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Chapter I

INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study

In today’s marketing efforts, advertisements and marketing intermediaries are

prevalently used to aid awareness in the modern day consumer, however these are costly and
need substantial time and effort to be successful. In the modern era where the internet is a
prominent global community, a new type of marketing intermediary was born. These are social
Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which are the most well-known social
networking sites in existence. There are a million users globally engaging in this said sites, and
most of them are potential customers.

Any corporation would want publicity and prestige for the products and services it offers,
but not many are willing or have the capacity to pay millions just for a single marketing campaign.
By using social networking sites as an intermediary to fulfill advertising and marketing needs,
successful marketing campaigns are no longer a luxury, one must only need to be creative; and
as we always say, we have to keep in mind that we must “Think Globally, Act Locally.”

The research will focus on why using social media is an effective low cost marketing choice
for Bedan student entrepreneurs, for this will investigate profit generation and brand exposure.
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Statement of the problem

This research aims to examine the effects of social media for profit generation and brand
exposure for Bedan student entrepreneurs. It seeks to answer the following questions:

1. How do social media sites help brand exposure for businesses of Bedan student
entrepreneurs?
2. Does social media boost the profit generation of Bedan student businesses?
3. What are the problems encountered by Bedan student entrepreneurs regarding social
media marketing?
4. How do student entrepreneurs retain existing customers and acquire new customers?

Significance of the Study

The information and results of this research will be of benefit for several individuals and
groups.

Micro business owners will find it helpful in choosing the right marketing intermediary
and advertising tool. It will also give them the right knowledge to nurture their businesses and
eventually expand.

Marketers and advertising companies will find the information on how marketing through
social media platforms can helpful in their decision-making and contingency planning when it
comes to their marketing strategies.

Marketing students will find the information on how marketing through social media
platforms can helpful in their advanced marketing subjects such as digital marketing, and
advertising subjects.

Scope and Delimitation

This research aims to discover the benefits of the use of social media platforms such as
Facebook, twitter, and Instagram for Bedan student entrepreneurs. The research will involve
survey and focus group discussions of Bedan students with start-up and micro businesses in order
to find out the effects of social media marketing to their businesses.
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Chapter II

THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

This chapter presents a review of related literature which serves as the groundwork of
the study. The topic discussed the benefits, strategies and usage of social media as a marketing
tool for entrepreneurs.

Review of Related Literature

Impact of Consumers Using Social Media Marketing

According to the feedback of the customers and consumers, services and products can be
improved and dreams can be transforming into reality which cause growth of the financial assets
and growth of business as well. Vivid and clear results are shown in those businesses who are
now transforming themselves towards Social media for the advertising of the products.

Nowadays, both companies and customers have transferred themselves to internet for
the discussion forum on regular and fastest communication, as instant response received by
companies are more fruitful to bring changes according to world`s standard and demand. On spot
response are appreciated and encouraged in business world for bringing innovations and fruitful
results according to demand.

Benefits of Social Media for Entrepreneurs and Marketers

In their case study, Nelson (2011), found that “Entrepreneurs listed several benefits in
using social media as marketing tool for their businesses.” The use of Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and other social media platforms are free to use and is seen as a major cost benefit in
comparison to expensive local media advertising. Entrepreneur respondents also said they have
complete control over the content of their social media account pages.

Another major benefit expressed by the entrepreneur respondents was the ability to
convey a message to their followers instantly via social media and that it is also the best way to
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announce the arrival of a new product, events or sales promotion. They also said that is an
extremely useful way of raising brand awareness, transmitting information because they can
receive and respond to feedbacks from customers almost immediately via social media.

Tools, Benefits and Challenges of Social Media Marketing

According to their study, Social media gives women entrepreneurs an opportunity to

connect in a very personal and meaningful way with their customers. This allows you them to
respond quickly to customer support issues, share and praise compliments about their business,
and provide offers to people who are going out of their way to show their business support. On
the objective of exploring the benefits of using social media for online women entrepreneurs on
Kilimani Mums Marketplace on Facebook, the first beneficial factor is related to the mobility and
flexibility promoted by social media.

