Business Research: Social Networks Impact on Australian Retail Sector

This business research report evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of using social networks by retail businesses in Australia. It begins by outlining the project's objectives and scope, followed by a literature review that highlights the benefits of social media for marketing, customer engagement, and brand building, including cost-effectiveness and increased website traffic. The report also addresses the drawbacks, such as the need for dedicated resources, the risk of negative feedback, potential data breaches, and the time-intensive nature of social media management. The limitations of the research, including the need for more reliable secondary sources, are acknowledged. The report concludes that while social networks offer significant opportunities for retail businesses, careful planning and monitoring are essential to mitigate potential risks and maximize benefits.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
Business research
Name of student
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project objective..............................................................................................................................3
Project scope....................................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................4
Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
Advantages of using social networks for businesses...................................................................4
Disadvantages of using social networks for businesses...............................................................6
Literature gaps..............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The business research topic is to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using
social networks in businesses in Australia. With the advancement of technology and
communication nowadays, the social networks have been considered by many business
organisations within the retail industry as good marketing tools for sending messages and
information to the targeted audiences. The social media has several advantages and
disadvantages, and it is important to utilise it in a proper way for gaining the good results;
otherwise, it can even result in severe risks and lead to bad reputation and brand image of retail
companies in Australia (Aljabre, 2012).
Project objective
 To identify the impact of social networks on business within the retail industry of
Australia
 To evaluate the advantage and disadvantages of using social networks
 To assess the impact of social networks on the enhancement of brand reputation and
image
 To recommend necessary measures for enhancing the efficiency of social networks in
businesses
Project scope
The scope of the project is huge because social networks are effective tools for enhancing
brand name and image and attracts more customers, thereby influence their buying behaviour
too. This would also allow the companies to generate huge amounts of revenue in business. The

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various aspects of social networks are quite effective, and it can create better scopes for
conducting the business research in the future (Baltar & Brunet, 2012).
Literature review
Introduction
Few effective social media platforms are Facebook and Twitter that are used by retail
companies in Australia for marketing activities and even create a fan page where the customers
can follow the company and know about the products and services offered. The literature review
will illustrate the various benefits and drawbacks of using social networks in business by
collecting data and information from secondary sources like journals, articles, documents and
web sites (Batjargal et al., 2013).
Advantages of using social networks for businesses
The customers would also be able to gain solutions to their queries and even be indulged
in telephonic or email conversations with the company officials regarding any questions related
to the products and services offered by the companies. YouTube is also an effective social
network platform, which acts as a repository for managing podcasts and videos and this can
allow the company to promote its brand products and services, which can get millions of
viewership all over the world (Batjargal et al., 2013). This would not only enhance the brand
identity of the company but also could enable the users to share the links of the retail company
with other friends and followers. With the help of social networks, the company could also
display advertising options for sharing and exchange of information with others as well as create
a positive mindset among the customers regarding the brand value (Bruhn, Schoenmueller &
Schäfer, 2012).

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The major advantages of social media marketing are related to costs, because of the
social networking web sites are free to access, develop a new profile and post information. To
reach the targeted market, it is important to use the social networks as it will incur less
investment of money and the users or audiences can also join or follow the company. There is
also pay per click advertisements that can make the company earn money as soon as users click
on the advertisements. The pay per click advertisements are geo targeted, which allows for
reaching the audiences properly and this can be beneficial for the retail companies in Australia to
create a good brand image in less time (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The cost of marketing is reduced,
which can allow for using the additional finance for other purposes like improving customers'
services and more traffic to the web site managed by the organisation. With the betterment of
customers' services, the sales would increase along with increased traffic to the web site. The
customers’ services efficiency would create better engagement of customers and even allow the
customers to provide their responses and feedbacks regarding any products and services
delivered by the retail companies (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2015).
The social networking also helps in conducting market research about the customers and
creates improved opportunities for networking with the businesses and customers with ease and
efficiency. The users of brands who are loyal can be channeled into peer-to-peer marketing
through the use of social networks, and this can help in influencing the buying behaviours of
consumers and make them try out the new products and services with ease and efficiency. The
proper utilisation of social networks can also prevent advertising and promotional activities that
are not preferred by the local customers as well as create good relationships with them (Gronum,
Verreynne & Kastelle, 2012).

