Social media has defined much of how societies today operate. While people choose to use these platforms to express themselves to the world, businesses have stepped in and learned how to use it to their advantage – i.e. how to gain customer attraction, and how to take their brand name to the next level.

However, not all blessings come without a cost. As social media grew its influence over everyone’s lives, it turned out to have a dark side to it too; an aspect that could potentially ruin businesses, instead of building them up.

So the question still stands: how does social media harm your business?

Mistake Made Becomes Hard To Solve

The saying goes that “the internet never forgets” – and that is not an exaggeration. Any valuable information or misleading statement you might post by accident will become public to everyone – quite frankly, it can spread like wildfire. Such mistakes become hard to rectify, especially when people have caught in on your behavior. While staying low and quiet (or addressing the situation) works out fine, the truth is that the internet will always remember your slip-up – whether its sensitive information or a controversial statement, people will remember.

Negative Comments

On social media, you’ll find all kinds of people; you’ll find people who support your brand, people who are indifferent – and people who did not enjoy their experience with you. Those people might not choose to interact with your brand, but they can very well post negative comments or strict criticisms about you, bashing your brand. Tracking such statements becomes even more challenging, since the responses can be spread far and wide, or can even be hidden from your view. As a result, your public image can be severely tarnished.

Nobody Likes Spam

When businesses enter the fold of social media, they expect to further their brand name by directly targeting their customers; this is usually done in the form of messages, emails, and the like. While its a useful method of garnering the right kind of attention, doing it excessively will result in people moving away from you. This is because excessive targeting enters the realm of spamming, which nobody likes!

Slow Responses To Customers

Most people consider social media to be a great platform to talk to businesses directly and ask about queries, issues, or product-related things, simply because of how convenient it can be. However, the last thing they expect is to be left hanging with no response. If you don’t respond to your customers’ inquiries, then you’re showing them that you don’t care about their input or their issues. It will, in turn, develop a bad reputation for your brand name.

The Bright Side?

Social media has the potential to put your business at risk – but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can use it to your advantage by letting it drive customer loyalty! With a good Loyalty Program like that of Oscar POS, you can use engagements on social media to help update customers’ loyalty points, and hence reward them with discounts, deals and more.


In the end, it’s all about using social media smartly, rather than excessively. If you can accomplish that, then you can accomplish anything in the business world.