A Study on Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media in Business

This research project investigates the multifaceted role of social media in contemporary business operations. It begins with an introduction that highlights the increasing significance of social networking sites in business expansion, particularly in marketing and customer engagement, emphasizing cost-effectiveness and rapid communication. The project's objectives and scope are clearly defined, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of social media within the business context, with potential applications across various sectors. A comprehensive literature review examines the benefits of social media, such as reaching a broad audience and facilitating customer feedback, while also addressing the challenges, including reputational risks and the need for constant updates. The research methodology includes a mixed-methods approach, employing both qualitative and quantitative techniques, with a focus on primary data collection through questionnaires and secondary data from academic sources. Sampling strategies involve a combination of simple random and convenience sampling to gather data from managers and customers. The study also outlines potential limitations and a time schedule for the research, concluding with a summary of findings and a reference list.

Topic: Advantages and Disadvantages of using
Social Network at Business

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................1
2. PROJECT OBJECTIVE..............................................................................................................1
3. PROJECT SCOPE.......................................................................................................................2
4. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................2
Advantages..................................................................................................................................2
Disadvantages..............................................................................................................................3
5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESIS................................................................................4
6. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY-500................................................................5
Approaches to reliability and validity..........................................................................................5
Sampling......................................................................................................................................5
Data collection.............................................................................................................................5
Variables specification.................................................................................................................6
7. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS......................................................................................................6
8. TIME SCHEDULE (Research plan)...........................................................................................6
9. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................8
10. REFERENCE LIST...................................................................................................................9

1. INTRODUCTION
Social networking sites are playing the significant role in the expansion of the businesses
as the public get to know about the latest offerings of the business. This networking is serving as
the strong tool of the marketing whereby the company can save its significant cost and time that
is devoted to the promotional activities. The social media sites are aiding companies in
contacting their clients and customers that leads increasing both profitability and productivity at
the rapid speed (Leung and et. al., 2013).
Furthermore, social media marketing strategies enable organisations to get the prompt
reply or response from the customers or any other clients. It has a favourable impact on the
profitability and productivity because it is used for several purposes; hiring the personnel,
marketing of products and services and conducting the market research. This proves to be
effective for the success of the business and continuous growth in the international marketplace
(Davis and et. al., 2012).
Despite several benefits, the limitations of social media are unforgettable so businesses
should shed light on the same for constant growth in the marketplace. It is crucial for the
businesses to look over these issues whereby they can apply right kind of strategies and boost its
sales turnover (Zeng and Gerritsen, 2014). The present research proposal is based on the social
media marketing that how it is helpful for the business and what negative aspects are associated
with the same in the context of the hospitality sector. It will help the corporation to find the
issues which might occur in the future time span and ruin the reputation of the business. Thus,
the study under consideration provides in-depth analysis of the strong marketing tool as the
social media market strategy. For this purpose, the research under investigation provides the
insight of benefits and challenges associated with the social media network for the businesses.
2. PROJECT OBJECTIVE
This research aims to assess the usage of social media network in the context of business. In this
regard, both favourable and unfavourable aspect associated with the same has been evaluated. It
is because no doubt social media assists companies in gaining the attention of public but it
possesses severe harm for the company during the promotional activities. Owing to this, study
1

shed light on future prospects of social media network tools also in the context of the corporate
world (Leung and et. al., 2013). This facilitates to present the scenario of social media network
effectively and enables a business to maintain the same with the use of effective strategies.
Furthermore, several strategies to apply the social media network effectively are highlighted in
the paper.
3. PROJECT SCOPE
Social media network is rapidly increasing in the several fields; education, business world and
personal life but the scope of the current study are limited to the business world only. For this
purpose, the findings derived from the study can be used in several sectors such as retail, fashion
and food sector. This will help management to understand the pros and cons of using social
network sites. It will also provide the information related to the potential strategies that ensure
the best use of social networking sites and derive the overall benefits for the businesses.
Furthermore, many small businesses can also get the idea related to an effective tool of social
networking site to explore the business as advantages of the same will be showcased in the study.
4. LITERATURE REVIEW
The social media is being popular for marketing of products and services of the businesses due to
the addition of new policies that tend to increase sales turnover (Hays, Page and Buhalis 2013).
The rationale behind using the social media to a great extent is that huge amount of cost is saved
as other modes such as radio, hoardings and television etc consume a large amount of cost.
Leung, and et. al., (2013) stated that social media marketing is beneficial for the business for the
purpose of saving the time and cost. This facilitates companies to post their marketing campaign
via suitable tool so as to gain the attraction of customers. However, the challenges associated
with the social media are not negligible and that need the keen attention of organizations.
Advantages
There are different types of social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
which approach a large number of people at a time. All these mentioned tools have several users
per month such as Twitter has 313 million users whereas Facebook has over 2 billion
subscribers. It manifests that companies can easily approach the large population by using these
2

