Content marketing won’t go anywhere. But then again, creating long form content can seem to be a tiring and loathsome task. Moreover, social media posts are perceived to be easier to make, write and publish in comparison to blog posts.
Yet, social media has its own unique advantages and disadvantages when it comes to using this method over others. Tasks like writing for either a blog or a website are perceived to be time consuming. Let us now explore a bit about social media and then about its advantages, disadvantages and proven benefits.
A bit about social media
No doubt social media has been able to revolutionize communication. People communicate on these platforms a lot these days. It has been able to help streamline communication channels, helping brands promote themselves with ease.
Before it streamlined communication, it first became a
These platforms give users the chance to make connections by sharing unique content, commenting on posts and also voting for their desired options on numerous polls. This allows people to engage in various debates and discussions, and share their opinions. Among the most popular ones are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
Social media use cases for businesses
Social media is no doubt a really good way of connecting with customers and creating relationships. Yet it also has its own disadvantages of which everyone (even business entities) need to be aware of. Social media is public. It means everyone can read an entity’s posts regardless of the product interest.
In case the posts are false, have misinformation or have incendiary nature, then that can cause a serious problem. Apart from reputation, there can be instances where the business may face legal and punitive actions.
Social media consumes a lot of time. It takes time to keep up with the demands of posting regular updates. Moreover, being able to maintain a positive relationship with all audience members can be tough. This can reduce engagement on posts and a fall in traffic to the website.
Social media platforms require skills in marketing. In case the posts are either bothersome, troublesome or offensive, customers may be lost as they will go for more civil options.
When businesses fail to understand these warning signs then they will face harmful consequences in the long run.
In case such warning signs are not understood, then the business will face drastic and harmful consequences and problems in the long run.
The advantages of social media – what are they?
There are numerous advantages of social media and they have been helpful to a lot of people, businesses and companies alike. Let us now have a good look at them:
Social media is useful in terms of educational purposes
Social media is instrumental in helping companies reach a larger audience in building their brand. They can also build their brand in other ways too. It helps them share content and information relevant to their audience. This is helpful when businesses, brands and companies alike seek out followers on social media.
Furthermore it helps in promotion of businesses, brands, companies and their portfolios. This will help raise sales.
Building the brand
Social media is instrumental in building the brand through companies sharing interesting facts about themselves as well as their achievements. Sharing content on social media can help many gain followers who will become interested in what they are communicating.
Similarly, they can help build trust between viewers and content creators. This helps the target audience become familiar with the content creators due to the interactions between both on various social media platforms.
It helps companies reach a wider audience and targets them based on their tastes and interests
Social media gives users the chance to connect and share information with their friends, loved ones and followers. A lot of people use social media daily which gives businesses the chance to find prospective customers easily online. It can help in direct communication with customers and is a key tool to help businesses reach foreign customers too.
When businesses are looking to choose who should be receiving messages through social media, they should reach out with a far reaching approach and target those who are more than interested in their offerings. This is when they will respond.
In short, selling beer to non-alcoholic beverage likers will not work. Also, selling cars to those looking for bicycles will result in them ignoring the offerings.
Suppose there is a photographer looking to target businesses that are in need of professional photography services. The photographer can contact them, send them messages regarding the kind of photography available and what they can do for those businesses (like portraits for individuals and commercial photography for companies etc.).
Social media helps both people and businesses stay up to date
Companies can be in touch with the latest news in both the industry and the world through following important people on social media who are doing things they wish to do. Users and customers can spend time following brands and companies that interest them as they help them find out about new products/services offered and the like.
Disadvantages of social media
Social media is essential for everyone’s lives as it provides them a platform to interact with everyone, learn new things, obtain information and the like. However, there are some disadvantages of social media which everyone should understand and read about:
Excessive time spent on it is tantamount to time wasted
Unfortunately, social media’s usage can be addictive. In fact, it can consume time in case the person using it lacks other interests and hobbies. It would be wise to set times and limit usage in relation to those time slots.
It has a negative impact on communication skills
The problem with social media’s usage is that it makes individuals less empathetic and makes them more self-centered and narcissistic. A reason for that may be the fact that everyone loves sharing their success stories and bragging their achievements on social media without much consequences. Sharing stories of failure results in people making fun of them instead of helping them.
Social media platforms are bastions of fake news
Fictitious stories, bullying, fake news and misinformation are the new trends that are harming social media platforms. They become viral and spread like wildfire causing discomfort, strife and conflicts among people. Those who lack critical reasoning skills or are not able to read between the lines about online content are more susceptible to being fooled by such content.
Sometimes, content which is poor is overhyped using paid comments, fake profiles and fake reviews. Facebook has unfortunately become a bastion for such and is often unable to tackle these kinds of issues swiftly because of a broken mechanism it has been running on.
Conclusion
It may be hard to accept that social media has its downsides. Yet its upsides are usually considered whether for business or for personal purposes. Digital marketers often look for the best ways to reach customers without having to face the wrath of fake pages and fake profiles.
The Advantages Of Social Media and disadvantages of social media listed here may help both businesses and people understand its true nature. It can also help them look beyond the conventional boundaries of how bad it can be practically.
