Modern working generation aged 20-30 was born and brought up while the development of the innovative technologies. Being called generation Y, these people are considered to be born with a mouse in hands. The development of the innovative technologies has impacted these people greatly. Living in the world of computers, modern generation uses those for many purposes, and business has also been affected.
Using social networking in business, companies move in the correct direction as there are a lot of advantages in computer technologies and different social platforms. Having conducted a literature review, it was concluded that social networking positively affects business, increases satisfaction from the working process, and improves working productivity that leads to the increase of the income of the company.
Social networking is defined as “a popular term referring to all kinds of social software tools” (Shah, 2010, p. 348). Many business companies are using the advantages of the Internet and social networking successfully assists them. The involvement of the employees, customers and partners online is a good opportunity to remain always in touch.
However, applying to the social networking, the company should be ready to change the corporate culture. Searching for the examples of the social networking sites, the following ones may be enumerated, Facebook, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Zoominfo, Hi5, Delicious, Bliztime, Digg, Spoke, Plaxo, YouTube, Xanga, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Twitter, Xing, Yelp, and Flickr. These are the most famous English-speaking social network sites used in the USA and the world, however, there are much more social networking sites if to refer to the national and local ones.
There are a lot of opportunities these sites offer for business. Companies can always keep in contact with the present clients and search for other clients in the database. Sharing news and being the voice in the industry are more advantages for the company. The company leaders can manage their reputation, communicate with the employees and build a client list.
All these actions may be completed on one of the social networking sites offered above depending on the opportunities of the site and company needs (Shah, 2010). The behavior of many employees may be changed as well. It is essential to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using social networking in business before applying to the issue.
Applying to the social networking, the companies should use the advantages of the issue and pay attention to the challenges which this service creates. Dwelling upon the opportunities created by the social networking in the business sphere, the following aspects are to be considered. Applying to social networking, the corporation may change the means of communication delivering information faster among the employees with the minimum attempt.
The vision of the company may be changed as having too much data online, employees may become confused, that is why they are going to rely more of the corporate culture and the principles delivered there. The company organization may change due to the social networking and the opportunities it presents.
Various innovations can enter the company and its staff as various training programs may be completed without leaving the working place. Therefore, social networking promotes professional development of the employees.
The increase of the employee mobility is one more advantages for the company. Additionally, the motivation career development systems can be improved along with the mutation of the IT applications (The business impacts of social networking, 2008).
The discussed above aspects may be applied in the company and they are going to increase the business development. However, there are several aspects which may be considered as challenging or even negative for the business development. First of all, it will be difficult to perform the traditional return on investment method, therefore, new ways for ROI concept should be considered.
Second, the security of the data is the main problem people face while social networking. The right for the intellectual property is the third challenge on the way for successful utilization of the social networking. This issue is closely connected with the security challenge. The necessity of the company to adopt the plan for using social networking for the business benefit is important.
The company should have the technical opportunities for storing the necessary data considered from the social networking. Interoperability and speed are other issues the companies are to face. Applying to the use of the social networking in the corporation, the employer should give the employees an opportunity to manage their working time personally.
Moreover, the increased mobility of the employees may lead to the loss of the important staff (The business impacts of social networking, 2008). Therefore, having many advantages, there are a number of disadvantages social networking creates for business and the corporations are o be ready to face those and solve them successfully.
Trying to summarize positive and negative aspects of the social networking, the following basic issues may be considered. Social networking is a free way of communication, it presents the employees with the new interests, enlarges their scope of knowledge and helps share the information; social networking offers many opportunities for business purposes (e.g. advertising) and it is really easy to use.
However, there are a number of negative effects from social networking, such as addiction, danger, absence of privacy, the possibility to receive wrong information and use it incorrectly; moreover., social networking is not profitable in a big way. However, looking at the advantages of the social networking, the disadvantages seem not that great.
Thus, applying to the social networking services, the company may create a blog and share the necessary information about itself with the useful contact. This is much easier, faster, and cheaper than refer to the creation of a traditional web site (Ishak, 2010).
It is difficult to imagine the company without IT professionals. Being computerized, company business is led through the Internet and by means of the computer devices. Most of the financial operations are held through the Internet. Big corporations have personal social platforms for such purposes and information sharing, fast notification and control of the employees’ etc.
The social networking is really important for IT professionals as this is a source of information for them, the opportunity to communicate on the professional themes and get the pieces of advice, if necessary (Burton, Wu, & Prybutok, 2010). Social networking helps IT professionals to get to know the latest news, to discuss the specific issues with the professionals of the same qualification and to remain in touch with the latest developments.
