Social media allows individuals to connect by means of identifying common interests and forged cyber-based friendships. If there are negative aspects to social media they may be offset by potential marketing possibilities.
Please remember this article is intended to demonstrate the marketing potential for social media for online business owners. I understand some have concerns about social media as it relates to children, but this article remains focused exclusively on the on marketing possibilities associated with social media.
That being said, one negative related to social media for some online business owners is the addictive nature of participating in social networking. Time spent on the site corresponding with other friends could chip away at the time you may really need for other business related activities.
If you have spent any amount of time on social media then you know it is possible to post a blog entry and be alerted to new posts to your blog whenever a new post is made. You may find yourself heading back to your social media page to read updated comments several times a day. This will probably lead to the desire to thank the individual for their comment. Of course all of this is done under the notion that you are working to market your business through social media, but the truth is there comes a point where you can spend an inordinate amount of time corresponding with people you don't really know for one small facet of marketing potential. When you're having fun online the balance between work and play gets a little blurry.
Another negative that may sound somewhat similar is that social media can keep you from face-to-face contacts that may benefit your business. The face-to-face contacts may be in the form of business-to-business networking or meeting affiliates, but social media can, and sometimes does, minimize time for events that are often of equal or greater importance.
One of the keys to effective online marketing is attempting to keep things balanced.
Obviously it can take some time to develop your social media page and it may be hard to fully determine what your goals are in relation to social media, but then you may want to commit to only a certain amount of time each day to the social networking and resist coming back to the page repeatedly throughout the day. You may even want to configure your email box to send all emails from the social media site to a special folder that you can easily review on a daily basis without the need to revisit your page multiple times each day. You may even want to turn the feature off that alerts you to new posts and messages if the distraction becomes too pronounced.
Remember, your social media page is there to help you market your business and connect with prospects while directing them to your primary site, but far too often individuals come to view the social media page with something akin to an addiction.
Allow social media to be useful without coming to a place where it is using you.
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