Evaluating Social Media Marketing: Project Management Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of project management principles and their application in evaluating the effectiveness of social media marketing on business operations, using Continental Consulting Limited as a case study. The report begins by establishing project aims and objectives, followed by the development of a project management plan encompassing cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and resources. A work breakdown structure (WBS) and Gantt chart are also produced to visualize project timelines and tasks. The study employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including surveys, questionnaires, and data analysis techniques, to assess the impact of digital marketing on small businesses. The report concludes with recommendations for Continental Consulting Limited and a reflection on the value of the research undertaken. The project's duration is estimated at 28 days, with the critical path identified to ensure timely completion of the project.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................3
LO 1......................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Establishing project aims and objectives for a chosen project within your chosen Business........3
P2 Producing Project Management Plan............................................................................................4
P3 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart.....................................................................7
LO 2......................................................................................................................................................9
P4 Applying qualitative and quantitative research methods for meeting project aims and objectives9
LO 3....................................................................................................................................................13
P5 Analysing research using appropriate tools and techniques........................................................13
P6 Communicating appropriate recommendations..........................................................................20
LO 4....................................................................................................................................................20
P7 Reflection on the value of undertaking the research to meet aims and objectives......................20
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
It is very important for any organization to have an effective business project plan
which can help them in increasing their performance in their respective industry. It can have a
huge impact on their business activity which can assist in enhancing their sales and
production. Present report will focus on topic-“To evaluate the effectiveness of social media
marketing on business operations- A case study on Continental Consulting Limited”. This
will help in analysing the impact of digital market on small businesses. Continental
Consulting Limited is a research and business consultancy company which works on
technology.
Present assessment will focus on determining aim and objective for the organization
which can help them in analysing the impact of digital technology on their business. Further
this report will produce a management plan which will include factors like, cost, scope, time,
quality, communication, risk and resources. It will also develop a work breakdown structure
(WBS) and Gantt chart with respect to it. A small-scale research by applying qualitative and
quantitative research methods is also described in this study. In the last section, appropriate
recommendation is explained.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1 Establishing project aims and objectives for a chosen project within your chosen Business
Digital technology is a process which uses technology to perform activities. Digital
technology has revolutionised the way any business is conducted. From the past years, it has
been intensely changed and transformed business activities to a large extent. The use of social
media marketing technology has provided businesses with a wealth of choice and
opportunity. This has enabled existing products to become more profitable and innovative
new products to be developed, leading to increasingly diverse product portfolios (Hillson,
2017).
Marketing plays an important role for any business in order to increase their
efficiency and performance as well. Now-a-days there are various application that is available
for the organization to promote their services and products. Continental Consulting Limited
can use Facebook, Twitter, etc. to put advertisement of their organization’s products and
services. Other than performing promotional activities, social media marketing can be used in

making effective communication with customers as well. This will help in making a good
relationship with them. For Continental Consulting Limited, it is very crucial to maintain a
good and stable relation with their clients in order to enhance their overall revenue (Nicholas
and Steyn, 2017).
Digital technology can help Continental Consulting Limited to improve their work
which can assist them in competing with their competitors as well. It can help in various
departments, such as, in administration, in storage and distribution section, in production,
etc (The Evolution of Social Media, 2017).
Following is the project aim and objective, respectively;
Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of social media marketing on business operations- “A
case study on Continental Consulting Limited”.
Objective: There are various objective which has to be achieved in this project, such as;
 To study the impact of digital marketing on small businesses.
 To analyse the effectiveness of social media on business communication of
Continental Consulting Limited.
 To investigate the importance of social media marketing on operational activities of
Continental Consulting Limited.
 To recommend Continental Consulting Limited about the importance of digital
technology and use of social media marketing.
P2 Producing Project Management Plan
For any business organization it is very important to have a good and effective project
management plan which can help them in analyse all the key factor which is required in the
business project. It helps in analysing the key elements that has a huge impact on their
business. Various elements of an effective project management plan includes, cost, scope,
time, quality, communication, risk and resources (Baumann and et.al., 2015). All these
factors are explained below in detail:
 Cost: This is the most important factors which has a huge impact on any business
activity, respectively. It is very important for the organization to evaluate the cost
factor which is required to fulfil all the requirements of the organization. This has
to be managed effectively by Continental Consulting Limited in order to perform
their task properly. Working in a set budget can have a huge positive impact and

can make business project effective as well. There are various factors which has to
be kept in mind before planning any financial budget (Dansoh, Frimpong and Oteng,
2017). These factors can include, labour cost, material cost, resources, training
cost, etc. This will help in managing their work accordingly.
 Scope: There is a huge scope of social media marketing for small businesses. This
step involves all the specific requirements that is needed for the completion of
project effectively. This can have a huge impact on any business so it is crucial to
manage it carefully. While managing this factor, it is very critical to evaluate all
the task that is being performed in the project as this will help them in assigning
resources accordingly (Peppers and Rogers, 2016).
 Time: Having a time target helps an organization to organize their work. This is
very helpful in achieving their target and objectives on given time frame. Having
an effective time management can assist Continental Consulting Limited to
perform their duties and responsibilities on time. To manage this factors, it is
crucial to allot time to every task that is involved in the project, such as, for
research, data collection, analysis of data, etc. This will help in evaluating the
overall time that is required to complete the whole task (Sánchez, 2015). Time
management can be achieved by implementing various activities in the project,
such as, by planning a schedule of all the task, defining activities, estimating time
requirements, etc. All these factors together will help in managing time for the
project.
 Communication: To perfume any task in the project it is very important to have a
good communication between their employees. It can have a huge impact on their
business activities as well. This can be achieved by interacting with each other.
This will also assist in sharing some new and innovative ideas which can be used
in the project by the organization in order to increase their efficiency and
performance (Schwalbe, 2015).
 Risk Management: To start any new project there are chances to have risk. This
has to managed by the organization very carefully as it can affect their activities to
a large extent. Risk management can be managed by effectively analysing their
activities carefully. This ca be achieved by planning certain strategies which can
be very helpful for risk assessment. This practice will make that it will reduce the
impact of the risk on the business activity, respectively (Hornstein, 2015).

