Social Media Marketing Strategies Used by Small Retail Businesses

Data Collection Instruments 
Allen et al. (2014) stated that researchers were the primary data collection tool in 
qualitative research. Some of the most common forms of data collection are interviews 
(individual or group), questionnaires, surveys, and observations (Yin, 2018). Parveen et 
al. (2015) used semistructured interviews to determine how effectively organizations 
used social media. Dessart et al. (2015) used semistructured interviews to ascertain the 
amount of engagement companies had with their customers. Each interview was 
individual, face-to-face, and semistructured and consisted of open-ended questions (see 
Appendix A). Face-to-face interviews were beneficial because interviewers were able to 
maximize contact with participants and conduct more thorough, in-depth interviews 
(Cardamone, Eboli, & Mazzulla, 2014). Ratislavova and Ratislav (2014) stated that 

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interviewers are able to view nonverbal cues in person and receive better quality 
responses. Open-ended questions during an interview allowed me to understand how a 
participant viewed a particular topic (Roberts et al., 2014), Participants also were able to 
expound upon the questions and provide additional information. As noted in qualitative 
research conducted by Cridland, Jones, Caputi, and Magee (2015), taking time to build 
rapport with participants made participants feel more comfortable with sharing 
information of a personal nature.
Academic officials should approve a research proposal before data collection 
begins (Strom, Buyse, Hughes, & Knoppers, 2014); therefore, I obtained approval of my 
research proposal from Walden’s IRB, and followed the ethical guidelines as set forth in 
the Belmont Report (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1979). Walden 
University’s IRB approval number for this study is 04-18-18- 0539410 and it expires 
April 17, 2019. Before selecting a convenient location, date, and time to conduct 
interviews, all participants completed and signed informed consent forms and agreed to 
allow me to take notes and to have the interview audio recorded. Transcribing the 
interview using audio recordings increased the accuracy of the data.
It was important for me to be aware of my own beliefs and preconceived notions 
about the research topic to possibly reduce any influence or bias during the data 
collection and analysis processes (Smith & Noble, 2014). Leedy and Ormrod (2016) 
suggested ways to reduce bias by acknowledging first that bias existed and to minimize 
personal views. Member checking was a validation technique I used to allow the 
participants to clarify the interpretation of the information they provided and to add any 

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additional information (Harvey, 2015). Each participant received a written copy of the 
interview to confirm the accuracy of the collected data.