Social Media – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Social media dominates modern day society. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and whatever else you can think of – all of these are platforms support digital interactions, which bring the entire social experience online. A recent study suggests that over 2 billion people use some form of social platform. And they seem like something truly enjoyable. You get to share a lot of the real-world experiences with your friends, you are capable of promoting your business online a lot easier, you can set up events and whatnot – you can do everything that you could in the real world but online.

People in this day in age stay up to date with news and events not by reading the paper or watching the news on television, but rather by checking social media, because the likelihood is that you will see it first on social media anyway. It has become such a presence in society that it is used for so much more than just communicating; it has become a part of people’s lives. If you ask a group of people who use social media to not use it for a week, there is a good chance that the majority of them would miss it, and a few would probably not be able to last the week.

However, social media also has a negative side to it, a side that not everyone is aware of. As any digital marketing agency will tell you, social media is more complex than it seems on the surface, especially for businesses. If utilised in the right way, it can be massively powerful for any business, but if used in the wrong way, social media can have a negative effect.

 

However, is it all as peachy as it sounds?

Well, for the most part, it is. For personal use, social media is the ideal way to keep in touch with the world and to communicate with each other. However, there are quite a few things that you would want to be extra careful. For instance, you should always make sure that your privacy is perfectly protected while being on different social media. Never share your details with people which are outside of your friends and acquaintances list. It is also a good idea make sure that you exercise general care when you are online.

In business terms, social media can be your best friend and worst enemy. Bad reviews and negative press via social media channels can have a big impact on your business. This can cause you to tumble in the search rankings. On the flip-side, positive reviews can make your social media profiles very popular. This in turn generates more likes and more follows.

Social media is very peachy on the surface. The ability to stay in touch with every corner of the world through a few taps is extremely appealing. But dig a little deeper and you will find everything isn’t as rosy as it seems.

 

Social Media is Not as Safe as it Sounds

This is something that you certainly need to take into account. There are millions of fake profiles out there which are created with the sole intention of extracting certain values from honest and good people. Don’t trust everything you see online – most of it isn’t true. In fact, Facebook has recently launched an initiative specifically targeting fake news and removing inform their site. This is proof that there is quite frankly a lot of rubbish out there, and whilst a lot of it may not be relevant to you, the things that are may harm you and your business.

The thing is that social media has become a particularly convenient way to make a tremendous amount of money quick. It’s a huge traffic generator. After all, billions of people are online every single day, and only a tremendously small portion of that is capable of making you a fortune. That’s why information is skewed, bent and even falsified simply to attract visitors and clients. There are many people out there who are using social media in a bad light. The people who do have a sole intention of making money. As a business owner with a social presence online, you need to be particularly wary. Fortunately, pretty much all of the social media platforms offer lots of security options to help your profiles stay protected.

 

The Benefits Are There Nevertheless

Regardless of the dangers which might be there, social media has a tremendous amount of value to offer, and that’s just a fact. The power that social media as an influencing tool is immense. Famous Youtubers have an immense influence, especially for young people. You need to account for it because it’s also capable of sky-rocketing your business quickly and particularly effectively. With this in mind, there are a lot of different powerful marketing channels which could be used. All of these can help streamline a significant amount of people to your business and expand your reach substantially.

In fact, a lot of business are now looking at social media advertising, such as adverts on Facebook and Twitter, for their paid marketing, instead of AdWords, for example. This is because, when targeted right, the reach can be extremely substantial, and often much more cost effective than advertising via search engines.

The truth is that there is a lot to think about when making the decision on how to use social media. In any case, being careless is not something that you should do. Make sure that you exercise genuine and regular care in order to ensure that everything about secure. That’s something tremendously important, and it needs to be accounted for. It may be worth employing the services of a specific agency who specialises in digital marketing and social media. This will certainly help you to build you social media profiles into effective tools for your business.