Effects of social media on businesses

Social Media Effects 1

EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON BUSINESSES By (Name)

Course Tutor University City/State Date

By EssaySupply.com

Social Media Effects 2 Effects of Social Media on Businesses Methodology Introduction The overall objective of the research project will be to analyze the effects of Social Media effects on businesses. The research methodology will rely on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and WhatSap. The paper will seek to look at various companies that rely on social media and other that do not rely on social media and analyze its benefits.

Locale of the Study The study will be conducted on online platforms and will involve a lot of online data mining on the various companies that rely on social media as part of their overall marketing models. Hence, access to these businesses’ websites will be crucial to offer access to the required data.

Variable Specification The data for the research will incorporate various variable that includes: Being a quantitative research case, correlational research methods will be integrated to show the extent to which incorporation of social media affects a company’s gains. This will further be backed by a causal-comparative to establish the cause-effect relation between the two variables.

Social Media (s) ~ Independent Variable Company Yields (Y) ~ Dependent Variable Hence, the regression model will be: Y = α + βs + β2 . α and β are the model’s coefficients. βs is the coefficient for Social media effect.

By EssaySupply.com

Social Media Effects 3 β2 is the coefficient for any other marketing variables.

Data Collection and Instrument Interview schedule An interview schedule was prepared in English and translated into several other languages such as German, French and Italian. The schedule was purposely presented to company representatives that rely on Social Media as a marketing tool. It included three parts namely: representatives’ knowledge of Social Media marketing, representatives’ statistics sources on Social Media, representatives’ literacy and representatives’ socio-demographics. 

Questionnaire Pretesting:

Preceding the field task, the interview plan was pretested amid representatives who have the same qualifications as the actual study representatives. The pretest intended to confirm that the problems can be understood and properly responded. Any part of the questionnaire which the representatives could comprehend was altered.

Focus Group Discussion To back the data that were collected from the questionnaires, a focus group discussion (FGD) was piloted in various social media platforms. There were various contributors in the focus group discussion. Enquiries raised in the FGD revolved around contributors’ understanding of Social Media as a promotional strategy. Respondents were requested to explain how effective social media has been as an advertising instrument for the innumerable businesses’. They were also requested to give their remarks or propositions on how the Social Media marketing could be better enhanced to improve firms’ yields.

Data Analysis

By EssaySupply.com

Social Media Effects 4 The data was encoded and analyzed through the various data regression and correlation techniques. Correlation methods such as the Pearson correlation and Spearman’s rho were applied to show the relationship between the representatives’, the sum of data sources on Social Media application, mastery and their understanding of Social Media as a promotion tool. The mean, F-statistics and adjusted R were also used as measures to show the effectiveness of social media use by various firms as a marketing strategy. This was carried out with the aid of statistical software such as SPSS, Excel and E-View.

Limitations of the Data Collection/Analysis •

Inadequate access to various company representatives to undertake the interview schedules.

•

Limited time to sieve through the data available on the various social media platforms.

•

Language barrier among the various respondents across the various social media platforms.

By EssaySupply.com

Social Media Effects 5 References BCPS.Org. (2016). Planning the Methodology - The Quantitative Pathway. Develop a Research Proposal. Retrieved March 5, 2016, from <https://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/researchcourse/develop_writing_method_quantitative.h tml> USC libraries. (2016). Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: 6. The Methodology.

Research Guide. Retrieved March 5, 2016, from <http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/methodology> Yeditepe University. (2015). Research Methodology. Writing Centre. Retrieved March 5, 2016, from <https://yuwritingcenter.wikispaces.com/How+to+Write+the+Methodology+of+a+Resea rch+Paper>

By EssaySupply.com