The challenges and Opportunities of Social Media Free-Samples

Question: Discuss about th Business Research Method And Research Proposal. Answer: Introduction Social network is a structure that is designed for use by individuals, groups or business enterprises to help them develop relationships or interact with each other. The social network an idea that was developed by two scientists (Emile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tonnies) as they were doing a research on social groups in the 1890s. The two researchers discovered there was a way people would relate with each other even while they were miles apart. This is how they came up with the idea of social networking which later grew and developed into a much better theory and then became practical idea after many years of perfection. Often, they social network structure consists of many different sites that help people or businesses relate in different ways. Some of the social networking sites include the following: twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vibe, Pinterest, Youtube, LinkedIn, Google, Ask.fm, Vine, WhatsApp and Snapchat among others. The social network help individuals who have the same social interests, beliefs, career interests, backgrounds, personal commitments or interests and real-life connections to create a good relationship with each other. Through the social network they are able to interact, share opinions and ideas on those issues of life (Michaelidou et al, 2011). As for the business enterprise case, social network can help them market their products or services, advertise their products on different sites, promote their products or services, conduct job vacancy adverts and also hire qualified employees after the evaluating potential employees to name just but a few things (Trainor et al, 2014). In addition to that, through the use of social networking, the businesses can be able to get customer feedbacks, create its own website or portal to help it run its operations as well as improve its personal identity to the public. Nowadays, social networking has become one of the most used method of contact especially between people who live far away from one another. The social network help people keep in touch with each other (Trusov et al, 2009). As for the businesses, the social network helps them keep in touch with their customers, market analysts, raw material suppliers, transporters and distributors, financiers, editors among other people who may be involved with the business operations and success. In this research I am going to focus on social network and the advantages and disadvantages that come in handy especially when used by businesses. In addition to that, I will concentrate on Unilever Company as the business of my reference and apply the idea of social network in its operations and how it affects the operations. Social Networking Service Requirements Every social networking site requires certain requirements. However, there are some feature that are common to every social networking site which include the following: Internet access This is a world-wide system that interconnects computer networks by use of internet protocol (IP) or transmission protocol control (TCP) to enable communication, information sharing and human interaction. It is one of the most fundamental aspects that a business needs to be able to access any social networking site. This is termed as the key to social networks. This is simply because all the applications of any social networking services or sites are internet based. Therefore, every computer must have internet access for it to connect to any social networking sites. Computers and software One cannot access the social network without a computer or any device that can serve the purpose of a computer. For instance, one can use mobile prone, tablets, iPads to name a few. These are devices that can be able to access the internet as well. User profile This relates to the features or characteristics of the user. This can be either personal information, formal information, beliefs, interests, likes and dislikes, career interests, background data to name just but a few. This information is used to identify the user of the social network. Additionally, it is used by the social network managers to manage and control the whole process of accessing the networking site. Other feature that are necessary include the user passwords or pins, the websites URL or link, operational skills or knowledge among other things. Social Networks Sites They can also be referred to as social media sites. No matter how many the sites are in the world, there are some that are not very well known or popular to the public. Therefore, I am going to discuss the most famous and popular ones that are frequently used by businesses especially Unilever Company. Facebook It is the site that carries the largest number of users. It was established in the 2004 and carries about 1.6 billion active users on a daily bases. This means that is the most frequently used site for both business and individuals who would want to keep in touch. Apparently, a large number of big and small business have a Facebook account where they relate and interact with their consumers as well as keep in touch with their potential and current investors; e.g. Unilever. Twitter It is the second largest and used sites in the world. It is being used by about 320 million businesses and people in their daily life operations. The site is said to be limiting the number of characters to use in either a tweet or advert but this does not seem to limit people into using it. Therefore, despite the fact that it limits the members words to 140 characters, many business have been using it for advertisements, keep in touch with customers and other people connected to the business and its success; apparently Unilever has a twitter account that it uses to update the public of its products and services. Linked in It is a site that specializes on career development and professional networking. It is site whereby people get to advertise job vacancies, business developments and potential employees get to look for jobs. Different industries use this site because they can get in touch with possible qualified employees with ease as well as get in touch with other industries. Youtube It is the largest, most popular and most famous site that deals with videos and audios. It helps businesses advertise its products or services, communicate with its the public but through the use of videos or audios. Instagram It is site that is officially owned by Facebook that allows businesses and individuals to post things or issues they would want to