Integrated professional skills in the digital age

This report discusses the benefits and disadvantages of being online and offline for individuals and businesses. It also explores the challenges related to security and privacy faced by them when they go online. Additionally, it highlights the difference between blogs and websites.

Integrated professional skills
in the digital age

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
PART 1.......................................................................................................................................3
Comparison and contrast between positive and negative aspects of an individual and
business being online and offline...........................................................................................3
PART 2.......................................................................................................................................6
Challenges related to security and privacy faced by individual and businesses when they go
online......................................................................................................................................6
PART 3.......................................................................................................................................7
Difference between blog and website along with tools for creation of blog.........................7
Blog as a communication tool................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Digitalisation is the process which is used by individual and businesses so as to
translate some information into a noticeable digital method. This information are stored in the
form of bits and then processed for further use. In current scenario every company and
individual are using online platform so as to sell their product or services or to stay social on
social media with the help of digitalisation methods (Alalwan and et. al.., 2017). So it can be
said that internet is the interactive technology which is having computer as mediator which
helps the business and individual to trade and to share valuable information which could be
helpful for someone. This report is prepared so as to understand benefits and disadvantages
for individual and businesses when they use online and offline platform. Furthermore this
report discusses challenges and issues faced by individual and businesses when they go
online and at last benefits of blog over websites are showcased.
PART 1
Comparison and contrast between positive and negative aspects of an individual and business
being online and offline
In modern time every business and every individual is having social existence which
is based on internet and being online. When businesses are running on online and offline
platform they face some benefits and negative impact and similarly when a person interacts
with people by using online media and offline modes that is also having positive and negative
impacts. These impacts are enlightened as below:
For individual being online
Social media is one of the greatest aspects which are used by individual in order to
communicate and interact with their known or unknown persons. So it is require comparing
and contrasting negative aspects in an effective manner. In this regard below is the through
bifurcation in an efficient manner:
Positive aspects Negative aspects
 This helps the individual to connect
with huge number of people which
enhances knowledge and skills of
 Social media is having various
viruses and scams which may lead to
various frauds that can affect the

individual.
 With the help of online channels an
individual is able to enhance his or
her visibility.
 With the use of internet social media
can be accessed which renders high
opportunity to individual so as to
share their ideas with others.
 With the assistance of internet any
information can be obtained at any
time when required (Bradshaw,
2017).
 Internet is helpful for employees,
students and trainees as with its use
they may have certain training session
so with their assistance they can make
them educate.
emotional balance of an individual.
 Sometimes it is seen that information
available on social media is fake and
fabricated which leads to generation
of distrust among people.
 The major problem faced on internet
is leaking of personal data; this may
hamper privacy of an individual.
 With the use of online platform
several financial transaction can be
performed and during this transaction
the fear of cyber hacking is high that
may lead to financial losses to
individual.
For individual being offline
When an individual is willing to interact and to get information on offline platform
the differentiation of positive and negative aspects are explained as below:
Positive aspect Negative aspect
 When a person connects to other
person on such offline platform this
assist them to maintain personal
relationship with each other which
may last longer (Chawinga, 2017).
 When information is gathered offline
then resource is easily obtained which
creates trustworthiness. For example
if information is gathered through
books then it can be verified and
 Offline communication does not have
any record so it is hard to preserve the
message or conversation for future
use.
 When information are shared with the
use of offline channels then words
can be distorted which may lead to
reaching of wrong or inaccurate
information.
 Sometime the words of speaker are

checked.
 When interactions are face to face
then this help the individual to
enhance his or her communication
and vocational skills and capabilities.
 With the help of offline
communication there is no threat of
hacking and stealing of information.
 Offline communication is having
various tools such as face to face
communication, telephonic
conversation etc. On the other hand
there are various method by which
information can be gathered in offline
platform such as books, journals,
newspapers, magazines, TV, radio
etc.
confusing in face to face
communication so this may create
confusion of vision.
 Sometime the information collected is
irrelevant to our subject or our topic
so individual does not take decision
on spontaneous manner.
 On collection of information so many
records are required to keep so as to
satisfy future needs which may result
in mixing up of different information
with each other.
For businesses being online
When a business is running on online platform this may have several positive and
negative aspects which are explained as under:
Positive aspects Negative aspects
 With the help of online business, the
business may establish their existence
over global level so this helps them to
attract huge customers.
 Online promotional activities are
highly attractive and economic. These
activities are advantageous for the
business to promote their product or
service in no time and with high
customer coverage. For example
 As social media is one of the
prominent methods to communicate
with customer and stakeholder of
business but at the same time this
plays negative role over goodwill of
the business. As any negative issue
may be spread throughout the internet
spontaneously. For example
Controversy of Nestle portrayed very
bad image of the company due to

