Tag: Facebook

Social media outage: A glitch turned fatal

The dependency of societies on technology is undebatable. Social media has emerged as a saviour amidst the pandemic which made it very challenging to stay connected in terms of our personal and professional life. However, the recent social media outages have revealed a scary fact: we cannot afford them. They cause damages to as many sectors of society as technology benefits.

Effects on economy

Facebook, home to one of the largest social media networks across the globe, upon recently facing a major outage and disruption in its services like WhatsApp and Instagram, took entrepreneurs by shock as their sales dipped dramatically and they scrambled to cater to the increasingly impatient customers. From beauty and clothing to food delivery, many industries were simultaneously affected. The services were completely stalled for hours which created a lot of stress and panic.

Facebook itself suffered revenue losses of billions and the world economy had to pay the price. The small-scale advertisers, influencers, and content creators were forced into helplessness as their only methods of interacting with the audience and making ends meet suffered a blow. Such financial dependence on social media continues to prove itself a major cause of concern.

Effects on education

Social media has been a boon for the education sector, providing students and educators around the world with ample opportunities to enhance knowledge sharing, despite the uncertainties of a global pandemic. But the outages on educational platforms have proved to be costly. Zoom, for example, suffered major glitches which were very inconvenient and caused communication problems between students and educators, which, in turn, is detrimental for their academic growth.

Moreover, educators also feel the pressure to rush through the materials since these technical issues take much time to be fixed. Many other platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which are also used by educators to keep the students updated, upon facing such issues, create a lot of panic and confusion.

Effects on mental health

Social media is constantly used by many as a way of entertainment and recreation. It allows us to relieve stress and cope with day-to-day life. But many people also use it as a form of escapism and eventually become addicted. Outages expose them to periods where they experience extreme withdrawal symptoms. When their mental health and happiness are dependent upon an external source such as social media in the form of validation received through likes and comments, feelings of anxiety, stress and emptiness creep in when those services are stalled for hours.

Not only are they unable to connect with others to reduce loneliness but they also get stuck with their negative thoughts which have a very poor effect on their overall well-being. Research shows that social media is one of the leading causes of depression as it is designed in such a way that people automatically fall into the trap of comparison and information overload.

Is there a way out?

While social media outages are abrupt and often uncontrollable, as individuals, we can educate others and take steps towards reducing our dependence on it in some ways-

  • Limiting screen time – Instead of scrolling endlessly for hours, social media can be used mindfully by delegating certain hours of the day to it while engaging in other activities and hobbies during the day. This would ensure that our well-being is not compromised and we can successfully achieve our goals.
  • Spending time with others – Be it a family member, friend or even a pet, we must make sure that we have some company so that we do not slip into loneliness or other destructive habits which can worsen social media addiction. Participating in volunteering work or joining local communities that align with our interests is also a great way to be more active physically and mentally.
  • Social media detox – Refraining from using technology and social media for a fixed amount of time is also a good method to overcome social media dependency. Taking help from family members and friends, identifying triggers which guide the over-consumption and making a planner to track its effects on daily mood are some helpful ways that can make this process easier.
  • Choosing alternatives – In the case of finance, we must make sure that social media is never the only source of making ends meet. We must always be prepared and have enough skills to tackle the challenges of a physical workspace in case our social media business comes to a halt. Multiple courses can be easily found, online or offline, which can aid us in the process.

Social media outages serve as a reminder that although it is a great source of education, entertainment and much more, it has an unpredictable aspect to it which can prove to be damaging if we do not gain control over our online consumption. Hence, we must learn to strike a balance between our online and offline worlds.

“Like all technology, social media is neutral but is best put to work in the service of building a better world.”

Simon Mainwaring

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How does social media influence consumer behavior?

More purchasers are present via social media networks than at any other time. Purchasers are searching for surveys and suggestions. In this way, it’s fundamental to have a conspicuous online presence on different social media stages.

The most recent pattern in showcasing is the presentation of social media. Social media has the ability to impact possible clients from the beginning until the phase of a buy and past too.

To get going, shoppers need mindfulness about your image and its contribution. At a later stage, when they begin to limit their decisions, you need an online media influencer to persuade their decision. A steady discourse between the client and the brand is vital for keeping the relationship solid. An appealing and enlightening substance can stick the clients to your image.

