Marketing Mondays: The Pros & Cons of Social Media Marketing

If it seems that social media is everywhere these days, you’re probably right. After all, more than four in 10 people around the world now use it, which amounts to about 3.2 billion people, and by getting involved in social media marketing, your brand can begin to tap into this astounding audience. 

That doesn’t mean social media marketing will automatically be a big success for your business, though. Indeed, here are just a few of the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing that you should be aware of.

First, The Advantages Of Social Media Marketing… 

• It’s a low-cost way to advertise. Registering for a Facebook or Twitter account for your brand won’t cost you a thing. You might fork out some cash if you decide to use these platforms’ paid advertising options, although this can still be very much your choice. 
• It helps to build customer relationships and brand loyalty. A social media presence places you in proximity of your target and current customers alike. Furthermore, if a given customer follows your profile, this indicates a certain level of brand loyalty that regular, relevant and useful social content gives you the chance to further develop. 
• It offers invaluable marketplace insights. Data about the people who see and respond to your social media activity, including how they respond, can teach you certain things about how your industry is evolving, that you would struggle to learn about any other way.  
• It can assist in increasing website traffic. By being active on social media, including by inserting links to various parts of your main website in each of your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram updates, you can help to attract people to your site who may not otherwise find their way there. 
• It’s a potentially great source of customer feedback. The direct communication with customers that social media marketing enables you to engage in, allows you to intimately appreciate what they’re thinking about your brand and its products or services. Perhaps they have suggestions as to what’s good, what’s bad and what your company should be aiming to introduce or improve? 

But There Are Also Certain Disadvantages Of Social Media Marketing 

• It can take up a lot of time. Formulating the authoritative, relevant and useful content that your social followers will actually appreciate, and that will help to attract more of them to your brand, can be a very time-consuming undertaking. Thankfully, if you can’t spare much time, there’s always the option of leaving much of your social media management to an experienced and capable specialist agency. 
• It can force you to deal with negative comments. If your brand ends up at the centre of a controversial situation or customers are simply displeased with the service they receive from you, they might communicate this to you directly via social media. However, being on social media also allows you to visibly respond to and help to resolve customer complaints. 
• What you’ve published can be turned against you. It might only take one or two ill-judged tweets or Facebook posts to cause a scandal online that quickly goes viral. It’s crucial, then, to carefully consider how other social media users might perceive each post you make. Do your research before sharing new content, and you can help to shape your brand’s messaging on social media for the better, rather than the worse. 
• ROI can be difficult to measure. It isn’t always obvious where the connection is between your social media activity and any consequent site traffic, sales and revenue. ROI from social media marketing can be made much easier to measure, however, when you define specific goals for your campaign in advance. 

The good news is that the advantages of social media marketing definitely have greater weight than the disadvantages, as long as you use this immensely powerful type of marketing appropriately. Call our team now on 01788 288 800, and we can assist you in doing precisely that.