social medial marketing: strategic tool in business

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Ian Simon | Published April 2015 Email: [email protected] DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/UBTGW Page 8 Social Media Marketing: Strategic Tool in Business ABSTRACT This study determined the effectiveness of use of social media marketing tools of 30 business companies. Specifically, this study sought to find answer to the following: Problem 1, What is the profile of the respondents in terms of a) Age; b) Sex; c) Civil Status; d) Highest education attainment; e) Type of business; f) Number of employees; g) Monthly Income; h) Employment status; and, i) No. of years using social media? Problem 2, What social medial marketing tools are used and their frequency in using a) Facebook; b) Twitter; c) LinkedIn; and, d) Google Plus? Problem 3, What is the level of effectiveness of social media as marketing tool? Problem 4, What are the problems encountered by the respondents in their use of Social Media as a marketing tool? Problem 5, Is there significant relationship between the level of effectiveness of social media marketing as a promotional tool and their profile variables? And Problem 6, What program can be proposed to address the problems encountered? The following null hypotheses of the study were tested at the .05 level of significance. 1) There are no significant differences between the levels of effectiveness on the use of social media marketing tools and the profile variables of the respondents. Keywords: Social Media as Tool for Business Promotion, Perception of Entrepreneurs on Social Media INTRODUCTION The rise and wide spread of Internet and the fast growing consumers’ digital media use led companies occupied in different business sectors to think about a new way of communication with customers (Cheong & Morrison, 2008). Among the fastest growing online tools for reaching the consumers is the so called “social media” (Trusov, Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009). Social media is becoming an important part in peoples’ lives as can be seen from the recent marketing approaches done in that sphere. The results from these approaches are astonishing. The world spends 110 billion minutes on social media networks and blog sites (Nielsen Company). They also stated that the number of people who are visiting social media sites has increased by 24% over the last year. All these facts don’t even leave a doubt how fast is social media emerging in business sector and peoples’ lives. Social media represents the online content publicly created and available to end users. It is becoming one of the main tools used to spread information among customers. Blogs, social networking sites, content communities, virtual worlds or collaborative projects all represent groups of people that

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Ian Simon | Published April 2015

Email: [email protected]

DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/UBTGW Page 8

Social Media Marketing:

Strategic Tool in Business

ABSTRACT

This study determined the effectiveness of

use of social media marketing tools of 30

business companies. Specifically, this study

sought to find answer to the following:

Problem 1, What is the profile of the

respondents in terms of a) Age; b) Sex; c)

Civil Status; d) Highest education

attainment; e) Type of business; f) Number

of employees; g) Monthly Income; h)

Employment status; and, i) No. of years

using social media? Problem 2, What social

medial marketing tools are used and their

frequency in using a) Facebook; b) Twitter;

c) LinkedIn; and, d) Google Plus? Problem

3, What is the level of effectiveness of social

media as marketing tool? Problem 4, What

are the problems encountered by the

respondents in their use of Social Media as a

marketing tool? Problem 5, Is there

significant relationship between the level of

effectiveness of social media marketing as a

promotional tool and their profile variables?

And Problem 6, What program can be

proposed to address the problems

encountered? The following null hypotheses

of the study were tested at the .05 level of

significance. 1) There are no significant

differences between the levels of

effectiveness on the use of social media

marketing tools and the profile variables of

the respondents.

Keywords: Social Media as Tool for

Business Promotion, Perception of

Entrepreneurs on Social Media

INTRODUCTION

The rise and wide spread of Internet and the

fast growing consumers’ digital media use

led companies occupied in different business

sectors to think about a new way of

communication with customers (Cheong &

Morrison, 2008). Among the fastest growing

online tools for reaching the consumers is

the so called “social media” (Trusov,

Bucklin & Pauwels, 2009).

Social media is becoming an important part

in peoples’ lives as can be seen from the

recent marketing approaches done in that

sphere. The results from these approaches

are astonishing. The world spends 110

billion minutes on social media networks

and blog sites (Nielsen Company). They

also stated that the number of people who

are visiting social media sites has increased

by 24% over the last year.

