Background and Introduction
Topic: How social media helps in spreading awareness of social enterprises ?
Social media is being defined as an important platform, which has made greater impact on reaching the larger target audience (Bhatti et al. 2019). In the 21st century, due to globalization increasing numbers of organizations have started promoting their business to the larger target audience. In this particular period the social entrepreneurial trend has also got introduced through internet. The concept of Social entrepreneurship has focused on representing the sustainable, innovative and practical approaches those are considered by the entrepreneur in terms of providing greater benefit to the society. Wang et al. (2017) stated that Social entrepreneurship is also being considered as people dedicated business approach that aims to bring transformation in the society in a positive manner. The concept of social entrepreneurship has created interlink with health and education (Bhatti et al. 2019). By utilizing the emerging social media based promotional trends, social entrepreneurs have started influencing the societal mindset in positive manner in order to enhance those acceptances in the market.
The particular topic has been selected for this research project because, although social media has brought greater impact in terms of promoting the brand image in the market however, in some of the cases due to lack of understanding on utilizing the social media content, negative image of the enterprises are being created. Matin, Khoshtaria and Tutberidze (2020) stated that Negative reputation available of the brands in the social media platform not only impacts on the business performance but also it creates negative image of the enterprise on the mind of the consumers. In this situation utilizing the emotional perspective of the customers towards social change in meaningful manner can create greater impact on brand awareness of social enterprises through social media (Wang et al. 2017).
This particular topic has been selected for developing the research paper because, in the current scenario, large numbers of social enterprises are facing difficulties to utilize the social media platforms in a meaningful manner. As its impact, social media based brand awareness initiatives adopted by the social enterprises are facing major drawbacks in the market. Therefore, the topic interest can make greater impact on understanding the right utilization of social media in terms of influencing the awareness programs initiated by the social enterprises. The research outcome can provide greater understanding to the researchers in the usefulness of social media as an important communication medium for increasing awareness of social enterprises.
The purpose of this study is to focus on analyzing the factors associated with social media that can make greater impact on spreading awareness of social enterprises. In the continuation of that, the study will also concentrate on analyzing the positive impact of social media on spreading the awareness of social enterprises. Lastly, the study will focus on providing effective strategic solution that can help the social enterprises to utilize social media in a better manner to spread awareness.
- To focus on analyzing the factors associated with social media that can make greater impact on spreading awareness of social enterprises
- To identify the positive impact of social media on spreading the awareness of social enterprises
- To analyze how the social media influence engagement of the users towards the brand
- To analyze how social media helps in strengthening interaction between the brand and customers
- To focus on providing effective strategic solution that can help the social enterprises to utilize social media in a better manner to spread awareness
Social media can be defined as a great platform that provides the brand potential abilities to become more visible to the potential target audience. In the current era of social media, it has become an important tool for increasing the community engagement (Imbert, Morone and Bigi 2019). Most of the previous researchers have concentrated on sharing the knowledge based on social media marketing and its impact on establishing strong customer relationship. Several research papers have been formulated on establishing the relationship between social media marketing and brand awareness (Naim and Lenka 2017). The strong relationship between social media based communication and brand popularity has been reflected in previous literatures. In the 21st century, social media has become an important communication tool that focuses on obtaining high brand reach and it has also helped in improving the understanding of the marketers on the audience (Matin, Khoshtaria and Tutberidze 2020).
Negative Impact of Social Media on Social Enterprises
Social media is a powerful tool that established strong communication framework, which has significantly enabled brands, companies and people to interact with the target consumers in a meaningful way (Agarwal et al. 2018). In 21st century, due to increasing complexity in the market it has become necessary for the organizations to ensure online presence in terms of maintaining the survival. Using the social media platforms, meaningful stories are being shared by the social entrepreneurs for representing their activities to the potential target segment (Siegner, Pinkse and Panwar 2018). Utilizing the social media platforms, large numbers of social entrepreneurs have started developing relationship with the potential target segment in order to ensure the social well being.
H1: Social media helps in spreading awareness of social enterprises
In extension of this discussion, enabling greater engagement, social media makes a significant contribution in leading the users. It can be defined as a greater place that can engage the consumers at every stage of their journey (Pourkhani et al. 2019). Along with those promoting meaningful and attractive contents social media makes little impact on promoting the brand image to the consumers. Ahmad, Ahmad and Bakar (2018) stated that most of the organizations use videos, blogs and other contents for influencing the interest level of the users. It has also introduced opportunities for the brands to allow consumers to share their thoughts, which has indirectly helped in improving the interaction between brand and the consumers. Therefore, depending on the social sharing approach, social media creates better communication between the brands and the consumers, which is quite impactful for enhancing the online presence of the brand (Bhatt, Qureshi and Riaz 2019). However, using the social media platforms, some competitors also spread the negative content about the company, which sometimes creates greater loss in brand image (Fowler, Coffey and Dixon-Fowler 2019). Additionally, negative contents also influence the behavioral aspect of the users towards enterprises, which can cause major loss in corporate value.
