Many Malaysian businesses and brands have jumped on the bandwagon in social media marketing. However, the social media disadvantages are still unknown to most.
Social media has revolutionized the way how brands can market themselves and present to the public. From traditional billboards to online ads, the extent of marketing has widened tenfold because of the internet.
In fact, engaging with the internet is almost a necessity for businesses to compete fiercely.
Although setting up a social media account is easy as pie, managing a social media account is more complex than presumed. There are disadvantages as much as advantages in social media marketing that you should be aware of.
In short, social media marketing can be a blessing or a curse.
The disadvantages of social media can be discouraging for any business owner to kickstart their social media account. However, these disadvantages can be easily prevented with suitable measures.
Therefore, we’re going to explain some of the most impactful drawbacks of social media so you can be aware.
The Disadvantages of Social Media
There are many disadvantages that inexperienced business owners often fall victim to. Thus, every brand and business should be equipped with the right measures to tackle them.
1. Negative and Unconstructive Feedback
Receiving positive feedback is one of the perks of a social media account. However, negative comments and unconstructive feedback are not exempted.
Let’s say your brand committed a mistake in customer service. Your brand is likely to face numerous criticism depending on the brand’s popularity.
Although criticism is essential, unhelpful comments such as insults or internet trolling contribute nothing to improvement. Negative commentary may also spur social media account managers that are more sensitive and emotionally inclined.
When your brand receives negative backlash, it is important to remain composed and clear-headed. In fact, emotional responses such as passive and impulsive aggression may tarnish your brand’s image further.
Therefore, social media account managers should always be calm and opt for responses that are:
Polite
Factual
Accountable for genuine mistakes
…Or choose to ignore them.
READ MORE: Market Development Strategy: How Digitalization Helps Your Business?
2. Time Consuming
Did you think that social media management was a walk in the park? Unfortunately, establishing a positive online brand identity is incredibly taxing, especially for starting brands!
Although social media platforms are free of charge, building your online identity requires a lot of time and investment. It requires consistent time, engagement, and effective digital marketing strategies to stand out in a sea of social media competitors.
Sometimes, your social media efforts might fall short than you expected. However, you should never let it discourage you.
That’s because once you establish a solid online identity, it will be long-lasting, and you can reap numerous benefits.
If the social media account lacked the time and effort to manage it, it would be considered unreliable and outdated. Therefore, discouraging customers from interacting with the brand’s social media.
3. Reliant on Ads
Do you dislike ads? Unfortunately, social media marketing involves a lot of ads.
In fact, it’s one of the most convenient ways to make your brand visible to potential customers. Although it’s not a surprise, the reality that most attention stems from paid media may be a grim fact to many.
Moreover, ads don’t come for free. Social media ads require payment to maintain, and not all brands have the privilege to splurge on ad promotion.
Investing aggressively in ads for greater visibility may be tempting, but everything should be done in moderation. Proper social media marketing is “a little of everything” for a well-balanced image.
A social media account that primarily receives engagement through organic reach is a luxury every brand must work hard for. It is also your greatest testament to the success of your brand.
4. Consistent Engagement
As aforementioned, managing a social media account is a time-consuming activity. Therefore, one can expect that the management requires frequent and active engagement.
Social media account managers always need to stay active and monitor social media marketing efforts. It is also necessary to be prompt to incoming inquiries and address customers for a healthy brand and customer relationship.
After all, a brand that lacks the urgency to address customers would be seen as slow and unreliable. Moreover, brands should be updated with current trends and internet culture.
By being updated with upcoming trends, trends can be used to the brand’s advantage to create effective marketing strategies and relatability.
Customers are always searching for the newest trends, and internet culture has always been more relatable to internet-savvy audiences.
5. Complicated Measurements
Reach? Engagement? Impressions? Algorithm? Do all these social media marketing jargon confuse you?
Social media accounts and pages come with numerous beneficial tools for monitoring performance. You can analyze the number of engagements you receive on a post or how often your content is seen.
However, social media tools can be complicated to understand for the newbie brand owner. Moreover, the wrong understanding of these terms could complicate brand marketing analysis further.
Therefore, it is important to be familiar with each of these terms. It is also equally important to employ a competent marketer to handle such data.
Although these social media marketing tools can be intimidating, it is essential to understand the basics for the long run.
6. Competitor Analysis
One of the worst things that could happen to any brand is successful competitor analysis. After all, establishing your brand on a public platform opens you to international audiences and even competition.
Social media accounts are among the best ways to observe brand competitors. Rivalling brands will be able to analyze your brand’s strengths and shortcomings.
For many brand owners, having rival brands take advantage of pre-existing issues and weaknesses would be highly disadvantageous.
However, these challenges are simply a part of social media marketing. Brands should be aware of their own cons and take the appropriate measures to address them.
A friendly rivalry might even be the catalyst to invoke a competitive drive in your company. Moreover, analyzing competitors isn’t a strategy limited to your competition either- your brand can utilize it too.
READ MORE: Branding Vs Marketing: Difference Between Branding and Marketing
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