How Beneficial is Social Media to Your Business

When social media networking sites such as Six Degrees were first created in 1997, very few people noticed them.

The importance of social media, both as a channel and a networking site, came to be known only when Myspace or Facebook was created and began being used by a small yet significant number of users in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

One key goal of such social media site creators was to help people make friends and communicate with them, even when they were far apart.

Today, if you conduct a survey and ask people, many will confess that they never thought social media would grow to such an enhanced level, creating immense opportunities for businesses.

Ask about anything from politics to entertainment and from entertainment to sports—it’s all there, not just being discussed but seen as gaining momentum the moment good content is posted on such social media sites. So, why leave out business?

Upon constant engagement with the users on popular social media sites, you can expect to enjoy a pretty good market share of your brand. But you must remember and ask yourself the following questions before you plunge.

The Questions You Must Ask Yourself Before You Make Use of Social Media For Business

• Which social media sites are worth advertising?
• Which site would be best for my kind of product? Should I consider all or some?
• When is the right time to conduct ad campaigns for my brand?

Some entrepreneurs who are on social media but haven’t had luck in business have this to say: We spent a lot on advertising and hired a team to manage social media sites, but we haven’t been successful.

I guess we shouldn’t be taking social media quite seriously. Yet, on the other hand, quite a few business tycoons are quite positive about social media and mention that without social media, they wouldn’t have been enjoying huge chunks of the market share. They say — after all, it depends on how smartly you use them to your advantage.

No matter what, social media has advantages and disadvantages. But before we can arrive at any conclusion about using or not using it, let’s look at the pros and cons of the same.

The Pros of Social Media

Better Chances of Having Your Voice Heard

There are more than 2.23 billion monthly active users on Facebook and more than 1 billion on other social media channels such as YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.

You have better chances of making your words about a brand reach faster and on a larger scale. Granted, not all such active users will turn out to be users of your brand, but so be it.

Not that being in the social media space will serve all your purposes of Ecommerce transactions, but they occupy a second place in the entire scheme of online selling of goods.

Better Than Traditional Sources of Product Marketing

What would you spend on advertising through traditional sources such as print, electronic, radio, directories, direct emailing, etc?

You could possibly spend less online, and when it comes to online advertising, social media can be used at a much lesser cost than search engine marketing.

With good content, videos, or images of a brand, you can boost your brand in both organic and sponsored ways. After all, all that appears online can be seen with one click of a mouse and without walking a mile.

It’s a Pull Marketing Strategy, Not Push

When compared with any traditional marketing method, such as outbound telecalling or door-to-door selling, social media marketing, aka online marketing, wins hands down.

Here, you are not pushing the customer to compulsively buy your products but pulling them to buy only when they are thoroughly convinced about any brand. Too many customers get bothered by telecallers if their sole purpose is to sell a product.

By contrast, you are only informing or educating the customer about your brand, and that’s it. Of course, this would apply to customers who are internet savvy and educated enough to make sense of all the information that you provide on your products.

Better Market Penetration At Lesser Expenditure

Imagine an international market presence for your brand, and you would have to undertake massive recruitment to ensure your products reach everywhere. Wherever your products can follow customers’ demand, your competitors will have a share of the market.

Additionally, you also incurred travel costs for those managers and employees who traveled to capture the markets.

Hence, social media marketing is definitely a very cost-effective option when all you need to do is boost your brand’s image by using different SMM (Social Media Marketing) strategies such as chatbots, content marketing, community-building, brand advocacy, etc.

Faster Access to Customer’s Buying Behavior

Compare online marketing research with the traditional source of gathering customer information, and you need to rely on public libraries, government-owned research organizations, and several private agencies that would provide the information in print, and only those of whom you are already aware.

This is, of course, not the case when you use social media, when all you need is a few tools to analyze your customers’ before- and after-sales.

For example, Facebook Analytics is known as a robust tool for marketers to explore users’ thoughts on a brand. There are enough pros, aren’t there?

Despite all the advantages social media offers, it’s not free of risks. So, let’s dive into the cons of social media, being aware of which can help you stay alert and attentive when marketing your brand.

The Cons of Social Media

Inevitable Risk of Social Media Trolling

One of the biggest risks of having a social media presence is being trolled. This usually happens when somebody wants to pick a quarrel with you and, for doing so, posts unwarranted or off-topic messages that may harm the brand and an organization’s image in the eyes of others.

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are excellent examples of trolling, where somebody gets trolled every other day for sharing something.

As a business owner, one may get criticized for posting a bad video, content, or images that may not really be of bad quality but just that it may not appeal to someone’s views or that someone wants to get the upper hand out of defamation.

It can get really silly, wicked, abusive, and at times also self-suicidal if one does not know how to deal with trolls, especially when the identity of the harasser is unknown to the corporate personality, aka the harassed. Sometimes, one may even need to close down his or her business account.

To prevent such trolling, Cinderly, a newly launched fashion app for girls, suggested that its users pledge to refrain from trolling to get a good deal on its products.

Some people are also thinking of using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to track and monitor conversations on social media sites.

The finest example is Google alumni Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan, who have together launched a new social media app called Candid.

Miscellaneous (Information Leaks, Hacking or Piracy Issues)

Another great disadvantage of popularising your brand on social media is the risk of being exposed to hackers or crucial information being leaked out in some way or another to cause monetary harm to you as a person or your company.

Some people from competitive organizations may pose as customers and try to get the latest idea on any product, putting you at a loss.

You may often be accused of piracy if you haven’t taken enough care to check your video content and if it’s unique.

For these reasons and maybe more, it’s important to have strict online policies and procedures in place for using your business page on social media.

Having a clear-cut marketing strategy before you take a plunge into social media would also be better to safeguard yourself from any attacks.

Author Bio

Maria is an enthusiastic writer covering industries like SEO, content, online marketing, and business development. Maria is a vice president of marketing and strategic insights for Solvoguru, which offers high-impact and performance-driven marketing and advertising solutions that help achieve optimum results. Visit solvoguru.com for more information.