Social media has really altered the modern day world and it has played a vital role in enhancing the people to people contacts across the world. The social media platforms takes a vital part in creating the world a small area by bringing people from different cultural backgrounds and nationalities much closer to each other. The social media platforms have had an important impact in the world of business as well. It has improved the communication pattern and understanding among the various brands and their consumers in the marketplace and this has allowed the business establishments to foster a strong bonding and association with their customers in the market. According to Kietzmann et al., (2011), the social networking websites like Facebook has played a very crucial role in assisting the business establishments to engage and communicate with their consumers in the market.
The majority of the companies these days are utilising social media to further their business goals and objectives in the market. Social media has become an important share of their recruitment, communication and marketing strategies (Aral et al., 2013). With the help of social media, the business establishments have been able to take feedbacks and opinions from their customers in the market regarding the type of products that they want to use and how much satisfied they are presently with the goods and facilities given by the company.
Smith & Zook, (2011) has stated that the business creations are able to understand the present consumer trends in the marketplace and this enables them to develop and cater appropriate goods and facilities to their consumers in the marketplace which fosters consumer fulfilment and customer loyalty in the marketplace. This research will invariably try to give more light on the advantages and disadvantages of using social networking sites in business and how it is contributing to the future growth and success of an organisation.
The main aim of this project is to know the importance and contribution of social networks in the corporate sector. This research will provide a detailed explanation about the advantages and disadvantages of utilising social networks in a business. This would help in the effective understanding of the implications and consequences which are related with the use of social networks in business. The investigation objectives have been stated below:
The scope of this research project includes the business establishments which are presently utilising social media platforms in their business. According to Fuchs, (2017) there are different kinds of social media platforms (or social networking sites) which are being utilised by different business establishments and they include Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn. The social media platforms have been effective business platforms which enables the business formations to communicate and join with their consumers in the market place (Edosomwan et al., 2011). They are able to realize and identify the wants and likings of their consumer. By utilising the social media platforms, business formations are able to popularise and promote their goods and facilities among the people in an effective manner and this helps them to increase the market demand for their goods and facilities (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). This research will mainly focus on providing a detailed understanding about the utilisation of the social networking sites by the business organizations and evaluating their drawbacks and benefits in an effective manner.
Social media enables an organisation to ensure greater engagement and association with their employees. It has facilitated in the process of internal communication which was considered to be a challenging task till a few years back. In the view of Heller Baird & Parasnis, (2011) the social media has helped the employees of the organisation to communicate with each other in an effective manner and this has allowed them to remain updated with all the latest happenings taking place in their business. By utilising social networking sites organisation have been able to facilitate knowledge sharing between their seasoned and new employees and this eventually helped them to improve and enhance the performance of their newly inducted staffs (Kim et al., 2010). The business establishments monitored the activities and performance of their employees and provided their feedbacks about their performance on the social networking sites and this played a very important role in fostering a renewed sense of motivation and inspiration among their staffs.
Social networking websites have played a very important role in increasing the people to people contact. It has transformed the manner in which people communicated and connected with each other by bringing people closer to one another and removing the physical boundaries of distance which exist between them. Hewitt Associates are a strong advocate of social media as the organisation relies a lot on Facebook-styled communication within their business (Leonardi et al., 2013). The organisation has been utilising the social media platforms for recruiting new candidates and as a result their internal referrals have also witnessed a significant increase as compared to the last few years when the process of recruitment was conducted without the help of the social media platforms
Social networks have become an effective business model which allows the corporate formations to make revenues from their commercial actions in the marketplace. In the words of Kim et al., (2010) by embracing the social media tools business establishments have been able to share experiences and expertise easily with their end users in the market. The users have been able to share their personal interests and preferences in the form of wiki-like information and this allowed the business establishments to identify the personal tastes and likings of their consumers in an effective manner.
According to Okazaki & Taylor, (2013) the social media facilitates audio and video communications and these are used by many companies to share videos, wikis and blogs on demand which invariably become the daily point of contact of the employees. Social media has enabled business establishments to improve their organizational efficiency and business productivity by helping them to cut down on the costs associated with advertising and marketing campaigns. Safko, (2010) has described that the social media has itself become the biggest marketing platform which allows the business creations to popularise their goods and facilities. They have been able to showcase their products and services to a greater number of people which transcends even the geographical barriers. This has allowed the business establishments to attract more customers from the market and they have been able to generate more profits and revenues from their business (Smith & Zook, 2011).
Social media is extremely popular across the world. Business establishments have been able to capitalise on the popularity and wide spread of the social media stages in order to expand their presence around the globe. They have been able to spread customer awareness about their goods and facilities in different portions of the world where they even do not have any presence in the market.
The fact that social media platforms are free of cost and can be utilised by anyone who is willing to connect and communicate with others has provided immense benefit to the small and medium business enterprises. The small and medium businesses have been able to gather the necessary exposure in the market with the help of the social networking platforms and this has allowed them to create a turnaround in their business fortunes (Fuchs, 2017).
In the words of Denzin & Lincoln, (2011) the main drawback and disadvantage which are associated with social networking websites is the security of the information which they are giving to their consumers in the market. The social media platforms are highly susceptible to external threats from the internet. There is a constant risk regarding the security and privacy of information that are being provided on the social media platforms. Hackers are constantly on the lookout for technical glitches in the websites that allows them easy and unauthorised access to the sensitive data and information about the organisation and their users. This can really compromise the security and privacy of the users and this is considered to be the main risk or disadvantage which is associated with the social networking platforms. Thus, it is always advised to use social media in a responsible and intelligent manner (Kim et al., 2010).
