Essay: Role Of Social Media In Marketing: Literature Review And Research Methodology.

All HI6008 Students enroll in the 2018 need to follow below Assignment structure:Word count: 1500 to 2000 words
1. Introduction
2. Project Objective
3. Project Scope
4. Literature Review
(Students’ needs to summarise Assignment 1 literature review (2-3 pages) and justification from Assignment 1 literature problems, gaps opportunities, Hypothesis)
5. Research Questions/Hypothesis  Primary Question (only one question) - Secondary Questions (1, 2 ….) Research questions should be linked to Literature Problems, Gaps, and Hypothesis
6. Research Design and Methodology
- Qualitative research
(Students should propose the Process of the Qualitative Research (Main Steps),Approaches to reliability and Validity, Sampling, Sample Size, Data Collection Method, Variables Specifications)
- Quantitative research
(Students should propose the process of the Quantitative Research Design Process (Main Steps), Research Instrument, Quantitative Data Analysis Process, Sampling and Simple Size, Interviewing and Questionary Design, Reliability and Validity of Data)
7. Research Limitations
8. Time Schedule (Research plan)
9. Conclusion
10. Reference List
11. Appendix
NOTE: Students are not with requirements to collect and analyse data.

Project Objective

In the current business era, the organization has needed to understand the application of the internet to sustain their position in the marketplace. Multinational organizations used many communication techniques to communicate with their specified consumers like official web, email, and social media sites (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). These methods could enable the firm to increase their brand awareness among the consumers in the least time. In recent business era, organization considers many sothe urces rthe elated to the social network to accomplish the aim and objectives of the research matter.

This report mainly focuses on the discussing literature review and research methodology. The literature review section facilities to understand conceptual understanding about many components related to the research dilemma (Stephen, 2016). The research methodology depicts a qualitative and quantitative method as it would be imperative in collecting feasible information with respect to the current matter.             

Project Objective

The primary purpose of this research is to address the role of social media in marketing. The following objectives will be attained by the researcher to meet at the valid conclusion:  the  

Object lives

• To explore the meaning and concept of the social media and marketing
• To discover the role of social media in marketing
• To recommend end social media strategies that t can be implemented to enhance market positioning
• Project Scope

The application of social media facilitates the organization to communicate with a huge amount of desired consumers in the limited time period and accomplish desire goal. Through this, a company would be capable to concentrate on the huge amount of consumers in the same time and make the appropriate decision with respect to the current research matter (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch, 2017).

Through this, a company would also be capable to address challenges that may be faced by the firm at the time of implementing in social media in the marketing. Moreover, this structure could be imperative for the firm to identify different factors that may support to improving the marketing practices and obtain a reliable outcome. Furthermore, it enables to increase the knowledge about qualitative and quantitative research tools for the attainment of aim and objectives of research concern (Agnihotri, et al., 2016).       

Literature Review

Summary of literature review

It can be concluded that social media provides a path to the organization for sharing their messages with their specified consumers for promoting their products and services. The primary purpose of using social media is to attract consumers towards the brand of the company and retain them for long-term. Furthermore, the social media also plays an imperative role in increasing the brand awareness of goods and services in less time. Furthermore, it is evaluated that social media could aid the organization to promote their goods and services from the initial stage to the last stage (Guesalaga, 2016).

Objectives

 It is also analyzed that famous premium brand Burberry has launched their business on their own e-commerce website for China customers by considering online chat discussion source. Moreover, it can also be summarized that social media also facilitates the organization to deeply understand the needs and preference of the consumers as it would be essential to change the purchasing behavior of the consumers. It is also analyzed that social media could influence the whole process of marketing that could impact on overall result (Yazdanparast, et al., 2016).  It can also be summarized that the brand preference aspect is usually evaluated by assessing the level of liking towards the assured brand by a variety of selection of goods. Further, it is also illustrated that advertising and promotion of the products have an important profitable impact on the preference of customers, fondness, and leadership of brand.

It can be concluded that advertising by social media could be effective to solve each stage marketing issues that would be supportive to obtain higher profit. It is also evaluated that the social media could positively impact on the performance of shareholder, investors, and customers as they would be efficient to develop a constructive attitude with respect to the advertising style of social media (Tandoc Jr, and Vos, 2016).

 Moreover, it is also analyzed that advertisement and promotions by social media is greatly informative, highly interactive, and innovative process as compared to the traditional marketing approach. It can be also summarized that social media sites which are generated by the user can positively influence brand recognition. Hence, social networking sites are known as the imperative tool to obtain the demands of investors and consumers and furthermore, encourage the profitability of the business (Ahmad, Musa, and Harun, 2016).

Research problem Justification

In the current era, the organization does not give more value to the social media as it could negatively influence the growth of the firm. Hence, the organization should need to understand the social media practices for improving their marketing process and obtain a reliable result. This study depicts many research approaches that could be imperative in eliminating social media challenges from the organization and feasible outcome in the context of research outcome.      

Literature gap and opportunity

Literature review assists the investigator to critically examine the role of social media in marketing and obtaining a reliable result. Moreover, it is evaluated that the literature review part is significant to examine challenges and strategies for boosting the productivity of employees as well as the organization. The research scholar is selected a few research candidates for conducting their study because only a few participants want to become a part of the research.

