This document summarizes a study on the impact of social networking sites on e-businesses. It finds that e-businesses increasingly use social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace to increase brand awareness, get customer feedback, and expand their business markets. The literature review cites sources finding benefits for e-businesses like promoting products through word-of-mouth and allowing customers to engage in conversations. However, social media also creates issues around privacy and data retention that companies must be aware of. The study examines the most popular social sites used by UK e-businesses and the reasons for their use over time.

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Below is the background information of a study. You are to use the information provided
as a basis to answer ALL questions.
Title of study
An evaluation of the impact of social networking sites in the E-business sector.
Introduction
Social network sites like MySpace and Facebook attract millions of users. People ranging from
teens to elders are signing up to use the online social networking services around the world. All
these different services have a common theme—the social networks connect people from all
around the world who share similar interests and friends. These social networking sites provide
ways for members to communicate with each other and post information about themselves. In
addition, these online service providers collect various kinds of public and private data across the
Web for the purposes of targeted marketing. (Lee and Fung, 2007)
Literature Review (Excerpts)
Benefits for E-businesses :
 Social media sites promote companies, people, brands, products and services. It is the
online version of word of mouth with which to increase loyalty, trust and referrals.
(Nichepro Technologies, 2011) page 15
 Customers are also becoming ‘broadcasters’ who are no longer satisfied with just
listening to company marketing messages but also want to engage in meaningful
conversations. (McKinsey & Co., 2006) page 30
 “Customers can use the internet to tell marketers what they want. The customer specifies
the needs and the business delivers. Thus the customer changes roles from ‘consumer’ to
‘prosumer’” (Kotler et.al., 2002) page 36
 E-businesses in the United States favour social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook,
and Myspace to advertise their businesses. These sites allow companies to engage in
conversations with consumers, and drive sales through deals and coupons.
(TechCrunch.com, 2010) page 10
 Effective utilisation of social media could mean superior growth opportunities for small
or big E-businesses. (Nichepro Technologies, 2011) page 21
 In the United State, most E-businesses depend on the feedback from the Web to expand
the business market and also to increase brand awareness. These two features have
consistently increased from 2004 to 2010. (Mackson, 2009) page 22

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Benefits for Individuals :
 Profiles on social networking sites are unique pages in which one can “type oneself into
being” (Sundan, 2003) page 19
 When joining a social networking site, users are asked to provide a large amount of
information including their age, interests and location. (Bond et. Al.,2010) page 31
 Customers can practice their rights as consumers more readily through the online
communities (Diffley et. al., 2011) page 11
Statement of Problem
Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are some of the sites which have attracted millions of users, the
majority of which have incorporated the sites into their everyday routines. These sites have
become the centre of people’s lives yet it can also create unwanted problems. Social networking
sites records all interactions and retain them for potential use in any future litigation (Dwyer,
2007). Therefore, people who use social networking sites for E-businesses must be wary and
aware of these double-sided sword effects.
ResearchQuestions
1. How do social networking sites improve the overall performance of businesses?
2. What are the sites most used by the E-business operators?

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STUDY THE GRAPHS BELOW (FIGURE 1 AND 2). WRITE THE FINDINGS IN ABOUT 100 WORDS,
BASED ON THE GRAPHS GIVEN. YOUR RESPONSE SHOULD BE IN LINE WITH THE RESEARCH
QUESTIONS.
Question 1 (a)
Figure 1: The Reasons E-Businesses Use Social Networks in the UK
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0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
2004 2006 2008 2010
increase brand awareness
customer feedback
job vacancy
expand business market
improve business market

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Question 1 (b)
Figure 2: Popular social network sites in the UK
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0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Twitter
Facebook
Myspace

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SECTION 3 (14 MARKS)
USING THE FINDINGS IN QUESTION 1 (A) AND (B), WRITE THE DISCUSSION TO THE STUDY IN 200-250
WORDS.USE THE LITERATURE REVIEW (EXCERPTS) ASSUPPORT. YOU HAVE TO DEMONSTRATE THE
ABILITY OF USING AT LEAST 2 OF THE CITATION TECHNIQUES TAUGHT.
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STATE2 MAJORFINDINGS AND PROVIDE 1 POSSIBLE IMPLICATION FOR EACH OF THE FINDING IN
100-150 WORDS
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