You have probably come across thousands of articles telling you how advantageous using social media for your business could be. However not so many people tend to cover the fly in the ointment. Getting a largely sharedcount is not necessarily a smooth sail.
That said, social media presence for your business could come as both a curse and a blessing. You could earn much praise for your venture. However, one wrong turn could send your business’ reputation to the drains and have you scurrying to reputation management services to save your business from completely being taken down. Familiarising yourself with some of the drawbacks of using social media for business will help you equip and arm yourself adequately contingent upon challenges arise. They include;
- It is time intensive
When you embark on the journey of using social media to grow your brand, you should be careful not to give the impression of abandonment. Maintaining a social media platform requires you to devote a significant amount of effort and time.
There is no point of having a page that has only been posted on once in two years. It can create an impression that the business no longer exists or can make customers take a step back in fear of being sold some dead stock: something that will work against your company.
If you want to get leads, ensure that content for your page is continuously produced, and you interact with your users. Social media can work differently for different kinds of companies. For example, a life insurance agency might need to post content that informs their clientele regarding trends in the life insurance industry (you can learn more here). A food and beverages company will need to take a completely different route when it comes to creating relevant content. So, careful considerations have to be taken, which will definitely require the necessary time and thought to be put in.
- Your problems are more exposed
Did the last phone you sold to a customer malfunction? Well, there is a likelihood of that customer going on a rant on your Facebook page. When you decide to make Facebook your online shop, keep in mind that should there be a problem, it could be exposed to the whole world.
That said you should focus on giving quality service and products to your customers. Also, you should have pre-planned solutions to mitigate complaints if anything goes wrong. Avoid sending the wrong message about your business.
- Investment is required
As earlier mentioned, time is needed for this: it is undebatable. Also, note that you might even have to go back to your pockets. In as much as creating a new Instagram account for your business is free, not everything is free.
To get good returns, you might have to invest in paid ads and social media influencers to get that traffic that you need for your business. What does that tell you? If you want to reach more people, you will have to put in some money. For example, to boost your following on TikTok, you might need to buy followers. You can learn how to do this by searching something like “How Can I Buy TikTok Followers in 2023?“.
- Privacy issues
You are aware of some business policies about confidentiality. If such rules are infringed, your business could land into some severe problems. Social media can be a hub for spreading details about your business or customers.
- Competitors could study your tact
Among the best strategies that one is told to employ on launching a website or operating a social media platform is tracking the competitor’s activities. Ever thought of what if the same tactic works against you?
It is hard to hide all your activities from your competitions on such platforms, so the best way to go about it is always striving to be better than them!