Research on Using Social Media in Food Business in Australia

Running Head: Business research 1
Advantage and Disadvantage of Social Media Network

Business research 2
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project objective..............................................................................................................................4
Project scope....................................................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................5
Research questions/Hypothesis.......................................................................................................6
Primary Questions........................................................................................................................6
Secondary Questions....................................................................................................................6
Research design and Methodology..................................................................................................6
Qualitative research......................................................................................................................6
Quantitative research....................................................................................................................7
Research limitations.........................................................................................................................7
Time Schedule (Research Plan).......................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
Appendix........................................................................................................................................10

Business research 3
Introduction
This research is conducted to analyze the advantage and disadvantage of using social
media in the food business in Australia. Social media has played an important role in the success
and growth of a company. To stay competitive in the market, it is important for the companies to
identify the target customers to expand the business in the social networking sites. In the recent
decades, social media is an important concept by which companies are getting opportunities to
expand the business by business-to-customer, business-to-business communication, and
customer-to customer communication (Weiss, Lurie & Macinnis, 2008).
The key objective of this analysis is to understand the pros and cons of social media in
the business. Social media has provided various opportunities to the food sector to present the
products in different communities that may be involved. Social media includes various functions
in the form of technology which allows the companies to tag, blog, post and dig etc. There are
various social media platforms such as MySpace, Digg, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
Google Plus etc. All these platforms are helpful for the businesses like food business in order to
provide the information related to the products and services. Social media is now considered as
an effective tool for various organizations to market their products and services. Further, it is
observed that the social media users are highly motivated with their buying decisions. Along
with this, 70% of users are engaged in social media marketing and it has unenthusiastic impact
on the marketers also. Despite of advantages, there are some disadvantages involved in social
media which need to be addressed effectively (Hill & Moran, 2011).
While dealing with the social networking platforms in the business of food industry, the
companies have to face challenge related to the lack of budget. It is well known that the social
networking sites play a crucial role in the business operations as they are able to connect with the
people in the operating market. There are some advantages of social media in the business
perspective (Forman, Ghose & Wiesenfeld, 2008).
 Social media includes various platforms dealing in the different way and they have
various advanced features for the additional fee. Some of the social media sites have
features that are free to use.

Business research 4
 Social media is helpful in making the business effective and strong in the new market.
Along with this, social media is helpful in reducing the cost of the business. Social media
enables the companies to stay connected with the customers.
 Companies are also able to provide relevant information to the customers without any
kind of restrictions. This is the key advantage over the other forms to stay connected with
the customers (Barefoot & Szabo, 2010).
Apart from this, there are some disadvantages with the social media while using in various
businesses.
 In the social media, there can be issue related to trademark and copyright. Marketers have
to deal with the issue of copyright and trademarks and misuse of intellectual property.
 With the social media, it is difficult to manage some services. There can be issue related
to time commitment in the operations. Privacy issues are one of the challenges in the
social media. Companies face difficulties in gaining trust of the customers.
Project objective
Social networking sites are important for achieving the business objectives in the
companies. While operating in the food industry, social media is also not completely different.
According to recent survey and observations on the various organizations, it is observed that
there are 80% of foods businesses executives are agree on the effectiveness on the social media
tools. The key aim of the project is to understand the social networking sites and impact of social
networking platforms upon the business of the food companies. Along with this, the objective of
this study is to identify the positive outcome of the social sites along with the expected
disadvantages and challenges the businesses have to face in the business in the Australian food
industry.
Project scope
There are various scopes of this project. While dealing the business in business in food
industry in Australia, it is important to understand the social networking techniques. The tools of
social media are used for the success and growth of the business as it is the fastest to make
people aware about the products and services. In current time, social networking sites have