Pros and Cons of Social Media in Business-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Pros and Cons of social media in business. Answer: Introduction Social media has become the essential part for the world which provides the facility for one person to communicate with millions of people around the world. Internet technologies are the supportive in the progress of social media. There are no hard barriers in the social media system. The growth of the business can be done in progressive manner with taking help of social media. Adidas, Titan, Toyota and many brands are taking help of social media to expand its business in all over the world (Aral, Dellarocas and Godes, 2013). The topic has been opted for this research is reward and drawback of social media networking in the growth of the business. The advantages as well as disadvantages will be reflected in this research. The major aim and the scope will be elaborated to provide better understanding for further research. Objective of the research Social media has become necessary component in the growth of the business and the aim of the research to look at the pros and cons of social media networking in the business. To expand its business, there are many companies that use social media to get competitive advantages and to interact with their customers. Scope of the research The cost of the company can be controlled with taking help of social media networking in business. The research has been conducted for the purpose of evaluating the pros and cons of social media networking in business. Literature review The platform of social media is considered as the new trend and quickly progressing way in which businesses are able to find out targeted customers in easiest manner. Social media networking is helpful to promote the products and services of the company. It has been analyzed that this kind of marketing is measured as a division of online marketing activities that accomplish the conventional encouragement strategies such as newsletter, e-mail and online advertising campaigns. There are various social media sites which have various features and forms (Fita, 2012). Facebook was introduced in February 2004 and it has been evaluated that as of now Facebook has more than 900 million active users. According to Bernie Borges (2009), twitter is the second largest site of social media and it is the combination of micro blogging and social network. Twitter is provided services to its user to share real time experiences. It has been found that these two social media are among the valuable and us ed by so many people. Social media are helpful to convey with huge number of people at one time through social media sites. There is various kind of business such as travel and tourism, retailers, wholesaler, electronics and many other that have attained a lot by expanding their business online (Fuchs, 2017). Pros of social media networking Social media has proven itself popular by providing success to many companies. It aids a wide range of people to get knowledge about everything such as job search, travel facility, education and many more. Companies are involving the social sites to attract customers towards companies and for showing the company revenues and expenditures publically. Various opportunities and market position are built stronger through the social media. Social networking is attaining the much popularity in the era of globalization. The business has adopted the social media platform to promote their products and services in the market which is economically good for the business and spread information regarding products and services in lesser time which is advantageous for the business (Hajli, 2014). There are various advantages of social media networking in the business and the major benefit point of it is the cost-related. The financial barriers in the context of social media marketing are quiet low in comparison to others. It provides the facility to free access, create profile and post information. On the other hand the campaigns of traditional marketing can spend millions of dollars. Social media marketing is free for the business which allows business to run the business on a limited budget (Hudson and Thal, 2013). Business need to analyze the target market before expanding the business. Social media offer marketers with the ability to target audiences and customers on the basis of personal interest of site users. For instance, list country music is one of the well known sites that provide the ads about artist and concert. Along with that it has numerous advantages such as cost efficient, better customer relationship, expansion of customers, brand awareness and enhance the exposure of the company (Jain, Joshi Shashi, 2014). It has been analyzed that the social networking is aiding to enhance the business. Social media is giving access to various businesses to expand it products and services in all over the world. Along with that social media services are allowed to increase in inbound traffics. Customers are the key of success and it is vital for the organization to improve the customer satisfaction by providing them efficient quality. As per Johnston, (2014), social media networking allows cu stomers to post their query and issues regarding services and products to the site of the company in the form of feedback so that company can improve the services as per the feedback of the customer for maintaining the reputation of the company. Communication is the effective tool which reduces the distance of working. Social media is a medium to interact with customers, clients and employee of the company by using various methods of communication. There are two kind of communication plan and company can execute both internal as well as external communication