Project Objective

Write a Research Proposal on Advantages and Disadvantages of using Social Media in Business.

The growth of social media in the world has been a revolution in all aspects and in all sectors of life. The business organizations have not been an exception and they have established themselves in the social world to stay connected with the users. Social media platforms like Face book and Twitter are the most common applications that are used by the business organizations (Paniagua & Sapena, 2014). The mentioned applications have been a real force for the transformation of the operations of the modern business organizations. The business organizations nowadays are more interested in directing their customers to their social media pages rather than their websites. The research will deal with the various elements, concepts and theories about the use of social media in conducting business. The proposal has provided all the details about the objectives, scope, methods to be used and the time limit of completing the full research. This will be important for the proper formulation of the main research.  

The main objective of the following research will be to evaluate the different advantages as well as the disadvantages of using social media by the business organizations. The research will highlight on the different concepts and different theories of social media along with the different issues that cripples the business of the management as a result about the usage of social media in business (Patten, 2016). The report will also focus on the different social media platforms that the business organization uses to be at the very best of business organizations.

The choice of the research topic is one of the best in nature as because it will deal with one of the most recent trend of business. Furthermore the topic has great credentials because of its complex nature. The usage of social media in the business has been not researched in vast means within the recent times. The challenges and the advantages along with the impacts of the use of social media in business has been an important factor for the growth of the business in the modern marketing world (Patten, 2016).  The use of the qualitative and quantitative research methods will be an additional chance for the research to increase its scope further.

Social Media

The popularity of social media has enabled a vast range of global population totally familiar with it. As mentioned earlier the business organizations are making them accustomed to the use of social media with every passing day. The implementation of different social media tools in the business allows the organizations to have a proper amount of savings, improving customer satisfaction process, targeting the customers in a better and efficient way and also help in the creation of online review for the consumer satisfaction. The revolution in the world of social media hassled to the immense improvement in social media (Aral Dellarocas & Godes, 2013).

Project Scope

Importance of Social Media in Business

The huge improvement in the social media and the involvement of a huge group of population in the social media is a welcome change for the business organizations as they have accepted the new trend and established themselves in different applications of social media. The dynamic efficiency and the speed of access and communication of the social media applications has been one of the most important reasons behind the involvement of the business organizations with the social media (Aral Dellarocas & Godes, 2013). The business organizations have the tendency to move forward and establish the different types of social networking in the business. The organizations however do not do this to just follow the different modern trends of the business but also to make sure that they stay connected with the potential customers as well as the existing customers by establishing a proper communication channel through the internet. According to, Ngai Tao and Moon (2015) the use of social media by the business organizations in an organized and efficient manner helps the company to maintain a competitive advantage in the market. The advanced range of communication is also necessary for the business to establish the proper set of objectives for the business organizations and make use of the communication to get an understanding of the choices of the customers. The understanding of the choices of the customers is utmost necessary for4 the business organization to provide the exact goods and services for the customers.

Advantages of Social Media in Business

There are lots of different benefits of using social media in business. The most important two departments of an organization namely the marketing and the sales department thrive on the advanced communication methods of social media. The traditional sources and channels of advertising has been a thing of past and the business organizations are more indulged in advertising their contents in social media rather than advertising them in other media sources. According to the management of a major portion of companies social media marketing will be growing at a much faster rate and will also attain sustainability in the near future (Jussila  Kärkkäinen & Aramo-Immonen, 2014). The advantages of social media advertising leis in the low advertisement cost and provides the benefit of interacting with different potential customers as well as the existing customers. Secondly the inbound marketing helps the business organizations to generate the targeted traffic to the applications of the business enterprises. The presence of a large number of customers along with a ever increasing base of customers is another main advantage of social media. Social marketing and the search engine optimization has also enabled a certain level of communication in between them (Kane, 2015). This helps the search media optimization to provide much higher chances to the organization. The better the communication the better will be the customer satisfaction. The better customer satisfaction leads to the increase in the profitability and the business of the organization (Paniagua & Sapena, 2014).

Literature Review

Disadvantages of Social Media in Business

The disadvantages of social media for business organizations are another side of the same coin for the business organizations. The presence of the business organizations in the social media can similarly be disadvantageous to the business in a number of different ways.  According to, Paniagua and Sapena (2014) the social media profile has to be maintained continuously and it needs the regular updates and new contents to stay alert with the new developments all the time. The initial investment of establishing in the social media applications is huge which may restrict the small and medium sized business organizations to use such applications (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Apart from the different other disadvantages there are chances of negative publicity and trolls in the social media applications which is harmful for the particular organization. The organization will also need expert IT engineers and other qualified experts to maintain the applications on a regular basis.

