Research Proposal: Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networks

This research proposal examines the advantages and disadvantages of using social networks in business, focusing on the Australian context. It investigates the impact of social media on business performance, including brand image, customer insights, search ranking, and new business opportunities. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative research methods, utilizing questionnaires to gather data from university students. The proposal addresses research questions concerning the evaluation of social network usage in businesses and its effects on the population, while acknowledging limitations such as time and budgetary constraints. The research aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the benefits and drawbacks of social media for businesses, offering strategies for effective utilization and competitive advantage.

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ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS IN
BUSINESS
By (Name)
Course
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

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1. Introduction
Social media has a great impact in today’s world and it has been adopted all over the
world as the new trend in promoting businesses. There has been a tremendous growth in a
number of social media such as Facebook and twitter which have captured a number of users
all over the world just in a few years. The rapid growth of technology is a sign that many
people are definitely gaining on its benefits. It has since become part and parcel of human life
and it’s not only used by the developed nations but also the underdeveloped has come to
understand the power of social media in bettering their lives. However, every good thing has
its own disadvantages and social media is not an exception. It has really affected the society
in a negative way despite its importance. This therefore means that the use of social media is
on our hands and it is upon every user to use it to its advantage. Billions of shillings are spent
in broadcasting corporation by the Australian government and this is a clear indication of its
vastness and the need of it to be noticed whether its effects positively or negatively impact
the users of social media in Australia. This study therefore tries to conduct a research on the
advantages and disadvantages of using social network in business in Australia.
2. Project Objective
It is evident that there are a number of channels that can be used in promoting businesses
such as social media which envelops Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, instar gram, pinterest and
many others (Arregle et al., 2007). This study therefore tries to solve certain mystery to
achieve the following objectives.

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 To examine the contribution of social network sites on the performance level of
businesses.
 To unlock the advantages and disadvantages of social network sites on the
performance level of businesses.
 To come up with better strategies on how to effectively utilize social network sites for
the success of a business.
3. Project Scope
In the western countries, social media acts as one of the strongest power of all. It is
seen as the most reliable source and the fastest means of promoting a company’s business in
Australia. Adequate information on the advantages and disadvantages of social network on
the performance level of businesses will be gathered from the literature review.
4. Literature review
4.1 Concept of Social Networks in Business
The world is a small village when it comes to modern technology. Social network
sites are no exception as they define the web-based services, which allow people to share
their common interests with others on the same social network platform. They enhance an
organization’s advertisement effectiveness; marketers can use this platform as a perfect
opportunity to promote their brands.
The mostly used social network sites are Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Twitter and
YouTube (Baltar & Brunet, 2012).

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4.2 Empirical Evidences in Relation to Social Networks in Business
According to Bwire (2016), there is an increasing popularity of social media sites
among the consumers of Australia. There is however a sizeable gap between the social
networking strategies of Australia business and behavior of the customers.27% small scale
businesses use social network sites, whereas 34% medium scale businesses use social
network sites for promoting their brand value (Carney, 2005).
Figure 1: Social Network Usage in Australian Businesses
(Source: Carney 2005)
4.3 Influence of Social Networks on Consumer Buying Pattern
Actions have consequences; positive or negative. Over the past few decades, the
shopping pattern of the customers has shown a massive change. Customers are now more
inclined towards searching for information regarding their required products and services
online (Cho et al., 2007).

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4.4 Advantage of Social Networks on performance level of Business
4.4.1 Enhancing Brand Image
Gabby and Leenders (1999) noted that social network sites increase brand exposure to
the new and potential customers thus enhancing the familiarity of the brands to the existing
customers.
4.4.2 Insights about Customer Preferences
Social networking sites can access ample amount of data about the customers in real
time, Greve and Salaff (2003). They can gather enormous amount of information about the
customers in regards to brand preferences, suggestions, challenges and dislikes. This
propagates active engagement between an organization and its customers.
4.4.3 Increasing Search Ranking and Traffic Website
Organizations post advertisements on social network sites, which mostly contain high
quality contents, Shriver, Jenkins (2009). Such high quality contents increase the targeted
keywords for the organizations therefore increasing the traffic website in online platform,
which enhances brand presence.
4.4.4 New Business Opportunities
Social network sites undoubtedly form a basis for new business opportunities and
amelioration of existing business enterprises. Through the feedbacks gotten from consumers,
organizations improve their brands as per core business preferences. Therefore,
organizations can find new and improved business opportunities for gaining high level of
business performance.

