Among these writes one site are:

• Bad Branding – The wrong online brand strategy can doom a company, and put you at a huge viral social disadvantage.
• Commitment – I have mentioned this in past articles, but it really can’t be over stated. If your company decided to start a blog, twitter feed, or Facebook page, then designate someone to maintain it.
• Relevant content! – Let’s be honest. Blogs and Twitter feeds tend to take on the persona of their authors and this is a bad, bad thing!
• Time – I mentioned before that getting involved with Social Media is very time consuming.
• No short term ROI – The honest truth is that Social Media Marketing is a long term strategy. Seeing a return could take anywhere from a few months to a year before a company sees the benefits of increased customer loyalty and sales.
• The risk of negative comments – Any time a company opens itself up to open criticism there is the possibility of negative comments about a product or service.

Another blog that i read states,

News in the social media spread like bushfire around the world because of the viral potential of the media. This is the case even when the news are negative or in bad taste. One malicious posting from an individual can cause the good name of your company to be tarnished in a matter of hours. The problem with such this viral spread of the message is that the damage caused might be irreversible.

And Chron.com concludes it with,

Updating your social media accounts takes time and effort. A senior person with knowledge about the company and products should handle your social media presence, and the cost in time means the media is not completely free. It is ongoing work to find new angles about your products continually and to post and re-post information. The information is only visible for a short time before newer posts replace it. In addition, publishing obvious advertising copy is unacceptable in the social media world, therefore you must present the information in the form of conversation or you will lose followers.

Social media marketing carries several risks. Unless you have someone check your social media accounts several times a day, disgruntled customers or employees can publish negative comments that are not always removable. For example, every post on Twitter is public and you have no control over what people say. Bad news can go viral as easily as good news and can do your business irreparable harm. IT governance group the Information Systems Audit and Control Association released a report in June 2010 ranking viruses and malware, brand hijacking, lack of control over corporate content, unrealistic customer expectations and non-compliance with record management regulations as the top five risks of social media.

And now that you know the Pros and Cons, its up to you to decide if you should continue with this Marketing strategy.

It also sites 5 major advantages that can come out of it. And here they are:

1. Better Targeting

Another site summarizes the advantages into these:

1 – Social Media Marketing is a FUN way to do business.

2 – It is a cost effective “Internet Marketing strategy that can create viral results.

3 – Companies have the ability to make “social” connections with consumer markets.

4 – It drives traffic to your website, blog, articles, etc.

5 – The traffic results in website links, blog comments, lead generation and sales conversions.

6 – Social Media marketing expedites online brand development.

7 – Major social networks integrate with one another, blogs, widgets and other social sites.

8 – You have the ability to immediately educate a larger public about your industry & business.

9 – Social networking is just as effective as offline networking; like speed dating if you do it right.

 

And lastly an article from Chron.com concludes that

The main advantage of social media marketing is cost-related. The majority of social media sites are free to access, create a profile and post information. The advantage of reaching your targeted market for little or no cash investment is substantial, and the audience wanting your information voluntarily joins or follows you. Pay-per-click advertisements on sites such as Facebook are “geo-targeted” according to specific criteria, to reach the correct audience. The viral nature of social media means that each person who reads your posts has the capability to spread the news farther within his own network, so information can reach a large number of people in a short time.

Now that you know the advantages, what are you waiting for? Want to give it a try?

Social-marketing.org defines it as the planning and implementation of programs designed to bring about social change using concepts from commercial marketing.

They also writes down that among the important marketing concepts for it are:

• Action is the objective
• The target audience is the focus
• The exchange is critical
• Segment markets
• Use all four Ps
• Analyze and beware of competition
• Monitor and be flexible

A brief history on it can be found on Social-marketing.com stating that,

Social marketing was “born” as a discipline in the 1970s, when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to “sell” ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Kotler and Andreasen define social marketing as “differing from other areas of marketing only with respect to the objectives of the marketer and his or her organization. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society.” This technique has been used extensively in international health programs, especially for contraceptives and oral rehydration therapy (ORT), and is being used with more frequency in the United States for such diverse topics as drug abuse, heart disease and organ donation.

Marketing can be a positive thing to the community when social awareness is carried out with it. And it doesn’t mean less profit. It just mean being more responsible to your community as well as being a good entrepreneur.