The Pros and Cons of Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

As a capper to this month's focus on social media mishaps and marvels, we're laying out what we think are the top three pros and cons of your social media strategy. While we're big fans of the must-do's of social media, understanding where the platforms fall flat is extremely beneficial--knowing how it can hurt can help prevent the hurt, and that's reason enough to take a look.

Also, scroll down for an added infographic on Social Media Marketing for B2B Companies.

Our first con is also a misconception. The truth is, increasing your ROI is a reachable goal for your social media strategy. The problem is, it isn't easy. Building a community of followers can take time, and every new strategy needs to follow through on the growing process in order to find success. There is no skipping to the beginning of the line, no bribe you could possibly make to expediate the process. It takes work, and a brand's comment or freshly published article rarely hits celebrity status overnight, especially if you're working with a baseline of followers. Make sure your strategy has long-term goals if you want to be successful in the future. 

Not only will it take time for your strategy to reach positive ROI, it will take most of your time, in general. After creating new content, editing said content, publishing the content, and advertising the content, your workday can pass in the blink of an eye.Then you need to respond to comments, answer questions, edit pages, post pictures, curate events—the list goes on and on. While, at first glance, it may seem simple if your job was running a company's Facebook account all day, anyone's who's been involved with social media full time would beg to differ. It's a game of checks and balances, where creativity is king and the ability to create new content on the fly is paramount to your business' success. 

To piggyback off of the previous "Con," producing new content is key when it comes to your social media marketing strategy. If you're unable to produce content regularly, your lead machine will be running on empty. Regular content is the sustaining force that can transform your business into a lead-generating machine. The goal is to produce valuable sources of information that Google can cite in search results, but the sad truth is, not enough companies are able to meet the demands of regular content production, which can jeopardize all of your social media marketing efforts. If you don't have the time to maintain your social presence, you need to consider if hiring outside help is a viable option. If your audience sees your last post was from months ago, they don't have much of a reason to trust what you have to say, which won't give you much weight in your industry, and could harm your brand in the process... 

One of the major positive takeaways from blogging or publishing via your company's social media channels is how it helps to establish your brand's voice. There is only so much stimulation to be found from your website, and only so much that can be said through its pages. By interacting through social channels, your audience gains access to a personalized window where they can speak to the brand at a human level. With it, you're able to project your brand's personality and show customers that you understand them, which fosters loyalty. It's worth mentioning that the longer your customers are loyal, the longer they'll dabble with your services. By boosting your reputation, you can build lasting relationships that can help you...

Traditional marketing can be hit or miss. You throw a small net into a large pond and hope you snag some guppies—on purpose, or otherwise. Social media marketing helps target prospects that would otherwise slip through the netting. With the advent of social media and its fixation on sharing, replying, and retweeting, information is contagious, and you'll never know who will land on your homepage, blog, or social media channel. In theory, your potential reach is limitless... it all depends on how much work you're willing to put in to keep the machine in motion. Networking professionals also have an easier time maintaining connections and communicating personally with clients due to the ease of social access. It can't be ignored. 

Maybe the most important pro from a social media standpoint is the ability to understand your audience on a personal level. Sure, there have always been ways to characterize target audiences in the past, but never on such a personal playing field. Now, customers can communicate directly with companies to voice their opinions, laud company decisions, and promote products they deem valuable. By encouraging open communication, businesses are actually fostering new ways to make their services relevant through happy customers. With the added aid of social analytics, companies can now see what triggers their customers to buy based on what their saying, when they're saying it, and how they got to the site. Don't believe us? Next time your scrolling through the Internet, write down the sites you look at or your search results. You'll see one of the pages or items you were looking for the in your Facebook Ads sidebar the next time you log on, trust us.

Do you have any social media marketing pros or cons that we missed? Tell us about them in the comments below. And don't forget to check out the Social Media Marketing Infographic for B2B's!