Analyzing Social Media: Benefits and Drawbacks for Businesses

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the merits and demerits of utilizing social networks in business. It begins with an introduction highlighting the growth of social media and its impact on business-consumer communication. The project objectives include analyzing the advantages and challenges of social media use and providing recommendations for successful social media strategies. The scope focuses on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. The literature review summarizes existing research on the benefits of social media, such as increased customer engagement, brand awareness, and customer loyalty, as well as the challenges businesses face, including customer involvement and platform optimization. The research questions address the influence of social media on enterprises, the advantages and challenges of its use, and how to adopt a successful social media strategy. The methodology incorporates qualitative research using secondary data from online and offline sources, including case studies. The report also discusses the reliability and validity of the data, sampling methods, and variable specifications, concluding with a time schedule and a list of references.

Merits and demerits of utilizing social
networks in business

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................2
2. Project Objective...............................................................................................................................2
3. Project Scope.....................................................................................................................................2
4. Literature Review..............................................................................................................................3
Summary of the Literature Review....................................................................................................3
Problem Statement.............................................................................................................................4
Research Gap.....................................................................................................................................5
5. Research Questions...........................................................................................................................5
Primary Question...............................................................................................................................5
Secondary Questions.........................................................................................................................5
6. Research Design and Methodology...................................................................................................6
Qualitative Research..........................................................................................................................6
Reliability and Validity of Secondary data........................................................................................6
Sampling and Sample Size................................................................................................................6
Data Collection Method.....................................................................................................................7
Variables Specifications....................................................................................................................7
7. Research Limitations.........................................................................................................................7
8. Time Schedule (Research Plan).........................................................................................................8
9. Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................8
10. Reference List..................................................................................................................................9
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1. Introduction
As per the studies conducted by Aral et al., (2013), it can be said that with the emergence of
Web 2.0 and specifically social media content generated by the users has experienced an
immense growth. This is because social media provides an opportunity to share opinions
through micro blogging, blogging, photo and video sharing sites, social networks, rating sites
and others. These social media tools provide an opportunity to the users to share, search and
contribute to huge variety of content in a collaborative manner and also influence the other
web users. Thus, Edosomwan et al., (2011) has put forward the fact that social media has
transformed the ways in which business enterprises used to communicate with the consumers
and vice versa. Qualman, (2010) opined that social media is used by the business enterprises
more than a company’s website. In this context, the report published by Kietzmann et al.,
(2011) has made evident the fact that social media has emerged an important tool for the
business organizations to understand the consumers, engage them and communicate with
them.
Thus, taking into consideration the above aspects in context to the use of social networking
sites by business enterprises, the researcher in the present study would strive towards
analyzing the merits and demerits of using social by business organizations.
2. Project Objective
The study would strive towards analyzing and investigating the merits and demerits of using
social media by business organizations and thus the entire study would be observed to be
revolving around the following research objectives:
 To analyze the advantages of making use of the social media tools by business
organizations.
 To analyze the challenges of using social media tools by the business organizations.
 To provide recommendations for adopting successful social media strategy for the
business organizations.
3. Project Scope
Social media networking sites like Twitter, Facebok, YouTube and LinkedIn has emerged as
tool that is used to connect with people and thus it proves to be beneficial for the business
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organizations to conduct their business operations in a new way through multiple interactions
that facilitates them in promoting their products and services in an effective and efficient
manner (Qualman, 2010). Thus, the present study would emphasize upon gaining an
enhanced understanding the benefits of social media sites by the business organizations and
analyzing the merits and demerits of using social media by the business organizations while
conducting their business endeavours.
The researcher in the present study would strive towards making an effective use of the
secondary data that would be obtained from journals, articles, books, and companies’
websites and research papers available in the library to analyze the merits and demerits of the
social media techniques that are used by the business organizations to achieve success in their
business.
4. Literature Review
Summary of the Literature Review
The studies conducted by Heller Baird & Parasnis, (2011) has revealed that with the passage
of time more and more people are making use of the social forums and so this has encouraged
the business organizations to adopt social media in order to accommodate the growth trend
for gaining business values like driving customer traffic, achieving enhanced customer
loyalty, enhanced customer retention and customer satisfaction together with increased sales
revenue, brand awareness and brand reputation. Moreover, the studies conducted by Trainor
et al., (2014) has put forward the fact that social media has emerged as a tool that is used by
the business organizations as an additional customer service and communication tool in order
to understand the specific needs, wants, behaviour and concerns of the customers so that the
customers can be facilitated with interesting, fun relevant and up to date campaigns. Thus, it
can be said that more time is spent by people on Facebook and Twitter and social forums for
feeling entertained and relaxed and thus the marketers should utilize the opportunity not to
pile products and services on the consumer laps rather make them feel entertained and
relaxed and keep them up to date of the organizational happenings.
