SOCMAN

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER FOR

SMALL BUSINESSES

RISHIBAN CHANTURU

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF COMPUTER
SCIENCE WITH HONOURS
(NETWORK ENGINEERING)

FACULTY OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS

UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA SABAH

2022
NAME : RISHIBAN CHANTURU

MATRIC NUMBER : BI19110137

TITLE : (SOCMAN) SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER FOR SMALL

BUSINESSES

DEGREE : BACHELOR OF COMPUTER WITH HONOURS

(NETWORK ENGINEERING)

VIVA’S DATE : DD MONTH YEAR

CERTIFIED BY;

1. SUPERVISOR Signature

Ervin Gubin Moung

 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the material in this thesis is my own except for quotations,
equations, summaries and references, which have been duly acknowledged.

DD MONTH YEAR

RISHI CHANTURU
BI19110137
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am very grateful to my project guide and supervisor, Dr. Ervin Gubin Moung for his
patient in providing guidance, encouragement and helpful suggestions to assist me
in the writing of this proposal. I would also like to express my gratitude to the
people who guided and helped me throughout the task, thanks to my coursemates
and seniors who gives me advice and feedbacks of my proposal.

RISHIBAN CHANTURU
DD MONTH YEAR(WEEK 14 PRESENTATION DATE)
ABSTRACT

Social networking is one of the most important aspects for small and medium-sized
enterprises. It may be used to locate new clients, boost traffic to websites, and stay
in touch with current consumers. Social media management tools enable users to
manage their social media presence from a single location. The goal of social media
management applications is to make maintaining the user company's social media
presence simple and efficient. Most small companies do not have the resources or
time to waste on publishing individual posts and monitoring on every platform
multiple times each day. Trying to manage several inboxes, post on multiple
platforms, and keep things consistent using standard consumer applications is
nearly difficult. With this in mind, the goal of this project is mainly to allow users to
post on multiple social media platforms in a single click. This can be achieved by
integrating each platform's API to the web system. The second objective of the
system is to be able to visualize all social media data on a dashboard at a glance,
and then monitor the data that is extracted. The dashboard is built from scratch,
beginning with the extraction of social media data from multiple platforms, then
storing the data in a database management system, and then retrieving the data
from the management system using SQL queries to show data on the dashboard.
Once achieved the system is expected to provide a solution for all content creators,
digital marketers, and social media managers to develop, post, schedule, and
evaluate all of their organic marketing efforts in a few clicks. It would be an easy
management tool with no complex user interface or conditions for automating
social profiles.

ABSTRAK

(SOCMAN)
Rangkaian sosial adalah salah satu aspek terpenting untuk perusahaan kecil dan
sederhana. Ia boleh digunakan untuk mencari pelanggan baru, meningkatkan trafik
ke tapak web dan terus berhubung dengan pengguna semasa. Alat pengurusan
media sosial membolehkan pengguna mengurus kehadiran media sosial mereka
dari satu lokasi. Matlamat aplikasi pengurusan media sosial adalah untuk
menjadikan pengekalan kehadiran media sosial syarikat pengguna mudah dan
cekap. Kebanyakan syarikat kecil tidak mempunyai sumber atau masa untuk
dibazirkan untuk menerbitkan siaran individu dan memantau pada setiap platform
beberapa kali setiap hari. Mencuba mengurus beberapa peti masuk, menyiarkan
pada berbilang platform dan memastikan perkara yang konsisten menggunakan
aplikasi pengguna standard adalah hampir sukar. Dengan ini, matlamat projek ini
adalah terutamanya untuk membolehkan pengguna menyiarkan pada berbilang
platform media sosial dalam satu klik. Ini boleh dicapai dengan menyepadukan
setiap API platform kepada sistem web. Objektif kedua sistem adalah untuk dapat
menggambarkan semua data media sosial pada papan pemuka sepintas lalu, dan
kemudian memantau data yang diekstrak. Papan pemuka dibina dari awal, bermula
dengan pengekstrakan data media sosial daripada berbilang platform, kemudian
menyimpan data dalam sistem pengurusan pangkalan data, dan kemudian
mendapatkan semula data daripada sistem pengurusan menggunakan pertanyaan
SQL untuk menunjukkan data pada papan pemuka. Setelah dicapai, sistem
dijangka menyediakan penyelesaian untuk semua pencipta kandungan, pemasar
digital dan pengurus media sosial untuk membangun, menyiarkan, menjadualkan
dan menilai semua usaha pemasaran organik mereka dalam beberapa klik. Ia akan
menjadi alat pengurusan yang mudah tanpa antara muka pengguna yang rumit
atau syarat untuk mengotomasikan profil sosial.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE Page