M&S may initiate their online
promotional activities so as to
compete with their rivals such as
Zara.
 Online platform provides fast
payment services which help the
business to enhance their profit within
real time of selling of their product or
services.
 One of the prominent positive aspects
of online media is that all the
information regarding the business
can be available to stakeholders so as
to enhance communication with them.
For example financial data of Hilton
are available on their website and
their stakeholder may check them so
as to get to know about credit
worthiness of the business.
ineffective dispersion of information
associated with this matter.
 The online payment system does not
seem to be safe as some of the
customer has faced fraud so they are
scared to use online platform to shop
this affect profitability of online
business (Fuchs, 2017).
 One of the major disadvantages of
online business is that strategy of one
business can be imitated by another
business immediately. For instance
pricing strategy used by M&S is price
penetration so as to attract customer
which could be used by Zara and this
give losses to the prior company.
 All the businesses are not having
online presence such as a food dealer
can advertise their menu online but
they cannot cater their customer
online.
For businesses being offline
Positive aspects Negative aspects
 When business is offline this may
lead to owner to form personal
relation that may boost market image
and customer footfall of the company.
 Offline business help their customer
to build brand loyalty as some people
are prone to buy things by physically
touching them so these businesses are
 The running and maintenance cost of
offline business is very high. For
example stores of M&S are at
prominent locations such at malls and
city centres so that are required to pay
high rent which is an unavoidable and
fix expense. This way these expenses
lead to lose profit of business.

beneficial for those shoppers.
 It is easy for business to attract more
customers by showing them qualities
and benefits of the products. For
instance Zara is having wide range of
clothing but the material quality can
be judged only by touching it (Zhang
and Luo, 2016).
 When businesses are promoted at
offline platform then this may have
their highest efficiency as brochure,
leaflet can be distributed to potential
customer that may resultantly
enhance customer footfall.
 The cost of offline marketing
campaign is very high as when
campaign is taking place at more than
one place, increased expenses can be
faced by business due to which
profitability is minimised.
 Customer coverage is low in the case
of offline business. For instance
showroom of M&S in victoria street
London will have customer coverage
of nearby area and vicinity. This
restrict the business to embrace
growth opportunities.
PART 2
Challenges related to security and privacy faced by individual and businesses when they go
online
Virus and malware issue: One of the major challenges which is faced by individual
and business as well as when they go online is threat of malware and viruses. Numerous
malicious software are there on internet which are implemented so as to get control of other
computer and computer operations that can damage the whole computer system due to which
many secret information may get leaked. On the other hand viruses may lead to data
corruption within the computer system so which can leak information which was kept secret
for further use (Garrido-Moreno and Lockett, 2016). Similarly when an individual goes
online he or she may have issue of leaking personal security and personal data. Whereas the
online business may have issue of security as due to which personal data of their employee
make be leaked which is a threat for company. For instance intercontinental hotel is having
all their data recorded with the help of their cloud computing software so when any virus is
faced in that software this will leak their data which can cause loss to business and individual
as well.

Hacking: Another challenge associated with individual and businesses when they go
online is the threat of cyber hacking. Hacking practices are used by some individual with
view to steal data from other system via internet in order to use that information for personal
or professional use which is unethical in terms of business practices. Various practices are
adopted by individual so as to fulfil their agenda of stealing information by unethical means.
Several methods are used by hackers such as Clickjacking in which hackers need to just click
once and the hacking process is complete. There are many more methods which are used by
hackers so as to creep in another system in order to get some crucial information. So fear of
hacking is staying with individual as well as businesses, businesses are having threat form
hacking so as to leaking of their information and business data which may affect the business
operation and its sustainability.
Measures of Security and Privacy Challenges
In order to avoid negative effects of these challenges business and individual are
supposed to establish some corrective and preventive measures so as to minimise their impact
over business and life of individual. These measures are elaborated as under:
Anti-viruses: This is the foremost essential of business which is operating online and
individual who are going online to explore that they install anti viruses software in their
system so as to protect their system from any attack of internet viruses (GIRELLI, 2016).
This helps them to safeguard their accounts and crucial information. In context of individual
anti-virus software assist them to fulfil their security and privacy concerns.
Password protection: This measure can be used to avoid hacking in system. With the
help of difficult password accounts may be get protected so this will be difficult for hackers
to hack that system on social media account or hard to decode the password for malicious
internet entity (Soros, 2018). Passwords are protected with series of encryption codes which
can be decrypted by the user who is an authenticate user to use that. This helps the business
to enhance their organisational security and individual to meet up their own privacy concerns.
Training: Most of the internet challenges are arising due to lack of awareness and
training to use social media and internet. So appropriate training to employee will lead to
avoid hacking and malicious online attack which could save stealing of crucial information
and data. In addition proper training will stimulate proper counter act to deal with hacking
and cyber-attack due to this business and personal benefits and data can be safeguarded.

