HI6008 Report: Social Media's Advantages and Disadvantages in Business

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using social media in business. It begins with an introduction to social media's role in modern business operations, highlighting its potential to build virtual communities and facilitate electronic communication. The report outlines the project's objective to understand the advantages of social media in improving brand promotion and expanding customer base, while also addressing the disadvantages and competitive analytical frameworks involved. A literature review summarizes existing research on social media's impact on brand support, customer service, and purchase intention. The report then presents research questions and hypotheses, followed by a detailed discussion of the research design and methodology, including both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It specifies sample size, sampling techniques, variables, data collection methods, and data analysis procedures. The report also addresses research limitations and provides a time plan for the research process, concluding with expectations regarding social media marketing's impact on brand image and profitability.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media in Business
Report

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Project Objective.............................................................................................................................1
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................1
Literature Review............................................................................................................................1
Justification......................................................................................................................................2
Research Questions/Hypothesis.......................................................................................................3
Research Design & Methodology....................................................................................................3
Qualitative Research....................................................................................................................3
Quantitative Research..................................................................................................................3
Sample Size.....................................................................................................................................4
Sampling..........................................................................................................................................4
Variable............................................................................................................................................4
Data Collection................................................................................................................................4
Data Analysis...................................................................................................................................5
Reliability & Validity......................................................................................................................5
Research Limitation.........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
Time Plan.........................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................5
Appendix..........................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
The assessment is based on properly focusing over the advantages of social media with handling
business operations. The major problems of the social media is about the negative effects of
business operations where computer-based technologies help in allowing the individuals from
anywhere. The internet-based factors help in facilitating the user ease of electronic
communication like the photos, videos and the personal communication (Niedermeier, Wang &
Zhang, 2016). The users are often seen to be engaging in the social media features over the
applications set for the web-based factors. The report is about the competitive analytical
framework where the sentimental benchmarks are for gleaning organizational specific marketing
intelligence. The development is to amplify the marketing intelligence for finding the actionable
areas where the organizations are seen to be lagging and leading to improve the experience of
customers.
Project Objective
The objective of the project is to understand about social media advantage where the business
context is about improving the brand promotions with increased customers base. The analysis is
about the disadvantage for social media in business with understanding the social media
competitive analytical framework with company specific marketing intelligence. The viewing
and setting opinions of individual on social media with data to understand the market patterns
and understand the social media in business with the benefits of usage.
Project Scope
The scope of the project is based on enabling the readers to learn about the usage about the
products and the services. They are important for handling the market base and the profitability
as a whole. The rapid emerging advancement with the instant technology and communication
can help the internet users to spend time on different social sites for gathering the quick
information. The features enable the readers to properly view about the social media utilization
with leveraging the promotion of products and the qualification generally leads to a wider source
of revenue.

Literature Review
The social media is for the attention of practitioners where the understanding is about the
potential to work with brand support and customer service. The perspectives are related to how
the online platforms could be used for gathering information for different products and services.
The evidences are from the empirical findings with suggestions to generate the higher purchase
intention and attitude for brands (Nascimento, and Da Silveira, 2017). The evidence is about how
social media is able to generate a higher purchase intention and the brand attitudes than the other
traditional digital media. The organization has a higher probability to find the capability which
could be effectively used for the competitive advantage. The literature is about how the tribal
metrics are unsuitable for the growth of dynamics and interactive environment. The analysis of
social media is widely focusing on the B2C contexts and there are internet that highlights on the
tools with attracting the customers as well. The advantages are related to the social media that
tends to offer a better and a large benefit for the marketing of products and services. The
platforms like Twitter and Facebook are also able to help in targeting the new customers and
improve the brand visibility effectively (Jussila, Kärkkäinen, and Aramo-Immonen, 2014)
The factors for the probability of customers and defining the areas will require a proper
improvement in business. The ranking of products and the services is based on the search
engines with great engagement of customers. The number of customers tend to share the
different experiences through the use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter. The text
mining focuses on the analysis of the trends, models and the rules for handling the textual data.
The text mining includes the clustering analysis and the extraction of information with
categorization (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2016). The sentiment analysis is about studying for the
opinions, emotions and the subjectivity that includes the conception and the detection with the
automatic extraction of the positive and negative opinions.
The competitiveness is about the handling monitoring procedures with gathering
information that is for decision making. The techniques are determined where companies are
able to utilize the tools like web brawlers and web search engines for collecting data from the
blogs.