All these facts don’t even leave a doubt how

fast is social media emerging in business

sector and peoples’ lives. Social media

represents the online content publicly

created and available to end users. It is

becoming one of the main tools used to

spread information among customers. Blogs,

social networking sites, content

communities, virtual worlds or collaborative

projects all represent groups of people that

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

Email: [email protected]

DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/UBTGW Page 9

create and share content inside and outside

of professional routines.

For marketers this phenomenon is of high

interest as social media is becoming an

important source of customer information

sharing, awareness, support and

empowerment (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).

Consequently social media allows

businesses to effectively and inexpensively

engage in direct client contact, reaching

levels of efficiency undoubtedly higher than

any other traditional marketing

communication tools (Berthon et al, 2008).

There are many evidences and examples

how companies use social media for more

efficient communication and better results.

In 2010, Facebook has reported 400 million

users from which 1.5 million are business

(Facebook, 2010). Marketers should

therefore become more and more aware of

the importance of these platforms and the

information spread throughout them.

Companies like Sony and Dell have

experienced direct increase in sales through

social media. In February last year, Sony

announced that through Twitter they had

earned an extra $1.6 million in sales. Later

in June, Dell made the announcement that

their presence on Twitter accounted for $3

million dollars increase in sales.

As social media is quite a new trend, still

little research is available. Kaplan and

Haenlin (2010) do explain the importance of

social media platforms and offer several

strategies of managing this phenomenon.

These strategies, rather advisory in nature,

lack empirical support and thus leave room

for future research. All of the

aforementioned facts make social media an

interesting field for investigation. They also

prove its significant managerial relevance

and academic interest through the lack of

many previous findings.

Companies are constantly paying attention

to the change of customer’s opinions and

preferences and are trying to be up to date

with the emergence of new technologies.

On the other hand, social media is also

gaining significant importance in the

business sector. According to a recent

research 51% of people are allowed to use

Facebook or Twitter for business purposes at

the working place, compared to hardly 19%

in 2009 (R.Murphy, 2011). Companies and

marketers are constantly monitoring the

customers’ brand attitude change. However

it’s also necessary for them to take into

account the rapid spread of social media and

the rising number of social media users –

individuals and companies.

Each company’s aim is to create positive

brand attitude or if not positive, then at least

an attitude that will lead to profitable results,

leading positions on the market and

opportunities for future growth. Therefore

the analysis of social media and what is the

effectiveness of social media platforms on

customers’ attitude toward brands will

provide efficient and helpful insights for

companies. These include trying to predict

their future sales and behavior towards

consumers and respectively toward

competitors, and therefore improving their

marketing communications and optimizing

the advertising and persuading campaigns

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

Email: [email protected]

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with tools that don’t necessarily require the

investment of a lot of money.

Furthermore, Internet marketing utilizes the

power of electronic commerce to sell and

market products. Electronic commerce

refers to any market on the internet.

Electronic commerce supports selling,

buying, trading of products or services over

the internet. Internet marketing forms a

subset of electronic commerce. With the

outburst of internet growth, internet

marketing has started becoming very

popular. It is said that Internet marketing

first began in the beginning of 1990 with

just text-based websites which offered

product information.

With growth in internet, it is not just selling

products alone, but in addition to this,

information about products, advertising

space, software programs, auctions,s tock

trading and matchmaking. A few companies

have revolutionized the way, internet can be

used for marketing, such as Google.com,

Yahoo.com, Amazon.com, Alibaba.com and

Youtube.com. Internet marketing has

brought forth so many strategies such as

affiliate marketing which consists of pay per

click,pay per view , pay per call, pay per

click advertising.

In view of the foregoing, the researcher is

prompted to investigate the effectiveness of

social media marketing as a promotional

tool in business marketing, the researcher,

who is involved in social media marketing,

believes that in today’s world where the

information and internet take a significant

role in peoples’ lives, the social media

phenomenon will be an interesting topic to

research, as well as its influence on

customers’ attitudes toward promoting

products.

