The Role of Social Networks in Modern Business Operations

This report provides an executive summary and detailed analysis of social networks in business. It begins by introducing social networking and its significance, then explores the objectives and scope of the project, which involves analyzing the importance of social networks, identifying challenges, and assessing their role in business. The literature review covers the concept of social networking, its impact on business, and the pros and cons of utilizing social networks for business purposes. The report discusses various strategies for business development within social networks, including networking, attracting customers, generating revenue, conducting research, developing brands, and improving search engine discoverability. It also outlines the advantages and disadvantages of social networking in business, concluding with a summary of the key findings and recommendations for businesses looking to leverage social media for growth.

Running Head: SOCIAL NETWORK IN BUSINESS
SOCIAL NETWORK IN BUSINESS
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1SOCIAL NETWORK IN BUSINESS
Executive Summary
The Social media business campaigns are done for the marketing and advertisement of the
industry. It focuses initially to increase the awareness of social media pros and cons amongst the
common people in a provincial scale. Social Networking sites have a vital role of bringing the
boundaries nearer to people at a common platform where people can even communicate to
likeminded personnel, their old friends as well as promoting business.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................3
2. Project Objective.............................................................................................................3
3. Project Scope...................................................................................................................4
4. Literature Review............................................................................................................4
4.1. Introduction...............................................................................................................5
4.2. Concept of Social Networking..................................................................................6
4.3. Social Networking in Business.................................................................................7
4.4. Pros and Cons of Social Networking in business.....................................................9
5. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................10
6. Reference.......................................................................................................................10
7. Appendix........................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
A practice to expanding the area of business or social contacts through internet
connection over various social media site like Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook etc. is
commonly called the Social Networking. This network establishes interconnection of online
communities which helps in making contacts. Marketers and Businessmen use social networks
for the increment of brand recognition and gain loyalty from consumers (Aral, Dellarocas and
Godes, 2013). The companies and organization gets much easier access to the number of
customers through this social media site beside the traditional method of marketing, this helps in
increasing the advertisement of the respective industry and hence promotes the brand.
In this project work we are going to discuss the major significance of Social Network in
the fundamental changes that Social Network has done to the business world. There are several
more benefits of social network in this revolutionary world which we are going to discuss further
(Cumings and Dennis 2016). Further we will discuss about the strategies developed by the
business industry for the development of their business within the social networks.
2. Project Objective
The main objectives of this project (Social Networking in Business) are:
 To analyze the significance of Social Network
 To analyze the challenges faced in Business for Social Network
 To analyze the need of social media in business
 To analyze the pros and cons of Social Network in Business

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3. Project Scope
The need of the project is to establish an awareness of the Social Network. Evaluating the
needs and use of this social network in business purpose. How these business are improved by
the networking tactics of social networks (Bharadwaj et al. 2013). Here, we are going to review
some of the books, articles and blogs in the literature review part to explain the objectives related
to the social networks in business and hence conclude the processes and requirements of this
social networking.
4. Literature Review
In old and traditional management approach the organization basically focuses on the
performance of short term horizons, perspective from demanding outside, extrinsic sanctions and
rewards, explicit control and coordination, pushing the managerial qualities and determining
assets as the business organization’s core resource. But the modern management approach
suggest the organization to focus on the perspective from the positive core, longer term
performance horizon, intrinsic sanctions and rewards, implicit controls and coordination, pulling
the managerial qualities and much more (Cristescu 2016). The main aim of the project is to
provide the readers a literature review on multilevel focused on the research area and the topic
selected on the present research. The researcher hence tries to search for the gaps between earlier
researches unpublished and published work. The research within, are carried focusing on the
characteristics of social network in business tactics in the organization. This part of the project
provides literature review on the social networking and its impact on today’s business world
along with its benefits and challenges to the field.

