The Role of Social Networking in Business Communication
Discuss about the Networking in Global Business Environments.
The following report is based on the determination of the different advantages as well as disadvantages of social networking in business. The use of modern technologies within the business has drastically changed the business world and has provided both the owners and the clients of the business with ample opportunities (Cook 2017). The biggest difference that technology has made since its advent in the contemporary business world is the communication. The implementation of the social networking in business has totally changed the process of communication in the business sector. The advent of the computer based technologies and the invention of the different social media applications have helped the business organizations to attain a corporate structure and transform themselves into a globalized platform. However social networking has also got a number of disadvantages which can totally disturb the smooth functioning of the organization.
The objective of the following project is to determine the different advantages and disadvantages of implementing and using social networking in business organizations. The following report has clearly defined the specific uses of social networking in business, its implementation in business and the advantages that it creates for the business organizations (Eriksson and Kovalainen 2015). The report has also determined the different disadvantages that the management of the organization faces from the introduction of social networking in business operations. On completion of this article the readers will be able to gain a proper idea of the use of social networking in business and the pros and cons of the implementation of such social networking within the business structure.
The topic that has been selected has great credentials as because it is way too complex in nature as it requires a detailed observation and critical analysis to determine the different information related to the following. The project has thus been constructed in consideration of a number of different types of elements that has helped in increasing the scope of the research. The future researchers who aim to conduct a study on the same subject can thus take the help of the following research to get a detailed idea about the subject.
Social Media is a group of online communication options that allows the users to participate, receive different information, present quality feedback and share ideas among themselves (Schaltegger and Wagner 2017). The implementation of the social networking tools in business allows the business organizations to have proper savings, improve the customer communication processes, better target customers and also create online reviews about the business. The advent of the social media has helped in the rise and development of the business. Social Media has a huge level of influence and power in the business sector. It has grown in leaps and bounds since its implementation. The social media was developed with the idea of merely a tool to stay updated with all the recent happenings in the business world.
Advantages of Implementing and Using Social Networking in Business Organizations
Social Media is growing at a huge speed as more and more people are getting involved into it. The efficiency and speed that social media provides has been the main reasons behind the growth of the social networking sites in the internet. The social media industry is bound to become one of the major industries in the future (Stelzner 2014). There has been a recent trend among the business organizations to implement social networking in the organizational structure of the business management. The business organizations have the aim to leverage proper and effective channels of social media in the best possible way. The organizations do not do this just to go with the modern trends but they do this to get closer to the target audience of their business who are constantly glued to the different social networking sites. The touch of the social media helps the business to not only produces more and more business but also helps to connect with the customers and provide them better and quality services
Marlow et al. (2015), states that online marketing of the business gets easier with its presence in social media sites. Reports and online surveys have shown that more than 70% of the customers recommend a particular brand to others when those brands have a good amount of presence in the social media websites. The global social media users have seen a rise of around 7% in the year 2005 to 69% within a span of a decade. The introduction of social media supported mobile devices has also contributed to the growth of the following industry. More than 2 million businesses uses Face book for advertisement and marketing related promotions of their products and services.
As said earlier social networking has gradually converted itself to one of the best tools for business and is predicted to have even a larger role in the coming days. The marketing and sales department of the business organizations nowadays largely depends on the social media networking sites to promote the business in a much extensive platform (Sekaran and Bougie 2016). The use of social networking in business has a much larger role to play as because it has the capacity in it to generate the future growth and development of the business organization.
Social Media advertising is the most recent trend that is being followed by the business organizations to embark on a much faster growth in the business. The different types of advertisements in face book can be cited as the best example of such leverage. Though the feature was first launched in the year 2005 it took a time of more than 10 years to reach its peak. This proves the long lasting nature of the social media advertising. Experts believe that social media advertising will grow in a much organized and larger way in the coming few years. The social media advertising route is believed to be the way forward by each and every form of business organizations (Turban et al. 2017). This includes the lower costs of the advertisements and the benefits of reaching both the targeted as well as the potential customers of the products or services. The real time performance of the advertisements can also be easily determined by the social media advertisements.
Disadvantages of Social Networking in Business Operations
Social media is a proven tool when it comes to the increase in the brand awareness of the different kinds of products and services. Social media serves the correct platform, to increase the brand awareness of the organization. The brand awareness cannot be however increased without a proper planning. The company has to analyze the correct media platform where they have the target audiences (Mutuku 2017). Apart from such strategy innovation in the content of the advertisements in the form of eye catching graphics can help a lot to form a reputable brand. Last but not the least in any ways the management of the organization needs to have a clear understanding and insight into the performance of the advertisements and marketing campaigns on social media pages through different social tools. The management of the organizations can also initiate conversations with the social media users to make them aware of the use and quality of the different kinds of products and services they promote.
Inbound Marketing is one of the most tested processes that help to generate the targeted traffic to the web application of the different business organizations. The ignorance of the social media tools and absence of social media marketing can create a void in the modern world as it will limit marketing to the inner circle of already known customers of the business. The presence of an active blog of the organization helps out to reach the customers (Fox and Moreland 2015). On the other hand the presence of a large base of customers in the organization helps out to reach a much larger number of customers and helps to promote the brand more extensively. The presence of the business organization in different web applications is a must for the business organization as different types of people prefer different social media applications and thus it is necessary for the organization to be present in each of the different websites to be at its very best and reach to a whole lot of customers.
