Analyzing Social Media Promotion Strategies for Business Growth

This report examines the use of social media in promoting brands and services, using Marks & Spencer as a case study. It explores the aims, objectives, and time scales for implementing social media strategies, including background research on social media's advantages like increased brand awareness and website traffic. The report details marketing strategies such as competitive advantage and market segmentation, and analyzes the impact of social media on business, employees, and customer behavior. Constraints and challenges are also addressed, providing a comprehensive overview of social media's role in modern marketing and its potential for business growth, focusing on the specific context of Marks & Spencer and its application of various social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube to enhance its brand and customer engagement.

The use of Social
Media in Promotion

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................2
Aim:........................................................................................................................................................3
Objectives:...............................................................................................................................................3
How objectives will be achieved.............................................................................................................3
Time scale...............................................................................................................................................4
Brief........................................................................................................................................................5
Background search..................................................................................................................................5
Marketing strategy...................................................................................................................................7
Impact analysis........................................................................................................................................8
Constraints...............................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCE............................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Social media is a tool which helps in exchange of information and thoughts on digital
platforms. It contains personalized profiles and contents which includes personal information,
videos and photos. There are different types of social media such as facebook, instagram,
youtube and many more. Social media was usually used by people for interacting with their
friends and families. And due to its popularity, organizations are using social media for reaching
out to their customers. It allows connection and share information to anyone and also to many
people simultaneously. These also include many types of tech-enabled activities such as
blogging, social gaming, business networks and so on. Marks & Spencer is taken as the base
company. Marks & Spencer is a multinational retailer which is specialized in selling of cloths,
home products and food products. This company was established in 1884 in London, UK by
Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer and it is serving across the globe. In this report, it covers
the aim, objective and time scale for an organization which helps in acheieving the objective
within the given time period and this time period is classified in time scale where the description
of work and the time is explained. Along with this, it also includes the background search with
the advantages of social media. Furthermore, marketing strategies are implement on organization
of smooth running which includes competitive advantage, market segmentation and market
existence is explained. And at last the impact of social media in promotion for business,
employees, society and customer behavior and the constraints which can make the organization
lacks in operating is explained. In context to Marks and Spencer, the use of social media in
promotion is mentioned below:
Aim:
The aim of the organization is to use social media to promote their brands as well as provide
services to the customers across the globe.
Objectives:
 To understand the use and importance of social media for increasing the profitability of the
organization
 To understand the relationship between social media and profit of organization
 To elaborate the strategies used by social media to enhance the business profit

How objectives will be achieved
Social media plays an essential role in enhancing the profitability of the organization.
Through social media, Marks and Spencer is able to promote their products and services and also
helps in finding as well as expanding the potential customers (Curran and et. al., 2017). Marks
and Spencer also take feedback from their customers and tries to improve them where they lack.
Social media advertising cost less for digital marketing and it is the best opportunity for M&S to
promote their product and services. This also enables the selected company to look and observe
their competitors and their strategies in which the first objective can be achieved. For achieving
the second objective, Marks and Spencer can use various social media tool and techniques which
helps them to grab the attention of people and also encourages them to buy the product and
service. The selected organization can offer various discounts on their products and to advertise,
they send this information on emails to their subscribed customers. This helps in increasing the
sales of the organization and leads to an overall increase in the profitability (Dahl, 2018). Marks
and Spencer can use instagram for posting stories about their recent launches and various offers.
They can also use youtube for providing information about the products and their uses. Along
with that, people can also presents their queries as well as give their feedbacks on the accounts of
Marks and Spencer for its products. This helps the company make sure to improve their
performance and also leads in profitability to the company.
Time scale
Timescale of this report is mentioned below:
Description of Work Start and End Dates
Phase One
Task 1 Planning: Marks and Spencer plan to
target their customers and business
according to the need and preferences of
them.
20/04/2021 to 20/06/2021
Task 2 Digital marketing strategies: The
company uses different marketing
21/06/2021 to 1/08/2021

strategies such as search engine
optimization, social media marketing
and so on to target and cater all kinds of
audience according to their product
categories.
Phase Two
Task 1 Analysis: Evaluation of different
marketing strategies is taken place
where it will analyse whether the target
market and audience is according to
plan or not and also the analysis of the
brand image in customer’s mind.
1/08/2021 to 15/11/2021
Task 2 Customer review: Customer review will
be analysed and tries to solve the
queries of people and improving the
areas where they are lacking.
21/04/2021 to 15/11/2021
Brief
The use of social media in promotion: Social media now a day is widely used by all and
in organization also (Hong, Jiang and Liu, 2020). This helps organization in promoting their
brands as well as their offerings. Social media is an interactive platform where thoughts and
ideas are exchanged and share with the friends and families. In an organization, social media has
an important role in serving the goods and services to the people and in return they give
feedbacks about their brand and commodities that they experienced.
Background search
According to Kaplan 2018, social media is a group of internet based applications that
allows user to create and exchange different contents (Islam and et. al., 2021). Social media is
used by almost every individual that allows them to create content and share with their friends
and families. These contents are in the form of pictures, videos, blogs and documents which is

