An Analysis of Social Networks in Business: Benefits and Limitations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing social networks in a business context, with a specific focus on the case of Bakers Delight. It begins with an introduction outlining project objectives, scope, and a literature review exploring the impact of social media on business performance, including brand recognition, customer loyalty, and marketing strategies. The report delves into the benefits of social networking, such as promoting products and services, increasing brand awareness, and facilitating direct communication with customers. It also addresses the limitations, including the risk of data breaches and the potential for negative feedback to damage a company's image. The report presents research objectives, questions, and methodologies to examine the effects of social media on business operations. The report considers various viewpoints, including the role of social media channels, and the impact of marketing through social media, and the importance of customer engagement. The report also acknowledges the potential for negative content and security concerns. The report concludes with a discussion of findings and recommendations for improving business performance through the strategic use of social networks.

Advantages and
Disadvantages of Using
Social Networks in
Business

Table of Contents
Title..................................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Project Objectives ......................................................................................................................1
Project scope ..............................................................................................................................2
Literature Review........................................................................................................................2
Research design and methodology..............................................................................................6
Research Limitations...................................................................................................................8
Time schedule ............................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

Title
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business
INTRODUCTION
Social networking is nothing but practice of spreading out the number of individual's
business or social contacts by connecting through others frequently via social media sites like
Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). These play a vital role
in the organisation. They are used as a communication tool so that effective communication
among employees can be take place not only in office but also out of that. The present report is
based on the impact of social-media or social networking on the performance of Bakers Delight.
In this project, the advantages as well as disadvantages of social networking on the business of
Bakers Delight is described. The benefits can be like assistance of social media in promoting the
products and services of organisation. Company can make advertisement of their products on
certain websites like Face book, You tube, Twitter, etc. This helps in attracting large number of
customers towards their goods and services. But at the same time there are some limitations of
social networking like risk of hacking of sensitive information of corporation in the case of
communicating confidential data by using social-media.
Project Objectives
It is noted that there are various different companies that gives retailing services in this
modern era. The usage of social media have been enhanced. Furthermore, the Bakers Delight is
very progressive in this case and covers 75 % total reviews also. Therefore, advantages and
disadvantages are required to be discussed so that this ventures' performance can be examined.
Aim : To recognise the advantages and disadvantages of social networking on the performance
of Bakers Delight.
Research objectives : Some of the research objectives are listed below:
 To determine the benefits of social networking for the enterprise.
 To identify the performance of venture in the market place.
 To analyse the disadvantages of social-media or network in the company.
 To recommend some of the ways in order to improve the performance of Bakers
Delight.
Research questions : Some of the research questions are described below:
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Q 1. What are the benefits of social network in the Bakers Delight?
Q 2. How the performance of the firm can be measured in most effectual manner?
Q 3. What are the disadvantages of social-media in the cited company?
Q 4. What are the relationship between social network and the performance of the venture?
Project scope
It has been noticed that power of social - media is one of the strongest power in this
western world. It can be recognise that quickest and one of the reliable source is also said to be
as social media power. In this project, Bakers Delight is one the largest retailer as its business
covers all of the part in the world (7 negative effects of social media that may kill your business,
2017). This retailing corporation is good for the civilians and large number of data can be
fetched in this case. Here, the study focuses on the impacts of social network on the company.
The view points of different authors are described over this so that people can easily understand
it. The methodologies such as qualitative as well as quantitative researches are also explained
which aids in gathering information related to the topic. Additionally, the limitations of research
is provided here.
Literature Review
There are three different parts that are going to be explained in the literature review. It is
determined that first one is relative analysis of Bakers Delight and the another is social media
channels. The second one is advantages or benefits of social networking , and the third one is the
disadvantages of social media so that the complete scenario can be described in this report.
