Impact of Social Media on Business and Society

Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate and do business. It has opened up new opportunities for marketing, customer service, and brand building. However, it also has some negative effects like cyberbullying and security breaches.

Social media and its application

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Social media and its application
Social media has impacted all the sectors weather its business or education. Social media
has triggered the change and have also helped in overcoming various challenges faced by
existing business model. Social media has enhanced the business process by opening various
platforms through which communication can take place easily. Social media plays an
imperative role in lives of people and businesses (Hong, Hwang, Szeto, Tsai, Kuo & Hsu,
2016). Social media strengthens the communication channel and allow an individual to
communicate from anywhere at any time. It has been communication very easy as compared
to the past decades. Anyone can remain connected by simply a touch of button and it has
made communication a better option. Social media has not only impacted the lives of people
but have affected the businesses also. It is considered as new and faster mode of
communication through which pictures, blogs and stories could be exchanged easily. It has
also widened the scope of marketing and online campaign. The brand image can be improved
by promoting and sharing business brand (Hajli, 2014). Services are shared and promoted
using social media platforms that allow businesses to gain more clients and customers. Social
media has improved public relations along with marketing development. Businesses have
used social media as a way for advertising their services so that they can capture wider
audience (Hudson, Roth, Madden & Hudson, 2015). It has allowed businesses to reach to
numerous users by offering discounts and promotion so that profit margins are improved.
Social media can also have some negative effects like cyber bullying d unwanted exposure.
There are consequences as the information can be read or accessed by some unauthorised
user that can breach the security (Hudson, Roth, Madden & Hudson, 2015). It is true that
benefits of social media have suppressed its disadvantages, but these concerns should be
removed. Social media allow accessing the information of outside world.

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In future also social media will influence the business in terms of internal communication as
well as effective collaboration of task. Some of the major platforms of social media are
Facebook, wikis, Google, Skype and many others. Social media basically means human
communication that enables the user to share their ideas (Investopedia, 2016). Social media
has made the information just a button press away. It is one of the biggest elements that
cannot be ignored (Ioanăs & Stoica, 2014). It is a collection of various applications, platforms
and websites that allow creating and sharing new opportunities. From the research it was
found that some people say social media has destroyed the human relationship as human
interactions are converted and modified. Social media is widely expanded thus it has both
positive and negative sides (Grajales, et.al, 2014). It allows social growth for business by
offering various marketing tools so that awareness could be offered. Social media can also
cause poor mental growth and can increase wrong influence among children (Hootsuite,
2016).
The impact of social media among youngsters has both positive and negative side. The
positive side says that it is a good tool for education; create awareness for many social issues,
benefits for communicating through long distance and also offer wider opportunity to
employees (Hudson, 2017). Some of the negative impact of social media is that it is used for
wrong means to perform illegal activities. There is lack of privacy that increases the chances
of security breach through hacking, data theft and phishing crimes (Kumar & Bezawada,
2016). Social media has also used to increase support as it allows the services to remain
available all the time.
Social media is a best way to build a brand by making the services and products accessible
easily. This increases the market availability of brand. It also offers customer support at time
of being buying or purchasing product by reading the reviews from other user. Additionally
also allow to offer feedback so that improvement can be made (Ngai, Tao & Moon, 2015). It

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is a tool that allows user to connect to larger target audience also helps in evaluating the
strategies that are used by the competitors. Society growth is made possible by the use of
social media that has created awareness for fighting from the crime (Kim, Lee, Shin &
Yang, 2017). The major drawbacks of using social media are cyber bullying that can cause
harm to many individual. It can cause loss personal data as there is security issues linked with
it (Nelson & LeMay, 2015).
In today time, social media can be seen as an addiction and somewhere has spoiled family
life as it is seen that people are mostly busy over their phone. In the family gathering people
might sit together but they do not interact but end up using their phone and surfing social
media platforms (Ngai, Moon, Lam, Chin & Tao, 2015). Some of the examples of social
media are Facebook, Twitter, Google, Wikipedia and many others. Facebook is a free social
networking platform that allow user to remain in touch with their friends across the globe.
Twitter is another example that allow user to post small tweets regarding some event so that
information and views are shared (Pittman & Reich, 2016). Google+ is also a social
networking platform that allow user to interact offline too. Wikipedia is also a free social
media platform that shares information about all the topics.
Social media allow people to use the time productively by sharing activities among wide
group of people. The negative use of social media is that people waste a lot of time surfing
social media (Matar, Matar, Balachandran & Hunaiti, 2016). The advantage of social media
is allowing people so that you can interact on a social platform. Social media has proved to be
very beneficial for small businesses as they take chance to expand their business in new
geographical areas (Rauniar, Rawski, Yang & Johnson, 2014). Even digital marketing
companies make use of social media so that business services can be promoted.

