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social media marketing

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing

social media marketing
Social Media Marketing

When social media first came into being, no one knew the impact it would create on the society. It was originally developed as a tool for interaction among people but as it grew, businesses began gaining interest in using it to advertise their goods and services. Given how these public networking took the globe by storm, no business, small or large, local or international could afford to turn a blind eye on it.

The fact that it is a platform of conversation and sharing of information, it can be used to market brands through services offered by Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, LinkedIn among other websites services rendered. However, given its positive impact on business activities, it still has some cons which need to be scrutinized before venturing into online marketing.

Advantages

Increased brand awareness

Given in the current world almost every person owns a smartphone, desktop or a laptop, and they spend a lot of time in social media sites, implementing social media marketing strategy greatly improves product recognition since you will be interacting with a broad audience. To get started one can request employees, instagram followers and friends to like and share your post or page. Getting people to interact with your product creates awareness among the public, hence they may end up being potential customers.

Better customer satisfaction

It is the human nature to attract attention. Establishing social media marketing allows one to respond to specific customer at a time. Customers do really appreciate when they know they will get personalized response when they post comments on your page rather than get automated message response. It shows that you are attentive and caring. This puts you as a marketer at an advantage position since more customers will be attracted.

Cost effective

Social media marketing is possibly the most cost-effective mode of advertising any product. Creating a new profile and signing in is free for almost every social media. Those that usually charge, the amount is minute compared to the overall returns. Saving on advertisement expenses ensure greater returns and investments.

Increased inbound traffic

Introducing social media marketing platform increases inbound traffic, that is, people are able to find your product with ease. Without it, people will go searching your product by name or website address. This is very limiting especially to persons who have yet to discover your brand.

Gain market insight

For any business to succeed, the owner must know the customers need, opinions and interests. There is no better method to collect such data apart from social media platforms. Gaining this information gives you an opportunity to know areas which you can improve in order to get ahead of competitors and improve turnouts.

Disadvantages

Exposure to competitors

Social media marketing enables you to study your competitors strategy. However, they can still study your business methods through your social media platform. This puts your business at the risk of being outdone.

Needs qualified personnel

In order to focus on core business issues, you will have to employ a qualified personnel to manage your account and have the traffic under control. This implies that you have to invest both in apparatus and salary for quality outcome.

Slow returns on investments

Social media marketing is a long term investment and one cannot expect returns in an overnight. For companies looking for quick results, implementing traditional methods like word of mouth would be appropriate.

Tarnish brand name

In the event that a negative information finds its way onto social media platform, the public will have the chance to express their dissatisfaction. This will tarnish your product name and deter potential customers from establishing relationships and doing business with the brand.

Time consuming

People may deliberately ignore your page because they may be interested in other sites. To get them to appreciate and share your posts may take time. For this reason resources in terms of money and time must be allocated to ensure frequent publishing of aesthetic posts.

In summary, before you invest in social media marketing strategy, strongly consider the effect of the system on your business. Having a social account to advertise your product is good idea that can help boost your business while spreading your products information over a large geographical area. However, if negative impact resulting from the platform outdo the advantages, you should consider trying another method.