CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study/Rationale

As technology continues to advance, it brings more gifts towards humanity.

Social media platforms are one of the greatest inventions of technology. Social media is
one of the threads in connecting to the outside world during the pandemic. According to
Muhammad (2020), the use of social media and information exchange increased during
Covid-19 pandemic because people are isolated and working from home. The use of
social media enhances information exchange in a global society; therefore, customers are
uncertain and not in a better position to make decisions before the situation goes worse
everywhere in the world.  The social media platform helps people during these hard times
to transact and exchange information even though they were physically separated. These
social media platforms help business owners to provide command and updates towards
the status of their business towards its stakeholders.

As such, social media provides businesses with virtual avenues to enhance

consumers’ product/brand awareness. Social media is a powerful tool for message
exposure. According to Thota (2018) found that 93% of U.S. businesses use Facebook
and other platforms, such as Twitter and LinkedIn. Social media platforms are also used
for consumer-to-consumer interactions to share product/brand experiences. As such,
social media offers businesses a means to generate brand awareness for their products or
services.

For example, using owned media, businesses can post brand content related to
firms’ products and services. Awareness and excitement for brands can also be generated
with paid media, such as boosted Facebook posts, in order to activate recognition of a
need problem that the brand can resolve. In addition, posts by consumer peers and
opinion leaders can provide brand influencing stimuli. In the study conducted by Jashari
and Rrustemi (2017) they assert that “every photo, video, comment, review, and other
content posted on social media, to which consumers are exposed, plays the role of
stimulus (incentives) in recognizing a new need” (p.4). Thus, companies may also
encourage customers to post-product purchases in hopes of activating the product need
stage within consumers.

Social media has been a helpful tool in many businesses by allowing companies
to understand the customer-base and make decisions using that informative knowledge.
Business value “can be generated by recognizing that social media is a tool that must be
incorporated into existing strategies and used to support existing business objectives”
(Stockdale, Ahmed, & Scheepers, 2012). For example, social media allows for
transparent communication from the business to the consumer with the use of public
comments, messages, likes, and posts. The data retrieved from these large pools of user-
generated content can allow for a deeper understanding of what the target customer
dislikes or wants to see more of.

  This includes, “Insight into changing consumer interests and tastes, influential
users, ad campaign effectiveness, how to respond to crises, and competitive intelligence”
(Fan & Gordon, 2014). Social media is a tool to bring like-minded individuals together in
a virtual space. By analyzing the large sources of data social media generate,
organizations can make better predictions regarding business decisions. The ability to not
only use social media as a platform for data collection and analytics but the ability to use
social media as a platform to generate and execute sales may provide businesses an
innovative way to continue their business, regardless of the current circumstances. 

This study aims to tackle the contribution of this social media platform in
disseminating business information and updates towards the subordinates and how these
businesses utilize the use of social media platforms to continue its business operation
during pandemic. The benefit of social media in helping businesses to provide accurate
and up-to date information during this crisis. Through this pandemic many businesses
created business portals and others means of communication to keep in touch with the
members of the organization. Some of these portals and social media platforms are used
by the owners to disseminate information about the current trend of the outbreak. This is
also to avoid the employee from picking up fake news. Different social media platforms
help them to brainstorm and discuss possible ways of continuing the business operation.
Much business organization utilizes this type of platform to connect and keep in touch
with people. Social media platforms help every business organization to strive and push
through in this pandemic era.

Statement of the Problem/Objectives

This study aims to determine the contribution of social media platforms to

business communication of private sectors in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija in times of
pandemic.

Specifically, this study will answer the following questions:

1. What is the socio-demographic profile of the respondents in terms of the

following:
1.1 Age
1.2 Sex
1.3 Field of Business
1.4 Position
2. What are the social media platforms available for business communication?
3. What are the contributions of these social media platforms to business
communication of private sectors in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija in times of
pandemic?

Research Objectives

This study aims to classify the different social media platforms and its
contributions to business communication of private sectors of San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
The study also aims to give recommendations for improvement of business
communication especially during pandemic.

Significance of the Study

Businesses and Firms. The study provides new information on how social media
plays a great role in communication inside the organization. This study also provides the
contributions of social media platforms to business communication in the midst of Covid-
19 pandemic.

Community. This study will serve as promotion of using social media platforms
in communication especially in the times of crisis.

Future Researchers. This study will serve as reference to the future studies that
will investigate new studies or improve the current studies.

Scope and Limitations

This thesis study primarily focuses on the different contributions of social media
platforms to business communication during the COVID-19 pandemic era.

The researchers of this study aim to classify the used social media sites
throughout the pandemic period and their impact to the dissemination of information and
efficiency of work within the organization. With the future results, the researchers’ goal
is to give recommendations for the improvement of communication inside business
organizations for the current pandemic situation.

