Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networking in Business

Question: Discuss about Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networking in Business ? Answer: Introduction: The business world has seen a lot of ups and downs ever since the competition came into being; the marketing world engulfed all the thunder the corporate world used to have (Tuten and Solomon 2014). There was once a time period when the there was discretion in the product range that a particular business brand used to make, a time in the past where the products the brands sell acted as the recognition for the brand itself. However today is the age of retail chains and multi-marketing, the brand name sells the products now (Albarran 2013). The reason behind this chaotic situation in the corporate world is the cut throat competition in the business market today where the small and large scale business ventures are choking to cope with the dynamic economy and ever changing customer demands. The success of a business venture depends on the reception and loyalty it receives from its target customer base, and companies do anything they can to impress the customers and retain them. Now taking cues from the proverbial saying pretty packages do sell well, and the corporate world pretty packaging is a good marketing strategy. The history of business marketing has seen a lot of changes as well, conventional techniques of marketing using electronic media or news papers has metamorphosed into the hip and happening social media marketing (Albarran 2013). This report will represent a literature review on the advantages and the disadvantages of using social media as a marketing tool for brand promotion. Brand promotion and social media: We live in the era of technological globalization, where internet has brought the world at our fingertips by the virtue of smartphones. While living in this age where the time is a costly commodity, the target markets are no longer fascinated by a television screen. Although still highly functional it cannot be ignored that social media has lost its charm somehow along the years. The monotony of conventional media marketing has been replaced by the attractive and innovative methods of social media marketing (Ashley and Tuten 2015). In order to understand what social media marketing entails it is important to know social media is all about. In definition social media is a web 2.0 internet-based interactive application that establishes a network of virtual communities made for creating and sharing different information (Ashley and Tuten 2015). The main different that puts social media a class apart from the paper based or electronic media is the reach and usability that it provides. There can hardly be found people in todays age that are not well acquainted with the wonders of social media, irrespective of variables like age and gender (Bae 2012). It has to be considered that with the rapidly changing economy finding a stable ground cam be very hard for small scale businesses and that stable ground can only be established through brand recognition and customer loyalty (Berthon et al. 2012). Social media tools provide the best opportunity to not only connect with the customers but also allows the customers to be connected with their favourite brands. There are various different platforms in the world of social media and each and every single one of them has something new to offer that can keep the customers enthralled (De Vries, Gensler and Leeflang 2012). Different online media platforms: There are a various different platforms in the realm of social media, with a wealth of different tools for the business ventures to exploit. Studies suggest that the social media has provided different outlets for fortifying a secure and impactful relationship with each and every individual of the target market. Facebook, the global sensation deserves the first recognition when discussing social media platforms. Facebook is easily one of the most used online platforms and it I the best and most profitable social media marketing tool as well (Erdo?mu? and Cicek 2012). Facebook allows different business brands to create a fan page allowing different individuals to follow te page to stay connected and be updated every new launch about the brand. Similarly another popular social networking site that has immerged as the global sensation is Twitter, allowing up to 140 characters to write an informative post that reach the millions in the form of tweets. When talking about different social media tools another two sites demand immediate attention, youtube being the primary one. Fosdick suggested that youtube is a social media toll that if utilized properly can change the face of marketing for ever. Youtube is nothing but a repository of videos that allows different brands to provide the most realistic and life like presentation of their products to the viewers to keep them enthralled (Fosdick 2012). These videos can be informative, promotional or just a review, the customers can get the most realistic experience of seeing the products or services that they are being offered, as the proverbial saying goes seeing is believing. Similarly Instagram does the very same thing; the only problem is Instagram allows only pictures or short videos to be posted which the followers can like (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013). Furthermore websites like facebook and Instagram have their own stores that operate on the social networking websites only, from where the followers can see the product and order the same online which will be delivered to their doorsteps, a win-win situation