As per the view point of Picazo-Vela, Gutiérrez-Martínez and Luna-Reyes (2012),
Bakers Delight and other companies present in the world and several firms are doing their work
together in order to expand their business. Instagram, Facebook, Snap chat, Twitter, You tube
and various other global and regional channels that are playing a crucial role in the activities of
social media. These networking sites have changed the way of doing business. Now company
can take use of such sites in doing effective promotional activities. They make their own website
or may utilise web pages of these social sites. There are different advantages to marketing by the
use of such social media. According to Okazaki and Taylor (2013), it is one of the most price-
efficient digital marketing methodologies that is used to syndicate contents and enhance visibility
of business. If corporation will implement social media strategies, then its assist in increasing
brand recognition as they get involved with a broad audience of customers. Company should
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create profiles of social media for their business and start interacting with others. They can
encourage their workers, stakeholders, partners and sponsors for liking their pages. These social
media networks are new channels acts as voice of brand and content. This is essential because it
makes company easy to access new consumers and get well-known from their existing one. For
instance, an often Twitter user can hear about the venture for the first time just after staggering
upon it in a newsfeed. Or, an otherwise uninterested user may become better familiar with their
brand after recognising their presence on more than one network.
(Source : The benefits and drawbacks of Social Media Marketing, 2015)
On the other hand, Borgatti, Everett and Johnson (2013) says that brands which are
involved on channels of social media are enjoying highest loyalty from their consumers. A
strategical and open plan of social media would prove powerful in contorting users into
becoming brand allegiant. Another study provided by Convince & convert found that 55 % of
Australians who are following brands in social are most loyal to such brands.
Branthwaite and Patterson (2011) stated that each and every post that company make on a
platform of social network act as a chance of converting the consumers. When they create a
following, they would get access to new customers, recent users and old one at the same time.
They can easily interact with all of them. Bruhn, Schoenmueller and Schäfer (2012) says that
each and every blog post, comment, image or video shared by the firm is an opportunity for
some one to respond, and every respond can lead to visit of site and ultimately a conversation.
Not all interaction with the brand resulted in a conversation, but each and every positive
communication enhances the probability of an eventual conversation. On the contrary, Bryman
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Illustration 1: The benefits and drawbacks of
Social Media Marketing

and Bell (2015) states that if company has shared any information via video on social media and
some of the people comments negatively. Then this leads to a great loss to the image of the
venture as it distracts those people who are taking interest in the corporation.
According to the view point of Bryman (2015), a social network helps in informing
friends and followers about special offers or some secret sales fastly and simply. It also offers
users to contact the company very easily. If the consumers are having any any kind of issue with
the products and services, then they can easily post that on their web pages or simply drop them
a message explaining their issues with that. They can also put positive post sharing their
experiences of using their goods and services on the website of the organisation. This is a kind
of advertisement which pulls or draws the attention of large number of users. Employees of
Bakers Delight can also ask some questions regarding their likes or dislikes about the venture.
This helps them in knowing about themselves or their image in the mind of their customers.
On the other hand, David (2011) says that nearly all the social networking sites are free
for using and put the company in direct touch with the expected users. For this firm do not need
to waste or pay a single penny. They are only needed to send an email to their existed customers
and requesting them to follow, like, join for getting things under way. If the venture consist of a
diminutive budget for promotional activities, they desires to purchase an advertisement that
happen on the social media. These advertisement would forwarded to those who seemed to fit in
their profiles , goals or styles. Commonly, the costing of an online advertisement is very less in
comparison to an advertisement in newspapers or television.
Edosomwan and et. al. (2011) thought that the speed at which social networking sites
conveys news about the company can be advantages or disadvantage. Once well posted,
calumnious comment has the power to harm the image or name of the business very quickly. On
the contrary, Greenhow (2011) says that the good news is that firm can speak against those
comments instantly in order to defend themselves. This also gives capability to the corporation
of notifying their followers quickly about their updates of goods, recalls and even new releases.
Current and live content via social media makes the promotional activities of the firm feel fewer
static and makes their goods more attractive.
On the other hand, Indrupati and Henari ( 2012)states that marketplace insight is one of
the most valuable advantage of social media. It is the best way to identify the thinking and
requirements of the consumers by directly talking to them. By analysing the activities on their
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profiles, venture can recognise the interest and ideas of their users that they could not know in
the absence of social media. They can use it as a modern-day research tool that aids in gaining
information and also helps them in understanding their own industry. Once they achieve large
following, they can take use of other tools in analysing the demographics of their customers.