Facebook is one of the most spread social platforms in the English-speaking world. There is a Chinese social network QQ that enumerates more users than Facebook does for now, however, the content there is not in English. Trying to be specific, Hinchcliffe (2012) considered the advantages of Facebook in the business world in general and for a specific company in particular.
Facebook offers a great opportunity for customer relationship management as this social network has the profiles not only of students and regular users, but the companies and business partners who have created the Facebok profiles especially for business needs.
Facebook is moving to mobile devices with such opportunities for business as “location-awareness, NFC, voice recognition, augmented reality, and fundamentally better exploitation of sensors, video, and audio on mobile than they have been able to achieve including multi-point video chat” (Hinchcliffe, 2012, n.p.). Using mobile phones for social networking will help the companies to remain available all over the world any time.
Hinchcliffe (2012) also underlines the data availability at Facebook and makes this service the platform which uses personal information rather than the third parties. Finally, Hinchcliffe (2012) points to the Facebook as the enterprise social network. Nowadays, Facebook is not only the social network where people communicate with each other, share photos, links data and other facilities.
More and more companies create their profiles in Facebook to be closer to customers, to make an opportunity for the potential companions to find each other. Therefore, having many advantages, the enterprise social network nature of Facebook has become a real advantage for the companies in the platform.
Therefore, applying to the discussion of the practical use of the social networking by the company, it is essential to understand that all the processes may be conducted online using the mentioned platform. Thus, imagining a new company which has just been emerged, the company manager (the employer) may search for the staff on the social networking sites.
Hiring and recruitment there is a great opportunity as many users point to their education and other types of data necessary for getting a job. Thus, if the company managers search on different blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or MySpace, they are sure to find appropriate candidates (Hall, & Rosenberg, 2009).
After the candidates are selected, the social network may help organize the interviewing with each of the candidates separately using web cameras and speakers. Therefore, no one has to leave the place of their residence for communication. After all the candidates are interviewed and the best ones are selected, each of the candidates may be informed about the interview results through the social network. The next stage is training which may also be conducted online.
This will help employees remain in the office and do not be restricted from their working place and responsibilities for a lengthy period of time. It is essential to remain in contact with the employees (it is possible to do it by means of the social network) while the training to control the process. Customers may also be contacted via social media.
The company may do it directly for special customers and worldwide by means of advertising. The Internet and the social networking offer great many opportunities for advertising.
The Internet in general and the social networking in particular have much specific data which maybe shred and spread by means of reposting, likes, and other specific issues. Finally, the company may reinforce the loyalty of their brand by means of the customer contacts (Hartley, 2010).
Thus, the working process of the company has been discussed from its birth up to the stage when the company brand is recognized. During each of the stages, social networking was used as the means for work. It is obvious that the innovative technologies open new ways of running business and social networking is one of them.
The company can successfully run its business with and without social networking, however, there are no reasons to avoid the opportunities offered by the innovation technologies. The reference to the social networking reduces time and money on some specific facilities, while increases the company potential and recognition.
Therefore, it may be concluded that social networking while working hours does not distracts employees from performing their direct responsibilities, but increases the productivity of employees while the working process, remains those satisfied and motivated for performing the tasks. It is essential to remember that social networking is not only the entertaining platform it is also a great opportunity for conserving business relationships.
Social networking helps remain informed about the latest news and other specific information which may be helpful for business. The latest news may be discussed, the data may be spread via social networking and the faster one gets to know something new, the better he/she may perform in the workplace.
Moreover, social network may be used for searching for the necessary information about different people and companies. The whole world has become so computerized that all the data is located on the Internet and using different social platforms and other means of data conserving, it is possible to search and to share necessary data.
Reference List
Burton, P., Wu, Y., & Prybutok, V. R. (2010). Social network position and its relationship to performance of IT professionals. Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, 13, pp. 121-137.
Hall, S., & Rosenberg, C. (2009). Get Connected: The Social Networking Toolkit for Business. New York: Entrepreneur Press.
Hartley, D. (2010). 10 Steps to Successful Social Networking for Business. New York: American Society for Training and Development.
Hinchcliffe, D. (2012). Facebook’s IPO: The social business implications. Enterprise Web 2.0. Web.
Ishak, M. (2010). The impact of social networking. SKMM. Web.
Shah, R. (2010). Social Networking for Business: Choosing the Right Tools and Resources to Fit Your Needs. Oxford: Pearson Prentice Hall.
The business impacts of social networking. (2008). AT&T Intellectual Property. Web.