Benefits of social media for businessLast Updated: 9 July 2018If used wisely, social media can be a powerful business tool. Some of the opportunities and benefits of social media can include:RevenueThe most obvious opportunity is to generate revenue.
This can be done through building a community or advertising your products or services within the social media platform. If you choose to advertise in social media, the ads can either link back to your business’ social media page or sometimes to your website. This can mean that you’re able to benefit from social media without needing to have a channel.Brand developmentUsing social media allows your customers to connect and interact with your business on a more personal level.
If you already have an established brand, social media might be an opportunity to further develop your brand and give your business a voice.Attracting customersSocial media can be a good way of attracting new customers. For example, when considering social media campaigns, you could try to attract followers with promotions or giveaways. Once you have a good following you can focus on more personalised social media campaigns to encourage them to stay.ResearchEven if you think social media is not suited to your business or that you don’t have the time, simply logging on to see what your competitors are doing in this space, or finding out what your customers are saying about you might be a valuable exercise.NetworkingNetworking can be a valuable way to exchange ideas with like-minded people to improve the way you do business. Using online networking sites can also be valuable to your business, often for the purpose of knowledge sharing and word-of-mouth referrals.
RecruitmentSome organisations use social media to advertise vacant positions. Job networking sites like LinkedIn are dedicated to the job market and can help you use networks to attract skilled people.Search-engine discoverabilityYour website’s ranking in the search results of various search engines can sometimes be affected by the size and influence of your social network. As your social following grows, your visibility in search engines may also increase. This is a common Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy.
Pros and cons of using social media for businessLast Updated: 9 July 2018With its low costs and large audiences, it’s easy to get carried away when using social media in your business. It’s wise to tread carefully and be aware of both the pros and cons before you start.Pros of social mediaWhen used effectively, social media can have all the benefits of word of mouth, just on a larger scale! It can also help you reach a high number of potential customers.Potential advantages of social media can include:reduced marketing costsincreased salesincreased traffic to your websiteimproved ranking on search enginesgreater customer engagementgreater access to international marketsopportunity for customer feedbackopportunity to conduct market research about your customersimproved networking opportunities with customers and other businesses.Read more about the benefits of social media. Cons of social media Social media may not be suited to every business. If you are unprepared and launch your social media presence without proper planning, you could waste valuable time and money.
Some of the possible disadvantages you should be aware of are:Not having a clear marketing or social media strategy may result in reduced benefits for your business.Additional resources may be needed 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.Risk of unwanted or inappropriate behaviour on your site, including bullying and harassment.Greater exposure online has the potential to attract risks. Risks can include negative feedback, information leaks or hacking.Whatever the risk, having a social media strategy and preparing your policy and procedures carefully beforehand can help you manage the risks.
False or misleading claims made on your social media channels by your business or by a customer can be subject to consumer law. Customer fan posts and testimonials that are misleading or deceptive to other customers, particularly about competitor products/services may result in your business being fined.Five Challenges Social Media Will Bring to BusinessDavid ArmanoFive Challenges Social Media Will Bring to Business3.AUGUST 14, 2009 SAVE SHARE COMMENT TEXT SIZE PRINTRECOMMENDEDThe Hidden Problem of Facebook and Social..
.COMMUNICATION CASE8.95 ADD TO CARTTech Talk: Creating a Social Media StrategyINNOVATION ; ENTREPRENEURSHIP CASE8.
95 ADD TO CARTWho is the Better Player? Off-Field…SALES ; MARKETING CASE8.95 ADD TO CARTA recent survey conducted by HYPERLINK “http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Proofpoint-Inc-1027877.html” Proofpoint found that 8% of companies had terminated employees due to social media usage (common causes including sharing sensitive information on a network).
And while the statistic seems significant, it only underscores one of several upcoming challenges nearly every organization will face as changes in people, process and technology fueled by the collective movement we call social media begin to transform business. Here are a few challenges that every organization should be planning for right now:1. Integration. Becoming a “social business” (meaning true participation as opposed to leveraging social media as a new form of marketing) can impact nearly every function of a business. Marketing, PR, communications–even supply chain and any function that deals with employees. So where does it live? Is it a department? Do organizations hire a “Chief Social Officer” much like they would a Chief Technology Officer? All organizations will eventually grapple with integrating social into their entire ecosystem adopting either centralized, distributed or hybrid approaches.2. Governance.
Many organizations now understand that anything that can and will be said about them on the internet will be. The good, the bad, the ugly. And this includes content produced not only from the general public, but also from internal constituents such as employees. Organizations will not only need to begin actively listening so that they are in the know, but they will need rules of engagement for how they deal with multiple types of scenarios from responding to a compliment to dealing with a detractor to following up with an employee who just posted something inappropriate or sensitive.3. Culture. All organizations fall somewhere on a spectrum of being “open” or “closed” meaning that they are either more transparent with how they operate and collaborative or they hoard knowledge internally.
Consider that it’s probable that the Zappos purchase by Amazon had a good deal to do with their notoriously open culture. Likewise, even Apple, which can be notoriously secretive, is benefiting by leveraging a strategy that opened up their iPhone application ecosystem. Sure Apple has a great deal of control over it, but for the first time in history, they have legions of people developing applications that run on their hardware. Organizations have the potential to benefit from embracing customers and employees in new ways, but will have to manage it intelligently and with purpose.4.
Human Resources. In order to transform from a business to a social business, companies are going to have to upgrade their HR protocols, as well as legal. And it’s likely to be a never-ending process as new technologies continually hit the scene. Before there was Twitter, companies scrambled to publish blogging guidelines for employees, now the wrong tweet or Facebook status can get you fired.
Organizations will not only need to update guidelines but actually train their people who may be leveraging social technologies for work. Customer service in particular comes to mind.5.
Measurement ; ROI. Every organization will continue to struggle with measuring results and reporting ROI. Philosophically, this question can be answered with another question: “what’s the ROI of e-mail”? But it’s a question that won’t go away.
New social constructs will be needed to measure social initiatives such as attention (the size or number of participants actively engaged) or authority (the amount of influence a participant has in the ecosystem). Because social business is enabled by technology, it is by definition measurable. However, tying it to realized revenue or savings becomes more of a challenge.
In order for business to transform into something that can function in a less formal, fast moving social space–it will need to do so at scale. These 5 issues are but a handful of the types of growing pains we’ll see as this happens.bibliographyhttps://www.business.gov.au/marketing/social-media/benefits-of-social-mediahttps://www.business.gov.au/marketing/social-media/pros-and-cons-of-social-mediahttps://hbr.org/2009/08/a-recent-survey-conducted-by