All of the aforementioned facts make social

media an interesting field for investigation.

Marketing in the social media is a new

strategy that has the capacity of changing

public opinion – every hour, minute, even a

second.

Statement of the Problem

This study focuses on the investigate the

effectiveness of social media marketing as a

promotional tool in business:

Specifically, this study sought to find

answer to the following problems:

1. How can the use of social media,

as a promotional tool by

companies, be characterized?

2. How effective are social media

for consumers in creating

positive attitude towards

promoting products or brand?

3. Which social media users hold

more positive attitude towards

promoting products or brand?

4. What is the role of companies in

promoting products or brands for

the

effectiveness of social media in

the formation of positive product

or brand attitude?

5. What are the successful schemes

of social media marketing used

today?

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

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6. To what extent does social media

marketing bring revenue for the

companies

7. Which is the most preferred

social media marketing

approach?

8. Do companies prefer social

media marketing to traditional

marketing.

Scope and Delimitations of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to find out

the effectiveness of social media marketing

in the promotion of products or brands

towards consumers. The effectiveness of

social media as a promotional tool in

business marketing will be the main focus of

the study. The objective of the study is to

identify, and if possible quantify, the

effectiveness of social media marketing in

promoting products or brands. This study

assumes that there are some measurable

content attributes that influence the

effectiveness. To analyze these relations the

statistical methods of correlation analysis, if

the data fulfills the requirements, will be

used.

The data to be gathered for analysis will be

primarily based from the responses of the

respondents to the various items of the

questions raised using focused group

discussion. The survey sample will be based

from a small set of companies, consumers

and internet marketing agencies. The survey

results will help the researcher predict the

effectiveness in internet marketing.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will provide

research based information which would be

useful to the clients and the public in

general.

Business entities get to see the target market,

up close and personal. Part of what makes

marketing with Facebook and Twitter

effective is the interaction one gets get to

have a customer base who can read their

tweets and status updates to get insights into

marketing strategy.

Companies can respond to problems

immediately. If there’s a problem with their

product or service, they will be able to know

about it immediately. With the feedback

they get in the process of social media

marketing, they’ll be the first to know when

there are issues and they can take steps to

resolve them right away.

Consumers can immediately get response on

their complaints and appreciate companies

which take time to make things right.

Companies get more sales. Customers will

more likely to buy from when they need the

products being sold. Social media marketing

doesn’t just keep the company’s name in

front of potential buyers, but it also gives the

opportunity to constantly give incentives to

buy.

Companies find customers who didn’t know

they existed. One can find people who are

looking for the products being sold.

Definition of Terms

The following terms are operationally and

lexically defined to give meaning to the

present study.

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

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Advertising. This term refers to any

paid form of no-personal presentation and

promotion of ideas, goods or services by any

identified sponsor.

Brand or product. This refers to

products or brand which is a name, term,

sign, symbol, or design, or combination of

them which is intended to identify the goods

and services of one seller or group of sellers

and to differentiate them from those of

competitors (Kotle,r 1991).

Direct marketing. This refers to the

use of mail, telephone or other non-personal

contact tools to communicate with or solicit

a response from specific customers and

prospects.

Social Media Marketing. This

refers to an evolution of the process of how

people discover, read and percept a certain

product or brand. It involves the usage of the

Internet to market and sell goods or services

content (http://en.wikipedia.org).

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

AND STUDIES

This chapter presents a review of the related

literature and studies, both foreign and local

to give direction and served as background

materials for this study.

Social Media concept and its dimensions

Social media phenomenon is merging in

people’s lives tremendously fast and through

different ways. Kaplan and Haenlein 2009

explain in details social media’s essence,

meaning and origin. When talking about

social media, it is important to mention two

related concepts - Web 2.0 and User

Generated Content. Web 2.0 is a term that

first appeared in 2004 to illustrate the new

way in which software developers and end

users started operating with the World Wide

Web. It’s a platform whose content is

modified not by the single individual but by

all the users in a collaborative manner.

