Social Media Marketing is the use of interactions that normally happen in online communities to spread messages that will lead others to take a certain predetermined action. Nigerians have taken to Social Media like fish to water and this comes with many opportunities and risks to those trying to sell products and services. Social Media Marketing is all about forming an online community, producing interesting content, and sharing marketing messages with members of that community in order to draw attention to a product or service to the online audience. The skys the limit for Nigerians who use the online medium to market their products. However the art and skill of marketing through this medium is something that takes creativity, patience and strategy. Below we look at some pros and cons of this new age marketing style.

[size=20pt]Benefits of Social Media Marketing[/size]

#1 It’s an affordable way to market your products and services

Let's assume you have 3,000 friends on Facebook and you're into sale of blackberry phones, would it not be cheaper for you to simply broadcast your message to your Facebook friends than printing 3000 fliers to distribute for people to know about your products?

#2 Broad Reach

What I mean by that is you don't have to move from Ketu to Mushin for people to know about you when from Facebook alone all your friends who live in far away places can simply log on to their time lines and see your post. Mind you, Facebook is not the only social media you can use for marketing. There is also Twitter, various Blogs like , tumblr and Wordpress, even your Smart phone can be used for marketing.

#3 Easier to respond to enquiries and communicate with potential customers

I can make a broadcast on my Blackberry smart phone to my contacts about a product for sale from the comfort of my bed. You can't beat the convenience of social media marketing especially from your smart mobile device.

#4 Social media marketing is a viral medium

For instance, the 'Gangnam style' song by a relatively unknown Korean rapper called Psy was spread all over the world in less than 48 hours from one initial post. Psy uploaded the post on Youtube and shared the link on various Social Media Platforms and before we could say 'Gangnam style' it had gone viral. The same approach can also be used as a marketing tool in getting thousands of people who are not part of our community to hear our messages when our friends share our posts or retweet or re-broadcast our messages. But the key to going viral is the quality and "like-ability" of the content you share. There's no formula dor producing great online content, but the key is publishing content regularly and keeping an eye on online trends.

#5 Brand Positioning

Have you noticed that many celebrities have Facebook pages? E.g Goldie, P-Square, Uti Nwachukwu even brands like The Beat FM and MTN have Facebook pages. These brands also have a presence on Twitter, Google plus and some of them have blogs from which they project a more personable image for their brands. You can position your brand quite strongly on Social Media by the type of content you publish and share.

With social media I can create an image and send a message I feel will drive home my marketing goals. For example, MTN wants to be seen as the choice network, they make sure they incorporate this message in all the content published on social media platforms.

[size=20pt]Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing[/size]

#1 Your audience has to be very targeted.

Social Media Marketing can only be effective if you attract the right audience. Not all your friends might be interested in what you do. If for instance I'm all about selling Designer perfumes then I'll have to set up an online community of people likely to be interested in designer perfumes. If your defined community is too genralised you may attract the wrong audience, which will make marketing to them very difficult. So focus on building the right audience for your online community and this is not easy to achieve.

Social media marketing is also essentially about engagement with your community. You can't simply set up your Facebook Page and assume that your work is done. You need to consistently create one on one interaction between you the person administering the community and the members of the community!

#2 You need a large audience to have a serious impact!

For instance 1000 dedicated and loyal fans in an online community will likely result in a few dozen sales per month for you but the problem is not with making the sales, it's with building your initial community which is not a day's job. You'll need to work hard daily to reach a strong enough audience!

# 3 You need to have a reputation as an authority in your field

To command the kind of trust and respect to succeed, you need to be either an expert in your field of business or have a good reputation as a n authority in your field. That means you must have a proven track record. Now how will you achieve a proven track record if you're just starting a business you want to promote? This is where authenticity comes in, people can usually smell out a 'fake' very easily online.

#4 Social Media Marketing is a relatively new concept in Nigeria

Many Nigerians are not keen on paying for goods online especially from someone they can’t see with their two eyes. So you are limited to mostly marketing (creating awareness about what you do) but actual sales (payment for goods) has to be in real time at least so far here in Nigeria!

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