Social Media Marketing: Advantages and Disadvantages - Essay Example

Social Media Marketing Introduction Many a business expert has d that without s, a business has no reason for existence. In other words, without customers, a business cannot make a profit, which defeats the purpose for which it was established. The current business environment is extremely competitive with players in different industries focusing on their strengths and doing all they can to attract every potential customer. Businesses rely on different methods of marketing to reach and attract customers. While traditional methods of marketing such as posters, word of mouth, radio, and television are important in today’s business environment, experts note that new methods of marketing are equally effective and, may in fact, be more so in some industries, jurisdictions, or with some demographic groups. One new method of marketing that has gotten the world wondering is social media. This paper will discuss social media marketing including its advantages and disadvantages. Social Media Social media has been described differently by different experts. Andreas Kaplan, a Professor of Marketing and specialist in viral and social media marketing defines social media as Internet-based applications that are founded on web 2.0 ideologies and technologies and that allow users to create and exchange content amongst themselves (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 61). More generally, social media has been defined as the interaction of people to the extent that they can create, exchanges, or share ideas and content through virtual networks and communities as noted by Ahlqvist, Bäck, Halonen and Heinonen 2008, p. 16). What stands out about social media in the various definitions that people present is that it basically allows users to create, modify, share and discuss information with other users. This is particularly what differentiates social media from other applications and websites in which the audience are passive viewers or users of content - their interaction with media is limited. Yet another prominent feature of social media is that it depends on web-based and/or mobile technologies. In other words, without the Internet and mobile platforms, social media would not exist. Apart from the fact that social media presenting users with the opportunity to create and share content with other users, it differs from traditional media in relation to its frequency, reach, permanence, usability, and immediacy as noted by Nigel, Graham and Ant (2012, p. 5). Social media comes in different forms including social networks, wikis, podcasts, social blogs, microblogs, online forums, virtual games, and picture sharing applications. Some of the most common social media applications include Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Daily Motion, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, MySpace, and Yelp, just to name a few. Popularity of Social Media If statistics are anything to go by, social media has and indeed continues to gain popularity among individuals and organizations. According to ebizmba.com (2014) Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn enjoy about 900 million, 310 million, and 250 million unique visitors a month respectively. These figures, added to others from other popular social media sites give a total that is nothing short of mind boggling. Studies show that consumers spend on social networks more time than on any other category of sites (Tang, Gu & Whinston 2012, p. 47). Studies also show that Facebook is the most visited social network site in the U.S. with more than 78 million users accessing the site through mobile apps while more than 74 million visitors accessing the site through the web (Tang, Gu & Whinston 2012, p. 45). These figures hint to the fact that marketers can reach an extremely large audience by marketing though social media. Perhaps social media marketing is gaining popularity by the very fact that social media sites are easily accessible to any individual who has Internet connection (Mashable.com 2011). Furthermore, joining social media sites and taking part in the creation, sharing and discussion of content is mostly free of charge which means that for users and marketers, social media marketing is cheap. The Use of Social Media in Marketing Social media marketing basically involves gaining attention or web traffic through social media sites. Marketers can achieve a number of goals through social media marketing. Some of these goals are related to web traffic, conversions, creating brand identity, interacting and communicating with main audiences, creating brand awareness, and creating positive association for the brand (Word Stream 2014). Based on these goals, marketers can establish their return on investment which is a measure of how much gain they have made in their investment in social media marketing. Many business organizations use social media to market their products, services, events, brand, or themselves. One advantage that marketers enjoy from social media is the fact that when users respond or comment on a post that directly relates to their organization, the audience who are also potential customers tend to believe their words as compared to what the organization says about itself. In other words, users tend to market the organization and brand as reliable third party sources. Further to this, the company earns good publicity, marketing, and advertising for free from users’ posts and comments (Mashable.com 2011). When an organization markets using social media, it creates and posts content that attracts attention. In addition to drawing attention, it encourages readers to share it with those within their social circles (Mashable.com 2011). The message posted by the organization thus spreads from one user to another resonating far and wide. In this respect, social media marketing is closely related to word of mouth marketing or advertising except for the fact that people may actually be spreading through writing as opposed to speech (Mashable.com 2011). It is also similar to word of mouth in respect of the fact that it is