Literature Review
Question:
Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of using social networks in business in context of Woolworths limited.
Social media is one of the strongest business enhancement techniques that are implemented by the different organizations for their organizational development. This is a web-based communication process that enriches more engagement with customers and increases man-management that evolves the best outcome for the organization. There are so many opportunities that social media marketing has gained for the organization and reflected from their social deliverance and marketing extension. The brand value of the company had grown up when the social sites accelerated their marketing strategies for products (Scott 2017). The prime function of those social sites to make products famous and promotes those products in such a way that people become eager to have those products. Social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Snap chat, LinkedIn, Whatsapp are the social networking portals and these portals try to promote products for better enhancement of market. Social networking also works within a range of families, friends, office colleagues and business people. These all are the effective platforms that help companies to increase their business market. There are approximately 1.86 million people are on Facebook, and through this social network, platform company can reach their products in the global business market. Social network platforms not only increase sale but also reduce marketing cost of the company and this is another reason behind the use of social media platforms (Best, Manktelow and Taylor 2014).
There are different social platforms used by Woolworths Limited, Australia. Implementing these network practices and using those sites for the development of the organization is main objectives that serve the aim and vision of the company. The research objectives are:
- To define the meaning and concepts of social networking.
- To address the pros of social networking practices in the business of Woolworths Limited, Australia.
- To describe the cons of social networking practices in the business of Woolworths Limited, Australia.
The project has different sources and all those sources effectively enhanced overview of the project. Social networking sites are important for the functional orientation of organization, and that develops literature review part. There are several journals, books, and blogs articles all these are important for the gathering of information from resources. Woolworths has certain plan to enhance their market through social networking sites, and all these plans need to be implemented for the development of the company. People interaction over the topic of social sites is the key intervention that project delivers on this proposal.
The literature review defines the concept of social media and states the importance of the social media in the marketing process. Organization gets immense help from the social platforms, and all these platforms promote those products and improve the market position of the company (Luo and Zhong 2015). Networking opportunity for the product and accessible facility for the customers will be there as the social media promotes those products and that encourages the company to use those portals again and again. The flow of literature part and approaches to marketing with the importance of social media for the development of organization infrastructure is the key issue that delivers better synthesis over the proposal. There are some communication tools,and social theories have been highlighted in the section that contains better flow in literature part and to understand the marketing strategy for the development of the organization.
Advancements in Marketing due to Social Networking
As asserted by Kane et al. (2012), the new class of information theory and the technology is the modernly claimed as the social sites. The article also shed light on the key contradiction between traditional offline social networks and online media networks (Best, Manktelow and Taylor 2014). The research opportunities provide a theoretical approach to these social platforms and deliver potential need that organization wants from social platforms. The way business needs to flow their channels for the better market expansion; several strategies are implemented by those social platforms for this enactment. By the exploration of context is the major aspect of media articulates base level of business establishment (Serrat2017). The theory of Social Network Analysis (SNA) is an adaption of a new process that Woolworths has taken for their business development and enhancement. The technologies are developing in a quick manner. There are some fresh ideas and features that blurring in the diverse community management and media technologies help this situation. There are several tools used for market distribution, and all these tools are very much sound and active for the development in business.
On the other hand, Öztamur and Karakad?lar (2014) commented in their journal of “Exploring the role social media…” that social media is not only a communication tool rather it takes important part for promoting small scale or large scale business at their desirable dimension. The opportunity a social platform provides is best promotion level as a huge number of people can see post at the same time, and this is the huge opportunity for the company (Bailey et al. 2015). The richness of post and delivering lines that used for the promotion needs to be authentic and proper. The quality of the product needs to be so crucial that can change the fate of selling ratio. The journal also stated some arguable consideration over this topic, and the writer found to penetrate issue that can change the market position of the company. The network has turned out to be one of the most lucrative tools for promoting services and draw target audience (Berkman,Kawachi and Glymour 2014). A number of people are there who got into the marketplace as an e-retailer; several became a content supplier, deal agent, market inventor or service contributor. Though, one of most significant reasons for that is to create stumpy barriers for completing this business markets; however, this situation can be handled by social network sites as most of the organization enhancement can be effectively connected with these platforms (Chen 2013). There are different micro-blogging concept that introduced by the organization for the short time notice and people attracted by those types of promotion as they have to read less and know about the product quality (Leung et al. 2013). The better outcome also gets from the promotion of Words of mouth marketing and this is very effective and necessary for the development of business as people trust and belief is mixed with that interaction.
Negative Effects of Social Media
Social Media Integration theory moderate and rebuild the research technologies and showcase the business opportunities in competitive business scenario (Best, Manktelow and Taylor 2014). Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms are important for this scenario as ahuge amount of people attached to those sites, and all those are active users, so it is very easy for acompany to showcase their offers promotion over those sites and that provides extra revenue and people engagement (Rennie and Morrison 2013). The model has four main aspects of exposure, feedback, engagement that connect the aspect of social media and the last one is sharing that actually help the product to reach a number of people (Patroni, von and Recker 2016). This is long lasting feedback process the can be extracted from blogs, social programs, and social networking platform or social bookmarking. These all are an important transferring medium that actually helps business to grow and connect the perspective of business. The importance of communication and maintenance of ecosystem are measured by social networking sites, and these approaches are bringing the best opportunities that encompass better chances of business expansion (Messing and Westwood 2014). The model has created a greater impact on the effectiveness of social platforms and for this reason, the integration model is important for the exposure of the organization.
