Term Paper on "Positive or Negative Impacts of Social Media"

r />Meet the expectations of stakeholders; especially the Customers

A better Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Act upon the Total Quality Management (TQM) Principles

Contents of the Promotional Campaigns

Carefully analyze the internal and external environment

Research Material:

A number of research studies have been reviewed in order to strengthen the body of knowledge and write this proposal. The research resources used for this proposal include books, academic journals, professional researches, and internet resources.

Problems and Timeline for the Proposal:

The biggest problem was to find the relevant research material for this proposal. Since social media is a new phenomenon in the business world, there are very limited researches available which give insights into its usage and impacts on the businesses. Another problem in writing this proposal was to define a proper timeline in which the project will be completed. It is because analyzing the impacts of social media is not a one-time issue; it is an ongoing phenomenon of the present times which can be generalized to any business in any time span.

Audience:

The audience of this project proposal is the Management bodies of all types of business organizations. It is because they have to formulate strategies and define action plans to manage their social media interactions in an effective and efficient way. Through this project and the research made thereon, they will be able to understand the major positive and negative impacts that social media can bring on their businesses.

Report # 6: The Issue Paper

The positive or negative impacts of Social Media on Business Community in the United States

Executive Summary:

Social media has emerged as a strong communication channel for the last few years. Organizations have realized its potential and are using it for different purposes including internal and external communication, marketing research (knowing customers' perceptions), and finding investors for the business. They are using social media as a strong marketing tool and a way to increase the sales volume. Besides numerous benefits, social media brings some big challenges for organizations. These challenges can be best met by giving more emphasis on Total Quality Management (TQM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), a careful analysis of business environment, and bringing improvements in promotional campaigns.

The Positive Impacts, Strengths, and Benefits of Social Media:

The fact that social media is an influential technique for businesses can be understood by highlighting what are its core strengths, why do companies use this media, and how does it contribute to their growth (O'Leary, Sheehan, & Lentz, 49).

A strong medium for business-to-stakeholders communication:

In the past, businesses used to communicate with their stakeholders through their own published periodicals, reports, agreements, or through emails, telephone, or postal mediums. Now-a-days, they believe that they have a much better and effective way in the form of social media to deliver important messages and information to their stakeholders.

Ability to know what customers perceive about their brand:

Businesses are able to survive because customers are there. They are the life-blood of the organizations. So a company must know what its customers perceive about its brand or brands. Social media is the best platform for this purpose. At social media websites, customers give comments on the products of different companies and give suggestions and recommendations to respective companies to bring improvements in their brands. Through social media, they are able to observe discussions about their products and the overall organization (Maignan & Ferrell, 11).

Timely response to problematic issues:

In case a particular product or service offered by an organization does not fulfill the expectations of the customers, they share these feelings with their community members and leave negative comments about that product or service on the social media sites. It can negatively impact the company's image in the eyes of its key stakeholders (Walsh). But it will give a timely admonition and caution to the company to resolve the problematic issues with that product or service. It will help the company to identify and remove any defect or flaws in the product and save its public image from any negative impacts (O'Leary, Sheehan, & Lentz, 133).

Finding investors for the business:

Now-a-days, people from every type of profession and social status are joining social media to interact with others. Being regular visitors on this huge platform, they are exposed to diverse knowledge about companies; their brands, past performances, future plans, etc. Investors who are always in a quest for attractive investment opportunities get useful information from social media. In this way, they choose businesses of their interest and invest in them confidently.

Social Media as a strong Marketing Tool:

To attract potential target customers, organizations use many marketing mediums to promote their products and services including electronic media, print media, person-to-person marketing, etc. Chances of success of their marketing efforts depend entirely on the strategies which they use for this purpose. The same is true when they use social media as a marketing tool.

Now-a-days, organizations use it along side other marketing mediums and have obtained proven results for their businesses. They post promotional ads in the form of banners, still and animated pictures, and videos. These ads are same as those which are given on other mediums but with some additional features like giving an option to the social media users to rank them as liked or disliked, online ordering facility, location of authorized distributors, features of the product, company's other brands, complaint resolution section, contact information, and the like.

Customized Internal Social Media:

Customized Internal Social Media are software implemented by businesses within their organizational setups for the use of their employees (Maignan & Ferrell, 15). The biggest benefit which internal social media gives is the effective and efficient communication system within the organization. In this way, all departments remain aware with the progress, issues, and limitations of other departments (Kaplan & Haenlein, 68). Another benefit is that employees can share information, support, and coordinate with other employees and ask managers when they face problems in performing their job responsibilities. This internal social media becomes a medium to fling their voice to the top-level management for feedback, issues, and suggestions (Walsh).

Issues and Challenges of Social Media and Recommendations thereon:

Benefits of social media do not come alone; they bring complex challenges for the organizations too. If organizations neglect these challenges, social media can deteriorate the situation for them. Following are some challenges which social media gives to the organizations:

1. One unsatisfied customer -- a spokesperson to the whole world:

In the past, one unsatisfied customer had a limited number of people to share his bad experiences with. But now social media has provided him innumerable links all over the world through which he can share every thing at vast level. It is a big challenge for those companies which use social media to offer their products or services (Hendricks, 138).

Recommendation to meet this challenge:

(i) Social Media: Use it as a tool for better Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

(ii) Total Quality Management (TQM): Use it to provide highest quality of products

To be competitive, organizations have to satisfy their customers as well as retain them for a long period of time. That is, their products or service offerings must be able to provide what their consumers want (Kaplan & Haenlein, 60). It is only possible if they ensure highest quality of business operations through Total Quality Management (TQM) and highly efficient and exceptional customer services through effective Customer Relationship Management. This will enable them to make new customers as well as develop and maintain long lasting relationships with the existing customers (Walsh).

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