Disadvantages of Social Media Use in Marketing - Research Paper Example

s Dec. 2, Contents Works Cited 7 Social Media Marketing Introduction Social media platforms have experienced an increase in the number of users subscribing to them. This has been facilitated by the accessibility of the internet and communication devices (Phillips 50-54). Due to the increase in the number of subscribers, marketers view social media platforms as a perfect place to reach a large audience from different geographical location and with different cultural inclinations. On the other hand, there are disadvantages of social media platform, which are inclined to marketing of various goods and services. As such, careful evaluation of all factors linked to marketing is essential in ensuring that a significant market share is won from competitors. This paper seeks to give an in-depth evaluation of social media marketing. Advantages of Social Media Different social media networks have subscriptions in terms of millions, which are cheaper than other media platform. This is very beneficial to the marketing company as the resources saved can be used in investing in other fields, which would ensure the continuous expansion of the company. Therefore, social media platforms are able to make it easier for companies to make a variety of cost effective strategies and campaigns In marketing, the number of audience who access the information being presented by the advertising company matters a lot in the success of the entire marketing process. Since the cost of accessing other media such as newspapers is high, social media fit very well to numerous individuals. The services are easily accessible to many, especially the youths and middle-aged persons, who form a significant percentage of the targeted group for many products. Through blogs and articles, social media platforms have been proved to be very effective in driving traffic to the website, which in most cases results in stronger brand names and increased sales, which are essential for a brand to have a competitive edge in the market (Meyerson and Entrepreneur press 3-63). When marketing global products, other means of marketing such as billboards, newspapers and radio are not effective due to geographical boundaries limitations. On the other hand, social media has no geographical limitation, and thus can be used by various persons in numerous regions across the globe. As such, in marketing global products, social media is very effective as it allows people from different geographic location to meet at the same time and at the same time and air their view freely. This enables the company to have an understanding of the global perception of their product, and thus make necessary amendment, if any, to ensure that the product is globally accepted. This ensures that companies exercising such strategies attain a competitive advantage over their competitors and strengthen their brand. Brand loyalty and long-term relation between the company and its customers are very essential in ensuring continuous expansion and success of the organization. Through social media, an institution is able to attract a large number of potential clients and strengthen its clients brand loyalty (Tuten 19-38) In the recent past, marketing through social media has gone through numerous developments as the technology has been evolving. Many organizations, which have implemented social media marketing in their marketing strategies, have observed that the method is full of fun and is very creative. This is essential for any institution in ensuring that they make use of any technological advancement prior to their competitors; thus, reaping the benefits, which usually propel them to greater heights. Disadvantages of social media use in marketing Due to the large number of audience accessing the social media content, making a single mistake in marketing could have adverse effects on the organization. This is usually not the case when a mistake is done offline, where the number of people who realize the mistake is very low. As such, careful evaluation of all information presented, online is essential in avoiding the occurrence of such incidences. The viral social disadvantages of social media mistake in presenting the brand information has the capacity of bringing down the leading brand in any field. Time is a very essential asset in all aspects of business. As such, social media marketing could consume more time than the company may assume. This is because social media marketing requires frequent review of the clients’ responses and updates on the company and the product, which requires allocation of the task to specific individuals. To effectively, reap the merits associated with social media marketing, a clear understanding of the working principles of social media and the effective means of using it are necessary. As such, research on the field and the training of various individuals in the institution is necessary. This is a disadvantage to numerous institutions, which do not have the capacity to meet those requirements and usually end up losing in their marketing strategy; it is not rewarding as the company may expect. Overall human resource productivity is essential in ensuring the various aims and objectives are realized. Therefore, the company should ensure that the human resource is effectively utilized without violating the rights of the employees. The use of social media marketing may hinder the realization of the full capacity of the human resource as the employees may use a significant part of their time in social media networks. Additionally, they can use the social media platform to negatively influence the company’s reputation, and consequently the future expansion of the organization. This is not the case in other marketing platform such as newspapers, billboards and radios broadcasting since the employees do not have the capacity to interfere with the content or make comments (Gosnay and Richardson 30; Breslin, Passant and Decker 255). Despite the numerous merits associated with the use of social media, serious detriments on the mental and physical health of the users are possible, and thus, extensive use of social media can have an adverse effect on the overall success of the organization. Some of the physiological disorders associated with the excessive use of social media include Schizophrenia, Insomnia and Sleep disorders, sexual problems and deviation, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), addiction, anxiety and depression as well as eating disorders. These disorders significantly affect the human resource productivity, and thus, social media marketing which requires extensive use of social media should be evaluated effectively. Landscape of Today’s social Media. Current social media landscape has completely transformed the marketing of goods and services; brand image is not entirely in the hands of the marketing staffs as has been in the past, but is in the hands of consumers. This is mainly because the marketing staffs cannot dictate to the social media users on what to share on the platforms. Lack of understanding on the outlined social media marketing knowledge has led to frustrations among various companies and hence the need to train staffs on how to support and offer guidance to the clients. Towards the end of the twentieth century, social media platform were not recognized, but have been globally recognized due to the availability of the internet and communication devices such as computers and cell phones. The development has gone through different phases namely: publishing, sharing and curating waves. Different social media have characterized each of these waves; for example, the publishing phase was characterized by blogs, the sharing wave being characterized by Facebook and twitter, while the curative wave, which is the current wave, is characterized by Pinterest and alike among others. The globally accepted social media landscape as at now include playing (playdom and kobojo among others), networking (badoo and LinkedIn among others), buying (Hunch and Boosket among others), Localization (Yelp and Plancast among others) and publishing (tumblr and Quora among others). Why Social Media works The working of the social media marketing is based on the number of clients attracted to buy the products being marketed. Since the platform makes it easier for a large number of audiences to make their comment on the product as well as get information on specific brands, it is possible to attract more clients through online promotions, as well as retain current clients. Therefore, if utilized effectively, social media lead to increased sales as well as stronger brands across different geographical locations The future of social media The access of social media marketing content is expected to be mainly through small communication devices such as phones, due to the availability of these devices to the majority of the world’s population. As such, the capacity of these devices to handle large data at high connection speeds is limited, and thus, the need to make amendments to the contents and experiences to suit the large population. Additionally, as the number of people using social media platform increases, majority of them will tend to rely on them to get personally relevant answers. Moreover, since a brand endorsed by a third party is seen to be more superior than that endorsed by the marketer, more complex methods of quantizing meaningful influence are expected to be implemented by a majority of organizations in a bid to enhance third party contribution to popularizing brands. Conclusion The number of persons using social media has been on the increase making it a sound platform to carry out marketing. The social media marketing has been observed to have both merits and demerits, which has made it necessary to carry out critical evaluation to avoid making mistakes, which would ruin the brand or the organization at large. As technology has been improving and the expectations of the clients differ, social media landscape has been transforming with the curative wave being the latest development. With the continuous technological advancements, major revolutions in social media marketing are expected in the future. Works Cited Breslin John, Passant Alexandre and Decker Stefan. Social Semantic Web. Springer, 2009, Print. Gosnay Ruth and Richardson Neil. A Quick Start Guide to Social Media Marketing: High Impact Low-Cost Marketing that Works. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2010, Print. Meyer Mitch and Entrepreneur press. Success Secrets of Social Media Marketing Superstars. California: Entrepreneur Press, 2010, Print. Phillips David. Online Public Relations: A Practical Guide to Developing an Online Strategy in the World of Social Media. London: Kogan Page Publishers, 2009, Print. Tuten Tracy. Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World. Westport, Connecticut :Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008, Print. Read More