Running Head: 75551881 PROS AND CONS OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN A BUSINESS ORGANISATION
Pros and cons of using social media in a business organization.
According to the Merriam – Webster dictionary, advertising refers to the action of making something known publicly. Since time in memorial, advertising has been the norm in getting customers to recognize any business entity and drive up sales. Advertising has gone through quite a long channel from using print media to television and radio and eventually the internet. From the internet we find the most current form of advertising referred to as the social media that are now being used by businesses whether big or small to promote sales.
Social media, according to ISACA (2010), involves the creation and dissemination of content through social networks using the internet. Social networks include twitter, face book and YouTube among others. Content supplied to social media sites is managed by individual users. In this case, these avenues are referred to as social media sites because users are allowed to participate in conversations and discussions in these sites.
Since most people nowadays use these social sites, businesses have come up with ways to link up their websites with social sites from where one can easily access their main pages albeit with the advantages and disadvantages that come with social networking and advertising as will be discussed herein.
Advertising through social media is cheaper as compared to the traditional methods of advertising. Information on the internet runs like wildfire therefore with a captivating advertisement, it is bound to get a lot of attention from internet users who then spread it through to friends. This will spare the company all overhead costs that come with advertising in traditional media for months on end.
Brand visibility is one factor that is important in any company. In social advertising, people get captivated by good advertisements. They will relate to relevant, compelling advertisements and good products and/or services. With this to the fore, it is easier to get your brand noticed more than any other thus translating into more business for the company. Social media is therefore advantageous in creating brand visibility with more and more getting to the use internet on a daily basis.
Social media sites are important due to their interactive nature. In sales and customer satisfaction, a business could easily interact with its customers hence improving the customer experience and promoting sales. This is because one can reply to customer problems and queries almost instantly as well as responding to feedback faster.
Social media sites are usually found in a variety of channels. When a business gets to advertise in as many of these channels as possible, potential customers could easily find this business in whatever social media site they open. Coupled with compelling advertisements, they are bound to take a look at what the company is offering thus increasing the potential for sales.
Social media however, can be quite disadvantageous to a business. Since information spreads so fast in the social media channels, imagine how much damage a piece of bad information about your business spread through the internet could have on your business; large. When clients disapprove of the kind of business that a company is engaging in, they are bound to spread this information through the social media, the company ends up losing clientele.
If a company was to try assessing the return on investment of one social media channel over the other, it would find it difficult and probably costly. In the end, the business will be required to continue footing the advertising costs without exactly being aware of what site is more profitable and which is not. Eventually, a business will have to commit monies to ensure that their presence in the social media does not wear off.
Although it is easy to use the social media to advertise and get sales going through the roof, it is important to note that without having a dedicated team to cater for client feedback, both negative and positive criticism and customer satisfaction, it will be quite hard to have sales soaring. This is because, without getting a customer satisfied with the quality of service, he is bound to spread a bad word about the business or worse still move to a better company offering similar services.
Many business entities are blindly getting into the use of social media to do their advertising since it can be considered the in – thing in business advertising. It is however, advisable to have a detailed business plan on how to incorporate the social media into the advertising and sales methods of the business entity (ISACA, 2010). The company should also be careful not to misuse the social sites for instance by employees posting personal messages and confidential information into these pages which might destroy the credibility of the business (Brian, 2010).
It is estimated that 85% up from the current 41% of businesses are planning to use the social media in the next 12 months (Bridge consulting, 2009). This new avenue is expected to be more profitable than what was being used previously. Although this is positive, misinformation and misuse of such an avenue would be devastating.
References
Brian A. Hersh (2010). ProSidian Consulting, Social Media Exploitation, Analysis, and Engagement White Paper. Retrieved on 25th April 2011 from http://www.slideshare.net/smilman/fdic-social-media-managing-your-business-risk-related-to-social-media
ISACA. (2010). Social media: Business benefits and security, governance and assurance perspectives. Retrieved on 25th April 2011 from http://www.isaca.org/…/Social-Media-Wh-Paper-26-May10-Research.pdf
Bridge Consulting (2009). How companies are using social media tools to build connections. Retrieved on 25th April 2011 from
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1081912399&type=RESOURCES
