Investigating Social Media's Role in Business Competitive Advantage

This report investigates the impact of effective social media management on the competitive advantage of innovative businesses. It explores the theoretical background, focusing on how social media influences conventional business models, enhances brand image, and drives customer engagement. The research addresses the implications of social media for businesses, the impact of employee knowledge gaps on social media use and legal considerations, and the role of social media management in shaping brand image and customer relationships. The report utilizes a literature review to analyze the current trends and strategies employed by businesses in the digital landscape. The study aims to identify how businesses can leverage social media platforms to achieve a competitive edge in the market. The report concludes with a discussion of the findings and their implications for businesses seeking to enhance their market presence and customer engagement through strategic social media management.

An Investigation on How
Innovative Businesses Gain a
Competitive Advantage
through Effective Management
of social media

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
Theoretical background and research focus.............................................................................................4
Justification and Contextualization..........................................................................................................6
Methodology...........................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................11
REFRENCES................................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
There are ample of digital techniques are used in order to attract more number of buyers.
As per the current scenario, it is crucial for each and every business entity to undertake effective
as well as innovative techniques to sustain at market place for longer run (Anwar, 2018). For this
purpose, social media also plays a crucial role to enhance the presence of business at market
place. Here, different social media platforms such as face book, Instragram and more are used in
order to increase in overall sales and profitability of company. Effective use of social media
platforms also provides higher competitive edge to organizations. In addition, several other
platforms such as twitter, LinkedIn and more are also used in order to grab the attention of
buyers. Different platforms help to target different segment that is crucial to enhance overall sale
and profit margin of company. Now, the users of social platform are increasing at rapid rate that
provides an opportunity to target more number of audiences. Here, it helps to increase in current
sales and profit margin of organization. Now, there are ample of large, medium as well as small
companies that are using digital techniques in order to promote and advertise products and
services at wide level. The current research is based on the impact of effective management of
social media on competitiveness of business. It comprises research methodology that has been
undertake in order to collect necessary data and information to reach at appropriate conclusion.
Moreover, it provides detailed information over the impact of social media over innovative
business entities. The current research is conducted towards the way in which business entities
get competitive advantage with the effective use of social media management.
Research Aim “To identify how innovative business gain competitive advantage with the
effective social media management”
Research objective
 To identify the implication of social media for a conventional business model.
 To evaluate the impact of less knowledge of employees regarding general use of social
media and necessary legal implication.
 To identify the impact of social media management over brand image and customers of
company

Research questions
 What are the implications of social media for a conventional business model?
 What is the impact of less knowledge of employees regarding general use of social media
and necessary legal implication?
 What is the impact of social media management over brand image and customers of
company?
Theoretical background and research focus
Literature review
Identify the implication of social media for a conventional business model
According to KERAN SMITH, 2019 there are ample of tools of digital marketing that are
used by marketers in order to enhance the presence of company at market place. However, social
media management is related to managing various online platforms of organization in an
effective manner. Now, it has become a crucial way to present products and services at market
place. It helps to bring business and increase in current sales and profit margin. It also plays a
great role in enhancement of business in B2B segment by attracting professional customers. For
this purpose, there are different platforms have been evolved such as Face book, Insragram,
LinkedIn, Twitter and more. These platforms help marketers to target huge segment of customers
whether old age people, teenagers, adults and professionals. There are some companies such as
Amazon and more that are completely operating business through online medium. So, social
media platforms are the best way for these organizations to promote business in better manner. In
addition, it also helps to connect with customers in an effective way. Here, purchasing decisions
of customers are also highly affected with social media. As they go through with the reviews,
comments of other customers before buying a product. Thus, it helps to bring sales and business
for organization by enhancing its presence at market place.
Further, social media is also considered as one of the crucial way to engage customers
with brand. For this, marketers also post effective as well as engaging content over their social
media accounts. They also post visual content in order to enhance customer engagement. As per
the recent survey, there are 71 % customers going to suggest a brand to their references if they
have positive experience with the brand over its social media. It is analysed that nearly 2 million

business use Face book as a medium of advertisement to promote their products and services at
wide level. In addition, it also helps in improving search engine ranking of company. With this,
organization is able to maintain higher conversion rate that is essential for business growth and
success. So, it is crucial for each and every business entity to apply social media strategies in an
appropriate way in order to enhance business presence at market place.
The impact of less knowledge of employees regarding general use of social media and
necessary legal implication
According to Harrison and Johnson, 2019, social media has become a crucial part of
marketing. But, still employees are lacking in the use of social media to promote product and
services of company. It is analyzed that nowadays people are active at social media. They
comment on the post of company over its social media accounts. Sometimes, these comments
can be put adverse impact over the image of brand at market place. It can ruin the overall market
position of organization so it is really essential for employees to have basic knowledge to handle
social media accounts of entity. It will help them to address the comments of customers in an
appropriate manner. It is essential to save the image of company at market place. Otherwise,
competitors can take advantage of this condition. However, now organizations appoint social
media handlers who are efficient enough to handle social media presence of company in an
effective manner. But, it is important for each and every employee to have the knowledge
regarding general use of social media. So, they can post on the behalf of organization to
strengthen its brand image among customers. In addition, sometimes social media campaigns
lead to legal problem. If content is offensive and hurt the sentiments of customers then company
have to face legal problems that will harm its existing brand image. For this kind of situation,
employee needs to have proper knowledge of social media and its impact that will help to handle
situation in better manner. Therefore, less knowledge regarding social media may create
constrain in overall growth and success of organization.
The impact of social media management over brand image and customers of company
According to Jenn Chen, 2020 social media put a great impact on overall image of brand
at market place. It is an innovative way to enhance the presence of company in market that will
eventually help to bring more customers. Here, the number of social media users is increasing at

