Analyzing the Impact of Social Media on Business: A Research Report

This report investigates the impact of social media networking on businesses, exploring its benefits, challenges, and influence on revenue. The research includes a literature review, research questions, hypotheses, and a detailed methodology encompassing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study examines case studies of companies like Telstra and Virgin Australia, analyzing how they leverage social media platforms for marketing and customer engagement. The report also addresses ethical considerations and limitations, offering insights into the selection of social networking platforms and the potential impact on business operations and employability. Through primary and secondary data collection methods, the research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of social media's role in the modern business environment, including its effects on productivity, communication, and competitive analysis. The report concludes with recommendations for businesses seeking to optimize their social media strategies.

Running head: Social media networking 1
Business research
Impact of social media on business

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Project objective..........................................................................................................................................4
Project scope...............................................................................................................................................4
Literature review.........................................................................................................................................5
Research questions and hypotheses.............................................................................................................9
Research questions..................................................................................................................................9
Hypotheses..............................................................................................................................................9
Research design and methodology............................................................................................................10
Limitation of research................................................................................................................................13
Time schedule...........................................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16
References.................................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
Social media is considered as the phenomenon of world which is utilized by more than
milliard people and provide as an interface for interactions with people and business where most
of the people build, exchange and share views and information. Social media is entirely
dependent on the internet technology. Social media encourage users to communicate or provide
feedback whosoever is connected to them. It is an open system without carrying any hard
barriers. It is the research which is based on impact of social media on business. Project objective
as well as project scope will describe in this research which will give better understanding for
further studies. Social media is very beneficial for the companies because it provides the
response in the form of feedback of the customers, through which company and gets
improvement and make its customer satisfied (Hudson and Thal, 2013). There are numerous
listed company will describe in the context of getting profit by adapting the social media in the
process of company. The companies’ benefits through social media will describe in this research.

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Project objective
The objective of this research is to analyze the impact of social networking on the
business. it has been observed that technology has advanced and due to this many companies
have adopted the social networks to interact with their customers. There are several companies
that have adopted social media networking to enhance its business effectively. Telstra and
Virginia are one of them that adopted social media networking and earned huge profits and
satisfy their customers by adapting social media networking.
Project scope
Social network is wider channel and it has numerous usage in business to enhance the
productivity if the employees as well as reduce the un-required cost of the company. It is the
research program that conducted for the purpose to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of
the impact of social media on businesses. It will be helpful to analyze and compare the various
companies and their profits in the term of adoption of social networking sites.

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Literature review
Social media is one of the well known platform on which numerous businesses do
business and make benefits and customers for a long time. Social networking sites have evident
exceptional growth rates. It is the network which allows an individual as well as group to get
opportunity such as job search, holiday trip plan and real estate search (Fita, 2012). It is the most
beneficial sites for those who do business online because with the help of these sites, business
has become able to get feedback from customers and make amendments as per requirement.
Along with that social media networking is cost efficient and spread the news to number of
peoples within a second (Rodriguez, Peterson and Ajjan, 2015). There are various companies
that have been utilizing social media sites to enhance their business effectively. The impact of
social media influences the business, business communication and business ethics appropriately.
It is a media which is used as a source of information and knowledge which develop the views
and opinions of people efficiently. It is the medium to create numerous business opportunities
and build a stronger market position. It helps to modify the behaviour of customers. The research
covenants with the impact of social media networking on the business. It distinguishes social
media and facilitates to explore the possibilities of social network communication in the form of
formal. It researches the bonding of social networks and ethical business behaviour.

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Figure 1: Types of social media
Source: (Oyza & Edwin, 2015).
There are a several social networking sites which have been using by number of
companies to know the situation of it in the eye of customers. It has been analyzed that some of
the social media services have the nature of owned. Social media has the accessibility, usability
and permanence which attract the more customers and businesses towards it. Accessibility refers
that industrial media is entirely covered by government or business, social media is the form
which is available for everyone with no cost (Aral, Dellarocas and Godes, 2013). Usability
defines that anyone who do not have and specialization and skills can operate the business while
in traditional media protection skills and training are necessary to run the business online. Social
media is efficient tool because it spreads the news and information without taking more than a
second. Social media can be changed almost immediately by comments or editing.