created by the user. Organization is also adopting social media which helps in promoting of their
offering. Along with this, it not only helps in promotions but also helps in targeting the audience
to increase their sales (Jabreel, Moreno and Huertas, 2017). Company also promotes its brands
and offering with the help of social media influencers as they have large number of followers
which help the company in catering a large number of people. This will increase their popularity
as well as profitability of the organization. Social media has become an important part of
organization in promoting and some of its advantages are mentioned below:
Increase brand awareness: Social media is used by everyone and company can easily
target their potential customers. Organizations are offers different types of sales and discounts
which helps in getting attention of the customers as well as taking feedbacks for improvement
creates a positive image in the eyes of the customers.
Increased website traffic: Social media enables user to share the contents to different
number of people at a same time is a great way to increase the popularity of the organization
(Johnson and Romney, 2017). The sharing of content helps the organization in getting the
attention of the people and as well as increases the visibility and drive traffic to the website and
social media sites.
Influencers: The company can hire social media influencers for promoting of their
products and services. Influencers are those people who have large number of followers on social
media and they can draw attention to following the brand. The promoting of offering with the
help of influencers acts as word of mouth to their followers which build the brand awareness and
credilibility.
Direct connection with the audience: Social media allows the company to directly
connect with their audience. It helps in delivering more value to the customers as they can know
about the needs and preferences of the audience. This connection also helps in solving the
queries of the people as well as their feedback are valuable to the organization (Karatekin and
Hill, 2021). These feedbacks act an analysis of them and try to improve their performance.
Evaluating the performance: The company can access its performance and track if they
are cater to market and audience. And it can be determine by the number of likes, comments and

sharing by the audience. They can also analyze their performance by the number of clicks,
impressions and conversation held by the people and also optimize for better results.
Improved brand loyalty: Every organization has a goal of developing a loyal customer
base in which they tries to engage the customers and maintains a bond between them (Karppi,
2018). And loyalty can be maintained by taking regular feedbacks from the customers and tries
to improve in that areas where they lack. This also makes sure to satisfy their customers keeping
in mind about the demands and preferences of them.
Cost effective: The company can easily sign-up and make account for free and post
contents related to their offerings. For advertising the products, the cost of paid promotion are
lower as compared to other marketing strategies and leads to a greater return on investment.
Gain marketplace insights: The use of social media helps in getting the information of
the need of the customers and this can be done by monitoring the profiles and customer interest
and opinions (Kollat and Farache, 2017). Social media can be used as research tool which helps
in gathering of information about the customers that leads in segmenting the categories and areas
to target.
Marketing strategy
Competitive advantage: It is considered as what makes the organisation unique and
stands out of the competition. It can be the organisation’s reputation, products, services and so
on. In context to Marks and Spencer, they have optimized website which makes them stand out
of the crowd. The website is optimized in such a way that it can be open quickly. Earlier this was
an issue for Marks and Spencer.
Market segmentation: Market segmentation is considered as the dividing of the market
on the basis of different categories such as religion, culture, age and many more which helps
Marks and Spencer target the audience (Liakopoulou and et. al., 2020). This makes sure that the
company is able to target their customers according to the taste and preference of them which
helps in satisfying their needs on social media.
Market existence: The company needs to have existence in the market and it can be only
done when its products and services are presences which acts like survival for the company.

Market existence has an important role for the survival of the company. Marks and Spencer has a
market share of 37.5% in clothing and home ware in UK.
Impact analysis
Business: Social media is a powerful tool which is used by organization of promoting of
their products and services (Meier, 2017). It provides a platform to showcase the products and
services by posting of paid advertisements which can target the audience easily which leads in
increasing of their sales. This helps in reaching the potential customers who can buy the
offerings. Social media is also helps in tracking the performance of the business. Along with this,
it has a big role in improving the performance by analyzing the feedbacks given by the customers
and highlighting the positive comments. Moreover, Marks and Spencer doesn’t have to
investment many on paid promotions. The organization just have to open their account which is
free of cost and started their paid promotions which is less in costs as compared to other
marketing methods. It also helps in providing leads to the organization for targeting the people.
The feedbacks can be both positive and negative for the organization in which the positive
comment is appreciation and negative comments means that they are lacking in providing
services to the customers. The business will try to resolves the issue of the customers as well as
tries to improve their performance.
Employees: Social media used by organization creates a huge impact on organization as
well as their employees as it not only helps in increasing the sales and profitability of the
company but also enhances the performance of the employees. As the performance of the
organization, employees also think that they have their contribution to the company which helps
in developing self-esteem (Oviedo‐Trespalacios and Scott‐Parker, 2019). Along with this, the
employees also have the chance to answer the queries and analyze the feedbacks makes them
feel confident about themselves and it will leads to more in employees engagement. The
employees also have an opportunity to take part in social media promotional campaigns which
encourages them to work for the company. Moreover, the company is also posting at least 3
stories on instagram with polling option which makes a meaningful engagement with the
audience.
Society: Social media has a great impact on society as it allows people to share the
content of Marks and Spencer. Word of mouth from influencers on social media helps in catering

