A Detailed Analysis: Social Networking's Impact on TESCO's Business

This business research project investigates the advantages and disadvantages of social networking for TESCO, a large-scale retail enterprise. The report begins with an introduction, project objectives, and scope, followed by a literature review that explores the concept and importance of social networking in business, drawing on various academic sources. The study analyzes how TESCO uses social media for marketing, customer engagement, and brand awareness, examining both the benefits, such as reduced marketing costs and increased customer reach, and the drawbacks, including potential risks and the need for effective management. The report provides insights into how social networking impacts TESCO's business operations, including strategies for improvement and recommendations based on the analysis of existing literature and real-world examples. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, and the report includes a list of references.

Business Research Project

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Project Objectives............................................................................................................................1
Project scope....................................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Social networking is communication channel or web application that is used people to
develop a social network or social relations with other people who share similar personal or the
career interests activities. It is also emerged as important platform organization to increasing
their promotion of business operations. Present is based on analysis of advantages and
disadvantages of social networking for business operations of TESCO which is large scale retail
business enterprise.
Project Objectives
 To understand the concept of social networking.
 To analyse the importance of social networking for TESCO
 To demonstrate the advantages and disadvantage of using social networking for TESCO.
 To recommend strategies for Improvement in use of social networking in business.
Project scope
Present study is conducted by scholar with an aim of getting analysis of various
literatures and journals to understand the merits and demerits of using social networking in
business. Also, accomplished to analyse the influenced it has provided of business operations of
TESCO. Scope of project was also related with the identification of various important social
media application which can be used by organisation to drive success in business operations.
Gaining quantitative research skills and understanding of various important techniques that will
provide support in obtaining information about the scope of social networking in the future.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business
Overview of social networks
According to Baltar and Brunet, (2012), social networking is emerged as an important
online platform which is used by people for development of their social network or relations with
other people who always share similar interest, culture, education, backgrounds and real life
connections. Various researches have been undertaken by scholar on this topic which is analysed
to gain information about their review to customers. It serves as online platform for people to
remain interconnected with each other. In contrast to this, Turban and et.al., (2017) has view that
social networking is important practice used for expansion of number of one's business or the
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social contracts by making connections through different individuals, often through the social
media sites. Moreover, business enterprise are now using these social networking as tool for
promotion of their business. They consider it as an important tool to attract the customers
towards their products and services.
As per the view of Cook, (2017), concept of social networking is based on the use of
social media by people for interacting with each other. Interactivity is what makes differentiate
social media applications encourage their users to share their experiences, knowledge and
opinion and sometime their locations as well. There are is very important social media
applications which are developed by international organisation to add people with each other in
different countries. On contrary to this Picazo-Vela, Gutiérrez-Martínez and Luna-Reyes, (2012),
implies that a social network is the social structure which is made up of an important set of actors
like individuals and organisation and complex set of dyadic ties between these major actors. In
this scenario, TESCO is global retail store which has its operations in different parts of world.
There is various business operations have been performed by managers in organisation.
Marketing is the most business function that provides supports in achievement of business goal
and achievement. Main aim behind regulations of business operations is to earn high profitability
by increasing sales revenue and profitability. Social networking is an important technique which
is used to promote the business operations of TESCO and provides a platform for users to access
the information about the products and services.
Importance of social network in TESCO
According to Aljabre, (2012), Online social networking has been considered by many
people because the next paradigm in personal, professional and organisation networking and
marketing. There are various social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and My space
which have powerful marketing and tools of effective communication. As per the view of
Sekaran and Bougie, (2016), by using these channels to properly communicate with the
customers is considered as effective habits. Further, the important business websites servers
various offers small and medium sized business across their customers which was never possible
earlier. According to Baruah, (2012), Social networking is used by TESCO in market is
important for them in analysing the current trends and demands of products in market. This
helps the users to extend their business purpose I marketing. According to Myers, (2013), 75% of
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business enterprise in UK regulates their business by implementing these social in their business
operations. As today every business enterprise, needs to leverage proper media channels in the
best and effective ways. Not because it's the thing and sound simple but because of their target
customers which is hanging around the popular social networks. Contrary to this, it is identified
as important because it enables TESCO to engage in their business favourite brands and also
connecting with them at different levels.
