# Introduction ocial media is a common term in our everyday life. A huge portion of our daily life is attached to social media. Today almost every person is connected to various social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat etc. Hence it is quite a basic medium for marketers to reach existing and potential customers through these media. Due to the rapid growth of the internet, our social life is being dominated by the internet and different social media. Social media has become a new field of social interaction. Consumers rely on different social media like online communities for generating contents and creating network [1]. Neti considered Social Media as one of the best opportunities for a brand to connect to prospective consumers [2]. As today competition is very stiff among marketers, it is very difficult to gain exposure to potential customers. Hence they might use the most exposed platform to reach the audience, which is undoubtedly social media. Due to the growing popularity and growing users, marketers had to change their strategy to counter this shift in the media landscape [3]. Marketers always strive for creating and sustaining brand loyalty. For this, they utilize various ways to maintain customers' brand loyalty. One of such tools is the social media marketing. The research article is primarily focused on identifying the use of social media to popularize a particular brand. It also stresses on the advantages and disadvantages of using social media as a marketing tool. The paper discusses the increasing pressure on marketers to adopt new communication approaches due to the changes in technology and customer expectations. # II. # Literature Review To understand social media, first, we should define Web 2.0. It is a new way of using the World Wide Web, a place where content is continuously altered in a shared and collaborative way by the operators. Community aspects of the web did not start with Facebook; it existed as a characteristic of bulletin board systems in the 1980s. Customers have become more sophisticated and have developed new tactics in searching, evaluating, choosing and buying products [4]. Social media marketing means the use of social media to convince consumers that one's company, products and services are preferable [2]. It is a strategy of using online communities, social networks, blogs, etc. It also analyzes the social consequences of marketing policies, decisions, and activities. As the customers are more connected worldwide and more informed, need for customization has become an important issue. It is being seen that the behavioral trend in customer is rooted in the usage of social media. As a result, there is a growing demand for customized products, and also the customers are getting more willing to take part in product development [5] Social media is already being used as part of the marketing strategy which is evident in many field studies [6]. In such researches, two main approaches are consideredi. The Passive approach ii. The Active approach The passive approach is based on using social Media as a potential source of customer response [7]. The marketers use this platform to acquire information about market needs, customer experiences, competitive dynamics, and the recent trends. And the active approach involves using social media for generating positive image. # III. # Social Media Marketing for Enhancing Growth of an Organization Social media marketing has become a trend setter in marketing [1]. Because of the revoluti on of social networks, a new frontier has developed for individuals to exchange information. Facebook, Twitter, S YouTube are the most commonly used social platform for marketers and customers. People use several social media tools such as web forums and communities, recommendations, ratings and reviews for exchanging information and get social support [8]. Illustration: Here we can see that Facebook has achieved the largest audience share by 2018. Different brands use Facebook as their main platform for social interaction. Illustration: According to social media examiner report, Facebook ads comprise 72% of overall social media promotions. Facebook currently has 2.23 billion monthly active users, and according to Social Media Examiner's 2018 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, the platform is leading the pack by a wide margin when it comes to marketers' preference for paid social media. When asked which forms of paid social media they regularly use, 72% of marketers say they most often use traditional Facebook ads (7% use Facebook Messenger ads) followed by Instagram ads, which comes in second with 31% of marketers using paid ads on the platform. # Methodology This is research is primarily based on the study of various research articles, books, etc. So, the data collected for the study is primarily based on secondary sources. This is an exploratory type of research. The objective is to get a better idea of what is social media marketing and its pros and cons. In addition to books and articles, web-based information were thoroughly extracted and analyzed for statistical representation. Furthermore, the collected information were critically analyzed and interpreted by the researchers in order to make the study more informative, exploratory, and useful to the readers. The findings of the study may be useful to the prospective researchers desiring to make further study on this important issue. # V. Problems and Prospects of Social Media Marketing a) The prospects of using social media as a marketing tool Saves Money: According to Gillin, social Media platform provides superior quality and recent information with less expenditure. Companies can learn important issues more quickly and thus can amend situation before it destroys their reputation [11]. Social media empowers every person coming across a message to spread the message around his own network allowing the message to attract a huge number of targets pretty fast [12]. Create platform for collaboration: Collaboration and communication is part and parcel in today's business world. Social media plays a vital role in helping businesses