Each and every social media marketer has the idea that social media and search engine optimization has a certain level of connection in between them. The search media optimization of the organization helps to provide higher chances to the organization. The social media properties dominate the front of the search engine result page for the different brand names of the organization’s products and services. Thus these profiles in social media are the best way to connect to the prospects and the customers of the business. Social media also helps to reach out a large number of people in the organization via face book and twitter.
The Impact of Social Networking on Customer Engagement and Online Marketing
As mentioned earlier social media is the best way to reach out the targeted population for the business. However the process does not stop here this is because getting hold of the targeted leads does not generate the desired outcomes for the business, unless and until they are totally converted into sales. According to, Dubos (2017) the use of social networking helps the business organization to reach out to the global population and make their brands popular by nature. The social media proofs help the business organization to provide assurance to the customers on the quality and acceptability of the certain product and service. There are a lot of many ways that promotes the business in a social media and helps it to have a great impact on the business of the organization. More than 50% of the marketing experts claims that taking some time to develop healthy relationships with the consumers showed a much positive result in the sales of the organization. Thus it can be said that the better impression that can be made with the customers, the better will be the chances of the future growth of the organization. Different types of studies conducted by independent business organizations have shown that social media has a much higher lead than the other forms of marketing. As described earlier social media advertisements help the organization to create a trust and creditability among the people who use these web applications.
People use the help of social media platforms to stay connected with the friends, family and communities. As because people are already present in such a environment it is better for the management of the business organizations to post their advertisement into the different forms of web applications to make them reach out to different types people present in the media platforms. The business organizations receives more benefits of posting the advertisements as because the people who opts for the products and services after seeing the advertisements refer them to their relatives and friends which furthermore increases the profit margin of the business.
Social Media is both a communication as well as a networking platform. It helps to reach out to a varied group of individuals who might be the target of the organization. The creation of a voice for the company is utmost important for the business organization to mix the business with the human community (Dubos 2017). Customers of the business appreciate knowing when they post different comments on the webpage and receives automated generated messages. The interaction of each and every customers of the business in the social networking sites is the perfect medium to publicly demonstrate the compassion for the different customers of the business. A brand devoted to customer satisfaction makes full use of the following opportunity and comes up to the customers in a positive sense.
Inbound Marketing and Brand Awareness through Social Networking
Posting insightful and a properly written content on the social media is a great way to become a proper leader in the following field (Cook 2017). There is no one way to become a thoughtful leader. The process involves hard work and the support of different online networking tools that can be used to gain proper experience in the mentioned field. Proper communication, utilizing the social networking in a proper way, sharing thoughtful and innovative contents is the key to the success of the business in the following arena.
The above mentioned part in the following project has highlighted the bright part of using Social media in business but apart from the large number of positives of using the social media, there are a large number of similar disadvantages of the business. The presence of the business organization in the social media can be both advantageous and disadvantageous depending on the type and nature of its usage by the management. Some of the main disadvantages that come with the social media of business include;
- Consumes Great Time- The social media profile of a business organization must be maintained on a regular basis with utmost dedication as because non maintenance of the profile will amount to the loss of the customers and their trust (Fox and Moreland 2015). There are many companies who have just opened up an account to go with the business trend but do not update or keep a tab on the social media users. These kinds of activities may lead to the failure of the business as because increase brand awareness through social media needs a lot of time.
- Qualified Experts are needed- The presence of qualified IT experts is utmost necessary for the success if the business in social media platforms (Hair et al. 2015). The management of the official social media profiles of the company must be managed by trained experts. The absence of trained experts can be a problem for the organization.
- Initial investment is huge- Most of the social media sites are free to operate but the companies have to incur a large amount of money to operate the profile in an innovative and proper way. The operation of these profiles in the most innovative ways helps the organization to make some inroads in the minds of the customers. Most of the medium and small scale organizations thus find it tough to open up their accounts in the social networking sites (Fox and Moreland 2015).
- No scope for boring and same repetitive advertisements- The management of the organizations often tends to repeat the same advertisements again and again which may lead to boredom among the targeted customers of the mentioned organization (He et al. 2015). The absence of innovative advertisements does not help the cause of the organizations.
- Negative Publicity- Any forms of negative publicity is not acceptable in the social media. Posts or comments that may hamper the reputation of the organization are a direct threat to the growth of the business (Mutuku 2017).
- Trolls- There are people in social networking sites who have the intention of trolling organization on any advertisement or innovative posts of the company. These kind of trolls tend to disturb the smooth running of the business organization (Jussila Kärkkäinen and Aramo-Immonen 2014).
Conclusion
The following paper has provided a proper analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of social media in business. The paper has thrown light on the different elements of social media and its utilities and cons for the business. The brief description of the term social media, the discussion of its importance in this report has been the main reason for the increase in the scope of the project. A detailed analysis of the report will be helpful for the readers as well as the future researchers to get a good idea of the mentioned topic in the report.
Reference List
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