DECLARATION ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii
ABSTRACT iv
ABSTRAK v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF TABLES x
LIST OF FIGURES xii
LIST OF APPENDICES xii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Problem Background 2
1.3 Problem Statement 3
1.4 Project Objective (PO) 4
1.5 Project scope 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7
2.1 Introduction 7
2.2 Advantages and Challenges in Social Media 7
2.3 Social Media Management 8
2.3.1 Issues in managing social media 10
2.3.2 Possible Solutions 10
2.4 Existing Social Media Management Tools 11
2.5 Conclusion 13
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 15
3.1 Introduction 15
3.2 Iterative Method 15
3.2.1 Initial Planning 16
3.2.2 Analyzing and Design 16
3.2.3 Implementation 17
3.2.4 Evaluation 18
3.3 Hardware and Software requirements 18
3.3.1 Hardware Requirements 19
3.3.2 Software Requirements 19
3.4 Conclusion 19
REFERENCES 21
 LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2.1 : Social Media Manager System Comparison Table. 13

Table 4.1 : User Account and Social Media Credentials 27
Table 4.2 : Uploaded Content 2727274427
Table 4.3 : Caption Information 27
Table 4.4 : Post Insights Data 28
Table 4.5 : API Data 28
22222223231222www1231231
 LIST OF FIGURES
Page

Figure 3.1: Project Iterative Methodology. 16

Figure 3.2: Methodology Mapping 19

Figure 4.1: Context Diagram of System 20

Figure 4.2: DFD Level 0 of SocMan System 21

Figure 4.3: DFD Level 1 for User Login Account Creation Process 22

Figure 4.4: DFD Level 1 for Posting Across Soc Med Platform Process 23

Figure 4.5: DFD Level 1 for Content upload and caption creation Process 24

Figure 4.6: DFD Level 1 Post Insight analysis and Data Management Process 25

Figure 4.7: Entity Relation Diagram (ERD) of SocMa 26

 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

The entire globe is being digitized. Nobody can deny that social media has affected
our perception of the world today. Nothing, from personal to professional, is beyond
the reach of social media. As a result, brand awareness is now one of the most
crucial business conditions. Facebook, Instagram, and Pintrest are the most popular
social networking networks. Social media marketing has the potential to help
businesses achieve amazing success. It encourages passionate brand promotion. It
also creates and converts leads into sales. As a consequence, consumers will
undoubtedly earn satisfactory returns on investment (1).
There are indeed various social media networks. Nonetheless, maintaining
them in proper condition may require a long consistent process. It may be time-
consuming and frustrating to manage multiple social media accounts. Tracking
analytics, insights, and creating new content for the audience may indeed require a
significant amount of effort. Keeping up with the ever-changing social media world is
difficult. With so many social media networks and sorts of material to choose from,
it's easy to become overwhelmed by the continual need to publish & social media
management tools. Managing several social media networks for a brand is not an
easy task (2). A typical social media manager would publish to numerous social
media platforms as frequently as possible in order to maintain their material relevant
and current. Posting to several networks, on the other hand, can be time-consuming
and annoying. Furthermore, there is a risk of sharing the same material to both
networks, resulting in repeated notifications to their followers. This may eventually
result in a lack of creativity and, even worse, a lack of engagement.
That being said, this project aims to solve the stated problem by developing a
web-based application to manage multiple social networks at the same time. SocMan
is a social media management system that allows a user to publish to, monitor, and

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administer one or more social media networks from a single interface. This not only
makes it easier for users to distribute and schedule posts to multiple social networks
from a single location, but it also makes it easier for them to respond to consumers.
It can also make it easier for teams to collaborate while administering one or more
social channels. The following section of this paper will discuss the problem's
background and a statement indicating the problem's root cause. Next section will be
discussing the objectives followed by the scope of this project. Organization of the
report will be discussed in the final section.

1.2 Problem Background

Despite the fact that social media platforms are becoming one of the most important
things in the means of entertainment and communication, they have invaded human
everyday lives over the last decade and have transformed the lifestyle. As a result,
the days of firms spending months or years collecting and analysing data customer
reports were over. However, it is clear that many small businesses are still unable to
afford a marketing team to increase their brand awareness throughout these
platforms. These days online presence is a crucial factor for any business to adhere
to. Without it conversion to sales reduces drastically as the majority of the public are
now more inbound within the online space only.
This project aims to provide a working solution for the problems associated
with such clients. Hiring a social media manager or even manually navigating
through social media channels can be costly in terms of time and money. With an-
easy to-use web system, users can have a cheap solution to save time while
marketing themselves, increasing their exposure (3).
The main features of existing social media managers that are being studied
from the literature review are the ability to post across multiple social media
platforms and to analyze the data of each post. All these platforms integrate using
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), which is a form of API protocol that provides
access to web services (4). However, SOAP requires more bandwidth for its usage.
Since SOAP Messages contain a lot of information inside of it, the amount of data
transfer using SOAP is generally a lot. This is the first problem statement, because of
the sizable messages, utilising SOAP in regions where bandwidth is limited can be a
large issue (4). A better approach would be to utilize Representational State Transfer
(REST) APIs. REST does not need much bandwidth when requests are sent to the

