter users and 5.41 million Instagram users. These
numbers proved the technological advancement in social media usage for
Saudi Arabian citizen.
The enterprises of Saudi Arabia are required to take advantage of
43

this new technological advancement which can increase their business
profits. Unfortunately, the smaller organisations of Saudi Arabia such as
Alhokair Group Company did not recognize the importance of these new
advancements. They still prefer to use traditional method of advertising
which are more expensive and less suitable for modern firms. In case of
STC, the company realised the importance of the influence of social media
quickly and adopted it in their business model. STC use social media to
enchasetheirinteraction with customers and collect information for
product development. The company have reached 2.1 million like on
Facebook and 3.5 million Twitter followers on their accounts.
The research concluded that small business did not prefer to use
social media, such as Alhokair Group Company. Alhokair Company only
has a Facebook page which has 1270 likes only and they did not update it
since 2015.These small businesses haveopportunity to use social mediafor
their products advertising and enhancing brand loyalty by
customer’sinteraction. These companies are required to learn from
companies such as STC and should adopt social media strategy in their
organisation.
The research provided various benefits for smaller organisations for
using social media for marketing their products and services. But, there
are several challenges that company faces while using social media for
their business. The primary challenge is the requirement of proper
planning before implying social media strategy. The company require
decidingwhether to implement domestic or global strategy. One strategy
cannot apply over all different organisations. To get the most benefits
company require ascertaining the best strategy for their business. The
second problem of social media strategy is related to privacy. To maintain
privacy and complying with government regulation, organisational are
required to incur expenses. Thecost of implementing these regulations is
high. The use of social media led to lower productivity of employee in the
organisation.
The cost for security over social media sites are high and it is a
continuous expanse as well. The organisation is required to properly
44

manages and securestheir customers data to ensure privacy. Thus, the
research concluded that use of social media enchase the expenses for a
business. The enterprise also faces a constant risk of leakage of sensitive
data which increase the need for confidentiality in business. Companies
have to comply with laws and regulations established by government for
the protection of peoples.
Recommendation
In order to improve small strategies and policies some of the major recommendations have
provided. The recommendations are as follows:
 Business organizations like Alhokair should actively use the popularity of
social media in order to make their promotional activities beyond going
regional boundary
 SMEs of Saudi Arabia need to use those contents for social media that are very much
flexible for the target customers in order to get an in-depth overview about brands and
products. At the same time, SMEs should collect constant feedback from the customers
for improving their business strategies and policies
 Social media Hierarchy Pyramid is beneficial for evaluating the order of
market development strategy.
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