Analyzing the Effectiveness and Usefulness of Social Media in Business

This essay examines the effectiveness and usefulness of social media in business, highlighting its importance for entrepreneurs in promoting their online presence. It discusses how social networking enhances relationships with markets and customers, aids in consumer decision-making, and delivers crucial information about products and services. The essay also acknowledges the drawbacks, such as the potential for reduced direct communication. It emphasizes the practical applications of social media for career development, problem-solving, and cost-effective advertising. Furthermore, it delves into the evolution of public relations, the use of social media data for assessing customer interests, and the role of social media in global marketing. While recognizing the advantages, the essay also addresses the disadvantages, including harassment and the spread of misinformation. It concludes by reflecting on the future of social media in education and professional development, stressing the need for time management and competitive analysis.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA IN BUSINESS
Social Media in Business
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
The effectiveness and usefulness of learning experience..........................................................2
Usefulness of learning process and applying the new knowledge.............................................2
Describing the learning process objectively..............................................................................3
Evaluating the learning process.................................................................................................4
New insights regarding learning process...................................................................................5
Applying the learning to future..................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................7

2SOCIAL MEDIA IN BUSINESS
The effectiveness and usefulness of learning experience
Social media in business is of paramount importance in the present century.
Entrepreneurs are making use of their online presence in order to promote their business. I
think social media helps the business in achieving the presentation part in an efficient
manner. The operators of social network have emerged to be patrons in regard to different
online supplies (Aluri et al. 2015). I think social networking in business can create an
enhanced relationship with the market and with targeted clienteles. Social networking helps
in the process of decision making of the consumers. I think social networking is an important
tool that helps in delivering important information regarding the products and facilities of an
organization. According to me, the business can interact more conveniently with their clients
by using social media. I think social networking has also led to lack of direct communication.
The customers are not able to provide direct feedback.
The learning experience helped me in understanding important aspects of social
network in business. It highlights the important of social media for business organizations
and in what ways it contributes for the profit of an organization. It reveals why companies
cannot profit effectively without the usage of social media. I learnt that the users of social
media can view online advertisements by sitting at home. They do not have to go through the
rigorous process of going through catalogues or roam around from one shop to another
(Whiting and Williams 2013). This can be done from the comfort of home.
Usefulness of learning process and applying the new knowledge
The learning experience will help me immensely in my course, career and life.
Professional skills along with experience can be posted online and employers on the look out
for filling vacancies can use the platform to bag suitable candidates. They have replaced the

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newspaper classifieds. Linked In helps one in creating a professional profile and candidates
can upload their resume in different job portals. I learnt that it helps one in staying connected
with colleagues and friends. It also helps in solving complex problems as one can take the
help of friends with the help of various social platform. Groups can be formed in Facebook
where students post their problems and people from their group can help them in solving their
query.
I have learnt that social media can prove to be useful for diverse purposes. It is cost-
effective and its advertising features can be made use of in order to promote content.
Advertisements in regard to matrimony and jobs can be displayed in social media and others
will be able to see their advertisement and contact them. I thus learnt that by using it in the
appropriate manner, one can reap advantages and one can gain access to the social media
platforms from the comfort of home. Social media is capable of defying all kinds of age
barriers. The target audience can be either old or young and they are logged into the system
and waiting for their right customer. One can gain access to a lot of information with the help
of social media and feedback can be collected by taking recourse to it. The customers can
share their thoughts and ideas. The business can make use of these ideas in order to innovate
their products so that it can provide the consumer with satisfaction (Messing and Westwood
2014).
Describing the learning process objectively
I learnt that public relations in the initial stages relied to a great extent on automated
devices apart from the print media. In such a scenario, global client do not get much chances
in expressing personal opinion regarding the trustworthiness of the service. The social link
hence turns out to be extremely crucial in order to familiarize the product with that of the

