Advantages and Disadvantages of using Social Networks in Business

This research paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of using social networks in business. It covers topics such as social media marketing, social interaction, interactivity, advertising, networking, research development, awareness, building communities, business reputation, and confidentiality. The objective of the project is to identify the benefits and drawbacks of social networking and to evaluate its features, process, development, and awareness for effective networking in the workplace.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
BUSINESS RESEARCH
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Project Objective.........................................................................................................................4
3. Project Scope...............................................................................................................................4
4. Literature Review........................................................................................................................5
4.1 Social media marketing and features.....................................................................................5
4.2 Advantages of Social media..................................................................................................6
4.2.1 Social interaction............................................................................................................6
4.2.2 Interactivity.....................................................................................................................6
4.2.3 Advertising.....................................................................................................................7
4.2.4 Networking.....................................................................................................................7
4.2.5 Research development....................................................................................................8
4.2.6 Awareness and building communities............................................................................8
4.3 Disadvantages of Social media..............................................................................................9
4.3.1 Business reputation and Confidentiality.........................................................................9
4.3.2 External security risks...................................................................................................10
4.3.3 Misuse by employees....................................................................................................10
4.3.4 Cyberbullying...............................................................................................................11
4.3.5 Fraud, Scam, and Hacking............................................................................................11
4.3.6 Relationship issues........................................................................................................12

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5. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
Appendices....................................................................................................................................16

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Topic: Advantages and Disadvantages of using social networks in business.
1. Introduction
The use of social media is an important aspect for the organisation as the process help in
business acceleration and makes a sustainable position in this globalised business market. Social
networking is generally operated from certain platforms and use of web tools affects the business
development and enhancement process. The process starts with the recruitment and that
enhancement of risk-oriented situation are handled effectively by the organisation as well.
Innovation process and positive implementation of business is the concern thinking that every
organisation tries to implement so that their product will reach to the wider customers and this is
the best beneficiary activity of social networking (Baltar and Brunet 2012). As the technology
grows business opportunities also grows in an effective manner. So the full use of this activity is
the most influencing factor for an organisation. The small business owners have got an
opportunity to use social media for the business development and in most of the cases they are
doing lots of promotions of their products so that people get know about their products. The
utmost challenging situation has been faced by an organization, when cons of this social media
have come in business progression. The use of social networking is different and all these
businesses have used the different social media platforms. In some cases, small business holders
are relatively meeting their all aspects of business and in that case their business has not even
published in social media and that is the reason products are unknown top people. Marketing
plan is the best applied plan for this and through the social media marketing process can be
evolved. In each case of network planning most of the business participation is new and
organisations have to decide that right platform to promote their brands.

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2. Project Objective
 To identify the advantages of social networking and implement more practices over it.
 To determine the disadvantages of social networking and mitigates those problems by the
effective use of alternative perceptions.
 To evaluate the features, process, development and awareness of social networking and
deliver the best networking facility for the organisation.
 To understand the business opportunities that can be extracted by the use of social media
in workplace.
3. Project Scope
The scope of the project is to identify the use of social media in business and that is the reason
most of the promotional activities are forecasted in social media. It is a geographical scope that
in what state the social media justice is being used and that is the reason most of the social media
platforms are highly acclaimed by business executives. There are some selective approaches that
business marketing has done and enhance their business process for the sustainable business
condition. Social media is a powerful tool to take advantage for the growth company revenue and
boost the company’s visibility online and widen and targeted customer base. This is a process
where extra management execution is not needed rather the basic business opportunity is to
develop the business at different level by the use of social media.

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4. Literature Review
4.1 Social media marketing and features
In this 21st century, the entire marketing is formulated by the use of social media. This is
one of the best promotional tools and it helps to get the better business opportunity for the
existing business to grow at a range. The cross geographical effect is another barrier of
promoting their product in different countries. Through the social media this process becomes
easier and companies are promoting their product through this social media (Picazo-Vela,
Gutiérrez-Martínez and Luna-Reyes 2012). The features that introduced by the social media is
web-based promotional strategy and exponential dissemination of trust and the contacts that
evolve by the effect of the social media. The effective insight approach of the products and
importance of communication is the major aspect that delivers the promotional activity in case of
upgrade the social media marketing. There are so many shapes in social media use in marketing.
The traditional Facebook model or Tangible process of the interacting with social friends is the
way to advertise the product and this can be called as promotion of the product. On the other
hand, some of the social channels are very popular right now and 72% people engaged most of
their times with social media rather than anything else (Leonardi, Huysman and Steinfield 2013).
The information, brand awareness, feedbacks, and the product approaches are accepted from this
social media sites. These are significantly used for the evaluation of products. Some of the
sections are editable in social media section so people have less opportunity to gather actual
stage of the product as per the brand name and approaches. Blogs, advertisement, newspaper
report all these are promoting the product to make an improvising approach in the market but
people have the authority to evaluate the products through the feedback gathered from the
respective products approaches.

