Since social media started, it has already become one of the most effective means for marketing different brands’ products and services. Nowadays, even small business owners and new entrepreneurs utilize it to find a bigger market for their businesses.
With the use of social media, awareness about the products and/or services of an entrepreneur physically located in Cebu City, for example, will reach anywhere in the Philippines, even abroad. If there is an awareness, demand is possible especially if that certain product or service is not available in the consumer’s area. The market will no longer be limited to the business location.
In connection to the aforementioned, without having to shell out an amount to advertise (such as when employing print ads), entrepreneurs can showcase their products and/or services the way they want because there are usually less to no limitations when creating contents on social media. Plus, interested buyers can also directly communicate with the entrepreneurs if further information is needed regarding the product or service. Thus, if there are any apprehensions on the side of the prospective buyers, it can easily be addressed by the entrepreneur. In addition to this, social media also has paid features that allow entrepreneurs to reach prospects who are most likely to avail the specific products and/or services they offer. With this, the fund used for advertising would have a higher possibility of more conversion than with other modes of advertisement.
Another advantageous factor that makes social media a great platform for marketing is the feature that allows customers to give feedback on the quality of one’s products and services. This will enable entrepreneurs to evaluate themselves and make improvements as necessary, as well as know their strengths. This can be treated as a customer service feature that entrepreneurs can freely utilize to their advantage. Aside from this, the positive feedback that satisfied customers leave will help assure non-customers, who are still thinking to get products or services, to decide. This is a virtual version of the proverbial word of mouth. How convenient, right?
While the advantages of marketing through social media are really great, it is also very important to note the disadvantages. Yet, this is not to discourage but to remedy these downsides.
As mentioned above as one of the pros, social media has a feature that allows customers to give their reviews of one’s products and/or services. This can sometimes be used against the entrepreneur if the customers are unsatisfied of either the quality of the product or the service of the seller. Needless to say, this will affect the trust of current customers and negatively impact the decision-making of non-customers. When people can’t physically see and scrutinize a product, they will really do a lot of research prior to buying to avoid regrets, so even one negative comment will be taken into account when they decide. The good thing is, this also has a possible solution. Entrepreneurs can address the negative feedback and offer solutions just like how customer service personnel of companies address complaints.
Moreover, it may seem easy to create a page or an account for products and services on social media, but creating contents and advertisements will really take a lot of time and posting new ones should be done daily if possible in order for entrepreneurs to show how active and updated they are. One may also feel disheartened if there are less to no reactions to a post or advertisement that has been painstakingly created for many hours or days. Well, yes, this experience might sting a little, however, this is a situation that any entrepreneur experiences if he/she is still new in business. Disinterest in a product or service is not new even to those who are not using social media for marketing. Therefore, this fact should just be accepted and dealt by finding ways to make the posts more interesting and attractive social media users.
As the cliché goes, the world is fast changing, so we should learn to adapt to the changes. Social media marketing is one of these very many shifts. In fact, it keeps on changing or updating itself with new technologies. In order to thrive in the world of business, entrepreneurs must always keep up with what’s new. The principle of continuous learning should be applied to this.
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