Another perceptive of social networking marketing is the capability of segmenting their lists of
content syndication on the basis of topic and identifying which kinds of content are generating
more impressions. Such tools provide power to corporation about measuring conversation on the
basis of posts on different social media platforms in order to determine the perfect or complete
combination of creating money.
As per the view point of Kadushin (2012), Bakers Delight can become a leader or an
expert in the retailing filed by posting their perceptive and well engrossed contents on social
media. For becoming a thought leader, no one way is available. It needs work that can be
corroborated by online networking tools. Corporation has to use various social-media platforms
for proving themselves as experts and building their presence.
On the other hand, Kasemsap (2014) says that there are different limitations of
social networking that laid a negative impact on the performance of organisation. Luo and Zhong
( 2015) stated that sometimes social media damages the campaigns of market by negative post
responses. Those users who are not satisfied by the products and services of corporation or the
competitors are capable of posting assaultive images, videos and they can not do anything from
preventing such occurrences. But still, these adverse or non- constructive answers can not be
neglected. Social networks have to be maintained efficaciously enough to quickly respond and
neutralise or kill off such noxious posts, which takes most of the time. According to Myers
(2013), there is an issue of security in most of the social networking sites. It act as barriers of
privacy and due to that seven out of ten social media users realise uncertainness in sharing their
personal or secret information and by this way they place social media down in terms of security
confidence. The process of constructing advertisements and movements off member data
gathered from social networking sites has affected a wave privateness controversy, and
marketing attempts can be met with resentment and offending reactions.
On the contrary, Kadushin (2012) stated that when an organisation uses email marketing
programs like Mail-chimp, they can easily track how many mails are send and how many person
have opened such emails and the number of sales occurred as a result. But social networking
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sites do not provide the similar measurability. So, the enterprise that desires to gain marketing
outcomes instantly might feel that if they utilise social media as a plan of action, they would be
capable of tracking results even one month later.
(Source : The Disadvantages of Social Media, 2017)
Research design and methodology
Research methodology is a framework or model that researcher can use for achieving
setted objectives. There are different techniques and tools that can be utilised by an expert in
order to do complete investigation in an effectual manner. In this project, Qualitative research
methodology has been followed by the investigator in which total analysis can be done on the
ground of some resources. In this, some chart or diagram are constructed after receiving
responses from large number of consumers or respondents. There are various approaches that are
described in this research report such as design approach, sampling, data gathering techniques ,
analysis, etc. by utilising these, it can be identified that how social networking sites are
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Illustration 2: The Disadvantages of Social Media

impacting on the current performance of Bakers Delight. Some of these approaches are explained
below:
 Research design : In this project, descriptive design has been adopted by the investigator
in order to conduct in-depth evaluation or judgements on the cited topic (Okazaki and
Taylor, 2013). The complete influences of social media on the business of Bakers Delight
has been analysed on the basis of this tool.
 Research approach : Deductive research approach has been adopted in this research
project. On the basis of responses, new theories are created. The responds are collected
by taking help of questionnaires.
 Research philosophy : Interpretivism philosophy is used here which is associated with the
thoughts of human regarding the advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites
and its impacts on Bakers Delight's performance.
 Data collection methods : All the information linked with the influences of social media
can be gathered via primary as well as secondary sources. In the case of primary,
questionnaire have been conducted on the workers of Bakers Delight in Australia. At the
same time, secondary sources are also used. These resources consist of books, journals,
and so on. Reliableness and credibility of the existed research report can be insured via
this.
 Sampling technique : This approach has been utilised by the investigator for selecting a
sample from the whole population (Picazo-Vela, Gutiérrez-Martínez and Luna-Reyes,
2012). In this project, random sampling is followed whereby people are going to be
chosen from retail sectors of Australia. The size of sample is 50 and survey has been
conducted on the workers of specific retail organisation such as Tesco.
