Sticky Panda was recently asked what we thought were the best and worst things about Social Media; here's our list...

Top 5 best things in Social Media

1. Engagement
   The ability to engage users with new technologies and interaction
   
   
2. Communication / Corporate Reputation Management
   Social media allows businesses to have two way conversations with their customers meaning that it becomes much easier to manage your corporate reputation
   
   
3. Positioning
   Engaging with Social Media shows that your company is with the times and able to communicate with consumers at all levels. It gives the opportunity to present yourself as an authority in your related field
   
   
4. Simplification
   Social media has made using the internet (and work) easier with the opportunity to use new technologies that simplify many different processes
   
   
5. Collaboration
   With the introduction to new age social media (e.g. Social Commerce, Social Gaming, Social Learning), collaboration online has become much easier and a part of everyday internet use.

Top 5 worst things in Social Media

1. Cost - It’s free
   It’s free price tag is a hook for customers, but it is also the Achilles heel for businesses. The free options make the market saturated and businesses assume that because it is free, that is how much it costs to invest in Social Media Marketing. Understanding the premium services and how to optimise this is what will make a success of Social Media in business and knowing when to invest money will also have a massive impact on the scale of this success
   
   
2. Time
   Social media is time consuming and resource intensive when done correctly
   
   
3. Diluted presence
   With there being so many platforms online, it is inevitable that your digital presence will start to become diluted. There are products that can help manage this but none have been perfected as of yet. It is important to manage this as effectively as possible within an integrated Social Media strategy
   
   
4. Monitoring
   Monitoring can be expensive to use the best tools. Basic analytics can be found in most mainstream packages, but specialised measurement can be expensive
   
   
5. Monetisation
   It can be very difficult to make money in Social Media. It requires the right research, the right functionality as well as a little luck in timing/customer behaviour. This is on top of a sound and robust platform