As a business, having social media can certainly have its benefits as you can reach your customers in real-time with your product or service offering. The information below is from the Australian Government’s website business.gov.au and provides a handy guide to the pros and cons of social media.
Business Social Media – Pros
Social media can help you engage with your customers and find out what people are saying about your business. You can also use social media for advertising, promotional giveaways, and mobile applications.
Social media can help your business to:
- attract customers, get customer feedback and build customer loyalty
- increase your market reach, including international markets
- do market research and reduce marketing costs
- increase revenue by building customer networks and advertising
- develop your brand
- exchange ideas to improve the way you do business
- recruit skilled staff for example through job networking sites like LinkedIn increase traffic to your website and improve its search engine ranking
- keep an eye on your competitors
Business Social Media – Cons
Social media may not be suited to every business. If you are unprepared and launch your social media presence without planning, you could waste valuable time and money.
You should be aware that:
- if you don’t have a clear marketing or social media strategy, the benefits may be reduced
- you may need additional resources to manage your online presence
- social media is immediate and needs daily monitoring
- if you don’t actively manage your social media presence, you may not see any real benefits
- you may get unwanted or inappropriate behaviour on your site, including bullying and harassment
- online exposure could attract risks such as negative feedback, information leaks, or hacking
- false or misleading claims made on your social media (by your business or a customer) can be subject to consumer law. You could be fined if a customer fan posts misleading or deceptive information, particularly about competitor products or services
Summary
Doing the groundwork before you start is critical to a successful social media presence. A social media strategy describes how your business will use social media to achieve its communications aims. It also outlines the social platforms and tools you’ll use to achieve this. Follow your strategy and don’t overwhelm your customers with unnecessary posts. Remain focused on reaching your specific goals and tailor your messages around these.
(Source: Australian Government business.gov.au 2020)
