Advantage and Disadvantage of Social Media - Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Advantage and Disadvantage of Social Media. Answer: Social Media Marketing has become increasingly beneficial for all the businesses if the present scenario is considered (Tuten and Solomon 2017). However, there are certain limitations of social media marketing as well. The business owners spend only six to seven hours every week for increasing the traffic, the business recognition, and the sales with hardly any cost. Around ninety percent of the marketers have been claiming that the social media tends to generate exposure for the company, which is a great advantage for the business. The social network is considered an important part of all the marketing strategies, and the advantages of social media are being implemented by most of the companies (DeMers 2014). Hospitality and tourism are also making use of social media marketing as well (Minnazi 2015). The purpose of this argumentative essay is to highlight the advantages that are resultant due to the use of social media for promoting the business. However, due to the argumentative n ature of the essay, there will be counter arguments that will show how social media can lead to a negative influence on the overall business. Social media is considered a very cost-efficient method of digital marketing, which helps in syndicating the content and increasing the visibility of the business. The brand recognition of the company increases when proper strategies are created (Whiting and Deshpande 2014). This happens because the company starts to engage more customers. To start this, social media profiles have to be created for the business. The company has to interact with both the present and target customers. The company should get the employees, the business partners and the sponsors to like, comment and share the page on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. When people interact with the content that a company has, the brand awareness starts increasing automatically (Monica and Balas 2014). The constant interaction helps in developing an overall better brand image. The posts that are shared are introduced to new individuals, which will make them the potential customer s. Moreover, the more people get to know about a business and its products and services, the better it is for the business. The added benefit is that the company owners do not have to spend a long time on social media. A proper utilization of the social media allows more users to connect with the business and the company gets more hits on their webpage. This leads to better exposure for the business and hence garnering positive financial growth. With the regular use of the social media, businesses can create a big audience base. A study was conducted on the young Egyptians to find out the attitude that they had towards fast-food advertising in the widely used social media platform, Facebook. The study provides an insight for the marketers to make the advertisements effective on these platforms (Gaber and Wright 2014). Search Engine Optimization or SEO is extremely important for the businesses. It is true that when a company posts on the various social media platforms, it helps to gain traffic, but more effort is required for significant success. Search Engine Optimization is necessary for achieving a high page rank in the search engines like Google or Yahoo (Clarke 2015). It also helps to obtain the traffic to the business website. The page ranks do not increase directly with the help of the social media, but studies have suggested that the marketers who use social media have gained high ranks in the search engines. The business that gains a top rank for the keywords that it used, will get more traffic and will be able to generate effective results for the business. All the people use Google for finding any important information and they never skip visiting the first search result. This is because the answer is normally on the first search webpage and the use of social media enhances the SEO of th e business. In case if the website of a business does not have a high rank, the Search Engine Optimization should be adjusted. In order to gain a high rank with the help of the social media, the business should pay attention to their contents that should be of a high quality. This also helps in increasing the target keywords. The contents that include infographics, blogs, case studies, employee photos and business information help in making the profile credible and interesting. It also allows the business to come across the industry influencers, who will write in a positive light about the business. These influencers also help in increasing the ranks on the search engines directly. However, it should be noted that almost everyone has a social media account on the leading social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. They have the freedom to post anything that they want on the pages of the companies. The customers who are satisfied with a particular product or service will leave positive reviews. On the other hand, the unhappy customers can leave angry and negative feedbacks regarding the business. Negative feedbacks are not good for the company as it not only ruin the reputation but also drives away the target customers (Fuchs 2017). The company should handle this situation by communicating directly with the unhappy customer and enquiring the issue. Even if a customer has left a negative comment, a proper response from the company can help in uplifting the image of the company. At the same time, it should be noted that, maintaining a social media page is not an easy task. It is extremely time-consuming and requires a lot of effort to keep the presence in the social media interactive. A company that has a comparatively smaller team will not be able to devote the required resources to the social media. Though this is considered a drawback, companies that invest their time in social media can create a lasting and healthy relationship with their clients and customers. This will also help in increasing the customer base, and the company will gain knowledge about the demands that the customers have and design services and products accordingly. When the companies interact with their clients and customers on a daily basis, they start to become more loyal. The loyal customers tend to spend more amount of money on the company that they prefer and inform their closed ones. Social media is a powerful tool to enhance the image of a business in public as well as increase the sustainability of the business in the market. The huge scale at which the web 2.0 platform works allows businesses to connect with their customers and maintain a relationship that will lead to building of trust among them. Reference list Clarke, A., 2015. Search engine optimization 2016: Learn SEO with smart internet marketing strategies.CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. DeMers, J., 2014. The top 10 benefits of social media marketing.Forbes,[online]: https://www. forbes. com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing. Fuchs, C., 2017.Social media: A critical introduction. Sage. Gaber, H.R. and Wright, L.T., 2014. Fast-food advertising in social media. A case study on Facebook in Egypt.Journal of Business and Retail Management Research,9(1). Minazzi, R., 2015.Social media marketing in tourism and hospitality. Heidelberg: Springer. Monica, B. and Bala?, R., 2014. Social media marketing to increase brand awareness.Journal of Economics and Business Research,20(2), pp.155-164. Tuten, T.L. and Solomon, M.R., 2017.Social media marketing. Sage. Whiting, A. and Deshpande, A., 2014. Social media marketing: A myth or a necessity.The Journal of Applied Business and Economics,16(5), p.74.