The Role Of Social Media Marketing In The Hospitality Industry: An Evaluation Of UK Companies, Essay.

Globalisation and Hospitality industry

Background of the study

Globalisation is forcing companies in the hospitality industry to focus on increasing their reach among the customers of different markets, which is possible to increase expansion (Tajvidi and Karami, 2021). Globalisation is also increasing the need for hospitality companies in the UK to focus on improved growth through the implementation of new marketing strategies. On the other hand, the outbreak of the pandemic has increased challenges for the companies that are functioning in the hospitality sector. These companies have adopted new strategies to reduce their issues regarding the marketing strategies, which were affected by the pandemic, along with globalisation. The implementation of marketing with “social media” by the sector of hospitality in the UK is reducing the issues and the challenges related to the increased growth (Khan and Hossain, 2018). The implementation of technologies and “social media” for marketing is enabling firms to gain advantages from the global domain. Companies are reaching a large population in the international arena through the use of these platforms for marketing. Communication with the guests is also possible for these firms, which enables them to gain competitive advantages by understanding their needs (Hu and Olivieri, 2021). In addition, it helps firms in the UK hospitality industry, such as Hilton, Hyatt Hotels, Pass the Keys, City Relay and others, to provide appropriate marketing strategies as per the needs of customers, which influence their purchasing habits along with the growth of hospitality organisations.

This proposed research is fundamentally aimed to critically evaluate the usage of ‘social media marketing” by the hospitality companies that are functioning in the UK.

• To critically identify the significance of “social media marketing” for increasing the growth of hospitality companies in the UK
• To evaluate different platforms of “social media” used by the UK hospitality companies to improve their growth and profitability
• To analyse the advantages of “social media marketing” by hospitality companies in the UK to increase the growth and performance
• To recommend appropriate strategies for the UK hospitality firms to increase the profitability and performance

The implementation of “social media marketing” is helping hospitality companies in improving their growth and performance by interacting with a large population from the global domain. Moreover, marketing through the use of “social media platforms” are allowing hospitality companies in the UK to increase their interaction with the customers, which allows for identifying their needs. As per the perception of Aydin (2020), hospitality firms operating in the UK are able to implement new strategies of marketing as per the demand of guests, which influences their purchasing behaviour. The marketing strategies as per the demand of customers are helping hospitality firms operating in the UK to interact with a large population and divide them into different groups. Jung, Dieck and Chung (2018) also added that the use of “social media platforms” is also helping hospitality companies in the UK to divide their purchasers into several groups based on purchasing behaviour, income, age, gender and others.

Individuals in the international domain are using “social media platforms” to spend their time, which is enabling businesses to increase their advantages. According to the study of Mavragani, Nikolaidou and Theodoraki (2019), the use of different tools by hospitality firms in the UK has increased due to t the availability of a large population from different countries. Facebook is determined as the platform that has a large population from the global arena and enables hospitality companies to influence them. The availability of free marketing options on Facebook is allowing UK hospitality firms to reduce their expenditure. On the other hand, the paid marketing option on Facebook is also helping these firms to gain advantages in the international domain due to the requirement of low marketing costs. Garrido-Moreno et al. (2020) also mentioned that Instagram is another platform that is helping in gaining advantages in the global arena with advertisements in video and picture format. The other platforms are determined as YouTube, Email Marketing, Twitter, SEO and others. These are enabling hospitality companies in the UK to improve their interaction with consumers.

Challenges faced by Hospitality industry

The marketing cost is one of the effective aspects of increasing the profitability of the firms functioning in the sector of hospitality. According to the perception of Buhalis and Sinarta (2019), marketing with the use of “social media platforms” is helping hospitality organisations in interacting with the consumers and influencing their perception of the advertisements. These are also enabling in increasing profitability by reducing expenditure. Garrido-Moreno et al. (2018) also added that it is helping these firms to manage their communication with customers, which is able to increase the overall profitability. The identification of the needs of customers is also possible through the usage of these platforms. Furthermore, firms are also gathering feedback from the customers regarding the operations and services. As per the study by Ebrahim (2020), the growth of hospitality companies is increasing due to the changes in customers’ perception, which is being made by these firms as per the feedback of consumers. It is also increasing the satisfaction of guests and influencing them towards the hospitality companies. On the other hand, the profitability of the UK hospitality industry is increasing with the information about discounts, maintenance of hygiene and other aspects.

