Investment Opportunities in Social Media: Croft Gleeson Report

This report analyzes social media investment opportunities for Croft Gleeson Ltd., a scooter manufacturing company. It explores the impact of social media on marketing activities, various social media platforms, and methods of generating profits through social media. The report also covers potential costs and risks involved in website creation and the importance of business skills. Additionally, it examines employee laws and legislations, and the role of HRM in addressing teamwork challenges. The report concludes with recommendations for maximizing social media's competitive advantage and includes an essay discussing gender inequality in the workplace, particularly in the UK. The report also discusses division of labour and team working skills.

Business Skills

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Business Skills plays an important role for the growth and profitability of an organisation.
The present report study about the investment opportunities in social media for scooter
manufacturing company, Croft Gleeson Ltd. It will also explained the impact of social media
on marketing activities of the company. Moreover, there are many laws and legislations of
employee are also explained for the rights and obligations of workers in the course of
employment. Furthermore, the role HRM is also discussed for facing the challenges in
teamwork within the organisation.

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Findings and analysis ................................................................................................................4
Social Media..........................................................................................................................4
International picture of social media industry.......................................................................4
Types of social media platforms............................................................................................5
Way of generating profits by social media tools for a business............................................5
Money making opportunities in creation of new social media websites...............................6
Potential cost involved in the creation of a website..............................................................6
Potential risks involved in social media................................................................................7
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................7
Task b.........................................................................................................................................8
Task c (ESSAY).........................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Social media is an electronic medium of communication for interaction and sharing
views and thoughts fro one people to another. There is great impact of social media on
company's growth and profitability. The present report study about the impact of social
networking sites and their consequences. There are many sites available like Facebook,
YouTube, Twitter and Blogs etc. that avail people to generate their contents, share their ideas,
videos, messages and information. Moreover, it will also discuss about the different types of
social media platforms available and way of generating profits through this network. The
essay in this report will be support in getting aware of the fact that why women choose their
careers in terms of employment.
FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
Social Media
Social media is a web-based platform in which various technologies and applications
enabled users to get interact, share their views and participate socially. There are some
common features of social media which is discussed below: User account: Every site has users account facility, through which visitors can create
their own account by log in to(Cenere, Gill, Lawson and Lewis, 2015). Profile page represents the identity of users, it includes individual's profile photo,
websites, bio and recent activities performed. Friends, followers, groups: Users can get connected with their friends or other users
by following them or subscribing their activities. Personalisations: Social media tools give flexibility to their users to configure their
settings, organise their friends following and customize their profiles accordingly. Notifications: Any site or application automatically notify their users about specific
information to which they are linked. Users can customize their notification settings
according to their preferences.
 Like buttons and comments sections: Each social site consist of these two feature
which allow users to like and comment their views and thoughts.
International picture of social media industry
Social media networks is growing rapidly, as every year the number of users are
increasing with inclining trends (Couldry, 2012). In Jan 2016, it is estimated that in the

population of 7.395 billion people, there are around 3.419 billion people are internet users in
which more than 2.307 billion users are active social media users and more than 5 billion
people are mobile users. Annual growth of social media users is continuously increasing
with17%. It is also estimated that, the growth of social media users in increasing in Asia-
Pacific region with the inclining rate of 14%. So, South Asia and East Asia is largest market
of internet industry (Dolan, 2016). Digital communication and internet network provide new
opportunities to marketers to easily reach to people of different behaviour, culture and
differences. The most popular growing social media site is Facebook, after Facebook, twitter
and Instagram are most active social media network. Google and YouTube is also very
popular sites among many users of different countries and states (Dotson, DavÁ and Miller,
2015).
Types of social media platforms
There are many types of social media instruments available, some of them are stated
below: Social networks: These networks allow users to connect and communicate with other
people who has similar interest and view. Social networking sites consist of a profile
page and user account through which visitors can get connected. Some most popular
sites are LinkedIn and Facebook (Gainsbury and et. Al, 2016). Media Sharing: Services which allow people to upload and share their videos and
pictures. Moreover, it also allow people to comment and subscribe or follow their
videos or pictures. Instagram and YouTube are most common examples. Microblogging sites: Twitter is know as micro-blogging site, that allow users to
update and post their comments which can be subscribed to anyone to receive
updates. Tumblr is also most popular micro-blogging site.
 Publishing tools: Publishing tools like WordPress, Squarespace and Blogger let users
to post their messages and blogging comments. In these type of sites, usually a
discussion is centralised around a topic of blog post (Piperopoulos and Dimov, 2015).
Way of generating profits by social media tools for a business
As per the given case, Croft Gleeson Ltd. has a business to manufacture and sell their
high-end mobility scooters. The company is required to increase their sales revenue by
advertising and promoting their products and services through social media. It can be done by
several ways which are given below:

 Business organisations can increase their Online presence in many social media
networks like Facebook, twitter etc. Croft Gleeson can pin the photos and videos of its
products by creating an account on these sites and engaging with people (Love, 2016).
 Furthermore, Croft Gleeson Ltd can also put its item's photos on Instagram, which
would attract many Instagram users and make them to purchase product.
 The company can also use Pinterest and other media publishing tools by telling the
stories and experience of their products visually. For each social media platform, it is
required to tailor fit the contents (Khan and Rasheed, 2015).
 By monetizing the YouTube Channel, organisations can make money. By posting
exciting videos of launch of products and services and getting subscribed by many
users let the company to make profits at high level (Global social media research
summary 2016).
 By giving lots of Freebies and special offers on social sites, companies are able to
advertise and promote their products and services. Due to which many customers get
attracted and get influenced (Park, and at. al, 2015).
Money making opportunities in creation of new social media websites
In creating a new social media website, Croft Gleeson get many opportunities to
increase their sale revenues and growth of business. The company's own social media website
attract many customers and users by providing them detailed information about its products
and services. Customers will be able to get all relevant information about the company and its
values (Hendry, 2012). As a result, customer-base will be created and trust is build in
between suppliers and consumers. If the content of a company is authentic, then people will
show more interest towards their products and services. By making authentic social media
websites, availing them facility of chatting and sharing their feedbacks and views, companies
get maximum profits and opportunities. Many social media agencies are hired by
organisations in order to advertise and promote their products, which ultimately leads to
increase profitability and stability ion competitive market.
Potential cost involved in the creation of a website
For any company, which is looking forward to create their own website cost minimal
amount to obtain domain name and web host. Companies like Croft Gleeson need to buy their
own domain name, price can be vary according to the popularity of registrars. In order to use
commercial web host, monthly fees have to be paid, they are also required to upgrade their

sites regularly. Also, the type of software will also cost much, different sites required specific
softwares to run so this cost is also added in the marketing budget of a company. Moreover, if
an organisation want to advertise and promote their items then it would also cost huge
amount (Gatewood, Feild and Barrick, 2015). According to different countries, cost of ads
vary. Organisations can hire advertising agencies or advertise on their own sites to gather the
attention of many users. So, this all processing involves huge cost.
Potential risks involved in social media
Some potential risks involved in social media can be explained below:
 Company's reputation can be distorted, if any of its employees posted some
photographs or videos which can directly influence the mind-set of users and can
affect company's brand image (Gerbaudo, 2012).
 Excessive use of social media sites in work place can lead to loss of effective
productivity which will directly impact on the success of organisation and will also
increased the risk of exposure to malicious viruses (Stone and et. Al, 2015).
 Use of personal accounts for delivering work related informations and data could
violate the privacy of business due to which corporate reputation could be damaged.
 Excessive use of company's devices like laptops or mobiles could leak or theft
important data (Grande, 2015).
Yes, I will definitely invest in creation of social media websites and maximum utilize
the social network to enhance the competitive advantage of company. For that, a coordinator
is required who is able to forward any query, leads, conversations and issues to high authority
as soon as possible. Communicator has a key role to communicate with users, clients and
public. The product expert should be able to respond the queries or feedbacks of users. Social
media team has responsibility to create policies and standards.
CONCLUSION
From above report, it is concluded that business organisations should various social
media platforms to increase the sales revenue of company. Adequate use of social media sites
and tool will lead to increase the profitability and growth of an organisation. It is also inferred
that, companies should create a marketing budget which should involve the potential cost of
creation of websites and other social media applications. Moreover, it also recommended that

companies should hire a team which can maximum contribute to develop social media
websites.
TASK B
1. Division of Labours: Division of labours in the business organisation is very essential
as it allows employees or workers to get specialized in a specific tasks or skills. Due
to this specialisation, workers can work with efficiency as result minimise the overall
cost of production or goods and services (Punnett, 2015). So, it is the responsibility of
HR department to divide teams so that they can work together and produce effective
outcome. But HRM also face many challenges while team working together such as,
conflicts, contradictions of thoughts and view and degree of trust could affect.
2. Team Working Skills: Employees perform better in team when they combine their
individual knowledge, skills and talent. TEAM acronyms for Together, Everyone,
Achieves and More. Nowadays, companies are developing many strategies and plans
for their teamwork to increase the profitability and productivity. Because when
employees work in team then it become easy to achieve targets and goals (Pollack and
Adler, 2016)
3. Organisation: Management of the business organisation is facing many problems
related to team work. If team member is not working properly and not supporting
each other, then whole management will be disturbed. The entire system will be
mismanaged. The productivity of team could decrease so, it is very necessary to build
a team.
4. Delivery: Organisation's productivity could affect by various factors like, disputes in
workplace, inappropriate staffing, tort of employment policies and standards could
affect the outcome of business (Scott, 2015) There many internal and external
environmental factors which could affect the performance of a company. So, it is
recommended to HRM of Croft Gleeson Ltd that various organisational strategies
should be made and implemented for the growth of company.
TASK C (ESSAY)
In UK, men and women are not equally treated in the workplace. There is gender
wage gap between both labour markets and women who possess different characteristics from
each other. Labour market has durability and women possess persistent characteristics. The
problem of wage disparity among men and women has been increasing rapidly. As per the

