As the "things" in IoT is getting more and more diverse and widespread; according to Gartner, Inc. forecast, there would be around 20.4 billion connected things in use by 2020, businesses are on pace to leverage IoT technologies to enhance their performance and reduce costs. And if you are one of those among the manufacturing and retail sectors with high expectations from IoT technology, delve a little deeper to understand its business impact before getting swayed by the hype.

The global IoT market was $157 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $267 billion by 2020, according to Boston Consulting Group. Also, it is not just that the market is spreading, the best part is it is diversifying, which means the "things" in IoT is not limited to any specific domain and application like Smartphones and Personal Computers but covers a variety of dedicated functional objects such as home appliances, vehicles, engines, ATMs, machines, robots, and so many others. So, if the IoT market is expected to grow at the predicted pace, it is good news for many industries.

But with all the hype and market predictions, there are threats as well. And it is here when you need to ponder whether the IoT is the best choice for your business and if so, how prepared you are to tackle the threats. Below are the 4 challenges of IoT faced by enterprises which could slow down its pace and prevent people from adopting the technology.

In a survey by Gartner, it has been found that around 20% of IoT initiatives-based organizations have experienced minimum one IoT attack in the last three years. These attacks have been of various types, such as cross-border attacks, attacks on the IoT data stored in the cloud, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Are you prepared to protect your company against these attacks?

The preparation involves understanding the causes and making right moves to tackle the security threats before they outweigh the benefits. Businesses need to understand the software and hardware being used in the smart connected devices and their implications for network connectivity and analytics. Many large organizations and IT security standard bodies have addressed the issue, but still have not been able to come up with the standard "Security by Design" and specific regulations that can help every business to tackle the security attacks confidently.

Unreliable communication networks are a major roadblock to IoT. It requires ubiquitous global connectivity to monitor the object and effectively and consistently extract information from the sensors.

In the past few decades, wireless connectivity standards have improved with the emergence of varied connectivity solutions such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN in unlicensed spectrum and cellular networks like CDMA and GSM in licensed spectrum.

Low transmit power and coverage range are the major challenges, however it can be resolved with repeaters or high-density nodes.

According to a report by global research organisation Software.org, there will be more than 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Considering the number of devices, different models and user generated content, and vendors, it is extremely difficult for the organizations to establish a standard for mobility, reliability, latency, and capacity. Besides, most of the devices have not been initially designed to communicate with computers. The major causes of interoperability are:

• A wide number of devices made by different OEMs that cannot be integrated
• Incompatible operating systems
• Different version of the same device
• Lack of programming to connect the devices
• Various types of connectors and connectivity frameworks that make M2M communication difficult

However, this challenge can be overcome by developing open-source frameworks. Many big giants are now engaged in creating open, secure, and dynamic frameworks that enables interoperability.

IoT has a long past; the term was first coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton, co-founder of MIT's Auto-ID Center, as per the sources. But if you take a survey on the consumer awareness of the term, you will find that many are still unaware of it. Most even could not even define the acronym, let alone understand the concept.

In this scenario, there is a high chance that this lack of awareness may turn into a lack of interest and creates unnecessary fear. The misconception and fear to adopt IOT caused by privacy and security concerns to act as a roadblock.

Advanced IoT systems lead to reduced cost of production, increased efficiency, and better quality. But can it guarantee enough ROI? The interesting factor here is that the average costs of implementing IoT have fallen, however, it is not the implementation cost, but other factors such as Hardware and Software, Infrastructure, Consultation Services, and Security Measures that are influenced by the IoT implementation raise the cost, no matter which model data model you opt, centralized or distributed.

Although, if we compare the cost between centralized or distributed model, the latter can save money for the business but not without the risk of reduced efficiency. It is recommended to discuss the objective of your IoT implementation with your IoT application development company, before pursuing development. This will help you to prevent failures caused by budget overruns and will provide you an estimated ROI out of your investments.

Large scale adoption of IoT based devices and applications can help overcome many of these challenges like interoperability and connectivity. Besides, it will also compel the industry leaders and visitors to develop a consortium for IoT and contribute in prevailing standards. In the fifth annual IoT Barometer Report published by Vodafone, it has been revealed that 82% of the companies have already adopted IoT, which is indeed great news for the IoT sector.

The report clearly highlights that IoT is the next big thing, but before the enterprises take up their IoT projects, they must set the objective of the project, which can help in extracting right data for information and analysis. As highlighted in the study conducted by Cisco, there are several "human factors” involved in an IoT project and enterprises should not hesitate to take external support to timely complete the project, gain expertise, and enhance quality of data.

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Social media marketing is one of the easiest ways to reach your audience. However, the recent data breaches have made everyone using the platform a little worried.

No one wants to lose their privacy. And, that’s a concern that social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and others need to maintain. A recent bug promoted Twitter to ask all their 336 million users to change their password. That’s a huge lapse from a big company.

Facebook's Cambridge Analytica Scandal was also a major lapse regarding security and privacy breach. Almost 87 million people data was compromised. Facebook also got attention from media houses and law agencies where congressmen and lawmakers summoned him.

The problem explained

The trust over the year has declined. Initially, when the social media platform appeared, the novelty kept many users stay on the platform. However, it is not new anymore, and the users are now getting educated with each passing day.

According to annual Edelman Trust Barometer, only one out of four Britons trusts social media. And that’s not all surprising. The numbers are not great on the American side as well where only 41% of the users trust the Facebook, according to the Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Edelman, the man behind the survey, also added, "The public wants action on key issues related to online protection, and to see their concerns addressed through better regulation. Failure on their part to act risks further erosion of trust and therefore public support.”

The reason behind the lack of trust is because of the following reasons.

1. Lack of regulations on social media companies.
2. Lack of transparency when it comes to data privacy and platform working.
3. Improper use of user’s data sold to 3rd party vendors.

All these factors influence a lot on how a normal user is thinking about the platform.

The current situation

That’s a hard question to answer. However, when you take statistics, social media numbers are still healthy, and a lot of people also use them in their day-to-day activities.

Social media platforms are varied by the fact that their users are not trusting their platform, and steps are already taken by social media giants including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and others. The policies surrounding the social media platform has to improve significantly for the users to trust again.

These lapse in the service can also mean that rival services can enter the market and provide better services.

Should you continue your social media marketing?

For a business, the current scenario of social media platform looks bleak. However, there is no reason to stop. The social media will continue to grow. According to Statista, the number of users worldwide will continue to increase in the coming years.

Source: Statista

The growth seems to be linear, and there is nothing to worry about while looking at the graph. However, as a business, you need to transform the way you do social media marketing. Your need to be more focused towards writing customized content for the users.

The content shared should be valuable and should connect with your readers. Moreover, you should focus on learning how each platform algorithm works.

Almost all the social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, change how personalized wall and news feed of the users work. Adapt to the changes and continue with your social media platform strategy.

Build Trust

Even though social media platforms are slowly losing trust among users, you as a business entity can play a major role in building the trust back. As a brand, you should always build the targeted audience trust.

Overall, policy-changing by the platform is crucial to start changing the social media landscape. This is beyond your business control. Right now, you should continue your social media marketing efforts and adopt it according to the changes that will come to the social media platforms in future in the wake of the trust issues. We can only wait and watch.

So, what do you think about the impact of trust on social media marketing campaigns? Do you think that there will be more data breaches in future? Comment below and let us know what you think. We are listening.

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