If you’ve been wondering how to use social media to market your products or services, you’ve been thinking of social network marketing.
People today like to chat and share information on social networks, be it Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or LinkedIn. They especially like to share stuff they consider fascinating, and that could easily be your marketing content if you do it right!
But this form of marketing is flexible since you can either aim directly at closing sales or building relationships with existing and potential clients.
But before you dive in, you would want first to know what you stand to benefit from this form of marketing and its pros and cons. Here’s everything you need to know.
The Benefits of Social Network Marketing
Social network marketing can help you achieve several things for your business, including:
- Word of mouth advertising from your existing clients
- Direct feedback about your business, products, or services
- A means to offer your customers good customer service
- A reputation as a thought leader in your industry
- Increased traffic flow to your business website
- Reliable information for product development
- Keep your customers informed about upcoming events
- Given all the ways you and your business stand to benefit, what are the pros and cons of this kind of marketing?
Social Network Marketing Pros and Cons
But social network marketing comes with pros and cons that you need to consider before diving in. Here is a table to summarise both;
The Pros
1.It’s Affordable
The best part about marketing on social media is that you have the option to go free. You can choose to pay, but you can also post your content for free. Your consumers will share your free content with other social media users depending on how engaging your free content is.
But even if you choose to pay, social network marketing is cheaper than traditional forms of marketing.
2.It will allow you to engage directly with customers
The general mood on the social platforms is rather casual, making it easy for you to strike conversations, for example, by commenting on posts of your target audience.
That will yield better results than just posting content on social media and hoping for likes and shares from users.
3.It allows you to understand your customers better
Again, due to the casual nature of the social media environment, users are more likely to be open. People post personal details on social media, giving you a peek into their ideal tastes and preferences. That’s valuable information for your marketing efforts.
The Cons
1.It’s time-intensive
When you put effort and time into marketing your products and services, the most exciting part is seeing the results of all that hard work; the sooner, the better. But social network marketing calls for a little more patience. But in the end, it’s all worth it.
It will take you roughly six months to see the results of your marketing efforts. If your business is considerably big, you may have access to the resources required to get quicker results compared to smaller businesses.
2.-Direct Advertising will not yield expected results
Whenever you put up an ad for your product or service, you expect to see an increase in sales. But that doesn’t work with social network marketing.
You have to focus more on promotions and less on selling for better results. That means posting engaging content to get better results.
3.-It will expose You to public criticism
On social media, everyone has an opinion, and your PR will get tested. It will help if you are prepared and not taken by surprise if you wake up to a string of negative comments and posts from angry customers, previous employees, and even competitors. Hackers can also take over your social media accounts and completely misrepresent you and your business.
When that happens, you must be ready to manage your business reputation and handle criticism appropriately
The Big Picture
When starting your social network marketing journey, one of the first things you want to know is what kind of marketing it is; It’s marketing your business on social media.
This journey will benefit your business greatly, but it will also present several challenges that you should be aware of and be ready to handle.
Given the huge number of potential customers active on different social platforms, navigating through these challenges and tapping on the benefits of social network marketing will be well worth it.
