The Impact of Social Media Technologies on Business - Example

The Impact of Social Media Technologies on Business Name Institution Table of Contents Introduction This essay discusses the impact of social media technologies on business organizations. In the essay, three key things about the subject are discussed. First, different ways in which social media technologies are used to support e-commerce are presented. Second, the advantages of social media technologies to business organizations are discussed. Third, different ways in which business organizations may be negatively affected by social media technologies are presented. Social Media Technologies and E-Commerce One of the ways in which social media technologies are used to support e-commerce in business organizations is through the development of specialist applications that resemble common social media networking sites. According to Holtzblatt, Drury, Weiss, Damianos and Cuomo (2013, p. 2) many business organizations have developed their own social business software platforms that combine the functionalities of blogs, wikis, group support and RSS feeds. This is said to be a response to the findings that many individuals use traditional social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter while at work. By doing this, business organizations seek to use social media technologies to enhance collaboration among the employees. Further, many organizations use social media technologies in their marketing activities. Neti (2011, p. 3) notes that many organizations attempt to use social media networks as platforms for convincing individuals to purchase their products and services. This is made possible by the fact that social media networks are made of websites that are focused on specific aspects and are largely driven by the contributions of the users. Therefore, although the rate at which organizations adopt social media for marketing varies between industries, it remains a high priority for many organizations in the world. Business organizations also use social media technologies to enhance sharing of knowledge in their operations. According to Stafford and Mearns (2009, p. 3) business organizations have realized that they are operating in a knowledge-based economy. This state of things has resulted from the persistent impact of three factors: increasing globalization, the rise of information technologies and an increasing demand for improving the value of shareholders. As a way of meeting new demands, organizations focus on making use of knowledge to enhance their operations. To achieve this, they turn to social media technologies as a source and means of sharing knowledge. Advantages of Social Media Technologies to Business Organizations The first advantage is that there is the possibility of businesses achieving improvements in their overall performance in the market. Usually, the use of social media improves the overall capability of a business organization to transform the inputs that are available into the required outputs and this translates into improved performance when specific key performance indicators are taken into consideration (Smits, 2013, p. 5). Businesses also benefit from using social media technologies in that the level of communication and collaboration among their employees is improved. For instance, when organizations adopt special social networking sites for their employees, they stand to benefit from the increased level of hierarchical and geographical collaboration that is fostered in the workforce (Awolusi, 2012, p. 2). Another benefit that organizations gain by using social media technologies in their strategies is reductions in overall operational costs. According to Neti (2011, p. 3), this arises from the way organizations can manage to reduce the amount of staff time when using social media in their marketing activities. Further, when organizations use social media technologies as a means of promoting learning and sharing of knowledge among the employees, they stand to benefit from improvement in their perceived value as business organizations (Stafford & Mearns, 2009, p. 8). This is because such organizations are perceived to be able to take advantage of revenue generating strategies that may possibly arise from the use of social media technologies. Lastly, when business organizations use social media technologies to enhance the level of communication among their employees as well as other stakeholders, they stand to benefit in different ways. For instance, by improving the level of communication, social media technologies can help organizations improve the level of teamwork and collaboration that exists among the workforce (Holtzblatt et al., 2013, p. 8). As well, when organizations use social media technologies in their strategies, they help foster stronger ties among all the stakeholders (p. 9). Disadvantages of Social Media Technologies to Business Organizations As much as organizations stand to benefit from incorporating social media technologies in their strategies, there are several disadvantages that they may be confronted with as well. One of them is the possibility of loss of productivity as employees may spend a lot of time on such platforms (Baruah, 2012, p. 9). Another potential disadvantage that organizations can experience when they use social media technologies arises from security concerns. According to Lee and Xue (2013, p. 3) this happens in two main ways. First, by using social media technologies, organizations gain access to a wide database of information about individuals. This makes it possible for hackers and other types of cyber criminals to access the data illegally and, in the process, compromise the privacy of the individuals involved. Secondly, personal information that is stored by organizations in their databases may be stolen. If this happens, it exposes individuals to being victims of different types of criminal acts. Another negative impact that business organizations can suffer as a result of using social media technologies is that their trademarks and copyrights may be compromised during the process. Although organizations can successfully use social media to promote their brands and products, this approach exposes them to the possibility of third parties abusing the brands of the organization (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, 2013, p. 5). This therefore calls for a high level of vigilance to ensure that the intellectual property of an organization is not abused. Also, the fact that social media platforms are largely driven by user-generated content may have a negative impact on business organizations. What usually happens is that business organizations may fail to regulate the information about them that is generated by users and shared across different platforms. Added to this is the observation that consumers tend to view content generated by users on social media as credible (Nadaraja & Yazdanifard, 2013, p. 5). Therefore, when such content casts an organization in bad light, it may damage the reputation of the organization quite easily. Conclusion By using social media, organizations may benefit from enhanced collaboration, reduced costs and an increase in the level of engagement with stakeholders. However, use of such technologies may lower productivity, expose an organization to risks and pose the danger of loss of reputation in the event of negative content about the organization being shared on such platforms. References Awolusi, F. (2012). The impacts of social networking sites on workplace productivity. The Journal of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering, 28(1), 1-6. Baruah, D. (2012). Effectiveness of social media as a tool of communication and its potential for technology enabled connections: A micro level study. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2(5), 1-10. Holtzblatt, L., Drury, J. L., Weiss, D., Damianos, L. E., & Cuomo, D. (2013). Evaluating the uses and benefits of an enterprise social media platform. Journal of Social Media for Organizations, 1(1), 1-22. Lee, E., & Xue, W. (2013). How do online social networks drive internal communication and improve employee engagement? Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=student Nadaraja, R., & Yazdanifard, R. (2013). Social media marketing: Advantages and disadvantages. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FRubathee_Nadaraja%2Fpublication%2F256296291_Social_Media_Marketing_SOCIAL_MEDIA_MARKETING_ADVANTAGES_AND_DISADVANTAGES%2Flinks%2F00b7d52235b90905db000000.pdf&ei=zp4FVZKSMq2u7AaekYDQCw&usg=AFQjCNH9kNcFVWi4MC0szDh7pqo4IOXtGQ&sig2=9dL-0dF6i4sz0qevwS08Zw&bvm=bv.88198703,d.ZGU Neti, S. (2011). Social media and its role in marketing. International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems, 1(2), 1-16. Stafford, C., & Mearns, M. A. (2009). What happens when organizations embrace social networking? Knowledge sharing at a multinational business solutions corporation. 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