The study limits its coverage to the private business organizations in San Jose
City, Nueva Ecija. Administrators and some employees within these organizations will be
the respondents of this thesis and same set of questions will be given for them to answer.

METHODOLOGY

Conceptual Framework
Independent Dependent
Variables Variables
Social Media Platforms Increased:
 Social Networking  Effectiveness
 Microblogging  Efficiency
 Photo sharing  Performance
 Video Sharing
 Figure 1. Conceptual Framework

According to Bisen (2019), social media is important to business in terms of

communication. It allows the business to create business pages ad invites existing
customers of the company to join or follow to keep the customers to be updated with the
latest prodcuts or services inftroduced by the company. On the other hand, according to
the London School of Business and Finance, social media has great impact to business
communication because it helps firms to communicate its visions and goals successfully
to the outside world.

The framework of this study in figure 1 uses the Independent-Dependent Variable

relationship that shows the social media platforrms are the independent variable that will
affect and give contributions to the dependent variables such as effectiveness, efficiency,
increased performance in business communication inside and outside of the organization
during Covid-19 Pandemic.

UNIT OF ANALYSIS AND RESPONDENTS

Locale of the Study

The research study was conducted in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija. It is a third-class
component city in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines.

Research Design

This study will use a descriptive correlational method of research. It is used to

determine the contributions of Social Media platforms to Business Communication
during pandemic.

Respondents of the Study

The respondents of the study will be the running businesses and private sectors
during pandemic in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.
Data Gathering Procedure

A letter of request is prepared to conduct the study. The researcher formulated a

survey questionnaire, validated by the adviser assigned to the paper, after validating the
questionnaire, it is ready to be distributed to the respondents. The researcher will conduct
the study in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija through survey, because of the location and there
is variety of industry in the locale. The researcher indicated a letter stating the importance
and confidentiality of the data taken from the survey respondents. The researcher clarify
that they can answer the questions stated to the outmost understanding. The researcher
used a simple random sampling distribution where respondents are randomly pick by
their prospective industry. In this study, the researchers aim to determine the contribution
of “social media platforms towards business communication during pandemic era. After
the respondents answered the survey questionnaire, the researcher collected and tallied
the data for interpretation. The researcher asked a statistician for help in determining the
appropriate statistical tool to be used in analysis and interpretation of the data gathered.
Based on the data the researcher comes up with a conclusion and recommendation for
this study.

Sampling Design

Sample Size

The size will be come from the list of running businesses within the area of San
Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

Define the population

The private sectors in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija constitutes as the population of
the study.

Sampling Frame
 In order to assess the contribution of social media platforms in business
communication during the pandemic it should divided in different frame:

 Types of Business: Services, Merchandising or Manufacturing

 Types of Social Media Platforms used in Business Communication: Social
Networking, Microblogging, Photo Sharing or Video Sharing.
 Assessment of Social Media Platforms contribution for Business Communication
in terms of: Effectiveness, Efficiency and Performance.

Sampling Unit

The private sectors only within the City Proper of San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.

Sampling Method

Simple Random Sampling is one of the types of probability sampling that will be
used in the research study. Since it is a reliable method of obtaining information where
every single member of a population is chosen randomly, merely by chance. Each
individual has the same probability of being chosen to be a part of a sample.

Research Instrument

The instrument to be used in Data Gathering will be a research-made

questionnaire consisting of two parts; Socio-Demographic Profile of the Respondents and
Assessment of Social Media Platform to Business Communication During the Pandemic.
The part 2 include questions on the effectiveness, efficiency, and performance of the
employees. It is answerable by strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly
disagree

Statistical Treatment of Data

To analyze the data, this study will use the Frequency distribution that displays
the frequency of various outcomes in a sample. Each entry in the table contains the
frequency or count of the occurrences of values within a particular group or interval, and
in this way, the table summarizes the distribution of values in the sample.

This study will also use the “Mean” where it is the average of the given numbers
using the formula:

Mean = ∑x
N
Where:
∑ x is the sum of all the observation;
N is the total number of observations/respondents

Operational Definition of Term

Social media- A tool during the pandemic use in exchanging information from one
another.

- A form of electronic communication channel.

Communication- Dissemination and sharing of an updated information.

-Means of receiving and sending information.

Business communications- a process of connecting people through channels from within

or outside the organization.

-Process of sharing information within employees of the organization.

Corporate Social Responsibility- It is a form of giving back of the organization to the

community.

- is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially

accountable.

Pandemic- An unexpected occurrence that change the business cycle.

-an outbreak of a disease.

Contributions- The effect towards the business communication during the pandemic.
 -Something you contribute or do in achieving something.

Media- A platform use to share information towards the business organization members.

-The main means of mass communication.