Selling On Social Media: Pros & Cons

Social media, it has not only become a trend but the latest outreach platform.

What originally started as a means of facilitating connections between friends and families, is now a world-wide marketing tool for both small businesses and large corporations alike.

It has become the most powerful tool in the toolshed. Leaving behind outdated brick and mortar marketing collateral such as sales brochures and printed product information, it has created an entirely new realm for sales potential. As more and more people of all demographics begin to download social media apps like Facebook and Instagram, companies are formulating effective strategies to engage with their new target audience, and ultimately boost sales.

Through the many rewarding transactional benefits that social media offers, there are

several things to note when approaching this new venture. As the saying goes, all that glitters is not gold and there is definite truth to this in regards to selling and buying on social media.

So what’s the caveat? Below are the most prevalent pros and cons of buying and selling via social media.

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Pros

Ad Spend

With the constant inflow of new businesses marketing their products to the general public

on social media, ads are a must. They enable you to reach audiences that organic growth can’t compete with. The most notable thing in regards to ad spend is that it can either be fiscally inexpensive or monetarily valuable. Social media platforms give you the opportunity to make advertisements range from only $1 a day to $1000 a day, making it possible to have both cost efficiency and successful results.

Market Research

Buying and selling on social media gives you the ability to perform quick and easy tests

on products and/ or services that you provide that can further your productivity. By having the

ability to create polls and questionnaire features, you can effortlessly gather feedback from your target audience that will give you access into which products are of most interest, thus allowing you to gage your strategy and focus in an advantageous way.

Easy Customer Accessibility

Around 80% of the worlds population is on social media. What this means for you is that

your customers have never been easier to access. By simply following their accounts and

engaging with current customers and potential leads, you create and further relationships through the positive reinforcement that social media provides. The effect that this creates is higher customer loyalty, that makes selling products and services easier than ever.

Continuation of Brand

Your brand story is of utmost importance; therefore having a platform where you can

further your brand’s mission statement will resonate well with your audience. Now more than

ever, people want to work with companies that align with their own values and motifs. So

people’s perception of your brand's personality through your social media profile can very

quickly equate to higher growth.

Boost Sales

Selling and buying on social media not only gives you more access into the

day to day lives of your clients, but it allows you to be more accessible to your clients and leads that were already searching for the services you provide. Through tools such as hashtags and algorithms, an increase in sales (especially for global markets) is bound to happen once you start being active and persistent on your social media sites.

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Cons

Time Management

Whether you’re a small business owner interested in increasing your brand awareness, or

a large corporation who wants to further their growth and development, managing social

media platforms is very time consuming. You need to be organized, detailed, creative, in tune with the latest trends, and able to plan ahead. In other words, to have a reputable social media profile you simply can’t procrastinate. You have to put in the time and dedication in order to reap any benefits.

Waiting Period For ROI

As much as everyone would love to go viral, or become an overnight sensation on their

social media profile gaining them thousands of loyal followers and potential leads, seeing a

profitable outcome for your business profile will only result through patience. The ultimate key to engaging with your audience well enough for them to buy your products, is through

consistency. Being constant in your engagement with them, in your everlasting ad target

audience modification, in creating new AB testings, etc. There will be a positive return on

investment, but again patience is virtue with this.

Possible Encounters With Negative Users

One of the downsides to social media is that although it’s inclusive to all sorts of people,

you can easily stumble across trolls and scammers. This can also include hateful comments,

spam, and even hackers. A way to solve this challenge when trying to run a business-type social media is modifying your settings so that you get notified as soon as anyone interacts with your page, easily enabling you to delete any rude commentary. Also, setting a very strong password that will make hacking into your account very unlikely.