Here are 4 manners by which social media impacts customer conduct:

Builds product awareness

Social media is an enormous impact on purchasers when they are endeavoring to assemble mindfulness about a specific item. At the point when individuals deal with an issue, they begin looking for an answer. Yet, the greater part of the occasions individuals don’t know which item or administration will take care of their issues.

How individuals become acquainted with about your item? A huge part of the crowd becomes acquainted with your image through the substance that is dispersed via social media.

The point of each business is to impact shopper conduct. On the off chance that you don’t have a brand presence via social media, you are passing up a significant chance to impact your customer purchasing conduct.

social proof as a greater force of buying descisions

Social media has brought about the advancement of social verification as a more prominent power for purchasing choices. Social verification has arisen because of the inclination of individuals to impersonate the conduct of individuals around them or individuals who mirror individuals who have an impact on them.

Glad clients will in general approach commending the items with likes, offers, audits, and remarks via online media. Advertisers are making social space more straightforward by sharing audits, remarks, likes, tweets, and pins of their cheerful clients to create brand trust and increment transformation rate.

Sharing tributes, contextual investigations, pictures, remarks, and recordings of glad clients will assemble more noteworthy trust and will function admirably on your arrival, page, counseling page, and sign-up page too.

The force of social confirmation can’t be subverted when online media has become a vital piece of purchasers and vendors. Social advertisers hoping to sell their items ought to have a strong social verification in a type of contextual analyses, pictures, video, unit cast meetings, and influencers as a component of their selling methodology. This will in the end expand the change rate.

promotions, discounts, and details on social media

Numerous web-based media clients have pursued web-based media gatherings/discussions that they are keen on. At the point when shoppers see advancements, limits, and arrangements via social media, it impacts their purchasing conduct.

Social media is an economic stage that gives brands moment reach to billions of dynamic web-based media clients. Brands ought to guarantee that the intended interest group sees your items, likes them, and offers them via social media, which assists with impacting buyer conduct.

social media influencers

Purchasers are bound to purchase when they get suggestions from an individual they trust. Big names and well-known individuals move their crowd and impact their purchasing conduct.

For instance, a powerful gamer would support gaming and tech items. Customers via online media admire these influencers for suggestions and guidance on items. A positive impact will urge the purchaser to purchase the item.

Influencer advertising can do something amazing for your image by drawing in more clients. Numerous advertisers are supplanting superstars with YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat influencers. These online stars are giving unfiltered input on items, and purchasers love it.

Social media, which incorporates the substance, visuals, advancements, limits, and influencers, can impact the purchasing conduct of shoppers.

The impacts of social media on buyer conduct can’t be overlooked by brands and organizations.

FACEBOOK As A Digital Marketing Tool

Digital Marketing involves showcasing labor and products utilizing advanced innovations and computerized mediums. In this specific circumstance, it is appropriate to take note that with the coming of Web 2.0 or online media, advertisers currently get the opportunity to use the chances offered by computerized showcasing utilizing web-based media like Facebook. This article investigates the benefits and disservices of utilizing Facebook for computerized advertising and talks about the different issues encompassing this idea. Prior to dispatching into the conversation, it is advantageous to take note that the unmatched admittance to an enormous customer base managed by Facebook settles on it the ideal vehicle of decision for advertisers particularly those occupied with buyer merchandise and FMCG or Fast Moving Consumer Goods. This is on the grounds that Facebook has a consolidated client base of in excess of a billion group and arrives at almost one of every four grown-ups in the United States alone. Aside from this, the utilization of Facebook in the developing business sectors is significantly more inescapable with gauges recommending that out of the 80% of the absolute Facebook clients who are from outside of the United States, almost 50% of them are dynamic clients causing the medium a stage for brands to be seen in the “loud social media world”.

