EDU10010 - Social Media Marketing: Advantages and Disadvantages

This essay critically examines the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing, drawing upon scholarly sources to support its arguments. It discusses how social media marketing enhances product awareness, customer engagement, and brand loyalty through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The essay also addresses the drawbacks, including the potential for negative feedback, privacy concerns, and the resources required for effective social media management. It further explores the role of user-generated content and the importance of qualified staff in managing social media accounts to achieve quality results. The analysis concludes that while social media marketing offers numerous benefits, businesses must carefully consider the associated challenges and implement appropriate strategies to mitigate risks and maximize returns.

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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.
The author illuminates that social media marketing is one of the methods of internet
marketing which makes practice of social networking sites as a whole. The social media
marketing is the promotion of the goods and services through social media. It is being done
by creating quality content and the users share with others. It is the aim of social media
marketing to create content which operators can share through social network to assist an
organization in increasing product awareness and enlarge customer base. It even assists
companies to attain direct response from customers. Social media marketing has become
more communal with the enhanced approval of the sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
more. The federal trade commission has guidelines which comprise social media marketing.
In the current scenario everyone owns a smartphone, laptop or an operating system. People
expend a lot of time on the social media. The implementation of the social media marketing
strategy significantly improves product recognition by interacting with a large number of
persons. The interaction with the people is helpful in generating awareness. The employees,
followers and friends are helpful in sharing post or page on the social media platform such as
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. The interaction with the people is helpful in
creating awareness among people and the customers eventually end up in being prospective
customers. It is the nature of the humans to draw attention. The social media marketing has
role in responding to definite customer at a time.
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. and Hinsch, C., 2017. Elements of strategic social media
marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.118-126.
The authors discuss that customer certainly enjoy when they get modified response for the
remarks made by them on the page. The automated message response shows one is attentive
and caring. It provides an advantage position to the marketers as more customers will be
appealed. The social media marketing is a great cost operative form of advertising. It is the
major advantage of the social media marketing that it is completely free to start. The
investment is made in the form of time. It is almost free to create a new profile and signing
in. Those who charge, amount is minute associated to the total returns. The savings on the
advertisement overheads guarantee better returns and investments. There are also paid
advertising options on the social media platforms. It is considered a great tool for increasing

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number of followers and reaching more users. Familiarizing social media marketing platform
upturns inbound traffic and people can found the product with easiness. It can lead to the
enhanced online conversations like sales and leads. People can search products by name or
website address without social media platform. It is very restraining to the persons who have
not discovered the brand. A company can even easily determine the sales generated. The
owner is required to know the customer’s needs, opinions and interests in order to succeed a
business. It is the best way to collect data from the social media platforms.
Chang, Y.T., Yu, H. and Lu, H.P., 2015. Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and
message diffusion in social media marketing. Journal of Business Research, 68(4), pp.777-
782.
The authors illuminate that the customers’ perception and expectations can be known from
the social media platforms. Facebook and Twitter has 313 million, Instagram has 500 million
and Printerest has almost 200 milllion active users on the monthly basis. A marketer can
create account on one or two for the acquaintance to millions of people around the globe.
Gaining information offers a prospect to identify areas which can be improved in order to get
forward of the competitors. It even improves number of audiences. The social media has big
role in increasing brand loyalty along with increasing the reach of the brand. It has been
realised that people who follow brands on the social media are more expected to remaining
loyal to those specific brands. The social media has further role than a sales ground. It
enables two way communications which has role in building meaningful relationships with
the existing and potential customers. It makes customers to attain confidence in the business
and inspires to opt for the company in the coming years. The social media can be utilized to
attain significant information regarding customers which is helpful in making smoother
business choices. For instance, social listening enables a marketer to ascertain the way people
sense about the company. The uncovered conversations also can be discovered with the help
of social listening about the business. The information such as need to make improvement in
the products and services in order to meet needs of the target audience.
Shafigullina, A.V. and Palyakin, R.B., 2016. Social media marketing as an effective
instrument of the promotion of social business-project in social entrepreneurial
activity. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 20, p.1.
The authors describe that social media is having numerous advantages. But these advantages
are also accompanied by the disadvantages. As soon as content is shared on the social media