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market place. Individuals do not want to track updates regarding news reports in the
categorized format.
The data in Facebook is being used in order to assess the interests and consideration
of clients. I learnt that the corporate experts do not want to move to other place in order to
gather the indispensable view of clientele. Some critics of social media have remarked that
those belonging to the age group of 40-60 cannot make use of high-tech method. I hence
deduced that social network can also turn out to be an undesirable impression regarding the
production status of an organization. Common interactive media has become a vital link in
between consumers from different topographical markets (Trainor et al. 2014). I found out
that professional groups can be bended in introducing the brand within the domain of
transnational marketplace. With the help of social media, teams can become interconnected
with different classes of societies. Social media has thus turned out to be a foreseeable stage
for promoting the company.
Social networking site like Twitter can be used to assess the popularity of products in
different areas and on the basis of that research the company can manufacture products and
deliver essential services. Online value can be added to audiences and social media can be
used to nurture the fans. Social media functions in real time and feedback from customers can
be received within a short span of time. Monitoring can be done 24* 7 and the speed of
responses can be improved. Research has shown that recruiting agencies that have a strong
media presence are rapidly gaining control of the market. With a very small amount of
budget, a business can amass huge amount of profit.
Evaluating the learning process
While the advantages of social media in business are manifold, yet it carries with it a
number of disadvantages. Direct communication is extremely significant in catching

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operational criticism. All the remarks are not visible and societal platform cannot garner
honest response. Social networking sites can lead to a lot of harassment and wrong
information can be published in the site regarding an individual thus causing immense
damage to the reputation of an individual (Fox, Barry and Colbert 2016). The business
research thus provides a impartial view regarding the advantages and disadvantages of social
media in life and in relation to business. At the one hand, it reveals the areas where it proves
effective and on the other hand it has laid bare the fall outs of this platform.
The business research helped me in understanding the importance of research ethics.
The data that has been used for the investigation will not be circulated thus contributing to
research ethics (Leung et al. 2013). Responses from marketing managers highlights that the
results are genuine.
New insights regarding learning process
The internet helps in interconnection. Connections between diverse interest groups help in
making the movement more strong. Those who believe in technological progress, free flow of
the information and in virtual communities take recourse to the benefits of internet. Humans
have a deep seated desire to talk about themselves and express their opinions and social
media can be used to give vent to their personal feelings. One can position themselves in the
way he wants to and thus it creates a sense of self-fulfilment. People feel attracted towards a
particular brand and advertising such brands tends to increase the popularity of their brand
(Jussila, Kärkkäinen and Aramo-Immonen 2014).
Life in the present age is unthinkable without social media. All aspects of life have
been greatly touched by the use of internet and so reflecting on the positive and negative

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sides of it is extremely important at this hour (Arnaboldi and Coget 2016). This research will
help in judging the essential aspects related to social media.
Applying the learning to future
Learning how to manage a professional learning network is a greatly sought after skill
and it will become an important part of school curriculum in the future. There are some
progressive educationalists who has a notion that personal learning network is not important.
In my opinion, a network of learners is crucial and it will be the way of the future (Aral,
Dellarocas and Godes 2013). Professional development of students has a lot of potential and
it needs to be addressed on urgent basis. Successful manager of an organization knows how
to manage time and how to respond to the posts. They use the platform of social media to
review the works and products of their competitors (Bolton et al. 2013).

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References:
Aluri, A., Aluri, A., Slevitch, L., Slevitch, L., Larzelere, R. and Larzelere, R., 2015. The
effectiveness of embedded social media on hotel websites and the importance of social
interactions and return on engagement. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 27(4), pp.670-689.
Aral, S., Dellarocas, C. and Godes, D., 2013. Introduction to the special issue—social media
and business transformation: a framework for research. Information Systems Research, 24(1),
pp.3-13.
Arnaboldi, M. and Coget, J.F., 2016. Social media and business. Organizational
Dynamics, 1(45), pp.47-54.
Bolton, R.N., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, N., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T.,
Komarova Loureiro, Y. and Solnet, D., 2013. Understanding Generation Y and their use of
social media: a review and research agenda. Journal of Service Management, 24(3), pp.245-
267.
Fox, C.S., Barry, K. and Colbert, J., 2016. Importance of social media alongside traditional
medical publications. Circulation, 133(20), pp.1978-1983.
Jussila, J.J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H., 2014. Social media utilization in
business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human
Behavior, 30, pp.606-613.
Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media in tourism and
hospitality: A literature review. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), pp.3-22.

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Messing, S. and Westwood, S.J., 2014. Selective exposure in the age of social media:
Endorsements trump partisan source affiliation when selecting news online. Communication
Research, 41(8), pp.1042-1063.
Trainor, K.J., Andzulis, J.M., Rapp, A. and Agnihotri, R., 2014. Social media technology
usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social
CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), pp.1201-1208.
Whiting, A. and Williams, D., 2013. Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications
approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4), pp.362-369.