The Growing Importance of Social Media Strategies in Global Business

This dissertation examines the critical role of social media strategies in the global business environment, particularly focusing on internationalization and e-business plans. The research explores the concept of social media strategies and their interrelationship with the global business environment. It investigates the importance of various social media strategies for companies like Tesco to expand into international markets effectively. The study further analyzes the steps involved in developing an effective social media strategy for global business, along with the challenges that may arise. The research employs a mixed-method approach, including a literature review, and data analysis to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject. The findings discuss the impact of social media on brand awareness, customer engagement, and overall business performance, with recommendations for optimizing social media strategies in a global context. The study includes a reflection chapter, providing a personal perspective on the research process and its implications.

The Growing Importance
of Social Media Strategies
in Global Business
Environment
(Dissertation & PHD Thesis)
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RESEARCH TITLE – “THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES
IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT - INTERNATIONALISATION”............................3
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................3
Background of study...............................................................................................................3
Research Aim.........................................................................................................................3
Research objectives................................................................................................................3
Research questions.................................................................................................................4
Rationale of study...................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW (3000)............................................................................5
The notion of Social media strategies and its interrelationship with internationalization and
global business environment..................................................................................................5
The importance of different social media strategies for Tesco to adopt for leading its path in
global business environment and expand in International markets effectively......................6
The steps for Tesco to develop an effective social media strategy for the global business
environment............................................................................................................................9
The challenges Tesco may encounter while using an effective social media strategy to
internationalize in the global market....................................................................................10
CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (1000)..............................................................13
Research Onion....................................................................................................................13
CHAPTER 4 - DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION (2000).......................................20
Frequency Distribution Analysis..........................................................................................20
CHAPTER 5 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION (1300)..............................................................32
CHAPTER 6 - CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS (1200)............................................35
Conclusion............................................................................................................................35
Recommendation..................................................................................................................36
CHAPTER 7- REFLECTION (750)..............................................................................................39
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................41
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................43
Appendix 1: Questionnaire...................................................................................................43
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RESEARCH TITLE – “THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL
MEDIA STRATEGIES IN GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT -
INTERNATIONALISATION”
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
Background of study
Social media strategies play crucial role for an organisation especially in global business
environment. There are various social media strategies through which company can conduct
various global business operations such as internationalisation in an effective manner. Social
media strategies are having effective impact upon performance of business. Present report has
been conduct on TESCO which is conducting its operations in retail industrial sector and
performs its operations in many countries (Cateora and et.al., 2020). This research study intent to
identify the growing importance of social media strategies in global business environment-
internationalisation, e-business plan and performance of firms. The aim and objectives developed
in relation to this study help in performing it in systematic manner and accomplish them
effectively.
Research Aim
“To explore the importance of Social media strategies for company to Internationalize
and grow in Global Business Environment”. A case study of TESCO.
Research objectives
The different objectives associated with this particular study are provided below:
 To understand and determine the notion of Social media strategies and its
interrelationship with internationalization and global business environment.
 To identify the importance of different social media strategies for Tesco to adopt for
leading its path in global business environment and expand in International markets
effectively.
 To examine the steps for Tesco to develop an effective social media strategy for the
global business environment.
 To seek the knowledge about the challenges Tesco may encounter while using an
effective social media strategy to internationalize in the global market.
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Research questions
The main questions in context of this specific study are as follows:
 What is the notion of Social media strategies and its interrelationship with
internationalization and global business environment?
 What is the importance of different social media strategies for Tesco to adopt for leading
its path in global business environment and expand in International markets effectively?
 What are steps for Tesco to develop an effective social media strategy for the global
business environment?
 What are the challenges Tesco may encounter while using an effective social media
strategy to internationalize in the global market?
Rationale of study
This study aims to identify the growing importance of social media strategies in global
business environment-internationalisation, e-business plan and performance of firms. By the
assistance of this study, researcher will be able to understand the concept of social media along
with the significance of social media strategies in global business environment-
internationalisation, e-business plan and performance of firms (Chang, Ku and Chen, 2019).
Apart from this, it also helps in evaluating the most appropriate social media strategies that can
implement by organisation in internationalisation and e-business plan. By this study, researcher
will be able to gain deeper insights on study topic as well as also consider this research as a base
for performing further study on topic.
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CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW (3000)
The notion of Social media strategies and its interrelationship with internationalization and
global business environment.