Justification
The justification is about how the user data content could be effectively used through the social
media and help in providing a competitive advantage for the business. The user generated data
helps in providing the company a better and specific target that is able to meet the needs based
on different services. The additional factors of observing the services and products are for the
social media pages. The platform is about how the business organizations will be able to develop
the interactive forum and chat boxes (Ngai, Tao & Moon, 2015).
Research Questions/Hypothesis
Primary Research Questions
Q1: What are the major importance for the social media in business in Australia?
Secondary Research Questions
Q1: What are the different levels that needs to be determined for handling the social media
setup?
Q2: Are there any merits and demerits which are associated to the use of social media business?
Research Design & Methodology
There are variations based on the varied agreements that includes the qualitative and the
quantitative measures that includes the study to adopt the mixed methods. With this, the mixed
methods are set with applying many data collection methods for handling interviews and
questionnaire survey. The detailed procedures are for the handling of social media with use of
several perspectives with the increased confidence of research with obtained results and data.
The use of the multiple resources are for the enhancement and then completing the forms of data
collection with research factors. The elements with the qualitative and quantitative data
collection is emphasized upon. The methods are determined for the research questions that needs
to be answered for handling the research requirements. The questions are set and determined
with the descriptive forms and the explanatory formats, that help in necessitating the mixed
methods use.

Qualitative Research
The qualitative research is about the different aspects with data collection that is making it
possible for understanding the complex natures with studying and clear studying (Trainor,
Andzulis, Rapp, and Agnihotri, 2014). The standards are set for the social media formats which
involves the human behaviors with the mixed research that helps in gaining the understanding
that involves the human behaviors. The qualitative research is about the detailed questionnaires
with open ended and the closed ended questions. The triangulations research approach are for the
qualitative and quantitative data collected with interpretation of the data (Paniagua & Sapena,
2014).
Quantitative Research
The quantitative methodology works on the structured interviews and then conducting the
research for different respondents with face-to-face communication. It will ensure the interviews
with certain set of questions. The comparison is between the different types of the data with
organizations working upon the aggregations that helps in obtaining the answers.
Sample Size
The people of 18 years of age and above requires studying and then ensure the perceptions
related to the social media marketing which is covered through the different times (Priyanka &
Srinivasan, 2015). The standards are set for the identification of the population with research that
helps in drawing a sampling population. The sampling is representative of the population that
needs to be studied with the findings for the sample population. It includes the presentation of
the study population where the sample size will be approximately 150000 for the small medium
enterprise in Australia.
Sampling
The study is about the random sampling techniques to properly interview the respondents and
then answer about the testing of hypothesis. The study needs to be carried for the study with
determining the effectiveness of data collection. This is set before the main survey could be
proceeded further.
Variable
There are variables based on the collection and the classification that is dependent and the
variables include the age and the gender population. The independent variables focus on the

