Advantages of Social Networking in Business

Project title: Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business

This research will be focussed on the advantages and disadvantages of using social network in the businesses. According to Cisco (2010), Social networking has made its important place in the world of business. There are many advantages of using social networking in business but it comes with certain disadvantages too. The advantages like broader knowledge, increased innovation and access to technologies have made businesses more successful than before but the risks of security and privacy has increased the challenges as well. According to Nadaraja & Yazdanifard (2017), in the recent years social media marketing are been used by the marketers to target the consumers easily and to get better results for the business. Arca (2012) adds that Social media is growing every day and businesses want to take benefit of it. They track and measure the response received by the customers on social media and take actions as per the requirements.

According to the research conducted by Neti (2011), the growth of social media has been doubled in the small businesses and 1 out of every 5 businesses use social media for their marketing strategy. The marketing budgets for social media have increased because it provides positive results to the business. Social media has been preferred because of its access by large number of customers, Transparency, its reach and lower costs. It develops good relationships between different parties of business which is favourable for the profits of the business. The research will make clear that how social networking is beneficial and how it is used by businesses. It will also clear out about the challenges it creates for the business. The research will be conducted following some methods and techniques which will be discussed further.

The main objective of the research is to study the advantages and disadvantages of using the social networks in the business.  The research also aims at finding out the growth of using social networks in the business.

The scope of the project is wide because social networking is used by most of the businesses nowadays and it is the current topic for discussion whether social media is beneficial for the business or it creates disadvantages for it. 

Social networks have become the part of daily life routine of people. Its importance is growing day by day.   Nowadays businesses advertise their products and services through social media and with this they make interactions with the people and builds public relations to make business popular among the mass population (Hanafizadeh, et. al., 2012).

Disadvantages of Social Networking in Business

Social networks in business have several advantages like it shares the ideas of the business and it also bridges the communication gap and distances between business and target consumers.  Building social networks are also cost effective for the businesses because it popularizes the business and lowers the costs of advertising or promotion (Baruah, 2012).

The businesses investing in social networks results in better performance, more sales and better network of business. It improves the communication, relationships with the customers and also improves the image of the business. The disadvantages of using social networks include wastage of time, lack in the control on feedbacks from public about the business (Parveen, 2012).

By using social networks in the business, the business could easily carry away the customers and create a huge number of potential customers for the business which could generate good profits. There are different pros and cons of using social networks in the business. It may not be suitable for every business. It needs proper planning and time for setting up the networks. Establishing social networks needs daily monitoring in order to evaluate the real progress of the same. So, risks are involved with the establishment of social networks (Woodcock, Green & Starkey, 2011).

Social networking revolutionise the marketing practices of advertising and marketing of the business. It also influences the behaviour of consumer for business and its offerings. It provides opportunity to the businesses to engage and interact with the customers so that they can become the loyal customers of the business. But involvement in social networking can pose both the negative or positive impact on the business. The customers may provide negative reviews about the brand which is not under the control of the business. The message conveyed by the company during the process of social networking may be taken differently by different users (Leonardi, Huysman & Steinfield, 2013). Even a small mistake conducted by the business could lead to severe effect on the consumers. It may also impact the buying intent of the potential as well as existing consumers. While making social interactions with the public at large, the companies have to take care of the cultural aspects (Tretenhahn, 2011).

Social networking is sharing the business content and ideas with others. It involves communication and interaction which should include creativity, innovation, technology and knowledge to make it interesting. Social networking not only allows businesses to gain an access to the available resources but also increases the worth of the team. It increases and enhances the relationship of business with the suppliers and customers and build up strategic partnerships for the betterment of the business (Smith & Zook, 2011). In 21^st century, the business has to adjust and cope up with many changes to be active in the competitive business environment.  For this, the business has to be excellent in the social networks. It makes the business accessible to more customers and helps in fulfilling their expectations. It improves the presence of business in the market and also gets access to more opportunities. It can boost sales of the business and performance in the industry (Molina?Morales & Martínez?Fernández, 2010).

Challenges Faced by Businesses using Social Networking

Primary Question 

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social networks in the business?

Secondary Questions 

How Social media and its usage have increased over the years?

How the companies are managing their social media to gain maximum benefit out of it?

This section of the research is of major importance because it shows the details about the methods and techniques through which the research has been conducted.

Design of the study:  The study has to be designed for completing the research successfully. The design of this study is mixed wherein the data will be collected through qualitative as well as quantitative method. The quantitative data will be collected through questionnaires and previous research reports and qualitative data will be collected through articles, journals and other internet sources.

Collection of data: The data will be collected through various secondary and primary sources like research reports, articles, journals, etc.  & Questionnaires. The data collection method is primary and secondary method. The primary sources of data collection are the ones which will be extracted for the first time and the secondary sources are the ones which are already extracted. The primary sources which will be used are questionnaires prepared with 10 questions and the secondary sources are articles, journals and internet sources (Hair, 2015). 

Technique of sampling: The sample technique is random sampling technique where 10 businesses are selected randomly in Australia which uses social networking for their business (Bryman & Bell, 2015). 

Analyses of the data: The data will be analysed by studying the data, understanding it and interpreting it. The quantitative data will be analysed through various statistical tools.

Generate findings: By understanding the data collected and used in the research, the findings will be generated

Validate the findings:  The research data is collected from genuine sources and every information and data has been referenced to prove the same. Proper schedules have been followed for completing the research on time. The responses received are secured properly with the passwords to avoid any mis placement of the data.

Research Limitations: The research has several limitations as well. The research is to be completed in limited time i.e. 8 weeks which is not enough time to cover every minute detail about the topic.  The sample size is also very small which might not give the actual answers for the research questions. 

(Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015).

Conclusion 

The report is prepared at the end, to show how the research is conducted and how the research questions are answered. It can be concluded that this research will find out the role played by the social networking in the businesses and how this can be used for the maximum benefit of the businesses.

References 

Arca, C (2012). Social Media Marketing benefits for businesses. Master of International Marketing.

Baruah, T D (2012). Effectiveness of Social Media as a tool of communication and its potential for technology enabled connections: A micro-level study. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications. Volume 2, Issue 5.

Bryman, A & Bell, E (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

Cisco (2010). Social Networking in the Enterprise: Benefits and Inhibitors. Forrester Consulting.

Hair, J F (2015). Essentials of business research methods. ME Sharpe.

Hanafizadeh, P, Ravasan, A Z, Navabi, A & Mehrabioun, M (2012). A Literature Review on the Business Impacts of Social Network Sites. International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking. 4(1), 46-60.

Leonardi, P M, Huysman, M & Steinfield, C (2013). Enterprise social media: Definition, history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of Computer?Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19.

Nadaraja, R & Yazdanifard, R (2017). Social Media Marketing: Advantages and Disadvantages. Social Media Marketing. Retrieved fromhttps://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c070/c908671a70dfb44a245be96ec4f54a47e98f.pdf.

Neti, S (2011). Social media and its role in Marketing. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems, Vol 1. Issue 2.

Parveen, F (2012). Impact of Social Media Usage On Organizations. Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems.

Smith, P R & Zook, Z (2011). Marketing communications: integrating offline and online with social media. Kogan Page.

Taylor, S J, Bogdan, R & DeVault, M (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.

Tretenhahn, S (2011). Discuss the advantage and disadvantage of using social networking tools and concepts in the meeting industry. AIM Group International.

Woodcock, N, Green, A & Starkey, M (2011). Social CRM as a business strategy. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, 18(1), 50-64.