Project Management Report: Advantages/Disadvantages of Social Media

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of social networking practices in business, focusing on a case study of Iceland Food Retail Limited. The research examines how businesses integrate social networking, the benefits they derive, and the challenges they encounter. The study incorporates both primary and secondary data collection methods, including interviews with managers and surveys with customers. The findings reveal that while Iceland Food Retail effectively uses social networking, there are areas for improvement, such as advertising message clarity and regular maintenance. The report recommends strategies to enhance brand awareness, website traffic, and search engine ranking through social media. The literature review covers the impact of social media on business, customer engagement, and the challenges of maintaining a positive brand image. The report concludes with recommendations for businesses to leverage social networking effectively.

Running head: Project Management
Project Management (Msc)
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary -
The research is performed on the advantages and disadvantages of social networking
practices in business. The major purpose of the report is to examine the advantages and
disadvantages in incorporating social networking in business. Social networking practices in
business are a broad area of discussion; thereby, to avoid vague outcome from the research,
business operation of Iceland Food Retail Limited has been considered in the analysis. The
research aims to investigate the potential advantages and disadvantages of social networking
practices in business. The introductory chapter of the research introduces the concept of
social networking practices; particularly about how it is implemented in businesses. In order
to derive a proper understanding about the facts and findings in existing studies, a detailed
review of literature has been performed. The findings of the review implies that social
networking are emerging practices and it enables businesses to extend their operation, reach
the wide market and better understand the customers and their purchasing behaviours.
However, the review also provides the fact as social media is free and open platforms,
maintaining a healthy public image in terms of brand, products and services could be
challenging, as negative feedbacks are welcome in social media. Likewise, there are several
contradictory facts such as security, privacy, trademark and copyright issues related to social
networking practices have been found in the existing papers. Nonetheless, despite the fact
that social networking practices are new in nature and a developing field, studies have only
paid attention to traditional issues such as security and negative feedbacks. The major issue
is, even though social networking practices are providing significant businesses opportunities,
the businesses are not much concerned about obstacles involved in the process. SMEs are
following the trends of social networking practices but they have weak remedies of the
challenges. To perform the analysis, both primary and secondary data collection methods
have been applied to the study. The secondary data has been collected from books, peer-

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review journal articles, newsletter of some particular organization. To perform the analysis of
primary data, both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques have been applied
to the study. Qualitative data has been collected by performing an interview among the
managers and supervisors of Iceland Foot Retail Limited, while the quantitative data has been
collected by conducting a survey among the customersof Iceland Foot Retail Limited. In
order to select the participants for collecting the primary data, random probability sampling
and non-probability convenient sample method. The sample size for survey is 40 customers
and 5 managers for interview. The findings indicate that even though Iceland Food Retail
has effectively adopted the social networking practices in business but it is not able to
properly manage its social networking pages. However, the issues found in the literature such
as privacy and negative feedbacks are minor in the case of Iceland Food Retail but business
faces the issues of creating a clear advertising message, regular maintenance, etc. Thus, the
business has been suggested to use social media channels in a way that it can improve the
brand awareness, website traffic and search engine ranking. Emphasis on these three areas
may help to gain new customers.

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Table of Content
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................6
2. Background to the Research (Literature Review)..................................................................7
2.1 Social Networking in Businesses.....................................................................................7
2.2 Major advantages and disadvantages of social networking in business..........................9
2.3 Gap analysis.......................................................................................................................15
3. Research Aim/Objectives.....................................................................................................16
4. Research Methodology.........................................................................................................17
4.1 Data collection methods.................................................................................................17
4.1.1 Secondary Data collection method..........................................................................17
4.1.2 Primary data collection methods.............................................................................18
4.2 Data Analysis.................................................................................................................19
4.2.1 Qualitative data analysis.........................................................................................19
4.2.2 Quantitative Data Analysis.....................................................................................19
4.3 Sampling methods..........................................................................................................19
4.4 Research Limitations......................................................................................................20
5.0 Findings, Analysis and Discussion....................................................................................21
5.1 Quantitative questions....................................................................................................21
5.2 Correlation......................................................................................................................37
5.3 Qualitative questions......................................................................................................38
5.4 Discussion......................................................................................................................41
6.0 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................44
6.1 Recommendation............................................................................................................46
References................................................................................................................................48
Reflective Statement................................................................................................................52
Contextualization Statement....................................................................................................54

