Link to PowerPointPresentation:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathryndrskytomlinsonphd/overlay/1635490110390/single-media-viewer/

Introduction

This is a social media series presentation to report the findings of my study to help understand how entrepreneurs learn to use social media marketing. I will be adding to this series as I present the outcome in various formats and locations. For the publicly reported outcome of my study I am creating a series of blogposts where you may follow reports on the outcomes.

https://dataimportexport.wordpress.com/

Target Audience

My audience consists of small business owners and their employees who are facing challenges in knowing how to launch and maintain successful social media campaigns.

Goals

This series will help accomplish the goals of getting current information to stakeholders who may benefit most, while creating an awareness about the need for more training opportunities for small business owners and their employees (Lee, 2017).

Conclusion

This work to promote the outcomes of my study will serve to support broader goals for social media marketing to stakeholders in the domains of education, technology, and business. These goals will allow for more widespread dissemination of this innovation, while revealing useful strategies that small business owners and their employees have shared in the course of this research to help others who might be struggling to create effective digital marketing campaigns.

References

Lee, K. (2017). How to create a social media marketing strategy from scratch.

Results

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand what types of instruction

small business owners and their employees needed in order to learn skills to launch and

maintain social media marketing campaigns, focusing on their instructional experiences

in learning how to launch and maintain social media marketing campaigns as well as their

instructional needs. The following chapter contains information about the setting at the

time the study took place, demographic data, data collection methodology, data analysis

process, and evidence of trustworthiness clarified, following by the results of the study.

Setting

The setting for this qualitative study was focused on small businesses located in

Arkansas, which is reported as having one of the poorest economies in America (U.S.

Census Bureau, 2021). The data collection process began in a rural county, but the scope

needed to be broadened due to a lack of willing participants to take part in the study to

include small businesses located in cities of Arkansas. Participant contact information

was found via the local Chamber of Commerce website directory, and they were initially

contacted by phone. Upon consent, the interviews took place on a recorded phone call,

which were transcribed and coded following each interview.

Demographics

A majority of the interviewees reported having conducted hundreds of social

media campaigns for their company. The number of employees ranged from 1 to 500, and

they reported being in business from 2 years to 102 years. All the participants had a high

school education, most had attended college, and one reported graduate work obtaining a Master’s degree.

Data Analysis

Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data in this basic qualitative study

codes (see Clarke & Braun, 2014). Prior to data collection open coding methods were

applied to predefine a potential set of codes that were assigned in the qualitative data

analysis process. Open coding is what makes it possible to explore ideas, break them

apart, and find meaning in the raw data (Clarke & Braun, 2014). These codes were small

business, DOI, and instructional needs. In the next step of the process the open codes

were expanded to allow for theory-driven axial coding. Additionally inductive coding in

the data analysis phase was essential to locate themes and patterns that were revealed

during the process of synthesizing the data. These inductive codes were instruction,

learning, and DOI. Descriptive coding involved reading the transcript documents, then

color-coding phrases and identifying codes to help visualize patterns in the findings,

which emerged into the themes identified in the analysis phase. Each transcript was read,

reviewed, and coded according to the open codes. The coding process is outlined in

Figure 1 to demonstrate what occurred during each phase of analysis.

Figure 1. The Coding Process

Results

Based on the data collected several themes emerged from the codes. The first

theme verified was social media marketing used by all the participants to promote their

business. The second theme dealt with identifying instruction that helped to understand

what types of strategies might be considered a best practice. The third theme represented

how they learned to use social media to market their business. The fourth theme detected

was dissemination of an innovation, which allowed for a better understanding of what

was needed to learn and adopt digital marketing techniques. The themes came out of the

codes and reflected the research questions that were intended to help learn about the

experiences and needs of small business owners and their employees who were

attempting learning to use social media to market their products and services.

Research Question 1: What Were Small Business Owners and Their Employees’

Instructional Experiences in Learning How to Launch and Maintain Social Media

Marketing Campaigns?

Theme 1: Social Media Marketing for Small Business

The theme of social media marketing for small business helped answer the

research question that asked what were the experiences of small business owners and

their employees learning social media marketing, which helped identify ways to

understand what plans and strategies were employed when using social media to market

their business. From the data collected the consensus established reiterated what P3

noted, “Social media, it’s a powerful tool.” P10 added, “Social media has helped us reach

a lot of younger demographics like college age students and just younger people that are

moving to town…it’s where everyone is at nowadays.” This outcome appeared to be in

alignment with the common notion in the literature about the proven effectiveness of

social media marketing for small business success (Sanwariprasad et al., 2020).