advantage of using facebook

Proceeding with the focuses made above, it is without a doubt the case that Facebook offers entrance and reach to advertisers particularly those working on careful financial plans, as they don’t need to spend a lot of cash on costly showcasing efforts. Also, dissimilar to customary media where the adequacy and viability of an advertising effort can’t be estimated straightforwardly and all things being equal, readership or viewership measurements are utilized, Facebook promoting can be estimated for its adequacy as navigate and transformation of eyeballs into buys is promptly accessible. Further, Facebook offers the exceptional possibility for advertisers to focus on a worldwide crowd and simultaneously, think about nearby factors. As such, this means advertisers can make crusades, which have a worldwide subject, and simultaneously can contact their neighborhood crowd also. The conflation of contacting a more extensive crowd without settling on the neighborhood clients implies that Facebook turns into the informal communication site of decision when contrasted with Twitter and Instagram that are more engaged in their compass. Further, the “death of distance” and the evacuation of the topographical imperatives imply that spatial and locational obstructions are nonexistent with Facebook Digital Marketing. As of now, organizations like Coca-Cola and Starbucks have utilized the force of Facebook to incorporate it with their advertising techniques for viable client outreach.

downsides of using facebook

Obviously, there are disadvantages to utilizing Facebook as a marketing tool and these incorporate the rate with which negative exposure can go all throughout the planet in a jiffy. For example, a desirous contender or a disappointed worker may post negative remarks or data about the brand or the item, and considering the manners by which such remarks can go “viral” very quickly and even minutes, the case advertisers and organizations must be consistently watching out for what is being said and remarked upon on their items. The highlight is noted here is that when, the advertiser, the organization delegate concocts a reply or the refuting of the negative remark or exposure, the harm would have been finished. Aside from this, utilizing Facebook as the computerized promoting medium implies that moment satisfaction is the standard as opposed to any supported commitment with the brand. This outcome in clients (who are generally of Generation Y) sizing up the brand in a shallow and shallow way which implies that little consideration is paid to more profound idea and nuanced advertising similar to the case with customary media.

other issues to be considered

We enjoy thinking about the benefits and burdens of utilizing Facebook for Digital Marketing. Aside from these, different issues include Facebook. For example, promoting on Facebook is simple and economical when contrasted with customary media as one should simply incorporate Facebook into the organization’s internet advertising procedure and make a fan page or a devoted page as well as accommodating designated messages pointed the engaged shopper portion. Further, promoting on Facebook can bring extra advantages as can be found in the organization’s new moves to be more forceful to the extent online business and m-Commerce are concerned. This has for quite some time been a staying point among Facebook and its corporate customers, as the last needed the previous to incorporate these perspectives more into the general technique.

Prior to concluding this article, one should consider the way that news voyages quickly in the online world and ventures promptly in the web-based media world. Thusly, this can be a power for great and simultaneously, can yield capricious outcomes. In addition, incorporating Facebook into an organization’s general promoting methodology should be done solely after due ingenuity is done as the money-saving advantage investigation turns out distinctively for various organizations in the various areas. Taking everything into account, Facebook is a distinct advantage for advertisers and the arising patterns show that it would be utilized more by the advertisers as they look for all the more value for the money as far as the profits per dollar spent on showcasing and promoting.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING?

 

Social Media Marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Earlier, e-marketing and digital marketing were in vogue . But today, the term Social Media Marketing is gaining recognition. It connects you with your audience and helps in building your brand, increases sales and drives website traffic. It allows brands to establish their social media “tone” and “culture” and manage marketing campaign. 

The major social media platforms used are: Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.

Through Social Media Marketing, companies keep in touch with individual followers. This helps instil loyalty into followers and potential customers. The use of new semantic analysis technology helps marketers detect buying signals. This includes content shared by people and questions posted.  

Below is a step by step guide you can use to enhance you social media presence:

  1. SETTING GOALS:

You should know what you want out of social media. Some may use social media for brand awareness whereas some may use it to drive website traffic. You should set realistic social media goals. To begin with, you should set small and achievable goals for yourself. This will scale your social media efforts and will be reasonable and affordable. 

You should pick out the social media platforms where your target audience is more. After creating a good social media presence on some platforms, you can expand it on other platforms as well. 

Your current social media marketing plan doesn’t have to be your plan forever. You can bring changes to it according to how your posts perform.

  1. PLANNING AND PUBLISHING:

Close to three billion people use the internet daily. In the initial stages, your main aim is being consistent on social media. All you’ve got to do is post pictures, videos or a blog post daily. This will bring you brand in the eyes of future customers. You need to plan your content beforehand and publish it at the right time. Also, being aware of your target audience is a must. Also, where does your target audience resides. A variety of social media scheduling tools allow you to publish your content on your preferred time.This saves your time and allows you to reach your audience when they engage with your content.