The fundamental evaluation of previous papers has allowed in identifying the gaps related to the different tools of “social media platforms” used by companies to increase growth. The gaps in those papers related to the tools and their benefit in marketing have been presented here. The advantages of different tools have also been presented in this particular chapter to fulfil the gap in previous papers. The analysis of the advantages of platforms has also been presented to meet the gaps in previous literature papers.

The philosophy for research is of four types, which include positivism, interpretivism, realism and pragmatism, which allows for carrying out research in an appropriate manner. Amoth the four kinds of philosophies, positivism will be selected to conduct this particular research (Dougherty, Slevc and Grand, 2019). It will allow for collecting appropriate data about the use of “social media marketing” by the UK hospitality companies. The selection of the inductive approach will be possible with the help of the positivism philosophy. The other forms of philosophies will not be able to help in the process of collecting data and the approach. Thus, the positivism philosophy will be fundamentally chosen to carry out this research.

The approach in research s essential, as it allows for gathering results that are related to the prepared objectives. Inductive and deductive are the two research approaches that allow collecting data with an appropriate strategy. This particular research will be carried out by the adoption of the inductive approach (Abutabenjeh and Jaradat, 2018). It will help in gathering data about the different platforms used by hospitality companies in the UK to increase overall their productivity and profitability. Furthermore, the selection of the inductive approach will help in choosing the strategy, along with the data collection technique.

Qualitative and quantitative are the two forms of strategies used to carry out research and collect data. The strategy that is determined as qualitative will be selected for this particular research (Pluye et al., 2018). Moreover, the qualitative strategy will be selected as this particular research will be based on the collection of the secondary form of data. Furthermore, the qualitative strategy will allow the collection of data about the benefits of “social media marketing”, which is increasing the growth of hospitality firms in the UK.  

Social media marketing and its role in reducing challenges

Two forms of data that are primary and secondary are being collected in research to gather appropriate results related to the prepared objectives of a paper. The secondary form of data will be collected for this research to identify the appropriate significance of “social media marketing” by hospitality companies in the UK (Martins, da Cunha and Serra, 2018). Moreover, the secondary data will be collected to conduct the research in the time that has been provided by the university. The collection of primary data could require more time to complete this particular research. Furthermore, the data will be collected from different sources, such as journals, articles and reports about “social media marketing” by the hospitality companies of the UK (Rosinger and Ice, 2019). Permission will be taken from the authorities before collecting the data from the selected secondary sources. In addition, the secondary data will help in understanding the benefits of “social media marketing” for hospitality firms in the UK. The data will be collected from the sources that have been published after 2017 to gather recent and current information.

The analysis technique determined as descriptive will be adopted to analyse the collected secondary data about the use of “social media platforms” for marketing by hospitality companies functioning in the UK (Comarú et al., 2021). The other techniques of analysis will not be taken into consideration, as the descriptive method will help in gathering appropriate information and data. The descriptive technique will help in identifying data about the effect of “social media marketing” by the hospitality firms in the UK.

The research will be conducted by maintaining ethics in an appropriate manner by following the guidelines provided by the university. The data will be collected by taking permission from the authority. Moreover, only the sources that are available free and online will be taken into consideration for this research (Hesse et al., 2019). The data of this research will be collected from recent sources only. The sources that will be published after 2017 will only be taken into consideration to conduct this specific research. Furthermore, the data will not be collected from sources that will focus on other strategies also, along with “social media”. The secondary data will only be collected from those sources that have been published by focusing on the platforms, tools and strategies of “social media marketing” in the hospitality sector (Brown, Spiro and Quinton, 2020). On the other hand, the sources focused on the hospitality industry of our countries will not be selected for this research, as the paper will be focused on the industry of hospitality in the UK. The data will be saved in a password protected device to keep it safe from other parties.

Conclusion

It was concluded from the proposed research that globalisation is forcing the companies in the hospitality industry to focus on expansion to sustain themselves in the market. Firms operating in the industry of hospitality are using “social media platforms” to increase their customer base. It was also concluded that this proposed research was carried out by adopting the positivism philosophy, along with the inductive approach. Additionally, the approach and philosophy have allowed for collecting secondary data from appropriate sources with the help of the qualitative strategy. The collection of secondary data would provide appropriate results about the effect and advantages of “social media marketing” on the growth of the UK hospitality sector.

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