for both parties, can marketing startegies get any smarter than that? Internet offers impressive variety if not anything, just like the completely different picture of social media marketing represented by Linkedin. It primarily is a website that allows different individual to create a catchy and attractive resume profile that allows different professional accounts top find you and connect to you (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013). A valid and viable profile in the LinkedIn will aid in adding valuable business contacts in the kitty that can help in progressing the business further. Now, shifting the focus to social bookmarking websites, like Digg to the more popular and a bit different, Pinterest. They allow you to find different stiff of your interest and bookmark or as popularly known as Pin it so that you can revisit them in your leisure time. A Pinterest account of the brand that will allow you to send information about different product or services that they can check according to their time preferences, customer satisfaction at its best (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013). Heymann-Reder on their article about customer satisfaction have stated that customer loyalty and retention rate is heightened when the customer feel that the brand values the time they spend on them and they are more lured to the company if they are willing to bend to adjust with the customer schedules and this kind of marketing tools makes the customers feel valued and adds to the customer retention rate (Heymann-Reder 2012). Lastly the blogs must be added to this list of social media marketing platform, blogs are nothing but social media platforms that showcase online journals, promotional or informative, that are openly accessible to the mass relaying information to attract the customers and offer them knowledge about the product which only adds to the craze about that product or service in particular. As a whole there are a number of different social media platforms and each one of those have something unique to offer to help the business companies keep their customers captivated (Kim and Ko 2012). Advantages of social media marketing: Social media emerged as tool so poignant that it has shaken the very foundation of the conventional marketing strategies. When discussing about the benefits of using social networking as a marketing tool authors have agreed on the reach of social media marketing being the vital element for the ground breaking success of this marketing strategy (Kumar and Mirchandani 2012). Exploratory studies on the efficacy of social media marketing suggest that the in the last few years, roughly 95% of the marketing analysts are transformed their media marketing techniques with the greatest emphasis on the social networking websites. Be it retail chains or small scale entrepreneurships, the customer base that a stable social media presence provides is unsurpassed in the figures (Papasolomou and Melanthiou 2012). The cost effectiveness of social media tools deserves recognition in this discussion as well. It has to be considered that the social media websites charge a negligible amount for making your brand visible to the whole world. Even if we consider the pay per click advertisement technique that some of the extremely popular social networking websites use, in the light of the brand recognition it provides authors have disagreed on the charges being if not completely but close to being insignificant (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi 2012). The success of a business depends on the customer traffic it entertains, and Stelzner suggested that with the lack of a good social media marketing tool in use the inbound traffic of a business venture is limited to the local customers only (Stelzner 2013). In the other hand the social media is a global platform and using the marketing tool involving this global platform will increase the traffic on a more global perspective. Apart from that, considering the key terms of business, social media marketing tool has been known to offer a much higher conversion rates. Over 50% of the marketers have claimed that the social media marketing allows the business ventures to have a closer relationship with the customers and it reflects on to the sales figures. Tuten and Solomonsuggested that social media marketing generates more than 100% lead to close rates when compared to the outbound counterparts (Tuten and Solomon 2014). Last but not the least, the level of customer retention and customer satisfaction the business ventures can receive by the virtue of social media marketing is unparalleled. Various research articles have suggested that the constant connection allows the customers to know the brand and the product or service that they purchase and the scope for them to share their concerns and grievances with the professionals makes the customers feel valued, which in turn elevates the customer retention rates radically (Vinerean et al. 2013). Disadvantages of social media marketing: With the myriad of pros that are associated with the online media marketing, there are still some risks and cons that are the part of this package deal. First and foremost the a social media account receives constant attention from a customer base all across the globe, and in order to sustain the social media presence along with coping with the choking market competition the social media presence of any business venture needs to be updated at all times. In order to do that an efficient online PR team that can keep the social presence of the business company updated at all times (Okazaki and Taylor 