  1. ENGAGEMENT:

Engagement means that customers and stakeholders are active participants rather than passive. Engagement on social media can be divided into two parts: proactive and reactive conversations. Proactive means regularly posting content like photos and videos. Reactive conversations involve commenting and engaging. People might talk about your brand without your knowledge. So you will want to track conversations about your brand. But it is impossible to check all the notifications. Instead you can use a social media listening and engagement tool. It allows you to see all the mentions and messages throughout different platforms. It also enables you to see the posts that didn’t tag your business’s social media profile.

  1. ANALYTICS:

You will want to know how well your posts are doing in promoting and reaching out to people. You need to analyse the performance of your one post over the other. This will help you to fine tune your content for more engagement. Tracking the metrics of your content in real time will enable you to make small changes. It will save you from sweeping your entire strategy for a new one. You can be reactive in the short term to get the most out of your running campaign. Later,  proactively use these takeaways to inform your next major strategy. 

  1. ADVERTISING:

Promotion through social media ads is one way to promote your brand. It helps you reach greater audiences, even the people who don’t follow you. You can create ads according to your target audience. You can also specify the demographics, interests, etc. Social media advertising tools enable you to make bulk changes, automate processes and optimise ads.

Social media platforms are evolving everyday. You see some update almost everyday on the platforms you use. This means that social media marketing is also evolving everyday. Going with the current trends is one way of improving your content. People like to follow brands which post content with reference to the current trends. Because most of the users of social media consists of GenZs and millennials, it’s best to target them as your audience.

Rigged Facebook

Facebook, the most prominent and prevalent social media platform in India, with 346 million active users in India alone. But, Facebook who has previously been accused of meddling with the 2016 US elections, now has been accused of actively working with political parties of Brazil, the U.K, and India, allegedly using troll armies to spread misinformation and extremists ideologies. Under Katie Harbath, a former Republican digital strategist, Facebook helped politicians across the world harness their digital tools to establish an online presence. Narendra Modi, the world’s most-followed leader on Facebook and Instagram, was one of the most famous politicians all thanks to social media. The Bloomberg report that revealed these details also alleged that after Modi’s social media reach grew, his followers began using Facebook and WhatsApp to harass political rivals. WhatsApp, which has approximately 400 million users in India, has been an influential tool in BJP’s election campaign, as admitted by union minister Amit Shah in his 2018 speech. This all came to limelight after on 14th August an investigation made by WSJ revealed that a top public policy executive at Facebook was allegedly ignoring controversial, often communal, content posted on the platform by politicians from India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).  WSJ spoke to current and former employees at Facebook and found that the social media platform’s Public Policy Director for India and Central and South Asia, Ankhi Das, was against “applying hate-speech rules” to at least four politicians from the BJP, despite them being “flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence”. These include BJP leaders T. Raja Singh, who made communal statements on Rohingya Muslims and threatened to raze mosques, and legislator Anantkumar Hegde, who accused Muslims of intentionally spreading the novel corona virus as part of a conspiracy so called “Corona Jihad”. Now, this has led to a political beef in the country. According to what anonymous Facebook employees told WSJ, the social media giant showed a “broader pattern of favouritism” towards the BJP, and felt that punishing violations by their politicians “would damage the company’s business prospects in the country”. Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, admitted to WSJ that Das, who is also the public policy director for South and Central Asia, was worried about the political fallout of restricting BJP leader Singh. Facebook employees had flagged Singh’s statements on social media under the “Dangerous Individuals and Organisations” policy, which is meant to ban any content that praises or supports “organized hate”, “mass murder”, “hate crimes”, or “terrorist attacks”.  But the WSJ allegations add weight to the findings of past reports by international and local media. Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor, who also heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, promised that the committee would look into the allegations made by the report. When the committee called for a probe into the matter, union minister of Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at Congress through a tweet, calling Gandhi a “loser”. He also brought up an old accusation from 2018, claiming that Congress had colluded with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook to influence the electorate during the 2014 elections. Also, Privilege motion was moved against Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor alleging that Rahul Gandhi had “surpassed all limits of decency” while Shashi Tharoor is responsible for spreading “Fake News and hatred”. This is the usual blame game that BJP uses to play while facing allegations. In spite of answering the questions directly, BJP uses malicious ways to get around the question and indulge the proponent in trivial tasks. Whereas  Cambridge Analytica’s website declared that the company provided its services during the Bihar election in 2010 to a political party in India. Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), Cambridge Analytica’s Indian affiliate, named the BJP, Congress and the Janata Dal (United) of Nitish Kumar as clients. Claims are many but we must be responsible for what we see and how we react to the contents of social media. One should act responsibly and instead of spewing hate in the comment section, one should introspect and try to make judicious decisions. There is no tool that can counter fake news only us, we are the ones who spread fake news and can counter it.

