RESEARCH TOPIC

“The impact of social media on corporate training businesses in Mbabane

Swaziland”

INTRODUCTION 1.1

“We must hold our minds alert and receptive to the application of unglimpsed methods

and weapons. The next war will be won in the future, not the past. We must go on, or

we will go under.”

—General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, 1931

These words ring true not only to the battalion commanders or generals, but to every

business and organization that seek to maintain its relevance and increase its

shareholders value in this fast paced ever changing environment. The advent of new

technology in the last decades has brought about an evolution in the media, and has

had a profound impact on business. The emergence of this new media which has

penetrated many households and altered the social fabric changed the way we

communicate, do business and influence others (Hidri 2016.) As of 30 June 2017

according to Internetworldstats.com, 3.8 billion people are on internet of which 2.4

billion are estimated to be social media users. As Buzzetto-More 2013 puts it across

about the effect of technology people have been,

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 Compelled to receive constant information updates from their ever expanding

peer networks, the average person has been transformed to a hyper-connected

habitué of social media.

With such massive number of users worldwide the social media is a strategic tool that

can be exploited by business and organizations for their benefit. Peter Drucker 1954

says, “There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer”,

Organizations are always looking for ways to make customers, and can take advantage

of the universal social media platform to cost effectively communicate with their

customers. Never in the history of mankind has companies been able to reach so many

customers and stakeholders in such large numbers at a push of a button, as such it

important to measure the impact of how social media and the evolution in consumer

thinking and behaviours have on companies and their products. Dos Santos and Oliveira

(2014)

1.2 SCOPE AND DEFINITION OF THE STUDY

This exploratory research sought to investigate and show the impact of social media on

training business in Mbabane Swaziland. Defining the variables in the research was an

important step that had to be taken in order to be able to come up with conclusive

results. The first variable is Social Media which happens to be an independent variable

and the other variable is its impact on Training Business which is the dependent

variable. According to businessdictionary.com an independent variable is a factor or

phenomenon that causes or influences another associated factor or phenomenon called

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a dependent variable. Simply explained the training business depends on or is impacted

upon by social media. Thus this research sought to determine if indeed there is a

causal /effect relationship between the two variables impact of social media and

training business. The research hence was to find out how social media impact training

businesses in Mbabane Swaziland, and to determine whether there are other factors

that also come to play. In the world today Social Media is a revolution that had affected

business Singh &.RatnaSinha 2017 quoting Chapman of Content Rules “Social media is

an ever-growing and evolving collection of online tools and toys, platforms and

applications that enable all of us to interact with and share information. Increasingly,

it’s both the connective tissue and neural net of the Web” and is considered to have

significant implications for the growth of business and brands

1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW

We no longer even understand the question whether change is by itself good or

bad, ...We start out with the axiom that it is the norm. We do not see change as

altering the order... We see change as being order itself--indeed the only order we

can comprehend today is a dynamic, a moving, a changing one. Peter Drucker 1959.

One of the defining phenomena of the present times reshaping the world as we know

it, is the worldwide accessibility to the internet. (facts 2017) The lovechild of the World

Wide Web is social media. It is the change that according to Drucker we cannot afford

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to ask whether it is good or bad but, one we need to comprehend and take advantage

of if we are to remain relevant.

But what is the definition of social media? In 2016, Merriam-Webster defined social

media as "Forms of electronic communication (such as Web sites) through which people

create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, Social media

comes in many forms, and platforms with the ability to share photos, instant messages,

chat apps, business networking. Whilst Wikipedia defines it as

Social media are computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and

sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via

virtual communities and networks.

In developing countries social media has been proved to have implications for the growth of

companies evidenced by the fact that all major companies have social media presence and

dedicated social media teams. Social media have revolutionised the circumstances and rules of

social communication

Social Media usage is estimated to increase,

from 2.4 billion current users to 2.95 billion by 2020, around a third of Earth’s

entire population. As of the 4th quarter of 2015, the average daily time spent on

social networks by users in Brazil and Philippines was more than 3 hours, while

those in the United States clocked in at almost 1.7 hours per day. Currently

global internet users spend some 109 minutes per day surfing social networks.

