Social Media in the Business World - Term Paper Example

 Impact of social media on business and individual life Social media, which is a form of electronic communication, with a collection of online communications channels which are dedicated to community-based input, content-sharing, interaction, collaboration, sending personal messages and creation of an online community. Most of the prominent examples of social media include; Facebook, twitter, Wikipedia, Reddit, Pinterest, 2 go, and Whatsapp among others (Trattner and Kappe, 2013). Due to its vast ability to reach many people and to connect people, many have embraced it as a means of communication and sharing ideas. This has made social media have a great impact on the business world and our individual life. Within the corporate world, social media is gaining popularity where it is being used in regular operations of many companies; this is mainly because it provides a perfect opportunity to take advantage of the world of the mouth, where people are connected on a global scale. Corporate messages on social media channels to reach new customers are conveyed, this is done through broadcast of positive feedback regarding the corporate message and its products. With this message, social media ensure that customers are retained hence building a positive customer loyalty. Additionally, dissatisfied customers are also reached directly within their own social media environment where the company embarks on finding better and more innovative ways of improving the product or service that they offer in the market outside (Bakardjieva and Gaden, 2011). Social media are relatively low-cost channels, which a company can use to market and advertise its products to millions of consumers. A good example is using Facebook a company just need to create a page within it where people shall need to like the page and have information which the company intends them to get in their computers, tablets or even phone. This has seen companies have million likes, which means more people are embracing this platform making the company enjoy cheap advertising platform. Social media also acts as a customer relation management too, mainly for companies which are selling products and services. Brand networking has become a way to capitalize on social trends, which is also a rich marketing tool. A company can maximize its return on marketing dollars by reaching out to potential customers via social media than making reliance on the high cost televised advertisement. Social media also allows a company to listen to a competitor message. Alternatively, this makes the listening company have strategies and tactics that directly counter that competitor’s initiatives. With competitors information of the operations give the company a competitive advantage. Sales are also increased through social media where a customer product ratings options serve as ways to engage website users. This results to the user and company engagement that contribute to increased products sales (Bulmer, 2013). Social media creates influence though marketing strategy where the advertiser makes sure that the targeted market structure is well covered; this is done by ensuring that people within the social network who may not be customers are reached. Due to the massive impact they may have on the marketing effort. Researchers estimate that 80% of the population is made up of potential influencers hence it makes a lot of sense when advertising in this social media platform. These people help connect and attract shares which ultimately will spread the brand name to many people. Social media are a huge influence on business position, marketing and also the business ability to engage with their target market it is recommended that any business, which wishes to sustain its growth, should take advantage of social media for its growth in this dynamic environment. Social media are a platform which is a cost-effective way to directly reach potential employees. Companies use programs and venues in the social media to obtain the human resource which comes in employees form. Many companies have their job advertisement done on social media, which is also used as a research tool. Interview and recruitment process are also conducted within the social media where candidate will take managed interview and get hired on the same media. An employee can see a job advertised in social media platform apply for the job wait for a message which shall be informing them of whether they are being shortlisted for an interview. Training is also done via this tool this is achieved since it ensures that the process is not bound to a specific geographical location or time frame. Alternatively it helps the company to integrate the online industry which finally reduces the training and education budget. Social media may also be used in improving of knowledge management process through exchange and knowledge creation, the internal focus for the transfer of knowledge between the employee’s communication with customers and suppliers. Innovation which is measured as the capability to syndicate innovation, improve success rates and produce efficiently in that direct result of exchange of ideas between experts which are fueled by user-generated content and mass creation. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs people will always desire to have and fulfill belongings since via relationship support Social media bring the feeling of belonging where one feels wanted in the society through integration with people from diverse distance and locations. Research also shows that people tend to use social media to become more integrated into their home culture, which help them keep the connection with their home region due to culture varying in different geographical regions. Social media has also compressed time and space thus making the world a global village. This has seen people sent receive messages in seconds and the feeling of being at home is also felt using the social media. People from different cultures and geographical regions are brought together where they have a venue to learn about other people’s way of life, culture language hence establish and maintain relationships while staying up to date in information on the world events hence always having first hand information like they are all over the globe. People find encouragements from the friend whom they meet in social media and may have been through similar situations. They also tend to trust people than those programs they watch since it is more real to chat with a person whom you can pour out your problems to while others may choose to conceal their identity and pretend that they are not the ones affected. Additionally people share information on their experiences, which tends to be a point of discussion where they can discuss anything from general life, marriage, relationships, politics, education, religion and seeking information. Social media has helped people since they are able to came up with different ideas on how to tackle a given problems while others will give their personal experience on the same subject. Connectively, raised esteem is established and maintained when one learns that others have been in the same situation like they are or even worse this is achieved through sharing of information through social media where they find advices from all over the world (Safko,2012). Intellectual ability has also had