Benefits
Easier and faster communication – It is now a lot easier to communicate with businesses for queries or complaints and general support, because of social networking. Before, customers would have to usually wait lengthy periods of time for a response from a customer service associate.
SEO Value – Social media popularity, such as shares, likes and favourites may affect how a business’s website is ranked on google because search engines like to make popular content readily available.
Improve Website Traffic – Links to a business’s website within social media that becomes popular and shared between lots of users may improve the website traffic as it may increase the amount that the website is visited.
Direct Interaction with Customers – Social media has allowed business’s to connect with customers in real-time and provide direct feedback which gives them a good reputation as possible customers see that the business put the customers first and deal with queries, complaints and supports as quickly as possible.
Improve Brand Awareness – Social media allows businesses to promote their brand and use designs, advertisements and information which is unique and stands out from other brands. This helps them attract new customers, new employees and makes the brand easy to remember compared to others.
Lead Ads – An example of a strong Lead Ad, is Facebook Lead Ads which allow users to only need to use a few clicks or taps in order to connect with your business without leaving Facebook. You can select how much information is taken from the lead, so that not too much or too less is taken. They work by the user giving information for something such as a coupon (digital), or a test drive.
Influencers – Influencers are users of social media who have thousands of followers and people interested in their pages and posts. A benefit of using social media for businesses, is that people can be hired to ‘try out products’ or promote them to their social media pages. This helps because it means businesses get shared about and seen by a lot of different users due to the high amount of followers and likes or shares that the influencer receives.
LIMITATIONS
Time – A lot of time is needed in order to keep the social media accounts updated with relevant information and updates, if the page is not full with enough content, then customers will not find it interesting. Time is also needed so that customers are answered within a short amount of time as otherwise it can cause bad reputation.
Investment – It is not easy to create a social media profile without it looking basic or not professional, which means that you may need a qualified person to create and maintain it. This means companies may need to invest in someone to do this for them.
Bad reputation – When using social media, businesses should ensure that they give the best service because if customers are not dealt with well then bad things may be spread about the company.
Privacy and security – Personal information about customers or private information about a company may be easy to access or expose. This could be damaging for a business.
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