Peidan Chen 13101547d
MIS Individual Paper
Peidan Chen
Student #: 13101547D
A discussion on Benefits and Disadvantages of Social Media for Business
The definition of Social Media changes and varies from time to time because of the evolution of its usage (Cohen, 2011). One of the most popular definitions of social media is suggested by the Oxford Dictionary: Social media is the websites and applications that allow users to create and share ideas or join in social networking. Social media has become a popular platform for business to advertise its company and products since 20th century. Kitt (2012) believes that many of the social media websites have launched different tools aiming to attract companies to use for business purpose. For example, Facebook started to allow companies to show their advertisement on users' pages in 2007; in 2008, YouTube also started to show business advertisements under a viewer's screen. Base on the trend that more companies are trying to improve their performance through the usage of social media, this essay is going to discuss on the benefits and disadvantages of the usage of social media in business world.
There are plenty of advantages for a company to use social media. The benefits include increase in brand recognition and decrease in marketing cost. DeMers (2014) points out that the potential to increase the recognition of a brand is high if the marketing strategy on social media is done in a correct way. Using social media networks increase the exposure rate of the products and services provide by the company. Information of the goods and services also becomes easier to reach by existing customers. After purchasing the products, existing customers may use the 'Share' and 'Like' function to express their opinions toward the company's products. The status created by the customers can also...