Using social media- social networking sites for effective marketing for small business. A case study of a self owned small business venture in Durham, UK

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Purpose of the Study2

Significance of the Study2

Research Question3

Aim and objectives of the Study3

Hypothesis for the Study4

Rationale of the study4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW5

Overview of social media5

Benefits of social media marketing7

Social media as a marketing tool8

Consumer Behavior determined by Social Networks9

Social media usage in business10

Social Media Usage among Consumers12

Social media increasing revenues14

Challenges of social media15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY17

Data Collection Techniques17

Primary research17

Secondary Research18

Case study18

Hypothesis of the Study19

Qualitative research19

Interviews20

Disadvantages of qualitative research20

Quantitative research21

Questionnaires21

Research Design Appropriateness22

Sample22

Validity and Reliability23

Ethical Issues23

BIBLIOGRAPHY24

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Online marketing is very similar to traditional marketing in definition. It is about the art and science and of leveraging the internet to market ones products or services (Kabani and Brogan, 2010, p2). There are different ways of online marketing such as blog marketing, banner ads, email marketing, searching engine marketing etc. Social media marketing is a way of online marketing by leveraging the social media platforms available on the internet places where people connect and communicate on the internet) to promote a product or a service (Kabani and Brogan, 2010, p3). Social media has increasingly become a constant in our lives. Many people reach out to friends or family through social media, sometimes on a daily basis. Through Facebook, people can view pictures and read status updates. Twitter allows others to read status updates that are limited to 140 characters. Each of these social media tools has its advantages and disadvantages but each opens up the doors to creating an online community with others that may not be possible offline.

Social media marketing is a relatively new concept that is entered into the marketing literature. With advent of social media sites such as Orkut, Twitter and Facebook 2003 onwards, the concept of social media marketing has also started to garner interest with academicians and practitioners alike (Boyd and Ellison, 2008). Due to this fact, most of the research on social marketing is relatively new, compared to other marketing concepts. Much of the research in this field is mainly concentrated on brand building for big business and also on online advertising on a big scale (Tuten, 2008). There has been research to identify the effectiveness of social media marketing as compared to word of mouth marketing (Bucklin and Pauwels, 2009) but research such as these have taken a generic view of business marketing and social marketing in general. There is little research on how social media platforms can help small business increase their sales through effective marketing. But marketing literature has established the fact that social marketing is an effective marketing technique to market a product or service and is the next generation of business engagement in marketing (Kaplan and Haenlien, 2010, Evans and McKee, 2010). There has been some research carried out with regards to social media as an effective marketing tool (Strategic Direction, 2010; Bradley, 2011 etc), but most of these ...