Pros and Cons of Using Social Media In Business.

So many businesses have social media networks, but how many of them actually work?
I've compiled my list of what I think the pros and cons of social media are, and what I think actually works when using social media in a business.
Feel free to comment if you agree/disagree or think some things should be added!

The Good; 

1. Social media is a way to interact with your clients/customers on a one to one basis, its quick and effective. You can also get clients/customers to join pages and recommend you to friends and family (depending on what network you're using) which in the long run can benefit your company massively!

2. Social media gives you the chance to show your companies personality to your customers, and tell them all about your amazing products and services.This in turn brings customer loyalty to your brand/company, meaning customers will feel your brand has personality, interacts with them and cares, and so will come back to you.

3. You can learn more about your target audience, by interacting with customers and asking for opinions and feedback. With social media also comes analytics, which you can use to see who is logging onto your pages, what age/sex they are and where they're from. Analytic can be as detailed or as simple as you like, and tell you so much about your audience, they really are an incredible value to your brand.

4. Social media helps you to reach a much wider audience than you would using using just a website or email. People from all over the world can view your brand's page over Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus etc. Giving you one foot over the competition. However this only works if what you post is compelling. Don't advertise 24/7, interact with clients and customers, post general comments, ask questions. Make your page something that you would want to read.

The Cons;

1. Social media can also be the downfall of your brand, customers and clients can leave bad feedback, so all potential customers can see it. Which in turn will put them off using your brand. However if you're a great brand who have fabulous customer service, you have nothing to worry about. This backfired when Mcdonald's used the #Mcdstories hashtag, and everyone started to post about their bad experiences at Mcdonalds. #Whoops.

2. Whatever you do, do not try and use national disasters to promote your brand, this has been done a few times and it DOES NOT work. Just please, dont do it. As you can see below it doesnt work and will make your brand well known for being 'the hated brand who have no feelings.' Also if something like this does happen, do not send the same reply to all your customers who complain, this will just annoy them more.

3. Drunk tweets. This is an extreamly easy one to do, if your trying to tweet to a personal account and accidently log on to a company account.. You can guess what happens. Even if you realise and delete the tweet/post, chances are someone has seen it. If you're going to drink, id suggest not using social media, or trusting your friends to make sure you tweet from the right account.
This happened to JCPenny at the superbowl, and it went viral within hours.

Luckily, they had a super creative team to come up with an awesome save in under an hour! #phew

 Thanks for reading, hope this gives you some ideas about what to do and what not to do when using social media in a business, it can make or break your brand!
#GoodLuck!

Until next time,
Laura xo