What Are the Negative Impacts of Social Media on Business?

Today, far too many companies are unaware of the potential negative impacts of social media on business. By avoiding, ignoring or never learning the effects of poor reviews, damaging posts and negative comments, brands can suffer irreparable consequences.

Think you don’t care what others say about your brand on social networking sites? We urge you to reconsider.

This article will cover the real reasons why you should be concerned about the negative effects of social media on business.

NetReputation can help you design a social media marketing strategy to reach your target audience and protect your digital presence. Call us at 844-461-3632 to learn more, or fill out the contact form below for a free consultation.

3 of the Biggest Negative Impacts of Social Media on Business

Social media can be excellent for your company’s reputation. Or, it can wreak havoc, especially if you don’t catch what’s happening on social media platforms or know what to do when you find negative content.

Here are three of the biggest negative impacts of social media on business.

1. Negative Feedback On Social Media Platforms Makes You Lose Business

One of the biggest negative impacts of social media on business happens when bad reviews and negative feedback turn away potential customers from your target audience.

A person who thinks they might be interested in your product or service can immediately change their mind if they come across negative feedback from disgruntled customers.

Nearly 62% of online shoppers search for a company online if they’re not familiar with it, and very few of them will make a purchase if negative reviews show up on the SERP.

Moreover, reviews on popular social media platforms like Facebook or YouTube are taken seriously by people who research brands or products. Those reviews may even carry as much weight as advice from a trusted friend.

According to DataReportal, over 76% of internet users go on social media platforms to learn about brands and products. Plus, 68% of consumers use social media platforms to stay up-to-date about new products and services, and 23% to 34% of consumers use Instagram and TikTok as local business review platforms.

That means that even if the negative publicity about your company isn’t justified, it can influence buyer behavior enough to affect your sales, profitability and business growth.

To combat this, you can work with an online reputation management company. ORM professionals will show you how to appropriately respond to negative reviews and encourage more positive content to circulate online. All of that good coverage can improve your business.

At NetReputation, we work with individuals and businesses to help them build and take control of their company’s reputation with the help of a solid social media strategy. Give us a call at 844-461-3632 to learn more.

2. Ignoring Negative Social Media Content Impacts Your Customer Service Reputation

The last thing you want to do when you have a poor social media presence is destroy your online reputation even more.

Your company’s reputation greatly depends on how you handle existing negative content. Interactive platforms like Instagram provide the perfect opportunity to communicate with your audience and change the way they view your business.

When using social platforms to connect with brands, 30% of consumers expect a same-day response, 23% of consumers want a response within 1 to 2 hours, and 16% of consumers expect to get a response within minutes.

Quickly, professionally and kindly responding to negative reviews and comments shows others that you care about providing stellar customer service. But not responding — or responding in a way that’s defensive instead of constructive — can do more damage to your online reputation.

Also, keep this in mind: If you simply ignore negative feedback on social media platforms, the problem won’t go away. Instead, it could grow to the point where it feels uncontrollable. At best, it will stagnantly live online, regularly influencing the opinion of whoever looks up your brand.

Most importantly, you won’t be proactively building a positive business reputation during this time.

3. Social Media Users May Abandon You

One of the reasons why businesses like to have thriving Facebook pages is to create a community of people who love their products and services. This creates a hub where you can meet with your audience, listen to what they have to say and find out what they’re looking for. This arms you with insight that you can put back into your brand, developing products, services and processes to meet their needs and wants.

However, if your social network is filled with negativity, who’s going to want to remain in it?

Not only will you lose existing community members, but it will be nearly impossible to encourage new ones to join. And when even your most loyal connections see others jumping ship, they’ll feel like they should do the same — and who could blame them?

You can take control of your online reputation by leveraging your social media marketing strategy. Call us at 844-461-3632 for more information.

What If the Negative Social Media Posts Aren’t True?

When it comes to your online reputation, both legitimate information and unfounded information can cause problems — and your audience probably won’t take the time to figure out which one is happening.

Fake news travels fast on social media platforms, especially when that news is negative or juicy. No matter how many times you try to defend yourself, you won’t be able to stop the floodgates.

What you can do, though, is use tried-and-true brand reputation strategies to improve customer sentiment over time.

For example, provide excellent customer service and produce your own content that illustrates your brand’s strengths. Also, improve the way you run your business. By focusing on customer service and giving people an excellent experience, you’ll be in the best position to improve your online reputation.

This is a lot to handle on your own, which is why there are professional online reputation management companies like NetReputation to help.