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4.4.5 Increasing Competitive Advantage
It is important for business enterprises to gain a competitive edge against over their
competitors. This helps save the organization advertisement costs thus reducing the
organization’s overall cost. Reduced organizational cost facilitates the organization towards
achieving cost leadership and gaining competitive advantage.
4.4.6 Improved Customer Service
Efficient customer service and relations form part of the backbone of a business. The
feedback received from the customers should help organizations in gaining deep customer
insights thus the knowledge of customer preferences, dissatisfaction and suggestions
regarding particular products and services. (Sledgianowski and Kulviwat (2009) pointed out
that such customer feedbacks facilitate the organizations aligning their business model with
specific preferences of the customers.
4.5 Disadvantage of Social Networks on performance level of Business
4.5.1 Negative Feedback
Just as there exists two sides of coin, so is there two sides of a business; Positive
feedbacks shared by consumers encourage other customers as well as the organization.
However, there are also negative feedbacks shared by consumers on the social network sites
which are discouraging to the customers as well as the organization.
4.5.2 Time Investment and Hidden Cost
Time is a critical factor when it comes to business ventures. Wright (2005) opined
that the organizations may need to invest huge time in posting attractive product information,
interacting with customers and receiving feedbacks from the customers. All these activities
will definitely require ample and valuable time of the organization. This may however
increase an organization's overall cost.

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4.5.3 Legal Risk
Business ventures attract a myriad of risks. Social network sites can result to
organizations facing legal risks since there are rules and laws governing the use of social
networks for any form of use or purpose.
4.6 Proper Usage of Social Network Sites
Organizations should put in place an efficient team that exclusively deals with the
usage of social network sites. This will ensure effective management of the platform right
from the selection of the most viable social network platform which is cut out to facilitate
business growth of the organization, to the posting of highly attractive advertisement content
and finally the efficient handling of feedback both positive and negative on the social
network sites (Picazo-Vela et al., 2012).
4.6 Gap of the Literature
Every literature research is bound to face some limitations which would question the
quality of the ultimate research outcome. This literature review is of no exception since it has
some limitations. Time limitation towards the collection of authentic information from
adequate secondary sources about the research topic is one of the challenges.
Budgetary issues can’t be ignored as they form the basis of the research. Limited budget
denied adequate access of secondary sources hence the lack of critical analysis and
penetration in the literature review.
5. Research Questions/Hypothesis
Primary Question
What are the advantage and disadvantage of using social network in business in an
Australian context?

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Secondary Questions
1. How to evaluate the level of social network in businesses?
2. Do the advantages and the disadvantages of using social network in business affect the
population of the country?
The primary research presented in this study is our main objective of trying to find out
the advantages and disadvantages of using social network in businesses. The sub questions
are there to give support and sense to the main question. It therefore means that the questions
provided and the literature reviews are a single entity.
Research questions should be linked to Literature Problems, Gaps, and Hypothesis
6. Research Design and Methodology
The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods of research
design. Quantitative method was used to find out numbers of common traits among the
respondents concerning characteristics related to and significant for the study (Sledgianowski
& Kulviwat, 2009). Some of these characteristics included the numbers that use social media
for business purposes, the advantages and disadvantages that accrue after using social
network in business, and how this affects their business. Qualitative research allowed for the
description of respondents’ opinions. There was expected to be a varied degree of opinion
perceptions and views of the respondents that were sampled. Since the study was mainly
concerned with what the respondents think about the advantages and disadvantages of using
social network in business qualitative approach gave more room for the interpretation of their
ideas (Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998). By the use of qualitative method, the study reviewed content
pertinent to the subject in focus.

