Social Media for Marketing by Small Businesses. Kira Gholston, Matthew Kuofie. Argosy University, USA

Transcription

1 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May Social Media for Marketing by Small Businesses Kira Gholston, Matthew Kuofie Argosy University, USA Amy Cooper Hakim The Cooper Strategic Group, USA Abstract Social media is currently a component of most business environments. Therefore, it is very important for small businesses to understand how to use social media networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Small businesses unfortunately do not have a strategy in place when they being using social media to expand their business and engage their customers. Strategies were revealed that suggested what small businesses should do in order to engage with their customers. Finding include creating relationships, increasing brand exposure, focusing on relationship building as opposed to sales, how to increase sales, and how content start interactions. Overall, social media for marketing by small businesses is essential. Keywords: Social Media, Marketing, Business Strategy, Small Business, Business Start-Up Introduction Social media has a problem that exists within its overall approach. The problem is that customers have no shame, follow the crowd, lacking answerability, and acting in secrecy (Guest, 2012). The

2 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May problem is due to social media enabling customers with tactics that spark negative behavior (Guest, 2012). Although social media is handled as an extension of the marketers brand in a way that one would hope could be a sales vehicle via or product description page. Marketers making use of social media juggle between likes and shares. When the number of likes and shares do not measure up they decided to push harder or delete their social media page convinced that it is a marketing tool that is useless. Melewar & Smith (2003) revealed that the Internet is accessed by over one billion users (p. 363); two-thirds of which access social media (Solis, 2010, pg.17). Casey (2009) suggests that marketing as per the internet is new and more people are getting used to it and its concepts (p.11). The ambiguity of marketing can be beneficial in accordance with communicating via social media. This cultural occurrence has transformed into the new word of mouth due to consumer usage (Thomas, et al., 2012, pg. 88). Despite the ambiguity of marketing by use of social media, social media is beneficial in regards to it still possesses it benefits, advantages, and rewards. For instance, benefits come by way of providing brand awareness, and breaking into new markets at a reduced cost due to control of e-word of mouth (Solis, 2010). According to Hansen et al. (2011), social media is a huge source of the business along with being communication for marketers allowing for both communication among customers and able to listen to feedback and responses (p.10). Contrary to these findings, negative buzz can spread at an increased pace in comparison to positive buzz which can result in having a damaging effect on the brand (Solis, 2010). Henceforth, the present study focuses on how small businesses know when to use social media. In addition the study will focus on why some small businesses have an increase in sales

3 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May using social media and why others do not. The current study was designed to gather data to answer the following two research questions: RQ1: How does a small business known for using social media build their business to gain customer attention? RQ2: How does some small businesses increase in sales using social media but others do not? Data Collection This study s data was collected by way of interviews and unobtrusive methods. The researcher determined what strategies are used on social media via the owner-manager to engage their customers. How the owner-manager s efforts are apparent also acknowledged. The results are analyzed deeply due to detailed information on how managers utilize social media. The business social media activities were relevant to the case study due to the review of documents and collected data by the researcher. Data Collection Social Media The researcher was able to gain insight on owner-managers social media strategy by way of focused interviews. Each interview was transcribed immediately after by the researcher. Qualitative data was encoded by way of thematic analysis, which was used to analyze the data (Boyatzis, 1998). This approach allows the researcher a way to differentiate and make sense of the material that may appear to be unrelated. In the context of a theory, the researcher must be able to sense themes, distinguished between what can be coded and encode these moments constantly, develop codes and interprets the information (Boyatzis, 1998).

4 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May The researcher will allow the themes to become apparent from the information being examined as it pertains to this. 25 owner/managers participated in the final study Conducted an 8-26 minute face to face interview at an off-site location. Verbatim data was manually transcribed immediately after every interview session by Rev.com. During the data collection process, 25 purposefully small businesses participated based on criterion sampling. Additionally each interview time ranged from 8 to 26 minutes. Once participants were introduced to the research process they were asked to sign a consent form. The interviews were done in a focused interview style. Once the interviews were completed they were transcribed by Rev.com Data Analysis 25 owner/managers participated in the final study Conducted an 8-26 minute face to face interview at an off-site location. Verbatim data was manually transcribed immediately after every interview session by Rev.com. Questions can be found below which included the following questions: Purpose 1. What did your business use for marketing prior to using social media? 2. What was the reason why you chose to use social media? 3. What techniques do you utilize to engage your customers?

