Critical Essay: Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing

This essay critically evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing. It begins by defining social media and its impact on marketing performance. The essay highlights the benefits, such as enhanced connectivity and customer service through features like FAQs, while also addressing drawbacks like time investment and the challenges of user-generated content. Specific examples, such as the use of LinkedIn and Facebook, illustrate key points. The essay emphasizes the importance of transparency and the evolving role of consumers as content creators. The conclusion reiterates the key advantages and disadvantages, underscoring social media's effectiveness as a modern marketing tool to reach targeted audiences. The essay utilizes several scholarly sources to support its arguments, analyzing the impact of social media on brand equity, consumer behavior, and small businesses.

Critical Evaluation Essay Skeleton
Introduction Social media has gained huge popularity among the users and it has lately evolved as a
dissolving theme. It is vital to address the perceptions and issues of social media users
in a systematic way. Social media can be defined as the category for carrying out online
discussions so that people can create the content, bookmark and share it accordingly. It
is important for the user to know the basic advantages and disadvantages of social
media. The social media platforms are likely to have more effect on marketing
performance (Kelly et al. 2015). The positioning statement in this aspect can be stated
as “Social media marketing helping the companies to reach to the targeted consumers
easily”. This essay will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of social media.
1st body paragraph Social media will enhance the connectivity among the other individuals and assist in
sharing the information. It is considered to be such a communication process that
becomes easily accessible and thus it assists in bringing all the individuals under a single
platform. The social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram are the easiest
and convenient way of staying connected to the loved ones (Goudeau and Croizet
2017). Moreover, it can be said that all these connections will help an individual to seek
a variety of information such as the location of assistance, receiving advice, finding a
new job as well as many other related aspects (Jones et al. 2015). One of the most vital
aspects of social media is to enhance the form of social interaction. It has been found
that every individual in this era spends a huge amount of time in carrying out the
communication activities through chats, email as well as for leisure activities. Social
networking sites can be regarded as so pervasive that they are the leading internet
destinations (Godey et al. 2016). Social media has also enlarged the pooled individuals
involved in the communication process and thus it will help to find out new ways for
influencing the behaviour of the individuals. An example can be cited of LinkedIn as one
of the important social media websites for enhancement of the level of
communication. This will help to carry out two-way communication and thus it can be
regarded as the higher source of credibility of the individuals. However, the interaction
process of social media is time-intensive.
2nd body paragraph Social media marketing requires specific time investment and thus it might become
difficult for a company to reject or accept the commitment that is plausible to handle
the operation. Social media enhances the interaction process and it is a two-way
exchange method of handling the commitment of the users (Erdoğmuş and Cicek
2012). Although the nature of the marketing process changes in the social network
process, more emphasis is laid on increasing long term relationships and thus it assists
to improve the sales process. Social media marketing has created less impact on the
consumers because it is limited in its ability to be isolated as well as creative in nature
(Rothman et al. 2015). Moreover, often it is found that the posts on social media get
missed or are ignored because of the overflowing nature of the newsfeed and the
different aspects of social media. It is necessary to check that there should be time and
money allocated to ensure that the content is posted and published accordingly (Jones
et al. 2015). An example can be cited from Facebook in time case of time-related
nature of social media. As there are many posts posted on Facebook, it becomes
difficult for the user to select the important content from a list of large posts.
Therefore, this is one of the most vital disadvantages of social media. Moreover,
customer service is another crucial aspect of social marketing that assists in avoiding a
larger degree of complexity.
3rd body paragraph It has been found that in the customer service link of social media, there are some
important questions known as Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and thus it assists
the customers in the buying and the selection process. Further, it has been found that
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Critical Evaluation Essay Skeleton
the marketers must try to provide online assistance and thus this is convenient for the
customers to solve their queries online. The use of the toll-free number of customers
can enhance the utilisation of social media. The rapid delivery system, as well as the
online order fulfilment, are considered to be vital for the development of the e-loyalty
system (Erdoğmuş and Cicek 2012). On the other hand, it has been found that the
customers who want to purchase any product or vial any service through social media
cannot see or experience the goods or the services before buying it. This makes them
insecure about the purchase and thus the well-known brands must offer better quality
products and services through social media (Rashidi et al. 2017). An example can be
cited in any boutique that carries out its advertisement through social media sites such
as Facebook or Instagram. The customers who want to purchase the products and
order it does not have the provision to check it from the local store or get any trial or
demonstration of the product or the service before purchasing it. This will create
confusion among the minds of the customers and thus they will hesitate to purchase
the products. Social media helps in handling the information, opinions, and thoughts
easily with the help of user-generated content (Erdoğmuş and Cicek 2012).
4th body paragraph There are different forms of content generation, collaboration as well as
communication with the help of social media. It has been found that the different types
of marketing strategies involving social media and social networking sites and thus it
assists in handling the user-generated content in a proper way (Griffiths et al. 2015).
The users of social media can make comments on the contents posted on social media
sites. These comments are visible to the social media users across the world if the
particular site management authority does not take proper care in removing the
irrelevant information (Kim and Ko 2012). Further, it can be said that the user-
generated content is associated with a higher degree of credibility and thus it plays a
vital role in the eyes of the consumers. This user-generated content is made in such a
way that it in connection with the marketing strategy and thus there are higher-level
risks associated with the legal liability as well as for content generation (Ryan et al.
2017). The marketers can also take special steps in minimization of the legal risks
associated with the different forms of marketing campaigns. This will assist in the
dissemination of user-generated content with the help of social media. For example, it
has been found that different fashion brands publish user-generated content on social
media websites (Admon et al. 2016). The customers often purchase the product on the
basis of user-generated content. Sometimes, it has been found that the customers
often provide negative feedback or review of any particular product or service and thus
this creates down on the minds of the new customers. The new customers do not want
to purchase the products if they see any negative feedback on the product. Therefore,
it can be said that although the user-generated content is cost-effective for the
company, it should not be used by the consumers to destroy or hamper the image of
any particular brand.
5th body paragraph (if
required)
Another important advantage of social media is its effectiveness in reaching targeted
customers in a short span of time. The social media marketers find it easy to reach
targeted customers based on the personal interest of the user. Further, it has been
found that some companies carry out site advertisements in such a way that it
becomes easier to carry out personal connections with the consumers (Whiting and
Deshpande 2014). On the other hand, there are some sites that use social media
advertising to grow and develop personal connections with consumers. An example can
be cited from the small start-up companies that use social media marketing contents in
order to reach the targeted customers and thus develop personal connections with
them. This will assist in the promotion of the product or the service and thus the
EDU10010 Critical Essay Skeleton

Critical Evaluation Essay Skeleton
customers can also gain advantage from it. Hence, social media is one of the most
effective and vital tools for marketers in this era of globalisation.
Conclusion Therefore, it can be concluded that the most important advantage of social media is
the enhancement of connectivity, provision of customer service and cost-related
aspects. On the other hand, the disadvantage of social media is the user-generated
content as well as the time intensive issue. It should be checked that there is
transparency in the entire system and this will help in the delivery of the available
information to the users and the audiences. The consumers are trying to gain a new
role with social media and thus they are regarded as content creators. The social media
application tools or processes has assisted in the facilitation of the microblogging
applications, videos as well as photo sharing aspects. Further, social media is one of the
modern tools for the marketers and thus it becomes easier to reach the targeted
audience within a specified period.
EDU10010 Critical Essay Skeleton

Critical Evaluation Essay Skeleton
References
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