Figure 1: Social Media-Integration-Theory-Model
(Source: Socialmediatoday.com 2017)
Another theory that has been implemented by different organization sectors are compelled with three different elements. Self-Promotion is one of the safest promotions as the user promotes the product and other people noticed the person that how much trust and authenticity the user deliver when delivering the concept of using that. This is completelya vision and faith of personal understanding. The company will get extra revenue as those goodsor products are recommended by some other people as they are influenced by some other (Scapini and Cassatella 2014). Value addition over the product is also important for enlightening about the product and that ultimately encourages the promotion of the business market and allows the promotion of brand along with posting the product mapping. The two-way conversation and aiming the individual is the main interaction that provides the potential customers for the development of service and target market (Highfield 2017).
Pros of social networking practices
There are different advantages that can be extracted from the social networking system. The business process looks good, and that encourage the better market expansion by the impact of sites and their reach over people. The worldwide connectivity is the prime function that social networking provides to their customer (Best, Manktelow and Taylor 2014). The interests are somewhere common in some cases and due to that, interest becomes strict at the common phase. There are many social networking sites that share real-time information and deliver the better decision for the development of business (Highfield 2017). Target advertising is important to mapping people for whom the promotion has been done; this knowledge is important as well as relevant for the development of the organization.
Research Philosophy
Cons of social networking practices
The massive cons for social sites are the cyberbullyingproblem; this is one of the major problems that need filtration that organization needs to save their site form the unwanted adverse situations. The crimes are against children, and there are some husky situations in the office social sites may create threatsfor the organization’s reputation (Matikiti, Kruger and Saayman 2016). Identity theft and risk for the fraud cases are other risks that may happen as there is some planning that needs to initiate for the mitigation of this processes.
Primary Question
What are the pros and cons of social networking in the marketing of products by Woolworths limited?
Secondary Questions
How Woolworths identify the positive aspect of social networking?
What are the marketing advancements that Woolworths has got due to social networking systems?
How do increased opportunities help to promote the business expansion in Woolworths limited?
What are the improved rankings of market position and increased number of sales Woolworths has got due to the implementation of social networking?
In this research proposal, needs of social platforms and negative aspect of using the social sites are explained. Systematic and theoretic method is applied in this section so that field of study increases.
Research Philosophy
Research philosophy involves with the resource, character and expansion of understanding. In easy stipulations, a research philosophy is conviction about the conduct in which statistics about an occurrence should be composed, analyzed and used (Bailey et al. 2015). Positivism philosophy has been used here for the better acceptance of research methods. This is the factual knowledge that considers as trustworthy and the interpreted in an objective way. This is an independent way of study done by the researcher so a better determination will expected from the outcomes.
Research Design
The overall strategy to integrate different components of study in the logical way is the most ensuring factor of research design. All the expected problems in research problems and addressing those problems in an effective way is the major liability of research design (Chen 2013). The descriptive design has been chosen for the project as most of the information is taken from the company sites and the impacts of social sites are more relevant in this kind of business (Bitzer and Hamann 2015).
Research Approach
The logical apprehension and use of data in a conceptual way and collect those data for the existing theory is the major responsibility of Research approach. This is a way of theory generation and builds new theory for modifying the existing one (Messing and Westwood 2014). The deductive approach has been used in this research, and the research approach identifies the nature of social impact over the organization. A flow of deductive path is there and that somehow in progress with theory and then hypothesis will come. After that segment observation and test result will follow and that reflected on the results and confirmation. The confirmation and rejection of any of the approaches is come through the deductive approach so this is a good way to understand organizational behavior.
Data Collection method
Data collection method is used for the research viability and reliability. This is the way to collect data and analyze those data and provide an effective result form that. There are two types of data are available like Primary and Secondary data collection method. Primary data collection method has been taken on this research project, but most of the data are taken from sampling profanities and survey process. These are depended on requirements of this project (Luo and Zhong 2015). In primary data collection method, quantitative and qualitative research methods are the segregation. Quantitative data collection method is a mathematical collection and analysis of questionnaires. There are close ended questions to be answered. In case of Qualitative method, close ended questions will be asked and in depth level of business understanding is the best way to deliver the situation.
Sampling method
Sampling method is important for any of the research work to understand the probable chances of getting the right result through the samples. Samples are basically the human beings like in case of Woolworths limited employees are the sample (Bitzer and Hamann 2015). So, their view and reflection is the concerning factor in that case. In this research process, Probability sampling will be taken in this research work and in probability sampling, Simple Random Sampling will be taken. The sampling process will be taken as the employees’ are known to the company and the in a general random process they will be selected.
Data Analysis
From the primary questions a statistical analysis will be done by the researcher. The results are addressing towards the SPSS analysis and through this statistical program a better analysis will be done by creating graphs and charts and the also linking with the co-related factor.
In this research process, there are lots limitations that curtail the assumed destination of the research. The crucial limitation of this research is the survey that is founded on the straight responses of the respondents. The difficulty has risen at the period of gathering primary data from the respondents by way of the survey has been disseminated through email owing, and it turned out for the huge quantity of respondents has been designated. If all desired books and journals areaccessible, then the research might have another strong dimension. Some of the journals are paid journal the researcher has not have this amount of money to access those journals. So money is another concerning factor that considers as the limitation of the study.
Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that Woolworths has definitely tried all those social sites that have discussed in this research process and all those social processes help marketing and promotion of the product. The process of revenue generation and the improvement in business enhancement will also there and that somehow reflected in the organization motive and better business surroundings. In case of accelerated promotion that social sites have, is the only way that is improving marketing opportunities and enhance the business market. Hence, the situation has come when the importance of the social sites and implementation of those sites in business is a major concern, and that impacted the better business aspects
References
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