The term came up for the first time in 2005

to explain and summarize the variety of

media content that has been created and is

available to the people. In order to be

considered and confirmed as such, the User

Generated Content must fulfill couple of

requirements. The first requirement is about

the content. It needs to be published on a

publicly available website or on a social

networking site accessible to a definite

group of people. Second, it must show use

of creativity, and third it must be created

outside of the professional routines (Kaplan,

Haenlein, 2009).

Different kinds of information are

exchanged in a different way. That is

because there are

various types of social media. Collaborative

projects are the simplest type of social

media. They allow each user to add, remove

or change text based content. It is believed

that throughout the collaborative efforts of

different users the information offered by

that source of social media is becoming

more reliable.

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

Email: [email protected]

DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/UBTGW Page 13

A widely spread collaborative

project is Wikipedia. That is a free, web

based, online encyclopedia written with the

common efforts of volunteers and accessible

by everyone with an Internet access.

Blogs are another representative of social

media. They let user to publish and

participate in a multithreaded conversations

online (Weber, 2009). Blogs are important

for companies as they can easily higher their

reputation in case of positive blogging and

at the same time destroy a good reputation

with negative blogging.

Content communities give people the

opportunity to share media content between

each other. Under media content is meant

the exchange of videos (You Tube), photos

(Flicker) or even PowerPoint presentations

(SlideShare). Users of content communities

usually don’t create a profile page, but just

have a personal record with their recent and

overall activity. For companies and large

corporations content communities are of a

great thread because of the chance to be

used as platforms for sharing copyright

materials (Kaplan, 2009).

Social Networking Sites follow the content

communities in the review of social media

types. It’s important to clarify their meaning

and usage as they take central place in the

current thesis. Trough these kinds of sites

people connect while exchanging personal

information, photos, videos and even instant

messages. People can also invite friends to

have access to this information.

Facebook and Twitter are considered to be

the most popular social networking sites.

Companies nowadays switch to Facebook in

their efforts to bond with the customer

(Kaplan, 2009). Twitter is a free social

network and micro blogging service that

allows people to read and exchange text

based posts that are up to 140 characters.

These posts are called “tweets”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter).

Last but not least comes the turn of virtual

game worlds and virtual social worlds as

social media representatives. Virtual game

worlds present three dimensional

environments where users interact with each

other taking the form of avatars and

experiencing real world situations. Virtual

game worlds provide the highest level of

social presence and media richness (Kaplan,

2009). Virtual social worlds slightly differ

from the game worlds. They allow users to

choose their behavior and actually live a life

that is similar to their own ones.

As in virtual game worlds, virtual social

world users appear in the form of avatars

and interact in a three-dimensional virtual

environment but, in that case, there are no

rules for the possible interactions, except for

basic physical laws such as gravity (Kaplan,

2009).

Social Media Marketing

Social Media in the marketing sphere is well

known as Social Media Marketing. This an

evolution of the process of how people

discover, read and percept a certain content

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_

marketing). Social Media Marketing is a

completely new way of communication with

the consumer. It is also a transition from

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

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traditional marketing, where there is one

way communication between a company

and its customers.

Marketers here should play a role of

aggregators of customer communities

(Weber 2009). They are expected to

organize and find the most appropriate

social network and best possible way of

presenting the product to the consumer and

respectively receiving customers’ feedback

through it. It’s proved that people trust their

friends more than traditional advertising

(Nielson Company). They purchase the

product, talk about it online and do

marketing activities even without realizing

it. That process is known as word of mouth

(WOM) advertising but here it is done in

online manner.

Social Media Marketing should be gradually

implemented into the existing marketing

plan of a certain company and not used as a

replacement of it (Flagler, 2011). It must be

integrated within the other marketing tools

that certain company use as the common

usage will lead to better results (Lake,

2011).

