University Essay: Social Media Marketing, Advantages and Disadvantages

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of social media marketing (SMM), examining its advantages and disadvantages in the context of modern business. It discusses how SMM enhances brand visibility, customer engagement, and lead generation, while also addressing potential drawbacks such as the impact on luxury brands and the importance of maintaining psychological distance. The essay references various studies and examples to illustrate the points, including campaigns by Harley Davidson and Burberry. It concludes that the benefits of SMM generally outweigh the disadvantages, and that the ability to curate engaging social content and understand the target audience are key to maximizing the impact of social media marketing. The paper also highlights the importance of personalization and the role of social media in the exchange of ideas and information.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social Media Marketing
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
Social Media Marketing (SMM) uses the sites on the platform of the social media that
raises visibility on Internet and helps in the promotion of the products and the services. The
social media sites helps in building the social networks and it helps in exchanging ideas and
the knowledge (Whiting and Deshpande 2014). Social Media Marketing have helped in
increasing the visibility of a business and it have increased the brand recognition of a
business. It have helped the business in engaging with the customers and it have helped in the
generation of the wide audience for the business. Social media marketing helps the business
in gaining more opportunities for the conversion and it can drive the profitability of business.
This essay argues that the advantages of social media marketing are manifold and it
outweighs the disadvantages in relation to the social media marketing. This essay elaborates
on the advantages and the disadvantages pertaining to the social media marketing and its
implication for the business of the present age.
Discussion
The new forms of the media can help in providing the unique broadcasting
environment that can offer the ubiquitous connectivity for the people. It can prove to be
helpful in the area of personalisation that can help in the creation of the immersive
environment for the people. The social media marketing helps in facilitating the brand
engagement and it helps in the peer endorsement of the commercial messages (Park, Im and
Kim 2018). It have been found to be fundamental which helps in building the brand
awareness and it encourages the purchase of a product. The regulatory provisions can protect
the children from the brunt of the unhealthy food marketing and it can be applied to all the
forms of the commercial communication that have bear a positive influence on the society
(Kelly et al. 2015). The usage of the digital technologies have helped in offering the plethora

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of opportunities for the food companies that have facilitated their engagement with the young
people. Social media marketing have helped the companies in sharing the unprecedented
volume of the product information that have worked to the benefit of business. Advancement
of web have provided the opportunities of engaging the potential customers with the help of
the personal communications that have helped in the co-creation of the brand messages.
The usage of the internet technology have helped in providing the substantial effect
on the operations of business that have ensured success of the business. The social media can
be said to be the interactive media that have helped the business in engaging with the
customers. The social media presence have been found to have direct effect on the customer
attitudes along with the process of the decision-making (Jones, Borgman and Ulusoy 2015).
The social media proves to be profitable for the small business and it helps them in
connecting with the customers. It have increased the brand recognition of companies that
have increased the search ranking of the companies on the search engines. It have helped in
providing best information that have helped in attracting the customers in the present age.
Social media proves to be useful for the lead generation and it helps in monitoring the
consumer communications regarding the brand (Gökerik et al. 2018). It have been brought
forward by Face Book that 70 % of the social media marketing campaigns are able to deliver
the return on the investment for the companies. The company have made use of real-time
bidding advertisement exchange that can help the advertisers in retargeting the users.
Social media marketing helps in developing the personal relationships that can help in
the creation of loyal fan base for the company. It can help companies in understanding
customers and it have helped the companies in the creation of the useful products that can
serve the needs of the customers (Kelly et al. 2015). It helps in the generation of the positive
word-of-the mouth that can be said to be vital for the world of the present age (Whiting and
Deshpande 2014). The business post the promotion codes and offer the loyalty programs that

