Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business for

Question: Write about theAdvantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business for Consumers. Answer: Introduction After the digital revolution the world has experienced great change in every sector of business. Todays business world is highly technology driven. The retailers are utilizing the social networking sites as an effective platform for marketing campaign to reach maximum number of consumers. The organizations social media integration has hugely impact the consumer behavior. This report explores various literatures that dealt with the effect of special media has on business and tries to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the strategy. Project objective The project objective is to identify and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of social networks in business. Project scope The analysis of social media marketings benefits will identify the various techniques that the organizations use to achieve these benefits. The investigation of disadvantages will help to identify the problem areas and encourage finding out possible solutions. The future of social media marketing as part of the global marketing will be explored as well. Literature Review According to Asaad and Anas (2014) the organizations follow five dimensions of social media marketing like building up the online communities, interaction between the organizations and consumers, the sharing of necessary contents, consumers accessibility of the products and earning the credibility. Social networks have significant contribution in reaching the consumer fast which influences their decision making. Through the social networks the organization establishes a community which is their product, service and business oriented. The organizations that have successfully created a vibrant online customer base loyal communities that are engaged in discussions which help the organizational business to improve and develop (Taprial and Kanwar 2012). Popular social networking sites like Facebook or twitter notifies its followers whenever some activities are happening from the organizations side. If the organizations daily and frequently update their activities related to product advert isements or promotions, the customers get immediately updated (Berselli, Burger, and Close 2012). According to Fisher and Reuber (2011) the consumer community interacts with the company directly and simultaneously which results in greater communication. Through the interaction the company shares its service related information and keeps their broadcasting up to date. In the social network setting the company shares their product information and other services to its consumers (Babac 2011). Social networks have specially proved to be beneficial for the companies as the social media is easily accessible for the consumers and for the company as well and it is extremely cheap. The company does not need any experts for maintaining the social media interaction with their customers as this does not require any specific knowledge or special skills (Taprial and Kanwar 2012). The company earns the the customer loyalty thrugh socal networks in a more easy and effective way. The organizations share their messages with the customers easily and by directly communicating them it successfully es tablishes an emotional connection with the customers and motivate them for purchasing their products more. Taprial and Kahwar (2012) claims that social media has become a great platform for expanding their business and increasing the profit by establishing the trust of their target customer base. According Shabnam et al. (2013) the emergence of social networking emphasized the organizations chances to build personal and intimate relationship with their target audience. They conducted a research among young consumers to their reaction towards the business service of various companies. The applied Klout score to determine the result. They measured brand association, loyalty, brand image, consciousness as independent variables and effectiveness of social media as dependent variable. The detail interview they conducted highlighted the organizations view on using social media and how they assert various techniques for their brand building on the social media platform. The research by Jati and Mohanty (2012) reflected in the research by Bhagwat and Gautam (2013). Both of their studies highlighted the need of social media for effective business by the organizations. They also demonstrated how the social media platforms are being used by various companies to connect to their consumers. Jati and Mohanty concluded that social network is extremely needed by the companies for doing a successful business in the digital era. They investigated the origin and growth of social network in the business sector. The social networking proves to be extremely successful in building the rand for the company. They recommended few strategies for the companies to compete in the global market. Bhagwat and Gautams detail market analysis highlighted that Facebook is the most used social network platform. Their empirical study and found data showed the use of social network platforms are growing every day and the opportunities offered by the networks are being utilized by both the organizations and the consumers. A platform like Facebook is also being used by various companies for business purposes. The exploratory research by Ramnarain and Govender explored the consumer behavior in connection with the social network. They conducted a survey among 150 young students of an African University with a well designed survey questionnaire. The survey result demonstrated that the young consumers purchasing behavior changes depending upon their gender, web browsing and life style. The improved product, important communication channel, and brand choice are the main factors in relationship with the social media networks that influenced the purchasing behavior of the youth. However in the context of South Africa, the organizations need to evaluate their communication and marketing strategies to guide the young consumers; purchasing behavior towards them. The relationship between customer relationship and brand equity has been explored by the research by Kumar and Singh (2013). They have focused on certain strategies that few companies apply in a specific time to attract a particular segment of consumer. The paper supported the previous proposals of other researchers, that social network strengthens the relationship