Theme 2: Learning Social Media Marketing

Learning social media marketing emerged as a theme that identified answers to

the research question that asked what experiences small business owners and their

employees had when learning to use social media marketing techniques. Experiences

reported included: P2 exclaimed, “Been flying by the seat of my pants”. P4 explained

how they learned social media marketing was, “Just by doing it. Trial and error”. From

the learning aspect, there seemed to be a lot of self-learning involved in the process of

digital marketing success. Supporting statements included: P9, “I’ve taken the initiative

to go out and learn from the different platforms that offer training; I’ve had classes in

college; My previous career offered a lot of training and tutelage more self-learning than

anything.” P8, “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, I’ve learned a lot.” P6, “I really work within

my limitations. If it gets beyond me, I shut it down.” And, P3 reasoned, “There’s

obviously a formula somewhere”. These findings helped to answer the research questions

by supporting what scholar-practitioners posited about the need for more instruction in

digital marketing strategies (Bhimani et al., 2018; Ishak et al., 2018; Jumin et al., 2017;

Sharma & Singla, 2017; Thakur & Hale, 2017).

Theme 3: Instruction for Social Media Marketing

The theme of instruction for social media marketing helped answer the research

question to understand the experiences small business owners and their employees had

learning social media marketing. This data was disclosed by participants who in

answering questions about their experiences in learning social media marketing, offered

strategies that were successful for their business. The data helped identify what kind of

instructional resources the participants were able to access that were intended for learners

of social media marketing. The theme of instruction also helped identify challenges small

business owners and their employees faced when learning to use social media marketing.

P10 had earned a degree and imparted,

“Part of my education was very heavily based on PR (public relations). I did take

classes on social media theory, but even the classes that I was taking I wouldn’t

say necessarily prepared me for the job. For someone who was educated formally

about these kinds of things, I’ll still say that a large part of it (social media

marketing) is going to come from experience.”

P11 shared, “There are tools out there for a price for professionals that give you a

knowledge-base on social media marketing,” following up with the statement, “I have

been able to learn from some resources on Instagram and social media, you know,

marketers themselves, who do this on a professional level independently and coach.”

There is a need for more instructional opportunities for small business owners and their

employees learning to use social media to market their products and services (Morah and

Omojola (2018). Direct input received that described instructional challenges for learning

how to launch and maintain social media marketing campaigns revealed this notion from

P5:

I just wish that there was more training out there…maybe just through chambers,

through local colleges that could help small business entrepreneurs with current

trends and social media, so that we could be ahead of some of these trends instead

of falling behind and just catching on to it a little bit later in the game.

The need for tech savvy approaches and making connections online to market in the

digital age was a theme that came out of the code and aligned with the literature that

claimed they were deemed vital for business survival (Nummela et al., 2016).

Theme 4: Dissemination of Innovation

The dissemination of an innovation theme answered the research question that

asked what experiences small business owners and their employees were having when

attempting to learn social media marketing. P9 divulged, “My employers have just been

so gracious to allow me to be flexible and just play with it, and learn as I go.” and P6 said

jovially, “if I can find a 7-year-old to walk me through getting something uploaded, I’m

in luck.” The theme of dissemination of innovation revealed strategies small business

owners and their employees used when learning social media marketing.

Participants disclosed strategies for use and recommendations they might have

suggested for what helped them adopt social media marketing techniques. P5 underscored

this need when adding, “We would probably be a lot more successful if we did

strategize.” The data derived from this theme helped address benefits they experienced

when learning social media marketing. Participants disclosed how they had benefitted by

early adoption and practicing perseverance when learning the innovation of social media

marketing.

This theme represented the ability to readily and successfully adopt a new

innovation like social media marketing for small business, which involved having the

right attitude, training, resources, and familiarity with the tools to accomplish the

intended outcome (Szymkowiak & Garczarek-Bąk, 2019). There was no shortage of

approaches, techniques, and strategies being used to accomplish the task; strategies

uncovered in this study were numerous and varied. Some recommendations from P11

included:

Keep it simple, good pictures, honesty, straight shooting; I think it comes back

down to knowing your audience and knowing the purpose of each platform;

Branding, it’s about creating that image and that brand, otherwise you’re walking

around in the dark; you have to know what your target is and then know what

your goal is.

While some suggested mimicking successful campaigns of similar businesses, others

were concerned that their success was being copied by their competitors and P12 advised,

It’s more fluid and it’s less likely to be duplicated because the plan is already so

far ahead it’s almost a sneak attack or catches competitors off-guard. And finally,

…another struggle for small businesses in general is that it’s going to be the big

corporate companies that set the standard.