platforms (Nadeem, et. al., 2015). It has been allowed by the social networks to easily collaborate on the project of the business. Social networking aids in rapid decision making between employees because it is easier for them to provide feedback about the services or products in quick manner. Along with that it is helpful to amplify the business contacts. The implementation of social media policy will amplify the reputation o f the business. It has been found that there are various applications are being used by many organizations to enhance their workplace communication. There are various applications such as Slack, Socialcast, and Yammer which is liable to enhance the productivity and the security of the internal communication. The software of communication offers facilities such as easy life sharing, group chat and team collaboration to improve the efficiency of the employees (Ngai, Tao and Moon, 2015). The organization can considerably amplify their market share by approaching a newer target market. It has been found that the company can search products of company by penetrating for similar things. The company can approach globally in true manner with the help of social media. It provides opportunity to various customers in all over the world to find and buy the products as per their desire and need through social media (Ciprian, 2015). These kinds of approach are liable to enhance the sales of the organization. E-commerce websites are introduced as boon for the business in which business can import as well as exports products from various countries. It has been analyzed that traditionally, business has to open new outlets to expand its business and to increase their sales, but social media has given the opportunity to the business to sell the products in all over the world from one shop which is quiet good. It has been analyzed that the shopping market is booming with efficient players of online business and there are so many large companies that have been doing online business such as Alibaba, eBay, Amazon and many more. Haythornthwaite, (2005), stated in the research that Amazon is one of the largest online business market in all over the world that sell more than 26billion items on a peak day. It provides the facilities to the customer to select the items from their home without going anywhere from a vast variety of items Cons of social media networking The role of social media networking has grown rapidly in the context of progressive business and various businesses uses it for a range of purposes such as marketing, research, online sales and communication. The social networking sites have numerous advantages but it has drawback as well. The cons of social networking sites are security issues, cyber attacking, false information, wrong advantages of service and hacking. The cons or drawbacks of the social media should be analyzed by the company before adopting the social policy in the companies. According to Schroeder, (2014), hacking is the process of accessing the unauthorized data of the company by adopting the illegal manner. There are numerous people who hack the system for gathering the sensitive information of the company. Nadaraja Yazdanifard, (2013), discussed in his paper that social networking enhances the chance of hacking and increasing the cost of security and firewalls to avoid hacking. There are so many companies ar e become the victim of hacking in todays world which alert others to get protected from hacking. These companies are Sony, JP Morgon, eBay and many more. These companies had to face various issues regarding their reputations and suffered from huge losses due to hacking. Hacking can grab the personal information of the employees of the company such as passwords, bank information, and personal data (Sachs, 2016). Inside risk is another disadvantageous factor of the social media networking because it has been found that the unsatisfied customers can post unfavorable comments on the sites of the company which is not removable. That is why company need to check their social media accounts many times of the day. As per Rosenblatt (2015), the inside risk refers the high chance of hacking because it is done by inside person. There are various examples of inside risk and one of the major examples of it is Morgan Stanley, inside attack on the company. It is integral for the company to build the clear and strong social networking strategies. The benefits of the company can be affected due to lack of social media policy in the company. The role of social media strategy is vital for the organization and one mistake can bring the adverse situation for the company (Talpau, 2014). It has been seen that along with that there can be trademark and copyright issues that is why it is essential for the company t o prevent their trademarks and copyright while using social media to encourage the products and services to the targeted market. It has been found that the companies are spending a large amount to prevent their social media accounts; they are investing a huge amount heavily on firewalls and security software. The cost of software is high and it is necessary fo the campny to keep updated the softwares for using in beneficail point of view. It has been estimated that$113 billion will be reached of cube security which is quiet big amount. Social media networking has become the addiction in the view of many people and they use it from morning to evening which may impact the performance of the individual. It has been analyzed that the interest of employees are diverted due to interaction with people by social media sites. It has been studied from the article of Mangus (2014) that more than 90% people are addicted of social media and wasting their countless time to scroll up and down on Facebook