5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing | Limitations & Benefits of Social Media Marketing

Social media has become the primary platform people rely on to get in touch with the others. More people are interested in interacting with others online rather than actual physical communications. With the rise of social media, it has influenced many businesses to implement strategies that would actually help them to overcome their competitors. One such is the social media marketing. 

Social media marketing is when businesses use marketing strategies through social media platforms to meet their business goals. In todays world, it is extremely difficult to reach targeted customers without the use of social media. In order for social media marketing to be proved successful, it must be well planned with constant commitment. 

Even though there are several reasons to use social media marketing, it aren't flawless. Similar to other digital marketing strategies, social media marketing too includes its own drawbacks. If you are thinking of implementing social media marketing strategies to your business, you must consider all the pros and cons. 

In this article, I will be describing about 5 Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing | Limitations & Benefits of Social Media Marketing. From this post, you will know the pros and cons of social media marketing. 

Let's get started,

Advantages of Social Media Marketing

1. Cost Effective

Most social media makes it free for signing up into their platform. So there is no investment in starting social media marketing. In terms of maintenance too the costs are relatively lower. All these cost benefits makes it a superior choice on higher Return on Investment (ROI). However, there are certain paid advertising options that requires payment for expanding their business reach. Even so, are are free to spend in accordance to your budget.

2. Performance Analysis

Evaluating performance is a must to know whether the business is achieving the expected results. For this purpose, there are specialized tools available like Facebook Analytics. Through Facebook analytics, it is possible to view analytical reports which provides an overview of how your campaign is performing. Otherwise, it is tough to determine the success rate.

3. Brand Awareness

Increasing brand awareness is one important functionality of social media marketing. Particularly if your brand is new, social media marketing can help you spread the awareness among audiences. However, in order for increasing the brand awareness the quality of content matters. More the quality, more the chances of brand recognition.

 

Customers who are satisfied with your service will definitely share about it with others. This free exposure is what makes social media marketing effective compared to traditional marketing approaches. 

4. Customer Reach

One of the significant benefits of social media marketing is its ability to reach large number of customers. This is because, most of the business customers use social media platforms. Hence, it is great way to reach the potential ones who are interested in your offerings. These factors helps in enhancing the conversion rates of your business.

5. Customer Satisfaction

Social media marketing also makes people more connected to your business. When marketing through social media, people experience a good customer service. For an example, a positive attention is created by answering all customer queries rapidly. Such a fast response has proved to improve customer satisfaction. 

Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing

1. Time Consumption

Managing social media marketing is a daunting task, especially if your team is not sufficiently large. It requires additional resources. Content posting, monitoring and performance implication is all that takes time. In the end, your business campaign will not perform as the level expected. 

2. Privacy Concerns

Social media accounts lacks privacy due to its nature of public. Contents posted on social media is made available to the general public. So intruders can easily access these contents and use it for their own illegal purposes. Even in such a devastating situation, the original user is not notified.

3. Technical Expertise

Social media marketing is a challenging process that requires skillful staff set. Without the right people, you won't be able to do the work. Recruitment and monthly wages can all add up to additional cost burdens. With the already soaring business budgets, these can be significant expenses to the company.

 

4. Slow Results

Consistency is the key for the success of campaigns. When marketing through social media, business cannot expect fast results. This process is long term Therefore, it takes time. Until that businesses have to wait and keep building strategies. 

5. Negative Feedback

Business that use social media marketing is subjected to negative feedbacks. No matter how good your service is, there will always be a set of disappointed customers. Once they share share their poor experience with others, it will severely impact your business efforts. Consequently, harming your business reputations.