Social media marketing has been proven a worthy innovation for small business success

and has served to fill gaps in social, demographic, economic, and geographic areas that

had been proven to have significant impacts on the success or failure of small business

desiring to compete in the global economy (Huang et al., 2017; Mukherjee &

Hollenbaugh, 2019). A final rationale from P10 to take into consideration was: “You’re

always going to learn a lot more on the job and from experience than you are just reading

a textbook and writing papers and taking tests.”

Research Question 2: What Were Small Business Owners and Their Employees’

Instructional Needs in Learning How to Launch and Maintain Social Media

Marketing Campaigns?

Theme 1: Social Media Marketing for Small Business

The social media marketing theme emerged as a critical means to how users were

able to identify social media platforms and understand specific requirements for each

particular outlet. This significant element emerged from the research question to help

understand instructional needs of small business owners and their employees learning

how to launch and maintain social media marketing campaigns. P5 affirmed, “We

definitely see an increase in sales whenever we do stay on top of our social media

marketing.” The social media marketing theme was derived from the data and helped

address the research question to understand needs of small business owners and their

employees learning social media marketing, which uncovered having a clear goal and

knowing what was required to reach intended social media audiences in ways they were

accustomed to being approached. P8 reiterated, “It’s being educated about what your

primary goal is.”

Theme 2: Learning Social Media Marketing

Learning was a theme that emerged from the data and contributed to the research

question that asked what the instructional needs of small business owners and their

employees were when learning social media marketing. P6 complained of not being able

to learn how to use social media, because they did not know where to locate learning

resources that they were certain had to be available somewhere, while P10 shared

educational opportunities they had experienced in learning to use social media marketing

techniques. This theme revealed learning needs that were crucial to getting the

information required to be successful in digital marketing and spoke to the research

question to help define needs of entrepreneurs and their employees learning social media

marketing techniques. As was found to be evident in prior research, novices to social

media marketing may be unsure about how to use social media (Henry, 2019). Most of

the participants reported being self-taught. Some of the answers regarding how they

received instruction included statements like these from P6, “Zero. I’ve not had anybody

teach me that; Been flying by the seat of my pants; Just by doing it.” P5 added, “Trial and

Error; It’s all on the fly” P9 echoed, “Spontaneous; We’re just rolling with it.”

Theme 3: Instruction for Social Media Marketing

Instruction was a theme uncovered by participant input when defining challenges

small business owners and their employees faced when learning social media marketing

and how they went about locating answers they were looking for. The requirement for

instruction spoke directly to the research question to help identify instructional needs of

entrepreneurs and their employees learning social media marketing by revealing

strategies created to meet the needs of those learning how to launch and maintain social

media marketing campaigns. Participants shared how they confronted challenges and

oftentimes turned their needs into opportunities, such as when the COVID pandemic

made it necessary for many of them to change the way they did business. P5 said they

were, “constantly having to figure out what is going to interest the followers to

engage…honestly we don’t have a lot of strategies” and “I just wish that there was more

training out there.” and P5 added, “…it has helped us become more technologically in

tune with our customers.”

Theme 4: Dissemination of Innovation

Dissemination of an innovation emerged as an answer to the research question

that asked what instructional needs small business owners and their employees had when

learning social media marketing. The need for instructional opportunities underscored

their pleas for more resources and training in the domain of social media marketing for

entrepreneurs and their employees to be able to fully adopt social media marketing. P6

reflected, “I think it was just an age gap thing where I didn’t get fluent in computer

technology.” This theme was evident when participants described challenges they were

confronted with as they learned social media marketing techniques, to disclose what

strategies they found to be successful, to offer recommendations they might share with

others who might be struggling, and offer any benefits they could identify when adopting

social media to keep up with current trends in digital marketing. P9 offered, “We just do

our own research and just go off our own experience.

The data collected answered the research questions about instructional

experiences and the needs of users by allowing for the identification of key themes,

which included learning and instruction of a new innovation. Common themes that

emerged were social media platforms, people, and dissemination of an innovation.

Challenges involved locating sources for instruction, which pointed directly to the

research question querying whether there was actually need for instruction. Subcategories

that emerged were frustration, digital strategy, people/target audience, goal,

and business survival, which all aligned with the research questions to identify

experiences and needs in learning digital marketing. Some of the data reflected

challenges in finding content, staying ahead of the competition, and in achieving

consensus by stakeholders in their marketing plan implementation, which underscored

the experiences that uncovered the need for more available instruction. Ultimately, the

need created the means to find ways to learn in order to survive.