GL Bajaj Institute of Management & Research

Greater Noida

Proposal on

“Study of challenges faced by small companies in adopting social

media marketing”

Subject: - Research Method in Business

Submitted To:- Submitted by:-

Dr. Harsh Pratap Ashish Chandra (GM18058)
Assistant Professor Anirudh Sharma (GM18036)
(Finance) Ankit Srivastava (GM 18000)
Aman Singh (GM18000)
Anamika Kumari(GM18000)
Anjali Goel (GM18000)
1.Introduction –

Social media has become a major online platform for businesses to market products/services
and to manage customer relationships. interactions via Social Media between enterprises and
the public may take place on channels that include online networks, such as Facebook,
LinkedIn; microblogs, such as Twitter and Tumblr; blogs, such as Blogger and WordPress;
video/photo sharing platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, and Flickr; and social
bookmarking sites, such as Pinterest and Snapchat. Recent studies. Majorly companies in
India using some social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, twitter etc.
While more and more small businesses have jumped on the bandwagon of social media in
recent years, we found that only a limited number of published articles are currently available
regarding challenges faced by small companies in adopting social media marketing. In India
small companies are those companies whose turnover is more than 10lakh/year and up to Rs
2crore/year (According to MSMED ACT,2006). As per the MSME’s report, there are
330,000 small companies in India. These companies are small in size; they are unaware
regarding the technology which is currently in the scenario. It is one of the major reason of
facing the problem in the adoption of SM marketing. If they identified their problem prior to
adoption of Social media marketing, they can work upon it by this they can take advantage of
social media over their competitor.

This era is the era of technology, if you cannot walk with technology you should left behind
in the market. If you going to compare the social media with the other form of media like
ATL & BTL, you find that social media marketing is very cheaper in compare to others. So
it is very important to understand the problem. To understand what kind of challenges small
companies are facing in adoption of social media marketing, for this we are going to conduct
a research with the help of literature review and by doing survey of small businesses, what
kind of problems they are facing in adoption of social media. In particular, we are going to
cover 100 small businesses of India.

1.1 Background of the topic

Social media is a phenomenon that has transformed the interaction and communication of
individuals throughout the world. Especially, social networking websites are very popular
and have become daily practice in a lot of people’s lives. Social network has significant
impact on the company’s profit. However, social media is also an important part of marketing
strategies in business life. There is a constant rise in social networking and therefore impact
of social networks is becoming stronger every day, into each kind of business whether it is
small or big companies. Social network is also used for spreading knowledge and information
about the product or services among the people. This platform has become important
marketing tactics and helps to develop a stronger market position. Now a day’s social media
popularity has been increasing rapidly. The growing of media and the emergence of social
media has pushed the businesses to use social media as one of their marketing tools.

1.2 Research Motivation

Social media networks enable all persons who have internet access to access the pages
created by different companies and communicate with the customers. The social media is
known to be the most important part of marketing. There has always been a direct contact
between companies and customers. It helps the customers to know about the existing product
and services. With this research companies especially small scale will get to know the
advantages of social network and also to boost the overall growth. As we all know social
media is the key factor in the success and growth of the business. The main advantage
companies get is that it is cost saving and the customers are getting close to the product and
services. Small scale companies are unaware of social network and also due to weak in
technology and skilled employee the company might face challenges in adopting social
media. This research is important because most small scale companies are not getting that
much benefit because of lack of promotion on social media. Social media platform will help
the companies to grow faster by promoting more and more of their products and services.

1.3 Objective

The objective of the research is what kind of challenges small companies are facing while
adopting the social media marketing.
These objectives can be summarised as:
1. To Study the challenges faced by small companies in adopting social media
marketing.
2. To study why small companies are not adopting social media marketing.
3. To determine the impact of social media on small companies.
4. To study the awareness of social media marketing in small companies.
5. To Study major social media marketing channel used by small companies.
 6. Determining factors that drive the use of social media marketing usage from small
companies.

2. Literature review-
2.1- Social Media: --
Various definitions were given for social media. Social media are often defined as an entity
that ‘‘consists of online technologies, practices or communities that people use to generate
content and share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with each other’’(He,
Wang, Chen, & Zha, 2017) In general, social media is mainly about participation, sharing,
interaction, and collaboration using online technologies. However, to engage people in social
media activities such as discussion, sharing, and collaboration on an ongoing basis, the
content found on social media needs to be refreshed quite frequently (He et al.,
2017).Common types of social media include collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia), blogs
and microblogs (e.g., Twitter), content communities (e.g., YouTube), social networking (e.g.,
Facebook), virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds. Among various social media tools,
Facebook and Twitter are the most widely used by businesses. Among all social media
networks, Facebook is dominant in attracting and retaining customers in the retailing
industry. Small businesses often have to rely on word of mouth in order to attract new
customers.