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Figure 2: why customers follow brands
Source: (Ngai, Tao, and Moon, 2015)
There are major companies have been taken in this research which will be facilitates to
adapt the social networking. These are Telstra and virgin Australia. Telstra is one of the most
repudiated companies in Australia that uses number of social platforms such as twitter, Facebook
and many more in the consumer services and promoting its products and services via video and
directly display on the Facebook. Telstra is a firm which is viewed by many of the peoples with
entire information about the company and its products and services. It is one of the companies
that get huge benefited from social media (Hajli, 2014). The financial report of Telstra shows
that it earned huge profits by adapting various social media platforms. The total income
amplified by about 3.6 % therefore the company caught about 27 billion dollars. Due to these
increments in its profit, Telstra has decided to invest in digitization to three billion. Virgin is
another company of Australia that has used various platforms of social to get benefits and

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enlarge their business. In the context of marketing, social media plays a crucial role in their
products and services. The social media in the company facilitates to reduce the issues of the
consumers, as one can interact with a broad range of customers on the platforms. It enhances the
productivity of the employees and reduces the employee for the call centre. It is the company
that gets engaged with Lithium since 2012. Virgin company also gets benefitted from adapting
the services of social media. It is the company that improved its services efficiently and getting
huge benefits with the help of social networking (Jain, Joshi & Shashi, 2014).
Social media is able to make feel customers and employees are the part of the company even
when they are not the part of the office physically. The social networking also enhance the
knowledge convey in the company enhancing the productivity. Therefore, from the study, we
observe that the social networking is adversely connected to the productivity of the company.
Along with that there are many companies that using social networking site to analyze the other
performance so that they make their strategy as per their performance. It is not only
advantageous in improving the services for customers but also helpful to analyze the competitive
environment (Nadeem, Andreini, Salo and Laukkanen, 2015). It has been researched that social
networking gas undervalued the companies who have accepted them. There are so many benefits
such as increase productivity because of the improved communications along with cooperation
among the employees.

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Research questions and hypotheses
Research questions
The question of research has been listed below which is based on this research program:
 What is the influence of social media networking on business and their revenue?
 What are the pros and cons of social media networking?
 What requirements and factors should be observed and analyzed whereas selecting social
networking platforms?
Hypotheses
 Social networking site is able to enhance the revenue of the companies by being
marketing tool.
 Social networking has adverse impact on the business and reduces the employability.

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Research design and methodology
Research methodologies are the collection of numerous and different techniques and
methods which is being used in the research to accumulate specific requirements and information
from the different sources available. There are various methods have been taken to execute the
research (Nirmala, 2013).
Research methods
There is number of methods of research accessible which could be taken in use of
researching. To gather the information for this research, quantitative research has been
considered to gather the information and data for selected topic. The method of qualitative has
been taken in use to analyze the pros and cons of social media networking. Along with that
qualitative data has been taken to evaluate the impact of social networking on the business. It
helps to handle the quality of the research by gathering the quality data (Shafigullina & Palyakin,
2016).
Research approaches
There are two approaches of qualitative and quantitative has been taken to gather the
information of selected topic. The approach of qualitative is being used to find the reasons, views
and opinions behind this topic. Along with that primary and secondary data has been taken to
explore the research topics. Information has been gathered from the articles, journals, websites
and the research task of other authors (Quick & Hall, 2015). These sources will be helpful to
maintain the quality of the research.
Data collection

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Data collection is completed with enthusiasm so that relevant and required information
regarding research topic can be gathered efficiently and the research program execute in the
better manner. Primary and secondary information has been used to gather the information. The
aim behind this collecting data is to enhance the proper understanding of the factor of the
research topic. Primary sources are considered as the raw material which is taken directly by the
respondent. It is the sources which provide latest information (Oyza & Edwin, 2015). To know
the response of the employees, questionnaire will be presented in front of them. Along with that
interview procedure will be conducted to know the impact of social networking media
whosoever use this marketing tool in the organization. Along with that secondary sources are
also being used in the research because it is more reliable. It is the data which is being used by
others to study the material and for researching. Secondary source of data has been used in the
form of journal, articles and internet sources.
Sample and techniques
Data has been collected in huge quantity and it is the great challenge to analyze the data
effectively. That is why random sampling technique has been chosen for analyzing. It is the
effective technique which gives chance to every data to select (Nishad & Sankar, 2016).
Strategy of research
It is required to attain the goal effectively to accomplish the program of research on time
so that possible results come in an effective manner. Systematic approach is being taken to make
effectiveness in this research; it has the nature of sequence which will be helpful to execute the
research appropriately. An action plan has been arranged to recognize the various activities of
this research.