Nowadays there is substantial evidence that

online word of mouth affects peoples’

attitude toward the product or the brand and

respectively that affects the purchase

behavior of the consumer (Chen, 2011).

Many scholars recently pay attention and

research the influence of social media to

product sales, consumer decision making,

and sales forecasts or even to existing

marketing strategy of the company (Chen,

2011).

Widely discussed is also the issue of how

social media influences brand awareness but

not much attention is paid to the problem of

the social media effectiveness to Virtual

social worlds slightly differ from the game

worlds. They allow users to choose their

behavior and actually live a life that is

similar to their own ones. As in virtual game

worlds, virtual social world users appear in

the form of avatars and interact in a three-

dimensional virtual environment but, in that

case, there are no rules for the possible

interactions, except for basic physical laws

such as gravity (Kaplan, 2009).

Social Media and Branding/Product

Branding offers the world a great variety of

definitions and concepts. It’s one of the most

broadly defined terms in contemporary

marketing. Nowadays brands are used as

symbols that allow consumers to make a

difference between the producers and trace

the quality of the product back to the

manufacturer and if companies want to

compete successfully on the market, they

must have a brand that consist of various

characteristics (Bertilsson, 2009).

All that leads to the conclusion that when

approaching the effect of social media on

marketing we need also to focus on branding

as an essential and huge part of it. A brand

can be defined as "a name, term, sign,

symbol, or design, or combination of them

which is intended to identify the goods and

services of one seller or group of sellers and

todifferentiate them from those of

competitors" (Kotler, 1991).

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

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A brand plays three significant roles. First, it

aims to attract new customers to the firm.

Second, it can be a reminder to customers

about the firm’s product and services.

Finally, a brand can become the customer’s

emotional tie to the firm (Rust, et al.2005,

p.24).

Moreover customers’ brand attitude plays a

great role in firms’ efforts to make profitable

business. That is because of the fact that a

strong brand could gain a firm competitive

advantage and leading positions in a certain

sector (Kim

et.al.2008). It is not a surprise that many

companies and organizations of all types and

sizes are using social media to monitor and

respond to negative feedback about their

brands or products (Brown, 2010). ]

In that line of thought social media and

branding go hand to hand. Social

networking is bringing branding to new

dimensions by offering quicker deployment

and return of information, a significantly

cheaper platform than traditional marketing

and a way for people to get into

conversations about a brand and in this way

to spread the information more effectively

(Chordas, 2009). It becomes a proven fact

that most of the social media platforms are

turning into important branding

mechanisms. Researchers found out that

more and more of the social networking

users become fans of a brands online and

that they are more likely to express positive

attitude towards them than negative

(Chordas, 2009). That is not always the case

of positive word of mouth. Few researches

focused their work on negative word of

mouth and customer dissatisfaction.

Brand awareness

Brand awareness is related to the ability of

the consumer to identify the brand under

certain conditions. The greater awareness,

the better work that each of the brand

identities (logo, name, characters, design,

slogan or any symbols) have done (Keller,

1993). There are two possibilities of how

brand awareness can be expressed. One is

through brand recall or the process when a

certain brand is recalled by the consumer

when he is given a certain category as a

cue,and brand recognition when respectively

a consumer is able to recognize the brand

when he is given a brand as a prompt

(Dew,Kwon, 2009). Brand recognition can

be two types - visual or verbal. Visual when

a customer sees the brand in the store or

verbal which is popular in the telemarketing

when a customer hears the brand name

,which can lead to the creation of awareness

(Percy, 2008).

Scholars claim that brand recognition may

be more important than brand recall as most

of the decisions people made are made in the

store and rarely outside of it

(Keller, 1993). In that line of thought the

connection between verbal brand

recognition, social media and brand attitude

is pretty clear. Social media can be

presented as a way of a customer to get

familiar with the brand and this way create

attitude toward it. Brand awareness and

brand attitude in that aspect are mutually

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

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important. Therefore brand attitude cannot

occur as well as any purchase decisions

unless first brand awareness takes place

(Macdonald, Sharp, 2003).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research

methodology, the research design, methods

and techniques. This also includes the

subject of the study, research instruments,

data gathering procedure, data processing

and the statistical treatment used in the

study.