between the customer and the company and frequently the use social network as brand building tool. The companys successful campaign among the customers also extended to its stakeholders. Kumar and Singh (2013) particularly examined the Live the moment social media campaign for the Ritz car by Maruti Suzuki. Valeecha and Reza (2013) investigated how telecom industries in Pakistan are using social networking to let the consumers identify the factors which need to be improved by the telecom companies in order to generate more profit. They engaged 5 telecom companies, 8 media agencies, specialized in social networking and 108 social media users for collecting empirical data for evaluating the case. The survey result explored all of the three perspectives which reflected in a similar result. The consumers expect the companies to be actively present on social media. The telecom organizations also apply social media integration by interacting with their customers directly and whenever they need. Bajpey et al. (2012) explored the social media networks viral strategy that helps the small enterprises to grow rapidly. Various social media marketing are also powerful in deciding the consumers effective purchasing. The compared the traditional marketing strategies with the social media marketing by various companies and concluded how the social media possesses more potential to change consumer purchase behavior. Pandey and Bajpai (2012) in another research examine viral marketing adaptability by various organizations as an effective business tool. They also focused on the most powerful social network Facebook. They examined how various marketers are using Facebook strategically and achieving success. They have also highlighted the offers by Facebook for the marketers to increase their profit. However they concluded that the marketers have to go a long as their utilizing of the social network is still at its primary stage. According to Castronovo and Huang (2012) social network is an effective alternative marketing model for business communication. They mainly focused on the relationship between word of mouth publicity and social network as part of their market communication integration. After analyzing Castronovo and Huang suggested a different conceptual model based on alternative marketing strategies particularly for the industrial practitioners to increase their product sales, enhance customer awareness and finally customer efficiency. The empirical study conducted by Bashar et al. (2012) highlights the social media marketings effectiveness as a marketing tool. The non probability sampling method and the online survey in Indias capital city involving many social networkers help them to come up with an accurate result. The result suggests that if the social network successfully offers timely and precise information to its customers, then only it be effective. Basically the gap between the expectation and satisfaction of the customers should be bridged. The authors suggested that the company should implement a business based on social relationship rather than transactional relationship. In their study Ranjhita and Sinnor (2012) explored the relationship between social network usage pattern and peoples preference. They selected 360 samples focusing on profession and 120 samples based on age to determine the customers usage of Facebook for social communication. They have designed and applied a research method named communication tracking. Their result highlighted that Facebook is the easiest and cheapest platform for the companies to promote their brand and products. The companies can increase their market share through their potential platform by offering the customers in depth description of their products and directly interfering with the customers. Through the eay communication via Facebook the company gets to know about the customers needs and desires and they can apply strategies accordingly. Barefoot Szabo (2010) describes that the transparency of the social network marketing makes the company information to everyone (Ismail 2017). The company has to be really careful and consistent before implementing the social media marketing. The social network between the consumers and the companies takes commitment. Most companies focus on building long term relationship through social network marketing. Therefore the management team of the company has to monitor the activities carefully, respond to the customer queries responsibly and post the information without any mistakes. If the company fails to manage social network marketing such a way it will lose its competitive advantages. The company cannot merely be present on various social media platforms and expect that it will bring huge profit, is just fanciful. In a way mishandling and ill handling of the social media networking may cause harm for the companys reputation and profitability. Steinman and Hawkins (2010) have highlighted another significant disadvantage of the social network marketing for the companies. When dealing with social networking the companies have to protect their copyrights and trademarks. The intellectual properties of the company are equally valuable for them as the products. The communication over social network is easy and transparent. It often becomes informal and real time service. There is always a chance that some third party of hackers might attack the system and abuse the companys intellectual properties. Their copyrights or trademarks should be regularly monitored by the management to ensure that no one else is misusing their properties. They can use such systems like screening services or internet tracking in the monitoring process. If the company fails to check the IPR breaching can damage the reputation and brand severely. The company must design and implement own regulations in various social network outlets. The effective policie s will protect the company from disclosing their data or information. Failing to collect, store and use data responsibly will affect the company privacy of service and data security. The trust is also related to the service security. The brand trust should be built as the consumers can not have tactile experience what they get in traditional practices. Conclusion Internet has a great effect on peoples lives, the consumers behavior has transformed because of the social networks. Social media marketing is an effective tool that should be used for marketing, advertise and promoting their products and services by every company. 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