Positive and Negative Impact of Social Media on Businesses

This report discusses the positive and negative impact of social media on businesses, including increased connectivity, promotion and marketing opportunities, faster communication, and maintaining productive relations. It also explores the challenges of security and privacy and measures to overcome them, such as ad-blocking plugins, making smart decisions about data placement, and using strong password generators. Additionally, it compares Facebook and YouTube as examples of social media platforms and their suitability for businesses. Overall, social media is a powerful communication tool for businesses to connect with consumers and promote their products and services.

INTEGRATED
PROFESSIONAL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Positive and negative aspect of social media over the internet....................................................3
Challenges and measures of security and privacy taken at time of using social media services.4
Two examples of social media.....................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Social media is defined as different applications and websites which are developed and
designed for to help the people in sharing their content with other people in less time. Thus,
businesses are also using these social media platforms to a large extent for the purpose of
business (Anderson and Jiang, 2018). This is majorly used by the company for marketing and
promoting their goods and services with the consumers.
Hence, the present report will start by discussing the positive and negative aspect of
social media. Further the various challenges of security and privacy for social media and
measures to overcome will be outlined. In the end the comparison of different social media
platforms and their suitability will be highlighted along with discussion on the social media site
as a communication tool.
MAIN BODY
Positive and negative aspect of social media over the internet
Positive impact of social media- there are many of the positive facts which influences
business and other people to use the social media. These positive impacts of the social media
help the business to promote their business to a large extent. Some of the positive impact of
social media over the internet to the business is discussed in the following connected points-
The first and foremost positive impact of use of social media is that this fosters
connectivity of the business. This is majorly pertaining to the fact that the business can connect
to many people at the same time. Also, they can connect to people sitting anywhere at any time
all over the globe. Thus, this use of social media helps the business in increasing their reach to
other places as well.
Another positive impact of social media for business is to promote and market their
goods and services over the internet. This is a good source because of the reason that this covers
a large amount of people at a single time and is also very cost effective.
One more positive impact of social media use is that this makes the communication much
faster and speedy (Jones, Borgman and Ulusoy, 2015). This is mainly due to the fact that all the
people are actively using the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many
other social media sites. Thus, this will help the company to make one message to post on these
sites and will be seen by every person using that site.

One more positive impact of the social media is that this help the business in maintaining
productive relations with other stakeholder and the people in the business world. The social
media help the people to stay in touch with one another. This aids in maintaining good relation
with one another (Tajudeen, Jaafar and Ainin, 2018).
Another positive impact of social media is that this help the company in taking feedback from
the consumers. This is done by way of taking online feedback from the consumers about the
usage and qualities of the products. Thus, this will help the business in getting the reviews of
their products and measure can be taken if the product is not much liked by the consumers.
Negative impact- as every thing has two side one positive and another negative, so the
negative side of the use of social media over the internet is discussed in the connected points
below-
The major negative impact of the social media use is the fact that if some wrong
information is being posted on the social media than it cannot be erased or rectified. This is
pertaining to the fact that once an information is shared over the internet then it reaches to many
people at a single time and this cannot be rectified.
Another negative impact of social media is that this requires for the business to have
many technical knowledges relating to the use of social media. This is important due to the fact
that if there is no knowledge of the use of social media then it can also be hacked by the other
people.
Another negative impact is that this can also damage the image of the company in negative
perspective. Moreover, this is pertaining to the fact that if some consumers are not satisfied with
the products of the company then they can also post the negative comments relating to their
experience on the social media sites. Then this is a drawback for the company image as the other
consumers will also read the negative comments for the product and services of the company.
One more negative impact of use of social media is that if some negative things are released over
the internet for the company than it is not possible for the company to identify that from where
these negative comments have been made. Also, if there are any misleading statement relating to
the company they also cannot be tracked that from where they have come.
Challenges and measures of security and privacy taken at time of using social media services
There are many challenges which are faced relating to security and privacy of the use of
social media (Dimitrova and Matthes, 2018). Also, there are many measures for overcoming

these challenges relating to social media. Thus, some of the challenges and their measures are
being discussed in the following point illustrated below-
Challenges faced- these are the problems which the businesses encounter at time of
maintaining security and privacy of the social media. Some of them are like-
Fake profile- there are many people which makes fake profile over the different social
media platforms which can be harmful for the business (Peng, Wang and Xie, 2016). This is
majorly because of the fact that many people who are not in favour of the company may create
fake accounts and profiles over the social media sites and can post and comment negatively for
the company over their websites. This will hamper the security of the data of company because
of the reason that if the company interacts with some fake profile person over social media
assuming that they are the same person then this will hamper the security issues. This is majorly
because of the fact that the company will share all the information which they had to share with
the person they are assuming to be. But in actual the person is not the same but some other one.
Information leakage- this is another challenge faced by the companies in using social
media because many of the information are stored in online form. Thus, there is always a risk of
leaking of the information. Also, the competition in the business environment is very tough and
intense. Thus, the information shared over the social media sites can be used by the competitors
in negative way and this may hamper the security of the information of the company. Thus, this
is a challenge faced by the company in managing security and privacy because if information is
leaked then it will not be possible for the company to take measures to solve them.
Cyberstalking- this is yet another important challenge faced by different businesses at
time of use of social media as a communication tool. This is referred to as stalking of the profile
of the company or harassing the image of the company through the internet and use of social
media websites (van Osch, Steinfield and Balogh, 2015). This cyberstalking can be used by the
competitors to keep an eye over the working of the company and on the website of the other
companies. This is done in order to get the information of the company and their policies being
used by the company.
Measures-
Ad-blocking plugins-'
When people used social media service or tool they faced different types of challenges
which affect security of personal life as well as professional. For example, some individuals