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4.2 Advantages of Social media
There are different advantages of social media and these advantages influence the
business opportunities also. Brand marketing and promotional aspect of the business is the major
role that social media has done in regular basis. Additionally, the use of direct customer strategy
is not popular in market right now. People are the medium of evaluation for a product, if they
state the product good then the market value of the product definitely rises up and if the negative
approach has come up then the company become concern to make sustainable use of that. The
crucial advantages are
4.2.1 Social interaction
This is the most notable perspective of social media is to interact with people. People
may interact in a normal way for and that is considered as social interaction also, but in case of
online business dealing or to know about the product is the concern aspect of the interaction and
after satisfying the process, people can buy the product and that is the importance of social
interaction (Aljabre 2012). Consumer behaviour has changed due to that strategy and this change
behaviour influence the best decision making for customers and that also impact over the product
choice. The interaction is virtual still the trust and belief over the company has come as use of
media benefit and behavioural studies have been précised through the social interaction.
4.2.2 Interactivity
Another benefit is the interactivity, and the process signifies the use of passive recipients
and the trust of people by that process. This is one of such situation where, people are claiming
the right and good but the way it goes through in direction of another people is the process of
voice or by the virtual medium (Batjargal et al. 2013). Interactivity depends on the contexts and
depending upon the context of the networking process the set of range has been declared.

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4.2.3 Advertising
The most useful aspect of the business is their market position and revenue generation,
and both these aspects are depending on the advertisement of the product. This is a necessary
aspect of business and advertisements are considered as word of mouth (Baruah 2012). The
realistic nature of commercials is the important aspect for the business and that is the reason
most of the companies put their strengths in advertisement. The presentable approach of an
organisation is always attractive for the customers and they ordered that product for this only.
Advertisements are categorised into two sections like the positive advertisement and the negative
advertisement. The source of the advertisement may be different but the actual state or the
demand of the advertisement is the concern aspect for the company. Quality service of
companies and satisfied customers review is the concern aspect for the business to retain their
existing customers (Borgatti, Everett and Johnson 2018). In case of prevent something or
something which is harmful for the health a warning advertisement is delivered by the
government authorities or different non-governmental organisation also. The reach of these
advertisements are huge but online growth of those advertisement is grand also. There are
millions of active people who choices their product after watching the advertisement, so in case
of social media uses is impactful.
4.2.4 Networking
Outsourcing is a valid process that most of the organisations are following for the
development of business process. In case of getting better fund accumulation traditional
marketing process can be addressed as a drain process. On the other hand social media marketing
is quite low budget process and that is helpful for the business also (Lin 2017). That is the reason
networking and outsourcing is the most important aspect for the company. They segment their

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particular job role through the outsourced process and that process help to gain customer
satisfaction and increase revenue generation of the company. Most businesses try and thrust their
message onto possible customers; social media brings them into the conversation. Most
businesses get fixed in the trap of using social media as another conventional media channel. The
truly successful ones on social media are appealing their customers by creating fans and fanatics
(Sashi 2012). In addition with the situation, company needs to understand the competitors of the
company and their position in the market by using social media. In case of core network making
use of existing customers and professional collaboration of employees are the key aspect of
business acceleration.
4.2.5 Research development
Research and development is the key factors of social media as the information are
gathered from the customers side are implemented in that process. The new idea in a product or
to develop the strategies is the concern aspect for the development. The trending nature of the
products is coming from the research process and that is reason most of the companies use social
media as their promotional medium (Nielsen and Schrøder 2014). All the social platforms are
helping the promotional aspect of business and that is the reason most of the companies are taken
this policies. Some of the boost advertisement requires money but most of them are free and
companies are taking advantage of that thing. The availability of social media is so effective that
market positioning of a company can be evaluated through this process.
4.2.6 Awareness and building communities
There is a lot of commotion in business owners when the topic of social media comes up.
Some people declare that this is a waste of time while others hail it as the best marketing
conduit. This is an art of promoting the products and social media deliver the utmost sincerity of

