Integrated Professional Skills in the Digital Age Assignment Help
Part 1:
In this particular part there is a discussion about various Negatives and Positives related to business going online. The main intension to build and an understanding around such ways and thus explore the ways in which such changes can be implemented for promoting both businesses and individuals.
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Positive & Negative of Business and Individuals being Online
There are a large number of benefits of placing businesses and individual online and they include the following:
Global Access: Having the business online, helps it in gaining access to the market globally and also be available for promoting and selling business 24*7.
Unlimited Market: The market reach for internet is global and thus the whole world becomes a potential market for the services and product. The businesses can target any specific market easily and thus can expand their reach in a very cost effective manner.
Low Cost Marketing: With internet there are various ways in which business can be marketed at very low cost. By creating articles and blogs which provide useful information on various fields helps in attracting variety of new customers. Using tools like Google Ad words, businesses can create ads which people can access by looking for keywords and thus can promote business in a simple manner (Joseph,Chris , 2020).
Transactional Ease: With internet businesses can access easy transaction as well. The businesses can set up secured payment gateways on their websites which people may use for making payments. This reduces the need for paper money and makes cash handling much easier.
Following are the negative of businesses and individuals going Online:
Impersonal: One of the biggest problem of business coming online and on internet is that there is no personal connect between businesses and customers. Before business went online customers had option to complaint directly by reaching out to the stores and raising their voice. But online responses generally do not satisfy the individuals (Pee, 2016).
No Trail Option: There are variety of products which are available to be bought online but items like shoes, clothing, electronics and furniture can be actually tried before being bought online. Though there are retailers who have tried compensating by allowing people to review products by putting up videos and pictures but still people like to try before they buy in case of a few things.
Productivity: In case of physical store there are dedicated hours for operation. The business schedule is fixed and the work is defined. But due to this 24*7 policy the business remain open all the time. This may led to less time being spent on training and thus lower productivity in case the time is not managed properly and employees are not given what they really seek for in case of their job profile (Valerio, 2019).
Positive & Negative of Business and Individuals being Offline
Following are positives of businesses and individual being offline:
Personal Connection: In case of offline business, there are much better chances of creating personalized connects. People can reach out to the stores and also raise their complaints while getting reasonable face to face solution.
Build Loyalty: As people are able to see what they are buying, it helps in placing the loyalty of the product and brand and thus helps in easier promotion and long term relationships with the business (Clarqvist, 2017).
Avoid damage: The damages which may be happening during transit or shipment can be largely avoided in cases of offline shopping, as the responsibility of the good is transferred to the buyer just after the sales happen.
Online frauds are avoided: As the transaction is form of money or live card payments are made the chances of online frauds are avoided, which are possible in case of online shopping. This also helps in establishing the trust of the individual on the brand and strengthens the portfolio of the company (Biloš, 2014).
Following are negatives of having business offline:
Most of the offline ventures build or lease their facilities for the customer, which is different in case of e-commerce websites as there is a global market for the businesses being online. Thus the reach of the offline business is limited to its area of work, whereas in case of online business the reach and customer base is really huge. The market also for these offline business is quite limited. Like in case of restaurant they may have their client base only spread across in 10 Kilometers which will reduce their area of work and thus impacting the opportunity to growth (Fariborzi, 2012). Various ventures which are traditionally based like video rental store and bookstores have started becoming unprofitable as they are not able to complete with the actual market using the low cost structuring being offered by online counterparts. This reduces there stand in the market and overall reach as well. Also due to coming of the online competition in the market, the offline market is losing its customer and also there is large deduction in the profit figures for the offline market players. People have chosen to buy from the comfort of their homes and thus the importance of offline traditional marketing has reduced any ways (Obaidat, 2012).
As can be understood from the literature above, there are both advantages and disadvantages of online and offline businesses and individuals. It is important to consider each of them in a well-defined manner to understand which of these really matter and take decisions for the business based on that. A large number of businesses have opted for both, they have opened up their outlets and also have established their businesses online, for promoting better sales and earning great profit figures. In case of online business, marketing is also simpler and the reach is quite wide, this helps in building stronger customer base and bringing in better business, whereas offline business promotion will promote loyalty towards the brand (Scholar, 2018).
Part 2:
Challenges in terms of Security and Privacy Online
Everyone is surrounded by internet these days and at every moment. It is thus very important to understand the privacy and security challenges in regards to internet for avoiding unnecessary situations and hazards in regards to privacy and personal security. Below are a few challenges which are faced on internet on regular basis:
-Vulnerability due to Hacking: These days almost all the internet devices have various potential risks which have been linked with hacking. It has been found in a research at French Technology institute that Eurecom had downloaded almost 32000 firmware images that were from various potential IoT devices producers and they found out that there were close to 38 vulnerabilities spread across 125 products which included backdoors and poor encryption which could have allowed various unauthorized access (Kumar, 2014).
