Advantages and Disadvantages of using online and Social Networks for Business

This research paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of using online and social networks for business, focusing on the impact on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Australia. The study examines the effectiveness of different social media platforms for marketing and sales promotion, compares social media with traditional marketing methods, and analyzes factors hindering wider adoption of social media by SMEs. The research utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews and surveys, to gather data from employees and customers of Australian businesses. The findings provide insights into the benefits and challenges of social media for SMEs, highlighting the importance of strategic implementation and understanding the unique needs of the Australian market.

Assignment 2
Name : Maulik Dhirubhai Gajera
Student ID : BCM8329
Subject Code : HI6008G_T1_2018
Due Date :
Course Coordinator: Mark Boulle
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Project Objective........................................................................................................................3
Project Scope..............................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................4
Research Question......................................................................................................................5
Research Design and Methodology...........................................................................................6
Qualitative method of research...............................................................................................6
Quantitative Method of Research...........................................................................................7
Limitations of the Research Work.............................................................................................7
Time Schedule............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9
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Advantages and Disadvantages of using online and
Social Networks for Business
Introduction
In the last decade, there has been a boom in the use of social media applications and other
web 2.0 technologies, such as weblogs, content marketing, Social Network Sites (SNSs), and
other secondary sources. Employing the internal social media apps leads to improved
communication among the workers. It also improves the collaboration among them, assists in
knowledge management, creating innovative products and services, and helps in social media
marketing. Nowadays, companies are incorporating social media platform to build customer
relationship and brand image. In addition, recruitments and hiring of employees are also
depending on social media applications and platform. Social media is not only an important
business instrument for large enterprises but it also helps the small businesses to grow and
sustain in the market. The main aim of this study is to determine the advantages and
disadvantage of social media platform in the business world, especially for the SMEs in
Australia.
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Project Objective
The objectives of composing this research paper are:-
 To determine the most efficient social media platform for marketing and sales
promotion for SMEs of Australia.
 To compare the social media with other traditional marketing platforms.
 To analyse the factors that hinder the wider adoption of various social media
platforms in SMEs.
Project Scope
The purpose of carrying out this research is to analyse the importance of social media in the
business marketing of SMEs and other large scale corporation. The survey are carried out in
order to understand the penetration of social media in different industries of Australia. The
research analyses the differences between the different social media platform and their
effectiveness. Once all the above-mentioned points are studied, the advantages and
disadvantages of social media on businesses in Australia is analysed.
Literature Review
In the assignment 1, many literatures were studied and reviewed as per three different
divisions. First division talked about different social media channels for marketing. The
second and third division explained the advantages and disadvantages of social media
respectively.
In the recent times, the use of social media in the corporate world has grab the attention of
marketers, business analysts, and investigators. Numerous research have been carried out just
to determine the effect of the social media on both internal and external business
environment. In the case studies reviewed by Richter and Riemer (2012), large knowledge-
intensive corporations employed social networking sites. In the study, three modes of
business SNS, such as identification of experts, strengthening existing relations, and
developing personal context were identified.
Weblogs are one of the widely used social media platforms that are employed by the large
number of companies. They assist in establishing a formal mode of communication between
the CEO and the organisation’s customers (Efimova and Grudin, 2013).
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Despite of large number of advantages of using social media marketing and platform, there
are many factors that hinder the implementation and adoption of social media application in
business operation. There are wide range of economic, technical, and cultural factors that
hinder the use of social media platform in the enterprises (Fuchs-Kittowski, et al., 2013). The
most crucial among them is the cost-benefit analysis that often gives vague results. In today’s
day and age, the social media assists businesses to put the information and their customers in
the centre. This helps the individual by providing opportunities to communicate without any
ado in open space. Social media platforms are updating continuously so to make them more
user-friendly and secure.
In a research carried by Kaske, et al., (2015), it was found out the word of mouth plays a
significant role in selecting the particular social media platform by people. The information
that comes from family, relatives, and friends is considered to be more important and reliable
as compared to other media channels. Now, people can share and suggest a product to their
relatives. This helps both the parties i.e., business and the customers. Companies have now
hired their brand ambassadors to promote their products and services. Businesses in today’s
world are now promoting an environment, wherein an effective system of information and
feedback is established.
Small businesses should need to enhance their performances, make viable efforts to connect
to their customers, and sustain themselves in the competitive market. Stockdale, et.al (2012)
found that for SMEs, the prime business values lie in efficient customer engagement. Factors,
such as adoption and employing, motivating the employees and providing them the benefits
are the success factors behind the use of social media in business environment. The major
benefit of employing social media in the marketing strategy of a small businesses. It assists in
developing new relationship, enhancing the customer base, and carrying out the effective
branding.
Apart from this, there are many downside of using social media in marketing of SMEs, such
as security and spamming issues, hacking, and false advertisement (Kaplan and Haenlein,
(2014). Small businesses must make use of all the available features of the social media
platforms so as to keep their businesses updated. The business world is rapidly changing and
use of social media helps in sustaining the business in the efficient way. Small business
organisations are facing competition from the multinational companies and traditional
organisations through internet.
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The gap in the following literatures is that none of them is comparing the effect of social
media on LSEs and SMEs. In addition to this, they have just studied the influence of social
media from business’s prospective, not from the customer’s mindset. Moreover, nothing was
said about the effect of traditional marketing approaches on SMEs, such as newspaper and
radio ads, etc.