2
server. REST messages mostly just consist of JSON messages. Other benefits of
implementing REST APIs are like its stateless nature, caching capabilities and ease of
coding. The results and performance of the system are to be tested through
evaluation after implementation.
To stay ahead of competition and relevant in the industry, collecting
actionable insights from data is a requirement. However existing tools in the market
are often over pricing these services due to the complexity of their data mining
architecture. This is the second Problem statement as it becomes an issue for
entrepreneurs to get started in marketing. A cheaper and relevant solution for the
project scope is predicted to be by simply extracting Social Media data from different
platforms, which is then stored in a PHP based database management system, and
finally retrieved from the management system using SQL queries to present data on
the dashboard.
Complicated UI with multiple functionalities can easily confuse someone who
has little to no ICT experience in navigation through these tools. This also may be an
issue for small businesses, which is the third problem statement. Organic marketing
for starters does not require much other than constantly engaging with customers.
This can be easily achieved through just posting and analysing contents in various
social media platforms. There is little to no requirement in other functionalities for
the current objective.

1.3 Problem Statements

The main features of existing social media managers that are being studied from the
literature review are the ability to post across multiple social media platforms and to
analyze the data of each post. Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), a type of API
protocol that allows access to web services, is used by all of these platforms to
integrate. Collecting actionable insights from data is essential for staying ahead of
the competition and relevant in the industry. However, existing market tools
frequently overprice these services due to the complexity of their data mining
architecture. Multiple functionality combined with a sophisticated user interface
might easily mislead someone with little to no ICT knowledge in navigating through
these products. Simply connecting with clients on a regular basis is all that is
necessary for organic marketing to begin with. The goal of this project is to give a
functional answer to the challenges that come with such customers. Problem

3
statements derived from the literature review are as follows.

1. Since SOAP Messages contain a lot of information inside of it, the amount of
data transfer using SOAP is generally a lot. Because of the sizable messages
utilising SOAP in regions where bandwidth is limited can be a large issue.
2. Overpriced services due to the complexity of their data mining and storage
architecture. It becomes an issue for entrepreneurs to get started in
marketing.
3. Current system in the market comes with a complicated UI with multiple
functionalities. The business purposes for the project scope do not require
much, and avoids unnecessary learning processes.

1.4 Project Objectives

Primarily this project aims to develop a system that is connected with Facebook,
Pintrest and Instagram to save small business owners plenty of time and effort in
increasing their online presence. A set of objective is derived to further drive the
project to its aim;

1. To develop a functioning Social media manager mainly for small business

owners. The development phase is divided and repeated 3 times to achieve
these development goals individually;
To develop an easy-to-use Web-system UI on HTML that connects with social
media channels to post on a single click.
Developing a REST API structure to integrate with Pintrest, Facebook and
Instagram to access user credentials.
To develop a data management system on PHP that extracts posts data from
user social media and displays them after analyzing on a single interface
through SQL queries, thus reducing cost.

2. To assess the user’s overall experience in getting started with organic digital
marketing using social media management tool without the need for extreme
costing and budget.

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3. To evaluate the performance of the system built with minimal resources to
see if it is on par with existing systems to achieve business goals.

1.5 Project Scope

The system is mainly designed for anyone who wants to increase their overall
influence online. This can be applied to content creators, small businesses, digital
marketers even social media managers themselves. The system will be integrated
with Facebook, Pintrest and Instagram. These social media channels are well-known
that are ideal for communicating with one another and expressing their opinion
which influences the online world. Brands can significantly boost their popularity by
constantly engaging with multiple users from different platforms. The Social media
management tool will also provide detailed information on the performance of every
posting. It would also be a learning process to understand how the market reacts to
the content posted. However, not all social networks provide the same level of data.
The details of this information is yet to be determined. The project is limited towards
towards following scope;

Actors
User: Accessing system from website.
Upload content in different formats (png,jpg,mp4).
Create Captions via text box
Post in multiple social media platforms same time.
Analyze insights of post (no. views, shares, comments).

Admin: Accessing backend system

Frontend development for improvisations

Scope of Social Media platform

i. Pintrest
ii. Instagram
iii. Facebook

CHAPTER 2

5
 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The proposed system aims to help grow small businesses by increasing their online
presence drastically without much time and effort. The world has entered a digitally
enhanced era. This is the ideal time to harness the power of various digital platforms
such as social media and mobile marketing to aggressively promote their business.
Furthermore, having an online presence with a good website and social media profile
will allow them to promote their business 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Marketers use social media marketing to attract the attention and traffic of various
clients to their firm; expose their brand; and save a significant amount of money that
they would have spent on other sorts of marketing and communication tools.
Companies have also used social media to gain a new perspective on their
consumers' desires and expectations.

