The Power, Potential and Peril of Social Network: Exploring the depth of the Pool of New Opportunities Essay (Article)

Introduction: Plugging in

Though it seems like forever since information technologies have opened a gateway into fascinating opportunities for communication for millions of people all over the world, social networking has started comparatively recently. It has developed rapidly and has nowadays billions of people plugged in its system.

Despite the fact that social networking offers much more career chances and opportunities for professional development, one faces the threat of an identity theft when using social network, which means that the latter could use further improvements.

Articles Summary: At the Beginning

Although social networking has issues with the privacy right, it still provides ample opportunities for career and business development. In his article ‘The right to privacy is not the right to Facebook,’ Castro warns that social networks like Facebook use its users’ private information rather carelessly: “There are two different questions central to this debate: first, should Facebook be able to use private information to deliver products and services to its customers; and second, should any company be able to do this?” (Castro, 2010, p. 1).

Pannunzio (2008), on the other hand, assures that social networks can and should be used as the key means to promote one’s business, and offers an extensive classification of the most popular sites, like YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. In their turn, Lisa Harris and Alan Rae (2009) explore the chances of small businesses promotion with the help of social networking, offering a number of examples and proving that blogs and social networks allow for a great promotion campaign.

Articles Analysis: Changing the Default Settings

The articles listed above show that the impact of the social network is mixed. On the one hand, Castro provides a legitimate point concerning the lack of online security in most social networks (Castro, 2010). On the other hand, Pannunzio (2008) makes it clear that social networks are an efficient business promotion tool to “connect with colleagues and potential clients” (Pannunzio, 2008, p. 8).

Finally, Harris and Rae drive the line in the argument, making it clear that social networks offer a plethora of advantages for business development, yet certainly need further improvements and, therefore, must be used with due caution: “Most online communities are currently at a relatively early evolutionary stage and have yet to be subjected to serious study, but from the company perspective the information posted on relevant community sites can provide valuable research data” (Harris & Rae, 2009, p. 26).

Research Results: After Entering a Chat Room

While social networks lack security, they still help promote business efficiently. Therefore, social networking as a business tool has potential. Avoiding the possibilities of having one’s personal data exposed to hackers, one can achieve considerable success in business sphere. Therefore, social networks must be used as an additional means for business promotion. However, it is also necessary to take account of another possible means to improve a company score.

Conclusion: Connection Disabled

Though at present, there is much controversy about the use of social networks, it must be admitted that the new technology has many opportunities to offer to its users, starting from communication with the people from remote corners of the planet to promoting one’s business and improving one’s career chances.

Therefore, it must be admitted that social networks have the right to exist. Nevertheless, it is crucial to introduce a number of improvements to the current social networking system to avoid the instances of identity theft or other illegal actions.

Reference List

Castro, D 2010, ‘The right to privacy is not the right to Facebook,’The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, 30 April, pp. 1–3.

Harris, L & Rae, A 2009, ‘Social networks: the future of marketing for small business,’ Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 30 no. 5, pp. 24–31.

Pannunzio, C O 2008, ‘Leverage the power of social media,’ Practice Management Solutions, September–October, pp. 6–10.