Research Questions/Hypothesis

The Hypothesis will be developed while carrying out the research. The Hypothesis are as follows;

H0- The business organizations do not implement the advantages on the use of social media in business

H1- The business organizations implement the advantages on the use of social media in business

Primary Questions

The primary questions of the following research will concentrate more on the aims and objectives of the research. It will be addressing the different elements of the mentioned topic on the advantages and disadvantages of social media in business. The primary question in the research will be;

1. Is social media useful or a pain for the management of the organizations?

Secondary Questions

The secondary questions on the other hand will be arising in the research to discuss any additional sources of information that are related to the following topic.  Some of them are as follows;

1. What are the social media platforms used by the business and which social media platform is used in common?
2. What can be the measurement tools for measuring the actual use of social media in business?
3. What are the key skills that make social media the latest marketing trend?

Research Design and Methodology

The nature of study is one of the most important elements to the developmental process of the research methodology and also decides on the strategy of the particular research. The research will be using both qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the different aims and objectives of the following project (Boyack Smith & Klavans, 2018). The proposal here has described both the research methods and explained the elements of each of them. However the research will be using only one method to complete the main analysis and the use of that particular method has been justified here.

Research Philosophy and Justification

Research Philosophy helps in the development of a detailed and compact analysis of the different kinds of models, frameworks and theories that are related to the topic of the study. For the particular research, the formulator of the research will choose positivism research philosophy. The positivism research philosophy interpretation is generally derived from different kinds of sensory experiences.

Research Questions/Hypothesis

Research Approach and Justification

Research Approach is one of the key elements that provide the ways to move forward with the research. The following research will be taking the help of the Deductive Research Design to move forward with the research. The deductive Research Approach will be chosen for this particular research as it is based on earlier studies and researches that helps in the understanding of the topic in a better way.   

Research Design

The descriptive design which is also known as the analytical design will be used to complete this particular research (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). The research will use the particular design because of the ability of the descriptive design to provide a detailed, compact and thorough analysis of the different types of concepts and theories of the social media advantages and disadvantages of the business organizations. Therefore the following research design is best suited to carry out the research in a detailed form.

Reliability and Validity

The validity of the research depends solely on the validity and genuinity of the contents of the research. The reliability factor of a research is established on the perfect establishment of the contents of the business within the organization (Neuman, 2016). The information regarding the cultural concepts must be collected from different genuine sources to establish the value of the research.  

Sampling

The sample for this particular research will be collected by means of the purposeful sampling procedure. In the following procedure the sampling method will be based on some criterion that will be based on the different questions generated in the research. The sampling will be done by the researcher on medium scale industries. The reason for selection of the medium scale industries is the easy availability of data from the managers and the supervisors who manage the organization and also the easy access to the organization. The researcher will find it easier to get the required permission to carry out the survey in such industries as obtaining the requisite permission and conducting surveys and other kinds of necessary tasks to complete the research will involve a lot of time and a large number of different permissions. Thus the choice of the medium scale industries is quite feasible in the following case.

Sample Size

The sample size of the following research will be determined  before the start of the project and the participants will be mostly the managers, supervisors and different officers in the management of the organization contacted through social media. The sampling will end at the time of the saturation point. The number of research participants has been fixed at 10 for this particular research. As mentioned earlier the sample population will consist of Senior Managers and Marketing managers of the medium scale industries who are directly involved in social media marketing.

Primary Questions

Data Collection Method

The data for this particular research will be collected by means of conducting different types of interviews and concentrating on the focus groups (Marczyk, DeMatteo & Festinger, 2017). The interviews will be a great source of information to identify and evaluate the views and experience of the different participants of the research. The focus groups will be used to group dynamics to gather qualitative data regarding the use and the necessities and cons of using social media for promoting and expanding business.

Variables Specification

The variables in the research are generally of two types namely dependent and independent. Both will be used to determine the research and ensure the undertaking of a quality analysis.

Research Design

The quantitative research can be done with the use of the descriptive design which helps to study the different kinds of statistical elements of the following topics in detail. The information regarding the social media advantages and disadvantages can be collected through a process of structured research instruments.

Research Instrument

The research can be completed by providing an online research questionnaire to the participants and then by analyzing the responses to find out the results of the research.

Quantitative Data Analysis Process

The SPSS method may be the ideal method that will be used for this particular research analysis. The SPSS method helps to create a number of charts, diagrams, bar graphs that will provide a much larger scope to the organization. This method is based totally on statistical and financial analysis.

Sampling and Sample Size

The sampling and sample size must be determined by means of questionnaire but in sharp contrast to the qualitative method, As mentioned earlier sample size will be not more than 10 in number and the population will be mainly that of the different marketing managers and senior managers of the organization.