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6.1 variables
The study used two major variables to assist in the process of data analysis; dependent
and independent variables. Wright (2005) says that an independent variable is used to predict
the outcome of the dependent variable. In this study, advantages and disadvantages of using
social network in business depends on what people use social media for. Depending on the
use, social media platforms can either be disadvantagious or advantagious to the business
success. Therefore, the pros and cons of using social network in business was the dependent
variable that depends on what social medis is used for. Social Media use was the
independent variable that directly influences the success of a business.
6.2 Study population
The physical research was conducted in the University of Queensland in Australia.
The population of the country comprise of the young covering a larger percentage and the
old. According to Zimer (1986), a population for study stands for the resident of a community
about whom the study is. The study examined human behaviour online, and one of the
characteristics of the online media space is that it is unpredictable and not necessarily
restrictive according to any factors like age and gender. The study was hence non-restrictive
according to age or gender.
According to the statistics from Facebook, 69% of their users are aged
between 18 and 29. The study targeted the average university students who fall within
the same age bracket (Tsai & Ghoshal, 1998). By their numbers, have a greater
opinion in the social media space than any other age group.
6.3 Sampling technique and sample size
The study employed the use of purposive sampling techniques. Oliver (2012) says
that purposive sampling is the type of sampling where the decisions about the subjects to be
included in the research arrive at based upon a variety of criteria that may comprise the

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researcher’s knowledge of the area of research or willingness to participate in the research
and capacity to carry out the research. The study sampled the subjects based on their
characteristics relevant to the research.
6.4 Methods of data collection
The instrument for data collection was the use of questionnaires. The questionnaires
contained both closed-ended, and open-ended kinds of questions for qualitative and
quantitative data. The questionnaires were divided into four sections: section A, B, C and D.
Section A had had the respondent’s bio data and section B to D contained the research
questions. Some of the questionnaires were physically administered to the respondents for
data collection and collected back afterward while others were mailed to the respondents.
7. Research Limitations
Limitations of research can be defined as the aspects involved in the research design
or methodology that had an impact or in one way or another influenced the interpretations of
the findings in research. They are a consequence of the decisions the researcher chose to do
during the conduction of the research study including the method they used to establish
validity.
The generalization of the study in Australian context could limit the research results;
it is therefore prudent to include different countries in the study to obtain better results.
The researcher might come across limitations such as time constrains as well as
uncooperative respondents. Other limitation can be as the result of lack of proper or thorough
research on the topic, lack of available or reliable data, language barrier, cultural constrictions
and measure used to collect the data.

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8. Time Schedule
This research is supposed to run for a period of approximately 6 months. Activities
outlined for the first month will include project planning through conducting stakeholder
meetings, devising a networking plan and implementing a communication with potential key
resource agents. The second month will be limited to data collection and data analysis
through GIS, Microsoft Excel and other temporal database. Methodology assessment,
prototype development, final interface development, and case study refinements and
applications will be the main activities of the third month.
The forth month will be limited to policy workshops, formulation of policy
recommendations, and the drafting of the final report. Dissemination of the project
recommendations and final report will occur on the fifth month. The project’s financial report
will also be drafted on the fifth month. The sixth month of the project will used to review the
entire project and the making of necessary corrections and conclusion. Once the review is
done, the project will be ready for submission. The given time frame will give the researcher
ample time to collect data and fully analyse the study hence generating reliable findings and a
viable conclusion.
9. Conclusion
While coming to the end of the study, it is evident the social network sites have a
great impact on businesses either in a positive or a negative way on the level of customers.
However, social networks can improve the advertising effectiveness of a company’s brand
instead of using a word of mouth. These sites therefore increase the brand exposure to
customers hence increasing their market size. Moreover, feedbacks obtained on such sites
concerning the products may help the organization to provide a mixed brand and customized

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business solution. However, when a certain brand receives negative feedback from
customers, it may discourage other willing buyers from purchasing such products. It therefore
means that business organization should maintain the use of social media in promoting their
products. To achieve this, the business has to choose the social site that will enhance the
growth of their business. The most important part is that the organization should be in a
position to handle the negative feedback posted by customers on the social network.

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References
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