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helps the customers in earning the points or the benefits. The promotion codes drive the
customers in the store or on the website of the company that increases the profitability of
company. Harley Davidson released a campaign that asked the fans to upload the pictures of
themselves on Harley’s on website of company. The images were then used on 2010 Harley
catalogue that helped in earning the loyalty of the customers. It helped in developing pride in
relation to Harley Davidson brand and it helped in bringing the customers together. It
increased the buyers pertaining to the dealerships of Harley Davidson that have helped the
company in earning profits. The people came to buy the catalogue and they had their faces on
front cover that helped in building the credibility among the people.
The social media plays an important role for the success of brand within the
framework of the luxury sector. The social media interaction have succeeded in changing the
communication taking place in between the brand and the customer. It helps in offering
assistance to the customers and it acts as a space that facilitates the exchange of the ideas.
The social media helps in providing latest news and it helps the customers in obtaining the
information that can help them in making a purchasing decision (Gökerik et al. 2018). It
helps in personalizing the site that can help the brands in expressing themselves individually.
Louis Vuitton have posted the videos of the catwalk presentation on the Facebook page that
have helped fans in enjoying show. Burberry was instrumental in launching the online
shopping site that helped in catering to the needs of the Chinese consumers (Godey et al.
2016). The customer service was provided throughout the day with the help of the online chat
system. The company have accounts on the platform of the social media sites of China that
have helped in providing the information to the local celebrities.
There exists the negative aspects in relation to the social media marketing that have
repercussions on the luxury brands. It have been found that the high level of the brand-
consumer engagement over the platform of the social media can damage the perceptions of

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the luxury brands (Park, Im and Kim 2018). It can reveal underlying mechanism that can
harm the reputation of the luxury brands in the present age. It can bring about the decrease of
the psychological distance of the luxury brands that proves to be harmful for the brands. The
psychological distance can act as a meaningful construct that can be stated to be linked to the
consumer behaviour outcome like the product evaluation along with the self-control. The
psychological distance can be said to be an important construct which have an influence on
the value perceptions of the customers of the luxury brands over the platform of the social
media (Jones, Borgman and Ulusoy 2015). The reduction of the psychological distance in
relation to the online retailers can be said to be crucial for the building of the trust. It can help
in the maintenance of the social distance dimension pertaining to psychological distance that
can help in protecting the value perceptions. Suisse Majestat refers to the luxury brand watch
which was founded by the artisan Marco Muller in the year 1921 within Switzerland. The
company have however decided to follow the social media users like the celebrities and the
brand ambassadors so that they can keep themselves relevant to the people.
Conclusion
Social media marketing can help in the aspect of personalization which can create
immersive environment for people. It have direct influence on attitude of the customer and
that of process of decision-making. It can be instrumental in the development of personal
relationships that can create fan base for company. Social media interaction can be helpful in
changing of process of communication which takes place in between brand and that of
consumer. It can offer assistance to people that can aid in the process of exchange of ideas. It
can be deduced that social media marketing bears more advantages when compared to the
disadvantages and it have direct impact on profitability of business. The significance of this
work lies in the fact that it have thrown light on the merits of social media marketing that can
help a business in earning great deal of revenue. It can be recommended that social media

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marketing can curate the engaging social content that can appeal to the people. The
companies can make a thorough research about the target audience that can drive the
profitability of company.

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References
Godey, B., Manthiou, A., Pederzoli, D., Rokka, J., Aiello, G., Donvito, R. and Singh, R.,
2016. Social media marketing efforts of luxury brands: Influence on brand equity and
consumer behavior. Journal of business research, 69(12), pp.5833-5841.
Gökerik, M., Gürbüz, A., Erkan, I., Mogaji, E. and Sap, S., 2018. Surprise me with your ads!
The impacts of guerrilla marketing in social media on brand image. Asia Pacific journal of
marketing and logistics.
Jones, N., Borgman, R. and Ulusoy, E., 2015. Impact of social media on small
businesses. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Kelly, B., Vandevijvere, S., Freeman, B. and Jenkin, G., 2015. New media but same old
tricks: food marketing to children in the digital age. Current obesity reports, 4(1), pp.37-45.
Park, M., Im, H. and Kim, H.Y., 2018. “You are too friendly!” The negative effects of social
media marketing on value perceptions of luxury fashion brands. Journal of Business
Research.
Whiting, A. and Deshpande, A., 2014. Social media marketing: A myth or a
necessity. Journal of Applied Business & Economics, 16(5).