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Topic- Advantages and Disadvantages of social networks practices in business- A case
Study of Iceland Food Retail
1. Introduction
This report provides an intensive analysis of advantages and disadvantages of social
networking in businesses. The major purpose of the report is to examine potential advantages
and drawbacks associated with social networking in today’s modern businesses. So, the
research has been performed on Iceland Food Retail which has incorporated social
networking into its businesses. The research particularly focuses on the emergence of social
networking, how social networking has been incorporated into businesses, the profits
businesses gains from social networking, the challenges that business faces during the
operation due to social networking.
Social networking has fundamentally changed the way businesses interact with the
consumers. As social media has incorporated several functions and reaching capability, it
made many changes in the ways businesses communicate with their existing and potential
clients. The social networking particularly has changed the business landscape for both
organizations and the business landscape which have incorporated them and for those who
did not. According to Turban et al. (2017), social networking fins it easy to learn what is
significant to customers due to deliberate and planned approach in the era of empowered
customers. Business which incorporates social networking platforms as the core part of their
strategy better understand that social networking environments should not be used push out
promotional activities but should be used to develop a collaborative communication with the
clients, employees and other prospects to obtain significant understanding and sustainable
relationship.

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However, even though, it is undeniable that social media provides optimal opportunities to
develop, shape and expand businesses but not all the time social networking provides the
same. This means there can be several disadvantages such as inclusion of resources, negative
feedbacks, ineffective uses and many more. Many studies have been performed on the
incorporation or adoption of social networking but most of the studies are unclear about
challenges and drawbacks associated with social networking (Men and Tsai 2014). Thus, it
is necessary to perform a research on this context, which would help to identify the specific
advantages and disadvantages associated with social networking when adopting to
businesses. This research may prove to be effective for the emerging businesses, especially of
those adopting social networking in the recent time or the large corporations that are in the
process of expanding their operation in the global markets through social networking. Even
though, the research is performed on Iceland Food Retail but the findings provide many ideas
that in general helps other business to lead with respect to the use of social networking.
2. Background to the Research (Literature Review)
2.1 Social Networking in Businesses
Kasavana, Nusair and Teodosic (2010) performed a study on the effect of social
networking in today’s modern businesses and discovered that organizations that have
incorporated a strategic approach when using social media holds the capability of gaining
competitive advantages. Thereby, the businesses with such strategy can get customer
information using social networking sites faster than the business with a traditional model.
According to the author, the organizations can develop business models which are flexible to
use and deal with the customer change in real-time using the cloud service. Baltar and Brunet
(2012) performed a research and mentioned that organizations can achieve better outcome
and greater scale of satisfaction if and when they apply more comprehensive approaches to
the incorporation of social media with a single point solution. This should be

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incorporatedintoseveralelements of the business. When it comes to using social media, Smith
and Zook (2011) mentioned that organizations may use it a resource to collect data, a
platform of building relationship and also the platforms for sales and development of
services. On the basis of this findings, it can be added that a comprehensive approach to
social networking enable organizations to make a link between their effective traditional
technique and effective social networking to reach the customer satisfaction goals (Madera
2012).
However, Shih (2011) argued that maintaining or developing substantial endeavour
and time should be there to build an interactive social media networking environment. Thus,
an organization might have to deal with a significant marketing factor, if it is facing the
challenge of limited resources. Another study performed by Cook (2017), mentioned that
users in social media have made a significant use of platforms, as they can share and post
whatever they want; for example a happy customer can share a glowing review with wide but
an unsatisfied customer can use the opportunity to share negative reviews about the brand or
the organization. Picazo-Vela et al. (2012) argued that negative reviews could come from the
internal environment of the business, for example, when dissatisfied employees share their
concerns, they may use the medium to tarnish the brand image of the organization. According
to the author, such negative reviews could present a bad impression to the public and it can
also damage the potential client base.
A study carried out on the implementation of social networking in businesses by
Leonardi, Huysman and Steinfield (2013), mention the fact that people can share whatever
they want on social media without a proper or depth understanding. According to the author,
such poor though of post can create negative consequence for an organization with a large
number of audience. So, here the mistakes hardly go unobserved. The study provided the
example that social media controllers of Digino Pizza have observed the hashtag