5 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May What challenges did you face when introducing social media to your business plan? 5. What do you hope to accomplish through social media? 6. Did you do any research prior to using social media for your business? If so, which resources were most helpful? 7. How did you decided which social media service would be appropriate for your company s use? Strategy 8. What have you done to connect with your audience? 9. How did you ensure that your participants are satisfied with the experience? 10. What sort of content do you share? 11. How do you moderate comments? Transparency? (Clearness) 10. Do you post the same message on Instagram and Twitter that you post on Facebook or vice versa? Why or why not? 11. How are you currently listening to your customers? 12. Are you listening to customer conversations that aren t about your brand, per se? 13. Do you listen to conversations had by your competitors? 14. What tools/technologies are you using to monitor conversations? 15. What tools/sites/applications are you most comfortable with? Challenges 16. Can you tell me about a time when something you ve done online has not gone as planned? How did you handle it?

6 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May What are some of the challenges you encountered when you introduced social media as a part of your business strategy? How did you overcome them? Results 18. How is social media success measured? 19. How do determine which strategies work versus the one that do not work? 20. Do you believe that you have obtained new customers via social media? 21. Do you believe that you have established local customers because of social media? 22. How much time and money are you willing to dedicate to social media projects? 23. How much time per day do you use social media? 24. What experience have you gained of using social media applications? 25. Do you believe without using social media you would have obtained the same results with your customers? The researcher was able to gain insight on owner-managers social media strategy by way of focused interviews. Each interview was transcribed immediately after by the researcher. Qualitative data was encoded by way of thematic analysis, which was used to analyze the data (Boyatzis, 1998). This approach allows the researcher a way to differentiate and make sense of the material that may appear to be unrelated. In the context of a theory, the researcher must be able to sense themes, distinguished between what can be coded and encode these moments constantly, develop codes and interprets the information (Boyatzis, 1998). The researcher will allow the themes to become apparent from the information being examined as it pertains to this.

7 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May Discussions and Findings Research Question One: How does a small business known for using social media build their business to gain customer attention? Answers were based on interview questions 3, 8, 13, and 14. During the interview process the, researcher kept both research questions in mind. For instance, Research Question One: How does a small business known for using social media build their business to gain customer attention? Question #3 was asked by the researcher to all 25 participants. Question #3 asked what techniques do you utilize to engage your customers? The researcher received varying responses. Among these responses, 12% stated that frequently posting was the technique used to engage customers. This 12% represented the most the most popular/similar response. Among the 3 participants, participants 1, 4, and 9 responded with the same answer. Participant 1 operates their small business in the real estate industry, and was interviewed on 7/19/15 at 7:30 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 4 has a small business in the beauty industry, and was interviewed on 8:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant #19 has a small photography business. Participant #19 also has the same response but was interviewed on 8:08 PM (Gholston, 2015). Secondly, the researcher asked the participants about what they have done to connect with their audience, which is question 8? The most popular and similar responses came from participant 11, 12, and 22. These participants all responded that you should be reachable in order to connect with your audience. Participant 11 is in the industry and was interviewed on 8/19/15 at 7:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). This participant is an Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Participant 12 is in the music industry and has an Instagram and Facebook. Participant 12 was interviewed 8/19/15 at 8:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 22 operates their business in the

8 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May real estate industry and was interviewed on 9:18 PM (Gholston, 2015). This slide shows a visual interpretation of the results the researcher received in response to question eight. Third, Question 13 asks how are you currently listening to your customers? All 25 participants responded to the researcher with varying responses. Among these responses 20% stated that they are currently listening to their customers through feedback. This 20% represented the most popular/similar response among the participants. Participants 2, 3, 11, 15, and 25 responded with the same answer. Participant 2 operates their small business in the entertainment industry and was interviewed 8:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 3 is also in the entertainment industry and was interviewed on 7/19/15 a little after 8:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 11 was the third participants who responded with a response that fell in the 20% range as well. Participant 11 is in the food industry and was interviewed 8/19/2015 at 7:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 15 was interviewed on 8/23/15 at 11:00 AM (Gholston, 2015) and operates in the publishing business. Lastly, participant 25 operates their business in the food industry. According to Table 1 (Gholston, 2015), the food industry is the industry in which this participant practices their small business. This slide shows a visual interpretation of the results the researcher received in response to question thirteen. The researcher asked the participant s question 14 are you listening to customer conversations that aren t about your brand per se? The researcher received various responses. Among these responses participants 56% of the participants stated that yes they listen to customer conversations that aren t about their brand. This 56% represented the most popular/similar responses among the 14 participants. Participants 2,3,4,9,11,13,14,15,16,19,20,21,24,and 25. All responded with the same answers.