A study by Stokes and Lomax indicated that the most important sources of gaining new
customers for small businesses are recommendations from existing customers. The biggest
challenge for small business owners is to reach customers effectively with limited resources.
Since small businesses often face resource constraints, the use of social media can be an
attractive tool to enhance marketing and customer outreach at little cost. Also, small
businesses usually have ‘‘a flat structure and an organic, free-floating management style that
encourages entrepreneurship and innovation’’(He et al., 2017) which makes small businesses
more informal and flexible in decision-making and more responsive to new technology
adoption. small businesses without a strategy often report being less satisfied with social
media’s ability to generate new leads.
2.2- Theoretical foundations for social media-

Our literature review identifies several theories including ‘‘word of mouth’ ’and social capital
theory that pave the way for social media research and applications. For example, social
capital theory is often used to understand social media adoption by businesses. (He et
al.,2017)Traditional communications theory considers ‘‘word of mouth’’ (WOM)(He et al.,
2017) as having a powerful influence on consumer behaviour. The WOM theory suggests that
the information communicated by friends and relatives is construed as more credible, honest,
and trustworthy than that generated by marketers because the communicators are not
compensated for the referral.(He et al., 2017) Social media allow consumers to access
personally meaningful critiques, not only from friends and relatives, but also from strangers.
The messages posted on social media by consumers are perceived to be more reliable,
credible, and trustworthy than firm-initiated communications. Social media networks such as
Facebook or Twitter in this regard become an ideal platform for social exchanges. The cost-
benefit assessment of a user determines what and how the user will participate in social media
activities. As social media are being used increasingly by individuals, small businesses that
can effectively leverage social media to acquire social capital are more likely to succeed in
today’s competitive business environment. Whereas numerous anecdotes or suggestions of
social media use by small businesses exist, only a limited number of studies have verified
why and how small businesses adopt social media to improve their business performance.
The potential of adopting social media for small businesses’ benefits is relatively unexplored
in the literature.(He et al., 2017).

4. Research Methodology

4.1 Research Methodology Process

Research Methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be

understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. The various steps that
are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic
behind them are studied from it. It is necessary for the researcher to know not only the
research methods/techniques but also the methodology. It is therefore necessary to design
his/her methodology for them problem as the same may differ from problem to problem.
 Problem Identification

Research Design

Data Collection

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Research Report

(Fig:4.1 – Steps in Research Methodology)

4.2 Research Design

Research Design indicates the methods and procedures of conducting research study. In this
case Descriptive research is undertaken which help to know the characteristics of certain
groups of companies.

4.3 Sampling Technique

Since the research deals with small companies, so the population groups can include small
company owner & the person associated with them. The units are selected because of their
convenient accessibility and proximity. The data are quickly available and easily gathered. I
have therefore chosen the sampling method.

4.4 Sample Size

The sample size of the research is approx. 100.

4.5 Data source

a) Primary Data

Primary data has also been collected through questionnaire. The data collected through this
method was adequate enough to make projections in this study.

 Questionnaire

Questionnaires are very popular means of collecting data, but are different to design and
often require many rewrites before an acceptable questionnaire is produced.

 Types of Questions used are:

Questions That are easily understandable for the people. I asked that type of question that
tells their attitude towards social media marketing and promotion of their products and
services through the medium. Question like Why and where they invest spend money to get
popular and capture the market.

b) Secondary Data

Articles have been sourced from magazines and journals dealing with current scenario of
small industries towards social media. Internet and books related to small companies.

References-
1. He, W., Wang, F. K., Chen, Y., & Zha, S. (2017). An exploratory investigation of social
media adoption by small businesses. Information Technology and Management, 18(2),
149–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10799-015-0243-3

2. Michaelidou, Nina, Nikoletta Theofania Siamagka, and George Christodoulides. "Usage, barriers
and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium
B2B brands." Industrial marketing management 40.7 (2011): 1153-1159.
3. Durkin, Mark, Pauric McGowan, and Niall McKeown. "Exploring social media adoption in small to
medium-sized enterprises in Ireland." Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development 20.4 (2013): 716-734.