pool of people. This creates impact on their followers to use and purchase the same products and
services. Along with this, it also provides opportunities for those people who are seeking for job.
Companies are also hiring from social media on the basis of their social portfolios. The HR of
the company post online jobs also on social media for selecting the right candidate for the
organization (Piwowarczyk and Ona, 2019). Company also promotes their offering on social
media with the help of celebrities. As people celebrities inspire people, they came up with
different advertisements which also grab attention of the people which lead in making a good
number of sales and profitability to the company.
Customer behavior: Customer behavior frequently changes with the change of demands
and needs of the customers. The increasing use of social media has change in pursuing consumer
brand awareness and maintaining relationship with customer for an intension of buying. The
changing of behavior represents loyalty of the customers towards the brand. A customer has
choice of buying the similar products from other brands which is offering at a reasonable price
which can decrease the sales of the company. The customer has also an option to search the
products which is available easily in the market. In order to maintain the loyalty and improving
the buying behavior of the customers, Marks and Spencer can offer discounts on products and
services on social media with the help of different strategies that could grab attention of the
people. The organization can announce lucky draw coupons or shout out to the people which
creates a direct impact on the popularity as well as sales of the company. It will help the
customer to stick with current company and maintains it loyalty. Along with this, it also creates a
huge impact on increasing the brand awareness among the people.
Constraints
Arranging finances: The company needs funds in order to spend on social media for
paid promotion. For this, Marks and Spencer plan budget for various functional areas to spend so
that do not face shortage of finances which can lead in developing hurdles for them. The
company makes sure to plan the budget efficiently and effectively which can helps in spending
of funds best for the organisation. They also make sure to allocate funds to each functional area
such as research and development team for analysing the latest trend in the market and many
more (Pumar‐Méndez and et. al., 2020).

Finding location: It is important for an organisation to locate itself to the popular areas
where the resources are easily available for manufacturing of products. This will help company
is producing the quality goods which can easily available to the people. The organisation also
caters with the help of social media to that people where they are able to serve them. The
location of the company also shows professionalism and attracts the potential clients and that is
the reason why all the companies wanted to establish themselves in London, UK. The location
not only helps in making the company professionalism but also helps in serving pool of people
which eventually increases their sales as well as their profitability.
Government approval: Government approval is necessary for an organisation to
operate. The companies make sure to register themselves with the government in order to run the
business smoothly. The government makes sure that all companies are running in an ethical
manner. Moreover, they also care about their employees in the organisation by implementing
rules and laws so that a healthy and positive environment can be maintain in the workplace
(Vaidhyanathan, 2018). Along with this, they are also having the responsibility of protecting
small businesses and also make sure that big companies does not dominate them in any manner.
Resistance from local business: The business and employees might face difficulties
with the changes that can occur in the organisation. The organisation need to be very careful
while implementing any changes which can lead to change of work culture as well as operation
of the organisation. The organisation also make sure that while implementing new changes, their
internal management should not disturbed or distracted. Marks and Spencer make sure to work
effectively while catering to the people as well as not disturb the whole management if there is
any changes occur.
Resistance from local people: The local people are considered close to the business that
is present in nearby areas. These local people are treated as their families and the potential
customers of the organisation that surely buy the products from them. Along with this, the
company also provide opportunities and hire them which helps them to earn and increases their
standard of living.

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that social media has an essential role in
an organization for promotion of their products and services. It not only advertise the different
commodities but also helps in serving the people better by providing feedbacks from the
customers which acts as both positive and negative. Whereas positive feedbacks are the
appreciation and negative ones are needed to be improved which directly affects in the
performance of the organization. These feedbacks are necessary for an organization which helps
in analyzing their performance and also indicate the key areas where they need improvement.
In this report, it includes the aim and objective of social media in promotion of
commodities and the ways in which these objectives will be achieved. Time scale is a length of
time in which an event will take place and it is also explained. Marks and Spencer make sure to
do all the tasks in a stipulated period of time that is mentioned in the time scale which leads in
increasing their sales. Along with this, social media marketing uses different strategies for
promotion of the goods and services. It consists of content such as pictures, videos, blogs and
documents which are exchange with people. Background search is also explained which
represents the social media use and advantages in the organsation.
Moreover, marketing strategies helps in planning of all the tactics and strategies which
are to be implemented on the organization for increasing the sales and profitability of the
organization. It includes the competitive advantage, marketing segmentation and marketing
existence that are explained. It also includes the impact of social media on different entities such
as business, employees, society and customer behavior. At last constraints such as arranging of
finances, location, government approval, resistance from local business and local people are also
explained which can be obstacle for the organization.

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