ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITES IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

0 period, as the advancement of social networking continued, a rising number of subscribers on the Internet started participating in the sites of social networking and this has led to the change of the social networking system (Dougerty & Craig, 2004, p201). As such, social networking websites are currently mainly employed for target marketing, entertainment, and job networking, among other uses (Cruz-Cunha, 2012, p123). Social networking refers to a social media type; the sites of social networking permit the users of the Internet to link with individuals and generate information. Originally, the sites of social networking were utilized for the purposes of entertainment; nevertheless, a rise in the usage of information communication technologies as well as the Internet had transformed how individuals communicate with one another, mainly within the hospitality industry.

For example, the sites of social networking such as Facebook permit registered subscribers to connect freely and globally with individuals sharing the same interests through sharing posts, uploading photos, commenting on posts, chatting, and getting responses, and such features permit organizations to get swift feedback from clients whereas the customers are capable of receiving responses instantly. For a firm to be effective in business, the marketers should make their decisions on the basis of changes in society, the technological development, and consumer necessities. Through doing, it satisfies the clients and reinforces the correlation with clients to ascertain that they return. Additionally, the sites of social networking assist in recording the client information such that it can be easily acquired when required.

Furthermore, social networking websites offer the services of social communication, which could generate brand awareness and create good images for the brands (Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014, p56). Project Objective The project aims to investigate the effects (advantages and disadvantages) of social networking websites on the organizations in the hospitality sector. It has had great effect on professional and personal lives of several individuals in the world at distinct levels. The social media types include corporate and personal blogs, sites of social networking, video and photo sharing, forums, chat-room, and RSS, to mention just a few (Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014, p67). One of the major advantages of the sites of social networking contrasted to several other information sources and communication means include its visibility, affordability, and in certain cases the chances of editing the data even when it has already been published.

As stated by Cruz-Cunha (2012, p183), popular platforms of social networking like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have become influential and valuable because of the actuality that they are utilized by millions of individuals and thousands of corporations daily. Services may be described as the intangible commodities comprising of deeds or acts directed towards individuals or their belongings. Through being updated with the trends of social networking and creating a dynamic Internet presence, hospitality firms can swiftly adapt to disruptions and accomplish early adopter benefit when attracting trade from the tech-savvy clients. Research Methodology The methodology for this study was chosen to assist the researcher in developing a coherent hypothesis which was aimed at building groundwork for the research of understanding the advantages and disadvantages of social networks on the business especially within the hospitality industry.

The use of social networks in business is an issue that has risen over the past few years and as such, there exist substantial literature that has been developed based on the same. Therefore, this research will adopt an exploratory research design which is aimed at ensuring that the researcher uses predominantly the secondary research sources in developing his procedural research. Use of literature review of journal articles, books, peer-reviewed journal, business periodicals as well as various books on social networks will be used to form the basis of the research that will be analyzed in this study (Kietzmann et al. Survey is defined as the brief discussion or an interview with a target sample so as to obtain information regarding a specific topic (Kietzmann et al.

, 2011, p245). The hospitality industry is an industry that has been undergoing dynamic changes. These changes have always been researched by scholars as well as analysts in a bid to ensure that they provide an effective research in the process. Therefore, the qualitative research data that was used in this study was obtained from a research on the previous research articles that have been done by the past researchers and scholars (Cruz-Cunha, 2012, p187). Data analysis is the process where meaning is brought to the data and as such, sense could be drawn from the data. Data is useless when it is collected and left in the form that it was collected. For the purposes of analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of social networks on the hospitality industry the researcher used both quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques.

Quantitative data analysis is a systematic approach used where the numerical data collected is analyzed and the results from the field is indicated. The effective means to present the quantitative data is through the use of descriptive statistics. Each of us is in a position of doing business, learning, sharing as well as benefiting from the others so long as they are connected to a given social network. The use of channels such as Facebook, Twitter as well as other social networks has made marketing very effective in that companies are in a position of minimizing on their advertisement costs while maximizing their revenues in the event. With individual users it hardly takes any cajoling to get on the web and start interacting.