Four Industries That Have to
Be Careful in Social Media
Growing an online business nowadays is close to impossible without utilizing the power of social media. Channels like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and many more are a source of engaging with your audience and acquiring new customers.
There are so many ways to improve your business that it would be hard to list them all. Spending the time and resources to build your accounts and target potential users is a must.
However, certain industries are not entirely welcome for different reasons. If you own a company in any of them, it would be wise to be careful on social media or you risk getting banned.
Alcohol
It’s no surprise to see alcohol here. This industry is printing money, but it faces various challenges in terms of advertising and distribution (and rightfully so).
The key here is to target the right age of customers. You must make sure that your audience has reached the legal drinking age.
The number and the specific laws vary from country to country. It’s worth investing the time to research and make sure you are compliant, especially for big markets such as the USA, the UK, and Canada.
If you decide to spare the time and effort, you might have to suffer heavy consequences.
The good news is that many of the social media outlets that ask the users for their age have placed their own restrictions. The likes of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are doing their best to prevent minors from engaging in alcohol-related content.
Marijuana
Ever since marijuana became legal in one way or another in the USA and in Canada, the industry is booming. There are billions spent every year on the plant and the user base is growing by the minute.
More and more American states are working on legislation. Many entrepreneurs have jumped at the opportunity, as there is a lot of money to be made.
However, social media is not exactly embracing companies that sell marijuana. You are not allowed to promote your business directly, so you need to be creative. You can launch fan pages and stuff like that, but make sure you don’t talk about selling your product.
That’s a certain way to get banned from most places.
Any Form of Online Gambling
Next in line is online gambling and that’s tricky territory as well. If you use one of the many gambling apps, online casinos, sportsbooks or anything similar, you should be extremely careful with what you post on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
Affiliates have to be careful as well. The tricky part here is that you are not allowed to incite people to engage in gambling online. If you avoid that, you should be fine.
There are plenty of online gambling companies that do have a social media presence, so it’s doable.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum
The crypto revolution of 2017 completely changed the status of popular coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Thousands of people decided to invest in the industry, and it became mainstream.
The problem is that many of the newcomers had no clue what they were entering. Combine that with the lack of regulations and you’ve got the perfect environment for various scams.
Many shady companies and websites used social media to find their victims. A ton of people lost money by following ads from popular platforms.
The ICO (Initial Coin Offering) madness of 2018 was truly devastating for some and many believe it was one of the reasons behind Bitcoin’s decline since.
Several of the biggest social media platforms decided to take measures and simply banned cryptocurrency advertising. If your business is part of this industry, make sure to follow the rules and regulations.
