The Advantages and Disadvantages of social media for business
What are the pros and cons of social media?
Maybe you think social media is just a waste of business time.
That Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin are platforms that are only used to pass the time and have fun.
Maybe you believe that because you've ever tried to promote yourself or find clients through social media.
And unfortunately, it didn't work for you.
You might also think the exact opposite.
For you, social networks are great, and without them, your business would not be where it is.
So between those who have extraordinary results and those who don't, where is the truth?
This is what we will see in this article: Social media: Advantages and disadvantages
First, I'm going to tell you about the 4 big advantages of social networks for business and then the 4 big disadvantages and how not to fall into the trap.
At the end of the article, I show you a method to copy so that you obtain very satisfactory results on social networks with your business.
Social Media: Advantages and Disadvantages
Social media benefits in the business field
1 – There are many users on these platforms
Facebook and YouTube are respectively the second and third most visited sites in France. Source: https://miss-futee.com/top-100-sites-internet-2016-france/
In France, Facebook is the most used part of social network with 35 million users.
Follows Snapchat with 19 million users, Instagram with 17 million, Twitter with 12 million, Pinterest with 9 million, Linkedin with 6.8 million, and TikTok with 5 million. Source: https://www.tiz.fr/users-reseaux-sociaux-france-monde/
This means that it is among other things which exist on social media that your audience is found.
Then about what you sell and your customers, you will have to choose the right platform.
Facebook is consumer-oriented.
You will find everyone on this platform.
The age of the users ranges from 15 to 75 years old and all layers of society are represented there.
Instagram is more useful for selling anything visual.
And also works great for e-commerce.
The age group of users is younger than on Facebook.
Snapchat and Tiktok are more aimed at young people.
Finally, Linkedin is ideal for communicating B2B offers.
The population of the platform is essentially made up of entrepreneurs and white-collar workers.
2 – Social networks reinforce the notoriety of your brand
All brands are present on social networks to communicate about their products and seek new customers.
If you don't do the same, you leave the field free for the competition to get ahead of you.
It is by communicating regularly and providing value in your publications that you will strengthen the notoriety of your brand.
Because if you give helpful, life-changing advice, people will consider you an expert.
If you give them emotion, you will impact them deep within themselves and they will talk about you as the person who inspires them and helps them move forward.
This is how you will succeed in expressing yourself and look like a brand of authority with your target audience.
3 – Social media helps build customer loyalty
You know, retaining your customers means making sure that they come back regularly to buy from you rather than going to your competitor.
What can you do to retain your customers?
You can already offer them a quality product.
And above all an exceptional service around this product.
Then you have to show your customers that you are thinking of them and that they have a privileged status.
And you can use social media for that.
Your customers, if they are really fans of your work and your products, will surely follow you on Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin.
By sending them quality content regularly, you are already building their loyalty.
Because once again, you give them useful advice and inspire them.
You can also offer contests to win gifts or even offer special offers for those who subscribe to your page.
The more you gesture toward the people who follow you, the more they will become a fan of what you do.
4 – Social networks help you find new customers
Social media is a great place to find new customers.
But be careful, you cannot sell your products or goods from social networks.
People are primarily on social media for a very specific reasons, and buying a product is not one of them.
On Facebook and Instagram, people are there to have fun, see what's going on with friends, follow influencers, and see the latest news...
On Twitter, people are mostly looking for news.
On Linkedin, people are on the platform to network from a professional point of view.
If you wish or want to find customers on social networks, then you have to fit into the mentality of the platform.
On Facebook and Instagram, entertain people with original posts.
On Twitter, post scoops in your theme before everyone else.
Linkedin provides solutions to professionals in their respective fields.
Each time, bridge the gap between your post and your brand.
But don't push to buy.
Instead, offer a subscription to a mailing list to receive even more advice and special offers.
Disadvantages of social media in the business field
1 – Social networks are a source of distraction
While social media has many benefits for business, it is also an incredible source of distraction.
It's easy to spend hours at a time scrolling through the News Feed to find out what other people are up to.
Social networks are also optimized to flatter your ego.
