Social Media - Pros & Cons

When I bought my first cell phone, I hardly imagined that it would also go onto replace my camera, alarm clock and walkman. A solitary product offering from Nokia eliminated the need to purchase other renowned brands such as Casio, Canon and Sony. Any new innovation presents immense opportunities for innovators and threats for laggards.

Social media allows each and every organization to define its brand; it opens up an immense landscape of opportunities for businesses. Primary among them is the capability to act as a platform for promotional or marketing innovations such as encouraging the employees and customers of the organization to host company logo on their twitter, orkut, facebook accounts and even blogs. This creates immense brand penetration. Not only can organizations use social media to build brand, they can also use it to interact with customers and show them that they care, which, in turn, breeds loyalty. Social media can also boost an organizations reputation and help in building relationships. On the internet potential for reeling in new leads is unlimited.

It is highly unlikely to spot a trader in Mumbai reading the Wall Street Journal or a trader inNew York reading the Economic Times. However, it is very likely to find them viewing one another’s profiles on LinkedIn and commenting on each other’s blogs. The internet, which forms the backbone of the social media, redefines the globe by erasing boundaries. A comprehensive company profile on LinkedIn complemented by employee profiles across management levels constitutes a sales booklet in itself for prospective customers across the globe.

Using social media an organization can reach customers that traditional marketing misses. The organization can learn how to improve its products and services. By encouraging open communication through public comments, the organization can learn how to make its products, services and pitch more palatable.

An important aspect of social media is that it is cost-efficient in comparison with other marketing methods, even if the organization has to hire a dedicated team or outsource its social media content needs.

The primary threat of social media is best demonstrated by recent tweets of Mr. Lalit Modi and Mr. Shashi Tharoor. The communicator often underestimates the magnitude and diversity of the recipient audience leading to unexpected reactions. Organizations face similar threat where an advertising site or employee’s opinion on a business or controversial subject may be implicitly interpreted as the company’s position on it, leading to negative publicity. This necessitates caution while choosing brand promoters and preferably defining rules, regulations or guidelines for expressing opinions.

Social media places high demands on talent and time. It can be difficult to constantly come up with innovative exciting content that interests a variety of readers. Content must be created, edited and published; comments must be responded to and sites and pages must be maintained. The efforts are not likely to earn immense popularity overnight and hence have a high gestation period.

Unfortunately, there are no globally accepted guidelines or empowered regulators. This caveat has resulted in individual companies coming up with their own guidelines whose monitoring and enforcement may require setting up of a social media department, as already done by Intel. This option, though redundant and an overhead is the solitary and hence mandatory requisite for companies looking to tap the social media wave.