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to this awareness. Some of the social awareness programs are pre-planned and company used to
do this kind of things for the promotion of the company (Bryman 2015). The section of
assistance and building communities are done through the process of these gathering these
awareness programmes are important for the community, where people from different
community gather together and deliver their best possible understanding and views over the
incidents (Chu and Du 2013). The main aspect of the community building is to make proper
engagement in form of promotion. In that case, if any situation arises when the company has to
make their mark again in business, the aspect of social media promotion helps the situation a lot.
4.3 Disadvantages of Social media
There are some challenges are also found in case of social media and reinforcement of
planning and design is require in that end. The challenges in marketing perspective and get some
online information which is considered as out of control is the main aspect of business
understanding. Most of the disadvantages are lost their control over the marketing
communication. The rejection of ideas and innovative thoughts are the issues of stagnant
situation of the market so better planning and understanding is required for that case (Bruhn,
Schoenmueller and Schäfer 2012). Lack of privacy and low grade over company ratings are the
concern issue for the company. The first mistake many brands make believes they need to be
everywhere. Covering as much ground as possible seems like a good idea, but the reality is
company should know about the limitation of the company and then extend their reach. The
disadvantages of social media in business are
4.3.1 Business reputation and Confidentiality
Brand value can be generated by the effective use of company’s reputation. In that case,
social media understanding is one of the important aspects that company needs to understand

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where to implement these strategies for the development of marketing aspect. There are some
direct and indirect aspects of evaluation and company’s confidentially is the concern aspect of
business. Business reputation may get a threat by this process (Chen and Bryer 2012).
Unconventional estate of business planning is the best way to process the business and in that
case; enhancement of business is the key operation that need to be done in an effective way. The
stages are free to utilize, and they also have paid advertising options noticeably for brands that
wish for to reach even additional different addressees. Business expanse does not mean that
existed in every social media. But they tried to and that is the main concern of the confidentiality
as some negative review about the company may decrease the situation of the company and
hamper the production of the company as well. If the negative review is trending in Facebook,
the market value of the company will decrease as most of the people are mistrust the
organization (Hrastinski and Aghaee 2012). This is the most challenging situation for the
company to regain the former position back and that will take lots of time.
4.3.2 External security risks
Risks like stealing personal information are considered as external security threat for the
employees. The situation of the company may not be stable in every condition and different
security-related risks are persisted over the situation (Okazaki and Taylor 2013). In case of idle
mail access the attackers are attacking the system and that will gain greater potential of the
employee to be exploited by those hackers. All these situations are not justified for the
employees and that is the reason a weak point is persisted in the genre.
4.3.3 Misuse by employees
The improvement in networking and development of the company image and increase in
the productivity of the company is the prime aspect for the employees. But in most of the time

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employees are in social platforms rather than doing their respective responsibilities. Employees
are not properly engaging with the work and that is the main concern of the organisation (Dubos
2017). Less productivity is considered as a challenge for the organisation and in that case
employees are the concern aspect for the organisation. Most of the companies are imposed some
rule against the unnecessary social networking system but in case of eider aspect the situation is
persisted in the company and that affects the company in a wider margin.
4.3.4 Cyberbullying
This is a concern process where people create a fake account and try to scam from the
organisation. This is a process that accumulates threats for the organisation as well and has a risk
to make a loss in financial aspect (Okazaki and Taylor 2013). This process is formulated through
internet and makes chaos in society. The concern person is not being arrested as they have
misguided their identification. This process is very easy to bullying anyone system and
accumulate data from that.
4.3.5 Fraud, Scam, and Hacking
Other disadvantages are like fraud, scam and through social networking sites these are
very common in these days. The commitment of organisational reactiveness and provide safe and
secure workplace for employees is the concern aspect of this situation (Leonardi, Huysman and
Steinfield 2013). Hacking of such issues that are illegal as well as the efficiency of a person to
hack someone’s system and try to accumulate all the data that the computer has. In case of
mitigating this process firewall protection of improved security protection for computers is the
most implemented option for the organisation.

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4.3.6 Relationship issues
Most of organisation relationship is mitigated due to the performance in the organisation.
If the process continues for long then the particular employee will not understand the
organisation process and management will provide a harsh look over the employee (Sashi 2012).
The attempt of relationship ends at the beginning and that will be a challenge for the company.
5. Conclusion
Therefore it can be concluded that, there are some aspect of social media and some of the
aspects are really upgrade the position of the company and this section is the advantages one. On
the other hand, challenges will be there by the use of social media and that is the constructional
drawback of social media. Regardless of the possibility that runs a little operation, utilizing an
organization page and associating it with employees profile is a decent move. It permits to post
updates and include data that goes over. Much preferable brand from the market and preferable
aspect of the employee engagement is the concern matter of social media aspect.

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References
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Dubos, R., 2017. Social capital: Theory and research. Routledge.
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Okazaki, S. and Taylor, C.R., 2013. Social media and international advertising: theoretical
challenges and future directions. International marketing review, 30(1), pp.56-71.

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Picazo-Vela, S., Gutiérrez-Martínez, I. and Luna-Reyes, L.F., 2012. Understanding risks,
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Appendices
Appendix 1:
Figure 1: Value chain importance of social media
(Source: ajhtl.com 2015)
Appendix 2:

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Figure 2: Reach of social networking sites
(Source: Lin 2017)
Appendix 3:

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Figure 3: Social networking rate comparison over the years
(Source: Dubos 2017)