Traditional Business Process On Social Media Platforms †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Traditional Business Process On Social Media Platforms. Answer: Introduction: Traditional business process has taken by storm with the increasing popularity of different social media platforms. It has not only changed the way people lead their daily lives but also has made significant impact on overall operational process of the businesses (Rapp et al. 2013). Social media network has provided two-way communication platform for the businesses in order to create maximum impact on the market. In the present time, almost all the prime organizations like Adidas, Tesco, Samsung, Microsoft and many others have selected different social media platforms for reaching out to all the targeted customers in an appropriate manner. Social media also has provided small businesses to break the geographical boundaries for fulfilling all the business aims and objectives. On the other hand, social media practices also have created different types of challenges like cyber crime, online harassment, cyber bullying and hacking for the organizations to deal with on regular basis (De Vr ies, Gensler and Leeflang 2012). In this study, the focus will on assessing all the positive and negative aspect of using social media platforms on competitive business environment. Project objective: In order to identify all the benefits and disadvantages of using social media in the business platforms, the research project will focus on following objectives: Primary objective: To identify all the benefits and threats associated with the utilization of different social media network in the business processes Secondary objectives: To highlight the significance of using social media networks for enhancing the communicational structure with the potential customers To assess the way utilization of social media platforms allow businesses to go beyond the geographical boundaries To recommend best possible way to utilize social media platforms for achieving sustainable growth in the market Project scope: The research project has concentrated on assessing different aspects of using social media platforms in an in-depth manner. Now, inclusion of social media in business practices is relatively a new thing (Laroche et al. 2012). Therefore, many organizations are still searching the best possible way to use social media networks for maximizing the profit level in a consistent manner. For that reason, the social media utilization practices are changing continuously over the certain period of time. It has provided the research project many opportunities to explore different areas associated with the social media practices for accomplishing all the aims and objectives in an appropriate manner. Literature review: As per the article by Gil de Ziga, Jung and Valenzuela (2012), social media refers to applications or websites that enables users to develop and share content publicly. It provides a forum for the people to express their thoughts and believes about a particular incident in an effective manner. Over the past few years, social media has gained huge amount of popularity all across the globe. Specifically, it has become an integral part of the younger generation, as they spend majority of the time accessing different social media platforms. As illustrated by Lee and Ma (2012) social media networking provides two-way communication opportunities for the businesses. Therefore, it has allowed businesses to understand the exact needs and wants of the customers from different geographical and cultural background in an effective manner. Many organizations have also used social media platforms as a feedback tool to collect data about a particular product or services. Now, Stephen and Galak (2012 ) have mentioned that increasing opportunity of direct communication between customers and businesses have allowed organizations to keep the satisfaction level of the customers in a major way. As a result, proper utilization of social media platforms has helped businesses to enhance the overall brand loyalty in a significant manner. Social media platforms have also allowed businesses to reach beyond global boundaries with minimum investment and risks. Therefore, it eventually induces all organizations regardless of their sizes to use different marketing techniques like blogging, video, article and other promotional tools for maximizing the profit level in a significant manner. On the contrary, Kim and Ko (2012) have mentioned that utilization of social media can also create different several adverse impact on the overall business practices. For instance, utilization of social media has allowed many people to share their negative views and thoughts about a specific product or service. It has also increased the probability of cyber bullying practices in a massive way. Businesses of many organizations have been affected by the utilization of cyber bullying practices. On the other hand, small size organizations does not have the capability to surpass the marketing activities conducted by multinationals, which affects the overall profit level in a significant manner (Valenzuela 2013). Secondly, social media practices have also increased the possibility of information hacking largely. Over the years, several organizations have faced challenges associated with confidential information hacking that damaged overall profit in a major way. Moreover, organizations are facing challenges in order to differentiate their products and services from their competitors, as all the organizations are using similar types of strategies (Laroche et al. 2012). As a result, it has raised question mark over the effectiveness of the social media practices for maximizing the