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Social Media Pros & Cons

What are Social Media?

Social media are the communication tools used in the Web 2.0 era. Following the subdivision proposed by Vincenzo Cosenza in his book “Social Media ROI“, we will have three categories:

  • Content management and publishing services (blogs, microblogs and podcasts).
  • Aggregation and sharing services for media objects (video/photo sharing, social bookmarking, music, news sharing) such as YouTube for uploading videos, Flickr for photos, Slideshare for presentations and Scribd for documents. Here the media object is the fulcrum of the relationship between people.
  • Social network, i.e. services through which you can manage and/or strengthen existing friendships or extend your network of contacts.

Cosenza also suggests a clear definition of Social Media: “Media are metaphors. They are those media that make it possible to socialize both the transport and the transformation of the message. In other words, the message is no longer only thought of and immutably directed from above, but becomes subject to modification and redistribution / resharing of anyone who has access to the Net“.

Social networks are portals where users can meet and share their interests. The user of a social network can therefore create a profile, that is, a page that contains the information he wants to share; he can create a list of contacts with which to share this information and interact with other users, generally with the same interests. Considering the different nature of the various social media, the relationships that will be generated will be mediated by the tool used and the rules in force in the social media itself.
These sites are able to bring people closer, break down geographical barriers and allow companies to make themselves known through the classic word of mouth.

Social Media as a resource

Social media therefore becomes an important resource for corporate business as well. Their “social” nature allows a direct contact with the customer and gives great visibility, but it is precisely this peculiarity that requires a large investment in terms of time and care of the corporate image.
The pros and cons that these tools bring with them are shown below.

Pro Contrast
Ability to get in touch with the right target, allow you to filter potential customers by location, age, job or personal interests Instruments in continuous evolution: they must be studied and followed constantly.
immediate meeting, allow to have a direct contact with the customer and to create a solid basis for customer loyalty. Full time work: we can’t afford an uncared-for social profile.
Social networks are inexhaustible sources of contacts. Subjective comments and reviews.
A study by UILM in Milan states that in Italy only 32.5% of companies actively attend and manage a social profile, making it easier to stand out. Anonymous comments and customer dissatisfaction can damage the company’s image and also remain imprinted in the minds of future customers much more easily than positive comments.
Social networks are indexed by Google, allowing you to get more visibility and are also characterized by word of mouth between the contacts of our fans and then promote our brand in a viral way.

It is difficult to estimate the true economic return on our social investment.
Cost content compared to advertising on TV, in newspapers, …

In conclusion, is it worthwhile to invest in social media or not?
New media are a necessary change on the road to improving consumer relations and experience, developing better quality products and services and increasing market share.
People, time, capital and technology are finite resources. Costs and opportunities will have to be assessed. If the organisation invests in new media, it must initially “create”, linking this new vision to its objectives and business strategy.
Brian Solis in the preface to “Social Media ROI“, suggests some key steps to take advantage of the new strategy.

  1. Start with passion
  2. Check your business goals and priorities.
  3. Translate this information into insights that can be translated into action.

  4. Document the success stories of competitors or other organizations whose activities are aimed at reaching similar consumer segments to yours.
  5. Develop ideas. Be creative and think beyond your goals and priorities… mission and vision centre the spotlight? Can they go beyond the obvious?
  6. Define the areas of your influence: what do you want to change, what effects do you want to cause?
    Document how you will measure progress and how you will relate performance to business objectives, priorities and the global vision.

Romina Bassani
Marketing Specialist
@ Starsystem IT



Pubblicato il 22 September 2019

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