HI6008: Social Media in Business

This project explores the advantages and disadvantages of using social media in business. It discusses how social media can enhance customer engagement and marketing strategies while also addressing potential challenges such as negative feedback and security issues. The research includes a literature review, a statement of the research problem, and specific research questions aimed at understanding the role of social networking in achieving competitive advantages.

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Business Research

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Topic: Advantages and disadvantages of using social network in business
1. Research Topic identification and overview/discussion
The non-appearance of internet-based social media has completed it possible for one person to
interact with thousands of people around the world. The use of social media in the business keep
the noteworthy value as social media has detonated in the form of the category of online
discussion where people are free to develop content and share them with a number of people in
one go. All kind of social media offers a chance for everyone to endorse their products to
dynamic communities that can be interested. A social network in business focuses on people
instead of products (Taneja & Toombs, 2014). The company has main focused on the
promotional tool at the time of promoting the products. However, there is a number of
advantages of network business that help companies to move further with proper planning, on
the other hand, it has some negative aspects as well that become the reason of scary social media
marketing and confronting for marketers.
2. Initial literature search
The use of social network in business has advantages as well as disadvantages. According to
Leonardi, Huysman and Steinfield (2013), due to the popularity of digital marketing on the rise,
there is number of businesses investigate how social media can facilitate them endorse their
services and products to existing as well as potential customers. The businesses have adopted
social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in which some businesses direct customers
in the range of social network pages. The primary advantages of social media marketing are
decreasing costs and increasing approach to reach. The major advantages for social media
platform are less cost to promote the product in comparison to other marketing platforms.

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Moreover, social networking permits organizations to reach customers which cannot be
accessible because of locational and temporal limitations of remaining distribution channels
(Giacomucci, 2014). Initially, the marketing firm can offer unlimited information to customers
exclusive of human intervention. It is a major benefit over other levels of contact as the amount
of information that can be given is huge in comparison to any other form of communication.
Moreover, and more vitally, the information can be given at the level that customers can better
understand. For instance, airline reservations and schedule system are hard to develop and handle
to serve individual needs. Moreover, with respect to, the options are huge and hard to offer in
any format that is effective in comparison of web-based format. Customer service is another
approach to attain competitive advantages and that is why many business links to Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs) for the purpose of helping the customers in the process of buying. It is
necessary for the marketer to do not keep focus only on online assistance because in number of
cases, it is more suitable for the customers to call a company. Hence, customers can use a toll
free phone number for further assistance (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, 2013).
The online environment enhances online opportunities, along with that, it develops various
complications and confronts for the social media marketing process. It has been found that the
transparency of the web shows all information on the portal, which can become the major issue
for the organizations. There are five major disadvantages that need to be focused on social media
marketing, which entails team intensive, copyright issues, trust, security issues, negative
feedbacks and user-generated content (Constantinides & Zinck Stagno, 2011). It is of extreme
importance for companies to prevent their own copyright and trademarks when using social
media to endorse their products and brands. The capacity of social media is to help informal
communication often on a real-time basis can help companies in developing their brands and

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broadcast copyrighted material. The study of Culnan, McHugh & Zubillaga (2010), has
represented that panic of online credit card fraud has been major reason customers. In the context
of the disadvantages, one factor of social networking that is majorly harmful to marketing
campaigns is negative post responses. There is number of customers and industry that can post
negative feedback on the portal of their competitors, which can hamper the image of the
company in the view of customers. It is necessary for making satisfy the customers by the
company to provide an instant response to their customers in case of facing issues by them.
According to Jussila, Kärkkäinen & Aramo-Immonen (2014), the online marketing environment
increases a series of prospects and confronts for social media practitioners. It can be said that the
use of social network can be great medium for the business to enhance the revenues, on the other
hand, it has some negative aspects as well that can lead the company into a hazardous situation.
It has been found that social media permit the activity to gather, analyse and use the data of the
customer. The cost related factors, interactivity and social interactions are outstanding
characteristics for company to focus on proactive-reactive attitude and to achieve something in
social media marketing. Social networking enables business to look forward to the growth of the
business in which they can expand the business internationally. The role of the social network in
the business helps customers as well because they can get enough knowledge regarding the
products and choose them as per their affordability.
3. Statement of the Research Problem
The use of social media in business is increasing day by day as it is more convenient for
businesses to attain competitive advantages. Every coin has two aspects that show positive as

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well as a negative side, same goes with the use of social network in the business. Team intensive,
copyright issues, trust, security issues, negative feedbacks and user-generated content are the
major concern for the business.
4. Research Question
Q1- What is the role of social networking in businesses to get growth in the competitive market?
Sub questions:
1- What are the advantages of social networking in business?
2- What are the disadvantages of the social networking in business?

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References
Constantinides, E., & Zinck Stagno, M. C. (2011). Potential of the social media as instruments of
higher education marketing: A segmentation study. Journal of marketing for higher
education, 21(1), 7-24.
Culnan, M. J., McHugh, P. J., & Zubillaga, J. I. (2010). How large US companies can use
Twitter and other social media to gain business value. MIS Quarterly Executive, 9(4).
Giacomucci, M., (2014). Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media in
Business. Technology and Communication.
Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H., & Aramo-Immonen, H. (2014). Social media utilization in
business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human
Behavior, 30, 606-613.
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.
Nadaraja, R., & Yazdanifard, R. (2013). Social media marketing: advantages and
disadvantages. Social Media Marketing, 1-10.
Taneja, S., & Toombs, L. (2014). Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability, and
sustainability the impact of social media on small business marketing. Academy of
marketing studies journal, 18(1), 249.