This means that when you want to post something, you immediately want to refresh your page to find out if you have had new likes or comments.
And that can waste your time.
Imagine that every time you go to check that you have a new like, you are sucked in at that time by the publication of another person and in the end, it takes you 5 minutes each time.
When you want to check your account 10 times a day to find out where your likes are, you lose 50 minutes of work.
2 – Visibility on social networks is increasingly reduced
As I have already told you, there are several million users on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.
The problem is that the news wall of these platforms is limited in terms of space.
If you have 1000 friends, you can't see everyone's latest posts.
It's just impossible, there's no room.
And in addition, the economic model of the platforms is based on advertising.
Brands pay to display their posts on your news wall, which is already saturated.
In this context, your visibility is reduced.
Because every time you post something, your publication is put in competition with other publications.
Publishing and being visible is therefore a daily challenge.
3 – It is not always easy to have engagement on your posts
Social network users have passive behavior.
They are there to scroll the screen and watch what is happening.
They don't go looking for information, the information comes to them.
In this context, they are not ready to commit.
The most popular activity on social networks is the like because it is the easiest to do.
To comment, you must write.
To share, you have to commit by validating the post and this already requires reflection.
The problem is that you want more than likes.
Since you're here for business, you want your posts to go viral.
And for it to work, you first need comments and shares.
Unfortunately, it is much harder to get that from users.
4 – The intention of social media users is not to buy
As I told you, in social media, people are there to entertain themselves passively.
The intent of users is not to buy.
The buying process on social media is therefore a real headache.
You must first capture the attention of the user with a publication that makes him have a good time and which at that time proves your expertise.
Then, you have to get him out of the platform to enter into a more privileged relationship with him.
It is at this moment that we will offer him a registration for something and make his contact.
Be careful, we are not going to offer him an offer right away, we will first send him messages to deepen the relationship and qualify him further.
We are talking about educating the prospect.
It is only after a few messages that we can offer him an offer adapted to his situation.
Method to take advantage of social networks for business.
In conclusion, we can therefore say that you must have a presence or attendance on social media if you desire to develop your business.
It is on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. that you will find people whose interest is involved in your brand.
This is an opportunity for you to make yourself known, find new customers and increase your notoriety.
However, you must be careful not to fall into procrastination, because social media are traps to waste your time.
Finally, even if social networks represent a huge variety of opportunities for all brands, competition is fierce and users are not easy to convert into customers.
I'm going to show you a plan that you can copy for your business.
1 – You choose a single platform and you put all your strength into it
If you sell consumer products or your target is beginners, I recommend Facebook.
If your activity is visual, such as fashion or decoration, I recommend Instagram.
If you do B2B, go on Linkedin.
Each platform has its codes and I advise you not to spread yourself over 2 or 3 social networks at that time.
Learn the codes of a single network and exploit them to the fullest.
When you have succeeded on this network, you can choose a second one.
2 – Regularly post content with high-added value
Create a posting schedule.
For example every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and stick to posting quality content on these days of the week.
In your content, you must give practical advice that people can experience immediately and benefit from it so that they will see your expertise.
If you have no advice to give, you have several options.
Either you tell them inspiring stories.
That is to say stories of people who have done incredible things from scratch.
Be you give them an opinion on a current topic.
Be careful, your opinion must contrast with what everyone says, you must not be consensual.
You can even expose a theory that no one had thought of before.
You can also tell them about your life.
If fascinating or even funny things happen to you, you can share them.
The better your posts are, the more they will be commented on and shared.
So viral.
3 – For each post, make a link between what you just said and your product
Be careful, you must not talk about your product directly.
Otherwise, you will scare people away.
However, you can tell them: “If you liked this post, you can subscribe to my mailing list. I send a similar email every day to my subscribers”,
4 – You repeat this routine every week for 1 year
Gradually, you have more and more subscribers to your page.
Your posts are more and more share, liked, and commented on.
This brings in more and more people and your email list is filling up.
The emails you send are used to create a relationship of trust with your prospects.
Every day, they receive your advice or stories and you become someone close to them.
And when you have reached this stage, you can offer them your offers, because they are ready to listen to you.
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