One of the first things your ORM consultants will do is set up listening tools so you’ll be in-the-know about what others are saying about your brand. Whenever there are negative comments on social media channels, you’ll have the chance to respond to it right away. This can limit the spread of false information.

Want to get a head start on this strategy? Set up Google Alerts to be notified whenever your brand name is mentioned online.

How To Create Meaningful Connections and Reach Business Goals Using Social Media

Now that you know how brand negativity on social media platforms can impact your business, let’s talk about what you can do to improve customer sentiment.

• Set up business profiles on any social media channel you expect to use. Doing this ASAP protects your brand against others representing you via knockoff social media accounts without your permission or knowledge.
• Showcase your company’s personality on different social media platforms. This will help your audience connect and engage with you wherever they choose to spend their time.
• Stand out in your niche by regularly creating authentic, engaging content that solves your customers’ problems or entertains them.
• Use your social media accounts to launch new products and gather real-time customer feedback.
• Nurture brand and niche communities for long-term engagement and customer loyalty.
• Get your sales team on board. Their strategies should align with your social media marketing efforts so both teams can reach their goals.
• Consistently monitor your social media platforms so you can refine and improve your strategies over time.

Remember, users spend about 2.5 hours on social media platforms each day, and they use over 7 social media channels each month. Strong social media marketing campaigns minimize risks, maximize benefits and help generate a consistent flow of leads and customers to your business.

Plus, with strong branding on social media, you’re better able to attract talent, from potential employees to influencer partnerships.

Benefits of Adding Social Media Sites To Your Digital Marketing Efforts

There are a number of benefits you’ll reap from developing a social media presence and brand image across multiple platforms. Let’s go over some of them.

You’re in control of your online platforms.

The best part about using social media is that you’re working with your own channels. Yes, the platforms ultimately control the app or site, but you have total control over the brand image you create on each social business page you put up.

You can use your social media profiles to share your company’s values or be transparent about your business operations. You can combat a non-existent or suffering online brand image by curating a new brand presence post by post. It’s all up to you.

With proper planning, your online platforms can become hubs of content that improve your brand perception over time.

You can increase brand awareness with a global audience.

Social media is an excellent way to organically reach a wider audience and increase brand visibility across the globe. People from all over the world use social media, and building brand awareness with a wider audience is possible by tailoring your posts to different trends and customs.

Social media is one of the best tools for actively engaging with your audience and building customer loyalty.

Consumers like to be part of a brand, not just buy from one. To make them feel invested in your company, you have to be actively engaging with them on a regular basis. With regular customer engagement, you can improve brand loyalty, which drives sales and spreads positive word-of-mouth. Few benefits of digital marketing are greater than building a loyal community through social media engagement.

Direct messaging allows you to address concerns and engage in crisis management before a situation escalates.

From minor customer inquiries to serious customer concerns, social media gives a direct line of digital communication between the consumer and your brand. Being able to handle customer concerns and complaints head-on is a must for crisis management.

Moreover, even if there isn’t an imminent disaster emerging, social media allows you to create content to address concerns and get ahead of potential problems.

Social media has several opportunities for targeted messaging.

From jumping on the train of emerging trends to harnessing the power of influencer marketing by having partners create targeted posts, there are lots of opportunities to reach your audience on social media. You can even have your social media team create paid social media campaigns to see if ads drive additional interest or sales.

You’ll gather insights to guide your future social media efforts.

Between third-party social media listening tools and built-in analytics tools, there are a lot of ways to gather information about your audience and how they’re interacting with your content. Ultimately, your social media efforts will give you valuable insights into what they want more of so you can meet their needs.

ORM Companies Can Help With the Negative Impacts of Social Media on Business

Does it feel overwhelming to manage customer feedback on social media platforms, especially when it’s damaging your reputation?

We get it. This can be an emotional topic even for the most professional business owners.

The last thing you want is to watch your brand falter because you don’t know how to get a handle on your social media strategy or customer sentiment.

The good news is that there are a lot of ways to lessen the impact of negative social media coverage. Most importantly, do the following:

• Monitor social media platforms for mentions and respond to negative feedback immediately.
• Encourage positive content, reviews and news coverage to suppress negative content.
• Improve the way you deal with customers so there’s less reason for them to speak negatively about you.

You don’t have to handle all of this on your own. Online reputation management companies can help you get control of how you’re viewed and talked about online. They’ll repair your poor reputation and work to maintain your new-and-improved one. Ultimately, ORM professionals open doors that you thought would be closed forever.

At NetReputation, we have the experience and tools you need to avoid the negative impacts of social media on business while creating a positive image for your target audience. Call us today at 941-499-0229 for a free consultation or fill out the contact form below.