Research Method

This study makes use of three well

developed and widely spread research

purposes – exploration, description and

explanation. These techniques differ in

terms of data collection, formulation of the

research questions and the deriving from

them hypothesis (Saunders et.al, 2009).

The purpose of this study is to examine how

effective are social media for consumers in

the creation of positive brand attitude. Social

media is relatively new concept for the

researcher and the interaction between brand

attitude and social media hasn’t been

explored well enough. According to the

aforementioned author a research that

focuses on gaining new insights about

recently merged phenomenon is exploratory

in nature (Saunders et. al, 2009).

Subjects of the Study

The study will use quota sampling in order

to find respondents for the research. The

respondents will be divided into two groups:

respondents who subscribe on Facebook and

other social networking sites. The second

group can be any people who seldom use

social networking sites but have the needed

knowledge to understand what social media

is and have a simple background on

marketing, advertising or promotion of

products in social media sites. Both groups

must have to speak English language as

the whole questionnaire is entirely

compound of questions in English.

Data can also be collected from respondents

who are frequent users of social media sites

such as facebook and twitter. The

questionnaire will be sent out to all the

mutual friends on Facebook.

Instrumentation

This study will use a structured

questionnaire formulated by the researcher.

It consisted of eight (8) questions which are

stated in the statement of the problem of the

study. The questionnaires will solicit

information on the effectiveness of social

media marketing in promoting products or

brand.

Data Gathering Procedure

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Before the start of the data gathering, a

detailed research will be conducted among

different websites occupied with the activity

of people in social media. It will focus on

the most popular and frequently used

platforms and the presence of particular

brands on them. Research showed that

among the most popular social media are

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

(mediabistro.com b14373). The researcher

will identify websites and products or brands

advertised by companies that appears most

often on the aforementioned social media

applications. Then, respondents will be

approached for interview using the guide

questions.

Data Processing and Statistical Treatment

The data gathered will be tallied, scored,

analyzed and presented in tabular forms.

These data will be subjected to appropriate

statistical treatment to answer to problem

raised in the study.

Interview will also be done to substantiate

the data from the instrument.

All of these statistical treatments of data

were computed using the SPSS (Statistical

Package for Social Sciences).

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS OF

DATA AND

INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS

This chapter presents the data, analysis and

interpretation of the findings. The data are

presented in tables arranged in the order of

the problems that they are intended to

answer. The interpretation of the findings

follows each table that is presented.

PROFILE VARIABLES

Profile of the Respondents

Table 1 presents the frequency and

percentage distribution of the respondents

across the profile variables. This is intended

to give little background of the respondents

of this study.

Sex. The respondents are 30 business

companies or agencies who have engaged in

online marketing or have used social media

as marketing tools. These respondents are

predominantly females (20 of them or 66.66

percent); only 10 of them are males (33.44

percent). This gives the idea that most of the

people who are working agencies and are

inclined to using the social media as

marketing tools are females. It is assumed

that females engaged in business are more

exposed to using social media, and so they

tend to make the social media to work on

their business.

This was supported by Baron (1999); it

reveals that women seem to have

significantly better interpersonal skills than

men. More specifically, women are perhaps

more comfortable in using social media and

have more friends online.

Age. Most of the respondents belong

to the 28 – 35 years old age bracket (25 of

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them or 83.33 percent). There are only 5 of

them or 16.67 percent who belong to the 44

– 51 years old age bracket. Apparently, the

figure shows that these persons are familiar

with technology and how these can be used

to further augment the company’s sales.

Civil Status. 19 of them or 63.33

percent are married, and 11 of them are

single (36.67 percent).

The study revealed that this may be

attributed to married ones who are more

responsible and capable to do their duties

and obligations.

Highest Educational Attainment.

