Social Media Marketing: Examining Advantages and Disadvantages

This essay delves into the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing, arguing that its benefits outweigh the drawbacks. It highlights the increasing market penetration of social media, particularly in regions like Africa, and emphasizes its effectiveness in reaching younger generations. The essay references various authors and studies to support its claims, discussing how social media marketing facilitates customer engagement, two-way communication, and positive word-of-mouth. While acknowledging some negative opinions about the effectiveness of social media marketing, the essay concludes that its success depends on the strategic design and implementation of marketing campaigns. The essay emphasizes the potential of social media marketing to yield significant benefits when managed and executed properly.

Running head: LANGUAGE AND LEARNING
Language and learning
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1LANGUAGE AND LEARNING
Advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing
Social media marketing is one of the most promising and fastest growing marketing
concepts in the current business scenario. With the recent boom in internet, social media
marketing got more importance for the business organisations. This is due to reason that the
reach of social media is ever increasing and the effectiveness of the social media is more than
any other conventional media. With the emergence of various social media platforms such as
Facebook and Twitter, business organisations identified huge opportunities in marketing through
social media. In the present business scenario, majority of the regions across the world are
having internet access. Thus, with the social media marketing, contemporary business
organisations are reaching out to the larger section of audience. Thus it can be said that social
media marketing is having more advantages. This essay will argue that the advantages of social
media marketing are more significant than the disadvantages. In the recent times, the advantages
of social media marketing are more prominent than its shortcomings. This essay will discuss
about the significance of social media marketing and how the advantages of it is more dominant
than its disadvantages with the help of different articles.
Social media marketing is having more advantages due to the reason that, majority of the
organisations are having their social marketing campaign. Most of the large business
organisations are gaining their goodwill and reputation from the social media marketing.
Though, various authors have identified demerits for social media marketing but still it is the
most effective way of identifying the requirement of the customers.
A major advantage of social media marketing is the extraordinary number of people
around the world who access social media sites. The high market penetration of the social media

2LANGUAGE AND LEARNING
is the key competitive advantage for them. Authors such as Monica and Balaş (2014), according
to whom, with the increase in the access of internet around the world, the reach of social media is
also increasing by leap and bound. According to them, there are more than 100 million
subscribers on Facebook only from the African regions. Moreover, 50 percent of the total
African population is having access to the internet. Thus, according to Monica and Balaş (2014),
the myth around the poor connectivity with the African population is proving wrong with this
fact. Moreover, the number of African population having internet access and social media
subscriptions is rapidly increasing. Thus, Monica and Balaş (2014) stated that it is a huge
opportunities for the marketers to initiate their marketing activities with the help of social media.
It will help them to reach out to more number of people effectively. Moreover, according to
Monica and Balaş (2014), in the African regions, there are the peoples those who are having
internet and social media access but do not have any exposure to other types of conventional
media. Thus, in this case, social media marketing is not only effective but also the only way to
reach out to the remote audiences. Thus, the market penetration of the social media marketing is
much more than that of the other conventional media marketing.
Similar opinion given by Minazzi (2015), regarding the importance of the social media
marketing. According to her, social media marketing special through the use of mobile is much
effective for the tourism industry. Minazzi (2015) stated that this is due to the reason that the
travelers now have the access to various technologies in their mobile device such as GPS and
other location based applications. With the initiation of the rapid development of the mobile
devices, the access to the internet and social media got more effective for the users as well as the
marketers. This lead to the fact that the social media users remain always connected. Thus,
according to Minazzi (2015), it is a huge opportunity for the marketers due to the reason that

3LANGUAGE AND LEARNING
they will have the more exposure for their promotional activities. Customers in the social media
remain more active than that in other conventional media. Hence, the marketing opportunities
from the social media are more. Minazzi (2015) also stated that, with having more attendance of
the customers, the effectiveness of the social media marketing is also more than that of other
media.
Another key advantage for social media marketing is their high level of influence among
the younger generations. The young generations can be more effectively attracted with the help
of social media. According to Gaber and Wright (2014), social media marketing is more
effective in targeting the younger buyers due to the fact that younger generation is more active in
the social media. The authors had given the example of Egypt where the survey was being
conducted to determine the effectiveness of the social media marketing of the fast food chains.
According to Gaber and Wright (2014), younger generation is being more attracted with the help
of social media marketing. Moreover it was also been seen that the social media marketing is
helping the marketers in effectively engaging the customers with their promotional activities.
According to Gaber and Wright (2014), this is due to the reason that the social media marketing
involves two way communications. Thus, it is beneficial for the organisations to determine the
feedback of the customers effectively.
It also helps the marketers in effectively determining the current taste and preference of
the market. Gaber and Wright (2014) also stated that, social media marketing will help the
organization in engaging with the customers which further help them in determining the
requirement of the customers. Due to the involvement of the customers in the promotional
activities, the effectiveness of the social media marketing is more than that of other conventional
marketing channels. Moreover, according to Gaber and Wright (2014), due to the reason that

4LANGUAGE AND LEARNING
customers remain more active in the social media in the recent times, the flow of word of mouth
is also more effective in the case of social media marketing. Thus, Gaber and Wright (2014)
stated that, if the organisations can generate positive word of mouth then it will transmit more
effectively and swiftly in the case of social media marketing. Thus, it can be concluded that
social media marketing is more effective than any other marketing channels in terms of engaging
the customers.
However, there are various researchers who have given the negative opinion about the
effectiveness of the social media marketing. They are given the opinion that social media
marketing is having more disadvantages than advantages. According to Whiting and Deshpande
(2014), the effectiveness of the social media marketing is more of myth. This is due to the reason
that, according to Whiting and Deshpande (2014), the social media marketing is more of trend
among the marketers than its utility. As stated by Whiting and Deshpande (2014), if the social
media marketing does not being effectively and properly designed according to the requirement
of the market, then it is highly probable that the marketing campaign will fail. Thus, according to
the Whiting and Deshpande (2014), the perception of the marketers about the social media
marketing that having presence in the social media will automatically attract customers is
nothing more than myth. Moreover, it is also been stated by the Whiting and Deshpande (2014)
that social media marketing can help to increase the effectiveness of the existing marketing
activities of the organisation.
However, it cannot create awareness for a new product due to the reason that customers
need to have the knowledge about the social media page of the organisation which can only be
gained with the help of conventional media channels. Thus, it can be concluded that social media
marketing is having more advantages than disadvantages for the marketing organisations. The

5LANGUAGE AND LEARNING
effectiveness of the social media marketing depends on the design and the strategies being
developed by the organisations to implement the social media marketing. The more effective will
be the marketing strategies, the more effective will be the social media marketing. Hence, the
potentiality of social media marketing is not myth, rather than it can reap benefits if being
properly managed and implemented.

6LANGUAGE AND LEARNING
Reference
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, 9(1).
Minazzi, R., 2015. Mobile Social Media Marketing in Tourism. In Social Media Marketing in
Tourism and Hospitality (pp. 127-135). Springer International Publishing.
Monica, B. and Balaş, R., 2014. Social media marketing to increase brand awareness. Journal of
Economics and Business Research, 20(2), pp.155-164.
Whiting, A. and Deshpande, A., 2014. Social media marketing: A myth or a necessity. The
Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 16(5), p.74.