As the Digital Age and the Age of Social Media thrives, people are becoming more and more dependent on all things digital and online. People are turning to social media as their main way of communicating with one another, and this new form of communication seems to be here to last. Almost every person, young and old, has at least one social media account and uses it as a way to talk to people, to get news, to play games, as a form of entertainment, or in the case of this post, to buy things or choose a service. With that being said, scrolling on social media is often the first thing people do when they wake up in the morning, and the last thing they do before they go to bed at night.
There are countless social media apps and websites, however the most popular include, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. People spend hours at a time on these apps, and use them to make various purchase decisions. Businesses are aware that people gravitate towards social media when it comes to learning about a product or service, or when it comes to seeing the product for the first time. Marketing and advertising firms are constantly evolving their social media strategies in this day and age to facilitate potential customers via social media. However, though social media is often beneficial to businesses, it can also have negative effects as well.
If you own a business or work for a business that is looking to incorporate social media into your marketing and advertising strategies, there are some things you should consider first. This post will detail the pros and cons of social media advertising for businesses so that you understand how to advertise on social media properly.
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Understanding Social Media Advertising
All kinds of businesses can benefit from the pros of social media; and all businesses should be wary of the cons of social media. From small restaurants and boutiques in the Midwest to large tech companies and companies that specialize in male rhinoplasty in Tampa Bay, businesses should consider learning how to advertise on social media and how to do it properly. Below is a short guide on how the pros and cons of advertising on social media in order to help you and your business thrive in the Age of Social Media.
The Pros
If your business takes the time to understand how to use social media to your advantage, your business could end up being extremely successful from social media posts. Depending on the size of your business, consider hiring an employee or small department that handles posting on social media to enhance your sales and grow your clientele. Or, consider hiring an outside agency that specializes in social media advertising.
Here are some pros you should consider when it comes to advertising on social media.
Cost Efficiency
Social media advertisements follow a pay-per-click advertising model, also referred to as PPC. The way that PPC works is when users click on a certain webpage that is advertised on social media and do the action you want them to, such as fill out a contact form, you pay. The cost of PPC changes depending on the kind of industry you are in, however, many clicks can cost a company under $2.00 per click, making social media advertising much more affordable than other means of advertising that exist.
However, not all social media advertisements have to cost money. Your business is free to post whatever it wants on social media, including quick pictures and videos, and promotions or deals being offered that week.
Supporting Content
Social media advertising gives you the ability to post various kinds of content on various social media platforms. You can post images, videos, links, and content on social media on different days and you don’t have to be limited to just one platform.
Similarly, social media advertising can be incorporated into your SEO (search engine optimization) strategies. Social media affects SEO because the sharing of content on social media will add up to more visibility of your content. In other words, the more that your content is shared on social media, the more likely people are to link to it; thus helping your SEO ranking.
Targeting
When you use social media to advertise, you’re in control of who can see your ads which will save you money and time. Social media allows you to bring your advertisements directly to the demographic of people you want to target using psychographic data. Psychographic data allows you to manipulate who sees your advertisements based on:
- Gender
- Age
- Personality types
- Political office
- Hobbies
- Homeowner status
- Relationship to your business
Additionally, your business can utilize landing pages and hashtags to make your posts more relevant to potential customers and clients.
You Can Build Brand Loyalty and Followers
Building your brand loyalty as well as your followers is essential in your business, especially in the Age of Social Media. Social media advertisements allow customers and other people that follow your business (in the case of social media; literally following) to know that you care about them and the services that you provide. Social media advertisements give you the opportunity to easily communicate with people and show your long-term loyalty to them.
Social media advertising also allows you to easily see what people think about your business or service because they can either share your advertisement on social media, or they can leave comments and direct messages. When you can easily see what people are saying, you can see exactly what and where you can improve to make your business better.
The Cons
Though social media advertising offers copious benefits to businesses, there are a few disadvantages and cons that businesses should think about and take into consideration. Here are some of the biggest cons of social media advertising.
You Will Need to Constantly Monitor
Social media advertising can become extremely time-consuming as you will need to constantly monitor it. Though social media advertising can build brand loyalty by showing customers that you are constantly checking their feedback, it can also take hours of time to do this. In order to successfully engage with your customers, you will need to monitor every single one of your advertisements.
Likewise, you will need to check on each post often to make sure it’s getting the attention it deserves. If it’s not, you’ll need to figure out how you can change that. Social media advertising will likely require you to set a few hours aside each week to monitor your posts, perhaps an hour a day. Because of the burden of having to monitor social media advertisements, many businesses choose to hire an outside agency to handle social media advertising.
Brand Voice Can Get Diluted
This is a con that not many people consider when it comes to social media advertising. If you have multiple people posting on social media or writing your social media advertisements, you run the risk of diluting your brand voice. For example, if you have a young and novice employee creating a social media advertisement one week, and then you, the owner, and expert in the field creating the advertisement the next week, the voice will likely be vastly different; thus diluting your brand’s voice.
If your brand loses its voice via social media advertising, customers may be turned off by your business, or potential clients will view your business as unprofessional or confusing.
You Are at Risk of Negative Publicity
Social media advertising exposes your business to new threats; the most significant being the risk of negative publicity. One negative post or comment could permanently tarnish your business’s reputation, or even destroy your company as a whole. Unfortunately, this is extremely common, and sometimes the people that do this may have never even worked with you or used your product, they simply just post negative jargon to post it and cause disruption on the internet.
This can really become an issue if your social media advertisements are not monitored properly because you may not see the comments right away, allowing it to get shared with more people, preventing you from doing anything about it.
Use Social Media to Your Business’s Advantage
Social media advertising can make or break a business, so it’s important that you familiarize yourself with it as much as possible. Now that you know the basics of the pros and cons of social media advertising, it’s up to you to use social media advertising to your business’ advantage. Keep this short guide in mind as you plan your next advertising strategies. If you aren’t comfortable with posting on social media and creating social media advertisements it will be in your best interest to hire an employee that does or to hire an outside agency that specializes in this sort of advertising.
About the Author
Jennifer Bell is a freelance writer, blogger, dog-enthusiast and avid beachgoer operating out of Southern New Jersey
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