2013). Other than that with an open to all approach of social media tools, there are constant high risks of negative publicity. A disgruntled customer sharing grievances through very negative comments can very easily diminish the brand recognition that takes a lot of effort to establish (Papasolomou and Melanthiou 2012). The viral nature of social media marketing puts the brand or company in even more danger of losing the customer loyalty due a single instance of negative publicity. Hence an experienced online PR team adept at social media crisis management team needs to be at the beck and call for such occurrences (Okazaki and Taylor 2013). Another huge risk with online open access interface mediated marketing strategy is the chance of hacking and malware attack. Confidential company owned P content of informative content being hacked can pose a serious threat to the privacy, security and sustainability of the business venture or brand (Grundn, K. and Lagrosen, S., 2014). According to the report published by the IT system control and audit association in the year of 2010, there were five major risks associated with the social media marketing strategies, they are virus and malware, online hacking and content loss, loss of brand awareness, unrealistic customer demands and non compliance (Papasolomou and Melanthiou 2012). Conclusion: On a concluding note it can be stated that social media marketing has an abundance of scopes that can take the growth and prosperity of the business venture to a new dimension altogether. The elevated sales rate of the fashion and retail industry is a conspicuous proof of what successful and potent social media marketing can bestow upon the brands and companies. And it should also not escape notice that the time is now more expensive than people itself and that alone has dwindled the chance for paper based or electronic media being any helpful to the promotion of the brand and companies. Along with that the analytical tools and interfaces that social media marketing provides that can help in tracking the growth and success of the business ventures are reason enough for the paradigm shift in the marketing strategy. However, there surely are risks associated with this marketing innovation, but electronic media marketing had also its due risks that came along. Risks and challenges are a part of anything new technology, and similarly there can be solutions to if not all but some of these challenging issues. With careful planning and adequate strategizing the risks associated with social media marketing can also be overcome so that the wealth of benefits of utilizing the world of social networking as a potent marketing tool References: Albarran, A.B. ed., 2013.Social Media Marketing(pp. 86-104). New York and London: Routledge. Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory study of branded social content and consumer engagement.Psychology Marketing,32(1), pp.15-27. Bae, W.C., 2012. Social media marketing. Berthon, P.R., Pitt, L.F., Plangger, K. and Shapiro, D., 2012. Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy.Business horizons,55(3), pp.261-271. De Vries, L., Gensler, S. and Leeflang, P.S., 2012. Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing.Journal of Interactive Marketing,26(2), pp.83-91. Erdo?mu?, ?.E. and Cicek, M., 2012. The impact of social media marketing on brand loyalty.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,58, pp.1353-1360. Fosdick, M.A.G.G.I.E., 2012. The globalization of social media: Consumer relationships with brands evolve in the digital space. Strategic Direction, 28(6). Hays, S., Page, S.J. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations.Current issues in Tourism,16(3), pp.211-239. Heymann-Reder, D., 2012.Social Media Marketing. Addison-Wesley Verlag. Kim, A.J. and Ko, E., 2012. Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand.Journal of Business Research,65(10), pp.1480-1486. Kumar, V. and Mirchandani, R., 2012. Increasing the ROI of social media marketing.MIT Sloan Management Review,54(1), p.55. Papasolomou, I. and Melanthiou, Y., 2012. Social media: Marketing public relations new best friend.Journal of Promotion Management,18(3), pp.319-328. Saravanakumar, M. and SuganthaLakshmi, T., 2012. Social media marketing.Life Science Journal,9(4), pp.4444-4451. Stelzner, M.A., 2013.2013 Social media marketing industry report: How marketers are using social media to grow their businesses. SocialMediaExaminer. com. Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2014.Social media marketing. Sage. Vinerean, S., Cetina, I., Dumitrescu, L. and Tichindelean, M., 2013. The effects of social media marketing on online consumer behavior.International Journal of Busine and Management,8(14), p.66. Advantages And Disadvantages Of Using Social Networking In Business Question: Discuss about the Reflective Journal on Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media in Business. Answer: Introduction The world of today is a world driven by the social network and we experience its presence in our lives every day. This realization actually helped me to decide my research topic which is The Advantages and Disadvantages of using Social Networking in Business. The role of social network sites in business operations cannot be ignored. I primarily focused on the business organizations use of social networking sites as an effective strategic tool and how it is helping them to enhance and expand their business. Focusing the specific area I framed my research objective. My mentor helped ad guided me throughout the journey and helped me rectify the problems. I wanted to investigate how social network