be known by the public. Businesses use this site to post their products, product development information and new products among other things. Basically, it is used as an advertising site for businesses. Other sites include: Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Vine, Viber, StumleUpon to name just but a few. They may not be very popular or famous, but are still used by some business who know how to benefit from them. Advantages of Using Social Networks in Businesses Cost effective Most of the social media sites are usually free to access. This means that businesses have to incur zero costs to create its profile and post any information in the site. Therefore, many businesses use this fact to do most of their advertisement, researches or markets, consumer related issues among other things. Fast in spreading the information When a business posts any information in a social media, the possibility of the information being seen and accessed by many people is very high. This is simply because the social media sites are always functional and always have users online. Also, the users who see and access the information are likely going to show it to other people. Research purposes Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Youtube are used by most businesses for research purposes. Businesses are able to post their product or service development as well as technology changes and other businesses use this information in their research analysis. In addition to that, they use these site do its market research and discover its market position (Bertot et al, 2010). For instance, close competitors are always conducting market research to be able to know the progress of their competitors. Therefore, this is information that can be available in the social media sites and so can be very useful for such analysis. Improve customer relations Through social networks business are capable of interacting with their customers ate different parts of the world (Waters et al, 2009). Many business have their websites on Google and have created accounts on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram among others. Some businesses have also created customer profile accounts where customers can log in and buy or leave a comment for the business. Therefore, businesses are able to respond to those comments or complaints which is a better way of creating good relations with the customers. Also, through the advertisements made in the social networking sites, the business are able to update the customers on their product or service development or any other new information related to the business. Conduct online sales Some businesses use social networking sites to make sales. The business usually have an online sale account especially on Google where customers can make their purchases directly from the business. This is an easy way to make sales because the business does not need to convince the customer to purchase the product but rather leaves the customer to make a choice for themselves (Heller et al, 2011). In addition to that, the customers get a chance to have the product delivered at whatever destination they desire. In some countries, Unilever Company has conducted online sales through the use of their online site. Conduct customer reviews Also, after the sale, customers have an opportunity to review the product or service which is usually very important information for the business. This is so because the customer reviews are mostly used to develop and improve the quality of the product in case it does not the best consumer standard. Unilever is able to review and analyze the customer reviews and comments. They often use this information to improve its products to fit the customers desire and satisfaction. Helps in marketing and advertisement The most reliable and effective way to advertise and market a business and its product or service is through the use of social networking. The social networking sites are accessed by more than half the worlds population which means that the advertisements will probably be seen by that number of people (Park et al, 2009). Business are able to make advertisement in almost all sites but especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram. A business like Unilever certainly used twitter and Facebook for its advertisements. Other advantages of using social networking for businesses include the following: new customer attraction, businesses are able to connect with each other, enables real-time information sharing for businesses especially technology development aspects, increases customer brand loyalty, cheap than other means of advertising to name just but a few aspects. Disadvantages of Using Social Network in Businesses Time consuming It may sound easy and simple when it comes to using social media but for businesses it is not. Creating a profile for a business takes time and effort (Kaplan et al, 2010). This means this responsibility should be carried by a professional who knows the business and its product or service from the inside out. Also they should be able to give the best physical information that will be able to attract people into accessing the company website. Therefore, this means that the social media is not completely free but involves a lot of time and money investment before it is completely functional. For instance, Unilever being a large developed and international company will have to invest a lot of effort in creating a profile for itself which is supposed to cover all the aspects of the company. Lack of customer feedback control This happens mostly to businesses that use online selling or advertisements. When a customer purchases a product online, the probability of giving a comment on the company or product website is very high. Some customers usually leave criticisms and negative comments about the product or service which can be seen by anyone who views the company site. Therefore, this information can certainly scare away new potential customers who may want to have the businesss products. In addition to that, this information cannot be controlled by the business and therefore can cause great loss to the product sales and business identity. Mainly attracts current product users Social network advertising and selling can be somehow limiting for businesses and products. Apparently, customers that have purchased or viewed a business website or advertisement are the ones that mostly use the social media information. Also, if a customer was able to receive the desired and expected satisfaction from a product they bought online, the probability of them going back to purchase the same product or another one from