SPJSM: Social Media- Pitfalls and Disadvantages

Pitfall : “A hidden or unsuspected danger or difficulty”

Disadvantage:  “An unfavorable circumstance or condition that reduces the chances of success or effectiveness”

Like any other marketing channel the social media strategy has its own pitfalls and disadvantages. Let us first focus on disadvantages which are listed below:

1.       Time intensiveness:  Commitment is extremely necessary for two-way communication and hence it requires considerable man-hours which small enterprises mightn’t be in a condition to provide.

2.       Trademark and copyright issues:  The marketers should regularly scout for the correct usage of their intellectual property to prevent misuse which might hurt the brand.

3.       Trust, Security and privacy issues:  This is especially true for online-transaction oriented firms, the transaction via Facebook or the Pinterest buy button should be handled with utmost care with regards to the user data so as to prevent frauds which might lead to brand erosion.

4.       User Generated Content: Soliciting the user-generated content into the marketing strategy comes with a risk of incurring legal liability for the content generated by individual participants of the campaign.

5.       Negative Feedbacks: Consumer can create a negative or a positive pressure out of which the former is extremely devastating for the business. This is a major risk as there is nothing much which the marketer can do in this situation and ignoring isn’t an option.

As we have discussed the disadvantages now we move towards latent complications which might arise during the campaign. Sending a few tweets or posting a few times doesn’t spell success in the social media world. Some of the following pitfalls should be avoided to help in increasing ROI. Some of the common pitfalls are listed below:

1.       Disorganized Information: This stems from not having a plan and ultimately leads to the consumers being bombarded with all sorts of irrelevant information. A business needs to have compelling content associated with a planned content calendar, a clear social media policy and measurable goals.

2.       Low interaction with Fans/ Followers: A company can build a reputation of being a strong service provider by listening to the troubles of the followers and responding to them. This happens at a very low cost but still only 29% of customer queries receive a response globally.

3.       Not tracking KPIs: The tracking should be religiously done for the pre-decided goals and the metrics should be regularly updated. These analytics help in tracking user behavior, garnering feedback and analyzing the lead generating activities which can subsequently by utilized for fine-tuning the campaign.

4.       Treating all social-media platforms as same: Each platform has its own lingo, audience and culture.  Promoting same message across platforms would classify as spam, rather the culture should be understood to help connect on a personal level.

5.       Using social media as a sales platform: Social media is for relationship building not sales, forging a brand connection, provide content which the users want to see and the not the content which the company wishes to promote. The promotional content can come into picture once the personal connection has been established.

~Submitted By
Vivaswan Pathak (PGP-14-155)