Social Media Marketing: Friend or Foe?

In today’s digital age, social media has become an integral part of daily life, shaping how we communicate, share information, and interact with the world around us. Social media has essentially transformed the way we connect and consume content. Chapter one of Essentials of Social Media Marketing shows us that there are many advantages in utilizing social media specifically for advertising brands and companies, but to that same degree, there are also disadvantages within social media. 

The biggest advantages that stood out to me in the chapter were: the increase in brand exposure to larger audiences, improves communication between customers and employees, and increases sales and revenue. In my personal opinion, the aspect most consumers rely on and value is authenticity and transparency from the brands they interact with in order to build trust. Those are things that make people want to buy from you. I think using social media makes it so much easier for brands to establish that within their customers in a way that would otherwise be a lot harder without it.

Disadvantages of social media that caught my attention were: lack of emotional face-to-face connection, brands are more susceptible to negative feedback, requires additional resources to manage, and its viral nature can damage a brand's reputation instantaneously and permanently. Social media platforms have comments sections where consumers can voice their opinions, both positive and negative, about your brand in real-time. If a customer has a bad experience, they can share their frustration publicly, and it can quickly go viral and have detrimental consequences. 

For me, I use social media quite frequently when I buy a product. I look up reviews and read comments about quality, durability, practicality, etc and while it's useful for me because I can quickly find out if I should spend my money on something or not, it can cost companies lots of customers. However, if hundreds to thousands of people are saying a product has been cheaply made, maybe that company deserves it. 

While I do think a lot of harm can be done with the use of social media, it's entirely unavoidable within our society and it is where most people get their information and news from. If used proactively and with caution, it's incredibly useful for companies and brands to promote their products on a larger scale.