different social networking sites (Ukpere, Slabbert and Ukpere 2014). This platform makes it
possible for companies to get to know regarding the issues which are being faced by the
customers. This helps in modifying the current strategies of business as per the feedback of
consumers and retain them for longer time span (Sashi 2012).
Hays, Page and Buhalis (2013) stated that some tools of social media are paid which might
contain additional feature for the promotion whereas most of the tools are free of charge which
provides advantages for the business. On the other hand, Young (2012) asserted that social media
network help in increasing the customer loyalty by offering them timely information and
addressing their issues in the right manner. Yet, it is crucial for the companies to update their
sites or pages from time to time for grabbing the attention of viewers. For example, discount and
the special offer on the product and services can be posted to make new customers and satisfy
the existing one (Lefebvre, 2012). It indicates that social media will help businesses only when
management remains active in updating the sites. For this purpose, attractive pictures and videos
can also be uploaded for increasing the traffic. This ensures the profitability of the business
because a large number of customers approached at a time.
According to Sashi (2012) social media is an effective tool that can help in conducting the
market research for different organisation. For instance, a new product can be introduced after
getting the views of customers over the social media. Therefore, it serves as the imperative
aspect to explore the opportunities for the growth and development of the business.
Disadvantages
Social media networking sites are not far from its disadvantages because it imposes
several types of challenges for the business. Hays, Page and Buhalis (2013) stated that social
media networking sites affect the reputation of the business due to negative comments posted by
the users or other parties. It will have the direct impact on the new customers and overall
business performance as such kind of events creates psychological impact in the mind of
customers. Munar (2012) explained that it is important to make the social networking site
interactive and attractive otherwise attention of customers cannot be grabbed. This procedure
takes extensive time of the business where the requirement of expert personnel is also
mandatory. This reflects that company has to incur cost in hiring the new employee who can
3

maintain the promotional site. In this manner, indirect cost is incurred by the business which
might have the indirect impact on the profitability.
It is an obvious fact that in case appropriate social marketing strategies are not
implemented then a company will have to suffer from the lower rate of return. This merely
increases the cost of production and affects the performance of the business to a great extent. On
the other hand, social networking sites provide full freedom for viewers to post any kind of
comments. Owing to this, some organizations get affected from their rivalries because of such
kind of negative comments (Lefebvre 2012).
The use of social media networking not only affect the business through the negative
comment and cost but unethical hacking also affects the reputation of the business. This is
termed as an intentional act from the counterparty which drastically reduces the customers (Kent
2013). It shows that companies get affected from such kind unethical activities and this fear
might not allow management to post the real or attractive information of the strategies
implemented by the business. Moreover, in the absence of copyright, trademark, other people
can easily copy the strategies which affect the rate of return of the business. Apart from this,
security and privacy-related issues promote the unethical hacking (Lesidrenska and Dicke 2012).
Therefore, a separate department looks after the social media market strategies ensuring the
smooth operation of the business.
5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESIS
- Primary Question
 What are the basic advantages and disadvantages of using social networking sites for
business purposes?
- Secondary Questions
 How social media network affects the performance of the business of the business in a
negative manner.
 What are the different strategies that can be used to implement social media effectively?
4

6. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
The study under consideration will be based on both qualitative and quantitative nature. This is
because of research demands for in-depth analysis on the basis of collected numerical and
theoretical data (Kumar, 2014). For this purpose, it is imperative to use mixed method analysis
which will help in assessing both the advantages and disadvantages of social media networking.
Approaches to reliability and validity
In order to get the reliable and valid outcome, ethical practices will be adopted for completing
the data collection procedure (Panneerselvam, 2014). The tools applied for the analysis of the
data will also be effective through which fruitful outcome can be derived.
Sampling
Sampling refers to the individual unit of a population that takes part in the data collection
procedure of the research. There are varied methods applied for the selection of sample;
probabilistic and non-probabilistic. It consists of simple random, quota, judgment, snowball and
convenient as well as cluster etc. sampling. The study under investigation is based on advantages
and disadvantages of social media networking site so the information will be collected from both
customers and managers (Bhattacharyya, 2006). In this regard, simple random sampling will
be used for selecting 20 managers and convenient base sampling will be applied for the selection
of 50 customers. The rationale behind using these specific sampling design is to save the time
and cost associated with the study. Also, a procedure of data collection will be easier.
Data collection
The current research will be based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data will be
collected by using questionnaire method that will include both closed and open-ended questions.
The rationale behind not using other methods is time and cost constraint and the questionnaire
method is favourable in context of both cited aspects. At this juncture, questionnaire method aids
researcher is gathering the information from the large population in relatively less time whereas
interviews need extensive time (Kothari, 2004). In this manner, selection of questionnaire can be
justified. On the other hand, several sources such as journals, books and online articles will be
used for gaining deep insight regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the social
networking sites. Furthermore, journal articles will provide meaningful information regarding the
5

negative aspect associated with the social media so that research can accordingly complete the
analysis process of the current study.
Variables specification
The variables associated with this research are listed as follows which will be helpful in
conducting the in-depth analysis out of collected data-
 Cost and time saving with the social networking sites
 Privacy issue
 Unethical hacking
 Negative impact on the brand image
 Negative reviews of customers or counterparty
7. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
Completion of research activities is not easy as every research possess certain limitation which
should be taken into account by the scholar. Since the study under consideration is based on the
advantages and disadvantages of the social network sites so it was hard to find the detail
information related to disadvantages because most of the sites were offering the information
related to advantages only. However, primary data will be fruitful in which managers will
provide the data that how the reputation of business gets hampered with the effect of negative
comments of the customers or other parties. Apart from this, some responses might take
extensive time because of the busy schedule of managers; however, questionnaire method will be
adopted so that respondents can fill the questionnaire on the basis of their convenient time
(Kumar, 2014).
8. TIME SCHEDULE (Research plan)
The time schedule or research plan of the current study will be as follows which indicates that 20
weeks will be needed to complete the entire research.
Activities/weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1
7
18 19 20
Stating the
6

purpose of
research
Drafting the
proposal
Writing the
introductory part
of the research
with the statement
of aim and
objectives
Collecting
secondary data or
conducting the
literature review
Drafting the
research
methodology
Collecting
primary data
Analyzing the
collected
information
Interpretation and
discussion of
analysed data
Drafting the report
Conclusion and
recommendation
Addressing the
feedback
7

9. CONCLUSION
The aforementioned research will bring forth the outcome that social media networking
site has both positive and negative impact on the performance of the business. However,
management can implement suitable strategies to update the site and keep the customers highly
motivated by building the good relationship with them. It can also be said that social media
networking site are profitable and beneficial for the business.
8

10. REFERENCE LIST
Bhattacharyya, D. K., 2006. Research Methodology. Excel Books India.
Davis III, C.H., Deil-Amen, R., Rios-Aguilar, C. and Gonzalez Canche, M.S., 2012. Social
media in higher education: A literature review and research directions. Report printed by the
University of Arizona and Claremont Graduate University, 8.
Hays, S., Page, S.J. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use
by national tourism organisations. Current issues in Tourism, 16(3), pp.211-239.
Kothari, C. R., 2004. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Age International.
Kumar, R., 2014. Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners. SAGE.
Lefebvre, R.C., 2012. Transformative social marketing: co-creating the social marketing
discipline and brand. Journal of Social Marketing, 2(2), pp.118-129.
Lesidrenska, S. and Dicke, P., 2012. Social-media platforms and its effect on digital marketing
activities. Маркетинг і менеджмент інновацій, (1), pp.44-52.
Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H. and Buhalis, D., 2013. Social media in tourism and
hospitality: A literature review. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2), pp.3-22.
Munar, A.M., 2012. Social media strategies and destination management. Scandinavian Journal
of Hospitality and Tourism, 12(2), pp.101-120. Kent, M.L., 2013. Using social media
dialogically: Public relations role in reviving democracy. Public Relations Review, 39(4),
pp.337-345.
Panneerselvam, R., 2014. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.,
Sashi, C.M., 2012. Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social
media. Management decision, 50(2), pp.253-272.
9