According to Newberry. C. (2020), a social media strategy is a blueprint and a summary
of the plans made by the company and the marketers with the hope of achieving respective
agendas through social media. Effective and strong social media strategy helps the marketers and
guide the organisation in the correct path towards the actions which enable them to understand
their success in factors as well as those factors which can become the failing reasons for the
company. As per views of the author it is suggested that a social media strategy needs to be very
specific and the plans need to be made accurately in order to be effective and for making them
work potentially.
In regards to the author’s view point the most specific a social media strategy is and its
conciseness can help the company in being more productive and profitable. Whereas, a lofty and
broad social media strategy can be unattainable and impossible to measure for the firm.
In opinion of Fox. G. (2019), social media and search engine optimisation have brought
consequential rise content marketing along with increasing the opportunity for businesses to use
social media in more strategic and effective manner. The authors suggest that there are three
compelling reasons for an organisation to use social media. First compelling reason is marketing
where through social media it is easy for the entity to understand their customers, develop brand
awareness raise their brands value. The second reason is collaboration with partners by creating a
social space for all such as suppliers and customers (What is a Social Media Strategy, 2019).
Last but not the least the third compelling reason is employee engagement. Using social media
company can develop a better culture for their employees improve their internal communication
and collaboration as well as also make use of it in recruiting effective talented candidates and
attracting fresh talents towards the entity.
In view of the author a social media strategy is a plan that is used by organisations to the
engagement and interaction of people with their brand across the entire social media with the
motive of attaining specific objectives of the company (Charter, 2017). The attainment of these
objectives by using strong and potential social media strategy will enable be firm to improve
their brand awareness as well as create a viral effect over the large population of the sector. The
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author also presented a fact that every business either small or large needs to build relationships
with different external as well as internal stakeholders such as employees, customers, suppliers
and many other. This fact also defines a point about social media and different social media
strategies that businesses use that it offers a respective tool for a method to the organisation for
facilitating conversations, sharing of information, developing collaborations between internal
and external activities and another very important aspect covered is forging of relationships.
A social media strategy answers another very important question for a company that is
why you want to do this. In other words social media make sure to consider the relationship a
business has and answers the need for the company to keep these relationships along with also
defining the types of relationship then need to develop as well as provides an effective
communication process.
Another definition of social media strategy is the relationships, their value and setting out
plans for harnessing to achieve a particular goal or set of goals. This perspective of the definition
of social media strategy looks over a business as a part of a broad network in which social
interactions and level of influences are involved in order to determine a business’s or a firm’s
capabilities and capacity to access enough resources in the best and the most effective manner to
achieve their goals.
Hence, it is evident that a social media strategy offers number of opportunities and value
to businesses to grow and expand to unknown lengths and be in contact with mass population
(Cunningham and Craig, 2019). This links the social media strategy with business environment
and internationalisation of a brand. Effective and strong social media strategy will enable the
firm to be highly communicative and develop mass interactions with large number of people and
population around the globe enable the firm to easily internationalise and 2 respectively in the
mood itself in new market whenever moving expand the competitive business environment.
The importance of different social media strategies for Tesco to adopt for leading its path in
global business environment and expand in International markets effectively.
In view of Henderson. G. (2020), social media and different methods of marketing that
are developed through it has become the most influential and value adding virtual space enabling
them a effective place to communicate but also became a great way of digitally advertising and
conducting marketing operations of respective brands their businesses and their respective
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products and services. Social media is a powerful tool enabling a simple resolution to businesses
and organisations for reaching out to a large number of people in just few seconds through
attractive advertisements and creative content (The Importance Of Social Media Marketing,
2020). A very powerful feature of social media is also referring to birds less cost and more
productivity off the advertisement and marketing conducted in respect to potential audiences
targeted groups.
There are a number of important features and reasons which are brought by social media towards
the organisation. It is a necessary source and platforms which is commonly used by users and
customers offering a potential chance to the organisation for reaching out to the target audiences
in the most effective rate. Is also determined that social media networks and marketing
conducted through it is known to be the most effective one as major population around the world
spend a large chunk of their time during the day on social platforms providing an opportunity to
all small as well as large businesses to connect with them and to attract them towards their
offerings (Del Vecchio and et.al., 2018). Social media not only reaches out to the largest possible
target audiences for the organisation but also provide and help the company in attracting the right
customer with the right information at the right time and help it in showcasing their products as
well as services and brand to the potential buyers in the most appropriate Times for making sales
and improving productivity along with profitability for the business.
