TAP's Social Media Strategy in Aviation: A Research Proposal

This research project proposal critically analyzes TAP's social media strategy within the aviation sector. It aims to evaluate the impact of social media on TAP's marketing activities, focusing on the development and usage of social media as a major marketing tool. The research objectives include analyzing social media development within airlines, applying social media theories, and conducting primary research to gather opinions on TAP’s social media marketing strategy. The rationale highlights the importance of social media for TAP to attract clients and increase revenue. The methodology involves collecting both qualitative data through interviews with managers and quantitative data through surveys with customers, using non-probability convenient sampling. Ethical considerations are addressed by ensuring confidentiality, voluntary participation, and academic use only. The proposal also includes a brief literature review with references to support the research.

Research Project Proposal Form
Instructions
The Research Proposal Form must be completed in full. Your proposal must be signed and
submitted to your Research Supervisor by the agreed date who will assess your research
proposal for ethical clearance. You must not collect any data before this proposal has
been approved and ethical clearance has been granted. Students who progress with
their research without approval or ethical clearance do so at the risk of academic failure and
disciplinary action.
Student Name:
Antonia Almeida
Course Title:
Tourism and Aviation
Intended Start Date:
Sept 2018
Intended End Date:
May 2019
Title of Research Project:TAP’s Social Networks and Social Media Strategy
The advent of social media has acted as a great marketing tool within the airlines sector to focus on TAP.
Research Question and hypotheses (if appropriate):
Hypothesis:
HO: The use of social media does not create any positive impact on the marketing activities considering
focus on TAP
H1: The use of social media has been beneficial for the airlines sector to conduct marketing approaches
focusing on TAP
Main Aim/s:
The research aims to critically analyse the development and usage of social media as a major
marketing tool within the airlines focusing on TAP

Objectives:
 To conduct analysis of social media development within airlines and its impact on the
aviation sector
 To conduct analysis of various social media theories and application of those within the
aviation sector and TAP
 To undertake a primary research for obtaining the opinions based on the roles of social
media marketing and evaluate the impact of TAP’s social media marketing strategy
Rationale
The research rationale demonstrates the problem of the research, which shows that without the social
media involvement nowadays, the marketing effectiveness deteriorates and it often results in lack of ability
of TAP to attract more clients and increase revenue generation. The problems further result in decreased
profit and inability to attain competitive advantage too. Thus, the research rationale will help in finding out
how the involvement of social media platforms can act as a great marketing tool for TAP to gain the
attention of clients, increase client base and make them informed about the products and services with
much ease and effectiveness.
Brief introduction to your literature review including references:
According to Khan (2017), the social media strategy is an effective marketing strategy involving
the use of social media platforms for the purpose of making more clients aware of the business
services and make necessary planning for achieving the goals and objectives related to the
attraction of more clients and higher revenue generation in business. For a airlines business, it is
always beneficial to manage a proper social media webpage for grabbing the attention of clients,
because most of the clients are online nowadays most of the times (Khan 2017). Arranging the
most suitable social media platform or channel is necessary for creating a positive brand image
and develop its presence in the marketplace to drive consumer buying behaviour and at the same
time, increase the level of engagement. As stated by Tsimonis and Dimitriadis (2014), the social
media strategies are aligned with the business goals and objectives to ensure supporting the

company objectives, furthermore create good social networks and keep good connections with the
clients (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2014). The clients can review the feedbacks and opinions
associated with the services on the social networking webpage and clear up their queries too,
which have been often answered by the department of the company that managed the webpage.
As stated by Aral, Dellarocas and Godes , the social media platforms have created ease for the
development and sharing of user generated content and use various applications for enchanting
the level of collaboration and participation of clients. The social media marketing strategy form the
technological and ideological base that has incorporated multiple digital initiatives for the
successful exchange and sharing of information and content about the services delivered by the
company (Aral, Dellarocas and Godes 2013). This has acted as good forms of promotional
activities and has facilitated the marketing of products, development of brand along with enriching
the customers’ experiences and improved the level of client experience too.
This will assist in combining the secondary sources together and form the literature review section
with ease.
Methodology
The collection of data will include gathering both primary and secondary data. While the primary
data consists of qualitative and quantitative data, the secondary data are the sources including
journals, articles, documents and websites from where data and information will be collected to
constitute the literature review section. The qualitative data will be obtained by conducting
interview sessions with the managers of the organisation while the quantitative data are
considered as the responses and views of respondents who are part of the survey process
(Neuman 2013). Yes, the managers will be made available by conducting a suitable time for them

when they can be available to provide their views and opinions. This would though be possible
with the use of non-probability convenient sampling procedure.
The random probability sampling will be possible by selecting a homogenous group of people from
a heterogeneous group. The non-probability sampling technique will be suitable because of its
effectiveness in arranging proper time for the managers to provide their useful opinions regarding
the use of social media and enhancing social networks in airlines industry focusing on TAP. The
sample size will be selected as 50 customers 5 managers of the organisation (Brinkmann 2014).
The maintenance of values and ethics is important and thus the research materials are kept
confidential and most of the things should be destroyed so that it does not fall in wrong hands.
None of the participants in the research should be forced to take part in the research. It must also
be noted that the research should be used for academic purposes only and not for gaining any
commercial benefits.
The participants consent form would ensure that one of them are forced and all have participated
with their consent. The materials and research related information would be kept confidential by
storing those into databases and setting passwords, which should prevent unauthorised access
too.
The secondary sources of data are assessed and checked for reliability considering that these are
all the authenticated materials needed to conduct the research effectively (Greenfield 2016). The
validity of the sources is to be maintained by making sure that these materials are updated and
there are reliable authors who have written the document or article.
Please indicate whether you are seeking Ethical Authorisation from your Supervisor orEthical
Approvalfrom the Research Ethics Committee for your proposal:

Authorisation: For projects not involving human participants complete and attach Application for
Research Ethics Authorisation Form
Approval: For projects involving human participants complete and attach Application for Research
Ethics Approval Form
NB: To gain Approval you must also attach your Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form
Participant Information
Sheet attached
(for human participants only)
Approved
Supervisor Signature:
Amends Required:
Amends Completed:
Consent Form
Attached
(for human participants only)
Approved
Supervisor Signature:
Amends Required:
Amends Completed:
Student Signature: Date:
References
Aral, S., Dellarocas, C. and Godes, D., 2013. Introduction to the special issue—social media
and business transformation: a framework for research. Information Systems Research, 24(1),
pp.3-13.

Brinkmann, S., 2014. Interview. In Encyclopedia of critical psychology (pp. 1008-1010).
Springer New York.
Greenfield, T., 2016. Ethics of research. Research Methods for Postgraduates, 46.
Khan, G.F., 2017. Social Media Strategy. In Social Media for Government (pp. 119-134).
Springer, Singapore.
Neuman, W.L., 2013. Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Pearson education.
Tsimonis, G. and Dimitriadis, S., 2014. Brand strategies in social media. Marketing
Intelligence & Planning, 32(3), pp.328-344.