Social Media surveillance

In the past decade, social media has gone from being extra entertaining to a fully integrated part of our lives. Social media is a good way to keep in touch with friends, families, and acquaintances, especially in the contemporary world. But it is not only being used by us but governments as well to keep in touch with its citizens. Governments are increasingly purchasing cutting edge technology to keep an eye on its citizens’ behavior on social media. This form of mass surveillance has made its way to a range of countries, from authoritarian powers to smaller and poorer countries. Coupled with an alarming rise in the number of countries where social media users have been arrested for their legitimate online activities, the growing employment of social media surveillance threatens to squeeze the space for civic activism on digital platforms. For e.g. in 2017, at least 7 people were arrested for posting ‘objectionable’ posts on social media against newly elected Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. As quickly as social media has insinuated into politics, the workplace, and elsewhere it continues to evolve at lightning speed making it a conundrum to guess which way it will morph next. Social media is not a utility, where people care about whether it works or not, rather people look for new hot things especially the younger generation.

Social media surveillance refers to the collection and processing of personal data pulled from digital communication platforms, often through automated technology that allows for real-time aggregation, organization, and analysis of large amounts of metadata and content. Governments have long employed people to monitor speech on social media, including by creating fraudulent accounts to connect with real-life users and gain access to networks. With the colossal amount of personal data people willingly release on social media, government agencies can easily collect and analyze populations of people as they please. Authorities in Iran have a legion of volunteers who monitor online speech. Any citizen can report for duty on the Cyber Police (FATA) website. Similarly, the ruling Communist Party in China has recruited thousands of individuals to sift through the internet and report problematic content and accounts to authorities. In India, various political parties have IT cells, although BJP has allegedly the strongest IT-cell. These groups not only monitor social media platforms but also are responsible for hate comments, cleaning some one’s image, or spread fake news. The market for social media surveillance has grown by large, giving intelligence and law enforcement agencies new tools for combing through massive amounts of information. Justifying their efforts in the name of enhancing security, limiting disinformation, and ensuring public order, governments have effectively co-opted social media platforms. While these platforms typically present themselves as social connectors and community builders, state agencies in repressive countries see them as vast storehouses of speech and personal information that can be observed, collected, and analyzed to detect and suppress dissent. Often the explanations leading to the arrests are stated that “the material was provocative and could lead to communal clash”, but it reflects the incompetency of the state to maintain harmony, and increased intolerance.China is a leader in developing, employing, and exporting social media surveillance tools. Its agencies work closely with leading companies to monitor individuals online. A complex web of regulations gives the Chinese state access to user content and metadata, allowing authorities to more easily identify and reprimand users who share sensitive content. Freedom of Net 2019: The Crisis of Social Media, examined 65 nations worldwide to find out, China topped the list of “World’s worst abuser of internet freedom” for 4 years in a row. In contrast, Iceland was “The World’s best protector of internet freedom”. India scored 55 out of 100 and was declared “partly free”. With the Internet restrictions closing in, it is a warning call to wake up to your rights.

What’s most alarming is how populist leaders and far-right groups have grown adept not only at creating viral disinformation but also at harnessing networks that disseminate it. The majority of the disinformation, wrote the authors, are from domestic sources rather than foreign interference.

Strong protections for democratic freedoms are necessary to ensure that the internet does not become a Trojan horse for tyranny and oppression,as technology advances to greater heights, the protection of our citizens must be greater as well.

Image by rawpixel.com

What happens if Social Media Disappears

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Sharing our meals, style, routine, work, relationships, friendships, opinion exercises, likes, and lives has become so normal, it’s now compulsive. We joke that if you didn’t post it, it didn’t happen. But what if one day, you went to post your beautiful meal on Instagram and you can’t find the app. Anywhere. There is also no YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. This can’t be happening. Social media has disappeared. Would there be chaos? How would communication change? How would your brain change?


