Social Media: Benefits, Risks, and Recommendations for Businesses

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the benefits and risks associated with utilizing social media platforms for businesses, with a particular focus on the financial sector. The introduction highlights the advantages, such as improved customer service, effective promotion, expanded market r...Read More

ARGUING THE BENEFITS
OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Explain different benefit of social media for the business .........................................................1
Explain different risk and issue associated with using social media for the business ...............2
Recommendation through which different issue or the risk can be managed by organization...4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Social media is the collective online communications channels dedicated to community-based
input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. This report highlights the benefit which is
brought by social media to the business. After that the report highlights the potential issue or risk
associated with using social media in financial business service. In the end the report highlights
the recommendation by the help of which organization can overcome the different ethical issue
and the problem.
MAIN BODY
Explain different benefit of social media for the business
Social media is the collective online communications channels dedicated to community-based
input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. In today's era of globalization and the
technology advancement Social media is one of the platform which is used by the organization to
increase the efficiency of work in the organization. As it provides the variety of the benefits to
the organization in carrying out their operation (Zhang and Luo, 2016). In the case of the
financial institution the organization uses the social media platform to just inform the customer
about the services which is offered by the company and at what prices the company used to offer
the services to the consumer in the market. As there are many rules and regulation in the
financial industry which binds the company to promote the confidential data and information.
Still there are many benefit which is brought by the social media platform to the financial
institution. Some of the benefits of social media to the business are as follows:
Customer Service Improvement: It is one of the biggest benefit which is brought by the social
media platform to the business. As social media provides a platform for the customer by which
customer can easily contact to customer service representative easily than before. Not only that
social media platform help the organization in getting the review and feedback of the customer
toward the company product with the help of the same organization used to develop the product
which help the company in satisfying the need of the customer. As a result this help the company
in improving the customer service in the organization.
Promotion: It is one of the most important function of the social media in the organization. As
social media help the company in presenting the company product in more attractive way in the
market. Social media will eventually help the company in reducing the cost of the promotion in
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the organization as social media marketing does not require that huge amount of money as
compare to other marketing platform of the organization.
Market Area Coverage: Another benefit which is brought by the Social media is that it helps
the business in improving the market area coverage of the company. As every organization in
today's world uses social media platform as a premium platform to promote the product of the
company it helps the company in touching the larger number of the customer in the market as
compare to the past which eventually help the company in improving the market area coverage
of the business (Schaupp and Bélanger, 2019) placed at the different location throughout the
world. This eventually help the organization in touching larger number of the customer.
Track over competitor: Social media platform also help the company in keeping the track over
the competitor in the market. As social media platform allow the organization in keeping the
track over the strategy which is used by the other competitor to attract the customer. On the basis
of the same organization can implement the change in own company policy and strategy which
can help the company in attracting new customer from the market.
Explain different risk and issue associated with using social media for the business
Intangible Result or Return: It is one of the biggest issue or risk which is associated with using
social media in the organization. As the result or the return which is provided by the social
media marketing is really tough to measure as the customer feedback and review used to change
on the basis of their culture background and need. It sometime get difficult for the business in
understanding the real need of the customer in the market. As a result there is a big risk of
wasted of the time and also of money for little or no tangible return. In the case of the financial
institution the risk of the same is higher as the financial institution does not promote any product
of the company they just used to promote the price and service of the company. So the chances
of getting the information from social media platform is very less which eventually increases the
wastage of time and money of the financial institute.
Legal Obligation: It is another big issue or the risk which is associated with using the social
media platform in the organization. As the marketing manager or the organization has to make
sure that all the activity of the social media in business is performed by compiling with the
different legislation such as privacy legislation or regarding spam, copyright and other issue.
Some of the obligation are
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 Misleading and Deceptive conduct: Organization has to make sure that all the activity
which is promoted is not misleading or false as this may lead to legal action against the
company.
 Bait Advertisement: Organization has to make sure that the post of the company is
evaluated on the regular basis as it is legal responsibility that the product which is on
offer is in stock to supply
Their are many other laws related to same such as a competitions law, Signage, direct marketing
and Do not call Register. Organization will require to compile with all of them this sometime
slow down the operation of the business in the organization and also consume more than usual
time. For the company offering the financial business the risk is more wider as there are many
rules and regulation which has to follow such as confidently of the client data, has to cope up
with the rules of different association who used to run the accounting in nation. For the sake of
same financial business has to invest more time to prepare and evaluate the data as compare to
the firm operating in the different industry (Nisar, Prabhakar and Strakova, 2019)
No control over the behavior of the consumer: It is another big issue which is linked with
using social media in the organization. As any thing which is promoted by the organization are
not liked by any segment of the customer it may result in bullying and harassment. This affects
the brand value of the company in the market. For example: Snap chat has posted a wrong
picture and statement against the people and nation of India which has affected the business as
many consumer has given false review and started ignoring snap chat which has eventually
affected the business in wrong way. So there is a huge risk of losing the trust of the company in
the market.