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Disadvantages of using social networks for businesses
There are few disadvantages of using social networks for businesses such as lack of clear
marketing or social media strategy, which can often deteriorate the financial condition and
reduce benefits gained by the retail companies in Australia. There would be need of additional
resources for managing a good online presence. To keep the market presence stable, it is
important to manage daily monitoring, which is a daunting task as well. In case a proper social
media presence is not created, then there can be loosing of customers and furthermore lead to
and reputation of the company (Laroche, Habibi & Richard, 2013). There are chances of
unwanted behaviours on the web site like bullying and bad comments posted by individuals
could create a negative mindset among other customers. Greater exposure online can also attract
more risks such as leakage of data and information and even hacking.
One of the major drawbacks of using social networks is that upgrading social media
accounts take a lot of time and effort. Thus, it is essential to appoint a senior most person, who
has knowledge and skills of handling the products and services of the company and how to create
a social media presence. Another disadvantage is that the information and data are visible for a
shorter time until newer posts replace the existing ones (Leonardi, Huysman & Steinfield, 2013).
Other than that, publishing the advertising copy is often not appropriate in the social media
environment, which can further result in losing many followers. It is often seen that customers
post negative comments, which are needed to be checked by monitoring the social networking
accounts, otherwise the negative posts can go viral and harm the businesses within the retail
industry of Australia. There could also be the presence of viruses, malware, lack of control over
the corporate content, unrealistic expectations from customers and non-compliance with the
regulations of management (Okazaki & Taylor, 2013). These are the potential risks that can

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create difficulties while using social networking as an effective marketing tool in businesses of
Australia.
Social networking is time intensive and so an individual needs to monitor each network,
responds to queries, answer questions and post product related information in a consistent
manner. The social network users often feel reluctant to share their information and place social
networks low regarding security confidence. The marketing efforts can also be met with
offensive reactions by customers, which can deteriorate the status of the company (Picazo-Vela
et al., 2012). The customers who are unhappy with the services of companies can post offensive
pictures, comments and feedbacks and there are no such marketers who can prevent these
occurrences. The social networks are free to join, but if the businesses do not introduce paid
advertisements, then the companies may end up with followers who are not even local. Another
major disadvantage of using social networks is that though it can attract loyal customers, still
more efforts are required for attaining new business (Sashi, 2012).
Literature gaps
Though all the major aspects of this business research are evaluated here, still there have
been few limitations found. One of the major limitations is that though the advantages and
disadvantages of using social networks in businesses have been illustrated, still there is need of
searching for some more secondary sources to collect relevant data and information in a detailed
manner (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). Few of the web sites, journals and articles were not genuine,
so to conduct the research in a much better way, it would be essential for determining the
authenticity of the web sites and journals and collect data and information properly.

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Conclusion
The topic focused on the business research relating to the advantages and disadvantages
of using social networks in business. The research was conducted by presenting the research
scope and objectives at first and then presenting a literature review to focus on the benefits
drawn from using social networks in business. Few of the disadvantages such as lack of control,
monitoring of social media accounts and negative brand image, which may result due to negative
comments posted by users had been included in this research too. The literature gaps also
focused on the limitations, which had been experienced in the research, and these further helped
in deriving a proper conclusion in the end.

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References
Aljabre, A. (2012). Cloud computing for increased business value. International Journal of
Business and social science, 3(1).
Baltar, F., & Brunet, I. (2012). Social research 2.0: virtual snowball sampling method using
Facebook. internet Research, 22(1), 57-74.
Batjargal, B., Hitt, M. A., Tsui, A. S., Arregle, J. L., Webb, J. W., & Miller, T. L. (2013).
Institutional polycentrism, entrepreneurs' social networks, and new venture
growth. Academy of Management Journal, 56(4), 1024-1049.
Bruhn, M., Schoenmueller, V., & Schäfer, D. B. (2012). Are social media replacing traditional
media in terms of brand equity creation?. Management Research Review, 35(9), 770-790.
Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Eriksson, P., & Kovalainen, A. (2015). Qualitative methods in business research: A practical
guide to social research. Sage.
Gronum, S., Verreynne, M. L., & Kastelle, T. (2012). The role of networks in small and
medium‐sized enterprise innovation and firm performance. Journal of Small Business
Management, 50(2), 257-282.
Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., & Richard, M. O. (2013). To be or not to be in social media: How
brand loyalty is affected by social media?. International Journal of Information
Management, 33(1), 76-82.

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Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise social media: Definition,
history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of
Computer‐Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19.
Okazaki, S., & Taylor, C. R. (2013). Social media and international advertising: theoretical
challenges and future directions. International marketing review, 30(1), 56-71.
Picazo-Vela, S., Gutiérrez-Martínez, I., & Luna-Reyes, L. F. (2012). Understanding risks,
benefits, and strategic alternatives of social media applications in the public
sector. Government information quarterly, 29(4), 504-511.
Sashi, C. M. (2012). Customer engagement, buyer-seller relationships, and social
media. Management decision, 50(2), 253-272.
Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.