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Social media is used in many ways; one of the most important aspects is communication as it
allows customers and client to connect to each other from far away location. Social media
eliminates the issue of geographical distance. The other best use of social networks is in
businesses so that virtual teams can be established (Rauniar, Rawski, Yang & Johnson,
2014). Social media allow the organisation to connect to all the sub branches ad work can be
managed and coordinated. Social media is a platform that spread information faster than any
other platform. It spreads awareness faster than other mode of communication. Social media
is also used by law enforcement officials to catch the criminals and take strict actions against
the criminals (Maher, Ryan, Kernot, Podsiadly & Keenihan, 2016). It also increases the
participation in several events as people who can’t be present physically can be a part of an
event through social networking (Scott, 2015).
Social media has also impacted language as it offers the ability through which
communication between sender and receiver can be done through verbal as well as nonverbal
mode. Social media will impact the youth in future as it has decreased the amount of social
interaction which in turn will decrease the family connectivity (Maher, Ryan, Kernot,
Podsiadly & Keenihan, 2016). Social media can also be used for wrong means as an
individual change their identity and misuse the information. Social media has connected
people of all age group from youngster to old age people. Social media is also an opportunity
that they can use to platform their talents. Youths also run industries by using social media.
They may share whatever goods and facilities they offer to networks and in groups and for a
broader attention (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). Social media can be used to perform several
activities like sharing of information, games as well as business network, virtual work and
taking reviews (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014).
Social media application supports for information publishing and sharing within the
community. Social media is a platform for marketing channels that is used for advertisement

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and various other models (Shabbir, Ghazi & Mehmood, 2017). It improves customer relation
as they can communicate with their clients from anywhere at any time. It is a marketing tool
that helps in knowing the customer so that information and knowledge is understood clearly.
It is also used for sharing the information over the large channel.
Some of the wide use of social media platform is communication tool that covers blogging
pages, word press and many others (Volkova, Bachrach, Armstrong & Sharma, 2015). There
are various social media channels like Facebook, twitter that allow people to share their
views, comments and details so that strong relationships could be built. It is an internet based
form of statement as allow an individual to share information through blogs, micro-blogs,
wikis, social interacting sites, photo-sharing sites and instant messaging, video-sharing sites,
podcasts, widgets, virtual worlds, and more. Benefits of using social media are that strong
connections are made (Wang, Pauleen & Zhang, 2016). Social media is also used for some
collaborative purpose like Wikipedia and many other tools that are used for allowing people
to update and edit documents.
It allows access to various platforms so that users can simply update their views on certain
topics. Social media is widely used for brand monitoring as companies with similar services
that enables user to compare the trend and analyse it according to the competitors. Social
media is also used for political activity and news reporting (Conrado, Neville, Woodworth &
O’Riordan, 2016). It predicts the future in different ways. It plays a pivotal role in political
things especially at times of elections or by helping political leaders to communicate with
ordinary people and share their views (Zhang, Kolaczyk & Spencer, 2015). It can be a
medium through which they can expose their views in front of million people.

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Some of the top reasons where social media is used are shown in the above graph. It was
found that 42% usage of social media is to stay connected and interact with the people who
are far in term of geographical location (Xu, Kang, Song & Clarke, 2015). 44% of usage to
remain up to date to news and events so that information can be shared easily.
Now, discussing some of the basic applications of social media or the places where social
media platforms could be used.