Literature Review

Research Questions/Hypothesis

• What is the meaning and concept of the social media and marketing
• How social media influence the marketing process of organization
• Which social media strategies are effective to enhance the market process of the firm
• Research Design and Methodology

The research methodology mainly concentrates on two kinds of techniques such as quantitative and qualitative research method that are discussed below:       

Qualitative research Chart 1: Qualitative research process 

 Under the quantitative procedure, the researcher will determine the issues and purpose of current research concern. It assists the investigator to create a research hypothesis and develop the literature review by considering research objectives. The research scholar will use the instrument to determine the sample size and determine sample size to meet the aim and objectives of the research matter. Herein, the research scholar also uses ethical norms to conduct their research in an appropriate way. As a result, the researcher has practiced many techniques of data collection to meet their objectives in a limited time (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2016). The investigator will prepare a reliable budget for accomplishing their research aim and objectives.   

Research Instrument

The research scholar will practice the secondary data collection tool to get theoretical information in the context of social media in marketing. There are certain sources that would be practiced by the researcher to get the data like books, offline & online information, academic journal, and magazines. As a result, the investigator would be able to obtain feasible data with respect to the current research concern. 

Quantitative Data Analysis Process

Chart 3: Quantitative data analysis process

(Sources: Clark, Fine, and Scheuer, 2017)

Under the quantitative data analysis process, the researcher will prepare the data that will be required to meet the research aim and objectives. Subsequently, the research scholar will boost their intellectual capacity for gathering reliable data about the research concern. Ms-excel software will be used by the researcher to examine reliable data in the context of the research matter.  There are certain tools like tables, graphs, and charts to present the collected information and evaluate them in an appropriate way (Clark, Fine, and Scheuer, 2017). After the assessment of accumulated data, research scholar will review the collected information for getting a consistent recommendation and conclusion regarding the research study.

Sampling and Sample Size

Investigator uses probability sampling method to perform their research study and decline the partialities from research concern (Song and Yoo, 2016). In this, the researcher will consider the simple random sampling technique that assists to choose appropriate research contestants as it would be effective for gathering their view with respect to the research issue. The researcher will conduct their research on approximately 50 employees of the organization who use the social media for performing survey through a questionnaire. Consequently, the researcher will be capable to obtain the objectives and aim of the research dilemma.  

Summary of Literature Review

Reliability and Validity of Data

Validity plays a significant role in the analysis of the appropriate result of a research study by considering the statistical data. For example, the research scholar will practice the technique of survey through a questionnaire to analyze the limitation that will affect the research result dependability. Moreover, reliability method is used to analyze the trustworthiness of research outcome (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2016).

Research limitation

The research scholar could focus on certain components such as time and money because it will directly influence the research result. Data collection technique could be more time taking as compared to other research activities as it would decrease the quality of the research result. Lack of money could obligate the research scholar to obtain their aim and objectives in allocated cost that would adversely affect the research result (Song and Yoo, 2016).

Time Schedule

Conclusion

As per the above discussion, it can be summarized that social media could enable the organization to gain their productivity at least time and cost. It is also evaluated that the research methodology assists the researcher to select appropriate tools and techniques for collecting their feasible information about the research mater.  It also is concluded that statistical research tools facilitate to gather the non-numerical regarding current research issue.  Moreover, a quantitative research technique assists to obtain accurate information and attain a consistent result.  

References

Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M.Y. and Krush, M.T., 2016. Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, pp.172-180.

Ahmad, N.S., Musa, R. and Harun, M.H.M., 2016. The impact of social media content marketing (SMCM) towards brand health. Procedia Economics and Finance, 37, pp.331-336.

Clark, M., Fine, M.B. and Scheuer, C.L., 2017. Relationship quality in higher education marketing: the role of social media engagement. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 27(1), pp.40-58.

Dahl, S., 2018. Social media marketing: Theories and applications. Sage.

Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. and Hinsch, C., 2017. Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.118-126.

Fuchs, C., 2017. Social media: A critical introduction. USA: Sage.

Guesalaga, R., 2016. The use of social media in sales: Individual and organizational antecedents, and the role of customer engagement in social media. Industrial Marketing Management, 54, pp.71-79.

Hsu, L. and Lawrence, B., 2016. The role of social media and brand equity during a product recall crisis: A shareholder value perspective. International journal of research in Marketing, 33(1), pp.59-77.

Hudson, S., Huang, L., Roth, M.S. and Madden, T.J., 2016. The influence of social media interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing behaviors. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), pp.27-41.

Kasemsap, K., 2016. The role of social networking in global business environments. In Social media and networking: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications (pp. 1635-1653). IGI Global.

Schivinski, B. and Dabrowski, D., 2016. The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands. Journal of Marketing Communications, 22(2), pp.189-214.

Song, S. and Yoo, M., 2016. The role of social media during the pre-purchasing stage. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 7(1), pp.84-99.

Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.17-21.

Tandoc Jr, E.C., and Vos, T.P., 2016. The journalist is marketing the news: Social media in the gatekeeping process. Journalism Practice, 10(8), pp.950-966.

Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017. Social media marketing. USA: Sage.

Wang, Z. and Kim, H.G., 2017. Can social media marketing improve customer relationship capabilities and firm performance? Dynamic capability perspective. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 39, pp.15-26.

Yazdanparast, A., Joseph, M. and Muniz, F., 2016. Consumer-based brand equity in the 21st century: an examination of the role of social media marketing. Young Consumers, 17(3), pp.243-255.