 Data analysis : An evaluation approach has been utilised by the researcher in order to
receive an effectual outcome. The complete information can be investigated on the basis
of qualitative approach and for this purpose thematic methodology has been utilised. In
this methodology, various themes are created on the basis of questions which would be
asked by researcher to their sample people.
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Research Limitations
Some of the limitations were present which are faced by the researcher at the time of
conducting field of study. Because of those types of hindrance, investigator would not be capable
to achieve an effectual result. Some of the limitation that are occurred are mentioned below:
 The present study which is carried out on determining the advantages and disadvantages
of social network in business is very time taking. Survey has been done on workers of
Bakers Delight, which is a retail enterprise in Australia. After that questionnaire are
created which takes a lot of time. Along with this, most of the time gets consumed in
searching or inquiring the relevant information from various secondary resources and
due to this, overall outcomes gets deviated.
 The selected sample size is not adequate according to the necessity of the chosen topic.
Hence, it impacts on the complete result that is collected after conducting the survey
(Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). Because of that, only view points of those selected people
are recognised and thus it is not so much effective.
 When survey is conducted over the chosen enterprise then cost is also associated along
with that and due to that some of the expenses have to be bear by the researcher. So, it is
a cost non-effective technique, profitability are not attained and this causes higher
expenses.
 This study consist of only quantitative techniques, qualitative could be included in this
report as well and by doing the same, more reliable research could be completed.
 This study is in the Australian context, and due to this reason it could not be generalized.
Therefore, various nations are required to be studied in order to achieve best results.
Time schedule
It is essential for the study to be accomplished in the given time frame. It has been noted
that overall time needed to complete this paper will be six months. There are various activities
that have to be covered by the researcher so that the project gets completed. The starting and
finishing date should be mentioned of such activities in plan (Smith and Zook, 2011). So, by this
total efficiency can be acquired. When the research plan has been formulated then via this
complete study can be accomplished within allocated time or deadline. For example, Gantt chart
can be designed by the researcher as this more important for the existed field of study. One of the
main thing is to complete the introduction and literature review. It must be competed in one
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month. After that respondents would be contacted and within three months questionnaires will be
completed or created (The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing, 2017).
Therefore, after that analysis would be done and then the limitation of research would be
created, then after that conclusion will be provided too. Thus, five month will be appropriate
altogether for completing the research in a possible manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report, it can be concluded that how social networking is important
for the business in order to grow that. But there are some limitation also. But advantages are
more in comparison to the disadvantages. So, it can be said that social media provide overall
positive impact on the performance of business like in Bakers Delight enterprise. In order to
evaluate this, different methodologies as well as approaches are used by the researcher so that
they can achieve the setted objectives and goals.
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REFERENCES
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Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Bryman, A., 2015. Social research methods. Oxford university press.
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Edosomwan, S. and et. al., 2011. The history of social media and its impact on business. Journal
of Applied Management and entrepreneurship. 16(3). p.79.
Greenhow, C., 2011. Online social networks and learning. On the horizon. 19(1). pp.4-12.
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Kadushin, C., 2012. Understanding social networks: Theories, concepts, and findings. OUP
USA.
Kasemsap, K., 2014. The role of social networking in global business environments. Impact of
emerging digital technologies on leadership in global business.pp.183-201.
Luo, Q. and Zhong, D., 2015. Using social network analysis to explain communication
characteristics of travel-related electronic word-of-mouth on social networking sites. Tourism
Management. 46. pp.274-282.
Myers, M. D., 2013. Qualitative research in business and management. Sage.
Okazaki, S. and Taylor, C.R., 2013. Social media and international advertising: theoretical
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Picazo-Vela, S., Gutiérrez-Martínez, I. and Luna-Reyes, L.F., 2012. Understanding risks,
benefits, and strategic alternatives of social media applications in the public sector.
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Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
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Online
7 negative effects of social media that may kill your business. 2017. [Online]. Available through :
<https://www.revechat.com/blog/7-negative-effects-social-media-may-business/>.
Accessed on 5th October 2017.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing. 2017. [Online]. Available
through : <https://www.webpagefx.com/internet-marketing/social-media-marketing-
advantages-and-disadvantages.html>. Accessed on 5th October 2017.
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