About 30 percent of customers use social media channels to find information about any business. There is a great opportunity to promote and grow your business via social media marketing.

What some entrepreneurs fail to understand is that it isn’t just for fun. It’s about your business. When used right, it can bring power to your business. When used the wrong way it makes bad for your business.

Here are the top social media marketing mistakes companies make.

1. Having Too Many Social Channels

You don’t have to be on all social channels. Your company just needs to be on the ones that are best able to reach your customers. After all, the content you post on LinkedIn may not apply to Snapchat, as your audiences on both platforms may also differ. Make a research to find out the best channels for your business.

2. Ignoring Feedback

This applies to both good and bad feedback. Customers love hearing from a brand they follow because it gives your company a friendly, human face. While it may be tricky to keep track of your followers’ interactions, the more (and quicker) you respond to their comments, the more chances you’ll have of giving them a good experience.

It’s said that 71 percent of customers who have a good experience with a brand are more likely to recommend it to others. This is also your chance to express brand personality.

3. Not Using Social Media Tools

Creating content and managing social channels regularly are tough tasks. It takes a lot of time and effort, which is why some businesses fail to update frequently. Luckily, there are lots of tools that can help you optimize your social media management.

There are tools for different needs. For publishing, there’s HootSuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social. These are just some of the examples of tools you can use to save time and make its management easier.

4. Not Optimizing Content for Each Platform

Your hashtags on Instagram make sense but on Facebook, not really. At the same time, the ideal character count on Facebook is not the same on Twitter, and the number of emojis you put on Instagram won’t work on LinkedIn. Each social media platform has different ideal posts, so you should optimize your posts for each channel.

Negative Effects of Social Media

Social media has brought about new opportunities for the world to connect at large. With social media, the world has become a smaller place. On one hand, it is a great invention, and a lot can be done to better our lifestyles. But if we look at it with thousands of immature users it is becoming a somewhat scary place to live in.

There is a reason why most parents or older siblings try to keep the young ones away from social media handles these days. From being a platform to connect or share worldviews it has narrowed down to bring a platform to boost and troll.

Today kids of ages 10 have the access and account on social media. It can turn into over addiction and an escape to a fantasy world. This fantasy world that we create behind the 15-inch laptop screen might be a scary affair.

The fit models with perfect bodies, exotic travel locations, and photo-perfect moments most often don’t match with the lives we lead on a daily basis. This disconnect might want us to aspire to more which might not be possible in reality and can affect our mental health.

The thrust for more followers or likes has a dangerous effect on our mental health. You start feeling anxious, a lack of identity, less sleep causing insomnia, a negative body image can be some of the significant issues that a social media addict might, face.

You want to become someone you are not. You start hating yourself for not having the ideal body, the perfect shape, etc.

Cyberbullying is also another negative effect of social media. Not only teenagers but people nowadays take the social platform too literally and believe in a lot of fake news hoax that is being circulated just for publicity purposes.

People today are falling for dangerous trends that they see on social media or think it is cool to be a part of. The trend of being a part of a social group is what is causing more harm than good.

You have to understand you being social has nothing to do with the number of friends or followers you have on social media. It can all be a farce, just by seeing another peer having many followers you cannot be jealous and want that life. Don’t let social media be a drug that is so addictive that you cannot live without.

The most disgusting thing that is coming up a lot in the 21st century is cyberstalking. It can be too dangerous and is even taking lives. Immature usage of a social platform has to stop and stop now.

After using social media handles many people decide to keep themselves away from it as there is no or very minimal privacy with the extensive use of social platforms. If not handled sensibly your life becomes a window to the world.