growth in competitive market. Research questions: The study will concentrate on following research questions: Primary question: What are the benefits and threats associated with the utilization of different social media network in the business processes? Secondary questions: What is the significance of using social media networks for enhancing the communicational structure with the potential customers? How utilization of social media platforms allow businesses to go beyond the geographical boundaries? What are the recommended ways to utilize social media platforms for achieving sustainable growth in the market? Research design and methodology: Research instruments As per the article by Walter and Andersen (2013), research instruments indicates to all those resources that a particular research project use for fulfilling all the aims and objectives. Here, the study will concentrate on utilizing only quantitative data collection procedure for understanding the benefits and drawbacks of using social media platforms. For that reason, the research project will use quantitative questionnaire, which will include close-ended questions. Quantitative data analysis process: The study will concentrate on quantitative analysis procedure, as it will help to include different statistical tools in an effective manner. Here, the study will use online survey procedure technique for capturing required level of quantitative data. The study will use likeart scale for developing close ended questions, which eventually help the research project to understand trend related with research topic (Choy 2014). Here, the study will use different tables and graphs to show the collected data systematically. The study will also use different advanced statistical tools like regression and ANOVA to add value to the overall quality of the project. Sampling strategy: Sampling refers to a process of selecting a small group of individuals from the entire population of the research topic. Sampling has two different types including probability sampling and non-probability sampling that allows studies to select proper respondents (Mackey and Gass 2015). Here, the study will use non-probability sampling strategy to select 50 executive levels of employees from different organizations that are using social media tools. The study will select non-probability sampling to choose only those respondents who are capable of providing details about the social media usage strategies. Therefore, it eventually will help to add value to the overall quality of the research topic. Interview and questionnaire design: For highlighting the benefits and challenges of using social media within business practices, the study will use online survey technique. The utilization of online survey process will help the respondents to share all the information as per their convenience. As a result, it will increase the probability of capturing authentic data about the research project (Arghode 2012). The study will use email to share the developed closed-ended questionnaire to all the respondents for fulfilling all the research aim and objectives. Utilization of online survey technique will help the study to compare all the provided data of the respondents in an effective manner. Reliability and validity of the collected data: Effective assessment of reliability and validity of the data is important for fulfilling research objectives and goals. Reliability reflects to the overall quality of the data collected for analysis purpose (Jensen 2013). On the contrary, validity refers to check the authenticity of the collected data provided by different respondents (Mertens 2014). Here, the study will have to use both validity and reliability test for maintaining the consistency of the overall research topic. Therefore, the research study will focus on using only authentic sources for capturing information about the benefits and drawbacks of social media networking. It will also induce the research project to select respondents who are capable of providing detailed data about the research topic. Research limitations: As stated by Neuman and Robson (2014) proper understanding of research limitations is critical for accomplishing all the research goals in an appropriate manner. Here, the study will have to deal with time limitation in order to complete all the research related activities. Due to limited timeframe, the study has selected small sample size for covering all the areas associated with the selected research topic. Secondly, the allocated budget is also very limited for this research project, which can have impact on the eventual outcome in a significant manner. Here, the study has assumed that the selected research methods are appropriate for successful completion of the research project. Time schedule: Serial No. Activities Start date End date Duration 1 Topic identification 01/09/2017 03/09/2017 4 2 Research aim and objective construction 04/09/2017 05/09/2017 2 3 Literature review 06/09/2017 14/09/2017 9 4 Methodology 15/09/2017 20/09/2017 6 5 Data collection method 21/09/2017 26/09/2017 6 6 Ethical consideration 27/09/2017 28/09/2017 2 7 Research limitation 29/09/2017 30/09/2017 2 Table 1: Gantt chart (Source: As created by the author) Conclusion: The above illustration has highlighted the fact that businesses have no other options than to look for best way to utilize social media platforms for achieving sustainable growth in the market. Here, the study has focused on constructing in-depth literature review with the help of different previous literatures. It has also described proper research methodology for capturing detailed information about the benefits and risks of using social media platforms. 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