Interviewing and Questionnaire Design

The questionnaire in the quantitative research can be designed and generated to the participants either hand in hand or through internet. The questions formulated will involve multiple choice questions.

Reliability and Validity of Data

As mentioned earlier the reliability and validity of data will be made sure by the collection of all the genuine and trusted data from original sources.

Justification for the Selection of Qualitative data

The use of the qualitative research will be preferred to complete this particular research. This particular method has been selected due to the detailed descriptive analysis of the themes based on the related topic. Apart from this the following research topic is perfectly suitable for the conduction of the research.

Justification for Selecting Qualitative research Procedure

The qualitative research procedure along with the selection of the secondary sources to proceed with the research will be helpful for the conduction of the research. The deductive approach as well as the descriptive design is perfectly suitable for the research. On the other hand, the selection of secondary sources of information will help the researcher to collect, assemble and present the data to the readers.

The research can have different limitations which may occur because of the result of the use of some inappropriate theories and concepts or the use of different abrupt sources of data. The research can also have its limitations as a result of the unavailability of resources or the availability of a shoestring budget.

Task Name

Duration

Start

Finish

Research Proposal Timeline	82 days	Wed 7/4/18	Thu 10/25/18
Selection of the Research Topic	1 day	Wed 7/4/18	Wed 7/4/18
Approval of the Research Topic	2 days	Thu 7/5/18	Fri 7/6/18
Researching and the Development of the Aims and Objectives	6 days	Mon 7/9/18	Mon 7/16/18
Preliminary Investigation	10 days	Tue 7/17/18	Mon 7/30/18
Assembling all the Preliminary Data	5 days	Tue 7/31/18	Mon 8/6/18
Researching the Data	6 days	Tue 8/7/18	Tue 8/14/18
Compiling the Data	10 days	Wed 8/15/18	Tue 8/28/18
Submission of the Draft	1 day	Wed 8/29/18	Wed 8/29/18
Continuation of the Research	20 days	Thu 8/30/18	Wed 9/26/18
Assembling New Information	10 days	Thu 8/30/18	Wed 9/12/18
Identification of the Sample	1 day	Thu 9/13/18	Thu 9/13/18
Selecting The Number of Sample Size	4 days	Fri 9/14/18	Wed 9/19/18
Interviewing The Sample Population	5 days	Thu 9/20/18	Wed 9/26/18
Researching on the Available Data	21 days	Thu 9/27/18	Thu 10/25/18
Compiling the Total Data	10 days	Thu 9/27/18	Wed 10/10/18
Assembling and Preparing the final Report	10 days	Thu 10/11/18	Wed 10/24/18
Final Submission	1 day	Thu 10/25/18	Thu 10/25/18

Table 1- Time Schedule Table of the Research

Source: (As Created by the Author)

 

                                                                                          Figure 1: Gantt chart

                                                                           Source: (As created by the author)

Conclusion

The following proposal has provided a brief idea about the main research that will be conducted in the near future. A short review of the literary sources, the mentioning of the methods to be used in the research, the providence of the timeline and the milestones to complete the total research is a necessary element for the success of the main business. A strong research can be expected from the organized presentation of the following proposal.

Reference List

Abdulkadiro?lu, A., Angrist, J. D., Narita, Y., & Pathak, P. A. (2017). Research design meets market design: Using centralized assignment for impact evaluation. Econometrica, 85(5), 1373-1432.

Boyack, K. W., Smith, C., & Klavans, R. (2018). Toward predicting research proposal success. Scientometrics, 114(2), 449-461.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Marczyk, G., DeMatteo, D., & Festinger, D. (2017). Essentials of research design and methodology. John Wiley.

Neuman, W. L. (2016). Understanding research. Pearson.

Patten, M. L. (2016). Proposing empirical research: A guide to the fundamentals. Taylor & Francis.

Aral, S., Dellarocas, C., & Godes, D. (2013). Introduction to the special issue—social media and business transformation: a framework for research. Information Systems Research, 24(1), 3-13.

Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P., & Beukeboom, C. J. (2015). A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47, 58-67.

Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H., & Aramo-Immonen, H. (2014). Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 606-613.

Kane, G. C. (2015). Enterprise social media: Current capabilities and future possibilities. MIS Quarterly Executive, 14(1).

Kaplan, A. M., &Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68.

Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), 33-44.

Paniagua, J., &Sapena, J. (2014). Business performance and social media: Love or hate?.Business horizons, 57(6), 719-728.

Stelzner, M. (2014). 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Social media examiner, 1-52.

Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., & Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), 1201-120