rapid rate that is helpful to grow and expand business. Social media has the power to influence
the views and opinion of customers regarding products and services. It is analysed that positive
review put great influence over business as it helps to attract more number of customers. It is
great way to interact with global audience as here marketers can also easily connect with global
audience. So, it helps to enhance presence of company at market place. As per the report, there
are 61 % adults within US use Face book that is a great way to attract them towards products and
services. In addition, it provides feasibility, transparency to customers. Here, they can comment
over and also read the reviews and comments of other people that helps to build trust and faith
among customers. Further, it also help in improving search engine optimization that further helps
to improve the ranking of website in search engine. In addition, effective techniques of social
media also helpful to improve the conversion rate that is essential to improve overall sales and
profit margin of business. Here, most of the companies use Face book as a way of promoting
their products and services. It helps to bring business by enhancing presence of entity at global
market place. In additions, social media management also plays a crucial role in formulating
positive brand image of organization in market. Therefore, social media marketing is really
helpful in enhancing brand image and customer base of company.
Justification and Contextualization
Here, social media has bring transformation in the world of advertisement and marketing.
Nowadays, it has become the recent trend by which a product and service can be promoted at
market place. There are several platforms such as Face book, Instragram, You tube and more are
being used for the promotion of products (He, Wang and Akula, 2017). It is analyzed that
whether small or multinational company all are adopting this strategy with an aim to grab the
attention of buyers. Social media marketing also help to enhance brand image and value of
organization at market place. The current research is helpful to identify the impact of effective
social media management over business. It helps to indentify the influence of social media
platforms over business. In addition, with this, it is monitored that social media techniques also
provide higher competitive edge to company that is crucial to grow and expand business.
Further, it will also make researcher enable to make effective use of innovative approaches for
the betterment of company.

As per the recent market scenario, social media platforms are considered as one of the
best way to interact with customers. For this, marketers prepare effective and engaging content
so that they can connect with customers in better manner. In addition, there are some
multinational companies such as Amazon, TESCO that also appoint social media handlers. In
addition, they post necessary content over social media accounts on regular basis. Here,
marketers analyze personality, mind set of customers and then prepare engaging content to tailor
their needs and requirements (Kumar and Pansari, 2016). Nowadays, it is crucial to manage
social media accounts in an appropriate manner as it helps to attract more number of buyers. It is
also essential to strengthen the market position of organization that will help to ensure long term
sustainability. There are different segment of customers can be targeted with different platforms.
For instance, senior group of customers can be targeted through facebook while teenagers &
adults segment can be targeted with instrgram platform. Nowadays, you tube has also become an
important medium by which companies are targeting to customers. Therefore, main aim of
current research is to identify the impact of social media over business setting. In addition, social
media also play a crucial role to bring business by enhancing the presence of organization at
market place. So, marketers put higher emphasis over use of digital techniques in business that
will help to grow and expand at market place. Therefore, present report will help to provide
detailed information regarding social media platforms and its use in business. It is monitored that
most of the organizations regardless of size, scope are using social media platforms at global
level.
It is analyzed that users of different social media platforms whether face book, twitter and
more are increasing rapidly. There are nearly 3.5 billion people across the world who are using
social media. So, nearly 45 % people of total population of world use social platforms. It
includes all segment of customers whether teenagers, old age people, professionals, women and
more (Lachlan and et.al., 2016). As per the study, face book is considered as market leader as
there are nearly 68 % individuals of US use this platform. Therefore, social media play a crucial
role in attracting more number of customers. So, the current research has been undertaken in
order to evaluate the effectiveness of social media marketing for current business scenario.