In addition to the above proposed and discussed merits of social media tools and techniques
for the business organisations, Treem & Leonardi, (2013) opined that the business
organizations tend to face several challenges while developing and designing social media
strategy. The challenges include the involving the customers, facilitating the consumers with
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a reason to participate, listening to the customers, resisting the temptation of focusing
primarily on selling and being courageous towards experimenting (Sashi, 2012). The main
challenges of using social media include the deciding upon the how social media platforms
are useful and optimized, selecting the tight social media channels, getting the followers and
friends on facebook and Twitter and then converting them into customers, how social media
is used to make money, driving traffic to the company’s website, developing creative videos
and content, achieving subscribers to the blog and creating a buzz about the brand on social
media (Smith & Zook, 2011).
Thus, from the above discussions it can be inferred that social media platforms where at one
hand proves to be beneficial for the business organizations in engaging the customers,
achieving customer loyalty, understanding their specific needs, wants and preferences, on the
other hand social media platforms poses several challenges that need to be managed
efficiently by the business organisations failing which the business can face a major setback
and incur loss in context to time, effort and money.
Problem Statement
The studies conducted by Hensel & Deis, (2010) has revealed the fact that in the present day
modern society, social media channel is the most commonly used channel for connecting
with people throughout the world. The social media channels used include social networks,
blogs, forums and media sharing websites and these channels facilitate the people with the
opportunity to have conversations online with anyone on any topic thereby facilitating them
with the opportunity to share their opinions and experience and valuable information.
From the perspective of the business organizations, Picazo-Vela et al., (2012) has opined that
social media marketing has provided a lot of new opportunities to the business organizations
in context to promoting their brands, products and services. This has been possible mainly
because of the personal autonomy and the freedom that internet offers to the business
organizations to interact and communicate with the customers. In the recent times, social
networking sites has facilitated people with the opportunity of connecting with each other
actively and tend to share their experience and opinions regarding the products and services
that have purchased, used, tested or had heard about (Okazaki & Taylor, 2013). So, even
though the usefulness and benefits of social networking sites to the people has been very
much evident, the usefulness and demerits of using social networking sites to the business
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together with the techniques that are used by the business organizations for achieving success
is still unclear (Ngai et al., 2015).
Thus, the researcher in present study has emphasized upon analyzing the issue of the merits
and demerits of social media techniques used by enterprises for achieving success in a highly
competitive and customer oriented business environment.
Research Gap
The available literature has revealed that the studies carried out in the field of social
networking sites have been conducted mainly from the perspectives like impact of social
media on consumer behavior i.e. the studies have mainly focused upon the perspective of the
consumers (Solomon, 2014). There exist limited research and studies where the researchers
have focused upon analyzing the importance, advantages or demerits, challenges that social
media use brings to the business organizations.
Thus, the researcher in this context emphasized upon conducting the study in context to
analyzing the merits and demerits of using the social media techniques by the business
organizations to achieve success. The present study would make significant contribution
towards the limited literature of analyzing social media from the perspective of the business
organizations.
5. Research Questions
Primary Question
What is the influence of social media on enterprises?
Secondary Questions
 What are the advantages of using social media tools by business organizations?
 What are the challenges of using social media tools by the business organizations?
 How business organizations can adopt successful social media strategy for the
business organizations?
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6. Research Design and Methodology
Qualitative Research
The researcher in the present study to gain an enhanced knowledge of the how social
networking sites are useful for the business organizations to alter their marketing and
business strategies would incorporate wide variety of secondary data sources. The secondary
data sources would include sources that can be categorised into online source and offline
source. The sources categorised as online sources are the closely examined and reviewed
journals and articles that are available online, websites of the business organizations, industry
specific reports and research studies conducted previously related to the present topic
published online (Taylor et al., 2015). On the other hand the offline sources would include
the academic articles, academic books and research papers available in the library.
The researcher would use the qualitative data collected from secondary sources for analyzing
and evaluating the academic articles that would be encountered on the EBSCO platform
(Liamputtong, 2013). The study would make an effective use of case studies for providing a
brief illustration regarding how organizations tend to make an effective use of social media to
achieve success and what are the merits and demerits of social media for business
organizations.
