Social networking a new way for businesses to build relations during pandemic

 Iowa State faculty has conducted a study regarding business and their use of social networks to maintain relations. Raj Agnihotri, dean’s fellow in marketing in the Ivy College of Business, and Patricia Daugherty, Debbie and Jerry Ivy Chair in Business, worked together to conduct this study, which focuses on social media benefits for business. Agnihotri explained the main purpose of this study and the social media platforms they chose to look to.

“We were trying to explore how this digital push that was coming towards us in the last couple of years, how it was going to change the way businesses operate, how supply chains work, how sales people work, how organizational front lines are ready to adopt and use this whole social media as well as other digital setting platforms,” computer science vs computer engineering said. “For this particular study we picked up three specific social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.” Agnihotri also explained why he chose to conduct this particular study.

“I think one of the things we wanna learn is how social media yields benefits,” Agnihotri said. “Not many studies are out there that establish that social media has a use or doesn’t have any use. So, when you take on research, any finding is a good finding." Daugherty then explained the importance of the buyer-seller relationship in business. “The buyer-seller relationship, that’s everything,” Daugherty said. "Can you trust them, will they give you information when you need it?”. She also discussed a class she taught where immediate information was expected by students and how this translates to the use of social networks.