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 Marketing- One of the best ways of using social media is marketing for small
businesses as it increases the overall attention and marketing for business. Social
media is a cost effective approach for branding as it requires very less overhead cost
and advertisement cost. It can also be used for publicity as effective banners are used
so that services of businesses get exposure (Xu, Kang, Song & Clarke, 2015). It
explorers the business at very large scale and can cover international markets also. It
can be used as a purpose of interaction and making communication possible through
social media in tradition time marketing was done by offline methods that require a
lot of time and cost (Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014). Social media has resolved this issue by
making sure that advertisement can be done in a cost effective way and also wider
audience can be covered in short span of time.
 In businesses- Social media has proved to be beneficial for business as they can
improve the customer image and help businesses to get feedback from customers
about their new products and services (Liu, Sui, Kang & Gao, 2014). It will allow
them to share their business ideas and then find the feedback from the customers. It is
a platform through which both the positive and negative response can be known. It
also offers an opportunity to expand their business margins so that wide range of
audience is connected (Wu, Wu, Li, Zhang, Li & Lau, 2015).
 Selling- In today’s time, social media platforms are used for selling products and
services (Liu, Sui, Kang & Gao, 2014). The sale just happens through various social
networking channels where customers can contact directly with the company. It saves
the overall cost of opening up a shop and hiring staff who can entertain the clients.
Social media has made all these processes easy and it also adds up brand value. Brand
image is built as people become aware about the products the brand is selling which
in turn will improve the profit margins (Wu, Wu, Li, Zhang, Li & Lau, 2015). Thus, it

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can be said that social media build market prominence by capturing customers and
offering them services with minimum investment.
 Builds Relations- It is true that social media has supported in building new relations
and maintain them. In terms of personal or professional level. It has allowed an
individual to connect to friends or elative at any time anywhere. Social media is a
platform where distance does not matter (Liquidlight, 2017). On the other hand, in
business terms it has allowed an organisation to open their sub branches in different
country or a different place irrespective of their location. Social media has made the
concept of virtual teams possible as virtual team applied in an administration assures
that effective communications take place. Virtual team supports the message between
groups from different environmental locations.
 Customer service- Social media has been treated as effective as it offers customer
service and make sure that customers are satisfied and their queries are resolved.
Social media improves networking by linking the connection of friends with other and
then finding common friend (Fan & Gordon, 2014). Thus, customer acquisition is also
improved.
 Sharing- Social media platforms have allowed customers to share their thoughts,
opinions ideas through user generated platform. It is beneficial for tourism sector
especially as people get to know about new places and show their interest through
social media (Ainin, Parveen, Moghavvemi, Jaafar & Mohd ,2015). Small businesses
or other start-ups get an option to expand their business to a large network.
 Education- Social media increases online performance by directly linking it with
financial and non-financial benefits. Social media is highly correlated in the education
sector as they use social media to share their knowledge among students through
tutorials or seminars. This is an advancement as student can access to the classroom

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by not even present physically at that place (Ainin, Parveen, Moghavvemi, Jaafar &
Mohd ,2015).
A social network is the fastest growing industry and is widely used in all the sectors. The
purpose of using social media is building marketing and increasing the visibility of
businesses by building relations and communicating with customers. Some of the widely and
popularly used social media websites are Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and many more. All the
applications have unique purpose with the common goal of connecting wider audience
through blogs, videos, photos and other (Conrado, Neville, Woodworth & O’Riordan, 2016).
Social media marketing also helps in validating the brand. The presence of company on a
social media help customers to be aware about their brand and it is also a successful way of
communication. From the research it was found that, 63% of consumers search for businesses
online make sue of social media applications. Social media marketing has the power to
increase customer loyalty (Volkova, Bachrach, Armstrong & Sharma, 2015). Apart from that,
71% of consumers who received a quick reaction on social media would recommend the
brand to others
Thus, in the above figure most of the widely used social media networking sites are listed.