(facts.S 2017)

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Africa, with a total population standing at 1,246,504,865 , of which 388,376,491 that

population are internet users and about 158,207,000 are users of a social media

Facebook. In Swaziland according to data published by Internet World Stats, 362,921

people as of 2016 were users on internet out of a population of 1,304,063 representing

27.8 % (penetration) (facts.S 2017)

It then goes without a say that almost every businesses should be on social media.

After all, the best place to find leads and customers is to go where they live; and these

days that’s social media. (Billie Nordmeyer 2017). This has prompted a stampeed by

linternational brands and their companies to use that time and screen space to

promote various products and services via media. Studies has shown that there is

corelation between internet presence and makert leadership.

(Jayson Demers 2017) quoting Hubspot, says “92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that

social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their

efforts increased traffic to their websites.” Nowadays most websites are now virtual

stores and an increase of visitors to these virtual stores translate to purchase.

According to a study by Pwc 24,000 shoppers surveyed in 29 territories 56% shop at

Amazon.com and 39% say that social networks provide their main inspiration for

purchase. Such figures clearly demonstrate the impact of social media on customer

purchase behaviour and a huge potential for businesses on social media to increase

sales.

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Jayson Demers further list 12 benefits of being on social media as

1. Increased Brand Recognition.

2. Improved brand loyalty.

3. More Opportunities to Convert.

4. Higher conversion rates.

5. More Inbound Traffic

6. Improved Search Engine Rankings

7. Higher Conversion Rates

8. Better Customer Satisfaction

9. Improved Brand Loyalty

10. Cost-Effective

11. Gain Marketplace Insights

12. 10. Thought Leadership

(Emily Copp 2017 ) argues for social media presense, that there can be no better way

to understand you customer than being on social media since “….. Every day there are

over 500 million Tweets, 4.5 billion Likes on Facebook, and 95 million photos and videos

uploaded to Instagram….” This trove of information can be used by companies to

analyse and feel the pulse of their customers. During these discussions customers

reveal ,” As who they are, what they like, and how they feel about your brand.” Emily

Copp

Being on social media has a major impact on the company bottom line, as another

study by Aberdeen Group shows that companies engaging in social customer service

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see much bigger annual financial gains reveals that companies on social media enjoy

(7.5 percent YOY growth) vs. those without (2.9 percent).

In arguing for the benefits of social media Dominique Jackson 2017 list up to 38

benefits of being on social media which cover every facet of the business form Benefits

for branding, to benefits for Human resources. He argues that any company without

social media service is just doing a disservice to itself.

Social media helps one to establish their Brand as an Authority & thought leaderand

Social media has given an opportunity to companies and top executives to be publishers

in their own right without going through the publishing process. Social media has also

provided hungry information consumers who are periodically refreshing and scrolling

their pages for new information. Executives like CEO Elon Musk of Telsa Motors have

emerged as authorities of energy efficiency, innovation and sustainability in tech and

automotive industry. His voice has become the leading and most sought after and his

twitter has millions of followers.

Elon Musk ✔@elonmusk

Close-up of rocket stage separation, fast flip, boostback burn in a ring of fire and then…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTjVdLVB1bO/

3:53 PM - May 1, 2017 971 Replies 5,328 Retweets 14,203 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

In the article Source: “Which Restaurants are winning on Social Media”, by Brooke

Baumgartner He discovered that McDonalds has one of the biggest online presence

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compared to other fast food restaurants ’ it has a big online impression and engages its

consumers which has resulted in its global brand enjoying a phenomenal increase .

The reach of these platforms makes it clear that social media is now found everywhere.