Social media is a huge part of everyday life, with those 16 to 24 years of age spending 3 hours a day, on an average using social media. At this age, if we live to our old age, we’ll end up spending seven years of our entire lives on social media. And it’s an amount expected to rise with younger generations. It would be a rough wake up call to lose connections and friends that were solely based on social media apps like Instagram. You would immediately feel disconnected, uninformed, and lost. Your brain would also be going through some major withdrawal symptoms. Using social media releases dopamine through the Ventral Tegmental Area of the brain or VTA, it’s the same neurotransmitter that releases those good feelings when you win a lottery, make love, or eat junk food. It makes us feel wonderful, at least momentarily, and the continuous craving keeps us coming back for more.

Social media is a drug and many of us are willing addicts. The VTA evolved in humans as a social tool, helping us in learning good behavior from bad. Now, the same chemical response once prompted by a real-life-friendly hug or celebration for personal achievement is triggered by virtual likes, or hearts or comments. Yet social media can make us feel the opposite of happy. The fear of missing out(FOMO), anxiety, jealously, insecurity, and needing instant approval from others, these are all impulses that increase with social media use.


So, while your brain is going through withdrawal, you’ll also be discovering what it feels like not to have to be connected all the time, which could be pretty refreshing. Just remember we did survive with no media for millennia. One of the first platform Friendster, came online in 2002, followed two years later by Facebook. It wasn’t until 2005, that YouTube changed our world. You still have e-mail and Google, so not all is lost, texting and calling still exist, so staying in contact with friends and family just requires a little more effort. You might begin reading books and magazines again, something needs to fill that void where influencers opinion used to be. You’d also have to get news the old-fashioned way without the filters of algorithms, which means you would be better informed. More than half of the world population get some form of news from social media, but platforms such as Facebook or Twitter do not have the ethical requirements of traditional journalism. The information on social media channels is not fact-checked, leaving it up to you to figure out what is credible and what is simply an opinion or worse a complete lie.
However, the actual good news is that you might get to know your neighbor, the lack of social media could bring physical communities closer since there isn’t the online option anymore.
We have a complicated relationship with social media, it has the potential to be both highly positive and very negative. In the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, social media became one of the only ways people could reach out to each other, during nationwide lockdowns. It brought comfort, connection, and entertainment during a difficult time. But at the same time, it also spread miscommunication about the virus.


Social Media is not disappearing any time soon, but it would be worthwhile for your mental health to consider how much time you spend on social platforms, then spend less, there is probably even an app for that.

How Can You Avoid Getting Sucked Into Toxic Behaviour Online

A lot of us, without even realising, engage in toxic and unhealthy behaviours online. I’ll shares some tips that I follow for avoiding getting sucked into such behaviours.

RECOGNISING TOXIC BEHAVIOUR ONLINE

People today are always on some form of social media all the time, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, the list is never ending. Though using social media has its own benefits, I feel as though a lot of people get trapped in unhealthy behaviour patterns online without even knowing, as it isn’t something we talk about often.

step 1: Unfollow the ones you compare yourself to

It is a drastic step, but I really do believe that this helps you to stop comparing yourself to others online. If you compare yourself to people online and if you’ve been doing for a while, then it will be natural for you to compare yourself to the ones that you deem perfect. The best way to stop doing this, is to unfollow such accounts and fill your feed with accounts that are raw and make you feel good and real about yourself. After you have completed this step, you will begin to feel positive about yourself when you scroll your feed.

step 2: Make yourself Realise that it’s just one photo not their whole life

When you post a picture on any social media platform, do you tend to post when you’re having a bad day, or do you post it when you know you look your best? It’s more likely that you post a picture when you feel good about yourself, when you’re enjoying yourself, when you’re having fun and you then post the highlight of your day. When we look a someone’s picture, we automatically assume that you know everything about their lives, and that everything in their life is as perfect at their post. When you realise that every single person tends to post only the bits of the day that they love or enjoy, the sooner you’ll be able to ditch the unhealthy pattern and it will instantly make you feel good and much happierWhen you realise that every single person tends to post only those bits of their day that they love or enjoy, the sooner you’ll be able to ditch this unhealthy pattern and it will instantly make you feel good and much happier about where you are in life.

step 3: Set aside time to scroll

But I seem to have even 5 free minutes to myself I will pick up my phone and scrolled through my social media feed as if it is my daily newspaper. But this is something that I am working on and that something that you should aim to change too. The more you endlessly scroll through your social media feed, be it any platform, the more you will be out of touch with reality. That is why it is important to set aside some time for scrolling. In a long run this would allow you to focus throughout the day on things that you actually need to do as you know whenThat is why it is important to set aside some time for scrolling. In a long run this would allow you to focus throughout the day on things that you actually need to do as you know when you have allotted time to scroll.