This is the mechanism of social media through which it works bringing number of
importance and proving to be the most effective one amongst different marketing processes and
phenomena’s. Author have provided 10 important features that showcases the need as well as
necessity for the brand to have their respective social media to work upon and some of them are
as follows.
 Telling the story is the first and the most important feature provided by social media to a
respective brand. Online presence of a business on different social media channel enables
the entity to hold a perfect opportunity and a great way to interact with the customers and
connect with them on personal level. This act as a very important and essential
opportunity for the business and the brand to keep their customers well informed along
with the targeted audiences by telling them their story as it will inspire and attract the
followers more towards the offerings as well is the agenda for success of the brand.
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 Another important factor served by social media is the growth it provides to the business
with a small budget. Social media marketing is determined as one of the cheapest and
productive marketing practice in the modern business scenario and business environment.
Brands which are looking forward two internationalise and to expand their business along
with their performances earn a productive and value adding source through social media
in their success and development. Social channels and platforms as well as marketing
conducted through it is less expensive for businesses in comparison to other marketing
tools and strategies that are casually used by marketers enabling the brand to make the
most of the opportunity they receive through it.
 The third feature and importance served by social media handles to the business is is
market research and developing knowledge about the competitors who are potential
enough to bring a huge amount of harm towards the business. Social media is not just
only helps a business to reach towards a most potential target audience and to keep them
attracted as well as attached with the brand but it also becomes a very potential source for
company to conduct research about their market and competitors and gain more and more
knowledge every day and even every single minute (Duane and O'Reilly, 2017). Social
media platforms is accessible to everyone and to you all which develops a great
possibility for a business to know about their competitors and to better understand the
strategies they are implementing for keeping dead people and customers attracted
towards their offerings. Through this process the company cannot only gain new ideas
but also can benchmark their competitor while competing and adopting their positive and
value-adding phenomenon as for developing brand value of their own entity.
 A very obvious important factors which is attached to do social media marketing and
using social media platforms by the brand in order to market their offerings as well as
conducting their e-business along with the motive of internationalisation is building
custom audiences, learning there buying patterns and ultimately increasing the overall
ROI of the business (Gandini, 2016). Social media marketing has made a lot of things is
there for marketers and developed a very easy path in the modern business environment
for entities to internationalise and enable their forms to earn better by the most potential
use of data of people and uses as per the activities we conduct on respective platform.
This respective feature enabled the businesses the power and accessibility to build a
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custom audience for their brand by knowing their purchasing patterns as well as making
accurate predictions about their buying behaviour for the key purpose of improving the
overall image of the brand and ultimately the performance of the firm.
In the aggressively increasing, competitive and saturating market place as well as business
environment internationalisation and expansion of a respective brand is a difficult task to fulfil.
A very important and persuasive role is played by social media for the same. In today's world
marketing is proportional dependent upon the strategies used by the brand as well as the
customers and the relationship shared by the brand with them (Gomezelj, 2016). Social media
offers the business handsome possibility and chance to be highly interactive which the people
that are their target audience and develop a strong bond for a relationship with them in order to
sustain in the market for the longest period possible. Social media is not just helping in gathering
the attention of people and bringing new customers towards the business but also so help in in
developing long-term relations with those consumers and buyers so that the brand can flourish
for the longest period possible even moves further in the industry with providing hire
competition to the competitors by holding a strong customer base that are supportive enough and
are devoted to the company.
The steps for Tesco to develop an effective social media strategy for the global business
environment.
As per the opinion of Arno. C. (2021), if an organisation operates all multinational level
creating and perpetuating a strong social media presence in global market will eventually
become a very important consideration. There are certain challenges which can become the
biggest hurdles companies may encounter one of which is localising the social media efforts for
each target market of different customer base around the globe in the global business
environment (Kim, Wang and Oh, 2016). There are number of steps which can be adopted by
Tesco as per the opinion of the offer in order to develop a strong international social media
presence and strategy in order to interact and operate in international market.
According to the knowledge and expertise of the author there are five stages or steps in
which the development of effective social media strategy for global business environment can be
done by organisations like Tesco. This five stages are as follows:
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 Choosing the right social network for the company is the first step which needs to be
undertaken by Tesco as a suggestion by the author. This is an important step to consider
as in some countries there are number of locally grown social networks which hold a
majority over the users and their attention (Kumar, Choi and Greene, 2017). Hence it is
help Tesco in understanding and choosing the correct and most appropriate social media
channel to be used for different markets as per the attractiveness of people and their
usage of social media platforms.
