What are the benefits and obstacles to businesses using Social Media?

If social media is used correctly, it can create just as many advantages and benefits of a face to face interaction while allowing youth to reach a much larger audience of positional customers. Benefits of social media include essentially free or vastly reduced marketing costs and an increase on sales and services. Social media can bring more viewers to your company website which will in turn generate more traffic and create higher search engine rankings, This can be important for when users search your company or a relatable topic, your company shows up higher on the page versus competitors. Social media also allows for more communication with the customer and a chance to engage with them to hear feedback and to also handle any complaints or problems with products or services.  Some obstacles of using social media to handle some customer complaints would be if your company does not have a marketing or sales team to respond to these comments/complaints and feedback interactions in a timely manner or correctly because that could cause more grief for the customer and your brand being tarnished. Bullying can also happen on a company’s social media account so it’s key to have these platforms monitored daily to prevent this from occurring. Part of having an effective social media strategy should include how to handle positive and negative feedback as well as positive and negative customer interactions. There and many benefits as well as obstacles to using social media but as stated above, if used correctly it can add value to your company and marketing strategy.

References

Cohen, H. (2011, March 9). Social Media Definitions . Retrieved from Actionable Marketing Guide: https://kapextmediassl-a.akamaihd.net/business/MT358/1801B/U2A.pdf

Digital 2017 Global Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from We are Social: https://wearesocial.com/special-reports/digital-in-2017-global-overview

Hendricks, D. (2013, March 8). Complete History of Social Media: Then And Now. Retrieved from Small Business Trends: https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-infographic.html

Jorner, J. (2018, February 23). 4 Industries That Will Dominate Social Media in 2018. Retrieved from Ad Week: http://www.adweek.com/digital/4-industries-that-will-dominate-social-media-in-2018/

Nations, D. (2018, March 19). What is Social Media? Retrieved May 7, 2018, from Lifewire: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-media-explaining-the-big-trend-3486616

Percentage of U.S. population who currently use any social media from 2008 to 2017. (2018). Retrieved May 7, 2018, from Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/273476/percentage-of-us-population-with-a-social-network-profile/

Pros and cons of using social media for business. (2015, October 27). Retrieved from Business.gov.au: https://www.business.gov.au/info/run/advertising-and-online/pros-and-cons-of-social-media

Social Media. (2018, May 5). Retrieved May 7, 2018, from Merriam Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media