Social media today comprises a huge part of our world, not only for staying in touch with friends but also in business. In 2024, there were over 5.17 billion social media users worldwide; thus, the average person uses approximately 6.7 different social networks per month (Social Sprout). This, from a theoretical point of view, enables big opportunities for businesses to communicate with their customers and create brands. Yet, much like all great tools, there are pros and cons to social media marketing. Let's run them through to help you decide whether it is right for your brand or not.
- What is Social Media Marketing?
- Advantages of Social Media Marketing
- Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing
- Real-World Examples
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social Media Marketing is the process of using social media sites to advertise products or services, engage with customers, and promote brand awareness. This might involve creating posts geared toward the interests and behaviours of your target audience. SMM applies the unique features offered by various platforms to meet business goals.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing
Indeed, social media marketing proves to be an important digital strategy. It allows any business to engage with its target market and derive insights to increase sales.
Advantages of Social Media Marketing:
1. Increased Brand Visibility:
With over 5.07 billion people using social media globally (Datareportal, 2024), these platforms offer unparalleled opportunities to exponentially increase product visibility. Through targeted advertisements, businesses can reach specific groups, significantly multiplying their potential customer base.
2. Cost-Effective Marketing:
Additionally, it can be three times cheaper than the former methods. Social media marketing can give businesses an edge to use the inexpensive or even free advertising options to gain an organic reach, by structuring strategic content and running social media contests.
3. Real-Time Audience Interaction:
What social media enables is direct, real-time communication with your audience. Instant replies to comments and messages help build trust and gather valuable feedback, making your brand more human.
4. Increased Website Traffic and Lead Generation:
Social media drives 43% of all website visits globally (Sprinklr, 2024). Creative digital content can attract people to your website, converting followers into potential customers. Effective use of CTAs with lead-capture forms enables businesses to drive conversions and create an online presence.
5. Improved Brand Loyalty and Advocacy:
Social media platforms can turn casual clients into dedicated followers. Providing valuable content, promptly responding to feedback, and running engaging campaigns can foster loyalty and encourage advocacy.
6. Market Insights:
Social media presents businesses with invaluable information about customer preferences and habits thus enabling customization of marketing strategies (Gupta, Saini & Kothari, 2013).
7. Competitive Advantage:
Real-time responses to customers’ sentiments in the market are made possible for businesses through their presence on active social sites hence staying ahead of the competition always.
Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing:
1. Risk of Negative Publicity:
96% of dissatisfied customers don’t tell companies what went wrong, and 91% of them simply leave to never come back (LinkedIn, 2023). It is difficult to recover from negative publicity that spreads fast via social networking sites. Being proactive and watchful in managing one’s reputation online is a must for all businesses.
2. Time-Consuming Management:
A business spends an average of 6 hours every week managing social media. Staying active on social media requires constant awareness. It means regular posting, community management, and coming up with content to share.
3. Measuring ROI Challenges:
Calculating the actual ROI from a social media campaign can be difficult. Not all the visitors turn into customers, so businesses must focus on building quality interactions over mere click quantity.
4. Content Saturation and Algorithm Changes:
Standing out in a crowded digital space requires consistently high-quality content. Frequent algorithm changes can affect content visibility, necessitating regular adjustments to SMM strategies.
5. Privacy Concerns:
Data privacy issues can arise, leading to potential legal and ethical concerns.
6. Dependence on Platforms:
Over-reliance on specific social media platforms can be risky due to changes in policies or algorithms.
Real-World Examples:
Netflix's Interactive Trailer for "House of Cards" (India)
Netflix India released an interactive trailer for the new season of "House of Cards" on YouTube Shorts. The viewer gets to choose their adventure through the trailer, which changes the storyline and leads one to a customized message about the new season. This campaign generated much social media engagement and buzz.
Impact: Since House of Cards was released, Netflix's stock has nearly tripled to about $480 while its Internet video service has grown subscribers by 24 million subscribers to 57 million. Half of those gains have come in the U.S.The interactive trailer went viral on platforms like YouTube Shorts and Twitter in India. Many viewers shared their unique experiences, sparking discussions and building hype for the new season.
Manyavar's Wedding Season Campaign on Instagram Reels
Wedding time is the most opportune time of the year. Popular Indian menswear brand Manyavar did the same with a series of Instagram Reels. Wedding season reels showcased stylish wedding outfits that grooms and groomsmen would wear to such an event, spanning trendy music and regional influencers. This strategy effectively reached their target audience and leveraged the popularity of short-form videos in India.
Impact: The Reels campaign of Manyavar had a significant impact on increasing brand awareness and engagement on Instagram. Their followers, views, and positive comments increased, along with website traffic and in-store sales during the wedding season. The company has reported revenue from operations of around INR 475 crores, delivering a growth of around 7.5% as compared to Q3 of FY '23.
Flipkart's Big Billion Days Social Media Blitz
Flipkart is one of India's biggest e-commerce platforms, and their festive season sales are pretty famous across events such as the "Big Billion Days." Their social media strategy comprised a multi-platform campaign running on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. The campaign also included celebrity endorsements and influencer partnerships, interactive contests, and some cool product reveals that get huge online and drive traffic to their platform.
Impact: Flipkart's Big Billion Days campaign saw great success. With millions of users participating in contests, sharing posts, and discussing deals, the company garnered huge social media numbers. Flipkart's successful Big Billion Days also boosted Walmart's international sales by 17.6% to $32.4 billion in Q4FY24.
Conclusion
Social Media Marketing is one of the most powerful marketing techniques and the junction where technology, sociology, and psychology all come together. Embracing change and looking for new opportunities in digital marketing can definitely improve a business's chances of growing at an incredible level in the virtual landscape.