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platform, people pick up and share an unfavourable story about the business.The social media
facilitates study of the competitor’s strategy. Although, the competitors can also study the
company’s business methods by the social media platform. It can easily put the business at
the risk of being defeated. The social media users are free to post anything as there is no
restriction. The satisfied customers leave the positive remarks on the page whereas unhappy
ones can leave the angry rants about the business and can even outburst. Some of the negative
feedback could also come from within the business. The dis satisfied employees are even
known to exhaust on the social media about the working conditions and bosses. It spoils the
image of the whole business. It takes sufficient time and efforts to sustain a cooperating
social media presence. When a company is having limited resources then it becomes tough to
allocate the required resources to the social media. The staff is needed to observe social
network, react to the queries and criticism and post appreciated updates. Though some people
interpret it as a shortcoming but spending time into the social media can actually assist a
company to form enduring relationships with the customers. Such customers will be keep
coming for the future.
Alalwan, A.A., Rana, N.P., Dwivedi, Y.K. and Algharabat, R., 2017. Social media in
marketing: A review and analysis of the existing literature. Telematics and
Informatics, 34(7), pp.1177-1190.
The authors illustrated that social media marketing is a long term venture and the returns
cannot be expected in the overnight. The companies searching for the fast results can make
use of the traditional methods such as word of mouth. It is the appropriate method for the
marketing in order to generate immediate response. The company is required to employ
qualified staff to focus on the core business issues. Such staff can manage the accounts and
can have traffic under control. It infers to capitalise both in tools and salary for the quality
result.The social media promotes products and services but it can also associate the trust,
confidentiality and data security matters. It is vital for the organizations to update with the
concerns and initiate proper methods to lessen the exposure of liability associated to the
private data, use and upkeep. The fraud of the online transactions associated to credit cards
has become major reason that customers do not prefer to do online shopping. The users
expend enough time in sharing information, ideas, and opinions through internet. Add on, the
new systems of the content generation, communication and collaborations are come out of the
internet. The marketing policies comprise social media incorporate user generated content
(UGC) into the ground. The UGC enables operators to comment in several forms like photos,

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videos, podcasts, reviews, ratings and articles. The UGC is a promising marketing tool but it
also derives with the high degree of the credibility. Like UGC content with the marketing
strategy comes with the hazard of sustaining legal liability for the content produced.
Although the certain steps have been taken to reduce the licit risks linked with the marketing
campaigns. It comprises the broadcasting of the UGC over social media. The disadvantages
are realized in the form of the negative feedback, privacy and security issues.
Hudson, S., Huang, L., Roth, M.S. and Madden, T.J., 2016. The influence of social media
interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions
and marketing behaviors. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), pp.27-41.
The authors investigated that social media marketing is the form of marketing which takes
place on the social media platforms. A wide range of activities are comprised in the social
media. It is a way to interact with the target market over the internet by using several social
media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Twitter. It is used for all the traditional
marketing goals to access customers. The social media marketing has more of advantages
then disadvantages. The social media helps in increasing sales. It even increases brand
awareness along with the customer satisfaction. It is the costs effective method and increases
inbound traffic. The social media helps people in maintaining their communications skills.
The social media has changed the lives of people too much. The life has become convenient
in the 21st century due to the social media and has improved life. The social media has
attained its position in the real world. The regular impact of the social media can be traced
through the influence on the development, interpersonal relationships and businesses
reflecting social media significance. In order to attain full society, social media should be
confined to get rid of the negative impacts and display the positive ones.

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References
Alalwan, A.A., Rana, N.P., Dwivedi, Y.K. and Algharabat, R., 2017. Social media in
marketing: A review and analysis of the existing literature. Telematics and
Informatics, 34(7), pp.1177-1190.
Chang, Y.T., Yu, H. and Lu, H.P., 2015. Persuasive messages, popularity cohesion, and
message diffusion in social media marketing. Journal of Business Research, 68(4), pp.777-
782.
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. and Hinsch, C., 2017. Elements of strategic social media
marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.118-126.
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.
Hudson, S., Huang, L., Roth, M.S. and Madden, T.J., 2016. The influence of social media
interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions
and marketing behaviors. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), pp.27-41.
Shafigullina, A.V. and Palyakin, R.B., 2016. Social media marketing as an effective
instrument of the promotion of social business-project in social entrepreneurial
activity. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 20, p.1.