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“#whyIsayed” was trending on social networking site like Twitter and they used the trend by
adding “#whyIstayed You Had Pizza”(Diginos.com 2018). This is ideal statement used for
conventional promotion but when thinking deeply, the hashtag is used to describe the reasons
behind why the victims of domestic violence stay in an abusive relationship. Therefore,
audience from different regional environments threw their negative remarks for such way of
posting. Particularly, people have considered it that organization was having the fun in the
pain of others. Audiences have strongly criticized the brand for inadequate information and
carelessness when using a global media (Moqbel, Nevo and Kock 2013).
Gronum, Verreynne and Kastelle (2012) mentioned that users in the social networking
environment can be dynamic in their way of using; thereby, managing them may require an
attractive posts that make them desire for more. Nonetheless, to do this, the individuals may
require a significant level of creativity which are usually not found in them. Although, this is
known as the challenge, if a business spends or make a significant investment of time and
effort, it could be able to reach the milestone (Treem and Leonardi 2013). This is highly
required for developing a sustainable relationship with customers to make them pay repeated
visits. (Gronum, Verreynne and Kastelle 2012). Furthermore, Kirtiş and Karahan (2011)
have mentioned that there is a significant exposure to the online, market could present
significant challenges such as information leak, hacking. Thus, if the organization is not
concerned, the competitors can use the information the organization shares on social media.
This could certain affect the overall brand image of the business.
2.2 Major advantages and disadvantages of social networking in business
It is certain that social networking is an emerging trend which reports a rapid growth in a way
that businesses are able to reach out the targeted customers quite easily. In a general sense,
businesses uses the social media channels to promote their predicts and service’s as well s

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interact with the customers. However, when delving into the use of social media, some major
advantages and disadvantages associated with social networking sites have been discovered.
Advantages
Culnan, McHugh and Zubillaga (2010) particularly mentioned that cost of running
promotional, selling or advertising activities in social media platforms is typically lower than
the marketing platforms like face to face salesperson or the distributors. This study also
provides the fact that social media marketing allows organizations to reach customers that
may not be accessible because of the temporal as well as the regional restrictions of existing
distributional channels (Kluemper, Rosen and Mossholder 2012). For example, Amazon
presently holds the top position in terms of customer base; it has used the popular social
media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram where millions of users remain active on a
regular basis (Amazon.com 2018). Hence, Amazon plays a dual role in managing social
media tools; it promotes its products through advertising on the mentionedsocial media
channels; likewise, it has administrative pages on Facebook where it responds to customer
queries. Consequently, people living in the remote areas learn about products and services of
Amazon through Facebook in a random manner (Nikolaou 2014).
Cost-related
As put forward by Aral, Dellarocas and Godes (2013), the organizations gain the
major advantages of social networking that are related financial barrier and expense. The
author ha particularly mentioned that most of social networking sites do not charge any cost
when accessing and posting any information. Nonetheless, the marketing campaigns with
conventional approaches may charge millions of dollars but here channels of social media for
the use of operation. Qualman (2010) mentioned that small business can operate marketing
campaign with the use of scoail media channels under a limited budget. Thus, the benefits of

