Social Media Advantages And Disadvantages?
Today’s lifestyle has turned out to be so busy and hectic that people hardly get time to relax and unwind. The traditional vacations and weekend getaways are now replaced by working eight to ten hours and then coming back for more work on Monday. What’s the solution to all this? Lifestyle changes! Lifestyle changes can be made in almost every aspect of your life but in this article, we’ll be looking at social media as one such change.
The advantages of social media are too numerous to mention but here are the key areas to review in each category. Firstly, it is very easy to carry out detailed research work with social media. If you ever need to find out information that requires to be answered, just a simple status post with your friends and/or family is usually enough to obtain what you require. This applies equally well to marketing efforts and sales pitches as it would be impossible to go on a trip to the moon without leaving behind some useful leads for your business!
Secondly, it is a cost-effective medium of communication. A great many websites offer free services or charge very minimal amounts for using their services as a medium of communication. In the case of media, this means web-based social media systems and sites such as Twitter. It also refers to services like video marketing and image posting. These services generally attract smaller audiences compared to print media, but they are cost-effective nonetheless.
Thirdly, you don’t have to wait for published media releases or faxes from other companies. Social media platforms can be instantly updated without any delays thanks to new software solutions, which automatically post information to your various accounts. Therefore, if you want to keep in touch with the latest information about your company or organisation, you can do so via RSS feeds, social media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Fourthly, you can reach a far wider audience via social networks. This is a particularly useful tool if you intend to do product or service promotions, such as product launches, and if you want to increase your market reach. However, reaching a much larger audience through social sites may result in a higher bounce rate on your website, which means that visitors who arrive at your site may not stay long enough to buy anything. Because you can still achieve a much wider target audience through other methods such as television advertisements, television and radio ads and print media, it is recommended that you use social media to enhance your overall marketing strategy.
Fifthly, most people these days prefer to use social media for business purposes than for personal purposes. Most people would rather use these tools to find out about businesses instead of leaving their personal profiles. Because this is the case, most social media networking sites such as Facebook are mainly used for communicating with friends. In fact, Facebook is mostly used as a “social networking” site, with the main purpose of keeping in touch with family members, close friends and colleagues. Therefore, when it comes to reaching a large audience through Facebook, most marketers use mostly “business” strategies rather than trying to attract a significant “ember” or niche audience.
Sixthly, most platforms allow you to create content that you can then share with your audience. On most platforms, this content is initially created by your followers or by the customers or followers of your products or services. Therefore, when you use these platforms for selling your products and services, you are effectively allowing you to reach out to a far greater audience than you would be able to achieve with traditional forms of advertising.
Seventhly, you can easily reach out to your audience without making any effort at all. In fact, you can create a profile, invite your followers to like your page and your posts, and then just enjoy the benefits of being able to reach out to your audience. On social media sites like Facebook, this process is referred to as “farming” of your account, which means that it is relatively easy to do and relatively easy to manage. This way, you can get leads on your business relatively quickly. However, this process is also potentially damaging to your reputation if you do not deal with your fans or followers in an appropriate way. Therefore, you need to understand both sides of the social media social networking equation before you decide whether or not it is worth it to advertise on this medium.
