Introduction
Following a standard to report the research finding is an accepted practice in the academic and professional communities. A research report has many objectives. The major purposes of research, applied or basic is, one: to establish the need for organized research, two: gather information on researches done by other researchers in the intendedfield or other related disciplines, three : drafting the procedure followed by the researcher in conducting the research, four: sharing the results of the research to the target audience, five: making recommendation and conclusions in the light of the results observed , and finally suggesting and bringing into light the unresolved issues related to the topic of study. There are various standards available for guiding the researchers to communicate their research. The prominent standards are APA, MLA, Harvard, ASA, Chicago, etc. The present review and analysisof the paper “Developing a Social Media Strategy for Stick Stick” is following the standards of APA.
The title of the research is an important aspect of the research reporting. The purpose of the title is to make it clear that the report describes a particular line of study. The title of the present report is “Developing a Social Media Strategy for Stick Stick”. In a broader sense the title is indicates the direction of the research. But, the choice of words used in the title does not completely suffice. The research is not actually developing the social media strategy; instead it is analyzing the existing practices and suggesting ways to improve it. A title that can project the analysis and alternate ways of social media utilization can be more appropriate for the title.
Abstract
The abstract is an important component of research reporting, it gives a bird’s eye view of the research. An abstract must contain at least a few lines about the research topic, research problem, methodology followed, participants included, data analytical techniques usedand short description of results and conclusions. It may also contain implications of the research and further work. In the Stick Stick study though the abstract is touching upon the key ingredients of the research, it is lengthier than the recommended limits (150 – 250 words maximum) and it is spread in three paragraphs (single paragraph is preferred). The Abstract may be simplified without cutting on the key contents.
The paper has followed conventional model of a research article by providing an abstract, title page, body and references. It has one inch margin on all sides, with double spaced sentences in 12 point font size. But the font used seems to be Arial; the recommended font for APA article is Times New Roman. The page numbers are supposed to be at top right corner of every page i.e. in the header part, but the article has page numbers centralized in the bottom of the page. There are many in-text citations and references, but some citations and references are strictly not following the APA standards, for example one citation is “(Cohen, 2012, para. 4)”. The introduction, review of literature, problem / research objectives, methodology, results and discussions, conclusions and references are organized well. The numbering of paragraphs is not allowed in APA report; the research study has used numbering. The referencing has followed the pattern of author last name or names, first initial, year in parenthesis (year), title, name of journal / book, issue / publisher, and page numbers.
Review of Introduction
Considerable content has been provided in the Introduction of the study on Stick Stick. The author has narrated about the company, its services and industry structure in brief. The lucid presentation gives the reader a sufficient background about the nature of the business. The major points covered in the introductory section include, company’s background information and objectives, problem statement, research objective, and research question. The research questions are subdivided into central and sub questions. Classification of questions gives the reader what to expect and where to give emphasis. The introduction expresses the topic under investigation with clarity and theoretical framework. The practical issues regarding the concerns under discussion is also addressed adequately.
Review of Research paradigm
The research objective is clear about the selection population and about the variables associated with the population. Both desk research and primary research was used to arrive at the conclusion. The study was intended to find out the most viable social media for the promotionof services of GRS (a subsidiary of Stick Stick) among the ‘converters’. The apparent hypothesis of the study highlights that competitors of Stick Stick are productively using social media in expanding business. GRS too can promote their products effectively and connect to the market efficiently. Secondhypothesis is that weak presence of GRS in social media causesinconsistent customer relationships, lower customer engagement and weak brand recognition. These negative outcomes diminish the attraction towards the products and influence the relationships between the converters and the distributors of the company. The author has presented this sharp hypothesis making the research very useful and valid for the company.
The negative outcomes are the dependent variable and the change in social media strategy and practices are the independent variable. The author is hypothesizing that by changing the strategy of social media activity, the company can gain positive outcomes such as more sales from the converters and integrated relationship between converters and company distributors. The author has linked the dependent variable and independent variable coherently, and supported the study with relevant data.