2.2 Advantages and Challenges in Social Media

A research study by students from the University of Wollongong, Dubai, shows that
social media is a trend rather than a feed, and it might be utilised to develop organic
marketing or engagement marketing in which corporations actively engage
customers, welcome and encourage people to participate in the creation of a brand,
product, or service. Social media may also be utilised to properly manage client
relationships. It is possible to increase sales activities, marketing, customer service,
and technical support through effective customer relationship management.
Furthermore, social media provides a new avenue for customers to review items and
share their experiences with other internet users via word-of-mouth (5).

Another paper written by Dr. Harinadh Karimikonda for the SSRG

International Journal of Economics and Management Studies states that social media
is the "BOOM" of the twenty-first century. It is not only used for chatting or

6
communication between two people, but it is also a fantastic marketing tool. Since
then, more than 3 billion individuals have used social media applications throughout
the world, and the number is growing at a rate of around 9% each year. As a result,
this is regarded as a new age marketing strategy that has the potential to replace
traditional marketing (6).

A professor from London conducted research on the effectiveness of social

media networks for marketing. He states that social media has infiltrated corporate
boardrooms, and, like the internet, it has altered the selling and buying processes.
Despite the fact that social media is a relatively new phenomena, it has shown to be
as powerful as, if not more effective than, traditional marketing. Several firms are
now struggling to have an online presence in order to interact with clients both close
and far. Furthermore, some companies' usage of social media begins with
straightforward marketing and raising awareness about their products and services
(7).

A concrete statement was made by Srijan Thapa from the University of

Newcastle, Australia in his review on social media management tools. It is stated
that in today's corporate world, social media has become one of the most prominent
marketing channels for many organisations. Given the variety of social media
platforms available, good social media upkeep and management is critical. Many
multinational and big firms have a dedicated team for their social media marketing
activities; however, this may not be as practical for small businesses owing to
financial considerations, expertise and staffing levels, time limits, and so on. As a
result, social media management solutions for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises)
are becoming increasingly beneficial for controlling their social media presence (8).

2.3 Social Media Management

The analysis of social media in literature reviewed shows that the value of
Social Media Marketing in businesses is undeniable. Furthermore, research has
shown that many social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and
Instagram are more effective when utilized as an ecosystem rather than solitary ( 9).
Nevertheless, social media users are growing at an exponential rate, and businesses
have a presence in several social media platforms targeting various audiences. Social
media management has emerged as a critical sector for businesses and

7
organisations. Big organisations are already devoting a significant portion of their
budget to Social Media Management, which includes charges such as staff salaries,
social media marketing advertisements, and consulting with specialized social media
consultants (10).

However, social media administration has grown more difficult for small
company owners due to restricted funds and a lack of ICT experience. Social media
management tools efficiently facilitate the coordinated use of and communication
with several social media platforms (11). Therefore, Social Media management
software can be the solution for Small businesses.

Statistics

In January 2022, there were 30.25 million social media users in Malaysia. The
number of social media users in Malaysia in the beginning of 2022 was equivalent to
91.7 percent of the total population, although it is crucial to note that social media
users may not always reflect unique persons due to multiple account creations.

Statistics of Social media users of the total population in Malaysia of year 2022 is as
follows (14);

● Facebook - 21.7 million users (65.8%)

● Instagram - 15.55 million users (59.1%)
● Tiktok - 14.59 million users (49.4%)
● LinkedIn - 6.3 million users (19.1%)
● Twitter - 4.4 million users (16.7%)

According to the data presented above, Malaysia has a significant number of active
social media users. As a result, for a small business, social media has the ability to
reach out to prospective clients at a minimal cost.

Economically, the recent growth of direct social sales is also notable.

Consumers likewise crave authenticity, or ads that don’t feel like ads according to
recent social media statistics. Consumers are six times more likely to make a
purchase from a product page that includes pictures from social media. Social media
users overwhelmingly trust other users as their "favourite" type of influencer, with
37% more inclined to buy from them based on a product referral compared to only
7% chance of buying from an established firm. With this, social media recently

8
surpassed paid search as an advertising platform, expanding 25% year on year and
surpassing $137 billion (13).

However, maintaining and managing multiple social media accounts can be

difficult for a small business. Social media maintenance is the task of maintaining the
business's various types of social media presence. Creating new content, uploading
content, responding to user comments, and initiating user involvement are all part of
the social media management role. The demand for Social Media Management Tools
can be created by highlighting the significant use cases of social media marketing to
grow customer engagement which in turn will increase conversion rates.

2.3.1 Issues in managing social media

The issues faced in maintaining social media are as follows;

• As a variety of networks must be monitored, social media management

becomes a time-consuming process.

• Excessive interaction and engagement with customers may lead to burnout

in the individual responsible for managing multiple platforms in the long term.