words of Warren Farrell, women are blamed for their choices of type of jobs. He also
contented that if women are provide with cheaper labour rates then why men will be hired for
the same job. Men makes higher money than women, but not in the aforesaid jobs. He
concluded that women are only responsible for getting lower wages by choosing wrong jobs.
According to him, men chooses that kind of jobs which provide them higher payments by
completing difficult tasks. Men justified their choices by working very hard and getting
appraised for that. On the other hand, Piperopoulos and Dimov, (2015) has argued that
women chose the jobs which are fulfilling, safe and stable. They prefer those types of jobs in
which they have to work for few hours, jobs that are less hazardous, closer to home and
involved less physical straining. As these types of jobs are provided balanced working and
social life with stable working environments and conditions. Moreover, women get
satisfaction and personal fulfilment by choosing these jobs but these jobs also provide low
scale payments which is controversial.
As per the view of Couldry, (2012) There are certain ways through which women
could increase their pay scale. Farrell indicated that, there are many jobs available which
provide these facilities and flexibility, women should opt for these jobs to get high pay.
However, Shields and et.al., 2015 argued that, women should prefer for being soldiers or
labours, rather than being administrators, they should be opt for being deliverers rather than
front office manager or receptionist. Further he also failed to debate that, why only women
controlled these lower paying sectors( like, administrators or receptionist) and men dominate
higher paying jobs( such as, FedEx deliverer). He ignores the possibility of fact that certain
occupation pay less because they are handled by women. Then Farrell overlooked that
women are preferred those field of jobs that provide stability, less emotional risk and
satisfaction. He argued this comment by comparing supermarket cashiers with venture
capitalist, where venture capitalist earn more money but by getting in stressful state in
comparison to supermarket cashier. On the other hand After concluding the fact that, there
are numerous social and economic factors such as, education qualification, social
acceptability and availability of credit that make it difficult for women to earn more.
Furthermore, he included that less working hours, domestic duties, inflexibility in relocation
and commuting could be main reason for lower payment of salary to women. However, the
facts which are concluded by Farrell regarding the difference in the gender wage gap are
failed. The whole arguments is contracting the fact that choices of job which are preferred by
women doesn't make any differences in the pay scale. The main problem was author already

assumed that salaries are inherent in the jobs, to which feminist literature contradicted that
occupations of positions are not responsible for the different pay level of a business. Farrell's
arguments was justifiable, as he assumed that individuals choose their own occupations and
career opportunities for men and women are no longer different. So, all these factors like,
social and structural constraints are not responsible for lower payments of wages, but
personal choice of jobs are responsible. But, it is also stated that whole argument was not
included with statistical analysis of income level. Scott, (2015) Has argued that all the factors
are based on personal views, cartoons and anecdotes, which were not able to not justify the
argument and also the entire discussion was supported by scarcely comparable comparisons
and not on the basis of strategic controls. Punnett, (2015) Has stated that There are many
other factors that could affect the gender wage gap like, ethnicity and race, are also not
mentioned in the argument. Also the entire discussion was merely on the basis of typical
stereotypes of genders which was not excusable.
In relation with discrimination of employees including men and women within
workplace, there are many laws and legislations are developed in UK. The Equality Act
2010, ensures about the fair work environment in the workplace for employees and
employers which should be comply with laws and regulations (Discrimination: your rights.
2016). There is also Equal pay act 1970 which prohibits any discrimination among men and
women regarding their salaries and terms of conditions of employment. Moreover, National
minimum wage rate act 1998 also protect employees against any favouritism made between
men and women regarding their minimum wage rates. Employment rights act 1996 protect
the employees for their rights and obligations at workplace. Employees have right to protest
against any kind of harassment, misconduct or discrimination within the organisation. The
law will provide protection and security to employees against dismissal, payments and
benefits, issues regarding promotions ans transfer opportunities, redundancy in workplace.
Employers are liable to provide rights to their disabled employees. If any employee is disable
then laws provide right to their employers to provide them extra facility, giving them extra
time for competing aptitude test, availing right facilities, instruments and equipments for
disabled employees, and giving them extra opportunities to achieve their goal and objectives.
As per the case study, women should not be held liable for getting minimum wages on
the choosing their choice business. Many economists represented that women got maximum
opportunities at work to show their talent, skills and knowledge. Statistical data is collected
from different countries on the basis of higher education, pay, labour-force participation,

maternity rights and child-care costs. It is estimated that in final quarter of 2014, 74.5% of
women who are in the age group of 16 to retirement age were actively involved in the labour
market. It is also seen that 2 of 5 women were looking after their family and home and not
doing jobs. About 89.5% of women were categorised as graduated and having no dependant
kids, were involved in the labour market. So, it is concluded that from over past two decades,
the participation of women in labour market is increasing rapidly.

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