the business is very high (Jussila et al, 2014). This is because they hope to get the same satisfaction from the one they are currently using which is fact that makes them try other products. E.g. Unilever Company product users are the only people who can use the companys products time after time. This is simply because they will have an idea of what the products or services are and how beneficial they are. Lack of privacy Businesses that use social media have their own accounts with their information put out for public display; e.g. in Google where businesses have Wikipedia display their information and ownership of other personal sites. In this case, businesses may have revealed important or vital information that can cause harm to its operations or its customers. This may include information like profits made, negative issues regarding products, problems facing the business, to name a few (Ngai et al, 2015). Furthermore, this information (especially business weaknesses and problems) can be used by the business competitors to develop themselves and therefore beat them in the market or industry. For instance, Unilever Companys information can be used by competitor like PG to improve its markets and therefore increase its market share. Other possible disadvantages include the following issues: can be ineffective at time especially when a business tries to push ales without involving customers, may cause difficulties when quantifying the returns on such investment, potential platform for business embarrassment and critics, possible business or product bullying, possibility of fraud and theft of information among others. Conclusion Social networking is one of most popular way for people and businesses to interact with each other. Nowadays, a good number of businesses are using social networking to achieve its goals and objectives therefore success. Through social networking businesses are able to do a lot of operations and activities especially in regions that are very far apart. The most important of all the benefits is communication improvement. Also, the fact the advantages of using social network sites are more than the disadvantages means that social media is one of the necessary tools that a business can use to achieve its success. In addition to that it can be used by both the small business enterprise and very large and developed companies simply because they all benefit from it. Therefore, even if social networking for businesses can be beneficial, the businesses involved should also take care of what they display to the public since it can cause problems on any party, either employees, customers, inve stors, potential customers or the business itself. References Kaplan, A. M., Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media.Business horizons,53(1), 59-68. Bertot, J. C., Jaeger, P. T., Grimes, J. M. (2010). Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies.Government information quarterly,27(3), 264-271. Lin, K. Y., Lu, H. P. (2011). Why people use social networking sites: An empirical study integrating network externalities and motivation theory.Computers in Human Behavior,27(3), 1152-1161. Michaelidou, N., Siamagka, N. T., Christodoulides, G. (2011). Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands.Industrial marketing management,40(7), 1153-1159. Park, N., Kee, K. F., Valenzuela, S. (2009). Being immersed in social networking environment: Facebook groups, uses and gratifications, and social outcomes.Cyber Psychology Behavior,12(6), 729-733. Lin, K. Y., Lu, H. P. (2011). Intention to continue using Facebook fan pages from the perspective of social capital theory.Cyber psychology, Behavior, and Social Networking,14(10), 565-570. Heller Baird, C., Parasnis, G. (2011). From social media to social customer relationship management.Strategy leadership,39(5), 30-37. Trusov, M., Bucklin, R. E., Pauwels, K. (2009). Effects of word-of-mouth versus traditional marketing: findings from an internet social networking site.Journal of marketing,73(5), 90-102. Waters, R. D., Burnett, E., Lamm, A., Lucas, J. (2009). Engaging stakeholders through social networking: How nonprofit organizations are using Facebook.Public relations review,35(2), 102-106. Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM.Journal of Business Research,67(6), 1201-1208. Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs, and conceptual frameworks.International Journal of Information Management,35(1), 33-44. Tsimonis, G., Dimitriadis, S. (2014). Brand strategies in social media.Marketing Intelligence Planning,32(3), 328-344. Hudson, S., Roth, M. S., Madden, T. J., Hudson, R. (2015). The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival attendees.Tourism Management,47, 68-76. Jussila, J. J., Krkkinen, H., Aramo-Immonen, H. (2014). Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms.Computers in Human Behavior,30, 606-613. Rauniar, R., Rawski, G., Yang, J., Johnson, B. (2014). Technology acceptance model (TAM) and social media usage: an empirical study on Facebook.Journal of Enterprise Information Management,27(1), 6-30. 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. Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M. Y., Krush, M. T. (2016). Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales.Industrial Marketing Management,53, 172-180. Grabher, G., Knig, J. (2017). Performing network theory? Reflexive relationship management on social network sites. InNetworked Governance(pp. 121-140). Springer International Publishing. Schaupp, L. C., Blanger, F. (2016). Social Commerce Benefits for Small Businesses: An Organizational Level Study.Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC),28(3), 49-66. Nascimento, A. M., da Silveira, D. S. (2016). A systematic mapping study on using social media for business process improvement.Computers in Human Behavior. Turban, E., Strauss, J., Lai, L. (2016). Introduction to Social Commerce. InSocial Commerce(pp. 3-22). Springer International Publishing. Wamba, S. F., Carter, L. (2016). Social media tools adoption and use by SMEs: An empirical study. InSocial Media and Networking: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications(pp. 791-806). IGI Global. Niedermeier, K. E., Wang, E., Zhang, X. (2016). The use of social media among business-to-business sales professionals in china: how social media helps create and solidify guanxi relationships between sales professionals and customers.Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing,10(1), 33-49. Schivinski, B., Dabrowski, D. (2016). The effect of social media communication on consumer perceptions of brands.Journal of Marketing Communications,22(2), 189-214.