H2a: Social media influences greater engagement of users through business contents
H2b: Social media does not influence greater engagement of users through business contents
Additionally, Bresciani and Eppler (2020) stated that analyzing the role of social enterprises, it has been found these organizations mainly concentrates towards bringing social changes. Along with the business purposes, these organizations concentrate on providing the social and financial sustainability to the community. After introduction of social media as an effective communication platform, helping the users to have better understanding on different social crisis situations, these brands have helped in improving self awareness abilities among the people (Imbert, Morone and Bigi 2019). Influencing behavioral aspects of the consumers, social media has played an important role for sharing realistic image of the societal issue to the global people.
The intensified social media platforms have influenced the interaction process followed by the companies (Naim and Lenka 2017). Depending on the social networking sites, content communities and virtual worlds, greater impact has been seen in the interaction between the brand and the consumers. Social media has provided new description of consumer engagement that has significantly helped in establishing the relationship between the brand and consumer. Increasing amount of research has revealed multiple motives for the social media uses among the social enterprises (Bhatt, Qureshi and Riaz 2019). Easy interactional benefit has been recognized as the important aspect associated with the social media uses (Imbert, Morone and Bigi 2019). By significantly facilitating the innovative way for sharing information and knowledge, it has helped the brands to reach the consumers beyond geographical boundaries.
Utilizing Emotional Perspective for Spreading Awareness
H3a: social media has influenced interaction between consumers and brand
H3b: social media has not influenced interaction between consumers and brand
In above findings, dominance of positive influence of social media has been found for improving interaction between the consumers and the brand.
H4: Interaction influences brand awareness of social enterprises
Furthermore, researching on the impact of social media on social enterprises, it has been found that interaction through social media makes major impact on the generating brand awareness of social enterprises.
H5a: People engagement will positively influence awareness of social enterprise
H5b: lower people engagement will negatively influence awareness of social enterprise
Young consumers:
The consumers under the age group between 16 to 29 years are highly active on different social media platforms. These consumer groups have started showing their interest towards contributing in different social causes. Therefore, the particular study will concentrate on this particular generation.
The knowledge gap that has been identified from the above literature will be address by using relevant evidence is associated with the social enterprises. By using different theoretical models the particular research will focus on behavioral aspects of the young generation in terms of influencing their engagement towards the social enterprises. More focus towards people engagement and communication strategies will be done in further research paper.
The positivism philosophical approach will be considered in this research paper in terms of utilizing the scientific evidences associated with the topic area in logical manner. In terms of testing the hypothesis, using existing theories and models, the deductive research approach will be considered (Clandinin, Cave and Berendonk 2017).
Quantitative research Design will be considered in this particular research paper because quantitative research design will be appropriate for gathering the numerical evidences based on the interest of social media users. The survey method will be conducted in this research paper and collecting the standardized data, the particular research paper can help in understanding the significant relationship between social media, people engagement, people introduction and awareness of social enterprises (Cuervo?Cazurra et al. 2017). Structured questionnaire will be prepared where using the close ended questions, the evidences will be gathered. Using the likert scale, hypothesis related to the study will be constructed.
The simple random sampling technique will be considered while gathering evidences from the larger population. Total hundred participants will be involved in the process and using the google excel format, the data will be gathered.
While formulating the questionnaire, both the behavioral and demographic questions will be added in the questionnaire. In order to conduct the research the questionnaire will be published on different social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. As the research will be conducted by considering the multivariable analysis technique, in this case involving total hundred participants the data will be gathered.
Constructing the validity of the research people can significantly contribute in maintaining the scale accuracy within the research project (Fletcher 2017). The clear validity analysis will be necessary for understanding the significance of the questionnaire. The statistical examination will be done for ensuring the effectiveness and appropriateness of the findings. Face validity will be considered by using the pilot testing method (Daniel and Harland 2017). External validity will not be the dominant component because depending on the probability sampling method through preposition of demographic can be analyzed.
Challenges Faced by Social Enterprises in Utilizing Social Media
Unintentional participant error can be caused due to loss of attention and misunderstanding (Hickson 2016). Destruction of the researchers may create negative impact on the reliability of the research project. Social desirability bias can negatively impact on the response of the participants.
Ethical authenticity will be necessary in this research project (Fletcher 2017). The voluntary participation of the participants will be encouraged. Informed consent will be shared with the participants through online and confidentiality of the participants’ information will be maintained. Sole purpose of this research project will be addressing the academic requirement (Kumar 2019). The purpose and objective of the research project will be shared along with the online function form in terms of maintaining the transparency. Participants will we allowed withdrawing their participation at any time. Personal and biased questions will be avoided by the researcher. The confidentiality of the questionnaire will be maintained. Participants will not be harmed during the research.
Reference:
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