Social media has created a revolution in the world of sharing ideas, skills, interests, information, and many other expressions virtually through networks and communities. People are going far physically and coming close virtually due to the uprising named Social Media. In this article, we will deeply discuss the Social Media SWOT Analysis
Use Of SWOT Analysis For Social Media
Social media is a boundless concept. After using the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, the companies don’t need to calculate every element for the business growth. They only have to determine, analyze, and work on the SWOT analysis. This analysis must be done regularly for the company and individuals to stay in line with the changing world.
Social Media-SWOT Analysis
Strengths Of Social Media
Increased online visibility
People use social media vastly. It helps the companies to communicate easily with the audience. Similarly, the traffic coming towards the company’s website or social media accounts can be increased by using the same. One social media account advertising one product may address other social media account for advertising other products of the same company. It increases the number of customers for various products from the same source.
Higher conversion rate
It is the percentage of the people who have performed some expected action. The presence of a company on social media personifies it. People are more comfortable interacting with an individual rather than interacting with the whole company.
Effective communication
The audience or customers are free to comment under the social media posts. Thus, the company can quickly understand the needs of the audience without implementing any costly campaigns. It will be comfortable for both the audience as well as the company.
Cost-effectiveness
It is the major strength of social media. Signing up and logging into the social media accounts is free. The company may promote its products through free posts or paid advertisements. However, these advertisements cost lesser than other marketing strategies. The companies can spend less in the beginning to check the effectiveness of the paid advertising. If it turns out to be beneficial, the company may continue with the paid advertising.
Establishment of expertise
Individuals can establish themselves as experts and leaders in marketing through social media. Well-written content can boost their writing skills and creativity. It can also be achieved using different content management and networking tools.
Weaknesses Of Social Media
Hurtful statements
Some of the comments mentioned by the audience may be hurtful. Maintaining formality in communication from the audience’s side is optional. So, some won’t choose to be formal or respectful.
Loss of one-on-one communication
Using social media is an advantage for individuals with good writing skills but not for individuals with good face-to-face communication skills. They have to depend on their keyboards instead of their fluency in speaking. One cannot guess how confident the customer is while commenting on anything under the social media posts. Also, a reader’s character cannot be identified. Generally, people act to be happy on social media even if they are not in real life
Boosts laziness
The readers and the writers can easily use social media without moving from the place. Generally, both of them cannot see each other’s expressions. Also, an individual cannot recognize the behavior, facial expressions, emotions, and feelings of people across the globe. Thus, they fall short of experience with the real world.
Viral content
Anything can immediately get viral through social media even more than the news channels, and the people included in the viral content may not even know about it. Privacy gets highly compromised. The world believes in shooting the victims rather than helping them. People want to be famous immediately through social media. So, the quality of the content gets compromised on a large scale.
Opportunities For Social Media
Easy understanding of the products
The companies and the individuals can share their ideas via plain text, images, gifs, videos, pdfs, podcasts, software applications, and much more. These elements should be elaborative enough to save the time of the target audience in understanding the content.
Cross-linking
The companies or individuals have a great opportunity to increase their presence on social media by appearing on popular web pages. They may appear in the form of recommended links or advertisements.
Social news
People and various organizations have now started using social media as the main platform to declare something. Twitter is commonly used for that. They don’t even have to organize special press conferences. They just have to write and/or add text, videos, and images related to an incident and inform the world. Similarly, the news gets viral through social media. However, an authorized person should declare something on social media to confirm the authenticity of the content.
Reach Of Social Media
The mobile phones can reach where the media and CCTV cameras cannot. sometimes, even the journalists have to depend on social media rather than their channels for real-time updates. Even the audience doesn’t bother to watch TV because many things are available through social media.
Threats For Social Media
Attractiveness
This field mainly works on attractiveness as the audience cannot be forced to do something, but they can get attracted to the same. Catchy headlines play an important role because a headline is the center of attraction for the remaining content. If the headlines are not catchy, the audience will not visit the link.
Long and boring content
The target audience can be notified about various offers, events, strategies, and much more. But the content should not be boring. Though people spend more time on social media, they cannot be engaged to the same content for a long time. They will scroll down the content rapidly. So, catchy headlines and short descriptions play a vital role here.
Authenticity
The companies and individuals have to prove their authenticity by mentioning their valid email addresses, full names, achievements, and links to other social media accounts. Some optional information for the same may include active contact numbers, valid addresses, employee photos, honest customer reviews, profession, profile images, and strong references. This helps the audience to trust the host. Else, the audience may stop believing a particular person or company on social media.
Unknown emotions
The company personnel cannot have a look at the expressions of the audience. Though the readers post various comments, their real intentions or enthusiasm are hidden from the company. Sometimes, the company’s representatives can make out from the expressions of the potential customers whether they will continue to have a relation with the company. But this is not always possible with social media. It may lead to false expectations as the readers may show enthusiasm in the beginning but drop out later.
Conclusion
SWOT analysis cannot be created for social media in a company until the strategic goals of the company are known. Also, the Social Media SWOT analysis will be different for every company. Most companies have a huge separate team working only for managing the company’s presence on social media. Thus, SWOT analysis plays an important role here.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What Things Should Never Be Talked Over On Social Media?
Answer:
- Threats, abuse, and offenses
Bad wishes, threats, adult content, abuse, racism, and other types of offensive content should not be posted on social media platforms. Many countries have laws against the same. People should think a lot even before joking on social media platforms.
- Illegal or drug-related content
Individuals that post something related to smuggling, drug dealing, and other crimes may land up in American jails. Such employees are not entertained by the companies.
- Short forms for almost everything
The quality of communication on social media gets degraded due to the unnecessary short forms with negligible meanings. The users are still expected to be formal while communicating with the companies.
- Grammatical and spelling mistakes
Many readers come across social media posts. Spelling and grammatical mistakes spread an incorrect way to communicate. Employers don’t want employees who spread messages with incorrect statements.
- Can The Same Social Media Strategy Be Carried From One Platform To Another?
Answer:
No. The content on a specific platform must be in line with the policies of the platform and the target audience using it. The business goal and concept can be the same but the way of presenting it cannot be the same for all platforms. For example, YouTube can be used to communicate through audio, video, and elaborative images whereas, Quora can be better used for creative writing, and Twitter can be used for short and simple statements.
- What Is The Difference Between A Post And An Ad On Social Media?
Answer:
A post contains elaborative original content. It looks more natural than the ads. Related posts always appear after the ads in the search results. The company doesn’t have to pay if a user opens the posts. Posts can be long but engaging. They are mainly used to inform the followers about new features and updates. It leads to customer awareness.
An ad (advertisement) is a paid method to promote something by hitting the target audience. Related ads always appear at the beginning of the search results. The company has to pay every time a user clicks on its ad. It is called Pay Per Click. Ads should be short, understandable, and to the point. They are mainly used to inform the target audience about a specific service or product. They lead the customers towards a purchase.