earned and not paid for. Worth noting at this point is that while social media marketing is mostly free of charge, businesses can opt to pay social media owners to have their products marketed on the sites. In other words, social media marketing can be free or paid. Experts in social media marketing advice that there are a number of strategies people can apply to boost the effectiveness of their social media marketing activities. One of the reasons sited for poor results when it comes to social media is the use of social media profiles for pure advertising (Long 2014). In this regard, they note that when social media posts are cramped with promotional posts, they will most likely drive away audience instead of attracting it. In consideration of this fact, posts should provide value while at the same time attracting discussion. According to Long (2014), another measure that will effectively see social media attract good results is responding to posts and updating social media profiles frequently. When one stops to post frequently, they are bound to lose the audience that they have already created. Closely related to this is that when questions and replies posted by readers are ignored, customers and viewers lose interest in the social media profile. Long (2014) states that social media marketing experts also advice that posts should be captivating or should give from for conversation and engagement. The logic behind this notion is that social media is designed to provide room for two way conversation. In this regard, marketers should posts that trigger engagement and response from the audience as opposed to random thoughts. Effective social media marketing is also founded on good planning and strategy as well as proper branding as noted by Long (2014). Social media can be useful in increasing the page ranking of websites on search engines according to Brafton (2014). Since search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing include social data on their search results page, experts note that social shares and comments can be valuable in catching clicks. Furthermore, when posts are compelling, the social sites magnify inbound links. A recent study revealed that 62% of marketers saw an improvement in their rakings for main keywords as a consequence of social media marketing (Brafton 2014). What this means is that social media marketing can boost search engine optimization. One other strategy that has proved to be beneficial in regard to social media marketing is integrating different social media accounts and profiles so that posts in one account, profile, or fan page are automatically reposted on others that are associated with the organization. This strategy goes a long way in making social media marketing easier for many organizations. Case Study on Successful Application of Social media Marketing Several companies have been propelled to greater heights as a result of engaging in social media marketing. Some of the companies that have benefit from marketing using social media include: HubSpot, Coca-Cola, Corcoran Group Real Estate, Canvas People, Luxury Link, Tough Mudder, ASOS, and State Bicycle Company, to name a few (Social Media Today 2013). As an example, State Bicycle managed to add annual sales worth 500,000 USD to its portfolio by using Facebook. The bicycle manufacturing company that is based in Arizona wanted to increase its engagement with fans and communicate with them regarding upcoming events and releases. The company also wanted to encourage its fans to purchase bicycles directly from its e-commerce website. The company created a fans page on Facebook after which it ran a Facebook Ads to attract likes (Social Media Today 2013). The company targeted people living in different cities and made ads that promoted bike riding events in Austin. In addition, the company hosted frequent photo contests, and gave discount codes that fans could use on its site to get discounts on their purchases. Statebicycle.com also posted sponsored stories on Facebook to create more awareness of its brand among members of the public. As a direct result of using Facebook to market itself and its products, the company realized an increase of 12% in traffic to its website (Social Media Today 2013). It also increased its fan base ten times, from 4,600 to well over 46,000 within a period of one year (Social Media Today 2013). As earlier noted, the company witnessed a growth in its annual sales revenues by about 500, 000 USD. Advantages and disadvantages of Social Media Marketing Sandilands (2014) notes that one main advantage of using social media to market is that it is cost effective. In many cases, the marketer does not need to spend a cent on social media to reach the targeted audience. They only have to create a profile and post free. Similarly, viewers and users of social media do not spend to access the sites. This arrangement makes it easy for users to voluntarily follow a brand or organization. Yet another advantage of social media is that it presents an opportunity for geo-targeted marketing and marketing based on demographics as noted by Sandilands (2014). As an example, Facebook provides pay-per-click advertising services in which marketers can specify different variables related to their target audience. Furthermore, by nature social media is viral to the extent that anyone who reads a post can share it with others within their networks. This means that social media presents the opportunity for reaching a wide audience within a short time. In order for social media marketing to be effective, potential fans and customers should have connection to the Internet or should have mobile devices. What this means is that social marketing efforts may not bear fruits if they are targeted at people who have no knowledge of computing devices and the Internet or who have no access to them. One of the disadvantages associated with social media marketing is that it takes time and effort (Sandilands 2014). By the fact that the process of marketing using social media takes time and should be done by a competent person, it implies that there are costs associated with it. Yet