to communicate and collect customer perception for designing strategies as well as products [13]. Provides low-cost customer management platform: marketers may utilize various means like blogs, web site and sponsored brand communities and may employ personnel directed to incorporate discussion in their favor and connect to customers [14]. Firms can utilize social media and generate awareness [15]. Customers beget new customers: Gillin also added that marketers could use early adopters. The early adopters may act as opinion leaders (mostly the authors of high traffic, influential blogs) and help a marketer to persuade customers. These "New Influencers" [11] should be managed wisely. In the study of Balakrishnan, Dahnil, & Yi it was found that social interaction of people can affect consumer attitude regarding a product [16]. Firms can persuade satisfied customers to rate and review their products on social media sites ( [17]. Easier Customization: Nadaraja and Yazdanifard focused on the fact that social media marketing firm can interact with customer and prepare specifically specialized products such as online checking and seat arrangement over the Internet. Social media marketing enables the firms to detect and manage data and feedback and utilize them in identifying the target market and design customized messages [12]. Moreover, social media enables interaction between customers and company which would normally need personal contact as for popular brands like Dell and amazon.com [18]. Informational and Emotional support: Research shows that online communities and online media may provide a support system [19]. These incorporate into social support (Liang et al. 2011). For example, Twitter is used in a way that users can support others [20]. b) Problems of using social media as a marketing tool Needs continuous attention: Firms use social media to generate social capital or social currency which accumulate as a result of communication with consumer but companies cannot control it, and it is generated on personal and happens because of the interaction among people [21]. Stiff competition: Sankar has stressed the use of social media marketing wisely as it is being used very enthusiastically by various companies and it is quite obvious that a marketer will have to share the medium with lots of competitors. "As more shoppers are using social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn) and rely on them for marketing shopping decisions, promotion through these media has become important" [22]. Trust issues: The Face book privacy scandal regarding Cambridge Analytica intruding the data of tens of millions of users in the run-up to the 2016 US elections is a very recent incident. This caused general public to assume the use of social media negatively. Firms should provide a clear idea of their data collection, use, and storage policies, as well as privacy and security concerns [23]. Deal with negative word of mouth: Social media might act as a platform for spreading negative comments or thinking as individuals can easily post information and verifying the quality or reliability of such information provided by anonymous public is a great hurdle [24]. Larger traffic to handle: As social media has become the frontier to share and discuss about the product, the brand or company has to face more customers than earlier [25]. VI. # Findings The social media marketing era has created lots of prospects as well as challenges for marketers [12]. Marketers need to consider the innovation adoption process to capture customer awareness through social media. The IAP includes the systematic steps through which an individual goes through for adopting new technology. This process includes: Being aware of the innovation, Attitude forming regarding it, decision on adopting or rejecting it, implementing and finally, confirming the decision [26]. Neti stressed that, a firm shouldn't simply follow others regarding a new technique. It must analyze the market to find out whether its fit to introduce social media marketing or not (Neti, 2011). Ads and contents should be such that consumers or public take them as consistent to themselves because only then they will incorporate and share those contents. The symbolic and self-expression criteria of online ads must be designed to match with customers personal concepts [27]. Persuasive contents, either emotional or benevolent in nature, influence customers to engage in a way that firms are benefitted by sharing their brand personality and information of their social concerns [28]. Further, as social media has their own characteristics, it's easy to create some audience online but, directing the community according to one's own interest is pretty much difficult [25]. Finally, it is very easy and cost efficient to set up social media marketing with the help of the internet. So, marketers should off course consider it as a vital tool for their communications to influence consumers [29]. Social media marketing should be utilized wisely as it is cost saving, fast and quite helpful in attracting customers. The more the traffic, the more chances toward sale sealing. Easier customization adds more plus sides. On the contrary, it can create hurdle by making it troublesome to engage more time and effort as well as negative responses and trust issues. Marketer must decide wisely and handle all the activities strategically. # VII. # Conclusion Social media has indeed become part and parcel in our life. As consumers are more involved in social media and online activities, it is a must for marketers to use this platform for marketing activities. Customers are now empowered with information on product or services worldwide and this makes it harder for marketers to convince customers. The Marketer can use social media to aware customers about their offerings as well as deal with negative perception by engaging into social media marketing. It has become mandatory that they realize the fact that promotional activities are no longer confined to print or tv ads. They need to cope with the new tools and adopt this. They should consider customers as not only audience but