In the previous article, we examined some of the benefits of social media marketing. With all of the advantages, why would anyone not get on board? Well there are definitely some draw backs to this type of marketing.

With any type of marketing done online using a free platform, the business runs the risk of quickly releasing content without fully controlling what it is putting out there. For example, if a small business owner who doesn’t have much time to run their business let alone tweet, facebook, instagram, and pinterest, is in charge of everything, they might just put a post out there with spelling mistakes or upload an unwanted photo and once it is out in cyberspace and people see it, even if it is taken down that is still all people will talk about. Another issue for larger companies is that if you choose to outsource your social media or pass it down to an intern and that employee is terminated, you need to have a plan in place to ensure that said employee does not still have access to all of the accounts. Otherwise, they could be able to take out their frustrations over being let go on the company. Take HMV’s recent disaster where “An angry employee, one of several hundred let go by the company that day during a round of mass layoffs, decided to vent her frustrations – on HMV’s official Twitter account.” Needless to say, when something interesting hits the twittersphere, it spreads like wildfire and there is nothing a company big or small can do to stop it. A very dangerous aspect to social media marketing is the fact that a company can easily be taken down by one small comment that is taken the wrong way which forces companies to be on top of their game since the risks of offending or upsetting customers are so high. Another similar issue happened with Applebee’s restaurant chain in the US when, in the opinion of her fellow employees, a waitress was wrongfully terminated by management and took to the world of social media to garner attention on the matter. The issue quickly spiralled out of control with Applebee’s management handling everything so poorly that the issue actually went viral. Months later companies are now using this story as a social media “what not to do”.