Social media

Types of social networking sites

• Social networks. This is the most common, prevalent type of networking services. It offers a friendly format of communication and focuses on helping the user to establish connections with both familiar people and those whom he doesn't know in real life yet. A striking example is the extremely popular Facebook platform.

• Entertaining websites. These resources unite users in concordance with their hobbies. People enjoy such communities because it's a really great way to find like-minded people.

• Educational platforms. If the resources of the previous type united users according to their hobbies and interests, then, in this case, the connecting element is the learning process. That is, we’re dealing with an educational web service allowing students and teachers to interact online, gain access to research opportunities, and take advantage of other social network features.

• Scientific & academic communities. Students and their teachers are not the only ones needing a platform for communication, research scientists also require a special resource in order to share their experience and knowledge.

• Corporate resources. A corporate social networking website can become a full-fledged tool to improve your sales: goods, services, products. That’s why businessmen striving for commercial success are ready to create a social networking community of some sort. By the by, it’s also a good way to unite your colleagues and help increase loyalty to the company.

• Professional platforms. The clearest example of such sites is LinkedIn. Of course, we're talking about a platform allowing professionals from various industries to communicate in a more convenient way. They can discuss business matters, arrange for an interview, and even seek or offer a job.

• Dating resources. These networking platforms are also becoming increasingly popular. They help people find their soulmates, and you, as the owner, get a chance to earn from it. A wonderful win-win situation!

• Information websites. It's time to recall Quora and Reddit - online platforms for finding answers to your questions. Let's illustrate with an example. Say, you want to build a social networking website and don’t know where to start. You google different queries, but the result doesn't satisfy you. A good solution in such a case is to ask advice from those who have already encountered similar problems. And this is where information sites come in handy: you ask a question and get an expert answer, sometimes even a few ones. Surely, you, too, can answer questions from other users.

• Media sharing platforms. Users need these resources to exchange media content: images, video, audio... Youtube and Instagram are great instances of such platforms.

Social Media Pros and Cons

 Pros of social media.

1) It's low cost and effective

The software are  free and there are no subscription costs.

Facebook, twitter, instagram and more are all free to join and use which means getting up and running with social media costs significantly less than almost any other marketing channel.

It is perfectly possible to run effective and successful social media campaigns with little or no budget and its really fun.

2) There's a huge potential audience 

Social media platforms are now ubiquitous, with the world and his dog checking in on a regular basis.

Facebook has over 2.2 Billion users worldwide for example. With such a huge reach you have the possibility of getting your message in front of the largest possible audience. So here's a chance to go viral.

If you post something that captures your audience’s imagination, then it can be shared, giving you a chance to be popular.

3) It’s not just marketing

Social media is just not marketing– it’s a channel used for customer service, business intelligence, news, messaging, help and so much more.

4) It starts a conversation 

Social media is, by its very nature, social. It's a chance to get intimate with your prospects and customers.

You have a completely different kind of relationship with your prospects and customers on social media than in any other marketing channel. It’s a two-way conversation that allows for a much deeper level of engagement. As a form of communication, it is about as close as you can get to holding a conversation with someone without being in the same room.

5) You get real-time feedback

Because social media is a 24/7 communications channel you can get instant feedback on your marketing campaigns – enabling you to update and fine-tune your marketing posts. Very easy to use.

It can also provide you with an immediate and honest assessment of your organisation, products, services or posts – for better or for worse.

6) It's a great market research tool

There are many simple, free or low-cost monitoring tools for social media that will allow you to learn basic information about the market you are in. You can gain intelligence on competitors, prospects and clients, and get insights on your organisation, products and services.

7) It creates loyalty and makes referrals easy

By engaging with your customer base you can create a group of loyal followers, and as long as your product or service quality is meeting their needs, you will are likely to gain unsolicited testimonials and referrals.

Social media is all about the sharing, so this can work powerfully in your favor with customers becoming online advocates for your business and grow up.