Methodology
Research methodology refers to the process that is used to gather appropriate information
and data from respondents and analyze it in proper way. It is wide term that comprises whole
process from collection of data to interpret it in an efficient manner. Here, researcher needs to
take the decision from whom data will be collected, the way to collect it, and the way to analyze
it. It helps to chose an appropriate research design, methods of data collection that best fit with
aim and objectives of current research. Research methodology for current project is given as
under:
Quantitative research: Here, it is a way to collect and analyze numerical data and
information. Here, several mathematical and statistical techniques are used in order to collect
appropriate data from respondents. However, it provides highly authentic and relevant results but
additional information can not be gathered with this method (Qi and Chau, 2018). In addition,
there is requirement to use effective tools and techniques to interpret data in correct way that
helps to reach at meaningful conclusion. Moreover, it is a systematic way of data collection and
interpretation where numerical techniques are used by researcher. It is am method that is used
widely in the field of economics, social science, marketing and more. Here, data collected
through online survey and more is analyzed with the help of statistical tools. It is a way to collect
interpret numerical data. Due to the use of effective tools and techniques it is considered as one
of the best way to collect relevant data and information.
Qualitative research: In oppose of quantitative method, it is used to collect and analyze
non numerical data. Here, opinions of respondents are taken through other mediums such as
interview, observation and more. It helps to provide detailed information that is crucial to
interpret data in an appropriate way. There are several methods such as interview, focus group
are used to collect information from respondents. This method is useful to gather additional
information that will further help to analyze available information in better manner. Further, this
method is used to gather detailed information from respondents which will help to draw
appropriate conclusion. It is used to gather opinion, experiences of people. In addition, during
qualitative research there is proper interaction between respondents and researcher.
Methods of data collection:

Primary data: Under this, researcher collect data from respondents so there is higher
personal interaction between respondents and researcher. Here, data is completely raw and
authentic that helps to draw appropriate outcomes. However, it is time consuming methods as
researcher needs to collect information from respondents (Scuotto and et. al., 2017). There are
several methods such as observation, questionnaire, survey and more are used here for data
collection. It is widely used methods that help to collect authentic data and information within
predefined period of time. Primary data is highly authentic and help researchers to attain desired
results. It is time taking process but help to gather fair, authentic as well as reliable information.
Secondary data: It is also an important way of data collection under which information is
gathered from previous research. Here, investigator need to considered authentication and
relevancy of data before using it. For this purpose, information is collected from websites,
journals, articles and more. Sometime, researcher also takes help from government agencies in
order to get highly authentic and reliable information. However, it is considered as time as well
as cost effective method of data collection. Nowadays, researcher used internet as a method of
data collection. It helps them to gather wide range of information with less efforts. So, secondary
research is one of the best way to collect data to reach at meaningful conclusion.
Acceess and ethics:
Here, research need to conduct in an ethical manner for maximizing the well being of
society and economy. There are several ethics are followed in research such as discuss
intellectual property frankly, be conscious about roles and more. It is analyse that researcher
collect necessary data and information for research that need to keep confidential to respect the
privacy of respondents. For this purpose, there are certain rules and regulations have been made
by higher authorities in order to protect data and information. So, researcher is required to follow
all the ethics in order to conduct research in an ethical manner.
Limitations:
There are some limitations also associated with research methods that reduce down
overall benefits from research. It is analyzed that there is higher cost incurred in research as
investigator need to collect data and information from ample of sources that is a time taking
process. In addition, researcher is also required to use several tools and techniques in order to

draw appropriate conclusion with available data. It will incurred higher time as well as cost that
will increase overall cost of research. So, researcher is required to consider these limitations
while undertaking collecting and analyzing data.

CONCLUSION
Out of above discussion, it can be concluded that social media has bring revolution in the
field of marketing. Now, it has become an important way to promote and advertise products and
services at wide level. There are ample of platforms such as facebook, instragram, twitter and
more are used by marketers in order to advertise products at wide level. It is monitored that there
are several social media strategies are used by companies in order to attract more number of
buyers. Still, there are several employees who are not well aware with the concept of social
media marketing. It can be concluded that it is an innovative way of promotion that also provides
higher competitive advantage to company. Discussion, has been carried out regarding different
methods of research that helps to gather necessary data and information. It can be concluded with
above research that social media platforms has emerging way of marketing and promotion.

REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Anwar, M., 2018. Business model innovation and SMEs performance—does competitive
advantage mediate?. International Journal of Innovation Management, 22(07),
p.1850057.
Harrison, S. and Johnson, P., 2019. Challenges in the adoption of crisis crowdsourcing and
social media in Canadian emergency management. Government Information
Quarterly, 36(3), pp.501-509.
He, W., Wang, F.K. and Akula, V., 2017. Managing extracted knowledge from big social media
data for business decision making. Journal of Knowledge Management.
Kumar, V. and Pansari, A., 2016. Competitive advantage through engagement. Journal of
marketing research, 53(4), pp.497-514.
Lachlan and et.al., 2016. Social media and crisis management: CERC, search strategies, and
Twitter content. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, pp.647-652.
Qi, C. and Chau, P.Y.K., 2018. Will enterprise social networking systems promote knowledge
management and organizational learning? An empirical study. Journal of Organizational
Computing and Electronic Commerce, 28(1), pp.31-57.
Scuotto and et. al., 2017. The performance implications of leveraging internal innovation
through social media networks: An empirical verification of the smart fashion
industry. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 120, pp.184-194.
Shen, C.W., Chen, M. and Wang, C.C., 2019. Analyzing the trend of O2O commerce by
bilingual text mining on social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 101, pp.474-483.
Tuten, T. and Perotti, V., 2019. Lies, brands and social media. Qualitative Market Research: An
International Journal.
Online
5 actionable strategies for social media branding, 2020 [Online], Available through<
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-branding/ >
The Importance of Social Media in Business, 2019 [ Online] , Available through<
https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/importance-social-media-business/ >