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4.1. Introduction
The significance of Social Network is huge. Since, promotion of business now-a-day a
big challenges for the company because of the market potential competitors the social network
can be proved as helpful as no other traditional methods. Social network provides large number
of active audience using various social sites. It is not important for the company to use every
single platform for the promotion of their business product or service but creating even a single
account can give exposure to million numbers of people around the world (Cummings and
Dennis 2016). The social media marketing allows the user to create their platforms free of cost.
But the only investment one needs to get done is in the form of time. But there are also some
paid advertisement options in the social media platforms which prove to be a good way of
growing the business and to reach more users since paid promotions reflects loyalty and
worthiness. Social Media is a unique platform which has the ability to share and hence get help
from the followers. Often paid advertisements get share and likes from the follower that
improves the promotion of the business. This gives a wider reach to people for the business. The
social media helps the people to get details about the brand goods and services provided and also
the other way around. The social media give several valuable information about the likes and
dislikes of the customer, that can help to make some smarter business decisions. Apart from
these benefits of social media there are some major disadvantages of the field as well. Negative
feedbacks of consumers may lead to failure of the business. There should not be any kind of
flaws within the system promotion since it is easy to get caught in the social media. This can
have a huge consequence foe any business. Time and effort are two main things that maintain the
instructiveness of the business in social media (Eriksson and Kovalainen 2015). Hence, it is
required to have large teams and potential resources for the investment of time.

6SOCIAL NETWORK IN BUSINESS
In this following section we are going to discuss the concept of social media in business
along with the challenges and benefits of using the platform.
4.2. Concept of Social Networking
The social networking service is also called the social media or the social networking site
is a platform services online that are used by the people for building social relationship and
networks with other people those who shared common interest in career or in other activities or
to expand the business increasing contacts with individuals or organizations. Marketers and
business man uses the social media networks for increasing the recognition of brands and hence
promote loyalty toward the customers (Holmes and O'loughlin 2014). Since, the company has
then access to the recognizable existing customer and some new customers, thus here the social
media helps to promote the brand name and contents.
The main advantage of social networking for businessman and marketers are that the
company uses the social network to improve conversion rates and provides an access to variety
of organization and old, recent and new customers. Sharing various types of blogs, posts, images
etc. may lead customers to the charm of the organization and hence their compliments on
company’s offering encourages new customers to buy the product and use the service
accordingly. Promoting the company’s product or service helps in increasing the value of the
brand authority. Increase in posts, makes the company rank higher in the search engine which
helps in establishing the brand as trustworthy, legitimate and credible. The company uses the
social media network to demonstrate the level of its customer service and hence enrich the
relationship with the consumers.

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Along with the advantaged there are several disadvantages as well. The social media
platform is independent and is still undergoing improvements and maintenance, which costs
quiet high and these costs, adds up very quickly. A company profile and a business needs several
numbers of follower before the marketing campaign in the social media starts, which generated
a positive Return of Interest (ROI). Single marketing strategies do not work for every business
occurrence since there is uniqueness in every business and will have some different targets
demographic, competitive and history market places. Thus the fact that the social networking is
evolving constantly makes it possible to keep pace with the challenges, changes which influence
the company’s success marketing rate. Since the social media needs to get paid from the business
for the advertising, the companies restrict the actual amount the business has reached. This may
allow them to receive the unpaid posts for the advertisement. The higher the companies reach the
more amounts they receive.
4.3. Social Networking in Business
The need of social media in business is crucial. Social media can be used wisely as a powerful
tool in the business. There are several opportunities and benefits of social media that includes:
networking, attracting customers, revenue, researching, brand development and search-engine
discoverability.
1. Networking
This field is proved to be a valuable way for exchanging some ideas with the like-minded
people that may improve the way of business tactics. Using effectively the online networking
sites also plays a major role in the business (Ngai, Tao and Moon 2015). This offers sharing of
knowledge and word-of-mouth referrals within the service and goods provided by the company.

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2. Attracting Customers
Social media is known for being a better and greater way to attract new customers.
Considering the campaigns of social media awareness the organizations can try attracting
consumers and followers by delivering good or services. Once the company gains
followers, rest can focus more on the personalized social media campaigns that
encourages people to stay.
3. Revenue
This is the most obvious tactics to generate revenue. Building a community or advertising
the product and service provided within the platform of social media. The advertisements that are
been promoted in social media can be linked to the websites of company or can either link back
to the business of social media page (Maier et al. 2015). This enables the user to get the benefit
from social media without the need to have a channel.
4. Researching
Social media not only helps in serving the business promotion amongst the consumers
but also allows the users to keep track of the competitors, their way of business and how they are
improving in it (Saravanakumar and SuganthaLakshmi 2012). This is said to be a valuable
exercise to do, if not have enough time to spend one’s own business promotion over the social
network.
5. Brand Development
Using social network helps the users to connect to the customers and interact with them
within a more personal level. Having an well established brand can be helpful as the

