Social Media Marketing Challenges and New Directions Post COVID-19

Background To Social Media Marketing As A Sustainable Strategy

Sustainable marketing is calling for the use of survival marketing and supply chain strategies that bring longterm benefits to the organization and among these social media has been identified as one platform ideal for sustainable marketing. The use of social media as a sustainable marketing strategy involves connecting with the target audience through social media platforms by building brand awareness and promoting the organisation’s products and services. Before the pandemic Covid-19, social media was awash with content that typified oversaturation of information. This put of the target audience disengaging them from business advertisements a term that was coined advertisement fatigue. In addition, the was the issue to do with data privacy that saw such big companies as Google pulling of and isolating themselves from common platforms. This development also resulted in the birth of data protection laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The pandemic Covid-19 shifted the behaviour of consumer given measures that were imposed by authorities in order to curb the spread of the virus. These measures included lockdowns, restrictions on movement of people, and social distancing. The cycles of the pandic itself was unpredictable rendering planning and the execution of marketing plans by businesses ineffective and difficult. To remain sustainable, marketers had to strike a balance between product and/or service promotion and being empathetic and showing support towards the global crisis. This meant some supply chain distribution channels had to be cut, reduced, removed from the traditional distribution channels that were rendered unustainable by the pandemic.

The post Covid-19 era has shown that sustainable business environments are characterized by sustsinable and ethical practices that favour consumer preferences. To retain and engage consumers, it is important to understand customer services and personalize experiences. Adveertisements must be synonymous with rich content that does not ward of the taste of consumers. Companies must comply with regulations and build supply chains that are resilient and able to withstand any internal and external pressure. This chapter therefore sought to satiate the following objectives,

• a)

  To find out the evolution and adoption of social media marketing a sustainable supply chain strategy in marketing products and services.

• b)

  To establish risks and challenges faced when using social media marketing as a supply chain strategy.

• c)

  To evaluate strategies to effectively deal with challenges faced when implementing sustainable social media marketing.