As technology advances with the arrival of tablet computer and smart phone, social media
business can now practically be done from anywhere and at any time, including from their home.
This results in a flexibility that allows women to take care of the family and children while
managing their business at the same time. It also allows young women entrepreneurs still in
school to juggle both school and self-employment.

This is in line with the responses from the respondents who indicated that Facebook has
given them the flexibility to manage easily between taking care of their families or undertaking
their studies and their online businesses. The second benefit as these women entrepreneurs does
this business through social media; this Internet feature allows them to reach a larger target
audience who are not located only in small area surrounding their locale. Many of the research
respondents reported that with social media, they can get customers from other areas and
globally.
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Case Study of Successful Social Media Marketing

According to their study, there has been a tremendous increase in the growth and
popularity of social media networks. A significant majority of people with access to the Internet
are active participants in these sites. There is growing evidence that users of social networking
sites now include people of various age groups.

This virtual explosion in social media has naturally attracted the attention of marketers
and there has been a continuous effort to leverage the reach and access of social networks for
brand promotion in terms of actual sales and customer service. Facebook has captured the
number one ranking by time spent in August 2010, accounting for 12.3% of time spent online in
the United States.

The report further notes that 9 out of every 10 U.S. Internet users have visited a social
networking site each month with the average Internet user spending more than 4.5 hours per
month on these sites. Marketers who were previously frustrated by the decline in effectiveness
of traditional marketing channels such as Direct-to-Customers (DTC) communications or even
Print/TV advertisements, are now eager to capitalize on the ready access that social network sites
provide.

The following reasons cited by these organizations as their top reasons for using social
media. Are generated exposure for business, it resulted in a new business partnership, helped
rise in search rankings, and helped in selling products and services. The above responses indicate
that a large number of business are increasingly turning to social media networks to improve
their brand image and also to market their offerings effectively.

Social Media Marketing Should Top Your To-Do List

a. Social media posts can be used to drive targeted traffic. Creating a new page on your site is like
taking a really great selfie. You want the world to see it and bask in its brilliance, but you don’t want to
beg for attention (or worse, pay for it). That’s why for selfies and landing pages, well-placed social media
posts can make all the difference. We’ve seen a single link on Reddit drive over 20,000 visitors in one
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weekend and links submitted to StumbleUpon can take a page that was consistently earning a handful of
visitors a day and increase that number to hundreds. Who wouldn’t want to capitalize on that?

b. Using social media for business boosts your site’s SEO. Search engine crawlers know
which pages are consistently earning traffic and which are just floating out there, forgotten and
ignored. A killer content strategy for SEO is the most important part of earning top spots in search
engine rankings, but driving traffic to your optimized pages will cause them to climb much faster
in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Quick case study: In less than a year we got the website for one of TCF’s clients to rank in
the top 100 SERPs for 15,000 new keywords – as a result, traffic to the website has increased
dramatically. A solid and consistent presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social channels was
a BIG part of that success.

Social Media Is THE BEST Tool to Connect with (and Learn from!) Consumers & Industry
Leaders

c. If you’re doing it right, social media will lead to real relationship building. Part of what
makes things like Twitter and Instagram marketing so cool is the interaction you get to have with
your customer base — you can read their tweets and status updates to get insights into their
daily lives (and maybe adjust your marketing strategy as a result). What products are they buying
and why? What are they doing on the weekend? What kind of posts do they love to share, and
from what websites?

You can also use social media as a tool for connecting with complementary, non-
competing businesses, thought leaders and tastemakers in your space, as well as journalists who
cover your industry. Sometimes, becoming best friends starts with a simple retweet.

Of course it doesn’t hurt to go the extra mile. When we saw that our client was mentioned
on The Celebrity Name Game by Rick Fox, we quickly jumped on the opportunity to create a gif
and mention both accounts on Twitter. This resulted in interaction not just from Rick Fox, but
from the Celebrity Name Game account as well!
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d. Users are receptive to your messages. People view Twitter and Facebook as social
networks, not marketing machines. As a result, they’re less likely to see what you post as an
advertisement and will be more likely to hear what you have to say. This translates to serious
web traffic when you link to your site and posts that market themselves as your friends and
followers share what you’ve posted.