As much as the social media has given businesses a platform to find customers easily it

has also turned out to be a perfect megaphone for wronged customers who would

otherwise gone unnoticed. McDonalds restaurant chain recently tried to boost their

social media presence with the Twitter hash tag #McDStories. To the management this

was an opportunity to get inspiring and fun stories. Instead they got complaints,

criticism, and bashing. They pulled the hash tag, but not before the mud was very

publicly smeared. (Anon 2017) Many business on social media suffer from “Convoluted

Management” when trying to manage many social media accounts, the nightmare is

proportional to your online presence size as the larger your online presence, the more

problems you can have trying to keep your accounts straight. Using social media for

business is not that easy it can be like walking on eggs. Belvedere Vodka learnt this the

hard way. The ad campaign for the vodka was supposed to be easy. The slogan was

“Unlike some people, Belvedere goes down easy.” Unfortunately the ad included a

picture of a smiling man restraining an unwilling woman. Rape is not edgy. It’s just

lewd. The end result was a public outrage that ended in the company issuing a public

apology and pulling down the tweet after several bashing from women’s groups

A company called Forrester carried out a research and discovered that customers trust

themselves more than they trust companies. This means that customers will discuss

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you and your products via social media whether you’re a part of the discussion or not.

Customers will disparage, give negative comments or applaud your products and with

you not having online presence you will not be able to defend yourself. Companies

need to be online working with customers and monitoring the feedback at the very

least. Otherwise, your clients may be sabotaging all of your hard work with hard work

of their own.

The great question of the day is no longer, “to be or not to be online?’ the great

question of the day is, “what impact is social media having on my business?”

Can social media make your business? Absolutely! The story of Barack Obama rise to

the president of the United States is a perfect example of how quickly you can rise in

popularity using social media effectively. But just as social media accounts can make a

career, they can break one as well. It’s a slippery slope that every business owner

simply must be prepared to navigate carefully.

Therefore this research seeks to investigate how and to what extent social media

impact on corporate training businesses in Mbabane Swaziland

1.4 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Social Media is believed have impact on businesses. The research aims at ascertaining

whether indeed social media impact on business. If it does the research will measure to

what extent and how it does so and the research should be able to reveal whether the

social media is impacting negatively or positively.

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1.5 AIM

The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of social on training industry in

Mbabane Swaziland

1.6 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This research will be conducted to fulfil the following objectives:

1. To investigate study how Social Media is used by training businesses as a

important tool in their business process which helps connect with customers and

serve their customers at a faster pace

2. To Determine the Impact of Social Media on Business Performance and Growth

3. To find out the how social media can be harnessed and exploited by business

4. To recommend Social Media tactics and strategies that can be adopted by

training businesses

5. To identify other variables which may strongly impact on Training Business in

Swaziland

1.7 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. In what ways does Social Media impact on the training business in Mbabane

Swaziland?

1.8 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

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The purpose of the research was to explore economic impact that the internet,

specifically social media, have on training businesses in Mbabane Swaziland. The

researched aimed to investigate the benefits available from the use of and social

media sites for training business that operate in a specific region.

The topic is of uttermost importance because Social Media is the form of media which

not only help the organisation to be known by its customers, but it also results in high

organizational performance. Researching on this topic was worthwhile endeavour

because it is highly likely to inform and shape the strategic decisions to be made by the

businesses in training industry in Mbabane. Apart from giving the researcher career

fulfilment, this study added on to what was previously studied adding to the body on

knowledge on this pertinent topic.

C. METHODOLOGY

1.1 Research Design

A secondary study was done to understand Social media and its importance. This study

also took in order place to understand the how Social media can be an essential tool for

reach out to consumers and determine the impact it has on consumers.

My research topic, “The impact of social media on corporate training businesses in

Mbabane Swaziland” can be described as a problem solving and explaratory research

hence I will use constructivism philosphy. The reason I will choose this philosophy is

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because of the implications of research philosophy on the research strategy in general

and the choice of primary data collection methods in particular. My research is more

qualitative and in my ontology they are mutiple realities as opposed to single reality in

Positivism philosophy. “Constructivism is the recognition that reality is a product of

human intelligence interacting with experience in the real world. As soon as you include

human mental activity in the process of knowing reality, you have accepted

constructivism” Davis Elkind

Constructivism philosophy postulates that learning is active and the learner should be

involved in the learning process. (Cooper, P. A. 1993).In my research I undertook to

create new information based on prior knowledge in the field It was my main concern

to find out what is the impact of social media on training business . Thus in my

exploring I am also open to other variables that I may discover to have an impact

training businesses.