The amount of data which this IoT device for generating was staggering. It has left the information on internet to be vulnerable for the hackers. Hackers can now actually use the connected devices for virtually invading the houses. Home security cameras are another targets which are targeted by hackers. There is no personal security left once the hackers get into the home. Solving this problem is still a big dream and shall be taking a lot of time right now. Manufactures should take it on themselves to secure the device and should build security as well in this software application and also network connection which is linked with the device (Anon., 2019).
-Trust Consideration: The data of the companies are bombarded by various kinds of data from internet but it is difficult for the organizations to be sure that that all these data has never been compromised or been interfered. There is no defined ways of verifying various kinds of identities available on the internet. There is no knowledge on the place the data is being actually collected and whether all such devices have been hacked or compromised. These old security measures on these devices are of no use since the perimeter protection for devices has been defined by them itself.
-Protection of Data: These ubiquitous means of data collection has the capability to collect a large amount of necessary information, but that shall be having impact on the expectation in terms of privacy in case data is compromised through malicious hackers. These devices collected to internet generate a large amount of data that generates a large amount of risk in terms of identity and data protection, data falsification, device manipulation and IP theft and many other cybercrime issues (Ziegeldorf, 2013).
Measures to address such Challenges
Following are the necessary measures to be taken to ensure internet security challenges are addressed:
Never Equate small to safe: Even after having major cybersecurity exposures, most of the owners have a belief that their companies are safe from the hackers, malware, viruses and also data breach. Such disconnect is because of a mistaken belief that such small businesses shall not be targeted by the hackers. But the fact is these people look for path having less resistance. Thus, it is important irrespective of the size all necessary security measures should be taken.
Training Employees: It is very important that the employees are trained in a proper and an organized manner. There should be session on online security and privacy threat which should be compulsorily taken by each employee, to ensure that they have been trained properly to address all such issues and they do not miss on any security concern (Buchanan, 2007).
Anti-Virus: It is always suggested to install and use and also regularly update all the antispyware and antivirus software on each of the computer being used in the business. It is necessary to avoid unwanted virus or malware attacks on the system. Also, it is suggested to have firewall for the internet connection.
Updating Software: Always have software updates downloaded and installed for the operating system and also all the applications, as and when they are available, to avoid expired software prone to attacks.
Back-ups: It is always important that there are back-up copies created for all the important data and necessary information, which may be prone to attack, to avoid unnecessary situations from coming and losing the data which may be important for functioning of the company.
Controlling Physical Access: It is necessary to have proper physical access control for the computer. The employees should be suggested to follow basic ISMS polices and use difficult passwords. These passwords should also be updated on regular basis by the employees, to avoid all unwanted hacking threats.
Secured Wi-Fi Network: Always secure the Wi-Fi network. In case Wi-Fi has been installed in the workplace it is important to ensure that it is secured and hidden in a proper manner, to avoid people hacking the password and barging in the office premises virtually.
Individual Accounts: The employees should not be allowed to share accounts, as it increases the threat of security. Each employee should be given his own account and they should never be accessing anyone else’s account even with permission.
Limited Access: It is highly suggested to limit the access of the data and information for the employees. People who are authorized to view the data, should only be given any such access and the rest of them should not be exposed to risk of being viewed by unauthorized users. Such information should be properly encrypted and kept away from the reach of unauthorized parties (Cemalcilar, 2017).
Part 3:
Difference between Blogs and Websites
Blog: Blog has been defined to be a web log which any blogger uses for any chronological listing of any blog posts. These blogs consists of the recent content at the top followed by the previous content at the bottom. They can be started easily through service like bloggers, wordpress etc which gives the access to the complete system including the design template to start with. The blog works on latest content and as much as it is updated, it will get more attention. Regularly updating and quality content are the secrets to a great blog. The basic identifications for the blogs includes a proper and chronological listing of all the posts, a proper commenting system which invites the participants and readers in proper communication and also leave various comments behind. These posts are archived through category, dates, tags, author and also sub categories.
Website: Website can be termed to be anything on the internet which is presented in CSS/HTML or Javascript/PHP or python form is a website. These websites may have been complimented with all blogs but the home page for the websites, support browsing of other pages and not just the posts. All the eye catchy and full functional websites are said to be cost consuming as they are built from the scratch. But with the services like dreamweaver, adobe one can build these websites really easily.
Blog can be said to be a proper part of the website which exists in form of a separate page which is linked to any homepage. But website is termed to be a larger aspect with no or very less limitations. The website can contain anything from being single page to being hundred page long. The basic identification of the website is it includes a homepage which displays contents of several sections in regards to internal website pages. It contains design portfolio in terms of work. Blog may remain to be a part of website but it is never the only thing. There is a frequently asked questions page which the readers are allowed to take a look for get more information. A page containing testimonials and feedbacks from the clients. The terms and condition page for the company and the contact form for all the visitors for getting in touch with the company (ShoutMeLoud, 2018).
Different tools to be used for developing Blogs
There are large variety of tools which are available online for developing and creating blogs, few of the most commonly used ones have been listed below:
Quora: This is a crowdsourced answer website which can help in leading to various kinds of questions which people may ask, kinds of questions which can be answered by developing a proper blogpost. Searching the key words and following the topics which is focused on the blog.