creates their fake profiles on social media sites to gather personal information about someone
else which is not appropriate. In order to overcome this challenge of privacy and security, ad
blocking plugins is the best application (Pujol, Hohlfeld and Feldmann, 2015). People can take
the advantage of this service, it helps to remove and block fake profiles on social media as results
highly protect personal data. In other words, ad blocking is software abilities for altering and
removing online advertising, fake account and many other things in web browser or applications.
Browser extensions is one of the most popular ad blocking way. Many web browsers permits
people to ad blocking plugin to restrict third party cookies. For this intention individuals can use
some more tools like Ghostery or turn on incognito mode in its browser. With the help of this
app, people can block face account advertising on their social media accounts.
Make smart decisions about where people place data or information-
Information leakage is another challenges that faced when social media is used online. It
is one of the biggest threat that people face when they use social media tools and applications
(Sun and et.al., 2016). To overcome this barrier, it is very essential to make good decisions about
where they want to place personal data or information. Cyber criminals are always looking for
security holes in software of all types, which is not suitable for security or privacy of data.
Before placing any information related to work as well as personal, individuals have to make
assure where they are placing it, they have to think twice that this site is safe or not to used. To
reduce exposure to hackers try, switching to less popular solutions is better. For example, using
chrome book or Linux instead of windows it better option that save risk of information leakage.
Before making any decision about posting pictures and placing data, make assure that people
want to use above applications that is updated on regular basis.
Strong password generators-
It is the best measure which has to be considered as to overcome challenges mentioned
above. With the help of making strong password, the data privacy and security is possible, it
allows posting pictures on social media sites where no one can hack or used it unethically
(Tunstall and Kearns, 2016). Without taking permission or having right password third party
cannot be able to get information about someone else, it is helps to reduce threat of data leakage.
Dashlane is password manage, it supports to recognize all passwords in one place as well as
generate secure one. Some time people forget their password, that is risk factor of cyber talking.
Third party can take chance and used account of other person to harass individuals through

internet and social media sites. To reduce the risk or overcome this challenge, Dashlane is the
best way, along with this portable apps work same.
Two examples of social media
Social media is technology based websites that allow sharing and effectively create
content in social networking. Facebook and YouTube is the example of social media
applications.
Contrast features of two social media websites-
Facebook is considered as social networking or online communication tool that give
individuals power to connect with family, friends, stakeholders and other people easily within
short period (Rus and Cameron, 2016). It is also used for commercial purpose as to grow
businesses rather than before, it helps to make marketing of companies and their products. The
feature of Facebook is quite different from YouTube, in this site people can organize list of all
information, find group of people, watch live shows, and promote goods or services easily.
On the other hand, YouTube helps to share video but in this networking site people
cannot be able to find friends and family members, it is used for marketing purpose nothing more
than it. The feature of YouTube is quite different from Facebook, it allows commenting on
videos, provide better live streams and improved comments.
Comparison between key features of Facebook and You Tube-
As compare to YouTube, Facebook gives the best opportunity as it have such amazing
features that enhance interest in communication. Facebook connect people while YouTube
provide range of the latest music videos (Su and Chan, 2017). It provides access individuals
insights characteristic from left-hand side of group direction bar. The amazing feature about
Facebook is make it much better than other social media sites, when people die and its family
members want to use their account for obtaining some information, Facebook introduced legacy
contact tab, just like will, as it help person to give one of their Facebook friends approval to
operate account.
On the other side, YouTube is search engine, which means videos related to business
have longer shelf life because it can easily be discovered, this feature is not found on Facebook
(An, Ji and Ng, 2019).
You tube and Facebook suitability for businesses-

With the speed of new weight being included and social media to information shared
through social networking tool, having Facebook page filled with good content relevant to
business will help to boost search engine rankings (Tanti and Ghozali, 2018). It is suitable for
companies as lets upload pictures of products and their videos. It is powerful and highly effective
way to communicate target market and potential consumers, permitting people to see goods or
services without having to visit stores. Through Facebook features, organizations can promote
their businesses easily, it helps to increase brand awareness and gain exposure of consumers.
As it can be said that YouTube is recognized as one of the best channel or source used for
video marketing (Xu and et.al., 2016). It is also suitable for businesses, supports to improve ROI,
expand social reach and diversify organizations video marketing strategy with different channels.
Social media sites is communication tool-
It is true, social media sites is the best communication tool, it is the great way to let others
know about individual, it is sued as powerful information sharing and cross promotional
communication tool for consumers and others (Cardon and Marshall, 2015). It is effective tool in
connecting these most essential dots. It is described as gathering of online communication
channels dedicated to society based input, context transferring, interaction and collaboration.
Some of usually known communication networking sites are Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and
Facebook. It helps to build strong connections between consumers and business when using it. It
does not allow hearing what other says, but make person able to respond it quickly without
wasting minutes.
Furthermore, with the help of social media websites and applications people can be able
to connect with other person. In context of business, social media allow to communicate to
potential consumers, give access to know more about market trends which is quite beneficial for
growth of businesses.
CONCLUSION
From above, it has been concluded that social media made positive and negative impact
on internet. It helps to promote business products and services which they want to offer number
of consumers, social media is especially beneficial for companies when they enter into new
market and promote their goods. This study summarized challenges faced when social media
services are used online, with the help of taking possible actions and used better ways it is easy
to overcome barriers. Furthermore, Face book and YouTube are suitable for businesses, it

provides benefit as increasing profitability, these two social media tools helps to promote and
introduce product within marketplace effectively. Social media sites connect one person to
another one from long distance, it is considered as one of the best communication tool.

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