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reaching target audience for a limited investment could be sunbstantial and consumers
looking for organizational information follow the brand. In addition, the pay-per click
avermentactivities in social media sites such as Facebook are “geo targeted” in accordance
with the particular criteria to reach the appropriate audience. Shih (2011) provided the fact
about viral nature of social media which means the users who are having the capability to
read and share the news further within her own cycle. Therefore, the information can reach a
large number of people in a short time.
Social Interaction
As put forward by Andzulis, Panagopoulos and Rapp (2012), one of the significant
prominences of social networking is that it increased the frequency and developed new kinds
of social communication. Audiences spend a lot time online; such as they remain involved in
communication practise that appear similar to the total time spent for general entertainment.
Zeng and Gerritsen (2014) performed a consumer behaviour study and revealed the fact
larger access consideration to suggestions and information found online and websites
providing third party progress stealing more time of the users. On the other side, Evans
(2010) mentioned that such kind of information can directly influence the buying decisions
even if it received from authentically virtual sources.
Interactivity
A study performed by Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick (2012), mentioned the fact interactivity is
not similar to the practice of watching TV or listening to radio channels; rather it could allow
new consumers to become a recipients of inspiration. Chen, Chiang and Storey (2012)
mentioned that interactivity can broadly be used as the degree to which users can be involved
in the modification form as well as the content of the mediated platform in a significant
manner. A study performed by Berthonet al. (2012), increasing range of interactivity may

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lead to constant involvement and more positive attitudes towards the websites with rising
level of credibility. In addition, such level of interactivity is letting customers be involved in
personal networking by selecting the content and communication activities. The author of this
article has also mentioned the fact that some particular applications of social media could
empower customers in a way that they could take significant control and form a two-way
communications (Gowen et al. 2012).
Targeted market
Social media offers an ability to choose and focus on audience based on individual interest
found in the pages of the websites For example, if an individual prefers a country music,
he/she could be observing advertisement regarding the country music artists and concerts. On
the other side, some sites’ advertising could mention which nation artists friends of that
individual prefer to provide on a personal interaction (Oh, Ozkaya and LaRose 2014). So,
organizations are able to meet people who are highly interested in what the organizations
offers, with such advanced marketing and advertisement. According to Briones et al. (2011),
social networking also enables world of mouth to promote the products beyond what
advertising alone could do. .
Disadvantages,
It is identified that not all good in social networking sites, which means even though
social media tools provide several opportunities, there are significant disadvantages that
business online have to deal with.
Time intensive
Even though social networking remains interactive, Kumar and Mirchandani
(2012) mentioned that marketing trends in social media environment are dynamic in nature
and the business will always have to focus on building a long –term relationship with each

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parties involved in business. This means, when a business has adopted social networking, one
on a frequent basis has to monitor each network, respond to the commitment and answer to
the research question or share product informationthat customers might find significant. So,
the businesses those have social networking might find it difficult to compete without the
above mentioned initiatives. On the other side Turban et al. (2017) mentioned that first
preliminary consideration that business needs to do is, make a significant investment. Thus, it
is worth mentioning that by simply getting into social networking with a limited amount of
resource and expecting a significant return could be just imaginary. Thus, the organization in
this path should understand the significance of the time commitment.
Issue of trademark and copyright
Baltar and Brunet (2012) conducted a research on social media marketing and
mentioned it is essential for the organizations to keep their own trademark and copyright safe
as it is using social media platforms for promoting the business. The authors have
alsomentioned that and brands and intellectual property is always significantly valuable just
like the products or service they offer to the customers. Smith and Zook (2011) argued that
the capacity of social media to lead the informal and unrehearsed communication on a
frequent basis could help the organizations in placing their brands as well as disseminating
materials of copyright but there is always a scope for third party abuse of a firm’s copyright
and trademarks. Therefore, when implementing social network, the marketers should need to
monitor the use of third party trademark irrespective of the fact that whether it is done
through organization’s own social networking channels or a third party outlet. This means
that organizations need to strictly monitor their own social networking channels as well as
third party platforms to ensure that those sending content via media outlets are not exploiting
organization’s property (Chen and Sharma 2013). Shih (2011) argued that such copyright
issues are minor in today’s rapidly growing social networking sector, as the entire operation