Situation analysis
The paper has presented an elaborate situation analysis. It covered both internal situations and the outside factors that influenced the business of GRS. The company has two channel partners converters and distributors who take it to the end user. The study is about the business behavior of the convertors; hence the report has focused on the convertors and distributors only. The end user characteristics and matters are not discussed in the paper deliberately. The characteristics of the two channel partners are sufficiently described in the paper, and the communication pattern between the company and other partners is discussed.
The external environmental factors are discussed with relevant data, but only two factors are referred i.e. technological and political factors. Social, economical and environmental factors too are important for the study. The author must explore information regarding those missing factors too. Market analysis and competitor analysis is beautifully presented for two major social media sites i.e. Facebook and Twitter. The competitors approach to the major social media utilization is discussed, followed by a SWOT analysis of the company. The SWOT analysis highlighted the weakness of the company in utilizing the social media facilities for commercial purposes. The prominent part of this section is the profile of a typical customer; it gives a clear picture about the situation of the intermediary customer i.e. convertor. Analyzing the internal resources and external factors the study restates the importance of the participation in social media and urges the company to sharpen its social media strategy. An extensive conclusion which seals the need for improving the social media activities is established in this section.
Literature Review
This section has a very prominent place in the research. Even though the problem, analysis and solution proposed by the author are innovative, genuine and original, review of the topic of discussion must be conducted to increase the validity of the research. There are many benefits to the researcher who does review of literature seriously. By initiating a literature review the researcher will be able to critically evaluate the existing knowledge in the suggested area, identify the strengths and weaknesses of the reported studies, and better the research based on the gaps identified.
Through the review of literature the author has attempted to gain an overview of the important facets of the topic, observed the relationship with different concepts, and may have gained new insights into the research matter. The author has built adequate context through review of literature and demonstrated that customer networking and engagement are effective through social media of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In this section the paper points out the various possibilities and utilities the three social media services can do for the company, especially the B2B communication. One of the facilities that are useful to the company is Graph search optimization (GSO). The author predicts a larger scope in the application of this technology to the company situations. The author concludes that plenty of opportunity is there to link the theories of communication with the social media as a B2B communication channel.
Review of Research Methodology
Operationalisation involves two processes, one the definition of the variable and other the measurement of the variable. Defining a variable is a technical task based on specific discipline and uses of words that are representative to the field of research. Another responsibility of researcher is indicating how he / she are going to measure the variables. While describing the research methodology the researcher must present the method of operationalising in a way that would help other researchers to follow the article. The author of the Stick Stick research has spent considerable resources to operationalise the variables. There is an order and clarity observed in the way the researchers has presented the process of operationalization. However, it is apparent that the operartionalistion need more depth.
Sampling is very important in research; it is the process of selection of a set of individuals or groups from a larger group (population). It is not possible to measure the variable in whole of the population, hence sampling is done. Sample size and features affect the results of the research; hence it must be done with care. The researcher of the social media study has taken adequate total sample ten from each country. Usually any sample more than thirty is considered as large representative sample. With respect to survey, the sample of fifty is good, but the author did not mention about the sample size of the interviews conducted. It can be inferred from the article that the researcher has conducted only one interview. The survey data was used for statistical analysis but the author is not specific about which statistical tool was used to analyze the data.
After the analysis of the data the author has presented the results in a simple but insight provoking manner. The popularity of B2B communication among the convertors and the distributors is presented in simple graphs, which provides information for the marketing managers to plan for the social media. The graphs indicate country specific information. The company can adapt the strategies depending on the response to each media. The author has recommended various steps to implement the strategy for social media presence.
Conclusion
The end part of the research article is the conclusion, which needs to summarize the problem, methods, analysis and the findings. The author must use a bit of imagination and literary skills to make it very interesting and without repeating earlier sentences. The concluding statements must bear and share key points of the research. The author has made the article a little disorderly by presenting the discussion after the conclusions. The word ‘conclusion’ appears too many times in the paper, which confuses the reader. The conclusion – discussion – recommendation pattern seems to be losing the flow of article. The discussion followed by recommendations and conclusion might look appropriate.
REFERENCES
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