Influence of Web 2.0 and Social Media on Small Businesses

This report discusses the influence of Web 2.0 and social media on small businesses, including the definition of Web 2.0, its features, and its role in involving users. It also provides solutions to address the problems faced by small businesses and current social media examples.

Running head: Influence of Web 2.0 and Social media
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The influence of
WEB 2.0 AND SOCIAL MEDIA
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1Web 2.0 and Social media
Web 2.0:
Definition –
According to Allen, (2017) Web 2.0 is nothing but the upgraded version of World Wide Web,
where it has incorporated the dynamic web functionalities from the static HTML web pages.
Approached Features -
At the time of Web 1.0, people were bound to view limited web contents in
submissive manner. Whereas, in case of Web 2.0 user can explore internet with less
restriction. Social media and such types of web mediums like web based community, blogs
are the major concentration of Web 2.0 in order to engage the users by providing them the
facility to interact with each other (Boateng et al., 2014).
There are several type of Web 2.0 application present in the field of internet services,
example of those applications are listed below:
 Web Application: Flickr, Google Docs.
 Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, E-mail.
 Employ oriented service: LinkedIn.
 Hosted services: Google maps, Vimeo.
 Search engine: Google, Yahoo, Bing.
 Internet radio: Pandora.
Explanation of the mentioned patrons:
o LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a type of social networking service which offers business and
employment services via mobile and website. In simple words LinkedIn is used to
account professionals across the world. It consists of various features for social media

2Web 2.0 and Social media
marketers and brands. In order to communicate and hire employees for any company or
brand LinkedIn has made the service exceptionally quick and effective (Zide et al., 2014).
Thus, many of the companies and small business models has taken a step towards
LinkedIn services.
o Facebook
As most of the population uses Facebook in order to socially communicate with
people, similarly many of the small businesses uses Facebook as their advertising tool.
Since, all most the entire population in United States in on Facebook it will be easy to
catch the customer interest ( Bakshy et al., 2015).
o Vimeo
Many of the small businesses from United States has opted for Vimeo as this
offers video advertising facility in the internet. Thus, it has influenced the SME’s to use
this as their advertising medium.
o Pandora
Usage of Pandora in small business has taken a significant step as many of the
business holders present in United States has adopted the Pandora concept into their
business model in order to improve their workers working efficiency by providing then
audio entertainment. Along with the above facility it also offers the audio entertainment
for the customers.

3Web 2.0 and Social media
o E-mailing
In order to advertise the products and services small businesses over United States
uses the e-mailing facility. Using e-mail can have internal communication benefit. Thus,
most of the business platforms are influenced by this social media tool.
Along with the above tools, web services has offered several search engine such
as Bing, Google and yahoo in order to promote and enhance their marketing and business
objectives.
Role of the patrons in order to involve user:
According to ------ studies it has been observed that there are several benefits of using
the social media tools in order to improve their business services.
LinkedIn, Facebook, E-mail service, Vimeo and Pandora
As per user expectation, the business platform should utilize social media in order to
increase their business exposure, lead generation. Along with the above expectations there
was few more expectations from the user end such as loyal fan development, access the
insight of the marketplace, improvement of product as well as service promotion and
enhancement of website traffic. In order to address these expectations it is recommended to
use the services of LinkedIn, Facebook, e-mail, Vimeo and Pandora.
Loyalty Package – In order to grab the client’s attention as well as to provide them less
expensive deals LinkedIn has offered several loyalty packs such as all-purpose business plans
in just $59.99/month, Recruiter lite in $119.99/month, premium services for sales population
is just for $79.99/month. Similarly, Facebook has opted for loyalty programmes in order to
engage the user as well as to attract users (Gamboa et al., 2014). These loyalty programs are
generally based on the user interest and expectations and does not consist of any skip option
for the advertisements. Thus, by these programs maximum numbers of clients will be