• Have to communicate often and on a regular basis - time bound response,

late answer is perceived as company neglect, which generates client
dissatisfaction or disengagement

• What should be posted, how often, and by whom is one of the fundamental
concerns of social media maintenance.

• Information overload, caused by the easy availability of contents,

technology to replicate content, historical data to reproduce, a free platform,
the freedom to post by anyone at all, and an inadequate and ineffective
filtering technique .

2.3.2 Possible Solutions

An idea provided from a scientific study of Social Media Maintenance Plan, is

by utilizing multiple individuals into a tag-team strategy, giving turns to different
administrators to reduce the problem of burnout (rotational approach), although this

9
is still not appropriate for a small business, which is generally handled completely by
one or two entrepreneurs (14).

The other solution would be by using social media management software and apps
that allow small businesses to properly schedule posts, monitor social media
analytics, and implement for the best results accordingly.

2.4 Existing Social Media Management Tools

Social media management tools efficiently support the coordinated use of and
communication with several social media platforms (15). According to a survey on
the usage of social media by UK NGOs, various free social media management tools
were utilised by the majority of NGOs rather than paid ones (16).

One of the most well-known social media management systems is HootSuite,

created by Ryan Holmes in 2008 with over 10 million users. Users can use HootSuite
to post updates to their social media networks from a single spot. Facebook, Twitter,
Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and WordPress are all supported by HootSuite.
Furthermore, HootSuite offers priced analytics tools for social media, as well as the
ability to create reports (16). However, Hootsuite's pricing is quite confusing and
complex. Emeric Ernoult has written a thorough piece regarding Hootsuite pricing.
Because of the tool's user/profile limitations and complex features, as claimed from
an article review “the Hootsuite UI has been one of the biggest criticisms from users
over the years. People calling it clunky, old fashioned and buggy ” (17), agencies may
struggle to discover value in Hootsuite. Agencies and corporations who require more
than 20 social media profiles or more than 3 users on their account quickly find
themselves doubling or triple their costs to gain the users, profiles, or functionalities
they require (17). If there is only one user, with fewer than 10 social profiles to
manage, and are only looking to publish content on social media, Hootsuite wouldn’t
be the best choice as it will cost an additional 60$ (RM267.00), compared to the next
system in review. Hootsuite may be the top Social Media Management system but
from the price analysis review, it is most certainly not for small businesses, especially
for those who are just starting up.

Buffer is also a popular social media management application that allows

scheduling and integrating posts across eight various social media networks,

10
including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (buffer.com, extracted 2022).
Furthermore, Buffer provides apps for IPhone and Android devices to manage social
media on the go. Surprisingly, though, there is no Instagram integration in the
platform. There are no monitoring tools for mentions, searches, or hashtags, so
you'll have to track these using another tool or the networks themselves. Using these
extra tools can add up and make it more expensive.

Sendible, established in London, is also a complete social media management

application. It provides a platform for users to create and share content, successfully
manage the brand, communicate with customers, and reach out to them through
social media, e-mail, and SMS (Sensible, retrieved 2022). It also gives insights from
social media posts. Sendible supports all major social media networks, including
Facebook pages and groups, Twitter, Instagram business profiles, Facebook ads,
LinkedIn profiles and pages, Google My Business, YouTube, and Pinterest. When it
comes to interacting with social networks, Sendible takes a slightly different strategy
than Hootsuite and Buffer. Every communication with a network is referred to as a
"service," therefore posting to Twitter and streaming to Twitter counts as two
services. The Starter plan gives a single user access to only 12 services for a
whopping price of 29$(RM130). With a hefty price tag it comes with complex tools
that enable users to sufficiently manage their social media however there is a steep
learning curve before one can get used to it. Their UI is somewhat acceptable but it
may be confusing. This may be a downside when it comes to solo entrepreneurs who
lack the ICT skills needed to navigate around the system.

The proposed system, also known as SocMan, has ambitious goals to take on
well-known heavy weights. Through an easy-to-use interface, SocMan enables
customers to optimize and control their social media workflow within a single
interface. Without complicated add ons, small businesses can very well utilize
SocMan to post promotions or ads across multiple platforms with no distractions.
Simply by connecting their social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter),
the system communicates with these platforms through the APIs provided, enabling
a more straightforward solution through the ease of the UI design. Users are also
able to view detailed insights on their postings. The system achieves this through a
data mining method which then will be extracted from PHP through SQL queries to
display them on the UI dashboard. At first glance it may seem like a watered down
version of existing Social Media Management tools, but SocMan has a more

11
narrowed project scope for small businesses owners who are starting up with little to
no ICT experience. A detailed overview of the existing systems discussed are
compared and represented in the following table below;

Table 2.1 : Social Media Manager System Comparison Table.

