SOCIAL MEDIA

Social Media as the Next Generation Marketing Tool

Introduction4

Background4

Rationale of this Study6

Research Aims7

Research objective7

Literature Review8

Nature of social networking websites8

Five top social networking websites9

Facebook9

Twitter10

LinkedIn10

Google +11

Pinterest12

Sector wise use of social media13

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) and social media14

Brand community and social media16

Marketing managers and social media16

Research methodology17

Research approach17

Population and Sampling18

Multi-culstural18

Snowball19

Data gathering19

Primary data19

Secondary data19

Research instruments19

Data Analysis20

Research Hypothesis21

Research Ethics22

Timetable and resources23

References24

Executive summary

Social media is today not the option to use it or not as the promotion mix. It is the need of time to use this powerful tool for the marketing. in addition to marketing, there are other various advantages of social media which are directly related to the company and business. In this research paper, I have defined the working nature social networking websites. It is not possible to give the detail of thousands social networking websites. For this, I have given the information of top social networking websites of the world. In addition, there is the detailed discussion which shows the potential of social media. Currently, it is used in all types of sectors but not at the full length. To prove my alternative hypothesis, I will collect the primary and secondary data. The primary data will be collected through questionnaires and interviews. Whereas the secondary data will be collected through reading books, journals and articles. The quantitative data will be statistically tested and qualitative data will go through thematic analysis. The results will prove my alternative hypothesis.

Social Media as the Next Generation Marketing Tool

Introduction

Background

Every business has three basic activities namely operation, marketing and finance. In the operation process, the company is paying attention on the production process and quality of product. The finance department maintains the all the records of cash flows and audit the usage of funds. The marketing department is responsible to advertise and brand the product as well as company. They want to sell maximum number of their products, services and ideas. For this, they are adopting different marketing strategies and tools in order to capture the maximum share of market. Marketing strategies and tools vary from company to company. However, all businesses are trying those strategies and tools which increase in the sell, decrease the marketing cost and in the long-term it should be profitable for the company. The companies are considering internal and as well external factors in the marketing strategies. The internal factors consist of marketing mix, financial health of company, quality analysis of products and human resource. On the contrary, the external factors contain behavior of market, competitor analysis and customer analysis.

Traditionally, companies are using the print, electronic and other outdoor tools for the marketing. Newspapers, magazines and books are providing the good platform to communicate with the target audiences. The problem with this type of advertising is that, it is one way form of the advertising and consumers cannot communicate with the company. Furthermore, the illiterate and those people who are not interested in the reading are not targeted. On the other hand is the electronic ...