Reliability and Validity of Secondary data
For determining the reliability of the secondary sources of data collection, the researcher
would strive towards collecting data from the closely examined and reviewed articles and
journals those are available online (Glesne, 2015). Resources like the academic books and
articles and research papers from where data would be collected would be reviewed and
would be selected as per the suggestions of the mentor.
On the other hand for determining the legitimacy of the data, the researcher would strive
towards including the articles and journals those have been published within the time period
of 2009 to 2016 and collect data from the websites of the business organizations and then
analyze the validity by analyzing the purpose of the chosen data and demand of the present
study (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013).
Sampling and Sample Size
In the present study, the researcher would strive towards adopting non probability sampling
since, the researcher is predetermined to take into consideration the case studies of
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organizations from three different sectors that include the speciality eateries sector, retail
sector and information technology sector. One organization from each sector would be
chosen to analyze how each organization has made an effective utilization of the social
networking sites to achieve success in respective sectors and then analyze the demerits and
merits experienced by each organization of using social media for their business and
marketing strategies.
Data Collection Method
The researcher would collect data from secondary sources that would include the peer
reviewed journals and articles published online, websites of the business organizations,
industry reports and early researches published online, academic articles, academic books and
research papers available in the library (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011).
Variables Specifications
In the present study, the researcher would strive towards analyzing the impact of using social
media on business organizations in context to their business and marketing strategies. Thus,
the study would be based upon variables like social media, merits and demerits of social
media, success and failure of business organizations.
Moreover, where use of social media would be independent variable, the organizational
success would be the dependent variable for the study.
7. Research Limitations
The researcher would face limitations in context to the process of deciding upon the metrics
that can be used for measuring the performance of the business organizations since it is an
area that need more studies by the researchers. On the other hand, the researcher would base
the study completely on the secondary research; however primary research would have been
beneficial in strengthening the conclusions and would have provided a more practical outlook
to the study (Marshall & Rossman, G2014).
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8. Time Schedule (Research Plan)
9. Conclusion
Thus from the above discussions, it can be inferred that the researcher has undertaken the
study to analyze the merits and demerits of social media for business organizations and how
these business organizations use the social media tools for achieving success. Researcher
would in order to avoid the limitation of lack of availability of sufficient finance, would
conduct the study with the help of secondary data.
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10. Reference List
Aral, S., Dellarocas, C., & Godes, D. (2013). Introduction to the special issue—social media
and business transformation: a framework for research. Information Systems
Research, 24(1), 3-13.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2011). The Sage handbook of qualitative research.
Sage.
Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S. K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., & Seymour, T. (2011). The history
of social media and its impact on business. Journal of Applied Management and
entrepreneurship, 16(3), 79.
Glesne, C. (2015). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Pearson.
Heller Baird, C., & Parasnis, G. (2011). From social media to social customer relationship
management. Strategy & leadership, 39(5), 30-37.
Hensel, K., & Deis, M. H. (2010). Using social media to increase advertising and improve
marketing. The Entrepreneurial Executive, 15, 87.
Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media?
Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business
horizons, 54(3), 241-251.
Liamputtong, P. (2013). Qualitative research methods.
Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2014). Designing qualitative research. Sage publications.
Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs,
and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information
Management, 35(1), 33-44.
Okazaki, S., & Taylor, C. R. (2013). Social media and international advertising: theoretical
challenges and future directions. International marketing review, 30(1), 56-71.
Picazo-Vela, S., Gutiérrez-Martínez, I., & Luna-Reyes, L. F. (2012). Understanding risks,
benefits, and strategic alternatives of social media applications in the public
sector. Government information quarterly, 29(4), 504-511.
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Qualman, E. (2010). Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do
business. John Wiley & Sons.
Sashi, C. M. (2012). Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social
media. Management decision, 50(2), 253-272.
Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C. H. (2013). Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory
and practice. Routledge.
Smith, P. R., & Zook, Z. (2011). Marketing communications: integrating offline and online
with social media. Kogan Page.
Solomon, M. R. (2014). Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being (Vol. 10). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research
methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.
Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., & Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology
usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of
social CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), 1201-1208.
Treem, J. W., & Leonardi, P. M. (2013). Social media use in organizations: Exploring the
affordances of visibility, editability, persistence, and association. Annals of the
International Communication Association, 36(1), 143-189.
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