e. Social media ads allow targeting and retargeting. One of the reasons social media is
important is because of the highly customizable nature of social media ads. Facebook ads, for
example, allow you to target users by things like location, education level, industry and even
purchase history and the pages they’ve liked. You also have to the option to install a Facebook
pixel on your site and use it to retarget the users who visit you — these people are far more likely
to convert into solid leads and sales!

f. Social media can help you get noticed at events, and even generate earned media
coverage. Whether your business is sponsoring a charity fundraiser or attending a major trade
show, there’s no better way to leverage your presence than with the help of social media. In fact,
we once sent a tweet during CES that lead to a client getting a feature article written about them
in Wired magazine (check out our guide to marketing your business at trade shows and events to
learn how you can achieve similar results).

g. You can respond to problems immediately. If there’s a problem with your product or
service, you want to know about it right away. With the feedback you get in the process of social
media marketing, you’ll be the first to know when there are issues – and you can take steps to
resolve them right away. Study after study has shown that consumers appreciate companies that
respond to customer complaints (and don’t hesitate to rant online to anyone who will listen when
companies don’t take the time to make things right).

h. A strong social media presence builds brand loyalty. A report published by Texas Tech
University found that brands with active social media profiles have more loyal customers. It’s
easy to imagine why: when you’re engaging and interacting on social media (not just tossing your
posts out onto the web hoping someone will stumble upon them) you become less like a
corporation and more like what you truly are — a unified group of people who share a vision.
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Conceptual Framework

The Frame work covers Bedan student entrepreneurs who use social media as marketing
tool for their business as it analyzes brand exposure and profits gained through the use of social
media.

continuous
interaction with
customers to retain
Promoting and and build trust with
advertising products customers and
to expose business business.
Setting up social and acquire
media sites on twitter, customers
facebook and
instagram

Figure 1: The profitability and success of social media marketing

Independent Variable (IV) – Use of Social Media

Dependent Variable (DV) – Offers Various Benefits

Moderator Variable (MV) – Student Entrepreneurs

Research Hypotheses
1. With the use of social media, it made customers find and connect with the Bedan student
entrepreneurs, gain valuable customer insights and gain information about your
competitors, share contents faster and easier, and build relationships with customers.
2. Its disadvantage is the limited number of followers that seemed to be participating and
concerned about the product and having inappropriate behavior including bashing,
bullying, and harassment.
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3. Student entrepreneurs who use social media as their form of marketing will gain and
increase customer retention and brand loyalty by connecting, interacting and building
satisfying customer relationship.

Chapter III
METHODOLOGY

This chapter will focus on the method of research focusing on the benefits of social media
for Bedan entrepreneurs. It will include the research design, sources of data, data gathering
instruments and procedure, and data analysis procedure.

Research Design

The research will be a descriptive survey of research to determine the social media
beneficial effects such as profit generation and brand exposure for Bedan entrepreneurs. It is
appropriate for this research because it will need a survey. The survey will be conducted to find
out the benefits of social media to their respective businesses. Frequencies and percentages of
answers in the survey form will be the quantitative data. The analyses of the audience’s
perspectives and of the print ads will be the qualitative data.

Sources of Data

The survey will involve 50 student entrepreneurs from San Beda University. The
respondents will be students from the College of Arts and Science department that operates a
business with a social media network.

Data Gathering Instruments

The data gathering instrument is a survey form containing 3 scale questions, 3 closed
questions, and 3 open-ended questions. The scale questions are meant to determine the
methods on how businesses use social media for exposure. While the closed item questions are
meant to determine if the use of social media help gain customers and profit for businesses.
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Lastly, the open-ended questions will determine the customer feedback of a business through
social media.

Data Gathering Procedure

The survey will take place in San Beda University – Manila. The questionnaires will be
given to College of Arts and Sciences student entrepreneurs of San Beda University from April 16
to 20. The survey questionnaires are to be answered honestly within 5 minutes.

Data Analysis Procedure

Survey questionnaires will be given out to 50 respondents who will be randomly selected
from students of San Beda University – Manila Senior High School, and the College of Arts and
Sciences. The answers of the respondents will be tallied and a conclusion will be generated from
the analysis of data after the tally.