Social networks or social media have become a given in our daily lives. It is mainly used to communicate or interact with each other online. Social media has significantly grown in popularity this past decade, not only among individuals but also in businesses.
Let’s break down the name as an initial attempt to understand social media better.
“Social” – from the Latin “socius”, which means “friend”. So being social means being friendly.
“Media” – again comes from the Latin “medius” which means middle. So media is a communication mediation tool used to store and disseminate information or data.
Going from the basic definitions, we get this one “Social networks are applications or platforms where people or groups of people (businesses) socialize with their audience.”.
This is actually the best way to use social media. Many companies make the mistake of posting lengthy, yet not friendly content on social media.
You might be asking yourself now: How can I be friendly on social media?
For your content to be friendly or social, it must meet these 3 criteria:
1. Be interactive or engaging,
2. Connect people or maintain connections,
3. Provide value to all parties included in this social exchange.
If you’ve marked all three with a “check”, then you are using social media exactly for what it was created.
Like everything else, both social media and website, have their advantages and disadvantages. We want to put these side by side and see if we get a winner!
Advantages of Social Media
Free
The main advantage of social networks is that you can use most of them for free. The opposite is true for websites, where there is a cost for development and maintenance. Not only can you use social media for free, but you can also share your content with a wide audience for free.
Ready-made
All that’s left for you to do on social media is to upload a “media” of your liking. You don’t need to worry about building it because it is all ready-made for you.
Disadvantages of Social Media
Paradoxically, the disadvantages of social media come from its advantages. So don’t be quick to assume that I have mistakenly written the same thing twice. Na uh…
So, the disadvantages of social networks are also that they are:
Free
Despite the fact that you can use social networks for free, their algorithm needs to push your content into visibility. You can help make this happen through paid campaigns and advertisements. Year after year, this form of paid marketing is getting costlier. You can use socials for free, but you need to pay to play!
Ready-made
Social networks are standard, pre-made, and pre-modeled pages that store content and allow for small changes such as personalization of the cover and profile pictures, and content. They provide only a superficial promotion of your brand. Social media doesn’t necessarily do much in raising brand awareness or loyalty, and even if not used properly, it can even cause your business identity damage or loss.
That's about social media then what about the website? You can go to the next post to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the website.
Author: Rrere Hoxha / hallakate.com