Hootsuite Buffer Sendible SocMan

Business Tier 75$ 15$ 29$ 2$

Pricing/Month (12 services)

Integrated Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook

Platforms Twitter Twitter Twitter Pintrest
Google+ LinkedIn Instagram Instagram
LinkedIn LinkedIn
Foursquare Youtube
WordPress Google
Pinterest

Type of API SOAP SOAP SOAP REST

Multiple Provided Provided Provided Provided

Postings

Analytics Provided with No Provided Provided

addition cost

UI Learning Medium Easy Hard Easy

Curve

2.5 Conclusion

From the table above can derive a few problem statements that are possible to fix
and provide a low cost solution for businesses. First is by implementing REST API
protocols to integrate with the top social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and

12
Pintrest). REST is a more lightweight alternative. Working with SOAP in JavaScript
requires a lot of code to perform simple tasks because the required XML structure
must be created each time. REST (usually) relies on a simple URL to make a request
rather than XML. In some cases,additional information is required, but most REST
web services rely solely on the URL approach. REST can perform tasks using four
different HTTP 1.1 verbs (GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE).
When a request for data is sent to a REST API, it’s usually done through the
hypertext transfer protocol (commonly referred to as HTTP). Once a request is
received, APIs designed for REST (called RESTful APIs or RESTful web services) can
return messages in a variety of formats: HTML, XML, plain text, and JSON. For
engaging with the necessary components, a Restful service would use the standard
HTTP verbs GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.

The second would be the product price. This can be overcome by providing
analytical overview features with lesser software requirements. This can significantly
reduce the business cost by implementing a simple database system through PHP.
Third statement is to focus on solving the issue faced from the project scope which is
reducing the learning curve required to utilize a social media management platform.
To achieve this, a more simple UI specifically targeted needs to be designed instead
of employing multiple functionalities which are more developer focused.

There are also other existing tools that provide integrations with multiple
applications through API for free like ifttt.com, however, these tools are not targeted
for entrepreneurs but rather for the public for various applications in real life. This
can cause confusion and does not directly meet the objectives of the project scope.

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 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter will go through the detailed process of developing SOCMAN the social
media management tool. The concepts and flow of the System Development Life
Cycle (SDLC) of this project will also be included in this chapter including the
software and hardware requirements.

3.2 Iterative Method

In this project, the iterative methodology was applied. The Iterative model embodies
repetition. This methodology was chosen because the project was started without a
complete defined requirements. Just a set of software requirements is needed before
testing, evaluating, and identifying more specifications. With each phase, or
iteration, a new version of the programme is created, with repetition the project will
be completed. The Iterative model has an advantage over other prevalent SDLC
approaches in that it generates a workable version of the project early in the process
and makes revisions less expensive to implement. One downside is that repetitive
activities can quickly deplete resources. The iterative model for the project is
represented in the diagram below.

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 Figure 3.1 Project Iterative Methodology

3.2.1 Initial Planning

The goal is to identify initial software requirements in accordance with business

requirements and form a system development plan. The business requirements are
as stated previously, the system is required to have a relatively simple UI that allows
users to post and analyze their insights without involving any sort of learning curve
to start. HTML will be used to create the design on the frontend of the web system.
The second goal is to be able to integrate with the Social Media APIs. Integrating
with third party API structures such as Ayrshare could be a possible solution to
bypass the social network API requirements. The system requirements are PHP 7
and MySQL 8.

3.2.2 Analysis and Design

A cheaper and relevant solution for the project scope is predicted to be by simply
extracting Social Media data from different platforms, which is then stored in a PHP
based database management system, and finally retrieved from the management

15
system using SQL queries to present data on the dashboard. The project will begin
on the basic requirements for the system which is building the PHP framework to
handle the backend requirements of the program. The entire project will follow The
three-tier application architecture is the most common software architecture for
online platform development, and it consists of three layers:

● Client browser, where user interface visualisation occurs;

● Web server, which responds to client requests;
● Database server, which houses and controls all of the data on the
information system.

The approach to achieve the second objective would be to utilize

Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs. REST does not need much bandwidth
when requests are sent to the server. REST messages mostly just consist of JSON
messages. Other benefits of implementing REST APIs are like its stateless nature,
caching capabilities and ease of coding. The results and performance of the system
are to be tested through evaluation after implementation.

3.2.3 Implementation

Each development objectives are predicted to be achieved at the end of the

implementation at every cycle. Technologies used are as follows;

HTML5
The latest version of HTML used to describe the contents of the page. The
web system will render this mark-up language and display the final output to
the user.

PHP
Server side scripting. Executed on the server and the output is sent to the
browser embedded on the HTML page.

CSS
To describe the presentation of content created using a mark-up language.

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 The main purpose of CSS is to divide a document's presentation from its
content. It is used to alter the font, colour, and layout of the document,
among other presentational elements.

MySQL
Since MySQL is a relational database system, data is divided into various
tables and linked to one another rather than being organised and kept in one
location.

The tools used are as follows;

PhpMyAdmin
To support MySQL database management system operation. These tasks
compromise the creation and management of databases, tables, columns,
relations, indexes, users, and permissions.