8) You want data?

You got it because of the nature of social media, there is always plenty of data that can be collected and analysed. This should enable you to track your progress and see how effective your posts are. It will also tell you when your target audience is online and what kind of content they respond to. Using this information allows you to target the timing of your posts and maximize the potential for engagement.

9) It helps you get found (SEO)

There is a lot of evidence to show that being active much will help you to ranked on search engine such as Google.

The key though is is to do it through the creation of valuable, useful and quality content.

And don’t forget that many users of social media actually search within those channels – so if you are not on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, then you won’t be found in those searches.

10) It's an ideal way to promote content

It’s no good producing loads of great blog posts, eBooks, web content and the like if you don’t tell anyone about it.

 Social media help u to promote your content.

 Cons of social media.

1) How much time do you have?

Whilst the software tools and cost of entry may be negligible, the cost in terms of time is significant.

In order to successfully employ social media in a marketing campaign, you need to invest substantial amounts of time over a long period to see useful results.

It takes a high level of commitment, which ultimately costs significant amounts of money. But the more time you give to social media, the greater the results.

2) You need to be committed

Not only do you need to stick at it, you need to constantly feed it too. Most social media channels need constant attention to maintain momentum.

Like other forms of content creation, you need to make it part of your daily routine.

3) It’s not just marketing

Yes, this one is both a pro and a con as it’s not quite as neat and tidy as other channels which are generally just marketing.

You're going to get feedback on your products and services and you're going to have to deal with customer service issues and queries from prospects.

You'll need to ensure that you have the means to deal with all those non-marketing issues before you start, establishing appropriate channels and protocols within your own organisation.

This implies a co-operative culture between departments and a certain level of commitment from senior management.

Dealing with customer issues in a timely and genuinely helpful manner will serve as a great advert for your company.

4) Things change fast

It can easily become a full-time job just to keep up with the latest trends and current best practice.

New social media platforms are launched and others die. This dramatically affects planning and strategy; so you have to keep reviewing and revising on an on-going basis in order to stay relevant and effective.

5) It’s out of your hands

Other forms of marketing allow you to tightly control the message and its distribution, making sure that only that message is communicated and nothing else.

Social media, on the other hand, is like a wild jungle. Once you release your message you also relinquish control as it is shared, commented upon and added to. 

What’s more - with peer to peer social networking - customers, prospects and the general public could be talking to each other about your product, service, brand or company and you wouldn't even know.  

6) You can mess up big time

Social media is more casual and more open. But with the sheer volume of posts and constant conversation, it can be easy to take your eye off the ball and make public something you shouldn’t have or post something that is open to misinterpretation.

Some companies choose not to utilize social media for just this reason – they are too scared of making a mistake.

7) Masses of data does not equal ROI

Even though there may be a wealth of data available, it can be surprisingly difficult to measure the Return On Investment (ROI) of your social media efforts.

This is because most of the data only really shows you how popular you are, not how effective your posts are at getting the message across or whether that message is being retained and acted upon by your target audience.

8) You're on show to the world

Social media usage spans many countries of the world, and so will your content - something to bear in mind if you have different strategies and pricing in different countries.

You'll also need to be aware of variations in legislation and differing cultural backgrounds – what might be perfectly acceptable in one country might be totally outrageous in another.

9) You have to have a good product or service

In a world where every customer can share their experience – good or bad - where everyone expresses an opinion, and where it all gets shared on social media platforms and review sites, there's nowhere to hide if your product or service isn't up to scratch.

You have to be sure that your product or service is good and your company is ethical before you even start creating content and marketing to social media users. 

I’d go so far as to say that today, you simply can't afford to have a bad product or service. Gone are the days where you could simply spend money on marketing to promote a poor product and it would work.

10) You can get hooked

Using social media professionally to promote a product or service takes time and commitment. But there is also a very real danger that you can becoming completely assumed by it.