 Finding about what people like is the second step, people of different regions have
different reasons for which they use social media so it will be useful for Tesco to have an
understanding of what people are looking at then they are using social media and it will
be easy for the brand to focus on a nice market according to their preferences.
 The third step which needs to be undertaken by Tesco and its marketing team is of
developing a strategy according to the budget and requirements of the brand.
 Next stage is of localising the content that means Tesco need to focus over making the
content of their social media platforms more customisable and make it relevant to the
target audience which will help the brand in connecting easily with the people and
making the best use of their resources along with attracting larger customer ways in the
most effective manner.
 The last but not the least is the stage of interaction which is one of the most important
part of any social media strategy for planned developed by any organisation. At this stage
in country social media managers of Tesco can potentially make the difference engaging
number of followers in order to change the brand and make it successful.
The challenges Tesco may encounter while using an effective social media strategy to
internationalize in the global market.
As per the view’s of Salamader. G. (2020), developing a potential social media strategy is
a very essential part of businesses and organisations today in the modern world of operations.
According to the author of factual information is provided that around half of the world's
population is active on social media and been using it from very long time. But another
important aspect is even a very experienced and expert marketer who is dealing with social
media marketing and strategy development becomes very grateful and lucky when they reach
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even a fraction of the users base by sharing any of the post for their respective brand (5 Steps to
Launch Your International Social Media, 2021).
The author also provided a fact that industry and businesses global business environment
are changing and maturing very fast making things chaotic even when the marketing department
of the brand is doing everything they can to make their strategy successful (Liébana-Cabanillas,
Munoz-Leiva and Sánchez-Fernández, 2018). Thus, the author have identified number of
challenges and problems which a brand big enough like Tesco can also face while they are
developing there effective social media strategy for their international and global businesses.
 Creating a modern social media strategy is one of the biggest challenge which will be
faced by the brand and the marketers. A social media marketing strategy is just a road
map which will help the company in accomplishing its goals faster and in better manner
(Top 7 Social Media Marketing Challenges, 2020). But building a very strong route map
or blueprint of a social media strategy is one of the biggest challenge which will be faced
by the marketers of Tesco while performing their job in regards to develop a metrical
brand image of the company in international markets or while internationalisation.
 The next challenge which can be faced by Tesco is cutting through the noise that means,
nowadays it is a very difficult and challenging task which is needed to be carried out by
the marketers to make their brand effective in the virtual world and to promote it
effectively that is sparking engagement of people on social media around the globe. As it
is a well-known fact that competition is very high in the marketplace and in international
environment of business which makes it very difficult for the company to make a very
effective and strong image for engaging maximum customer base over their social media
platforms.
 The third challenge which can be faced by marketing team of Tesco while developing a
potential social media strategy for the firm’s international and global business
environment is authentic connections. Connecting with targeted audience is one of the
biggest challenge which is faced by brands today de in the competitive world on a very
individual as well as personal level (Qi and Chau, 2018). This is a huge challenge which
is very difficult for a company to overcome where the need to be connected with
authentic people and customers rather than frauds or in the world in order to make sure
that their marketing campaign and social presence is not being compromised.
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 Another very challenging aspect which will be faced by Tesco in regards to the
development of effective social media strategy is expanding their reach. Creating and
publishing a strong and appropriate social media content is not enough for a brand to get
people attracted and following them on social prettier networks. The company needs to
make sure that regular promotions and promoting content is being used in order to stay
connected with people and expanding the reach of the entity in the virtual world.
Promoting the content, partnering with different influences and other brands as well as
gathering attention of a large group of people at the same time on the global level is a
huge burden and a very critical challenge that is going to be a very big hurdle for Tesco
while developing its international plans and strategic approaches.
 The next challenge is of maintaining originality which reflects upon the social media
management that is a process requiring a dedicating individual and TV in relation to
Tesco. Social media management is a time consuming process and with the growth of the
business and the brand it becomes a very hectic and all time job (Rosca, Arnold and
Bendul, 2017). This makes it a very difficult aspect of social media strategy development
where the brand will the suffering in keeping their content original and creators as well as
connecting enough with the targeted audience in different geographical locations while
internationalizing and global market.
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