With the increasing number of users of social media networks, 2.46 billion active users in 2017 (Statista, 2017), companies of a wide range of industries are starting to include these networks in their digital marketing strategy as they offer the companies an unique and very cheap way to show their online activity in a location that is easily accessible for consumers. But is this the only advantage of social media networks? And do any drawbacks exist? Is the use of social media networks in the digital marketing strategy really the master secret of success or is the strategy actually destined to fail?

Advantages

According to Forbes (2014) social media networks provide companies with benefits such as:

• Improved Customer Loyalty: The Texas Tech University (2013) found out that companies that are represented on social media and thereby engage with the consumers enjoy a greater loyalty. They say: “Companies should take advantage of the tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their audience. A strategic and open social media plan could prove influential in morphing consumers into being brand loyal.”
• Increased Brand Recognition: Being present on social media networks increase the visibility and this is of huge value in today’s world. By being visible the company has a new way to spread the voice about content and news. This is of great importance for attracting new customers as it makes it easier for them to get access to the company.
• Build Social Trust: The band image that the company represents online affects the trust users build to the company. A company that interacts online with the consumers allows them to build a feeling of confidence. If these users share their experiences with the company online then this can also influence other users to trust the company.

Furthermore according to a study carried out by Hubspot (2017) social media networks have a lead-to-close rate of up to 100% higher than outbound marketing and it also allows companies to decrease marketing costs (Hubspot, 2017).

Examples of effective Social Media Network usage

FC Bayern Munich, the German football club, uses a wide variety of social media networks with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube being the ones with the most followers compared to the other football clubs in Germany. The club follows the approach “closer to the champion” and thereby wants to offer the consumer the opportunity to be well informed about the recent news and also to interact with the club.

FC Bayern Munich Followers:

A major reason for their success being the fact that they are very active in posting new information on their channels at least once a day. As they are not only present on social media in Germany but all around the globe this leads to a total number of website visits of 2.92million in December 2017 (Similarweb, 2017)

Another and very important factor is that all of the channels can be viewed on the phone as they are mobile friendly. As many people nowadays use their phones to find out information (Hern, 2015), websites and social media channels need to be accessible via portable devices to make the social media network channels even more effective.

Disadvantages

• Language: When using social media networks as an international company there will be users that speak different languages. Not all networks offer the opportunity to directly translate the post and if they do then often they translate not correctly. For a company using these channels it would therefore be useful to write their message in at least 3 different languages to reach a greater number of users.
• Negative Content/Feedback: As users can share their own experiences on the company’s’ social media channel, companies need to prepare to receive negative or bad feedback. This feedback is easily accessible by other users who might spread the word about this feedback which can then impact the company’s reputation and brand.

Example of negative Feedback

United Airline experienced one of the biggest wave of bad feedback in 2017 (Entrepreneur, 2017). A passenger took and later shared a video of a man who was forcibly dragged off the plane by security men because he was randomly selected to give up his seat for an employee of United Airline. This was already a bad feedback but the CEO of UA made it even worse when publishing a cold statement blaming the victim and stating that his employees correctly followed the procedure. Over the next weeks another similar situation took place with many United Airline customers saying they will never fly this airline again.

 

Conclusion

When seeing the case of FC Bayern Munich we can see, that social media networks can definitely be the master secret of success if the channels are effectively managed and interaction between the company and the consumers exists to build up brand reputation and trust. However if users experience something bad with the company, share this experience and the company is unable to effectively react on this bad feedback and manage the interaction between both sides, then social media networks can also hurt the business and the company might need to change its digital marketing strategy meaning the strategy failed.

 

References

• Bell, T. (2013).Establishing Brand Loyalty through Social Media. [online] Depts.ttu.edu. Available at: http://www.depts.ttu.edu/comc/research/outpost/blog/brand-loyalty.php#sthash.GymG5BDh.dpbs [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• DeMers, J. (2017).The 7 Biggest Social Media Fails of 2017 — So Far. [online] Entrepreneur. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/294925 [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• DeMers, J. (2014).The Top 10 Benefits of Social Marketing. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/#1fe57a731f80 [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• FC Bayern Munich (2017).FC Bayern München. [online] Facebook.com. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/fcbayern.en/ [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• FC Bayern Munich (2017).FC Bayern Official (@fcbayern) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/fcbayern/ [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• Hern, A. (2015).Smartphone now most popular way to browse internet. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/06/smartphones-most-popular-way-to-browse-internet-ofcom [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• Hubspot (2017).2017 Marketing Statistics, Trends & Data – The Ultimate List of Marketing Stats. [online] Hubspot.com. Available at: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics#Social%20Media [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• Kusinitz, S. (2017).16 Stats That Prove Social Media Isn’t Just a Fad. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-roi-stats [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• Similarweb (2017).com Traffic Statistics. [online] SimilarWeb. Available at: https://www.similarweb.com/website/fcbayern.com [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• Statista (2017).Number of social media users worldwide 2010-2021 | Statista. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/ [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].
• Wee, R. (2017). Most Popular Social Media Networks In The World. [online] WorldAtlas. Available at: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-popular-social-media-networks-in-the-world.html [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].