3.2 Population And Sampling

The research is based on training business in Mbabane Swaziland. Mbabane which is

the capital city of Swaziland has a total population of about 90 000 people and the

whole country has an estimated population of 1.3 million. My population comprises of 3

training business out of 14 training businesses identified in the city.

3.3 Data Collection Methods

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For data collection I used semi-structured interviewing method that combined a pre-

determined set of open ended questions with the opportunity to explore particular

themes or responses further. In addition to interviews secondary data was examined

through desktop research on what scholars and companies say about the impact of

social media on businesses. The interviews lasted for at least 20 minutes and at most

60 minutes and were also audio recorded in-order for further data analysis. The reasons

why I chose this method of data collection is that through guided interviews I was able

to remain in control of the proceedings and through open semi structured interview

technic I was able to probe further and to align the questions to the facts on the

ground A sample of three was selected on the basis of convenience and looking at the

time available to carry out the research and analyse the data. I used thematic analysis

since semi structured qualitative interviews were the main method used in the study to

obtain various perspectives on the research questions. Qualitative interviews give a new

insight into a social phenomenon as they allow the respondents to reflect and reason on

a variety of subjects in a different way (Folkestad, 2008, p.1).

The other reason I chose this method of analysis for my study is because, thematic

analysis is the most widely used qualitative approach to analysing interviews. Braun and

Clarke (2006), Assert that, “thematic analysis is a method used for ‘identifying,

analysing, and reporting patterns (themes) within the data’

To count as a theme the key idea about the data had to be captured in relation to the

research question and being able to represent a patterned response within the data set

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(Braun and Clarke, 2006, p.82). Through inductive approach research findings emerged

from the frequent, dominant or significant themes which were inherent in raw data..

Gap Analysis

In the past they have been many studies conducted internationally to understand the

impact of social media however, in Swaziland and particularly in the training industry

not much study has been conducted in this area, therefore the study helped in

providing the knowledge to the gap that exists. The study also sought out if the results

of international studies are in sync with the phenomena in Swaziland and truly that was

confirmed and showed that Swaziland is part of the global economy in this aspect.

3.4 Limitations of the study

The fact that this study was small scale and explanatory and was confined only to one

specific city the results might not truly represent cannot not be generalised. Secondly

the researcher was a novice of qualitative research, short time frame of carrying out the

research and was not familiar with many tools especially on data analysis the results

might have been affected by those constraints

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3.5 Ethical Considerations

The interviewees in question sometimes feel reluctant to answer some questions as felt

they question the questions were probing them to release confidential information. I

will however made it clear to my participants at the start of the interview that they may

decline to answer any question for any reason. I also further assured them that their

responses were highly confidential and were only going to be used for academic

purposes.

I also made sure that time scheduled for the interviews locations (venues) to be used

will be convenient to the interviewee.

Results Discussion

Major Impact of Social Media on training business in Mbabane Swaziland:

1. Better customer service

The study showed that Social Media is being used to respond to customer’s queries and

complaints instantly.

2. Increase Brand Awareness

The study showed that there was a reported increase in the brand awareness due to

social media presence.

3. Sales linked to social media

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The study showed that, the companies were receiving enquires of their products

through social media and some of their customers can be directly linked to social media

platforms

4. Cheaper way to communicate with customers

Unlike traditional media were one pay for advertisement, promotions and publicity the

research showed that companies appreciated the cost effectiveness of using social

media to reach their customers. The companies were using social media like Facebooks

to create free campaigns, share content and run promotional programs. When they paid

for adverts on Facebook the charges were minimal and they were able to select the

characteristics of the customers they wanted to reach and were able to measure the

response from their customers. The companies liked social media because it allowed

them to track the performance of their promotions unlike in traditional media where one

is not able to tell if the promotion is reaching the intend target

5. Getting like-minded customers.

Using look alike tool on Facebook campaigns business is able to market to people who

have the same characteristics with their customers and this generally increase the rate

of conversion as the study showed.

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