In the modern era, internet gives us huge opportunities such as being connected with people all around the globe, creating, sharing and disseminating content, gaining and searching for information, and keeping us up-to-date. Nevertheless, there are indisputable outcomes due to the widespread development of internet where an extensive use of social media is at the top.

These crucial changes happened in a business establishment, representations, marketing and strategy-setting as well. The use of social media has become an integral part of setting business plans and become one of the most gainful and low-cost tools for promoting products and services to reach the target audience. As a result, social media have become a veritable marketing tool for small and medium enterprises that have little capital and resources.

Social networks give the opening to be in direct contact with clientele, listening to their needs with constant feedback. This allows a brand to progress gradually and get closer to customers by improving the experience. This direct access creates a human and trustworthy relationship, an indispensable requirement for any business. Establishing such intimacy has a direct impact on company sales with a prospect to produce a recurring customer base.

A new business that wants to get the word out about its impressive offerings can use social media to create customers. By sharing expert content and building relationships with individuals and other brands, they will start building trust and authority.

If our goal for social media is to increase inbound traffic, we can share valuable content, boost content, create leads, and generate campaigns. Through advertising, we can run campaigns that target the desired audience.

Social media can help businesses improve the customer journey. Answer questions quickly and reply to comments so your followers feel valued.

Demonstrating excellent customer service across social media channels will help us get people's attention and build trust. Perhaps the most unique advantage of social media is the ability to get help from our followers. People love to share things with their networks, from photos and recipes to interesting articles and hot deals. That creates a buzz in the market.

Another advantage of social media marketing is the ability to assess our performance. Social media platforms make it easy for us to track our campaign to see if we are driving valuable results.

People use social media to post contents they admire. But they would also share experiences they didn't like. If someone had a bad experience with any business or service, it unlocks a door of opening for them to share their poor experience with others. Some feel there is a social obligation to share their experience to prevent others from having the same experience. Having too much adverse feedback can harmfully impact the upcoming marketing efforts.

We must remember that it is easy for posts to go viral on social media. People keep a close eye on the good and the bad on social media. If we aren't cautious about the content we post, we may get caught in an awkward position.

A shortcoming of social media is that it is time-consuming for businesses. If we aren't doing enough with our social networks because we don't have time, people, or programmes to help us run our marketing strategy, our campaigns will suffer. In fact, any delay in response will be very harmful. So before getting into social media marketing, we must be prepared with the capacity and capability.  

The writer is a banker