9 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May Participant 2 operates their small business in the entertainment industry and was interviewed on 7/19/15 at 8:00 PM. Participant 3 operates their small business in the entertainment industry and was interviewed on 7/19/15 at 8:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 4 operates their small business in the beauty industry and was interviewed on 7/20/15 at 9:30 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 9 operates their small business in the music industry and was interviewed on 7/21/15 at 12:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 11 operates their small business in the food industry and was interviewed on 8/19/15 at 7:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 13 operates their small business in the health industry and was interviewed on 8/19/15 at 8:45 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 14 operates their small business in the beauty industry and was interviewed on 7/22/15 at 7:15 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 15 operates their small business in the publishing industry and was interviewed on 8/23/15 at 11:00 AM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 16 operates their small business in the fashion industry and was interviewed on 8/23/15 at 1:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 19 operates their small business in the photography industry and was interviewed on 8/24/15 at 8:08 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 20 operates their small business in the beauty industry and was interviewed on 9/15/15 at 7:16 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 21 operates their small business in the fashion industry and was interviewed on 9/2/15 at 9:01 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 24 operates their small business in the childcare industry and was interviewed on 11/1/15 at 7:02 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 25 operates their small business in the food industry and was interviewed on 11/1/15 at 7:44 PM (Gholston, 2015). Now in reference to research question two Research Question Two: How does some small businesses increase in sales using social media but others do not? The researcher asked

10 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May question #5 what do you hope to accomplish through social media? 8 participants representing 32% of the responses indicated that want to broaden their business. The 8 participants who responded in this manner were participants 4, 8, 12, 14, 20, 3, 5, and 7. Participant 4 who operates their business in the beauty industry was interviewed on 7/20/15 at 12:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 8 who operates their business in the music industry was interviewed on 7/21/15 at 12:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 12 who operates their business in the music industry was interviewed on 8/19/15 at 8:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 14 who operates their business in the beauty industry was interviewed on 7/22/15 at 7:15 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 20 who operates their business in the beauty industry was interviewed on 9/15/15 at 7:16 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 3 who operates their business in the entertainment industry was interviewed on 7/19/15 at 8:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 5 who operates their business in the beauty industry was interviewed on 7/20/15 at 12:00 PM (Gholston, 2015). Participant 7 who operates their business in the health industry was interviewed on 7/20/15 at 7:30 PM (Gholston, 2015). The researcher asked question 6 of the participants did you do any research prior to using social media for your business? If so, which resources were most helpful? 48% or 12 participants indicated that they did not do any research prior to using social media for their business. Participants 1,6,7,8,13,14,15,20,21,22,25,and 4 responded in a way that represented the 48%. The researcher asked all 25 participants question #7 how did you decide which social media service would be appropriate for your company use? 7 participants had similar responses which represented 28% of the responses which indicated that Instagram would be appropriate for their business to use.

11 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May When the researcher as the participants question #20, how is social media success measured? Results from this question concluded that 2 participants wanted to see an increase in sales which represented 8% of the data. 2 participants wanted to see an increase in followers which represented 8% of the data. 2 participants didn t know nor had an answer which represented 8% of the data. The other 19 participants have varying responses with no commonalities or similarities found; which represent 4% of the data each. To conclude three answers tied at 8% which included an increase in sales and followers and another 8% didn t know. Visually, the green section in the pie chart represents the percentage of the majority of the responses received that were similar in nature. Conclusion RQ1: How does a small business known for using social media build their business to gain customer attention? Answers: Frequently posting Connect with their audience Feedback Listening to customer conversations that aren t about their brand per se. RQ2: How does some small businesses increase in sales using social media but others do not? Answers: Bigger Clientele

12 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May No, They did not do any prior research prior to using social media Instagram Increase in sales This study was intended to answer the research questions pertaining to how a small business uses social media to engage their customers. 25 small businesses from the Philadelphia, PA area were interviewed in order to answer this question. The thematic analysis was used (Boyatzis, 1998). The data was presented. Based on the results a variety of strategies were used to build and maintain relationships, which kept customers interested. The results revealed that some small businesses had answered in a similar fashion and others did not. This revealed a theory which showed a correlation between small businesses and the social media strategies they utilized. From the beginning social media and us importance was evident because all of the 25 small businesses utilized social media in some form weather it was by using Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, even if it was all, some or one. All of the small businesses expressed struggling or having an issue with social media in the beginning. The choices each small business utilized were explained during the interview, which displayed how their consumers were engaged and strategies that were utilized. In the beginning before social media was used many of the same businesses did not have a real strategy but chose to use word of mouth. Without a definite strategy, this can result in wasted time and effort on the small businesses behalf. This is the reason why the same business needs to determine what goal(s) they would like to achieve by using social media. It simply does not come down to just creating a social media account, posting to it and checking it weekly.