Avaelon Node Cloudsystem

Avaelon has the storage and bandwidth capacity to run a web system for
multiple users at the most cost effective alternative.

3.2.4 Evaluation

Once all previous steps have been completed, the project is evaluated to identify
potential updates to reconfigure the initial requirements to meet business objectives
as stated prior. All steps are then repeated until completion.
The verification and testing phase is one of the keys to preventing issues and
bad user experience due to conflicts and bugs which as the project not functioning
as purposed or even some annoying mistakes in the project. Some functions may
even be added or removed during this phase to provide satisfaction to users.

3.3 Hardware and Software Requirements

The implementation of the project requires both software and hardware to complete.
This part states the requirements for both software and hardware needed to
implement the project.

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3.3.1 Hardware Requirements
Website development does not require a powerful requirement and can be simply
coded with a personal computer or a laptop. Interface for mobile users can also be
conducted with personal computers and laptops. Personal Laptop used for this
project comes in the following specifications:
Intel Core i5 @ 1.60GHz
8 GB Installed RAM
Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit Operating System
500 GB HDD Hard Drive Storage

3.3.2 Software Requirements

Website developing relies more on software instead of hardware. This part states the
software that are required for the development of this project.

Google Chrome
Web Browser used to implement the project. Most of the back end
coding will be handled.

Avaelon Cloud Web Hosting

Used for web hosting. Free to use with certain limitation that will not
affect the project.

3.4 Conclusion

In conclusion, this chapter explains the overall method and approach that is to be
used to implement the project. Below is a diagram showing the phases to be taken
throughout the project in order to solve the derived problem statement from the
literature review.

Figure 3.2 Methodology Mapping

Phase 1

Initial Planning and scheduling to achieve business goals through the project
objectives 1,2 and 3.

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 Phase 2

UI Design phase. With this it aims to achieve the first objective which will then
solve the 3rd Problem statement.

Phase 3

Implementation. This phase is targeted to achieve the 2nd and 3rd objective
through API development and Database management with PHP. This will solve
the 1st and 2nd Problem Statements as mentioned.

Phase 4

Testing phase aims to improve any bugs or fixes that need to be implemented in
order to properly achieve the said objectives and business goals.

Phase 5

Product evaluation through beta testing and conducting surveys to understand

the customers perspective of the product.

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 CHAPTER 4

SYSTEM ANALYSIS

4.1 Introduction

In this part we will discuss about the structure of the system itself which includes its
design and analysis. We will be able to observe and breakdown the system for easier
understanding. This chapter will also include the Context diagram, Data Flow
Diagram (DFD), Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), Data dictionary as well as the
User Interface design (UI). The system analysis topic will provide a detailed
understanding of the flow of the system as the flow of data in the system. The
subsequent topic will explain about the data dictionary of the system. The subtopic
4.4 will show and explain about the user interface design of the system.

4.2 System analysis

This chapter will show the flow of the system. The subtopic 4.2.1 will show the
Context diagram and the subtopic 4.2.2 will show the Data Flow Diagram (DFD) of
the system. The subtopic 4.2.3 will show and explain about the Entity Relationship
Diagram (ERD).

4.2.1 Context Diagram

Figure 4.1 Context Diagram of System

The context diagram for the "SocMan" system shows the main processes and
interactions within the system. The main process starts with the user logging in to
the system and connecting their account with Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. The
user then uploads content in different formats, creates captions via a text box, and
posts on multiple social media platforms simultaneously.

The system also allows the user to analyze insights of the post, such as the
number of views, shares, and comments, for each platform. The system

20
communicates with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter through REST API to post and
fetch post insights. The data management system extracts posts data from user's
social media and displays them after analyzing on a single interface through SQL
queries. The system also includes a user interface (UI) built on HTML for easy use.

4.2.2 Data Flow Diagram (DFD)

Figure 4.2 DFD Level 0 of SocMan System

The Level 0 Data Flow of the "SocMan" social media management system describes
the highest-level view of the data flow within the system. It illustrates the flow of
data between the major entities, namely the User and the social media platforms
(Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).

The User uploads content and creates captions, which are then posted to one
or more social media platforms. The system communicates with these platforms
through a REST API to fetch post insights such as number of views, shares, and
comments. The data is stored in a data management system and analyzed to display
insights on a single interface through SQL queries. The user can also access and
manage their account information, uploaded content, and user preferences through
the web-based UI on HTML.

This Level 0 DFD gives a high-level overview of how data flows within the
system, helping to understand how the various components of the system are
connected and interact with each other.

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4.2.3 Data Flow Diagram (DFD) LEVEL 1

Figure 4.3 DFD Level 1 for User Login Account Creation Process

This process starts when the User attempts to log in to the "SocMan" system.
The User inputs their login credentials, which are verified by the system against the
stored user account information. If the login credentials are valid, the User is granted
access to their account. If the User does not have an existing account, they can
create a new one by providing their personal information and connecting their social
media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram).