business nature and then there are standards for the social media with effectiveness level that is
set for handling the better returns for the organization (Stelzner, 2014).
Data Collection
The sampling of the study with the forms of informed consent needs to be studied with
participants with second hand delivery. The purpose of the study is about the explanation of the
participants with focusing on the conclusion and recommendation. The questionnaires are then
sent with the respondents who send their data through the use of email addresses with others
handling the research assistance as well. The participants are then asked for the submission of
filling different files of the questionnaires that will help in working over the excel files and then
editing or coding as and when needed (Dijkmans, Kerkhof, and Beukeboom, 2015). The
questionnaires are based on Microsoft Excel with focusing on SPSS version with 17 data
analysis with software analysis, analyzed and then presenting the data with presentation for
descriptive statistics. It is mainly with the use of means, and the mode percentage. The
presentation is based in the form of tables and the charts that help in highlighting about the
multilinear regression models for using it about the social media in SMEs.
Data Analysis
The data analysis is based on Microsoft Excel with editing and handling the descriptive statistics.
The 17 data analysis software with mode percentage, 5 Likert scale and standard deviations. The
model of regression includes the effectiveness for social media marketing. It includes the
regression control with information concerning the independent variables (Kumar et al., 2016).
Reliability & Validity
The factors are related to the mixed methods which is associated to the threats and the validity.
Here, the primary data set is about the validity and the reliability with the conducting of finding
results that could be reproducible. The secondary data is about the need to carry with the testing
that could be published and then signing with the social media for various SMEs.
Research Limitation
The limitations are related to the methodology with the long time and effort required (Wamba &
Carter, 2016). The research is about the more resources to collect information with setting

information and research questions. The source of information is related to research findings and
the information with obtaining data that might not be collaborative with discrepancy of results.
Conclusion
The expectations are related to the social media marketing in increasing the brand image and
then handling the profitability of organization (Aichner & Jacob, 2015). The business is set with
presence of social media platform where the investment of efforts and time is to gain the
customer base. The positive comments are related to the products and the services to work
towards influencing the customer perception.
Time Plan
Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5
Milestones Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week 15 Week 16 Week 17 Week 18 Week 19 Week 20
Introduction
Designing problem
Designing Research objectives
Designing research structure
Literature Review
Analyzing concepts and models
Developing critical analysis
Identifying similar issues from industries
Methodology
Designing research approach
Designing research tools and techniques
Identifying secondary data collection method
Findings and Analysis
Developing themes
Interpreting data
Conclusion
Summary of research
Suitable recommendation
Figure 1: Time Plan
References
Aichner, T. and Jacob, F., 2015. Measuring the degree of corporate social media
use. International Journal of Market Research, 57(2), pp.257-276.
Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. and Beukeboom, C.J., 2015. A stage to engage: Social media use and
corporate reputation. Tourism Management, 47, pp.58-67.
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.

Kaplan, A.M. and Haenlein, M., 2016. Higher education and the digital revolution: About
MOOCs, SPOCs, social media, and the Cookie Monster. Business Horizons, 59(4), pp.441-450.
Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R. and Kannan, P.K., 2016. From social to
sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social media on customer behavior. Journal of
Marketing, 80(1), pp.7-25.
Nascimento, A.M. and Da Silveira, D.S., 2017. A systematic mapping study on using social
media for business process improvement. Computers in Human Behavior, 73, pp.670-675.
Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., 2015. Social media research: Theories, constructs, and
conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), pp.33-44.
Niedermeier, K.E., Wang, E. and Zhang, X., 2016. The use of social media among business-to-
business sales professionals in China: how social media helps create and solidify guanxi
relationships between sales professionals and customers. Journal of Research in Interactive
Marketing, 10(1), pp.33-49.
Paniagua, J. and Sapena, J., 2014. Business performance and social media: Love or
hate?. Business horizons, 57(6), pp.719-728.
Priyanka, P.V. and Srinivasan, P., 2015. From a plan to generating revenue: how is social media
strategy used to generate business in the retail industry in India?. International Journal of
Marketing and Technology, 5(4), pp.62-74.
Stelzner, M., 2014. 2014 social media marketing industry report. Social media examiner, pp.1-
52.
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.
Wamba, S.F. and Carter, L., 2016. Social media tools adoption and use by SMEs: An empirical
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806). IGI Global.

Appendix