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social media might give the opportunity to promote the brand further and hence develop
the brand and give the business a voice to improvise.
6. Search-Engine Discoverability
The ranking of the search result of various search engines may affect the size and
influence the social network of the business. With increase in the social followers, the
visibility of the business website in search engines also may increase. This is known as
the Search Engines Optimization strategy.
4.4. Pros and Cons of Social Networking in business
Potential advantages of social networking in business:
 Reduces the marketing cost
 Increases the sales
 Increases traffic to websites
 Improves ranking on the search engines
 Better customer engagement
 Greater access to the international marketers
 Opportunities on consumer’s feedback
 Opportunity for conducting market research about consumers
 Improves the networking opportunities with customers and the other businesses as
well
Possible disadvantages of social network in business that people should be aware of:
 Unclear marketing strategy may result in reduction the benefits of the business
 The online presence needs to be managed by the additional resources

10SOCIAL NETWORK IN BUSINESS
 Social media is immediate and needs daily monitoring
 Only actively managing the social media presence may give the real benefits
 Risk of inappropriate and unwanted behavior on the site includes buying and
harassment
 More exposure online has the potential to attack risks and these risks may include
negative feedback, information leaks or hacking.
5. Conclusion
The social networking strategies offer great opportunities but also great pitfalls. For every
company uses the social media networking to promote their products and services the risks gets
higher. Social networking is hence used for the business and social purposes depending on the
types of people they conduct and communicate. The companies and organization gets much
easier access to the number of customers through this social media site beside the traditional
method of marketing, this helps in increasing the advertisement of the respective industry and
hence promotes the brand. The social networking service is also called the social media or the
social networking site is a platform services online that are used by the people for building
social relationship and networks with other people those who shared common interest in career
or in other activities or to expand the business increasing contacts with individuals or
organizations. Social networking is hence a developing phenomenon which has potential use and
benefits as the technology evolves.

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6. Reference
Aral, S., Dellarocas, C. and Godes, D., 2013. Introduction to the special issue—social media and
business transformation: a framework for research. Information Systems Research, 24(1), pp.3-
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Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O.A., Pavlou, P.A. and Venkatraman, N.V., 2013. Digital business
strategy: toward a next generation of insights.
Cristescu, M.P., 2016. Traditional Enterprise Business Intelligence Software Compared to
Software as a Service Business Intelligence. Informatica Economica, 20(1), p.39.
Cummings, J. and Dennis, A., 2016. Enterprise Social Networking Sites and Knowledge Sharing
Intentions in Virtual Teams.
Eriksson, P. and Kovalainen, A., 2015. Qualitative methods in business research: A practical
guide to social research. Sage
Heymann-Reder, D., 2012. Social Media Marketing. Addison-Wesley Verlag.
Holmes, K.M. and O'loughlin, N., 2014. The experiences of people with learning disabilities on
social networking sites. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42(1), pp.1-5.
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.
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A. and Weitzel, T., 2015. Giving too much social support:
social overload on social networking sites. European Journal of Information Systems, 24(5),
pp.447-464.

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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.
Oh, H. J., Ozkaya, E., & LaRose, R. (2014). How does online social networking enhance life
satisfaction? The relationships among online supportive interaction, affect, perceived social
support, sense of community, and life satisfaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 30, 69-78.
Perrin, A., 2015. Social media usage. Pew Research Center.
Rennie, F. and Morrison, T., 2013. E-learning and social networking handbook: Resources for
higher education. Routledge.
Saravanakumar, M. and SuganthaLakshmi, T., 2012. Social media marketing. Life Science
Journal, 9(4), pp.4444-4451.
Scott, J., 2017. Social network analysis. Sage.
Trusov, M., Bucklin, R.E. and Pauwels, K., 2009. Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional
marketing: findings from an internet social networking site. Journal of marketing, 73(5), pp.90-
102

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7. Appendix
(Source: Perrin 2015)