Once the User is logged in, they can connect their social media accounts by
providing their credentials. The "SocMan" system communicates with each platform
through a REST API to verify the User's credentials and establish a connection. The
platform credentials are stored in the system for future use.

This process ensures that only authorized Users can access their account and
connect their social media platforms to the "SocMan" system, allowing them to post,
analyze insights, and manage their data through a single interface.

22
 Figure 4.4 DFD Level 1 for Content upload and caption creation Process

For the "Content Upload" process, the User selects and uploads the desired
content (images or videos) from their device to the "SocMan" system. The uploaded
content is stored in uploaded content file for future use.

In the "Caption Creation" process, the User creates a caption for the
uploaded content. The caption information is stored in the system along with the
uploaded content.

These two processes work together to prepare the content and caption
information for posting to one or more social media platforms. The User can upload
multiple pieces of content and create captions for each, allowing them to have all of
the necessary information ready before posting to social media.

Figure 4.5 DFD Level 1 for Posting Across Soc Med Platform Process

The User initiates the posting process by selecting the content and caption
they wish to post, along with the desired social media platforms. The "SocMan"
system communicates with the selected social media platforms through a REST API,
sending the content, caption, and any other relevant information to each platform.

23
 The social media platforms receive the information and process the post,
publishing it to the User's account. The "SocMan" system receives confirmation from
each platform that the post was successful.

This process enables the User to post content and captions to multiple social
media platforms with a single click, eliminating the need to log in to each platform
and make the post individually. The "SocMan" system's communication with the
social media platforms through a REST API streamlines the posting process, making
it faster and more convenient for the User.

Figure 4.6 DFD Level 1 Post Insight analysis and Data Management Process

For the "Post Insights Analysis" process, the "SocMan" system communicates
with the User's connected social media platforms, retrieving data about each post
such as the number of views, shares, and comments. The data is stored in the file
and analyzed to provide the User with insights into the performance of their posts.

In the "Data Management" process, the "SocMan" system stores, retrieves,

and updates all relevant information, including User account information, uploaded
content, caption information, and post insights data. The information is organized
and stored in a database using SQL queries, allowing the User to easily access and
manage their data.

These two processes work together to provide the User with a comprehensive
understanding of their social media activity, including the performance of their posts,
as well as providing a convenient and organized system for storing and managing
their data.

4.3 Entity Relation Diagram

24
 Figure 4.7 Entity Relation Diagram (ERD) of SocMan

The User Account entity would have a one-to-many relationship with

Uploaded Content, Caption Information, and Post Insights entities as a single user
can have multiple uploaded contents, captions and post insights. The Uploaded
Content entity would have a one-to-one relationship with Caption Information entity
as each uploaded content would have only one caption. The Post Insights entity
would have a one-to-one relationship with Uploaded Content entity as each post
would have its own insights data. The API Data entity would have a one-to-many
relationship with User Account entity as multiple users can have access to the same
API keys.

25
4.4 Data Dictionary

Table 4.1: User Account and Social Media Credentials

Field Name Data Type Length Key Type

User ID Integer 11 Primary Key

Email Varchar 100

Password Varchar 100

Facebook ID Varchar 100 Foreign Key

Instagram ID Varchar 100 Foreign Key

Twitter ID Varchar 100 Foreign Key

Table 4.2: Uploaded Content

Field Name Data Type Length Key Type

Content ID Integer 11 Primary Key

User ID Integer 11 Foreign Key

File Type Varchar 10

File URL Varchar 250

Table 4.3: Caption Information

Field Name Data Type Length Key Type

Caption ID Integer 11 Primary Key

Content ID Integer 11 Foreign Key

Caption Varchar 250

Table 4.4: Post Insights Data

Field Name Data Type Length Key Type

Insight ID Integer 11 Primary Key

Content ID Integer 11 Foreign Key

Platform Varchar 10

26
 Field Name Data Type Length Key Type

Views Integer 11

Shares Integer 11

Comments Integer 11

Table 4.5: API Data

Field Name Data Type Length Key Type

Platform Varchar 10 Primary Key

API Key Varchar 100

Access Token Varchar 250

4.5 Conclusion

The use of DFD, ERD, and Data Dictionaries has provided a clear understanding of
how the system processes data, how data is stored and retrieved, and the
relationships between different data entities. The system is designed to allow users
to log in to their accounts, upload content, create captions, and post them to
multiple social media platforms. The system also includes a feature for analyzing
post insights, managing data, and communicating with social media platforms such
as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The user interface is designed to be user-
friendly and intuitive. The data flow diagrams and data dictionary provide a clear
understanding of the processes, files, and data elements used in the system. The
system is designed to be efficient and effective in managing social media content,
and the data flow and data storage components have been carefully designed to
ensure data security and privacy.

27
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