been raised through social media, global communication competency which has enhanced global mindset, unfolding the self and also mapping the culture through alignment and interaction. This helped intellectual to have a broader perspective and an open mind about different ways of life, this impacts the desire to learn, gain more and further knowledge and also think critically about cultural differences. These traits, which are brought by the social media that are incorporated in this dimension influences the development and also the sensitivity and also creativity that results to aligning the interactions to the ultimate goal of success and intellectual independence. Social media has become a source of livelihood to many where they use it to advertise and make money; many of these social media have employed a large number of people which has raised their standards of living hence making the economy better. Google, which is a major search engine has employees all over the world who partly depend on social media that have greatest contribution on revenue of the company. Facebook announced its mega purchase of Whatsapp for $19 billion they find it a spectacular milestone for the company. Its co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton said that opposite to their competitors who are shifting to promoted games. They are devoted to remaining in communication where they view Whatsapp as a lightning fast communications service that works flawlessly. According to them Whatsapp has completely transformed personal communication, which has dominated by the world’s largest wireless carriers. There is the reason which made facebook have more interest in buying Whatsapp, according to them Whatsapp has more than million active users thus reaching them is faster than any other company. Whatsapp application, which gets more than a million new users daily, has tapped onto people’s appetite for personal communication making it the top flag bearer for communications (Kang, 2011). However, unlike other companies Whatsapp has not spent anything on user acquisition; the company has no marketer or a sales person who is responsible for selling its services to the outside market. It is through its fame that many have embraced it and started using it for their communication needs. In business one needs to move fast to avoid irrelevancy, due to the dynamic nature of today’s technology, all companies should strive to keep their market share, and if possible venture into other markets thereby adding to the share. For it to stay being the world communication benchmark new application that offers solution should be made in a daily basis. This will ensure that the customer is satisfied with the services offered by the company (Evans, 2010). Company leaders who ignore the market trend and answers coming from the market and hence they are inclined to look for answers from within the company while they keep promising improvements to historical products and services, this makes the customers go where they perceived being served best. Just like the way social media have a high impact on business and person, facebook want to remain relevant in offering social media services hence it will take any initiative to make it remain relevant all through and grow its users by recognizing the market shift, accepting it hence offering better solutions (Hall and Rosenberg, 2009 ). On the contrary, social media has had a negative impact on businesses, information that needs to be protected and treated with outmost secrecy is disseminated in the globe where competitors are able to access it and use it against the company this makes the company vulnerable to competition (Alemán et al, 2009). When a company use social media to recruit and hire employees, chances of making mistakes through hiring unskilled personnel are high than when it does on a real interview where there is meeting the candidate on a personal level and conducting an interview. A false sense of connection is created where the company feels it has many followers, but in the real sense they are ghost followers whom in the real sense they do not exist. When companies post on their products many customers trust what other customers says about the product, research indicates that there are registered a decrease in productivity where Morse claimed that British companies lost over 2.2 billion dollars a year to the social phenomenon. Accidental release of confidential information to the public through social media, which may have a damaging reputation, since social media is a big conversation where everyone is always welcome to join (Heylighen, 2007). That enormous talk it’s difficult for businesses to keep track of negative and defamatory statements about their brands, this makes the company has burden especially when the information is already leaked to the social media. Privacy is also threatened in the social sites since intimate details of our lives can be posted easily where users are prone to bypass made filters with an employee when talking about private lives (Kelsey, 2010). This is experienced by providing an example, a person may post a party photo though most sites allow their users to control who have access to see things they have posted, which to them may seem irrelevant to them but later may come to have bad implication on them especially when creation of low esteem feeling in an individual where they subject a person to judging and conclusion in case one committed a mistake this has made many give up. Hackers can also get access to person’s social media account and use to get personal information, which they can use, foe identity theft. Due to security reason people are encouraged to have limited personal information on social media platforms. Also misuse by conmen and other ill intended people where they use this social media services to lure people in their traps and latter steal valuable items from them. Unauthorized access to personal accounts where they change details and update status without having user’s permission to do so, main victims to this kind of violation are partners who were together and then separated(Papacharissi, 2011). Nevertheless social media have had high impacted on the business and individual capacity by providing a meeting place which is more convenient than making a call which is expensive and does not satisfy one desire to talk and communicate. Video conferencing and meeting, which are done using social media have greatly reduced travelling expenses for face to face meeting for face to face meeting can now be down through video televising Reference Alemán, M., Martínez; W. and Katherine L, 2009 "Online social networking on campus: understanding what matters in student culture", New York and London : Routledge. Bakardjieva, M. and Gaden, G. 2011. Web 2.0 Technologies of the Self. Philosophy of Technology. Retrieved on march 18 2014 from< http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs13347-011-0032-9> Bulmer, D. 2013. Brand and Reputation Management: Four Insights. Web retrieved on march 18th 2014 from: http://socialmediatoday.com/donaldbulmer/1315251/brand-and-reputation-management-four-insights . Evans, D. 2010. Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. John Wiley & Sons Hall S. and Rosenberg C. 2009. Get connected. The social Networking Tool kid forBusiness. Entrepreneur Press. Heylighen, F. 2007. 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