another disadvantage with social media advertising is that posts are visible for a relatively short time before newer posts replace them. Using social media is also associated with several risks according to Sandilands (2014). For one, disgruntled individuals may damage the reputation of an organization by posting information that the organization may not be able to delete. Furthermore, viruses, and malware can be spread using social media. Also, a brand can be hijacked on social media much as it may create unrealistic customer expectations. Some individuals feel that social media advertising and marketing intrudes their privacy. A study published by Web Pro News revealed that 80% of people feel uneasy to some extent about sharing their personal information on social networks (Abrons, 2014). While social media has the capacity to draw a global audience and fanbase for an organization, local companies sometimes find social media marketing ineffective in the sense that they end up with followers who are not local (Abrons, 2014). This means that for an organization to get targeted followers, it may have to opt for paid advertising on social media. This beat this challenge, organizations may apply e-commerce options on their sites and so offer products and services online (Abrons, 2014). One other downfall of social media according to marketing experts is that it easily attracts current customers who are loyal to the company. However, for the company to attract new business, it has to apply more effort. Recommendations for Further Research on Social Media Marketing Statistics show that Facebook alone ingests more than 500 times the volume of data that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) does every single day (Smith 2014). Twitter on the other hand stores roughly 12 times more information that the stock exchange does. Reasonably, this data should not go to waste (Smith 2014). This amount of information could perhaps be used to conduct in-depth studies on how people arrive at purchasing decisions as noted by Smith (2014). The vast amount of unclassified and unstructured data from social networking sites to perform predictive marketing, audience clustering, and other analysis based on artificial intelligence. Conclusion Social media is a new method of advertising. Some of the main social media that are preferred by organizations to market their products include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Current trends reveal that social media marketing is growing in popularity. Many companies have benefitted from social media in attracting more traffic to their websites, getting more fans, and increasing more sales, which often translates to more profits. Social media marketing is associated with several advantages and disadvantages. It has wide reach, is cheaper than traditional media in many cases, and can be targeted. On the other hand, social media is associated with loss of privacy for users, lack of control over content published by other users, and possibility of hacking among other risks. Worth noting is that social media and traditional methods of marketing should be used together for the organization to attract more sales, popularity, and increase brand awareness all of which are geared toward meeting business objectives. Business managers should take advantage of social media marketing to reach more people, attract more web traffic, and increase sales. While social media may be free, business managers may need to invest in paid or sponsored ads to reach targeted audience. As they engage in social media marketing, businesses should not ignore the importance of traditional marketing methods such as newspapers, radio, and posters. References Abrons, R. 2014 ‘The Disadvantages of Using Social Networks as Marketing Tools’, Demand Media, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/disadvantages-using-social-networks-marketing-tools-20861.html Ahlqvist, T., Bäck, A., Halonen, M. & Heinonen, S 2008, ‘Social media road maps exploring the futures triggered by social media’, VTT Tiedotteita – Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus vol. 2454, pp. 10-21. Brafton 2014, ‘Social Media Marketing’, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://www.brafton.com/business-model/social-media-marketing ebizmba.com 2014, ‘Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites’, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites Kaplan A. M. & Haenlein M. 2010, ‘Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media’, Business Horizons, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 61-67. Long J. 2014, 8 ‘Reasons Your Social Media Marketing Needs Attention’, Huff Post, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-long/8-reasons-your-social-med_b_5003609.html Mashable.com 2011, ‘How Social Media Is Changing Paid, Earned & Owned Media’, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://mashable.com/2011/06/23/paid-earned-owned-media/ Nigel M., Graham J. & Ant H. 2012, ‘Social Media’, The Complete Guide to Social Media From The Social Media Guys, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://www.thesocialmediaguys.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/03/CompleteGuidetoSocialMedia.pdf Sandilands, T. 2014, ‘Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing’, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-social-media-marketing-21890.html Smith C. 2014, ‘Reinventing Social Media: Deep Learning, Predictive Marketing, And Image Recognition Will Change Everything’, http://www.businessinsider.com/social-medias-big-data-future-2014-3 Social Media Today 2013, ‘7 Facebook Marketing Case Studies’, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://socialmediatoday.com/pamdyer/1478771/7-facebook-marketing-case-studies Tang, Q, Gu, B. & Whinston, A 2012, ‘Content Contribution for Revenue Sharing and Reputation in Social Media: A Dynamic Structural Model’, Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 29, pp. 41–75. Word Stream 2014 ‘Guide to Using Social Media for Marketing’, viewed 23 March, 2014 http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing Read More