PART 3
Difference between blog and website along with tools for creation of blog.
Blog: Blogs are informal websites which are published in reverse chronological
manner so as to highlight most recent blog at first instance. Blogs are used for personal use
and in modern business this is used as communicational and promotional tool. With the help
of blogs customer may get attracted towards a product or a service. Blogs are created by
informal parties so as to share their experience about a product, service, event or news that
party is known as blogger (Lee and Bonk, 2016). For instance: clothing wear of Zara are used
by some blogger then he or she may share their experiences an views about that item on his
or her blog page so that to advertise Zara and to communicate with mass people.
Websites: Websites are group of web pages which are created by some individual and
group of individual so as to make that accessible for mass population. Website contains
common domain name which are collectively accessible on World Wide Web by every
person. Websites are made for formal purpose and generally made on some particular topic
for instance entertainment, science, medical, education etc.
Difference between blog and website
Basis Blog Website
Content The content over blogs is
updated on regular basis that
gives them flexibility to
change the content or update
the posted content (Miller,
and et. al. 2016).
The content over websites is
static in nature which give it
rigidity to get altered in short
span of time.
Nature Blogs are informal in nature
and these are created by any
individual or group of
individual which are having
idea about the topic for
which blog is being prepared.
This is formal in nature, as
this is created for a specific
goal or agenda
Level of communication Blogs are having two way
communications that means
Websites are having one way
communication as

the person who is posting
blogs and the person who is
reading blogs may get
interacted and share their
thoughts with each other.
interactivity is not possible in
the form of websites
(Morreale, Valenzano and
Bauer, 2017).
Topics of inclusion Blogs are made for the
purpose to share information
about usage and problems
faced while usage a particular
product or services.
Website is made for
advertising a particular
product or service on internet
so as to position that in
global market.
Popularity Blogs are the emerging
concept of internet and social
media so do not possess
much popularity.
This is an old and trusted
method thus having high
market popularity.
Creativity Blogs demonstrates personal
creativity as in writing the
block and presenting the blog
in such a manner that it can
be read by huge people so as
to establish communication
and interaction with them.
Website demonstrates
professional creativity as
how mush creativity does a
business have which will be
showcased on website so as
to attract huge public in order
to enhance customer
involvement.
Blog as a communication tool
In modern internet world, business blogs play prominent role as communication tool
for businesses and individual as well. There are many social media tools which are used by
businesses and individual to communicate with each other such as Facebook, Email etc. Just
like that blogs are also used as communication tool in current internet evolution world. Blogs
are digital communication tool which gives easiest way to establish two way communications
so as to interact with huge population (Patton and et. al., 2019). With the help of creating and
writing experiences and knowledge can be shared via blogs as about experience of usage of
some product or services of a particular company or business. Blog stimulates fair and
transparent discussions and cultivate close relationship with audience so as to enhance two
way communications. So it can be concluded that for businesses and individual blogs are the

mediator to be used as a communication tool which is having prominent impact on personal
and professional development.
CONCLUSION
From the above detailed report it can be deduced that in current revolutionary world
internet is having prominent role in professional and personal development. When business
operates online they may capture global audience but at the same time they will have to face
issues like hacking and bugging which can affect efficiency and goodwill of them. On the
other hand when an individual interacts with the help of online media such as social media
then they will be able to share their thoughts with huge mass but at the same time fear of
leaking information is always there if safety measures are not appropriate. Furthermore in
current modern business era blogs are having prominent role in promotion of product and
services of a business, blogs are used as communicational tools by individual and businesses
so as to establish two way communications with public in order to gather feedback for further
modification.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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Miller and et. al., 2016. How the world changed social media (Vol. 1). UCL press.
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Patton and et. al., 2019. What’sa threat on social media? How Black and Latino Chicago
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