Social Media Marketing: Benefits & Challenges

This assignment delves into the multifaceted world of social media marketing. It explores the numerous advantages businesses can reap by leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The report examines how companies can use social media to increase customer engagement, drive sales, and build brand awareness. It also sheds light on the potential challenges associated with social media marketing, including privacy concerns, security risks, and managing online reputation. Moreover, the assignment emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations and best practices for businesses operating in the digital landscape.

Management of Information System
Social Media
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Management of Information System
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Issues of Management, Organization and Technology for using Social Media to engage with
Customers.....................................................................................................................................3
Advantages and Disadvantages of using Social Media for customer service, market research
and for other purposes.................................................................................................................4
Examples of Management Decisions by using Social Media to Engage with Customers...........6
Should all companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising? Why or
Why not?......................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
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Introduction
Social media has become so popular worldwide due to advanced features and functionalities to
fulfill needs of communication and sharing of content. There are several business organizations
that are using social media application to communicate with customers and clients and to share
information. Moreover, social media is also a way to promote business products and services
though online business websites among potential customers. In given information, it is clearly
defined that how big organizations such Levis, Wrigleyville Sports and companies are getting
benefits from social media. The purpose of making this report is to emphasize on evaluation of
management and technological issues of using social media while engaging with customers,
advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising purpose and customer service
and other important concepts about usage of social media.
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Discussion
There is no doubt to say that social media has become an effective way to engage with business
customers by business organizations. But issues regarding management, organization and
technology are also encountered while using social media and those issues I will discuss here in
this report.
Issues of Management, Organization and Technology for using Social
Media to engage with Customers
If I talk about issues of management in social media to engage with customers then I can say that
nowadays, quantity of users is increasing on social media and every user has further connection
with his or her friends, relatives and colleagues. Due to wide range of connections among people
on social media, it is necessary for developers to monitor each network, respond to each
comment and also have to post every product information. These are time consuming activities
and management of whole information of all social media users become complex. Therefore, this
complexity leads to improper management of database and enhances lack of security (Zendesk,
2017).
Today most of the business organizations are doing online businesses and to promote their
products and services they use social media (Digitalist Magazine, 2017). Here features of
Facebook helps business organizations to achieve greater visibility for their products among
people. Furthermore, online ads are also used by enterprises to enhance popularity of their
Facebook pages rather than products (Jellymetrics.com, 2017). On other side, business
organizations also need to choose the suitable channels to engage with multiple customers
through social media. In this whole process of organization, issue of security of data is found. It
is possible that confidential information of business organizations may leak to competitors.
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Further, in case of technology, it is not sure that it will work always. Business enterprises uses
Facebook, Twitter and other communication and linking websites. Various offerings are
provided by these websites to companies for advertising business products and services. But it is
all possible if company is connected to social media. Otherwise, whole operational efficiency of
company is affected. It is possible that companies may find some problems in integration of new
technologies because latest techniques are bit complex and new as compare to traditional
techniques. In this way, I can say that implementation of technology requires appropriate
knowledge for its implementation.
Advantages and Disadvantages of using Social Media for customer
service, market research and for other purposes
In market research, customer service, advertisement and brand building, social media contributes
to large extent for business enterprises. There are several advantages of this feature of social
media but it also contains some disadvantages. Following are advantages and disadvantages of
using social media for these purposes (riya, 2017).
Advantages
1. The first advantage of using social media for customer service, advertisement and brand
building is that social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook develop new
opportunities for enterprises to advertise or promote business products and services.
2. Brand building is most prominent advantage of social media. For Example, Facebook
page of Levis Company has 500,000 “Like” and several messages of friends are posted
about company’s product (profile, 2017).
3. In case of market research, social media is considered so much appropriate. There are
several companies like Wrigleyville those have Facebook following for last three years.
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Wrigleyville uses email campaigns and postings of Twitter for announcing promotions.
Moreover, tracking is also done for purchases that are concerned with promotions.
4. In conventional ways of communication, only one way communication is done with
customers by business organizations but now with the development of social media
communication and sharing of content have become so easier and can be done in two
ways. Basically, social media market is about two-way interaction and communication
and enables customers to send and receive messages instantly.
Besides these above discussed advantages there are some disadvantages of social media
regarding customer service, brand building and advertisement etc.
Disadvantages
1. The main disadvantage is related to negative feedback. On social media, both positive
and negative comments are published by people regarding products and services of a
business organization. Negative feedback about company may damage its reputation and
expose business with negative publicity.
2. Next concerning factor or disadvantage of social media is regarding privacy and security
issues. There are several business organizations those social media accounts have hacked
such as Burger King. Through hacking, hacker replaced the logo of this company with
McDonald’s logo. After that another famous company Jeep was hacked by hackers.
There are enormous issues of hacking and phishing attacks have found on social media.
3. The outcome of social media presence is considered to be unpredictable. A company that
is connected with social media that does not have any control on Facebook
advertisements because these are based on computer algorithms.
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Due to these disadvantages, it is necessary to be careful while using social media by business
organizations. Advanced security tools and techniques must be used by developers to protect
their social media from hacking, phishing and other virus attacks.
Examples of Management Decisions by using Social Media to Engage
with Customers
Due to extensive features of social media, it is used by business organizations to connect with its
customers. Management decisions is one of those features of social media and there are several
organizations those got benefits from this feature of social media. The main examples of
management decisions are discussed as below (Laudon, 2017):
Wrigley Ville Company
With the help of social media this company knows that which customer is responding to its
programs of promotions, wants to know its cost and reason that why they need to purchase it.
