Simple question, therefore it should be a yes or no answer right? However in this case-my answer, from what I have researched and experienced is ‘it depends’. It depends on the company itself, their products and clientele and if it is suitable for social media as many people and companies are jumping on the social media bandwagon but it does not necessarily means it is for everyone and that you will get your desired results.
According http://www.cnbc.com
“36 percent said their goal was to acquire and engage new customers, 19 percent said to gain leads and referrals, and 17 percent said to boost awareness. Facebook was most cited as the hardest to maintain social-media platform, according to the survey”.
The above statement clearly proves my point that it is not for everyone and that there are advantages and disadvantages to social media. I can admit it is a great tool for communication among other things, but there is con’s as well when it comes to social media. 
Business Advantages include:
- Help build your brand as you can post events for people to attend
- Using the network as a platform to get assist with job hunting
- Sites are free, user friendly, and easy to start up/create an account/profile
- Convenience as it is at the touch of a few buttons for instant access-(Smartphones, Wi-Fi), especially with latest technology
- Connect with people, potential and current clientele and engage with them for feedback, as well as advertise new products. This helps build your image, brand and reputation.
- Quick Turnaround: If you plan and strategize correctly, it can have positive results and almost instantly-become viral.
- Search Engine Ranking: When you do it the right way it brings large amount of backlinks that also impacts your search engine ranking.
Business Disadvantages include:
- By using the incorrect platform and not strategizing, you can ruin your brand and reputation
- Inappropriate broadcasting can result in the company not reaching their desired target market
- Time consuming especially for advertisers and marketers.
- Impact on worker productivity negatively. Employees may waste valuable time sitting on these sites and gossip and when bad things happen at work, they vent it out on Facebook for example.
- Can’t be measured as people are aid to like profiles and pages and people create fake accounts.
“About 61 percent of small businesses don't see any return on investment on their social-media activities, according to a survey released Tuesday from Manta, a social network for small businesses. Yet, almost 50 percent say they've increased their time spent on social media, and only 7 percent have decreased their time”.
But not everyone has to have it. It would be to your advantage to hop on this social media bandwagon as a company, but it depends if you are going to manage it correctly etc. Not all companies have a social media account and if they do some don’t bother engaging with clients and updating their profile which adds to their reputation as these accounts can make or break a company’s reputation.
For many there has not been proven ROI but for some it has helped in other ways. Some people think it is all about the freebies to give away to attract clients. Some companies think by having many likes it is a good sign, but people do that for different reasons- a lot for freebies if they can stand a chance to win then they don’t even pay attention to the actual company etc unless they are given freebies or something. Just by liking a page it does not mean you support them or buy from them, therefore social media is not as handy as it may seem, especially it cannot be measured.
I personally see it more for what it originally was created for and the meaning in the name-social, meaning engage and connect with family and friends all over the world.
Therefore the choice is yours.
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