BuzzSumo: Just by entering a URL or topic in the BuzzSumo search box one can get a large amount of information on all kinds of content which performs and are best for sharing on the social media platform. BuzzSumo can be termed to be highly useful for building out from an existing idea and finding a proper angle by having a broad look at the available content.
Quick Sprout: All that is to be done is entering the URL in the quick sprout and one can get the analysis of the performance of the content and site. The tab named social media helps in spotting the posts which have been home runs and thus one can take inspiration from all the available highlights on the list.
Portent Title Maker: Put a subject in the portent tool and one can get a sample blogpost title which is complete with witty and helpful breakdowns on the reasons the title must be a great read. Refresh as many times as wanted to get as many new ideas as needed.
Blog Topic Generator: This Hubspot’s title maker is exactly like Portent. Using this tool only three keywords have to be entered and it shall generate five titles which is almost a week’s content to work on.
Twitter’s Trending Topics: The trending topic page on the twitter homepage is one of the hotspot for getting ideas around all the latest news. One has the option of tailoring all the trending topics for going uber local or also for gaining fully tailored tweets which takes the location and the followers into account.
Trello: The software allows the user to add all the ideas together and turn them into a card which can spec out including moves and notes from the list to list using simply the drag and drop option ( Lee,Kevan, 2020).
Ways Blogs can be communication Tool
Blogging can be stated as an important element of the content marketing which cannot be disregarded any longer. In case the website does not contain a blog then the business is missing a great opportunity of generating sales through website trafficking. Also, if the company does not have a blog it passes on a wrong signal about the company especially in case of online business. Blogging has been termed to be an essential need for the business and it is understood that each blog count for securing the customers.
Understanding the importance of the blog it is important to make sure that there is inclusion of call to action for encouraging all the readers for sharing the post and clicking on the link to find more. It can be used for giving feedback or downloading important things for the person directly. This shall help in building activities on the website and making Google happy which can be considered as an important tick in the business’s online presence. But not doing that it means one is missing on the chances for endorsing the blog, bond with the reader or sell the products.
As people read the blog, it becomes the duty of the writer to keep updating it for all those people as they shall be expecting it from the writer. It should begin with content strategy and grow with personas of understanding the audience. Once the audience has been understood properly the quality of content shall increase as well which shall speak for the customer. As they engage more, more amount of trust they build which brings in more sales for the company.
So as can be concluded from the study above, blogs are a great way of promoting business online and brining in great amount of customers and sales for the business. All that is to be done is keeping them updated and ready for use for the readers to ensure latest information is passed through such passage and people are able to gain maximum insight about the company on regular basis from such reads (thetypefacegroup, 2020).
References
Lee,Kevan, 2020. 39 Blogging Tools to Help You Work Faster, Write Better, and Land More Readers. [Online] Available at: https://buffer.com/library/blogging-tools [Accessed 24 May 2020].
Anon., 2019. Privacy and Security Challenges and Solutions in IOT: A review. IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science.
Biloš, A., 2014. Online And Offline Media Effectiveness Based On Shopping Center Communication Objectives, s.l.: University of Osijek.
Buchanan, T., 2007. Development of measures of online privacy concern and protection for use on the Internet. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(2), pp. 157-165.
Cemalcilar, Z., 2017. Online Privacy Concerns and Privacy Management: A Meta?Analytical Review, s.l.: Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Clarqvist, B., 2017. Benefits of using offline & online process - A study of e-commerce companies in Sweden , s.l.: Uppsala University.
Fariborzi, E., 2012. E-mail Marketing: Advantages, Disadvantages and Improving Techniques. International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning, 2,(3).
Joseph,Chris , 2020. Advantages of Internet Business. [Online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-internet-business-317.html [Accessed 24 May 2020].
Kumar, R., 2014. An analysis of security and privacy issues, challenges with possible solution in cloud computing, s.l.: JECRC Foundation.
Obaidat, M. S., 2012. E-Business and Telecommunications: International Joint Conference, ICETE 2011, Seville, Spain, July 18-21, 2011. Revised Selected Papers. illustrated ed. s.l.:Springer.
Pee, L., 2016. Negative online consumer reviews: Can the impact be mitigated?. International Journal of Market Research, 58(4).
Scholar, R., 2018. Digital Marketing Importance in the New Era. International Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research, 5,(1).
ShoutMeLoud, 2018. The Difference Between A Blog And A Website. [Online] Available at: https://www.shoutmeloud.com/difference-between-blog-vs-website.html [Accessed 24 May 2020].
thetypefacegroup, 2020. THE SAD TRUTH OF AN ABANDONED BLOG – THE IMPORTANCE OF BLOGGING. [Online] Available at: https://thetypefacegroup.co.uk/the-importance-of-blogging/ [Accessed 24 May 2020].
Valerio, C., 2019. The Impact of Social Media on E-Commerce Decision Making Process. International Journal of Technology for Business, 1(1), pp. 1-9.
Ziegeldorf, J. H., 2013. Privacy in the Internet of Things: threats and challenges. onlinelibrary.