Advantages of social networks of using social networks in TESCO
According to Chu and Du, (2013), use of social networking definitely provides supports
organisation in raising their business operations across the countries. In this, people are directly
connected with each other in different parts of world. They use this application to share their
experiences which they have achieved after use some goods and service. Management of TESCO
use this social networking as channels for communicating with their customers in order to
analyse their requirements towards different types of products and services (Pros and cons of
using social media for business, 2015). Implementation of this social media channels have
provided support in achievement of various business goals and objectives as it reduce efforts of
employees in promotion of products and enables the enterprise in attracting their customers.
According to Sashi, (2012), Reduction in cost of marketing is the major benefit which is
achieved by TESCO after using social networking sites for promotion of products and services.
Companies tends to develop their own marketing plans in which they include use of social
networking at the top most priority for maximizing sales and profitability. These social media
applications have enabled the enterprise to reduce their expenses of digital advertisement,
newspaper advertisement, hoarding, displays and free samples etc.
In addition to this, social media channels are easily accessible by customers; therefore, it
is essential for organisation to use these networking sites to increase their brand image among
customers.
According to (), Social media networking is providing growth to start up and small business
enterprise in UK, by increasing the ways to generate new business ideas. It has made possible for
people to take suggestions and recommendation from people in different parts of world.
Connection with the people in overseas nation also provide opportunities to small business in
getting financial resources and expansion of business operations. On this, () argued that social
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media is identified as source of innovation and enable to individual to generate new idea on the
basis of observation and information shared by people from overseas.
On contrary to this Patino, Pitta and Quinones, (2012), has lead more emphasis on
availability of data on social networking sites which is useful organisation in different purposes.
It implies that social media generates a huge amount of data about customers of organisation in
real time. Every day, there are over 500 million of tweets, 4.5 billion likes on Facebook and 95
million photos and videos are uploaded to instagram. Moreover, organisation are also focused on
getting information about their customers by using these social media applications and
networking sites. Consumers will also make efforts for analysing various new products and
services which are introduced by organisations on the basis of these social networking.
As per Gronum, Verreynne and Kastelle, (2012), through daily and active engagement and social
listening, business enterprise like TESCO can gather relevant customers' data and utilise that
important information in order to make smarter business decisions. For example: From Hoot
suite Insight, TESCO gathers information across all their social networks in real time as it allows
gauging customer’s sentiment and finding the customer's conversation which is happening
around their retail brand and develop real time reports.
However, in contrast to this Johnson, (2016), has provided more focus on the fact that use
of social networking helps the business enterprise in increasing their brand awareness and loyalty
among the people in different parts of the world. Social media application directly connects
people with each other in different parts of the world. It makes easier for people to connect with
their brand online and get relevant information about the products and service which they need to
purchase. According to Whiting and Williams, (2013), “When you have presence on social
networking sites, you make it easier for your customers to identify and connect with you”. It
clearly states that if TESCO is connected on the social media, then they will make easier for their
customers to find and connect with them. By connecting with the customers on social media,
they can more likely to raise retention of customers and brand loyalty.
According to Luo and Zhong, (2015), organisation can run targeted advertisement with
the real time results by using social media. It also states that social ads are less expensive ways in
order to carry out promotion of business for TESCO and distribution of content. They will also
offer various powerful targeting options so that organisation can directly reach their right
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audience. For example: if TESCO is running an advertisement campaign on the LinkedIn, they
can segment by things like location, job title, company, gender, age etc. Moreover, if the
organisation is running Facebook advertisement, then they can target customers on the basis of
location, demographics, interests, behaviours, connections etc. They can also track and measure
the performance of their social ads in the real time basis. As per (), this social media networking
has reduced cost of operations and advertisement of business enterprise and also provided them
ability to expand their supply chain of products and service in other countries. It has enabled
direct communication between buyers and seller in different countries. Through this,
organisation will also be able to get information about current trends and development in market.
It enables organisation to get information about competitors policies in market and also helps in
development of competitive strategies to create competitive advantage over rivals.
On contrary to this Sampson, (2017), provides more emphasis on the statement that social
media helps the organisation in generating higher converting leads. Social media increases the
sales and customers retention by making regular interaction with the clients and timely clients
services. According to Sigala, (2012) In the present states, it is more effectively implied that
organisation have made their efforts in applications of these media channels in their business
operations to raise its business application. Moreover, in the state of social selling in the year
2015, nearly 75 percent of organisations have engaged in the selling on social media which has
reported an increase in sales in 12 months.
