Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Using Social Media Marketing Tool

Question: Discuss about the Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Using Social Media As A Marketing Tool. Answer: Introduction The research topic is presented to focus on the effectiveness of using social media as a useful marketing tool by the business organisations in the United Arab Emirates. The involvement of social is useful for presenting messages and information to a large group of audience, reach people of all ages and demographics, influence the two-way communication between both the customers and organisation, increase the web traffic and thereby enhance the brand image and awareness among the people. This could attract more people and influence their buying behaviour by making them aware of the products and services delivered through promotion on the social networking websites (Armstrong et al., 2015). Research question How could the social media marketing enhance the web traffic and attract more customers for the UAE companies to generate more sales revenue in business? Research hypothesis H0: There is no effectiveness of involving social media as an useful marketing tool for companies in UAE H1: There are various benefits of using social media as an effective marketing tool for the companies in UAE Research aim The aim of the research is to evaluate the effectiveness of using social media as a marketing tool by the companies in UAE. Research objectives To identify the impact of social media on the marketing activities managed by the organisations in UAE To evaluate the probable approaches for using the social media as a marketing tool To assess the benefits derived from using the social media as a useful marketing tool To recommend relevant measures for enhancing the efficiency of the social media marketing for UAE organisations Literature Review Social media marketing The involvement of social media platforms and social networking websites for promoting a particular product or service is known as the social media marketing. The social media marketing can allow the business organisations to use various analytical tools for tracking the progress and efficiency of engaging the ad campaigns to promote products and services quickly (Baruah, 2012). The social media marketing is also useful for addressing the various stakeholders in business and deliver messages to them with ease. Within the strategic level, the social media marketing enables to manage the marketing campaign, governance and develop scopes for increasing the brand awareness among people as well (Berthon et al., 2012). Advantages of using social media as a marketing tool The social media usage has enabled the businesses and individuals to communicate with each other and develop good relationships through online activities. By using social media, an online presence is created for increasing the web traffic and for influencing the buying behaviours of consumers too. The major advantage of using social media is that the products are marketed to large numbers of audiences present in various market segments. It can influence the ability to change the buying patterns and manage the acquisition of products and services with ease (Castronovo Huang, 2012). The social media websites are freely accessible, and there are more scopes for reaching the targeted market without much investment. Social media marketing enhances the brand image and loyalty among the consumers and collects relevant information about the consumers, which would further help in proper decision-making. Impact of social media marketing on increased web traffic The use of social media as a marketing tool has helped in reaching people from every market segments and demographics as well. It enhances the effectiveness of online marketing by encouraging two-way communication. This has allowed the customers to provide their queries in the form of comments on the social networking websites, based on which, the organisation could provide relevant solutions. Social media sites are free and are essential tools for providing good quality customer services too (Hays, Page Buhalis, 2013). The new launch of a product or service becomes successful, and it not only increases the brand awareness but also helps in gaining the trust and loyalty of customers with ease and effectiveness. Drawbacks Managing and updating the social media networks take a lot of time and money and are quite a daunting task. Negative comments and feedback provided on the website could lead to the bad reputation of the company and deteriorate the brand image and awareness too. There might also be threats of hackers who could obtain the relevant data and information of consumers and the organisation and disclose the private information too (Kwok Yu, 2013). Positive impact on consumer behaviour Social media marketing enhances the potential of the organisation to deliver products online and deliver the right messages to people regarding the new products and services launched. By providing information to the customers through social networking websites, they could think that they had been valued and this could create a positive mindset among them. This would influence their buying behaviour, and the company would be able to increase its sales revenue efficiently (Papasolomou Melanthiou, 2012). Methodology Research design Among the three different types of research designs including the exploratory, explanatory and descriptive, the descriptive research design is the most suitable. The descriptive research design manages the online survey and is conclusive. It is a preplanned research design that can help to collect data and then put those in a statistical form. It is suitable because of its ability to define the opinions, attitudes, behaviours and influences of a particular group of population (Scott, 2015). Population size The participants of research are the managers of the organisations and the customers who have provided their opinions and responses regarding the use of social media as an effective marketing tool. The sample size has been chosen as 50 customers. Data analysis methods The SPSS tool was used to analyse the collected data and represent those in graphical formats and tables for understanding those with ease. T-test will also be done for analyzing the hypothesis acceptability and derive proper outcomes. Survey questions Do you agree that social media has enhanced the brand image and awareness? Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree What according to you is the most important advantage of using social media as a marketing tool in business? Enhances brand image Attracts more customers Generate more sales E-commerce Good online presence How can social media use attract more customers and retain existing customers? Enhances brand image Attracts more customers Generate more sales Makes people aware of the products and services Reach more customer segments Can the use of social media help the company to maximize its sales and profit level? Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree How effective is the social media marketing tool for generating higher profit level in business? Effective Very effective Neutral Not effective Which of the company in UAE uses social media marketing most efficiently? Digital Farm Alsayegh Media Silverline Networks LLC SOCIALEYEZ McCollins Media Does the social media marketing create any impact on e-commerce transactions? Yes No Do you agree that social media is an effective marketing tool used by companies can help in gaining competitive advantage in business? Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree Mechanisms to assure the quality of the study To maintain the good quality of research, the various literature and documents from which data were gathered had been genuine and authenticated. This also helped in the maintenance of reliability and validity of the research (Baruah, 2012). Ethical considerations None of the respondents was forced to take part in the research and all the research materials from which data were gathered had been appropriate and relevant to the research topic. Result From the research, it could be understood that the objectives that were stated earlier had been achieved and all the results had been validated and reliable as well. All the literature and findings match the research objectives, and it shows that the social media usage can act as an effective marketing tool for the business organisations in UAE (Berthon et al., 2012). Conclusion The proposal was developed to analyse the various findings of the research regarding the use of social media as an effective marketing tool in business. The aims and objectives were to determine the benefits derived by using the social media marketing while the literature review discussed the negative drawbacks and social media impact too. It showed that though social media could help business to reach more customers, negative feedbacks might even result in bad reputation and negative brand image. References Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., Brennan, R. (2015).Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education. Baruah, T. D. (2012). Effectiveness of Social Media as a tool of communication and its potential for technology enabled connections: A micro-level study.International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications,2(5), 1-10. Berthon, P. R., Pitt, L. F., Plangger, K., Shapiro, D. (2012). 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