also as potential partners. And in doing this, social media plays a vital role. Social media marketing should be used for their minimum cost as well as active nature. With having both positive and negative characteristics of social media marketing, the marketer must choose wisely what strategy to take regarding using this tool. The widespread use and viral nature of social media make it easier for news to get spread rapidly and in a very short time. Marketer must engage in a way that customer participation is encouraged and customers are treated in a way to increase their satisfaction more and more so that positive word of mouth is generated. Creating and maintaining a positive brand image should be the primary objective of firms using social media marketing. Marketers can disseminate customized messages over sites to generate awareness toward interested potential customers. it will be surely helpful to marketers to create brand community over the online world via social media to create a positive brand image that will in turn ensure more engagement and purchase intention. In fine, marketers must acknowledge the pros and cons of using social media marketing and decide on the strategy to enable smooth communication and deal with the hurdle it may face. 2![Figure 2: Source: Social Media Examiner, September/ 2018](image-2.png "Figure 2 :") 11![Figure 1: Statistics of the audience by various social media [9]](image-3.png "1 2EFigure 1 :") 1BrandsNo. of followersSamsung Global49 880 349Red Bull49 002 151Oreo42 694 734Microsoft Lumia41 295 629Nike Football40 194 174Source: Socialbakers (An online website providing statistics of web traffic) (https://www.socialbakers.com/statistics) 2Brand NameNo. of FollowersPlayStation (@PlayStation)16 079 902CHANEL (@CHANEL)13 224 109Xbox (@Xbox)13 117 365Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile)12 042 346Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks)11 388 738Source: Socialbakers 3Brand NameNo. of FollowersTotal Uploaded video viewsT-series86 236 61362 373 674 179WWE39 821 70930 142 281 011SET India42 186 77329 245 884 898Ryan ToysReview18 311 99227 581 395 071Netd müzic13 064 79227 502 416 817Source: SocialbakersIV. * A study of the impact of social media on consumers MNHajli 10.2501/UMR-2014-025 International Journal of Market Research 56 2013. January * Social media and its role in marketing SNeti 10.4172/2151-6219.1000203 International Journal of Enterprise Computing and Business Systems 1 2011 * Impact of Social Media on Marketing RKaushik 10.1109/HICSS.2010.412.Breithbarth IJCEM International Journal of Computational Engineering & Management ISSN 15 2 2012 * New learning network paradigm: Communities of objectives, croudsourcing, wikis and open source JAlbors JCRamos JLHervas International Journal of Information Management 28 2008 * The next practice in value creation DKPrahalad VRamaswamy Journal of Interactive Marketing 18 3 2004 Co-creation Experiences * The new age of innovation: Driving co-created value through Global Networks CKPrahalad MSKrishnan 2008 McGraw-Hill * The Long Tail, Why the future of business is selling less of more, Hyperion CAnderson 2006 New York * Virtual community attraction: why people hang out online CMRidings Dßc Gefen Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10 2004 * A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media The New Influencers PaulGillin 2007 * The new community rules: Marketing on the social web TWeinberg 2009 Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, Inc * Integrated Online Marketing Communication: Implementation and Management CGurau 10.1108/13632540810881974 Journal of Communication Management 12 2008 * Learning to solve problems with technology: A constructivist perspective, 2nd DHJonassen JHowland JMoore RMMarra 10.1108/13632540810881974 Merrill/Prentice-Hall 2003 Ed. Columbus, OH * A doubleedged sword to force posterior dominance of Hox genes NPSingh RKMishra 10.1002/bies.20847 BioEssays 30 11-12 2008 * Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement DEvans JMckee 2010 John Wiley and Sons Indiana * The Impact of Social Media Marketing Medium toward Purchase Intention and Brand Loyalty among Generation Y BKBalakrishnan MIDahnil WJYi Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 148 2014 * Consumer-generated versus marketer-generated websites in consumer decision making FBronner JMRS: the journal of the Market Research Society 52 2 2010 International journal of market research * Social media marketing: advantages and disadvantages RNadaraja RYazdanifard 2013 Center of Southern New Hempshire University * Help me, I'm fat! Social support in online weight loss networks Ballantine RJStephenson Journal of Consumer Behaviour 10 2011 * Social Media as a Marketing tool: A Literature Review. Marketing i Zarz?dzanie HPaquette 10.18276/miz.2016.46-05 2013 * How Brands can Create Social Currency-a Framework for Managing Brands in a New Era MarkusZinnbauer TobiasHoner 10.18276/miz.2016.46-05 Marketing Review St. Gallen 28 2011 * Innovations in Shopper Marketing: Current Insights and Future 24 VenkateshShankar JefferyInman MuraliMantrala EileenKelley RossRizley ; Steinman MLHawkins M Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal 22 8 2011. 2010 When marketing through social media, legal risks can go viral * The exploration of internet marketing strategy by search engine optimization : A critical review and comparison C.-YChen B.-YShih Z.-SChen T.-HChen 10.5897/AJBM10.1417 African Journal of Business Management 5 12 2011 * VBajpai DPandey MShriwas Social Media Marketing 2012 1 * Sentiment toward marketing: Should we care about consumer alienation and readiness to use technology TMady Journal of Consumer Behaviour 10 2011 * Self-Enhancement as a Motivation for Sharing Online Advertising DavidGTaylor DavidStrutton KennethThompson Journal of Interactive Advertising 12 2012 * The Effect of Social Media Marketing Content on Consumer Engagement: Evidence from Facebook. Working Papers (Faculty) --Stanford Graduate School of Business DLee KHosanagar HSNair 2014. 2013 * Power to the people social media tracker 2008 Universal McCann.