HI6008: Social Networks Advantages & Disadvantages at Woolworths

This report examines the advantages and disadvantages of social networks for Woolworths Australia. It reviews Woolworths' experiences with social media, including successes in connecting with a broad audience and sharing information, as well as challenges such as social media scandals and negative consumer feedback. The report includes research questions focused on leveraging social media for positive communication and managing negative impacts. It outlines both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to address these questions, acknowledging limitations in generalizability. The conclusion emphasizes the transformative role of social media in business communication, highlighting the need for careful management of messaging and potential risks associated with uncontrolled public feedback. Desklib offers a wealth of resources, including similar reports and past papers, to support students in their academic endeavors.

RUNNING HEAD: ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL
NETWORKS 1
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS
Student Name
Institute Name

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 2
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Project Objective........................................................................................................................3
Project Scope..............................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................4
Research Questions/Hypothesis.................................................................................................6
Primary Question....................................................................................................................6
Secondary Questions..............................................................................................................6
Research Design and Methodology...........................................................................................6
Qualitative research................................................................................................................6
Quantitative research..............................................................................................................6
Research Limitations..................................................................................................................7
Time Schedule............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Reference....................................................................................................................................9

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 3
Introduction
The report will discuss in detail about the advantages and disadvantages of social networks in
context with Woolworths Australia. Woolworths is a well-known retailer that is able t get
attention of many shopper and has always known for its high quality. The management of the
company in last few years have experienced a lot of negativity on social media (Zhang and
Moe, 2017). There is rage among the consumers because of the employment advertising case
which can be discussed as an important study for the social media marketing and it will also
work as a guide for many other corporates to address the negative feedback or experience
expressed on social media.
Project Objective
The objective of the report is to understand various advantages as well as disadvantages of
social network with the help of case study on Woolworths.
Project Scope
Woolworths understand the significance of social media like many other big brands. It is
important to use social media in order to remain relevant in the lives of the customers. The
feedback by the consumer on various social media channels shows that the consumers are
facing positive experience offline with the brand (Bryman, 2015).
Instead of the apparent movement in platform, the company constantly provide great kind of
photographs as well as videos that can be shared to engage the consumer on FB and
Instagram.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 4
Literature Review
Woolworths has also gained a lot of advantages also from social network since it is
considered as one of the biggest retailer in Australia. Following are some of the advantages of
social network for Woolworths: -
Connectivity with the huge audience: it is a known fact that there is no easier or the quicker
way to make any kind of connection than social media. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest are some of the most popular social networking platforms
to connect with the consumer (Leonardi et al., 2013).
Commonality of interest: when people look to be part of social networking community, one
can pick as well as select people where likes and dislikes are same and helps in building the
network around different commonalities.
Easy information sharing: there are many social networking websites that consist of an
instant messaging characteristic which also let people exchange data in the real time with the
help of chat. This is an amazing factor for managers who use this method to connect with
employees and conduct meeting since it helps them use the huge store of data present on
internet (Turban et al., 2017).
Effective advertising: whether one is part of non-profit company that require to get the work
out associated with any upcoming product or a business founders marketing or launching a
new product, there is no effective way than social media to communicate the message among
million of people at all times (Luo and Zhong, 2015).
Rise in level of news cycle speed: there is no doubt that social networking has transformed
the way new spread among people. Many companies like Woolworths now depend on social
media communities to gather as well as share data. Social media specifically Twitter, is
slowly becoming an important source of breaking any kind of news. In the current time,

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 5
people can understand or know about what really is happening all across the world (Batjargal
et al., 2013).
Following are some of the disadvantages of social networking communities for Woolworths:
-
The company in last few years has faced many social media scandals like vintage soft drink
range which was very similar to Frankie where the company was later forced to remove the
product after the advertising standards authority found the advertising message way too
similar to the Frankie drink. In another incident, the company was criticised for the launching
Halaal hot cross buns during the festival of Easter which lead to controversy (Highfield,
2017). Later the sponsorship of a reality show called MasterChef SA was eliminate the
damage as a part of two previous social media disasters that has caused. However,
Woolworths did not launch any other series unscathed, instead the pantry of the company for
guest food bloggers that caused controversy in the starting. The company reaction to another
incident where there was furore in people was advertising for employment. It led to a call to
trade union of consumer to completely boycott the company and it has echoed and spread like
a wild fire among thousands of comments on FB (Arli and Dietrich, 2017).
It can be concluded from the above discussion that company has to take a lot of care while
communicating any kind of message with the public because a matter in company can be
small but the same matter with the world at-large is completely different. Any kind of content
which can be claimed as offensive is posted online receives a lot of feedback and can be
excessive as well as brutal. This is specifically correct with subjects which are highly
opinionated like race, colour, politics or religion (Batjargal et al., 2013).
In other cases, incidences like cyberbullying as well as crimes which is against the any
section specifically children must be taken seriously. Usage of social media can expose
people to other kind of exploitation or harassment (Batjargal et al., 2013).