With the help of this conversion rates, value of purchased keywords and overall return on
advertising campaigns can be measured. Moreover, Wrigley Ville Company also knows exactly
where and how dollars for advertising purpose can be spent in effective manner (the Guardian,
2017).
Best Buy Company
Besides this, Best Buy Company assesses its central analytical platform by using social media
for further evaluation of unstructured data and to make decisions that which business products
are required to promote and how effectively their advertisement campaigns should be
implemented. These decisions of promotion of business products and services are critical enough
to take by management of business organization. But social media is helpful enough to achieve
this goal (Social Media Today, 2017).
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JCD Repair
This company is located in Chicago and it is six year old iPhone, Android and iPad repair based
company. JCD Repair motivates customers to post their reviews regarding its services on
Facebook, Google Plus Local and Yelp, so that they can do improvement accordingly and it will
also help them to generate more and more business. This feedback feature of social media helps
business organizations to know real response of their customers towards their business and with
this they can quickly rectify this mistake.
From above examples the effectiveness of social media in management decision making is
cleared and due to these reasons social media is highly recommended by business organizations
to use for promoting business and to provide quality services to its customers.
Should all companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service
and advertising? Why or Why not?
Facebook and Twitter are most commonly used social networking websites worldwide. It is not
particularly beneficial for business organizations but also for other users for their personal usage.
In business organizations, customer services and advertisement of products and services are main
actions to perform. Customer services are related to provide help to them on time when they
require and it is necessary to maintain a strong customer relationship. On other side,
advertisement is concerned with promotion of business entities among its potential customers. In
both cases, social media is very much helpful to use. But there is one question raises that all
companies should use social networking websites to fulfill their goals and what is type of
companies those use social media platform? (Hofacker and Belanche, 2017)
In answer of this question, I suggest that in modern era social media is the best way to enhance
business and to attract maximum customers towards business. So all business organizations such
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as small or large should work on this platform. It is commonly seen that now customers want to
like products online and also they recognize image of a company with its online status and
performance. If an organization is not connected with social networking or online business then
that is not noticed by customers quickly. Facebook, Twitter and other social sites give new
identity to their business. That is why it will be better to use social media by companies.
Moreover, with the help of this platform companies can provide best and 24x7 hours service to
its customers via emails, messages and online calling etc. It is an appropriate way to increase
business revenue and gain more profit. From a survey, it is found that all companies those are
working on social media platform those have high sales and success rates as compare to other
companies those are not connected with social media.
Besides customer service, in promotion of products and services of a company social media is
required. A company with an account on social networking site can put its ads on that site, post
different blogs regarding its services and facilities and can send invitations to customers and
other people who are connected with them. It is a significant way to attract customers towards
business. Furthermore, it is also possible that a portfolio of products of company can be
displayed online and people can check detail about different items from that portfolio and can
make their purchasing online. Ecommerce websites can be connected with social media easily to
achieve purpose of promotion. There are several companies those are providing online services
to its customers. The payment for buying things can also be done online by customers without
any worry. These all characteristics of social media can raise level of your business worldwide.
According to analysis, Starbucks and Levis are examples of those companies who increase their
number of customers with the help of social media. A drastic increase is seen in sales of Levis
Company for last few years. The reason is that this organization is fulfilling all the requirements
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of modern customers. Therefore, I can say that there is no specific type of companies those
should deal with social media platform. It will be beneficial for every company to use social
media.
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Conclusion
To sum up, I can say that to get benefits from social media it is necessary to connected with this
platform and fundamental knowledge about its features and actions is also necessary to collect by
its users. But as I have discussed in report that there are also some issues of this platform that
cannot be ignored. So at developers’ and users’ end these issues of security and privacy should
be taken into consideration seriously and appropriate solutions should be used to get positive
results and maintain good reputation in competitive market. There are some advanced security
tools are available that can be used by social networking users and these tools must be upgraded
on time.
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References
riya, p., riya, p. and profile, V. (2017). Chapter 9: Social Commerce Creates New Customer
Relationships. [online] Sustainabilitycasestudy.blogspot.in. Available at:
http://sustainabilitycasestudy.blogspot.in/2013/11/life-on-grid-iphone-becomes-itrack.html
[Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
Laudon, K. and Laudon, J. (2017). Management information systems. Harlow, England: Pearson.
profile, V. (2017). MIS Case Study Chapter 10. [online] Miscasestudychapter10.blogspot.in.
Available at: http://miscasestudychapter10.blogspot.in/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
The Guardian. (2017). How to use social media to understand and engage your customers.
[online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/
mar/13/social-media-customer-engagement [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
Hofacker, C. and Belanche, D. (2017). Eight social media challenges for marketing managers.
Zendesk. (2017). Providing great customer service through social media - Zendesk. [online]
Available at: https://www.zendesk.com/resources/customer-service-through-social-media/
[Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
Digitalist Magazine. (2017). 5 Ways To Engage Your Customers On Social Media. [online]
Available at: http://www.digitalistmag.com/customer-experience/2016/08/01/5-ways-to-engage-
customers-on-social-media-04355025 [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
Social Media Today. (2017). The Benefits of Using Social Media for Customer Service. [online]
Available at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/benefits-using-social-media-
customer-service [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
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Jellymetrics.com. (2017). Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing. [online]
Available at: https://jellymetrics.com/social-media-marketing/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].
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