Social media is effective in reaching the right people for the right product and ensuring that a target demographic sees the product. Is it better than conventional marketing methods? This is circumstantial because many products might be better viewed by a wider audience who are forced to watch an ad because on many social media sites consumers can skip any ad without even noticing. Additionally, forms of marketing such as viral marketing can be inconsistent and carry a high risk of failure due to the expectation that consumers will pass on the message. Additionally, viral marketing sometimes fails to get the product message across and can often be seen as just a social activity, as shown in the example used previously, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, where people would take on the challenge but would have no idea what it was. it was for and I did it just for fun. On the other hand, social media continues to grow and shows no signs of decline. Businesses that fail to gain a foothold on social media risk falling behind their competitors as the online movement continues. The scale and diversity of social media advertising makes it possible to reach a wide range of consumers around the world at minimal cost to a business. Viral marketing and viral communities can be considered inexpensive but effective ways of conveying product information to customers and therefore can only benefit everyone.