and many other sites. Trust is considered as the unique dimension of transactional security and privacy that play a vital role in developing the customer loyalty to social media marketers. It has been evaluated that the fear of online credit card fraud has been one of the key cause consumers have not made wide online purchasing. Furthermore, trust is interlinked with the security which is integral factor in the process of online purchasing. Customers cannot touch, feel, smell or touch the product and they order on the basis of trust and they are unable to look into the eye of the salesperson. Therefore, brand trust is vital for the organization which may increase the sales of the company. Brand trust generally provides a facility in the context of reduction of uncertainty. It has been cleared that the trust of customers on the brand and the services of the company can overcome the disadvantages of the internet that is to overcome the perceptions that the Internet is an insecure, untruthful, and untrustworthy marketplace (Tiwari, 2012). There are many workers who are suffering from cyber bullying on the social networks of their company by their colleagues. The concern of suicide, harassment, depression has taken place in the organization due to this kind of harassment which is liable to hamper the position of the company in the view of outsiders. However, there are various issues and challenges of social media networking but the success of it is dependent on the right use of the social media in the company. There are number of people that are not connects with the company as physically but social media gives them physical existence and provide opportunity to connect with company without joining physically. Conclusion From the above discussion, it has been concluded that the role of social media networking is crucial in todays world because it can be established anywhere with the internet connections. The social media encourages the business to expand it globally. But along with that it has provided some drawback as well which may hamper the situation of the company adversely. It aids business to interact with the large number of people instantly who are interested in their products and services. Social networks help out in market research, executing campaigns and instantly communication with interested persons. It has been found that there are various applications are being used by many organizations to enhance their workplace communication. References Aral, S., Dellarocas, C. and Godes, D., 2013, Introduction to the special issuesocial media and business transformation: a framework for research, Information Systems Research,24(1), pp.3-13. Australian business and social media, 2016, Platform Communications, Retrieved from https://platformcommunications.com.au/australian-business-social-media-haves-nots/ Ciprian, P. 2015, "The growing importance of social media in business marketing",Quaestus,, no. 7, pp. 94. Fita, M., 2012, 6 Reasons Why Social Networking is So Popular These Days, Brandiginity. Fuchs, C., 2017,Social media: A critical introduction, Sage. Hajli, M.N., 2014, A study of the impact of social media on consumers,International Journal of Market Research,56(3), pp.387-404. Haythornthwaite, C. 2005, Social networks and Internet connectivity effects,Information, Community Society,8(2), pp.125-147 Hudson, S. and Thal, K., 2013, The impact of social media on the consumer decision process: Implications for tourism marketing, Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing,30(1-2), pp.156-160. Jain, M. S., Joshi, M. P., Shashi, M., 2014, Impact of social media on business.target,1, 1. Johnston, M. P., 2014,Secondary Data Analysis: A Method of which the Time Has Come,Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries, pp. 619 626. Mangus, Q. 2014, How Much Time Do Employees Spend On Social Media, Micro Focus.Retrieved from https://blog.microfocus.com/how-much-time-do-employees-spend-on-social-media/# More,R, M Kumar, A, 2014, A Study of Current Scenario of Cyber Security Practices and Measures: Literature Review, International Journal of Engineering Research and General Science Volume 2, Issue 5, August-September, 2014 ISSN 2091-2730. Nadaraja, R Yazdanifard, R. 2013, Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing: Advantages and Disadvantages, Research Gate. Nadeem, W., Andreini, D., Salo, J. and Laukkanen, T., 2015, Engaging consumers online through websites and social media: A gender study of Italian Generation Y clothing consumers, International Journal of Information Management,35(4), pp.432-442. Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015, Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks, International Journal of Information Management,35(1), pp.33-44. Robischon, N. 2017, Why Amazon is the worlds most innovative company of 2011, Fast Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3067455/why-amazon-is-the-worlds-most-innovative-company-of-2017 Rosenblatt, S. 2015, The biggest cyberthreat to companies could come from the inside, CNET.Retrieved from https://www.cnet.com/news/the-biggest-cyber-threat-to-companies-could-come-from-the-inside/ Sachs, J 2016, The 7 Best Social Media Channels for Business Marketing, The Huffington Post. Schroeder, H. 2014, "Social media in business strategy: the learning and development implications",Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal,vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 12-15. Talpau, A. 2014, "social media - a new way of communication",Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V,vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 45-52. Tiwari, H. 2012, Pros and Cons Of Social Networking Sites, International Journal for Science and Emerging Technologies with Latest Trends, 1(1)