Another drawback of the social media platforms is the easily availability of information which can either make or break a business. Leonardi et al., (2013) has stated that customers using social media platforms share both positive as well as negative feedbacks regarding the products and services of an organisation. If the organisation does not monitor and maintain any control regarding what type of information and opinions are being shared by the consumers, then it could have a negative repercussion on the organisation. Falsified information which are deliberately shared by unscrupulous individuals for the purpose of spreading rumours against the organisation will invariably tarnish their brand reputation in the market.
There have been a lot of studies that seek to give light on the impact of social media on the business activities of an organisation. The social media platforms have largely been the results of the rapid advancements made in the world of technology and computing. It has turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the business establishments and has enabled them to expand their business in an effective manner. Business establishments on their part must showcase a lot of caution and restraint while utilising the social media platforms in their business otherwise this blessing could soon turn into a curse for them (Solomon, 2014). This is the main motive why the researcher has undertaken this research as they wanted to find out the advantages as well as the disadvantages of the social media platforms and what consequences they would have on the business prospects of an organisation.
The studies conducted in this field mainly included the perspective of the consumers when it originated to the impact of the social media platforms. There is little or no research which takes into account the perspectives of the global business entities when it came to making the proper and effective usage of the social media platforms for furthering their business ambitions in the market. The researcher in this research tried to provide the viewpoints and perceptions from the context of the business establishments in regarding to the advantages and disadvantages of utilising social media platforms in their business, but lack of proper and quality information regarding this aspect prevented him from realising this purpose. This is one of the main gaps which could be identified from this research (Qualman, 2010).
1) What are the advantages of utilising social networking platforms by the business establishments?
2) What are the drawbacks of using social media platforms for the business establishments?
3) How can business establishments incorporate a successful social media strategy for realising their business goals and objectives in the market?
The researcher has undertaken a mixed research in order to gather an enhanced understanding about the impacts of social media on the activities of the modern day business establishments. The researcher has made use of secondary data that has been gathered from diverse online and offline sources. The online sources included peer reviewed journals and articles that are published online, industry reports, business websites and news articles. The offline sources included the academic research papers, books and journals which are available in the library (Marshall & Rossman, 2014). Apart from this, the researcher has made use of primary qualitative data which they have gathered first hand during the course of this research. He has conducted a face to face interview with 3 market and industry experts in order obtain their valuable insights and understanding regarding the research topic that have been selected in this particular research.
The data gathered by the researcher during the course of this research has been collected in an ethical and responsible manner. The researcher has selected 3 industry experts who belong to different industry sectors and interviewed them personally in order to obtain a complete considerate and viewpoint regarding the impact of social networking websites on the global corporate sector. The researcher has asked a wide variety of open-ended questions to the market experts which enabled him to gather a detailed understanding regarding the advantages and drawbacks of social networks in business (Taylor et al., 2015).
The researcher has utilised a non-probabilistic convenience sampling wherein he had conducted a face-to-face interview with 3 market experts who belong to three different industry sectors. The industry experts had an extremely busy work schedules and that is why the researcher has made use of the convenience sampling technique as it allowed him/her to make prior appointments by finding out a suitable and convenient time when the experts will be able to provide their views and opinions to the researcher. The sample size of the research was 3 individuals (Silverman, 2016).
The primary data pertaining to this research has been collected by conducting a face-to-face interview with the industry experts. The secondary data has been assembled from both online and offline sources which included peer reviewed journals, academic research work, online articles, books and websites of business establishments.
In this present research, the researcher has tried to analyse the impact of social networking/media platforms on the business activities of an company. The independent variable in this study is the social media platforms whereas the dependent variables in the research are the benefits and drawbacks of the social media platforms on the business activities of an organisation (Smith & Zook, 2011).
The researcher has faced a lot of challenges while conducting this research and they has shown a strong resolve and determination from their end which eventually allowed them to complete their research in an effective manner. The main limitations handled by the investigator during the course of this research were time restraint and monetary constraints. Both these aspects played an essential part in dejection the complete accuracy and trustworthiness of this study (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Apart from these challenges, the researcher had to undergo a lot of difficulty while selecting the market experts and taking their approval and permission for conducting the face-to-face interview round. The market experts initially refused to participate in the interview process but after a lot of persistent request on the part of the researcher they finally agreed to participate in the interview by finding out a time according to their convenience. This further delayed the research process (Liamputtong, 2013).
During the 1st week, the researcher concentrated their efforts on the collection to study the matter and collecting the data from the secondary sources of information. During the next three weeks (2nd, 3rd and 4th week) the literature review was being analysed in a thorough manner. During the 3rd and 4th week, the researcher designed the methodology plan following which they would carry out the research process. During the 4th and 5th week the researcher would identify appropriate research techniques which would be utilised in this research. The Data gathering and analysis took place during the 5th and the 6th week. The findings from the data were evaluated during the 6th week and the recommendations were also provided in the same week. The research reached its conclusion during the 6th and 7th week.
Conclusion
The above discussions clearly point to the fact that the researcher has undertaken this research for analyzing the benefits and drawbacks of social media for business organizations and how these business establishments are using the platform of social media for attaining their desired business aims and objectives in the market.
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