The impact of social media on contemporary business communication

In fact, research indicates that the majority of the social media users are the youth (Bansal and Loredana-Mihaela, 2018). Businesses have taken this as an advantage to using social media to market their products in order to reach out to many clients. The use of social media in business communication has both negative and positive impacts on both the business and the clients. 20 years ago, businesses used the media such as television, magazines, and newspapers to pass information to consumers regarding the availability of a given product in the market. Few companies used the internet for communication and this was very expensive and inconvenient. In case people traveled to a meeting and forgot to discuss some issues, they had to travel back again, and this was somehow tiresome.

Advancement in technology has made it easier for businesses to communicate both internally and externally. Communication internally involves communication amongst employees while externally involves the company and the outside world. Improvement in roads has made it possible for network companies to access many places and introduce the internet. Almost all countries globally now have access to the internet and this is a major boost for companies to market their products online (Bansal and Loredana-Mihaela 2018). One can choose to save the messages or delete them depending on how critical the message is. The use of email is not only beneficial to business and consumers but has some negative impacts. First, viruses can easily spread via email attachments, and this can affect the computers used in the company if they do not have effective antivirus.

The viruses can delete or corrupt important company’s files (Guffey and Richard, 2009). It is easier for one to send a company’s confidential information to the wrong person by mistake. Consumers get offended and write bad comments about the company, either on their websites or in social media, and affect the reputation of the company. Companies majorly use social media to tell or show the public what they do to support the society by improving their living standards. Some of the activities they do are to plant trees, educate the society on matters pertaining to health or voting, and creating more employment opportunities to the society. These initiatives help to portray a good image of companies to their consumers and it is a move used by companies to market their brand.

Companies that practice Corporate Social Responsibility stand a high chance of being popular and experiencing higher sales as compared to companies that do not practice it. Narwara, which is located at Mahoba village in India, had a challenge of getting water for consumption and irrigation. People had to travel for approximately one kilometer in order to get water. Digging a well was almost impossible in the area since it has a difficult terrain. Women had to carry utensils on a daily basis to the well and wash them. The community would not have any kind of social gathering because it meant serving guests with water (Journey, 2018). People who accused the company of polluting the environment and using excessive water for production can now see that the company means good for the people.