 Resource: These have a huge impact on any business activity as it can affect them
a lot. The most important resource which is very important for Continental
Consulting Limited is the Human Resource (HR) as it helps them in recruiting the
best staff or employees for them which can help them in achieving their target on
time. Having a good funding resource is also very important for them (Kerzner and
Kerzner, 2017).

P3 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a type of process which is used to take into
consideration the project aim and goal and helps to break it down into small tasks which is
organized on the basis of requirements and time required by them (Kaiser, El Arbi and
Ahlemann, 2015). For Continental Consulting Limited, it will be beneficial for them in
analysing all the business operational requirements and management of tasks that will lead
them in executing each task in this current research. It is estimated that it will require
approximately 28 days to complete the research.
Task Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Auto
Scheduled Identifying Research Project 2 days Wed 10/17/18 Thu 10/18/18
Auto
Scheduled
Preparation of Aim and
Objectives 3 days Fri 10/19/18 Tue 10/23/18 1
Auto
Scheduled Research on selected topic 5 days Wed 10/24/18 Tue 10/30/18 2
Auto
Scheduled
Application of appropriate
research methodologies 4 days Wed 10/31/18 Mon 11/5/18 2,3
Auto
Scheduled
Collection of data from
different resources 8 days Tue 11/6/18 Thu 11/15/18 4
Auto
Scheduled Analysis of gathered data 3 days Fri 11/16/18 Tue 11/20/18 4,5
Auto
Scheduled
Interpretation and analysis of
gathered data 2 days Wed 11/21/18 Thu 11/22/18 6
Auto
Scheduled Final submission of report 1 day Fri 11/23/18 Fri 11/23/18 6,7

Gantt chart:
Critical Path:
Interpretation: From this above critical path, it can be analyzed that this project will
take 28 days to complete it as it was estimated by professionals of Continental Consulting
Limited. So, according to this, every activity must be completed in the given time period in
order to complete it on give time slot.

LO 2
P4 Applying qualitative and quantitative research methods for meeting project aims and
objectives
It is very important for the researcher to perform its research effectively in order to
get all the relevant data or information in order to complete this project with effectiveness. In
this present research, both qualitative and quantitative research methods was used the
researcher to achieve their aims and targets effectively (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). There
are various factors or elements which has to be taken into consideration while performing any
type of research, which is explained below:
 Research Approach: In this process it helps in identifying what type of approach is
being used by the researcher to complete the project. Various approaches are there
which can be used by them, such as, inductive and deductive approach. Other than
these approaches, sources, like, primary and secondary resources can also be very
useful in this research (Apenko, 2017).
 Research Philosophy: This is a type of method in which it helps in deciding the best
possible way to the researcher in order to complete the work effectively. There are
various techniques, for example, positivism and interpretivism. However, with the
context of present research, qualitative research method will be used along with
interpretivism philosophy as it will help in gathering the best data for the research.
 Research Methodologies: This process involves all the methodologies that is being
used in the completion of this research. In this present research, researcher will use
both the processes, i.e., qualitative and quantitative as well by the researcher. With the
help of qualitative methods, researcher will collect all the relevant information on the
basis of survey and questionnaire on which a thematic analysis will be performed by
the researcher in order to get results (Research Support: Research Methodology,
2016). And in quantitative research method data will be collected with the help of
graphs and tabular presentation.
 Data Collection Methods: Researcher has used two methods to complete its research,
such as, primary and secondary method of data collection. In the context of current
research, in primary method researcher has conducted a survey and on the basis of
which a questionnaire has been made. Several questions has been asked to the
managers of Continental Consulting Limited to gather data. And in secondary
research method, sources, such as books and journals, articles, news, online, etc. have

been considered which helped in bringing observatory analysis on this issue
(Schwalbe, 2015).
 Sampling: In the context of present research, purposive sampling has been used by
the researcher. In this several questions have been asked by 20 managers of
Continental Consulting Limited in order to collect information regarding the impact
of social media marketing on their organisation and business activity as well.
 Data Analysis: In this process, researcher has analysed all the data which was
collected or gathered during the research. This collected data will help in estimating
the final result collected from survey that has been conducted by the researcher.
Proper analysis has to be done by researcher in achieving their targets and objectives
effectively for the organization (Turner and Ledwith, 2018).

QUESTIONNAIRE
Question-1: Does social media marketing helped your organization to increase your
sales and production rate?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others
Question-2: Is it difficult for you employees to understand this digital technology and
social media marketing tool?
(A) Not exactly
(B) To some extent
Question- 3: Has this technology helped your organization to improve your
performance?
(A) To satisfactory level
(B) To dissatisfactory level
(C) Neutral reaction
Question-4: Does this social media marketing technology helped your organization to
improve your business communication?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others
Question-5: Does this social media marketing helped to generate a good overall
revenue?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others

Question-6: Are your social media marketing goals integrated with your overall
business objective?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others
Question-7: Have you established metrics to track your social media marketing
efforts to your business goals?
(A) Yes
(B) No
(C) Others