4Web 2.0 and Social media
engaged and it will be beneficial for the service provider. Along with LinkedIn and Facebook
e-mail service has also offered some loyalty programs in order to secure their permanent
customers and to promote their company services. E-mailing services followed the process by
sending triggered mails about inexpensive packs and incentive plans to customers. Similarly,
Vimeo and Pandora offers video and audio entertainment and networking to small businesses
as well as to the individuals.
Incentive Plans – Along with the loyalty plans LinkedIn, Facebook, e-mail services, Vimeo
as well as the Pandora services has taken a step towards providing incentive plans and
rewards in their advertising process in order to attract the user. Thus, by these strategies
social media like LinkedIn, Facebook and E-mail is offering great opportunity to the small
business platforms as well as the individuals (Khatri et al., 2015).
Feedback collection:
According to Ferrara et al., (2015) With the purpose of improving the business
platforms and individual’s personal goals it is essential to collect the stakeholder’s feedback.
By analysing the clients or employs feedback it will be very easy to determine that in which
area most of the concentration is needs or which new functionalities needs to be adopt. Thus,
it is necessary to gather data from the users as well as from the employs working in the
organization. In order to gather the useful data from the users and employs, social media has
offered several effective way to address the mentioned area.

5Web 2.0 and Social media
Inquiry Form

6Web 2.0 and Social media
Name*
First Name Last Name
E-mail id*
Are you a member of this association?
What is the usefulness of the association?
What changes needs to be done?
Using this feedback gathering technique it is easy to determine customer needs and
their complain. This process will surely help the businesses to improve their services.

7Web 2.0 and Social media
Crisis present in the Small business platforms and solution to address those
problems:
While analysing the progress of small businesses, it has been observed that there are
various crisis present in different business fields. Those crisis are listed below
 Less effective marketing strategies.
 Low sales rate.
 Difficulties in employ hiring.
 It is difficult to gather accurate feedback from employs and customers.
 Less effective business networks.
 Unable to access the international market.
 Poor advertising tools.
In order to address these problems social media has a significant range of facility to offer,
which are described below:
 Marketing strategy – Social media has offered few effective marketing strategies by
which the problem regarding marketing can be resolved. Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn has significant benefits to rectify the mentioned problems.
 Sales Rate – By promoting the product and services can help to increase their sales
rate. Since, most of population are now available in social media thus it will be easy
to attract the customers.
 Employ Hiring – In order to resolve the problems regarding employ hiring, LinkedIn
has offered various attractive deals as discussed earlier in this report.
 Feedback – Usage of social media survey can help to resolve the problem regarding
feedback. Since, these surveys are online based thus it is easy to gather feedback from
the customers and employs.

8Web 2.0 and Social media
 Business network, international market access and advertising tools – In order to
resolve these problems social media has introduced few application such as LinkedIn,
Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube which offers several benefits like effective product and
service promotion, helps to enlarge the business network as well (Grégoire et al.,
2015).
Lastly, it can be concluded that social media has helped small businesses and individuals
in order to enhance their productivity, marketing strategies and advertising tools. Thus, it will
be very beneficial if small businesses adopts the social media into their business model.
Current social media examples:
YouTube –
In order to add enhancement in the business progress YouTube has offered a range of
benefits to utilize. Since, YouTube is a video entertaining medium utilization of YouTube
can easily demonstrate the product and services. Along with that YouTube offers the
advertising process without any extension of the bandwidth as it will show the ads in between
YouTube videos, it will also help their marketing as this will definitely help to attract
customers (Ioanăs et al., 2014). It will also help the customers to resolve their problems by
providing them the video solution.
Face Time –
According to Arsenovic et al., (2017) since, Face Time offers the communication via
video it is more beneficial the organizations are using this to interact with their customers in
order to resolve their problem and quires face to face. Thus, utilization of this tool helps to
understand the customer’s behaviour and response in order to provide them the best facility.

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Kirton’s Adaption theory
In the year 1991 kirton has invented a theory in order to help organizations by
understanding their problem and determine individual’s cognitive style. By identifying the
innovators and adaptors on the basis of continuum scale this model aims to improve the
collaboration and reduce the miss-leadings in the organizations (Silk et al., 2014).
This technique is basically depends on how people are addressing the problems with
effective decision making. Fundamental assumptions of Kirton’s adoption and innovation
Theory is to understand the importance of new innovation in the market. The use of the
theory has been helping in solving problem related to creativity and knowledge management
in the market (Friedel et al., 2014). The problem solving attitude of the theory has been
providing intellectual capacity of the psychological impact in market. Individual
advancement in the market has been helping in creating new entrepreneurship in the market.
The use of the up gradation attachment in the human psychology helps in providing a keen
approach in the development of the market. This theory has been helping in providing a
problem settling approach in building proper propaganda in the entrepreneurship.

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11Web 2.0 and Social media
Reference
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12Web 2.0 and Social media
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