Benefits and Drawbacks of Social Media Marketing

This assignment analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing for companies. It examines how social media platforms like Facebook can enhance brand awareness, reach wider audiences, and drive sales. The essay also discusses potential drawbacks such as privacy concerns, data collection challenges, and the need for constant monitoring. Real-world examples, including Starbucks' successful social media campaign, are used to illustrate key points.

Running head: ONLINE MARKETING 0
Benefits and Drawbacks of Social Media Marketing

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Introduction
In modern times, social media sites have changed the method of communication between peoples.
It is a necessary part of people’s everyday life, specifically for the younger age groups. Due to its
popularity, companies are using social media platforms to market their products and services. Social
media sites provide them an international platform to market and connect with their worldwide
audience. This essay will be focusing on critically analysing the advantages that a company has while
using social media marketing. Further, the essay will take an example from different companies to
understand how they have adopted social media strategy in their organisations and what benefits
did they get from this strategy.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing
The primary advantage of social media marketing is the exposure of company’s product to a large
number of audiences. The number of social media users in 2017 is 2.46 billion peoples worldwide.
According to Gaber and Wright (2014), this strategy allows organisations to reach a large number of
customers which benefits the company in many ways such as exposure to a larger audience, a
collection of feedback from customers, assessing market demand and increase in sales. According to
their research on fast food industry of Egypt, popular companies such as KFC, McDonald's, Domino’s
and Burger King use Facebook to advertise their products to a large number of audiences. The
research concluded that generally, customers have positive attitude rewards online advertising and
that prefer it better than other marketing sources. For example, a student said in the research that
he prefers when he sees a Facebook ad for the fast food chain in the side bar since it did not harm
him in any way and he has the option to click on the advertisement. There are several factors that
affect customer's attitude towards online advertising such as Brand image, Incentive, the significance
of the advertisement, and the value of the advertisement.
According to Bija and Balas (2014), using social media sites can enhance the brand awareness of an
organisation. In African poor and underdeveloped countries there are more than 100 million active
Facebook users. This proves that social media marketing is a necessity for modern organisations. The
research concluded that it is necessary for a company to interact with their audience in order to
enhance their brand image. Social media help customers to post their quarries and feedback, which
are necessary for companies in product development process. According to the research, social
media marketing does allow the organisation to reach a large audience than comparing to
establishing a billboard, but it does not happen just by starting a Facebook page or a blog. The
companies are required to set goals and prepare strategies in order to achieve their goals. The
organisations should not just focus on their business instead they should care about doing
something good for peoples.
Minazzi (2015) provided that, Social media marketing has positively impacted on the tourism
industry. Travellers constantly use the internet on different devices such as phones and laptops,
while traveling. They use the same devices for activities such as restaurant booking, hotel booking
and much more. The research provided that for travel agencies it is a golden opportunity to expand
their business improves the traveling experience for peoples and satisfies a large number of
customers. For example, many airline companies allow their users to book a flight through their
phone use phone as a boarding pass and complete another task as well by using their phones.
Minazzi (2015) also provided in his research that augmented virtual reality is a new improvement in
social media marketing process. The augmented reality allows users to see 3D models, which are the
replicas of original products. It allows users to interact with different products before buying them.
According to Whiting and Deshpande (2014), social media marketing is a significantly useful tool for
organisations to enhance their brand image and increase their sales as well. The research provided
that effective implementation of social media marketing strategy is necessary in order to acquire its
benefits. The research provides example of Starbucks since it has been significantly successful in
implementing a successful social media strategy in their business. They use Twitter to interact with
their customers to raise awareness regarding their new products, start new campaigns and provide
an open conversation to their customers. They started a popular campaign called My Starbucks Ides
which allows customers to share their idea relating to Starbucks. This allows customs to be a part of
the planning process of the company. The company also publishes a blog providing information
regarding how customer’s ideas were used in the business process. This example provides that if
used effectively, the social media marketing is a valuable tool for companies.
With several advantages, there are numerous disadvantages of social media marketing as well. The
research of Bija and Balas (2014) provided that, there is few negative point in social media marketing
like lack of information online, legal issues, privacy issues and excessive advertising issues. Many

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online advertisements usually annoy customers since they pop up in between their work. The
customers are also concerns regarding losing their privacy online by clicking on spam
advertisements. The social media also require constant monitoring from the company which can be
hard for small and medium organisations. The research of Whiting and Deshpande (2014) provided
that social media meriting is a time consuming and expensive for various companies. Organisations
are required to formulate effective strategies to get benefits from social media marketing. Gaber and
Wright (2014) provided that it is tough for organisations to collective quality data from social media
sites for their customer’s research.

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Conclusion
The above report concluded that social media marketing is a modern method of marketing which
proved different benefits, such as fewer costs, exposure to a large audience and brand loyalty, to the
companies. The companies can avoid its various drawbacks, such as vulnerability of privacy, non-
availability of quality data and constant monitoring, by adopting an effective strategy. The
organisation can use firewall or antiviruses for privacy issues and they require hiring a social media
supervisor, who should be in charge of different social media operations. By establishing proper and
secure channels, the company can also collect quality data for research online; therefore, social
media marking is a valuable tool for the organisation.

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References
Bija, M. and Balas, R., 2014. Social Media Marketing to Increase Brand Awareness. Journal of
Economics and Business Research, pp. 155-164.
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 (JBRMR), vol. 9 Issue 1.
Minazzi, R., 2015. Social media marketing in tourism and hospitality. Springer iInternational
Publishing. pp. 127-135.
Whiting, A. and Deshpande, A., 2014. Social Media Marketing: A Myth or a Necessity. Journal of
Applied Business and Economic,. vol. 16(5), pp. 74-82.