Resources Require: This is another issue which is linked with using social media platform is
that it requires the variety of the other resources other than the common resources to check and
manage your online presence. This eventually increase the human resource requirement of the
company as a reason organization has to incurred a good amount of the money in the recruitment
process of the organization. In the case of financial institution the requirement of the human
resources are higher as in financial company will require a person who can overlook at all the
data which need to publish, after that a guy who can evaluate the data and see that it is compile
with all the rules and regulation of the nation and in the end checking with the competitor
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company promotion strategy and making the change respectively before posting on the social
media platform.
Recommendation through which different issue or the risk can be managed by organization
Recheck with different Rules and Regulation: Organization has to make sure that each activity
which is performed in the organization for the purpose of promoting the same in at the social
media platform is compile with the different rules and regulation. Different rules and regulation
includes privacy law, copy right law and Misleading. This will consume a bit of time for the
company but at the same time it will also play a crucial role in improving the goodwill and brand
value of the company in the organization as consumer are always attracted toward the company
which used to compile all the laws and legislation of the nation (Gentile, Markham and Eaton,
2018)
Should take the information as a basis: Organization has to make sure that the information or
the result which is seen from the social media platform should not be consider as a viable
information. Before using the information organization have to make sure that all the information
is checked and analyzed before taking into consideration. Organization can take help of the
research and development program to check the viability of the information which is gather by
the social media platform. Organization has to take the information gather as a basis and has to
build the research and development program in the organization which will help the company in
checking the viability of the information.
Proper Interaction: Organization has to make sure that they used to provide the proper support
to the customer regarding the issue or difficulties which is faced by the consumer it will help the
organization in controlling the behavior of the customer in better way. As it has been analyzed
and seen in the past that the customer get tempted to write the bad and negative feedback due to
the lack of the support or the interaction from the organization side. Organization has to make
sure that every customer who is looking for the support or the help used to get the best available
support from the company this will eventually give the customer the feeling that the organization
also used to care about them and will eventually help the company in avoiding the negative
feedback about the company (Caron and Light, 2016).
Training and development: It is the another way through which organization can avoid the
issue of the resources in the organization. As providing the proper training to the employee will
help the company in improving the skill set of the employee in the organization which will
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eventually help the company in building the employee who can operate the social media platform
in the organization which will also help the company in improving the efficiency of work in the
organization.
Competitor strategy review: Organization have to make sure that the organization used to
regular check the strategy which is used by the competitor in the market and on the basis of same
organization should make the different social media policy in the organization this will help the
company in getting the competitive advantage and will avoid the issue of outdated promotional
content on the promotional platform.
Simple but attractive: As per the report it has been found that the promotional activity which
are simple are the one which used to attract the most number of the customer toward the
organization. Organization has to make sure that the content which used to promote the activity
of the organization need to be clear and specific so that the most number of the customer are
attracted and organization is able to defend the problem of misleading, bullying and harassment
(Panahi, Watson and Partridge, 2016)
CONCLUSION
After going through the above report it has been summarized that there are many benefits of the
social media such as customer service improvement, market area coverage and promotion but at
the same time provides the variety of the issue and risk such as legal obligation, resource
requirement and control over behavior of the customer. In the end the report summarized the
recommendation through which different issue and problem can be solved by the organization.
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REFERENCES
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Schaupp, L.C. and Bélanger, F., 2019. Social commerce benefits for small businesses: An
organizational level study. In Social Entrepreneurship: Concepts, Methodologies,
Tools, and Applications (pp. 1237-1255). IGI Global.
Nisar, T.M., Prabhakar, G. and Strakova, L., 2019. Social media information benefits,
knowledge management and smart organizations. Journal of Business Research. 94.
pp.264-272.
Gentile, D., Markham, M.J. and Eaton, T., 2018. Patients with cancer and social media: Harness
benefits, avoid drawbacks. Journal of oncology practice. 14(12). pp.731-736.
Caron, J. and Light, J., 2016. “Social media has opened a world of ‘open communication:’”
Experiences of adults with cerebral palsy who use augmentative and alternative
communication and social media. Augmentative and Alternative Communication. 32(1).
pp.25-40.
Panahi, S., Watson, J. and Partridge, H., 2016. Social media and physicians: exploring the
benefits and challenges. Health informatics journal. 22(2). pp.99-112.
Alwagait, E., Shahzad, B. and Alim, S., 2015. Impact of social media usage on students
academic performance in Saudi Arabia. Computers in Human Behavior. 51. pp.1092-
1097.
Bachmann, P. and Ingenhoff, D., 2016. Legitimacy through CSR disclosures? The advantage
outweighs the disadvantages. Public Relations Review. 42(3). pp.386-394.
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