Research Proposal: Analyzing Social Media Impact on Business Functions

This research proposal examines the impact of social media on various aspects of business functions, including marketing and customer engagement. It aims to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using social media platforms for business activities, providing insights into market opportunities and potential pitfalls. The proposal includes a literature review covering social exchange theory, social spiral viral models, and the social staircase model, alongside research questions and a detailed methodology involving both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data collection will involve interviews and surveys, with a focus on reliability and validity. The proposal outlines the sampling method, sample size, research limitations, and a time schedule for the project's completion, ultimately aiming to offer relevant recommendations for organizations leveraging or considering social media for business purposes. The research focuses on providing a clear understanding of how businesses can strategically incorporate social media to enhance brand value and improve customer relationships while mitigating potential risks.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research proposal
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Executive summary
The purpose of this report is to analyse the social media usage of business in different aspect of
departmental functions. In addition, to analyse the advantage and disadvantage of using the
social media as a tool for reaching new customers also for interaction is given too. The following
is the proposal of doing research on gathering data on using social media by the companies and
what are the advantage and disadvantages of using this platform. Hence the objectives of the
project and scope of the project is outlined in the below. Summary of the literature review done
on the topic is also discussed briefly. The theories and social web aspects that have been
identified are given and based on that the research methodology is formed.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project objectives.............................................................................................................................3
Project scopes..................................................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................4
Research questions...........................................................................................................................6
Research design and methodology..................................................................................................6
Research approach and design.........................................................................................................7
Data collection process....................................................................................................................7
Sampling method and sample size...................................................................................................8
Interview and questionnaires designing...........................................................................................8
Research limitations.........................................................................................................................8
Time schedule..................................................................................................................................9
Conclusions......................................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11
Appendix........................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The following is the proposal of doing research on gathering data on using social media
by the companies and what are the advantage and disadvantages of using this platform (Sigala et
al. 2012). Hence the objectives of the project and scope of the project is outlined in the below.
Summary of the literature review done on the topic is also discussed briefly. The theories and
social web aspects that have been identified are given and based on that the research
methodology is formed. The different aspects of using the primary and secondary method of data
collection, interview and questionnaire-forming method is proposed in the later part. The
different factors like reliability; validity is discussed in the following chapter (Leonardi et al.
2013). The sampling method and sample size selected for the data is also be included as well
with the research limitations and research schedule in a chart.
Project objectives
The main objectives of this project is
 To critically analyse the advantage and disadvantage of using social media platform in
the different business activity
 To critically analyse different concepts of social theories that can be analysed and used
for conducting further studies in the field
 To analyse the influence of the social media utility
 To provide a relevant recommendation for organisations that are using or willing to use
this as a business activity conducting platform

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Project scopes
The scope of this project lies in the potential benefit of using social media in business
activity in different operations of business. The market opportunity of using the social media and
advantages that the company must be aware of and disadvantages that they must be keeping
distance can be suggested as the scope of this project (Panneerselvam 2014). The article or
journal is insightful in giving Small or medium sized organisations to strategise in their social
media incorporation plan.
Literature review
The journals and articles that are gathered in this context emphasizes on the advantages
and disadvantages of using social media in the in business operations. This literature review also
includes the social exchange theory, social spiral viral models and demonstration of critically
analysed staircase model. This models also relates to the social media and network business must
adopt to for getting better advantage of this platform in required aspects of the business (Sigala et
al. 2012). It has been clearly opined in the business that the small sector companies and smaller
and medium sized business always uses this platform more than other big organisations uses for
its operations. The have found the social media platform useful. The major aspect of using the
media has also increased because of the wide range of audience that can be approached by this
(Picazo-Vela et al. 2012). Building a brand is essential for some industry and thus approaching
more of the customers and maintaining the customer relationship management has also been
important for the companies using this. Customer retention is also one of the major objectives
that can be backed up by the social portal. However, this method of reaching the customers is
also disadvantageous when there are complainants of the customers negatively affect the

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implementation process (Leonardi et al. 2013). Some of the most common tool used for
recruitment and customer relationship management are Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube
and also the official Websites of different business. In this platform, the more loyal customers
will follow the accounts of the pages that are easily available for them. This has also been helpful
in converting the leads that has been generated from the social media usage. The staggering
number of users who are using the social media as of 2017 the number has come to 2.46 billion
people, are a ripe customer base for reaching them on different purpose (Laroche et al. 2013). To
create and increase the brand value of the company or to reach new customers; gauging the
influence of the company in their customers; gauging behavioural issues in customer relationship
are very much eased by the using social media tools. Again, the disadvantages of using these
tools can be cited, as the company must use it in their advantage, while maintaining social ethics.
The performance of those organisations is dependent upon it and gets affected by different
comments.
Social exchange theory is based upon the customer interaction and potential rewards and
awards systems of using the interaction. The organisations can relate to these things as there is
also a cost benefit analysis associated with this theory. There is a profitable side of using the
social interaction with the marketers as well as a punishment. The punishment here will be if the
customers do not turn up for purchase. The positive interaction is needed though there won’t be a
possibility of repeat purchase. The interaction must have a humane touch to sustain the social
relations as bots would not be effective in this aspect of business (Sigala et al. 2012).
The social spiral viral model suggests that the content that the business shares in the web
where it is used by all the potential customer or audience of the company must be implanted
strategically. The campaigns and advertisements that are used must be integrated with all