Majority of the respondents have

baccalaureate degrees (29 of them or 96.67

percent). Only 3.33 percent (1) has some

units leading to a master’s degree.

This may mean that the people working in

the agencies did not have opportunities or

inclination to pursue higher degree. This

also means that they are focused on

improving their company’s sales because

this is their source of income and they may

find it difficult to look for other sources.

Type of Business. The type of

business the respondents are affiliated with

are ranging from online shopping/selling,

travel agencies, and food companies. These

are the only three types considered in this

study.

Number of Employees. The number

of employees is minimal. In the

companies/agencies which were considered

for this study, the number ranges from 5-7.

This is because these are smalltime

businesses and more of their market is

online.

Monthly Income. Most of the

respondents received a salary from P5001-

6000 per month (22 of them or 73.33

percent). Eight (8) of them or 26.67 percent

received salaries which is P5000 per month

or lower.

Employment Status. All of these

respondents have the contractual status.

Their employment contract is renewable

every six (6) months.

Number of Years Using Social

Media. 18 or 60% percent of the

respondents have used social media as

marketing tool for 2 years and below. The

remaining 12 or 40 percent have used social

media for 3 years and more.

This only shows that social media

has been used as a marketing tool long

before, but only a few have done so. This is

because social network has not been

explored by entrepreneurs before.

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATION

This chapter presents the re-statement of the

problem, the summary, conclusion drawn

from the findings and recommendations

forwarded.

Re-Statement of the Problem:

This study determined the effectiveness of

use of social media marketing tools of 30

business companies.

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

Email: [email protected]

DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/UBTGW Page 19

Specifically, this study sought to find

answer to the following:

Problem 1, What is the profile of the

respondents in terms of a) Age; b) Sex; c)

Civil Status; d) Highest education

attainment; e) Type of business; f) Number

of employees; g) Monthly Income; h)

Employment status; and, i) No. of years

using social media?

Problem 2, What social medial

marketing tools are used and their frequency

in using a) Facebook; b) Twitter; c)

LinkedIn; and, d) Google Plus?

Problem 3, What is the level of

effectiveness of social media as marketing

tool?

Problem 4, What are the problems

encountered by the respondents in their use

of Social Media as a marketing tool?

Problem 5, Is there significant

relationship between the level of

effectiveness of social media marketing as a

promotional tool and their profile variables?

and Problem 6, What program can be

proposed to address the problems

encountered?

Null Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses of the study

were tested at the .05 level of significance.

1. There are no significant differences

between the levels of effectiveness on the

use of social media marketing tools and the

profile variables of the respondents.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

The following are the findings of this study:

1. The company or agency marketers

and managers are dominated by

females with 67%; 83% belong to

28-35 age bracket; most are single;

all have finished their bachelor’s

degrees; and all of them are working

at contractual basis.

2. All of them used Facebook; Twitter

ranked second, and Blogs ranked

third.

3. The effectiveness of use of social

media marketing tool is highly

effective along Generation

Awareness and Consistency of

Products; and only effective along

income generation and sustainability

of products.

4. The problems encountered were on

complaints, unreliability of delivery

time frame, and negative feedbacks.

5. There is no significant relationship

between the level of effectiveness on

use of social media marketing tools

and their profile variables.

6. A program is proposed to address

problems encountered.

7.

CONCLUSIONS

The following are the conclusions drawn

from the findings of the study

1. The marketers and managers do not

vary much in their profiles.

2. They primarily use social networking

sites.

3. The social media marketing tool is

rated to be effective.

Ian Simon | Published April 2015

Email: [email protected]

DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/UBTGW Page 20

4. There are uncontrollable factors that

contribute to the problems

encountered by the marketers and

managers.

5. Profile variables do not affect level

of effectiveness on the use of social

media marketing tools.

6. Program proposed can address the

problems encountered.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The following are the recommendations

forwarded:

1. The marketers and managers must

undergo training for personal,

knowledge and skills development.

2. Training with hands-on sessions

must be undergone by marketers and

managers especially on the use of

other social media marketing tools.

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