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 6
Research Questions/Hypothesis
Primary Question
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media in context with
Woolworths Australia?
Secondary Questions
1. How social network can be used as a positive weapon to turn around any controversy
or negative incident into a positive case by effective communication?
2. What are social media marketing principles to deal with the negative impact of social
network?
Research Design and Methodology
Qualitative research
The qualitative research is basically based on exploratory research. In this study, it will be
used to get some kind of clarity on many underlying factors, motivations and opinions. It
provides as an insight into the issue or assist to grow concepts as well as hypotheses for the
potential level of quantitative research. Qualitative research is also utilised to not covers the
trends in opinions or thoughts and also dive much deep into the issue (Singh et al., 2017).
Qualitative collection of data based methods many change by using all kind of unstructured
or semi-structured methods. Some kind of common methods consist of some kind of focus
groups, with solo interviews and observations. Here the sample size taken is small and the
respondents are selected to fulfil the present quota.
Quantitative research
The concept of quantitative research is used to quantify the issue by methods that generate
many numerical based data and that can be completely changes into quantifying the issue by

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 7
ways of generating numerical data. In this study, it will be used to quantify the attitudes,
attitude, opinion and other kind of defined elements as well as generalize outcomes from big
sample of population. The quantitative research utilises calculated data to form facts and also
uncover different patterns in the present research. Quantitative based data collection is very
structure in comparison of Qualitative data collection methods (Singh et al., 2017). Following
methods will be used to perform this kind of research: -
Online surveys, mobile surveys, interviews face to face and longitudinal studies. It will also
cover website based interceptors, systematic observation and online polls.
Research Limitations
The study lacks any kind of generalizability and also finding of any kind of action based
research are normally only crucial to the particular classroom being part of any investigation
and the students and its own unique kind of features. It may further yield different outcomes
in another context (Singh et al., 2017). Any other technology, the researcher will have to
make sure that the software functions with the computer systems.
Time Schedule
Topic To be covered Start Date End Date
Introduction to the topic 5th December 10th December
Literature Review 10th December 20th December
Quantitative And Qualitative
Research
20th December 25th December
Discussion and Analysis 25th December 1st January
Final Submission 1st January 5th January
Conclusion
Social media has completely transformed the way businesses communicate with consumers
and the people at large. It started as an innovative method to approach the place in market has

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 8
become an important tool for marketing, customer service as well as public relations.
However, as easy as social media seems to help to connect with the people, it comes with
some disadvantages also as discussed in the report. Unlike other kinds of marketing, where
the company has some control over the messaging, there is no control which can be practised
on social media (Matikiti et al., 2016). This can be great when people admire the company
like Woolworths however, it can be disaster otherwise. Social media communities like
Twitter and Facebook permit people at large to share their feedback, which makes for
interesting communication however can be very dangerous for the company.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 9
Reference
Arli, D. and Dietrich, T., 2017. Can Social Media Campaigns Backfire? Exploring
Consumers' Attitudes and Word-of-Mouth Toward Four Social Media Campaigns and Its
Implications on Consumer-Campaign Identification. Journal of Promotion
Management, 23(6), pp.834-850.
Batjargal, B., Hitt, M.A., Tsui, A.S., Arregle, J.L., Webb, J.W. and Miller, T.L., 2013.
Institutional polycentrism, entrepreneurs' social networks, and new venture growth. Academy
of Management Journal, 56(4), pp.1024-1049.
Bryman, A., 2015. Social research methods. Oxford university press.
Highfield, T., 2017. Social media and everyday politics. John Wiley & Sons.
Leonardi, P.M., Huysman, M. and Steinfield, C., 2013. Enterprise social media: Definition,
history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of
Computer‐Mediated Communication, 19(1), pp.1-19.
Luo, Q. and Zhong, D., 2015. Using social network analysis to explain communication
characteristics of travel-related electronic word-of-mouth on social networking sites. Tourism
Management, 46, pp.274-282.
Matikiti, R., Kruger, M. and Saayman, M., 2016. The usage of social media as a marketing
tool in two Southern African countries. Development Southern Africa, 33(5), pp.740-755.
Singh, A., Shukla, N. and Mishra, N., 2017. Social media data analytics to improve supply
chain management in food industries. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and
Transportation Review.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING SOCIAL NETWORKS 10
Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2017. Electronic
Commerce 2018: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective. Springer.
Zhang, K. and Moe, W.W., 2017. BIAS ON YOUR BRAND PAGE? MEASURING AND
IDENTIFYING BIAS IN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY.