Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Network in Busines

Question: Discuss about the Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Network in Busines. Answer: Introduction Social media or the social network has been on an extensive outburst across the world (Andzulis et.al, 2012). A tool for people to create their presence in the virtual world; organizations across the world have embraced this particular technology to create, share, exchange ideas and information or to convey their message on a virtual platform to the actual world. The fun part for using the social network is that they (any entity or business organization) do not have to travel half way across the world to reach to their preferred destinations or target markets. The world population got startled with the notion of social media or social network during early 90s. However, it was the year of 2000 that the software developers across the world started to contribute their efforts to develop the idea of social networking or social media (Alexander, 2014). Facebook can be the best example that is being used by numerous people around the globe, which business organizations also find fruitful f or communicating with their target market. People that couldnt connect with their loved ones are now talking with them without any hassle. As far as commercial advantages are concerned, social network or social media has proved to be enormously beneficial for organizations. Today this is considered to be one of the best possible platforms for conducting marketing operations. The whole idea behind incorporating social network or media into the business world is to connect with people or the targeted consumers. It is imperative for organizations to connect with their target customers and the ones that the organization is serving already (Brown and Vaughn, 2011). Social network does eradicate the barrier for any individual, entity or organization that intends to go beyond their local or national territory. When combined with the right efforts and marketing activities, this would certainly draw major and positive consequences. Despite of the size and nature of any organization, these or ganizations do contribute to economical and national development. Being competitive is of the greatest desire for every organization, which demands organizations to be more organized and concentrated over their target markets. Social networks or social media entirely is concerned about being communicative and interpretive. It is due to the emerging trend of globalization, which has encouraged organizations and firms to think global. This has intensified the level of competition that organizations had to deal with previously. The following research entirely focuses over the role that social networks play for organizations to establish their persona in an intense competitive market. It also focuses over the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating the social network into business operations (Bruhn et.al, 2012). Organizations of enormous scale or size generally tend to develop their contingency plan for anything they work with, which in case of smaller organizations can be an issu e. Literature Review Research on Social Networks The term social network on theoretical perspective does have numerous definitions. However, the following segment would consider the definition that defines social network for representing interpersonal associations that business units, organizations and individuals have. The links among these entities arent hierarchically manipulated; they also involve knowledge flows and information. There are two significant objectives that networking does have, one of which is associated with transferring knowledge the consecutive objective is related with facilitating knowledge (Chen and Bryer, 2012). There are organizations across the world that has already integrated social networking as an option for being utilized for conducting marketing activities. However, it is important to establish that the marketing managers are being justified with their roles and responsibilities, it is imperative for them to develop a clear understanding of the factors that do contribute in attaining successful mar keting operations. Along with the contributing factors, managers must also integrate the process of leveraging those factors for attaining organizational value into their knowledge (Chu and Kim, 2011.). Significance of Social Network The social network on a broader note can be referred as the group of actors along with certain group of ties that project an association or a lack of it among the participants. A list of typical participants would include- organizations, individuals along with other social entities. Consequently, each one of these participants is associated with one another by a precise relationship including- affiliation, friendship, financial exchange, information exchange or trade relations. As portrayed by numerous scholars and authors, a network is an open configuration that is capable of integrating new nodes or participants as far as each one of the participants and nodes are sharing identical communication codes (Davison et.al, 2011). In consideration to this particular idea, social network has been referred to a collectivity of people or entities that exchange information on the basis of a trustworthy behavior. In consideration to this particular description, social network exchanges are acc omplished and advocated by trust mechanism, while on the other hand shared standards of reliable behavior can be inspired during diverse processes. Research Niche on Social Network The current study analyzes that, emergence of social media or network did put significant impact over the manner organizations communicate. Social media being used for marketing purposes can be termed as a current occurrence or trend. It was the year of 2008 that organizations across the world began to integrate social network or media into their marketing operations (De Vries et.al, 2012). A conventional but effective marketing tool is Word of Mouth, which after the emergence of social media marketing trend has transformed into e-word of mouth. The term e-word of mouth refers to the idea of sharing knowledge and experience over social media platforms. This clearly replicates the idea of, how people across the world share their experience with their relatives physically, which in this case would be virtually (Edosomwan et.al, 2011). Facebook can be referred to be one of the largest and most effective platforms that encouraged the idea of the e-WOM. People or communicators share their personal experiences with their friends, relatives and others. Concrete and positive consumer experience would certainly be effective and positive in terms of promoting a brand, while negative would draw negative outcomes. This ultimately concludes with the idea that retaining market position, satisfying customers or developing customer base entirely lies over the fact that how the organization conducts itself. In other words, if the organization is being honest with providing quality goods and services is also important (Hanna et.al, 2011). However, that particular circumstance is acceptable in terms of a monopolistic market condition, which apparently appears to be not possible in recent times. The point is an organization must dedicate its financial resources towards ensuring that they have successfully reached to their targeted customers. The notion of Social Media Marketing can always be described to employing social media in order for creating consumer awareness regarding whatever the organization has to offer. Organizations across the globe today are considering the social media as a platform that would help them to augment their sales volume (Heller Baird and Parasnis, 2011). Social media or the virtual social world has captured the major portion of every individuals daily routine. This in its simplest yet strongest form can play a major advantageous role in favor of any organization. This creates the most favorable platform for organizations to be in constant and consistent touch with their customers. Motivation of the Research Every business organization grows from small to big, some grow successfully while some stay sluggish and eventually gets shutdown. To encourage this trend, the following study has been developed to understand the motivation of social network. In this process of growth and development, each one of these business organizations consider the word of mouth to be one vital and crucial means of advertisement that would help them to grow (Verhoef et.al, 2014). Advertisement is the way for making projection, which contains vital information regarding the products that the concerned organization is planning to offer to a targeted market. Efforts pay off, eventually but they do; organizations that put efforts in the right direction often make it large eventually. A business that has to make direct contact with the customers for example: commercial and retail sales, demand great performance from the organizational end. A tremendous performance in terms of quality would certainly create substanti al buzz in favor of the entrepreneur. The goodwill eventually would circulate from mouth to mouth (friends will convey their satisfactory remarks to their friends, they would continue to pass on the message), which would create an everlasting goodwill for the organization (Kietzmann et.al, 2011). However, the identical procedure can occur in case of negative experience; poor experience would lead to greater devastation in comparison to positive remarks. Impact of Social Network One of the major positive impacts that social networking puts over organizations, is it encourages WOM communication. WOM or the Word of Mouth in commercial terms can be referred as a mean for advertising products and services (Ho, 2014). Get together and parties have also become a trend across different class of the modern society. These societal parties or gatherings produce the ideal stage or scope for an organization to stimulate word of mouth, apart from doing the same virtually. Almost every individual today spends approximately 60-70% of their daytime over being active on social networks. This creates the idea environment for organizations to present their thoughts and ideas regarding their offerings (commodities and services). However, authors also portrayed this particular form of marketing to be an unpaid effort of promotion. This can be in the form of both written and oral which involves a satisfied consumer conveying his/her convenience of any product or service being offered by a particular organization. WOM has been referred to be the most convincing means of advertisement since people that wouldnt get benefitted by promoting any particular brand puts their reputation or image at stake every time they pr omote a brand or a product (Kasemsap, 2014). Although, things might not be as severe if the discussion is restricted within a certain limit. However, what if the discussion is being conducted over internet involving millions of contestants, the destruction is only imaginable. Such destructive deeds can even cause a brand to shut down or lose its image overnight. For example: the world heard about KFC being ignorant towards the quality of their food, it took a span of 12 hours for the entire world to know. However, the brand testified that the news was just about a rumor and the quality is being checked every day in the production facility. The point is an