Social Media Uses, Challenages and Advantages for Business

SURNAME: Mawela

FULL NAME/S: Tsakani Perseverance

STUDENT NUMBER: 201037817

CONTACT NUMBER: 078 458 6900

E-MAIL ADDRESS: tpmawela@gmail.com

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC: Discuss the impact social media has had on the global economy as far as business-related interaction is concerned

DUE DATE OF ASSIGNMENT: 1 March 2011

INDEX

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

Defining social media 3

Defining businesses 3

Defining the global economy 4

Defining the second language 4

2 INTRODUCTION 5

3 WHAT DOES SOCIAL MEDIA AS SECOND LIFE ENTAIL? 5

4 WHAT ARE THE USES OF SOCIAL MEDIA BY BUSINESSES? 6

5 WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA? 8

6 WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESSES? 9

7 CONCLUSION 10

REFERENCES 11

1 EXECUTIVE SAMARY

During these periods of social media, businesses look towards using social media as a tool for business growth and economic growth. As the costs of marketing are high for businesses, businesses have found social media to be a tool which helps them to cut down marketing costs, thus making it possible for businesses to create job opportunities. However, when a business uses social media as a tool, it has to be constantly checking up with their customers as one bad review from a customer can cause a business to lose a whole lot of customers. Businesses have to adhere strictly to the 8 Batho Pele principles (Consultation, service standards, access, courtesy, information, openness and transparency, redress and best value) when using social in order to maintain efficiency and transparency. When looking at social media and its impact on businesses, one has to look at how social media has shaped new business policies and, in which business areas does social media takes place and how it takes place within these particular business areas.

This report investigates the impact of social media on the global economy as far as business related interaction is concerned- and in so doing creates a more environmentally friendly way of how businesses can go about using social media as a means of economic and business growth.

DEFINING SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is the media we use in order to become social ( John 2010:3). Social media uses highly accessible and ascendable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based technologies and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive conversations. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Heinlein also define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of contents generated from the user. Businesses refer to social media as GGM (consumer generated media). Social media is a mixture of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of standards.

1.2 DEFINING BUSINENESSES

Businesses can also be referred to as "private entities as the state refers to business when they mention working together in with private institutions in (privatisation) governance. Business is the seat of trade from where the state and society obtain certain products and services, eg bricks to build with, road construction machinery and food (D F P du Toit et al 2011:44).

1.3 DEFINING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

The global economy or world economy refers to the economy (Barnes 1999: 108). The global economy is based on economies of the national economy or the whole globe. Global society can be seen as the economy of the society and national economies. The economy of local societies has termed the global society as "the global one". The global economy is inseparable from the geography and ecology of the earth. Global economy has many terms, just like politics, the meaning of 'global' economy cannot be agreed towards people and or authors of books and the representation of the global economy is not always the same. Limiting questions when it comes to the global economy are a thing which has existed for a very long period and or from the time when there were no televisions at home, especially within the sector of human activity co-operative governance which at times makes establishing figures for the global economy difficult. Although economists do not logically/expectedly use the current exchange rate, they are still able to translate the monetary units of businesses into a single unit for the global economy.

1.4 Defining the second language

The second language is termed "social media-ese" (Wiley 25010: 415). Social media can also be described as the so called "second life". Second life actually means having a new identity and so social media-ese as second life gives a people a chance to create for themselves a life different to that of their own, although this is not always the point, some social media sites create a platform for people to express who they truly are.

The development of business interaction is now tied to the increasing number of social media users. Social media is a way in which people are able to interact with each other via the internet although they live far from each other, for example, facebook, twitters, etc. Social media has taken the world of communication to a different level. The only problem that social media may have is that not all the fans of that particular business are actively involved in that business's fan page. The only solution that the business should enforce is to send direct messages to each and every individual whereby they will be able to reply directly (Wiley 2010:784). The advantages and disadvantages of social media