sites are used to develop the brand value. I was also concerned about how the consumers are engaged through the SNS to create the brand awareness. Value of the Experience Like any other useful research project, it was not just my personal interest of gathering knowledge I considered other research scopes as well. I explored the disadvantages of organizational use of social network sites that are affecting the business performances. I also provided empirical data to support the conceptual framework I suggested. The presents scopes are making the project valuable but the future scopes will increase its value in a significant manner. The Gradual Learning Process Though social networking has not been existed more than two decades but it has successfully gained a lot of attention. We see every day how organizations are using social networks in their marketing and advertising in all forms of audio visual medium. As through social networking platform we connect to our friends and families the organizations use social network sites to connect to their consumers. While exploring the various literatures on social network sites role in brand building I realized that organizations effectively use these platforms for create the brand awareness. Through successful use of SNS, the consumers relate to their services, product and company. Few researchers stressed on the fact that the companies have to plan, nurture and support the brand image. Researchers have developed various dimensions of brand knowledge like public relations and customer service. I found that human resource department uses the social networking in the recruiting process. The companies connect to their consumers, communicate them and try to find out what exactly they are expecting and modify the operations accordingly. Evaluating the Learning Experience I developed my research based on 5 hypotheses that deal with relationship between the social networking and consumers, public relationship and customer service. Before deciding upon a specific research method I had to explore various research methods. After analyzing the existing research methods I was able to identify the most suitable one for the development of my research. I explored the main three research paradigms which are interpretivism, positivism and pragmatism. I considered positivism as it is an objective method that relies upon the statistical analysis of data. I also explored various philosophical assumptions like ontology, methodology, epistemology, axiology and methods. I decided the population to support the research with an aggregate of all subjects of the research under some specifications. I chose target clients for this research to be Optus and Telstra which are two large telecom organizations of Victoria, Australia. I selected those two companies based on their customers, ranking, profit and permission to work on them. I applied Taro Yamani formula for the population size and by calculating I finalized on 799 sample size. As I knew that smaller sample will produce less accurate data I chose the largest sample size. I followed government policies to separate the subject groups and only one cluster was selected randomly. I divided the selected cluster into groups of professionals, students, house wives and laborers. I applied quantitative approach for the data collection. For all the variables like CKM, BV and BK I set questionnaire. The questionnaire is segmented into two parts; I set 6 enquiries for the first part and 36 inquiries for the second part. In the first part I only focused on gathering information related to the age, gender, education, network, area and gender and for the second part I focused on the variables that I have already discussed. I applied the 5 point Likert Scale for the respondents to answer the questions. I initiat ed a pilot testing for the data collection to check the feasibility. I considered SEM and CFA methods for analyzing the results and hypothesis. Usefulness in the Future This research will help the telecommunication based organizations to understand the social networking and how they can develop the brand value. As a business student I will get significant knowledge out of the research which will help to grow as a skilled business professional Management. My research might be helpful for the organizations to develop customer oriented services and which areas should the company focus more. The final project indicates how the relationship between the brand knowledge and brand value can be enhanced. The research will also help to get consumer feedback which can be applied by the future researchers and managements to improve their brand value. This study has resulted in certain outcomes that involves contemporary organizations and can be used by the future researchers to further the research. I chose two large telecom companies of our country and in order to analyze my research topic and the main variables I decided upon are social networking, brand imag e, brand awareness and brand value. Conclusion I conducted this research that explored how contemporary business operations are successfully incorporating social networking systems and how they are benefiting. The research area was vast so I had to limit my direction and this was difficult. However exploring various other options may have taken up a significant amount f time but it was not wastage of time. The investigation helped to me to gather adequate knowledge to concentrate of specific areas with more depth. The research will highlight that how the social network is gradually transforming into a plethora of opportunities from where the new businesses can improve a lot.