organization needs to be extremely cautious regarding their act, especially in this era of intensified competition. It wouldnt even take 24 hours for an organization to lose its brand image that they have developed over the years. Any discussion that is being conducted over internet takes merely 1-2 seconds to reach to infinite number of people across the globe (Kim and Ko, 20 12). Thus, it is imperative for business organizations to ensure that they are being justified with the promises they have made to their customers. Chronological Development of the Research This is an era of high-end information technology that connects numerous people across the globe on a single click of a button. While social networking has put significant positive impact over the manners, there are few backdrops of this system. Business organizations have conducted their business operations through the years but one should not trust blindly on the success stories only. Organizations have witnessed the transformation that social networking has brought in the manner they have pursued advertising activities. There are business organizations that direct their target customers towards social networking sites more than they direct them to their official websites. Marketing through social networking comes with certain advantages; however there are certain drawbacks as well that needs serious consideration (Laroche et.al, 2012). Benefits of Social Networking Targeted Marketing One of the major advantages of marketing through social networking is it facilitates the organizations the facility of targeting audiences on their basis of their personal interests, considering their friends personal preferences as well (Turel and Serenko, 2012). For example: an individual seeks for a certain sports brand over a precise social media, the person would certainly see increased number of advertisements of the same brand on every page he/she visits. There are sites that would also provide options for the individual to select his/her personal preference. This would establish a connection among the individual with their friends along with other potential individuals with similar tastes and preferences as well. This has been referred to be the smartest way of marketing, which helps the advertisers to establish a connection with the customers having significant interest in anything that the organization has to offer. Additionally, as discussed over and over again, social net working does promote word of mouth, which broadens the horizon for the advertisers to achieve something their conventional advertising couldnt (Lin and Lu, 2011). Web Analytics Social networking activities do facilitate analytic services as well. These analytics enable the organizations and their advertisers to track the particular type of commercial that is attracting major web traffic. These analytics also provide vital information related to the demographics; the age of viewers that are mostly and genuinely interested into acquiring the products or services offered by the organization (Tome and Snoj, 2014). This particular sort of information plays the major role in enhancing the quality of the product and service along with making the advertisements more efficient and knowledgeable. Interactivity The best possible benefit of the social networking is it allows the organization or the advertiser to interact directly with the potential customers through forums or conversation threads. Engaging customers certainly puts impact over their (customers) psychological state, they feel important and valued. This increases the likelihood of customers being genuinely interested into whatever the organization or the advertiser is trying to communicate (Michaelidou et.al, 2011). However, answering one individuals queries wouldnt serve the purpose of answering the entire market. Thus, if people feel that they are being ignored or not valued by the brand or organization they would certainly lose interest. Weaknesses of Social Networking Velocity of information The justification for the term velocity is being used for information is because; an information circulates on internets faster than a bullet. This enormous amount of speed can act in both manner, disadvantage as well. A defamatory comment would act with equal speed as the good comment will, thus the speed of information is equally damaging (Oestreicher-Singer and Zalmanson, 2012). On the other hand, organizations can also take advantages of this speed factor as they can announce any update they developed and etc. Privacy violations One major controversy that social networking has always alleged with is, it is claimed to violate individual privacy. Every social networking site has diverse set of policies; however they have to release certain user private information for conducting targeted marketing activities. While certain group of people never mind being personally advertised, there are certain class of people that gets annoyed with such advertisement keep popping up in their windows (Picazo-Vela et.al, 2012). Conclusion and Overall Summery Despite of violating privacy policies from customers perspective, social networking does provide immense advantages that outweigh the disadvantages it has (Stelzner, 2011). In this particular era of high-end information technology, it is imperative for organizations to be ready and equipped with tools that would certain their chances of gaining popularity. Globalization has already intensified the level of competition that the organizations were dealing with, with the emergence of social media marketing the level has got more concentrated. This requires advertisers to not just being creative but not to miss any chance they can get their hands upon. 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