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Research Question
The main purpose of this research work is to identify and fill the gap in the literature. The
following report would be highlighting the questions given below in this section.
Primary Question
Q1: What are the positive and negative impacts of different social media platforms on LSEs
and SMEs?
Secondary Question
Q1: Which social media platform is most effective for SMEs in the Australian market?
Q2: How to compare the social media with other traditional marketing platforms?
Q3: What are the factors that hinder the wider adoption of various social media platforms in
SMEs?
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Research Design and Methodology
Choosing an apt research methodology is quite perplexing and a complicated task in the
whole research work. There are many available methods that can be brought into use
depending upon the type of research problem. In the given case, the main idea is to determine
the advantages and disadvantages of social media on the small businesses. One can take
advice from any subject expert. As already discussed that selection of the method is the most
crucial step. There are four stages of a research work, namely designing, sampling, coding
and measurements, and analysing (Parveen, F., 2012). The type of research work tells the
type of research methodologies used to collect the data. If an investigator is more into
collecting the quantitative data, then it consists of measuring variables and proving the
authenticity of the available theories and hypothesis. If a researcher wants to understand the
phenomenon, beliefs, experience, and meanings, then the best suitable method is qualitative
analysis. In many cases both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used to
understand a topic. In quantitative research methodology, the data collection is usually done
by implementation of mathematical and statistical tools. Data collection is usually done via
polls, questionnaire, and surveys. In qualitative research method, the data and information is
collected by indulging in direct conversation with the customers and employees.
Qualitative method of research
In this type of research, the experience, ideas, and values are described and understood. The
key purpose of carrying out the qualitative research method in the SMEs and LSEs of
Australia is to explore employees’ approaches and styles to learn the use of social media
platform. This is basically done by face-to-face discussion with employees and customers of
the business organisation. The information can be collected either in the form of notes or
recorded tape. For the interview purpose, one has to prepare an interview schedule containing
numbers of questions (closed or open-ended). The household surveys and census questions
are usually close ended. For the research purpose, 190 companies of Australia are selected
and their employees are interviewed in here.
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Quantitative Method of Research
These research methods are dependent on questionnaires as they are easy and quicker way of
data collection. Designing a questionnaire is not cake walk and may require the intervention
of the subject experts. In addition to this, the problem with questionnaire is that it has low
response rate. In context of the given research problem, one needs to take care of the length
of the questionnaire. Lengthy questionnaire often inhibit response rate. Researcher should
take care that questions must be clear and the investigator should be able to manage data.
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Limitations of the Research Work
It is a well-known fact that each and every research work will have certain limitation and it is
normal to have them because research is a cyclic process. The limitation in itself is a
researching subject. Every researcher knows about the limitation in his/her research project.
One must give the acknowledgement of limitation before concluding the report. The
limitation of this research work is given below:-
 The aims and objectives of the research work are too broad and each objective is a
research topic in itself.
 Scope of the research work is only highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of
social media on businesses. In addition to this, it should also focus the impacts of
social media on customer loyalty.
 The lack of available theories and previous literatures also pose a challenge in the
research work. Existing literature helps in establishing the foundation for the future
research work. Lack of literature in this case, limits the objectives and scope of the
research.
 The sample size was randomly decided without applying any formula or theories. The
sample size plays a significant role in the quantitative research. But, in this case,
random decision may induce discrepancies in the data.
 In addition to the above limitation, lack of experience in selecting the method of
collecting the primary data may also pose a problem.
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Time Schedule
Details May
2018
June
2018
July
2018
Introduction and objective
Literature review
Research methodology
Collection of data
Analysis of data
Conclusion and recommendations
Submission of first draft
Revision, if required
Final draft Submission
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Conclusion
The following research work shed some light on the implementation of social media
platforms in the business operation, especially in the case of small businesses. SMEs in
Australia receive little government help and attention. In order to study the social media
approaches used by the SMEs in Australia, first the benefits of implementing the social media
in business marketing and sales was studied. In addition to this, factors that hinders the
adoption of social media platforms in business world were analysed. The customers and
employees working at 192 organisations of Australia were interviewed and surveyed.
Number of personal interviews were conducted so as to deepen the understanding of the
adoption of social media on large scale. The choice of question that were to be asked from the
employees and the loyal customers of the businesses were discussed with the experts so as to
decrease the discrepancies from the data collected from the qualitative and quantitative
research method.
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References
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Thousand Oaks,
California: SAGE Publishing Inc.
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opportunities of social media.
Business Horizons, 53 (1), 59-68.
 Kim, H. D., Lee, I., & Lee, C. K. (2013). Building Web 2.0 enterprises: A study of
small and medium enterprises in the United States.
International Small Business
Journal,
31(2), 156-174.
 P. Eriksson and A. Kovalainen. (2016). Qualitative Methods in Business Research: A
Practical Guide to Social Research. London:
Sage Publishing Limited.
 Parveen, F. (2012). Impact of Social Media Usage on Organizations. In
PACIS (p.
192).
 Richter, A., & Riemer, K. (2013). Corporate social networking sites–modes of use
and appropriation through co-evolution. In
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Information Systems (pp. 2-4).
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conference on Knowledge Management and Knowledge Technologies (p. 4). ACM.
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