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Again listing some other applications or benefits of using social media:
 It increases the brand awareness as it connects other brands also so that new products
and services get discovered. It also builds up trust among customers as an individual
do not trust the brand until it is present on the digital platform (Hong, Hwang, Szeto,
Tsai, Kuo & Hsu, 2016) . It creates real human connection by linking the customers
with the company portfolio.
 Social media also supports in establishing the brand as a thought leader. It helps in
building customers trust and also increases sale (Hajli, 2014). As it is seen that
customers tend to visit social platforms at least once a day which in turn helps the
business to promote their service. It is a best platform for promoting the products.
 It also increases website traffic which in turn will lead to more customers and then
more sales. Social media can also be used for lead generation as it offers an easy and
low commitment technique for potential customers to show their interest in the
business and products. Lead generation is such an important benefit of social media
for business that many social networks offer advertising formats specifically designed
to collect leads.
 Social media is seen as a part of sales funnel that allow processes to get connected
with new customer. Social media contributes in growing the sale and increasing the
ecommerce platform.
It is not only used for sales or marketing but it is widely used for content creation and
distributing the information to larger audience.
 It is seen that they are used to promote content through social channels this have
improved the job opportunities for many people. It has also served as a platform

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where talented people can showcase their creativity. It not only promotes the
content and information but also helps in promoting the brand image.
 Social media is widely used for communication as they can highlight the positive
and negative side so that steps could be taken to address them. Social media
platforms also give the opportunity to co-operate directly with customers so that
chances of miss-conception are reduced (Hudson, Roth, Madden & Hudson,
2015). It also gives them the chance to interact directly with the brand his
improves the trust and loyalty relation. Before social media in case of traditional
media there exists only one-way communication. Social media is a two-way street
and allow a two way communication process (Ioanăs & Stoica, 2014).
Social media is also beneficial and have a wide application in gaining insights. Like
communication and conversation could be monitored easily this improves the audience
engagement (Scott, 2015). It also generates huge amount of data for customers in real time
that could be used for taking smart decisions (Investopedia, 2016). It also helps in keeping an
eye on the competitors so that strategies could be understood and work flow could be
improved. Social media has also proved to be beneficial in terms of advertisement. Social ads
are an inexpensive way to promote businesses and distribute content (Grajales, et.al, 2014).
They are very powerful in targeting options so that the right audience can be captured.
It is also used for retargeting as people select abandoned products initially in their shopping
cart. There are various tracking tools available like the Facebook Pixels that are used to
capture potential customer’s social media ads for the exact products they have browsed on
your website or placed in the shopping cart (Lacoste, 2016).

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Social media is widely used in reporting and analytics section, it is very beneficial for the
people who invest (Kumar & Bezawada, 2016). With social media there are various analytics
tool that impact social media activities so that purchase is done correctly.
Traditionally many efforts need to do require through fund raising measures, community
conferences, creation of local chapters, and using television, radio, and print promotion.
Social media has allowed making online efforts so that services gets visualised among
customers (Ngai, Tao & Moon, 2015). The use of social media is increasing as of 2014,
74 per cent of US adults use the Internet participate in one or more social networking
sites. Out of this group, 89 per cent of young adults age 18-29 and 82 per cent of adults
age 30-49 use social networking (Kim, Lee, Shin & Yang, 2017). It is one of the best
internet marketing techniques which have used to be handled very smartly to make the best
use of it.
Thus it can be concluded that social media is widely used and it has many applications. The
major benefits that are offered by social media are that it facilitates open communication and
leads to enhanced information discovery and delivery (Nelson & LeMay, 2015). Apart from
that, it also allows employees to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share links
directly with the customers. It has widened the business opportunities by connecting to larger
audience (Ngai, Moon, Lam, Chin & Tao, 2015). It helps in targeting a wide audience,
making it a useful and effective recruitment tool. It also improves business reputation and
client base with minimal use of advertising (Pittman & Reich, 2016). Thus it can be said that
social media expands market research, implements marketing campaigns, delivers
communications and directs interested people to specific websites.

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