Social Media can be a positive and an empowering place, but when/if it starts to have a negative impact on your mental health then something needs to change. Start making these small CHANGES today – you can do it

Why you should never buy Instagram likes?

After Facebook, Instagram has become one of the fastest-growing social media channels. It is considered a top platform for brands to showcase their product and services through images and videos. However, Instagram now has changed its algorithm. It no longer displays posts chronologically, rather it will showcase posts of those pages that you have interacted with, the most. This means, that for a new brand its will be hard to gain likes and followers on the platform.

This can lead to brands doing dirty tactics such as buying likes. They think this will make them look more established, whereas it’s not the case.

How to buy likes on Instagram

There are two most popular methods generally used to gain likes. One is to create multiple fake accounts and make them like your page. Some services sell likes for Instagram. Another way is to subscribe to a service that provides Instagram bots access which will follow or like posts on related accounts, then bots later unfollow those accounts to maintain an ideal follower/following ratio.

The first method to artificially increase the follower count is a tad bit tedious and doesn’t help in improving interactions. Another problem with this method is, it is easy to see that most are multiple fake account followers with no photos/ videos or interactions. This is a clear sign of suspicious activity.

The second method is to buy likes for Instagram. It works to grow followers based on reciprocity – like for like, follow for following. In most cases, the new followers have no idea that in no-time the bot will unfollow them. It is a bit of deception that some may consider being unethical. If anyone calls you out it can affect your brand image.

Some bot services will leave generic one-two word comments on photos like ‘’Nice’, ‘Great Job’, ‘Extraordinary’. It may seem a real person is interacting with the posts. But in the worst cases, the Instagram bot can result in a PR disaster as its fake positive comments might end up on some contradictory post.

Reasons why buying likes is not a good idea

-Buying likes can damage a reputation rather than helping it. If by any chance, someone calls you out, this will lead to a lot of people turning against you and your brand. This can hamper you in the long run.

-If Instagram finds out, there are high chances it will deactivate it or shut it down permanently. It will soon become a ‘goodbye-account’. Instagram encourages users to engage in real-time. Anything that is fake, or using some kind of automation, is not something Instagram takes in a positive light.

-The Instagram appearance will be bad: Although it’s a known fact, that engagement rates go down the more followers the page has. But if you come across a profile that has 1 million followers, but hardly gets 2000 likes. It won’t be difficult to tell that those followers are fake. This may give a bad impression to real followers which will make them unfollow the page.

-Engagement will below: There will be no genuine engagement from the purchased likes or followers. Most of those aren’t real people at all, merely bot fake accounts.  The best engagement can from these is generally an automated comment ‘nice post’. Some of the signs of a typical fake follower include a blank profile picture and a general lack of intelligent interaction.

-No money will be earned: Brands would not like to work with the ones who buy likes or followers as they are easy to spot. Brands do not select influencers based likes or followers, they see the engagement. Many tools are available to help brands figure out. They don’t want to be stuck with unworthy accounts.

-Not a sustainable marketing strategy: Buying likes will not lead to long term goals that go around creating deep, meaningful relationships with the audience. For brands, turning this audience into real-time customers and to ensure that customers become brand advocates is necessary. None of these will come out fruitful if the likes are from fake accounts.

All to say, buying likes may seem tempting, but it does more harm than good. Instead of increasing engagement, it can decrease the engagement, destroying all the efforts. So it is better to skip the easy way out to social media marketing and go for a more sustainable plan. After all, real people are the ones who can become potential customers. Don’t buy followers or likes to fool the audience. It’s a big NO! NO! Rather build a genuine relationship with them and engage well. Be yourself, don’t sell yourself short. Grow the followers organically. Also, follow Instagram’s guidelines to avoid the potential of your account been taken down.