13 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May How does a small business known for using social media build their business to gain customers? In order to determine how a small business known for using social media to build their business to gain customer attention; the small businesses must actively participate, have the knowledge needed to run their social media page(s) and develop a strategy which engages their audience. Currently social media is an environment motivated by developing an understanding of the social media atmosphere. With social media, communication takes place in a variety of ways through post, private message, etc. Therefore, establishing how a small business uses social media to engage customers is significant. Social media is a new venture for many small businesses. Through active participation it is learned that social media can be a task that is overwhelming if you have not established an understanding if what social media has to offer. In order to have your business grow, small businesses need to determine how to use social media to engage their customers and build solid relationships. How does some small businesses increase in sales using social media but others do not? This question stems back to what was mentioned under the implications section under number two. Basically, small businesses need to focus on relationship building. Once this is the primary focus then the small business will automatically see an increase in sales due to engaging with their customers which keeps them interested.

14 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May Implications Small businesses can obtain suggestions in which this study provides. These suggestions are relevant only after one is made aware of the study limitations. For instance, social media marketing strategies were analyzed in the Philadelphia, PA region among 25 small business participants. Findings are not confirmation that results can be generalized in all small businesses. The results provide an example of what a small business may use in reference to social media to engage customers and this is the only interpretation that should be had. To conclude, there are four things suggested for small business owners which emerged from this study. 1. Brand exposure is increased when a small business networks and creates relations. 2. When and if a small business places its priorities into building relationships instead of focusing on sales, sales will increase. 3. When you post interesting content this promotes some sorts of interaction between you and your customers. 4. The learning curve is a stumbling block for most small business owners. Social media is free yet it is time consuming. By getting involved in social media or asking questions about it the small business may learn about social media that way. Recommendations Recommendations for research of this caliber are endless. Future researchers may conduct research that is similar in nature among small businesses that felt that their social media usage was unsuccessful through a comparison of the strategies that each small business utilized.

15 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May An investigation of the social media post can be conducted to determine why the businesses social media efforts might have failed. In addition to this, my research focused on the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area and perhaps the researcher could focus on another area of interest or multiple areas and conduct an analysis of the results. Additionally, it is recommended that the researcher conduct research that is maybe gender or industry specific to determine if the results would be the same. Currently, gender is a hot political topic. So it would be interesting to focus on certain aspects of this. Furthermore, one could also focus on social media in a totally different aspect. Examples would include social media and how one would disengage with customers for a specific reason as my research focused on how one would engage with their customers on social media. Or one could research from a customer standpoint as my research focused on things from an owners or managers point of view. Additionally, research could be done on medium-sized businesses. Possibly, the researcher could also focus on using one specific social media network. My research focused on three different social media networks which included Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If the researcher focused on just one social media network this could bring another aspect or approach to the research. For an example, one could use other social networking sites such as YouTube, Pinterest, Linked In, Myspace, Pheed, Reddit, and Tumblr just to name a few References Boyatzis, R. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. SAGE Gholston, K. (2015). Interview Log Information. Philadelphia, PA, United States.

16 Journal of Marketing and Management, 7(1), 24-39, May Guest, S. (2012, November 9). Social Media is Creating Bad Customers. Retrieved from Hansen, D. L., Shneiderman, B., & Smith, M. A. (2011).Analyzing social media networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World.Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann. Melewar, T. C., & Smith, N. (2003). The internet revolution: Some global marketing implications. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 21(6), Retrieved from Solis, Bryan (2010) Engage; the complete guide for Brands and Businesses to build, cultivate, and measure success in the new web age, John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey. Casey, M. (2009). Marketing via the internet. American Printer, 126(6), Retrieved from Thomas, Peters, Howell, and Robbins (2012) Social Media and Negative Word of Mouth: Strategies for Handling Unexpecting Comments. Atlantic Marketing Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2, summer 2012, Article 7, Pages Retrieved from

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