As per the view of Kassens-Noor, (2012), use of social networking provides rich
customers experience to business enterprise. It states that if business enterprise is not available
on social media, most of their customers expect the organisation. Over the 67% of consumers
now go to social media application for customers service. Moreover, not only social media help
the organisation to direct people to their websites, but also share its major their search ranking. In
contrast to this author, has said that major benefits of social media is that it provides support to
TESCO in getting key information about their competitors in retail industry. This kind of
business will allow them to make effective business decision and tend to achieve their business
objectives.
Disadvantages of using social networks in TESCO
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According to Eriksson and Kovalainen, (2015), marketers in organisation are often faced
with this array of adopting new choices with the rapid increase in use of social media. It is also
possible that the social media may not be suitable for every business. If the organisation is not
prepared and launch their social media presence without planning, then they could waste their
valuable time and resources. It is also analysed that these business operations will enable the
users to have more valuable measure to attempt the customer’s relative business opportunities.
As per the view of Dabner, (2012), social networking is not effective for organisation when they
are not having a clear marketing or social media strategy which results in reduction of their
organisation's benefits in market. Sometimes, there are various major problems have been arisen
for business enterprise when they use social media as promotional channels for increasing
demand for products and services. In retail sector, Social networking is used by all business
enterprises other than TESCO for promotion of their goods and services. These organisations are
also considered as competitors of TESCO which identified various opportunities to influence the
market share of enterprise. By using social media applications, these business enterprises have
achieved major opportunities of providing their substitute in market for influencing the market
share, profitability and sales of customers.
On contrary to this, Chen and Bryer, (2012) has stated that organisation needs to have
additional resource in order to manage their online presence. High amount of funds is also
required for TESCO to achieve its implementation of social media strategy in business
operations. This will create a burden for organisation and its marketers for allocation of funds in
organisation. Moreover, the major disadvantage of social media is that it is very immediate and
has requirements of daily monitoring. In this context, employees of TESCO will not get enough
time to monitor the social media applications at workplace. Moreover, the information that is
provided by social media applications is sometimes not relevant and creates problems in making
effective business decisions. This major disadvantage will create impact on the profitability and
sales of products and service in market.
As per the view of Aljabre, (2012), it is essential for business to have an impact on its
customers so that they tend to buy their products and service. Moreover, if the organisation will
not actively manage their presence on social media, then they will not be able to see any results
or achieve benefits. Sometimes, there are various major problems have been arisen for business
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enterprise when they use social media as promotional channels for increasing demand for
products and services. This effective use of social media application will also create negative
image of organisation among its customers. Use of same content on their social sites and web
pages will also create irritation in mind of people and they will try to ignore the information
provided by organisation.
As per the view of Baruah, (2012), there is also a risk of unwanted or inappropriate
behaviour on the website of TESCO which include bullying and harassment of customers. It is
also considered as important for organisation to have secured access on their social media,
otherwise, it creates problems and restrictions on business operations. On contrary to this, Myers,
(2013) has provided understanding that the major disadvantage of social networking is that it has
created intense competition for TESCO in retail sector because information about its marketing
strategies can directly be analysed by its competitors. They will also create an influence on the
company's branding and sales of product in marketing by using social media applications. As per
the view of Sashi, (2012), the social media networks can also offer TESCO very interesting
advertising for their business but also needs to keep in mind that they can also spread the bad
things from company. In order to avoid this, organisation needs to provide their best service and
manage their customer’s complaints as well and provide a great resolution.
Moreover, they will be also required to commit resources in order to manage their social
media presence, responding to the feedback and producing the new content. This has also
included the hiring and training staff, investing in the paid advertisement and making payments
for the cost of creating the videos. As per the view Johnson, (2016), while it is very easy for
organisation to quantify the return on investments in terms of online sales generated by the
organisation through social media advertisement will provide some less and tangible benefits.
Moreover, it will be hard for the organisation to measure and place the monetary value on the
brand awareness and influence the reputation that social media can bring.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that social media networking is an essential and
beneficial means of communication for TESCO to promote its products and service among target
customers. It is very difficult for organisation to understand that the effects provided by social
media on store. Thus, it can be said that social media network can be beneficial for enterprise in
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achievement of growth but it also creates problems if it is not effectively monitored by
organisation. High financial required for TESCO to implement social media strategy in business
operations.
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Online:
Pros and cons of using social media for business. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.business.gov.au/info/run/advertising-and-online/pros-and-cons-of-social-
media>.
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