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marketing programs of the company. Thus the social media optimisation concept has been put
through. This activity is rather technological for undermining the business corporations’s whole
marketing strategy (Patinoe et al. 2012). The factors takes into consideration of the target market
audience, positioning of the company and its products and social media behaviour patterns of the
brand’s audiences. The main theme of this model is content created in terms of getting g more
views in the internet. The social staircase model takes into consideration the strategy, presence,
tools and conversation. All the factors must be considered in the forming the business strategy.
The probability of measuring the presence of the business’s or the products visibility in the social
web is significant for the applicability of enriching the content delivered in terms of increasing
the brands value. The message must be conveyed in one or other way (Reynolds et al. 2014).
Research questions
Primary questions
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media platforms in business
activities?
Secondary questions
 What are the opportunities in using social media in business activities?
 What can be suggested as the behavioural patterns of using social media users?
 What is the positive and negative impact that the business has in enriching the brand
value through social media?

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Research design and methodology
Qualitative and quantitative research.
Qualitative research for this report will be done on the chosen company BHP Billiton. The 5
managers of marketing department will be selected for getting the attitude scale measurement of
them towards their system. The other staff of the company is selected for surveying. The
qualitative research questionnaires will be based on open ended and the 40 more respondents for
the online survey method. The qualitative research method will be for measuring the attitude of
the managers towards their own strategy and survey will be interpreted and analysed for further
insights in companies effective measure of social media uasge.
Reliability and validity of research methodology
The two methods of doing research are qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative
method is using the categorical variables and observations in the data and quantitative is using
the variables that are numeric or alphanumeric characters.
Reliability and validity of research conducting a research is ensuring the validity and reliability
of research. These are the main concerns of conducting a research.
Reliability
The main concern of a designing the research in qualitative and quantitative way is to
ensure the reliability of data gathered. This is reliability and validity takes into consideration, the
ethics of conducting a research program. Reliability is defined as a testing and evaluation of the
data to measure the applicability, transferability and credibility of the measures.
Validity

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The validity of doing any research is take the concept and construct validity approach to
maintain the ethics of doing the research. Whereas Concept validity takes into consideration the
imperceptivity of conceptions.
Variable specification
Here the dependent and independent variables are the ones that are identified for doing
the research. One of the variables is advantage or disadvantage of using social media for business
and therefore, the dependent variable is positive or negative impact of doing research.
Research approach and design
There can two kinds of approach in doing a research, one is deductive and another is
inductive in nature. This research is more inductive and less deductive in nature. In this process,
research is done in designing the research, data is then collected, and after careful observation
analysis and recommendation is given (Mackey and Gass 2015).
Data collection process
To initiate the research, primary data will be collected from BHP Billiton’s official
website and the particular company’s human resource and marketing managers will be
questioned about the social presence of their company. After gathering the primary data the
secondary sources like journals in the social media effectiveness topic will be identified and
analysed while doing the research. Based on the findings the hypothesis will be constructed and
analysed (Flick 2015). Data will be collected by the interview with the managers and online
survey of the staff.

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Sampling method and sample size
Sample is selected based in the research design and based in the target audience for the
questionnaires prepared (Mackey and Gass 2015). The sample here selected for primary research
consists of the human resource managers and marketing or more accurately the digital marketing
managers of any company that have effective social presence in the social media through any
other portals. The sample size selected is of 50 respondents. The probability sampling approach
would be a best approach to conduct this research (Smith 2015).
Interview and questionnaires designing
The approach to get response in the respondents will be done through structured
questionnaires and direct and structured interview method (Taylor 2015). The variables that are
identified in the research to more use on are advantage/disadvantage of using social media and
business activity that gets positively and negatively affected by those factors.
Research limitations
The limitation of doing this research lies in the constraint of framing strategy of research
that can be useful for further study. Using the social media is has its own limitations like not
getting access to different company information used directly or indirectly by the company. The
models that are reviewed in the literature review are not independent and entire strategy would
fall if organisations do not considers all the factors that needs to be considered (Silverman 2016).

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Time schedule
week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 week 5 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8 week 9 week 10
Milestones
Introducti on
Des i gni ng resea rch
objecti ves and defi ni ng
the scope
Des i gni ng the structure
Des i gni ng the res ea rch
questi ons
Literature review
Res ea rchi ng the journa l s
summari s i ng the arti cl es
Methodology
Des i gni ng res ea rch
approach
Identi fyi ng sa mpl e tool s
and techni ques
Conducti ng pri mary
res earch surveys and
i ntervi ews
Al i gni ng the s econdary
col l ected da ta
Findings and analysis
Usi ng di fferent tool s to
ana l yse the data set
Interpreti ng data
Ana nl ysi ng the data
Conclusion
Summary of res ea rch
Bui l d recommendata i on
Figure: Time schedule chart
Source: created by author
Conclusions
Therefore, from the above text it can be concluded that using social media has its pros and cons
for a business. Doing the research on this topic and the method doing the research is given in
below. Summary of the literature review done on the topic is also discussed briefly. The different